Ten trivial (i.e non-work-related) items 9

Ant slaves' murderous rebellions
via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
From the journal Evolution, a fascinating tale of slave rebellion among ants kidnapped by other ant species and forced to work for the rival colony.

When these youngsters mature, they take on the odour of their abductors and become the servants of the enslaving queen. They take over the jobs of maintaining the colony and caring for its larvae even though they are from another species; they even take part in raids themselves. But like all slave-traders, P.americanus faces rebellions.

15 Incredible Library Special Collections via Phil Bradley's weblog
Thanks to Ryan Caldwell for alerting me to the marvellous blog post:15 Incredible Library Special Collections This is a list of absolute gems.. The George Kelley Paperback and Pulp Fiction collection, The Nurse Romance Novels, Fore-edge paintings, the Baldwin Library of Historical Children's literature, the Comic Art collection - and many more. This is one to keep for a Friday afternoon, since you're likely to spend hours going through these. Fantastic stuff!

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Placebo effects: capsules work better than tablets, big pills work better than small, and the more expensive the medicine, the more its effect... more

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
We may well be genetically predisposed to appreciate listening to Sinatra or staring at a Seurat. But where did the genes come from?... more

Rare recording of James Joyce reading; Happy Bloomsday! via Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow
Happy Bloomsday! Here's a rare reading of James Joyce performing his own work; as John Naughton notes, "When I first heard it I was astonished to find that he had a broad Irish-country accent. I had always imagined him speaking as a 'Dub' -- i.e. with the accent of most of the street characters in Ulysses."

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Democracy needs to know the serious reading of books. Long books. Hard books. Books with which we have to struggle... more

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
A brilliant talker, sparkling essayist, and champion of liberty, to be sure. So why do Isaiah Berlin's letters leave us with such a nasty taste?... more

Friday fun via Science, Engineering & Technology Blog by Anne
MathsChallenge provides a collection of mathematical puzzles of varying degrees of difficulty.

Afghanistan: Peace Through Accordions via Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin
I loved this video produced in Afghanistan by Globalpost contributor Gregory Warner. For Which It Stands: Afghanistan, an accordion journey (Globalpost, via Bigthink, thanks Sepideh Saremi!)

via Arts & Letters Daily – ideas, criticism, debate
Was Einstein wrong? Quantum effects not only go against deep intuitions about the world, they undermine special relativity... more

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