General

Finally, proof I am not crazy talking to myself

I’ve always felt that talking to myself helped me to clarify thoughts and ideas–not to mention for fiction writing, it’s a great way to sound out dialogue. And now I have scientific proof!

Talking out loud to yourself is a technology for thinking

Not only that, but walking around while talking to myself apparently enhances the effects:

You might have noticed, too, that self-talk is often intuitively performed while the person is moving or walking around. If you’ve ever paced back and forth in your room while trying to talk something out, you’ve used this technique intuitively. It’s no coincidence that we walk when we need to think: evidence shows that movement enhances thinking and learning, and both are activated in the same centre of motor control in the brain.

Now I need to go stretch my legs and loudly think of my next blog post.

Hooray, winter is here!

I mean, in an actual non-sarcastic sense, the first day of winter is good in that it means we have reached winter solstice and the shortest day of the year. Thereafter, the days start getting longer again as we begin the steady march toward March and the return of Daylight Saving Time, the One True Time.

Here’s hoping that all the respective west coast governments reach agreement on the above so that come November we don’t “fall back” into the pit of despair known as darkness by 4:15 p.m. I can live with mornings being darker in exchange for having more daylight during a time in which I can actually make use of it for myself.

Here’s to 2021 being brighter–at least in the afternoons.

A collection of stills from Reefer Madness

A few years ago I grabbed a bunch of stills from Reefer Madness, the infamous film from 1936 warning of the perils of marijuana. It’s in the public domain, so you can watch this opus for free on YouTube, among other places. It’s only 68 minutes long and totally (?) worth it.

I meant to do a write-up on the film and include the stills, but never did for some reason. Recently I came across the stills again, so here they are. Behold the evil power of marijuana!

And remember…

Asimov predicts 2020 and probably the next thousand years, too

Daring Fireball linked to a quaintly prehistoric photocopy of an Isaac Asimov piece written for Newsweek circa January 1980. As a frame of reference, this was a little under 11 months before Reagan was elected president.

It is biting, acerbic and works precisely as well in 2020 as it did 40 years ago. One might make a persuasive case for it being even more effective now. A quote:

We have a new buzzword, too, for anyone who admires competence, knowledge, learning and skill, and who wishes to spread it around. People like that are called “elitists.”

The sarcasm, it burns.

And the closer:

I believe that every human being with a physically normal brain can learn a great deal and be surprisingly intellectual. I believe that what we badly need is social approval of learning and social rewards for learning.

We can *all* be members of the intellectual elite and then, and only then, will a phrase like “America’s right to know” and, indeed, any true concept of democracy, have any meaning.

In 2020, nearly 74 million Americans voted for four more years of President Donald Trump.