So Wiseman has written a self-help book of his own, a collection of techniques built on findings from academic research in psychology.

Call it evidence-based self-help. The book is called 59 Seconds, for the time it’s supposed to take to practice each of the bits of advice Wiseman lays out within: Looking to seduce someone? Take your date to an amusement park or on a vigorous run, for research shows that attraction increases along with heart rate. Think someone’s prone to telling you white lies? Correspond more with them by e-mail, for research shows people are less likely to prevaricate when there’s a written record that could trip them up later.

{ Freakonomics | Continue reading | Interview }

What is a “mental illness”? What is an “illness”? What does the description and classification of “mental illnesses” actually involve, and is the description of “new” mental illnesses description of actually existing entities, or the creation of them?

“Solastalgia” is a neologism, invented by the Australian environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht, to give greater meaning and clarity to psychological distress caused by environmental change. …) The doctor and former British Foreign Secretary, Lord Owen, has coined the phrase “hubris syndrome” to describe the mindset of prime ministers and presidents whose behaviour is characterised by reckless, hubristic belief in their own rightness.

This paper uses both the concept of solastalgia and the related concepts Albrecht posited of psychoterratic and somaterratic illnesses and hubris syndrome as a starting point to explore issues around the meaning of mental illness, and what it means to describe and classify mental illness.

{ Seamus P. MacSuibhne, What makes “a new mental illness”?: The cases of solastalgia and hubris syndrome | Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy | Continue reading }

quote { Thanks Robert }

According to accepted DSM-IV diagnostic criteria, close to 50% of people suffer from a mental illness at some point; a large fraction of this being depression. 10% of Americans took antidepressants last year according to the best estimates.

Guess what? Clever people have started asking “Antidepressants are amongst the biggest selling drugs in the world - but do they work?” And their answer is - not very well.

{ Neuroskeptic | Continue reading }

related { Does semen have antidepressant properties? }

photo { Leilani Wertens }

I once tried setting my watch ahead a few minutes to help me make it to appointments on time. At first it worked, but not because I was fooled. I would glance at the watch, get worried that I was late, then remember that the watch is fast. But that brief flash acted as a sort of preview of how it feels to be late. And the feeling is a better motivator than the thought in the abstract.

But that didn’t last very long. The surprise wore off. I wonder if there are ways to maintain the surprise. For example, instead of setting the watch a fixed time ahead, I could set it to run too fast so that it gained an extra minute every week or month. Then if I have adaptive expectations I could consistently fool myself.

{ Cheap Talk | Continue reading }

“When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour,” said Albert Einstein, “it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute, and it’s longer than any hour.” Einstein was describing one of the most profound implications of his Theory of General Relativity - that the perception of time is subjective. This is something we all know from experience: time flies when we are enjoying ourselves, but seems to drag on when we are doing something tedious.

The subjective experience of time can also be manipulated experimentally. Visual stimuli which appear to be approaching are perceived to be longer in duration than when viewed as static or moving away. Similarly, participants presented with a stream of otherwise identical stimuli, but including one oddball (or “deviant”) stimulus, tend to perceive the deviant stimulus as lasting longer than the others. The underlying neural mechanisms of this are unknown, but now the first neuroimaging study of this phenomenon implicates the involvement of brain structures which are thought to be required for cognitive control and subjective awareness.

The apparent prolonged duration of a looming or deviant stimulus is referred to as the time dilation illusion, and three possible, but not mutually exclusive, explanations for why it might occur have been put forward. First, the stimulus might be perceived as lasting longer because it has unusual properties which require an increased amount of attention to be devoted to it. Alternatively, the perceived duration of the stimulus might reflect the amount of energy expended in generating its neural representation (that is, duration is a function of coding efficiency). Finally, the effect might be due to the intrinsic dynamic properties of the stimulus, such that the brain estimates time based on the number of changes in an event.

{ Neurophilosophy/ScienceBlogs | Continue reading }

{ Travis Louie | more }

{ Toyota recall Q & A: What to do if your car suddenly accelerates | LA Times }

Our memories are strengthened during periods of rest while we are awake, researchers at New York University have found. The findings expand our understanding of how memories are boosted—previous studies had shown this process occurs during sleep, but not during times of awake rest.

“Taking a coffee break after class can actually help you retain that information you just learned,” explained Lila Davachi, an assistant professor in NYU’s Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, in whose laboratory the study was conducted. “Your brain wants you to tune out other tasks so you can tune in to what you just learned.”

{ EurekAlert | Continue reading }

{ Michel de Broin, Silent Screaming, 2006 | Alarm, bell jar, vacuum pump and water, variable dimensions, single piece | This device is designed to silence an alarm system by creating a vacuum, which is an environment where sound cannot travel. The movement of the hammer striking the bell jar is visible but the alarm “scream” is inaudible. | more }

photo { Ryan Nicholson | A Photography Blog | More + Q&A }

The heyday for nanotech VC [Venture Capital] likely saw its peak in 2008, when overall investment reached $1.4 billion. Last year, the sector raised only $792 million, signifying a 42% decline from 2008. But while overall nano VC backing is down, it’s not out, according to a new report from Lux Research. Investment in nano-driven healthcare and life sciences increased last year at the same rate that overall nanotech VC dropped — 42%. These two segments attracted $404 million last year, and are likely to lead VC investments in nano for the near future.

{ Lux Research/RD mag | Continue reading }

related { Paul Graham, essayist, programmer and partner in the y-combinator talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about start-ups, innovation, and creativity. }

{ Skimmer found Dec. 6, 2009, attached to the front of a Citibank ATM in Woodland Hills, Calif. A skimmer is a device made to be affixed to the mouth of an ATM and secretly swipe credit and debit card information when bank customers slip their cards into the machines to pull out money. | Krebs on Security | more }

photo { Joshua Davis | Related: The world’s foremost lion expert reveals the brutal, secret world of the king of beasts }

Copyright infringement has stirred the souls of artists and publishers since the time of Charles Dickens, who went to the United States in 1842 to ask the Americans to stop pirating his works.

His books were being reprinted there without his receiving a penny, but the Americans told him to jump in the lake.

How the world has changed. Now America’s a bastion for the defence of copyright and the country that once rejected international copyright laws is relentless in enforcing them.

However, 2009 might have marked the year when the enforcers lost valuable ground. (…)

Technology has forced the change, one in which there is no turning back.

{ National Post | Continue reading }

related { confessions of a book pirate }

{ For almost three years now, this has been Ben Huh [the 32-year-old founder of the humor-blog startup Cheezburger Network]’s life: to pore over millions of JPEGs and YouTube clips in search of Internet memes — those absurd running gags that hatch and proliferate on the Web seemingly overnight — and figure out which of these quick-hit laughs might yield long-term profits. | Wired | Full story }

A man has been banned from a public park after he allegedly tried to have sex with a tree.

Artificial hymens sold $38 at China border.

Man arrested after he tried to break into jail.

Travolta flies aid, scientologists to Haiti.

eHarmony forced to merge gay, straight dating sites In discrimination lawsuit.

We’re working twice as much than we’re supposed to be working for half the money. 24% of workers say they no longer feel loyal to their current employer and 19% plan to move to a new job this year.
Ripping apart smart-phones reveals their true cost.

What makes a man take credit for a crime he didn’t commit?

Handshake is the universal greeting of peace and goodwill. But youngsters are kissing goodbye to traditional social etiquette, killing off the handshake, researchers say.

Early risers are more proactive than evening people.

What your sleep position says about you.

Losing sleep, losing brain? The more severe the sleeping problems of insomniacs, the less grey matter density they have in the region involved in pleasantness evaluation, which may also be important for the recognition of optimal comfort to fall asleep.

The 7 psychological principles of scams: protect yourself by learning the techniques.

People choose TV news based on which channels are more likely to agree with their pre-existing opinions and they have a tendency to filter for information that confirms, rather than challenges, what we believe.

Single cells in the monkey brain encode abstract mathematical concepts.

A Swedish study concludes that children with a high IQ have a reduced risk of mortality as adults.

Brain size predicts success at video games.

Ageing may cloud financial judgement, thanks to “noise” in an area of the brain critical for predicting pay-offs.

Playing Mozart music to premature babies seems to help them gain weight faster and become stronger, new research found.

How a lack of control leads to superstition.

Can a single machine solve the complex problem of scanning cargo containers for conventional and nuclear weapons?

Caucasians and Asians don’t examine faces in the same way, according to new research.

The tobacco in cigarettes hosts a bacterial bonanza — literally hundreds of different germs, including those responsible for many human illnesses, a new study finds.

Does information about calories reduce calorie consumption? Yes.

Some scientists are convinced life is common in the universe, but intelligence rare. As for how long civilisations last - and stay detectable - few are willing to hazard a guess.

Why we should not return to the Moon.

The disappearing snows of Everest.

Underwater mushrooms?

A library of the world’s most unusual compounds.

Ten plants that put meat on their plates. In addition to the well-known Venus flytrap, many other plant species feed on bugs or crustaceans

Ten venture capitalist predictions for 2010.

How we will (or won’t) survive without newspaper.

In his brief essay The Irritable Chess Players of 1985, Primo Levi elaborates a set of symmetries between the act of literary creation and the playing of a game of chess.

Ozzy Osbourne: “Well, believe me, I didn’t sit down and put pen to fucking paper. I’d still be writing the first page. I got a ghostwriter.”

The literary masters of misery who delight in desolation.

A criminal investigation is pending against the artist Shepard Fairey in connection with his use of an Associated Press photograph of Barack Obama.

Miramax closes its doors.

Spike Jonze’s new short film trailer. Unrelated: Shark in Venice trailer.

New York City has highest life expectancy in recorded city history, new data show.

A woman taking an adult education class at the Met accidentally lost her balance and fell into a rare Rose Period Picasso, tearing the canvas about six inches along its lower right-hand corner.

For night riders, finding peace on sleepy streets.

The evolution of skateboarding in New York City.

The Wall Street Ex-Wives Club.

Did you know that something like 85 percent of women are wearing the wrong size bra?

How do women bargain differently?

The 3 Facebook settings every user should check now. Realted: Conversation with a Facebook employee.

The 6 most statistically full of shit professions.

Movie misquotations.

Most labels are misleading, sometimes grossly so.

When a toilet atop the Sears Tower is flushed, do the contents fall 110 floors?

How to catch an iphone thief.

How to make your own bedbug detector.

Party rats. Ideal for night blogging.

Urinal cascade.

Coway electronic bidets “love your tush”…

Work and boredom.– Looking for work in order to be paid: in civilized countries today almost all men are at one in doing that. For all of them work is a means and not an end in itself. Hence they are not very refined in their choice of work, if only it pays well. But there are, if only rarely, men who would rather perish than work without any pleasure in their work. They are choosy, hard to satisfy, and do not care for ample rewards, if the work itself is not the reward of rewards. Artists and contemplative men of all kinds belong to this rare breed, but so do even those men of leisure who spend their lives hunting, traveling, or in love affairs and adventures. All of these desire work and misery if only it is associated with pleasure, and the hardest, most difficult work if necessary. Otherwise, their idleness is resolute, even if it spells impoverishment, dishonor, and danger to life and limb. They do not fear boredom as much as work without pleasure; they actually require a lot of boredom if their work is to succeed. For thinkers and all sensitive spirits, boredom is that disagreeable “windless calm” of the soul that precedes a happy voyage and cheerful winds. They have to bear it and must wait for its effect on them. Precisely this is what lesser natures cannot achieve by any means. To ward off boredom at any cost is vulgar, no less than work without pleasure.

{ Nietzsche, The Gay Science, 42, 1882 | Read more: Wikipedia }

The relationship between emotions and rationality is one that has preoccupied man for thousands of years. As the ancient Stoics said, the emotions typically involve the judgement that harm or benefit is at hand (Sorabji 2006). Already, then, there was thought to be a relationship between emotions and ‘judgement’, the latter implying a degree of rationality. But Sorabji, a philosopher, also points out that the mere intellectual appreciation of benefit or harm does not constitute emotion, but there must be some physiological disturbance: disembodied emotion is not meaningful. Yet the physiological reactions involved in emotions are typically thought of, since the development of evolutionary theory, as something of more primitive origins than reasoning. One reaction to this would be to argue that emotions govern actions that are urgent and essential to survival, whereas reasoning is dispassionate and calculating. (…)

To understand the usefulness of neuroscience in examining the rationality of decision-making, it is worth looking at an example. Current neurological research shows that people with orbitofrontal cortical lesions have difficulties in anticipating the negative emotional consequences of their choices. People with healthy brains, however, seem to take account of these emotions, which are mediated through and are consistent with counterfactual thinking in the assessment of choice alternatives (Bechara et al. 1994). More generally, results from psychological and neurological research show that emotions and affective states are not just sources of biased judgements, but may also serve as essential functions leading to more appropriate choices.

{ Alan Kirman, Pierre Livet and Miriam Teschl | Continue reading | More: Theme Issue ‘Rationality and emotions’ | The Royal Society B }

photo { Ansen Seale }

{ 1 | 2 }