Ramblings & ephemera
From Jonathan M. Gitlin’s “Does ideology trump facts? Studies say it often does” (Ars Technica: 24 September 2008):
We like to think that people will be well informed before making important decisions, such as who to vote for, but the truth is that’s not always the case. Being uninformed is one thing, but having a [...]
Posted on October 6th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: education, history, politics, science | No Comments »
From Lauren Davis’ “Delusion or Alien Invasion? Disorders That Make Life Seem Like Scifi” (io9: 27 September 2008):
Capgras Delusion: You believe a loved one has been replaced with an exact duplicate.
…
Reduplicative Paramnesia: You believe that a place or location has been moved to another site, or has been duplicated and exists in two places simultaneously.
…
Alien [...]
Posted on September 28th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: science, weird | No Comments »
From Oliver Sacks’ “The Case of Anna H.” (The New Yorker: 7 October 2002: 64):
I was reminded of a blind woman, a contemporary of Mozart and a most remarkable pianist, who, it is said, could no longer play after she regained some sight.
Related posts
After a stroke, he can write, but can’t read
Our eye seeks the [...]
Posted on April 20th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: art, history, security, weird | No Comments »
From Oliver Sacks’ “The Case of Anna H.” (The New Yorker: 7 October 2002: 64):
I recently received a letter from Howard Engel, a Canadian novelist, who told me that he had a somewhat similar problem following a stroke: “The area affected,” he relates, “was my ability to read. I can write, but I can’t read [...]
Posted on April 20th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: On Writing, science, weird | No Comments »
From Celeste Biever’s “Language may shape human thought” (New Scientist: 19 August 2004):
Language may shape human thought – suggests a counting study in a Brazilian tribe whose language does not define numbers above two.
Hunter-gatherers from the Pirahã tribe, whose language only contains words for the numbers one and two, were unable to reliably tell the difference [...]
Posted on April 20th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: science | No Comments »
From Steven Pinker’s “What the F***?” (The New Republic: 9 Octobert 2007):
The mammalian brain contains, among other things, the limbic system, an ancient network that regulates motivation and emotion, and the neocortex, the crinkled surface of the brain that ballooned in human evolution and which is the seat of perception, knowledge, reason, and planning. The [...]
Posted on April 19th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: science | No Comments »
From Robyn Williams’s “How to Keep Your Brain Young” (The Science Show: 24 September 2005):
Ian Robertson: Seven steps for keeping your brain functioning optimally when you’re older, but not just when you’re older but throughout life are: One, Aerobic fitness – amazing effects on the brain. Mental stimulation, both general mental stimulation and there are [...]
Posted on July 18th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Commonplace Book, science | Comments Off
From Bruce Schneier’s “Movie Plot Threat Contest: Status Report” (Crypto-Gram Newsletter: 15 May 2006):
In my book, Beyond Fear, I discussed five different tendencies people have to exaggerate risks: to believe that something is more risky than it actually is.
1. People exaggerate spectacular but rare risks and downplay common risks.
2. People have trouble estimating risks for [...]
Posted on June 19th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Commonplace Book, Technology, Wash U: Tech in Changing Society, Webster U: InfoSec Management, science, security | Comments Off
From Bruce Schneier’s “Airport Passenger Screening” (Crypto-Gram Newsletter: 15 April 2006):
It seems like every time someone tests airport security, airport security fails. In tests between November 2001 and February 2002, screeners missed 70 percent of knives, 30 percent of guns, and 60 percent of (fake) bombs. And recently, testers were able to smuggle bomb-making parts [...]
Posted on June 19th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Technology, Wash U: Tech in Changing Society, Webster U: InfoSec Management, law, science, security | Comments Off
From Daniel Brook’s “A History of Hard Time” (Legal Affairs: January/February 2003):
Dickens wasn’t the first European intellectual who had crossed the Atlantic to visit Eastern State Penitentiary. A decade earlier, Alexis de Tocqueville had been sent by the French government to study the Philadelphia prison. …
What drew the attention of Americans and Europeans was an [...]
Posted on May 31st, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history, law, science, security | Comments Off
From Damn Interesting’s “Feral Children“:
One of the more mysterious cases is that of Kaspar Hauser, who was discovered in Nuremberg, Germany in 1828. He was unsteady on his feet, held a letter for a man he had never met, and only spoke the phrase “I want to be a horseman like my father is.” The [...]
Posted on May 18th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Commonplace Book, Language & Literature, history, weird | Comments Off
From Mihaly Csiksczentmihalyi’s “Flow: The Psychology Of Optimal Experience“:
Pleasure by itself does not bring happiness. We can experience pleasure (e.g. eating, sleeping, sex) without an investment of psychic energy. Enjoyment on the other hand, happens only as a result of an unusual amount of attention. Pleasure is fleeting and, unlike enjoyment, does [...]
Posted on May 8th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Commonplace Book, education | Comments Off
From Stephen J. Dubner & Steven D. Levitt’s “A Star Is Made” (The New York Times):
Anders Ericsson, a 58-year-old psychology professor at Florida State University, … is the ringleader of what might be called the Expert Performance Movement, a loose coalition of scholars trying to answer an important and seemingly primordial question: When someone is [...]
Posted on May 8th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Commonplace Book, science | Comments Off
Pareidolia (from Greek para- amiss, faulty, wrong + eidolon, diminutive of eidos appearance, form) is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (usually an image) being mistakenly perceived as recognizable. Common examples include images of animals or faces in clouds, seeing the man in the moon, and hearing messages on records played in [...]
Posted on May 8th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Language & Literature, Word of the day | Comments Off
From “New form of superior memory syndrome found“:
Scientists at the University of California-Irvine have identified the first known case of a new, superior memory syndrome.
Researchers Elizabeth Parker, Larry Cahill and James McGaugh spent more than five years studying the case of “AJ,” a 40-year-old woman with incredibly strong memories of her personal past.
Given a date, [...]
Posted on March 28th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Commonplace Book, science | Comments Off
From “How to be an expert“:
Maybe the “naaturally talented artist” was simply the one who practiced a hell of a lot more. Or rather, a hell of a lot more deliberately. Dr. K. Anders Ericsson, professor of psychology at Florida State University, has spent most of his 20+ year career on the study of genuises, [...]
Posted on March 25th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Commonplace Book, business | Comments Off
From “Mental Health Association of Portland“:
Over 3,500 copper canisters like these hold the cremated remains of patients of the Oregon State Hospital that went unclaimed by their families and friends. They sit on shelves in an abandoned building on the grounds of the Oregon State Hospital. They symbolize the loneliness, isolation, shame and despair [...]
Posted on March 25th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Commonplace Book, Writing Ideas, weird | Comments Off
From “Man recites pi from memory to 83,431 places“:
A Japanese psychiatric counselor has recited pi to 83,431 decimal places from memory, breaking his own personal best of 54,000 digits and setting an unofficial world record, a media report said Saturday.
Akira Haraguchi, 59, had begun his attempt to recall the value of pi - a mathematical [...]
Posted on March 4th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Cool Stuff, science | Comments Off
From “Vietnam man handles three decades without sleep“:
Sixty-four-year-old Thai Ngoc, known as Hai Ngoc, said he could not sleep at night after getting a fever in 1973, and has counted infinite numbers of sheep during more than 11,700 consecutive sleepless nights.
“I don’t know whether the insomnia has impacted my health or not. But I’m still [...]
Posted on February 20th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Commonplace Book, science | Comments Off
From Dave Munger’s “Why do we forget our childhood?“:
… [Freud] did discover an important phenomenon which continues to be investigated today. Freud noted that adults do not remember childhood events occurring before they were as old as six. This period of childhood amnesia is now generally believed to end at about age three or four. [...]
Posted on February 8th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: Commonplace Book, science | Comments Off