What You Can Learn From Hunter-Gatherers' Sleeping Patterns

Ed Yong The Atlantic
A new study has shown that people who live traditional lifestyles in Namibia, Tanzania, and Bolivia don’t fit with any of the common notions about pre-industrial dozing. “People like to complain that modern life is ruining sleep, but they’re just saying: Kids today!” Much like the Paleo diet, these ideas are based on unsubstantiated assumptions about how humans used to live.

Movement to Get Saturday Night Live to Dump Trump Gains Momentum

Dennis Romero LA Weekly
SNL has scheduled Donald Trump as host on Nov. 7, shocking Latino leaders. "It's hypocritical of them to go back and put Donald Trump on as the face of the program, given that NBC said it would terminate its relationship with Trump over his comments about Mexican immigrants," says Juan Escalante, a Venezuelan immigrant who has launched a petition urging the network to drop Trump.

Israel: The Settlers' Prussia

Uri Avnery Gush Shalom
There is only one group in Israel that is strong enough, cohesive enough, determined enough to take over the state: the settlers. The process is already well advanced. The new police chief is a kippah-wearing former settler. So is the chief of the Secret Service. More and more of the army and police officers are settlers. In the government and in the Knesset, the settlers wield a huge influence.

How Playing an Instrument Benefits Your Brain

When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout. Fireworks go off in the musician's brains.

'My Kind Of America' With Jack Black

Stephen has created the greatest political anthem of all time and it’s free for any politician to use. Lincoln Chafee, this could be your moment.

Eve of Destruction

50 Years Ago: War, Music, Crisis. Eve of Destruction was written by P.F. Sloan in 1965; the Barry McGuire recording reached #1 in September. Fifty years, but the lyrics still resonate.

Seth Macfarlane Introduces Bernie Sanders

Family Guy Creator Seth Macfarlane introduces Bernie Sanders in Los Angeles (Oct. 14, 2015). What other candidate identifies climate change as the most pressing national security question?

Friday Nite Videos -- October 16, 2015

Portside
Seth Macfarlane Introduces Bernie Sanders. Eve of Destruction. 'My Kind Of America' With Jack Black. This Changes Everything -- Movie. How Playing an Instrument Benefits Your Brain.

What Global English Means for World Literature

Haruo Shirane Public Books
The spread of capitalism as a global system and neoliberalism as its dominant economic policy has its analogue in the triumph of English as its undisputed enabling linguistic. The book under review argues that not only is this single-language sway historically unprecedented in allowing universal communication, but that its flattening effects on native languages and national discourse come with their own disabling downsides.