Archives
Insight into the theory of mind
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2009/07/Theory-of-Mind.mp3[/podcast] This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention, but in addition to writing nonfiction, I also write fiction—specifically, science fiction and fantasy. Now, the writing of fiction is a very odd thing, in that it involves the making up of characters: people who don’t really exist, but for whom the illusion of existence is created by the words the author puts on the page. Quite often, these people are very different from the author. I recently interviewed renowned Canadian science fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer for FreeLance, the magazine of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild. The main character in his latest book, Wake, is a blind teenage girl, Caitlin Decter. Now, although Sawyer can draw on some experience at ...Are cognitive shortcuts making us fat?
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/upLoads//2009/06/Cognitive-Shortcuts-to-Obesity.mp3[/podcast] When we think about how we make decisions, we tend to imagine that we consider the facts of a situation carefully and logically, in a straightforward, step-by-step manner. But that process is, indeed, imaginary. The truth is that our brains prefer to do as little actual thinking as possible. They like shortcuts—and sometimes those shortcuts can get us into trouble. Take, for instance, what psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania call "Unit Bias," which, they say, “causes people to ignore vital, obvious information in their decision-making process, points to a fundamental flaw in the modern, evolved mind, and may also play a role in the American population's 30 years of weight gain.” The researchers conducted several studies with college-age participants. In one, the ...A universal theory of humour
[podcast]http://www.edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/A Universal Theory of Humour.mp3[/podcast] I am a very funny man. I have been told so, so it must be true. You can tell how funny I am by reading my very funny writing. Like this paragraph. This paragraph is very funny. It must be because I am a very funny man. I have been told so, so it must be true. Why we find things funny has long been a matter of contention in the scientific world, probably because humor itself is so subjective. I think the preceding paragraph is funny. You might disagree. But now I can trump your disagreement with science: that paragraph is funny because it’s based on the surprise repetition of patterns. Until recently, theories of humour have ...Dare to doodle!
[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/doodling.mp3[/podcast] Hi! My name is Ed, and I am a doodler. I have doodled my way through countless classes, mounds of monotonous meetings, scads of sonorous sermons. My teachers and others have looked at me askance over the years. But no more! I, and all who doodle with me, have at last been vindicated by psychologist Jackie Andrade of England’s University of Plymouth. “What Does Doodling Do?” asks her latest study, the results of which were just published in Applied Cognitive Psychology. The answer? Doodling, far from distracting people from the monotony du jour, actually helps focus their minds: doodlers remember what they just heard better than non-doodlers. For her study, Andrade asked 40 participants, ranging in age from 18 to 55, to listen to ...The hazards of bad jokes
How often have you heard someone say, “I just can’t tell a joke?”How often have you then heard the person who made that self-deprecating claim attempt to do just that?According to recent research, if you truly believe the former, you should stick to your guns, because telling a bad joke in a social situation can actually be hazardous.And by bad jokes, we’re not talking about dirty jokes, racist jokes, or ethnic jokes. We’re talking about jokes that just aren’t that funny. Specifically, in fact, this joke:“What did the big chimney say to the little chimney?”“Nothing. Chimneys can’t talk.”It was this joke (discovered by Googling “bad jokes”) that Nancy ...Let’s not rush into anything
In movies and TV shows, people fall in love and into bed (or the other way around) with amazing speed. In musicals, it’s even worse: all it takes is a single song.In real life, though, although one hears of whirlwind romances and sudden marriages (often followed by whirlwind separations and sudden divorces) courtship is often a very drawn-out affair.And now scientists have developed a mathematical model to explain why.One of the lead researchers, Professor Robert Seymour of University College London, points out extended courtships are common to a number of species--but, of course, it’s the human application that most interests us self-centered homo sapiens.Says Seymour, “Human courtship...can involve a sequence of dinners, ...The psychology of procrastination
Some people think I have good time management skills because I work at home and yet manage to crank out a lot of words of one sort or another.Some people don’t know what they’re talking about.The fact is, my usual working pattern is procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate, panic panic panic!, rinse and repeat. I, in fact, put the “pro” in procrastinate. Take this column. I’ve started writing it a good hour later than I should have...because first I had to do other stuff. You know, like make coffee. And read email. Post on Twitter. Check Facebook. Shoot down airplanes over the Pacific...Why do people procrastinate? One of the leading experts on the subject ...The fad cycle
Here’s a fearless prediction for 2009: sometime, somewhere, something is going to become a hot new fad.It’s a cycle as old as...well, as old as me, anyway, and I suspect a good deal older. Since I was a teenager in the 1970s, I think in terms of Rubik Cubes, platform shoes, bell-bottoms and mood rings.Today I’m so far out of it, pop-culture wise, I’d hesitate to even mention a 2008 fad for fear it’s already last-year’s thing. (Although, since this column appears on New Year’s Eve, I guess you could say any 2008 fad is last-year’s thing.)Perhaps you have fallen for a fad yourself, once in a while. I would say that I never ...The epidemiology of happiness
'Tis the season...Oh, no, wait, I can't use THAT opening again.Um, how about...At this time of year, there's a lot of talk about joy and happiness. There's also a lot of talk about influenza. You might think them unrelated, but in fact they share one very interesting characteristic: they're both contagious.If contagious happiness sounds familiar, you're probably remembering the 1968 movie comedy "What's So Bad About Feeling Good?", starring George Peppard and Mary Tyler Moore.Or maybe I'm the only one who remembers it.Anyway, in the movie, a toucan carrying a happiness-causing virus is smuggled into New York City. The virus infects so many people that that the city faces economic ...A bit about bias
A Bit About Bias Now that both the Canadian and the American elections are over, it’s time to ask ourselves a serious question: How on Earth could so many people be so pig-headed and blind as to have disagreed with you and me (I’m assuming, of course, that you agree with me) about the best people to vote for, when it was blatantly obvious that our candidates were superior in every way? Blatant bias and serious stupidity, obviously. No doubt fueled by the media. After all, we all know how biased they are. Alas, say psychologists contacted for a recent Philadelphia Inquirer article on the subject, we’re all biased. And one of the most basic ways in which we’re biased is ...
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Magebane
“Spectacular” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Evil wizards, multi-level conspiracies, hidden kingdoms…Lee Arthur Chane…has done a marvelous job…Magebane is a very entertaining book and well worth the time.” – A.M. Donovan, Night Owl Reviews
I happily recommend Magebane and I’ll certainly give Chane’s next novel a try based on this one.” —Bill Capossere, Fantasy Literature
“…an original and delightful tale of epic fantasy and magic, steampunk science, adventure, tragedy, and love…” – Errant Dreams Reviews
Eight centuries ago, the world changed. A devastating war swept the lands, and the MageLords, who had long ruled by virtue of their spell powers, were driven to a distant place, separated from those they had ruled by a magical Barrier. With magic banished from the rest of the world, the MageLords became mere legend and people turned to science to improve their lives. But if one man has his way, all that is about to change….
Written as Lee Arthur Chane (the middle names of my older brothers, Jimmy Lee and Dwight Arthur, and myself, Edward Chane Willett).
Marseguro
Winner of the 2009 Prix Aurora Award for Best Long-Form Work in English
Water world Marseguro is home to the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from human DNA. When an unmodified human seeks revenge on a Selkie by activating a distress beacon taken from the remains of the original colony ship, a strikeforce is sent from Earth to eradicate the genetic abomination. Yet Marseguro will not prove as easy to conquer as the Earth force anticipates…
Terra Insegura
Finalist for the 2010 Prix Aurora Award for Best Novel in English
Marseguro, a water world far from Earth, is home to a colony of humans and the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created from modified human DNA. For seventy years the colony has lived in peace. Then Earth discovers Marseguro, and a strike force is sent to eradicate this “abomination.” But Marseguro has created a genetically tailored plague to use against Earth’s Holy Warriors. With the enemy defeated, the people of Marseguro feel they are safe. But Chris Keating, the traitor who signaled Marseguro’s location to the Holy Warriors, has fled to Earth, unknowingly carrying the deadly plague within him. The people of Marseguro feel they must send a ship to Earth with a life-saving vaccine. Only time will tell what awaits them when they reach their destination.
Lost in Translation
Kathryn was a human empath whose world and life had been destroyed when the alien S’sinn slaughtered her parents before her very eyes. Jarrikk was a young S’sinn, an unproven warrior who’d seen his flight mates slaughtered by the humans who’d sought to colonize his world.
As humans and S’sinn found themselves on the brink of war, these two Translators had to work together to find a common ground and avert catastrophe. But whether their Translators’ oath and training could overcome the enemies leagued against them was very much in doubt…
Archives
Song of the Sword
My new YA fantasy novel from Lobster Press
Before the Lady called her, Ariane’s life was a mess. Two years ago, her mother disappeared. She bounced around different foster homes until her aunt finally took her in. The meanest clique at her new high school has decided to make Ariane their prime target. And to top it all off, she is having frightening premonitions, and they are becoming more intense. The moment water touches her skin, she sees visions of a lake, a lady, and a sword. When a staircase opens up in the middle of Wascana Lake and the water begins singing to her, she has no choice but to answer the call….
Historic Walks of Regina and Moose Jaw
Ten walks to points of historic and architectural interest in the cities of Regina and Moose Jaw (eight walks for Regina, two for Moose Jaw).
Johnny Cash: The Man in Black
When country music legend Johnny Cash took the stage at Folsom State Prison in 1968, he solidified the public’s perception of him as a rebel who followed his own path. Born in Arkansas during the Great Depression, Cash endured poverty, the death of his older brother, and a difficult relationship with his father. He turned to gospel and country music to express the pain, and after many years of struggling, his songs of hardship and hope would finally reach the ears of those waiting for an artist who represented them, ordinary people fighting to survive.
Andy Warhol: Everyone Will Be Famous for 15 Minutes
“Paintings are too hard. Machines have less problems…” In the 1960s, Andy Warhol became the most famous creator of a new style of art called pop art, which transformed mass-produced items of popular culture into fine works of art. From Campbell’s Soup cans to photographs of Marilyn Monroe, Warhol’s willingness to use anything and everything from the mass media in his work expanded the range of subject matter available to artists. His avant-garde films, artistic usage of American icons, and unconventional social life made him a controversial figure, both greatly admired and deeply reviled. A trendsetter rather than a trend-follower, a dispassionate observer of both the seamy and celebrity sides of life, Warhol was a true American rebel.
Disease-Hunting Scientist
The true stories of six real disease hunters. Epidemiologists travel the world trying to keep us safe from deadly diseases—from high-tech labs in Canada to remote villages in Africa. Learn how these “disease detectives” are coming up with new ways to fight disease, and find out if you have what it takes to become an epidemiologist, too!
The Bounty Mutiny
The Bounty was a British ship visiting Tahiti in 1789 when some of the crew overthrew the captain, William Bligh, and set him adrift in a tiny boat with sailors loyal to him. The mutiny resulted in a number of trials–both of the men who mutinied and of Bligh for losing command of his ship. These fascinating events have been the source for numerous Hollywood movies, most recently The Bounty. The Bounty Mutiny: From the Court Case to the Movie explores the famous case and the movies it inspired.
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