“the central attribute of human conscious experience, so fundamental, in fact, that we take it for granted, don’t pause to think about it, is the sense of unity. You’ve got a diversity of sensory experiences. You see things, you listen to things. This harks back to what I was saying about synesthesia. You taste things. You have hundreds of memories throughout a lifetime. Yet you think of yourself as a unified person. Yet all of these happen to you… Despite this diversity of sensory experiences, this bewildering sensory cognitive blitz of memories and sensory impressions I experience unity. How does that come about?” – V. S. Ramachandran, author of the The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Quest for What Makes Us Human ( quote via ). the balanced NYT review of The Tell-Tale Brain alludes to the controversy surrounding some his theories.
Monthly Archives: February 2012
The Dumbest Idea In The World: Maximizing Shareholder Value
odd, isn’t it, that the words of jack welch are considered insightful and not patently obvious: ““On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world. Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy… your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products. Managers and investors should not set share price increases as their overarching goal. … Short-term profits should be allied with an increase in the long-term value of a company.””
Researchers discover cell phone hackers can track your location without your knowledge
with no help from the service provider, using open source software and a cheap cell phone, researchers were able to “..track the location of a test subject within a 10-block area as the subject traveled across an area of Minneapolis at a walking pace. “
recipe: no-bake gluten free energy bites.
what with all the running i’ve been doing lately, i’ve been looking for healthy and tasty energy sources and the no-bake energy bite recipe from the smashed peas and carrots blog definitely fits the bill. and as an added bonus, if made them with non-contaminated oats then they fit right in with my (mostly) gluten free lifestyle.
and they’re super simple to make! it’s win-win-win.
ingredients
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup peanut butter (or other nut butter)
1/3 cup honey
1 cup coconut flakes
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
mix all the stuff up in a bowl real good, refrigerate for a time, then roll up into little balls and enjoy.
By 2606, the US Diet will be 100 Percent Sugar
the average american now eats over 100 pounds of sugar a year, compared to just over 6 pounds a year in 1822. put another way, “…in 1822, we ate the amount of the amount of added sugar in one 12 ounce can of soda every five days, while today we eat that much sugar every seven hours.”
Stories of You
to the best of our knowledge aired a program, “stories of you”, which basically amounts to different perspectives on the philosophy of self best described as “self as a narrative center of gravity”. excellent stuff, except for the lack of mention of dan dennett who championed the concept since the mid 80’s and wrote, “The Self as a Center of Narrative Gravity”
How the first plant came to be
new genetic research supports the theory that plants “owe their existence to a tiny alga eons ago that swallowed a cyanobacteria and turned it into an internal solar power plant.”. reminds me of the great symbiosis quote, “Life did not take over the globe by combat, but by networking.”