TOPICS

Sleep Issues: Studies that find that human beings are not meant to sleep 7-8 hours in a row. An article at LiveScience claims that waking up in the middle of the night is normal [1]

Reversi: The game “Othello” is actually a “modern” game that was patented by Mattel in the 1970’s by a Japanese Salesman. It’s original version was popular in England in the 1880’s under the name Reversi, but some of the rules were different.[2] The game shares a visual similarity to Go, but the two are vastly different.

Social Isolation: The average North American spends more time watching Netflix than spending time with friend, and on average ⅔ of our time on digital media. [3]

Good Atheist Podcast / Fightlinker: in 2007, I started a series of podcasts with a friend and eventually recorded over 300 shows on various topics, with a huge diversity of guests [4] [5]

Modern Slavery: Although most people believe slavery to be over, there are in fact more “Contemporary” slaves now than there were bonded men and women at any other time in history. The number ranges from 21-43 million adults and children. [6]

Medieval Teeth: Contrary to popular belief, only 20 percent of people in the Middle ages ever had teeth problems, compared to the 90% in our contemporary society.[7] Teeth was a much bigger problem for our early ancestors. [8]

Clan of the Cave Bears: A 1980’s novel that became somewhat of a feminist icon for young women growing up in that time. [9]

Quest for Fire: Academy Award winning film that explores the relationship between man and neanderthal. [10]

Back to the Future: The charming 1980’s movie has been described by some modern filmmakers as “The Perfect Script”. When you really break it down, the whole thing feels a little crazy [11]

Digital Graveyard: As time goes on, social media will have more dead users than live ones. We are witness to the reality of our digital remains.[12]

Time Cube: The insane ramblings of a man in the 90’s made famous by his quirky writing style, and apocalyptic prophecies of doom. That, and he was obsessed with having 4- 24 hours days. His math on this makes no sense to anyone but him [13]

Chem Trails: For the uninitiated, it is the rather silly belief that the vapour left behind by planes are in fact chemicals means to harm people. It’s actually a result of both the evaporation of water, and the introduction of particles in the air (necessary for the formation of water crystals) that’s resulted from the plane passing through, called a Contrail. No proof yet exists that could otherwise explain the phenomenon by conspiracy theorists. [14]

Zoroastrianism: Although they were the religion of the most powerful empire of it’s time in the old world, Alexander the Great put a stop to that, and it would never recover. Later, Zoroastrians were persecuted by the Muslims who forced their conversion.[15]

[1] http://www.livescience.com/12891-natural-sleep.html
[2] http://www.worldothello.org/?q=content/reversi-versus-othello/
[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/netflix-time-use-data_us_573a03bce4b077d4d6f39e4e
[4] http://www.thegoodatheist.net/category/podcast/
[5] http://fightlinker.com/
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_slavery
[7] http://www.wayneoralsurgery.com/blog/what-was-dental-health-like-in-the-middle-ages/
[8] http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/06/tooth-decay-archaeology/4307319/
[9] http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2014/05/clan_of_the_cave_bear_and_feminism_dystopian_precedent_to_the_hunger_games.html
[10] http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/quest-for-fire-1981
[11] http://io9.gizmodo.com/back-to-the-future-is-a-damn-perfect-movie-1737657700
[12] http://fusion.net/story/276237/the-number-of-dead-people-on-facebook-will-soon-outnumber-the-living/
[13] http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/2/9247913/time-cube-is-gone
[14] http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/science-officially-debunks-chemtrails-conspiracy-live-180960139/
[15] https://www.ancient.eu/article/214/