Why Superman Isn't What He Used To Be - And Why Americans Need Him Back "The awe and the wonder that powered the Superman mythos slowly bled away, and he became just another guy with his underwear on the outside, just like all the others."

The Awl 06/13/13

email this story | Posted 06/16/13@06:33PM

Twelve Fossil Words That Survive Purely By Idiom Why the ever-living heck is the second word in "just deserts" spelled with one s but pronounced like desserts?

Mental Floss 06/12/13

email this story | Posted 06/16/13@06:05PM

Humans Of The Future May Look Like Octopi (No, Seriously) "That's okay. That's a win, if we do that. Because it means we survived, and we changed to meet changing environmental conditions."

Wired 06/15/13

email this story | Posted 06/16/13@06:02PM

What's Up With Our Obsession With Science Fiction And Fantasy? "Western societies perceive the world as knowably rational and systematic, leading to a widespread loss of a sense of wonder and magic." Hence The Hobbit, etc.

The Atlantic 06/13/13

email this story | Posted 06/16/13@09:20AM

Forget The Jetsons' Robotic Maid - Houses Will Clean, And Repair, Themselves "The wiring and plumbing of a building will soon start to become integrated and grown like our bodies' nervous and digestive systems. More materials will be able to heal themselves and they'll clean themselves."

The Observer (UK) 06/15/13

email this story | Posted 06/16/13@08:22AM

In A Digital Future, Will The Big Companies Control Everything? We already have books, music, movies, and TV shows that can't be loaned or resold - are video games the tipping point?

The New York Times 06/14/13

email this story | Posted 06/16/13@08:02AM

Why The Distinction Between 'Less' And 'Fewer" Matters "In fact, far from being a mere linguistic slip, this error does a profound disservice to concepts that are at the very foundation of modern technology. The fundamental distinction that is glossed over in that usage is the one between the continuous and the discrete."

Scientific American 06/11/13

email this story | Posted 06/14/13@12:54AM

The Power of Parting Words "Goodbye is larger than just a word. It encompasses an entire ritual." And why do many of us, for instance, end an email message with "Thanks" even when there's been no occasion for gratitude to the reader?

Scientific American 06/11/13

email this story | Posted 06/14/13@12:49AM

How To Generate An Out-Of-Body Experience Without Drugs Some scientists in Switzerland (of all places) seem to have figured out a way. (You didn't think we were going to spill the secret in the blurb, did you?)

New Scientist 06/13/13

email this story | Posted 06/14/13@12:48AM

The Physical Benefits Of Laughter "At the physiological level, humor reduces levels of stress hormones such as cortisol and is thought to enhance our immune, endocrine, and cardiovascular systems. Laughter also provides a workout for the muscles of the diaphragm, abdomen, and face. A joke can raise our spirits, or ease our tension. If we're able to laugh during a stressful situation, we can put psychological distance between ourselves and the stress."

The American Scholar Summer, 2013

email this story | Posted 06/13/13@07:26AM

Want To Become A Less Rigid Thinker? Read Novels "Are you uncomfortable with ambiguity? It's a common condition, but a highly problematic one. The compulsion to quell that unease can inspire snap judgments, rigid thinking, and bad decision-making. Fortunately, new research suggests a simple antidote for this affliction: Read more literary fiction."

Pacific Standard 06/12/13

email this story | Posted 06/13/13@12:59AM

What Creativity Researchers Know About Performers "Three seeming contradictions - energy/rest, extroversion/introversion, and openness/sensitivity - are not separate phenomena but together seem to form the core of the creative performer's personality."

Scientific American 06/10/13

email this story | Posted 06/13/13@12:49AM

Your Hidden Censor: What Your Mind Will Not Let You See Over the last generation, "hundreds of studies have backed up the idea that when attention is occupied with one thing, people often fail to notice other things right before their eyes."

Scientific American 06/11/13

email this story | Posted 06/12/13@12:53AM

Algorithms Are Running Everything Now - Even Movies "Thousands of times every second, above your head, someone will search for something on Google. It will be an algorithm that determines what they see; an algorithm that is their gatekeeper to the internet. It will be another algorithm that determines what adverts accompany the search--gatekeeping does not pay for itself."

More Intelligent Life 06/13

email this story | Posted 06/11/13@07:26AM

Does 'Yeah, No...' Mean Yes Or No (Or Both)? "In fact, according to research by a couple of Australian linguists, 'yeah, no' (and its less popular sibling 'yes, no') has a hidden logic all its own and can be used in a number of discrete ways. Listen to Bob Garfield and Mike Vuolo dissect a construction that appears to be contradictory but is actually quite useful."

Slate 06/10/13 (audio)

email this story | Posted 06/11/13@12:55AM

Sorry, Most People Aren't Going To Finish Reading Your Article "TL;DR" isn't just an obnoxious crack, we're afraid. Farhad Manjoo looks at some depressing statistics on how people read online - and how much they've actually read when they tweet or share a link.

Slate 06/06/13

email this story | Posted 06/11/13@12:50AM

Surprise (Subscription) Gift Packages Making Snail Mail Cool "Old-timey physical boxes that you can touch -- that's totally a contrast to a lot of what's out there, but I think we're going through this period of correction where people realize there are experiences in the tangible world that are more powerful than any digital interaction."

Los Angeles Times 06/09/13

email this story | Posted 06/09/13@05:53PM

Troubled High School Kids Stay In School - And Get Jobs - WIth The Arts "'I don't think I would have graduated high school if I hadn't come to A.R.T.,' says Cami Shishko, who recently completed her freshman year at the Cornish College of the Arts."

NPR 06/08/13

email this story | Posted 06/09/13@08:16AM

All Philosophy Needs To Become Relevant Is A Good Marketing Plan "If philosophy is so important, then selling itself to the culture at large is important too. So it's time for philosophers to put their clothespins on their noses, wade into the stench of real-world commerce, and ask some of those tanned and toned marketing majors who skipped out on Philosophy 101 for some help." After all, philosophy already has a popular product: thought experiments.

Slate 06/06/13

email this story | Posted 06/07/13@12:57AM

What Christians Can Learn From Listening To Young Atheists Last year the Fixed Point Foundation began a nationwide campaign to interview members of college atheist groups. "The rules were simple: Tell us your journey to unbelief. It was not our purpose to dispute their stories or to debate the merits of their views. Not then, anyway. We just wanted to listen to what they had to say. And what they had to say startled us."

The Atlantic 06/06/13

email this story | Posted 06/07/13@12:57AM

Decoding How Time And Space Are Perceived In The Brain "While most people are familiar with the ensuing influence Einstein's ideas had on both the academic and public conception of the physical universe, few people are aware a similar revolution against space and time is underway in the fields of experimental psychology and neuroscience."

Scientific American 06/03/13

email this story | Posted 06/06/13@12:45AM

Getting Computers To Learn Like A Child Does - By Recognizing Things "Always seeing the world with fresh eyes can make it hard to find your way around. Giving computers the ability to recognise objects as they scan a new environment will let them navigate much more quickly and understand what they are seeing."

New Scientist 06/05/13 (includes video)

email this story | Posted 06/06/13@12:42AM

There Could Be Devices To Let Us Communicate With Animals: Researcher Says animal behaviorist Con Slobodchikoff, who has successfully decoded some of the language (yes, it seems to be a language) used by prairie dogs, "It's probably five to 10 years out. But I think we can get to the point where we can actually communicate back and forth in basic animal languages to dogs, cats, maybe farm animals."

The Atlantic 06/04/13 (includes video)

email this story | Posted 06/05/13@12:52AM

The Internet Makes Us Think We're Seeing More (But Are We Actually Seeing Less?) "While it's easier than ever to share information and perspectives from different parts of the world, we may now often encounter a narrower picture of the world than in less connected days."

Bookforum 06/13

email this story | Posted 06/04/13@06:15AM

Science Listens To The Voices In Our Heads "But although philosophers have long been interested in the relationship between language and thought, many believed that inner speech lay outside the realms of science. That is now changing, with new experimental designs for encouraging it, interfering with it and neuroimaging it. We are beginning to understand how the experience is created in the brain; its subjective qualities - essentially, what the words 'sound' like; and its role in processes such as self-control and self-awareness."

New Scientist 06/03/13

email this story | Posted 06/04/13@12:54AM

Leon Wieseltier: Our Culture Is Crumbling Around Us "In recent years I have come to regard a commitment to the humanities as nothing less than an act of intellectual defiance, of cultural dissidence. For decades now in America we have been witnessing a steady and sickening denigration of humanistic understanding and humanistic method."

The New Republic 05/28/13

email this story | Posted 06/03/13@07:35AM

What Does 'Gatsby' Say About The 21st Century? "We've not given up make-believe. We want nothing more than to revive the fake prosperity that preceded the crash. Just like Gatsby, we want to return to a world that was conjured into being from dreams."

BBC 05/31/13

email this story | Posted 06/02/13@08:41AM

Some Rules For Public Plazas And Parks (They May Be Changing) "A beer garden made out of freight containers on an empty plot turns out to be a lot more popular and better for a city than a sad corporate atrium with a few cafe tables and a long list of don'ts on the wall."

The New York Times 06/01/13

email this story | Posted 06/02/13@08:06AM

What Birds Can Teach Us About Human Language Learning Researcher Gary Marcus explains how birds pick up the grammar of songs.

The New Yorker 05/29/13

email this story | Posted 05/31/13@12:54AM

Distinguishing The Brain From The Mind "In coming years, neuroscience will answer questions we don't even yet know to ask. Sometimes, though, focus on the brain is misleading."

The Atlantic 05/30/13

email this story | Posted 05/31/13@12:46AM

What Secular People Misunderstand About Faith "But secular Americans often think that the most important thing to understand about religion is why people believe in God, because we think that belief precedes action and explains choice. That's part of our folk model of the mind: that belief comes first."

The New York Times 05/30/13

email this story | Posted 05/30/13@12:45AM

Why Science Needs Philosophy Now More Than Ever "Recent attempts to explain how the universe came out of nothing... reveal conceptual confusion beneath mathematical sophistication. They demonstrate the urgent need for a radical re-examination of the invisible frameworks within which scientific investigations are conducted."

The Guardian (UK) 05/26/13

email this story | Posted 05/29/13@06:38AM

The Problem With Studies Saying That Studying Music Improves Test Scores "As we point out regularly here, correlation and causation are very different things. Newly published research concludes those differences reflect the types of kids who decide to participate in music, rather than anything that occurs in the practice room."

Pacific Standard 05/28/13

email this story | Posted 05/29/13@12:52AM

It's Totally Natural To Become More Boring As You Age "Happiness becomes less the high-energy, totally-psyched experience of a teenager partying while his parents are out of town, and more the peaceful, relaxing experience of an overworked mom who's been dreaming of that hot bath all day. ... It's a different way of understanding what happiness is" - as psychologists put it, promotion motivation versus prevention motivation.

The Atlantic 05/28/13

email this story | Posted 05/29/13@12:44AM

Grown-Ups Can Still Learn As Children Do "A decade ago, few neuroscientists would have agreed that adults can rival the learning talents of children. But we needn't be so defeatist. The mature brain, it turns out, is more supple than anyone thought. ... Indeed, many researchers believe that an adult's lifestyle may be the biggest obstacle."

New Scientist 05/24/13

email this story | Posted 05/28/13@12:56AM

Why Are Americans Obsessed With Germs? "Compared with the rest of the world, Americans take personal hygiene and general disinfection to another level. ... What makes us so eager to be clean? Is it noble and healthy, or should we relax a little?" Nine contributors offer their thought in this Room for Debate.

The New York Times 05/27/13

email this story | Posted 05/28/13@12:44AM

Do We Really Want A Supercomputer Replica Of A Human Brain? "Once you've built a plug-and-play brain, anything is possible. You could take it apart to figure out the causes of brain diseases. You could rig it to robotics and develop a whole new range of intelligent technologies. You could strap on a pair of virtual reality glasses and experience a brain other than your own."

Wired 05/14/13

email this story | Posted 05/26/13@09:19PM

Binge Watching Is Changing Our Narrative Culture "We binge on TV to craft time and space, and to fashion an immersive near-world with special properties. We enter a world that is, for all its narrative complexity, a place of sudden continuity. We may have made the world 'go away' for psychological purposes, but here, for anthropological ones, we have built another in its place."

Wired 05/24/13

email this story | Posted 05/26/13@09:49AM

How To Tolerate Baz Luhrmann's 'Gatsby:' Turn It Into A New 'Rocky Horror' "Every time Gatsby says, 'Old sport,' spritz the air with Old Spice cologne and yell, 'Hello, ladies!'"

The Washington Post 05/25/13

email this story | Posted 05/26/13@09:08AM

Why Has Scientific Research Become So Unreliable? "Fraud (the principal cause of retractions, which are up roughly tenfold since 1975) is not a new phenomenon, but digital manipulation and distribution tools have increased the spread and impact of science, both faulty and legitimate, beyond the confines of the ivory tower."

GigaOm 05/23/13

email this story | Posted 05/24/13@07:51AM