nomoremissnicebi:

My dad has a doppelganger named Eric. For years people have been coming up to him, thinking he was Eric. Sometimes people get a whole conversation going while my dad stands there politely wondering why this stranger is talking to him before they stop, wide eyed, and realize “you’re not Eric.” None of us have ever seen Eric, but we know he’s out there. Sometimes a couple years will go by without an Eric incident and we worry. But then my dad will come home like “good news guys, Eric’s still alive, I met his cousin today.”

railehatesfun:

door-maker-guy:

curiosityconfusion:

How did people first figure out that it was cicadas that make this noise? I could see that taking a long time.
Were there just like a thousand years where people were like “yeah, the trees are screaming. They do that in the summer.”

They saw the cicadas, obviously. Just because you’re too dumb to hunt cicadas doesn’t mean our ancestors weren’t.

This is like asking “how can you tell it’s crickets that make that noise? Maybe it’s just the grass screaming.”

Okay, but you realise the medieval Western wold thought mice generated from clods of dirt and that barnacles were part of the wild goose life cycle??? I’m not making this shit up. Screaming trees would be the least weird thing on the roster there.

toralei:

toralei:

honestly things like the rage room and punching a pillow (or similar object) to cope with anger are VERY bad ideas

aggressive acts of that manner as a coping skill for anger reinforce the connection between acting violently and feeling angry. a link between acting this way has been shown in studies to not only increase aggressive behavior but to potentially decrease an individual’s level of self control.  pretty much all research that’s been done on catharsis theory has shown that it doesn’t really help at all.

here’s some good reading on the topic and details on one particular study

unhistorical:

May 24, 1743: Jean-Paul Marat is born.

Jean-Paul Marat was one of the infamous and radical figures of the French Revolution. Born in Switzerland, he moved to Paris in 1776, two years after Louis XVI ascended the throne of France; there, he served as a doctor, and his reputation in his practice made him a sought-after physician among the aristocracy. Comfortably wealthy and endlessly opinionated, he criticized Newton, conducted scientific research that won him admirers that included Benjamin Franklin, and published works on judicial reform and philosophy.

As the French Revolution drew near, Marat directed his efforts toward another purpose: he started a newspaper — several, in fact, but the principal was L’Ami du peuple, or “The Friend of the People”, through which he remained a mostly non-aligned party dedicated to advocating the rights of the lower classes and exposing those he believed to be “the enemies of the people”. Those he attacked were often powerful, rich citizens and groups, and in 1790 Marat went into hiding in the sewers of Paris, where the conditions may have given him or aggravated the skin disease that would confine him to a bathtub for much of his later life. In 1792 he was elected (still party-less) to the National Convention; he harshly criticized and feuded bitterly with the less radical Girondist faction of the government, who attempted to bring him before the Revolutionary Tribunal. He was, and he was acquitted of all charges brought against him, to widespread celebration.

Marat helped to bring down the Girondins in a political purge in the summer of 1793, but he was soon after stabbed to death in his own bathtub by Charlotte Corday, a Girondin sympathizer who confessed at her trial to killing “one man to save 100,000”; to her and the conservative Girondins, Marat symbolized the excesses and violent distortion of the Revolution, which would only worsen when the Reign of Terror began, with his calls for blood and for “the cutting off of heads”. To his supporters, Marat was a passionate and relentless champion of the rights of the lower classes. Marat’s assassination was immortalized in Jacques-Louis David’s painting The Death of Marat (pictured center).

Victor Hugo was a committed Romantic in all things, and this informed many aspects of his life… among them his decorating decisions. He structured the three main floors of his house as Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. His wife and daughter got to live in Hell, while his sons at least got to stay in Purgatory. He reserved Heaven for himself. He did, however, let his neighbors take a peek into Heaven by adding onto his floor a “look-out” made entirely of glass. (NB: My tour guide told me that the neighbors had to “look out” at sunrise, when Hugo liked to take his bath in full view of the public. Neighbor and longer-term mistress Juliette Drouet wrote to Hugo, “What a privation it will be for me […] when I can no longer watch you in the mornings, walking about your house!” I don’t think anyone else shared her opinion.)

never let Victor Hugo design your home (via gentileproblems)

Which Enlightenment philosopher should you fight

frederick-the-great:

Denis Diderot: You can try but in all likelihood before you can even lift your arm to punch him he will have managed to make you sit down for a coffee and you’re cracking up laughing at some insidious dirty joke he wrote in Le neveu de Rameau.

David Hume: Hume was Scottish and smarter than all Englishmen of his time. Don’t fight Hume. It’s like playing into the hands of the establishment.

Montesquieu:  On one hand you will not want to because separation and balance of powers but on the other hand, he will open his mouth and you won’t be able to stand it. Also he was a 18th century French nobleman so weak by nature, you can take him. 

Adam Smith: Look, I get it. You want to punch him. But do you really want to punch Adam Smith or you want to punch neo-liberals? Because I’m pretty sure Adam Smith would join you in punching the neo liberals.

Immanuel Kant: Again you could try but chances are Kant would convince that the only rational course of action is for you to punch yourself. 

Jean D’Alembert: You d’definitely win in a fight but first of all, why would you even want to do that?!

John Locke: I mean you can fight him and you d’win with the added bonus of traumatizing the English nation forever and ever but on the other hand have you looked at him? He looks frightened of his own shadow.

Baruch Spinoza: Do not fight Spinoza. He will destroy you. 

Voltaire: I mean you d’definitely win because Voltaire was short and thin and I get that he is so very punchable but 1- Émilie du Châtelet would come for you no matter where you hid and 2- Voltaire would write seven pamphlets and four satires against you in a week and would convince the whole world that you have as many brain cells as a sloth and you d’be the laughing stock of all Europe because everyone knows who he is. So ask yourself, is it really worth the trouble?

Rousseau: Fight him. I’ll pay you.