Category Archives: Current History

Fight procrastination: breathe

A short tip for fighting procrastination: just breathe. Inhale and count “one.” Exhale and count “two.” Continue to ten. This gets to the fact that so much of procrastination is an effort to escape from anxiety or bad feelings surrounding … Continue reading

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Opinion: How to Give Better Talks | The Scientist Magazine

My colleague Dave Rubenson outlines the sins of scientist presenters and gives advice on how to improve scientific presentations. For me the key point is this: Realize that a slide presentation is not a journal article. Slide presentations can stimulate … Continue reading

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Malcolm Gladwell: Do Genetic Advantages Make Sports Unfair? : The New Yorker

In the New Yorker, Malcom Gladwell asks a strange question: Do Genetic Advantages Make Sports Unfair? Anyone who was ever picked last for baseball laughs at this question. Anyone who is a “hard gainer” in the weight room shakes his head. … Continue reading

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Saudi Arabians in sidewalk skiing craze – video | Sport | guardian.co.uk

The source of innovation throughout the ages: Kids with plenty of resources and too much free time.   Saudi Arabians in sidewalk skiing craze – video | Sport | guardian.co.uk.

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Photos that mimic human attention

This guy has an interesting photo technique: creating photos that are generally still photos, but have one person who is in motion. The funny thing is that it doesn’t seem that odd to look at. And the reason is that … Continue reading

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The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food – NYTimes.com

I don’t entirely blame the food companies–they are in fact giving people what they want, and it seems a stretch in a capitalistic society to ask them to promote food people don’t want. Nonetheless, they should use some of that … Continue reading

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Insight: Evidence grows for narcolepsy link to GSK swine flu shot | Fox News

Narcolepsy perhaps caused by a swine flu vaccine–this is one scary vaccine tale that has some scientific backing. Emelie is one of around 800 children in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe who developed narcolepsy, an incurable sleep disorder, after being … Continue reading

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Notre Dame’s failure of communication

The strange, sad story of Manti Te’o gets sadder and stranger, but what seems clear to me right now is that Notre Dame did a very poor job of handling things. They seemed to think the situation was important enough … Continue reading

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Why the obsession with apocalypse? The future is bright.

On this New Year’s Day, it is fitting to ask: Why are so many people obsessed with apocalypses? Why do so many people not only believe ridiculous things like the Mayan Apocalypse, but seem to want to believe them? On … Continue reading

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Instagram Does an About-Face – NYTimes.com

Instagram reverts to previous rules. It took long enough. In a blog post on the company’s site, Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s co-founder, said that where advertising was concerned, the company would revert to its previous terms of service, which have been … Continue reading

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