Blessing Akpan
Bio
I am a photographer of thoughts, let me capture your soul.
Stories (24/0)
The Phantom Barber of Pascagoula
There were some creepy occurrences that took place in Pascagoula three years into World War Two in the summer of 1942. It was a bit of a lurker of the nights. But thankfully, there were no throats cut. There were no people smothered with pillows where they slept, but they were some non-consensual haircuts afoot.
By Blessing Akpan2 years ago in Horror
You Would Probably Remember a Story Than a Statistic
This is true but there are some caveats, I think there are some people for whom data, statistics, theory, etc., do stick to their brains better than stories. It’s not as extreme as forgetting a story, rather preferential.
By Blessing Akpan3 years ago in FYI
The Presidential Dinner That Scandalized America
Today’s article involves one of the most famous presidents in US history, President Theodore Roosevelt. He was known for shaking things up and kind of making his own way. In 1901, he did something that wouldn’t seem too controversial to us today. Certainly not. He had someone over for dinner, you know. He’s the president at this time. He’s pretty busy in general. But because he’s the president of the United States, even the smallest of social decisions carry enormous weight in symbolism for the public. It’s not like you or I casually inviting a new friend or new coworker to have some lasagna or something. This is always going to be interpreted as a statement.
By Blessing Akpan3 years ago in FYI
What to Do When a Child Uses Hurtful Words
If you’ve noticed some negative shifts in your kid's behavior. They've probably also started using some really hurtful mean words. And some of them increase hitting and tantrums. You have definitely entered the power struggle stage. They’ve started saying things like I don’t like you and you’re mean and you’re not my friend. Sometimes they’ll even say I hope you die.
By Blessing Akpan3 years ago in Families
The Proper Way to Handle Criticism
When you say feedback makes you better, I believe in that more than I believe in just about anything on Earth. If you want to improve, you need really good feedback. But I would also say there are a lot of forms of feedback, including negative feedback that isn't really criticism that isn’t painful at all.
By Blessing Akpan3 years ago in Psyche
- Top Story - July 2021
The US Banned Sliced BreadTop Story - July 2021
People love food and wherever you go in the world, that’s one of the topics that you can easily talk to anyone about regardless of your cultural differences. Here in the United States, we’ve had a very old saying for a long time, which is the best thing since sliced bread.
By Blessing Akpan3 years ago in FYI
Does All Creativity Come From Pain?
Sigmund Freud introduced this term, ‘sublimating’. I don't mean changing from a solid to a gas without bothering to turn into a liquid along the way which is chemical sublimation. I’ll explain it further. In Freud’s essay On Narcissism, Freud writes, “Sublimation is a process that concerns object-libido and consists in the instinct directing itself toward an aim other than, and remote from, that of sexual satisfaction; in the process, the accent falls upon deflection from sexuality.” For example, in Freud’s Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood, he argues that da Vinici’s repressed homosexual desires drove his scientific and artistic research.
By Blessing Akpan3 years ago in Psyche
Is Life Precious Because It Is Infinite?
So not many people look forward to death, even if they’ve lived a long and satisfying life. So it would seem there’s a big appetite for the opposite of death or immortality and a lot of scientists are working on if not immortality, per se, at least extending life by many years. Isn’t life precious in large part because it is so finite? And if there were an avenue toward immortality, how desirable would you find that?
By Blessing Akpan3 years ago in Psyche
A Women-Led Movement That Banned Spitting In New York
If you lived in the early 20th century America, the leading cause of death in the country was not a heart attack, right? It wasn’t cardiac cardiovascular stuff. It wasn’t cancer. Instead, it was tuberculosis. Public health experts of the time were aware that spitting could function as a vector of contagion.
By Blessing Akpan3 years ago in Viva
The US Was Terrified of Tomatoes
People might love a pasta sauce, but they may hate the actual tomato. Historically, this is an echo of, at least in the US, our huge, weird relationship with tomatoes. It’s crazy that people don’t talk about it more often. I mean, I don’t know if anybody else had this misconception, but when I was quite young, I just kind of assumed tomatoes were Italian because I associated them with pasta sauce, but they’re not. They’re Mesoamerican. We have proof that the tomato was eaten in the Aztec culture as early as 700 AD.
By Blessing Akpan3 years ago in FYI
Better Pancakes in the Name of Science
Here’s a 100% whole wheat pancake recipe with a brilliant trick that makes it tastes as good as your favorite buttermilk pancake recipe. Early in the pandemic, when all-purpose flour was scarce, and all of us cooking at home were starting to get a lot more experimental and work with what we could get, whole grain flowers were much easier to find. You just had to know what to do with them. But this recipe and its trick have stuck with me ever since. And I think it’ll stick with you too.
By Blessing Akpan3 years ago in Lifehack