My dashboard oil light is doing some unsettling things, so I left my car with the mechanic a few minutes ago. It's probably just a light switch glitch (I think, wishfully). Thought I'd post up a few links while I await the verdict at a the nearby cafe.
The Times has an update on those Indonesian hobbits--the tiny hominids that don't seem to fit anywhere in our accounts of human evolution. "The possibilities get curiouser and curiouser, said William L. Jungers of Stony Brook University, making hobbits 'the black swan of paleontology — totally unpredicted and inexplicable.'”
Ars psychiatrica writes about Saul Bellow's Mr. Sammler's Planet (my brush with Bellow--a Bellow ex-wife was once a neighbor of mine). If you aren't reading Neil Scheurich, you don't know what you're missing. His writing alone is worth a visit. I don't often find myself feeling envious, but it's difficult to read Scheurich's posts without wishing I had half the talent he has (sorry, I don't mean to make you blush, Neil). It is a crime, as far as I'm concerned, that blogs like ars psychiatrica attract a relative handful readers while knuckle-typing, mouth-breathers draw millions of hits per month.
Speaking of blogs you should be reading, git on over to Jung at Heart where Cheryl Fuller continues her commentary on the HBO series In Treatment. I don't watch the show, but I still enjoy Cheryl's insights. For more on In Treatment, check out Dinah's posts at Shrink Rap.
Laughing at you or with you? Political ideology affects satire meters:
This study investigated biased message processing of political satire in The Colbert Report and the influence of political ideology on perceptions of Stephen Colbert. Results indicate that political ideology influences biased processing of ambiguous political messages and source in late-night comedy. Using data from an experiment (N = 332), we found that individual-level political ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert's political ideology. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements.
EZ serves up some "Meaty Morsels" from the Blagojevich biography, Pay to Play. Among them:
Early on, Marge Mell, his late mother-in-law, had
concerns about Blagojevich's "trustworthiness." In 2003, during
Blagojevich's first year as governor, Secretary of State Jesse White
told him, "I've known [former Gov. George Ryan] for 30 years. He never
lied to me once. You've lied to me 15 times in six months."
And, White's benchmark for honesty, George Ryan, is in prison for corruption.
Update:
It was just a bad switch on the oil light. Phew!
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