Minor Wisdom

A nature documentary about the honey badger

I try to post educational or edifying stuff here. But I don’t recall ever posting a nature documentary. So to fix that omission, here is a 3½ minute item about the honey badger. The narration is especially good.

How placebos work, and what this means

Everyone who took a psychology course in college knows about placebos. But most of us don’t know the physiological reasons why they work. And few of us think about the implications of their effectiveness. Here’s a video that wades into these subjects. (Hat tip to Improbable Research.)

In Australia, do the puppies circle the supper dish the other way?

Hat tip to Improbable Research for this one.

Words banished for 2011

Every year, the American people look forward to Lake Superior State University’s annual list of banished words, so much so that the list goes viral. So if you want to man up your vocabulary, refudiate misuse of overused vogue words, and avoid epic fail, check out the list and see if its wow factor gives you an a-ha moment. I’m just saying.

One thing alone ...

“One thing alone not even God can do,
To make undone whatever hath been done.”

—Aristotle

Walking to New Orleans (or perhaps taking some other mode of transportation)

According to this map, a lot of people are flocking to New Orleans, mainly from the east and west coasts. Click elsewhere on the map to see how many are moving in or out, and where they’re coming from or going. (Hat tip to Letters in Bottles.)

You really can observe a lot just by watching. But most people don’t.

You may have seen a video like this one before. If you have, watch this one anyway. You’ll discover that your powers of observation may not be as sharp as you think they are. (Hat tip to The Invisible Gorilla.)

“And/or” — just plain dumb?

Over at Writing Matters, Leslie O’Flahavan cites five on-line style guides to support the proposition that “using ‘and/or’ in a sentence is just plain dumb.”

p.s. Oops. I meant to post this on my other blog.

If Star Wars characters were on Facebook, ...

... then their friends would have read this. (Hat tip to friend Andrew Lilly.)

Tom Goldstein comes clean

At the recent DRI Appellate Seminar, Tom Goldstein spoke on how we, too, could become A-1 experts on Supreme Court practice. So imagine how shocked, SHOCKED I was to learn that Tom has been involved in some scandals. But in this video, Tom demonstrates why, in such unfortunate circumstances, coming clean is the best thing.