Links, Links, Links

I've decided that, for now, I'm going to do this link post thing every now and then, because I always like when Brandon does it, and hey, I've stolen just about every aspect of my blog personality from him, Richard, and Clark, so what's one more theft? Plus, there's a lot of cool stuff out there, and I might have noticed some of it that you didn't.

First up is Heo Cwaeth's fourth installment in her "Medieval Women I Adore" series. This one is on Hrotswitha von Gandersheim (try saying that 5 times fast!), about whom she writes:

My love for this woman comes not only from her desire to defend the role of women in Christianity at such an early stage, but from her absolute refusal to feign idiocy. In fact, she considers her intellect a gift from God that she is required to use. Doesn't get better than that in the tenth century, folks.

Plus, did you know that she was the first European woman known to have written literary works? Now you do. As usual, Heo manages to make me adore Hrotsw... you know who I mean, too.

Next, Carl Zimmer discovers that what looks like a myth about the brain, that it can perform a massive amount of calculations using only 10 watts, is true, even though it may have originated with the poet Paul Valery.

John Hawks has a nice post on two recent papers concerning off-line memory consolidation while we're awake. Very interesting stuff on a very poorly understood topic.

Via Omni Brain, "The Seven Warning Signs of Bogus Science."

Also, March saw the birth of a great new blog, Stop that Crow! You should stop by and read everything, but I recommend starting with this one on similarity-based theories of concepts.

And finally, Cognitive Daily talks about The Emotion of Shapes.