Category: ideas

“Oshin Vartanian of the University of Toronto and Peter Suedfeld of the University of British Columbia report floating in an Epsom salt solution one hour per week for four weeks boosted the technical ability of a group of college music students. This suggests such periods of minimal sensory stimulation can improve performers’ perceptual-motor coordination.”

“Why are such apocalyptic prophecies so common in human history? What are their emotional and cognitive underpinnings?”

“The collection of snapshots known as ‘autobiographical memory’ is not a true and accurate record of your past – it is more like a jumble of old diary entries, photographs and newspaper clippings. … In other words, one of the most important components of your self-identity – your autobiographical memory – is little more than an illusion.”

“These ‘historians of neuroanatomy’ (yes, there is such a profession, and we should be grateful for it) reviewed a very old, circuitous medical literature and found that the human brain was once described as comprising its very own vulva, penis, testicles, buttocks, and even an anus. In fact, part of the cerebrum is still named in honor of long-forgotten whores.”

“Data is becoming more and more pervasive in our society. Making sense of this information is becoming more important and, at the same time more difficult to present in relevant and useful ways.”

“Your senses are your windows on the world, and you probably think they do a fair job at capturing an accurate depiction of reality. Don’t kid yourself. Sensory perception – especially vision – is a figment of your imagination.”

In a new book, “a cognitive scientist, a philosopher, and a psychologist set out to discover a grand unified theory of humor. In developing [their] view, the authors considered – but ultimately had to discard – some long-cherished theories. Here, they present five such hypotheses – plus the jokes that demonstrate that they don’t hold water.”

“With some assembly and do-it-yourself tinkering, the MakerBot makes, or ‘prints,’ three-dimensional objects from molten plastic, creating a piggy bank, say, or a Darth Vader head from a computer design at the touch of a button.”

“Some uncomfortable truths: Disclosure doesn’t solve problems the way we think it does, and in fact it can actually backfire. Coming clean about conflicts of interest, they find, can promote less ethical behavior by advisers.”

Terry Teachout: “Part of the ‘problem,’ after all, turns out to be that Americans have gotten smarter, or at least quicker on the uptake. … I do think that our impatient age might just be getting the best out of a great many artists and thinkers who, left to their own devices, would never have learned how to cut to the chase.”