A Mexican person came to see me today. She kept her coat on throughout the visit and didn’t even unbutton it. I thought she was trying to convey that she couldn’t stay for long even though she stayed for long. Only after she left did I realize that I have all the windows wide open and it’s +10C outside.

Ian Welsh is having his usual outburst of hysteria. I wonder if he times them because they appear with weird regularity.

Somebody who had Paul de Man as a professor is sharing her memories. A very interesting post!

And this is how religious fanatics entertain themselves: ““Hunk” had arranged to borrow a relatives’ brand new condo for our honeymoon the week after the wedding, but my Dad had a problem with the fact that it was 3 hours away. According to him, once we were officially married the first thing we would want to do was have sex, 3 hours away was too long of a drive for us to handle.” Is this disturbing, or what?

Why does Huffington Post always be so disgusting? See this article where the rape of a 14-year-old kid is referred to as “having sex.”

If you like to make fun of stupid MRAs, read this article.

I agree with this blogger that Twitter / Facebook activism is beyond obnoxious. It is always so unctuous and saccharine that I can’t stand it.

A great new campaign uses Google auto-complete to combat gender inequality.

“Indeed, it could be argued the vast majority of U.S. combat deaths over the last half century have come from the need of policy makers to “project power” in the world, rather than from concrete strategic objectives.”

A very strange debacle is occurring in science blogging surrounding some creep called Bora Zivcovic and a bunch of his weirdo friends. The story is tagged as being about sexual harassment but all I see in it is creepy behavior by a bunch of creepazoids. Read the whole thing if you are in need of being reminded how normal you are compared to many strange people out there.

The demolished neighborhoods of Montreal. The post’s author finds their destruction sad but Montreal has definitely benefited from their removal.

If “Americans have epicurean tendencies” like this blogger suggests, I must be living in a different America.

Hommen vs Femen. Hilarious.

“It’s no secret voter ID laws were drafted with minorities in mind, but they’re not the only ones who could have their voice suppressed by such legislation. This fall in Texas, many women may also face difficulties exercising their right to vote.”

“So you see, obviously Microsoft is on the right path of user design because some wedgehead on Ars Technica who hasn’t seen the inside of a shower since the early ‘90s said they are.” Exactly. Every encounter with Windows 8 leaves me wondering who invented this vehicle of torture and why.

“This orientation towards product and away from process is particularly corrosive to good writing because everything we know about writing well tells us that it is indeed the product of a good and comprehensive process. It’s not surprising that my students have little to no experience with revision when even the SAT says that writing is something that can be accomplished in 25 minutes.” So this is why my students give me weird looks when I tell them a paper needs to be revised at least twice before being handed in.

Doctors have become very sophisticated these days. This new GP that I  found has an app of his own. Maybe it’s time for me to get an app to stay in touch with students because this is definitely not a generation that has developed the habit of checking emails on a regular basis.

The patient questionnaire asks me if I have any “unusual hobbies.” No definition of “unusual” is provided, so I’m left wondering.

I’m answering work emails with the television playing in the background. Suddenly, I feel an inexplicable surge of happiness. I look for what is causing it and realize that somebody started speaking Spanish on the TV.

Nobody will convince me that my Jewish ancestors were not expelled from Spain in 1492.

I just discovered that our local bookstore carries a magazine called International Socialist Review. You have to go to the “Hobbies” section of the magazine stand and dig behind magazines on how to make your own bullets, and it is right there.

I’m not joking about the make-your-own-bullets journal. It does exist. It seems to be quite a popular hobby in the area.

I just met a very strange person. He thought Sarah Palin would make a great VP and was a huge fan of hers. Still, he voted for Obama because he disliked McCain. A Sarah Palin fan who votes Obama is just too weird.

When will people stop voting for personalities and start voting on issues?

“I belong to the Newbie Party,” the cab driver says. “Every time I vote, I vote for somebody new because I always think that the new guys just have to be better than the ones we have in office. Gotta keep hoping, you know?”

So you’ve heard about the marshmallow experiment, right? Is the most cited and linked to experiment in sociology and the foundation of today’s North American pedagogy.

I believe the experiment is stupid, though. It doesn’t identify children who will be high-achievers. All it does is identify those kids who will spend their lives struggling with obesity.

This is not a starving society, to put it mildly. So a child who is desperate to earn an extra marshmallow is simply somebody who already has a very unhealthy relationship with food.

It is no wonder that we see so many overweight children when weird rituals related to food consumption are touted as something positive.

Finally, we found a place that knows how to cook fish. These colorful spaghetti are actually vegetables:

And sometimes a person deserves a spot of dessert. Especially when it comes in an edible basket:

Some people finish their meal in style:

I find all of the different readings people are providing of the Turkish artist’s work absolutely fascinating. Thank you for participating!

To me, Gurbuz’s painting with the birds in the middle of an ocean is about love. The bird who is free is in love with the caged bird. He could fly away if he wanted to but he knows that if he does, the caged bird will drop into the ocean. So he stays, sacrificing his freedom for the bird he loves. This is definition of love, in my opinion: choosing to carry a burden that is not yours.

And the piece with the interminable staircase is beautiful because I identify with the man with it. He is climbing the endless stairs but he is also carrying a ladder just in case the stairs end. He will need to keep climbing even if there is nothing left for him to climb.