Brain

Everyone’s gift and curse, the brain is quite a thing to behold. I do my best to stay on the gift side. Here are some sites that get me thinking and get me thinking about thinking and get me thinking about improving my thinking. I also like to play around with my IQ. Music has a huge impact on my thinking, especially obscure African sounds.

• [RSS] Acko.net
• [RSS] BioCurious
  a complete working laboratory and technical library
  for entrepreneurs to cheaply access
  equipment, materials, and co-working space
  a training center for biotechniques, with an emphasis on safety
  a meeting place for citizen scientists, hobbyists,
  activists, and students
• [RSS] ElectricJive
  Welcome to ElectricJive. We collect vinyl and African sounds for the love of music – not profit. Africa is blessed with a heritage of music that must be passed on and appreciated again and again.We focus on out of print South African, and other African music that is very difficult to find.

  Requests for that long-lost recording are invited – who knows, someone may have it available.

• [RSS] Evolutionary Psychiatry
  Emily Deans, M.D. is a  a psychiatrist in Massachusetts searching for evolutionary solutions to the general and mental health problems of the 21st century. Disclaimer: This information is for educational purposes only, and is in no way intended to be personal medical advice. Please ask your physician about any health guidelines seen in this blog, as everyone is different in his or her medical needs.
• [RSS] BuzzMachine
• [RSS] Deric Bownds’ MindBlog
  Reports new ideas and work on mind, brain, and behavior, as well as random curious stuff.
• [RSS] Quantified Self
  A place for people interested in self-tracking to gather, share knowledge and experiences, and discover resources.
• [RSS] Welcome to Explorations in Science with Dr. Michio Kaku
  Dr. Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist, best-selling author, and popularizer of science. He’s the co-founder of string field theory (a branch of string theory), and continues Einstein’s search to unite the four fundamental forces of nature into one unified theory.
• [RSS] Scientific Reports – nature.com science feeds
• [RSS] Less Wrong
  Thinking and deciding are central to our daily lives. The Less Wrong community aims to gain expertise in how human brains think and decide, so that we can do so more successfully. We use insights from cognitive science, social psychology, probability theory, and decision theory to improve our understanding of how the world works and what we can do to achieve our goals.Want to know if your doctor’s diagnosis is correct? It helps to understand Bayes’ Theorem. Want to make a plan for achieving your goals? It helps to know the ways in which we don’t know our own desires. Want to make the world a better place? It helps to know about the cognitive bias called ‘scope insensitivity‘, and that some charities are more efficient than others.We discuss and practice these skills on the main blog, in the discussion area, and in regular meetups around the world.
• [RSS] The Beautiful Brain
  The Beautiful Brain explores the latest findings from the ever-growing field of neuroscience through monthly long-form essays, reviews, galleries, short-form blog posts and more, with particular attention to the dialogue between the arts and sciences. The site illuminates important new questions about creativity, the mind of the artist, and the mind of the observer that modern neuroscience is helping us to answer, or at least to provide part of an answer. Instances where art seeks to answer questions of a traditionally scientific nature are also of great interest, and for that reason you will hear from artists as well as scientists on The Beautiful Brain.
• [RSS] Future Now
  The Institute for the Future (IFTF) is an independent nonprofit research group. We work with organizations of all kinds to help them make better, more informed decisions about the future. We provide the foresight to create insights that lead to action.The Institute is based in California’s Silicon Valley, in a community at the crossroads of technological innovation, social experimentation, and global interchange. Founded in 1968 by a group of former RAND Corporation researchers with a grant from the Ford Foundation to take leading-edge research methodologies into the public and business sectors, the IFTF is committed to building the future by understanding it deeply.
  We bring a combination of tools, methodologies, and a deep understanding of emerging trends and discontinuities to our work with companies, foundations, and government agencies. We take an explicitly global approach to strategic planning, linking macro trends to local issues in such areas as:
  • Work and daily life
  • Technology and society
  • Health and health care
  • Global business trends
  • Changing consumer society

• [RSS] Information Diet RSS Feed
  Healthy information consumption habits are about more than productivity and efficiency. They’re about your personal health, and the health of society. Just as junk food can lead to obesity, junk information can lead to new forms of ignorance. The Information Diet provides a framework for consuming information in a healthy way, by showing you what to look for, what to avoid, and how to be selective. In the process, author Clay Johnson explains the role information has played throughout history, and why following his prescribed diet is essential in today’s information age.