German Movies
Two German movies I enjoyed very much:
Go For Zucker
The Edukators
Both also available from Netflix.
Just do it.
Al Gore – Tell Congress to act on global warming
Sign the postcard to your representative demanding real action on global warming below and I’ll personally deliver it to Washington in March.
Modeling the Future
The Frontal Cortex : Modeling the Future
But it’s worth remembering that our scientific models of global warming, although they seem accurate and are backed by an iron clad scientific consensus, will no doubt turn out to be wrong, at least in the details.
It’s all in the details! Click on above link for the whole story.
Unpleasant
Unpleasant indeed.
I mean that – don’t click on the link unless you are prepared to experience something unpleasant!
I can’t listen to the file, because it is painfully unpleasant. If you cannot hear the file you do not hear as well as most humans, period. This could have a genetic cause, but most likely you have been listening to music or noise at too high a volume. If you like to listen to music in your car, for example, you should know that it is very easy to turn music up too loud in that environment because you have to overcome the engine and wind noise. I strongly suggest that you:
1. go to an audiologist and do a hearing test – they play you different pitches over headphones and you have to react by pushing a button
2. you get hearing protection for when you go to a club, sit in an airplane, anytime you are around a lot of noise – check out this and this – I use the latter and love ’em!
You may not feel that this is a critical issue for you right now, but once you need hearing aids you will fee different. Nothing can truly bring your hearing back.
Please make an appointment with an audiologist right away.
Flexibility
I Can’t Believe It’s Science (for Feb. 26, 2007)
A recent study out of the University of Virginia concluded that not only are older adults more likely than young people to make errors in recollection, but they are also more confident that their memories are accurate.
(Via Seed Magazine)
Continue reading at above link. Seeing only one perspective – one’s own – can be the danger of getting old, although plenty of young people exhibit that kind of calcification. Training or practicing one’s ability to step into a different perspective becomes very important. A Big Mind board-game would be interesting – Monopoly meets Big Mind…
Stepping outside one’s own little sphere, opening up one’s world, developing compassion by putting oneself in other’s shoes etc… it all comes down to becoming flexible and remaining flexible. Meditation helps. It’s calisthenics for the mind, or mind-yoga if you like. I find that I have to remain constantly vigilant, because the mind likes to apply past experience, rather than being open and examining each case individually.
