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Random Musings of a West Coast Canadian
Tali Sharot: The optimism bias
Are we born to be optimistic, rather than realistic? Tali Sharot shares new research that suggests our brains are wired to look on the bright side — and how that can be both dangerous and beneficial.
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The Worst Advice Ever
Another wonderful blog post by Brené Brown, PhD. Brene is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She studies vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame. The worst advice. EVER. “You can rest when you’re done.” This is the single worst piece of advice that I’ve ever received. I’m not even sure where or when I heard it…
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How Many Things in the World are 18 Minutes and 20 Seconds Long?
I went up to the gym the other day and hopped on the elliptical machine for a ‘run’. I set the timer for 25 minutes and got going. I was flipping through my iPhone looking for a good song and all of a sudden there it was, one song that would take me through an entire time slot on the…
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Breathtaking Alberta
You know, I have to admit it, we are all pretty smug and self assured that we British Columbians live in the most breathtaking place on earth. Certainly the best in Canada. And then you see a video that challenges that assumption. But of course, when you watch this, you will certainly realize that these fabulously amazing places in Alberta…
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The Ocean’s Shifting Baseline
Daniel Pauly is a Professor in the Fisheries Centre & Zoology at the University of British Columbia, and is the Principal Investigator of the Sea Around Us Project (see www.seaaroundus.org), funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia, and devoted to studying, documenting and promoting policies to mitigate the impact of fisheries on the world’s marine ecosystems. He was the Director of the…
Read more »A ‘Happy’ Secret
I LOVE this video!!! I try to visit TED for some inspiration and mind expansion every so often, and today I stumbled on this talk. It was funny to have come across it now, since I had been doing some journaling on something akin to the subject and hadn’t had the time to post it. After reading this I went…
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48/366 – After the Show
February 17, 2012 – When I was a kid I loved the Carol Burnett Show. Kirk bought tickets for us for Christmas, and tonight was the show. And it was wonderful. It was an evening with Carol and she took questions an comments form the audience, presented vignettes and video clips from the shows, and was a completely delightful, and…
Read more »Tail of the Dragon
Fascinating road that I’ve heard many talk of, but not one that I think I’d feel the need to challenge, at least not at any velocity on a motorcycle, maybe on four wheels though, if only just to experience it. Highlights, yet again, the stupidity of doing something just because you feel the need to prove that you can. Just…
Read more »Empathy
I stumbled across this video early yesterday and thought it was wonderful. The message that we could be that much more balanced if we made the effort to see other people’s perspectives and stop trying to frame them within a context of our own expectations, stop cherry picking the bits we like and ignoring the bits we don’t. This world…
Read more »The Pattern Behind Self-Deception
Fascinating and funny from both scientific and sociological perspectives. Well worth watching.
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