Revenge of the Right Brain

Scientists have long known that a neurological Mason-Dixon line cleaves our brains into two regions – the left and right hemispheres. But in the last 10 years, thanks in part to advances in functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers have begun to identify more precisely how the two sides divide responsibilities. The left hemisphere handles sequence, literalness, and analysis. The right hemisphere, meanwhile, takes care of context, emotional expression, and synthesis. Of course, the human brain, with its 100 billion cells forging 1 quadrillion connections, is breathtakingly complex. The two hemispheres work in concert, and we enlist both sides for nearly everything we do. But the structure of our brains can help explain the contours of our times.

Nice article by Daniel Pink. Two things come to mind:

1. Why choose between Left and Right when you can have both. Meditation creates connections between the two hemispheres and two halves make a whole…
2. The school system is taking kids down the wrong road. Parents have to demand art and music classes, because that is how one gets kids to engage the right hemisphere. Use it or lose it.
Thanks Eric N.

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Treo 650 GSM

Unlocked Treo 650 GSM on Ebay and somebody has bid US $1,025.00. Since it will be available from Palm for around 600 in about a month, this person is paying about 400 extra bucks for 30 days of bragging. Hey, that’s cheaper than a Lamborghini, right?

PS: Does that bid look stupid now! I just purchased an unlocked Treo 650 directly from PalmOne – for $599!!

Brazil

In 20 minutes, I’m getting in a car to go to the airport to fly to Sao Paolo, to fly to Chicago, to fly to San Francisco, to get in a car to go home. It has been an insanely intense few days in this astonishing place.

This morning’s panel was packed in what seemed to be an old factory. The room was overflowing with at least 1,500 people, and a panel of 5. Manuel Castells began, with a careful and extremely interesting diagnosis of the net’s development. I then described the remix culture culture has been (legal and free) and the remix culture culture could be (amazing and diverse) and the blocks to that new culture coming about (law). Christian Alhert told the story of the BBC’s Creative Archive. And JP Barlow gave one of the most intense and powerful speeches I’ve ever seen him deliver. This place is personal to him.

Then Gil spoke. Needless to say, the warm up acts were just that. He electrified the audience, delivering a written speech as poetry slam. He promised more support for free software, and free culture. And he again embraced the Creative Commons movement in Brazil, which is exploding everywhere here. Again he took questions. Again he answered critics, directly, and passionately.
(Via Lessig Blog.)

You should read the whole post. Brazil is making a lot of the right steps to become a powerhouse in the near future – one or two decades, if it takes that long. You should also check out this post.

Symphonic House

The Wege House
wege.jpg image

…all you must do at The Wege House must do is don rosin-powdered gloves and have at it on any of the house’s integrated instruments. The House architecture becomes the resonating chamber of the instruments, with strings precisely lined, allowing you to be completely surrounded by the music.

We have chosen to explore in our time on Earth an idea: Could we increase the size of the instrument and walk inside? To walk inside the instrument and play the instrument is to feel the sound in your body, within your bones and within your mind.

Symphonic House
(Via Gizmodo.)