Merce Cardus's Blog, page 107
February 20, 2015
What Percentage Of Your Brain Do You Use?

Photo Credit: NapInterrupted via Compfight cc
Video of the day
The brain is a far more open system than we ever imagined, and nature has gone very far to help us perceive and take in the world around us. It has given us a brain that survives in a changing world by changing itself.
~NORMAN DOIDGE, author of The Brain That Changes Itself
Two thirds of the population believes a myth that has been propagated for over a century: that we use only 10% of our brains. Hardly! Our neuron-dense brains have...
WEEKEND LINKS ~ Reads on Writing & Better Living: Understanding Cross-Class Marriages

Photo Credit: haveweallgotthebends via Compfight cc
Quote of the day
Respondents in different-origin marriages tended to tell stories indicating that they appealed to each other because each had internalized a sensibility that the other desired but that was difficult to acquire in the class milieu of their youth.Their class differences then correlated with cultural differences, ones that respondents felt operated as magnets that pulled the two individuals together.
~JESSI STREIB, author ofThe Po...
February 19, 2015
Sheryl Sandberg on Women, Work, And The Will To Lead

Photo Credit: Be-Younger.com via Compfight cc
What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
At 44, Sheryl Sandberg is at home in the heights of American power: She has her Harvard MBA, she was chief of staff for the secretary of treasury, she was a VP at Google, and she’s been the chief operating officer at Facebook since 2008.
InLean In, she explains how women can take charge of their own careers and push forward at a time when gender bias is more alive that we would like to admit.
She offers insight...
February 18, 2015
The Unexpected Math Behind Van Gogh’s Starry Night

Photo Credit: Tanukik via Compfight cc
Video of the day:
When I meet God, I am going to ask him two questions: why relativity? And why turbulence? I really believe he will have an answer for the first.
~Physicist WERNER HEISENBERG, author ofPhysics and Philosophy
As difficult as turbulence is to understand mathematically, we can use art to depict the way it looks. Natalya St. Clair illustrates how Van Gogh captured this deep mystery of movement, fluid and light in his work.
One of the most remarka...
THURSDAY LINKS ~ Reads on Writing & Better Living: In Nature Nothing Exists Alone

Photo Credit: rbrwr via Compfight cc
Quote of the day
Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.
~RACHEL CARSON, author ofSilent Spring
CREATIVITY
Get moving to get creative, Knote| Tweet
Writer’s block? Can’t seem to come up with a solution to a persistent issue? Creative types often seek...
7 Lessons In Wealth-Building From The Richest Man In Babylon

Photo Credit: Barta IV via Compfight cc
How can you call yourself a free man when your weakness has brought you to this? If a man has in himself the soul of a slave will he not become one no matter what his birth, even as water seeks its level? If a man has within him the soul of a free man, will he not become respected and honored in his own city in spite of his misfortune?
The Richest Man in Babylonis about creating lasting wealth from a different perspective.These “Babylonian parables” have...
Isabel Allende On How To Live Passionately–No Matter Your Age

Photo Credit: Julien Ducenne via Compfight cc
Tell me, what is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
~MARY OLIVER
Isabel Allendeis aChilean-American writer.Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the “magic realist” tradition, is famous for novels such asThe House of the Spirits
andCity of the Beasts
, which have been commercially successful.
She is 71. Yes, she has a few wrinkles—but she has incredible perspective too. In this candid talk, meant for viewers of all...
HUMP DAY LINKS ~ Reads on Writing & Better Living: The Magic of Instant Connections

Photo Credit: Mustafa Khayat via Compfight cc
Quote of the day
We tend to match the emotions of those around us. For example, we’re more prone to become stressed when we’re around someone who is high-strung. And we’re more likely to be in a good mood when others around us are laughing.
~ORI BRAFMAN, author ofClick: The Magic of Instant Connections
PSYCHOLOGY
How to stop calling yourself a fraud or a failure [Wander Woman: How High-Achieving Women Find Contentment and Direction], Psychology Today|...
February 17, 2015
Erich Fromm On The Fear Of Freedom

Photo Credit: h.koppdelaney via Compfight cc
The frightened individual seeks for somebody or something to tie his selfto; he cannot bear to be his own individual self any longer, and he tries frantically to get rid of it and to feel security again by the elimination of this burden: the self.
In The Fear of Freedom , Erich Fromm warns that the price of community is indeed high, and it is the individual who pays. Heleaves a vastly increased understanding of the huma
n character in relation to soci...
February 16, 2015
David Carr’s 10 Pieces Of Advice On Journalism And Life

Photo Credit: Bob Jagendorf via Compfight cc
No one is going to give a damn about your résumé; they want to see what you have made with your own little fingers.
David Michael Carr was an American writer, columnist, and author of The Night of the Gun: A reporter investigates the darkest story of his life. His own.He wrote the Media Equation column and covered culture for The New York Times.
He offered 10 pieces of graduation advice to students before the2014graduating class at UC Berkeley’s Gradu...