16 APR 2018 by ideonexus

 Gaming Produces a Meditative State

Your brain, in other words, may not consent to be trained. But t will improve a few of these key skills if you let it enjoy a few hours of the first-person shooter BioShock. Recent research, the 2012 re noted, has revealed action games' positive effects, not just on attentional control and emotional regulation, but also on decision making, "mental rotation" (the ability to create a mental image of m object and manipulate it in three dimensions), and the ability to switch rapidly between compe...
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17 AUG 2016 by ideonexus

 Technology Brings “Growth Mindset” to Schools

With funding from the U.S. Department of Education's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, New York City-based Mindset Works developed SchoolKit, an app designed to strengthen academic and socialemotional success. Through animations, assessments, and classroom activities, students learn a growth mindset—the understanding that ability develops with effort. Pilot research in nine middle schools found significant increases in students’ growth mindset, which related to increases ...
Folksonomies: education technology
Folksonomies: education technology
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03 MAR 2014 by ideonexus

 How to Explain Science

As nearly as I can see, the only secret in popularising science (or anything else) is remembering what thinking went on in your head when you first really understood whatever it is you're now explaining: especially (1) what misunderstandings needed to be cleared away, (2) what metaphors and analogies proved helpful, and (3) what reassurance had to be offered. The effort involved is slight, the benefits great. Among the potential pitfalls are oversimplification, the need to be sparing w...
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Remember what was going on in your head when you first understood the thing.

02 JAN 2014 by ideonexus

 Idealism and Metaphysics are Easy

Idealism and metaphysics are the easiest things in the world, because people can talk as much nonsense as they like without basing it on objective reality or having it tested against reality. Materialism and dialectics, on the other hand, need effort. They must be based on and tested by objective reality. Unless one makes the effort one is liable to slip into idealism and metaphysics. Introductory note to "Material on the Hu Feng Counter-Revolutionary Clique" (May 1955).
Folksonomies: pseudoscience metaphysics
Folksonomies: pseudoscience metaphysics
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Because they require no alignment with reality before speaking of them.

04 APR 2013 by ideonexus

 The BRAIN Initiative

As humans, we can identify galaxies light years away, we can study particles smaller than an atom. But we still haven’t unlocked the mystery of the three pounds of matter that sits between our ears. (Laughter.) But today, scientists possess the capability to study individual neurons and figure out the main functions of certain areas of the brain. But a human brain contains almost 100 billion neurons making trillions of connections. So Dr. Collins says it’s like listening to the strin...
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Text of Obama's comments on the initiative itself.

19 JAN 2013 by ideonexus

 The ENMOD Treaty

There are also major foreign policy concerns, beginning with the international ENMOD treaty—the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use ot Environmental Modification Techniques, ratified by the United Nations in 1978 in response to the United States' use of silver iodide cloud seeding to alter the weather over the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the Vietnam War. Operation Popeye was an effort to "make mud, not war" to slow North Vietnamese supply lines by lengthening the...
Folksonomies: war geoengineering
Folksonomies: war geoengineering
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Prohibits geoengineering, such as agent orange, as a tactic in war.

06 JUN 2012 by ideonexus

 Jefferson Sees Science Beginning a Revolution

Even in Europe a change has sensibly taken place in the mind of man. Science has liberated the ideas of those who read and reflect, and the American example has kindled feelings of right in the people. An insurrection has consequently begun of science talents and courage against rank and birth, which have fallen into contempt. It has failed in its first effort, because the mobs of the cities, the instrument used for its accomplishment, debased by ignorance, poverty and vice, could not be rest...
Folksonomies: science freedom
Folksonomies: science freedom
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Against privilege and rank.

31 MAY 2012 by ideonexus

 Genius is Hardwork

Men give me some credit for genius. All the genius I have lies in this: When I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. I explore it in all its bearings. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort which I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought.
Folksonomies: intelligence study
Folksonomies: intelligence study
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Quoting Alexander Hamilton.

30 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 The Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses

It will be observed that the distinction [between hypothesis and theory] is not such as to prevent a working hypothesis from gliding with the utmost ease into a ruling theory. Affection may as easily cling about a beloved intellectual child when named as a hypothesis as if named a theory, and its establishment in the one guise may become a ruling passion very much as in the other. The historical antecedents and the moral atmosphere associated with the working hypothesis lend some good influen...
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By maintaining many hypotheses, the scientist does not fall in love with one over the others and fall into the trap of confirmation bias.

03 JAN 2012 by ideonexus

 Jaron Lanier's Suggestions for Taking Action Online

Every save-the-world cause has a list of suggestions for “what each of us can do”: bike to work, recycle, and so on. I can propose such a list related to the problems I’m talking about: Don’t post anonymously unless you really might be in danger. If you put effort into Wikipedia articles, put even more effort into using your personal voice and expression outside of the wiki to help attract people who don’t yet realize that they are interested in the topics you contributed to.Po...
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These are habits you can adopt to maintain your individuality. Seems like good advice for lots of people on Facebook and other sites.