Tag Archives: Friday Links

Sent to me by a friend: a Poorly Drawn Lines comic about, er, treasure.

A little old-style Disney animation for ya.

Have a redoubtable weekend!

I came across the word apotropaic yesterday. It means “designed to avert evil” – for instance, garlic when it’s used to repel vampires. But I’m thinking, if you use a word like “apotropaic” for something as simple as averting evil, you might be averting some readers too.

(Merriam-Webster adds that there’s an adverbial form: “apotropaically.” As in, “I shall be using this garlic apotropaically.” Dude, you gonna get bit.)

Also, in the unlikely event that you haven’t yet seen the sweet, sweet new Star Wars trailer, well, here’s the sweet, sweet new Star Wars trailer:

See you Monday!

An Atlantic article on “The Rise of Buffy Studies” – why academics have been drawn to write “hundreds of scholarly books and articles … about Buffy’s deeper themes.” Two things worth slaying: vampires and ignorance.

Have an impeccable weekend!

Apple CEO Tim Cook calls digital privacy “a fundamental human right.” I haven’t followed Apple closely enough to know if that’s a real commitment or just smoke and mirrors. But even if it’s the latter, it’s a good sentiment and a good thing to add to the public discussion, especially when other tech giants suggest from time to time that privacy is over, or doesn’t matter anymore.

A study finds that the benefits of talk therapy for depression have been overstated. Even more interesting (to me), the problem was not in any particular study, but in the larger system of scientific publication. Studies that find an effective treatment (i.e. talk therapy works) are more likely to get published than studies that don’t, leading to a systemic selection bias. As always, the filter matters. To quote Mr. Spock: fascinating.

Finally, a little snippet from Angel that pretty much sums  up my attempts at flirting in college:

Source: Little Buffy Things

The best thing about marriage is being with Betsy. But the second-best thing about marriage is that I don’t have to try and pick up ladies anymore. Because, damn.

That is all. Have a frabjous weekend!

The coolest thing I’ve seen on DeviantArt this week.

Have an upstanding weekend!

My friend Paul sent me this: Chief O’Brien at Work. You’ll get the gist after just a few comics, but it’s a valid point. What the hell does the guy do all day?

See you next week, hopefully with more posts than this week!

NPR explains why nobody likes the 2016 candidates. Trump has a staggering 30% net unfavorability rating despite being the Republican frontrunner. Hillary’s 11% in the red. And nobody else is doing much better. Bush, Christie, Huckabee, all are more disliked than liked. Only Bernie Sanders, Marco Rubio, and Ohio’s own John Kasich have positive ratings, and those are very slim.

“Election 2016: Are These the Best We’ve Got?”

In other news, a study found that fully one-third of survey recipients believed that depression is contagious. Um. This isn’t entirely false – being around depression can bring you down, and being down for a long time can lead to something worse – but depression isn’t exactly something you’ll pick up from a handshake, either. Moods are far more contagious than mental illnesses, and that works both ways, so if you’re happy, why not share the wealth?

Speaking of happiness, have a felicitous weekend!

A video of Ray Bradbury at a Caltech symposium in 1971, which also drew such luminaries as Carl Sagan and Arthur C. Clarke. (Can you believe none of them are around anymore?) Anyway, Bradbury talks for a bit – he’s really funny, and laughs at his own goofy anecdotes along with everyone else – then reads his poem, “If Only We Had Taller Been.”

This is one of those poems I had never even heard of, and then I read it, and all I could think was wow. Just brilliant. Here’s the text.

Have a prodigious weekend.