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Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." (Is.30:21)
Browsing All Posts filed under »Sociology & Psychology«
TED | Rebecca Saxe: How we read each other’s minds
Today I’m going to talk to you about the problem of other minds. And the problem I’m going to talk about is not the familiar one from philosophy, which is, “How can we know whether other people have minds?” That is, maybe you have a mind, and everyone else is just a really convincing […]
The Sociopath Next Door | Notes & Review
February 9, 2013
Martha Stout. The Sociopath Next Door. Broadway, 2005. (241 pages) Introduction Minds differ still more than faces. – Voltaire Imagine — if you can — not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or […]
The Killer At Thurston High | Review & Reflections
December 21, 2012
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kinkel/ In September 1998, Kip Kinkel confessed to killing his parents in their home on May 20, 1998 and the next day, walking into the Thurston High School cafeteria and spraying students with 50 rounds from a semiautomatic rifle, killing two students, Ben Walker, 16, and Mikael Nickolauson, 17, and wounding 25 others. Kip was […]
TED | Brené Brown: The Power of Vulnerability
September 27, 2012
So, I’ll start with this: a couple years ago, an event planner called me because I was going to do a speaking event. And she called, and she said, “I’m really struggling with how to write about you on the little flier.” And I thought, “Well, what’s the struggle?” And she said, “Well, I saw […]
TED | Sarah-Jayne Blakemore: The Mysterious Workings of the Adolescent Brain
September 27, 2012
Fifteen years ago, it was widely assumed that the vast majority of brain development takes place in the first few years of life. Back then, 15 years ago, we didn’t have the ability to look inside the living human brain and track development across the lifespan. In the past decade or so, mainly […]
Endgame: AIDS in Black America | Notes & Reflections
July 13, 2012
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/endgame-aids-in-black-america/ Transcript with my underlines, and annotated reflections: ENDGAME: AIDS in Black America WRITTEN, PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY Renata Simone ANNOUNCER: Tonight on FRONTLINE, an intimate journey. MARVELYN: I was a heterosexual all-American teenager. HIV and normal didn’t go together, so I thought. JOE HAWKINS, Bench and Bar Nightclub: The minister put his hand […]
TED | Jane McGonigal: The game that can give you 10 extra years of life
July 9, 2012
I’m a gamer, so I like to have goals. I like special missions and secret objectives. So here’s my special mission for this talk: I’m going to try to increase the life span of every single person in this room by seven and a half minutes. Literally, you will live seven and half minutes longer […]
TED | Jonathan Haidt on the Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives
April 14, 2012
Suppose that two American friends are traveling together in Italy. They go to see Michelangelo’s “David,” and when they finally come face to face with the statue, they both freeze dead in their tracks. The first guy — we’ll call him Adam — is transfixed by the beauty of the perfect human form. The second […]
TED | Marco Tempest: A Magical Tale (with Augmented Reality)
April 8, 2012
Marco Tempest: What I’d like to show you today is something in the way of an experiment. Today’s its debut. It’s a demonstration of augmented reality. And the visuals you’re about to see are not prerecorded. They are live and reacting to me in real time. I like to think of it as a kind […]
TED | Marco Tempest: The Magic of Truth & Lies
April 8, 2012
So the type of magic I like, and I’m a magician, is a magic that uses technology to create illusions. So I would like to show you something I’ve been working on. It’s an application that I think will be useful for artists — multimedia artists in particular. It synchronizes videos across multiple screens of […]
TED | Sherry Turkle : Connected But Alone?
April 8, 2012
Just a moment ago, my daughter Rebecca texted me for good luck. Her text said, “Mom, you will rock.” I love this. Getting that text was like getting a hug. And so there you have it. I embody the central paradox. I’m a woman who loves getting texts who’s going to tell you that too […]
The Brain On Love
March 27, 2012
The following article was too good to simply post on Facebook. I’ve highlighted my favorite lines that I believe are most telling to the human experience, elements of behavior and choice we should all pay attention to. March 24, 2012, 4:28 pm The Brain on Love By DIANE ACKERMAN A RELATIVELY new field, called interpersonal […]
TED | Susan Cain: The Power of Introverts
March 22, 2012
The Book, the Website, the Press, and the TED talk: When I was nine years old I went off to summer camp for the first time. And my mother packed me a suitcase full of books, which to me seemed like a perfectly natural thing to do. Because in my family, reading was the […]
TED | Bryan Stevenson: We Need to Talk About an Injustice
March 5, 2012
http://www.eji.org/eji/ | http://jjie.org/founder-of-equal-justice-initiative-greeted-standing-ovation-at-ted/76755 Bryan Stevenson spends most of his time in jails and prisons and on death row. He’s a lawyer, and the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. So he’s found it very energizing at TED, and wanted to start by pointing out that there is a distinct identity here. Things said here have a power […]
TED | Kathryn Schulz: Don’t Regret Regret
March 4, 2012
So that’s Johnny Depp, of course. And that’s Johnny Depp’s shoulder. And that’s Johnny Depp’s famous shoulder tattoo. Some of you might know that, in 1990, Depp got engaged to Winona Ryder, and he had tattooed on his right shoulder “Winona forever.” And then three years later — which in fairness, kind of is forever […]
TED | Chris Bliss: Comedy is Translation
March 2, 2012
Gabriel García Márquez is one of my favorite writers, for his storytelling, but even more, I think, for the beauty and precision of his prose. And whether it’s the opening line from “One Hundred Years of Solitude” or the fantastical stream of consciousness in “Autumn of the Patriarch,” where the words rush by, page after […]
Milk | Notes & Review
February 25, 2012
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_%28film%29 Here is the closing line of the movie: If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door… And that’s all. I ask for the movement to continue. Because it’s not about personal gain, not about ego, not about power… it’s about the “us’s” out there. Not only gays, but […]
Incognito | Notes & Review
February 5, 2012
[additional graphic notes forthcoming] David Eagleman. Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain. Pantheon, 2011. (304 pages; 5809 locations) 1. There’s Someone In My Head, But It’s Not Me A vocalization seems ephemeral and ineffable: it is like opening a bag of feathers which scatter on the breeze and can never be retrieved. Voices are […]
TED | Alain deBotton: Atheism 2.0 – Notes & Review
January 22, 2012
One of the most fascinating talks on religion and secularism, a programme of bringing both forward. My notes and review below. — NOTES — I would like to inaugurate a new way of being an atheist. PREMISE: Of course, there is no God. Of course, there are no deities or supernatural spirits or angels, etc. […]
The World According to Mister Rogers | Notes & Review
December 28, 2011
Fred Rogers. The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember. Family Communications, Inc., 2003. eBook Edition. (701 locations) — VIA — One of my heroes. This collection is simple, straightforward, frequently a gentle reminder, occasionally a poignant insight, and always kind, and loving; an expression of the very best of what humanity has […]
TED | Philip Zimbardo: The Heroic Imagination Project
September 4, 2011
At HIP, we believe everyone has the potential to transform the private virtue of compassion into the civic virtue of heroic action, and we are dedicated to helping individuals internalize and express their ‘heroic imagination’ in service to humanity. Phil Zimbardo and the Heroic Imagination Project: TED Blog exclusive video. http://heroicimagination.org/ My new mission in life […]
TED | Kathryn Schulz: On Being Wrong
April 26, 2011
Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error. The present tense is where we live. … We all end up trapped in this bubble of feeling right about everything. I think this is a problem. Why is this a problem? Is it possible to step outside of this problem? Why do we get stuck in […]
To Die In Jerusalem | Notes & Review
March 28, 2011
http://www.todieinjerusalem.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayat_al-Akhras http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Levy To Die in Jerusalem follows Avigail Levy–Rachel’s mother–in her search for answers and reasons behind the suicide bombing of Palestinian Ayat al-Akhras that killed the two of them on March 29, 2002. While the primary narrative is through the Israeli experience, the producers did give voice to the Palestinian/Muslim perspective and contrasted […]
TED | William Ury: The Walk From “No” to “Yes”
December 3, 2010
Find The Eighteenth Camel There is this Middle Eastern story of a man who willed to his three sons his 17 camels. To the first son 1/2 of the camels, to the second son 1/3, and to the third son 1/9. 17 doesn’t divide by any of those numbers. Conflict arose, and they decided to […]
Race To Nowhere | Notes & Review
December 3, 2010
http://www.racetonowhere.com/ Some QUOTES and SENTIMENTS from the film: Many of the symptoms our kids are experiencing–headaches, stomachaches, depression, etc.–are stress-induced. Much of what we are doing in education is “de-humanizing.” “Some of the pressure is real.” Our systems have not adapted to the changing demographics. Much of the depression and anxiety that they feel in […]
Stress: Portrait of a Killer | Notes & Review
November 21, 2010
http://www.pbs.org/stress/. http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Stress-Portrait-Killer/dp/B001D7T460 Available on Instant for Netflix. While stress is a natural response, we humans are unable to turn it off. This keeps us wallowing in a corrosive bath of hormones. After a while, the stress response is more damaging than the actual stressor itself. Hierarchy, a social construct, is a key factor in how […]
Revenge of the Introvert
November 5, 2010
This article caught my eye in the grocery story today: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201008/revenge-the-introvert. (Here Revenge of the Introvert – Psychology Today, 2010-08-23 is a .pdf of the article). Reading it was like therapy for me. While not everything characterized my personality, a vast majority of it did. Below are the highlights. Scientists now know that, while introverts […]
Guerilla Art
October 20, 2010
The recent TED Prize winner is named “JR.” JR creates “Pervasive Art” that spreads uninvited on buildings of Parisian slums, on walls in the Middle East, on broken bridges in Africa or in favelas in Brazil. People in the exhibit communities, those who often live with the bare minimum, discover something absolutely unnecessary but utterly […]
American Teen | Notes & Review
September 26, 2010
http://www.americanteenthemovie.com [PG-13] — VIA — A bit voyeuristic, this documentary may be more accurately entitled “White Mid-Western American Teen.” I mean no disregard to the producers or the subjects of the film by that qualification, but simply as an observation regarding the geographical and cultural locale of teens involved in this film. There are some […]
Radical Evolution | Notes & Review
September 10, 2010
Joel Garreau. Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies — and What It Means to Be Human. Broadway Books, 2005. (384 pages) http://www.garreau.com/index.cfm Prologue: The Future of Human Nature Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not understood. - Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn This […]
Modify | Notes & Review
August 3, 2010
[NOTICE: Extremely Graphic] Modify. [NR] 2005. I’m extremely fascinated by human behavior…all of it. By perusing this blog, one will discover that I am a person of faith, which may seem as if to conclude that movies and documentaries like this are “off-limits.” To the contrary; they must be “within the limits,” for they, too, […]
Drive | Notes & Review
May 20, 2010
Daniel Pink. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. Riverhead Books, 2009. (242 pages) INTRODUCTION Pink starts with the stories and experiments of Harry Harlow and Edward Deci. Harlow’s experiment (lab monkeys solving a puzzle) offered a novel theory–what amounted to a third drive: “The performance of the task,” he said, “provided intrinsic reward. […]
TED Talks Worth Talking About | Beau Lotto’s Optical Illusions
November 15, 2009
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/beau_lotto_optical_illusions_show_how_we_see.html …nearly every living system has evolved the ability to detect light in one way or another. So, for us, seeing color is one of the simplest things the brain does. And yet, even at this most fundamental level, context is everything. What I want to talk about is not that context is everything, but […]
Ten Trillion and Counting
July 4, 2009
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tentrillion/view/ A few select quotes that stood out to me in the program: When choosing between what is politically right, and what is economically right, they chose what is politically right at the expense of the economy. The “starve the beast” notion, that when you cut taxes you are forced to cut spending, though ideal, […]
When Our Brains Short-Circuit – Maybe It Was Never Connected
July 3, 2009
Kristof is one of the most popular of the NYTimes.com Op-Ed writers. His most recent article “When Our Brains Short-Circuit” suggests: Evidence is accumulating that the human brain systematically misjudges certain kinds of risks. In effect, evolution has programmed us to be alert for snakes and enemies with clubs, but we aren’t well prepared to […]
The Electronic Wasteland
July 3, 2009
Where do the millions of computer monitors, cell phones and other electronic refuse our society generates end up? In places like Guiyu, China. There are similar places in other countries like India, and it’s unseen, underground, and highly toxic to the local residents. 60 Minute’s “The Electronic Wasteland” program (transcript: Following the Trail of Toxic […]
The Medici Effect | Notes & Review
June 30, 2009
Frans Johansson. The Medici Effect: What Elephants & Epidemics Can Teach Us About Innovation. Harvard Business School Press, 2006. http://www.themedicieffect.com/ http://themedicieffect.typepad.com/ “This place, where the different fields meet, is what I call the Intersection. And the explosion of remarkable innovations that you find there is what I call the Medici Effect. This book is about […]
Sticky Faith: Developing Faith That Will Last a Lifetime | Notes & Review
June 10, 2009
Thanks to Menlo Park Presbyterian for the seminar and complimentary breakfast. http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/ Below are my notes and then a review with some reflections: 40-50% of graduated high schoolers are “struggling with their faith;” (the rest are “excelling”). Of the 50%, 80% never intended to leave. This is, according to Powell, an “unacceptable” statistic. Tim Clydesdale […]
The Story of Stuff
May 12, 2009
Website: http://www.storyofstuff.com/ NYTimes.com article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/education/11stuff.html This ~20 min. video and connected website is a captivating production of consumption in America. Key words: Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption, Disposal. — VIA — In my estimation and observation, the heart of this particular subject the mindset, the ideologies, the biases, and the a priori assertions and assumptions of […]
This I Used To Believe
May 4, 2009
My wife mentioned this This American Life installment to me entitled “This I Used To Believe.” There is a website in which you can search all sorts of subjects, which is quite fascinating and insightful: http://www.iusedtobelieve.com/ From the program, here’s the general outline: Act One. Scrambled Nest Egg. One day in January Alex French got […]
10 Basic Principles of Good Parenting | Notes & Review
April 9, 2009
Laurence Steinberg. The 10 Basic Principles of Good Parenting. Simon & Schuster, 2004. (207 pages) This book is not about the “nuts and bolts” but rather “more about the philosophy of good parenting.” Parenting is “one of the most well-researched areas in the entire filed of social science. More important, the study of parenting is […]
Patrick Lencioni (POV) – Rediscovering Work
March 31, 2009
Yesterday, my staff and I were talking about what a blessing it is to have a job, and especially one you like. No doubt. Pat’s POV this week was right in line. Here’s the email in its entirety with the underlines that I particularly appreciated. “ Sometimes when we’re in the midst of a major […]
Are We Home Alone – Friedman’s Call To Values
March 22, 2009
“Are We Home Alone” – Thomas Friedman, March 21, 2009 The sentiments here were very reminiscent of Barry Schwartz’s talk at TED. Here is the excerpt from Friedman worth stating again: Inspiring conduct has so much more of an impact than coercing it. “There is nothing more powerful than inspirational leadership that unleashes principled behavior […]
Demonization
March 14, 2009
A worthy quote from marketing guru Seth Godin: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/03/demonization.html DEMONIZATION: The closer you get to someone, something, some brand, some organization… the harder it is to demonize it, objectify it or hate it. So, if you want to not be hated, open up. Let people in. Engage. Interact. This reminds me of another word that […]
TED Talks Worth Talking About | Aimee Mullins: How My Legs Give Me Super-Powers
March 14, 2009
Aimee Mullins: How My Legs Give Me Super-Powers. February 2009. (Running on High Tech Legs, February 1998). http://www.aimeemullins.com/ First, some fantastic quotes and nuggets. Regarding kids and curiosity: Kids are naturally curious about what they don’t know or don’t understand. They only learn to be frightened of those differences when an adult influences them to […]
The Healing Bible – I’m Torn
February 27, 2009
Church World Direct sent this out today. website: http://www.thehealingbibleandcd.com/ — VIA: — I’m torn. There is great healing and hope found in the Scriptures, no doubt. There is a powerful mystical presence that holy writ has had on humanity, and continues to have on its conscious. And one ought not need to become a Biblical […]
The Business of Being Born | Notes & Review
February 27, 2009
The Business of Being Born. New Line Home Entertainment, February 2007. www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com There are a couple great reviews out there. Salon.com, Variety.com, Guardian.co.uk, and a fairly critical one by Slate.com. — VIA: — After watching the film (via Netflix’s Instant Watch feature) and reading the reviews, I’m a little torn and confused. First, I have […]
Youth Ministry 3.0 | Notes & Review
February 10, 2009
Mark Oestreicher (Marko). Youth Ministry 3.0: A Manifesto of Where We’ve Been, Where We Are, and Where We Need To Go. Zondervan/YS, 2009. (150 pages). There are dozens (if not hundreds) of reviews online. CHAPTER 1: The Need for Change exhorts us to adjust our thinking. To be fair, we youth workers are doing what […]
The Tipping Point | Notes & Review
January 21, 2009
Malcolm Gladwell. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Back Bay Books, 2002. (301 pages) The Tipping Point is the “biography of an idea,” that a good way to think of “any number of [any] mysterious changes that mark everyday life is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products […]
May 21, 2013
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