Organizing the bookcase - from dull task to awesome stop motion This video proves, once and for all, that making a stop motion video is the most fun you can have when you are alone with your camera. You don’t need any sort of fancy equipment or special skills, you just need a tripod, a camera, and a lot of time. The video above isn’t a technical marvel by any stretch of the imagination, but it is clever and fun to watch. Some great guitar doesn’t hurt at all either. What I really like about this video is its simplicity. via buzzfeed BBC News - Malala Yousafzai speech in full 10 great TED Talks about talking Science The language of dolphins: Denise Herzing at TED2013 A dolphin’s brain-to-body-weight ratio is second only to a human’s. They live complex social lives, can understand abstract concepts and even use tools. But as Denise Herzing asks in Session 8 of TED2013, “Do they have a language? If so, what are they talking about?” Culture 5 examples of how the languages we speak can affect the way we think Economist Keith Chen starts today’s talk with an observation: to say, “This is my uncle,” in Chinese, you have no choice but to encode more information about said uncle.
Why first impressions are so persistent New research by a team of psychologists from Canada, Belgium, and the United States shows there is more than a literal truth to the saying that 'you never get a second chance to make a first impression'. The findings suggest that new experiences that contradict a first impression become 'bound' to the context in which they were made. As a result, the new experiences influence people's reactions only in that particular context, whereas first impressions still dominate in other contexts. "Imagine you have a new colleague at work and your impression of that person is not very favourable" explains lead author Bertram Gawronski, Canada Research Chair at The University of Western Ontario. "A few weeks later, you meet your colleague at a party and you realize he is actually a very nice guy. According to Gawronski, our brain stores expectancy-violating experiences as exceptions-to-the-rule, such that the rule is treated as valid except for the specific context in which it has been violated.
Myths about our minds 8 November 2011Last updated at 00:29 By Andrew Luck-Baker Producer, Radio 4's Mind Myths The human brain is the most complex entity in the known universe and despite the best endeavours of scientists, there are still many mysteries about the 1.5kg (3.3lb) crinkled blob between our ears. Here are just a few of the many myths about our brains and how they work. The brain scan put pay to the myth we only use one 10th of our brains I remember first hearing that we used just a 10th of our brains in the 1970s when I was at school. And how amazing, I thought, that there might be a way to unlock that whopping 90% of unused brain capacity. What would not be possible with all of my grey matter in action? It was nonsense back then, and technological leaps in brain scanning has now proved this for all to see. Even doing something simple, such as clenching your fist, uses much more than 10% of the brain. Anatomically, the brain is divided into two halves - the left hemisphere and the right one.
Why Fireworks Are Illegal In Some Places Categories February 15, 2011 2:00pm By Rowdy Joe Videos Why Fireworks Are Illegal In Some Places I think they're supposed to go a little bit higher before they explode! Another Bike Jump Epic Fail Playground Swing Fail Comments haha lol wtf fail awesome idiots morons explosion firework Related Posts Recommended Posts Edge.org The Epidemic of Obesity, Diabetes and "Metabolic Syndrome:" Cell Energy Adaptations in a Toxic World? "Metabolic syndrome" (MetSyn) has been termed the "Epidemic of the 21st century." MetSyn is an accretion of symptoms, including high body mass index (weight-for-height), high blood sugar, high blood pressure (BP), high blood triglycerides, high waist circumference (central/visceral fat deposition), and/or reduced HDL-cholesterol, the so-called "good" cholesterol. Epidemics of Obesity and diabetes are intertwined with, and accompany, the meteoric rise in MetSyn. The prevalent view is that MetSyn is due to a glut of food calories ("energy") consumed, and a dearth of exercise energy expended, spurring weight gain—an "energy surfeit"—with the other features arising in consequence. But this normative view leaves many questions unanswered: Why do elements of MetSyn correlate? The customary "explanation" also creates paradoxes. · Ultra low-calorie or low-fat diets · Fasting, skipped meals
Tacit Knowledge and the Student Researcher I’m old enough that the annual Beloit Mindset List (created to help instructors avoid making what they think are contemporary cultural references that are actually historical to their students) is full of references to things that I never got around to knowing before they became passé. I’ve started compiling a different list, one that identifies the tacit knowledge many of us have about information and how it works based on experiences that our students haven’t had. Here’s what I have so far. Journals and magazines are published as ongoing series. For those of us who remember print, articles are bundled into issues, issues into volumes, and every year more articles are published in these bundles. News is different than opinion. Books don’t have to be read cover-to-cover to be useful. Citations have the information you need to track down the source. Databases and catalogs (usually) don’t search inside books and articles. Catalogs are (usually) local; article databases (usually) aren’t.
Future - Health - The neurons that shaped civilization Synopsis Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as we know it. About the Speaker VS Ramachandran is a mesmerizing speaker, able to concretely and simply describe the most complicated inner workings of the brain. Ramachandran is the director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego, US, and an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute.