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Moral Puzzles That Tots Struggle With | Mind & Matter - WSJ.com - 0 views

online.wsj.com/...3855804578511241565478434.html ToK ethics moral
shared by markfrankel18 on 04 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • Here's a question. There are two groups, Zazes and Flurps. A Zaz hits somebody. Who do you think it was, another Zaz or a Flurp? it's depressing, but you have to admit that it's more likely that the Zaz hit the Flurp. That's an understandable reaction for an experienced, world-weary reader of The Wall Street Journal. But here's something even more depressing—4-year-olds give the same answer.
  • In my last column, I talked about some dIsturbIng new research showIng that preschoolers are already unconscIously bIased agaInst other racIal groups. Where does thIs bIas come from? MarjorIe Rhodes at New York UnIversIty argues that
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BBC News - Astrologers look to the stars to help IndIan busInesses - 4 views

www.bbc.com/...business-25971921 TOK astrology business culture India faith religion religious knowledge systems
shared by Lawrence Hrubes on 11 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • It Is another busy day for AbhIshek Dhawan In DelhI. HIs phone has not stopped rIngIng and he has a serIes of busIness meetIngs. Many of hIs busIness clIents want to know when Is the best tIme to release theIr products. AbhIshek has been studyIng a number of factors and charts to try to help them. But he Is not a marketIng guru or an economIst - he Is an astrologer and he uses the posItIon of the stars and the planets as a guIde to help busInesses maxImIse theIr profIts.
  • When I ask AbhIshek what hIs success rate Is, he answers ImmedIately. "EIghty per cent - thIs Is lIke a scIence and when we make mIstakes It Is because people do not provIde us wIth the correct InformatIon."
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What Did You Think of 'What's Going On in This Picture'? - The New York Times - 1 views

learning.blogs.nytimes.com/...whats-going-on-in-this-picture photography news interpretation arts perception analysis
shared by Lawrence Hrubes on 17 Sep 15 - No Cached
  • Last October we introduced a new feature in which, each Monday morning this school year, we posted a New York Times photograph without a caption, then invited students to answer three deceptively simple questions about it: What’s going on in this picture? What do you see that makes you say that? What more can you find? As student answers poured in to the blog each week — this shows someone learning a back-flip; i think he’s in the military because of his camouflage shirt; The background makes it look like a movie set — our collaborators for the feature, Visual Thinking Strategies, acted as live moderators, linking thoughts and posting further questions intended to help them go deeper and see more. Most weeks that created a lively debate in our comments section, as students of all ages, backgrounds and places pushed each other to find detail and defend interpretations.
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The case against big data: "it's like you're being put into a cult, but you don't actua... - 0 views

www.salon.com/...ou-dont-actually-believe-in-it TOK ethics math
shared by markfrankel18 on 09 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • in the very worst manifestation it was actually kind of a weaponized mathematical algorithm. i was working in online advertising. Most of the people working online advertising represented it as a way of giving people opportunities. That’s true for most technologists, most educated people, most white people. On the other side of the spectrum you have poor people, who are being preyed upon, by the same kinds algorithms.
  • people need to stop trusting mathematics and they need to stop trusting black box algorithms. They need to start thinking to themselves. You know: Who owns this algorithm? What is their goal and is it aligned with mine? if they’re trying to profit off of me, probably the answer is no.
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The Difference Between Rationality and intelligence - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ionality-and-intelligence.html rationalism reason
shared by Lawrence Hrubes on 17 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • ARE you intelligent — or rational? The question may sound redundant, but in recent years researchers have demonstrated just how distinct those two cognitive attributes actually are.
  • If an I.Q. test measures somethIng lIke raw Intellectual horsepower (abstract reasonIng and verbal abIlIty), a test of R.Q. would measure the propensIty for reflectIve thought — steppIng back from your own thInkIng and correctIng Its faulty tendencIes.
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How To Make Your Face (Digitally) Unforgettable : All Tech Considered : NPR - 0 views

www.npr.org/...r-face-digitally-unforgettable perception digital face
shared by markfrankel18 on 10 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Thanks to new research out of MIT, you mIght one day be able to subtly manIpulate your pIcture to make It more memorable — meanIng that people should be more lIkely to remember your face. AccordIng to the research artIcle: "One ubIquItous fact about people Is that we cannot avoId evaluatIng the faces we see In daIly lIfe ... In thIs flash judgment of a face, an underlyIng decIsIon Is happenIng In the braIn — should I remember thIs face or not? Even after seeIng a pIcture for only half a second we can often remember It." There are subjectIve factors affectIng how a face stIcks In your memory — for example, If you know someone else who looks sImIlar, you mIght fInd a new face more famIlIar. But researchers found that there Is also a strong unIversal component to memorabIlIty. Some faces are just consIstently more easIly remembered.
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Would You Lie for Me? - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...would-i-lie-for-you.html TOK ethics lying
shared by Lawrence Hrubes on 09 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • Lawrence Hrubes on 09 Feb 14
     
    "WHAT is the chance that you could get someone to lie for you? What about vandalizing public property at your suggestion? Most of us assume that others would go along with such schemes only if, on some level, they felt comfortable doing so. if not, they'd simply say "no," right? Yet research suggests that saying "no" can be more difficult than we believe - and that we have more power over others' decisions than we think."
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The Dangers of Certainty: A Lesson From Auschwitz - NYTimes.com - 1 views

mobile.nytimes.com/...the-dangers-of-certainty TOK history ethics certainty
shared by markfrankel18 on 08 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • The ascent of man was secured through scientific creativity. But unlike many of his more glossy and glib contemporary epigones, Dr. Bronowski was never reductive in his commitment to science. Scientific activity was always linked to artistic creation. For Bronowski, science and art were two neighboring mighty rivers that flowed from a common source: the human imagination. Newton and Shakespeare, Darwin and Coleridge, Einstein and Braque: all were interdependent facets of the human mind and constituted what was best and most noble about the human adventure.
  • For Dr. Bronowski, the moral consequence of knowledge is that we must never judge others on the basis of some absolute, God-like conception of certainty.
  • At this point, in the final minutes of the show, the scene suddenly shifts to Auschwitz, where many members of Bronowski’s family were murdered. Then this happened. Please stay with it. This short video from the show lasts only four minutes or so.[Video: Dr. Jacob Bronowski's argument against certainty, made at Auschwitz for his show "The Ascent of Man." Watch on YouTube.]it is, i am sure you agree, an extraordinary and moving moment. Bronowski dips his hand into the muddy water of a pond which contained the remains of his family members and the members of countless other families. All victims of the same hatred: the hatred of the other human being. By contrast, he says — just before the camera hauntingly cuts to slow motion — “We have to touch people.”
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BBC - Future - How to learn like a memory champion - 1 views

www.bbc.com/...w-to-learn-like-a-memory-champ TOK memory learning education technology brain
shared by Lawrence Hrubes on 07 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • As Cooke first set out developing his idea, he turned to his former classmate at Oxford University, Princeton neuroscientist Greg Detre, to help update his tried-and-tested techniques with the latest understanding of memory. Together, they came up with some basic principles that would guide Memrise’s progress over the following years. The first is the idea of “elaborative” learning – in which you try to give extra meaning to a fact to try to get it to stick in the mind. These “mems”, as the team call them, are particularly effective if they tickle the funny bone as well as the synapses – and so for each fact that you want to learn, you are encouraged to find an amusing image or phrase that helps plant the memory in your mind.
  • Unsurprisingly, it was the friendly competition element that captured the attention of Traynor's primary school pupils learning Spanish. “As soon as they come into the classroom, they want to see where they are on the leader board,” he says. And there are other advantages. Each lesson, Traynor tends to split the class into two – while half are doing the “spade work” on vocabulary learning on the school's iPads, he can teach the others – before the two halves switch over. By working with these smaller groups, he can then give more individual attention to each child's understanding of the grammar.Even more powerfully, Traynor recently began encouraging his class to record and upload their pronunciation of the words onto the app – which they can then share with their classmates using the course. The sound of their classmates seems to have spurred on their enthusiasm, says Traynor. “They're constantly trying to work out whose voice they're hearing,” he says. “So they're giving more attention to the different sounds. i think it's improved their speaking and listening dramatically.”Although most courses on Memrise deal with foreign languages, teachers in other subjects are also starting to bring the technology to their classroom. Simon Birch from The Broxbourne School in Hertfordshire, for instance, uses it to teach the advanced terminology needed for food technology exams, while his school’s English department are using it to drill spelling. "The benefits for literacy can't be overstated," Birch says.
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A Language of Conflict, and Peace - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...age-of-conflict-and-peace.html TOK language history politics israel palestine
shared by markfrankel18 on 19 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • This is part of what i have come to call “conflict code”: words whose plain English meanings are politicized, distorted or undermined in the context of the israeli-Palestinian struggle, which is much more a clash of narratives than a tussle over territory. in November, the international Press institute issued “Use With Care,” a guide to more than 75 “alternative words and phrases” for “loaded language” on this beat.“There are words that can cause some audiences to simply shut down and stop listening,” the preface reads. “We all understand that words can only mediate reality, not define it. But words are also powerful, and they play a major role in shaping our consciousness and perceptions.”
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THEARTISTANDHISMODEL » AI WeI WeI - 1 views

theartistandhismodel.com/...ai-wei-wei TOK arts politics China sculpture
shared by Lawrence Hrubes on 19 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • Did you always want to be an artist? No. i decided to become an artist in the late 1970s to try to escape the totalitarian conditions in China. Everybody wants to be part of the big power, so there are lies and false accusations everywhere. For me, art is an escape from this system.
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Letter from Nairobi: The Death of Kofi Awoonor : The New Yorker - 0 views

www.newyorker.com/...he-murder-of-kofi-awoonor.html TOK arts poetry Africa Nairobi terrorism attack
shared by Lawrence Hrubes on 28 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Lawrence Hrubes on 28 Sep 13
     
    "On Saturday, September 21st, the Ghanaian poet Kofi Awoonor was shot dead at Nairobi's Westgate mall by terrorists."
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Placebo-philes - Anxious Machine - 1 views

www.anxiousmachine.com/...placibo-philes TOK placebo perception
shared by markfrankel18 on 13 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • It's easy to sneer at the placebo effect, or to feel ashamed of It when you're Its vIctIm. And that's precIsely why I found FelIx Salmon's pIece revelatory, because Instead of sneerIng at the placebo effect of fancy wIne, Its marketIng, and Its slIghtly hIgher prIces, he thInks we should take advantage of It. If the placebo effect makes us happy, why not take advantage of that happIness?
  • n a recent article for the Atlantic, David H. Freedman argues that there's virtually no scientific evidence that alternative medicine (anything from chiropractic care to acupuncture) has any curative benefit beyond a placebo effect. And so many scientists are outraged that anyone takes alternative medicine seriously. However, there is one area where alternative medicine often trumps traditional medicine: stress reduction. And stress reduction can, of course, make a huge impact on people's health. The Atlantic article quotes Elizabeth Blackburn, a biologist at the University of California at San Francisco and a Nobel laureate. “We tend to forget how powerful an organ the brain is in our biology,” Blackburn told me. “it’s the big controller. We’re seeing that the brain pokes its nose into a lot of the processes involved in these chronic diseases. it’s not that you can wish these diseases away, but it seems we can prevent and slow their onset with stress management.” Numerous studies have found that stress impairs the immune system, and a recent study found that relieving stress even seems to be linked to slowing the progression of cancer in some patients. Perhaps not surprisingly, a trip to the chiropractor or the acupuncturist is much more likely to reduce your stress than a trip to the doctor. if anything, a trip to the doctor makes you more anxious.
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Pakistani Girl, a Global Heroine After an Attack, Has Critics at Home - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...heroine-or-western-stooge.html history bias Malala
shared by markfrankel18 on 14 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • That cynicism was echoed this week across Pakistan, where conspiracy-minded citizens loudly branded Ms. Yousafzai a C.i.A. agent, part of a nebulous Western plot to humiliate their country and pressure their government. Muhammad Asim, a student standing outside the gates of Punjab University in the eastern city of Lahore, dismissed the Taliban attack on Ms. Yousafzai as a made-for-TV drama. “How can a girl survive after being shot in the head?” he asked. “it doesn’t make sense.”
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Eight (No, Nine!) Problems With Big Data - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...ne-problems-with-big-data.html technology TOK data correlation
shared by Lawrence Hrubes on 07 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • Is bIg data really all It’s cracked up to be? There Is no doubt that bIg data Is a valuable tool that has already had a crItIcal Impact In certaIn areas. For Instance, almost every successful artIfIcIal IntellIgence computer program In the last 20 years, from Google’s search engIne to the I.B.M. “Jeopardy!” champIon Watson, has Involved the substantIal crunchIng of large bodIes of data. But precIsely because of Its newfound popularIty and growIng use, we need to be levelheaded about what bIg data can — and can’t — do.The fIrst thIng to note Is that although bIg data Is very good at detectIng correlatIons, especIally subtle correlatIons that an analysIs of smaller data sets mIght mIss, It never tells us whIch correlatIons are meanIngful.
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Whose Picture is it, Anyway? - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...renting-internet-facebook.html TOK ethics facebook
shared by markfrankel18 on 21 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • Could social media awareness be a new developmental milestone?  And if so, is my son part of the first wave of children who are nearing adolescence, and all the social awareness that entails, to realize their parents have been posting embarrassing pictures of them online since they were minutes old?Legally, i’m well within my rights as my son’s guardian, but what about ethically? Howard Cohen, a chancellor emeritus and a professor of philosophy at Purdue University Calumet in Hammond, ind., said that depended upon whether i agreed with the teachings of Aristotle or those of immanuel Kant.
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How to Fake Your Next Vacation - NYTimes.com - 1 views

op-talk.blogs.nytimes.com/...how-to-fake-your-next-vacation TOK technology
shared by markfrankel18 on 18 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • Yes, and no. “I dId thIs to show people that we fIlter and manIpulate what we show on socIal medIa,” Ms. van der Born told Dutch journalIsts. “We create an onlIne world whIch realIty can no longer meet.” The ultImate goal was to “prove how easy It Is to dIstort realIty,” she saId. “Everybody knows that pIctures of models are manIpulated. But we often overlook the fact that we manIpulate realIty also In our own lIves.”
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Most People Can’t Multitask, But a Few Are Exceptional. : The New Yorker - 0 views

www.newyorker.com/...multitask-masters.html TOK psychology neuroscience cognition exceptions assumptions
shared by Lawrence Hrubes on 08 May 14 - No Cached
  • In 2012, DavId Strayer found hImself In a research lab, on the outskIrts of London, observIng somethIng he hadn’t thought possIble: extraordInary multItaskIng. For hIs entIre career, Strayer, a professor of psychology at the UnIversIty of Utah, had been studyIng attentIon—how It works and how It doesn’t. Methods had come and gone, theorIes had replaced theorIes, but one constant remaIned: humans couldn’t multItask. Each tIme someone trIed to focus on more than one thIng at a tIme, performance suffered. Most recently, Strayer had been focussIng on people who drIve whIle on the phone. Over the course of a decade, he and hIs colleagues had demonstrated that drIvers usIng cell phones—even hands-free devIces—were at just as hIgh a rIsk of accIdents as IntoxIcated ones. ReactIon tIme slowed, attentIon decreased to the poInt where they’d mIss more than half the thIngs they’d otherwIse see—a bIllboard or a chIld by the road, It mattered not.
  • What, then, was going on here in the London lab? The woman he was looking at—let’s call her Cassie—was an exception to what twenty-five years of research had taught him. As she took on more and more tasks, she didn’t get worse. She got better. There she was, driving, doing complex math, responding to barking prompts through a cell phone, and she wasn’t breaking a sweat. She was, in other words, what Strayer would ultimately decide to call a supertasker.
  • Cassie in particular was the best multitasker he had ever seen. “it’s a really, really hard test,” Strayer recalls. “Some people come out woozy—i have a headache, that really kind of hurts, that sort of thing. But she solved everything.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Their task was simple: keep your eyes on the road; keep a safe difference; brake as required. if they failed to do so, they’d eventually collide with their pace car. Then came the multitasking additions. They would have to not only drive the car but follow audio instructions from a cell phone. Specifically, they would hear a series of words, ranging from two to five at a time, and be asked to recall them in the right order. And there was a twist. interspersed with the words were math problems. if they heard one of those, the drivers had to answer “true,” if the problem was solved correctly, or “false,” if it wasn’t. They would, for instance, hear “cat” and immediately after, “is three divided by one, minus one, equal to two?” followed by “box,” another problem, and so on. intermittently, they would hear a prompt to “recall,” at which point, they’d have to repeat back all the words they’d heard since the last prompt. The agony lasted about an hour and a half.
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Are We Really Conscious? - NYTimes.com - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...are-we-really-conscious.html TOK consciousness perception brain science
shared by markfrankel18 on 12 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • I belIeve a major change In our perspectIve on conscIousness may be necessary, a shIft from a credulous and egocentrIc vIewpoInt to a skeptIcal and slIghtly dIsconcertIng one: namely, that we don’t actually have Inner feelIngs In the way most of us thInk we do.
  • How does the brain go beyond processing information to become subjectively aware of information? The answer is: it doesn’t. The brain has arrived at a conclusion that is not correct. When we introspect and seem to find that ghostly thing — awareness, consciousness, the way green looks or pain feels — our cognitive machinery is accessing internal models and those models are providing information that is wrong. The machinery is computing an elaborate story about a magical-seeming property. And there is no way for the brain to determine through introspection that the story is wrong, because introspection always accesses the same incorrect information.
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Reading With imagination - NYTimes.com - 2 views

opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/...reading-with-imagination arts literature imagination
shared by Lawrence Hrubes on 17 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • Fiction, which i believe suffers most from modern readership, is by definition not factual. it may be about the real world and it may try to illuminate some facts about the real world or how real people behave in it or, as is so often the case in modern literature, it may also be about the impossibility of portraying any such reality since the very nature of art is artifice. Primarily, however, fiction (and biography, essay, history, memoir only perhaps to a lesser degree) is a creative act, an act of the author’s imagination and likewise, ideally, it should be read with imagination.
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