The Cato Hypocrisy. I have long held that the greatest tragedy, among countless misfortunes that recur in the long and agonizing human story, is not when evil triumphs over good, or when oppression overcomes freedom, or even the wretched loss of ten billion potential might-have-beens.
No, the most devastating defect in our character -- a trait that held us down ever since the caves -- is the very same twist in our natures that makes us such fine storytellers. I am talking about our incredible penchant for -- and creativity at -- self delusion and rationalization. The lengths that we all go to, in order to convince ourselves that we are the smart ones, virtuous and right... often in complete denial of blatant evidence to the contrary. It is the one magical act that all of us can easily perform, at near genius level.
UW study shows direct brain interface between humans. November 5, 2014 Sometimes, words just complicate things.
What if our brains could communicate directly with each other, bypassing the need for language? Dr. Gabor Maté ~ Who We Are When We Are Not Addicted: The Possible Human. What (mass)consumentism does to the human psyche? Top five regrets of the dying. There was no mention of more sex or bungee jumps.
A palliative nurse who has counselled the dying in their last days has revealed the most common regrets we have at the end of our lives. And among the top, from men in particular, is 'I wish I hadn't worked so hard'. Joss Whedon '87 - Wesleyan University Commencement Speech - Official. The Science of Willpower: KellyMcGonigal at TEDxBayArea. Sam Harris on free will. Conversations on Compassion: Eckhart Tolle, spiritual teacher and author. Men and women literally see the world differently. Guys' eyes are more sensitive to small details and moving objects, while women are more perceptive to color changes, according to a new vision study that suggests men and women actually do see things differently.
"As with other senses, such as hearing and the olfactory system, there are marked sex differences in vision between men and women," researcher Israel Abramov, of the City University of New York (CUNY), said in a statement. Research has shown women have more sensitive ears and sniffers than men. "[A] recent, large review of the literature concluded that, in most cases females had better sensitivity, and discriminated and categorized odors better than males," Abramov and colleagues write Tuesday (Sept. 4) in the journal Biology of Sex Differences.
Abramov and his team from CUNY's Brooklyn and Hunter Colleges compared the vision of males and females over age 16 who had normal color vision and 20/20 sight — or at least 20/20 vision with glasses or contacts. The great illusion of the self. (Image: Darren Hopes) As you wake up each morning, hazy and disoriented, you gradually become aware of the rustling of the sheets, sense their texture and squint at the light.
One aspect of your self has reassembled: the first-person observer of reality, inhabiting a human body. Three Huge Mistakes We Make Leading Kids…and How to Correct Them. Recently, I read about a father, Paul Wallich, who built a camera-mounted drone helicopter to follow his grade-school-aged son to the bus stop.
He wants to make sure his son arrives at the bus stop safe and sound. There’s no doubt the gizmo provides an awesome show-and-tell contribution. Ken Robinson and Eckhart Tolle on finding your element. What makes a hero? - Matthew Winkler. New Theory on Why Men Love Breasts. Why do straight men devote so much headspace to those big, bulbous bags of fat drooping from women's chests?
You Won’t Stay the Same, Study Finds. Ben Thomas: We're Pretty Much All Tripping, All the Time. TED and The Huffington Post are excited to bring you TEDWeekends, a curated weekend program that introduces a powerful "idea worth spreading" every Friday, anchored in an exceptional TEDTalk.
This week's TEDTalk is accompanied by an original blog post from the featured speaker, along with new op-eds, thoughts and responses from the HuffPost community. Watch the talk above, read the blog post and tell us your thoughts below. Become part of the conversation! Looting after Hurricane Sandy: Disaster myths and disaster utopias explained. Photograph by Mehdi Taamallah/AFP/Getty Images.
On Thursday, three days after Hurricane Sandy swept across the Eastern Seaboard, darkening power grids, flooding neighborhoods, and killing at least 74 people, former Star Trek actor and social-media dynamo George Takei posted a lovely photo to his Facebook timeline. It showed two power strips draped over the gratework of a fence, phone cords tendrilling from each one. A sign said, “We have power. Please feel free to charge your phone!” Katy Waldman is a Slate assistant editor. Psychology: Why are some people more resilient than others. Talks at Google: Eckhart Tolle in Conversation with Bradley Horowitz.
David DeSteno: Compassion science. Childhood stimulation key to brain development, study finds. Brain scans of participants aged in their late teens showed a correlation between cognitive stimulation at the age of four and a thinner, more developed, cortex Photograph: David Job/Getty Images An early childhood surrounded by books and educational toys will leave positive fingerprints on a person's brain well into their late teens, a two-decade-long research study has shown.
Scientists found that the more mental stimulation a child gets around the age of four, the more developed the parts of their brains dedicated to language and cognition will be in the decades ahead. It is known that childhood experience influences brain development but the only evidence scientists have had for this has usually come from extreme cases such as children who had been abused or suffered trauma. Brené Brown: Listening to shame. Mindfulness with Jon Kabat-Zinn. George Bonanno: Measuring human resilience. RSA Animate - Language as a Window into Human Nature. Why We Need to Study the Brain’s Evolution in Order to Understand the Modern Mind. Image via Wikimedia Commons, adapted from Christopher Walsh, Harvard Medical School, by Gary2863 In the September 17th issue of The New Yorker, Anthony Gottlieb analyzes Homo Mysterious: Evolutionary Puzzles of Human Nature, a new book by David Barash, a psychology professor at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Gottlieb’s article is more than just a book review—it’s also the latest in a long line of critiques of evolutionary psychology, the study of the brain, mind and behavior in the context of evolution. Gottlieb makes several excellent points, describing the same major shortcomings of evolutionary psychology that critics and proponents alike have named many times before: frustratingly scant evidence of early humans’ intellect, the immense difficulty of objectively testing hypotheses about how early humans behaved, the allure of convenient just-so stories to explain the origins of various mental quirks and talents. Diane Kelly: What we didn't know about penis anatomy. Svante Pääbo: DNA clues to our inner neanderthal. The Most Astounding Fact - Neil deGrasse Tyson. When your foot falls asleep, why does it tingle so much and why is it so sensitive when it comes in contact with anything else? : askscience.
Thinkahol comments on Three books that transformed your spirituality, worldview, or meditation practice. Men's Journal Magazine - Men's Style, Travel, Fitness and Gear. Courtesy Michael Finkel. A laughing matter. Dishing up tacos and burritos to hungry college students may not sound like much fun, but the women behind the counter at Salsa Rico look like they're having a pretty good time. Why we procrastinate by Vik Nithy @ TEDxYouth@TheScotsCollege. Why 6-Year-Old Girls Want To Be Sexy (STUDY) By: Jennifer Abbasi, LiveScience Contributor Published: 07/16/2012 12:18 PM EDT on LiveScience Most girls as young as 6 are already beginning to think of themselves as sex objects, according to a new study of elementary school-age kids in the Midwest.
Researchers have shown in the past that women and teens think of themselves in sexually objectified terms, but the new study is the first to identify self-sexualization in young girls. The study, published online July 6 in the journal Sex Roles, also identified factors that protect girls from objectifying themselves. Career Advice from Alan Watts. Jane McGonigal: The game that can give you 10 extra years of life. What is the Self? ‘Mind uploading’ featured in academic journal special issue for first time. (Credit: stock image) The Special Issue on Mind Uploading (Vol. 4, issue 1, June 2012) of the International Journal of Machine Consciousness, just released, “constitutes a significant milestone in the history of mind uploading research: the first-ever collection of scientific and philosophical papers on the theme of mind uploading,” as Ben Goertzel and Matthew Ikle’ note in the Introduction to this issue.
“Mind uploading” is an informal term that refers to transferring the mental contents from a human brain into a different substrate, such as a digital, analog, or quantum computer. It’s also known as “whole brain emulation” and “substrate-independent minds.” Serious mind uploading researchers have emerged recently, taking this seemingly science-fictional notion seriously and pursuing it via experimental and theoretical research programs, Goertzel and Ilke’ note. Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. Why Do We Like What We Like? The Psychology of Human Sexuality - What Do Men and Women Focus On When They Watch Porn? The Answer Will Probably Surprise You. Juan Enriquez: Will our kids be a different species? Five myths about marriage. Stress, Portrait of a Killer - Full Documentary (2008)
Sam Harris on "Free Will". Group Marriage and the Future of the Family. WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM by Steven Johnson. Critical Thinking. Susan Cain: The power of introverts. It's The Orphanages, Stupid! - Forbes.com. Science overturns view of humans as naturally 'nasty' RSA Animate - The Divided Brain. Redirect with Timothy Wilson.
Group settings can diminish expressions of intelligence, especially among women. In the classic film 12 Angry Men, Henry Fonda's character sways a jury with his quiet, persistent intelligence. Brene Brown: The power of vulnerability. 1. Dangers of Crying It Out. Why our minds have probably evolved as far as they can go. Minds are as clever as they will ever be, say scientists. Aaron C. Kay, PhD. Thandie Newton: Embracing otherness, embracing myself. To Dance Is a Radical Act. To dance is a radical act. To think about dance, to study dance, or to practice dance in this 21st century is a radical act. Why? Because if dancing matters—if dancing makes a difference to how we humans think and feel and act-then dancing challenges the values that fund modern western cultures. Homophobic Men Most Aroused by Gay Male Porn.
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) Ignorance is bliss when it comes to challenging social issues. The Cato Hypocrisy.
Be Kind; Everyone You Meet is Fighting a Hard Battle « Quote Investigator. Study Addiction Zeitgeist Moving Forward clip.