JovialJman - The Truth About Spongebob

"The Truth About Spongebob" Because TCSA must do it's part to continue the tradition of media sensationalism. - OddballGreg. (Image is from http://spongebob.wikia.com/wiki/Thread:104210 and TCSA is in no way related to or sponsored by Spongebob or Nickelodeon.)

Have you ever wondered if the cartons you and/or your children are watching might have a deeper meaning, or be an allegory for something else? There are always theories about such things with all cartoons, but lets talk about Spongebob Squarepants today.

Spongebob Squarepants has been one of my favorite cartoons of all time, for a long time. The humor in it can still tickle the fancy of the oldest (possibly immature) person. I still enjoy watching it to this day. Watching it yesterday reminded me about a discussion I had with someone in the past, (I strangely don't remember who it was though.), where we were trying to determine if Spongebob was actually an allegory for the 7 deadly sins.

7 deadly sins meme. Because blue and obviously a slow colour, and blood is red. Even colors can be stereotypical.

It can be said that each of the main characters in Spongebob Squarepants is a representation of one of the biblical 7 deadly sins, of which in the cartoon they are:

• Spongebob- LUST. Not in the traditional sex meaning but rather for the love of others.
  "He shows his love of others with his overeagerness to do good and help people. If anything is true about SpongeBob its that he loves everyone around him, even if they don't exactly love him back." - www.toonzone.net This can be seen when he tries to play with Squidward in most episodes. 
• Patrick- SLOTH. Well this one is rather self explanatory if you know the show, as Patrick is always slow and lazy. I remember there was even an episode where he tried doing "absolutely nothing".
• Gary the Snail - GLUTTONOUS. This one would need a fair knowledge of the series, but you may notice that Gary often wants to be fed in most episodes, Spongebob tries to remind himself to feed Gary frequently and he even ran away in the one episode that he was not fed. (Albeit to Patrick.)
• Squidward- WRATH/ANGER. Squidward fits this one to a T. He is always angry, shouting and he dislikes Spongebob greatly.
• Sandy the Squirrel- PRIDE/VANITY. Sandy is always saying she is proud of where she comes from and that she can do many things that others cannot since she is the only land mammal under water. (because **** logic) 
• Plankton- Envy. Plankton is always trying to get that Crabby formula and wishes it was his. This causes Plankton to do many a stunt to try and get the recipe.
• Mr Crabs- Greed, There's a fair bit you could say about Mr Crabs for greed, but the image below effectively sums it up.

"Crab who can magically make his eyes into dollar symbols? Yeap, that seems fairly accurate." - OddballGreg

There has been a scientific study that has shown that the fast paced cartoon Spongebob may decrease the attention span and concentration levels of pre-schoolers. So is it "killing their brains". (According to Gizmodo.) This may not just be Spongebob and the attention span of preschoolers is a hard thing to determine as it is all over the place to start with, so the credibility of such a study, like many, is questionable.

Now there are many other theories about so many things on the internet, and if there is content of it on the internet, there is a most likely a way to link it to the illuminati. (Whatever that is.) I think that there may or may not be a link between the 7 Sins and Spongebob but either way it is still a rather strange coincidence.

If you have an opinion on Spongebob, the 7 deadly sins or the Secret group, (sssssh, we don't talk about them.), please share it with us in the comments down below or via Facebook/Twitter. If you have any friends who are a fan of cartoons or like reading conspiracy theories for laughs, please share it with them. Of course, you found today's post thought provoking or amusing, do be sure to please like our Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter to get the latest posts as they go up.

Also, Sorry about all the links, I am a little link crazy. (Just not as crazy as crazy dave.)

See you later, alligators.

OddballGreg - Circadian Rhythms

This picture makes about as much sense as my own circadian rhythm does these days. Still, head with a clock seemed fitting strangely.

If you've ever pulled an all nighter writing some horrific report while some weird person does their best to keep you awake, or decided that playing video games until 5AM was a good idea; then it is likely that you know the consequences of not holding to a regular sleep cycle. Lets talk about Circadian Rhythms and why they're important.

As always, some fantastic, scientifically minded individual on YouTube has done some manner of discussion with regards to the subject. Hooray. Below is a video by YouTube's very own Hank Green as he does a SciShow video on what the Circadian Rhythm is and why it's important. As always, Hank Green's demeanor in itself makes the scientific talk a fair bit more entertaining to listen to.

In the event that you couldn't be bothered anyway, the Circadian Rhythm is essentially the body's internal clock by which it regulates your need for sleep. It's also rather inherently linked with things like metabolism and energy levels. (And as such, it's kind've a bad idea to screw with it since they've linked it's disruptions with everything from obesity to diabetes and various other issues like a depression and dementia.)

So why is this interesting? For a couple of reasons really. Firstly, you've probably figured that humans don't exactly hold to their Circadian Rhythms very much. Pilots suffer from Jet Lag, Night Owls end up looking like the walking dead and I just suffer from general exhaustion. (Which is why I've yet to put up a blog post before 12PM. It's really hard getting up early when you were up until 2 making changes to a blog. Beats being a plumber though I guess.) Somehow, despite our incessant need to disregard the rhythm, our bodies manage to adapt to our lifestyles.

A little known fact is that humans are the only creatures in nature that exhibit the nature of sleeping only once each day. As stated in the earlier video, there is actually a period during the day around 2 to 4PM where chemicals in the body would make sleeping easier to do. Apart from that, there is a fair bit of evidence suggesting that taking a midday nap could be beneficial to ones well being. (And my teachers always complained that I was wasting my time when I slept in class. Teehee)

However, more interestingly, disregarding the fact that it might not be super good for you in terms of your metabolism, there are actually more efficient sleep cycles that a person can adopt with a bit of work that will allow them to reduce the total amount of time they sleep. Most humans keep to the earlier mentioned once a day sleep cycle which usually involves about 8 hours of sleep each time. (And yet we all still feel like train wrecks afterwards anyway.)

The interesting things about it is that of those 8 hours, it is only the last 2 or so hours that are technically restful for the body, due to the body having multiple phases of sleep that it goes through. The most restful phase, known as REM or Rapid Eye Movement sleep, takes place in those last hours and is also the phase in which one dreams. (That's why those good dreams are always getting interrupted by alarm clocks or yelling mothers depending on your age. *facedesk*)

What's fun about that though, is if you've ever been exhausted, you might have noticed you fall into a deep sleep rather quickly. So the idea behind changing your sleep rhythms is to exhaust yourself to the point that you fall straight into deep sleep at regular intervals. If I am not mistaken, you can have as little as 2 hours of sleep by doing this and still be as rested as you would normally be on 8. The tradeoff being that these altered sleep cycles have to be rigorously held to in order to be effective. The 2 hours cycle requires 30 minutes of sleep at the exact same time each day to prevent exhaustion. There are slightly more malleable systems involving less sleep periods of greater lengths, but more than 4 periods begins to see diminishing returns as far as I am aware. 

Still, considering how much work I put into the maintenance of this blog, I don't have time to exhaust myself. Feel free to try it yourself though. If you do, be sure to let us know how it went in the comments below or via Facebook or Twitter. And of course, if you have any friends that enjoy psychologically minded articles or facts, be sure to share this article with them, I'm sure they'll appreciate it. Also, if you would like to read more interesting articles like this, (written by yours truly), do be sure to like the official TCSA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left. Regardless of what you do however, I thank you for having taken the time to read this article; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Sleep well my friends.