Pretty sure this one is a gay film, which makes the gender-flipped student version kind of interesting.

I was under the impression that the idea of genetic "degeneration" in this sense died out with HG Wells and Lovecraft. Amazing that some people still believe this kind of thing.

Definitely the Chinese are more touch-y than Americans. Given the crowded living situations it makes sense, but I also think Americans are more phobic about bodily contact than most of the world (excepting northern Europe, from what I'm told.) I think studies have also shown that physical touch is beneficial to…

I guess it's no longer feasible to do this anymore, but when I was a kid I was allowed almost no TV, limited computer games and unlimited books. I was also read to constantly. (And yes, we had summertime "read X books in X weeks" challenges as well.)

I've always found it ironic how people join large groups based on their identity or beliefs, with a sort of unspoken expectation that this large aggregation of people will protect that identity. And then they realize the group isn't a perfect fit to them, but to avoid losing that peer validation these people will…

This is pretty neat, but if you want a similar effect with a (probable) lower cost, just get a vibrating "butterfly" (a large flat vibrating toy that covers the vulva.) If you have a thong-style harness you can just wear the butterfly inside the harness itself, or if your harness is open-crotched you can wear panties…

I was surprised it wasn't a rat, since every other small hairy animal seems to be a rat to the Chinese. There's warehouse rats (hamsters), flying rats (flying squirrels), old rats (regular rats, named for their grey color), ground rats (groundhogs), carrying rats (opossums), tree rats (regular squirrels), etc. It…

No problem! And my Chinese friend thinks you might be right about Marco Polo, since he catalogued a lot of trivia from the places he visited. I'd be curious if that's the case!

Per my Chinese friend it sort of looks like a bear when viewed from the back, and it washes its food. So it's a wan-xiong (wash-bear) in Mandarin.

The Chinese word for 'raccoon' is still 'wash-bear', which I think is adorable. Chinese animal names are generally pretty amusing: squirrel = 'tree-rat', opossum = 'carrying-rat', owl = 'cat-headed-hawk', etc.)

#3, the Singleton (possibly evolving from a noocracy of uploaded/interlinked minds) is the only one I could see providing feasible world peace. Of course it would have to be programmed/designed well to avoid paperclipping us all accidentally, but once it was perfected it would be ideal: far smarter than any human or…

Here's a fun tidbit: in ancient China if you died while abroad it was considered important for them to bring your body back to your hometown for burial. Whole wagon caravans were employed in shipping coffins from one town to another. The caravans would ring bells when they arrived in a town to warn people to stay…

Aha, I'm pretty sure you're right about the sparrow. Funny indeed. My Latin teacher used to tell us about these (though we never got to read them in class, of course.)

Ahh yes, Catullus. Isn't one of his poems about how his girlfriend Lesbia has a tame "bird" (read: his penis) that she likes to kiss and pet and such? I think I'm remembering that correctly but it's been ages since I took Latin.

I realized how little Americans touch each other when I started to work at a nail salon. I had female coworkers from various Asian countries do things like pet my face, pat me on the butt or (personal favorite) lean their breasts on my arm while my arm is resting on the counter. For Americans it seems like any…

There was a sort of "game" we used to play that involved the egg trick. You started by drumming on someone's back while chanting a rhyme, then doing the egg illusion, followed a similar one that was supposed to feel like being stabbed with a knife, and finishing up with one that was meant to feel like you were being…

When I stayed over at my Taiwanese friend's house during the summer, they put these mats made of woven bamboo on the beds. You were meant to sleep directly on top of the mats, making them sort of similar to cooling racks. Uncomfortable, of course, but they must have been really useful back before the widespread use of…

This would make an interesting film plot (has anyone actually made a Slenderman movie yet?) Someone could investigate the assault on the assumption that Slender isn't real, but evidence could start to suggest otherwise...

Now I've never killed anyone, but I do vividly remember what it's like to be way too deeply involved in some sort of fantasy world. And having a friend join you almost always makes things worse because you reinforce each other's delusions. It also doesn't really matter if you know the fantasy's fictional or not, since…

This is reminding me of that experiment where they showed electrical induction of gamma-wave activity in the brain might make people more likely to become lucid. I'd love to know if something like this could be made to target the amygdala to modulate anxiety and the like.