Miller-McCune:
“Two Cornell psychologists found we have two separate systems for memories, which helps explain how we can “remember” things that never happened.”
NY Times Dining & Wine:
Wine’s Pleasures: Are They All in Your Head? “… the book shows that what appeals to novice wine drinkers is significantly different from what appeals to wine experts ...” So, perhaps we’re better off ignoring the expert wine reviews and following our nose.
Why does everything suck?
I am so sick of “Social”. Oh, I agree. I agree so much I’m bashing my keyboard as I type this. As I’ve mentioned before, as a small business, I’m competing now with firms who wish to market ‘social networking’ to everyone and their unborn children ... whether it is appropriate for their audience demographic or not. Bloody waste of time for most. Apparently some feel I should be martyred for being a heretic ...
Science Mag:
“Anyone who dreams of a “classless society” may be disheartened by the results of a brain-scanning study reported today: Hierarchical awareness seems to be deeply embedded in the human brain, so much so that there are distinct circuits activated by concerns over social rank ...”
NY Times Fashion & Style:
New Math for Men: Subtract Just a Little Gray. Ah well ... just don’t do the comb-over.
The Economist:
Psychology: It pays to get inside your opponents’ heads rather than their hearts.
LA Times:
Does your brain have a mind of its own?
CNN:
Your blog can be group therapy. I think friends [whom one experiences face-to-face] are better therapy, personally.
Washington Post:
Walter Reed Tries Yoga to Counter PTSD.
Wired:
Want to Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm.
MeFi looks at …
photobombing. Strikes me as very ”Amelie."
SF New Mexican:
Governor appears in anti-DWI spots. To go off on a tangent, does anyone else think it is totally bizarre for a state to *announce* when they’re doing DWI checks? Even to the point of placing signs with flashing messages on major thoroughfares? It amazes me that they catch anyone ... yet there’s always a few dozen. I suppose preannouncing has a certain deterrent effect ... but how many more habitual drink-and-drivers would be caught and taken off the roads if the blitzes weren’t announced?
NY Times Research:
Memory Training Shown to Turn Up Brainpower. So, play Concentration.
Times Online.UK:
Adopted children: sometimes you can’t mend them. I’m surprised it’s only a third. I think it’s more prevalent, in degrees of severity.
NY Times Science:
Does language shape what we perceive? Hah. Ever lived through an election season?
BBC:
“When Facebook came along I was one of the developers at the launch and what struck me was how there was this new form of persuasion. This mass interpersonal persuasion.”
Slate:
The Eligible Bachelor Paradox. “The woman picking among suitors is a rarely reversed archetype of romantic love that you’ll find everywhere from Jane Austen to Desperate Housewives.”
New Statesman
Gender and agendas. To believe that men and women are the ‘same’, is as blinkered as believing children are ‘small adults’. There are a host of wonderful complexities.
Wired Blog Network, Listening Post:
Guitarati Sees a Rainbow Where Others See Music Genres. Choose music to suit your mood by color.
CNN:
“You got a Facebook and it’s not on there, then it’s not official.” Underwhelmed, am I. What easier place to create a fictional character?
WSJ:
The Tao of Early Musical Success. How to prevent Charlotte Church Syndrome?
The Economist:
Anglo-Saxon attitudes: Not such special friends.
The New Yorker
tries to condense the complexities of the Dalai Lama into a page of journalistic prose. If you’ve ever tried to plow through the bland tome, “The Art of Happiness”, you’ll realize the Dalai Lama’s actual beliefs have barely been scratched by any Western authors. Honestly, I’d rather English-language transcripts of his discussions with Tibetan acolytes. Without the obsequious commentary you generally find in this section of the bookstore. America needs to recognize that he’s not ‘new-age’ ... but wisdom from much older Asian culture we don’t necessarily recognize or honor. Asian roots of Western civilization are little discussed in America.
Telegraph.co.UK:
”This takes an amazing amount of ultra-fast processing. Brains that do this are different from brains that don’t.”
There’s a time to talk, and there’s a time to do. Wise are they that know the difference.
Washington Post:
“Would you be willing, as a sign of compassion and empathy, to do the unthinkable and broadcast right now, as a Valentine to me, 20 seconds of blessed dead air?” If you’ve ever been a linkblogger, or ever aspired to be one, read this.
