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ADVERTISEMENT We are all familiar with the phrase “your mind plays tricks on you.”  In many scientific cases, this statement has proven to be true.  The human brain is extremely complex and organized.  Professionals are skilled at making observations surrounding cognitive tendencies, but understanding the mechanisms behind human perception is challenging.  The cognitive map that [...]

Sometimes the best feeling to experience from a film is confusion.  While mainstream Hollywood loves to churn out countless hackneyed formula-followers, which tell us precisely when to cry or laugh or release tension, having everything spoon-fed and laid out so predictably is a very traditional approach to film.  Sure each has its place, a comedy [...]

No matter where you go in the world, vehicles play a major role in almost every aspect of our lives. Vehicle ownership is seen by most as an essential part of existence in the modern world. Whether for pleasure or economic necessity, just about all of us will want or need to own a vehicle [...]

Writers have been adding levels of toxicity to their brains and bloodstreams since the beginning of time: self-diagnosing and self-treating their own misery, boredom, or lack of ideas with foreign self-altering substances. Shakespeare (whether personally familiar or not) included notions of an “insane root” in Macbeth to explain the hijacking of normality by paranormal encounters, [...]

Freak shows were much more popular fifty years ago than they are today. In fact, they are now illegal in some states. Freak shows were common at state fairs, carnivals, and circus sideshows. Curtains would be tightly drawn around the various “three-headed lady” or “alligator boy” tents. Curious customers wondered what was inside, and perhaps [...]

Hunter S. Thompson, an infamous writer and social figure who impacted generations of avid and sometimes obsessive readers, is a primary source of America’s most humorous, reckless, revelatory, and sometimes offensive quotes. In an attempt at capturing the vast essence of his genius I have assembled a list of 10 memorable quotes spanning the many [...]

I have been fascinated with the concept of antiheroes since I was ten years old and Han Solo shot first.  Good guys are not supposed to do bad things, good guys are supposed to be just and noble and always do what is right, yet Han Solo far and away was the much cooler character [...]