Jargon, Marriage, 1300, Photography, Nature

Fifty Psychological And Psychiatric Terms To Avoid

Scott Lilienfeld et al | Frontiers In Psychology | 1st June 2015

“In this article, we present a provisional list of 50 commonly used terms in psychology, psychiatry, and allied fields that should be avoided, or at most used sparingly and with explicit caveats. For each term, we (a) explain why it is problematic, (b) delineate one or more examples of its misuse, and (c) when pertinent, offer recommendations for preferable terms.” Examples include: ‘A gene for’; ‘Brain region X lights up’; ‘Hard-wired’; ‘Multiple personality disorder’; ‘Closure’; ‘Denial’ (9,700 words)

Child Bride

Daniel Wallace | Bitter Southener | 7th January 2018

A girl of 12, a boy of 18, in Alabama in 1943. Did they marry? “As my mother told it, nobody knew she and John were anything other than friends. But a friendship between a girl and a boy with that age difference doesn’t seem right. They were just two people who swam in the same community pool, along with a lot of other kids. Thinking about it now, her story doesn’t really make sense. But I believed her, every word. She seemed credible at the time; she provided all the right details” (4,900 words)

Kindle’s Breakout Moment

Bob Lefsetz | Big Picture | 6th January 2018

Everybody wants Michael Wolff’s Trump book, ‘Fire And Fury’. And there isn’t enough physical inventory in stores. The reprints will take weeks. If you’ve never quite seen the point of Kindle before, this is the teachable moment. You don’t really need the hardback cover, or the tactile paper, or the elegant typography. You’ll even put up with a few misprints. What you want is the text. You can have the hardback in four weeks, or you can have the Kindle version right now. “We’ve hit a turning point”

The London Milkman

Hannah Ross | Picture This | 12th February 2016

Footnote to a famous photograph. The Blitz, Hitler’s bombing campaign against England in 1940-41, levelled much of London. Morale was low. Photographer Fred Morley wanted to show the devastation, but knew the British government would censor anything that suggested defeatism. So he posed a milk delivery-man among the ruins — he may even have played the milkman himself — as if to say that everyday life continued. The censor approved: Keep calm and carry on (980 words)

Charles Foster On Books About Nature

Cal Flyn | Five Books | 2nd January 2018

Rather wonderful conversation, in which Foster — a barrister who once tried to live in the wild like a badger — discusses what Nature writing ought to be, and which recent books come closest to his daunting ideal. “If you go into a bookshop, there are loads of bookshelves with the heading: ‘Birdwatching’. It would be great if they were next to bookshelves headed ‘Being watched by birds’. That would put us properly in our place. That place would be a happy place to be” (5,300 words)

Video of the day Deep Mind Does Parkour

What to expect:

Silent. Google’s AI platform learns how to negotiate obstacles, using an avatar (3’25”)

Thought for the day

If hate could be turned into electricity, it would light up the whole world
Nikola Tesla

Podcast of the day Try Not To Breathe | Song Exploder

Michael Stipe and Mike Mills discuss the making of ‘Try Not To Breathe’ from ‘Automatic for the People’
(16'00")