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whale oil, self-esteem, umbrage, knowing they know...
NASA data lost due to whale-oil shortage. No kidding.
On self-esteem and self-respect.
Evangelicalism is dying of umbrage.
Next Big Thing in English: Knowing That They Know That You Know. Neuroscience research on our understanding of mental states in fiction.
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Rebecca Saxe: How we read each other's minds
TED Talk on the brain bit we use to think about what others are thinking, and its effect on moral judgment. Thanks, tugger, and you're right, we need to try that test on Alex. -
secondary/tertiary effects of issue framing
Subjects who read an article about infectious disease and then read an article on immigration that uses a body metaphor for the United States are more anxious about immigration than those who read an article with the same content and no body metaphor. The subtlety of this impresses and alarms me. Brains are so messy! -
How we think about what God thinks
elfs reports on a Stanford study about how people think about other people thinking, as compared to how people think about God thinking.
The study itself is well worth reading (it's accessible and not very long ( Read more... ) -
animal math
Alex the parrot approached the concept of zero. I miss him, and hope other greys reach his heights of cognition.
Fish can count. No word on how high.