Saturday, August 23, 2014
If White Characters Were Described Like People Of Color In Literature
Welcome to the mocha-chocolate-coffee-bean-exotic-butterscotch-caramel-cinnamon-cafe-au-lait side of town.
Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed
1. He looked at her longingly, as he imagined her exotic, mashed potato skin laying gently against his.
2. She took off his shirt, his skin glistening in the sun like a glazed doughnut. The glaze part, not the doughnut part.
3. His eyes looked like eyes because they were eye-shaped, not almonds.
What Should You Write Today?
Because writer’s block is the worst.
Friday, August 22, 2014
This Is What Happens To Your Heart When You Dive Into The Sea
James Nestor , author of DEEP: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us about Ourselves , takes us on a transformative journey into the ocean.
Jenny Chang / BuzzFeed
The next time you're at the beach your body will undergo the most profound transformation you can naturally experience. This is not a psychic prophecy; I don't have precognition. The transformation I am describing will be physical, and it will be real. It's the result of millions of years of human evolution, a trigger of ancient genes which you and all other humans share with billions of other deep-diving animals.
It looks something like this: You will be lying on the sand. Your skin will be warmed by the sun. You will become hot and thirst for a swim in the ocean. You will pick yourself up and stroll to the water's edge, wade calmly into the lapping waves, and jump in. The moment your face submerges in the sea's salty waters, a Hulk-like metamorphosis will trigger. Blood will begin rushing from your hands and feet, up your legs and arms, and into your core; your heart rate will reflexively lower 25 percent its normal rate; your mind will enter a meditative, almost dreamlike-state. If you choose to dive deeper, the transformation will grow more profound until you bare only a passing resemblance to your terrestrial form. You will become a water animal; a fish, essentially.
Scientists call this transformation the mammalian dive reflex or, more lyrically, the Master Switch of Life. They've been researching it for the past fifty years.
The term Master Switch of Life describes not one but many switches, or reflexes, that are spurred when we enter the water. These reflexes affect the brain, lungs, and heart, among other organs, they work in concert with other triggers in the body to protect us from the immense underwater pressure of deep water and turn us into efficient deep-sea-diving animals. The equivalent pressures of such a deep dive on land would kill or injure us, but not in the ocean. The ocean has different rules, and often requires a completely different mindset to truly comprehend.
Thursday, August 21, 2014
George R.R. Martin Says He's Reached A Point In The Story Where He Has "A Lot More Flexibility For Killing People"
About the final two books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. NO SPOILERS.
Speaking at an event at the Freemason's Hall in London, Martin was asked if there were any character he couldn't kill, because they are needed for the plot.
HBO / Via media.giphy.com
Martin said: "I have a large number of important characters who I switch between to tell the entirety of the story, and that limits who I can kill."
HBO / Via media.giphy.com
"Sometimes there’s only one character who’s my eye in a particular location, and if I kill that character everything going on in that particular sub plot is going to be lost."
HBO / Via giphy.com
“The way my books are structured, everyone was together, then they all went their separate ways and the story deltas out like that."
HBO / Via media.giphy.com
If "Game Of Thrones" Was Set In Britain
Drizzle is coming.
House Cymru
House sigil: A dragon.
House motto: "Here be dragons."
Enemies: They'd claim anyone from England, but really they're too nice to have enemies.
Strength: Being able to communicate without the use of vowels.
Robin Edds / BuzzFeed / HBO
House Merseyside
House sigil: A yellow submarine.
House motto: "You'll never walk alone."
Enemies: House Lancashire (of which they used to be a part of until a civil war).
Strengths: Inventing pop music.
Robin Edds / BuzzFeed / HBO
House Norfolk
House sigil: Alan Partridge.
House motto: "A Ha!"
Enemies: House Suffolk.
Strengths: Local radio.
Robin Edds / BuzzFeed / HBO
House Lancashire
House sigil: A red rose.
House motto: "Rain is coming, our kid."
Enemies: House Yorkshire.
Strengths: Tolerating dampness.
Robin Edds / BuzzFeed / HBO
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