The Dish

Mind Hacks excerpts an article on dream development:

Preschoolers’ dreams are often static and plain, such as seeing an animal or thinking about eating. There are no characters that move, no social interactions, little feeling, and they do not include the dreamer as an active character…Preschoolers do not report fear in dreams, and there are few aggressions, misfortunes and negative emotions. Children who have night terrors, in which they awaken early during the night from SWS [slow-wave sleep] and display intense fear and agitation, are probably terrorized by disorientation owing to incomplete awakening rather than by a dream. Thus, although children of age 2–5 years can see and speak of everyday people, objects and events, they apparently cannot dream of them.

A fascinating sociological study of profile photos:

Now, you’re always told to look happy and make eye contact in social situations, but at least for your online dating photo, that’s just not optimal advice. For women, a smile isn’t strictly better: she actually gets the most messages by flirting directly into the camera [… However,] flirting away from the camera is the single worst attitude a woman can take. Certain social etiquettes apply even online: if you’re going to be making eyes at someone, it should be with the person looking at your picture.

Men’s photos are most effective when they look away from the camera and don’t smile:

Jezebel spotlights the disturbing custom of gavage, as practiced in Mauritania.

Tom Junod marks the President's first year:

Nobody espouses philosophies anymore, and fewer and fewer people espouse their faith. We are, however, prepared to speak endlessly about our favored philosophy of parenting, and this takes the place of the other two. For centuries, parents believed their primary obligation to their children was to keep them from the fires of hell; short of that, any amount of corporal punishment was justified. As we have shifted away from religious belief toward rationalism, we have shifted our methods of punishment, until we have arrived at the prescription of no punishment at all. The belief behind the "time-in" — essentially a hug — is that children are not sinful beings but rather imperfectly rational ones, capable of empathy and enlightened self-interest. Obama, for all his professions of faith, represents the triumph of the secular movement of our society. Although his language is drawn from religion, his principles, like the principles of positive discipline and community organization, are drawn from therapy.

(Hat tip: Kottke)

A cool hunting technique among bottlenose dolphins.

Miles Corwin explores the journalistic roots of Gabriel Garcia Marquez:

[Gabriel Garcia Marquez never forgot] the reporter’s obligation to hook readers with the very first sentence. Some of García Márquez’s early newspaper leads read like fiction, and point directly to his later work. For example, he wrote a series for El Espectador about a swampy, disease-ridden area of Colombia near the coast, and opened with a lead guaranteed to intrigue any reader: “Several years ago a ghostly, glassy-looking man, with a big stomach as taut as a drum, came to a doctor’s office in the city. He said, ‘Doctor, I have come to have you remove a monkey that was put in my belly.’ ”

"Curious George, as it might sound if read by eccentric, dark and strangely literal German director Werner Herzog":

Steve Benen sees some hopeful signs that the Dems do not want to commit suicide for nothing:

As recently as last week, in the midst of lengthy discussions at the White House, a wide variety of changes were agreed upon by House and Senate negotiators. The idea, of course, was to craft a final bill to be approved by both chambers. Voters in Massachusetts have since made this approach impossible.

But if Reid and Pelosi can package those already-discussed improvements, and agree to approve them through reconciliation after the House passes the Senate bill, then there's still hope that a fiasco for the ages can be avoided.

The changes being considered track closely with the agreements House and Senate leaders made in White House meetings last week, according to a source. They include the deal with labor unions to ease the tax on high-end insurance plans, additional Medicare cuts and taxes, the elimination of a special Medicaid funding deal for Nebraska and a move to help cover the gap in seniors' prescription drug coverage. Pelosi is also working to change the Senate provision that sets up state insurance exchanges. The House prefers a single, national exchange.

Discussions, a Pelosi spokesperson said, "are ongoing … but no final decisions have been made."

If the GOP try to repeal it, Obama has a veto. And when they try to repeal a bill that would clearly save lives, offer help to millions, and security to many more, Obama can run for re-election without them. There are many positive outcomes alongside a negative outcome for the Dems and Obama if they pass this bill and keep their nerve. There are no positive outcomes if they don't.

Grow some, Dems. And fight, Mr President. Fight.

A New England poet advises:

The best thing that could happen to poetry is to drive it out of the universities with burning pitch forks. Starve the lavish grants. Strangle them all in a barrel of water. Cast them out. The current culture, in which poetry is written for and supported by poets has created a kind of state-sanctioned poetry that  resists innovation. When and if poetry is ever made to answer to the broader public, then we may begin to see some great poetry again – the greatness that is the collaboration between audience and artist.