"Metal idiophones are frequently called metallophones."
I read that, and I thought, well, how frequently? Would any old idiophone, just minding their own business, be at risk of being called a metallophone? Several times a day?
December 29, 2010
World's Worst Stories?
At a meeting last month with the smart folks at Extend, Chile's largest public relations firm, I was asked to name the international companies who are not telling stories, or who I think are doing a bad job at sharing their stories for positive results. Good storytelling, of course, results in good brand recognition and recall: it's difficult to think of the companies doing a poor job. But, I respect the questions, enjoy the challenge, and invite you to join in the discussion.
Here's some initial thoughts on global companies doing a poor job of sharing their story:
Of course, you can not separate a person from their experience; my observations are completely subjective. What are your thoughts? What global companies do you think are failing to share stories, or are doing a poor job of sharing their stories?
Here's some initial thoughts on global companies doing a poor job of sharing their story:
- Sears and Kmart. Here's a recent article comparing Sears Holdings' revenue to Walmart, Target, Macy's, and JC Penny.
- Toyota, post-Prius problems
- Microsoft. Here's an interesting article about Microsoft telling a Gilded Age narrative.
- Several airlines. Although Virgin Atlantic, Southwest, and Emirates (have you seen the on-board shower?!) have established strong narratives, what brand-affirming stories are being shared by Continental or Delta?
- Many PR and advertising firms, actually. What is the story of Dentsu? Burson Marsteller?
Of course, you can not separate a person from their experience; my observations are completely subjective. What are your thoughts? What global companies do you think are failing to share stories, or are doing a poor job of sharing their stories?
December 27, 2010
December 25, 2010
December 24, 2010
We live in a universe not of clocks but of clouds.
An excerpt from a terrific post by Jonah Lehrer, Clocks and Clouds:
Functional MRI has been used to study all sorts of sexy psychological properties. You've probably seen the headlines: "Scientists Discover Love in the Brain!" and "This Is Your Brain on God!" Such claims are often accompanied by a pretty silhouette of a skull, highlighted with splotches of primary color. It's like staring at a portrait of the soul. It's also false. In reality, huge swaths of the cortex are involved in every aspect of cognition. The mind is a knot of interconnections, so interpreting the scan depends on leaving lots of stuff out, sifting through noise for the signal. We make sense of the data by deleting what we don't understand.
...Karl Popper, the great philosopher of science, once divided the world into two categories: clocks and clouds. Clocks are neat, orderly systems that can be solved through reduction; clouds are an epistemic mess, "highly irregular, disorderly, and more or less unpredictable." The mistake of modern science is to pretend that everything is a clock, which is why we get seduced again and again by the false promises of brain scanners and gene sequencers. We want to believe we will understand nature if we find the exact right tool to cut its joints. But that approach is doomed to failure. We live in a universe not of clocks but of clouds.
Read the entire post here.
December 23, 2010
Reading, Writing & Speaking
Being an authentic written communicator may be very different than being an authentic spoken communicator.
By authenticity, I mean being honest and generous with one’s knowledge and passion, and compassionately striving to fully and empathetically engage one’s reader or listener.
I may write a compelling and well-structured essay, with a clear point of view and takeaway, and woven together with pithy sentences. If I were to read it verbatim, however, it would sound horrific. If I were to get hung up on delivering each of those sentences, word for word, I would surely trip myself up; my attempt at delivering perfect paragraphs would result in my being frustrated, and then apologetic, and surely alienate my listeners.
I do have one client who writes each of his speeches out and is capable of reading and delivering them with gusto. He is an exception to most leaders.
Instead, when I deliver a keynote speech or facilitate a large program, I write my presentation out, allowing me to experiment with structure and vocabulary. Then, I read it aloud, several times, allowing me to recognize jarring transitions, play with rhythm, and toy with segue ways.
And when it comes time to present, I no longer distract myself with the fully developed expository speech. Instead, I glance at an outline. I have realized that I must compensate while presenting, with passion and engagement.
I do bring the fully developed composition with me, and reference it during program breaks. In this way, I get to bring up points I may have skipped while speaking. For me, the combination of outline plus composition provides the right measure of authentic engagement along with intellectual security and generosity.
December 22, 2010
December 21, 2010
What we mean...
What we mean by "inimitable" is that, were you to aim a million cameras at a million dogs in a million backyards, you would not get another photo like this.
December 20, 2010
re: Britton Chance (1913-2010)
A full-page appreciation of Britton Chance, by Prof. P.L. Dutton, has appeared in the 17 December issue of Science. From the opening paragraph:
"Recognized for his pioneering research on how living organisms capture, manage, and produce cellular energy, he leaves a rich legacy of laboratory and clinical instrumentation and a wide range of discoveries and principles fundamental to biological catalysis and energetics, and biomedical application."
Notes on labels & classifications.
Please note:
• Friends subscribing to NeuroCooking via email, vs. reading it on the web, are missing out (for reasons perhaps known to the feedburner team at Google, but not to us) on labels assigned to (or, as the kids say, "tagging") most entries. For example, the newest label is "dog".
• While we remain unaware of any classified material on NeuroCooking, the potential availability of steganographic methods means that we cannot absolutely guarantee the absence of classified material in NeuroCooking comments.
December 19, 2010
Dog-blogging: A beautiful millisecond.
[Backyard yesterday. Nikon 20 mm f/2.8 lens on D700 camera. Shutter priority: 1/1000 s at ISO 3200 gave f/10. Continuous autofocus, single exposure. Shot "blind" (without looking through the viewfinder) while crouching, camera held out, at about knee level, close to the dog. I am watching the dog and trusting the camera to do the same.]
December 18, 2010
December 17, 2010
Like Speaking Another Language
I greatly enjoyed working with my Chilean client, and recently delivering two programs in Chile. One of the great pleasures was the difference in language: rather than "persuasion", my client referred to "seduction". Instead of talking about the "framework" of the program, we discussed the "journey" of the day.
Although there were interpreters at each of the two programs, I was careful not to fall back on American English idioms. I avoided saying things like "fall back" and instead choose "revert". Instead of "come back", I would say "return". Instead of "want", I speak to "desire" and "intent". I looked to the Latin rhetorical roots so as to be better understood and to present information more efficiently and respectfully. Conversing became both more intentional and more surprising, and I cherished in the poetry of our interactions.
A colleague's son was recently studying vocabulary, in preparation for his middle school entrance exam. He remarked that it was "like speaking another language". Indeed!
Excerpt from Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's "The Word"
Although there were interpreters at each of the two programs, I was careful not to fall back on American English idioms. I avoided saying things like "fall back" and instead choose "revert". Instead of "come back", I would say "return". Instead of "want", I speak to "desire" and "intent". I looked to the Latin rhetorical roots so as to be better understood and to present information more efficiently and respectfully. Conversing became both more intentional and more surprising, and I cherished in the poetry of our interactions.
A colleague's son was recently studying vocabulary, in preparation for his middle school entrance exam. He remarked that it was "like speaking another language". Indeed!
Human word, syllable, combination
of spread light and the find art of the silversmith,
hereditary goblet which gathers
the communications of the blood --
here is where silence came together with
the wholeness of the human word,
and, for human beings, not to speak is to die --
language extends even to the hair,
the mouth speaks without the lips moving --
all of a sudden the eyes are words.
I take the word and go over it
as though it were nothing more than a human shape,
its arrangements awe me and I find my way
through each variation in the spoken word --
I utter and I am and without speaking I approach
the limit of words and the silence.
I drink to the word, raising
a word or a shining cup,
in it I drink
the pure wine of language
or inexhaustible water,
maternal source of words,
and cup and water and wine
give rise to my song
because the verb is the source
and vivid life -- it is blood,
blood which expresses its substance
and so implies its own unwinding --
words give glass-quality to glass, blood to blood,
and life to life itself.
Excerpt from Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's "The Word"
stranger in your bed
"Your synapses are consistently adjusting to take in your experiences over time: the brain you went to bed with is not the brain with which you woke up."
Carl Schoonover, at the New York Academy of Sciences, talking about his new book, Portraits of the Mind: Visualizing the Brain from Antiquity to the 21st Century
December 16, 2010
Slogan of the day.
According to today's Washington Post, thanks to a first-come first-serve free-speech policy, the historic courthouse in Leesburg, Virginia, will feature, this holiday season, on a prominent corner where, for forty years previously, a crèche had been found, a banner reading:
"Celebrating our Constitution: Keeping Church and State Separate since 1787."
Want to pay to ...?
Want to pay to sit around and watch other people drive fast through downtown Baltimore next Labor Day? Tickets for the 2011 Baltimore Grand Prix are now on sale.
Correction of the day.
"A music review on Monday about the German band Rammstein, at Madison Square Garden, misstated the title of one of its songs and the English translation. The song is 'Wiener Blut' ('Viennese Blood'), not 'Weiner Blut' ('Blood Wine')."
– from The New York Times.
Why You Should Keep Your Face Away From Big Fireworks
The mannequin’s Styrofoam head, filled with cornmeal to simulate brains, was close to a professional-grade explosive, with a “quick match” fuse that burns almost instantaneously.
Taken from POPSCI's Gallery: The Most Amazing Science Images of 2010.
A metacognitive approach to problem-solving.
"You're a pretty smart fella."
"Not that smart."
"If you're not that smart, how'd you figure it out?"
"I tried to imagine a fellow smarter than myself. Then I tried to think, 'what would he do?' "
- from Heist (2001) by David Mamet
December 15, 2010
Satisfying stroke sensation.
It's been a while since we've written about the Fuji FinePix X100, also known as the camera that oozes. The camera is not yet available, but the fancy website is, where we can read that the X100 offers "Satisfying shutter stroke sensation and cable release compatibility (screw type)".
Reading us is ok everywhere, we think.
NeuroCooking friends reading this from a computer at the United States Air Force may continue to do so, even though their access to the New York Times has been cut off; we have no word on whether they are physically searched upon entrance, to prevent them from bringing onto the base print copies of the newspaper.
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[While we know of no classified information on NeuroCooking, we cannot guarantee that NeuroCooking comments are free of classified information.]
Start at the "6:00" mark!
This is a cool introduction to photographic lighting. We suggest you start watching at the six-minute mark (although you just might have to go back and watch it again from the beginning!).
on intercourse & distinctions
"Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions."
December 13, 2010
December 12, 2010
"What is it that most people need, but don't know that they need?"
We were talking about Google's six billion dollar bid for Groupon, and she suggested that I think up an online business idea that would make us rich.
"What is it," she asked, "that most people need, but don't know that they need?"
"That's easy," I said, "What most people need is to be slapped upside the head. The hard part is getting them to pay."
"a form of security through obscurity"
We wish, once again, to clarify our understanding regarding the safety of accessing NeuroCooking from a f e d e r a l computer.
We have not ourselves, to the best of our knowledge, published here any classified information. However, we cannot rule out the possibility that reader-contributed comments on NeuroCooking may contain information that is classified. While comments are moderated, classified information differs from obscenity, which is easy to weed out, in being potentially inconspicuous. In particular, we cannot be sure that steganography has not been used to insert classified information into NeuroCooking comments.
At this time, we are unaware of any classified material on NeuroCooking. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.
December 11, 2010
Six.
Today we heard Steve Wozniak on "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me!" talk about how he has six smart-phones, and six brackets to hold all of them on his car dashboard, and six different navigation apps running on them, so he gets six different sets of advice on how to get to his destination.
NeuroCooking: Still Safer than the New York Times, We Think.
We wish to clarify our understanding regarding the safety of accessing NeuroCooking from a f e d e r a l computer: We have not ourselves, to the best of our knowledge, published here any classified information. However, we cannot rule out the possibility that reader-contributed comments on NeuroCooking may contain information that is classified*. At this time, we are unaware of any classified material on NeuroCooking. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.
____
*While comments are moderated, classified information differs from obscenity, which is easy to weed out, in being potentially inconspicuous; thus, we cannot guarantee that a recent comment was not an unattributed excerpt of a classified transcript of an intercepted cell-phone conversation between the French and Belgian Ambassadors to the United Nations.
"Housekeeping."
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(Except for the part about "the Times" - NeuroCooking is not the New York Times. NeuroCooking is safer than the New York Times.)
Coffee Break => Truth Data.
We've written here (& elsewhere) about the importance of making repeated measurements in order to understand their precision & stability.
Cancer imaging researchers get this. To assess imaging approaches, they repeat scans after a brief pause – just long enough to get the patient off the scanner table, and then back on. They refer to these short interval measurements as "coffee break studies" that yield "truth data".
December 10, 2010
NeuroCooking: Safe for Feds.
NeuroCooking friends reading this on a f e d e r a l computer have likely received recently a message containing the following:
"Each ... employee and contractor is obligated to protect classified information pursuant to all applicable laws... Unauthorized disclosures of classified documents... do not alter the documents' classified status... To the contrary, classified information, whether or not already posted on public websites or disclosed to the media, remains classified, and must be treated as such..."
We are happy to report that, to the best of our knowledge, NeuroCooking contains no classified material, and thus may be read safely using any computer.
_________
[Please note: Persons seeking legal advice should consult a member of their state Bar Association.]
Q & A on Functional NeuroImaging [a follow-up to NeuroCooking Live!]
Q: How do you use MRI to study brain function?
A: We make MRI movies of the "blushing brain", from which we calculate "activation maps".
Q: It blushes?
A: Changes in neuronal activity are accompanied by changes in blood flow and blood oxygenation (as has been known since the 19th century).
Q: You make movies?
A: We image the whole brain every two seconds (30 frames per minute).
Q: How do you calculate that "activation map"?
A: Generally speaking, we use the MRI movie to make a picture of where the "brain blushes" in time with stimuli or responses. Those colored blobs (that we overlay, photoshop-style, over a greyscale image of brain anatomy) show where the timing of the MRI signals agrees with the timing of the stimuli or behavior.
Q: What do those maps look like? What do they show?
A: They generally show a collection of brain regions, that do different things (principle of segregation), which work together (principle of integration).
Here's an example: A right-handed adult (who gave written informed consent to participate in IRB-approved research) was scanned for several minutes, during which they alternated, for thirty second periods, between holding still, and sequentially tapping the fingers of their right (dominant) hand – the thumb to each of the opposing fingers, in turn. Looking at just one "slice" – not even the whole brain – you can see four different regions that serve four different roles. Our understanding of these different roles comes from neurology, and from neuroelectrophysiology. MRI shows us the regions, but MRI doesn't see the roles.
Q: So, what do those regions have to do with the stimuli or behavior?
A: Well, it varies. And MRI can't tell. Correlation ain't necessarily causation; correlational neuroimaging cannot address causality. MRI shows us the regions that are correlated with the behavior, but not the different roles those regions serve.
December 9, 2010
Thank you, NeuroCooking friends
Thank you to all who called into NeuroCooking Live! yesterday. Jim and I were excited about the topic, the content we prepared, and the ability to connect more personally with our readers. We are both disappointed by the technical glitches we encountered, and delighted by the interest and turnout.
We hope to post a cleaned-up version of the call when provided by Worldwide Story Work, the hosts of the teleconference. And, we are considering several options for re-presenting the information. If you were on the call, please do share any thoughts or questions you may have: we invite you to help us hone the content of future presentations.
Thank you again, dear NeuroCooking readers!
We hope to post a cleaned-up version of the call when provided by Worldwide Story Work, the hosts of the teleconference. And, we are considering several options for re-presenting the information. If you were on the call, please do share any thoughts or questions you may have: we invite you to help us hone the content of future presentations.
Thank you again, dear NeuroCooking readers!
viewpoint
We were standing at this spot for some time, gazing at the breathtaking scenery, when our guide asked, "Are you ready now to go to the viewpoint?"
The Chileans do not say "scenic overlook" - they say "viewpoint". And, boy, are they onto something.
December 8, 2010
December 7, 2010
On photographic verisimilitude (or, how to shoot a goat in the mountains).
To take excellent landscape photographs, you should use a big piece of slow film, small aperture, & long exposure; but to take good photos of active animals, you can't leave the shutter open for long.
So, can these competing requirements be reconciled, to take sharp photographs of live animals set in a rich detailed landscape?
December 6, 2010
Just two days away!
Only two days to go until NeuroCooking Live at 4 PM (EST) this Wednesday!
Please join us!
December 5, 2010
December 4, 2010
No, what time is it, really?
In the 19th century, Captains in the British Navy who could not afford their own marine chronometer (used to determine longitude by celestial navigation) were issued one by the Navy, but Captains who provided their own were issued two, so that they would have three chronometers aboard ship – because you need three to know which one has gone wrong.
December 2, 2010
How 'bout them apples?
From the wikipedia entry on the "Raven paradox", (also known as Hempel's paradox) a lovely pair of figure legends:
December 1, 2010
Proofreading is important, part 2.
Department of proofreading: The Washington Post reports today that the conviction of a Virginia man for driving past a stopped school bus was overturned on appeal, because of a missing preposition in Virginia law, which had been amended in 1970 to criminalize failure to stop a school bus – not failure to stop at a school bus.
November 30, 2010
1875 - 2010
Regarding Max Planck being warned away from physics in 1875 (because everything had already been discovered): Isn't it remarkable that fundamental discoveries about quantum theory are still being made today?
November 29, 2010
"F.A."
In MRI, "F.A." (often written without periods, as "FA") can stand for either flip angle, which measures how much of the refractory longitudinal magnetization is converted into detectable transverse magnetization, or fractional anisotropy, which expresses the degree to which the diffusion of water is directionally non-uniform.
November 28, 2010
"... it is too narrow for that."
In a 1953 letter, Wolfgang Pauli related to Carl Jung a comment that Ernst Mach had made, some decades earlier, regarding Freudian psychoanalysis:
"These people try to use the vagina as if it were a telescope so that they can see the world through it. But that is not its natural function – it is too narrow for that."
November 27, 2010
November 26, 2010
"My feeling about you is just the opposite."
In 1926, Wolfgang Pauli attended a lecture by Paul Ehrenfest. Afterwards, Pauli made many criticisms, and an exasperated Ehrenfest said:
"I like your publications better than I like you."
Pauli responded:
"Strange. My feeling about you is just the opposite."
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"... I walk out to make a point."
December 7, 2008:
"I didn't come there to try anything," she said. "I just thought, Whoever else is on that show, they have to die tonight. I haven't had the opportunity to be adored already when I walk out onstage. Still, when I walk out, I walk out to make a point. If I have to rise to the occasion of killing you, I will."
-from "Long Time Coming: Bettye La Vette gets her due" by Alec Wilkinson, in the November 15, 2010 issue of the New Yorker.
November 25, 2010
A Thanksgiving treat!
In honor of today's holiday of Thanksgiving*, the Library of America has made available Mark Twain's short story, Hunting the Deceitful Turkey, first published in Harper's Magazine in December 1906.
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*Today is Thanksgiving in the USA; Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October; our friends in the United Kingdom give thanks on July 4th.
November 24, 2010
November 23, 2010
We weren't "built for" anything.
Living beings are products of evolution – that is, random mutation & natural selection – they were not "built for" or "built to do" anything. The false belief that organisms are made for a purpose is known as teleology, from "the Greek τέλος - telos, root: τελε-, 'end, purpose.'"
And the same holds for the components of living things. It is true that you walk on your feet, but that does not mean that feet were "made for" walking. It is true that your brain is a prediction machine, but that does not mean that brains were "made for" predicting.
This distinction is important, because if we mistakenly adopt the teleological view, we deprive ourselves of the insights that come from an evolutionary perspective – in fields as different as ecology, comparative anatomy, & medical genetics.
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