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World War Something, A. Tamboly

There is strong evidence that reading for pleasure can increase empathy, improve relationships with others, reduce the symptoms of depression and the risk of dementia, and improve wellbeing throughout life, new research carried out for The Reading Agency has found.

http://readingagency.org.uk/news/media/reading-for-pleasure-builds-empathy-and-improves-wellbeing-research-from-the-reading-agency-finds.html

Read this article. Spread it around. And then point out to others that when you have your nose in a book, you are not being antisocial, and that the world would improve if they read too…

(via neil-gaiman)

Shark baby

How Shows Like 'Will & Grace' And 'Black-ish' Can Change Your Brain

Go ahead, use this article to justify binge-watching Orange Is the New Black all weekend.

“Psychologists say it’s not uncommon to think of fictional characters as your friends. They call these attachments parasocial relationships, and a growing body of research suggests there may be more to these connections than we realize. It turns out that as we grow emotionally attached to characters who are part of a minority group, our prejudices tend to recede.“

This is another reminder of how important initiatives like everysinglewordspoken are. Not only to demand media representation for POC, but to change group attitudes about the ‘other’ and erase prejudice on a wide scale.

Parchment holes in manuscript repaired using embroidery circa 1417, currently in University Library Uppsala, Sweden

Barbara Tuchman says the widespread apparently juvenile behavior of medieval Europe should be considered in light of the fact that most of active society was in fact people in their teens and twenties

Which on the one hand is like one of those things that’s obvious once it’s pointed out

But also its funny to think there was a whole historians’ tradition of being like “why were medieval kings so overemotional” until Tuchman clears her throat and goes… “Ahem… Have you ever met an eighteen year old boy” and then everyone’s like “oooooh”

The truth is out there, Philipp Igumnov