#fad — Public Fediverse posts

Three fads from yesteryear… Weekly Recap 5/4/2026

Why is childhood marked with fads? Maybe it’s a new game, a clothing style, or a collectible item—something catches the attention of kids (perhaps a few adults, too) and they all become obsessed with it.

Labubu… Pop-Its… Funko Pops… fidget toys of all kinds… I can now safely say I’ve been immune. And at this point, the only reaction they get from me is a slow blink or a raised eyebrow.

I struggle to see the appeal. Does everyone liking or having something make it inherently more desirable? I think not.

But this was not always the case. No… no… I fell victim to many fads as a child.

And from the multitude, I have selected three.

Pogs

Picture stolen from reddit

Cardboard circles with graphics printed on them. Stack them up and throw the metal “slammer” at the pile to… I don’t know… were you supposed to flip them over? Nobody ever explained the rules to me. I had a couple of plastic tubes full of these things—for some reason, it gave me satisfaction to just look at them.

At one point or another, it was explained to me that some people “played for keeps.” I was also told that *this was a form of gambling* and, therefore, I was not allowed to participate. I could own pogs, but not play pogs.

Crazy Bones

Picture stolen from reddit

This was a trend I tried to participate in, but never really understood. Lumps of hard plastic shaped into strange characters. To this day, I have no idea what you were supposed to do with them. Did you throw them? Bounce them? Flip them? Surely there was some sort of game to play. In fact, I can faintly remember instructions being printed on the package, but it never made sense to me.

I can remember taking my hard-earned monies to the toy store, buying packs of Crazy Bones, opening them, and then thinking: “huh?” I wanted to get on board, but I think the train left without me. Over a few months, I continued to buy packs—perhaps thinking one of them would hold the answer of why they were popular. I ended up throwing them all in a drawer one day and then forgot about them.

Pokemon Cards

Picture stolen from reddit

If ever there was something I was really “die hard” for… it was Pokemon. The video games, the trading cards, the merchandise… I even went to a few conventions.

I never actually learned the official rules of the card game, so I developed my own way of playing. Of course, I never had anyone to play against, so it was just me with a bunch of cards spread out on the floor pretending to battle an opponent. Wait, wait… I know that sounds really pathetic, so before you judge… let me tell you the bright side: I never lost.

Somewhere, there is a bright red box full of about 1000 Pokemon cards, including the entire base set and a bunch of first editions. It was in a closet at my parents’ house… I’m pretty sure it’s worth money now. Maybe I should go find it.

Okay, yes. This fad never left me. Selene and I spent years playing Pokemon Go. And a few months ago, I replayed through one of the Gameboy games.

I will always be a Pokemon Master. No one can take that away from me.

What was your childhood fad?

Good morning and happy Monday, friends.

Happy Beltane! Happy start of May!

• New Article: A Year in Review: 2025 – 2026
• New M3 Episode: Amber Rae, Conservation Art, and the Floridian Mythos

Well, I got some fun content out this past week. If you’d like to see a highlight of my accomplishments over the last year, then please join me for my “A Year in Review” post. It’s tradition! If you’d like to catch a brand new episode of M3, then go watch my chat with Amber Rae. Both are conveniently linked above.

The good news first! I’m now completely done with my Spring semester. I just finished up a very, very dull research paper. Grades haven’t been finalized yet, but I know I’ll be pleased with my performance.

Of course, there is one thing left: a course evaluation. I was trying to give the professor the benefit of the doubt, but since they’ve basically ghosted me, I fully intend to tell them what I really think. My dissatisfaction is about to take the form of a dozen small circles with ratings between “5 (Strongly Agree)” and “1 (Strongly Disagree)”—you can bet I’ll be strongly disagreeing with a lot.

In other news, I was sent a delightful review of my book from Lady Serpent of The Keeper’s Path.

You can go and read the full review or… buy the book for yourself and write your own.

I’ve got some speaking engagements coming up soon, so I’m sure you’ll hear more about that in the near future.

Now for the bad news: No fun food pics or anything to show off this week. We had to pop over to the west coast of Florida for the weekend and just returned last night.

Okay, okay… I hear you. Here’s a picture of Loki to tide you over until next time.

I have about 2 weeks until the start of my Summer semester. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some cool stuff done before then.

Stay tuned for more soon!

"867-5309/Jenny" is a song written by #AlexCall and #JimKeller and performed by Keller's band Tommy Tutone. It was released on the album #TommyTutone2 (1981) through #ColumbiaRecords. It peaked at number four on the #Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the #RockTopTracks chart in April 1982. The song led to a #fad of people prank calling unsuspecting victims by dialing 867-5309 and asking for "Jenny".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVwKxz0e2sE

My Favorite Health Foods From Costco, From 65-Year-Old Fitness Trainer

Kirkland Signature wild Argentine shrimp is one of my freezer staples. It requires minimal cook time and makes…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Health #65-year-oldfitnesstrainer #busyday #consistency #Costco #Diet #easy-to-followhabit #energy #fad #HealthyFood #overallhealth #perfection #simplicity #strength #strictrule #Workout
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/575195/

Historic Photos Show Wild Pole Sitting Craze From the 1920s https://petapixel.com/2026/03/20/historic-photos-show-wild-pole-sitting-craze-from-the-1920s/ #historicalfriday #20thcentury #polesitting #Features #history #1920s #craze #fad

“Eureka!”*…

Whence insight?…

New research published in BMC Psychology suggests that the structural wiring of the brain may play a significant role in how people solve problems through sudden insight. The study indicates that individuals who frequently experience “Aha!” moments tend to have less organized white matter pathways in specific language-processing areas of the left hemisphere. These findings imply that a slightly less rigid neural structure might allow the brain to relax its focus, enabling the unique connections required for creative breakthroughs.

For decades, scientists have studied the phenomenon of insight, which occurs when a solution to a problem enters awareness suddenly and unexpectedly. This is often contrasted with analytical problem solving, which involves a deliberate and continuous step-by-step approach.

While previous studies using functional MRI and EEG have mapped the brain activity that occurs during these moments, there has been little understanding of the underlying physical structure that supports them. The researchers behind the new study aimed to determine if stable differences in white matter—the bundles of nerve fibers that connect different brain regions—predict an individual’s tendency to solve problems via insight.

“For over two decades, neuroscience has mapped what happens in the brain during these moments using EEG and fMRI. We know from prior research that insight feels sudden, tends to be accurate, and involves distinct functional activation patterns — including a burst of activity in the right temporal cortex just before the solution reaches awareness,” said study authors Carola Salvi of the Cattolica University of Milan and Simone A. Luchini of Pennsylvania State University.

“But one major question remained open: what structural features of the brain might make some people more likely to experience insight in the first place?”

“Most previous white matter studies of creativity did not specifically focus on Aha! experiences. They measured how many problems people solved, or how creatively, not how they solved them (with or without these sudden epiphanies). Yet insight and non insight solutions are phenomenologically and neurally distinct processes.”

White matter acts as the communication infrastructure of the brain, transmitting signals between distant regions. To examine this structure, the researchers employed a technique called Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI). This method tracks the movement of water molecules within brain tissue.

“We wanted to know whether stable white matter microstructure — the brain’s anatomical wiring — differs depending on whether someone tends to solve problems through sudden insight or through deliberate step-by-step reasoning (non insight solutions),” Salvi and Luchini explained. “Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) allowed us to examine this structural dimension directly.”…

… The findings offered a counterintuitive perspective on brain connectivity. The analysis revealed that participants who solved more problems via insight exhibited lower fractional anisotropy in the left hemisphere’s dorsal language network. This network includes the arcuate fasciculus and the superior longitudinal fasciculus, pathways that connect brain regions responsible for language production, comprehension, and semantic processing.

“One striking finding was that people who more frequently experienced insight showed lower fractional anisotropy in specific left-hemisphere dorsal language pathways, including parts of the arcuate fasciculus and superior longitudinal fasciculus,” Salvi and Luchini told PsyPost.

“At first glance, that might sound counterintuitive. Fractional anisotropy is often interpreted as reflecting the coherence or organization of white matter pathways. In many cognitive domains, higher fractional anisotropy is associated with better performance.”

“But insight may operate differently. The left hemisphere is typically involved in focused, fine-grained semantic processing — narrowing in on dominant interpretations of words and concepts. The right hemisphere, by contrast, is thought to support broader, ‘coarse’ semantic coding — integrating more distantly related ideas. Slightly lower fractional anisotropy in left dorsal language pathways may reflect a system that is less tightly constrained by dominant interpretations.

“In other words, it may allow a partial ‘release’ from habitual patterns of thought and it is in line with other studies where lesions in the left frontotemporal regions have been shown to increase artistic creativity,” Salvi and Luchini continued. “Taken together, these findings imply that left hemispheric regions play a regulatory role in creativity and that their disruption lifts this constraint, thus promoting novel ideas.”…

This somehow makes your correspondent feel better about his messy desk…

More at: “Neuroscientists identify a unique feature in the brain’s wiring that predicts sudden epiphanies,” from @psypost.bsky.social.

The journal paper: “The white matter of Aha! moments.”

* Archimedes (after one of his famous insights)

###

As we ruminate on revelation, we might recall that it was on this date in 1939 that the college fad of swallowing live goldfish began at Harvard: a freshman named Lothrop Withington, Jr., reportedly bragged to his friends that he had once eaten a live fish. They bet him 10 bucks he couldn’t do it again. Perhaps because he was running for Class President, he took the challenge…

The moment of truth came on March 3, within the hallowed halls of Harvard. Standing in front of a crowd of grinning classmates and at least one Boston reporter, Withington dropped an ill-fated 3-inch goldfish into his mouth, gave a couple chews and swallowed. “The scales,” he later remarked, “caught a bit on my throat as it went down.”

Soon the word spread to other colleges. Other students began to take up the challenge, swallowing more and more goldfish each time to top the last record. By the time students were downing dozens of live, wriggling goldfish to uphold their school’s honor, the Massachusetts legislature stepped in and passed a law to “preserve the fish from cruel and wanton consumption.” The U.S. Public Health Service began to issue warnings that the goldfish could pass tapeworms and disease to swallowers. Within a few months of its start, the fad died out.

– Source

source

Yes, but it’s an unpopular opinion 😬:

“Are We Chasing Language Hype Over Solving Real Problems?”, Dayvi Schuster (https://dayvster.com/blog/are-we-chasing-language-hype-over-solving-real-problems/).

Via HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45313211

#Rust #C #CoreUtils #Unix #Linux #RIIR #RESF #Hype #Fad #SoftwareEngineering

A quotation from Charles Mackay

Every age has its peculiar folly; some scheme, project, or phantasy into which it plunges, spurred on either by the love of gain, the necessity of excitement, or the mere force of imitation. Failing in these, it has some madness, to which it is goaded by political or religious causes, or both combined.

Charles Mackay (1814-1889) Scottish poet, journalist, song writer
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, “The Crusades” (1841)

More info about this quote: wist.info/mackay-charles/78827…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #charlesmackay #craziness #delusion #era #fad #frenzy #history #humannature #madness #masshysteria #masses #craze

What Can You Do With Discarded Fish Aggregation Devices - Often we bring you projects at the end of their trajectory so that you can marvel ... - https://hackaday.com/2023/04/13/what-can-you-do-with-discarded-fish-aggregation-devices/ #echosounder #teardown #iridium #buoy #fad

#Okay, I never realised #ok had such a disputed list of proposed #etymologies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK#Proposed_etymologies

Seems the three most accepted ones are:
— early #Boston #fad of intentional #misspellings ('Oll Korrekt' and its predecessor OW, 'Oll Wright'), combined with a presidential campaign by #MartinVanBuren, whose nickname was #OldKinderhook.

— Derived from words used by #Choctaw (#Chahta) and other #NativeAmerican people, such as 'okeh' or 'hoke'.

— #WestAfrican 'waw-kay', or 'o ke'.

#etymology