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pacificstand:

The Science of Psychics

A 2005 Gallup poll found that 26 percent of Americans answered “yes” to believing in “the power of the mind to know the past and predict the future.”
A sizable chunk of America believes in ESP—despite the only evidence behind it being one truly bizarre study.

Read more in Pacific Standard

atlasobscura:

But there is no female counterpart in our culture to Ishmael or Huck Finn. There is no Dean Moriarty, Sal, or even a Fuckhead. It sounds like a doctoral crisis, but it’s not. As a fifteen-year-old hitchhiker, my survival depended upon other people’s ability to envision a possible future for me. Without a Melvillean or Kerouacian framework, or at least some kind of narrative to spell out a potential beyond death, none of my resourcefulness or curiosity was recognizable, and therefore I was unrecognizable.
True quest is about agency, and the capacity to be driven past one’s limits in pursuit of something greater. It’s about desire that extends beyond what we may know about who we are. It’s a test of mettle, a destiny. A man with a quest, internal or external, makes the choice at every stage about whether to endure the consequences or turn back, and that choice is imbued with heroism. Women, however, are restricted to a single tragic or fatal choice. We trace all of their failures, as well as the dangers that befall them, back to this foundational moment of sin or tragedy, instead of linking these encounters and moments in a narrative of exploration that allows for an outcome which can unite these individual choices in any heroic way.
I will also admit that I think fixed narratives can be pretty dangerous. As vessels that shape our sense of self, they can be narcotic, limiting, and boring, and our development as humans is directly tied to our ability to cut across these simplistic story lines rather than be enslaved by them. Keystones in the arch under which we pass into a landscape of adolescent narcissism—that is what I think of fixed narratives. But they also keep us safe. They mark our place in society and make sure we’re seen. Therefore, the only thing more dangerous than having simplistic narratives is having no narrative at all, which is deadly.
…An excerpt from Green Screen: The Lack of Female Road Narratives and Why it Matters, a brilliantly examined longread that addresses a fundamental element of travel. We recommend you read the whole thing. It’s important.

reuters:

The dog was guarding its deceased owner. It’s been taken to shelter; deputy plans on adopting.
— Oklahoma County Sheriff (@OkCountySheriff) May 21, 2013 [edited]

"The Oxford English Dictionary accepts both pronunciations. They are wrong. It is a soft ‘G,’ pronounced ‘jif.’ End of story."

— Steve Wilhite, the creator of the GIF, chiming in on the pronunciation of the word. (As everyone knows, choosy memes choose “jif.”) Wilhite, a former CompuServe employee, created the format in 1987 and is to receive an award for his creation tonight. (via shortformblog)

usclibraries:

View of Broadway looking north from Olympic Boulevard (then Tenth Street), circa 1929. The United Artists Theatre is visible on the left. In the distance behind it is future site of the Art Deco-style Eastern Columbia building, completed in 1930.
Part of the Title Insurance and Trust, and C.C. Pierce Photography Collection in the USC Digital Library.

"The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive."

— Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson in his timeless Kenyon College commencement address, May 20, 1990. (via explore-blog)

(Source: , via explore-blog)

think-progress:

The real reason Yahoo bought Tumblr: It’s about young women.

shortformblog:

brooklynmutt:

Hat tip to this headline writer.

*nod*