Videos
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GamesArchive for July, 2011
On the How Fear Works episode SYSK released, we talked about fear conditioning, the capability for humans top learn and develop new fears, rather than just have to be afraid of the same old boring things throughout our entire lives. Our ability to gain fears as we encounter new things worth fearing makes sense as a survival skill, and it makes further sense that fear acquisition shouldn’t take too much trouble, since we should probably learn to fear snakes and the guy who’s mugging us in real time rather than slowly, over the course of several weeks.
Will humans leave religion behind when they become an interplanetary species? Not hardly. In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Julie and I grab our Orange Catholic Bibles and discuss how manned space exploration affects our belief systems and how faith might change or even break on off-world colonies or in the midst of extraterrestrial contact.
Here’s a disturbing thought: humans are sexually attracted to — guess who! — themselves. At least that’s one of the conclusions you could draw from a 2010 study conducted by psychologist R. Chris Fraley at the University of Illinois. Fraley told Wired magazine, “People appear to be drawn to others who resemble their kin or themselves.”
It’s almost on cue: Mere days before the “Harry Potter” series takes its final bow in theaters comes news of Muggle Quidditch flying high at a Texas high school.
Why are so many musical minds also so well suited for crunching numbers? Whether it’s Art Garfunkel’s masters degree in mathematics or the structure of the chromatic scale, it’s easy to correlate music and math. But what’s the truth of the matter?
In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Julie and I venture into the overlap between the world of song and the world of calculation. We discuss what’s going on the brain, what surveys have to say about it and we’ll even call back to the interview I did with DJ Irk on the subject.
In “Should women donate their breast milk?”, Molly and I chat about what women do with excess breast milk they can’t use. That inevitably led us to a mention the Baby Gaga ice cream that made a media splash earlier this year. The Icreamists shop in London sold breast milk-flavored ice cream for a whopping $22 per serving, due to that special ingredient that came from around 15 women selling their breast milk online.
Recent Postings by Category
BrainStuff
- Thank You and Best Wishes to Marshall Brain
- Contest – Design a $300 house and win $25,000
- How the Philtrum works – the place under your nose where your face comes together
The Coolest Stuff on the Planet
- Have a Coke and a Smile
- The Latest in Frugal Lodging: Camping in Somebody Else’s Backyard
- The Painted Beauties of Bucovina
Keep Asking
- Why can a 5 foot 8 inch man dunk a basketball on a 10 foot rim while some people of taller stature can’t?
- What happens to our sun once it runs out of fuel?
- How do we know the age of the universe?
Stuff Mom Never Told You
- Who invented the Christmas card?
- How the Kinsey Report Fueled Whiskey Sales
- How to Get Your Wedding Announcement into The New York Times
Stuff to Blow Your Mind
- Space Music: DJ Food and ‘The Search Engine’
- Stuff to Blow Your Mind: Hug it Out
- Space Music: Jay-Z and Beyoncé to Film Music Video in Orbit
Stuff You Should Know
- The Southern Death Cult, the Maya and Georgia
- Deformed Baby Spider Brains
- Amazing Medical Conditions: Maple Syrup Urine Disorder
The Stuff of Genius
CarStuff
- Why is NASA studying car safety?
- Tips for in-car Navigation Systems
- Tips for Using Bluetooth in the Car
How-to Stuff
- How to Swim with Dolphins (When Deep Water Terrifies You)
- How to Cure a Homemade Cookie Craving Without Turning on the Oven
- How to Know When It’s Time for a New Pet
PopStuff
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 36: Now Available in 3-D
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 35: Let’s do brunch!
- PopStuff Show Notes: Episode 34: Play it again, Sam
Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
Stuff to Change the World
- Who will own the Arctic?
- Obesity: The New Global Crisis
- Bill Gates Makes For A Pretty Decent Cartoon
Stuff You Missed in History Class
- Butch Cassidy: Should we read between the lines?
- Are we rooting for D.B. Cooper?
- Party Time: A Look at Unconventional Politics
