January 2012
26 posts
Unknown known →
Unknown knowns are the things that we know, but are unaware of knowing. The coining of the term is attributed to Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek and it refers to the unconscious beliefs and prejudices that determine how we perceive reality and intervene in it. It is the Freudian unconscious, the “knowledge which doesn’t know itself.”
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“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.”
– Proverb
30 Story Hotel Completely Built and Finished in... →
Space Shuttle Discovery →
Perceptual adaptation (Wikipedia) →
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One experiment in which Stratton conducted was when he wore a reversing telescope for a whole twenty four hours. To his disappointment, his vision was unchanged. Determined to find results, Stratton wore the telescoping glasses for eight days straight. By day four, his vision was upright (not inverted). However on day five, images appeared upright until he concentrated on them; then...
Monkeys keeping cats as pets →
"...one of the first genetically modified animals... →
Pepper's ghost (Wikipedia) →
Pepper’s ghost is an illusionary technique used in theatre and in some magic tricks. Using a plate glass and special lighting techniques, it can make objects seem to appear or disappear, transparent, or make one object seem to morph into another.
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The world’s largest implementation of this illusion can be found at the Haunted Mansion and Phantom Manor attractions at...
“Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand.”
– Chinese Proverb
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else...”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “Universe”, a...”
– Albert Einstein
December 2011
31 posts
Panorama from the top of Mt. Everest →
“Accept who you are and revel in it.”
– Mitch Albom
Watchfuckyeahtedtalks:
Mark Bittman on what’s wrong with what we eat
“Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.”
– Heraclitus
Sedlec Ossuary →
The Sedlec Ossuary (Czech: kostnice Sedlec) is a small Roman Catholic chapel, located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints (Czech:Hřbitovní kostel Všech Svatých) in Sedlec, a suburb of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic. The ossuary is estimated to contain the skeletons of between 40,000 and 70,000 people, many of whom have had their bones artistically arranged to form decorations and...
Watchfuckyeahtedtalks:
Svante Pääbo: DNA clues to our inner neanderthal
Operation Bernhard →
Operation Bernhard was the codename of a secret Nazi plan devised during the Second World War by the RSHA and the SS to destabilise the British economy by flooding the country with forged Bank of England £5, £10, £20, and £50 notes. It is the largest counterfeiting operation in history and has been fictionalised in books, the BBC comedy-drama miniseries Private Schulz and a...
Cinemagraphs: photographs enhanced with animation →
Tongue-eating louse →
The tongue-eating louse is a parasitic crustacean of the family Cymothoidae. It tends to be 1.2 to 1.6 in long. This parasite enters through the gills, and then attaches itself at the base of the spotted rose snapper’s (Lutjanus guttatus) tongue. It extracts blood through the claws on its front, causing the tongue to atrophy from lack of blood. The parasite then replaces the fish’s...
"Chimpanzees living in the wild have been found to... →
“It’s not that we need new ideas, but we need to stop having old ideas.”
– Edwin Land, Creator of Polaroid
Meditation improves the immune system, research... →
The practice - an essential part of Buddhist and Indian Yoga traditions - has entered the mainstream as people try to find ways to combat stress and improve their quality of life.
Now new research suggests that mindfulness meditation can have benefits for health and performance, including improved immune function, reduced blood pressure and enhanced cognitive function.
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“A psychologist at a girl’s college asked the members of his class to compliment...”
– W. Lambert Gardiner, Psychology: A Story of Search
