Skull-Penetration Interventions to Combat Zombies

An article in the Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, February 2019, Volume :51 Number 1, discusses the question of evidence in assessing traumatic brain injuries (TBI) by using the example of Zombies. The article begins : “Despite anecdotal evidence seen on television and in movies, there is zero actual research to support penetrating traumatic brain injury […]

Recent progress in Wonder Woman studies

Since her first appearance in 1941, Wonder Woman © has received considerable attention from academia. Here are (but a few) recent(ish) contributions to the literature : • ‘A Different Kind of Power’?: identification, stardom and embodiments of the military in Wonder Woman • Wonder Woman, the Gutter, and Critical Genocide Studies • Loving Lassos: Wonder Woman, […]

The pleasures of watching ironically-enjoyed movies (new study)

“So-called ‘trash films’ do not stand in opposition to taste and education. Quite the contrary, they are often watched by people with an above-average education and interest in culture.” – informs a recent online article from Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, München, Germany. The ‘delight-in-cheapness’ they are referring to is analysed in a paper for the journal Poetics Volume […]

Predictably smelly breathing [podcast 74]

Heavy breathing (that’s smelly) in movie theaters, in response to what’s in the movie, is the subject of this week’s Improbable Research podcast. SUBSCRIBE on Play.it, iTunes, or Spotify to get a new episode every week, free. This week, Marc Abrahams  — with dramatic readings by Harvard chemist Daniel Rosenberg — tells about: Predictably smelly breathing in movie theaters— “Cinema audiences reproducibly vary the chemical composition […]

He’s the “k”, and has great Erdos and Bacon numbers

“He is the ‘k’ in G. W. Peck, a pseudonym for a group of six mathematicians,” says Wikipedia, which goes on to say: Kleitman has coauthored at least six papers with Erdős, giving him an Erdős number of 1. He was a math advisor and extra for the film Good Will Hunting.[5] Since Minnie Driver of Good Will Hunting appeared in Sleepers with Kevin Bacon, Kleitman […]