New York Harbor - art by Charley Harper
Posted 6 days ago
ub14:
npr:
Check out the video of The National’s Tiny Desk Concert on Friday.
(Photo: Hayley Bartels/NPR)
Checked.
Posted 6 days ago
With the psychologists Simon Laham and Peter Koval, I found that people prefer politicians with simpler names—and lawyers in American firms with fluent names rise up the legal hierarchy to partnership more quickly than their non-fluently named colleagues. (The result persisted even when we focussed on Anglo-American names, so it doesn’t simply boil down to xenophobic prejudice.)
The Surprising Psychology of How Names Shape Our Thoughts : The New Yorker
Oops, sorry, baby. Forgive us.
(via ub14)Posted 6 days ago
Assume for a moment that some of these measures really have helped make our persons and property safer—are they worth it? Where and when was the public debate on whether they’re worth it? Was there no such debate because we’re not capable of having or demanding one? Why not? Have we actually become so selfish and scared that we don’t even want to consider whether some things trump safety? What kind of future does that augur?
David Foster Wallace, published in the Atlantic November 2007 (via sarahspy)
Posted 6 days ago
Don’t let it get you down.
Going through a really trying time right now. On the verge of a lot, working hard, things getting in the way. But it’ll get there. Don’t let it get you down.
Posted 2 weeks ago
Adventures in the Pacific Northwest - depicting one of literature’s finest young adventurers, now having traveled to the beautiful, exotic north-west coast of North America.
Made for the exclusive VIP VanCAF artbook! Thank you to all the good people who came by the festival last weekend to say Hi! Excellent times were had by all.
gorgeous!
Posted 3 weeks ago
Posted 2 months ago
This is a generation of kids that grew up with data science around them — Netflix telling them what movies they should watch, Amazon telling them what books they should read — so this is an academic interest with real-world applications,” said Chris Wiggins, a professor of applied mathematics at Columbia who is involved in its new Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering. “And,” he added, “they know it will make them employable.
Posted 2 months ago
Posted 2 months ago
![poboh:
Maurice de Vlaminck (French, 1876-1958), Orage dans la forêt [Storm in the forest]. Oil on canvas, 60.3 x 73 cm.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/84e51b139141c20c6b7e8cda04b3b694/tumblr_mjuvfbpX4U1qh7jlwo1_500.jpg)
Maurice de Vlaminck (French, 1876-1958), Orage dans la forêt [Storm in the forest]. Oil on canvas, 60.3 x 73 cm.
Posted 2 months ago
Harvest Moon ~ Annie Clark and Justin Vernon recorded live
It’s a raw, gloomy, and rainy Sunday in Northern California. Listening to this old cover by Annie and Justin has helped to brighten my day, immensely.
Posted 2 months ago
A series of illustrations I made a few months back… “Midcentury Dogs”.
Posted 2 months ago
Two dogs are seen guarding a bicycle in Nanjing, capital of southern China’s Guangxi Province. According to owner Luo Ganren, the pair are protective of him and his possessions. My bike has no lock, and I never worry it would be stolen, thanks to my two puppies. They will guard the bike by holding the bars until they see me back.
Picture: HAP/Quirky China News / Rex Features (via Pictures of the day: 26 February 2013 - Telegraph)
Posted 2 months ago
Chewing gum helps you concentrate for longer
Chewing gum can help you stay focused for longer on tasks that require continuous monitoring.
This is the finding of new research by Kate Morgan and colleagues from Cardiff University published in the British Journal of Psychology.
Previous research has shown that chewing gum can improve concentration in visual memory tasks. This study focussed on the potential benefits of chewing gum during an audio memory task.
Kate Morgan, author of the study explained: “It’s been well established by previous research that chewing gum can benefit some areas of cognition. In our study we focussed on an audio task that involved short-term memory recall to see if chewing gum would improve concentration; especially in the latter stages of the task.”
The study involved 38 participants being split in to two groups. Both groups completed a 30 minute audio task that involved listening to a list of numbers from 1-9 being read out in a random manner. Participants were scored on how accurately and quickly they were able to detect a sequence of odd-even-odd numbers, such as 7-2-1. Participants also completed questionnaires on their mood both before and after the task.
The results showed that participants who chewed gum had quicker reaction times and more accurate results than the participants who didn’t chew gum. This was especially the case towards the latter parts of the task.
Kate explained: “Interestingly participants who didn’t chew gum performed slightly better at the beginning of the task but were overtaken by the end. This suggests that chewing gum helps us focus on tasks that require continuous monitoring over a longer amount of time.”
The study was discussed in Radio Four Today programme.
(Image: iStock)
Posted 2 months ago
Martin Johnson Heade, Approaching Thunder Storm, 1859, oil on canvas
