Sarit Yahalomi

The nature and danger of the legendary Kobold

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Aug 2016 08:00:00 -0400

Featured image: An artist’s depiction of kobolds. Source: Forgotten Realms Wiki

In ancient folklore, the kobold is a small, pointy-eared, goblin-like creature with a short-temper and a mischievous spirit. While generally described as well-intentioned, angering a kobold is said to be a dangerous mistake. They are described as spirits that dwell among the living, and can sometimes take the form of humans, elements, or animals, depending upon where they choose to make their home.

What is most intriguing about the kobolds is not only their persistence into modern folklore but the way in which they seem to transcend various provinces and faiths. Known in England as brownies, in France as gobelins, in Belgium as kabouters and so on, kobolds are still carefully considered and respected in Germanic culture. However, the kobold does not first come from Germany but rather Greece. Though there is much deliberation over the origin of the kobolds, it is believed that they descend from the ancient Greek kobaloi, sprite-like creatures often invoked by followers of the god Dionysus and rogues. Even then, they were known as pranksters and tricksters, who simultaneously aided the god Dionysus in his bacchant endeavors. But by the 13^th century, the kobolds had been adopted by the German people, culminating in the final name kobold, the Germanic suffix –olt (eventually –old) signifying of the creatures' supernatural origin.

Kobolds are typically described as small, pointy-eared, goblin-like creatures. Image source: Wikipedia

There are three known factions of the kobolds, each task-oriented and initially well intentioned. The sightings of the kobolds are few and far between, in part because they are said to complete tasks invisibly. Nevertheless, numerous people over the centuries have claimed to have seen the kobold, allowing a general description of their physicality and demeanor to be drawn.

DiscoverHousehold deityHumanBrownie (folklore)Spirit The most well-known, well-circulated type of kobold in Germanic folklore is the domesticated helper, not unlike the English brownie or hobgoblin. In the past, this sect has been perceived as akin to the Roman idea of lares and penates, familial household deities of protection.

By choice, a household kobold picks a family with which to tie itself, and it offers its services in the dead of the night. By adding dirt to the family's milk jugs and saw dust to the otherwise clean living quarters, the kobold tests the master of the house to see if he understands and knows the service being offered. If the master is smart, he will leave the sawdust and drink the dirty milk, signaling to the kobold that he accepts its help and will treat it with respect by sharing a portion of his nightly supper. From then on, the kobold will serve the master's family until the last of his line dies off or it is otherwise insulted.

A kobold in the form of an infant helps with domestic chores. Image source: Wikipedia

However, tales of the dangers associated with insulting a kobold eventually led to the spirits being considered ill omens later in their mythology. One story, as written by folklorist Thomas Keightley, describes a kobold named Hödeken. Hödeken was insulted by a kitchen boy and the head cook refused to punish him. In the dead of the night, Hödeken beat the boy and tore him limb from limb, adding him to the pot of food cooking in the hearth. The cook was then killed for chastising the kobold's behavior. Instances like this are not uncommon in kobold culture, and thus have caused the other two sects of kobolds to be feared—more so than the household creatures, undoubtedly due to their rougher natures.

The second form of kobold, which came to be described in folklore in around the 1500s, is the crude and dirty miners. Akin to the Norse perception of dwarves, they are described as smaller than humans and hot tempered, and live underground to spend their days mining the metals of the earth. Though probably the least friendly of the kobolds, legends say that they are more interested in what they find than anything else, and are generally indifferent towards humans.

Nevertheless, stories of the mining kobolds were once so embedded within the human consciousness, that miners decided to name the ore ‘cobalt’ after them, because they blamed the kobold for the poisonous and troublesome nature of the typical arsenical ores of this metal, which polluted other mined elements.

Artist’s depiction of the mining kobolds. Credit: C. Cleveland

Finally, the third and least recognized type is the sea kobolds. These kobolds have been most often recorded by the people of northern Germany and the Netherlands, signifying that they may have been inspired by the previous two factions and lumped in with the kobolds due to physical and task similarities. Again, this group is similar to the household spirit, described as offering its protection and services to the captain and crew of a merchant or pirate ship.

These creatures have been recorded as helping prevent the ship they are on from sinking, however if the ship does sink, the kobold flees for its life, leaving the humans behind to fend for themselves. It is because of this that sighting of a kobold came to be seen as a bad omen; it was said that if a ship's captain sees one before leaving the dock, he is certainly better off remaining on land than tempting fate in the waters.

A sea kobold, from Buch Zur See, 1885. Image source: Wikipedia

That the kobolds traveled so far in both time and space shows the deep respect of their culture, and reveals further the inexplicable bond of the human consciousness.

References:

Brown, Robert. The Greek Dionysiak Myth, Part 2 (Kessinger Publishing, 2004.)

"The Fairy Mythology: Germany: Kobolds." Sacred Texts. Accessed September 25, 2014.

Grimm, Jacob. Teutonic Mythology, Part 2 (Kessinger Publishing, 2003).

Keightley, Thomas. The Fairy Mythology, Illustrative of the Romance and Superstition of Various Countries (London: H. G. Bohn, 1850.)

Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon, revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1940.)

Rose, Carol. Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia (New York City: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 1996.)

Snowe, Joseph. The Rhine, Legends Traditions, History, from Cologne to Mainz (London: F. C. Westley and J. Madden & Co., 1839).

By Ryan Stone

Leprechauns: At the End of the Rainbow Lies Richness for Irish Folklore

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Aug 2016 08:00:00 -0400

Featured Image: A Leprechaun’s hat. (Albund | Dreamstime.com)

Those little men all dressed in green, obsessed with rainbows and treasure, trickery, and of course shoe-making. These are all common perceptions today regarding the famous characters from Irish folklore: Leprechauns. The characteristics of these mythical creatures has transformed over the years and much of what made the little people special in the original tales has been forgotten.

Etymology for the Word Leprechaun
Many scholars believe that the origin of the word leprechaun is the old Irish Lú Chorpain meaning small body. Another definition has linked the modern name to luchorpán (a word from the 8th century AD) which is defined as sprite or pygmy. Finally, the word leprechaun has been connected to leath bhrógan (shoe maker). This definition is also a possibility as many stories about leprechauns have shown their profession to be the cobblers of the fairy world.
The word lubrican, another word associated with leprechaun, first was written in English in 1604 in the play The Honest Whore by Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker. The line from the play states: "as for your Irish lubrican, that spirit whom by preposterous charms thy lust hath rais'd in a wrong circle…"

The Ancient Leprechauns
Leprechauns are thought to have been one of the many types of inhabitants of the fairy forts or fairy rings in ancient Ireland. It has been suggested that the merry tricksters of today may even be a modern incarnation of the Euro-Celtic god Lugh (pronounced “Luck”). Lugh was said to be the sun god, patron of arts and crafts and leader of the Tuatha Dé Danann ("peoples of the goddess Danu").

Altar depicting a tricephalic god identified as Lugus (Lugh), discovered in Reims. (Wikipedia)

Medieval Irish manuscripts (12th -15th Centuries) believed to be associated with leprechauns suggest that leprechauns were originally beings that lived underwater and, contrary to today’s depiction, they weren’t all male. They were depicted as warriors with voracious appetites and the female leprechauns were especially engrossed with luring away human men for secret adventures. These characteristics seemed to continue at least until the aforementioned writing in 1604.

Early leprechauns were described as sly old men that wore red suits and were often found working on a solitary shoe. The word solitary was also applied to the social preferences of leprechauns who seemed to prefer time alone to interacting with other faerie creatures, or even other leprechauns.

There friendless nature perhaps was also partly due to others avoiding them – early leprechauns were also thought to be particularly mischievous house-haunting drunkards. These characteristics were later passed on to the leprechaun “cousins” the clobhair-ceann or clurichaun, an Irish fairy that is always drunk and rude. The clurichaun got the blame for noisy nights and messy homes (especially wine cellars).

An illustration of a clurichaun, cousin of the leprechauns. (1862) T.C. Croker (Wikimedia Commons)

Changes in Leprechaun Traits: Now a Wealthy Shoemaker
By 1825, the leprechaun population was limited to only males. T. Crofton Croker's Fairy Traditions and Legends of the South of Ireland provided more insight on traits of these mythical creatures: “They are often described as bearded old men dressed in green and wearing buckled shoes. Sometimes they wear a pointed cap or hat and may smoke a pipe.”

The Leprechauns of the time were thought to be particularly stylish. Both Samuel Lover, writing in 1831, and William Butler Yeats (in 1888) made mention of the importance leprechauns placed in their appearance.

Lover wrote that a leprechaun was:

“…quite a beau in his dress, notwithstanding, for he wears a red square-cut coat, richly laced with gold, waistcoat and inexpressible of the same, cocked hat, shoes and buckles.”

Following that, Yeats later added:
“He is something of a dandy, and dresses in a red coat with seven rows of buttons, seven buttons on each row, and wears a cocked-hat, upon whose pointed end he is wont in the north-eastern counties, according to McAnally, to spin like a top when the fit seizes him.”
The 18th Century poem by William Allingham entitled The Lepracaun; Or, Fairy Shoemaker further promoted the idea that in the fairy realm occupations are chosen by group, and leprechauns were in charge of keeping the rest of the community’s feet happy. He also provided a hint to people searching for leprechauns (more on why soon) – the presence of leprechauns can be noted by their tapping sounds as they work:

"Lay your ear close to the hill.
Do you not catch the tiny clamor,
Busy click of an elfin hammer,
Voice of the Lepracaun singing shrill
As he merrily plies his trade?"

‘Elves and the Shoemaker’, originally from ‘The Book of Fables and Folk Stories’, by Horace E. Scudder. Illustration by George Cruikshank (Wikipedia)

Allingham is often credited as the creator of the “modern leprechaun”: a short man with a red beard, a green hat in which a golden four-leaf clover (symbol of good luck) is tucked, and a green suit with a large buckle on its belt.

A modern stereotype of a leprechaun. (Wikimedia Commons)

The Moral behind Leprechauns
By the 1800s the perception of leprechauns as wealthy, clever folks was a common notion. Thus the old “wee” (small) fellows were depicted in stories with a strong interest in protecting their gold from the greedy humans that sought it out. Leprechauns are supposed to offer bribes to humans if caught in order to regain their freedom.

Engraving of a Leprechaun counting his gold, 1900 (Wikimedia Commons)

The legends about leprechauns not surprisingly focus mostly on a human catching a leprechaun then trying to attain their wealth. The most common story involves a boy or farmer who finds a leprechaun and forces him to tell where he has hidden his gold. The leprechaun is obliged to show him to the spot, which is below a tree or plant. As the human is without a shovel he ties a red cloth around the nearby tree/plant and makes the leprechaun swear he will not remove the indicator. When the person returns with the shovel he finds that there are now many red cloths and the leprechaun has vanished. Thus the leprechaun has managed to trick the human and maintains possession of his gold.

Another similar story tells of a girl who catches the leprechaun and makes him lead her to his treasure, but along the way hears a noise to which the leprechaun tells her there are bees chasing her. When she turns around to look, the leprechaun disappears.

Also according to some legends a leprechaun carries two leather pouches. He has a silver shilling in one which returns to his pouch whenever it has been given. The other pouch has a gold coin which is said to turn into leaves or ashes once the leprechaun is set free.

Another widespread interpretation of events after humans find and catch leprechauns is the offering of three wishes to which the capturer goes insane or is tricked as his wishes backfire. A popular story of this sort is that of Seamus. Seamus was a man from County Mayo who caught a leprechaun and was offered wishes. He chose to be the richest man on a tropical island. His wish was said to have come true, but there was a catch – there were no pubs, shops or other people on the island. Seamus got bored and eventually wished to be back in Ireland.

All of these stories present the same morals: getting rich quick doesn’t work out in the long run, stealing is wrong, and don’t mess with the Irish faerie folk.

The Fascination Leprechauns Continue to Hold
Leprechauns are now understood to be the fairy tales of the past and fanciful stories to tell when one sees a rainbow. However there is still a hold these little folk have on modern society. In Dublin there is even a Leprechaun museum which provides tours and detailed information on leprechauns and Irish folklore throughout the ages. Some Irish-themed sites also provide readers with tips and tricks on how to catch a leprechaun (and what to do when you have).

Leprechaun, Wax Museum Plus, Ireland (Wikimedia Commons)

On the other side of the pond, General Mills cereal’s Lucky Charms has “Lucky” the leprechaun to keep children entertained while they consume the sugar-filled product for which he is the mascot. There are also horror/comedy movies that are focused on a monstrous trickster of a leprechaun to torment adults.

Leprechauns may not really provide us a treasure of gold and silver, but they certainly have provided richness to Irish folklore.

By Alicia McDermott

Sources:

Ireland Now (2010). Leprechauns. http://irelandnow.com/leprechaun.html

Lisala (2011). The True Origins of the Leprechaun. http://morphemeaddict.com/news/true-origins-leprechaun

National Leprechaun Museum. (n.d.) Leprechauns. http://www.leprechaunmuseum.ie/folklore-and-mythology/otherworld/leprechauns/

New World Encyclopedia. (2014). Leprechaun. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Leprechaun

Radford, B. (2013). Leprechauns: Facts about the Irish Trickster Fairy. http://www.livescience.com/37626-leprechauns.html

Walsh, J. (2015). Facts about Leprechauns and Where the Legends Really Come From. http://www.irishcentral.com/culture/entertainment/-top-ten-facts-about-leprechauns-and-where-the-legends-really-came-from-212728761-237598771.html

Your Irish (2015). The Magical Legend of the Leprechaun. http://www.yourirish.com/folklore/the-leprechauns

Philadelphia Recipe, Espresso and vanilla panna cotta

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 08:00:00 -0400

inShare

Ingredients for 6

60 ml strong black coffee

25 g caster sugar

200 ml whipping cream

25 g caster sugar

0.5 vanilla pod, split or 1 tsp vanilla essence

225 g Philadelphia Lightest

1 tsp powdered gelatine dissolved in 1 Tbsp boiling water

Instructions

Combine the coffee and sugar in a small saucepan and stir until the sugar is dissolved, simmer for 1-2 minutes until syrupy. Pour into small glasses and allow to cool.

Heat the cream, sugar and vanilla pod in a pan until almost boiling but do not allow to boil. Discard the vanilla pod and cool the mixture.

Beat the Philadelphia until smooth and then gradually add the cream mixture and gelatine. Spoon into the glasses and chill for 2-3 hours until set.

For more recipes click here

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noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 08:00:00 -0400

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The Power of an orange...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 08:00:00 -0400

"In this awesome photograph by Caleb Charland, we see an LED located inside sliced wedges of an orange. The cool part is that the LED is powered by the orange itself. As Caleb explains:

“Recently one Sunday I spent the day at the kitchen table playing with oranges, copper wires and galvanized nails. My hope was that I could make this on going project work with a single piece of fruit. I tried cutting it into slices and wedges but that ever present voice in my head reminded me the SIMPLER IS BETTER. It only seemed logical to use the orange’s natural wedges as the cells for the battery. The wedges are held up-right with an armature of small wooden skewers. The LED is nestled with in the bounds of the orange wedges. I’m still amazed this worked…though it did require 14 hours of exposure.”

And....

Lessons from the Hidden World: Icelanders believed in elves, but it is probably not what you think

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 08:00:00 -0400

Top Image: Haunting and beautiful Middle-Earth-like elves by artist (Araniart/CC BY 3.0)

Icelanders believe in elves. They refuse to begin major construction projects unless they consult with elves first. They lobby their politicians on behalf of elf colonies. They run “elf schools” and “elf tours”. Elves in Iceland are everywhere and all around.

Reality Check
Few things about the Icelandic nation are as misrepresented as its ancient belief in the hidden people. Somehow this idea that modern Icelanders believe firmly in the existence of elves gained a bit of traction in the international media a few years back, and the idea snowballed until it seemed that every other media outlet had a “those kooky Icelanders and their elves” story.

Yet the elf belief has much deeper and more significant roots that those sensationalized media stories illustrate. We Icelanders are very much aware of our hidden people legacy, but today the elf belief is mostly a non-entity in our daily lives. That being said, occasionally there will be a story of some incident in rural areas where, say, elves are blamed for the breakdown of construction equipment when land is being bulldozed—though it is hard to know whether or not such remarks are in jest.

Ancient Tales of Hidden People
There is no doubt, though, that these stories served an important purpose for our ancestors. Our old folk tales speak of álfar and huldufólk - two terms that mean, respectively, “elves” and “hidden people”, and are used more or less interchangeably. They refer to the same sort of beings— (hidden) people who lived in a parallel world to the mortals, yet were invisible to them.

For people outside of Iceland, the term “elves” probably conjures up a very different image than it does for Icelanders who hear about “álfar”—some variation of a diminutive being with pointy ears, who may or may not be green.

Discover Human Belief Infant mortality Scandinavian folklore

Scuplture of "Korrigan", small elf of the Celtic forests. (CC BY 2.0)

The álfar of Icelandic folklore, however, were quite a different apparition: tall, regal beings, dressed in luxurious clothing, whose homes were opulent, filled with tapestries and ornaments of gold and silver. They were akin to Tolkien’s elves of Middle Earth, though without the pointed ears.

A beautiful Middle-Earth elf imagined by an artist. (Alystraea/CC BY-SA 4.0)

They also held a great deal of power. Hidden people frequently appeared to humans in dreams, often because they needed help. Many stories involved hidden-women in labor who had to have a mortal woman assist them in giving birth. If the mortal woman did as the hidden person (often the husband of the hidden woman in labor) requested, her life inevitably changed for the better. Her crops excelled, her children thrived, and good fortune permeated all aspects of her life.

If, however, she refused to help the hidden person, her life took a turn for the worse and she often wound up destitute. In other words, the hidden people had the power to make or break a person’s destiny.

Escape to a Land of Abundance and Safety
Many scholars now believe that the belief in hidden people served a significant psychological purpose for the Icelanders in centuries past, acting as an anti-depressant. Iceland was truly on the edge of the inhabitable world in the days before electricity and central heating.

The Icelanders were an oppressed and downtrodden colony, living in turf houses that were dark, dank, and infested with bugs, and they were frequently starving. Infant mortality was high, disease rampant, poverty pervasive, and the landscape and climate harsh and unforgiving. Given these abject conditions, people escaped into a fantasy world, a parallel universe that was very close to their own, in which people very much like themselves lived lives of abundance, prosperity and relative ease. Everything was better in the hidden world - even their sheep were fatter and their crops more bountiful than those of the humans.

Painting of Icelandic family in kvöldvaka, by August Schiøtt (1823 - 1895) (Image Source)

Yet that was not the only way in which the hidden people stories served to ease the lives and emotional trials of the Icelanders. They also helped them deal with loss and grief. Many hidden people stories involve them abducting the children of mortals and taking them to the hidden world, where they raised them well.

These stories, it is now believed, bely a tragic reality. Many children in the Iceland of old went missing. Perhaps their parents did not keep watch over them—after all, people worked up to 18 hours a day in the summer, trying to get the most out of the short season, and children were left more or less to their own devices. Or the children would themselves be working, often alone, as they were sometimes put to work as early as the age of five. Whatever the cause, they often went missing, and given Iceland’s dangerous landscape it is not hard to imagine that they frequently met with accidents: falling into a river, or off a cliff, or into a deep lava crevice.

The beautiful but unforgiving landscape of Iceland (CC BY-SA 2.0)

How does a parent grieve for a child when there is no privacy, where one lives with up to ten people in a room about four yards wide and ten yards long? Perhaps they tell themselves that the child has gone to live in the hidden world, where he or she will be well taken care of. The hidden people tales were likely a way for people to process their grief.

The Gentle Men
Another motif in hidden people stories concerns the romantic and sexual involvement of mortal women and hidden men, who were called ljúflingar, literally: “gentle men”. In these stories, the woman was very often working in the so-called mountain dairy, or sel in Icelandic, a rudimentary structure located near the mountain pastures, a considerable distance from the farm. This is where the sheep were kept during the summer, and female laborers were often stationed there, sometimes alone, sometimes with a child who watched over the sheep in the pastures, and sometimes with more people, depending on the size of the farm. The woman would be responsible for milking the ewes daily and making butter and skyr, an Icelandic dairy product, similar to yogurt.

Turf house with a wooden gafli in Iceland. (CC BY 2.0)

In the stories, the women often became romantically involved with hidden men, and fell pregnant. The hidden man would be very attentive to the woman during her pregnancy, would assist her in childbirth, and afterwards would take the child away to raise it in the hidden world. As an added twist, the hidden man was never able to forget the mortal woman, nor she him, making for a tortured, unrequited romance.

Scholars today interpret these stories in a couple of different ways. One, it is possible that they were the Harlequin Romances of the time, serving as fantasies for lonely women who would probably not get married, since the authorities of the times placed tyrannical restrictions on who could marry, and regular laborers were at a decided disadvantage. So again, the stories of the lovers from the hidden world helped women escape the severity of their own realities.

An engraving showing a man jumping after a woman (an elf) into a precipice. It is an illustration to the Icelandic legend of Hildur, the Queen of the Elves. (Public Domain)

Another explanation, however, is more sinister. Women who worked the sel were often the victims of sexual abuse, either at the hands of their employers or by men from nearby farms. Icelandic law at the time imposed harsh penalties for having children out of wedlock, and so, the stories of the ljúflingar might have been a way to justify an unwanted pregnancy. Even more tragically, the notion that the child was carried away by the hidden man might have been a cover-up for infanticide, which sadly was prevalent in those days, given the cruel repercussions attached to illegitimate births.

The couple of examples outlined above have little in common with the sensationalized “Icelanders believe in elves” stories in the media or the Icelandic tourism industry. In fact, that presentation rather trivializes a tragic and profound reality, completely bypassing the glimpse it provides into the rich cultural history of the Icelandic nation.

By Alda Sigmundsdóttir

Alda Sigmundsdóttir is an Icelandic writer and journalist. She is the author of The Little Book of the Hidden People, and The Little Book of the Icelanders in the Old Days. You can find her on Facebook or Twitter.

Vacciness By Maki Naro

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 08:00:00 -0400

Maki Naro

Cartoonist and Blogger for Popular Science. The John Hodgman of comics. Pictorial minstrel. Inconsolable grump. As seen in the NY Times.
Dec 15, 20144 min read

Quote of the day

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 08:00:00 -0400

9 Non-threatening Leadership Strategies for Women

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 08:00:00 -0400

This article first appeared on TheCooperReview.com.

In this fast-paced business world, female leaders need to make sure they’re not perceived as pushy, aggressive or competent. One way to do that is to alter your leadership style to account for the (sometimes) fragile male ego.

Should men accept powerful women and not feel threatened by them? Yes. Is that asking too much? IS IT? Sorry I didn’t mean to get aggressive there. Anyhoo, here are 9 non-threatening leadership strategies for women :-)

#1

When setting a deadline, ask your coworker what he thinks of doing something, instead of just asking him to get it done. This makes him feel less like you’re telling them what to do and more like you care about his opinions.

#2

When sharing your ideas, overconfidence is a killer. You don’t want your male coworkers to think you’re getting all uppity. Instead, downplay your ideas as just “thinking out loud,” “throwing something out there,” or sharing something “dumb,” “random,” or “crazy.”

#3

Pepper your emails with exclamation marks and emojis so you don’t come across as too clear or direct. Your lack of efficient communication will make you seem more approachable.

#4

If a male coworker steals your idea in a meeting, thank him for it. Give him kudos for how he explained your idea so clearly. And let’s face it, no one might’ve ever heard it if he hadn’t repeated it.

#5

When you hear a sexist comment, the awkward laugh is key. Practice your awkward laugh at home, with your friends and family, and in the mirror.Make sure you sound truly delighted even as your soul is dying inside.

#6

Men love explaining things. But when he’s explaining something and you already know that, it might be tempting to say “I already know that.” Instead, have him explain it to you over and over again. It will make him feel useful and will give you some time to think about out how to avoid him in the future.

#7

Pointing out a mistake is always risky so it’s important to always apologize for noticing the mistake and then make sure that no one thinks you’re too sure about it. People will appreciate your “hey what do I know?!” sensibilities.

#8

When collaborating with a man, type using only one finger. Skill and speed are very off-putting.

#9

When all else fails, wear a mustache so everyone sees you as more man-like. This will cancel out any need to change your leadership style. In fact, you may even get a quick promotion!

I post new humor weekly! Sign up for my free newsletter to get updates.

Sarah Cooper is a writer, comedian and creator of TheCooperReview.com. Her first book, 100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings comes out October 4th.

Color Psychology: How Big Brands Use Colors in Advertising and Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 11 Aug 2016 08:00:00 -0400

When it comes to the way a brand presents itself to the world, there are no accidents. In most cases, every logo and talking point is carefully considered, ruthlessly focus-grouped, and closely analyzed before it’s presented to the public.

One of the most important considerations for a business is the color or colors they use to identify their brand. Some brands have even gone so far as to trademark a color. Colors can leave a lasting impression and elicit a wide range of reactions and emotions, making them an important thing to consider when creating your logo, painting your offices, or designing any of your marketing materials.

So what exactly do those colors mean? Here’s a breakdown of some brands that use very specific colors and what those hues mean to them.

Blue

Image by Yellow Stocking
Color psychology dictates that this insanely popular logo color stands for being “trustworthy, dependable, fiscally responsible, and secure.” This makes sense when you consider the central role it plays in the identities of big brands like Facebook, Wal-Mart, AT&T, and probably your town’s police department. Several industries are dominated by this cool hue, including the tech, finance, and lifestyle spaces. Consumers trust these brands to handle various pieces of their everyday lives, from doing laundry to chatting with friends to saving for retirement, and that’s why these brands choose blue, to make consumers feel safe in their hands as they continue to innovate and grow their businesses.

Facebook has 1.71 billion monthly active users with over 1.13 billion of them logging on daily, entrusting the social media company to protect their most personal information. WalMart is one of world’s largest physical retail shops with over 6,100 stores globally that sell everything from produce to diapers to furniture; with this one-stop-shop identity to protect, Wal-Mart blue communicates dependability. AT&T is the second largest telecom provide in the US, and for many years, it was number one. The brand changed its logo in 2016, but kept the characteristic blue ribbons, a central component of the brand identity.

Yellow

Image by exopixel
Fast Company calls yellow an optimistic color that has the benefit of being bright enough to grab a consumer’s attention from a distance. It makes sense that Denny’s and McDonald’s both use yellow in their logos since they’re eager to attract hungry travelers on the interstate. This explains why you see so many Denny’s diners and McDonald’s restaurants on the road, and why these food stops have remained big names in the fast fare world. With over 36,500 restaurants around the globe, McDonald’s has a lot to owe to the color yellow, which has become emblematic of the brand’s “golden arches.” And, though Denny’s went through a risky rebrand that made them one of the most loved (and most bizarre) companies on Twitter, they stay true to yellow in their 1,700+ diners worldwide.

Orange

Image by r.classen
Considering using orange in your business branding? Orange is often referred to as a “friendly” color. It’s used by everyone from Nickelodeon and Nike to high fashion brand Hermes. The bright, bold orange, used by stores promoting value, like Home Depot and Payless, is said to communicate affordability. According to Entrepreneur, a subtler, peachy shade of orange tends to appeal to an upscale market. Regardless of the tint, orange definitely plays up the friendly angle by raking in billions of dollars for these brands.

Nickelodeon has been one of the biggest kids television networks for almost 40 years, with access to over 94 million American households; Hermes is in the crop of the world’s most recognized luxury brands with over $3 billion in annual sales; and Nike is the global leader in athletic and lifestyle gear with over $7 billion in annual sales, a big portion of which comes from their array of sneaker styles — all packaged in bright orange shoe boxes.

Red

Image by Nik Merkulov
Red is a very tricky color for marketers. Often used to signal SALE, it has a color psychology all its own, symbolizing excitement and passion. Coca-Cola has been around for over a century, but its marketing campaigns through the ages have usually hinged on narratives that promote the drink as something exciting and something to be shared amongst friends and family. Their latest #Shareacoke campaign makes that shareability message explicit.

Many brands will combine red with softer colors such as white, yellow, or orange to elicit a sense of excitement without risking the perception of going out of business or danger to the consumer. Netflix combines black and white with red to make their logo pop, creating an appropriately cinematic look. And of course, content discovery site YouTube uses a similar color combo. Both of these brands are leaders in their respective categories, with YouTube registering over a billion users worldwide and Netflix dominating the video streaming sector with over 83 million paying members. Both brands look good in red, as they dare to disrupt the tech of the day, driving the innovation that consumers love.

Green

Image by Irish_design
Green is the easiest color for the eyes to process and brings to mind health, freshness, serenity and of course, money. All these things explain why green shows up in the logos of brands like Whole Foods, Land Rover, and Starbucks. Each one of the brands works to make sure consumers feel like they’re buying into something to maintain their health, let them live freely, or get them outdoors.

Land Rover has been pushing the great outdoors narrative for quite some time, usually advertising their range of utility vehicles in a rugged, natural setting. Starbucks continues to focus on the lifestyle side of things with over 24,000 stores worldwide and a drink menu that has reached iconic status. Whole Foods successfully markets the healthy life that consumers strive for, raking in over $15 billion in 2015.

Purple

Image by Dobrokhotova
Purple is a strong color with strong connotations. It’s a go-to if you’re looking to portray your brand as creative, imaginative, or wise (see food and entertainment innovators Taco Bell and Syfy Network). It can also be a soothing, emotional color, which is why greeting card brand Hallmark uses it in their primary logo and branding in over 40,000 stores worldwide.

Taco Bell is known for crazy combinations of ingredients in their tacos, and they bring this creative personality to their social media efforts as well, where they are a leader in engaging with millennials.

Syfy network offers a wide range of shows, with a primary focus on science fiction and fantasy content that targets a niche audience ready to consume imaginative content like12 Monkeys and The Expanse.

Pink

Image by Jag_cz
Depending on the shade, pink can be used to say a few different things about a brand in terms of color psychology. It can evoke feelings of fun and youthfulness, while lighter shades are more romantic and delicate. One of the most iconic brands to use pink is Mattel, a company that sells three Barbie dolls every second across 150 countries worldwide. That astonishing number might explain why pink is so intrinsically linked with Barbie dolls.

T-Mobile uses a bright, edgy magenta in their branding and in-your face, millennial-focused ads. The company started the removal of multi-year phone contracts in the United States — an industry standard for decades — with aggressive pricing and fun commercials, featuring this shocking pink background color. As sales started to increase, other telecom giants such as AT&T, Verizon and Sprint followed with similar offerings (but more subdued color schemes).

Black

Image by Fribus Mara
Black means business and luxury. That’s why it’s the preferred color for glamorous evening wear and stretch limousines. If you’re looking to convey drama, sophistication, and a hint of status, this color will do the trick.

Uber’s primary brand color is black, and its on-demand ride service offers a line of luxury vehicles called Uber Black, so that customers don’t have to step out of a yellow cab when attending that fancy dinner party.

American Express’ Centurion card, aka the Black Card, is the ultimate status credit card for the wealthy. It’s made of anodized titanium and has a $7,500 initiation fee with a $2,500 annual fee. And, as if those figures don’t scream status, the card can only be issued via an invitation.

The New York Times may not have had a choice when they first printed their daily newspaper, but even after color images were used in print they didn’t move away from the bold black letters on the headline. The newspaper is still referred to as the “paper of record.”

White

Image by exopixel
When you use white in your logo or marketing materials, you’re telling people you have nothing to hide. Apple, one of the most popular brands in the world, uses white for its primary branding to relay information and make products stand out from the crowd with a sense of transparency and cleanliness.

Take a look at Apple’s repertoire of products and you’ll be hard pressed to find one that isn’t wrapped in white, or white’s silvery cousin, chrome.According to Apple’s Chief Design Officer, white doesn’t come off as disposable and is pure and quiet. From the Macbook to the iPod, to the iconic earbuds, white is a color that Apple has embraced and marketed very well.

Next time you or someone you know is looking to create a logo or brand, keep these colors in mind. The right color can make a huge difference in the way potential customers perceive your brand, but more importantly, how easily they can remember your brand.

By Kashem Miah

Top image by Pichugin Dmitry

English Nursery Rhymes with Unexpected and Sometimes Disturbing Historical Origins

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 08:00:00 -0400

Featured Image: The Jessie Willcox Smith Mother Goose (1914) (Wikimedia Commons)

Many people associate nursery rhymes with reading happy stories to children, or remember being children themselves and chanting them while they play. However, the popular explanations for the origins of several English nursery rhymes shows that they may be more complex and at times more disturbing than they first appear.

There is controversy regarding exact dates when they were created and the message behind some of these rhymes. Nonetheless, most researchers agree that often the rhymes were meant to provide morals and values, or warnings, to their audience.

Some researchers have also suggested that these seemingly nonsensical rhymes were not really meant for children at all, nor are they nonsense. Instead, the rhymes were steeped with political and satirical messages, created in such a way to confuse the authorities listening; thus, preventing legal or other backlash.

1. Baa Baa Black Sheep: Feudal Taxes

Baa Baa Black Sheep (1916) Dorothy Miller (Wikimedia Commons)

Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool?
Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full!
One for the master, one for the dame
But none for the little boy who cries down the lane.

(Final line until the late 16th century) Discover Black sheep Protestantism Prayer Nickname- OR-And one for the little boy who lives down the lane. (Changes to be more suitable for children.)

Baa Baa Black Sheep was first published in 1744. However, most scholars claim that this rhyme is based on the reality of life in feudal times in England in general and the export tax for wool farmers of 1275 created by King Edward I (the master) in particular.

The "bags of wool" (or produce from the farmers) first went to the nobles, then the church, and in the end practically nothing was left for the poor "little boy" (farmers).

2. Mary Mary Quite Contrary: A Cruel or Tragic Queen

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary (1860) (Wikimedia Commons)

Mary Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row

According to some researchers Mary Mary, also published in 1744, refers to "Bloody Mary," Mary Tudor or Mary Stewart - Mary Queen of Scots.

Mary Tudor was a strict Catholic and during her reign from 1553-1558 her garden (a graveyard) grew as many protestants were executed for not converting to Catholicism.

"Silver bells" and "cockle shells" may have been the nicknames of torture devices (thumbscrews and instruments attached to the genitals).

The "maids" (shortened from maiden) in the rhyme is thought to be another nickname - for another device for torture or the guillotine.

If Mary Queen of Scots is the Mary referred to, then the "silver bells" and "cockle shells" are said to be a mention to ornaments she received on a dress from her first husband, the Dauphin Francis II of France. In this interpretation the "pretty maids" are Mary Stewart's ladies in waiting.

3. Goosey, Goosey, Gander: Religious Persecution/an Obligation to Pray

Goosey, Goosey, Gander (Mamalisa)

Goosey, goosey, gander,
Whither dost thou wander?
Upstairs and downstairs
And in my lady's chamber.
There I met an old man
Who wouldn't say his prayers;
I took him by the left leg,
And threw him down the stairs

First published in 1784, Goosey, Goosey, Gander also refers to the Catholic persecution in the 16th century.

At the time "priest holes" became popular as Catholics set up small hidden rooms in their homes to pray. If zealous Protestants found the Catholic praying in Latin, than the whole family would be executed. The "left leg" in the rhyme is claimed to be the nickname for Catholics at the time as "left-leggers."

Another interpretation suggests that this rhyme may simply be a warning by its creator for listeners/readers to pray or they will receive unfortunate consequences.

4. Humpty Dumpty: A Heavy Person Or a Cannon

Humpty Dumpty and Alice from Through the Looking Glass, J. Tenniel (Wikimedia Commons)

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King's horses, And all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again!
-OR-
Threescore men and threescore more,
Could not place Humpty as he was before.

Humpty Dumpty (published in 1799) also has two possible meanings. A "Humpty Dumpty" is claimed to be a nickname used in the fifteenth century for an overweight person.

The second explanation for the rhyme states that Humpty was the nickname of a cannon used by the army of King Charles I to capture Colchester in the English Civil War.

The cannon reportedly "sat on a wall" of a church until it "had a great fall" as it was knocked down by opposing cannon fire. "Humpty" the cannon could not be repaired despite the efforts of "all the King's men."

It must also be noted that this rhyme and others, have counterparts in other European cultures.

5. Jack and Jill - Liquid Measures and Beheaded Royalty

Jack and Jill, Denslow (1902) (Wikimedia Commons)

Jack and Jill went up the hill,
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down,
And broke his crown;
And Jill came tumbling after.

Scholars have provided two main beliefs regarding the origins of Jack and Jill, which was published in 1765. The more devious version of the rhyme refers to the beheading of France's Louis XVI (Jack) and Marie Antoinette (Jill), with the French royalty gaining status "up the hill" first and later their execution as Jack breaks his crown and Jill tumbles after. This meaning has been cast off by many however as the date of the rhyme is before their executions.

The more favored interpretation is that this rhyme, like Baa Baa Black Sheep, is a response to the reform of taxes on liquids put into place by King Charles I. It is said that "Jack" was the nickname for a half-pint (1 cup) and "Jill" was a quarter-pint (1/2 cup).

6. Sing a Song of Sixpence - And Scare the King or Join the Pirates

Sing a Song of Sixpence (1890) (Wikimedia Commons)

Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye,
Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.
When the pie was opened the birds began to sing,
Oh wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?
The king was in his counting house counting out his money,
The queen was in the parlor eating bread and honey
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes,
When down came a blackbird and pecked off her nose!

The most popular explanation for Sing a Song of Sixpence is that blackbirds (or any birds) were actually baked into pies for kings/nobles in the 16th century as a surprise and joke from the cook/a jester. This act has been documented and some cookbooks from the time included recipes on how to complete the task.

Another origin for Sing a Song of Sixpence, which was first put in print in 1744, is that it was a code used by pirates in the early 1700s to find new recruits. It was supposedly popular for those enlisting for the famous pirate Blackbeard in particular.

Blackbeard is said to have paid his crew members "sixpence" a day (an uncommon practice for pirates of his time) and the crew members "four and twenty" of Blackbeard "blackbird" were hidden in the ship "pie." The pirates' goal was to get the treasure "tasty dish" for Blackbeard "the king." The king "counting out his money" showed that Blackbeard had the money to pay the new recruits well. The "Queen," (the Queen's Revenge - Blackbeard's ship) was taking on supplies in dock "eating bread and honey" thus it was time to join on. The last two lines are explained as maritime references.

7. Ring Around the Rosie (Ring a Ring o' Roses): A False Understanding?

Ring a-round-a roses (1912) J. Willcox Smith (Wikimedia Commons)

Ring a Ring O' Roses,
A pocketful of posies,
Atishoo! Atishoo!
We all fall down!

Many people believe they know the origins of Ring a ring o' Roses: The Black Death (1348) or the Great Plague (1665) (thus the chanting of "a tishoo" and "we all fall down" [dead]). With the symptoms of the plague presenting themselves as a red ring (ring o' roses) and posies supposedly providing protection (in the common belief at the time of the Great Plague), this connection is understandable.

Furthermore, another modern version of the rhyme has been altered to use the word "ashes" in place of "atishoo," supporting the hypothesis with the idea of burning the corpses of plague victims.

Nonetheless, this association is modern according to scholars who now doubt the relationship between either of the events and the rhyme. Their reasoning is that the first known documenting of the rhyme is 1881, much later than either plague. The question many researchers have asked is: why did it take so long to write it down if it was so popular?

Meanings and Origins in Recent Interpretations?

That question may be asked about many of these rhymes. Were they just passed on orally in the beginnings as a further form of protection, as the messages were hidden in the "nonsensical" rhymes? There is still debate on this topic.

To reiterate, the ideas presented here are just some of the more agreed upon interpretations of the origins and messages behind these nursery rhymes. As time passes and verses change to appeal to younger audiences, the beliefs on the origins and meanings will undoubtedly change as well. As culture is created and changes over time, so too has society created these interpretations.

By Alicia McDermott

References:

Alchin, Linda, 2015. Nursery Rhymes: Lyrics, Origins & History. [Online] Available at: http://www.rhymes.org.uk

Castelow, Ellen, 2015. Nursery Rhymes. [Online] Available at: http://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Nursery-Rhymes/

Fallon, Claire, 2014. The Shocking, Twisted Stories Behind Your Favorite Nursery Rhymes. [Online] Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/20/nursery-rhymes-real-stories_n_6180428.html

n.a., 2015. Baa Baa Black Sheep - Versions 1,2,3. [Online] Available at: http://www.mothergooseclub.com/rhymes_parent.php?id=111

n.a. 2015. Mary Tudor. [Online] Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/mary-tudor-9401296#spanish-marriage-and-death

n.a. Mary, Queen of Scots: Biography, Facts, Portraits & Information. [Online] Available at: http://englishhistory.net/tudor/relative/mary-queen-of-scots/

n.a., 2015. 24 Terrifying, Thoughtful and Absurd Nursery Rhymes for Children. [Online] Available at: http://brainz.org/24-terrifying-thoughtful-and-absurd-nursery-rhymes-children/

n.a., 2015. A Pocket Full of Wry. [Online] Available at: http://www.snopes.com/lost/sixpence.asp

Wood, Jennifer M, 2015. The Dark Origins of 11 Classic Nursery Rhymes. [Online] Available at: http://mentalfloss.com/article/55035/dark-origins-11-classic-nursery-rhymes

Dragons: Exploring the Ancient Origins of the Mythical

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 10 Aug 2016 08:00:00 -0400

One of the most popular and persistent characters of the human mythos is that of the dragon. Whether it is a gold hoarding serpent or fire-breathing giant, dragons continue to fascinate and entertain people around the world. Yet where did the idea of these mythical beasts come from? Nobody knows for certain when or where dragons first entered into the popular culture, although tales of dragons existed in ancient Greece and ancient Samaria. Over the years, experts have put forward a number of interesting theories.

Crocodiles

The saltwater crocodile and Nile crocodile are the first and second largest reptiles currently living on earth, respectively. Today, saltwater crocodiles have a broad habitat range, living throughout the eastern Indian Ocean regions – from the eastern coast of India, throughout Indonesia, and south along Australia’s northern coastline. The Nile crocodile is prevalent in the rivers, lakes, and marshes of Sub-Saharan Africa. Thousands of years ago, however, both species would have had a far more extensive habitat range.

Evidence suggests that in ancient times, some Nile crocodiles lived on the northern side of the Mediterranean, meaning they could threaten inhabitants of southern Italy, Greece, and Spain. Interestingly, Nile crocodiles, which can grow up to 20 feet (6.1m) in length, are capable of elevating their trunks off of the ground – a movement called the high walk. This may be a clue as to why the dragons in European myths are often depicted as reptiles rearing up to slay warriors. In a similar but distinct move, saltwater crocodiles, which can grow up to 23 feet (7.0m) can propel themselves upward so that they jump out of the water to catch prey. However, dragons in Asiatic myths tend to be more serpents like.

Did legends of dragons originate from the Nile crocodile? (Arvalis / DeviantArt)

Dinosaurs

Many archeologists believe that the myths of dragons originated from ancient peoples’ discovery of unfathomably large, long-necked dinosaur fossils. For instance, the Qijianglong was a dinosaur that lived 160 million years ago and measured approximately 49 feet (15 m) long. Its fossil was discovered by construction workers in China. One by one, they uncovered the massive vertebrae stretched out in a row in the earth.

Today, we know that these enormous bones belong to prehistoric beings but in ancient times, people would have most likely invented stories to explain what the beasts were. One of the paleontologists who has studied the Qijianglong fossil, Tetsuto Miyashita of the University of Alberta, has pondered what it would have been like for ancient people to discover such remains. “I wonder if the ancient Chinese stumbled upon a skeleton of a long-necked dinosaur like Qijianglong and pictured that mythical creature” (Gray, 2015). There is evidence to suggest that the Chinese have been finding and studying dinosaur fossils at least as far back as the 4th century B.C.

The Qijianglong may have inspired legends of dragons (Alexanderlovegrove / DeviantArt)

Whales

A similar theory for the origin of dragons is that the myth is based on the skeletons of whales that washed ashore to the astonishment and puzzlement of early coastal dwellers. Because whales spend most of their time underwater out in the high seas, ancient humans, who did not then have advanced nautical technology, would only ever catch glimpses of the behemoths.

In the Book of Job, the Leviathan (believed to be the sea-monster Cetus, the same mythological whale sent by Poseidon to attack Ethiopia) is described like a dragon in fantastic detail: Discover Mythology Whale Ancient history Book of Job 12

“I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs,
its strength and its graceful form.
13 Who can strip off its outer coat?
Who can penetrate its double coat of armor[b]?
14 Who dares open the doors of its mouth,
ringed about with fearsome teeth?...
18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light;
its eyes are like the rays of dawn.
19 Flames stream from its mouth;
sparks of fire shoot out.
20 Smoke pours from its nostrils
as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
21 Its breath sets coals ablaze,
and flames dart from its mouth…
25 When it rises up, the mighty are terrified;
they retreat before its thrashing.
26 The sword that reaches it has no effect,
nor does the spear or the dart or the javelin.
27 Iron it treats like straw
and bronze like rotten wood…
33 Nothing on earth is its equal—
a creature without fear.
34 It looks down on all that are haughty;
it is king over all that are proud.”

Did the discovery of whale carcasses lead to legends of dragons? (wallpaperswa.com)

Snakes

In ancient Egypt, there was a deity known as Apep, the Serpent of the Nile. This giant snake was the Lord of Chaos and persistent opponent of light and truth. He was believed to lie just below the horizon, forever waiting for his chance to swallow the sun. At other times, he was believed to descend into the underworld to eat the souls of the dead. Apep is a far cry from the Druks and wyverns that populate much of Eastern and Western folklore, respectively.

However, it does point to a perennial fear held by humans throughout history. In an interesting theory put forward by anthologist David E. Jones in his book An Instinct for Dragons, the author argues that like monkeys and dogs, humanoids are instinctively afraid of snakes, as well as other large predators. James posits that the collective human consciousness invented the dragon over centuries as a result of that embedded fear. This could explain how dragon myths have independently arisen in disparate corners of the globe.

Japanese dragon: Legends may have been inspired by snake sightings (public domain)

Legendary tales of fire-breathing dragons have been around for millennia, yet they continue to stir popular imagination to this day.

Top image: Artwork of a dragon for the Durian-Project of the Blender Foundation (public domain)

By Kerry Sullivan

Sources:

Gray, Richard. "A Real Chinese Dragon! Long-necked Dinosaur Found on Construction Site May Have Inspired Ancient Legends." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 29 Jan. 2015. Web. 06 Aug. 2016. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2931344/A-real-Chinese-dragon-Long-necked-dinosaur-construction-site-inspired-ancient-legends.html

Job. New Oxford Annotated Bible. 4th Vers. New York: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.

Radford, Benjamin. "Are Dragons Real? Facts About Dragons."LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 10 Dec. 2014. Web. 06 Aug. 2016. http://www.livescience.com/25559-dragons.html

Stromberg, Joseph. "Where Did Dragons Come From?" Smithsonian. Smithsonian Institution, 23 Jan. 2012. Web. 06 Aug. 2016. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/where-did-dragons-come-from-23969126/?no-ist

Legends of the Selkies, Hidden Gems of Sea Mythology

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 9 Aug 2016 08:00:00 -0400

Top image: Selkies, gems of sea mythology by Gwillieth / DeviantArt

Amorous, affectionate and affable, Selkies are the hidden gems of sea mythology. Gentle souls who prefer dancing in the moonlight over luring sailors to their death, Selkies are often overlooked by mythological enthusiasts for the more enthralling forms of mermaids or sirens.

Yet Selkies play a prominent role in the mythology of Scandinavia, Scotland and Ireland. Their myths are romantic tragedies, a common theme for land/sea romances, however it is the Selkies who suffer rather than their human lovers and spouses. While the tales of Selkies always begin with a warm and peaceful "once upon a time", there are no true happy ending for the tales of Selkies—someone always gets his/her heart broken.

The mythology of selkies is similar to that of the Japanese swan maidens, though historically it appears that the tales of the swan maidens predate the western tradition. Selkies can be either men or women, but are seals while in the water. What differentiates them from mermaids (aside from the choice of animal) is that they undergo a full body transformation upon coming to shore: they do not merely transform seal tails into human legs, but rather completely shapeshift from the sea animals into a human. This is accomplished by shedding their seal-skin when they come to land. Selkies are predominately mythological creatures from Irish, Scottish (particularly in Orkney and the Shetland Islands) and Faroese folklore, however there is a similar tradition in Iceland as well.

Their name descends from the Scottish selich, and there does not appear to be a Gaelic term for these creatures. This is likely indicative of their prominence in early modern Scottish culture. It is believed that the Selkies arose in legends when early Scottish settlers and shipwrecked Spaniards married dark-haired, fur-wearing Finnish and Saami native women.

A seal-woman steps out from her seal coat on the beach. (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Described as incredibly handsome and beautiful, Selkies take the role of both predator and prey. Those who willingly come to land often seek those who are already dissatisfied in their daily lives such as the wives of fisherman.

It appears more common in myths that the "predator" Selkies are usually the males, as tales indicate the men more often seek out lonely humans; however, there are also variations in which human women choose to summon male Selkies to the shore by sending seven tears to the sea.

Selkies can only remain in the presence of humans for a short period of time, and then must commonly wait seven years to return the shore. That rule is broken, however, when a Selkie is forced to remain a human without his/her consent.

Male selkie (no-maam.blogspot.com)

The other way in which Selkies become part of human life is when their seal skin is stolen. These tales most often occur to female Selkies, creating the role of "prey" as mentioned above. It is not uncommon in myths for Selkies to come ashore and transform into humans for pleasure, and it is often during this time (when the skin is left unattended) that human men steal the female's skin.

Once a Selkie is no longer in possession of his/her skin, the Selkie is under the hold of the human—most often depicted as a forced marriage. Interestingly, Selkie women are very good wives, but regardless of how happy a Selkie is on land, or how many children he/she beget during their time on the surface, once a Selkie recovers his/her lost skin, the Selkie immediately returns to the sea without looking back. Ironically, various tales also depict the half human children accidentally finding their parent's lost skin and returning it without being aware of the repercussions

.

Illustration of a Slekie losing its skin. (sites.google.com)

One rather uncommon tale of Selkies reveals what happens if a Selkie chooses to return to the sea. It appears, according to one tale from the Faroe Islands, that upon making this choice, the Selkie is not able to return to his/her former life even if the Selkie wanted to. An abridged version of this tale describes a human husband sailing into a treacherous storm, saved only when his Selkie wife retrieves her skin and rescues him as a seal from certain death.

Though this tale indicates a real love between the Selkie wife and her human husband, her donning of her seal skin will prevent her from ever taking part in the human world again. This is only one variation, of course, and thus is contradicted by other mythologies, however it is pertinent to the tale of Selkies because it reveals that all human/Selkie marriages are not hollow.

Painting of a female Selkie. (merbooksblog.blogspot.com)

Selkies are far tamer and much more gentile than their mermaid and siren counterparts, and it is likely this is because those cultures who believed in Selkies lived very close to the sea and, in a way, the edges of the world. To these cultures, the sea was both wild and bountiful at the same time.

It is not unreasonable to assume that the nature of the Selkies has remained tame throughout their legends because the sea was a source of survival for the Scandinavians and Scotsmen who believed in them. While Selkies are less prominent in cultural traditions today, they should be valued for their preference to love rather than harm humans. It is more pleasant to image a Selkie mother watching over her human children from the sea, than a seductive mermaid planning her next underwater vanquish.

By Ryan Stone

Bibliography

Briggs, Katharine. 1976. An Encyclopedia of Fairies. Pantheon Books: New York.

Matthews, John and Caitlin. 2005. The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures. Barnes & Noble Publishing.

Monaghan, Patricia. 2009. The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore. Arrow Books: UK.

Spence, Lewis. 1948. The Minor Traditions of British Mythology. Rider and Company: Towrie, Sigurd. "The Selkie Folk." Orkneyjar: the heritage of the Orkney Islands. Accessed 1, August 2016.http://www.orkneyjar.com/folklore/selkiefolk/

Williamson, Dunca

Irish Lore Keeper gives Dire Warning: US Company will be Cursed if Ancient Fairy Fort is Destroyed

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 9 Aug 2016 08:00:00 -0400

Featured Image: Stone ringfort, “Ring of Kerry” in Ireland. (Francis Bijl/CC BY 2.0) Representational image.

Bad luck is sure to befall a US company if it builds a new factory over a fairyfort in Ireland, warns a traditional Irish lore keeper.

West Pharmaceutical Services is building a new factory in Waterford, Ireland, with plans on employing more than 150 people at completion in 2018, reports The Irish Times. However, the construction site is situated over an ancient ringfort (rath, or fairyfort) which dates back thousands of years.

Lore Keeper Sounds Alarm
Eddie Lenihan, famed Irish author, storyteller and broadcaster, warns West Pharmaceutical that destruction or removal of the fairyfort would spell dire consequences and bad luck for all those involved in construction or clearing the ancient dwelling, according to the Irish Examiner.

Eddie Lenihan, one of the few practicing seanchaithe warns about disturbing the ancient dwellings of Ireland. (Chris Sloan/CC BY-SA 2.0)

Lenihan is one of only a few remaining practicing seanchaithe, or traditional storyteller and lore keeper. The seanchaithe, much like bards, memorized and preserved the oral traditions, history and laws of the ancient Celtic culture. Lenihan has personally written to the US firm, and says “I am no campaigner, I just like to see things respected. I said to them [West Pharmaceutical Services], in that letter, that if that factory is built, and I hope the factory is built on another location because Waterford needs the jobs, but if it is built there, wait and see what happens.

Discover Ringfort Storytelling Laughter Ellipsis
“It’s not a matter of if it will close but when it will close. People will think you are a crank if you say something like this and there will be much laughter.”

It is apparently no laughing matter to locals, who heeded the call to preserve the ancient fairyfort, and took no part in the construction. Workers needed to be brought in from outside Waterford to continue the job.

The Knockhouse RingFort of Waterford, Ireland, is slated for destruction. Credit: Knockhouse Ringfort Community Facebook

Ringforts, Home of the FairyFolk

The Knockhouse fairyfort, for years believed to be of special archaeological interest, is thought to date to 800 AD, with most Irish ringforts dating from the late Iron Age.

Ringforts were ancient circular settlements which were surrounded and enclosed by one or more earthen or stone banks and ditches. Sometimes wooden palisades would be erected on one of the high banks, serving as extra protection from wolves, foxes, boars or human invaders. However, while these simple constructions are called forts, they were not military structures, but mainly agricultural settlements or farmsteads, and were not designed for warfare, notes website Irish Imbas.

Staigue Fort Ring Fort, 3rd or 4th Century, Ireland. (Amanderson2/CC BY 2.0)

As the ringforts fell out of use after centuries, locals did not know what the remaining ruins were originally for, and explained the strange, circular, built-up sites as the homes of fairies. It is believed that to disturb these sites is to provoke fairies. It is often said that leprechauns, notorious trickster fairies, keep their gold in the forts.

According to RTE News, “The Council has known about this ring fort for many years and the company is working with the local authority and the National Monuments Office to excavate the site. However, a local campaign group say not enough is being done and they do not want to see the ring fort concreted over after the archaeological dig is finished.”

The pharmaceutical firm issued a statement confirming the land was going to be developed, and the ringfort demolished, but any artifacts found would be recorded and preserved.

Fairy Rings and Bad Luck
Such is the case for other such ‘fairy dwellings’ traditionally across Europe. Fairy rings are a naturally occurring circle of mushrooms. These rings were traditionally believed to be a portal to the fairy realm, and were often seen as a dark omen and dangerous place.

A mushroom ring creating a circle on the grass. These rings were believed to be portals to the fairy realm, and areas of danger. (Unukorno, Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0)

Lenihan says of destruction of the Waterford fairyfort, “It will be more than bad luck, there are stories after stories of it. I’d be the first to be skeptical, I’m not one of those people who believes everything they hear. I’ve been collecting folklore for 40 years and a lot of the stories are bunkum, but not all... You can have one coincidence or two coincidences... but after a while you realize that it can’t be a coincidence.”

Tradition dictates that if you have a ringfort on your land, it is to be treated with respect, and not to be damaged, or you might suffer legendary fates, such as livestock dying, family members sickening, and relationships failing.

Ringfort at Cabragh, Ireland. Ringforts are common in the Irish countryside. (Pamela Norrington/CC BY-SA 2.0)

In recent history, the bankruptcy of a billionaire has been blamed upon the disturbance of ancient dwellings, when in 2011 Ireland’s richest man, developer Sean Quinn, suffered a catastrophic financial downfall after moving a megalithic burial tomb to make way for a quarry.

News site Irish Central lists incidents that are described as evidence of malevolent curses and bad luck from disturbing ancient dwellings:
“In June 2007 Minister for the Environment Dick Roche signed an order destroying the Lismullin Henge. Lismullin Henge was a 4,000 year old astronomical observatory and place of worship and hailed as one of the most important archaeological finds of the century.

Roche was since held up by an armed gang in the Druids Glen Hotel and also lost his job and was then demoted.

Martin Cullen the then Minister for Transport nearly got sucked out of a helicopter when the door fell off on one of his extravagantly expensive trips.

The chief Health and Safety Officer was seriously injured by a falling tree when felling began at Rath Lugh in 2007.

Despite Lenihan’s warnings, the fairyfort is set to be cleared for the second phase of construction.

Irish Examiner reports that a group in Waterford is campaigning to have the fort preserved inside the main factory building as a tourist attraction, this perhaps being the only way to avoid destruction of the site, and prevent the perceived wrath of the fairy folk.
By Liz Leafloor

Magical Mermaids of Japanese Folklore

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 2 Aug 2016 08:00:00 -0400

Featured image: Japanese geisha mermaid with umbrella under

the great wave and cherry blossoms branches by Martin Nieto.

Photo source: Martinnieto.net

The ningyo, which translates as human fish (known also as gyojin, meaning human fish, or hangyo-jin, meaning half-fish human) is a creature in Japanese folklore that is comparable to the mermaids in Western legends. Despite the similarity in concept, i.e. the ningyo and mermaid being creatures with both terrestrial and marine body parts, these two entities are actually quite different.

For example, in Western folklore, mermaids are generally regarded as beautiful, seductive beings who would lure men to their deaths. As for the Japanese ningyo, there is no such ‘standard’ story, as these creatures not only vary in the way they look, but also in the way they are said to interact with human beings.

Differing Appearance

Unlike their Western counterparts, the Japanese ningyo, in general, are much less attractive. They are often portrayed as creatures with the top half of a monkey and the bottom half of a fish. Such ningyo have also been made by the Japanese, one of the most famous examples being P. T. Barnum’s ‘Fiji Mermaid’.

Nevertheless, there are also ningyo which bear even less resemblance to the mermaids of the West. For instance, it has been claimed that in numerous local traditions, the ningyo do not have human (or even ape-like) torsos at all. Instead, they have just a human / ape-like / reptilian head attached to the body of a fish. At times, these heads are depicted grotesquely, i.e. misshapen / horned / with a mouthful of razor-sharp fangs.DiscoverFishMermaidWestern worldFood

A ningyo with the body of a fish and head of a human. (CC BY SA)

There is also a type of ningyo known as the amabie / amabiko, which is said to have the beak of a bird, and is covered with scales from the neck down.

Mystical Abilities

The ningyo are believed to have mystical abilities, and a variety of magical aspects have been attributed to them. For example, they are often said to be able to cry tears of pearls. In addition, some ningyo, like the amabie, are thought to be able to foretell the future.

In one story recorded during the 19th century, an amabie is said to have appeared and prophesized both good harvest and the plague. Additionally, the amabie mentioned that in order to avoid the plague, people should make an image in its likeness.

A tile engraving with an Amabie from the Edo period. (Public Domain)

Other ningyo are reported to be less benevolent, and are capable of shape-shifting, an ability which they supposedly use to lure men into the sea, and their deaths.

The 800-Year-Old Nun

The most well-known belief about the ningyo’s supernatural powers, however, is that by eating their flesh, one is able to gain eternal life, or at least an extremely long life span. There are numerous stories telling of the magical qualities of the ningyo’s flesh. Still, none is more famous than that of the ‘Happyanku Bikuni’ (meaning ‘800-year-old Buddhist nun’).

This tale begins with a fisherman who caught a ningyo. He invited his friends to his house for a meal, though he did not reveal to them that they were going to have the flesh of the ningyo. His friends, who guessed the source of the meat / found out about it without the fisherman’s knowledge, did not eat the food. By chance, however, the fisherman’s young daughter ate the meat. She stopped growing at the age of 15, and eventually became a nun, wandering about until her death at the age of 800.

A ningyo from Toriyama Sekien's Konjaku Hyakki Shūi. (Public Domain)

Tenshou-Kyousha Shrine’s Ningyo

The ancient Japanese believed in the existence of the ningyo, and even have physical evidence for its existence. The Tenshou-Kyousha Shrine in Fujinomiya houses the preserved body of a supposed ningyo. According to a legend, a ningyo once appeared to a Japanese prince. As the creature was about to die, it told the prince about how it became such a creature. Apparently, this ningyo was once a fisherman. As a result of trespassing protected waters in order to fish, a curse was laid on him, which transformed him into a ningyo.

The Tenshou-Kyousha Shrine in Fujinomiya. (beautymaiden)

The fisherman learned his lesson, and requested the prince to found a shrine where his preserved remains may be displayed. This was so that all who viewed the body of this creature may be reminded of the sanctity of life. It is possible that this ningyo is one of the earliest specimens of ‘mermaids’ created by the Japanese, the most famous of which was the Fiji Mermaid.

The Tenshou-Kyousha Shrine’s ningyo. (beautymaiden)

By Wu Mingren

References

Black, A., 2016. Tenshou-Kyousha Shrine Mermaid Mummy. [Online] Available at: http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/fujinomiya-mermaid-mummy

Knight, S., 2014. Ningyo: The Japanese Mermaid. [Online] Available at: http://shannonknight.net/?p=2166

monster.wikia.com, 2016. Ningyo. [Online] Available at: http://monster.wikia.com/wiki/Ningyo

Swancer, B., 2015. The Mysterious Mermaids of Japan. [Online] Available at: http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2015/02/the-mysterious-mermaids-of-japan/

yokai.com, 2013. Ningyo. [Online] Available at: http://yokai.com/ningyo/

yokai.wikia.com, 2016. Amabie. [Online] Available at: http://yokai.wikia.com/wiki/Amabie

When the Church Bells Ring: Themes and Proclivities of the Danish Folktale "Agnete and the Merman"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 2 Aug 2016 08:00:00 -0400

Top Image: “Agneta & the Sea King” by John Bauer. Source: Melusina Mermaid

Fascination with the Danish ballad Agnete og Havmanden, or "Agnete and the Merman", has long been prominent in the Scandinavian countries. In spite of arguments over origin and dating, the poem has survived centuries of uncertainty through its thrilling themes of forbidden sexuality, spiritual toil, and outright abandonment.

A Tragic Tale

Axel Olrik dates this ballad to the post-medieval period, though its precise origin date is uncertain. Olrik also believes that the source is German rather than the assumption that it is natively Danish. There were many variations of the ballad written during the 18th and 19th century which are considered the foundation for modern alterations. Among these texts, the ballads written by Jens Baggesen, Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger, and Hans Christian Andersen are the most widely circulated.

In Jens Baggesen's rendition, c. 1812, the story is as follows: a beautiful young Danish woman, Agnete is approached by the unnamed merman while sitting near to the sea. The merman approaches her, professing his love, and she agrees to return to the sea with him admitting similar feelings. During her time under the sea, she bears the merman two children, but upon hearing the bells of the church from the surface, she begs her husband to allow her to go to the surface just one more time. Vowing to return the following day, the merman grants her request, and she leaves her children with her husband to return to the surface.

Coronation of the Sea Queen: "Now you shall be my queen & stay with me forever." Illustration by John Bauer. (Melusina Mermaid)

Yet the church does not provide the comfort Agnete hoped for. Approaching the church at midnight, Agnete finds herself confronted by her mother, who breaks the terrible news to her that the bells Agnete had heard were chimes signifying the funeral of Agnete's father, who had killed himself when the search for his daughter went unresolved. While begging her daughter to return to the surface, Agnete sees a tombstone beyond her mother—one which bears her mother's name. It is then Agnete realizes that her time in the sea was not equivalent to the time on land, and her entire family has died while she remained under the sea.DiscoverAxel OlrikDanish languageMermaidFairy tale

Alterations to the Ballad

Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger wrote a variation in the 19th century as well, with only a few minor changes. Agnete's name becomes Agnes, and Agnes has seven children rather than a mere two. Furthermore, it also discusses Agnes' death—absent from the original version—yet her death merely occurs after surfacing from the water.

Hans Christian Andersen wrote a version similar to Oehlenschläger's in 1832-4, made all the more intriguing to modern scholars by the inversion of gender roles in comparison to his earlier "The Little Mermaid," in which the mermaid fails to obtain her human true love and perishes at the end of the tale. Andersen's tale was performed at the Royal Theater in the 1840s, and it is likely because of his prominent name in fairy-tale circles that "Agnete and the Merman" remaining in circulation

Hans Christian Andersen in the garden of "Roligheden" near Copenhagen, Denmark. in 1869. (Public Domain)

In contrast to these Danish versions, an examination of a variation from Sweden will show the ways in which the tale altered depending on culture. A Swedish version keeps similar elements, however Agnete's love for the merman is falsified. In this ballad, Agnete refuses the merman's advances, offering him flowers instead, but is pulled beneath the waves and wiped of her human memories.

She then proceeds to marry the merman and produce seven children in eight years. It is only after—once again—hearing church bells that call her to resurface that she regains her memories and chooses to leave her underwater husband and children. When her husband comes for her, in an evident deus ex machina moment, God intervenes, banning the merman from entering the church and allowing Agnete to remain with her father.

“Agneta, look at me,” he pleaded. But she did not raise her face. She kneeled on the spot as still as a statue. Illustration by John Bauer. (Melusina Mermaid)

Christian Influences

Agnete's imaginary tale likely intrigued audiences during the 19th century, leading to these numerous variations because of the interaction between Christian and non-Christian forces. The merman, a magical being who finds place in the folklore and pre-Christian myths of numerous cultures, represents the pagan past of the Scandinavian lands, while the call of the church bells likely represents of the call of the Christian God.

In each tale, Agnete chooses to follow the bells above the surface, reuniting with her family. The Swedish version recounted here emphasizes this Christian-pre-Christian dichotomy, because the merman comes to the surface to reclaim his wife, but she ignores him to continue her prayers. It is after these prayers that she denounces him and her children, deciding to remain on the surface with her family and her Christian values. The extent to which this dichotomy is expressed differs depending on culture and author, but the Swedish variation is one of the most explicit. Yet with the continued utilization of church bells in other texts to call Agnete back to the shore, it is likely this was a consistent intention throughout the alterations.

“Agnete og Havmanden” (c. 1862) by Vilhelm Kyhn. (Public Domain)

A Famous Statue

Another fascinating aspect of the story of Agnete and the Merman is that it is the subject of a unique sculpture created by Suste Bonnén c. 1992. At the base of the Slotshom Channel in Copenhagen one can see an underwater arrangement of Agnete and the Merman that is lit throughout the night and day. Though the ballad is not definitively proven to have come from a German or Danish source, the Danes evidently feel the story is an innate part of their culture, and the dedication to such an intriguing statue only emphasizes its value. Unlike the tale itself, these sculptures remain under the sea, never to return to the surface, likely serving a similar reminder of the pre-Christian and Christian dichotomy that once shook up the country.

Detail of the Agnete and the Merman sculpture. (Martin Macnaughton/Undervandsitetet)

By Ryan Stone

References

Anderson, Poul. 2011. The Merman's Children. Hachette: United Kingdom.

Bassett, Fletcher S. 1885. "Legends and Superstitions of the Sea and of Sailors In all Lands and at all Times."

Christensen, Dan. 2013. Hans Christian Ørsted: Reading Nature's Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kristensen, Evald Tang and Hakon Grüner-Nielsen. 1907. "Agnete and the Merman." Det Kongelige Bibliotek: Copenhagen. Accessed 20 July 2016.

Morgensen, Soeren. 2014. "Adam. Gottlob Oehlenschläger." Project Runeberg. Accessed 21 July 2016.

Oxenvad, Niels: "Henrik Hertz and Hans Christian Andersen", In: Johan de Mylius, Aage Jørgensen and Viggo Hjørnager Pedersen (ed.): Hans Christian Andersen. A Poet in Time. Papers from the Second International Hans Christian Andersen Conference 29 July to 2 August 1996. The Hans Christian Andersen Center, Odense University, Odense University Press: Odense, Denmark.

Rossel, Sven Hakon. 1996. Hans Christian Andersen: Danish Writer and Citizen of the World. BRILL: Rodop

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The Pink Ghetto of Social Media By Alana Hope Levinson

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 08:00:00 -0400

In news organizations, female leaders outnumber men in only one division. What does that mean for the future of women in the newsroom?

Myboss brought up the infamous Cheerios tweet on my first day. Almost a year had passed, but it was still a cautionary tale: At 8:06 pm on a casual Wednesday night, a seemingly innocuous tweet was sent out and quickly caused a firestorm. Within 24 hours, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called for a boycott of the network and the president of MSNBC had to issue a formal apology. Unsurprisingly, they said they had “dismissed the person responsible.”

Horror stories of Social Media Editors Gone Wild are a dime a dozen, and I was keenly aware of all of them over the eight months I spent as an engagement editor at a political news site. Every terrible tweet that went viral contributed something different to my near-constant state of anxiety. I’d frequently imagine myself as that MSNBC employee, getting a talking to for a social media post that showed too much Democratic leg, or being the subject of a blog post for attaching the wrong picture to a tweet. If constantly being on social media wasn’t enough make me lose sleep, there was also the prospect of potentially sparking an entire day’s or week’s conversation with as little as 140 characters.

Even inside the politics of the newsroom, the pressure was high to perform. In a culture of fast-paced digital newsrooms where traffic is king, “social” can make or break a story. For sites relying on advertising as their bread and butter, social media editors help to save the newsroom from inevitable slumps in traffic. (For context, BuzzFeed, whose numbers are the envy of the online news industry, gets 75 percent of its traffic from social media). My work was critical to the success of my colleagues, reporters and editors with high page view goals— a reality that was both empowering and stressful.

I thought it might help to reach out to other social media editors to see how they were handling the pressure. I noticed a pattern: a shocking number of them were also women. I already knew that, statistically, women use social networks more than men. But additional research revealed that social media is one of the few areas of the news industry where women outnumber men in leadership positions. A study by the Colorado Women’s College at the University of Denver found that women are only 23.3 percent of leaders in media at large, but in social media that number is 55 percent. The role of social media editor stands in opposition to that of writer or editor, which is still predominantly male. The Women’s Media Center annual report found that only 37.2 percent of newsroom staffs were made up of women, a figure that has gone nearly unchanged since 1999.

How do these statistics play into the culture of the newsroom? As a possible explanation, Taylor Lorenz, a social media strategist and editor, says that in her experience “women are not encouraged as much to get into hard news.” Similarly, many other social media editors who work in the industry (some of whom wish to remain anonymous) describe the perception that social media is a “girly job.” One woman notes a vibe of “let’s give this easy job to a girl, she can handle it” around the office; that social media is seen as easier, “fluffy,” and not on par with other editorial roles. Even though it’s no secret that social media is critical to the current business models, one woman who works as a social media editor in news thinks “the position is always gonna be viewed as some dumb 20-year-old woman job.”

Young women today are looking to break into a news industry that’s concurrently trying to diversify and beefing up social media jobs; it’s no wonder that a lot of them end up in these roles. But Amy King, chair of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, says women have long been cast as supporting players in the office. “Think of the classic trope of the secretary who does the work that her boss is actually getting all the credit for,” she says. The volunteer organization has done groundbreaking work in tracking the abysmal byline gender gap by combing through select national magazines annually for the past six years. The studies have revealed a persistent woman problem: “Women tend to do the behind-the-scenes work that is unrecognized or unappreciated,” King adds, partly because they are willing to.

It’s hard not to hear these stories and draw a parallel to public relations, an industry where 85 percent of workers are women. “People in the media like to say that PR is a pink ghetto,” because the often low-prestige jobs are almost exclusively populated by women, says a female editor, who left her job in social media at a major news organization. “But social media is the true pink ghetto.” She says her time in her previous role was characterized by unpaid overtime and a dearth of promotions and raises.

In her 2014 Jacobin magazine piece “Pink Collar,” Jennifer Pan explores why the entire PR industry is so heavily judged by the media, despite being critical to the news-making process. She posits that the “spoken heart of their criticism is the failure on the part of the publicist to adequately conceal that she is performing emotional work for money”:

The palpable distaste for PR practitioners that continues to swell — spearheaded by the very same members of the media with whom publicists theoretically enjoy a symbiotic relationship — requires, then, a deeper look at how gendered assumptions about work continue to shape our contemporary notions of creative labor under capitalism.

Though a field like social media requires a more direct relationship with a consumer than public relations, they both, at their essence, involve promotion; and they’re both — if done well — invisible. The newsroom’s social media manager doesn’t tag her tweets with her name, and the “flack” gets no byline when he gives a journalist access to a source. Unlike the job of editor, which also goes uncredited, these positions don’t have a high level of prestige.No one brags over martinis that they wrote the Facebook prompt for a Gay Talese piece.

“In my experience, women are the ones behind the scenes, just keeping the day-to-day process of the magazine running,” says Annie Shields, engagement editor at The Nation, where I was an intern in 2009. “[They’re] editing, polishing things up, and not getting credit.” Shields observes that although the editorial staff at the publication is largely female (the editor-in-chief is a woman), that doesn’t translate to content (only 29 percent of all Nationarticles are written by women). Men are in more visible roles, Shields says, ones that allow them to make media appearances and become well-known brands. For these guys, there is a straighter path to advancement, to becoming an opinion writer or thought leader in politics.

This element of invisibility begs many troubling questions: When an article blows up on Facebook, who gets credit? The reporter who wrote the story or the engagement editor who came up with the prompt? And who takes responsibility for the “frequent occurrence of criticism of the company getting channeled through social media” that Pan recalls dealing with on a daily basis? During her two years working in book PR, which involved running the publisher’s social media channels, Pan says she would often field tweets from people who hated certain books or editorial choices: “I wasn’t really making the decisions [about what books to publish], but I was acting as the buffer between the outraged public and the company.” The experiences left her feeling frustrated, and she ultimately left.

As I know personally, being this kind of middle man can be particularly exhausting, especially in political news. In order to be effective, I’d need to rewrite headlines to make them more conversational and “social media friendly.” But this, of course, would inspire some readers to email or comment that I was ruining the organization with “clickbait” — something that only added to my stress level. Writers, especially those that are pushing boundaries, get criticized too. But they have the advantage of resources like editors and fact-checkers (and the ownership of a byline). At a smaller news organization, social media editors are often writing tons of copy that never gets looked over. One weekend, Shields remembers making a typo in a Facebook prompt, and returning on Monday to hundreds of nasty comments about “the 20-year-old idiot intern” that must have made the mistake. “The criticism is over the top,” she says. “I don’t know if other people at the magazine know what that’s like.”

The emotional toll social media jobs can take isn’t balanced by the security of an established career trajectory. “I was given increasing responsibility, but not increasing opportunity,” says the former female social media editor I spoke to. She, along with others I talked to, mention a kind of topping out that happens in the social media track, unlike other positions in the newsroom, like the path from cub reporter to writer to editor. That can be great for rising fast, but challenging longer-term. “There’s a limit to what you can do in a small organization in this role,” says Shields — one reason why she doesn’t see herself in it for the long haul. When she started to excel at her job, she was given new editorial duties like homepage editing, but was still expected to do all the old social media tasks. That’s not really a promotion or a job change — “it’s a recipe for burning out.”

Not everyone who works in social media feels drained, or wants to move on to the glory of writing. For some, the creativity of hyping journalistic work, and the mastery of analytics that often comes with it, is a destination in and of itself. Depending on the outlet, the job can involve tasks as varied as audience growth, original content creation, and breaking news. Lorenz, after a stint editing and reporting, went back to social media because she found she preferred the challenges of strategy and development. Similarly, Rubina Madan Fillion, the digital engagement editor at the Intercept who spent years doing social media at the Wall Street Journal, has always been an early adopter of social networks and finds her job to be a natural fit. “There’s just a lot more interaction with readers and the community [in social media],” she says. “It’s more interesting.”

Whether one finds social media personally compelling or not, its increasing importance to media companies is undeniable. Take “the dress,” Buzzfeed’s viral phenomenon that garnered 28 million views in 24 hours and brought issues surrounding social media and virality to the forefront. The post required the company to enlist additional tech support to manage the servers, and two editorial teams were tasked with finding new angles on the story. Many don’t know that “the dress” was not brought into mainstream consciousness by a reporter. It was Cates Holderness, a Buzzfeed community growth manager, who ran the organization’s Tumblr. When a reader messaged a question about “the dress,” Holderness thought it would make a good post. “It took me five minutes,” she told Digiday, who called her a “celebrity” in this interview. “I just pasted the Tumblr embed code and put up a poll.” (Holderness’ title is now Tumblr Editor at Buzzfeed BFF, a team that makes original content for social media sites and apps.)

Lexi Mainland, managing editor at A Cup of Jo, and the editor who led The New York Times’ first (almost all female) social media team, points out that the emerging field “can be a little bit of a back door, because it is a role that respects a different skill set.” She says many of her former female colleagues who started there at The New York Times have gone on to more traditional reporting roles within the company. I’m living proof of her observation: When I realized I wasn’t cut out for the social media editor game, I was able to parlay my experience into a staff writer position here at Matter. [I’m told I wouldn’t have gotten it without my social media expertise.]

Is there a downside to the increasing mainstream recognition of social media as a truly valuable editorial skill? Tiffani Lennon, the lead researcher and author of the University of Denver study on women’s leadership, says she thinks so. “If social media gets more credibility, you are going to see men pushing women out of leadership roles,” she says. “That’s what happens in every field once it becomes more institutional.” Historically, it’s been easier for women to dominate spaces that men don’t want to be part of.

Wallpaper’s associate editor of Audience Daisy Alioto doesn’t see things quite so bleakly. At just 23 years old, she held the title of director of social media and analytics at the International Business Times. Alioto thinks that part of what’s great about working in social media is that a lot of the old guard media men don’t get it, and in their ignorance, give young women carte blanche. Plus, maybe these ladies will stick around: “In another ten years, social will be a given. We will all be working on some other crazy iteration that’ll be dominating news,” she says. “And the industry will be run by all the women that got their start in social media.”

(Source photos, from top: Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; SSPL/Getty Images)

Winning in the Boys Club - The First Female Coach in the NFL

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 08:00:00 -0400

My gold medals are two of my greatest treasures. I won them as a member of team USA at the International Federation of American Football’s (IFAF) Women’s World Championship. Alongside the medals, I keep my first ever paycheck as a professional football player: $12 for an entire season.

I had never dreamed any bigger than that. Being the first female coach in NFL history isn’t why I started playing football. Now, because of me, that’s a dream that other girls can grow up with. This is the inside story of how I broke down the barriers of tradition, history, and what was comfortable to play in a men’s professional league, then to coach in a men’s professional league, and finally to get hired as a coach by the Arizona Cardinals in 2015.

The first check Welter received for professional football: $12 for an entire season

Too often, people assume that “breaking the glass ceiling” means overcoming the resistance of men. I have experienced the opposite. My male mentors are the ones that made my dreams a possibility.

It all started in January 2014 when the Texas Revolution, a men’s Indoor Football League team, invited me to training camp. They weren’t just inviting me to watch — they were inviting me to train as a player and to take the field in their preseason games. I was considered one of the top female tackle-football players in the world at the time. Revolution GM and former Oakland Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown said it was an opportunity to showcase my talent as a female athlete. They considered me a long shot to actually make the team roster, but I still took the job.

It was February 15, 2014 when I entered my first game. It was still preseason and we beat the North Texas Crunch, 64–30. I finished with three rushes for a loss of a yard, but it was still one of the best days of my life. I proved that I could get back up when I got hit. I stood back up and asked the Crunch player who tackled me, “Is that all you got?”

Four days later, I was named to the 2014 regular season roster. I made the team and became the first woman to play running back in a men’s professional league. The stakes were too high at practice for me to be treated any more gently than the male athletes. Players were competing for their ability to stay on the team, and for their very livelihood, so they didn’t have the luxury to just step aside for the girl when I rushed through a gap. I took my hits play after play, lined back up and did it again, that’s football.

Taking the field as a player was only the first step in my journey against the odds. The following year, on February 2015, I was introduced as the Revolution’s new linebackers and special teams coach. At first, I turned down the offer. “Jen, very few men are ever going to give you this opportunity,” the Revolution Head Coach Wendell Davis told me. “You’re taking this job.”

It wasn’t easy. At first, some of the guys on the Revolution did not think a woman could coach football. Though they had respected me as a player, many thought a woman coaching was a complete joke. But once I actually began coaching them, these same players changed their opinions entirely. My head coach at the time was former NFL player Devin Wyman and I’ll use his explanation of why those players started to take me seriously. I’m using his account because these are also the words he used when he first convinced Arizona Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians to give me a chance in the NFL.

:: Follow every source on your favorite NFL teams in a personalized newsfeed. Download for free: chatsports.com/app ::

“She thinks differently, but it’s really good to have that on your staff,” Arians has said. Photo credit: azcardinal.com

Coach Wyman honored me by comparing me to one of the greatest coaches in history: Bill Parcells. He played for Parcells in 1996, and had seen firsthand what a legendary, championship coach was — and saw the same thing in me. Wyman also told Arians that I broke down film exactly the way Parcells did, creating smaller, more digestible chunks to help players understand. Once I displayed my deep knowledge of game tape and my vision on the field (as Wyman explained), respect as a coach followed instantly.

Let me back up. Why was Coach Wyman calling up Bruce Arians on my behalf in the first place? It was because of a comment Coach Arians had made at the NFL Owners meeting that March. Arians said that he believed a woman could coach in the NFL if she could make players better — and that struck a chord with my head coach. So he called him up, and related what I just told you: how I won respect with my coaching prowess. At the end of the call, Arians asked him if I might be willing to join the Cardinals staff as a training camp intern.

When Wyman told me about the call, I was in shock. It took a full day for me to even believe he was serious. I kept asking him, “Really? Coach Bruce Arians? I know you know a lot of people, but really?!” I was sure it would fall through. I even made Coach Wyman promise not to tell anyone on the team that I was being considered. I thought that if word got out, a storm of controversy would squash my dream.

In late May, I was invited to Cardinals OTAs in person to meet the coaching staff and team. “I saw the passion and energy of the person I’m looking for,” Arians said of my visit. But he couldn’t offer me on the job quite yet. He pulled me aside. “This is the right staff, this is the right team, and you are definitely the right woman,” he told me. “I don’t know yet if I can make this happen. I have to get all the right yeses, but I want you to know that it’s in my heart to try.”

After OTAs in May, I waited and waited. But I hadn’t heard had any contact with Cardinals, so I was ready to give up. But when the Revolution made it to the championship game, I used it as my reason to call Arians and let him know. “That’s great, Coach,” Arians replied. “You got a lot of work to do. Go ahead and win that thing. By the way, this internship is going to happen. I’ll give you details next week.” With those words, the chance of a lifetime was mine for the taking. With those words, Bruce Arians became the man who opened the door for women to coach in the NFL.

Photo credit: BBC

I joined the staff as one of seven interns brought on board that year, coaching inside linebackers under two-time Super Bowl champion Larry Foote. Larry is the ultimate player’s coach because he transitioned from being a team captain and leader on defense to being a coach in the space of just one season. He was incredibly smart and translated the plays so easily. Above all, he was practical, telling players exactly what they needed to do to excel — and they loved that. In that way, our approaches were extremely similar. We didn’t pull any punches.

Our communication styles were a bit different, but we complemented each other. Larry is from Detroit, so he wouldn’t know how to sugarcoat something if he tried. I had a bit of a softer touch, so sometimes we played the good cop-bad cop roles. If I were still playing, it would be my dream to learn from someone like him.

The pressure of training camp is unreal. Players are thrust together to compete for a roster spot, while also working to unite as a team. To fight off the fatigue and keep players awake, we had to keep the meeting rooms extremely cold — shocking their systems from 115-degree Arizona heat. They have a demanding schedule each day and their professional future is on the line. Family is often far away, and even if they are in town, time is severely limited. Players draw a lot from each other, but at the same time, there is a fear of getting too close. Out of the 90 men at training camp, at least 30 will be gone once the season starts.

It truly felt like I had stepped into the reality show Survivor since every single minute was caught on tape, only we also had a playbook as thick as the Bible. The volume of the tape alone was daunting. My greatest surprise was just how much film we watch in the NFL. As a coach, you watch the film from every practice, and then review that film with your players in individual groups and then again in defensive meetings as a whole.

The critics promised me that men in the NFL would never take coaching from a woman. Cardinals linebacker Kevin Minter, who I became extremely close with, told me he was scared the carefree vibe of the linebacker group might change with a woman present. But once I showed them that I was up for the jokes, for the swear words, and for the uncensored talk, we became family. I also treated them as people, not just performers. At work, we get too caught up in the number of tackles someone’s made or how many deals they’ve closed. Building real friendship and valuing the person behind those stats enhances performance. It also made it easy for my players to be themselves around me.

What was it like to be a woman in a men’s locker room? That’s a question I get all the time, but it was a non-issue. Coaches rarely hangout in the locker room before or after games when players are changing. Of course, I went in at halftime or for scheduled meetings. But other than that, the team gathered in meeting rooms throughout the facility or huddled up on the field. So that scenario never really came up.

Locker room aside, there were plenty of funny, awkward moments. I remember one of my players responded to an instruction with “yes, ma’am” instead of “yes, coach.” He realized instantly and apologized so profusely that I had to put him at ease. “I will never be mad at you for good home training,” I told him. “You can call me ma’am, you can call me doc, you can call me coach … Just don’t call me a ‘B’.” It was one of the more infamous moments during all of camp.

Treat me like one of the guys, but it’s okay that I’m still a woman — that was the atmosphere I tried to foster. For example, I was walking beside my fellow coaching intern Rashied Davis, former Chicago Bear. I had tons of equipment with me. He turned to me and said, “I don’t care how tough you are, I’m still carrying your bag.” I handed it over with gratitude and we both laughed.

The players were truly excited for me, and to be a part of this momentous step for women. “Coach, do you realize this is history?” “Coach, you are so tough, I can’t believe you played with guys!” “Coach, we watched your highlight reel, you were a beast off the edge.” It still makes me smile.

I told them that whether their issues were about football or about life, if I could help them, I always would. I guess this is why we were all football on the field, and yet we would talk about life in the hallways. Some of my favorite moments started with “Coach, do you have a moment?”

I knew I had gotten past any preconceptions and become a real insider when players wanted to introduce me to their families. I never realized how many of them already had a female coach in their lives — the moms, grandmothers, or aunts who raised them. Entire families devote their lives for an athlete to ascend to this level in their career. And for many of my players, a huge female presence in their lives had guided their path. One told me that he had never seen his mom cry until she met me, and I told her what an incredible man she created. “We’re proud of what you’re doing with our boys,” she said tearfully.

I loved meeting the fathers, too. One shook my hand and said, “I didn’t know what to think with a woman as I coach.” “I didn’t either, Dad.” I replied and we both laughed. He went on, though. “I didn’t know what to think, but my son just loves you. So I guess what I’m trying to say is … thank you.

We teach athletes never to admit fear and never to admit weakness, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t human. I knew going in that I was working with some of the best athletes in the world, but what impressed me most was how great they were as people. My time in training camp and OTA’s taught me that many people underestimate the caliber of men that are in the National Football League.

In our first preseason game, I wrote notes to my players and left them in their lockers. I wrote memories from camp, words of encouragement, reflections on their best moments, and inside jokes. I never realized how powerful the response would be.

As Cardinals linebacker Kevin Minter told the Associated Press, “She’s a stickler about fundamentals, but she knows a lot about making you better as a person, too — with the notes she left on your locker, the words of encouragement from what she sees on film. She was a real good person to feed off of.”

I think that’s what coaching truly is: the ability to lift someone up and to change his or her life for the better. So many of my mentors have done the same for me, and that’s the only reason I’ve been able to blaze my trail and open these doors for other women.

Welter with Sarah Thomas, the first female official in the NFL in 2015. Photo credit: Kickoff Coverage

My coaching internship with the Cardinals ended on August 31, 2015. Even though I’m no longer with the team, I gained so much from my experience and was able to open the door for other women in the NFL. This past January, Buffalo Bills Head Coach Rex Ryan was considering hiring Kathryn Smith as a full-time coach. He placed a call to Bruce Arians to consult him on how it worked having a woman on staff. Not too long after, he hired Smith as their quality control and special teams coach — the first full-time position offered to a woman. I’m proud to be one chapter in the story of progress.

These days, I’m launching NFL Play 60 in Canada. I get to coach children every day and show them that the dreams you once considered impossible really can come true.

by

Dr. Jen Welter

Dr. J First Female Coach in the NFL, AZ CFollowingardinals. Boston College, MS Sport Psychology & PhD Capella. 14 years Women's Football. yes, anything is possible.

The Emergence of Synaesthesia in a Neuronal Network Model via Changes in Perceptual Sensitivity and Plasticity by Oren Shriki , Yaniv Sadeh, Jamie Ward

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 08:00:00 -0400

Architecture of a general network model for studying synaesthesia.

The network consists of two interacting modalities. Each modality has a set of input neurons and a set of output neurons. There are feedforward connections within each modality but not between them. There are recurrent connections among all output neurons. The subset of recurrent connections that connect the two modalities are referred to as cross-talk interactions. The goal of the network is to optimize the representation of the combined input from both sets of input neurons, by the neurons at the combined output layer.

For the last twenty years, theories of synaesthesia have been dominated by two general models: disinhibited feedback from multi-sensory regions to uni-sensory regions, and cross-talk theories which have emphasised the presence of atypical (and direct) structural connectivity between modalities [33]. Whereas the former explanation has tended to be favoured for explaining acquired synaesthesia, the latter has dominated explanations of developmental synaesthesia. The approach taken in our computational model represents a significant departure from this current status quo, and has generated novel insights. Our model repositions synaesthesia not as some quirk of aberrant connectivity but rather as a functional brain state that emerges, under certain conditions, as a consequence of optimising sensory information processing. In short, this model goes beyond others by offering an account not only of howsynaesthesia emerges but also of why synaesthesia emerges. It offers a unifying account of acquired and developmental forms of synaesthesia insofar as it explains how the same outcome can emerge under different conditions within the same model.

Acquired synaesthesia is often associated with sensory deprivation due to damage to the sensory organs or pathways. Our model proposes that the same learning process that optimizes information representation naturally causes neurons in the deprived modality to enhance incoming inputs from intact modalities, leading to synaesthesia. To provide some intuition, we note that our model maximizes the output entropy of the network, which depends on two factors: one is the entropy of each single neuron, i.e. how variable the activity of single neurons is, and the other is the correlations among the neurons. Maximizing this entropy favours high single neuron entropy and low correlations among the neurons. The cross-talk connections induce correlations between the two modalities, which in general tend to reduce the output entropy. However, when one modality is deprived of input, it may be beneficial to have cross-talk connections from the intact modality to the deprived modality. The increase in the single neuron entropy due to the cross-talk connections can compensate for the higher correlations and result in a total increase of the output entropy. Loosely speaking, the deprived neurons seek for other neuronal sources of variability and enhance their connections with them. This mechanism, which emerges naturally in our computational framework, can also be useful for modelling the changes in neural representation that take place in other conditions such as phantom-limb [34].

Although functional accounts for acquired synaesthesia have been proposed in the past, no such comparable account has been put forward for developmental synaesthesia. Our model suggests that it arises from instability in the learning process due to high plasticity. It implies that synaesthetes have higher plasticity compared to non-synaesthetes or a relatively prolonged period of high-plasticity during childhood. Later on, as plasticity in the relevant brain areas decreases, the evolved cross-talk connections become stable. In line with this idea, whole-genome studies link some forms of synaesthesia to genes involved in plasticity, which have higher expression during early childhood [35]. Furthermore, developmental synaesthesia does not appear to be linked to sensory impairments and, if anything, is linked to increased perceptual sensitivities (notably within the concurrent modality). For instance, grapheme-colour synaesthetes show enhanced colour discrimination abilities [36]. In the proposed model, the recurrent connections within the concurrent modality amplify both its direct inputs and the ones from the inducer modality. Thus, an association between synaesthesia and increased perceptual sensitivity is an emergent property of the model, at least under certain scenarios, and it is important to explore the extent to which the presence of synaesthesia (cross-modal sensitivity) necessarily goes hand-in-hand with changes in intra-modal sensitivity. In terms of the underlying neurobiological mechanisms, the increased amplification by the recurrent interactions in our model is consistent with findings that indicate increased excitability and elevated glutamate concentration in the relevant cortical areas in synaesthetes [37, 38].

Traditionally, synaesthesia has not been linked to theories of learning and memory because it has been considered to reflect an innate (in its developmental form) cross-wiring of the senses. This view has been challenged on several fronts [e.g. 39, 40]. Firstly, many of the stimuli that induce synaesthesia (e.g. graphemes) are themselves learned. Secondly, for some synaesthetes the particular associations have been influenced by childhood coloured letter sets [13]. Moreover, some general cross-modal correspondences (e.g. between pitch and vertical positions) thought to reflect innate vestiges of synaesthesia have been shown to occur as statistical regularities in the environment [41]. Finally, synaesthetes (at least for grapheme-colour synaesthesia) are known to have better acquisition of new memories, and this may be related to increased plasticity during learning [32]. Future simulations of the model could use partially correlated inputs to the two modalities to model childhood exposure to coloured letter sets (they are not fully correlated given that most literacy exposure is with achromatic letters). It may well be the case that there is an interaction between learning rate (an innate parameter within the synaesthete brain) and these partial associations (in the environment), which explains why most people do not go on to develop synaesthesia after exposure to these stimuli.

An interesting hypothesis that emerges from this study regards the relationship between synaesthesia and the concept of critical brain dynamics [28, 42, 43]. The goal of the learning process in our model is to find the pattern of recurrent interactions that maximizes the sensitivity of the network to changes in its external inputs. In analogy to physical systems, in which the sensitivity (often termed susceptibility) to external inputs diverges near a critical point [44], here, as the network maximizes its sensitivity, it also tends to approach a critical point [28]. This critical point represents the border between normal amplification of external inputs and a regime governed by attractor dynamics. In the context of sensory processing, the super-critical attractor phase can be thought of as hallucinations that reflect the learned pattern of interactions. A useful measure for identifying critical dynamics is the time it takes the recurrent network to reach steady-state. When close to critical points, many dynamical systems display the phenomenon of critical slowing down [28, 45]. Interestingly, in simulations of the complex model in which synaesthesia evolved, when the learning process approached the optimal pattern of interactions, the dynamics of the recurrent network became substantially slower (the number of iterations required to process each input sample until reaching steady-state was ~35000–45000 compared to ~1000–4000 in the beginning of the learning process). This observation suggests that in the proposed model networks that developed synaesthesia operate closer to a critical point compared to networks that did not develop synaesthesia. The prediction is that there may be evidence of the neural signatures of critical dynamics in synaesthetes [46, 47], particularly as synaesthesia is developing.

In terms of its similarities to other models, our model resembles the direct cross-talk (or cross-activation) models proposed by others [48] primarily to account for developmental forms of synaesthesia. Although the model represents a direct form of cross-talk, it is an open question as to whether the model would produce similar patterns if neurons from modalities 1 and 2 were not directly connected but were themselves both connected via a third pool of neurons that receives no direct input from 1 and 2. There is some evidence for both direct and indirect types of neural architecture in synaesthesia as assessed via fMRI effective connectivity [49]. The addition of an interconnecting hub area in future modelling attempts would give the model top-down representations that could be adapted to the (Bayesian) predictive coding framework. Unlike the present (bottom-up) model, the predictive coding approach describes perception as top-down inference that is constrained and altered by sensory signals. A non-computationally explicit account of synaesthesia in terms of predictive coding has been articulated [50]. Moreover, the kinds of learning algorithms employed in our model are compatible with this approach [51].

The gradient-based learning rules used in this study are not local and are thus expected to reflect the long-term evolution of the system rather than mimicking the moment-by-moment dynamics of real neural circuits. In addition, the neurons in the model are described by simplified rate dynamics which do not capture the complex dynamics of real neurons. An important direction for future modelling work would be the examination of more biologically realistic networks that also optimize information representation. The scenarios for the evolution of synaesthesia described in this study are very general and we believe that similar scenarios would appear also in more realistic networks.

In summary, these computational models permit new ways of thinking about synaesthesia both in terms of causal mechanisms and in terms of optimising perceptual function. It generates non-trivial outcomes (e.g. generating monotonic mappings not found in the input characteristics) and non-trivial predictions (e.g. relating to learning, unimodal perceptual sensitivity, hallucinatory tendencies).

Article link

Getting a raise comes down to one thing: Leverage. byQuincy Larson

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 00:00:00 -0400

Starring Peggy, the adversity-destroying careerist from Mad Men.

Maybe you’ve been at your job for a while, and your salary hasn’t kept pace with your city’s cost of living.

Or maybe they hired you at a below-market salary because you were new to the field.

Whatever the reason, it’s high time you earned an at-market salary.

But being a competent professional isn’t enough to get that raise you deserve. You’ll need leverage. And you’ll need to be prepared to use it.

Talking about your salary may feel awkward. Or greedy. Or disloyal. Jam those feelings down the nearest garbage disposal.

It’s OK to feel loyal to your boss. They hired you. They helped train you. They may even genuinely care about you.

But any loyalty you feel toward your employer — that legal entity that employs you and your boss — is probably misplaced.

This is, after all, the 21st century. If there ever was an era of lifetime employment and the “company man,” it has long since passed.

Any loyalty you may feel toward your employer will not be reciprocated. New employees will be hired above you, with fancier job titles and better pay. When investors demand layoffs, your years of dutiful service won’t save you from the chopping block.

Who profits when you decline a call from a recruiter out of loyalty to your employer? Investors.

Who profits when you accept a standard annual raise instead of negotiating for a larger one? Investors.

Who profits from a culture where employees keep their salaries to themselves instead of freely sharing this information with peers? Investors.

In an opaque, imperfect labor market, investors profit at employees’ expense. And that’s who ultimately owns the company you work for. Not your boss, or your boss’s boss — though they may own some of it. Investors have extra money lying around, which they can risk on a speculative investment in your employer. They are the people who are profiting from your loyalty.

Employers will use sketchy — even illegal — tricks to retain you.

Many industries have secret agreements not to poach one another’s employees. This is good for employers, who can keep their wages artificially low as a result.

The US Department of Justice recently reached settlements with tech companies who intentionally — and illegally — made it harder for employees to change jobs — companies like Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, and Pixar.

Employers will use a carrot: “golden handcuffs” such as signing bonuses that you have to pay back if you leave within a certain period. Or stock options that take several years to fully vest. Or stock options that are intentionally designed to be too expensive to exercise, forcing you to stay at the company indefinitely or walk away with nothing.

Other employers will use a stick: noncompete agreements, which prevent you taking a new job in the same field.

Even though noncompetes are increasingly unenforceable, employers won’t tell you this. They’ll leave it to you to seek out a lawyer.

The White House has condemned employers’ use of noncompetes as aperversion of their original purpose — which was to slow the spread of trade secrets. Instead, noncompetes have become just another tool for keeping you from leaving your current job for a better one.

Despite all this, smart people change jobs all the time.

It takes courage to leave a stable job in search of a better one. Especially when you have kids to feed, student loan debt to service, or a house to pay off. But people do this all the time.

The average length of time that software developers stay at a given company is surprisingly short:

The circled numbers are the median length of a developer’s tenure at the company. Read the full study here.

Which brings us to the most important rule for negotiating your raise.

Be prepared to walk away.

If you want to have any leverage at all in your salary negotiation, you need to be prepared — financially and psychologically — to actually to leave the company.

If your employer has succeeded in lulling you into a complacency where you dine on fancy meals and lease expensive cars instead of saving — if you are like 62% of Americans who are one pay check away from living on the street — you will have zero leverage in the negotiation. Because your employer can just say “no” and there’s nothing you can do about it.

So before you initiate any sort of salary negotiation, you need to establish a Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA). Your BATNA is your recourse if negotiations fail.

Attempting to negotiate without a BATNA will waste your boss’s time, and weaken your position in future negotiations.

The best BATNA you can have is a job offer from a competitor.

Your BATNA could be that you’ll quit and work as a freelancer, or that you’ll go back to school and transition into a new career.

But employers hear these kinds of ultimatums all the time. Your boss will call your bluff, lecturing you on how these options are more risky — and less desirable — than continuing in your current job. You may start to doubt the soundness of your BATNA, and back away.

Luckily, there’s a much better BATNA out there — though it will take some work to secure.

You know those recruiters who email you, cold call you, and stalk you at events? Try talking to some of them.

You’re already productively employed at ABC Co. You could be productively employed at XYZ Co, and they will probably offer more money to entice you away.

So you take the recruiter’s advice and duck out for a few long lunches (interviews) at the conglomerate next door. Solve some problems on a whiteboard. Once XYZ Co extends you an offer, your BATNA is secured.

But wait — how strong this job offer? Just because a job offer is higher than your current salary doesn’t mean it’s a strong offer. In reality, you could be grossly underpaid in your current job, and this new offer may not be as strong as you think.

Before you can counter-offer and ratchet up the value of your BATNA, you need to understand the at-market salary for a professional of your talents.

Analyze data. Ask around. Do your research.

The main factors that determine salary are company, city, and job title. You should conduct a two-prong investigation:=

Talk to your peers within your company. Figure out how much money they make. One trick for getting a ballpark figure in an indirect way is to ask them how much they think your mutual employer would pay a new recruit with their skills and experience.

Study the salaries that employers in your city are in are paying to people in positions comparable to yours.

The US government publicly shares salary data for all employees who enter the US on an H1-B work visas. All these data are available in one big databaseof more than 1.6 million salaries. You can search by company, city, and job title. It’s free, and even has charts and filtering options. If you’re a US national, your salary should be at least as high as the salaries you find here.

You may want to look into other forms of compensation, too: insurance providers and their premiums, paid time off, stock options, even perks like free lunch and parking spaces.

At the end of the day, salary is king. For better or worse, salary is the objective measure that professionals use to compare themselves to one another. And most perks indirectly come out of your salary, anyway (as Netflix CEO Reed Hastings makes clear in the most widely viewed PowerPoint of all time).

Knowing the at-market salary for a person of your talents will help you negotiate with confidence.

Market Research + BATNA = Leverage

So you know the at-market rate for professionals in your city with your job title. You also know what peers within your own company are getting paid. And you have solid BATNA. Now you’re ready to suit up and march into your boss’s office.

Don’t wait until performance review time to negotiate a raise. Find out when your company plans their annual budget for salary increases. Be sure to negotiate your raise before that date — otherwise your boss will use the budget as an excuse to give you less.

The best time to negotiate is when you’ve just delivered a project or hit a major milestone. Then you’ll have a good answer to the “what have you done lately that’s worthy of a raise?” question.

Don’t flinch if your boss fires back at you with some policy about salary ranges or salary caps for your job title. They just gave you a great opening to negotiate for a promotion as well.

Be fearless. But also be mindful of what’s happening on the other side of the negotiation table.

Most employees fail to prepare for their raise discussion. They’ll argue for a raise based on things like their seniority, their recent performance, or rising housing costs. These are terrible negotiating positions with no leverage. Is it any surprise that bosses become accustom to handing out small token raises to these people

Imagine your boss’s surprise when you come along with real leverage. You’ve done your homework. You have a serious BATNA.

Your boss may be caught off-guard by such a well-equipped adversary at the negotiation table. This can quickly become a terrifying conversation for them. If they lose one of their employees to a competitor, it will reflect poorly on them as a manager. And they will have to spend months — and tens of thousands of dollars — finding a replacement for you.

So be polite throughout the process. If they agree to pay you what you’re worth, you will still have to work with this person. And you don’t want your boss to resent having to grovel before their bosses to approve an abnormally large raise for you. You want to come across as savvy and serious—not mercenary.

Be sure to follow up all of your salary discussions with an email describing what you talked about. This will not only document your conversation — it will give your boss a script for arguing your case to all the other managers who will need to sign off on your raise.

Remember — you don’t need to be a “rockstar” to get a raise. If you could be earning a higher wage somewhere else doing the same job that you’re doing now, your employer probably should have been paying you more all along.

And don’t feel obligated to work any harder after they give you your raise. They didn’t give you a raise so you’d work harder. They gave you a raise so you’d continue working for them in your current capacity. It is they who shortchanged you, by not proactively — and frequently — raising your salary to at-market levels.

It takes a lot of guts to tell your boss that you deserve a higher salary, which is why most of your peers will continue to be underpaid. But not you. You’re the smart one. The tough one. And if they don’t pay you an at-market salary, someone else will

The Future of Browser History by Patryk Adaś

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 00:00:00 -0400

I am really unsatisfied with the current state of Browser History. I think that this is the most underestimated feature of every modern web browser. Let’s take the most popular browser as an example.

Before we talk about browsers history, we need to understand how we tend to browse nowadays.

Sometimes I want to know how to convert 1 foot to centimeters.

Sometimes, on the other hand, I want to know why and how things happen.

For the second kind of search, the standard pattern of match retrieval does not really cut it.

Problem

I can search for the term in Google, but I’m not going to get a single result that answers my question. Rather, I’m going to get a lot of results, and all of those results will have bits and pieces of information that are relevant to me.

Then I’m going to go exploring through the internet, collecting lots of tabs along the way. Some of those tabs will be duds, so I close them.

Some of those tabs will be relevant and will have twenty more links, so I open them all, and in this way I keep crawling.

Tabs, tabs, tabs

Then after a while I have a cloud of pages in my head that I visited and the answer is more or less complete.

But if I try to revisit this later, it’s impossible. I can remember what I found, but it wasn’t a linear progression, therefore my browser history is useless.

Despite living in a data-driven society, as more and more databases are brought online, the complex and varied information available to be discovered is dependent on how well we can search.

In formal ways, we have transitioned from the Classic Retrieval Model, to what is called, Berrypicking Search.

Classic Retrieval Model

The query is satisfied not by a single final retrieved set, but by a series of selections of individual references and bits of information at each stage of the ever-modifying search.

In other words, we do not usually search for something that leads to a single result that answers our question, rather we search for terms and then explore the internet, connecting bits and pieces of the answer as we read through the web of tabs that our search starts for us.

Berrypicking Search

Our search needs, and in turn our browser history, are not being met with single query anymore. We move through a variety of sources with every new piece of information giving us new ideas and directions to follow. Without us ever knowing it, our search queries are constantly fluctuating.

Current Google Chrome History

Unfortunately, our current solution to finding a not-bookmarked webpage, is to retrace own steps through different links.

It demands that users have enough information to decipher the desired page from all others by recognizing headers, obscure URLs or timestamps.

Our browser’s history should reflect our behaviour in the internet and help us understand the process behind it. It is crucial to actually understand and question the way we use the Internet, and without the suitable tools, it is not possible.

Solution

I find answer in maps.

Main Page

:hover

On top there is a timeline, positions are still displayed chronologically, but users can also see connections.

Not only is this a different approach to browsing our own content, it is now possible to see patterns of my search queries and behaviors. In this way, our browser history does not only perform a retrieval function, but also writes a narrative.

I will finally understand why I ended up reading about the influence of plants on soil properties, when I started with texas bbq query.

With this method, I am able to see at a glance how different pieces of information are connected, how they relate to each other and how I formed conclusions. I see how I actually cognized things that are relevant. It is not only about the goal, but also about the journey.

In the proposed interface, with a simple hover action I receive essential pieces of information. I am able to understand my thought process and points of interest. It is also easier to actually remember the page thanks to particular color schemes and meta sections.

Single page

Let’s say I already found what I was looking for and I’m satisfied with my information retrieval process.

How many times have I visited this website? How much time have I spent using it? When did I see something interesting? How often do I visit it? How does my generated traffic look like, from perspective of particular page?

Delete dropdown

Search

Google is one of the best search engines available and yet, in Browser History there is not even a place for autosuggestion. How come?

I’d love to search by topic, dates, colors.

Searches

In order to re-create our experience or to just see the overall topics of our interests I think it is highly useful, to provide users with a list of past searches. Once you click a particular search result, it expands with visited links based on that very query and would redirect you to the map with the highlighted path.

Analytics

Currently, I am really missing the analytics screen. It is crucial to be able to understand one’s own behavior, especially as there is no distinction between offline and online anymore. Filter Bubble shows that information we see is selective, we become separated from information that disagrees with our viewpoint. Users are more and more comforted in their own domain, we have stopped questioning.

I want to see how much time I spend browsing Internet, how I collect information and how I form my views.

We live in times when understanding your browse behaviors and search patterns is becoming crucial in cognitivism process.

I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.

By Patryk Adaś

The Mysterious Fairy Flag of Clan MacLeod and its Legendary Protective Powers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 00:00:00 -0400

Top image: The Dunvegan Cup, Fairy Flag, and Sir Rory Mor's Horn are heirlooms of the MacLeods of Dunvegan. This photo was taken sometime before 1927. (Public Domain)

The Fairy Flag is one of the treasures kept by the chief of Clan MacLeod, a Highland Scottish clan associated with the Isle of Skye. Today, the flag resides in Dunvegan Castle, the seat of the clan’s chief, on the Isle of Skye, and has been described as “rather tattered, made of faded brown silk and carefully darned in places”. Although the flag does not look like much, it is believed to possess mystical powers, and several stories have been told about how this magical object has protected Clan MacLeod over the centuries.

There are two main stories that have been traditionally told about the origin of the fairy flag. The first of these links the flag to the Crusades, thus indicating that the flag came from somewhere in the East. The second one, by comparison, involves fairies, and places events surrounding the flag’s appearance on the Isle of Skye itself.

It has been determined that the fabric of the Fairy Flag is silk from the Middle East (more specifically, Syria or Rhodes). This lends some credence to the story that the flag has its origin in the East. Nevertheless, this object has been dated to between the 4th and 7th centuries AD, at least 400 years before the First Crusade. Still, it may be possible that the Fairy Flag was already treated as a relic by the time of the First Crusade, and only found its way to the British Isles following this military campaign.

Crusades Flag

The Crusades version of the Fairy Flag story begins with Harald Sigurdsson, known also as Harald Hardrada, the King of Norway who ruled from 1046 to 1066. Prior to becoming the King of Norway, Harald had served as captain of the Varangian Guards in the court of the Byzantine Emperor at Constantinople. One of the treasures he brought back to Norway was the Fairy Flag, which was then known as Landoda, or ‘Land Ravager’. The king believed that the flag made him undefeatable in battle, and when Harald embarked on his campaign to conquer England, he took the flag along with him.

The Norse army was ambushed by the English, and it seems that Harald did not have the opportunity to unfurl his magical flag. Harald’s army defeated at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, and the king lost his life as a result of an arrow that pierced his throat. It is said that one of Harald’s soldiers who survived the battle, Godred Crovan, managed to rescue the flag, and brought it to the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles, where he found refuge with its king, Godred Sigtryggsson, who was also his kinsman. Godfred established himself as the King of Mann in 1079, and the MacLeods are said to claim descent from him.

Harald at the battle of Stamford Bridge. (Public Domain)

Fairy Clan

The other main story suggests that the Fairy Flag was not obtained from the East, but given to the clan by a fairy. The fourth chief of the clan, Iain Ciar, is said to have been a highly attractive young man. Although many women were attracted to him, he had fancied none of them. One night, the chief is said to have stumbled upon a fairy dwelling, where he saw a fairy princess. The two fell in love instantly, and the princess requested that she be allowed to marry the chief.

The fairy king, however, rejected her request, explaining that unlike fairies, humans will grow old and die, and that grief was inevitable for her. A compromise was reached, and the princess was allowed to be with the chief for a year and a day, after which she would need to return to her people. During this period, the princess gave birth to a son. Eventually, the time came when the princes had to return. Before leaving, she made her husband promise that he would never leave the child alone, and never allow him to cry, and that would be too much for her to bear.

The Fairy Flag (Public Domain) and Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye in the mist, August 2007. (CC BY-SA 3.0)

In the weeks after his wife’s departure, the chief kept his promise, though he was depressed. His friends decided to throw him a party in an attempt to cheer him up. As the celebrations were going on, the chief’s spirits began to revive. The merry music and noise from the banquet hall were so loud, that the baby’s nurse decided to leave the nursery to have a peek at the revelry. The baby woke up, and began to cry, though the nurse did not hear him.

The fairy princess heard her child’s cries, and appeared beside him. She took him up, wrapped him in a fairy shawl, and sang to him, thus putting him back to sleep. It was at this point that the chief / nurse entered the nursery. The lullaby was heard, but the person singing it could not be seen. Years later, the child grew up, and told his father what had happened. The shawl became the Fairy Flag, and is believed to be a talisman that protected the clan.

Princess singing lullabies, Illustration by H.J. Ford, 1921 (carolynemerick.com)

If the clan were to find themselves in great danger, all they needed to do was to unfurl the flag and wave it three times. Doing so would bring the fairy legions to their aid. This, however, could only be used three times, after which it would return to where it came from, taking the flag waver with it. The flag is said to have been used twice already, the first when they were vastly outnumbered by their enemies, the MacDonalds, when the latter invaded their lands. When the Fairy Flag was used, the tide of battle turned, and the MacLeods were saved from destruction.

Iona Abbey: The effigy on the floor in the center may mark the location of the burials of several MacLeod chiefs and one flag bearer.

The second time the Fairy Flag was used was when a plague was killing off the clan’s cattle, and the MacLeods were dying of starvation. When the flag was used, the cattle was said to have come back to life. The flag was almost used for the third time during the Second World War, as the clan’s chief, Dame Flora MacLeod offered to wave the flag from the Cliffs of Dover should the Germans attempt to invade Great Britain, but fortunately Clan MacLeod did not need to call upon the magic of the flag and so, according to legend, the MacLeods can call upon the legendary flag one last time.

Dame Flora MacLeod of MacLeod of Dunvegan Castle, a castle belonging to the clan MacLeod Annotation (CC BY-SA 3.0 nl)

By Ḏḥwty

References

Associated Clan MacLeod Societies, 2016. The Fairy Flag Legend. [Online]Available at: http://www.clanmacleod.org/about-macleods/the-fairy-flag.html

Johnson, B., 2016. The Fairy Flag of the MacLeods. [Online]

Available at: http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/The-Fairy-Flag-of-the-MacLeods/

ScotClans, 2013. The Fairy Flag of Dunvegan. [Online] Available at: http://www.scotclans.com/scotland/scottish-myths/symbolic-scotland/flag-dunvegan/

The Scotsman, 2005. The Fairy Flag of Clan MacLeod. [Online] Available at: http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/the-fairy-flag-of-clan-macleod-1-465076

www.dunvegancastle.com, 2016. The Fairy Flag. [Online] Available at: http://www.dunvegancastle.com/content/default.asp?page=s2_5

www.windsorscottish.com, 2009. The Fairy Flag of Dunvegan. [Online] Available at: http://www.windsorscot

Negotiating with Death: Special Agreements for the Afterlife Around the World

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 08:00:00 -0400

Top Image: Until her death (1862) by Frederick A. Sandys. Source: Public Domain

Death as an entity appears in many cultures across the globe. In the West, this entity is known as the Grim Reaper. In Japan, Death is represented by Shinigami, the Gods of Death. A lesser-known element of stories involving Death is the part about those who negotiate with the Grim Reaper. This is their story.

Death and the Crow

There is an old legend about crows. It is said that these birds can help the spirits of the dead travel safely to the afterlife. The same belief has been connected to eagles. However, it is also said that crows can help give a person a second chance at life by negotiating with Death and by preventing it from severing life from a person’s body. This would allow the individual to complete one last urgent task. In this sense, the crow is one of those negotiators who can talk Death out of claiming a person’s life…at least for a time.

Crow on a Branch (1873-1877) by Kawanabe Kyōsai. Brooklyn Museum. (Public Domain)

The Flaming Winged Serpent

In Japan, onmyouji were a type of wizard monks. They used to invoke Shikigami (ceremonial deities) in order to help them achieve their tasks. One such Shikigami was Touda or Tousha, the flaming winged serpent. Touda was said to be the only Shikigami capable of killing (in fact, completely erasing from existence) a Shinigami, a God of Death.

Prolonging Human Life

“Compendium Medicus” (“Hippocratis, Medicorum”) was printed in Byzantine, but the 1588 edition was prohibited by the Church. The text dealt with how medicine should fight in order to prolong human life. It ended with a chapter on human structure, concluding that the human body is stronger than what was known at that time. The main conclusion rested in the fact that human beings had the tendency to become immortal.

Animal or demon blowing horn, perhaps allegory of disease. In Hippocrates' Aphorismi. (c. 1300) (Public Domain)

In many cases of apparent near death experiences, the people who have returned from the other side claimed that they had heard a voice telling them that their time had not yet come and, as a result, their souls were sent back into their bodies. These voices or the entities to whom they belong could be another type of negotiators with Death.

Also, the shadow is said to protect the individual to whom it belongs. In this sense, the shadow can oppose the Grim Reaper when it comes and refuse to surrender the individual’s soul to Death. Only when the shadow gives its permission can the Grim Reaper sever the person’s ties to life.

Other legends and stories start from the fact that Death comes for all those who have life and concludes that this aspect is unfair. Such legends speak about regular mortals who have come to this conclusion and who have decided to oppose the Grim Reaper in order to remain alive.

Death as a skeleton carrying a scythe. (Public Domain)

A Norse Negotiator

In Norse mythology, the trickster god Loki caused the death of the god Balder. When Frigga saw that her beloved son had died, she asked that someone go to Helheim to appear before Hel and bargain for the return of Balder.

Hemrod volunteered to perform the act and Odin lent him Sleipnir, so that he would quickly reach the realm of the goddess Hel. In the meanwhile, the gods said their farewell to Balder and prepared for the funeral rites. Balder’s wife, Nanna, bent over her husband’s body on the funeral pyre and decided to join him in death as her heart was broken and she could, under no circumstance, be apart from him.

Balder und Nanna (1882) by Wägner, Wilhelm. (Public Domain)

After ten nights of riding on Sleipnir’s back, Hemrod crossed over River Gjoll. There, Modgud inquired the reason for his coming and, once he explained and made sure that both Balder and Nanna had crossed over the bridge before him, Hemrod continued his journey until he reached the large gate. He made Sleipnir jump over the high gate and, once they landed safely on the other side, they carried on until they finally arrived at Hel’s great hall.

When he entered the hall, Hemrod found Balder and Nanna sitting on a couch, both caught up in their sadness. Even though Hemrod told Balder that he had come to take him home, Balder replied that he knew he had to stay in Helheim until the last day. However, he did ask Hemrod to take Nanna back to Asgard, but she immediately refused, once again not wanting to be parted from her beloved husband. In the end, Hemrod presented himself before Hel and asked her to release Balder.

Her response explained that she would allow the god of light to return to Asgard should all things in creation shed tears for him. With this encouraging answer, Hemrod returned to the realm of the Aesir. Once the gods assembled, Hemrod gave Odin the ring Draupnir (which Balder had sent back). Then he presented Frigga with an embroidered carpet which Nanna had sent for her and gave a ring to Fulla.

Frigg and one of her handmaids, presumably Fulla. (1865) Ludwig Pietsch. (Public Domain)

After Hemrod told them about the condition for Balder’s release, the gods sent heralds to all the corners of the world to ask everything in creation to weep for the god of light. They all wept for Balder, and upon their return to Asgard, the heralds noticed the giantess Thok crouching inside a cave by the edge of the road. The giantess was said to have been Loki in disguise. The messengers approached her and asked her to shed a tear for Balder.

Failure Due to Trickery

To their dismay, she mocked them and refused, while turning her back on them and going back into the darkness of the cave. Thok had told the heralds that, for all she cared, the goddess Hel could keep Balder forever, and with this message they sadly returned to the abode of the gods.

Upon their arrival, the messengers imparted the upsetting news, and the Aesir understood that they would no longer behold Balder in Asgard. Legend further has it that Odin whispered something, one single word, into his dead son’s ear while his body laid on the funeral pyre. It is not known exactly what the word was. Still, many suggest that what Odin uttered was: “Resurrection!”.

‘Odin's last words to Baldr’ (1908) (Public Domain)

By Valda Roric

References:

Valda Roric – “Wonders of History and Mythology”

Valda Roric – “From History to Mystery”

Valda Roric – “Loki – The Trickster Unleashed”

Valda Roric – “Loki – The Trickster Redeemed and the Secret of the Runes”

Baba Yaga, The Confounding Crone of Slavic Folklore

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 10 Jul 2016 08:00:00 -0400

Featured image: The Baba Yaga, flying through the air with her

terrified captive. Illustration, 1917.Public Domain

Baba Yaga is considered one of the most intriguing characters from Slavic mythology. As ambiguous as she is hideous, Baba Yaga has been described by scholars as an anomaly, both a maternal, mother-nature figure and an evil villain who enjoys eating those who fail to complete her tasks. Though the origins of her name are as unclear as her purpose tends to be, it is believed thatbaba means something akin to “old woman” or “grandmother”, while yaga has conflicting theories of meaning ranging from “snake” to “wicked.” Regardless, even Baba Yaga’s name emphasizes the strangeness of her person, making her an interesting character to decipher.

The most common portrayal of Baba Yaga is as either one old woman or a trio of old sisters, all of whom are depicted as skinny, with iron teeth, and noses so long that they touch the ceiling when they sleep.

Baba Yaga is commonly illustrated as riding around on a mortar rather than a broom, wielding a pestle as both a flying aid and a wand. Tales involving her usually take place at her hut. It is found deep in the woods, standing on magical chicken legs, with a rooster's head on top. Legend says her hut is surrounded by a fence made of human bones.

Inside her hut, heroes usually encounter her stretching across her cooking stove, the enormous stove itself reaching from one side of the hut to the other, subtly emphasizing her size and magic. The stove is another common detail in tales of the Baba Yaga as the punishment for the failure of certain tasks is a fate of being cooked and eaten. Despite an ambitious appetite, however, Baba Yaga is always portrayed as skinny and bony, with her own epithet of “the bony one”.

.

Sculpture depicting the gnarly-faced character of Baba Yaga. Public Domain

The characterization of Baba Yaga is where much of the uncertainty surrounding her comes from. She varies between acting as a benefactor and a villain, either helping the hero of the Slavic myth or hindering him or her. Though it appears she never goes after anyone unprovoked—that is to say, without the person at least coming to the door of her hut—she appears to follow little or few morals. Nevertheless, whatever promise she makes to the hero after his completion of her tasks, she keeps.

Most of the prominent stories about Baba Yaga are not about her directly but about heroes who encounter her.

In one story, “Vasilisa the Beautiful”, Vasilisa is a Cinderella type character with a magical doll, whose mother died and father remarried a horrible woman with equally unkind daughters. When Vasilisa's father goes away for a trip, the new stepmother sells their house and moves her and the three girls to a cottage in the woods, giving the daughters impossible tasks to complete by candlelight. It is when Vasilisa ventures out of the house at the demand of her stepsisters to find more light that she encounters Baba Yaga, who presents numerous difficult chores to Vasilisa in exchange for a fire to take back to her household. With the aid of the doll, Vasilisa completes all the tasks and is given a fire in a skull lantern which incinerates her horrible new family upon her return home. Inevitably, Vasilisa's story ends on a happy note, with her wedding the tsar of Russia, but it is Baba Yaga’s role in her tale that is most intriguing.

The heroine Vasilisa outside of the hut of Baba Yaga as depicted by Ivan Bilibin (1902). Public Domain

Baba Yaga acts both an obstacle for Vasilisa as well as a savior, as without the lantern Vasilisa would never have been free of her cruel stepfamily. However, the way in which Baba Yaga frees her is terrible, revealing her as an unmoral, dangerous woman. Unlike the fairy godmother from the original Cinderella story, Baba Yaga appears more like the wicked stepmother who allows her daughter to cut off her foot so it will fit in the glass slipper. Baba Yaga goes to extraordinary lengths to free Vasilisa, instigating three painful deaths—as well as causing Vasilisa much grief before letting her leave the hut—rather than merely helping Vasilisa escape her stepfamily.

Baba Yaga of Russian fairy tales depicted on post card. Illustration circa 1917. Public Domain

Baba Yaga is also cast as a Mother Earth figure, having an influence on the natural world through three of her servants as witnessed by Vasilisa. Twice Vasilisa sees three riders—the first white, the second red, and the third black. Upon asking who they were, Baba Yaga replies that they are Day, the sun, and Night, respectively, each controlled by her, each a servant of hers. In this instance, the reader can see the span of Baba Yaga's power, further implying that she could have used much gentler means in the dismissal of Vasilisa's family but chose not to.

Another story of Baba Yaga involves peasant children, again the victims of a cruel stepmother.

In the tale, the children are sent to Baba Yaga to be rid of, but they manage to escape the witch’s hut through the help of all the animals, plants, and objects Baba Yaga neglects. A black cat helps them plan their escape because they feed him when the witch doesn’t; a gate closes Baba Yaga off from them because she never tends it; and even the trees of the forest attempt to stand in her path because of similar mistreatment. Thus, the children return home in one piece, Baba Yaga forfeiting her search when it grows too difficult. Again, this tale ends happily, with the stepmother thrown out and the father protecting his children, and again, Baba Yaga’s role is one of an obstacle. She might otherwise have not bothered the children if they had not bothered her first.

Thus, despite being considered a deity akin to Mother Nature, the natural world turns on her because of their suffering at her hands. Again, this evidences why scholars still find her so difficult to place in any one category and why she ranges many.

It is because of the elusive nature of her character that Baba Yaga remains such an intriguing mythical individual, and continues to be discussed and researched by scholars. She adds a level of mystery and uncertainty to each of the tales she takes part in, as the reader is uncertain until her final action whether her intentions will be villainous or redemptive. Though this dilemma of whether she is good or evil is only one of many considerations, it lays the basis for her analysis throughout Slavic literature.

Illustration of a hag-like, long-nosed Baba Yaga of Slavic legend. 1911. Public Domain

Bibiography

Afanasev, Aleksander. Russian Fairy Tales (Pantheon Books: New York, 1976.)

de Blumenthal, Verra Xenophontovna Kalamatiano. Folk Tales From the Russian (BiblioBazaar, South Carolina, 2009.)

Illes, Judika. Encyclopedia of Spirits: The Ultimate Guide to the Magic of Fairies, Genies, Demons, Ghosts, Gods & Goddesses (New York: HarperOne, 2009.)

Johns, Andreas. Baba Yaga: The Ambiguous Mother and Witch of the Russian Folktale. (2004.)

Wheeler, Post. Russian Wonder Tales. (New York: The Century Company, 1912.)

Russian Fairy Tales. trans. Norbert Guterman. (Pantheon Books, FIND, 1973.)

By Ryan Stone