Leon Atkinson's Blog, page 8

People are not right-brained or left-brained

It’s true that different parts of the brain typically provide different functions. It’s just that the idea that some people are dominated by their right hemisphere turns out be conclusively wrong. But let me mix in another idea. It’s possible that thousands of years ago, minds weren’t so integrated and there were people who were dominated by the right hemisphere. More on that tomorrow.

Debunked: ‘Right-Brain’ and ‘Left-Brain’ Personalities — PsyBlog

Evidence from over 1,000 fMRI brain scans finds no evidence people are ‘right-brained’ or ‘left-brained’.

Your kids are competing in the real world hunger games

Here’s another reason why communized public school system is bad for us. I apologize in advance if any of this information stirs a small storm of cognitive dissonance for you.

Hunger Games for real

“Students can only have one serving of meat or other protein. However, rich kids can buy a second portion each day on their own dime.” This is from coverage of Michelle Obama’s national school-lunch regulations.

Protein-starving the peasantry so it will remain docile and biddable is a tyrant’s maneuver thousands of years old. I was unaware until today that this has become official policy in the American public school system.

How clever of them to sell it as a healthy-eating measure! That’ll get all the gentry liberals on board; of course, their kids will be buying that second serving.

Sismics Reader

Here’s another alternative to the now-retired Google Reader. This is a self-hosted solution that comes with an Android app, too. I have to admit, though, that Feedly is working really well for me.

Sismics Reader

Sismics Reader was started in March 2013 after the Google annoucement saying Google Reader will be closed 3 months later. Three months to do as good as a multibillion revenue company? Challenge accepted.

The first step was to copy paste all key features of Google Reader, then, give this application for free to anyone willing to host his own feeds reader.

Parkour Moves Indoors

My kids love American Ninja Warrior. But what’s called Parkour today, used to be Freestyle Walking and the Ministry of Silly Walks before that. The sport has really come a long way.

Parkour, a Pastime Born on the Streets, Moves Indoors and Uptown – NYTimes.com

They are skateboarders without skateboards, urban acrobats who scale walls, hurdle mailboxes and leap between buildings in stunts that might give Spider-Man pause.

Practitioners of parkour, a daring pastime born in the streets, have long seen public spaces as their playground, and parkour as the ultimate rebel’s game, one with no rules, league, equipment or winners. It started in France (the name is derived from the French word for “course”) and has spread around the world: Gaza, Tokyo, Rome and Miami are parkour towns.

More evidence about poor sleep making you fat

If you need another reason to get good sleep, here it is.

Poor sleep makes food more appealing – health – 07 August 2013 – New Scientist

If there was ever a study not to lose sleep over, it’s this one. People deprived of a good night’s rest are more likely to experience changes in brain activity that can increase the urge to eat high-calorie foods.

Matthew Walker at the University of California in Berkeley and colleagues conducted the first study of brain activity in relation to food among sleep-deprived people. The team used fMRI to study brain patterns in 23 people, first after a night of peaceful sleep and then after a night without sleep.

Sleep deprivation reduced activity in three areas of the brain that help, among other things, to process odour and flavour signals. It also led to more activity in the amygdala, which helps govern the motivation to eat. The team also found that volunteers rated pictures of high-calorie foods as more desirable after no sleep than after a good rest.

It may make evolutionary sense, says Laurent Brondel at the University of Burgundy in Dijon, France. The long summer days at higher latitudes deprive animals of sleep, but they use their time awake to eat more, which helps them get through the short days of winter when food is scarcer.

Falskaar mod for Skyrim

OK, I thought I was done with Skyrim. I Played through all the content and moved on to Dishonored via a sweet deal on Steam. Now I’m thinking I may give this mod a try. The author built this mod as a way to a job as a level designer.

Falskaar by Alexander J. Velicky

Falskaar is a new lands mod that adds an entirely new worldspace to the world. It’s accessed by a dungeon the first time, then by boat from then on out. Falskaar’s goal was to sharpen my skills in almost all areas around the board, with a focus in level and dungeon design. The result is that there is at least a little bit of everything. There is a new land, places, people, quests, dungeons and more for the player to experience. It adds roughly 20+ hours of content, and favors all types of characters.

This is NOT a beta. This is NOT a test version. This is a 100% completed new lands mod.

Online psychotherapy may be better than in-person consultations

We already know it’s better if our therapists keep session notes in a Web app. It looks like there’s good evidence that talking to them on Google Hangouts is a good idea, too.

UZH Mediadesk – Psychotherapy via internet as good as if not better than face-to-face consultations

Online psychotherapy is just as efficient as conventional therapy. Three months after the end of the therapy, patients given online treatment even displayed fewer symptoms. For the first time, clinical researchers from the University of Zurich provide scientific evidence of the equal value of internet-based psychotherapy.

Sells Minor Threat T-Shirts at Urban Outfitters

“It’s not a political thing for me,” MacKaye says. “I just don’t give a fuck about T-shirts.”

Urban Outfitters Sells Minor Threat T-Shirts, Ian MacKaye Responds – Arts Desk

Hey, look, teens of America: You can buy a kewl Minor Threat T-shirt for $28 at Urban Outfitters.

Hear something? That’s the sound of a 45-year-old punk rocker punching a wall.

But wait just a second before you start groping for the lever on the ol’ outrage machine. Turns out the T-shirt is not a bootleg like that Forever 21 design from 2009; it’s licensed through Tsurt, a California-based company that Ian MacKaye and Co. hired to produce and oversee sales of the band’s official shirts.

The Real Value of Stock Options

Good analysis.

Benjy Boxer’s Blog

Several of my friends have been considering job opportunities at startups in New York.  Typically, their job offers have included below-market salaries and option grants.  When I chat with them about their offers, they’ve been attributing way too much value to the stock options offered.  I’ve generally explained to each of them why stock options are nice, but are worth much less than may think.

We are all NSA

And why not play Steve Jackson’s game, Killer and turn it into civil disobedience? Abbie Hoffman would be so proud.

“Excuse me, are you a robot in the Surveillance State?”

In 1959, two friends of mine, Carl and Michael, staged a spy experiment at the small Ithaca, New York, airport. They were students at Cornell University.

Michael was coming in on a little commercial plane from New York late at night.

In the one-room terminal, Carl waited for him and paced around, wearing a British raincoat and sunglasses. Occasionally, he’d look at his watch and glance out at the airstrip.

Finally, the plane arrived.

Michael, also wearing a British raincoat, descended the steps from the plane, and Carl walked out to meet him on the tarmac. They stood, head to head, for a few minutes, talking to each other. They gestured toward the terminal.

Security personnel arrested them.

On suspicion of seeming suspicious.

Which was the point of the experiment.