"The Martian" Tops 100,000 Ratings on Audible.com

Podium Publishing's audiobook version of Andy Weir's novel "The Martian" has surpassed 100,000 ratings on Amazon's Audible.com, affirming it as one of the most beloved audiobooks ever produced. The Ridley Scott-directed film adaptation starring Matt Damon is nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. (PRNewsFoto/Podium Publishing)

Audiobook published by Podium Publishing achieves monumental milestone

"The Martian" is one of the year's most popular films, garnering seven Oscar nominations, two Golden Globes, and a whopping $599 million at the global box office.

Now, the thrilling space adventure has reached another milestone: 100,000 fan ratings on Audible.com, affirming it as one of the most beloved audiobooks ever.

The Seducer's Diary: How A 19th Century Philosopher Anticipated The Pick Up Artist Movement

Daryush Valizadeh. Bartek Kucharczyk-Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

By Patrick Stokes, Deakin University

Barely a year after Julian Blanc was denied a visa to Australia, the outcry over Daryush Valizadeh’s planned visit and cancelled meetings has once again drawn media attention on the global “Pick Up Artist” (PUA) movement.

Valizadeh, aka “Roosh V.” is one of the more visible PUA figures, and one of the most overtly sexist. He’s written a series of books on how to sleep with women in various countries such as Brazil, (“Poor favela chicks are very easy, but quality is a serious problem”) but advises his readers to avoid Denmark as Nordic social democracy has made Danish women too independent. He cites Arthur Schopenhauer to argue that women are less rational than men and so should be controlled by them. He insists “no” usually doesn’t mean no, and anyway women should understand that men just can’t stop themselves (so much for all that rational decision making…).

And here’s the kicker: he has proposed legalising rape on private property. If Valizadeh meant that to be some sort of tongue-in-cheek Swiftian parody, it’s not a particularly good one, and given the context I’m disinclined to give him the benefit of Poe’s Law.

Other PUAs might insist they don’t go quite that far. But all belong to a movement that presents itself as ‘empowering’ men by giving them tools and techniques (often plainly abusive ones) to manipulate women into bed. It reduces women to sites for the agency of men, mere mechanisms for producing sex and comfort.

On one level the PUA pathology is easy enough to diagnose: it’s just misogyny organised into a self-reinforcing club. It is men who have lost undeserved power – in particular, access to and control of women’s bodies – interpreting this loss as subjection.

PUAs and their “Men’s Rights Activists” (MRA) brethren will, of course, vociferously reject that claim. To do so, they’ll make various appeals: to history, to biological essentialism, to weirdly cherry-picked factoids (“women can’t really be oppressed because men die in workplace accidents more!”). All of it, however, amounts to little more than obvious figleaves for a desire to reclaim power over women.

Who Will Donald Trump Attack Next? Boom Fantasy Brings Live Fantasy Format to Republican Debate

Boom Fantasy will bring its unique live fantasy format to the political arena on Saturday, February 6th at 8 pm ET for the Republican Debate on ABC News. (PRNewsFoto/Boom Fantasy)

Trump vs. Cruz. Bush vs. irrelevance. Rubio vs. his insatiable thirst for water. If you thought the last few debates were fun, brace yourself. Saturday night will be like no other, as staunch conservatives and bleeding-heart liberals alike can be a part of the ABC News Republican debate by predicting what will happen next on Boom Fantasy, the live fantasy sports leader.

Four Key Takeaways From The Iowa Caucuses

Bernie Sanders at his caucus night rally in Des Moines, Iowa. Reuters/Rick Wilking

By Anthony J. Gaughan, Drake University

The Iowa caucuses have a long history of upending the conventional wisdom and Monday night was no exception.

The biggest surprises came on the Republican side. The final polls over the weekend predicted victory for Donald Trump and showed Ted Cruz losing support in Iowa.

But that’s not what happened. Cruz won the GOP caucuses with 28% of the vote, followed by Trump with 24%, Marco Rubio with 23%, and Ben Carson with 9%.

Meanwhile, in the Democratic caucuses, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders finished in what was essentially a tie.

So what does it all mean?

The Next Chapter: Seeking the Stories of Refugees in Europe

Syrian and Libyan refugees crowd on a boat off the Libyan coast, prior to being rescued by an Italian naval frigate. (PRNewsFoto/InterAction)

InterAction Interviews Photographer Behind the "Where Are You?" Project

When Italian photographer Massimo Sestini captured an image during the Mare Nostrum rescue operation in 2014, he didn't know it would go viral. After realizing the impact the photo had on viewers, Sestini began the "Where Are You?" project to raise awareness and find out what became of the hopeful faces captured in the image.

Sestini agreed to a Q&A with InterAction Blog Editor Sarah Siguenza to explain how he captured the photo and what he has learned in the time since. In advance of the "Supporting Syria and the Region" conference convening in London, InterAction has released an excerpt of the conversation:

Why Would Anyone Believe The Earth Is Flat?

The Earth as seen from space – looks curved from up there. 
Flickr/NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, CC BY-NC

By Peter Ellerton, The University of Queensland

Belief in a flat Earth seems a bit like the attempt to eradicate polio – just when you think it’s gone, a pocket of resistance appears. But the “flat Earthers” have always been with us; it’s just that they usually operate under the radar of public awareness.

Now the rapper B.o.B has given the idea prominence through his tweets and the release of his single Flatline, in which he not only says the Earth is flat, but mixes in a slew of other weird and wonderful ideas.

These include the notions that the world is controlled by lizard people, that certain celebrities are cloned, that Freemasons manipulate our lives, that the sun revolves around the Earth and that the Illuminati control the new world order. Not bad for one song.

Even ignoring that these ideas are inconsistent (are we run by lizards, the Freemansons or the Illuminati?), what would inspire such a plethora of delusions? The answer is both straightforward, in that it is reasonably clear in psychological terms, and problematic, in that it can be hard to fix.