4:00am

There's nothing I love more than a good conspiracy therory, and as someone who often finds herself awake at 4:00am comtemplating the meaning of life or fearing there's an iron somewhere in the world that I've accidently left on, John Rives' saitriacal The 4 A.M. Mystery featured in the 2007 Ted Talks conference, is sharp, satisfying, and makes me wish I was doing something more interesting at 4:00am than eating Nutella straight out of the jar.   

Insomnia and Me: 5 Things I've learned before 5:00am - Part XII

1) Leonardo da Vinci has an estimated IQ of 220. To put that in perspective, Albert Einstein's estimated IQ measured in at around 160.
2) Pirahã might be the world's most unusual language. Possessing just eight consonants and three vowels, it also has no system for counting.
3) Fat talk is a body-degrading self conversation that women engage in. Many theorize one of its causes is the consistent media message that celebrities and models represent the "ideal" or perfect female body. In reality, models are significantly thinner than 98% of the population.
4) In Xanadu did Kubla Khan, A stately pleasure-dome decree.

5) Don't hate the player, hate Unatav the alien overlord from the planet Zarton who started an intergalactic space feud. That guy is an asshole.

Santa Pause

Nowadays, Santa's actions would be classified as criminally insane.

However, as children we're told that once a year—while we're asleep, mind you—a colorful, omnipresent lunatic is welcomed into our homes and allowed to punish or reward us for our actions. How exactly does Santa determine what's considered naughty or nice? And what kind of quality control does he have for this alleged list of his? Checking it twice? That's less than the number of times I checked my cell phone while I was writing this post. 

Why is a poorly dressed, largely unemployed madman with an animal fetish and an elf internment camp responsible for determining the moral integrity of the gift receiving community? This isn't a Christmas Tale, it reads more like the plot of an episode of Investigation Discovery.