She got the idea for the study while walking with her advisor at Stanford to discuss her thesis topic, and the paper she eventually published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology in 2014 is sharp enough that it should have ended the seated meeting on the day it came out.
She ran 4 experiments on 176 people. Same person tested twice. Once sitting, once walking. The creativity tasks were the standard ones psychologists have used for decades to measure how good a brain is at generating novel useful ideas.
81% of participants in the first experiment produced more creative ideas while walking than while sitting. In the second experiment, 88%. In the third, 100%. Every single person walked into a more creative version of themselves. On average, people generated 60% more novel useful ideas the moment their legs started moving.
The skeptical question is the obvious one. Maybe it was the fresh air. Maybe it was the scenery passing by. Maybe it was the change of environment doing the work, not the walking itself.
Oppezzo killed every one of those explanations with one experimental decision. She put people on a treadmill facing a blank wall. No scenery. No fresh air. No environmental change. Just legs moving in place while staring at white drywall. The 60% boost held.
Then she ran the experiment that closed the case completely. She took participants outside in two conditions. Half of them walked through a Stanford courtyard. The other half were pushed through the exact same courtyard in a wheelchair. Same outdoor stimulation. Same scenery passing at the same speed. The only difference was whether the legs were moving.
The walkers produced dramatically more novel high-quality ideas than the wheelchair group. The outdoors did almost nothing on its own. The walking did everything.
She also tested the opposite kind of thinking. Convergent thinking. The kind where there is one right answer and you have to narrow down to it. Word puzzles where 3 words share a hidden fourth word that connects them. The seated participants did slightly better on these. Walkers got slightly worse.
Walking is not a general intelligence enhancer. It does one specific thing. It opens up the divergent search inside your brain. The part that generates options. The part that produces unexpected connections. The part that takes a problem and finds five ways into it instead of one.
When you need to converge on the single right answer, sit down. When you need to find the answer in the first place, get up.
The mechanism is now well understood. Walking selectively activates what neuroscientists call the default mode network, the system inside your brain that runs when you are not consciously focused on anything. The DMN is where mind-wandering happens. Where memories cross-reference each other. Where ideas that have been sitting in separate folders inside your head finally bump into each other.
When you sit at a desk and force yourself to concentrate, you suppress the DMN. When you walk at a natural pace, the executive part of your brain gets just busy enough handling the walking that the DMN comes online and starts doing the work that focus was blocking.
The most useful finding in the entire paper is the one almost nobody quotes. The boost did not turn off the moment people stopped walking. Participants who walked first and then sat back down stayed elevated. Their next round of seated creativity work was still significantly better than people who had been sitting the whole time. The rest lingered for at least several minutes after the legs stopped moving.
You do not need to do creative work while walking. You need to walk before the creative work. The brain holds the state.
thinking about "ilya fell for shane when he saw shane fold his clothes at the first hookup" as a concept and it's. really sweet actually
ilya, all of 18 years old, is a thrillseeker who is already habitually picking up women, already living so fast that the clubs and parties and people and bodies are blending together in his memory. there's a monotony developing there and he's itching to raise the stakes: to take bigger risks, claim bigger rewards. and what could be a bigger risk than hooking up with his golden-boy hockey rival? it would take effort, but the high he'd get from pulling this off just once (and of course it would only be once) would be unlike anything else.
so he puts in the effort. the leadup to his hookup with hollander is entirely off-script for him, a deviation from the patterns and routines he's developed around sex. he premeditates it, he thinks about how good it will feel if this works, fantasizes about what might happen, and plans the joint CCM shoot. the day arrives and he feels electric, takes a real risk in the showers, feels the rush of his risk paying off when hollander says "not here" instead of "no" and, later, offers his room number.
ilya shows up at room 1410 and immediately launches into seduction: this part is more on-script, more familiar to ilya, but still heightened because it's hollander, and heightened again when he confirms it's hollander's first time with a man, and again because it turns out hollander is starving for this, devouring ilya with his eyes and his hands, all intense and urgent and wanting. it's so heady. everything up to this point has already been enough to make this night live in ilya's memory forever. they move to the bed, he tells hollander to take his clothes off and he does -
and he takes the time to fold his clothes. in the middle of a hookup. what?
i love the laugh that connor storrie does in the show at that moment. just, his whole face lit up. ilya isn't bemused, he's not making fun of hollander for doing this. he's genuinely delighted.
because this. this is something that he's never seen before. it surprises him. he is hooking up with shane hollander and this is a uniquely shane hollander thing to do and it burns into his brain. its personal and intimate, it's terribly endearing. he already knows he will remember this moment specifically, will return to it when he thinks about this night in the future, like a bookmark placed in a well-loved book.
he had hoped to walk away from this experience feeling exhilarated and satisfied that he pulled off a hookup with the most dangerous person he could think of. he did not expect to walk away from this with a warm, fond memory of shane hollander - not just his hockey rival in that moment, but a real, knowable man who surprised him in a way that he liked - suddenly taking up space in his mind.
i think the next time ilya has sex with someone and she carelessly drops her clothes on the floor, he thinks about hollander. thinks about how he would have never thought that was careless, before. maybe he smiles a little to himself and catches it, has to shake the memory off, feels a little bad for losing focus on the woman he's with. tells himself it won't happen again. but of course that's not how it works, and the memory only digs deeper into him. it happens again the next time, and the time after that.
he's not in control of when the memory comes to him and he ends up thinking about it more and more, thinking about shane more and more. and attention is the beginning of devotion. it's not love yet, but it's something like a crush, and it's more than he's thought about anyone in this way before. it's a crack in the persona he's been building, in his protective armor that keeps people away and keeps his heart safe. it's a step off an invisible cliff. it's inevitable that he falls after that.
For as long as Nolan’s playing, this is just the way it needs to be. All about hockey, all about his team and his career and doing the right things to make the most of the chance he’s been given here.
The chance he spent two long years thinking was never going to come, and that he’s grateful for every single day of his life.
It means keeping his head down, and remembering he’s here for one reason and one reason only.
And that reason’s got nothing to do with his dick, and where it might try to lead him, if he’s stupid enough to let it—and it’s a moot point, anyway.
Because TK is obviously fucking—straight as an arrow, not interested in anything even close to, like.
Whatever Nolan’s body thinks is going on, whenever TK looks up at him from under the wide brim of his beat-up cowboy hat, with those shiny eyes and that crooked grin, cigarette hanging off his lip.
Thanks to @anonymouspinkturtle for the beautiful art, and to @linskywords and @sofrancescasocleanclean, my esteemed patronesses, for participating in @hockeytrumpshate and giving me a good excuse to keep on expanding the Journeymen universe.
It's time for Calgary Flame Nolan meets Pro bull rider TK, y'all. Saddle up and yeehaw and such.
I’ve already had more than a few people mention how much bull riding is a completely alien sport/event to them, or ask me questions about how it works, so in conjunction with posting Chapter 2 of Hung Up, I thought I’d do a quick info dump for anyone interested.
Am I some kind of bull riding/rodeo expert? No! I am simply someone who grew up in its orbit, and also someone who enjoys doing lots of unnecessary research!
Is any of this strictly necessary to know in order to enjoy the fic? Absolutely not! But if you want to know more anyway, this is your lucky day.
There are generally two ways to do competitive bull riding: the rodeo circuit, or the PBR (Professional Bull Riders) circuit. Athletes can switch back and forth to some degree, but often the events are held simultaneously so you can only do one at a time. PBR events are just bull riding competitions, while Rodeos have a whole slate of events (like Calgary Stampede), including bull riding. Bull Riding is also a sport that more or less only exists in four countries: Canada, U.S., Australia, and Brazil.
Rough stock events (events where someone is riding a bucking bull or horse) can definitely make it look to the uninitiated like the animal is in pain and/or distress. Wherever you may stand on the ethics of rodeo, I think it’s fair to say that factually speaking, the animals being ridden may in fact be in emotional distress, but they are not in physical pain. In bull riding in particular, there is a persistent myth that a rope is tied around a bull’s testicles to make it kick and buck. This is both demonstrably false (watch one youtube video of a bull bucking and you can’t help but notice their balls flopping around, rope-free), but also as a question of economics, the owners of these bulls would NEVER. A rope around the testicles could quite easily cause physical damage, and breeding these animals is a huge multi-million dollar business. Again, the ethics of the whole enterprise may be questionable, but the physical health and well-being of the “bovine athletes” (as they are often called in bull riding) is absolutely a top priority. There IS a rope tied around the bull’s flank (called a flank rope, as it happens) which is made of soft cotton and is not tied tightly. It’s basically used as a mild irritant (the animal definitely DOES want to get it OFF because it does not BELONG THERE) but also it’s used as a training aid. Most people don’t realize these are not just average bulls straight off the farm that are simply mad to have someone on their back. They are bred, raised, and trained to do this. Much like horses, actually. And the riders do wear spurs, but they are heavily regulated and monitored to make sure they are too dull to cut or injure the bulls. They CAN be used to goad a bull who a rider might feel isn’t performing well enough, but again, modern bulls bred and trained for this, so this isn’t nearly as common as it used to be. Modern bull riding spurs are used more functionally, as a way to gain traction to hold on to the bull with their legs. Again, ethics? Questionable, perhaps! But the highest earning and performing bulls become stars in their own right, and have fan followings just like the riders on the rodeo circuit. Sometimes certain riders and bulls will develop rivalries, such as if one particular rider has a certain bull he’s never been able to “cover”, or if a bull has stomped/hooked/otherwise wrecked or injured a rider before and there’s bad blood. Between a man and a cow. Is that a crazy thing to type? Sure is! But that’s the world we’re living in, here. And by here, I mean in this fic.
One other note about the world we’re living in, for any who may not realize this. If you could create a sport that is even more white conservative coded than hockey, that sport would be rodeo! Just in case it wasn’t patently obvious, there are no out gay male competitors on the rodeo or PBR circuits. In fact! There is a gay rodeo circuit, so. Nothing says we don’t want you here like the necessity of making a whole other parallel organization just for queer people! All of which is to say, for our purposes here, TK is very much in a similar situation to Nolan in that he is not and really cannot be out, without suffering at least some degree of professional upset over it. Just wanted to make sure that was clear.
Anyway! Below is a quick rundown of some bull riding lingo and terminology, in case anyone may find it helpful in this or future chapters:
Rosin – sticky stuff riders put on their riding glove and their bull rope to help them hold on.
Wrap – how a rider “takes their wrap” refers to how they prefer to wrap the tail of their bull rope around their riding hand.
Riding hand – this is the hand the rider uses to hold on to the bull rope. Bulls that spin are characterized as spinning “into” or “away from” a rider’s hand, meaning spinning in the direction of, or to the opposite direction, of the given rider’s riding hand.
Free hand – the non-riding hand, which must be held out away from the body for the judges to see during a ride. If the free hand touches the bull, the rider’s own body, or the bull rope, the ride is disqualified and doesn’t earn a score.
Bull Rope – a specially braided rope that has an integrated handle. The bull rope wraps around behind the bull’s shoulders/front legs and then around the rider’s hand, and is the only thing holding the rider on to the bull. There are generally two styles of bull rope, American and Brazilian. After the success of Brazilian-born riders in the PBR starting in the 2010’s, a lot of younger American, Canadian and Australian riders now use Brazilian ropes.
Bull Bell – a heavy cowbell that is attached to the underside of the bull rope. If you watch bull riding, you’ll hear it clanging as a bull bucks. Its purpose is to add weight to the rope, so that as soon as the rider lets go the rope is pulled down into the dirt and off the bull.
Hung up – when rider gets his riding hand stuck in the bull rope. This can happen even on a “good get-off” when the rider is dismounting the bull on purpose, but is much more likely during a buck-off or wreck. Often requires the help of bull-fighters to distract/re-direct the bull and/or to pull the bull rope free and release the rider.
Good get-off – or just a get-off is when the rider is not bucked off and is able to dismount the bull in a safe, controlled manner. Ideally, in a good get-off, the rider wants to exit the bull toward his riding hand, land clear of the bull in a crouch/on hands and knees to be under/beneath the height level of the the bull’s back-kick, and then be able to run to safety. The exception would be if a bull is spinning into the rider’s hand, in which case exiting in that direction puts a rider “down in the well”, and they would then try to exit to the opposite side from their riding hand.
The Well – the vortex/interior of a bull’s spin, and the most dangerous place to get off or be bucked off.
Buck off – when the rider is thrown off by the bull, whether before or after the 8 second buzzer is sounded.
Wreck – a particularly violent or dangerous buck off.
Hook – when a bull uses its horns to spear or otherwise attack a rider or bullfighter.
Stomp – when a bull jumps on or tramples a rider or bullfighter who is down in the arena.
Bullfighters – used to be the same as rodeo clowns, and would paint their faces, wear costumes, and hide in barrels to attract the attention of the bulls and help entertain the crowd between events. Some bullfighters still do some form of clowning or crowd entertainment, but as the bulls have become bigger, faster, more athletic, etc., bullfighters are now highly trained and skilled at their job, which is to attract the attention of the bulls as soon as a ride is over, to run interference and render aid any time a rider is hung up, injured, or otherwise in trouble, and to make sure the rider and bull both get out of the arena safely.
8 seconds – the amount of time a rider has to remain on a bull to earn a score for a qualified ride.
Scoring – for every “out” the bull and the rider both receive a score, each out of a possible 50 points. The bull is scored on how difficult it was to ride, and the rider is scored on how well they rode. The bull receives a score for every out. The rider only receives a score if they “cover” the ride by lasting the full 8 seconds. The final score for the ride, awarded to the rider, is the combination of the two numbers. The best rides are typically scored in the 80’s, while a 90-point ride or above is considered exceptional. So while it’s harder to cover on a better performing bull, it’s also the only way for a rider to earn the highest scores, which are needed to win an event. This is why it’s typically considered to the rider’s advantage to draw the “rankest” bulls.
Out – an attempted ride. These are recorded in both the bull’s and the rider’s stats.
Ride – when a rider “covers”, or lasts the full 8 seconds, it’s a qualified ride that earns a score.
Draw – the system through which riders are paired with bulls for each round. Depending on the event, sometimes riders draw numbers and get to choose (in order, like a draft) the bull they want from the available stock in the pen for the event. Or, sometimes riders draw names and ride the bull they draw.
The Pen – the collective term for the group of bulls that are available to ride at a given event.
Rank bull – bulls with a reputation for being especially aggressive, athletic, or mean. Hard to ride. If the riders get to choose their bulls, they will typically choose “the rankest bull in the pen”, at least of those still available to them.
Go – a go is a round of rides in the event. Most events start with a “long go” or “first go”, which is the preliminary round in which every rider in the event has a chance to ride, which takes a long time. Riders are eliminated based on score as the rounds go on, leaving those with the highest combined scores across all rounds to take part in the “short go” or the final, and shortest, round.
Okay! I think that's it, as far as terminology that might be used in the fic. If you read this far bless you, we are the same kind of people. Also if you know more than me about this and have corrections/things to add, please feel free! I love to learn and also not to look ignorant in public!
1. Fist: Make a fist around the epi-pen, don’t place your thumb/fingers over either end
2. Flick the blue cap off
3. Fire. Press down into the outer thigh (the big muscle in there), hold for 10 seconds before removing (the orange cap will cover the needle). Bare skin is best but the epi-pen will go through clothing. Avoid pockets and seams.
- Ring an ambulance even if everything seems to be fine!
Oh my god.
So as someone who has to carry an epipen EVERYWHERE I am so happy to see that there’s an info post about them.
Like in the extreme case that I can’t inject myself, somebody else would have to do it, but nobody knows how to do it! Thank you, this may just save my life some day.
Don’t be wimpy about it, either. I know friends who are like, “but idk if I could stab you with a needle!” Please stab me with the needle, don’t be hesitant about it.
In my case (I can’t speak for all allergies), an epi buys me 20 minutes of breathing to get to the hospital. It is not a magic bullet, it’s a few critical minutes to help get me where I need to go.
For those who don’t know, people with serious food allergies carry epinephrine which is an adrenaline shot just in case they have anaphylaxis, which is a life threatening allergic attack. This shot is life-saving and must be administered to someone who is having an anaphylactic attack as SOON AS POSSIBLE, because an extra waited minute could mean their life.
It doesn’t hurt much at all to use this needle. The first time I used mine, I didn’t even feel it. But be sure to stab it IN THE OUTER THIGH. Do not stick it anywhere else or you could seriously hurt or kill someone. Just right to the outside of the thigh and then call the ambulance - even if your friend starts doing better, they could have a biphasic reaction, meaning a reaction that comes back (or they may need a second dose, be on the look out). If your friend has an epipen, then they have an epipen trainer that doesn’t have a needle and you can try it out just to be sure you know how to use the real thing if you have to. I’d also advise holding it a few more seconds then 10, maybe go for 14 just to be sure all the medicine is administered and that you didn’t count too fast - that’s what I did.
THANK YOU FOR THE GRAPHIC I was about to ask because my mom carries one around and so do some of my friends and I wanted to make sure I would do it right if I ever needed to!
I wasn’t able to get a picture because my hands were full of wasp and apple but I got to feed a common paper wasp today! Accidentally flew into my house and had some apples that were starting to go bad
She was verrrry polite and crawled on my hand to get to the apple, was very calm when I walked outside with her too, flew off pretty shortly after that
just wanted to share a positive wasp experience ^^ they can be very sweet!
:3 And so I shall share my favorite wasp with you!
Eastern Cicada Killer (Sphecius speciosus), family Bembicidae, found in the eastern 2/3 of the US, Mexico, and Central America
This large wasp grows to a length of 5 cm (2 in).
The males are bold and territorial, and will often approach people. However, they are not usually aggressive, and are not known to sting people often (unless handled).
Adults feed on nectar.
Females paralyze cicadas. They dig burrows into the ground, where the place the cicada. They then lay an egg on the cicada, which the larvae feed on.
Hi, hoping I haven't missed the requests window - could you please do one (some!) of the Australian fairy-wrens? They're not actually wrens but they are tiny and cute and cheeky and one of my favourite types of bird. They bounce. The Superb Fairy-Wren Malurus cyaneus is just gorgeous (SE Australia, eg Victoria.) Or there are the Emu Wrens (neither emus nor wrens) which are even tinier, eg the Southern Emu-wren Stipiturus malachurus which has a lifelong bad hair day. Southern Australia incl Victoria, but for some reason not around the Great Australian Bight, only east and west. Thankyou!
Yes... yes.
Superb Fairywren (Malurus cyaneus), male, family Maluridae, order Passeriformes, SA, Australia
photograph by Dave Nightingale
Splendid Fairywren (Malurus splendens), family Maluridae, order Passeriformes, Australia
photograph by Jennifer Sexton
Purple-backed Fairywren (Malurus assimilis), L - female, R - male, family Maluridae, order Passeriformes, Australia
photograph by Graeme Wilkes
Purple-crowned Fairywren (Malurus coronatus), male singing, family Maluridae, order Passeriformes, WA, Australia
photograph by Howard Loosemore
Blue-breasted Fairywrens (Malurus pulcherrimus), male and female, family Maluridae, order Passeriformes, Western Australia
photograph by Shelley Pearson
White-winged Fairywren (Malurus leucopterus), male, family Maluridae, order Passerifromes, Australia
photograph by Mick Jury
Red-backed Fairywren (Malurus melanocephalus), male, family Maluridae, Australia
Photograph by Glenn Bartley
Opalton Grasswren (Amytornis rowleyi), family Maluridae, Forsyth Range, Queensland, Australia
photograph by Jan Wegener
Rufous-crowned Emu-Wren (Stipiturus ruficeps), family Maluridae, found in interior northern and central Australia
photograph by jan_wegener
Mallee Emu-Wren (Stipiturus mallee), family Maluridae, order Passeriformes, endemic to a narrow range in SE Australia
"Sewing is a gateway drug to thinking through complex problems. It seems really simple; culturally, we make it women's work. Let me tell you: real sewing at any kind of level of proficiency is a bloody magic trick. Sewing, like mold making, involves mental frames that require one to think inside out and backwards. It requires one to work on an order of operations that is often taking into account the reverse. It's a really, really important skill, and if you learn how to sew, you're mostly on your way to carpentry and welding and sheet metal work. I'm not kidding: these are planar forms meeting under rules and conditions. And if you can make a sleeve work, I swear to God, you could build a house."
I feel like it’s important to note that this isn’t an animation, it’s an old physics-based game called line rider. Which makes it even more impressive.
Something I love about the teen wolf fandom is that I haven't seen a single person who actually sticks to canon. Not even talking about like non canon ships or whatever, like full "that character is still alive actually", "This character never left", "anything after season 3 didn't happen. Also some things before season 3". Like other fandoms are very into the source material, and divergence in fic is treated as a what if scenario. In teen wolf it's the default. The teen wolf fandom looked at the scripts, said "this is trash", and then went and everyone did their own thing en masse. Open a fic and just accept whoever's still alive in it
vaporwave
dededos
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izzy806
andulkaphoto
origamiaround
titsay
jbbartram-illu
tangentwithtanner
