In the gloom of subterranean tunnels, chonky little mole-rats build their nests, tucked safely away, deep inside the earth. Strangely, one species always carefully builds these nests in the south-eastern part of their den. — Read on http://www.sciencealert.com/almost-blind-mole-rats-use-their-eyes-to-see-magnetic-fields
Tag: Life
Controversial Philosopher Says Man And Machine Will Fuse Into One Being | HuffPost
Peter Sloterdijk is Germany’s most controversial thinker and media theorist. He has dared to challenge long-established divisions in traditional philosophy of body and soul, subject and object, culture and nature. His 1999 lecture on “Regulations for the Human Park,” in which he argued that genetic engineering was a continuation of human striving for self-creation, stirred [...]
What comes first: ideas or words? The paradox of articulation | Aeon Essays
... (a) seemingly contradictory observation is that articulating our thoughts, in the hard cases, is a purposive activity that doesn’t simply consist in producing words mechanically, in a kneejerk way. The words that immediately come out of us when we are struck by our thoughts (eg, ‘How outrageous!’, ‘What a mess!’) might hardly reflect what [...]
The Philosopher and the Detectives: Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Enduring Passion for Hardboiled Fiction | CrimeReads
The scene is London; the year, 1941. Ludwig Wittgenstein, likely the greatest philosopher of the twentieth century, has taken a hiatus from his Cambridge professorship to do “war work” in a menial position at Guy’s Hospital. By the time he arrives there, in September, the worst of the Blitz is over, but there’s no way [...]
Immersion in fictional worlds allows us to own our dark side | Psyche Ideas
Our liking for fictional villains such as Voldemort tells us something about the dark side of our own personalities — Read on psyche.co/ideas/immersion-in-fictional-worlds-allows-us-to-own-our-dark-side
How to enjoy coffee | Psyche Guides
Smooth like chocolate or fruity like a berry, coffee has as many tastes as wine or beer – you just need to know your beans — Read on psyche.co/guides/good-coffee-is-like-a-fine-wine-start-with-high-quality-beans
The Insight: The Evolutionary Importance of Mothers and Grandmothers
Spencer and Razib talk to Kristen Hawkes, proponent of "The Grandmother Hypothesis," about the importance of mothers and grandmothers in human evolutionary history. — Read on insitome.libsyn.com/the-evolutionary-importance-of-mothers-and-grandmothers
Philosophy of Humor (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
The hypothesis that laughter evolved as a play signal is appealing in several ways. Unlike the Superiority and Incongruity Theories, it explains the link between humor and the facial expression, body language, and sound of laughter. It also explains why laughter is overwhelmingly a social experience, as those theories do not. According to one estimate, [...]
The Neurology of Flow States – Issue 91: The Amazing Brain – Nautilus
During what psychologists call “flow states,” where one is completely immersed and absorbed in a mental or physical act, people often report an altered sense of time, place, and self. It’s a transportive and pleasurable experience that people seek to achieve, and that neuroscience is now seeking to understand. A great example of flow state [...]
Sounds of the Forest: A Free Audio Archive Gathers the Sounds of Forests from All Over the World | Open Culture
Sounds of the Forest: A Free Audio Archive Gathers the Sounds of Forests from All Over the World | Open Culture — Read on http://www.openculture.com/2020/09/sounds-of-the-forest.html
