-
Brainlike Computers, Learning From Experience
The New York Times: Computers have entered the age when they are able to learn from their own mistakes, a development that is about to turn the digital world on its head. I.B.M. and Qualcomm, as well as the Stanford research team, have already designed neuromorphic processors, and Qualcomm has said that it is coming out in 2014 with a commercial version, which is expected to be used largely for further development. Moreover, many universities are now focused on this new style of computing. This fall the National Science Foundation financed the Center for Brains, Minds and Machines, a new research center based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with Harvard and Cornell.
-
Nothing Focuses The Mind Like The Ultimate Deadline: Death
NPR: Ticktock. Ticktock. Ticktock. The seconds left in 2013 are slipping away. And you know what else is slipping away? The seconds left in your life. Luckily for you, there's a new product called Tikker , a wristwatch that counts down your life, so you can watch on a large, dot-matrix display as the seconds you have left on Earth disappear down a black hole. Your estimated time of death is, of course, just that — an estimate. Tikker uses an algorithm like the one used by the federal government to figure a person's life expectancy. But the effect is chilling, a sort of incessant grim reaper reminding you that time is running out. Read the whole story: NPR
-
Another use for literature
Los Angeles Times: I'm no stranger to "A Midsummer Night's Dream." I've read the play, seen movie versions, attended live performances — including one in which the cast included my then 7- and 5-year-old kids (now that was theater; I only wish you all could have been there). Nevertheless, each time I revisit the play, I find myself on the edge of complete confusion trying to keep track of Hermia, Helena, Lysander and Demetrius. Wait a sec, I ask myself: Who is in love with whom? Why are they all chasing Helena? Who is Lysander really in love with? Who does he think he's in love with? What did Puck know and when did he know it?
-
Chris Christie and the Science of the Group Mind
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie finds himself in a position similar to many government and corporate leaders — apologizing for the misdeeds of his deputies, while at the same time claiming to have been misled by them. It is, in many ways, the safest position for an executive embroiled in an organizational scandal: Christie can cast himself as honorable by claiming responsibility, but not complicity. From Enron to the IRS, a number of companies and government entities have come under fire because of the missteps of senior executives. Like Christie, people at the top often plead ignorance to the actions of their deputies.
-
New Research From Psychological Science
Read about the latest research published in Psychological Science: Multiple Levels of Bilingual Language Control: Evidence From Language Intrusions in Reading Aloud Tamar H. Gollan, Elizabeth R. Schotter, Joanne Gomez, Mayra Murillo, and Keith Rayner Bilingual individuals rarely make cross-language intrusion errors (i.e., unintentional language switches), which makes this phenomenon difficult to study. The authors examined how bilinguals control their language selection by examining the occurrence of these errors in mixed-language paragraphs.
-
Study: inflated praise is damaging for children with low self-esteem
Wired: As counterintuitive as it may seem, a study has revealed that inflated praise given to children who are suffering from low self-esteem could be detrimental to their ability to overcome their feelings of inadequacy. Whilst children with high self-esteem are seen to flourish when given inflated praise, those with low self-esteem are more likely to spurn new challenges when they are too heavily praised. Inflated praise was defined in this research as an adverb, such as "incredibly", or an adjective, such as "perfect", attached to an already positive statement, resulting in an inflated evaluation of a child's performance.
