Category: ideas

Researchers at the University of Montreal analyzed of sleepers’ dream logs. The distinction they settled on is that nightmares are bad enough to wake you up; and both their content and their associated emotions are different from those of mere bad dreams.

Er, is this a question underpaid arts professionals want to ask themselves in the morning? Well, maybe so.

“Basically, the idea is to mimic the biological structure of the human brain with software so that it can build machines that learn “organically” — that is, without human involvement.”

“‘The best lack all conviction,’ wrote the poet W. B. Yeats, ‘while the worst are full of passionate intensity.’ Turns out he wasn’t just describing Europe after World War I. He was describing any given Wednesday.”

America is a nation rooted in Apocalypse. The very foundation of the nation is tied to the End Times. Apocalypse is in America’s DNA.

“As with every new communication tool, scientific and practical questions abound. How is using an avatar different from typed chat alone? Do people maintain a sense of personal space when using digital avatars, or do they create new social norms?”

Supermarkets and one hospitality company dominate the food in France, and “in a recent survey, one-third of French restaurants acknowledged serving frozen products that they had simply reheated.”

“As the researchers predicted, inflated praise led children with low self-esteem to choose the less-challenging assignments. For children with high self-esteem, it had the opposite effect, increasing the likelihood they’d pick the more difficult task.”

South Korea’s Masan Robot Land in Incheon – “whose English motto is ‘Fun & Fantasy with Robot! – will celebrate science fiction cyborgs and androids while also promoting popular interest in the robotics industry and robot culture.”