Sorry about the delay, but let's just jump right back into things, shall we?
November 18th, 2009: Volunteers working for various christian organizations visit the University of Colorado in order to hand out free copies of Darwins [On the] Origin of Species [by Means of Natural Selection], as part of a nation-wide distribution effort.
It seems counter-intuitive, why would a such an organization be publishing this, of all books? But then we turn it over. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is the "Special" version, with an introduction written by Mustache-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. This particular edition was printed by Bridge Logos, publisher of such other notable titles as: 4th Dimensional Living in a 3 Dimensional World, The Holy Spirit & You, and The End of All Things is At Hand. (I'm not giving that site more than one link from this post, look 'em up yourselves if ya don't believe me.)
Now, I first heard about this a while ago as a result of my admittedly bad habit of occasionally listening to Christian radio, but for some reason I didn't think I would actually get my hands on a copy, but lo and behold, here they were and here it is(PDF, thanks to CrisOMG, via Reddit).
My original plan was to go through this introduction and play spot-the-fiction, but it seems the guys over at Don't Diss Darwin already beat me to it. Well fine then, men and women of the NCSE, use your resources in a responsible manner, see if I care.
There was also a bit of shenanigans going on over at Amazon, but they fixed that. Good job, Amazon-guys. Also, about half the copies distributed here skip from chapter 9 to chapter 14. The chapters are there in the PDF version of the book, but take a look at the hard copy's table of contents.
Well, as it turns out, there was a valid reason for this, there were two printings, and since the distributors had to buy their own copies, the first edition (missing these chapters) was handed out alongside the second at certain schools. I got my hands on a first edition, played with it for a while, then gave it to one of my professors. Why? Because he's a book collector and will know how to properly care for the first religious printing of this book. Hey guys, it's history now. Silly, silly, history...
Hey hey, I'm sorry everyone, but school and life in general have been kicking my butt, so I'm going to have to enlist the help of the internet hive mind to entertain you this week.
First up we have Ms. Julia Sweeney and an except from her monologue "Letting Go of God". I actually met Ms. Sweeney in person this week. She's incredibly down to earth and it was interesting to hear how she left religion, especially when there were many of us in the audience whose stories paralleled her own.
Speaking of wonderful people with whom I was previously not acquainted until this week, I was lucky enough to meet Mr. Jim Emerson (of scanners blog and rogerebert.com) on the exact same day as Ms. Sweeney, yes they were both on campus for the same program, so it's not as large a coincidence as it would have been otherwise, but it was still absolutely FANTASTIC. If you haven't visited yet, I suggest you head on over and check out the "Inglourious Basterds" saga (both the posts themselves and the commentary).
Octopi limbs! It turns out an octopus can tell its arms a general goal, and the limb itself does the computing of how to accomplish that task. Bad ass. (WIRED)
Finally, I'd like to send out a [forced?] meme alert. With the arrival of InturruptingKanye (By the way, every one of those letters is a different picture.) I'm afraid many people have missed out on what is now one of my favorite nerd-freakouts of all time: "WHOSE RESPONSIBLE THIS?" The result of a Topless Robot writer's weekly column "Fan Fiction Friday"the phrase is the result of an author's temper tantrum upon learning that their story (which involves teddy-bear-pokemon beastiality) had been featured:
"WHOSE RESPONSIBLE THIS? I wanna know whose idea was this RIGHT NOW. Who did this on purpose, huh? I found this little secret and I'm so angry I wanna know who did this and why or I'll report everyone here to the site moderaters on this website and Yiffstar and have the one responsible BANNED FOR LIFE. NOW TELL ME WHO DID THIS NOW?"
"Fisrt, nobody checks spellling on the internet!!!! SEcond, I"m only in high school, so give me a fucking break!!! Third, I am what they call the best of the best, so mock all you want, but I have my fans, and they lvoe my stories!!!! " -Brickhousebunny21
More than any other form of humiliation, possibility the most damaging, and most human, is that of saying something inappropriate. It is the single situation in which you cannot shift the blame away from yourself and are instead forced to accept your mistake. The shame is almost physically painful.
Eg. Saying infants are unpleasant when there is a mother nearby. Her kid wasn't with her at the time, ok?
Despite this, we generally do not stop swearing or voicing our opinions with people with whom we feel comfortable speaking in that manner. Despite its bad reputation, the benefits of swearing a worth the risk of making an ass of one's self .
Let us first consider swearing in a single-person system. While the topic of exactly why stubbing one's toe hurts like a sonovabitch (See? Told you.), how we deal with pain is not a matter of conscious control, we instinctively withdraw our injured body part from the offending object, and, in a fabulous expression of our species' affinity for language, vent our frustration orally. While it may not have developed explicitly for this purpose, I am particularly fond of this phenomenon in that it prevents us from attacking others or putting our fists through a wall.
In the August 5th Issue of NeuroReport, researcher Richard Stephens et. al. from Keele UniversitySchool of Psychology published the results of a study in which participants were found to perceive less pain if they were allowed to swear while they kept their hand submerged in freezing water. In addition to the perceived pain tolerance among the test group (the exception to this trend being men who "catasthrophise" or believe things are worse than they actually are) researchers noted increased heart rates in the swearing group, and hypothesized that this may be a result of the verbal cue actually triggering one's fight-or-flight response and in doing so, allows the speaker to dull their sensations of fear and pain.
Ow, dammit.
Expanding beyond control of one's emotional and physical response, we find that profanity acts as a social lubricant, a common language into which one may lower their usual vernacular in a such as way as to mimic their peers and promote social bonding. This phenomenon was explored in 2007 by Yehuda Baruch and Stuart Jenkins of the University of East Anglia in Swearing at work and permissive leadership culture in which the researchers suggest there are cicumstances under which businesses and work-groups should allow for a "permissive leadership culture" (i.e. an environment in which swearing is permissive so long as it is not used to harm others) as it may promote greater group cohesiveness and allow workers to become more productive.
The paper further describes swearing as two separate classes: Social Swearing, and Annoyance Swearing. The latter form are those words and expressions that are used conversationally. As groups grow closer, so too does their manner of speaking. Here, swearing is a positive form of social interaction which indicates trust and comfort in one's environment. Annoyance swearing, in contrast, is triggered by negative occurrences or behavior, but as mentioned above, the result can be positive as it provides a means of expression without any large physical manifestation of that same emotional state.
I love this graph. The key even makes a little face.
My favorite places to observe these interactions isn't in meatspace, but online. Through the veil of anonymity, we are all able to interact as equals. What we know and who we are guides us to others like ourselves, but it is not until one is able to inject a bit of humor, or hyperbolic swearing, that we actually begin to appreciate the existence of the person on the other end.
It is also exceptionally useful in making a point, as the use of these words adds to the hyperbolas one may create for either humorous, parodist, or even educational purposes. Many of my favorite examples of this can be found in the reviews of The Nostalgia Critic, Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's "Zero Punctuation", in YouTuber Thunderf00t's "Why People Laugh at Creationists" series and in one of my favorite shows of all time: Penn and Teller's "Bullshit".
However, it is necessary to call attention to a critical fact: all benefits from swearing stem from a pre-existing relationship with those in whose company one chooses to speak.
Despite how much I love the damn things, they are destructive when used around people with whom one has no common ground. It's fun to remark about how "fucking amazing" a black-and-white cow is to someone who gets the joke, but doing so around someone you don't know is assumes you are allowed to interact with them on an intimate level. If one has not earned the necessary (implied) permission, swearing is jarring. In contrast, when one chooses not to swear they present themselves in a passive position. The speaker assumes nothing, and in doing so is forced to slow down. This allows us to speak and write eloquently, and gives us time to actually consider the opinions of our opponents, and those with whom we are attempting to build a relationship.
"It's the words you use, not the ones you don't, that show what you know." -Penn Jillette
Moonbows are awesome. While the colors are usually too faint to be seen by the human eye, but they do show up in long exposures and time lapses like this one.
If one person freaks out when they visit your city, they may be just a nutter, if it's a group, they may all be drunk, but when the number of freak-out sessions goes over a couple hundred then you might want to look into it a bit more closely. 1. Stendhal Syndrome You've planned this trip for months, finally you have the chance to go see what you have so often drooled over in travel magazines. You're ready, off you go, excited to see the art and architecture of your dream city. Then you make the mistake of actually looking around... Oh my GOD! That's the most BEAUTIFUL ALLEY EVER! Holy crap-and-a-half! This is the best- Aaand now you've passed out.
Holy crap-and-a-half!
First described by Marie-Henri Beyle (aka. Stendhal), a guy who really had a thing for architecture, Stendhal Syndrome is a psychosomatic response characterized by an increase in heart rate, as well as feelings of vertigo and nausea, in response to art. Here's how the guy describes his experience in Florence:
"I was in a sort of ecstasy, from the idea of being in Florence, close to the great men whose tombs I had seen. Absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty ... I reached the point where one encounters celestial sensations ... Everything spoke so vividly to my soul. Ah, if I could only forget. I had palpitations of the heart, what in Berlin they call 'nerves.' Life was drained from me. I walked with the fear of falling.''
For centuries it was known only through this and similar anecdotes, and it wasn't until the publication of Dr. Graziella Magherini's book "La sindrome di Stendhal" that it was finally recognized by the psychological community. The topic has since been investigated by James Elkins' "Pictures and Tears: [...]" and used in a 1996 movie which now floods all search results.
2. Paris Syndrome It seems everyone has a fairly romantic view of France, specifically Paris. Even those who claim to hate the smooth talking "frogs" can't help but to think of beautiful farmland, gorgeous people, and delicious food, and "the city of lights". This view has been fostered by hundreds of years worth of art, writing, and most importantly in recent years, film.
Mmm. Pixar.
Given the high expectations placed upon it, no wonder people feel disappointed when they finally visit, only to run into your standard culture shock and the same travel hassles that exist everywhere else in the world. Added stress (especially for travelers from countries where societal approval is considered extremely important) can come from the accidental elicitation of disapproving stares if one breaks certain unspoken social constructs (e.g. ladies should never pour their own wine, sorbet should be eaten with a fork and NEVER utter the phrase "bon appetit" in polite company -Constance Reitzler).
Westerners are lucky, in a way. Although we may not fully comprehend what we are getting into when we head to Paris, we've all heard enough horror stories to know that we should brace ourselves for the worst. Whether it's tales of riots, rude waiters (apparently most people just don't know the waiter-code) or shopkeepers from hell ("I wouldn't bother if I were you - it'll never fit!") We go in there braced, ready for action, Grr, watch us be tough. The Japanese however...
Ever since the Meiji restoration Japanese students have travelled to France as a means of assimilating western culture and use this knowledge to shape the changing nation of their birth. These trips were held in high esteem, as they were seen as symbols of wealth, and such expeditions remain in fashion today. The imagery of Paris itself, depictions of models in cafes ringed by flowers, is often used to sell high fashion and expensive goods to young Japanese consumers.
Currently around one million Japanese of all ages travel to France every year. Not only for tourism either - an increasing number are choosing to settle in their romantic idyll. But the reality of coming to terms with the profound culture shock after realising that their ideals about the French capital are unrealistic sees around 100 Japanese expatriates a year consulting a psychiatrist, and a quarter of that number hospitalised.
These problems are believed to be the result of several contributing factors: the language barrier, the aforementioned cultural differences, the disparity between expectation and reality, and overall physical and mental exhaustion. Desperate to reconcile their ideals with reality, many people may not be able to sleep or eat until they find a way to make themselves feel comfortable. If such a thing cannot be found, they will, of course, suffer physical symptoms.
Now allow me to make a prediction. This phenomenon is going to repeat itself, but not with Japanese tourists. Instead, I predict that American and British anime fans (now in the teens) will experience something similar to this when they finally get old enough (or just get the money) to travel to japan, their dream country.
Massive dissapointment in t-5 years.
3. Jerusalem Syndrome Characterized by religiously-themed obsessions and delusions, Jerusalem syndrome kicks in during visits to the city and seems to affect only those whose religions place significance on the site (i.e. No Buddhists have had to have been pried from the Western Wall with the jaws of life).
This is EXACTLY what I'd see if I went to the Western Wall.
When people dreamof Jerusalem, they do not see the modern, politically controversialJerusalem, but rather the holy biblical and religious city.Since 1980, Jerusalem's psychiatrists have encountered an ever-increasingnumber of tourists who, upon arriving in Jerusalem, sufferpsychotic decompensation.
Over the course of their 13-year study, Bar-El's team examined the cases of 1200 tourists who exhibited "severe, Jerusalem-generated mental problems" and from this were able to classify those suffering from Jerusalem syndrome into three categories.
Type I: Came to Jerusalem for a "religious mission" of some sort, had a history of pre-existing mental illness/family problems and usually traveled alone. They tend to identify with characters from their holy book, obsess of a certain political of religious idea, and develop "magical thinking" about health and healing.
Type II: Travel in groups to Jerusalem either out of curiosity or on "a mission". Although they may lack pre-existing psychotic disorders, they have tended to have already been focused on a fixed idea before arriving. Here, Jerusalem Syndrome can affect either the entire group, or just one individual within the group.
Type III ("Jerusalem Syndrome discrete type"): Regular tourists with no history of mental disorders traveling with their families or simply a tour group.
Although it seems a bit dull, Type III is by far my favorite. Apparently Type III cases have been so dramatic, that Bar-El et al. actually had to classify them into seven stages:
Anxiety, agitation, nervousness and tension, plus other unspecified reactions.
Declaration of the desire to split away from the group or the family and to tour Jerusalem alone. Tourist guides aware of the Jerusalem syndrome and of the significance of such declarations may at this point refer the tourist to our institution for psychiatric evaluation in an attempt to pre-empt the subsequent stages of the syndrome. If unattended, these stages are usually unavoidable.
A need to be clean and pure: obsession with taking baths and showers; compulsive fingernail and toenail cutting.
Preparation, often with the aid of hotel bed-linen, of a long, ankle-length, togalike gown, which is always white.
The need to scream, shout, or sing out loud psalms, verses from the Bible, religious hymns or spirituals. Manifestations of this type serve as a warning to hotel personnel and tourist guides, who should then attempt to have the tourist taken for professional treatment. Failing this, the two last stages will develop.
A procession or march to one of Jerusalem's holy places.
Delivery of a ‘sermon’ in a holy place. The sermon is usually very confused and based on an unrealistic plea to humankind to adopt a more wholesome, moral, simple way of life.
This has got to be pure schadenfreude, but this is BRILLIANT. Wheee hee hee hee. Oh don't look at me like that, it's not permanent.
Their condition usually returns to normal within5-7 days; in other words, a short-lived episode followed bycomplete recovery. These individuals clearly need treatment,and often receive it, but recovery is quite often spontaneousand not necessarily due to the treatment. Experience has taughtus that improvement is facilitated by, or dependent on, physicallydistancing the patient from Jerusalem and its holy places.On the whole, major medical intervention is not indicated; minortranquillisers or melatonin (as in cases of jet-lag psychosis)usually suffice. Our main treatment strategy is to facilitatereturn to the group or the renewal of family ties (includingwith family overseas), or, if deemed appropriate, access toa priest. [Ed. LOL] Crisis intervention psychotherapy plays an importantpart in the recovery process.
See? Now I'm gonna continue giggling, thank you very much.
I have edited this to be less... angry. I was tired, and this little endeavour DID cost me 1.5 hours of research time.
This has nothing to do with biology, and it's preempting Part II of what I was already working on... however, a friend requested it, and I personally hopes it helps someone, somewhere become more willing to investigate things for themselves.
Anyway, per the request of aforementioned friend, I looked into the claims made by Fox anchor Glen Beck:
This. Right here.
On first glance it seems pretty F-ing scary, but more information is needed. Let's do a bit of investigation, shall we?
cars.gov has nowhere to sign in, nor it is necessary to access any part of the site and cars.com is a pay-to-sell-your-car site whose "Cash for Clunkers" section also lacks anywhere to sign in or sign up for anything.
You can't even GET a login name for that page unless you are a car dealer which is already registered with the government "Cash for Clunkers" program (I tried)
If you go cars.gov > "Dealers" button > "Dealers and NHTSA" you get a page showing how to get permission to become a dealer:
Pre-Registration 1. Program Legislation Passes Program Start Date 2. OEM provides basic information to people on dealer list Authorization 1. Registration letter generated 2. Mailed to Dealers on the list 3. Dealers on the list get a temporary password Validation/Certification 1. Dealer created financial and supplimental data about their business 2. Submits it to the CARS people (government controlled) 3. Dealers (if accepted) added to directory 4. Dealers notified of acceptance
I tried filling out a "Registration help" thing, it didn't ask for anything but information, no warnings popped up, no privacy anything, just a standard digital information request form
During this entire investigation (not done on my own computer, of course) nothing was downloaded or run on this computer from an outside sour ce. I was monitoring the stupid thing the whole time and the computer is locked as to prevent ANYTHING downloading from anywhere.
CONCLUSION: Regular consumers don't have to worry, but dealers may indeed have a problem on their hands should they use their work computer for private information. It's also an act of government involvement with people/business's possessions that was previously non-existent. So while I have a problem with that, again, just me.
If you ever want to turn the population into living zombies, I know JUST the drug.
You're hungry. REALLY hungry. The kind of where your mouth begins to get sour and your peripheral vision begins to fade. You rub your eyes, feeling the grains of sleep digging into your delicate face, you need a break, and so, like the silly little monkey you have become, you go to the store on an empty stomach, and there it is... Cue the heavenly choir. I mean, look at it! It's two things in one: pizza and Caesar chicken. Om nom nom nom nom. You run home as fast as you can, tear open the box and...
Ooooh Nooooooooooooo! This is a bigger letdown than when you got that Furby a few years back.
DIE, Childhood disappointment! DIE!
As you've probably realized by now, today's topic is what happens when what you expect meets reality.
Part One- Unrealistic expectations: We humans are lucky, not only do we have built-in self-preservation instincts and the ability to learn from past experiences, but we can also plan ahead. (As a side note, this may not be entirely unique to our species.) Planning ahead allows us to mentally "time travel", our brains actively work to predict what may or may not happen in the future, usually as a result of a certain course of action. It's a great system, but unfortunately it's not all that accurate past a certain point.
Take, for example, the case of how we perceive future happiness:
TL;DW:
We should have preferences that lead us into one future over another. But when those preferences drive us too hard and too fast because we have overrated the difference between these futures, we are at risk. When our ambition is bounded, it leads us to work joyfully. When our ambition is unbounded, it leads us to lie, to cheat, to steal, to hurt others, to sacrifice things of real value. When our fears are bounded,we're prudent, we're cautious, we're thoughtful. When our fears are unbounded and overblown, we're reckless, and we're cowardly.
Imagining yourself running off a cliff, seeing yourself go splat, and then deciding against it, is one thing, but the creation of a mental model for an entire culture or even just another person, is simply beyond us.
Unless you're this guy. Rwar. You solve those mysteries.
"Well screw you Imma do it anyway!" Say our brains, and that's exactly what they do. The result? Totally unrealistic expectations about other people and places which are exaggerated positively or negatively. Once reality hits expectation, the result is often jarring enough to result in culture shock.
"How are you?"
TL;DW: There are four stages. The Honeymoon Stage ("Everything is new and bloody fantastic!"), the Negotiation Phase ("What do you mean we're having durian... again? And I want some ice cream... No... real ice cream."), the Adjustment Phase ("Meh, this is life now.") and upon return: Re-entry/Reverse Shock ("TAKE OFF YOUR F*ING SHOES! Friggin people trompin' around my house...")
But it's not just individuals that have these problems, sometimes these shocks are so severe, and so common, that they become a phenomenon in and of themselves.
Well, as it turns out, there was a valid reason for this, there were two printings, and since the distributors had to buy their own copies, the first edition (missing these chapters) was handed out alongside the second at certain schools. I got my hands on a first edition, played with it for a while, then gave it to one of my professors. Why? Because he's a book collector and will know how to properly care for the first religious printing of this book. Hey guys, it's history now. Silly, silly, history...
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