A Phenomenology of the Clipboard
I’ve noticed: When I have an image or sentence or URL copied (or cut) to the clipboard, but not yet pasted into its destination, my left hand—with which I always perform my pasting operations—feels,...
View ArticleSmell: Blessing, Curse
From SciAm’s “The Hidden Power of Scent: Scientific American“: [P]eople who lose their sense of smell often gain a new appreciation for its importance. The article goes on to discuss mostly those...
View ArticleDisgust Science, Disgusting Journalism
I’ve just read on LiveScience.com that “[b]ooks are just as powerful as movies” at triggering “delight, pain, or disgust” reactions in the brain. As is so often the case on LiveScience, this gripping...
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Why SCRABBLE Beta (Still) Drives Me Nuts
Over at flickr, a little photo-tour of a few of my issues with the SCRABBLE beta Facebook app. Two qualifications: First, it’s not a comparison to Wordscraper, which has problems of its own. Second,...
View ArticleUnconscious Consciousness?
A recent review at Scientific American covers “new and ingenious ways to measure consciousness” in noncommunicative (i.e., vegetative) patients: [A researcher] placed the noncommunicative patient in a...
View ArticlePuzzles or Placation?: How We (Can) Watch Movies
In a recent post on his excellent blog, The Frontal Cortex, Jonah Lehrer responds to David Denby’s review of State of Play. In accord with Denby, Lehrer remarks: Ever since Pulp Fiction, and certainly...
View ArticleFor the Good of the Team: Football Coaches & Conscience
In his latest essay for the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell writes about one of the greatest dangers football players face: long-term brain damage from all the impact. It’s a grim, worthwhile read....
View ArticleA Note on the LHC and the Grandfather Paradox
A New York Times piece that’s made the rounds in the last week or so takes up the idea that the Large Hadron Collider might not work for reasons involving to the grandfather paradox. (If you’ve never...
View ArticleGiving a Shit About Cheap Shots in the NFL
In response to Drew Magary’s assertion that “No One Gives a Shit About Cheap Shots”: Magary’s obviously wrong to think this was just one weekend of hits followed by some out-of-the-blue media...
View ArticleA Note on Chance & Retrospection
I’m not much for thinking about counterfactual pasts—“If it wasn’t for that horse, I never would’ve spent that year in college”—because to suggest that long causal chains can be retrospectively...
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Keep your eye on the ball
Sharon Begley, one of the better science journalists (and science editor for the Wall Street Journal), wrote an article in 2003 called “This Year, Try Getting Your Brain into Shape.” (Sorry for the...
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The Eyes Have It
Here’s an article on how human eyes might be indicators of personality. More pits in the iris means correlates with “tender, warm, and trusting” personalities, and more curves around the edge...
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