Longtime readers of this blog may remember that I wrote a book some time ago. What happened to it is something I’ve only alluded to a few times. Suffice to […]
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There are so many great articles in the July/August issue of The Atlantic that I could pretty much blog on it alone for the rest of year. But the most […]
IBM computer engineers are making progress toward a cognitive computational model by combining our current knowledge of neuroscience, supercomputing and nanotechnology.
What evolution and computer science have taught us is that comprehension is not required for competence. Similarly, the human mind may not be so mysterious as is often thought.
Facebook stocks are tanking, for now. Its membership growth is outstripping its revenue growth. And they keep changing the damned interface. What’s a social network organizer to do? Watching the […]
By using magnetic fields to disrupt local brain regions, scientists have recreated the kinds of distractions that happen in daily life. It turns out these distractions greatly color our perceptions.
In the aftermath of the House Oversight committee vote to hold United States Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, I’ve been pretty dejected these last couple of days. […]
Human behavior does not follow strict cost-benefit analyses, especially when it comes to being honest. Psychologist Dan Ariely explains the more complex rules individuals follow.
To live in society, we must predict how other people will make decisions. Japanese scientists are beginning to reveal how the brain does that, potentially improving our social systems.
I just finished reading “Leading technology-rich schools: Award-winning models for success” written by Barbara B. Levin and Lynne Schrum. This is a great book for those wanting concrete examples of […]
Today’s “visiting professor” Walter Mosley teaches us that failure is an important part of success. Failure demonstrates our willingness to take risks. But what else does failure tell us? What […]
Trying and failing is much more interesting that playing it safe and consistently succeeding.
How does meditation do the job many pay thousands for therapists to do? It is the question researchers and scientists are still trying to find the answer to; however, one study helps to shed some light on the subject.
Based on a study in one of the countries where soap is limited, scientists discovered that by applying the right technique when washing hands a person can eliminate bacteria using only water.
“Self-plagiarism” is the grandiose new term for the re-use of one’s own words in several journalistic articles, for which Jonah Lehrer became famous last week. Lehrer’s problems then expanded to […]
Breakthrough ideas don’t happen overnight. Origins of Species was published in 1859, 28 years after Darwin first boarded HMS Beagle;James Joyce spent seventeen years writing Finnegans Wake;and when Edison filed […]
Professional demands in the US typically require women to sacrifice familial responsibilities, but women should not have to choose between the two, says Anne-Marie Slaughter.
David Eagleman says he grew up dreaming of having a robot companion like C-3PO, but all he got was the Roomba vacuum cleaner. Why has the field of artificial intelligence progressed so slowly?
I wanted to highlight three different pieces on Yemen that have been published in the last couple of days, mostly because they are written by a trio of bright individuals […]
Every morning I wake up with resentment about the fact that I have to shave my damn face. The ideas that grew gnarled and twisted in my mind by the […]
Soccer, or football as it’s known to the rest of the world, is truly a universal sport. Its popularity spans genders and continents, and in terms of equipment, it also has the lowest barrier to entry.
Stress has always had a bad rap because of its effect on a person’s health, but according to a recent study stress isn’t so bad at all. Scientists explain how stress can actually boost the immune system.
A new generation of college graduates has been had by the American higher education system, which insists on costly degree programs to justify its corrupting influence on society.
The modern man supposedly sympathetic to feminist goals in the Nice Guy, who defines himself according to his liberal values. But it’s just more patriarchy in disguise, says Eva Wiseman.
People who live alone and/or feel alone have a higher possibility of disability or early death, according to new studies.
The supposed luxury of cheap fashion becomes less glamorous when you realize you’ve been dressed in rags by a corporate business model that emphasizes quantity over quality.
Researchers from Glasgow University say that men who drink tea could have a higher risk of prostate cancer than men who don’t drink tea.
A new Pew poll, and the global perception captured in the chart below, leads Ali Wyne, a fellow Big Thinker, to inquire in an interesting post about the meaning of the idea, […]
“We are stardust. We are golden. We are billion year old carbon. And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden,” sang Joni Mitchell in her song “Woodstock.” Every […]
If you ask anyone who knows me, I like to think they’d tell you that I’m a generally optimistic and cheerful person. But these past few weeks, I’ve felt like […]