Interesting Articles of 2018
Everybody with a bookish blog is blogging about their favorite books of 2018. I am terrible about reading things they year they come out. Check out my Goodreads page for books I enjoyed in 2018, and feel free to rate the books I wrote! Ratings help others decide what to read, and reader data helps me improve my writing.
Instead of book reviews, here are five interesting articles I found during my 2018 fiction research, in order of publication date:
- 4 Police Interrogation Techniques You Should Know (And Why Not All of Them Work) (Forensic Outreach, 2014) – A succinct summary of each! You never know when might need these. They’re doubly important for writer types. Our search histories may look very suspicious, and also it is important that fiction accurately depict, at minimum, how method 1 fails. Jack Baur was just an asshole: entertaining, but full of... Inaccuracies.
- Inferences About Sexual Orientation: The Roles of Stereotypes, Faces, and The Gaydar Myth (Cox, W. T. L., Devine, P. G., Bischmann, A. A., & Hyde, J. S., 2015) – This is behind a paywall, but your local public or college library may have access. The study concludes that “gaydar” is (spoiler alert?) the act of comparing a person’s behavior to a set of gay stereotypes and thinking you’re right.
- How would a nuclear blast be different on Venus where the atmospheric pressure is much higher? (Hall, A. E., 2016) – It’s Quora, but the author cites some good (if dated) sources and his claim to aerospace expertise was good enough for Forbes. Venus is wild, people.
- How many hours does it take to make a friend? (Hall, J. A., 2018) – Also behind a paywall but Bustle wrote it up too. Keep in mind that Hall studied 112 American college students in 2018. Your hour requirements may vary. I hope this study gets replicated among a wider population.
- The Era of Fake Video Begins (Foer, F., 2018) – “The internet has always contained the seeds of postmodern hell.” Video is even less real than you thought it was, and it’s getting weirder! The article also wanders into some discussion of LSD and defining reality, which is a fun and totally safe combination.
Happy holidays to those who celebrate them, and best of luck to those who don’t. See you in 2019!