A couple of essays on power and privilege:

"People can be a bit like water" http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=565 (featuring Neville Longbottom)

"On Flavors of Privilege" http://www.existenceiswonderful.com/2008/09/on-flavors-of-privilege.html (shorter)

And in cultural news...

I saw John Singleton's "Baby Boy" on TV last night. It's a movie with no white characters, which was refreshing. It was fairly simple and romantic, and there was one bad guy, but I liked it because it felt warm compassionate towards the characters despite all the dysfunctional shit going on.

And [Levoton] has introduced me to the love that is
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=flight+of+the+conchords
Thanks! :)

Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception

"Participants who lacked control were more likely to perceive a variety of illusory patterns, including seeing images in noise, forming illusory correlations in stock market information, perceiving conspiracies, and developing superstitions. Additionally, we demonstrated that increased pattern perception has a motivational basis by measuring the need for structure directly and showing that the causal link between lack of control and illusory pattern perception is reduced by affirming the self."

Science article abstract: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/322/5898/115
A few details on ScienceNOW: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sciencenow;2008/1002/2
BBC coverage: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7649970.stm

Mmmm. It feels good to have my intuitive conclusions supported by science.

In other words, if you're feeling chronically stressed, overwhelmed or helpless, get that sorted ASAP, because it's impairing your judgement.

And now, a quote from [Serwa]'s description (yes, the whole thing is a quote, including the picture :P):

Neat photos :) http://www.magdalenabors.com/

Earth From Above: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/10/earth_from_above_comes_to_nyc.html

Today, for the first time in my life since I hit puberty, I was able to look in the mirror and see my real face. Not the cute!me, not the ugly!me - just me.

P.S. The face in my photo is a bit of a pretty-face, though. It's for you ;)

<rant>
See, this is why I prefer to read slash (as in, fanfiction with gay sex) rather than het (same with straight sex):

Greta Christina asks her readers how to avoid becoming a crank, and receives some great replies! Very recommended for overcritical nitpicky spoilsports like me ;) http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/2008/08/on-not-being-a-crank.html

Cute: http://mycro.media.mit.edu/

Free textbooks!
Article: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-textbook18-2008aug18,0,4712858.story
Discussion: http://news.slashdot.org/news/08/08/19/1316227.shtml
Example: http://www.lightandmatter.com/books.html

On a related note, SiSU looks interesting: http://www.jus.uio.no/sisu/
As you might know, I love the flexibility of HTML+CSS(+JS). I'm also a wannabe fan of S5 (file format), Leo (text editor) and the LaTeX class beamer. If you know of any other one-source-many-uses projects, let me know :)

We were talking in the forums, and I remembered about The Eatpoo Guide for Art desperados, which is a pretty good intro for newbie (and maybe not-so-new) artists: http://eatpoo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&amp;t=27

Is animal sacrifice good for law enforcement? http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/2008/08/csi-deuteronomy.html

Apple love-hate for developers: http://stevenf.com/archive/on-the-app-store.php

What all parents should do for their children: http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=557

Religiously irreverent lyrics contest - winner gets a sexy book! (Non-poetic people also take a look ;) http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/2008/08/this-one-should-be-fun-in-fact-i-think-we-can-make-it-into-a-game--------let-us-worship-like-the-druids--running-naked-thr.html

A small study finds that female relatives of gay/bi men have more children than those of straight men. They come up with a theory to explain it, but I'm not convinced: http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/dn14543-bisexuality-passed-on-by-hyperheterosexuals-.html

Eugenics!
http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/eugenics/list3.pl
http://www.dnai.org/e/

Apple is doing well, the stock market believes; nerds discuss why: http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/14/0257244

And, apparently, being pretty has measurable benefits (imagine that!): http://www.newscientist.com/channel/sex/mg19926694.600-humans-are-biased-towards-the-beautiful.html

A discussion about allowing doping in sports: http://science.slashdot.org/science/08/08/13/1957200.shtml
As one commenter says, "sportmanship is hard to find in professional sports, but it exists at other levels." I think it's a natural result of athletics turning from a discipline into an entertainment industry too popular for its own good. We, as a society, have lost perspective somewhere along the way :/

And in other news, we have... robots with braaains! (well, almost) http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/mg19926696.100-rise-of-the-ratbrained-robots.html

Time tracking with Lego: http://jexp.de/blog/archives/16-On-LEGO-Powered-Time-Tracking;-My-Daily-Column.html

How do you run without legs? Like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNPPbn19UkQ

Eee rocks, but Asus doesn't know what to do with it, says Eric Sink: http://www.ericsink.com/entries/eee.html

Birds! Art! Yay! http://lunaroca.blogspot.com/