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A.J. Marr has written an excellent essay on the notion of the meme and why he believes it to be essentially a poor metaphor for the complexities of human behavior. It is well-researched and thoughtful, but in the end, relegates the concept of the meme to the land of mixed metaphors and gives it too much credit of control over human behavior. Read more…

The New Scientist reports that one anthropologist, Maurice Bloch, is making the argument that religion is a natural development that has come about due to the evolution of imagination in our species.  I’d likely agree with this since I also agree with Jeff Hawkin’s ideas about intelligence being largely made up of the ability to predict.  And prediction can require imagination.  Such a development though would inevitably lead to predictions that were, sadly, incorrect but unverifiable, like heaven or prayer.  Our species’ early attempts to predict things often amounted to speculations about unseen powers controlling the seen elements of nature, and given the evidence our ancestors had at the time, unseen powers was a logical, if anthropomorphic, conclusion.

I’ve had quite a few debates with editors and various other people over the correct spelling of the word yeah.  It is not y-a-y.  That is the cheer, as in “Yay! Meatballs again.”  And it’s not y-a, as in “Ya’ know”—or the contraction for you.  But some people remain unconvinced and I think the best way to illustrate the point is to listen very carefully to the way the word is pronounced in Fargo.  Enjoy.

By the by, I put this lovely little posting in Meme Safari because Andy Balo over at waxy.org says he’s identified a new meme—the supercut.  Check out his article on the supercut to see more wonderful and ridiculous edits of movies and shows.  And even though it technically doesn’t fit the supercut mememold, I’m just going to mention the Vader Sessions again because it’s still hilarious.

First, find an odd artifact. Then, post it to the web. Finally, ask people to riff on it in their own way by generally messing with the media and the monoculture. The result? — a very amusing site about Hopkin frog. Him name Hopkin Frog. Read more…