Reader Tips

Reader Tips 41 Comments

Everybody knows that carefully crafted optical illusions can cause us to misperceive what’s real – the relative straightness of a line, for example, or the relative size of objects – but what’s less commonly known is that visual cues can cause you to hear – to clearly hear – a different vocal sound than the one actually being made: Check out the remarkable and strange McGurk effect. If you don’t believe what you’re hearing, wait for the split-screen bit.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.

41 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  2. Beware of strangers offering assistance:
    “(Oh Kil Nam) was married with two young daughters and studying for a doctoral degree in economics at the University of Tuebingen (Germany). He was also an outspoken and left-leaning opponent of the authoritarian government then running South Korea. His activism attracted the attention of North Korean agents, who approached Oh and offered help with a family medical problem. His wife, Shin Sook-ja, a South Korean nurse, was sick with hepatitis. The North Koreans convinced Oh that she would get free first-class treatment in Pyongyang and he would get a good government job.
    “Via East Germany and Moscow, the family arrived in Pyongyang on Dec. 3, 1985, Oh said, and was immediately taken to nearby mountains for indoctrination at a military camp. ‘The moment we stepped into that camp, I knew my wife was right and that I had made the wrong decision,’ Oh said…”

  7. Andrew Roberts at The Daily Beast:
    “Lord Black’s authoritative and highly readable new memoir (full disclosure: I’m a dedicatee) reveals that at a small dinner party given at the home of Cardinal Gerald Emmett Carter, the then–cardinal archbishop of Toronto, in 1990, the then-cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—now Pope Benedict—’lamented ‘the slow suicide of Europe:’ its population was aging and shrinking, and the unborn were being partly replaced by unassimilable immigrants.'”
    […]
    “Thanks to Lord Black’s fascinating book we now know what the pope really thinks, and indeed thought back in 1990, even before the last two decades of mass immigration into Europe from African and Middle Eastern Muslim countries. For the phrase ‘unassimilable immigrants’ cannot refer to anyone else, because there was no large-scale immigration into Europe at that time from any other peoples who fit that description…”

  9. In this post at foreignpolicy.com, John Mearsheimer defends himself against Jeffrey Goldberg’s accusation that a book Mearsheimer endorsed (in the dust-jacket promotional blurb) is an anti-Semitic tract.
    Joseph W at Harry’s Place responds by providing some choice extracts from the book, The Wandering Who? by Gilat Atzmon:

    “Judaism could well be the most sinister religion known to man, for in the name of Jewish suffering it issues licences to kill, to flatten to nuke, to annihilate, to loot, to ethnically cleanse. It has made vengeance into an acceptable Western value.”

    “You may wonder at this stage whether I regard the credit crunch as a Zionist plot or even a Jewish conspiracy. In fact the opposite is the case. It isn’t a plot and certainly not a conspiracy for it was all in the open.”

    “Fagin is the ultimate plunderer, a child exploiter and usurer. Shylock is the blood-thirsty merchant. With Fagin and Shylock in mind, the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians seems to be just a further event in an endless hellish continuum.”

    Mearsheimer: “Goldberg’s indictment of Atzmon does not rely on anything that he wrote in The Wandering Who…”

  10. The brain is fascinating especially when it comes to language and speech. I watched a 6 part documentary on the brain (BBC) and was amazed to discover that the speech and language areas of the brain are randomized meaning certain functions necessary for speech and language are not in a fixed location.

  11. Why Does the Good Life End?
    edistribution of wealth rather than emphasis on its creation is surely a symptom of aging societies. Whether at Byzantium during the Nika Riots or in bread and circuses Rome, when the public expects government to provide security rather than the individual to become autonomous through a growing economy, then there grows a collective lethargy. I think that is the message of Juvenal’s savage satires about both mobs and the idle rich. Fourth-century Athenian literature is characterized by forensic law suits, as citizens sought to sue each other, or to sue the state for sustenance, or to fight over inheritances.
    http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/why-does-the-good-life-end/

  14. OBOZOs slip of the tongue, without TOTUS on hand, reveals the true inner MOFO that he is.
    Another anti-semite leftard, except this one happens to be, for the time being, the resident of the Oval Office.
    We can’t get rid of the Kenyan soon enough!

  16. This attitude from the education system drives me crazy:
    The Problem:
    A study released the Frontier Centre last week blamed a new math curriculum for an overall drop in students’ math skills.
    A University of Regina mathematics professor who spoke to CBC News last week agreed that the real problem is that teachers are not being trained well enough on how to teach mathematics.
    The Education System Solution:
    …Cecilia Reynolds, the dean of education at the University of Saskatchewan, said the college is currently considering making the math education course an elective.
    Reynolds said teachers would still be taught how to instruct children in math skills, but that training would be more child-focused, “taking into consideration if that child is aboriginal, taking into consideration if that child has autism, taking into consideration whether that child ate a breakfast that morning.”
    Reynolds added that the proposal is being driven by the prospective teachers themselves.
    “Repeatedly, they tell us they need more information about how to work with diverse students, how to deal with racism in the classroom, how to talk with parents,” she said.
    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2011/09/25/sask-teachers-math-education.html
    Arrgh… F for Fail

  18. just in time for the election campaign too…..
    from: wyblog.us/blog/news/post-office-to-put-living-ppl-on-stamps.html
    Monday, 26 September 2011
    You know the Post Office is only doing this so they can issue a Barack Obama stamp before the election
    For the first time, living people will be eligible to be honored on U.S. postage stamps.
    The U.S. Postal Service announced Monday that it is ending its longstanding rule that stamps cannot feature people who are still alive and it’s asking the public to offer suggestions on who should be first.
    Since Jan. 1, 2007, the requirement has been that a person must have been deceased five years before appearing on a stamp. Before that, the rule was 10 years.
    The post office announced that it will consider stamps for acclaimed American musicians, sports stars, writers, artists and other nationally known figures.
    “This change will enable us to pay tribute to individuals for their achievements while they are still alive to enjoy the honor,” Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in a statement.
    Uh huh. I guarantee the very first “nationally known figure” they choose will be Barack Hussein Obama. How could it not be? You think they’re gonna issue a Derek Jeter stamp before paying tribute to America’s first black president?
    Every pissant little third world country puts their Dear Leader’s picture on a stamp, why not us too?

  19. Beached whale BBC choked on its own harpoon.
    “However, a BBC internal investigation has concluded that Rastani is authentic.”
    …-
    “Trader’s Goldman Sachs comments spark BBC hoax claims”
    “Alessio Rastani, who claimed on BBC News channel ‘I dream of another recession’, alleged to be member of the ‘Yes Men'”
    “He caused outrage with his comments on the global economic meltdown claiming “governments don’t rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world”.
    But is independent stock market trader Alessio Rastani, interviewed on the BBC News channel on Monday, all he appears to be?
    Twitter was alive with suggestions that Rastani was in fact one of the “Yes Men”, a band of “identity correction” artists who pass themselves off as the corporations you love to hate.
    When asked by the Guardian, via email, to respond to the allegation that he a member of the prank group, Rastani chose his words carefully. However, a BBC internal investigation has concluded that Rastani is authentic.”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/27/trader-goldman-sachs-bbc-hoax

  20. “NP | Thousands rally against proposed service cuts
    About 4,000 people packed Nathan Phillip Square by 6 p.m. Monday. Many carried placards showing a cartoon of a runaway train going off a cliff, with Rob Ford in the locomotive, and the slogan, “Stop the Crazy Train.””
    …-
    “What’s the use of saving money?”
    “How years of ultra-low interest rates have punished savers, rewarded spenders, and now might be smothering any hopes of recovery”
    …-
    http://www.jacksnewswatch.com/

  21. Leftism/Socialism: It’s for “our children’s future”.
    “railway unionist Dinos Sourmelis told Reuters.
    “We are not fighting for ourselves, we are also fighting for them and our children’s future.”
    …-
    “Greeks worn down by drumbeat of strikes”
    “* Greeks endure daily disruption
    * “It’s ordinary people suffering,” said one
    * Transport union official asks public for patience
    By Renee Maltezou
    ATHENS, Sept 27 (Reuters) – As austerity bites and international lenders demand higher taxes and more cuts to salaries and pensions, ordinary Greeks are being worn down by the daily grind of strikes and protests that have come to punctuate their lives.”
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/27/greece-strikes-idUSL5E7KR25R20110927

  23. “Predicting Obama”
    “J.R. Dunn”
    >>> “I wish I’d remembered that back in 2008.”
    http://www.americanthinker.com/jr_dunn/
    …-
    >>> “Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. – 8/13/2008”
    “Barack Obama – Narcissist or Merely Narcissistic?”
    “Barack Obama appears to be a narcissist. Granted, only a qualified mental health diagnostician (which I am not) can determine whether someone suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) and this, following lengthy tests and personal interviews. But, in the absence of access to Barack Obama, one has to rely on his overt performance and on testimonies by his closest, nearest and dearest.”
    http://www.globalpolitician.com/25109-barack-obama-elections

  24. Did Matt-SDA- possibly capture a recording of Ezra Levant’s ‘The Source’, from Monday’s (26th) show?
    There was one sizzling interview on HRC’s with one Wildrose candidate.

  27. at least the liebrals aren’t in power or they’d be docking in Halifax…of course, if they did, they might sail with a slightly smaller crew…and rest assured that ‘bama will invite them to dock at NYC…right in front of where the towers used to be…..
    Iran says could deploy navy near U.S. coast
    TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran raised the prospect on Tuesday of sending military ships close to the United States’ Atlantic coast, in what would be a major escalation of tensions between the long-standing adversaries.
    “Like the arrogant powers that are present near our marine borders, we will also have a powerful presence close to American marine borders,” the head of the Navy, Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said, according to the official IRNA news agency.
    Speaking at a ceremony marking the 31st anniversary of the start of the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, Sayyari gave no details of when such a deployment could happen or the number or type of vessels to be used.
    The declaration comes just weeks after Turkey said it would host a NATO early warning radar system which will help spot missile threats from outside Europe, including potentially from Iran. The decision has angered Tehran which had enjoyed close relations with Ankara.
    And it comes a few months after Iran sent warships through the Suez canal, after the fall of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the first time the Islamic Republic had deployed navy vessels in the Mediterranean.
    The United States and Israel have not ruled out military action against Iran if diplomacy fails to stop it getting nuclear weapons. Tehran denies it is developing nuclear arms saying its atomic program is for purely peaceful purposes.
    Iran has dismissed the threats, warning that it will respond by hitting U.S. interests in the Gulf and Israel if any such attack happened.
    Analysts say Tehran could retaliate by launching hit-and-run strikes in the Gulf and by closing the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway where about 40 percent of all traded oil passes.
    The Islamic state often launches military drills in the country to display its military capabilities amid persistent speculation about a possible U.S. or Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

  28. Mao Stlong* Lepolt.
    Darai Rama says, ‘**I’m a Marxist’.
    …-
    “Dalai Lama visit blocked by South Africa to please China, says opposition”
    “Government denies being put under pressure to stop Tibetan spiritual leader attending Desmond Tutu’s 80th birthday”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/27/dalai-lama-banned-south-africa
    …-
    **Darai Rama:
    “‘I’m a Marxist,’ Dalai Lama tells Chinese students”
    http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2011/06/dalai-lama-china-marx-communism/1
    *Mao Stlong is Liberal leader Basement Bob Rae’s Uncle Maurice Strong.

  30. *Suspend elections?*
    I wonder who has been whispering in this Democrat’s ear.
    (As a way to solve the national debt crisis, North Carolina Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue recommends suspending Congressional elections for the next couple of years.
    “I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover,” Perdue said at a rotary club event in Cary, North Carolina, according to the Raleigh News and Observer. “I really hope that someone can agree with me on that.”
    Perdue said she thinks that temporarily halting elections would allow members of Congress to focus on the economy. “You have to have more ability from Congress, I think, to work together and to get over the partisan bickering and focus on fixing things,” Perdue said.)
    http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/27/nc-governor-recommends-suspending-democracy-to-focus-on-jobs/

  31. With Conservative PM Harper to 2020 and beyond >>>
    “having an advanced economy, an appealing environment and an effective government,”.
    …-
    “Canada is the Country With the Best Reputation in the World According to Reputation Institute”
    “Study Finds Direct Link between a Country’s Reputation and its Levels of FDI and Tourism Receipts”
    “NEW YORK, Sept. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Canada has earned the highest reputation ranking in Reputation Institute’s 2011 Country RepTrak™, an annual study measuring the public perceptions of 50 countries around the world. The study measures the overall Trust, Esteem, Admiration and Good Feelings the public holds towards these countries, as well as their perceptions across 16 different attributes, including a good quality of life, a safe place to live and a strong attention to their environment. Results from over 42,000 respondents worldwide showed that Canada scored well in all of these elements.
    “The study shows that a strong country reputation requires a solid performance across three different areas: having an advanced economy, an appealing environment and an effective government,” says Nicolas Georges Trad, Executive Partner of Reputation Institute, a global consulting firm specializing in reputation management.”
    http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/canada-is-the-country-with-the-best-reputation-in-the-world-according-to-reputation-institute-130638543.html

  32. “Stocks jump on hope for Europe’s debt crisis”.
    (googlenews)
    H/T Fear*: “Hope* is charming, lively, blue-eyed wench, & I am always glad of her company, but …”.
    …-
    “Europe Nears Bailout Accord That May Be Inadequate”
    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/world/europe/europe-nears-agreement-on-bailout-fund-that-may-be-inadequate.html
    …-
    “Split opens over Greek bailout terms: sources”
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-news/european/split-opens-over-greek-bailout-terms-sources/article2182104/

  33. Of socialism: an ideology without a future.
    Never, ever, will one see/hear/read this in/on Canada’s MSM.
    “We go to the cafe. It’s the last thing we have” – an Athenian teacher”
    “Ersi Georgiadou laughs again and tells of the island of Zakynthos, where one in five residents is registered as blind. Medically that would be amazing – yet it may have something to do with the lucrative disability benefits for the blind.”
    “And that the part of the Greek people who actually committed the theft have also stolen the country’s future.”
    “Suicide was always a taboo in this society,which has always been firmly in the grip of the Greek Orthodox Church.”
    It’s so much too scary for Canada’s MSM.
    …-
    “Greece”
    “There’s laughter in hell”
    “Many Greeks feel their future has been stolen from them. But who is to blame? One writes a letter to Angela Merkel, another wants his people to embrace virtue. A report from Athens, where the laughter comes from desperation.”
    “She laughs. They do still exist, people who sit in the cafes and laugh. A lot of cafes are even full. Visiting one is an act of rebellion against these days, days that are all mad, against this morning, as the café-goers open their eyes to peer a little bit further ahead into the tunnel and feel the panic rising.
    Sitting by their espressos and glasses of water, often for hours on end, they gaze out over a city that is increasingly alien to them, out over a land that eludes them. “You Germans go into the forest to collect mushrooms,” says Ersi Georgiadou. “We head to the cafe. It’s the last thing we have.”
    Ersi Georgiadou knows the Germans. She teaches their language to her fellow Greeks. Teaching also used to be easier. This September there were no textbooks at the start of the school year. The students were given a CD, from which they now must print out or copy the first chapter. Ersi Georgiadou takes her head in her hands and laughs. It’s also an act of desperation.
    She must live with the knowledge that, in the eyes of the whole world – in the eyes of the Germans – the Greeks have all been lumped together as lazy thieves. And that the part of the Greek people who actually committed the theft have also stolen the country’s future. “We don’t know what will happen next week,” she says. “All we think about is tomorrow. We all just talk about survival.” Wednesday is payday. The teacher does not know yet how much of her salary she will get.”
    “Suicide rate”
    “An incompetent government that runs around in a panic – without a goal, as most believe – alongside thieves and con artists who have still not been held accountable. Ersi Georgiadou laughs again and tells of the island of Zakynthos, where one in five residents is registered as blind. Medically that would be amazing – yet it may have something to do with the lucrative disability benefits for the blind. The government has now sent eye doctors to the island to investigate the phenomenon. Meanwhile, Ersi Georgiadou has begun to hoard food – oil, rice, honey. “But I do try to wear rose-colored glasses.” At some point it will eventually all be over. “In ten or 15 years, perhaps? Or?”
    Something has to give. Some emigrate, others are getting the anger out of their system by protesting, others are killing themselves. Suicide was always a taboo in this society,which has always been firmly in the grip of the Greek Orthodox Church.
    The official suicide figures are still underreported – families are ashamed to admit suicides in their midst. “We Greeks are not really a depressive people,” says the psychologist Aris Violatzis. “We’re loud and extroverted. We never did have many suicides. But today we have the highest jump in the suicide rate in the world.”
    Social or economic circumstances are often the trigger in the end, says the psychologist. That’s why he sees an obligation for the government. “These people do not want to die. They want to kill their pain. Here is where our responsibility begins.”
    A silver lining
    Aris Violatzis also has a message for the Europeans. “Demonising Greece is ludicrous. The Europeans are panicking and they’re saying: ‘Let’s burn a witch, so the rest of us will be cleansed’. But is it really little Greece with its population of ten million that has brought down all this financial chaos? This is a witch hunt.”
    Others prefer to point the finger at themselves.”
    http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/article/996651-there-s-laughter-hell

  34. O’f the O’Great MSM Dis-Information Campaign of 2008.
    O’s Tina Brown:
    “While discussing whether New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will change his mind and run for President, the former New Yorker editor blurted, “Actually, I just hope he doesn’t, because in the end, you know, his tremendous misgivings, maybe he is right. I mean, We had this with Obama. He wasn’t ready, it turns out, really.””
    “Liberal Newsweek Editor Admits: Obama ‘Wasn’t Ready’ to Be President”
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2784603/posts
    http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2011/09/27/tina-brown-obama-wasnt-ready-be-president

  35. Market sizzle fizzled.
    Socialism’s Grecian Formula “roils-markets”.
    …-
    “Opposition to Greek rescue roils markets”
    “Word of the split immediately took the fizzle out of North American markets Tuesday, after a strong day of stock gains around the world. Before the news, markets were soaring on the determination of European leaders to address the root of the region’s debt troubles, rather than continue on a path of piecemeal solutions to plug holes in the system. But the rally faded and North American stocks ended the day only modestly higher.”
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-news/opposition-to-greek-rescue-roils-markets/article2181354/

  38. Bemused @ 9:16 a.m.:
    “The U.S. Postal Service announced Monday that it is ending its longstanding rule that stamps cannot feature people who are still alive and it’s asking the public to offer suggestions on who should be first.”
    “I guarantee the very first “nationally known figure” they choose will be Barack Hussein Obama.”
    Yeah, that was a tough one to figure out. It took me a whole three nanoseconds to come to the same conclusion.

  39. chutzpahticular @ 5:00 p.m.:
    “As a way to solve the national debt crisis, North Carolina Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue recommends suspending Congressional elections for the next couple of years.”
    “‘I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won’t hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover,’ Perdue said at a rotary club event in Cary, North Carolina …”
    The economic problems of the western world are not an alien visitation from outer space. They are caused by the collective deadweight of taxes, regulations and other economic distortions imposed by politicians through legislation. There is no reason to think that the current political class is any closer to clueing in than any of the previous ones. And there is no reason to believe that they would clue in if given an extra couple of years to think about it. What if the economy doesn’t recover?
    This may even be a typical socialist attempt to subvert democracy: cause economic problems, then claim you need to work on them and can’t afford elections in the meantime.
    The two-year Congressional term is exceedingly short, and had it originally been set at four years the effect would be no different from skipping one round under the present system. But it’s still a terrible, undemocratic idea. It’s the principle of the thing.

  40. nv53: “This may even be a typical socialist attempt to subvert democracy: cause economic problems, then claim you need to work on them and can’t afford elections in the meantime.”
    That may be the plan.
    I wouldn’t put it past those pulling Obama’s strings.

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation