Lilian Nattel's Blog, page 67
February 4, 2011
how the uprising in Egypt began, on a beach, with Facebook
Three summers ago on a litter-strewn beach in Alexandria, I tagged along with a group of young Egyptian dissidents for a little civil disobedience. The goal was to fly a kite painted the colors of the country's flag, and hand out pro-democracy leaflets. They also considered singing some patriotic songs.
via theatlantic.com
A poignant and fascinating story.
Filed under: Interesting Tagged: Egypt uprising
February 3, 2011
yes, do bribe your kids to eat their veggies
Lucy Cooke and her colleagues found that not only do kids eat veggies they previously resisted if bribed, but they continue to eat more of them even after several months (with no additional bribes forthcoming!) than their never-bribed peers. Interestingly, verbal praise (that's a bribe?) worked just as well as stickers.
Over four hundred four- to six-year-olds tasted six vegetables, rated them for taste and then ranked them in order of liking. Whichever was their fourth-ranked choice became their target vegetable.
Filed under: Interesting Tagged: getting kids to eat veggies
learning from others' mistakes: what the brain notices
Volunteers played a simple game, modeled after foraging in the wild, against a computer-controlled competitor. Players chose one of four boxes, which paid out varying sums of money. To maximize winnings, a player had to occasionally sample each of the boxes. When players saw their competitors get an unexpectedly high sum, functional MRI scans showed no measurable brain activity in reaction. When the drones got an unexpectedly low payout, however, parts of a player's brain associated with inhibition went bonkers.
via scientificamerican.com
I wonder if this is why it's a common human tendency to focus more on our own mistakes than our own successes. Is it a hardwired method of learning? Perhaps at one time it meant that humans could avoid getting eaten by a tiger or falling off a cliff. That would be useful. Too bad it gets over-generalized to misery and anxiety over non-tigerish situations.
Filed under: Miscellany
February 2, 2011
save our libraries day
All over the UK protests staged for Sat Feb 5. http://ow.ly/3PeQW. Time we all #savelibraries where we are.
Filed under: Miscellany
getting home x 2 billion
Forget Thanksgiving or Christmas travel. For spring festival, aka Chinese New Year, 2 billion people are on the move.
via ChinaSmack
One woman, as a typical example, waited a whole day in line to get train tickets so she could go home to see her daughter, whom she hadn't seen in 5 years because she was working far from home. See her big smile in the video below.
via Ministry of Tofu
h/t The Atlantic and A who sent me the link.
Filed under: Interesting, Uplifting Tagged: Chun Yun travel
holiday travel x 2 billion
Forget Thanksgiving or Christmas travel. For spring festival, aka Chinese New Year, 2 billion people are on the move.
via ChinaSmack
One woman, as a typical example, waited a whole day in line to get train tickets so she could go home to see her daughter, whom she hadn't seen in 5 years because she was working far from home. See her big smile in the video below.
via Ministry of Tofu
h/t The Atlantic and A who sent me the link.
Filed under: Interesting, Uplifting Tagged: Chun Yun travel
school needlework 1893
A course of study in sewing designed for use in schools (Open Library) free download http://ow.ly/3Nj85
Filed under: Miscellany
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