Juvenile delinquency and glass ceilings caused by first names? Hmmm….
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Among the wealth of research on the importance of given names, a new study correlates first names with criminal behaviour
MICHAEL VALPY | From Monday’s Globe and Mail | June 9, 2008 at 4:44 AM EDT
A Jarrit by any other name might be a brain surgeon.
Our “anecdotal” brain sucks up all the sensational news a media (vying for higher ad revenues) can muster. This results in some skewed gut feelings of what we should be afraid of.
Wired’s book review of Dan Gardner’s The Science of Fear includes a quiz that is worth taking.
“All models are wrong, but some are useful” — I love that quote. For me it highlights the raison d’etre of science: to predict and therefore to increase control. I don’t agree with the article that theories and models will become obsolete, but it is time to add some new tools to the set of predicting tools we already have. And use the most useful ones.
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Scientific American Magazine - July 25, 2008
By Michael Shermer
Key points in this article: sleeping allows us to learn. It cements our memories, but also culls them, keeping the ones that are emotionally related. Our brains also solve problems/discover patterns while we sleep. We need about 6 hours of continuous sleep to achieve this, both slow-wave and REM.
Scientific American Mind - August 7, 2008
Neuroeconomics
A new school of economists is controversially turning to neuroscience to improve the dismal science
This article from Discover Magazine includes an eye-opening section on interpretation of clinical research studies and doctors’ understanding of it.
I am passing this article on to my doctor.
06.20.2008
Nothing pisses me off more than deliberately misleading advertising. Want to eat healthier and buy whole grain products? Good luck — this article explains why no one knows how much whole grain there is in some products.
From Business Week:
July 23, 2008, 12:01AM EST
If you want to control your blood sugar level (and possibly even lose weight), vinegar is your friend. And if you want to avoid cancer-causing damage by meat, red wine (or fruit in general) will neutralize some of the nasties before it even gets into your bloodstream. So start your meal with a vinaigrette salad; have some wine with your meat and fruit for dessert.
Here are the two articles supporting the above.
July 22, 2008 in Mind & Brain |SciAm.com
Although it started out as a means of practising expressing myself, this blog is turning out to be more of a compendium of interesting information I come across. One of these days I’ll have to actually write something as opposed to cut and paste. 
