Category: ideas

Basically, what you don’t know when speaking a second language is as important as what you do know. “Weirdly, not needing to exhaustively know everything lets you learn more.”

“When it comes to evaluating information – and separating the real from the bullshit – kids aren’t that different from adults. .. [So why do] kids still happily wait on line to sit on a jolly guy’s lap and throw their energy into composing letters to the North Pole? The answer: Because we tell them it’s worth their while.”

The list of “immersive” events on any given day is extensive. Why? “Immersive events carry the promise of intimacy and interactivity, of a unique experience, of relevance with youthful audiences who increasingly yearn to participate in their art experience rather than view it from afar. “

It wasn’t so long ago that the dread accusation of anthropomorphism could sink scientific careers. (Even Jane Goodall got scolded for giving the primates she studied names.) Why? Because of the nature of the scientific method itself.

“Psychologists have described awe as the experience of encountering something so vast—in size, skill, beauty, intensity, etc.—that we struggle to comprehend it. A waterfall might inspire awe; so could childbirth, or a scene of devastation.”

“Since the brain estimates the passage of time by how much information is stored within a given interval, richer memories make it feel like more time has passed. What’s neat is that this explanation sheds light on other ways that time can feel bendy to us, on all different sorts of scales. For instance, if you look up at a clock on the wall, you’ll notice that as you first look at it, the second hand seems to be frozen in place, then after a moment proceeds to move normally. That’s because the brain pays more attention to new stimuli.”

“Rather than focus on the gory details of how the world might end, post-apocalyptic art casts its gaze upon the reality of the world that follows catastrophe and persists without human beings, as nature gradually reasserts itself over the architectural remnants of society. The emerging genre is not without its critics, and many practitioners remain uncertain or divided about what affect — if any — such post-apocalyptic imagery might have on its audiences. But as issues like deindustrialization and climate change rattle the globe, these artists are popularizing the forgotten or unseen places that are already being affected — and potentially mobilizing their massive online audiences to seek solutions.”

“It became more real: This good man was in fact going to be our president. He was going to call other presidents and be in charge. So if you ask me what I remember most from that day? The sunlight; my wife’s small brown hand in my own; the feeling that from this moment, our history could be amended, our Union made more perfect, our lives more free.

*

Now we are here.”

The New Orleans museum has thousands and thousands of hours of video and audio histories from veterans, and the six historians responsible for putting it all online are also responsible for taking as many oral histories of the last remaining veterans – and they’re doing it all as fast as they can.