Dr. Omed of Dr. Omed’s Tent Show Revival fame is amazed and his wife amused to find that his Nun of the Week posts have been discovered by others . . . enough folks visit his site to push its ranking sky high. Well, that’s one of the reasons I go there. Of course, while…
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Failing Grades for English Teachers in Hong Kong
by Brian David Phillips •
In the Standard . . . one third of English teachers who took the proficiency exam this year failed: In a major embarrassment, 203 English-language teachers must switch to other subjects or face the sack in September after failing to meet the government’s language proficiency requirements. That represents a third of just over 600 teachers…
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Lion + Tiger = Liger
by Brian David Phillips •
There’s a Liger in the house! Pentung Technology University is now the host to a cross between a lion and a tiger. The university has an animal shelter for wild animals that have been abandoned or rescued from abusive homes. The animal in the photograph is an actual cross between a lion and a tiger…
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Tribute to Ronald Reagan
by Brian David Phillips •
A tribute that asks the question, “Do you think that went a little too far?” Yes, it does. Passing it on nonetheless. Tribute to Ronald Reagan. Compelling in a jackass sort of way . . . wondering how far they can take a sophomoric idea and how much it will hurt when it crashes and…
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100 Faces
by Brian David Phillips •
Arturo Brachetti bills himself as The Master of Metamorphosis. If he’s not the master, well, he’s awfully damned good. See 100faces. Nice work. Fun too.
Hypnosis, Trance, Meditation, and The Rest
Improving Social Confidence
by Brian David Phillips •
A thread in one of the many email lists I belong to is about improving social confidence. Here is my response (with the attributions removed from quoted material, see the original posts if you need them). Ok, I’ve been doing some of the relaxation techniques to increases calmness, but what are some ways to increase…
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Gay Extortion
by Brian David Phillips •
Police in Taiwan have arrested a man who posed as a homosexual in a scam in which he would find out the identity of gay men in chat rooms and then threaten to tell their familes or employers they were gay unless they gave him money. He extorted money from over one hundred gay men:…
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What I Did on My Birthday
by Brian David Phillips •
Well . . . let’s see . . . as you know, last Sunday was my birthday . . . June 6 . . . I can no longer use the classic “I’m not really over forty” response to people’s questions about my age as I am now officially forty-one. Grrr. Now, what do you…
Hypnosis Videos, Hypnosis, Trance, Meditation, and The Rest
Subliminal Content?
by Brian David Phillips •
Does this video have subliminal content of some sort? Is that an NLP (neurolinguistic programming) type sleight of mouth, rather hand, method to install a response or is it a triggered response mechanism? Notice when the crowd applauds. In any case, she makes her point really well and slips in the crux very neatly.
Hypnosis, Trance, Meditation, and The Rest
O . . .
by Brian David Phillips •
Turn the volume up on your speakers. Make sure you’re relaxed and in a comfortable position. Breathe in deeply a few times and with each deep breath, relax, really relax. Let yourself feel loose, limp, and relaxed. Enter the zone. Breathe in, breathe out, relax deeply, six to nine times. Really let go. Now watch…
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Technohonks
by Brian David Phillips •
This is funny . . . stupid, but funny . . . Technohonks.
Hypnosis, Trance, Meditation, and The Rest
Eliza, Computer Therapist
by Brian David Phillips •
Eliza, Computer Therapist . . . online therapy at it’s well . . . something: ELIZA emulates a Rogerian psychotherapist. ELIZA has almost no intelligence whatsoever, only tricks like string substitution and canned responses based on keywords. Yet when the original ELIZA first appeared in the 60’s, some people actually mistook her for human. The…
Hypnosis, Trance, Meditation, and The Rest
The Fat Epidemic
by Brian David Phillips •
Interesting take on the so-called obesity epidemic.
Hypnosis, Trance, Meditation, and The Rest
Pills or Talk Therapy? Those aren’t the only two choices!
by Brian David Phillips •
The New York Times reports on a study between medicating with Prozac and psychotherapy for troubled teens . . .
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Torture
by Brian David Phillips •
The New York Times reports on a position paper from early last year . . .
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The Day After Tomorrow . . . Today
by Brian David Phillips •
It’s not going to be quite as spectacular a global climate shift as the film, but some of the changes are already underway . . .
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American Gulag
by Brian David Phillips •
Journalist Elana Lappin has an interesting account of being arrested and held upon arrival in the US despite being from a friendly nation whose non-journalist citizens acan enter the US without hassle. Journalists from Friends, Allies of America: Beware. Food for thought and a bit more than depressing. The Patriot Act was intended to fight…
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Tornado Chasing . . . not the brightest of pasttimes
by Brian David Phillips •
This is not a business catering to the brightest of the brightest . . . these folks may think it’s extreme sport or adventure but really it’s just plain not-very-brightness . . .
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Ronald Reagan . . .
by Brian David Phillips •
Ronald Readan, fortieth president of the United States,
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Happy Birthday . . . of sorts . . . to me . . .
by Brian David Phillips •
June 6, 1963 . . . when dinosaurs still walked the Earth . . . I burst upon the world . . . now, I’m getting old . . . or younger . . . not sure which.
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Date Rape Drugs on the Rise
by Brian David Phillips •
Another testament to stupidity and irresponsibility . . . date rape drugs are on the rise . . . more and more folks are using them and more women are becoming victims . . . all over the planet. Sheesh. If you want to have meaningless sex with a woman, just ask. If she says…
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Women . . . a woman reporter in Iraq
by Brian David Phillips •
A very thought-provoking article on being a woman reporter in Iraq.
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The Finger
by Brian David Phillips •
Here we have a collection of international offensive hand gestures aka Foreign Fingers. Way back when dinosaurs walked the Earth and I was in graduate school studying for my MA in Communication/Theatre, I researched intercultural communication quite a bit . . . this was actually the subject of one of the lectures I presented to…
Eroticatrance, Hypnosis, Trance, Meditation, and The Rest, Psychecstatic Engineering Psychological Psychedelic eXperiential Ecstasy
When Two Become One. . . One and One is Two as One
by Brian David Phillips •
My submission to the Hypnosis Technique Exchange Monthly Challenge (June 2004) is now up. Each month, hypnotists and other trancewrights are asked to create a piece related to the theme. Submissions are taken from the first through the fifteenth with voting afterwards until the ned of the month. Since this month’s theme is Improving Relationship…
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Church is in Session
by Brian David Phillips •
exexExChurch. Some of it’s clever, much of it’s stupid, a fair bit is true and quite a lot of it is funny.