Tuesday, February 6, 2018

TWIC: comedy, Iceland, writer-fight, my civilization

Rowan Atkinson has a one hour documentary on how to do comedy. Informative and funny.
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Why are Icelanders so creative?
Iceland made a concerted effort to introduce innovation education, or IE, into their curriculums more than 20 years ago and researchers and Icelanders alike agree it is key to their booming creativity.

“Creative kids here in the United States tend to be looked at as a problem.”

All children in schools devote time to learning to use tools, how to build and create all manner of products, and more. Such practices are on the decline in the United States, where more and more attention goes to testing. Icelanders test little, do not have IQ tests in school, and focus instead on learning and applying skills in all areas of the curriculum.
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Science Fiction writing award likely were never apolitical. but a few years ago, the political bent of the writers became more important than the writing. At least for some writers who made two groups the Sad Puppies and Rapid Puppies. I think the main excitement was two years ago, but there is still fallout. One such writer has had his membership for Worldcon revoked. Link is to a discussion of why his membership was revoked.
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If you felt the need to broadcast the value of our civilization to the universe, how would you do it?
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Advice from writer Heather O'Neill's father. A few of the tips:
  1. Make friends with Jewish kids.
  2. Accept that you're ugly and move on.
  3. Never tell anyone what you do for a living.
  4. Know something about history.
  5. No matter what anyone tells you, crime certainly pays.
  6. All sophisticated people have dinner parties.
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Rupi Kaur; the Instagram poet
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Writing, well or poorly, is good for you
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Sketching Science




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