Under the influence.

Heraclitus said that you can't step into the same river twice, but sometimes I wondered whether I was photographing the same dog twice, thrice, and more.

I like to photograph Bucky. Sometimes, though, I found that I would take a photograph of him, and it would look very familiar:

(July)

(October)

(November)

(Click any image for full-screen.)

Old dog, new photo. If you photograph the same dog, repeatedly, how different can any new photo be...?

Last weekend, I visited the Yousuf Karsh exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery (USA). In spite of my familiarity with some of Karsh's truly iconic images (his portraits of Churchill & Hemingway, for instance), looking at his prints moved me. Wow. What exquisite compositions! What use of light - and darkness - to frame, and to highlight!

After visiting the exhibition, I took these two photos (click any image for full-screen), indoors, by available window-light; I think they are different from all my earlier photos of Bucky:

Thank you, Mr. Karsh!

And thank you, Bucky.

Is it wrong?

Is it wrong to love covet admire a bike for its fenders?

Are you a methodologist or an ASS?

In the article "Primary study authors of significant studies are more likely to believe that a strong association exists in a heterogeneous meta-analysis compared with methodologists" in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, Orestis A. Panagiotou and John P.A. Ioannidis report that "authors of significant studies" (a group indicated by the acronym "ASS" in the paper's Tables; for example Table 2 has a column labeled "ASS vs. methodologists") are "influenced by their own investment in the field" and so are "more likely to believe that a strong association exists."

"A dog is a great walking coach."

  Dr. Mike Evans

h/t: Dr. Brian Caffo

Привет, Россия!

Many NeuroCooking pageviews are coming from Russia, and we would be delighted to hear from our Russian readers.

Please, consider saying hello using the blog comments, or via twitter at @thaler or @jimpekar.

"h" vs. "H" (and the Mountain Goats, Down Under)

The Mountain Goats rocking Melbourne's Toff, 9 May 2012 (iPhone photo).

Last week I was in Melbourne, Australia, for the 20th annual meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Melbourne is a great place for live music, and, as it happened, I found out in advance that the Mountain Goats would be in town! So, when I travelled Down Under I did so with a ticket for what was to be a sold-out show at Melbourne's The Toff in Town.

How eager was I to see the Mountain Goats (whose songs I've loved for years, but whom I'd never seen live)? Let's just say I went to the Toff a whole day early, to check out the venue, which is how I came to see Max Savage and the False Idols play soul-tinged country-western Rock-n-Roll:

Max Savage and the False Idols at the Toff, 8 May 2012 (camera: Ricoh GX-100).

However, dear NeuroCooking friends, my topic today may not be singer-songwriters, or rock-n-roll, or intimate venues for live music, or fantastic audiences who shout out the choruses to early Mountain Goats songs, allowing Mr. John Darnielle to sing just the verses, or even the persistent paradox of how listening to songs about self-destructive persons engaged in abusive relationships can be uplifting. No, my topic today may be beer.

I like hoppy beers, like India Pale Ales. When I visit someplace with unfamiliar offerings on tap, especially overseas, I will ask the bartender to recommend a beer. So, that Tuesday night at the Toff, I asked the bartender:

"What's hoppy? Like an IPA?"

And he replied:

"Yes. Would you like a taste?"

I did a double-take, and looked at the taps, and yes, they had a beer on tap called "Hoppy."

And yes, it was.

This "hoppy" vs. "Hoppy" reminded me, instantly, of the old "Who's on first" routine:

It's too late to see Abbott and Costello live, but, thankfully, it's not too late to see the Mountain Goats, which I recommend that you do, wherever and whenever you can!

"We love you, John!" The Mountain Goats at the Toff, 9 May 2012 (iPhone photo).

Explain science to an 11-year-old.

Take the flame challenge!

Happy Galileo's Birthday!

"There will be opened a gateway and a road to a large and excellent science into which minds more piercing than mine shall penetrate to recesses still deeper."

- Galileo Galilei (1564–1642)


[h/t: The Writer's Almanac]

Title of the week!

"Of Toasters and Molecular Ticker Tapes" by Dr. Konrad P. Kording appears in the journal PLoS Computational Biology.

"Discovering things is actually pretty easy..."

"Discovering things is actually pretty easy; understanding them is really hard."

- Prof. Peter Agre (2003 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry), this morning at Pathology Ground Rounds in Hurd Hall, Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Request for advice.

My wife has a first name that is not very common. So, she grew up having to spell it for people, and, in the late twentieth century, I was able to gift her with an eponymous top level domain. (Something like "susan.net" or "sally.org", only with her distinctive first name.)

Yesterday, we received an unsolicited offer of a significant amount of money for the domain.

So, what should we do? Should we say forget about it – it's not for sale! –, or should we make a counter-offer?

And, the question arises, who is the would-be buyer? If it's just another person with my wife's name, that's one thing. But what if it's an organization whose acronym happens to spell her name? In that case, wouldn't we have a moral obligation to find out who they are and what they do? Perhaps, if they're a good cause, we'd donate the domain to them at no charge; but if they're evil, then, the domain would not be for sale to them at any price...

We would value your advice on this, dear NeuroCooking friends.

"Accessible" & "acceptance".

The wonderful poetry of Billy Collins is often called "accessible", but Mr. Collins prefers the term "hospitable", because "accessible" sounds like it involves ramps & handrails.

Similarly, in the context of embracing the diversity of our communities, I've wondered whether we could use a more positive word than "tolerance", because "tolerance" sounds like it means putting up with people who smell funny. Today, I discovered that the word I've been looking for just might be "acceptance".

Hmm... I wonder what else I have to learn from professional rugby players...

[h/t: Andrew Sullivan]

Understanding is good.

Just one sentence from the paper "Blackawton bees", which appeared in Biology Letters, a journal of the Royal Society:

"If bees are like us in some way, then understanding them could help us understand ourselves better."

Is there a word for that?

NeuroCooking friends, I'm writing today with a question, in the hope that one of you will know the answer (which I hope is not simply "no").

In literature – especially poetry – is there a word for the practice of giving a piece a title that includes the name of the form? For example, a sonnet with a title that includes the word "sonnet"?

If you know the answer, please let me know. Thank you in advance for your help!

Better than an answer.

Do you know what happens when you do a google search on "How long is the coast of Britain"?

You don't get the answer; you get something much more wonderful!

http://www.google.com/webhp?q=%22how+long+is+the+coast+of+britain%3F%22

"But, if you want the best person, ..."

In 1940, Frank Graham, President of the University of North Carolina, asked George Snedecor, a leader in statistics whom he had recently happened to meet on a train, for a favor. Could Snedecore recommend a man to lead the new statistics department in North Carolina? Snedecore responded with a letter that listed ten men, and then stated:

"These are the ten best men I can think of. But, if you want the best person, I would recommend Gertrude Cox."

Cox got the job.

_____

Source: "The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century" by David Salsburg, 2001 (chapter 19).

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!

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"

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

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?

"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."

____

Source: "137: Jung, Pauli, and the pursuit of a scientific obsession" by Arthur I. Miller.