On a Curiosity Blender

Today's post is courtesy of my new favorite podcast, RadioLab

If you've never heard of RadioLab before, thank goodness you are reading this blog!!! This podcast/radio show will undoubtedly change your LIFE! Ok, maybe not that extreme, but it will definitely blow your mind.

This week at RadioLab, they've rebroadcast an amazing show about Time. Time is difficult to grasp when you really think about it, and RadioLab does a VERY good job of thinking about it. It is sure to be a mind-blower. I guarantee it!!!

However, if you don't have an hour to spare to listen to the whole show, I have another suggestion.



This video was a follow-up to the show in which RadioLab investigated Words. What are words and what would our world be like without them? Without words, would there be no communication? no speech? no thought? Is it possible to think without words? Did you notice that each clip represents a word and the is linked to the following clip?

Anywho, hope you enjoy the video! You can find the full broadcast of Words here! This episode was definitely the most mind-blowing episode I have ever heard. And I've heard them all. They talk about this dude who lived for 27 years without LANGUAGE! I mean, he's deaf, doesn't know that he's deaf, and doesn't know that every single thing in the entire world has a name -- a word. And then someone explains it all to him for the first time...WHOA!!!! CRAZY! I am NOT exaggerating.

Absorb it! It will enlighten your life.

Random Thought of the Day

Death from above!

How did these things even get off the ground?!

Don't worry, I'm taking a class where I'll learn all about it this year! I'll be sure to inform you once we finish our section on Pterosaurs.

Twitterology? Yes. Twitterology.

If it exists, there are people studying it. Twitter is now the subject of some potently puzzling psychological ponderables. Although I am not a twitter user and have absolutely no desire to become one, this research is very interesting.
Check it out:

"5. Men are Twitter leaders: Some suggestions of sex differences come from Heil & Piskorski (2009). They found that there were slightly more women than men on Twitter (55% women), but that, on average, men had 15% more followers than women, with men twice as likely to follow another man as they were a woman, and women 25% more likely to follow men. Both men and women, however, were found to tweet at the same rate. This finding is unusual given that it's normally women who are the focus of attention on social networks, from both other men and other women."

 Interesting, no?

Here's another good one: "10% of twitter users contribute 90% of the tweets." That means that the vast majority of twitter users are actually just following, not tweeting. Muy interesante, verdad?

Ok, one more: "Alan Mislove and colleagues collected 300 million tweets from the US, analysed their emotional content, and produced a 'mood of the nation' video. It shows how the emotional content of people's tweets changes over the day (red is negative and green positive)." Using this form of analysis, Mislove has also determined that Monday is not the most depressing day of the week! Crazy, right?

Here's the video:


Anyway, you can read the whole story here at this super interesting psychology blog!

Whoa! Why didn't I know this?!?!

As a short follow-up to my last random daily thought...

the Nicoya Peninsula in north-western Costa Rica was named a Blue Zone in 2007!!!

A Blue Zone, by the way, is an area with a high rate of active centenarians. Remember centenarians from my last post? Well, check out their web page and really cute videos of old people.

Anyway, I have visited this area of Costa Rica! Kinda. Actually, I've been to the areas around the peninsula. I didn't really get to spend much time on the peninsula. But it still counts.

The Guanacaste region of Costa Rica was definitely my favorite place we visited. I especially miss those huge Guanacaste trees, Enterolobium cyclocarpum. (The picture below isn't actually an E. cyclocarpum, but that one off in the distance might be. The umbrella shaped one. I just like this picture.)

So, not only is Costa Rica the happiest country in the world, it also has the highest life expectancy among 60-year-olds in the entire WORLD (meaning, if you make it to 60, it is very likely that you'll also make it to 100). I guess I'll just have to move back there soon!

Live Longer. Live Better.

Random Thought of the Day

How to live to be 100+

Apparently, there is a great deal of research surrounding centenarians.
P.S. A centenarian is an individual who has lived for 100 years or more. Now you know!

Most of this centenarian research is in regards to diet, exercise and general lifestyle habits.

However...

That's not all that scientists are researching. Apparently love has a lot to do with it. Human contact and interaction play an important role in whether you'll reach 60 or 100.

Check it out. Here's a TED Talk on this very same subject!



In addition to this TED Talk, I also started thinking about longevity when a friend told me he was on a paleo diet. What is a paleo diet, you ask? Well, basically, it means eating, exercising and living like...a caveman.

Yup. The caveman diet. It actually sounds very appealing and I'm halfway there anyway. Learn more about it HERE. I would recommend muting the sound, FYI. Silly music.

Random Thought of the Day

Ducks and dog masks...

More of a big bad wolf mask...but STILL! I can only see dog masks now! Crazy!

This post courtesy of the blog, ubersuper.com

In my spare time today...

I bought a new camera with high speed capabilities for my project on wing-sounds in pigeons. Naturally, I had to try it out!

Of course, I also took video of pigeons in flight like a good little researcher...