Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds

Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds

a toy for generating “word clouds”

This is a news website article about a scientific finding | Martin Robbins | Science | guardian.co.uk

This is a news website article about a scientific finding | Martin Robbins | Science | guardian.co.uk

excellent satire on science writing.

How to Form a Philosophy - wikiHow

How to Form a Philosophy - wikiHow

Developing a personal philosophy

Paul Graham’s advice

Edge: JONATHAN HAIDT: The New Science of Morality

Edge: JONATHAN HAIDT: The New Science of Morality

How to revive virtue ethics and get away from the systemization and non-empathy of the post-Enlightenment...

Big Questions Online

Big Questions Online

Reasonably decent discussions of difficult issues.

You Are Not So Smart

You Are Not So Smart

a blog devoted to self delusion and irrational thinking.

There’s a lot of research out there suggesting you have no idea why you act or think the way you do.

It feels awful to accept such things, so you create narratives to explain your own feelings and behavior.

Rationalizing, redacting and reinterpreting alters your memories, making something you experienced a few hours ago get replayed with new details you fabricated.

this blog should promote discourse and provoke thought. Do your own research.

What Is a Philosopher? - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com

What Is a Philosopher? - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com

the philosopher is the person who has time or who takes time.

Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover | Video on TED.com

Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover | Video on TED.com

There are some ways to teach math that actually work.

We should support these.

Longform.org

Longform.org

Actual reporting with analysis & synthesis!

Technology Review: TR10

Technology Review: TR10

the 10 most important emerging technologies likely to change the world

Ben Casnocha: The Blog: What Makes Something Interesting?

Ben Casnocha: The Blog: What Makes Something Interesting?

Discussion plus links in comments. Meta ideas about "interestingness", "happiness", "wisdom vs intelligence". I intend to explore this link a bit more...

The Technium: 1,000 True Fans

The Technium: 1,000 True Fans

Micro success: all a creative needs are 1000 direct true fans to make a basic living.

How to Solve a Rubik's Cube (Easy Move Notation) (with pictures) - wikiHow

How to Solve a Rubik's Cube (Easy Move Notation) (with pictures) - wikiHow

This is the 30th anniversary of the cube! My dad loved to play with it and figured out a number of algorithms. This article has a guaranteed way to solve it that's fairly simple. It's not the fastest way but any cube can be solved by grinding it out by "layers"

Climate Change - Building a Green Economy - NYTimes.com

Climate Change - Building a Green Economy - NYTimes.com

Krugman with a pretty long and good article on economics of climate change.

Are We Zeroing In on the Hard Problem of Explaining Consciousness? | h Magazine

Are We Zeroing In on the Hard Problem of Explaining Consciousness? | h Magazine

Consciousness is the “hard problem” in mind science: explaining how the astonishing private world of consciousness emerges from neuronal activity... [there is growing] evidence for the “global workspace theory,” and may also offer clues to the “hard problem” of how patterns of electrical activity give rise to our complex internal lives.

Konczal Current State of Financial Reform.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Konczal Current State of Financial Reform.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Consumer Metrics Institute: Home of Daily Consumer Leading Indicators

Consumer Metrics Institute: Home of Daily Consumer Leading Indicators

A pretty good indicator. Unfortunately you need to join in order get the "best" stuff.

Rent capture through financial innovation | vox - Research-based policy analysis and commentary from leading economists

Rent capture through financial innovation | vox - Research-based policy analysis and commentary from leading economists

Randomness and God : The Frontal Cortex

Randomness and God : The Frontal Cortex

The Discovery of Global Warming - A History

The Discovery of Global Warming - A History

Much of what is known as well as acknowledgement of much of what is NOT known about global warming & related climate science.

Bottom line: pretty scary.

The Scientific Case for Modern Anthropogenic Global Warming - Monthly Review

The Scientific Case for Modern Anthropogenic Global Warming - Monthly Review

A reasonable essay on the science & models. I like the distillation into chunks with remarks on which are pretty well settled and which have significant room for scientific disagreement.

Musical Predictions : The Frontal Cortex

Musical Predictions : The Frontal Cortex

The act of listening, it turns out, is really an act of neural prediction.

The model essentially demonstrated that statistical predictions based on our personal listening experience - because I listen to Bruce Springsteen, I'm able to predict the melodies of John Mellencamp - was much better at simulating the mind than a rule-based model, in which our expectations are fixed and inflexible.

music hijacks some very fundamental neural mechanisms. The brain is designed to learn by association: if this, then that. Music works by subtly toying with our expected associations, enticing us to make predictions about what note will come next, and then confronting us with our prediction errors. In other words, every melody manipulates the same essential mechanisms we use to make sense of reality.

music requires surprise, the dissonance of "low-probability notes". While most people think about music in terms of aesthetic beauty - we like pretty consonant pitches arranged in pretty patterns - that's exactly backwards. The point of the prettiness is to set up the surprise, to frame the deviance.

Academic Earth | Online Courses | Academic Video Lectures

Academic Earth | Online Courses | Academic Video Lectures

Yes! If there are effective means to keep the content quality high, this could be a phenomenal site.