The Washington Post argues the “cognitive fitness market” is more hype than science. “You may get better with practice at matching pictures of ice cream cones or frogs from rapidly changing images or mastering obscure facts about famous people,” writes Beth Baker. “(James Joyce was afraid of dogs.) But whether that translates into brain protection — or confers benefits beyond those offered by square-dancing, eating blueberries or simply yukking it up with friends — is anybody’s guess.”

‘Big Dog’: ‘Most Advanced Quadruped Robot’ Can Go Anywhere Regardless Of Terrain

I have to post this story before Phil does.

Nils Olav already has medals for good conduct and long service. He made honorary colonel-in-chief of the elite Norwegian King’s Guard in 2005. And on Friday he was knighted.

Not bad for a 3-foot tall penguin — actually, three of them.

Clearly, species discrimination is no barrier to social advancement in the land of my fathers.

My hopes of eventually receiving the Order of St. Olav have just increased.

So I’m scanning headlines and I see this one on the topic Lars says will bring us the traffic and recognition we deserve as a serious literary and thoughtful reading blog.

“Jessica Simpson Wants to Be the Next Dolly Parton”

Now, what do you think that means?

Ok, stop thinking about that and get back to Swedish Olympics news. Or closer to home, this news that scientists have concluded drinking several beers really will make other people seem more attractive. Those crazy scientists, they’ll stop at nothing until they get to the verifiable facts.

It ain’t true.

By way of Conservative Grapevine.

I watched a couple more movies on DVD over the weekend. First I rounded off the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. The last movie was quite a mishmash, wasn’t it? In a way, in contrast to most viewers, I actually liked the last two more than the first.

Oh, Pirates III was a mess. No question. Whatever possessed the people at Disney to start the movie the way they did, knowing that lots of children would see it? I have to assume they got a really bad shipment of cocaine in Beverly Hills that week. And how were we supposed to build sympathy for a bunch of characters who kept betraying one another? Continue reading Pirates, Beowulf, and heroism →

I don’t follow the Olympics, even when they’re held in countries I like (except, of course, for Norway). But I’ve heard a lot of talk today about how the Olympic organizers replaced video of an actual little girl who sang a solo at the opening ceremonies, and replaced it with that of a prettier little girl, lip-synching to the first girl’s voice.

I’m amazed that anyone finds this surprising.

This is China, still a Communist, regimented society. The reason we care about the feelings of a little girl is because we’re burdened with the cultural baggage of the West. For the progressives of China, a little girl’s feelings are a matter of no consideration at all.

They tell me the whole opening ceremony production was a tour de force of human beings made to operate like pixels on a computer screen. Why should Beijing care about any one of those human beings? If one of them were to drop dead, he could be replaced by another human being, equivalent in every way.

For the Communist Chinese, you can give a little girl a pony, or you can shoot her in the head. Either course is good or evil, not because of what it does to the girl, but because of how it effects the Great Movement.

Tonight, children, a story. An epic adventure with danger, passion, deadly battles, journeys to far-off lands, and… magic! Or at least the rumor of magic.

My fellow Viking reenactors probably wouldn’t like me to say this (we try to discourage the use of the word “barbarian”), but if there was ever a genuine, real-world Conan the Barbarian, it must have been Harald Sigurdsson (1015-1066), known as “Hardrada” (or Hard Ruler, but not till after his death, and certainly not to his face), king of Norway from 1047 to 1066. If there’s a more sprawling epic made out of a single life in world history, I don’t know about it.

Harald was the half-brother of King Olaf Haraldsson of Norway, better known as St. Olaf. He shared his brother’s exile when he fled to Russia (about 1028), and was fighting at his side (he was only fifteen years old) when Olaf died at the Battle of Stiklestad in 1030. Then followed another flight to Russia. After that he journeyed to Constantinople, where he became the captain of the emperor’s bodyguard, the Varangian Guard, which at that time was made up entirely of Scandinavians. He fought a number of successful campaigns for the Empire, an enterprise that proved so profitable that he was accused of malfeasance and imprisoned. He managed to escape (with the loot), and returned to Russia (where he married a princess), and proceeded home to Norway. Continue reading King Harald and the flag →