It’s like a Dewey Decimal for folktales! I spent yesterday morning getting acquainted with the Aarne–Thompson classification system. It’s a multi-volume index to help analyze and compare folktales and fairytales across cultures, classifying them by themes, like “AT 1 – The theft of fish” and continues on through classifications like: “AT 1718 – God can’t take a joke “. Take a tour of this tool for mapping the tale types from around the world. And here’s a major trove of folklore and folklorology.
The Politics of Climate Change (or, as I like to think of it, “How the GOP is Dooming Civilization in Exchange for Money”) is one of those interesting tales that’s born out by the data. Apparently if the money is right, most GOP lawmakers would chain-saw their children in half. Yes, I do believe that is a fair summation.
Two decisions handed down July 19 in DC Superior Court affirmed climate scientist Michael Mann’s right to proceed in his defamation lawsuit against the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the National Review Online for their statements accusing him of data manipulation and fraud.
Putting the “con” in “conservative”: From miracle health cures, to get rich quick schemes, to overpriced precious metals and seed banks, talk radio hosts and conservative news outlets are making a killing by trading their platform and credibility for the hard-earned cash of their unsuspecting listeners.
Warm blood sold to the cold blooded: UK’s blood supply to be sold to US private equity firm co-founded by Mitt Romney.
The Secret Sun traces the yellow brick plot road from Esalen to every iteration of Star Trek. A groovy seven-part series (so far).
Quadcopters seem like a relic from Kittyhawk when compared to the Distributed Flight Array’s asymmetrical decacopter.
Protip: You can safely ignore any statement that includes the phrase “according to quantum mechanics”.
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