Stuff worth reading Unexcited? There May Be a Pill for That Excellent evo psych takedowns. Extraordinary parentheticals. And really awesome treatment of people in the story by the journalist. thoughts on Pew’s latest report: notable findings on race and privacy … Continue reading →

Writers J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and others discussed religious and literary ideas and their own works in progress in a famed discussion group, the Inklings, which met regularly at Lewis’ college rooms at Oxford or in pubs, in the 1930s and 40s. Of course, writers groups, support groups based on Julia Cameron’s classic book The [...]

Hey Julie,I hope you've had a fun week. I saw a new in-press publication with your name on it - "Smelling more or less: Investigating the olfactory experience of the domestic dog" - looks like a really great study, and so timely after my last post about dogs and olfactory enrichment!  Looking forward to reading it (and all those other cool Learning and Motivation articles) over the weekend. So did you do your homework? Did you watch this clip from the Sydney Opera […]

Imagine holding your smartphone up to the sky and detecting pollen in the air or bacteria in the water. It's like SpectraSnap for the living world. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers developed the handheld hardware and smartphone app that transforms the camera and computing capabilities of the iPhone into a sensitive biosensor. The researchers envision scientists, physicians, or even backpackers will be able to use the App, the iPhone GPS software, and holder for in […]

Sometimes real life looks kind of fake. Or it would if you tried to paint it. Lurid pink, purple and orange sunsets. Up close detail of tree bark. Or this morning's low hanging clouds over Toronto. They look like poor use of the Photoshop smudge tool. When painting, we sometimes stick to conventions based on viewer expectation instead of what nature actually looks like. It's rooted in the same impulse that children use when always picking blue for colouring skies even though in they […]