Cognitive Labs

Here's another test...on this page it's interwoven with ambient beats...24/7

The spheres are an artists' rendering of the infinite.

Labels: ambient, brain, chill, infinite, psych

Galileo was treated "incorrectly" by the Catholic church, according to a church prelate in Rome, when he was subject to inquiry over his findings. Echoing a theme carried in 'Angels and Demons,' the Vatican now says that the forward momentum of scientific findings should not be parried by dogma and tradition.

In particular, Galileo's conclusion that there appeared to be planetary objects moving externally and independently to the known cosmological system ( e.g., satellites of Jupiter) and that the solar system was heliocentric, rather than geocentric - were threatening the conception of a divinely ordered universe, as it existed at the time.

"Can this teach us something today? I certainly think so," said Monsignor Pagano, head of the Vatican's secret archives.

Read more in the news wire story.

Labels: galileo, monsignor, pagano

From starting a blog 5+ years ago (before this site existed) this is a record of interesting events looking back - research being published, applications being developed and an inexorable move from a static kind of healthcare to something more dynamic and interactive.

The idea of cognitive fitness and training back then was only advocated by a few psychologists who were on the leading edge, and were beginning to link up divergent points in the mass of research data. Now however, it is becoming a larger and larger phenomenon, particularly when the idea of grafting psychology-based research and neuroscience to gaming, took hold. For me, this occurred in the summer of 2005 on a hike in the desolate high altitude of the Eastern Sierra, when the wide open skies seemed to open up so much possibility - on the same trip, visiting the White Mountains and their Bristlecone pines. It was at this one moment, when the realization struck in how to combine these things-so coming back, after that - everything was seen in a fresh light, and there were some earlier contributory events going back to April of that year.

At that moment our relatively lightly trafficked site began to grow, and at the same time the research work began to come together, including multi-faceted collaboration with Stanford scientists. Leading to where we are now, which is here.

Meanwhile, the social networking phenomenon took off and health is at crossroads of being much more interactive and detailed than it is today.

Going back to the blogging (which is a word seldom heard these days) I don't think the growth and development here would have been possible without the discipline and daily feedback so gained, from the exercise of writing down a series of thoughts, even if not all that profound.

That's the conclusion of a new study - though it's definitely hard to imagine. 90 minutes a day seems about right, with some rotation of activities, but perhaps this is too much.

Labels: 60, minutes

Why do the major film distributors offer sequels rather than new fare?

Answer: Risk Reduction

A major release is expensive. To generate positive box office returns, it is statistically more likely to wager on proven characters, story, and 'brand' or mindshare than it is to create a new entity that can command traction.

For Kraft, a manufacturer of food products, nacho-cheese flavored macaroni and cheese would be a safer new product than something completely new, though risk-averse, drawing on a known consumer base.

The formula with an extant share of mind is more likely to succeed, because the 'floor' or minimum return is much higher than the totally unknown project.

There are some areas in the film universe that run counter to the blockbuster approach. For example, one of the reasons the 'horror' genre persists with producers is purely business - it provides profitable returns on much lower budgets and production costs - actors can be unknowns, special effects tend to be localized, and emotional intensity drives word-of-mouth mindshare, so that these films frequently generate a gross of 5 to 10 times production cost and can provide cash streams for years through International distribution and DVD's, which can obtain a cult following. Respected art-house films generally break even, at best, or provide fractional percentage returns, even though they can enhance the range of roles for participants by building up artistic cred and make winning honors more likely in the future.

Labels: cred, horror, sequels

California is a beautiful state - from the arc of the Golden Gate bridge - the land of beaches, deserts, tall trees, mountains, farms, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley.

But underneath is the miasma of fraud. The state is prone to off-the-books operations, double-book accounting, shady deals, and coercion - from investors to bankers, and third parties. Sometimes, major companies get involved.

A recent snapshot of the problem here identified payments of $768 million which were underreported or obscured.

The impact is felt by the state as a whole in terms of gaps in tax revenue. Activities like this make it tough for the State to run a balanced budget and dampen innovation. There is hope, however, that these dark corners that shroud the golden future will be illuminated by the light of truth, over time.

Labels: fraud, shady, state, taxes, woes

Incredible...it's the first picture of a memory being made in a...sea slug through the efforts of UCLA researchers.



The increase in green fluorescence represents the imaging of protein synthesis at synapses when memories are made. Credit: Martin et. al

For the first time, an image of a memory being made at the cellular level has been captured by scientists.

The image shows that proteins are created at connections between brain cells when a long-term memory is formed. Neuroscientists had suspected as much, but hadn't been able to see it happening until now.

The experiment also revealed some surprising aspects of memory formation, which remains a somewhat mysterious process.

Kelsey Martin, a biochemist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues investigated memory formation in neurons from the sea slug Aplysia californica, a good model for brain cells in other organisms, including humans.

Read all

Labels: about, memories, synapses, talking, you're