Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 4:05 PM

I'm finding more frustrations with Blogger's comment system than I am things to like.

Among other issues, Blogger offers four options regarding comment permissions:

1. Only members of this blog
2. Users with Google Accounts
3. Registered Users - including OpenID
4. Anyone - including Anonymous Users

But no setting between 3 and 4 which would allow unaccounted to provide their own handle without also enabling total anonymity (which I don't want -- I like having some nom to call repeat visitors).

Likewise, here are Blogger's moderation options:

• Always
• Only on posts older than __ days
• Never

But no ability to moderate only anonymous comments while letting registered users through.

Heck, Blogger doesn't even track IP addresses of anonymice or provide IP banning capabilities.

Also, every time change any of my Blogger settings, the system automatically starts creating post pages, which I also don't want.

So, I'm going to continue investigating whether I can tweak the other comment services (CoComment, Disqus, IntenseDebate, and JS-Kit) into something useful. [I wish I could just enable old-fashioned Haloscan popups, but that system is being converted to JS-Kit] Or maybe I'll cobble together a homebrew system.

If you have any feedback about any of the services mentioned, as a commenter or webmaster, whether or not they've worked for you, I'd love to hear your experiences.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:35 PM

Some recent books which caught my eye, as a reminder for future library/bookstore visits:

• Anonymity: a secret history of English literature by John Mullan
• Comedy at the edge: how stand-up in the 1970s changed America by Richard Zoglin
• Seriously funny: the rebel comedians of the 1950s and 1960s by Gerald Nachman
• Street gang: the complete history of Sesame Street by Michael Davis
• Pitch perfect: the quest for collegiate a cappella glory by Mickey Rapkin
• The Fortune cookie chronicles: adventures in the world of Chinese food by Jennifer 8. Lee
• Our magnificent bastard tongue: the untold history of English by John McWhorter
• Sway: the irresistible pull of irrational behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman
• Kluge: the haphazard construction of the human mind by Gary Marcus
• Where did I leave my glasses?: the what, when, and why of normal memory loss by Martha Weinman Lear
• Can't remember what I forgot: the good news from the front lines of memory research by Sue Halpern
• The How of happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky

And, checked out today from the library:

• The Anglo files: a field guide to the British by Sarah Lyall
• Bonk: the curious coupling of science and sex by Mary Roach

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:25 PM

Started reading Edward Kritzler's Jewish pirates of the Caribbean: how a generation of swashbuckling Jews carved out an empire in the new world in their quest for treasure, religious freedom -- and revenge, when I came across this intriguing tidbit:

Jewish trade links, cultivated since 1492, when Sephardim settled the far corners of the globe, doubled as a worldwide intelligence network. From the time Jews in Portugal got word to Queen Elizabeth that the Armada was sailing, they shared secret intelligence with the enemies of Spain.

I'd never heard that before, and I've read a few books on Elizabethan intelligencers and Elizabethan Jews (and even works on Elizabethan Jewish intelligencers, like the doomed Dr. Lopez and his extended family).

Unfortunately, like much modern nonfiction, this book is sparsely endnoted and the statement above is wholly unattributed.

So, has anybody else heard that advance word on the Armada came from the Jews? If so, do you know of any further sources I could/should read on the subject?

Thanks in advance.

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:24 AM

A couple links which I mentioned yesterday to people who had not yet seen them:

 • "Take On Me" -- the literal video version

 • Rabbit vs.Snake

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:06 PM

Updating an entry I posted last month for the people I told today:

Three articles by Dr. Emily Pronin and colleagues, from oldest to newest, with abstracts:

• Pronin, E., & Wegner, D. M. (2006). Manic thinking: Independent effects of thought speed and thought content on mood. Psychological Science

  This experiment found that the speed of thought affects mood. Thought speed was manipulated via participants' paced reading of statements designed to induce either an elated or a depressed mood. Participants not only experienced more positive mood in response to elation than in response to depression statements, but also experienced an independent increase in positive mood when they had been thinking fast rather than slow?for both elation and depression statements. This effect of thought speed extended beyond mood to other experiences often associated with mania (i.e., feelings of power, feelings of creativity, a heightened sense of energy, and inflated self-esteem or grandiosity).

• Pronin, E., & Jacobs, E. (2008). Thought speed, mood, and the experience of mental motion. Perspectives on Psychological Science

  This article presents a theoretical account relating thought speed to mood and psychological experience. Thought sequences that occur at a fast speed generally induce more positive affect than do those that occur slowly. Thought speed constitutes one aspect of mental motion. Another aspect involves thought variability, or the degree to which thoughts in a sequence either vary widely from or revolve closely around a theme. Thought sequences possessing more motion (occurring fast and varying widely) generally produce more positive affect than do sequences possessing little motion (occurring slowly and repetitively). When speed and variability oppose each other, such that one is low and the other is high, predictable psychological states also emerge. For example, whereas slow, repetitive thinking can prompt dejection, fast, repetitive thinking can prompt anxiety. This distinction is related to the fact that fast thinking involves greater actual and felt energy than slow thinking does. Effects of mental motion occur independent of the specific content of thought. Their consequences for mood and energy hold psychotherapeutic relevance.

• Pronin, E., & Jacobs, E. & Wegner, D. M. (2008). Psychological effects of thought acceleration. Emotion

  Six experiments found that manipulations that increase thought speed also yield positive affect. These experiments varied in both the methods used for accelerating thought (i.e., instructions to brainstorm freely, exposure to multiple ideas, encouragement to plagiarize others' ideas, performance of easy cognitive tasks, narration of a silent video in fast-forward, and experimentally controlled reading speed) and the contents of the thoughts that were induced (from thoughts about money-making schemes to thoughts of five-letter words). The results suggested that effects of thought speed on mood are partially rooted in the subjective experience of thought speed. The results also suggested that these effects can be attributed to the joy-enhancing effects of fast thinking (rather than only to the joy-killing effects of slow thinking). This work is inspired by observations of a link between "racing thoughts" and euphoria in cases of clinical mania, and potential implications of that observed link are discussed.

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:05 AM

Also, Tigers vs. Turkeys and last year's Christmas

Big Cat Rescue, where this was filmed, is located in Tampa, Florida.

Apparently, they opened after I graduated from college, which partly explains why I didn't know of their existence.

I'll have to go the next time I'm down there. Maybe we can take my brother and nephews...

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:35 AM

National Geographic has video of the residents of a Sydney zoo opening presents. [I didn't embed the video because it doesn't work under Opera, yet autoplays on other browsers -- still, it's cute and worth watching.]

PS: For now, I've turned off the registration requirement for comments.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:03 AM

Amid all the blog posts discussing where to find good Chinese food today, I discovered this cute little song from 2005:

I can't believe I never heard this before...

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:20 PM

Hopefully, I now successfully have Blogger comments operational on the site.

Not my ideal solution, but (with luck) it works and will allow folks to continue commenting as before.

The comment tool does recognize OpenIDs, including LiveJournal names, for easier identification.

Drop me a note, and let me know what you think.

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:31 PM

YACCS will discontinue its commenting service on December 23, 2008.

I'm taking down comments now, and will hopefully have a replacement service running within the next day.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

Posted by Lis Riba at 3:30 PM

Tonight, 60 Minutes discusses how much of airport screening is security theater, pitting Bruce Schneier against outgoing TSA head Kip Hawley.

Then, the next page I randomly opened featured this headline:

Clown strip-searched at airport
A clown wearing colourful pantaloons, huge comedy shoes and a flashing police helmet was strip searched by airport security guards who thought he was a security risk.