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Science is Fun Fridays!

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  I came across a book called The Science of Superstition , written by Bruce Hood. A psychologist and philosopher specializing in developmental cognitive neuroscience, he is currently based at the University of Bristol. A major interest has been researching the cognitive processes behind adult magical thinking. In the book, he uses hard science to explain pervasive irrational beliefs and behaviors. Superstitions surrounding Friday the 13th date back to the 19th century, as a pairing, but 13 and Friday have long had ominous connotations. In numerology, 12 is considered complete, while 13 is disruptive.  A 13th guest brings bad luck (Judas in Christianity, Loki in Norse mythology, the devil in ancient Rome). Over 90% of high rises skip the 13th floor due to customer concerns. There's a quote from Swami Vivekananda which says, "If superstition enters, the brain is gone." fMRI has shown that people who engage in superstitious rituals activate the reward centers of the brain, ...
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Liza with a Z

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 A cultural icon, born on this day, 1946. Of course, being the daughter of another icon helped pave the way, but "the original nepo baby" still had to work hard to make it on Broadway. In 1965 she made history as the youngest actress to win a Tony, for Flora the Red Menace. She was first on the silver screen in 1949 with her mother, and her first credited role came in 1967, in Charlie Bubbles.   She was nominated for an Oscar for The Sterile Cuckoo  in 1969. She would win it in 1972. And two days ago, she released her memoir, Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! You can bet she has stories to tell.  From a childhood steeped in Hollywood and addiction, to her times with Andy Warhol, Halston, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Frank Sinatra, and Michael Jackson - to name a few. "I survived it," she says, while a social media account marks all the things she continues to outlive.
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Book Club - March

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  I picked this up from a used bookstore sale because the cover was interesting.   And I like a good haunting. I don't always like journal entries as a narrative, but I can feel it building up to something. *** Today is the birthday of Douglas Adams, author of the superb,  A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I read the complete series back in 2020, and I definitely recommend. In addition to those novels (which includes a short story), he also wrote Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency  and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul .  He co-wrote a short story with Monty Python's Graham Chapman, which was based on a skit. "The Private Life of Genghis Khan" So what are you reading?
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International Women's Month Spotlight

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 Harriet Tubman Day honors the day of her death, 1913. She was born into slavery as Araminta Ross in 1822, but married a free man, John Tubman, in 1844.  Any children they would have would be enslaved though, and by 1849 she was in the process of being sold, so she decided to escape. She returned from Philadelphia to Maryland to help free her family.  One group at a time, she got them out of the state, guiding others as well.  They called her Moses. After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, she had to travel farther north into Canada. In 1858, she met John Brown and helped him plan and recruit supporters for the raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859. During the Civil War, she was a cook and a nurse before becoming an armed scout and spy.  She guided the raid at Combahee Ferry, which liberated 700 enslaved people.  She is thus credited as the first woman to lead an armed military operation in the United States. After the war, she helped establish an elderly home for Af...
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Best Dressed - Week of March 9

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  Olympian Eileen Gu at the Grand Diner de Louvre Event. Olandria Carthen Diane Kruger Elsewhere in Paris, it's Fashion Week. Chappell Roan Naomi Watts Laura Harrier Maude Apatow And elsewhere elsewhere.... Lisa Ann Walter Sheryl Lee Ralph Scott Evans
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Science is Fun Fridays!

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 Dr. Steve Boyes has spent the last 10 plus years searching for a species of elephant he believed still exists in the Angolan highlands. Before Civil War in 1975, there were around 70,000 elephants in this area - they were killed for ivory, and they were killed by land mines.  Many fled. There was noted evidence of a small population, such as footprints and dung.   "You can sense them, but you can't hear them.  They're ghosts." Boyes worked with local KhoiSan Master Trackers, and called that experience, "the birthplace of science." "There is no scientific mind that I know that can, in the moment, consume so much data and bring out a conclusion in almost real time." Master Trackers are indigenous experts with over 100,000 years of ancestral knowledge, capable of interpreting and trailing wildlife in the Kalahari and surrounding areas.  While these skills were once used for hunting, they are now focused on conservation efforts as well as ecotourism.
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My Shots - International Car Forest

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  Out in the desert of Goldfield, junk cars are the canvas of The Last Church. "More akin to a druidic henge than any Christian chapel."
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