Jessica Zafra's Blog, page 49

If you lack sleep, you overeat.

Karsten Moran for the NYTimes Not enough sleep last night? You may overeat today. That’s the conclusion of investigators after reviewing data on 172 participants in 11 sleep studies. The study designs varied, but tested people after a night of restricted sleep, usually about four hours, and then after a night of normal rest. The […]

We are all in a time loop. (Updated)

In the last two days, everything has been upended. The traditional news media, now called the “legacy media”, has lost its influence. The pollsters, statisticians, pundits, experts in many fields, were wrong. Everything I’ve been taught to value no longer seems to matter. Oh, stuff like truth, intelligence (esp. books), respect, equality. The years 1972-86 […]

We are all in a time loop

On the Internet, nearly everything conspires against the truth.

Doctor Strange sends some journalists to a hell dimension. We are living in the post-fact age. The more I see what’s going on, the more thankful I am that I was born in the analog world (a.k.a. old). Digital technology has blessed us with better ways to capture and disseminate news. There are cameras and […]

Recommended by mood: 7 books paired with 7 movies

The very cool people of Seven A.D. invited me to their monthly Sietehan, where we talked about my strange career, the writing process, and how to survive the discovery that your father is not Darth Vader but Jar Jar Binks. Teeny, who heads the agency, was my classmate at UP——there were only a handful of […]

Megacity Fictions: Constructing the megalopolis with words

In October I got an email from Kathleen McCaul-Moura, a novelist, journalist, and doctoral candidate in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. She’s doing work on megacity fiction and how the infrastructure and architecture of massive urban hubs affect the literature which is created within them. She was looking for partners for the […]

Long weekend links: Social media creates angry partisans, how to tell if you’re a jerk, and what earwax is for

Are You A Jerk? (with attempts at definitions of jerk and asshole) Illustration from Nautilus by Jackie Ferrentino The scientifically recognized personality categories closest to “jerk” are the “dark triad” of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathic personality. Narcissists regard themselves as more important than the people around them, which jerks also implicitly or explicitly do. And […]

Doctor Strange: Psychedelic Marvel

Doctor Strange opened in local theatres today, days ahead of its US debut. The latest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Mads Mikkelsen, and Tilda Swinton, who can play any role she wants as far as we’re concerned. Saffy’s Wow face You will enjoy Doctor Strange […]

10 writers, 10 stories in our just-concluded Writing Boot Camp

The objective of Writing Boot Camp was to produce a story in the time between our two Saturday sessions. Last Saturday, the participants stood before the class one by one to read their first drafts. We got an intriguing range of stories, from fantasy epics to alternate histories, from the beginning of romance to the […]

A classical musician has recorded an album to soothe cats and Saffy likes it.

“Delightful! I recommend this album to cats everywhere.” – Saffy (Whenever she hears this music she runs to the speakers and listens intently.) David Teie of the National Symphony Orchestra has made a study of sounds that cats like, and composed music for our feline overlords. He is now working on an album of music […]