We humans think that we’re the be-all and end-all of evolution… that our bodies are mere support systems for our brains. Maybe we’re right, but some fascinating recent experiments suggest that we’ve survived despite our intelligence, not necessarily because of it.
(I’ve been too busy over the past couple weeks to keep up with low-priority things, so now that I’ve finished part of a project, I’m playing catch-up.)
One of the things that I like about Paul Graham’s essays is that they’re always thought-provoking. This one is no exception, and I recommend that anyone who has children or plans to (or even deals with them occasionally) read it immediately and take it to heart.
An amusing look at the trustworthiness of your memories, perception, and other facets of your brain.
This page made me think… not so much about the movies mentioned (I’ve never seen most of them, and don’t care to), but about how fiction can teach us the more important things about life better than reality can, in some cases. I learned much of what I know about people and their relationships from certain fantasy books (ones by Mercedes Lackey in particular), strangely enough, just as I learned a good portion of my farther-out science hypotheses (along with a large helping of mainstream science) by reading science fiction, “the last great literature of ideas.“
Via LifeHacker, a very interesting article about people and why we don’t always (or even usually) make rational choices.
The CMAA probably seemed like a good idea in 1954, providing only wholesome American values to impressionable young minds. But new research suggests that, while the main idea behind it (limiting the exposure of young minds to violence) was correct, the implementation was way off the mark:
The findings, which are reported in the Journal of Adolescent Health, support earlier research which showed that children who watch violent television shows and who identify with the characters and believe they are real are more likely to be aggressive as adults.
It’s obvious even a child that comic-book supervillains are no more real than the superheros that they’re invented to oppose. And the whole ban on Dracula, Frankenstein, and zombies was ridiculous to begin with.
Parents, trust that your children have a little common sense, please!
The hardest thing about remembering something is remembering it long enough to remember it.
Okay, that sentence is a little convoluted, but that doesn’t affect it’s accuracy. 
The hardest part about remembering something is keeping it in your head for more than a few seconds in the first place — once you can do that, you can get better and faster at remembering it by constructing new memory paths to it from all the places you need them. The more you use something, the easier it is to remember it.
I’ve had several nights in the last few weeks where I just couldn’t get to sleep, or woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep immediately. To usefully pass the time, I’ve stayed in bed and practiced memory techniques.
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There’s something I’ve never understood about people: how some (most?) people will adopt a specific position about a subject, and thereafter simply won’t be able to comprehend any argument to the contrary.
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This is a fascinating story in it’s own right, but I really love the last sentence of it, on someone else with a similar problem: “It might sound funny to others, but suddenly thinking you are French is terrifying.” I couldn’t agree more. 
I’ve always felt a certain kinship to the character of Sherlock Holmes. Not for his ability to notice the most minute of details, or his reasoning skills, or his undeniable flair for disguise… admirable as those and many of his other traits may be, it’s his moods between cases that I’ve always identified with.
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