Animal Morality (Life)
This article covers various positions held with regards to animals and their ability to have morals. What I found the most interesting in it was what I see as the great efforts some will go to when faced with the reality that humans are not that different from other animals. For example, the prohibition against eating certain foods is used as an example of arbitrary taboos that are somehow proof of our difference (read superiority) when in fact they developed from people getting sick when they ate those foods, an instinctive survival characteristic codified and continued even when sanitary conditions have changed enough to make some of those foods less (not no longer) dangerous.
http://www.livescience.com/24802-animals-have-morals-book.html
Animated Children’s Films (Psychology)
This article looks at the young, female heroines in a series of films produced by Studio Ghibli as far as the representation offers freedom and independence, though often with serious responsibilities. I also found the comparison of Japanese and American children’s film fascinating because of the presentation of magic and the interaction of the child and adult view.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jul/14/studio-ghibli-arrietty-heroines (Thanks to Erin for the heads up on the bad linkage.)
Blogging (Publishing)
It should come as no surprise once you read the article that I chose to flag it as one of the things it talks about is what I do…I blog about what catches my eye. I share these links because I think they’re worth sharing, and I share my book reviews because I enjoy telling you all about what I read. Same goes for the broad range of things showing up in my Monday posts when I make them. It’s not because I’m scatterbrained (no comment there), but because I have a wide variety of interests that I enjoy sharing with people. I hope that’s what brings you here, and if you find me interesting, sure, I hope you’ll check out some of my writing, but that’s not why I do this.
http://mikeduran.com/2013/01/is-blogging-still-essential-to-a-fiction-writers-platform/
Language (Anthropology)
The revival of an ancient whistling language once used to warn inhabitants of a Spanish island to avoid conscription into fire fighting forces without recompense. It’s especially interesting to me because I trained my boys to respond to a whistle call because it carries further and with less disruption than a shout, as well as being unaffected by an allergy clouded throat.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20953138
Sewing (Technology)
An innovative design simplifies sewing for beginners and experts alike. I wouldn’t mind having one of these for many of my sewing tasks.
http://www.ecouterre.com/alto-an-intuitive-sewing-machine-that-encourages-making-do-and-mending/sarah-dickins-alto-sewing-machine-2/
Fall into a world where beauty is a facade, and one elf is pushed beyond reason to rid herself of the smooth-skinned curse. ~ Now available as an eBook:
Curve of Her Claw
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Wonderful collection of links this week, Mar. Wonder how much they’re going to wind up selling that Alto machine for. And I love the whistling language, but I don’t know if I could learn one. (Also, really unclear what “vowel” and “consonant” mean when applied to whistles.)
I hear you on the machine. I have a good sewing machine, but something that light and easy for basic stuff would be grand :).
On the whistling language, it may be more complex than vowel and consonant. I have a pseudo whistling language I created because a whistle is there and gone. A shout disturbs everyone. But my language is made of a series of phrases, the main ones being: “Come here” (which is my youngest son’s name in whistle form because it has two beats), and “Treat time” which is a series of short sharps. One is for the cats, the other for the humans :).
The description in the article was “the Spanish language is replaced by two whistled vowels and four consonants,” so that’s what I based my description on.
Ah, right. To me, that reads as someone trying to translate where there is no measure :). But hey, maybe it’s exactly literal.