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Purrfect Combination Of Creepiness And Cats ("Creepy Cat" Comic)

Artist Cotton Valent has created a brilliant cat comic series called, "Creepy Cat."

Creepy Cat is the purrfect combination of creepiness and cats! Honestly, what more can you want in life? The story begins when Flora, the human, moves into an old house. Turns out, the old house is occupied by a "creepy cat." And that is where their story begins! 

You can follow the amazing series on Manga Mutiny! We love "Creepy Cat!"




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Disney Launches a Collection Of Cloth Face Masks Featuring Her Beloved Animal Characters

People all over the world are now being advised to wear face masks to slow the spread of coronavirus. 

Luckily, Disney is here to bring a spark to this new corona fashion wear, especially for kids who are more frightened these days. 

In a statement on its home page, the company expressed its commitment to serving the communities during these challenging times by creating a new line of family-friendly reusable cloth face masks featuring its timeless stories and beloved characters.  

Disney announced it will donate one million cloth face masks for children and families in underserved and vulnerable communities across the U.S. and pledged to donate all the profits to the non-profit organization, Medshare, which specializes in redistributing medical supplies to hospitals in need. 

From Baby Yoda to Winnie The Pooh and Mickie Mouse, the masks are aimed at kids and kids at heart who can finally have a chance to let out their inner character. 

You can purchase a four-pack of face masks for $19.99 in small, medium, and large sizes. 

Check out some of the cool designs. 




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Stunning Winning Photos From The GDT's Nature Photographer Of The Year 2020

The German Society for Nature Photography (GDT) has announced its Nature Photographer of the Year 2020. 

This year, for the first time in the GDT's history, voting was carried out online, due to the pandemic. 




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Time To Take In The Weekly Dose Of Cute (#81)

Once a week, your cuteness prescription will always be automatically refilled for your viewing pleasure!

Nothing -- and we mean nothing brings on those warm mushy feeling like a huge dose of animal cuteness! We scoured the internet to bring you the cutest animal pictures of the week! Bringing you cuteness every week - stay tuned for next week's dose! If you missed last week's dose, and you need a cuteness overload, check out last week's here.




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Fifteen Cats From Tech Support Who Are Busy Making An Update To Your PC (Memes)

"Don't worry, I'm from tech support...Just lemme get a closer look."

Well...it seems like these cats are more interested in all those mouses and cookies hiding in your computer.  




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Trees Cocooned in Spiders Webs Were Spotted After The Massive Floods In Pakistan

The floods that submerged one-fifth of Pakistan's territory took more than six months to recede.

One of the most affected regions was the Sindh region, located in the western corner of South Asia. 

At their peak, the floodwaters were up to 20 feet deep. About 20 million people were displaced.

But apparently, people were not the only ones seeking shelter from the devastating floods. 

One of the unexpected side-effects of the flooding has been that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising floodwaters, turning them into futuristic-looking trees cocooned in spiders' webs.

The people living in that area claimed they have never seen this phenomenon before but were glad to discover that those cocooned trees were actually significantly reducing the numbers of mosquitos and thereby, the risk of malaria. 

It is thought that the mosquitoes were getting caught in the spiders' webs which would be one blessing for the people of the area, facing so many other hardships after the floods. 

Check out some of the stunning photos, released by the department of international development.




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Amsterdam's "Cat Boat" Is A Floating Cat Sanctuary

Welcome to the one and only cat sanctuary that floats! A true hidden gem in Amsterdam. 

De Poezenboot (translated in English to 'The Cat Boat') first began not on a boat at all. In 1966, a woman in Amsterdam, known as v. Weddle, found a stray mother cat with kittens and took on the task of caring for them. Soon enough, more and more cats began to come and be taken under her wing. 

Fast forward to two years later in 1968 and the first boat was born! V. Weedle had a large house with a terrace but was soon becoming too small for the cats so she bought a boat on the canal! The boat was named 'The Tjalk' and was completely furnished and made suitable for all the cats. And as soon as the floating santuary was open people came to help care for all those stray cats -- the first volunteers. 

Written in the history of De Poezenboot, "The Tjalk has served faithfully for about 10 years and was replaced by an Ark at the end of 1979. And because the Ark was specially built on the yard for the shelter of cats, this boat met all the requirements we set for it. "

And in 1987, the foundation was founded, "Stichting de Poezenboot."

De Poezenboot is home to so many beautiful cats but is also working to help cats find a forever home with a family. You can donate to their cause here. 

Follow 'The Cat Boat' on Instagram




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On point




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Do we suffer ‘behavioural fatigue’ for pandemic prevention measures?

The Guardian recently published an article saying “People won’t get ‘tired’ of social distancing – and it’s unscientific to suggest otherwise”. “Behavioural fatigue” the piece said, “has no basis in science”. ‘Behavioural fatigue’ became a hot topic because it was part of the UK Government’s justification for delaying the introduction of stricter public health measures. … Continue reading "Do we suffer ‘behavioural fatigue’ for pandemic prevention measures?"




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The Choice Engine

A project I’ve been working on a for a long time has just launched: The Choice Engine is an interactive essay about the psychology, neuroscience and philosophy of free will. To begin, follow and reply START — ChoiceEngine (@ChoiceEngine) September 20, 2018 By talking to the @ChoiceEngine twitter-bot you can navigate an essay about choice, … Continue reading "The Choice Engine"




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After the methods crisis, the theory crisis

This thread started by Ekaterina Damer has prompted many recommendations from psychologists on twitter. Can anyone recommend an (ideally brief) introductory paper or post or book explaining what makes for a good theory? For example, how to construct a good psychological theory, what are key things to consider?@psforscher @lakens @talyarkoni @chrisdc77 @tomstafford @kurtjgray — Ekaterina … Continue reading "After the methods crisis, the theory crisis"




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Open Science Essentials: Preprints

Open science essentials in 2 minutes, part 4 Before a research article is published in a journal you can make it freely available for anyone to read. You could do this on your own website, but you can also do it on a preprint server, such as psyarxiv.com, where other researchers also share their preprints, … Continue reading "Open Science Essentials: Preprints"




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Believing everyone else is wrong is a danger sign

I have a guest post for the Research Digest, snappily titled ‘People who think their opinions are superior to others are most prone to overestimating their relevant knowledge and ignoring chances to learn more‘. The paper I review is about the so-called “belief superiority” effect, which is defined by thinking that your views are better … Continue reading "Believing everyone else is wrong is a danger sign"




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Review: John Bargh’s “Before You Know It”

I have a review of John Bargh’s new book “Before You Know It: The Unconscious Reasons We Do What We Do” in this month’s Psychologist magazine. You can read the review in print (or online here) but the magazine could only fit in 250 words, and I originally wrote closer to 700. I’ll put the … Continue reading "Review: John Bargh’s “Before You Know It”"




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Did the Victorians have faster reactions?

Psychologists have been measuring reaction times since before psychology existed, and they are still a staple of cognitive psychology experiments today. Typically psychologists look for a difference in the time it takes participants to respond to stimuli under different conditions as evidence of differences in how cognitive processing occurs in those conditions. Galton, the famous … Continue reading "Did the Victorians have faster reactions?"




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spaced repetition & Darwin’s golden rule

Spaced repetition is a memory hack. We know that spacing out your study is more effective than cramming, but using an app you can tailor your own spaced repetition schedule, allowing you to efficiently create reliable memories for any material you like. Michael Nielsen, has a nice thread on his use of spaced repetition on … Continue reading "spaced repetition & Darwin’s golden rule"




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A graph that is made by perceiving it

The contrast sensitivity function shows how our sensitivity to contrasts is affected by spatial frequency. You can test it using gratings of alternating light and darker shade. Ian Goodfellow has this neat observation: By looking at this image, you can see how sensitive your own eyes are to contrast at different frequencies (taller apparent peaks=more … Continue reading "A graph that is made by perceiving it"




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How To Become A Centaur

Nicky Case (of Explorable Explanations and Parable of the Polygons internet fame) has a fantastic essay which picks up on the theme of my last Cyberselves post – technology as companion, not competitor. In How To Become A Centaur Case gives blitz history of AI, and of its lesser known cousin IA – Intelligence Augmentation. … Continue reading "How To Become A Centaur"




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The Big Idea: Ilze Hugo

I’m going to use this intro part of this Big Idea piece to say that the cover of The Down Days, by Ilze Hugo, is probably my favorite book cover of the year. To date! There might be a better one down the line! But I suspect not. And now here’s the author to tell […]




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Reader Request Week 2020: Get Your Questions In!

This upcoming week I have almost nothing scheduled, either in the real world or online, which honestly is a first for me in a real long time. I could just take a break, but where’s the fun in that? So: It’s time for the annual Reader Request Week, in which you pick the topics I write about for […]




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Spring Photos, May 7, 2020

Just playing with the new camera some more. 




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The Big Idea: Laura Lam

Start with cinematic dreams and stellar ambitions, and what do you get from there? For Laura Lam, you get Goldilocks, her new novel. She’s here to tell you how it all came together. LAURA LAM: I love astronaut films. Gravity. Interstellar. The Martian. Armageddon. Ad Astra. The Mars TV show on Netflix that’s OK, not […]




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Sunset, 5/6/20

I think the new camera is gonna do just fine. Have a good evening, folks.




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Meet the New Camera

It’s the new Nikon d780. And it’s a beaut. “But, Scalzi,” I hear you say, “Why did you choose that one when [insert your favorite recent camera] is clearly the best one?” Well: 1. Because I like, and am used to, shooting with Nikons. Switching over to some other brand would require a bit of […]




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The Big Idea: Jon McGoran

In the aftermath of writing his latest novel Spiked, author Jon McGoran found the reality of the moment catching up with the future of his fiction in ways he didn’t expect… and in ways that gave him food for thought. JON McGORAN: One of the things that has drawn me to science fiction since I was […]




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Thoughts on Cameras in the Age of Excellent Cell Phone Photos

I noted here, I believe, that recently my dSLR, my Nikon d750, basically crapped itself, most likely from a faulty mirror mechanism. This wasn’t entirely a surprise to me — it had developed a hiccup several months back where the first photo after being turned on was a black rectangle as the camera remembered it […]




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Week Seven Quarantine Report

We’ve reached the “Take Arty Black and White Pictures of a Telephone Pole” stage of the quarantine, so, you know, well done us. * And just how was this week in quarantine, Scalzi? I mean, oddly enough, it was… fine? Not terrible, not great, and I’ve gotten to the point, I guess, where it doesn’t […]




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May Flowers, Plus a New Song From Matthew Ryan

Right on time. We had April showers all last week. Here’s to a lovely May. Also, my pal Matthew Ryan dropped a new cover song today. It’s a striking version, well worth the listen. Enjoy.




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1201: The Freckles in Their Eye

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1201.html




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1200: Contactless Deliberations

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1200.html




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1199: Helpful for Counting Though

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1199.html




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1198: Move Slow and Preserve Things

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1198.html




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1197: Incidental Reconnaissance

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1197.html




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1196: Not Yet Seasoned

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1196.html




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1195: People First

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1195.html




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1194: Spiritual Counseling

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1194.html




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1193: Sisterly Advice

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1193.html




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1192: Inherited Characteristics

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1192.html




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Friday 8th May 2020




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Thursday 7th May 2020




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Wednesday 6th May 2020




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Tuesday 5th May 2020




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Monday 4th May 2020




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Sunday 3rd May 2020




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Saturday 2nd May 2020




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SELF DEFENSE




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WIN SOME, LOSE SOME




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Get well soon.




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THE CAT LIES




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A BRO IS A BRO