Is Ignorance Really Bliss? A regular blog reader, Mitch Kosowski, sent along an interesting question: “Is ignorance truly bliss? Are people with lower intelligence happier than those with higher intelligence?” Let’s start with a quick literature review. Lisa Simpson: “As intelligence goes up, happiness goes down. Despite her formidable unhappiness, I don’t think Lisa is right on this one. But that’s theory; let’s crunch some numbers. The General Social Survey asks about happiness and also contains a simple vocabulary test, which we’ll use as a proxy for intelligence. There’s also a small reasoning-based test: Armed with these data, Lisa can make more graphs, and she’ll discover that those with stronger vocabularies or stronger analytic reasoning skills are more likely to be very happy, and less likely to be unhappy. These differences were also statistically significant. Even so, these happiness differences look small.
Marxism–Leninism Marxism–Leninism is a political ideology combining Marxism (the scientific socialist concepts theorised by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels) and Leninism (Vladimir Lenin's theoretical expansions of Marxism which include anti-imperialism, democratic centralism, and Vanguardist party-building principles).[1] Marxism–Leninism was the official ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and of the Communist International (1919–43), making it the guiding ideology of the world communist movement. As such, it is the most prominent ideology associated with communism. The ultimate goal of Marxism–Leninism is the development of socialism into the full realisation of communism, a classless social system with common ownership of the means of production and with full social equality of all members of society. The phrase "Marxism–Leninism" was introduced by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s to distinguish the new synthesis of Marxism with the theories of Lenin. Values Etymology Historical Current usage
Personal space Personal space is the region surrounding a person which they regard as psychologically theirs. Most people value their personal space and feel discomfort, anger, or anxiety when their personal space is encroached.[1] Permitting a person to enter personal space and entering somebody else's personal space are indicators of perception of the relationship between the people. There is an intimate zone reserved for lovers, children and close family members. There is another zone used for conversations with friends, to chat with associates, and in group discussions; a further zone is reserved for strangers, newly formed groups, and new acquaintances; and a fourth zone is used for speeches, lectures, and theater; essentially, public distance is that range reserved for larger audiences.[2] Entering somebody's personal space is normally an indication of familiarity and at times of intimacy. Size[edit] Two people not affecting each other's personal space Adaptation[edit] Interpersonal space[edit]
Engels on the English working class (by L. Proyect) Engels on the English working-class "The Condition of the Working Class in England" is a profoundly important book because it reveals the raw empirical data that confronted the young Engels. Out of the panorama of misery and class oppression that he observed in England in the 1840s, he came to the conclusion that proletarian revolution was necessary. He wrote the book when he was 24 years old and working at a branch of his father's cotton mills in Manchester, England. During a trip to Cologne in 1841, Engels met with the editors of the Rheinische Zeitung, a radical newspaper founded by industrialists to spread their liberal, free-trade ideas. In David McLellan's introduction to the Penguin edition of the "The Condition of the Working Class in England", he groups the work with such literary masterpieces as Charles Dicken's "Hard Times" or Elizabeth Gaskell's "Mary Barton". In the opening chapter "The Great Towns", Engels describes the alienation that afflicts the London of 1840.
Doodle A doodle is an unfocused or unconscious drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be abstract shapes. Stereotypical examples of doodling are found in school notebooks, often in the margins, drawn by students daydreaming or losing interest during class. Other common examples of doodling are produced during long telephone conversations if a pen and paper are available. Popular kinds of doodles include cartoon versions of teachers or companions in a school, famous TV or comic characters, invented fictional beings, landscapes, geometric shapes, patterns and textures. Etymology[edit] The word doodle first appeared in the early 17th century to mean a fool or simpleton.[1] It may derive from the German Dudeltopf or Dudeldop, meaning simpleton or noodle (literally "nightcap").[1] In the movie Mr. Effects on memory[edit] Notable doodlers[edit] See also[edit] [edit] References[edit] Gombrich, E.
Sleep paralysis Sleep state in which a person is awake but unable to move or speak Medical condition Sleep paralysis (plural: sleep paralyses) is a state, during waking up or falling asleep, in which a person is aware but unable to move or speak.[1][2] During an episode, one may hallucinate (hear, feel, or see things that are not there), which often results in fear.[1] Episodes generally last less than a couple of minutes.[2] It may occur as a single episode or be recurrent.[1] Treatment options for sleep paralysis have been poorly studied.[1] It is recommended that people be reassured that the condition is common and generally not serious.[1] Other efforts that may be tried include sleep hygiene, cognitive behavioral therapy, and antidepressants.[1] Symptoms[edit] The main symptom of sleep paralysis is being unable to move or speak during awakening.[1] Pathophysiology[edit] If the effects of sleep “on” neural populations cannot be counteracted, characteristics of REM sleep are retained upon awakening. J.
Dante Alighieri Durante degli Alighieri (Italian: [duˈrante ˈdeʎʎi aliˈɡjɛːri]), simply called Dante (Italian: [ˈdante], UK /ˈdænti/, US /ˈdɑːnteɪ/; c. 1265–1321), was a major Italian poet of the late Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa (modern Italian: Commedia) and later called Divina by Boccaccio, is widely considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature.[1] In Italy he is called il Sommo Poeta ("the Supreme Poet") and il Poeta. He, Petrarch, and Boccaccio are also called "the three fountains" and "the three crowns". Life[edit] Portrait of Dante, from a fresco in the Palazzo dei Giudici, Florence Dante claimed that his family descended from the ancient Romans (Inferno, XV, 76), but the earliest relative he could mention by name was Cacciaguida degli Elisei (Paradiso, XV, 135), born no earlier than about 1100. Dante in Verona, by Antonio Cotti Gemma bore Dante several children. Education and poetry[edit] Legacy[edit]
Daniel David Palmer Daniel David Palmer Daniel David Palmer or D.D. Palmer (March 7, 1845 – October 20, 1913) was the founder of chiropractic. In 1865 Palmer moved to the United States, and around 1880 took up magnetic healing in Davenport, Iowa. Palmer developed the theory that mis-alignment of the bones in the body was the basic underlying cause of all "dis-ease" and the majority of these mis-alignments were in the spinal column. Palmer died in Los Angeles in 1913 of typhoid fever. Biography[edit] Palmer worked as a magnetic healer in Davenport, Iowa. His theories revolved around the concept that altered nerve flow was the cause of all disease, and that misaligned spinal vertebrae had an effect on the nerve flow. "A subluxated vertebra ... is the cause of 95 percent of all diseases ... By 1902 the school had graduated 15 chiropractors. The relationship with his son B.J. was tenuous and often bitter, especially after the sale of his school. Osteopathic and chiropractic medicine[edit] D.D. According to B.J.
Edward T. Hall Edward Twitchell Hall, Jr. (May 16, 1914 – July 20, 2009) was an American anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher. He is remembered for developing the concept of proxemics, a description of how people behave and react in different types of culturally defined personal space. Biography[edit] Born in Webster Groves, Missouri, Hall taught at the University of Denver, Colorado, Bennington College in Vermont, Harvard Business School, Illinois Institute of Technology, Northwestern University in Illinois and others. From 1933 through 1937, Hall lived and worked with the Navajo and the Hopi on native American reservations in northwestern Arizona, the subject of his autobiographical West of the Thirties. Throughout his career, Hall introduced a number of new concepts, including proxemics, polychronic and monochronic time, and high and low context culture. He died at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico on July 20, 2009.[4] Books[edit] Influence[edit] References[edit] External links[edit]
Naturalism (philosophy) Naturalism is "the idea or belief that only natural (as opposed to supernatural or spiritual) laws and forces operate in the world; (occas.) the idea or belief that nothing exists beyond the natural world."[1] Adherents of naturalism (i.e., naturalists) assert that natural laws are the rules that govern the structure and behavior of the natural universe, that the changing universe at every stage is a product of these laws.[2] "Naturalism can intuitively be separated into a [metaphysical] and a methodological component. In contrast, assuming naturalism in working methods, without necessarily considering naturalism as an absolute truth with philosophical entailments, is called methodological naturalism.[5] The subject matter here is a philosophy of acquiring knowledge. With the exception of pantheists—who believe that Nature and God are one and the same thing—theists challenge the idea that nature is all there is. The term "methodological naturalism" for this approach is much more recent.
Kenneth Goldsmith Kenneth Goldsmith (born 1961) is an American poet. He is the founding editor of UbuWeb, teaches Poetics and Poetic Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, and is a Senior Editor of PennSound. He hosted a weekly radio show at WFMU from 1995 until June 2010. He has published ten books of poetry, notably Fidget (2000), Soliloquy (2001) and Day (2003) and Goldsmith's American trilogy, The Weather (2005), Traffic (2007), and Sports (2008). Life[edit] Goldsmith was born in Freeport, New York. Conceptual Poetics and Poetic Practice[edit] Driven by a preoccupation with “Uncreativity as Creative Practice”, Goldsmith is essentially the habitual editor of one large project, contributing to both the study and practice of poetry as a writer, academic, and as curator of the prolific archives at UbuWeb. The first symposium on Conceptual Poetics was held at the Oslo Poetry Festival in November 2007. Academic[edit] Radio, Sound, Live Events and Collaborations[edit] Printing Out The Internet[edit]