I Am Babycakes , created by Creased Comics' Brad Neely (who did that "Washington" video seen some time ago), is the good-natured, incredibly dark musings of a man-child who lives with his dad/wizard, roleplays ("I had described to my friends the most beautiful demon"), writes songs, and fills both his diary, and his days, with emptiness. Alternating funny, then sad, then cool as one turns it over in the mind. Or I think so anyway. Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 (All links NSFW due to language.)
posted to MetaFilter by JHarris at 5:31 PM on February 23, 2007 (15 comments)

Politcal cartoons... not quite ready for prime time.
posted to MetaFilter by Huplescat at 9:24 PM on February 19, 2007 (39 comments)

Flame wars as psychopathology. What's behind those flaming hot e-mails or UseNet flame wars or MetaFilter comments?. Perhaps, as John Suler suggested, there are a number of factors, including dissociative anonymity, invisibility, asynchronicity, solipsistic introjection (altered self-boundaries), dissociative imagination, and minimzation of authority, as he discussed in his fascinating 2004 paper (note: .pdf). Is there, as the NY Times piece asks, "a design flaw inherent in the interface between the brain’s social circuitry and the online world"? Flaming previously covered by MeFi here, here, here, and of course, here.
posted to MetaFilter by scblackman at 2:11 AM on February 20, 2007 (39 comments)

"You're really smart!" Psychologist Carol Dweck says that praising a child for being smart only teaches the kid to avoid any effort that might fail. "When we praise children for their intelligence, we tell them that this is the name of the game: Look smart, don't risk making mistakes." Malcolm Gladwell chimes in with his thoughts on the importance of being a smart kid, "What a gifted child is, in many ways, is a gifted learner. And what a gifted adult is, is a gifted doer. And those are quite separate domains of achievement."
posted to MetaFilter by revgeorge at 7:15 AM on February 13, 2007 (216 comments)

The Twelve Commandments Of Flaming. Andrew Heenan's Guide To Flaming also features sections on Winning and Strategy, as well as Word Skills , Psychology of Flaming, Definitions Of Flaming, Profiling Flamers and more. "I get the occasional accusation that this site, while claiming to be about resisting and surviving flaming, is actually intended as a training course for would-be flamers," he says... Maybe it's both?
posted to MetaFilter by amyms at 8:13 PM on February 12, 2007 (63 comments)

Prince's Hot Chicken. Three words that get Nashvillians (and others) sweating and drooling. Don't believe me? Ask Yo La Tengo.
posted to MetaFilter by 1f2frfbf at 12:53 PM on January 24, 2007 (22 comments)