Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Pinker (2007) on the decline of violence



Fights the common misconception that the world is getting more violent.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Science Education Cruise

In the back of a Scientific American Mind issue I saw an ad for a cruise.  At first I thought it  was just another cruise, but then I saw that it had all these science lectures!


The psychology ones are by Lera Boroditsky, whose work I love.   

I still don't think a cruise is worth the money, but this one seems a step up from the others. 

Percussion Busking



These awesome kids were busking at West Fest during the summer of 2008. I enjoyed them very much, and took this short video on my phone (Palm Treo 650).

Sunday, September 28, 2008

great quote about evolution

[87] "...Darwin's "laws" do not encapsulate the transformations of life in quite the same way that Newton's laws capture the motion of objects. They render evolution intelligible, but not predictable or reducible. That is, to understand the evolution of any single organism, the sparse outline provided by Darwin's model must be filled in with long passages of peculiarities-- details of the organism, its development, its mutations, its ecology, the events that befell its ancestors. Only then does the simple, universal model cast any light on any particular organism. And only when the laws serve to elucidate the organism does a study of the organism reveal the action and significance of the laws."


Aaron E. Hirsh (2004). Signs of Life. The Best American Science Writing 2004. By D. Sobel & J. Cohen (Eds.). HarperCollins Publishers. 79--88.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Google is so NICE!

Rivals Yahoo! and Google might be forming a partnership.

one of the reasons is so cute...

"Brin also said Google felt obligated to help Yahoo because its co-founders, Jerry Yang and David Filo, played an instrumental role in persuading Brin and his partner, Larry Page, to turn Google into a company 10 years ago."

Awwww!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Flea Market Montgomery



Ad for an Alabama store. Perfect for people who want to shop somewhere that is just like a mini-mall.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Great Quote About Creating Art

"Media: Never ever consume it. Always create it. It's important to push out. Not take in. It's a matter of survival. There are two kinds of people in the world: artists and marks."
- Terrence McKenna

The Room



Entertaining animation.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Thursday, August 7, 2008

The Crackpot Index

How to tell how much of a crackpot you are! It's made for physics. I should make one for cognitive science.

I would have reposted it here, but it's copyrighted, so you'll have to follow the link:

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/crackpot.html

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

A Great Description of Freudian Psychology

Dennis, Wendy (2005). Why Psychoanalysis Matters. The Walrus, September, 2005, pp 36--45.

I love how this article describes Freudian psychology:

"As Freud saw it, we basically spend our lives unconsciously replaying a tired old script memorized in childhood through endless rehearsals with our parents and siblings. We leave home but we never really move on. We just take the show on the road, casting everyone we meet in supporting roles while we play the part of Macaulay Culkin."

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Julie Taymor on Theater



Julie Taymor is one of my heroes. If you are a lover of film and don't really understand why theater is special, or think that film is always better, I strongly encourage you to watch this video. The things she says at the end are the most important. The video is about half an hour long.

I think the reason most people don't like theater is because they see theater done badly. Trying to imitate movies on the stage is one of the sins against theater that she makes very clear in this talk.

http://blog.ted.com/2008/06/julie_taymor_on.php

Friday, June 13, 2008

Great Animation Illustrating False Memory

An animation based on an excellent episode of "This American Life," a podcast I listen to and highly recommend.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

A Great Quote from Matt Ridley

The fuel on which science runs is ignorance. Science is like a hungry furnace that must be fed logs from the forests of ignorance that surround us. In the process, the clearing we call knowledge expands, but the more it expands, the longer its perimeter and the more ignorance comes into view.


From Ridley, M. (1999) Genome. The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters. HarperCollins.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Brown has a great Cognitive Science website splash page

http://www.cog.brown.edu/

If you don't see the Rubik's cube, you're seeing a different design than I was intending you to see.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Werner Herzog

Man man Daniel Saunders turned me on to this guy. He's interesting, unintentionally funny, and very quotable.

Herzog on the Jungle:


As my girl Alison Way says, "Nature. Why must you always be so obscene?"

For those of you who just can't get enough:

Herzog on Vegetarianism:


Herzog on erotic stupidities and stupid stupidities:

Cup Stacking

I wonder if new sports will appear more and more often as the world accelerates.

Cute Siamese Cat WILL NOT come in!



Thanks to my girl Katharine Anderson-Davila for pointing this out.