When you walk through the self-help aisle of any bookstore, you are likely to see plenty of books based on the notion that positive thinking is the key to getting what you want. The message is clear: if you want to achieve something, just keep telling yourself  “I can!” and envision yourself accomplishing your goals. Success will surely come your way.

Not so, says years of psychological research. Certain kinds of positive thoughts, known in the research as fantasies, can actually be detrimental to performance.

{ Psych Your Mind | Continue reading }

Bioengineers have made an artificial jellyfish using silicone and muscle cells from a rat’s heart. The synthetic creature, dubbed a medusoid, looks like a flower with eight petals. When placed in an electric field, it pulses and swims exactly like its living counterpart.

“Morphologically, we’ve built a jellyfish. Functionally, we’ve built a jellyfish. Genetically, this thing is a rat,” says Kit Parker, a biophysicist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who led the work.

{ Nature | Continue reading | NERS/Discover }

artwork { Trevor Brown }

Cinderella Castle is the worldwide-recognized icon of the Disney empire. Physical representations of it stand at the center of two Disney Parks: Walt Disney World in Florida, and Tokyo Disneyland. Assuming it were an actual fortress, how would you take it?

A ground must be chosen in which you can quickly secure a foothold into the Magic Kingdom. This position must be easily accessible for the invasion force, provide cover and concealment for the troops and give strategic advantage once taken while depriving the enemy of the same. For this mission, I choose the area outside the tracks, between Tomorrowland and Main Street USA. Consideration must be taken to ensure we are not spotted by the monorail.

{ Jonathan Kirk Davis, Sergeant of Marines/Quora | Continue reading }

related { Macaroni Combat films }

{ The IMF plans to dump Greece }

photo { Janine Gordon }

Throughout the past several decades, the United States has seen a steady increase in women’s status. Overt sexism is on the decline and women are becoming increasingly well represented in prestigious, high-paying jobs. Despite these welcome improvements, many gender-typed norms related to heterosexual courtship and marriage have remained remarkably stable over time.

For example, it is relatively rare for women to propose marriage to men. In addition, the majority of women still take their husband’s last name upon marriage, whereas few men consider taking their wife’s last name. People typically adhere to marriage-related norms in the name of tradition or romance.

However, there is also reason to believe that these norms are subtle manifestations of sexism within heterosexual romantic relationships. In the present study, we sought to establish an empirical connection between women’s and men’s marriage- tradition preferences and their level of sexism. We began by examining participants’ personal preferences regarding marriage proposals and marital name changes. We then tested whether endorsing benevolent sexism was predictive of holding traditional marriage preferences.

{ Journal of Adolescent Research | PDF }

painting { Gérard Gasiorowski, L’Approche, Des Limites de ma pensée, 1970 }

Smeesters published a different study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology suggesting that even manipulating colors such as blue and red can make us bend one way or another.

Except that apparently none of it is true. Last month, after being exposed by Uri Simonsohn at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Smeesters acknowledged manipulating his data, an admission that been the subject of fervent discussions in the scientific community. Dr. Smeesters has resigned from his position and his university has asked that the respective papers be retracted from the journals. The whole affair might be written off as one unfortunate case, except that, as Smeesters himself pointed out in his defense in Discover Magazine, the academic atmosphere in the social sciences, and particularly in psychology, effectively encourages such data manipulation to produce “statistically significant” outcomes.

{ Time | Continue reading }

image { Vaka Valo, DRXXM DXXRY }

Back in October 2008, just after the investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed, the International Monetary Fund unveiled its forecasts for growth in 2009. The IMF is the global lender to national governments; its economic pronouncements are highly respected. So what did it predict? The US would grow 0.1% in 2009, countries in the euro zone 0.2% and the world as a whole 2.6%. The actual outturns were declines of 3.5%, 4.2% and 2.6% respectively.

This lamentable short-sightedness was not unique. […]

To be fair to economists, there are two reasons why their forecasts are often likely to be wrong. The first is that humans are not inanimate objects; we change our behaviour and we watch the news. If every economist forecast a recession for 2013 and the predictions were widely publicised, businesses would cancel their investment programmes and consumers would start saving, not spending, for fear of losing their jobs. The recession would occur now, not next year.

Second, the economy is a complex mechanism with many working parts. Economists cannot run real-time experiments in the same way as scientists; operating one version of the economy with high interest rates and another with low rates, as a pharmacologist can offer one patient a new drug and another a placebo. There is no way of isolating the various factors that affect growth.

But there are more fundamental questions about the nature of the subject beyond the failure of economists to make accurate forecasts.

{ Economist | Continue reading }

photo { Mathew Scott }

The researchers found that the effects that awe has on decision-making and well-being can be explained by awe’s ability to actually change our subjective experience of time by slowing it down. Experiences of awe help to brings us into the present moment which, in turn, adjusts our perception of time, influences our decisions, and makes life feel more satisfying than it would otherwise.

{ EurekArlert | Continue reading }

photo { Steven Siegel | more }

Most people think that even though it is possible that they are dreaming right now, the probability of this is very small, perhaps as small as winning the lottery or being struck by lightning. In fact the probability is quite high. Let’s do the maths.

{ OUP | Continue reading }

image { Dr. Julius Neubronner’s Miniature Pigeon Camera }

The human genome is estimated to contain about 23 000 genes. Where do these genes come from? Well, from your parents. And their parents. And so on. But, surely, if we go back far enough, there haven’t been 23 000 genes all along? However life originated, the first DNA carrying organisms probably had significantly fewer genes. So, where did all these new genes come from? How are genes born?

Well, there are two main ways:

• Re-organization of existing genes. […]

• All new. In other words, not based on previously present genes. This is what the new study investigates.

{ The Beast, the Bard and the Bot | Continue reading }

related { The genetics of stupidity }

photo { Paolo Ventura }

{ US man with huge penis stopped at airport }

My theory, when it comes to buying lottery tickets, is that if you have disposable income to spare, then often the dreams and fantasies that accompany your lottery ticket purchase are in and of themselves worth $1. This is true not because dreams and fantasies are wonderful amazing and valuable things, although they can be; it’s more true because $1 is a very small amount of money. All too many people spend a significant percentage of their disposable income on lottery tickets, and that is a tragedy.

Now Ian Bogost has come along with a similar theory, relating to Kickstarter. Funding projects on Kickstarter is in itself “another form of entertainment.”

{ Felix Salmon/Reuters | Continue reading | Thanks Rob }

photo { Joel Barhamand }

Guys, I know it sounds crazy, but just hear me out.  Here’s the plan:

From here on out, we’re going to run our banks and brokerages completely by the book and within the bounds of the law. We’re going to play it straight and keep it low-key. In short, we’re going to stop looking for ways to fuck the customers.

(indignant shouts and table slaps)

Sit down and let me finish. Gentlemen sit down! I haven’t even gotten to the diabolical part yet.

Now I know I’m asking you to stretch quite a bit here, and yes, I understand that something like this hasn’t been attempted in our industry in decades. But just imagine the possibilities! We show up for work, we do what we say we’re going to do, we hire people who are every bit as motivated to do a good job for the customers as they are to be successful for themselves. We only offer products and services that we would offer to our grandmothers and children. We make the fine print into bold lettering. We eliminate hidden fees or at least disclose them where necessary. We treat people’s money like it’s our own. We stop intentionally blowing massive asset bubbles to profit on both their inflation and eventual bursting.

{ Joshua Brown | Continue reading }

Advertisers bombard us relentlessly. Fortunately, our brains have an inbuilt BS-detector that shields us from the onslaught - a mental phenomenon that psychologists call simply “resistance.” Ads from dodgy companies, our own pre-existing preferences, and a forewarning of a marketing attack can all marshal greater psychological resistance within us.

However, a new study suggests that funny adverts lower our guard, leaving us vulnerable to aggressive marketing.

{ BPS | Continue reading }

Many CEOs, including Dow Chemicals’ Andrew Liveris, have declared their intentions to bring manufacturing back to the United States. What is going to accelerate the trend isn’t, as people believe, the rising cost of Chinese labor or a rising yuan. The real threat to China comes from technology. […]

Several technologies advancing and converging will cause this. First, robotics. […] Robots are now capable of performing surgery, milking cows, doing military reconnaissance and combat, and flying fighter jets. Several companies, such Willow Garage, iRobot, and 9th Sense, sell robot-development kits for which university students and open-source communities are developing ever more sophisticated applications. The factory assembly that China is currently performing is child’s play compared to the next generation of robots. […]

Then there is artificial intelligence. […]

Other advances in the next decade will likely affect manufacturing, particularly advances in nanotechnology that change the equation further. Engineers and scientists are today developing new types of materials, such as carbon nanotubes, ceramic-matrix nanocomposites, and new carbon fibers. These new materials make it possible to create products that are stronger, lighter, more energy-efficient, and more durable than existing manufactured goods. A new field — “molecular manufacturing” — will take this one step further and make it possible to program molecules inexpensively, with atomic precision.

{ Foreign Policy | Continue reading }

images { 1 | 2 }

{ What it shows is the now extreme flight of foreign capital from Spain and Italy. As you can see, the graph only goes up to the end of January, but we know that the phenomenon has got, much, much worse since then. Anyone who can has been getting their money out. Any foreign company doing business in Spain and Italy removes the money as soon as they get paid. Since no money system could tolerate such a sustained attack for long, the outflows are compensated for by “target 2″ inflows from the European Central Bank, which in turn borrows the money from the eurozone’s creditor central banks, in particular the Bundesbank. | Telegraph }

{ The Economic History of the Last 2,000 Years in 1 Little Graph }

At some point in evolution, our ancestors switched from walking on all four limbs to just two, and this transition to bipedalism led to what is referred to as the obstetric dilemma. The switch involved a major reconfiguration of the birth canal, which became significantly narrower because of a change in the structure of the pelvis. At around the same time, however, the brain had begun to expand. 

One adaptation that evolved to work around the problem was the emergence of openings in the skull called fontanelles. The anterior fontanelle enables the two frontal bones of the skull to slide past each other, much like the tectonic plates that make up the Earth’s crust. This compresses the head during birth, facilitating its passage through the birth canal.

In humans, the anterior fontanelle remains open for the first few years of life, allowing for the massive increase in brain size, which occurs largely during early life. The opening gets gradually smaller as new bone is laid down, and is completely closed by about two years of age, at which time the frontal bones have fused to form a structure called the metopic suture. In chimpanzees and bononbos, by contrast, brain growth occurs mostly in the womb, and the anterior fontanelle is closed at around the time of birth.

{ Neurophilosophy/Guardian | Continue reading }

image { Lola Dupré }

Humans increase their body weight by a factor of 30 or so as they grow from babies to adults. For elephants the factor is closer to 100. 

But this raises a problem for biologists. They know that internal organs all grow at almost exactly the same rate, a phenomenon known as proportionate growth. But how does the body organise this? 

At one level, the answer is clear. The growth is controlled by chemical regulators–hormones, promoters, inhibitors and so on. These in turn are controlled by various genes. 

But this isn’t an entirely satisfactory explanation. The reaction rates associated with these chemicals can vary hugely from cell to cell because only a relatively small number of molecules are involved.

If these variations were independent, they would cause much greater variation in growth throughout the body than is observed. So some other organising principle must be at work.

{ The Physics arXiv Blog | Continue reading }

photo { David LaChapelle for Harvey Nichols, 1998 | Agency: Harari Page }

Idaho farm hosts ‘weed dating’ for singles.

A woman says a man claiming to be with a TV show sucked her toe inside an east Georgia Walmart.

Bees can ‘turn back time,’ reverse brain aging.

Brain Scans Predict When Poker Players Will Bluff.

Spotting Suicidal Tendencies on Social Networks.

People with amnesia can get bogged down by too many memories. Unwanted, irrelevant information crowds in and prevents amnesiac patients from recognizing objects.

How Do Amnesic Patients Vote?

Identical twins aren’t perfect carbon copies of each other even at birth. Study shows where identical twins part ways.

What Effect does Vertical Traction have on Chronic Low Back Pain?

Physical inactivity kills as many people as smoking.

How to walk on water. Physicists use X-rays to probe how a fluid can support a person’s weight.

Are All Anorexics Just Afraid Of Being Fat and Can We Blame The Western Media?

Living by the Sea Is Healthier than Living Inland, Scientists Say.

It’s possible to train people to have something a bit like synaesthesia — which they call Pseudo-Synesthesia through Reading Books with Colored Letters.

Higgs Boson May Be An Imposter, Say Particle Physicists.

Asteroids are the most likely source of the majority of Earth’s water, a new study suggests.

Why Some Wild Animals Are Becoming Nicer.

How large should whales be?

What would disprove evolution?

Game theory is marketed as a system you can apply to any sphere of life, but what’s the reality?

Using events logged from 2004 - 2009 in the Wikileaks Afghan War Diary, researchers developed statistical models that predicted the time, place and intensity of ‘future’ conflicts that took place in 2010.

A Brief History of Checkpoints. [PDF]

Newly released UFO files from the UK government.

The Internet and the World Wide Web are not the same thing. They’re not synonyms. They don’t even serve the same function. The Web was born at CERN in 1990, as a specific, visual protocol on the Internet, the global network of computers that began two decades earlier.

There are still nearly 13,000 sidewalk payphones in New York City. Now, the city wants to turn 10 of those phones into free WiFi hotspots.

Shirley Manson, frontwoman for the rock band Garbage, is being barraged with death threats and hate tweets by a fan on Twitter.

David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, has assured me that I can write whatever I want as long as I don’t make fun of Malcolm Gladwell. The New Yorker acquires The Borowitz Report.

“The world, unfortunately, is real,” as he once remarked, “and I, unfortunately, am Borges.”

Vladimir Nabokov’s understanding of human nature anticipated the advances in psychology since his day.

Can Computers Predict Crimes?

I cracked the door open a few inches, and an agent was already leaning into the frame. He explained that he was from the Electronic Crimes Task Force, and that they had a search warrant.

How Three People Survive Living In The Middle Of Nowhere.

To help them perfect their boxing technique, Eric subjects them to a barrage of verbal abuse, insults, and public degradation. [Thanks Cole]

32-year-old interviews his 12-year-old self on YouTube.

Can opera singers shatter glass with their high notes?

Airbus designer hopes to see planes roll out of hangar-sized 3D printers by 2050.

Strippers Wrestling in Bacon and Lard at Bacon Cup 2012. [Thanks GG]

Renaissance Boob holder.

The Douche Burger costs $666.00.

Paris is burning.

{ Ad for Luna Park by Fernando Livschitz }