07 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
How Los Angeles Regulates Air Pollution
Los Angeles is not really a city of skyscrapers. All around those skyscrapers is a flat expanse of one- and two-story buildings. This low-density urban development means you have to drive to get around in LA. Los Angeles’ sprawl is considered a classic case of failed urban planning.Los Angeles’ sprawl is considered a classic case of failed urban planning. Its public transportation has not been developed or utilized to its fullest potential. This has caused an inevitable increase in car o... 1 
notes
notesDespite increased traffic.
13 APR 2013 by ideonexus
How the Brain Handles Novelty and Routine
When faced with complexity, our first response is to retreat to the familiar, even if the familiar means failing. But in addition to reverting to what is familiar, we also have another reaction: fear.
We are hardwired to perceive real change as threatening, so we instinctively reject it. Sure, a few of us have the courage and tenacity to attack the complex, the unknown, and the risky. After all, this is hiow new discoveries are made.
But many more of us do not.
Why not?
It turns out t... 1 notes
notesThe frontal cortex is wired to handle novelty and the basal ganglia wired to handle routine, when we live in a world of constant novelty, is our gut reaction to oppose everything?
08 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
Trivia VS Knowledge
Have you ever met anyone with an encyclopedic knowledge of obscure rock bands? I knew a group of people in Los Angeles who spent their time browsing the used bins at record shops back in the days when music was recorded on vinyl (which is making a comeback these days, even though most kids have never heard anything other than compressed 128-kilobite-per-second digital recordings). Some of these people were so obsessed with obscure bands that they deserved the moniker "vinyl vermin." They coll... 1 notes
notesGraffin relates the story of "Vinyl Vermin" who collected trivia about music rather than cultivating opinions on what was good or bad. He relates this to amassing taxonomy knowledge without a theory.
02 NOV 2012 by ideonexus
Disneyland's Simulation Reinforces the Myth of the Real
Thus, everywhere in Disneyland the objective profile of America, down to the morphology
of individuals and of the crowd, is drawn. All its values are exalted by the miniature and
the comic strip. Embalmed and pacified. Whence the possibility of an ideological analysis
of Disneyland (L. Marin did it very well in Utopiques, jeux d'espace [Utopias, play of
space]): digest of the American way of life, panegyric of American values, idealized
transposition of a contradictory reality. Certainly. But... 1 notes
notesIt's fantasy persuades us to ignore the simulation of what we consider the "real" world. It presents itself as childish whimsy, which convinces us that what we experience daily is the "adult" world.
22 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Los Angeles's Air Quality Regulations
Los Angeles air quality has improved in recent years because of new regulations on automobile and plant emissions, but the American Lung Association still ranks the Los Angeles area as the metropolitan region in America most polluted by year-round particles, short-term particles, and ozone. This persistent ranking contrasts with other data on Los Angeles's environmental progress. For example, the number of "exceedance" days in the Los Angeles / Long Beach area of southern California (days tha... 1 notes
notesCalifornia requests additional federal regulations because its cities have unhealthy levels of ozone, which are poisoning its citizens.
03 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
If Humans Were Like Chimpanzees
If we were hairless chimpanzees, our society would still Dok fairly familiar in some ways. We would live in families, be very social, hierarchical, group-territorial, and aggressive toward other groups than those we belong to. In other words, we would be family-based, urban, class-conscious, nationalist, and belligerent, which we are. Adult males would spend more time trying to climb the political hierarchy than with their families. But when we turn to sex, things would begin to look very dif...
1 Much would be the same, but we would be very different sexually.
23 MAR 2011 by ideonexus
1933 Humanist Manifesto
The time has come for widespread recognition of the radical changes in religious beliefs throughout the modern world. The time is past for mere revision of traditional attitudes. Science and economic change have disrupted the old beliefs. Religions the world over are under the necessity of coming to terms with new conditions created by a vastly increased knowledge and experience. In every field of human activity, the vital movement is now in the direction of a candid and explicit humanism....
1 Original humanist manifesto, defining humanism's 15 affirmations.
