Dokkōdō The "Dokkōdō" [ (Japanese: 独行道?); "The Path of Aloneness", "The Way to Go Forth Alone", or "The Way of Walking Alone"] is a short work written by Miyamoto Musashi (宮本 武蔵) a week before he died in 1645. It consists of either nineteen or twenty-one precepts; precepts 4 and 20 are omitted from the former version. Precepts[edit] References[edit] Violence puts wear and tear on kids’ DNA Children who have experienced violence might really be older than their years. The DNA of 10-year-olds who experienced violence in their young lives has been found to show wear and tear normally associated with aging, a Duke University study has found. “This is the first time it has been shown that our telomeres can shorten at a faster rate even at a really young age, while kids are still experiencing stress,” said Idan Shalev, a post-doctoral researcher in psychology and neuroscience at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy. Telomeres are special DNA sequences found at the tips of chromosomes; much like the plastic tips of shoelaces, they prevent DNA from unraveling. Telomeres are known to get shorter each time cells divide, putting a limit on the number of times a given cell can go on dividing. Previous studies of telomeres and stress had primarily looked at telomeres in adults as they recalled experiences much earlier in their lives.
Psychology | Education | Education Guardian What will I learn?Psychology is the study of the human mind to better understand how andwhy people act the way they do. So, you might find yourself investigating how people become anorexic, how seemingly calm people turn violent, or why people prefer chocolate to sex (at least sometimes). You'll look at the way the brain perceives and uses information, and how these processes change as you get older. Your first year should provide a general grounding in general psychology, which will introduce you to the wonderful world of psychological statistics (maths GCSE is a must, but you don't need A-level, so you can relax). From there you will look at child development, cognitive psychology, personality, memory, emotion and motivation, and modules that look at the social psychology of individuals and groups. Some applied psychology programmes will give you the chance to spend a year working with a chartered psychologist, perhaps in healthcare or education. What skills will I gain?
Western Philosophy The Best Science Fiction Books (According to Reddit) Recently, someone asked Reddit for a list of the best science fiction books of all time. Being a fan of sci-fi, and wanting to expand my own reading list, I thought it would be helpful to tally the results and preserve them here for future reference. I've also included selected quotes from the comments, as well as my own notes on the books I've already read. PS: All book images in this post are copyright Amazon, and were retrieved using my Big Book Search Engine. So, without further ado, here are the Greatest Sci-Fi Books of All Time, ordered by upvote count: Dune Frank Herbert - 1965 "There's a reason it's the global top selling science fiction book of all time." - NibblyPig If you have a chance, track down the excellent full cast audiobook (unabridged!) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams - 1979 "I really love the cool combination of humor, philosophy, and sheer nuttiness of the entire series." - Scarbrow Ender's Game Orson Scott Card - 1985 Foundation Trilogy Isaac Asimov - 1942
thinking styles The following is edited and adapted from It is intended to supplement personal understanding and enhance critical self-examination of yourself as a communicator. Styles of Thinking "How do people think about things?" Harrison and Bramson, through their research detailed in their text The Art of Thinking, found that in Western society there are five distinct styles of thinking. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Synthesists "Synthesists are apt to appear challenging, skeptical, or satirically amused, even when you can see no cause for any of that." A Synthesist can juggle both arguments and counter arguments mentally and recognize the validity of each and form new ideas from that conflict. The first common strategy of the Synthesist is that of "Open Argument and Confrontation." Their second common strategy is "Asking Dumb-Smart Questions." Synthesists like to be observers of conflict. Synthesists like to speculate. Idealists Pragmatists Analysts Summary
Easter Island drug raises cognition throughout life span in mice Cognitive skills such as learning and memory diminish with age in everyone, and the drop-off is steepest in Alzheimer's disease. Texas scientists seeking a way to prevent this decline reported exciting results this week with a drug that has Polynesian roots. The researchers, appointed in the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, added rapamycin to the diet of healthy mice throughout the rodents' life span. Rapamycin, a bacterial product first isolated from soil on Easter Island, enhanced learning and memory in young mice and improved these faculties in old mice, the study showed. "We made the young ones learn, and remember what they learned, better than what is normal," said Veronica Galvan, Ph.D., assistant professor of physiology at the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies, part of the UT Health Science Center. The drug also lowered anxiety and depressive-like behavior in the mice, Dr. Venturing into the open Dr.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley Chapter One A SQUAT grey building of only thirty-four stories. Over the main entrance the words, CENTRAL LONDON HATCHERY AND CONDITIONING CENTRE, and, in a shield, the World State's motto, COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY. The enormous room on the ground floor faced towards the north. Cold for all the summer beyond the panes, for all the tropical heat of the room itself, a harsh thin light glared through the windows, hungrily seeking some draped lay figure, some pallid shape of academic goose-flesh, but finding only the glass and nickel and bleakly shining porcelain of a laboratory. Wintriness responded to wintriness. "And this," said the Director opening the door, "is the Fertilizing Room." Bent over their instruments, three hundred Fertilizers were plunged, as the Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning entered the room, in the scarcely breathing silence, the absent-minded, soliloquizing hum or whistle, of absorbed concentration. Meanwhile, it was a privilege. Responds by budding. Mr.
Tolstoy is my Cat: Review: 'South of the Border, West of the Sun' by Haruki Murakami This is the latest in a vague, meandering odyssey through Haruki Murakami's books that I've been making over the last few years, and I'd estimate I'm now about halfway through. I picked it up in Waterstones the other day as I fancied something new to read and I'm totally attracted to slim volumes at the moment after my epic Dickens tomes, the complete reading of which has turned into a total non-starter, not that I'm too sorry about that. 'South of the Border, West of the Sun' is the story of Hajime, the narrator and central character, who we follow from early adolescence to his mid-thirties in Tokyo, where he goes from awkward schoolboy to lonely twenty-something to a married, jazz bar-owning early middle-aged man. The story starts with his quiet friendship with a similarly lonely girl called Shimamoto, with whom he plays records after school and feels his first confusing feelings of teenage lust. He then moves schools and they lose touch. Title: 'South of the Border, West of the Sun'
Psychopathic Traits Linked to Brain Reward System - NIH Research Matters March 29, 2010 People who scored high on a test that measures impulsive and antisocial traits had exaggerated brain responses to certain “rewards,” like winning money or taking stimulant drugs. The new study provides evidence that a dysfunctional brain reward system may underlie vulnerability to a personality disorder known as psychopathy. Impulsive and antisocial personality traits correlate with amphetamine-induced dopamine release (red and yellow) in the brain. Image by Buckholtz et al. Psychopathy is characterized by a combination of superficial charm, manipulative and antisocial behavior, impulsivity, blunted empathy and shallow emotional experiences. Many studies of psychopathy have focused on the emotional and interpersonal aspects of the disorder, like lack of fear and empathy. In one experiment, the researchers used positron emission tomography (PET) to image the brain’s dopamine response when participants received a low oral dose of amphetamine.
Free Science Fiction Classics on the Web: Huxley, Orwell, Asimov, Gaiman & Beyond Today we're bringing you a roundup of some of the great Science Fiction, Fantasy and Dystopian classics available on the web. And what better way to get started than with Aldous Huxley reading a dramatized recording of his 1932 novel, Brave New World. The reading aired on the CBS Radio Workshop in 1956. You can listen to Part 1 here and Part 2 here. (FYI: You can download Huxley's original work -- as opposed to the dramatized version -- in audio by signing up for a Free Trial with Audible.com, and that applies to other books mentioned here as well.) Little known fact. In 1910, J. Stephen King and Joyce Carol Oates -- they both pay homage to H.P. Philip K. eTexts (find download instructions here) Audio “Beyond Lies the Wub” – Free MP3“Beyond the Door” – Free MP3“Second Variety” – Free MP3 Zip File – Stream Online“The Defenders” - Free MP3“The Hanging Stranger” – Free MP3“The Variable Man” – Free MP3 Zip File – Stream Online“Tony and the Beetles” – MP3 Part 1 – MP3 Part II Audio & Video