Everything is Interesting
Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848 – 1933) was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass in the Art Nouveau and Aesthetic movements.
Tiffany was affiliated with a prestigious collaborative of designers known as the Associated Artists, which included Lockwood de Forest, Candace Wheeler, and Samuel Colman. Tiffany designed stained glass windows and lamps, glass mosaics, blown glass, ceramics, jewelry, enamels and metalwork.
Idiom [id-ee-uhm] (Latin: idioma, ‘special property’) is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made. There are estimated to be at least 25,000 idiomatic expressions in the English language.
In linguistics, idioms are usually presumed to be figures of speech contradicting the principle of compositionality; yet the matter remains debated. Linguist John Saeed defines an ‘idiom’ as words collocated that became affixed to each other until metamorphosing into a fossilised term. This collocation—words commonly used in a group—redefines each component word in the word-group and becomes an idiomatic expression. The words develop a specialized meaning as an entity, as an idiom. Continue reading
Chengyu are a type of traditional Chinese idiomatic expressions, most of which consist of four characters. Chengyu were widely used in Classical Chinese and are still common in vernacular Chinese writing and in the spoken language today. According to the most stringent definition, there are about 5,000 chengyu in the Chinese language, though some dictionaries list over 20,000. They are often referred to as Chinese idioms or four-character idioms; however, they are not the only idioms in Chinese.
Chengyu are mostly derived from ancient literature. The meaning of a chengyu usually surpasses the sum of the meanings carried by the four characters, as chengyu are often intimately linked with the myth, story or historical fact from which they were derived. As such, chengyu do not follow the usual grammatical structure and syntax of the modern Chinese spoken language, and are instead highly compact and synthetic.
Savant syndrome, sometimes referred to as savantism [sa-vahnt-iz-uhm], is a rare condition in which people with developmental disorders have one or more areas of expertise, ability, or brilliance that are in contrast with the individual’s overall limitations. Although not a recognized medical diagnosis, researcher Darold Treffert says the condition may be either genetic or acquired. Though it is even rarer than the savant condition itself, some savants have no apparent abnormalities other than their unique abilities. This does not mean that these abilities weren’t triggered by a brain dysfunction of some sort but does temper the theory that all savants are disabled and that some sort of trade-off is required.
According to Treffert, something that almost all savants have in common is a prodigious memory of a special type, a memory that he describes as ‘very deep, but exceedingly narrow.’ It is wide in the sense that they can recall but have a hard time putting it to use. Also, many savants are found to have superior artistic or musical ability. One in ten autistic people have savant skills. 50% of savants are autistic; the other 50% often have psychological disorders or mental illnesses.
The McRib is a barbecue pork sandwich periodically sold by the international fast-food restaurant chain McDonald’s. It was first introduced to the McDonald’s menu in 1981. After poor sales it was removed from the menu in 1985. It was reintroduced in 1989, staying on the menu until 2005. From 2006 onward, it was made available for a short time each year. The McRib consists of a pork patty, barbecue sauce, onions, and pickles served on a roll. Despite its name, it is primarily composed of pork shoulder meat, according to McDonalds. The patty is also composed of restructured meat products such as tripe, heart, and stomach and blended with salt and water to extract salt-soluble proteins, which act as a ‘glue’ that helps bind the reshaped meat together. The McRib has 70 ingredients, 34 of which are contained in the bun.
It was developed by McDonald’s first Executive Chef Rene Arend, who had fathered Chicken McNuggets in 1979. ‘The McNuggets were so well received that every franchise wanted them,’ said Arend in a 2009 interview. ‘There wasn’t a system to supply enough chicken. We had to come up with something to give the other franchises as a new product. So the McRib came about because of the shortage of chickens.’ It was his inspiration to shape the McRib patty ‘like a slab of ribs,’ despite the fact that a round patty would have been cheaper to manufacture and serve on standard hamburger buns.
The McMuffin is a family of breakfast sandwiches in various sizes and configurations, sold by the fast-food restaurant chain McDonald’s. It was invented by the late McDonald’s franchisee Herb Peterson in the late 1960s and was introduced nationwide in 1972. In the US and Canada the standard McMuffin consists of a slice of Canadian bacon, a griddle-fried egg, and a slice of American cheese on a toasted and buttered English muffin. The round shape of the egg is made by cooking it in a teflon coated ring. Peterson first presented the Egg McMuffin at a Santa Barbara franchise without the knowledge of McDonald’s Corporate, which at the time served only lunch and dinner at all their locations.
When Corporate discovered Mr. Peterson’s unauthorized breakfast offerings, it initially reprimanded him and threatened him with a number of penalties for breaking the franchise agreement. Today, several countries like Hong Kong serve Egg McMuffins around the clock, due to the prominent use of the egg in meals other than breakfast in those regions. US restaurants usually restrict the item to the breakfast menu. This is due mainly because the grill temperature for the beef patties and the eggs are significantly different from each other.
No pain, no gain is an exercise motto that promises greater value rewards for the price of hard and even painful work. Under this conception competitive professionals such as athletes and artists are required to endure pain and pressure to achieve professional excellence. It came into prominence after 1982 when actress Jane Fonda began to produce a series of aerobics workout videos. In these videos, Fonda would use ‘No pain, no gain’ and ‘Feel the burn’ as catchphrases for the concept of working out past the point of experiencing muscle aches. It expresses the belief that solid large muscle are the result of training hard and suffering sore muscles repeatedly, implying that those who avoid pain will never reach a professional level as bodybuilders. In terms of the expression used for development, the discomfort caused may be beneficial in some instances while detrimental in others.
American author David B. Morris wrote, ‘No pain, no gain’ is an American modern mini-narrative: it compresses the story of a protagonist who understands that the road to achievement runs only through hardship.’
Banality [buh-nal-i-tee] of evil is a phrase coined by Hannah Arendt and incorporated in the title of her 1963 work ‘Eichmann in Jerusalem.’ It describes the thesis that the great evils in history generally, and the Holocaust in particular, were not executed by fanatics or sociopaths, but rather by ordinary people who accepted the premises of their state and therefore participated with the view that their actions were normal.
Explaining this phenomenon, media analyst Edward S. Herman has emphasized the importance of ‘normalizing the unthinkable.’ According to him, ‘doing terrible things in an organized and systematic way rests on ‘normalization.’ This is the process whereby ugly, degrading, murderous, and unspeakable acts become routine and are accepted as ‘the way things are done.’ Continue reading
Little Eichmanns [ahyk-muhn] is a phrase used to describe the complicity of those who participate in destructive and immoral systems in a way that, although on an individual scale may seem indirect, when taken collectively would have an effect comparable to Nazi official Adolf Eichmann’s role in The Holocaust. Anarcho-primitivist John Zerzan used the phrase in his essay ‘Whose Unabomber?’ in 1995. The phrase gained prominence in American political culture four years after 9/11, when an essay written by Ward Churchill shortly after the attacks received renewed media scrutiny. In the essay, ‘On the Justice of Roosting Chickens,’ Churchill reiterated the phrase to describe technocrats working at the World Trade Center; his statement caused much controversy.
The use of ‘Eichmann’ as an archetype stems from Hannah Arendt’s 1963 book ‘Eichmann in Jerusalem.’ Arendt wrote that aside from a desire for improving his career, Eichmann showed no trace of anti-Semitism or psychological damage. She called him the embodiment of the ‘banality of evil’ as he appeared at his trial to have an ordinary and common personality and displayed neither guilt nor hatred. She suggested that this most strikingly discredits the idea that the Nazi criminals were manifestly psychopathic and fundamentally different from ordinary people. Lewis Mumford collectively refers to people willing to placidly carry out the extreme goals of megamachines as ‘Eichmanns.’
‘Three men make a tiger‘ is a Chinese proverb or chengyu (four-character idiom). Three men make a tiger refers to an individual’s tendency to accept absurd information as long as it is repeated by enough people. It refers to the idea that if an unfounded premise or urban legend is mentioned and repeated by many individuals, the premise will be erroneously accepted as the truth. This concept is analogous to communal reinforcement or the fallacy of argumentum ad populum.
The proverb came from the story of an alleged speech by Pang Cong, an official of the state of Wei in the Warring States Period (475 BCE – 221 BCE) in Chinese History. Before he left on a trip to the state of Zhao, Pang Cong asked the King of Wei whether he would hypothetically believe in one civilian’s report that a tiger was roaming the markets in the capital city, to which the King replied no. Pang Cong asked what the King thought if two people reported the same thing, and the King said he would begin to wonder. Pang Cong then asked, ‘what if three people all claimed to have seen a tiger?’ The King replied that he would believe in it. Pang Cong reminded the King that the notion of a live tiger in a crowded market was absurd, yet when repeated by numerous people, it seemed real. As a high-ranking official, Pang Cong had more than three opponents and critics; naturally, he urged the King to pay no attention to those who would spread rumors about him while he was away. ‘I understand,’ the King replied, and Pang Cong left for Zhao. Yet, slanderous talk took place. When Pang Cong returned to Wei, the King indeed stopped seeing him.
The Asch conformity experiments were a series of studies published in the 1950s that demonstrated the power of conformity in groups. These are also known as the Asch Paradigm.
Experiments led by Solomon Asch of Swarthmore College asked groups of students to participate in a ‘vision test.’ In reality, all but one of the participants were confederates of the experimenter, and the study was really about how the remaining student would react to the confederates’ behavior.
In the field of social psychology, a breaching experiment is an experiment that seeks to examine people’s reactions to violations of commonly accepted social rules or norms. Breaching experiments are most commonly associated with ethnomethodology (the study of the everyday methods people use for the production of social order), and in particular the work of Harold Garfinkel. The conduct of a breaching experiment is sometimes referred to as ‘Garfinkeling.’ A famous breaching experiment was conducted on the New York City subway in the 1970s, when experimenters boarded crowded trains and asked able-bodied but seated riders, with no explanation, to give up their seats. Reportedly, the experimenters themselves were deeply troubled by being involved in such a seemingly minor violation of a social norm. The experiment was supervised by American psychologist Stanley Milgram.
Erving Goffman’s seminal study ‘Behavior in Public Places’ gives some classic examples of behavioral norms, such as ‘it is inconsiderate to litter – put your garbage in the trash can.’ A breaching experiment studies people’s reaction to an experimenter who breaks this kind of small, everyday rule. The strength of the reaction is taken as an indication of the strength of the rule. ‘The inexplicable do-gooder’: Social science researcher Earl R. Babbie writes that ‘it is a social rule that ordinary citizens should not pick up garbage from the street, or mend street signs, or otherwise fix problems.’ Babbie claims that people have negative reactions when they see somebody fixing something that is not his/her ‘job’ to fix; in some cases, altruistic actions are viewed as personal intrusions.
