I was driving to dinner earlier today when I saw this event. Mr. Squirrel leaped ran to the side of the road and paused. At first I thought, “Hey a smart squirrel. He’s realized the car in front of me would hit him if he tries to make it.” No such luck. A truck approached…
Of any play, this is the one I know the best. In 7th grade, we were supposed to do this play. Not an abridged version, but the whole thing. I was only Barnardo, and even memorizing that stressed me to the breaking point. Thankfully, I was able to transfers schools and get out of it. At…
An The Atlantic article, Dating on the Autism Spectrum, I read last weekend sent me reading more about the Autism Spectrum again. This would be the fourth or fifth time. In my cache of saved articles, I found a link to a NYT piece called Navigating Love and Autism, which suggests not that long ago…
The Crippled God by Steven Erikson My rating: 4 of 5 stars For a couple years a coworker told me to read this series. I bought the first book, but it sat on the shelf as a reminder. Finally, I caved, and he gave me the rest of the series. It started off confusing and…
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man and Other Writings by James Weldon Johnson My rating: 4 of 5 stars As a mixed race man, though much darker of skin color, some people easily identify me as Black. Others have no clue and try to figure it out with, “Where are you from?” as though no…
(This post is part of a series. Intro > 1. Illusions > 2. Labeling > 3. Math > 4. Multitasking) This one combines the worst of Illusions and Math. We trust our senses and inadequately assess risk. We have limited capacities for attending to what happens around us. Two or more objects are not being held at the same time in memory. We switch between…
(This post is part of a series. Intro > 1. Illusions > 2. Labeling > 3. Math > 4. Multitasking) Behavioral economics fascinates me. Humans have amazing abilities to miscalculate risk with extreme confidence they accurately assessed it. These appear to be rules of thumb which work in certain situations, but really are not applicable to others yet most people do. Part of the…
(This post is part of a series. Intro > 1. Illusions > 2. Labeling > 3. Math > 4. Multitasking) We like to think only those things we experience exist. Or even can experience. What about those things we can experience that do not or never did exist? That is what illusions are. They are cases where we trick…
We humans laud our superiority over the rest of the world. We even claim to be better than other humans. The chief attribute we compare is intelligence. An interest of mine regarding Psychology in college was failures of the mind. Phineas Gage suffered a brain injury that drastically changed his behavior. That was really cool! Yet, that…