I have a crystal skull growing in my brain

An autobiographical post: earlier today I was at the Mystic And Earth Spirit Fayre in Glastonbury. Skeptical as I am, I’m interested enough in the psychology of beliefs to visit occasionally.

The talk on “DNA Activation and 2012” was listed as having two hosts, and the first sign that this would be a particularly weird session was that one of them,  “Chuen”, turned out to be a crystal skull, perched on a little desk along with other crystals and little squirty bottles.

The first part of the session was a talk, each sentence of which seemed to be on a different topic. From the mouth of our amiable lady presenter “Arctress” came a rush of new age and sci fi ideas, too many to recall but including:

Will your child be a success in life?

It turns out the best test we have is the child’s self-control, for example the ability to resist eating a marshmallow now in return for more marshmallows later on. A short TED video demonstrates, and the science is discussed at much greater length in the New Yorker.

Total Eclipse of the Heart, the literal version

Following on from last year’s Take on me, now some literal Bonnie Tyler.

The Website is Down

Thanks MaxF for recommending these geek humour videos (and much more): some painfully true drama for those of us who spend a lot of time staring at a screen.

Cassetteboy vs The Bloody Apprentice

Cassetteboy treats the Apprentice with the total lack of respect it deserves (NSFW lyrics).

Enjoy it before Sir Alan sends round the heavies!

(Cassetteboy previously on KDnC)

The UK Economy… off a cliff

“It’s finished” is a long, depressing but well-explained essay about where the financial crisis has got us.

That means tax rises, a near total freeze on government spending, swingeing public-sector job cuts, companies laying off every worker they can to save costs, and a dramatic upward spike in unemployment. […] [W]e in Britain are, to use a technical economic term, screwed. […]

It is possible that we are on course for the worst-case scenario. That would involve all our big, TBTF banks turning out to be insolvent, with the result that their balance sheets go onto the public debt. If that were to happen, Britain itself could become insolvent. Countries do go broke. […]

I get the strong impression, talking to people, that the penny hasn’t fully dropped. As the ultra-bleak condition of our finances becomes more and more apparent people are going to ask increasingly angry questions about how we got into this predicament.

Three Wolf Moon T-shirt

Following in the footsteps of bananas and Tuscan Milk, the Three Wolf Moon T-shirt is the latest Amazon product to benefit from a wave of funny ironic reviews. The T-shirt makers seem hurt that their product has come to symbolise the distilled essence of white trash, but they’re not complaining about all the extra orders the publicity has generated. Sincere fans of the t-shirt, realising that everyone sees them as white trash, are not pleased. Thanks to Libby and Damian for the links.

“Since owning the Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt, I have successfully solved 7 crimes in my city, including 4 cold case murders.”

“When the moon is full I am compelled to seek out and Greco-Roman wrestle the legendary Bigfoot.”

“Every night, for the past 6 weeks, I have been visited by 3 wolf sprirts. And every night, they bestow upon me endless amounts of knowledge and offerings of imitation crab meat.”

Update: for extra meme coolness, the apex of t-shirt technology is the Three Keyboard Cat and Moon t-shirt. Personally, I want to wear a “Three “Three Wolf and Moon” t-shirt-wearing Man and Moon” t-shirt.

Funny Amazon reviews previously on KDnC.

The science of orgasm (TED talk)

You get the impression sex expert Mary Roach would be a heck of a dinner party guest. Not to mention she seems more enthusiastic about the “Masters & Johnson copulation machine” than objective inquiry would demand. Warning: this film will graphically satisfy your curiosity about how to arouse a pig.

Food Fight

I saw this short film at a festival a few years ago and have been itching to recommend it since. Three months in the making, it shows major wars from World War Two to the Iraq war interpreted using the foodstuffs of the relevant countries. Thanks to Jessica for finding it on Youtube:

Unless you’ve a great knowledge of both war and food you’ll benefit from the cheat sheet.

Teach kids to value their information

An extract well worth transcribing from novelist and blogger Cory Doctorow’s contribution to a session of this year’s Convention on Modern Liberty.

“You don’t defend people against ID theft by gathering mountains of sensitive personal information and leaving it around where any muppet from the HMRC might leave it on the Tube.

“Databases are immortal, pluripotent and infinitely fecund: that which the internet has learned, it will never forget. Paris Hilton’s genitals are immortal. When you collect information on 25 million households, it doesn’t matter that someone lost it today; they’re gonna lose it eventually. I’m a novelist: I know that the gun on the mantel in act one is destined to go off in act three.