http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/
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karmapol
n. the imaginary committee of elders that keeps a running log of your mistakes, steadily building their case that you’re secretly a fraud, a coward, a doofus and a douche, and who would’ve successfully...
From gamma 1 comment21
Wildcard
A Wildcard pulls in RSS feeds from related content sources on the web — Live feed: k21st.wordpress.com
Solve for X: Neal Stephenson on...
Solve for X is a forum to encourage and amplify technology-based moonshot thinking and teamwork. For thousands of years the imagination of storytellers has been a guiding light for people trying to change the world. In the last decade or two science fiction has almost fallen behind the work of...
Animals live long and prosper when eating from a menu that puts them just this side of starvation. So far, experiments with yeast, worms, flies, spiders, fish and rodents all have shown the antiaging power of severely restricting calories. And research in rhesus monkeys suggests similar benefits in primates: One study found that monkeys eating 30...
Religious Experiences Shrink Part of the Brain
A study links life-changing religious experiences, like being born again, with atrophy in the hippocampus.
THE ARGUMENTATIVE THEORY
A Conversation with Hugo Mercier
Introduction
Last July, opening the Edge Seminar, "The New Science of Morality", Jonathan Haidt digressed to talk about two recently-published papers in Behavioral and Brain Sciences which he believed were "so important that the abstracts from them should be posted in...
Stanford Report, April 1, 2009
Molecules key to immune system also play role in brain
BY BRUCE GOLDMAN
Carla Shatz
Molecules assumed to be in the exclusive employ of the immune system have been caught moonlighting in the brain—with a job description apparently quite distinct from their role in immunity.
Carla Shatz, PhD, professor...
Stanford scientists see the logic in the illogical behavior of neurons
Neurons in your brain trigger the physical movements of your body, but some of them seem to fire in a crazy quilt pattern just before and during the movement. But Stanford researchers say there is method in the apparent madness.
BY LOUIS BERGERON
You've decided to kick...
Original article at
Brain training games won't make you smarter – but a dose of blue light or an electrical shock just might
BREATHE in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. I crack open an eye. Everyone else has theirs closed. I shut it again. Breathe in, breathe out. Around me people are sitting crossed-legged, meditating. For some it's...
The following is crossposted from my blog on writing and format, though it belongs here as much as there. I consider the rant as some notes towards a transhuman language.
Lojban, like the better known Esperanto, are constructed languages.
Esperanto was constructed in order to help bring understanding between people who spoke different...
"Ticking away inside almost all cells are tiny clocks composed of protein gears. Scientists have known that these molecular clocks govern the daily rhythms of life, from mealtimes and bedtimes to the rise and fall of hormone levels, body temperature and blood pressure. New research shows that circadian clocks, as the daily timekeepers are...
Our ability to think has long been considered central to what makes us human. Now research suggests that our bodies and their relationship with the environment govern even our most abstract thoughts. This includes thinking up random numbers or deciding whether to recount positive or negative experiences.
Do you agree with the conclusion...
Professor: "Don't do anything that affects anything. Unless it turns out you were supposed to do it, in which case for the love of God. Don't not do it!"
Fry: "Got it."
During time travel it is possibly best not to disturb anything. But is the prime directive a great loss to human experience? I couldn't think of...