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09 Jul 01:51

Buddhist Economics: How to Stop Prioritizing Goods Over People and Consumption Over Creative Activity

by Maria Popova

“Work and leisure are complementary parts of the same living process and cannot be separated without destroying the joy of work and the bliss of leisure.”

Much has been said about the difference between money and wealth and how we, as individuals, can make more of the latter, but the divergence between the two is arguably even more important the larger scale of nations and the global economy. What does it really mean to create wealth for people — for humanity — as opposed to money for governments and corporations?

That’s precisely what the influential German-born British economist, statistician, Rhodes Scholar, and economic theorist E. F. Schumacher explores in his seminal 1973 book Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (public library) — a magnificent collection of essays at the intersection of economics, ethics, and environmental awareness, which earned Schumacher the prestigious Prix Européen de l’Essai Charles Veillon award and was deemed by The Times Literary Supplement one of the 100 most important books published since WWII. Sharing an ideological kinship with such influential minds as Tolstoy and Gandhi, Schumacher’s is a masterwork of intelligent counterculture, applying history’s deepest, most timeless wisdom to the most pressing issues of modern life in an effort to educate, elevate and enlighten.

One of the most compelling essays in the book, titled “Buddhist Economics,” applies spiritual principles and moral purpose to the question of wealth. Writing around the same time that Alan Watts considered the subject, Schumacher begins:

“Right Livelihood” is one of the requirements of the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path. It is clear, therefore, that there must be such a thing as Buddhist economics.

[…]

Spiritual health and material well-being are not enemies: they are natural allies.

Traditional Western economics, Schumacher argues, is bedeviled a self-righteousness of sorts that blinds us to this fact — a fundamental fallacy that considers “goods as more important than people and consumption as more important than creative activity.” He writes:

Economists themselves, like most specialists, normally suffer from a kind of metaphysical blindness, assuming that theirs is a science of absolute and invariable truths, without any presuppositions. Some go as far as to claim that economic laws are as free from “metaphysics” or “values” as the law of gravitations.

From this stems our chronic desire to avoid work and the difficulty of finding truly fulfilling work that aligns with our sense of purpose. Schumacher paints the backdrop for the modern malady overwork:

There is universal agreement that a fundamental source of wealth is human labor. Now, the modern economists has been brought up to consider “labor” or work as little more than a necessary evil. From the point of view of the employer, it is in any case simply an item of cost, to be reduced to a minimum if it cannot be eliminated altogether, say, by automation. From the point of view of the workman, it is a “disutility”; to work is to make a sacrifice of one’s leisure and comfort, and wages are a kind of compensation for the sacrifice. Hence the ideal from the point of view of the employer is to have output without employees, and the ideal from the point of view of the employee is to have income without employment.

The consequences of these attitudes both in theory and in practice are, of course, extremely far-reaching. If the ideal with regard to work is to get rid of it, every method that “reduces the work load” is a good thing. The most potent method, short of automation, is the so-called “division of labor”… Here it is not a matter of ordinary specialization, which mankind has practiced from time immemorial, but of dividing up every complete process of production into minute parts, so that the final product can be produced at great speed without anyone having had to contribute more than a totally insignificant and, in most cases, unskilled movement of his limbs.

Schumacher contrasts this with the Buddhist perspective:

The Buddhist point of view takes the function of work to be at least threefold: to give a man a chance to utilize and develop his faculties; to enable him to overcome his ego-centeredness by joining with other people in a common task; and to bring forth the goods and services needed for a becoming existence. Again, the consequences that flow from this view are endless. To organize work in such a manner that it becomes meaningless, boring, stultifying, or nerve-racking for the worker would be little short of criminal; it would indicate a greater concern with goods than with people, an evil lack of compassion and a soul-destroying degree of attachment to the most primitive side of this worldly existence. Equally, to strive for leisure as an alternative to work would be considered a complete misunderstanding of one of the basic truths of human existence, namely that work and leisure are complementary parts of the same living process and cannot be separated without destroying the joy of work and the bliss of leisure.

From the Buddhist point of view, there are therefore two types of mechanization which must be clearly distinguished: one that enhances a man’s skill and power and one that turns the work of man over to a mechanical slave, leaving man in a position of having to serve the slave.

E.F. Schumacher

With an undertone of Gandhi’s timeless words, Schumacher writes:

Buddhist economics must be very different from the economics of modern materialism, since the Buddhist sees the essence of civilization not in a multiplication of wants but in the purification of human character. Character, at the same time, is formed primarily by a man’s work. And work, properly conducted in conditions of human dignity and freedom, blesses those who do it and equally their products.

But Schumacher takes care to point out that the Buddhist disposition, rather than a condemnation of the material world, is a more fluid integration with it:

While the materialist is mainly interested in goods, the Buddhist is mainly interested in liberation. But Buddhism is “The Middle Way” and therefore in no way antagonistic to physical well-being. It is not wealth that stands in the way of liberation but the attachment to wealth; not the enjoyment of pleasurable things but the craving for them. The keynote of Buddhist economics, therefore, is simplicity and non-violence. From an economist’s point of view, the marvel of the Buddhist way of life is the utter rationality of its pattern — amazingly small means leading to extraordinarily satisfactory results.

This concept, Schumacher argues, is extremely difficult for an economist from a consumerist culture to grasp as we once again bump up against the warped Western prioritization of productivity over presence:

[The modern Western economist] is used to measuring the “standard of living” by the amount of annual consumption, assuming all the time that a man who consumes more is “better off” than a man who consumes less. A Buddhist economist would consider this approach excessively irrational: since consumption is merely a means to human well-being, the aim should be to obtain the maximum of well-being with the minimum of consumption.

[…]

The ownership and the consumption of goods is a means to an end, and Buddhist economics is the systematic study of how to attain given ends with the minimum means.

[Western] economics, on the other hand, considers consumption to be the sole end and purpose of all economic activity, taking the factors of production — land, labor, and capital — as the means. the former, in short, tries to maximize human satisfactions by the optimal pattern of consumption, while the latter tries to maximize consumption by the optimal pattern of productive effort.

This maximization of “human satisfactions,” Schumacher argues, is rooted in two intimately related Buddhist concepts — simplicity and non-violence:

The optimal pattern of consumption, producing a high degree of human satisfaction by means of a relatively low rate of consumption, allows people to live without great pressure and strain and to fulfill the primary injunctions of Buddhist teaching: “Cease to do evil; try to do good.” As physical resources are everywhere limited, people satisfying their needs by means of a modest use of resources are obviously less likely to be at each other’s throats than people depending upon a high rate of use. Equally, people who live in highly self-sufficient local communities are less likely to get involved in large-scale violence than people whose existence depends on worldwide systems of trade.

Writing shortly after Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring sparked the modern environmental movement, Schumacher presages the modern groundswell of advocacy for sustainable locally sourced products:

From the point of view of Buddhist economics … production from local resources for local needs is the most rational way of economic life, while dependence on imports from afar and the consequent need to produce for export to unknown and distant peoples is highly uneconomic and justifiable only in exceptional cases and on a small scale.

He concludes by framing the enduring value of a Buddhist approach to economics, undoubtedly even more urgently needed today than it was in 1973:

It is in the light of both immediate experience and long-term prospects that the study of Buddhist economics could be recommended even to those who believe that economic growth is more important than any spiritual or religious values. For it is not a question of choosing between “modern growth” and “traditional stagnation.” It is a question of finding the right path to development, the Middle Way between materialist heedlessness and traditionalist immobility, in short, of finding “Right Livelihood.”

Small Is Beautiful is a superb read in its entirety. Complement it with Kurt Vonnegut on having enough and Thoreau on redefining success.

Thanks, Jocelyn

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09 Jul 01:26

How can we reform the adjunct system?

by Bryan Alexander
jlsmither

You might like this blog.

How can American academia’s adjunct situation be improved?  What’s the best way to address this humanitarian crisis?  Can we fix this labor disaster?

This question surfaced during a Twitter discussion today.  Several of us were criticizing the increased casualization of academic labor, and saw few ways forward.   Then VCVaile wondered,

hard to change attitude but is it impossible? what would it take?

asking the question

This is a great question. Indeed, it should be one of the leading questions for academia to answer today.

How, then, can we improve the situation of adjuncts?

Let’s brainstorm.  And let’s seed the storm with some ideas:

1. State governments could be the hero here.  One common suggestion (one I’ve made) is that we need to reverse the decline in state support for public higher education.  Simply put, if states stopped cutting their subsidies but, instead, increased their support for colleges and universities, we could expand the ranks of tenure-track faculty back to Baby Boomer levels.

Naturally this isn’t happening, except for rare exceptions, like oil-rich North Dakota.  State budgets are being squeezed by all kinds of forces, economic, ideological, and political.  Moreover, the politics simply aren’t there to reverse the course of defunding.  Additionally, private institutions wouldn’t be directly affected, although the overall market could pull them along.

But maybe, just maybe this adjunct reform could occur if the US economy started growing at a serious level and/or if we see a change of political climate.

2. Dean Hayes (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) argued that change is, in fact, possible if academics decide to improve the lot of adjuncts.  Specifically (and extracted from a series of tweets):

[I]t is possible

1. to maintain a TT majority-

2. to insure that NTT is a viable career option w salary, promotion—and job security, and

3. pro-rate PT salary on FT salary. It can be done.

I appreciate Hayes’ engagement on this topic, but am not sure I follow it.  By “TT majority” does she mean a political majority of tenure-track faculty, devoted to reform?  Or does she mean preserving a campus population where the majority of teaching positions are t-track (not the case, generally)?    Either way, Hayes seems to call for improving the status of adjuncts short of offering them tenure: better compensation, some advancement, security.  Perhaps adjuncts will evolve into lecturers, or full-time instructors will multi-year term contracts.

EDITED TO ADD Accidental Academic asks us to consider “pro-rated PT against FT salaries.”  In the comments section to this post Jack Longmate describes a situation where “all faculty, whether full-time or part-time, whether permanent or probationary, are paid according to the same 11-step salary schedule; that is, there’s equal pay for equal work”.

Is this adjunct 2.0 model possible? I imagine adjuncts organizing into unions is one way forward, assuming said organization works, and that campuses accept collective negotiation.  Brave groups like the New Faculty Majority can help here.  Maybe the AAUP could step up.

3. Imagine if PhD production drops.  That would eventually reduce the flood of well-credentialed grads, taking instructor supply down.  If supply and demand laws maintain, we should expect compensation to rise.  Maybe tenure will return as an extra later of compensation.

How could this happen?  We know research-1 universities are apparently pleased to keep on churning out graduated into a horrible market.  We know professional organizations, like the MLA, don’t want to stop this flow.  But perhaps these institutions will have a change of heart, once the optics become too unbearable.  Maybe another federal administration will encourage them to do so. Alternatively, the number of students applying to grad programs might shrink, as the future of adjuncthood presents too appalling a specter.

One economist thinks this PhD production drop might well occur once enough would-be professors make a rational economic decision.

4. Could a change in campus rankings drive administrations to improve the adjunct lot?  Rebecca Schuman raises this approach, asking US News and World Report to draw more attention to an institution’s faculty adjunct proportion.

If a college or university’s ranking—and concurrently, as others are calling for, even its accreditation—could be openly and seriously damaged by the overuse of contingent faculty, then and only then would students and parents actually begin to care, and they’d vote with their tuition. And then and only then would administrations actually begin to … well, “care” isn’t the right word. Let’s say they’d finally find something about contingent faculty to be concerned about, other than the union.

EDITED TO ADD – 5. What about cutting administrative expenses and diverting funds to better compensate adjuncts?  One way of doing this involves, as Accidental Academic suggests, “outsourc[ing] senior admin”.

 

Those are five ideas.  Which one or ones appeals to you?  Do you have another idea to offer?


05 Jul 02:15

Minutes from a Town Hall Meeting of My Anxieties by Sam Shelstad

PRESENT:

  • My Mother, Chairman
  • My Boss, Vice Chairman
  • My Ex-Girlfriend, Secretary
  • A Carpenter Ant, Treasurer
  • That Thunking Noise That Occurs In the Middle of the Night
  • Ignorance of World News
  • A Flash Flood
  • The Idea That Hell Might Actually Be Real and I’m Going There

CALL TO ORDER:

Chairman My Mother opened the meeting at 2:40 A.M. and introduced the board members.

SECRETARY’S MINUTES:

Minutes of previous meeting were read and approved. My Ex-Girlfriend then stated that she thought my penis was very small and her new boyfriend, Brad, had a much larger penis.

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT:

Chairman My Mother spoke of my inability to land a decent job, my lack of ambition, and how I refuse to stand up straight. She then spoke for twenty minutes about my cousin, Andrew, who is up for a big promotion at the bank and has a daughter on the way. “Why can’t my son be more like Andrew?” Chairman My Mother asked, and everyone agreed that this was a good point.

VICE CHAIRMAN’S REPORT:

Vice Chairman My Boss stated that he knew I was taking a little extra time on my breaks, and he was going to fire me the next day in front of the whole staff. He said that it was likely I would react by going red in the face and then running into the bathroom to cry like an ugly little girl. He added that nobody would come into the washroom to console me because everyone in the office was glad to see me go, since it would now be easier to have secret discussions about how much they all hate me.

TREASURER’S REPORT:

A Carpenter Ant made a presentation concerning his colony’s plans to chew through every load-bearing piece of wood in my house until the roof suddenly collapsed on me while I was sleeping. He added that while the ant traps I’d set up earlier in the week would have no effect on him or his colony, the poison in the traps would in fact harm me. They planned on taking turns rubbing the poison on their feet and then walking on my toothbrush. Everyone cheered.

THAT THUNKING NOISE THAT OCCURS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT’S REPORT:

That Thunking Noise That Occurs In the Middle of the Night made a loud thunking noise. Everyone agreed that the source of the noise had to be that bald man with the messed up eye who stands in front of the post office all day, and that he was now climbing in through my bathroom window.

IGNORANCE OF WORLD NEWS’ REPORT:

Ignorance of World News announced that there would be an office party the following weekend, and that—should I still have my job—I would reluctantly attend. Ignorance of World News then stated that Crimea would be brought up several times at the party, and that I would struggle to remember if Crimea was the Russian thing or some kind of sauce. He added that the cute girl from Sales would notice my confusion, laugh to herself, and then hold hands with the guy who bullied me in the sixth grade.

A FLASH FLOOD’S REPORT:

A Flash Flood announced its plans to fill my house with water, drowning me and only me, because I’d watched a few minutes of a documentary about flash floods before bed and that’s how flash floods decide where to attack next.

THE IDEA THAT HELL MIGHT ACTUALLY BE REAL AND I’M GOING THERE’S REPORT:

The Idea That Hell Might Actually Be Real and I’m Going There stated that Hell was real and I would go there one day. Vice Chairman My Boss raised the point that Hell would just be so terrible, and A Flash Flood added that it would last forever. The Idea That Hell Might Actually Be Real and I’m Going There agreed with both comments, and stressed that I was definitely going to actual Hell.

OLD BUSINESS:

Chairman My Mother stated that my place was a mess, and noted how very sad this was.

My Ex-Girlfriend displayed a photograph of my tiny penis and then everyone pointed at the photograph and laughed.

NEW BUSINESS:

A Carpenter Ant stated that once the meeting was adjourned, he was going to rub his feet in ant poison and then climb into my mouth.

That Thunking Noise That Occurs In the Middle of the Night made a loud thunking noise.

MOTION TO ADJOURN:

Chairman My Mother made the motion to adjourn the meeting, with the stipulation that the secretary read aloud the minutes in a continuous loop, whispering them into my ear until an hour before my alarm was supposed to go off. The motion was seconded by all and approved unanimously.

05 Jul 00:27

Election by doppelganger

by Bryan Alexander


Doppelganger_Oklahoma electionAn Oklahoma election turned Gothic as the defeated party complained that his opponent was, well, no longer human.  It's a twist on the old campaigning against a dead person routine.  You see,  Representative Frank Lucas is apparently no longer Frank Lucas:

Timothy Ray Murray... claims that Lucas was executed three years ago by the World Court and that the Congressman has been replaced by a body double.

Lucas2 might not be an organic doppelganger:

Murray even suggested on his campaign website that the “Frank Lucas” who bested him in the primary might be an artificial look alike or a man-made replacement.

And it's not just the one "Frank Lucas", either:

I will never use a look alike to replace my (The Office’s) message to you or to anyone else, as both the other Republican Challengers have.

How did these replacements happen?

Rep. Frank Lucas, and a few other Oklahoma and other States’ Congressional Members were depicted as being executed by The World Court on or about Jan. 11, 2011 in Southern Ukraine. On television they were depicted as being executed by the hanging about the neck until death on a white stage and in front of witnesses. Other now current Members of Congress have shared those facts on television also. We know that it is possible to use look alike artificial or manmade replacements, however Rep. Lucas was not eligible to serve as a Congressional Member after that time.

It's fascinating to see how television becomes the source of evidence.  "As seen on tv"!

No word on any possible connection to Lucas' previous role on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

(via Naked Capitalism)

05 Jul 00:22

Fish take over an abandoned mall

by Bryan Alexander

Infocult has been observing the decline of malls with a mixture of delight and the pleasureable melancholy born of ruins.  Now a Thai mall offers a new form of abandonment.  This Bangkok building flooded, then was overtaken by fish.

The mall, which reportedly caught fire in 1999 (rumored to be arson by a competitor), has since flooded with several feet of water and become a paradise for koi and catfish.

Mall-abandoned_fishies

(thanks to Annette)

23 Jun 16:04

Rethinking the Placebo Effect: How Our Minds Actually Affect Our Bodies

by Maria Popova

The startling physiological effects of loneliness, optimism, and meditation.

In 2013, Neil deGrasse Tyson hosted a mind-bending debate on the nature of “nothing” — an inquiry that has occupied thinkers since the dawn of recorded thought and permeates everything from Hamlet’s iconic question to the boldest frontiers of quantum physics. That’s precisely what New Scientist editor-in-chief Jeremy Webb explores with a kaleidoscopic lens in Nothing: Surprising Insights Everywhere from Zero to Oblivion (public library) — a terrific collection of essays and articles exploring everything from vacuum to the birth and death of the universe to how the concept of zero gained wide acceptance in the 17th century after being shunned as a dangerous innovation for 400 years. As Webb elegantly puts it, “nothing becomes a lens through which we can explore the universe around us and even what it is to be human. It reveals past attitudes and present thinking.”

Among the most intensely interesting pieces in the collection is one by science journalist Jo Marchant, who penned the fascinating story of the world’s oldest analog computer. Titled “Heal Thyself,” the piece explores how the way we think about medical treatments shapes their very real, very physical effects on our bodies — an almost Gandhi-like proposition, except rooted in science rather than philosophy. Specifically, Marchant brings to light a striking new dimension of the placebo effect that runs counter to how the phenomenon has been conventionally explained. She writes:

It has always been assumed that the placebo effect only works if people are conned into believing that they are getting an actual active drug. But now it seems this may not be true. Belief in the placebo effect itself — rather than a particular drug — might be enough to encourage our bodies to heal.

She cites a recent study at the Harvard Medical School, in which people with irritable bowel syndrome were given a placebo and informed that the pills were “made of an inert substance, like sugar pills, that have been shown in clinical studies to produce significant improvement in IBS symptoms through mind-body self-healing processes.” As Marchant notes, this is absolutely true, in a meta kind of way. What the researchers found was startling in its implications for medicine, philosophy, and spirituality — despite being aware they were taking placebos, the participants rated their symptoms as “moderately improved” on average. In other words, they knew what they were taking wasn’t a drug — it was a medical “nothing” — but the very consciousness of taking something made them experience fewer symptoms.

Illustration by Marianne Dubuc from 'The Lion and the Bird.' Click image for more.

This dovetails into recent research confirming what Helen Keller fervently believed by putting some serious science behind the value of optimism. Marchant sums up the findings:

Realism can be bad for your health. Optimists recover better from medical procedures such as coronary bypass surgery, have healthier immune systems and live longer, both in general and when suffering from conditions such as cancer, heart disease and kidney failure.

It is well accepted that negative thoughts and anxiety can make us ill. Stress — the belief that we are at risk — triggers physiological pathways such as the “fight-or-flight” response, mediated by the sympathetic nervous system. These have evolved to protect us from danger, but if switched on long-term they increase the risk of conditions such as diabetes and dementia.

What researchers are now realizing is that positive beliefs don’t just work by quelling stress. They have a positive effect too — feeling safe and secure, or believing things will turn out fine, seems to help the body maintain and repair itself…

Optimism seems to reduce stress-induced inflammation and levels of stress hormones such as cortisol. It may also reduce susceptibility to disease by dampening sympathetic nervous system activity and stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system. The latter governs what’s called the “rest-and-digest” response — the opposite of fight-or-flight.

Just as helpful as taking a rosy view of the future is having a rosy view of yourself. High “self-enhancers” — people who see themselves in a more positive light than others see them — have lower cardiovascular responses to stress and recover faster, as well as lower baseline cortisol levels.

Marchant notes that it’s as beneficial to amplify the world’s perceived positivity as it is to amplify our own — something known as our “self-enhancement bias,” a type of self-delusion that helps keep us sane. But the same applies to our attitudes toward others as well — they too can impact our physical health. She cites University of Chicago psychologist John Cacioppo, who has dedicated his career to studying how social isolation affects individuals. Though solitude might be essential for great writing, being alone a special form of art, and single living the defining modality of our time, loneliness is a different thing altogether — a thing Cacioppo found to be toxic:

Being lonely increases the risk of everything from heart attacks to dementia, depression and death, whereas people who are satisfied with their social lives sleep better, age more slowly and respond better to vaccines. The effect is so strong that curing loneliness is as good for your health as giving up smoking.

Illustration by Marianne Dubuc from 'The Lion and the Bird.' Click image for more.

Marchant quotes another researcher, Charles Raison at Atlanta’s Emory University, who studies mind–body interactions:

It’s probably the single most powerful behavioral finding in the world… People who have rich social lives and warm, open relationships don’t get sick and they live longer.

Marchant points to specific research by Cacioppo, who found that “in lonely people, genes involved in cortisol signaling and the inflammatory response were up-regulated, and that immune cells important in fighting bacteria were more active, too.” Marchant explains the findings and the essential caveat to them:

[Cacioppo] suggests that our bodies may have evolved so that in situations of perceived social isolation, they trigger branches of the immune system involved in wound healing and bacterial infection. An isolated person would be at greater risk of physical trauma, whereas being in a group might favor the immune responses necessary for fighting viruses, which spread easily between people in close contact.

Crucially, these differences relate most strongly to how lonely people think they are, rather than to the actual size of their social network. That also makes sense from an evolutionary point of view, says Cacioppo, because being among hostile strangers can be just as dangerous as being alone. So ending loneliness is not about spending more time with people. Cacioppo thinks it is all about our attitude to others: lonely people become overly sensitive to social threats and come to see others as potentially dangerous. In a review of previous studies … he found that tackling this attitude reduced loneliness more effectively than giving people more opportunities for interaction, or teaching social skills.

Illustration by André François for 'Little Boy Brown,' a lovely vintage ode to childhood and loneliness. Click image for more.

Paradoxically, science suggests that one of the most important interventions to offer benefits that counter the ill effects of loneliness has to do with solitude — or, more precisely, regimented solitude in the form of meditation. Marchant notes that trials on the effects of meditation have been small — something I find troublesomely emblematic of the short-sightedness with which we approach mental health as we continue to prioritize the physical in both our clinical subsidies and our everyday lives (how many people have a workout routine compared to those with a meditation practice?); even within the study of mental health, the vast majority of medical research focuses on the effects of a physical substance — a drug of some sort — on the mind, with very little effort directed at understanding the effects of the mind on the physical body.

Still, the modest body of research on meditation is heartening. Marchant writes:

There is some evidence that meditation boosts the immune response in vaccine recipients and people with cancer, protects against a relapse in major depression, soothes skin conditions and even slows the progression of HIV. Meditation might even slow the aging process. Telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes, get shorter every time a cell divides and so play a role in aging. Clifford Saron of the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis, and colleagues showed in 2011 that levels of an enzyme that builds up telomeres were higher in people who attended a three-month meditation retreat than in a control group.

As with social interaction, meditation probably works largely by influencing stress response pathways. People who meditate have lower cortisol levels, and one study showed they have changes in their amygdala, a brain area involved in fear and the response to threat.

If you’re intimidated by the time investment, take heart — fMRI studies show that as little as 11 hours of total training, or an hour every other day for three weeks, can produce structural changes in the brain. If you’re considering dipping your toes in the practice, I wholeheartedly recommend meditation teacher Tara Brach, who has changed my life.

But perhaps the most striking finding in exploring how our beliefs affect our bodies has to do with finding your purpose and, more than that, finding meaning in life. The most prominent studies in the field have defined purpose rather narrowly, as religious belief, but even so, the findings offer an undeniably intriguing signpost to further exploration. Marchant synthesizes the research, its criticism, and its broader implications:

In a study of 50 people with advanced lung cancer, those judged by their doctors to have high “spiritual faith” responded better to chemotherapy and survived longer. More than 40 percent were still alive after three years, compared with less than 10 percent of those judged to have little faith. Are your hackles rising? You’re not alone. Of all the research into the healing potential of thoughts and beliefs, studies into the effects of religion are the most controversial.

Critics of these studies … point out that many of them don’t adequately tease out other factors. For instance, religious people often have lower-risk lifestyles and churchgoers tend to enjoy strong social support, and seriously ill people are less likely to attend church.

[…]

Others think that what really matters is having a sense of purpose in life, whatever it might be. Having an idea of why you are here and what is important increases our sense of control over events, rendering them less stressful. In Saron’s three-month meditation study, the increase in levels of the enzyme that repairs telomeres correlated with an increased sense of control and an increased sense of purpose in life. In fact, Saron argues, this psychological shift may have been more important than the meditation itself. He points out that the participants were already keen meditators, so the study gave them the chance to spend three months doing something important to them. Spending more time doing what you love, whether it’s gardening or voluntary work, might have a similar effect on health. The big news from the study, Saron says, is “the profound impact of having the opportunity to live your life in a way that you find meaningful.”

Philosopher Daniel Dennett was right all along in asserting that the secret of happiness is to “find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it.”

Each of the essays in Nothing: Surprising Insights Everywhere from Zero to Oblivion is nothing short of fascinating. Complement them with theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss on the science of “something” and “nothing.”

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Brain Pickings takes 450+ hours a month to curate and edit across the different platforms, and remains banner-free. If it brings you any joy and inspiration, please consider a modest donation – it lets me know I'm doing something right. Holstee

19 Apr 01:22

Monster At the Institute Chapter Two Debuts Today!

by Michael N.
Monster At the Institute Chapter Two debuts today! The second chapter of the British, alt-post-WWII horror story by Columbus author Jennifer Smither and myself debuts at: http://www.jlsmither.com/comic/mati2/
12 Apr 15:53

"The Outbreak" Breaks Out

by Ray "!!" Tomczak
Artwork by Micheal Neno
JL (Jen) Smither is a local writer making her first foray into the world of sequential storytelling with the new web comic The Outbreak, which went live on the Wild, Wild Web earlier today.  Her artistic collaborator on this project is Michael Neno, a name that should be well known to Columbus comics cognoscenti as the creator of The Signifiers, as well as many other titles in his more than two decades of writing, drawing and self-publishing comics.
I'm going to rely heavily on Jen's own words for the rest of this post, as she speaks quite eloquently for herself and her work.   On her blog, she describes the basic premise of the strip thusly:
"While still recovering from the trauma of World War II, England endures an outbreak of ravenous, wolf-like carnivores called lupanoids. The beasts take over the countryside, dramatically altering the landscape and culture. No one seems to understand where they came from or why. All that is known for sure is that the lupanoids aren’t wolves and aren’t humans, and they appear to never have been either. Popular opinion is divided on whether they should (or can) be exterminated or whether humankind should learn to live alongside the lupanoids. Two main groups make up either side of this debate. The Institute for Co-Existence, which is just a refurbished version of the war-time Institute for Peace, is a government-funded research institute that employs chemists, biologists, mathematicians, sociologists, and other scientists all working toward a common goal: to establish a new normal society in which humans and the lupanoids co-exist without fear. On the other hand, The Confrontation is a military-style group that eliminates lupanoids wherever the soliders find them.
After surviving the Blitz and other stresses of the war, many English citizens found the lupanoid Outbreak too much to bear. Many have left the country, fleeing to America and other countries where they believe they’ll be free of the lupanoid threat. Those who remain live mostly barricaded in rooms with bricked-over windows, dependent on The Confrontation for transportation, and with little opportunity to venture outside without fear of attack.
But they make do, those who remain in England. Because that’s their duty to their country and families: to make do."
 In a later post, describing the genesis of the project, she says:
"These stories that make up The Outbreak, including the story in “Monster at the Institute,” began as short stories that I wrote to take a break from my novel. I thought there was a slim chance I’d ever get “Monster” and the other stories in a literary journal (which does take some of the pressure off, allowing me to write a little more freely than I might otherwise). But then my husband mentioned that they might make good comics…"
When I asked her in an e-mail how she came to work with Michael Neno, she responded:
"After I got a script together with the significant help of my comics writing group (which was Max Ink, Travis Horseman, and Ken Eppstein at the time), the group also helped me put together a call for artists. Actually, the call for artists for was a different, shorter script that I intended to launch first. I distributed to call to the Sunday Comix group and to some people I'd met at previous SPACEs and to friends of friends. I got a lot of great responses, but Michael's really impressed me. He seemed to get exactly what I was going for, so I was pretty sure we'd be able to communicate well. Instead of the original, shorter script, I asked Michael if he'd be interested in doing this longer one instead--I first thought I might use different artists for every story, and I wanted to take advantage of his skill for a longer piece. He agreed, and produced some great artwork. He's so easy to work with, and I'm so happy with the way this turned out, that I already have him working on that original shorter script now! "
The first story of The Outbreak, "Monster At The Institute", runs six issues, and future chapters will appear each Thursday for the next five weeks.  "Michael and I are already working on the next story," Jen told me in her e-mailed response, "...but there's no ETA on that yet. But people should follow my blog for updates on that kind of stuff."
To read the first installment of "Monster At The Institute, point your browser here.

03 Apr 18:56

Open access to 20,000 maps from NYPL

by Nathan Yau
jlsmither

Making sure you saw this, as there might be some DC maps tossed in.

Maps from NYPL

The New York Public Library announced open access to 20,000 maps, making them free to download and use.

The Lionel Pincus & Princess Firyal Map Division is very proud to announce the release of more than 20,000 cartographic works as high resolution downloads. We believe these maps have no known US copyright restrictions.* To the extent that some jurisdictions grant NYPL an additional copyright in the digital reproductions of these maps, NYPL is distributing these images under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. The maps can be viewed through the New York Public Library's Digital Collections page, and downloaded (!), through the Map Warper

Begin your journey.

11 Mar 15:22

Pistacia Vera No Longer Offering Free Wi-Fi

by Anne Evans
Anyone with a laptop these days probably loves stopping into their favorite places for a quick bite and popping online. However, sometimes that quick bite turns into quite a long time, leaving some customers waiting and waiting for a table. Over the weekend, the owners of Pistacia Vera decided that the popular cafe will no […]
05 Mar 00:27

"Connections" Anthology Still Seeking Submissions

by Ray "!!" Tomczak
Connections is the title of an upcoming anthology comic being produced by the Columbus, Ohio based cartoonist group Sunday Comix as part of our ongoing efforts to raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and is currently scheduled for publication in early 2015. The book will feature stories dealing with "... growth, renewal, and reinvention in the face of the losses and changes that we all experience."  A fuller descriptions can be found on the home page of the Connections web-site.
While our original deadline for submissions has lapsed, and we've received quite a lot of very good material, it is, unfortunately, not quite enough to fill out the book as we've envisioned it.  Therefore, we are extending the submissions period and renewing our open invitation for all comics writers and artists to send us their story ideas.  A revised deadline has not yet been set, but the sooner you get your submission to us, the better chance it has of being accepted.  For more details and submissions guidelines, check out the Submissions page of the Connections site. 
I and the other members of Sunday Comix involved in the production of Connections look forward to reading and reviewing your ideas.
25 Feb 01:00

A human-readable explorer for SEC filings

by Nathan Yau

SEC filings

Maris Jensen just made SEC filings readable by humans. The motivation:

But in the twenty years since, despite hundreds of millions invested in rounds of contracted EDGAR modernization efforts and interactive data false starts, the SEC's EDGAR has remained almost untouched. In 2014, the SEC is quite literally doing less with SEC filings than their predecessors had planned for 1984. Data tagging is the red-headed stepchild of the Commission -- out of hundreds of forms, only about a dozen are filed as structured data -- and the first program to automate the selection of SEC filings for review, the Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA)'s 'Robocop', has been 'aspirational' for years. The academics in the division responsible for the SEC's interactive data initiatives write papers about information asymmetry, using EDGAR data they repurchase in usable form for millions each year, but do nothing to fix it. Companies are chastised for insufficient and inefficient disclosure, while the SEC fails to help retail investors navigate corporate disclosures at all.

Look up a company and see their financials, ownership, influences, and board members, among other things typically not so straightforward to look up.

09 Feb 17:17

Places in the US with the most pleasant days per year

by Nathan Yau

Pleasant places to live

We've seen plenty of maps the past few weeks that show how bad the weather is, in just about everywhere but California. Kelly Norton looked at it from the other direction and estimated how many pleasant days per year areas of the US get, based on historical NOAA data.

I decided to take a stab at what constitutes a "pleasant" day and then aggregate NOAA data for the last 23 years to figure out the regions of the United States with the most (and least) pleasant days in a typical year. The results, I think, are not that surprising and pretty much affirm the answer given off the cuff by many of my west coast friends when asked about the best places, "Southern California?" For the areas with the least pleasant days, I admit I would have guessed North Dakota. However, it’s much of Montana that gets an average of a couple of weeks of pleasantness each year.

Of course the map changes (mainly the geographic range) depending on the definition of a "pleasant" day. In this case it's defined as one where the mean temperature is between 55 and 75 degrees.

25 Jan 23:11

The Clubhouse Sports Grill & Bar Now Open

by Ayana Wilson
jlsmither

Pics don't help...

It’s easy to see why any entrepreneur would want to open a business at 340 Greenlawn Avenue. It’s across the street from Berliner Park, one of the largest ballpark facilities in the city, adjacent to four major communities – Downtown,... [Read More]
24 Jan 21:38

Facebook debunks Princeton study

by Nathan Yau

Princeton declining interest

Researchers at Princeton released a study that said that Facebook was on the way out, based primarily on Google search data. Naturally, Facebook didn't appreciate it much and followed up with their own "study" that debunks the Princeton analysis, blasted with a healthy dose of sarcasm. They also showed that Princeton is on their way to zero-enrollment.

This trend suggests that Princeton will have only half its current enrollment by 2018, and by 2021 it will have no students at all, agreeing with the previous graph of scholarly scholarliness. Based on our robust scientific analysis, future generations will only be able to imagine this now-rubble institution that once walked this earth.

While we are concerned for Princeton University, we are even more concerned about the fate of the planet — Google Trends for "air" have also been declining steadily, and our projections show that by the year 2060 there will be no air left

Crud. Dibs on the oxygen tanks.

13 Jan 22:34

It’s below freezing and you’ve been walking through people’s...



It’s below freezing and you’ve been walking through people’s goddamn cough clouds all day. At this point, soup is fucking inevitable but don’t grab some condensed crap. Your body needs some vitamins, not a shitload of sodium. Roast up this bad motherfucker and elevate your soup game.

ROASTED TOMATO SOUP

1 28 ounce can of plain, peeled whole tomatoes (get one that is low on sodium, check that motherfucking label)

3 teaspoons of olive oil

4-5 cloves of garlic (still in their skin)

1 medium russet potato

1/2 a small head of cauliflower (about 1/3 pounds)

1/2 a medium yellow onion

1 tablespoon of diced fresh rosemary (if you need to use dried, use only 1 teaspoon)

3/4 teaspoon dried thyme

2 1/2-3 cups vegetable broth

salt and pepper to taste

Warm up your oven to 325 degrees and grab a rimmed baking sheet or big ass roasting pan. Pour 1 of the teaspoons of oil on the baking sheet and smear it around evenly to make sure nothing is going to fucking stick. Drain the tomatoes but save the juice in a separate glass, we’ll use that shit in a little bit. Slice the tomatoes in half lengthwise and place them cut side up on the baking sheet. Try to keep about 1/3 of the sheet empty for future veggies. Roll the cloves of garlic in the oil on the pan, and place them near the tomatoes. We want to leave the skin on the garlic so those little bastards roast and get all sweet. Add a small pinch of salt over the tomatoes and roast all that in the oven for 30 minutes. If you can’t remember to check the clock, set a timer. If you can’t do either then why the fuck are you in the kitchen with sharp objects?

While the tomatoes are roasting, skin the potato and chop it, the cauliflower, and onion up into dime-sized pieces. You want to end up with around 1 cup of chopped potato, 1 1/4 cup chopped cauliflower, and 1 cup chopped onion. Toss them all together in a bowl with the remaining oil, rosemary, thyme, and a small pinch of salt and pepper. After the tomatoes have roasted for 30 minutes, add the seasoned vegetable mixture to the pan, spread it out as much as possible, and roast all that shit for another 30-40 minutes. You just want to make sure the potato and cauliflower are tender and a little golden in some spots. Take the pan out of the oven and let it cool for a couple minutes. Squeeze the garlic out of its skin; it should pop right out and smell fucking dope. Add the rest of the shit from the baking sheet and the roasted garlic to a blender and pour in the broth. Run it on high until the soup looks smooth. Pour all that into a pot on the stove, warm it over a low heat, and add the remaining tomato juice you saved from the can (it should be around 1/2 a cup). If you want a thinner soup, add the extra half cup of broth but I like it thick. Taste and add more salt, pepper, or herbs to get it right for you. Serve hot with some bread so you can mop your bowl clean when your spoon becomes fucking useless.

Makes enough for 4 mugs or 2 regular bowls

02 Jan 18:32

Betty’s Moving from Short North to Gay Street

by Ayana Wilson
jlsmither

STUPID.

Betty’s Fine Food and Spirits, located at 680 North High Street, has been a longtime favorite hangout for many across the city. One of Elizabeth Lessner’s better-known joints, and the one that launched the Columbus Food League in 2001, Betty’s mixes... [Read More]
01 Jan 19:06

Southeast Georgia: Animal Hell… Animal Hope?

by Annie Nimity
Someone in Florida asked me something the other day along the lines of ‘Is the situation with animals in your part of Georgia really as bad as it seems from your facebook posts?’ Sadly, yes. Yes, it is. In fact, it’s probably worse. Animal Control services in this area are limited or non-existent (depending on the county), shelters and rescues are overwhelmed, and one has to drive an hour or more to access low-cost spay/neuter clinics. But the real problem, in my opinion, is the culture. My mom was speaking to some sheriff’s deputies the other day about this and they said ‘We’ve got a real dog problem around here.’ Her response was ‘No. We’ve got a people problem around here.’ And it’s true.

In early December my mom emailed me about a disabled dog that had appeared in her yard (its back legs were paralyzed, although it could drag itself about with its front legs). She called local Animal Control and was told that they had already been called out because of this dog and had spoken to its owner. They said they would come out later that day and talk to the owner again. They told my mom where the dog lived and she took it home. The ‘owner’ told my mom that the dog had been abandoned with her by someone who was now refusing to take responsibility for it. The dog appeared in my mom’s yard the following week and she again returned it to its ‘owner.’ On December 19th, I found the dog sitting in the middle of the road about half a block from where I knew it lived, and I carried it back to its ‘home.’ The poor thing was sweet as can be, but had absolutely no use of its hind legs, and had raw spots on the back legs from where they dragged the ground.


I went back with my camera… the ‘owner’ came out shouting at me about how I needed to get the hell off her property right then because I was trespassing (I was outside her fence on the public right-of-way). My response was that she needed to do something about the dog because keeping it like that was inhumane. She told me the same story she had told my mom about the dog being abandoned with her, and said that she had no money for vet care, or a wheelchair for the dog, or even to have it euthanized. I offered to take it and have it euthanized, saying that I would pay for it. She hemmed and hawed and said she didn’t want to do that because it was such a sweet dog. I offered to share its picture on facebook with my animal rescue connections, and she agreed.

 photo para_zps046fecc5.jpg

I shared the dog’s pictures on facebook with the following caption: This dog was abandoned at the home of one of my mom's neighbors, and her owner refuses to take responsibility for it. My mom's neighbor is broke and unemployed and while she is feeding this dog, she can't afford any vet care. The dog is elderly (in her teens) and has lost all use of her back legs and has no muscles in her back end, so it is atrophied as a result. She drags herself around, and has rubbed her back feet raw doing so. Mom's neighbor does not want her euthanized (I offered to pay if she did). Local Animal Control is aware of this and have been out several times. Mom's neighbor doesn't want it to be taken by local animal control because she knows it will be euthanized. This dog is incredibly sweet, and really needs a loving home where she can live out her final days with quality care. Unfortunately, neither my mom nor I are able to take her. CAN SOMEONE HELP???? At the very least, please share this album. Thank you.


Notice how I didn’t mention anything about how the dog was always out in the street or in neighbors’ yards, or about the woman’s confrontational attitude. I didn’t even mention her name. Well, this being a small town, one of my friends is one of her facebook friends, so she saw the post. And totally flipped her lid. Here I was trying to help her, and her response was to post on my friend’s thread about what a liar I was and how I had never offered to help her and how she did really want to have the dog euthanized, but didn’t have the money. (In my opinion, if you have the money to chain smoke your way through a 30 minute conversation, you have the money to pay for euthanasia.) She then sent me two incredibly nasty facebook messages calling me a liar and a bitch, accusing me of slander, and threatening to have me arrested if I trespassed on her property (*cough* public right-of-way *cough*) again, and sent an equally nasty facebook message to my mom. The messages did, however, say that she would have the dog euthanized the next day.


We saw it on December 26th, nearly a full week later, sitting in a different neighbor’s yard.


It’s not an animal problem; it’s a people problem.


On December 23rd, as I was driving from my house to my mom’s, I saw a sad, skinny puppy sitting in the middle of the road in the rain. I pulled up next to it, and got out. It shrank away from me in terror. I coaxed him over to me and picked him up, and he clung to me. I went to three houses in the neighborhood. One house said they thought the puppy lived at a place down the road. I went to said house to be told no, it wasn’t theirs, but they’d seen it around the past couple of days. I went to the place across from them; no, it wasn’t theirs. They’d called Animal Control, but no one had come out. I took him home.



 photo loki_zps06f74529.jpg
Loki at his first trip to the vet.
 photo loki2_zpsae79e289.jpg
Loki in my room

I took him to the vet, got him his shots, had him de-wormed, got him some antibiotics for the infected cut on his rump, and posted pictures of him on facebook. Through the modern miracle of social networking, I was able to arrange for him to be adopted by my uncle’s ex-wife, a woman I had not had any contact with since I was an infant. Sometimes people can be the solution, if only they are willing to try.


Christmas morning as my mom and I were driving back from feeding the horses (meaning that we were out in the country), I spotted a Budwiser box on its side, with puppies huddled in a pile in the weeds in front of it. We stopped and went back. Yep, they’d been dumped. Five skinny little puppies, about six weeks old, dumped on the side of the road in a Budwiswer box on Christmas morning. This isn’t a dog problem; this is a people problem.


 photo allpups2_zps31b6f8e8.jpgThe five puppies when we first got them home.
I’ve mentioned before that my mom is 69 years old, lives alone, works full time (as a teacher, so she does NOT have a lot of money), and already has a ton of animals (two horses, eight dogs, and about 25 cats – all rescues, all fixed, all vetted). The addition of one puppy to the mix was stressful but doable. Five was not really feasible at all, but we couldn’t just leave them there. I posted a quick picture on facebook with a short, panicked rant about our situation. By that evening a local rescue (BARC) had contacted me with an offer of assistance. They offered to pay for vet care and to try and find foster homes for the puppies. Within three days, the puppies had gotten their first shots and had been wormed (and boy did they need that wormer, wow), and four of them had been placed in foster homes. And puppy number five? My dad had seen her picture and decided to adopt her. (If you're interested in adopting one, please contact BARC.)



 photo allpups_zps744323a6.jpgThe puppies after 3 days in our care
 photo molly2_zps57dcfb09.jpg
The puppy my dad is adopting

People can be the solution. My mom and I could’ve just driven past those puppies. Between the worms, the lack of food, and the cold, wet weather, and their proximity to the road, they would probably be dead by now. But we didn’t drive by. Instead, they’re healthy, cared for, and on their way to having loving, permanent homes.


People can be the solution, but right now those of us who are part of the solution are hopelessly outnumbered. Just take a look at some of the animals found by local area rescues in the same time period during which I was dealing with six puppies and a paralyzed dog:



 photo other2_zpsc36bdf9f.jpg
This one was abandoned at a loca apartment complex. Apparently its jaw had broken and had never been set, so it ‘healed’ like this. (From here.)
 photo other1_zps12ca5a79.jpg
This is one of three Great Danes surrendered by a backyard breeder who decided she didn’t want them anymore. They had apparently never been to a vet before. (From here.)

 photo other3_zpsb037a039.jpg
This one was rescued from a local Animal Control facility. (From here.)

 photo other5_zps1d0bd4db.jpg
Another starving stray found on the side of the road. (From here.)

 photo other4_zps217e2089.jpg
This poor injured cat had been dumped in this condition in a convenience store parking lot. It had to be euthanized, but at least it is no longer suffering. (From here.)


And that’s just a sample of what went on down here in just ONE WEEK.


There are some wonderful people (such as the ones working with the animals posted above) who are working their tails off trying to help as many animals down here as they can… but they can only do so much against the tide of indifference and cruelty that animals down here face. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. If you drive past the starving or injured animal you see on the side of the road and do nothing, you are part of the problem. If you do not get your animal spayed or neutered (for ANY reason), you are part of the problem. If you abandon an animal (for ANY reason), you are a part of the problem. If you have an injured animal and refuse to pay for vet care while spending money on cigarettes, you are part of the problem.


How can you become part of the solution?


Don’t just drive by abandoned/injured animals. If you can take them in – even temporarily – do so. With modern social networking technologies, you may very well be able to find homes for them among friends, family, and acquaintances, or you may find an animal rescue willing to take them. Another option is to set up an appointment to bring them to a local animal control facility. If the animal is severely injured, $35 will end its suffering. That’s how much it costs to euthanize an animal at my vet. I hate to see an animal die, but it’s even worse leaving it to die a slow and painful death on its own. If you cannot pick up the animal (and I do understand that it is not always possible, although keep in mind there is a difference between ‘impossible’ and ‘inconvenient’), call local animal control. (Keep in mind that in many areas – such as southeast GA – animal control facilities, shelters, and rescues are limited in size and funding and tend to be overloaded. Rely on them as a last resort.) If there is no animal control in your area (or even if there is), use your phone, take a picture of the animal, and share its information on facebook. Provide local and nationwide rescue organizations with the animal’s location and picture; spread the word amongst your family and friends that there's an animal in need of help.


Support local animal shelters, rescues, and humane societies. A while back I wrote a really long post about how to donate and support local shelters wisely, click here to read it. (Don’t just give money blindly; do your research and make sure you’re supporting an organization that will make good use of your money. You can also support local shelters, rescues, and humane societies by volunteering your time, either at their facilities, as a foster, as a fund-raiser, as a webmaster, as a photographer, and so on.) Do not donate to the Humane Society of the United States; donate locally to ensure that your money goes to the animals that need it.


SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR PETS. I cannot stress this enough. If you can’t afford the surgery at your local vet clinic, do a google search for low cost spay/neuter services in your area. Even if the closest service is an hour or so away (as it is here), it is much cheaper to make the drive than to deal with the expense of puppies or kittens later on. In some areas there may also be local services that provide transport for the animals to low/cost clinics for those folks who can’t take the day off work to make the drive. Even if you’re keeping your animal inside at all times and it is not around animals of the opposite sex, you should still get it fixed. I love cats and dogs…. but cats in heat are loud, obnoxious, and pee on everything. Dogs in heat bleed. Intact male dogs and cats spray EVERYTHING. Get your pet fixed, and you won’t have to deal with these problems! Not to mention that if something happens and your ‘indoor only’ pet gets out… Well, you can figure out what happens! I’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘Well, he can’t get pregnant, so I’m not going to waste the money.’ True, he can’t get pregnant, but how do you think all the female cats and dogs get knocked up? If you’re not getting your male dog or cat fixed because he can’t get pregnant, you’re part of the problem.



 photo lannisterspay_zpsb74da4fa.jpg
A spay/neuter message for Game of Thrones fans :-)

And for the love of god,do not abandon your animals.


If you are in Southeast Georgia, I highly recommend the Brantley Animal Rescue Coalition (BARC)as a wonderful organization to support, whether via donation or through fostering or other services. If you need to get a pet spayed or neutered, The Humane Society of South Coastal Georgia in Brunswick, GA and No More Homeless Pets in Jacksonville, FL offer low-cost spay/neuter/vaccine services, and the River City Animal Hospital  of Jacksonville, FL provides a mobile spay/neuter/vaccine clinic which serves northeast Florida and southeast Georgia. If you are in or near Waycross, this lovely lady can help to arrange transport for your animals to the nearest low-cost spay/neuter clinics.

And to leave this post on a high note, here’s an absolutely hilarious picture of Mochi playing with the puppy that will soon be living in Clearwater, FL with my uncle’s ex-wife: 



 photo mochiloki_zps8f916f13.jpg
31 Dec 23:03

The Ten Best New Films I Saw in 2013

by Michael N.








 Also enjoyed:





14 Dec 04:00

A recap of The Walking Dead so far...

by Matt
Warning: Minor Spoilers Ahead.

I like to watch first episode of the first season of AMC's The Walking Dead, over and over. Thanks to DVD and Netflix, it's easy.

See, I watch that first episode all the way up until Rick finds the horse and rides it toward Atlanta. And that's all.
It makes it a heartwarming story of a man who wakes up from a coma and finds the world in chaos. That man, Rick, finds some helpful people along the way who tell him to go to Atlanta to find his loved ones. Rick likes that idea but runs out of gas on the way. Just when all seems lost, he finds a wonderful horse named Sir Speedy (I call him that because he's so fast that nothing can catch him!). The show ends with Sir Speedy and Rick headed toward the city with a song in their hearts and guns on their backs. THE END

I like to think in future episodes, Rick and Sir Speedy get to Atlanta, meet some other horses (Just like Rick promised) and they all have adventures in the zombie-free world. Sure, it's a bummer Rick doesn't find his family, but with the help of Sir Speedy, he gets over it. I mean, a horse is a perfect travelling companion. He doesn't (excuse the pun) nag you about every little thing; if you tell a horse to stay in the house, he'll stay in the house; you never have to ask "Where's Sir Speedy?", you pretty much always know.

So, that's my Walking Dead recap so far. If this isn't how you remember it, please keep it to yourself.

Join me next time as I recap that wonderful 10 minute short story, Lost.

*The photo is the cover to the box set. Don't you hate it when they give away the ending like that?

So,
02 Nov 03:05

Why Procrastinators Procrastinate

by Tim Urban
pro-cras-ti-na-tion |prəˌkrastəˈnāSHən, prō-|
noun
the action of delaying or postponing something: your first tip is to avoid procrastination.

Who would have thought that after decades of struggle with procrastination, the dictionary, of all places, would hold the solution.

Avoid procrastination. So elegant in its simplicity.

While we're here, let's make sure obese people avoid overeating, depressed people avoid apathy, and someone please tell beached whales that they should avoid being out of the ocean.

No, "avoid procrastination" is only good advice for fake procrastinators—those people that are like, "I totally go on Facebook a few times every day at work—I'm such a procrastinator!" The same people that will say to a real procrastinator something like, "Just don't procrastinate and you'll be fine."

The thing that neither the dictionary nor fake procrastinators understand is that for a real procrastinator, procrastination isn't optional—it's something they don't know how to not do.

In college, the sudden unbridled personal freedom was a disaster for me—I did nothing, ever, for any reason. The one exception was that I had to hand in papers from time to time. I would do those the night before, until I realized I could just do them through the night, and I did that until I realized I could actually start them in the early morning on the day they were due. This behavior reached caricature levels when I was unable to start writing my 90-page senior thesis until 72 hours before it was due, an experience that ended with me in the campus doctor's office learning that lack of blood sugar was the reason my hands had gone numb and curled up against my will. (I did get the thesis in—no, it was not good.)

Even this post took much longer than it should have, because I spent a bunch of hours doing things like seeing this picture sitting on my desktop from a previous post, opening it, looking at it for a long time thinking about how easily he could beat me in a fight, then wondering if he could beat a tiger in a fight, then wondering who would win between a lion and a tiger, and then googling that and reading about it for a while (the tiger would win). I have problems.

To understand why procrastinators procrastinate so much, let's start by understanding a non-procrastinator's brain:






Pretty normal, right? Now, let's look at a procrastinator's brain:





Notice anything different?

It seems the Rational Decision-Maker in the procrastinator's brain is coexisting with a pet—the Instant Gratification Monkey.

This would be fine—cute, even—if the Rational Decision-Maker knew the first thing about how to own a monkey. But unfortunately, it wasn't a part of his training and he's left completely helpless as the monkey makes it impossible for him to do his job.















The fact is, the Instant Gratification Monkey is the last creature who should be in charge of decisions—he thinks only about the present, ignoring lessons from the past and disregarding the future altogether, and he concerns himself entirely with maximizing the ease and pleasure of the current moment. He doesn't understand the Rational Decision-Maker any better than the Rational Decision-Maker understands him—why would we continue doing this jog, he thinks, when we could stop, which would feel better. Why would we practice that instrument when it's not fun? Why would we ever use a computer for work when the internet is sitting right there waiting to be played with? He thinks humans are insane.

In the monkey world, he's got it all figured out—if you eat when you're hungry, sleep when you're tired, and don't do anything difficult, you're a pretty successful monkey. The problem for the procrastinator is that he happens to live in the human world, making the Instant Gratification Monkey a highly unqualified navigator. Meanwhile, the Rational Decision-Maker, who was trained to make rational decisions, not to deal with competition over the controls, doesn't know how to put up an effective fight—he just feels worse and worse about himself the more he fails and the more the suffering procrastinator whose head he's in berates him.

It's a mess. And with the monkey in charge, the procrastinator finds himself spending a lot of time in a place called the Dark Playground.*

The Dark Playground is a place every procrastinator knows well. It's a place where leisure activities happen at times when leisure activities are not supposed to be happening. The fun you have in the Dark Playground isn't actually fun because it's completely unearned and the air is filled with guilt, anxiety, self-hatred, and dread. Sometimes the Rational Decision-Maker puts his foot down and refuses to let you waste time doing normal leisure things, and since the Instant Gratification Monkey sure as hell isn't gonna let you work, you find yourself in a bizarre purgatory of weird activities where everyone loses.**




And the poor Rational Decision-Maker just mopes, trying to figure out how he let the human he's supposed to be in charge of end up here again.





Given this predicament, how does the procrastinator ever manage to accomplish anything?

As it turns out, there's one thing that scares the shit out of the Instant Gratification Monkey:




The Panic Monster is dormant most of the time, but he suddenly wakes up when a deadline gets too close or when there's danger of public embarrassment, a career disaster, or some other scary consequence.











The Instant Gratification Monkey, normally unshakable, is terrified of the Panic Monster. How else could you explain the same person who can't write a paper's introductory sentence over a two-week span suddenly having the ability to stay up all night, fighting exhaustion, and write eight pages? Why else would an extraordinarily lazy person begin a rigorous workout routine other than a Panic Monster freakout about becoming less attractive?

And these are the lucky procrastinators—there are some who don't even respond to the Panic Monster, and in the most desperate moments they end up running up the tree with the monkey, entering a state of self-annihilating shutdown.

Quite a crowd we are.

Of course, this is no way to live. Even for the procrastinator who does manage to eventually get things done and remain a competent member of society, something has to change. Here are the main reasons why:

1) It's unpleasant. Far too much of the procrastinator's precious time is spent toiling in the Dark Playground, time that could have been spent enjoying satisfying, well-earned leisure if things had been done on a more logical schedule. And panic isn't fun for anyone.

2) The procrastinator ultimately sells himself short. He ends up underachieving and fails to reach his potential, which eats away at him over time and fills him with regret and self-loathing.

3) The Have-To-Dos may happen, but not the Want-To-Dos. Even if the procrastinator is in the type of career where the Panic Monster is regularly present and he's able to be fulfilled at work, the other things in life that are important to him—getting in shape, cooking elaborate meals, learning to play the guitar, writing a book, reading, or even making a bold career switch—never happen because the Panic Monster doesn't usually get involved with those things. Undertakings like those expand our experiences, make our lives richer, and bring us a lot of happiness—and for most procrastinators, they get left in the dust.

So how can a procrastinator improve and become happier? See Part 2, How To Beat Procrastination.

---------

* A lot of you are probably reading this article while in the Dark Playground.

** I spent two hours in the Dark Playground right before I drew the Dark Playground drawing, because I was dreading having to draw the signpost, which I knew would be hard and take forever (which it did).


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10 Oct 18:41

Pics from Independents' Day, 2013

by Michael N.







 Books for sale at the Sunday Comix cartoonists collective table.

Mary helps out at the Sunday Comix table. Columbus writer Jennifer Smither in the middle.




 Cartoonist Alex Heberling.


Musician and cartoonist Bob Ray Starker.




Cartoonist Michael Carroll.

Cartoonist Canada Keck running the Sketch and Kvetch table.



SPACE organizer Bob Corby.




Nix Comics Quarterly maestro Ken Eppstein.


















24 Sep 19:09

Inter-Worlds Task Force by Arinesart - $11

by layne@teefury.com (Layne Hunter)
jlsmither

I bought you both shirts!

Mens: Charcoal Womens: Charcoal

30 Jul 22:25

GPS shoes show you the way home

by Nathan Yau

GPS shoes

Inspired by The Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy clicks her heels to get home, artist Dominic Wilcox created "No Place Like Home," a pair of GPS shoes to show you the way.

I was commissioned by the Global Footprint project in Northamptonshire, a place famous for shoe making, to create some shoes. I decided to make a pair of shoes that can navigate you to anywhere you wish to travel to. I thought about the Wizard of Oz and how Dorothy could click her shoes together to go home. After uploading your required destination to the shoes via a piece of custom made mapping software and a USB cable, the GPS, which is embedded in the heel, is activated by a heel click. It then communicates to the wearer via a ring of LED lights to point in the required direction. The shoe with the GPS wirelessly communicates with the right shoe that has a progress bar of lights to show how close you are to the destination.

Check out the video below for more on the project.

[via @feltron]

18 Jul 19:40

hot fudge sundae cake

by deb
jlsmither

Do you REALLY think it is appropriate to share this with someone who cannot control her need to be busy and constantly impress the invisible people in her head, especially when she owns *this very same* ice cream maker and makes delicious ice cream all the time and could totally do all of this, but should she really? Is that a challenge? I'm taking this as a challenge. GAH! Goodbye, weekend.

hot. fudge. sundae. cake.

I realize that given the sheer number of two and three-layered, springform-bound and buttercream-shellacked celebration cakes I keep in the archives, you’d imagine that I had some pretty spectacular birthday cakes growing up. You’d be correct, but they were almost never homemade, not because I was suffering from cake-neglect, but because the only one I requested every year for my birthday was an ice cream cake, preferably from Carvel. Okay, insistently from Carvel, you know, the one in the strip mall at the end of the main road. The Carvel ice cream cake was, to me, as perfect as a June birthday cake could be — a layer each of chocolate and vanilla ice creams, separated by a smattering of Oreo-ish cookie rubble, coated with a suspiciously unbuttery buttercream and scattered with colored sprinkles. It was perfect. I loved it. I saw no reason anything should ever change.

cocoa + dark chocolate + cream = hoorayvanilla cream + chocolate creamegg whites, milk, vanilla cream, yolks, chocolate creammaking custard for both flavors at once

And it might not have, except nowadays I have this problem, which is that when I vocalize the daydreamy ideas that pass through my head, such as, “I wonder what it would be like to make an ice cream cake from scratch… no, a sundae cake … no! A hot fudge sundae cake, with hot fudge and whipped cream and those awful-but-I-love-them jarred cherries…” instead of my so-called loved ones saying, “That’s ridiculous. Why would you make that if we could buy it at a store?” they encourage me. No, they goad me. Then they applaud my efforts and say “Again!” (True story: We think “Again!” exclaimed with glee, was the kid’s first word.) And then things like this happen.

trying out the new ice cream bowl

... Read the rest of hot fudge sundae cake on smittenkitchen.com


© smitten kitchen 2006-2012. | permalink to hot fudge sundae cake | 275 comments to date | see more: Celebration Cakes, Ice Cream/Sorbet, Photo, Summer

09 Jul 01:06

Pics From the Nix Comics Double Release Party at Spoonful Records, June 29th

by Michael N.




Cartoonist Rich Trask checks out the comics.




Publisher Ken Eppstein, Kate Boelky, and Bob Ray Starker (who stopped performing his awesome music as soon as I started taking pics).

 The newly released Closing Doors and Nix Western Comics #2.

 Tons of 45s to look through. I found three Stax singles for my Stax collection!

James Moore of 2-Headed Comics, writer Jennifer Smither and Spoonful owner Brett Ruland in the background.


I see the new PIL First Issue reissue. Yes!!!






09 Jul 01:05

Matt Wyatt's "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" at Ohio Art League

by Ray "!!" Tomczak
Saturday night I took a short break from listening to the commentaries on my DVD set of Series Four of Doctor Who (more on that in a later post) while consuming copious quantities of ramen noodles and occasionally dozing off to attend the gala opening reception for Matt Wyatt's exhibit of artwork from his book How I Spent My Summer Vacation, which you can purchase at the  gallery, on display through July 26 at the Ohio Art League gallery in the South Campus Gateway.  The book and exhibit consists of drawings taken from the sketchbooks that Matt brings along on his vacation travels throughout the USA and to the islands of the Caribean to record his experiences enlarged and colored with markers (except for one piece done in watercolor pencil).  
Apparently, according to Matt, I partly inspired this exhibit.  As willing as I usually am to take credit for other people's accomplishments, in this case I have no memory of saying to Matt that he should collect his vacation sketches into a book, though I've no doubt that I most likely did.  The idea to accompany the release of the book with a gallery show, however, came from Nix Comics entrepreneur Ken Eppstein, who is credited as "creator" of the exhibit, thus making his absence at Saturday's event somewhat puzzling.  (It's unlikely that I missed him, as I arrived fairly early and was there until the end.)
Though Matt has participated in several group shows, including a couple that I've had pieces in as well, "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" is his first solo show, and, as Matt told me Saturday night, it nearly didn't happen.  Ken and Matt's original application was turned down by the OAL membership.  However, in late May, he received word that there'd been a cancellation, leaving him scrambling to get the exhibit ready for its Friday, July 5th debut.
In the end, everything came together, and although you missed the opportunity to meet and hang out with Matt Wyatt himself, you can still see his artwork and purchase his book at the Ohio Art League Gallery through July 26.  
06 Jul 15:09

Sneak Preview Art I've Drawn for Jennifer Smither's Webcomic, "Monster At the Institute"

by Michael N.

30 Jun 21:45

PW Review of Odd Men Out

by admin
  Matt Betts‘s debut novel, Odd Men Out,  is scheduled for release this August, and I’m pretty excited for it. On my calendar, you can find more information about DogCon2, the major weekend event to celebrate the book release and a re-launch of publisher Raw Dog Screaming Press. For now, though, I just want to [Read the full story ...]