NEWS: A Bolivarian-English dictionary

Illustration via The Economist.

Venezuelans are famously inventive with words. After 17 years of "chavismo", the left-wing-ish ideology of the late Hugo Chávez, they have plenty of new material. " Insults aimed at his “Bolivarian revolution” abound; the regime, now led by Nicolás Maduro, hurls its own ammunition. With parliamentary elections due on December 6th, The Economist offers a sample." Read them all in The Economist. E.T.P. 2'

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY: The Strange Science of Floating

Image via TIME.

"While floating has always had fans in the wellness world, it’s undeniably grown in popularity. In 2011, there were 85 float centers in the United States, according to Aaron Thompson, who runs an online directory of flotation centers, and now there are more than 250. Floating has also attracted the interest of a small group of scientists who are trying to figure out if it has a place as a kind of therapy for some kinds of distress, including PTSD. Any proof that this helps people with stress disorders is anecdotal at this point, but something special appears to happen in brain while the body floats. Now, some scientists, like the neuropsychologist Justin Feinstein, are trying to find out what.

Feinstein believes so deeply in the therapeutic potential of floating that he built his whole career, and laboratory, around trying to prove it. This year he opened the only float lab in the country: the Float Clinic and Research Center at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Inside, you won’t find the claustrophobic coffin-like pods that make up most of the float tank market. His custom-made float pool has no enclosure, ensuring that people with anxiety disorders won’t be afraid to get in."

Read full article in TIME. E.T.P. 9'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT: Bernard Stiegler on Daesh

Photo via Le Monde.

In an interview with Le Monde, the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler declared that the only way of fighting ISIS is by creating a believable, sustainable future for the young. "Employment is collapsing, especially among young people, and despair breeds violence. That's one more reason to help generate hope today. The attacks of November 13 were suicide attacks, and that is not insignificant: suicide is developing around the world, especially from a young population who knows they will be unemployed for a long time."

Read full interview (in French) in Le Monde. E.T.P. 

The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 01 of November Edition

Dear friends, we are back!

These holiday and post-holiday's weeks have been very busy, and we almost didn't make it for today. But I reckoned that if I didn't make this edition, even though is a short one, I was going to stop the Procrastinator all together, and I'm not ready yet to let go. Also, I have a really good excuse for not coming back until now: procrastination. Isn't it beautiful?

Anyway. Here's your edition. In our News section: China's one-child policy ends to "“increase labor supply and ease pressures from an ageing population”. The Guardian shares a drone-footage of the refugees in the Slovenian-Croatian border that shows the scale of the migration. We also ask ourselves if Hillary Clinton has a Lead GIF advisor, Matt Bors affirms in Medium that she might be the first presidential candidate to have one. Finally, in Venezuelan news, such is the extent of the country's economical crisis that even thieves reject the local currency.

In Science the latest research on the brain proves that working fewer hours doesn't just make you healthier. It makes you smarter, too.

In Design, Business & Innovation, Andrew Smith argues that PowerPoint is killing critical thought "Through PowerPoint, everything has a tendency to resemble a pitch rather than a discussion: information is “storyboarded”, as for a movie – but the presentation is not a movie and the presenter is rarely Brad Pitt. No wonder we are bored." Plus the little-known story behind Britain's road signs.

In Culture & Entertainment, The Guardian shares with us the first chapter of Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman; Open Culture shares 130 free philosophy courses, on death, love, religion, film, law, the self the ancients and the moderns, a very wide spectrum; and since we're on it, we also have 30 Jean-Paul Sartre quotes for your next existential crisis. 

Finally, a little gift: Haute Cat-ure. Yes, yout got it. It's cat photos. 

Happy reading, happy Sunday, happy month, and hope you enjoy this late rentrée edition (:

x

NEWS: China Ends One-Child Policy

Photo: Cecilia Oramas via Flickr.

"Driven by fears that an aging population could jeopardize China’s economic ascent, the Communist Party leadership ended its decades-old “one child” policy on Thursday, announcing that all married couples would be allowed to have two children. The decision was a dramatic step away from a core Communist Party position that Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese leader who imposed the policy in the late 1970s, once said was needed to ensure that “the fruits of economic growth are not devoured by population growth.” Read full article in The New York Times. E.T.P. 6' You can also read about it in The Guardian. E.T.P. 5'

SCIENCE: Relaxing Makes You More Creative

Image via INC

You've probably heard the saying "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." I suspect that most people interpret this as a comment on Jack's personality: He's "dull" because all he can think or talk about is work.
But that's not what the saying actually means. According to the latest neuroscience, overwork makes your brain "dull" in the sense of being the opposite of "sharp." Overwork, in other words, kills your creativity.
Scientists studying brain scans recently discovered that moments of creativity take place when the mind is at rest rather than working on something. And since creative approaches are so crucial to success, workaholics are working themselves out a job." That's why you should relax when you procrastinate, you'll probably end up doing a more creative job anyway! Read full article by Geoffrey James in INC. E.T.P. 5'

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION: How PowerPoint is killing critical thought

Photo via The Guardian.

Andrew Smith shares his impressions on PowerPoint as the equivalent of a sleeping pill for the eager mind while enforces "a rigidly hierarchical authority, which has not necessarily been earned. He recalls listening to a debate, on Radio 4’s Today show, about lecturing standards at British universities. He says: "I have two children at uni who have both have found lectures frustrating, so the contention of the education minister Jo Johnson that quality in this area was “highly variable” came as no surprise to me. What’s more, during sample orations on open days, I had the same experience of being bored to tears by things I felt I should have enjoyed. So when my daughter reported an exception to this rule, I knew what my first question would be.

“Did the lecturer use PowerPoint?”

“Hm. No, he just spoke,” she said.

PowerPoint is so ubiquitous that Lotte hadn’t made the connection. But the lectures I attended had left me in no doubt that Microsoft’s wildly successful “presentation” program is not just inimical to, but destructive of, deep thought, and could have been scientifically designed to put the most eager mind to sleep. The more I inquired into why this might be, the more I began to see its somnolent reflection everywhere." Read the full article in The Guardian. No PowerPoint visual resources guaranteed. E.T.P. 4'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT: Tools for Thinking About Life, Death & Everything Between

Image via Open Culture

"What is “Philosophy”? Yes, we know, the word comes from the Greek philosophia, which means “the love of wisdom.” This rote etymological definition does little, I think, to enhance our understanding of the subject, though it may describe the motivation of many a student. Like certain diseases, maybe philosophy is a spectrum, a collection of loosely related behaviors. Maybe a better question would be, “what are all the symptoms of this thing we call philosophy?” The medical metaphor is timely. We live in an age when the discipline of philosophy, like many of the humanities, gets treated like a pathology, in universities and in the wider culture. See, for example, popular articles on whether science has rendered philosophy (and religion) obsolete. There seems to be an underlying assumption in our society that philosophy is something to be eradicated, like smallpox."

Open Culture has compiled a list of 130 philosophy courses "from as much of the wide spectrum as we could, spanning such diverse ways of thinking as University of Chicago’s Leo Strauss on Aristotle’s Ethics and Plato’s Laws, to Columbia University Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman (Uma’s dad) on “The Central Philosophy of Tibet”. So, go ahead and have a listen, a download, a read, a revelation, an epiphany in Open Culture. E.T.P. Something between the whole winter or your whole life. One never knows.

PROCATINATION: United Bamboo: Haute Cat-ure

“The idea of putting cats in clothes is kind of a national past time in Japan, so I’m told,” explains Noah Sheldon, who shot these decked-out feline portraits for cult brand United Bamboo's 2011 calendar. Sheldon credits the idea to the Japanese arm of the fashion design duo, Miho Aoki (the other half being Thuy Pham, who is Vietnamese). Fashion Institute of Technology graduates Aoki and Pham—favorites on New York’s downtown scene, whose clients and collaborators include Karen O, Kim Gordon, Sean Lennon and Terence Koh—culled looks from their fall and resort collections, as well as a few annual staples such as the parka, and recreated them in miniature for the furballs." Read full article and have a look at the photos in Nowness. E.T.P 4' 

The Procrastinator (some) Times Summer Edition

Hello dear friends! Welcome to our 2015 Summer Edition of the Procrastinator (some) Times. We have compiled a couple more articles than usual because after this Sunday we enter in summer holidays mood and we won't be around fot a couple of months. We have a bit of everything; from summer reading lists to deep-fried comets. Just have a look!

In our News section, firstly we have a great article on why some cities in the United States are fighting to attract immigrants. Yes, you read right, they really really like immigrants as local governments all over the U.S. are trying to replicate the success of many metro areas with large foreign-born populations that have thriving local economies. 

For our usual quota of Venezuelan news we have three really interesting articles: in the first one, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize Desmond Tutu, urge us not to be misled by news about elections as the government violates human rights, emboldened by the international community’s silence. We already knew that but I won't deny is recomforting that the international community is  s  l  o  w  l  y  starting to wake up from the big fake-socialism spell cast by the late Hugo Chávez. Remember that what's happening is the direct and logical consequence of his government, not a radical detour by his hand-picked predecessor. 

Also in the Wall Street Journal, John Otis notices that political satire in Venezuela is no laughing matter, as President Maduro is cracking down on comedians who joke about rising crime, skyrocketing inflation and corruption... or as we call it in Venezuela: life as we know it. Finally, via Bloomberg, we check ten everyday items that now cost more than the monthly minimum wage in Venezuela.

In Science & Technology we share an article of the New York Times that discuss how screen addiction is taking a toll on children. Also a short article in Quartz that tell you why comets are less like flying rocks and more like deep fried ice-cream. In Design, Business & Innovation, Harvard Business Review share some tips for when the job hunt starts again after the summer because -they say- if your résumé can't capture someone's attention in 6 seconds, you need to fix it.

In Culture & Entertainment we have a nice summer reading list of new Latin American authors ready to demonstrate that there is life beyond Roberto Bolaño and Junot Díaz, while Scott Fitzgerald conjugate the verb "to cocktail". A verb that "ought to be conjugate it at least once" (a day)... cheers to that! You can also have a look at Gabriele Galimberti's Toy Stories, a beautiful photography project created by the Italian photographer where kids show their most valuable possessions: their toys. Fast Company share four things you might not know about M.C. Escher. Finally, of course there's a cat-related article (procrastinators' favorite animal) because the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens is opening an exhibition about how cat videos took over the Internet.

In Culturetas, Yamily Habib shares a very interesting piece on politics and identity inside a hetero-normative where the pair male-female is the “normal” standard, miss-conceiving the adjective as a proportional to “common”, leaving aside the options kept in the margins of what produces immediate reproduction among other things. Interesting, complex, and perfectly timed. 

Our friends of In Dog We Trust share with us a very summery guide on how boating with your dog, some summer looks from Bodhi, the "Menswear Dog" and an interesting article about how our bond with dogs may go back more than 27000 years (!)

Finally, if you are traveling this summer to Paris, London, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Zürich, Sydney, Sao Paulo or Ciudad de México, please don't forget to explore our sister-project: Minimaps, as we have some nice routes created by and for travelers and/or locals like you. Have a look and experience the city guided by the friend of a friend. Minimaps are free to download and print (:

I hope you enjoy your summer holidays, I intend to do so as well! See you à la rentrée! (:

Ana.

The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 28th of June Edition

Hello friends summer is officially here and with it many reasons to celebrate, being the most immediate one the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States of America of legalizing gay marriage nationwide.

Also in our News section we feature a Bloomberg article that explains the massiveness of the crisis in Venezuela with a small example: Why the iPhone 6 Costs $47,678 in Venezuela? In our Science & Technology section a group of scientists tricked some brains to demonstrate that they actually doesn't suck at passwords.

In our Design, Business & Innovation we share the story of the Californian woman, who developed an innovative phone app, that have helped to feed almost 600,000 homeless people. Also Nicola Kemp shares in Marketing Magazine the six trends that will define the next decade of social media, prepare to see a shift from unfettered narcissism globally (finally!) to a real source of empowerment. And Valerie Casey, CPO of Samsung's Global Innovation Center, explains why open platform is the future of the Internet of Things.

Our Culture & Entertainment section features articles from Open Culture and Critical Theory on how commuters in Moscow can download free eBooks of Russian classics in the Metro, how you can understand phenomenology thanks to the iconic Muppets song “Mahna Mahna,” (with English subtitles), and why the neuroscience in Pixar's Inside Out is surprisingly accurate.


Finally this edition of In Dog We Trust by La Guía del Perro shares with us the best dog related shows on TV, Rambo the puppy, and believe it or not, some flying dogs!

And as this weekend is all about pride, here's this shameless plug as Minimaps -our sister project- just turned 3 months and has released the gayest minimap so far: Folky, Colourful, Happy Ciudad de México, have a look.

Happy summery and meaningful procrastination (!) and see you all here in a month and remember to keep in touch in @Pro_Sometimes (a month is a long time, we will miss you!)

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT: The Muppets explain Phenomenology

Image via Critical Theory.

"Phenomenology was pioneered by Edmund Husserl in the early 20th century and studies the “structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view,” according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The field has influenced a wide array of critical theorists, including Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger." In the Muppets video, uploaded in 2012 to YouTube, the song “Mahna Mahna” was subtitled to explain phenomenology. Have a look at the video and understand phenomenology in 3' in Critical Theory. E.T.P. 3'

The Procrastinator (Some) Times 26th of April Edition

Hello dear procrastinators, as you know, just yesterday a really strong earthquake hit Nepal, you can follow the ongoing news with the hashtag #NepalQuake and Mashable compiled different organisations that you can contribute with to help them.

We start our News Section with a great article by Anne Marie Weaver in The New York Times about the young men who are flying from England to join ISIS, "Her Majesty's Jihadists". What's the appeal of this call to make them abandon their comfy lives to join a war? What is the UK incapable of offering them? 

In our share of articles about Venezuela, Alejandro Toledo, former president of Perú and author of "The Shared Society", writes in the op-ed pages of the New York Times, an article that is both accurate and simple, and that it is also ambitiously untitled: How to Fix the Mess in Venezuela. A must-read. I more Venezuelan news, Tim Worstall thanks Venezuela's Bolivarian "socialism" style (that everyday looks more like a military dictatorship) for the 200% of inflation as it is almost an impossible achievement to make that will probably become the first chapter of every what not to do when running a country book.


In Science & Technology according to Tim Maughan in BBC Future the worst place on earth is a dystopian lake in Mongolia filled with the world's tech lust. In our Culture & Entertainment section Garrett Gilmore shares how he can't stop thinking in emoji. A really interesting article via VICE. Jessica Fulford-Dobson shows us with her photographic work in Kabul how in Afghanistan, skateboarding has spread to become the number one sport for women, as they are forbidden to ride bicycles. And thanks to Open Culture and Martin Scorsese we discovered filmmaker Hong Sang-Soo, the Woody Allen of Korea.

Culturetas's queen bee, Ariana, shares with us her reflections on feminism, what is and what it should be. She's obviously looking for a fight ;) Finally In Dog We Trust by La Guía del Perro shares with us an interesting article about the bonding human-dog hormone, some DIY for your dog, a German Shepherd left home alone with a GoPro and the absolutely amazing Marnie the dog.

That's our April edition, hope you enjoy it, and I invite you again to check out Minimaps, small crowd-sourced travel experiences made for and by people that love people. This month we published two new minimaps: Brussels and Zürich. Have a look!

Happy Sunday friends and happy reading.

DESIGN, BUSINESS & INNOVATION

Photo via Fast Company.

This is a nice Fast Company article sent by our friend Jorge in which Jane Porter talks about Piers Steel's book The Procrastination Equation, a book that we mention in our small manifesto. It is always nice to read people that is trying to rescue the term and the practice of procrastination, for Piers is all about taking a structured approach to achieve productive procrastination, for us, as you well know, is all about meaningfulness.

"Every time you decide to work, the payoff gets evaluated twice: once by the limbic system and a second time by the prefrontal cortex," according to Steel. In other words, it's a battle of impulse against rationality. But while the term "productive procrastination" used by Steel, is a contentious one amongst scholars in the field, some of whom strongly believe there can be nothing productive about procrastination. But there's no question that of the many ways we can waste time, some are far better for us than others." Read the full article in Fast Company and find out the 5 best ways to procrastinate according to Steel, the 6th best, you already know it ;) . E.T.P. 4'

Photo via Vice.

Michael Grothaus of Vice asked a privacy lawyer what facebook's new Term and Conditions will mean for you. The article is concerned "not only with new additions to the Facebook Terms of Service, but the complete Terms of Service, which include some old terms unchanged by Facebook at this time. One new feature is the ability for Facebook to track your location. This ability is contingent on a user's consent." Read full article in Vice. E.T.P. 5'

 

Image via Wired.

Following the new avant garde design of the new Norwegian notes Travis Purrington, student at the Basel School of Design in Switzerland wants to use money to celebrate science instead of presidents. "What if we used money “as an educational tool?” Purrington wonders. “And not to reinforce such a patriotic bond with the country, but more of a global bond with mankind.” For his master’s thesis, Purrington (who is an American, from Idaho) gave US currency a top-to-bottom, front-to-back overhaul." Purrington proposes to celebrate science, I think that we should also celebrate art, but in any case we are heading in a good direction. Read full article in Wired. E.T.P. 3'

CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT

Photo via The Paris Review.

Nicole Rudick in The Paris Review of all the articles featured in the printed edition of Nautilus Magazine, that she calls sharped and well-rounded, recommends Alisa Opar’s short piece in the Spring 2014 issue on procrastination, which we featured back in January, of course. "I’m writing this, you see, up against the deadline that Dan Piepenbring sets for us each week. I did the same thing last week. Though I spend all week knowing I’ll write a few lines on what I’ve been reading, I wait, without fail, until the very last minute to sit down and write it. That’s because, according to Opar’s article, my future self is a stranger. That future version of me is the one who will have to deal with the consequences of my current procrastination (sucker!). Apparently, making a lengthy timeline that ends with me writing this should help me feel connected to my future self. It’s an interesting idea." Full article in The Paris Review. E.T.P. 4'

Photo: Aaron Rose via The New Yorker.

Aaron Rose, made his art-world début in his late fifties, at the 1997 Whitney Biennial, spent three summers in the early nineteen-sixties photographing the beaches of Coney Island. Seventy of Rose’s photographs from Coney Island are on view for the first time, at the Museum of the City of New York, until August 3rd. Have a look at some of his wonderful photos in The New Yorker. E.T.P. 3'

SCIENCE

Image Eiko Ojala via The New York Times.

The science of sleep. "In a series of new studies, published this fall in the journal Science, the Nedergaard lab may at last be shedding light on just what it is that would be important enough. Sleep, it turns out, may play a crucial role in our brain’s physiological maintenance. As your body sleeps, your brain is quite actively playing the part of mental janitor: It’s clearing out all of the junk that has accumulated as a result of your daily thinking." Read this insighful article by Maria Konnikova in The New York Times. E.T.P. 7'

Illustration Beatrice the biologist, via Wired.

Does evolution evolves under pressure? Biologist Susan Rosenberg hopes to resolve a major debate that had rocked biology in different incarnations for more than 100 years. Were organisms capable of altering themselves to meet the needs of their environment, as Jean Baptiste Lamarck had proposed in the early 1800s? Or did mutations occur randomly, creating a mixture of harmful, harmless or beneficial outcomes, which in turn fueled the trial-and-error process of natural selection, as Charles Darwin proposed in “On the Origin of Species”? Read full article in Wired. E.T.P. 12'

PHOTOAUTOMAT

Francesca Woodman (April 3, 1958 – January 19, 1981) 

Was an american photographer born in a family of artists, she started taking pictures at the sweet age of 11, enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design and lived in Italy for a year where she became hugely inspired. She returned to live in NYC, where she worked as an assistant to fashion photographers, while continuing to develop her personal and prolific body of work. 

Even though she tragically decided to end her life at the age of 22 (exactly 33 years ago this week), she left behind a very mature and insightful photographic legacy. Her most notable pieces are her self-portraits.

The first time I came in direct contact with Francesca Woodman's work, it was at the exhibit at the Guggenheim, a couple of years ago. These beautiful huge blueprints were my absolute favorite in the whole show, in them you can see the influence of the Italian renaissance art had on her.

“Caryatid” (1980). Credit: Courtesy George and Betty Woodman

 

The thing I like the most about her work is how mature it was for her age. Her photographs had a certain naive yet bold character that made them unique and absolutely personal. They are a reflection of that time in life, between childhood and adult life. That brief period when you are for the first time in real contact with true yourself, discovering who you are, and exploring your limits.

If you want to know and see more of her work, here the article in The New York Times and about the Guggenheim exhibit that I was lucky to visit; the official Guggenheim video about the exhibit called Through the Lens of Francesca Woodman that examines the relation between the still and moving image in Francesca Woodman's and other artists' production during the 1970s, particularly as associated with Post-Minimalism, performance, and video; and finally the  trailer of a documentary about her family entitled The Woodmans, describe as  an inspiring portrait of one family's fall and redemption in the often brutal world of art.

-

The PhotoAutomat section is edited by the Brooklyn-based photographer Andreína Restrepo.    

 

IN DOG WE TRUST

Photo: Sickan the beagle, via his Instagram (;

Happy New Year dog lover! Hope 2014 is the best year ever for you and your dog(s).

I'm so glad to be back. Here are some links you might enjoy:

Febrero. A documentary film about the reality of Greyhounds in Spain.

Do you know that dogs are sensitive to small variations of the Earth's magnetic field?

According Animals Dignity. Interesting read.

FYI: We're Pit Bull people

Tips for cleaning dog beds

Video of the week: Blaze loves his kennel

Enjoy your Sunday! And follow Sickan on Instagram



-

In Dog We Trust is curated by: Carola Melguizo from La Guía del Perro.

The Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 12th of January Edition

EDITORIAL

Hello dear readers, happy 2014! We are back from some long deserved holidays with just one firm resolution: make the Procrastinator grow beautiful and strong. That's why we start with this open invitation to collaborate with us. Share with us that thing/activity/mania/vice that is your favorite to procrastinate! TV, films, music, science exhibitions, hack projects, books, knitting, cooking, drawing, walking around your neighborhood, making playlists, anything goes. Together we can make 2014 an awesome year for meaningful, insightful, inspiring procrastination, let's make it happen!

Happy Sunday and happy reading.


NEWS

Photo via The New York Times

Michael Shulman writes a very interesting piece in The New York times about bisexuality, a label with layers: “Of course I still fancy girls.” Those six little words, tossed off like a request to please hold the mustard, were among the most deconstructed in Tom Daley’s YouTube video last month, in which the 19-year-old British Olympic diver announced that he was dating a man . . . Mr. Daley’s disclosure reignited a fraught conversation within the L.G.B.T. community, having to do with its third letter. Bisexuality, like chronic fatigue syndrome, is often assumed to be imaginary by those on the outside. The stereotypes abound: bisexuals are promiscuous, lying or in denial. They are gay men who can’t yet admit that they are gay, or “lesbians until graduation,” sowing wild oats before they find husbands. Read full article in The New York Times.

Photo via The Independent.

This is why we love pastafarians so much: "Pastafarian minister Christopher Schaeffer was sworn into the Pomfret New York Town Council this week with a colander on his head throughout the ceremony to represent his unique religious beliefs. Mr Schaeffer, a minister for the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) took his oath of office before the board's recreational meeting on Thursday afternoon." Read full article in The Independent. E.T.P 3'. Read more about the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster here.

Photo via The Independent.

According to a research made by the US-based Coalition Against Drug Abuse New Year’s goals relating to marijuana were over 71 per cent more popular in 2014 than in the previous year. "To find these results, Joseph Rearick of the Coalition analysed around 1 million tweets posted across the world in the run up to and the days following New Year’s." I still really don't know how reliable to prove resolute intention a tweet is, but you can read the full article in The Independent. E.T.P. 3'


Did you make any new year's resolution? Share them with us!

SCIENCE

Photo via The New Yorker.

You've probably heard about the polar vortex already. Unless you have taken your holidays more seriously than me, and I doubt that. What you've may lost is The Borowitz Report about it. Worry not, here it is: "The so-called polar vortex caused hundreds of injuries across the Midwest today, as people who said “so much for global warming” and similar comments were punched in the face." Read more in The New Yorker.

Photo: David Salafia/flickr via The Atlantic.

Charles Montgomery explores in The Atlantic, why we are sometimes kind without reason? "The eminent sociologist Erving Goffman suggested that life is a series of performances, in which we are all continually managing the impression we give other people. If this is so, then public spaces function like a stage in the same way that our own homes and living rooms do. Architecture, landscaping, the dimensions of the stage, and the other actors around us all offer cues about how we should perform and how we should treat one another.

A man might urinate in a graffiti-covered alleyway, but he would not dream of doing so in the manicured mews outside an old folks’ home. He would be more likely to offer a kindness in an environment where he felt he was among family or friends, or being watched, than in some greasy back alley. In Goffman’s world, these are conscious, calculated responses to the stage setting. But recently we have learned that some of our social responses occur even without conscious consideration. Like other animals, we have evolved to assess risks and rewards in the landscapes around us unconsciously." This is a really interesting article, read the rest of it in The Atlantic. E.T.P. 12'