The continuum of mania

At Psychology Today, psychotherapist Eric Maisel explains mania as a continuum, running from the commonly experienced racing of one’s productive mind to spinning out of control that leads many people to seek medications and therapy. His evidence that mania is often part of normalcy is as follows: - Straight-A students are 4 times more likely to be “bipolar.” - Students who are math whizzes are 12 times more likely to be bipolar. - Overwhelming anecdotal evidence that “smart and creative people are often manic.” At the outset, Maisel warns that the terms “Manic-depression” and “bipolar disorder” as so flawed as to be “useless and dangerous.”

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How discriminating are you? With regard to musical tones, that is.

How discriminating are you? With regard to pitch, that is. I have performed music much of my life, and I ended up doing quite well on this 3 minute test (better than 99.4% of those who take it). But I felt like I was guessing on quite a few of these micro intervals. If you think you have a discriminating ear, you might find this test interesting.

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Julian Assange seeks asylum from Ecuador

Julian Assange, facing imminent extradition to Sweden, has decided to seek asylum from Ecuador. Glenn Greenwald explains why this is an utterly rational decision for the creator of Wikileaks:

In 2010, a top official from that country offered Assange residency (though the Ecuadorian President backtracked after controversy ensued). Earlier this month, Assange interviewed that nation’s left-wing President, Rafael Correa, for his television program on RT. Among other things, Correa praised the transparency brought about by WikiLeaks’ release of diplomatic cables as being beneficial for Ecuador (“We have nothing to hide. If anything, the WikiLeaks [releases] have made us stronger”). President Correa also was quite critical of the U.S., explaining the reason he closed the American base in his country this way: “Would you accept a foreign military base in your country? It’s so simple, as I said that at the time, there is no problem in having a U.S. military base in Ecuador but ok, perfect - we can give permission for the intelligence base only if they allow us to install an Ecuadorian base in the United States, a military base. That’s it, no more problem.”
In this same article, Greenwald explains why Assange has no reason to expect fair treatment from Sweden or the United States. See also this post, indicating that the U.S. prosecution of Assange is an attack on democracy itself. The "crime" of Assange is that he has done, only better, what the New York Times does when it wins awards.

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How to make an island

Do you need to get away from it all? Do you crave an island of your own? Richie Sowa was in that position. Rather than find an island or buy one, he decided to make his own. The foundation of his island is consists of empty plastic water bottles. Sowa is now growing his own bananas, coconuts, spinach, almonds and tomatoes. In the video below, he says that he has everything he wants. Although his island is currently in Mexico, he plans to keep increasing the size of the island, until he sets out to sea.

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