questions of an accident

so, nobody freak out, but yes, i did get hit by a car as i was biking home tuesday evening. I'm fine, i just have some road rash and soreness, and i went back to school friday. but it got me wondering (as i am prone to do) about what was going through my mind as i was getting hit. obviously there was probably an adrenaline rush, and yes, time did seem to slow a bit as the car was coming toward me, a documented incident caused by the brains vivid remembering of details in a life or death situation. other than that and my wanting to cuss the guy out after it was over, that's all i know. sorry, but it's not like i have a phd or anything. maybe you know someone who does. and that's what i really want you guys to get from these posts, not answers, but questions that you can go out into the world and answer for yourself. just please, please please don't answer this question: "what's the worst that could possibly happen if i don't wear a helmet?" cause the answer will probably suck.

psyched advice

if i could write my own advice column, i'd love to write one like this:

Dear Yasmeen,

I've just met this guy who's super sweet and charming. We talk occasionally, and I'm about average in terms of prettiness, but how do I get him to ask me out? Are there any ways psychology could help me?

Sincerely,

Hopeful in Hoboken

dear hopeful,

there are tons of ways psychology could help you out! we learned in my first year of psychology that attraction between two people are often predicted by four things: similarity, proximity, reciprocity, and physical attractiveness. find things you and your guy have in common for similarity, and for proximity, try to see him regularly. as for reciprocity and physical attractiveness, those two shouldn't be a problem! also, a university of rochester study has shown that men find women wearing red more attractive, so if you feel it necessary, put on that red shirt! and this guy doesn't necessarily have to be the one to ask you out either. if you're too scared to ask him straight out, plan to do something you know he'd like doing, mention it in passing, and invite him along.

hope this helps,

yasmeen

by the way, feel free to take the advice, it really is based on reality, not made up like the letter from hopeful in hoboken.

an interview with jonah lehrer

so guess what?! as you can see by the title, you guys get treated with an interview with jonah lehrer! he's written proust was a neuroscientist, how we decide, his own blog on wired.com, and contributes to radiolab and wired magazine, plus he quotes bob dylan. so an all around very cool guy, and lets all be sure to thank him should we ever meet him.

what journey did you take to become a science writer?
I became a science writer because I couldn't become a scientist. In fact, I was so bad at bench science that the post-doc I was working for (and he remains one of my best friends) used to joke that I "excelled at experimental failure". This ineptitude led me to think about science writing, which struck me as the best of both worlds, since I could continue to think about scientific ideas but didn't have to wear latex gloves, sacrifice mice, or worry about calibrating micropipettes. As Bob Dylan said, "There's no success like failure."

were you different from your peers as a teenager? did you have a hard time because of it?
I was a pretty big nerd. But my best friends were also pretty nerdy, so I didn't mind. Too much.

what advice would you give to teens who want to become science writers?
I'm afraid I don't have any good advice. I'm still learning how to write myself One thing I've learned, though, is that writing is a craft. There are no born writers. One has to practice and practice and practice. (That's why blogging has been so important for me - it's forced deliberate practice, with lots of critical comments!) And maybe, if you're lucky, your sentences will get a little bit better most days, a little bit more transparent and clear and readable. You will say more with fewer words. But there are no short-cuts. I'm convinced that, before you can write a good sentence, you have to write lots of really bad sentences, and then spend lots of time editing those sentences. So the writing process isn't always fun. But the upside is that, as a science writer, you'll get to ask some of the smartest people on the planet a lot of really naive questions. That's the best part of the job.

make an impact

so just the other day my dad was showing me the new yorker article about tavi, the fashion blogger who's my age and gets invited to fashion shows all the time and stuff because she has a huge following. you know, that tavi? and it just got me thinking, what would all the creative youth like tavi (and because i'm vain i like to think myself) have done, say, fifty years ago? now that we're in a culture obessed with youth to such a high degree, are youth listened to more? and how much of an impact (obviously it has had an impact) has the internet made?
i think the answer is yes, but before we all start cheering, lets remember that a voice can be a double edged sword. yes, now kids and teens can put their voices out there, it's important that we remember not to be frivolous with this new power. the less we write about issues that are important to us, the less impact we will make when we do have something important to say. so please, try not to fill the internet with random babble. if you have something you care about, get it out there.
the internet isn't the only form of media around, either. there are great groups like youth radio and youth speaks in the bay area that help young people hone and find a platform for their opinions, and i'm sure there are orginizations like them where you live. so go ahead, make an impact.
p.s. are you a youth who already does this? tell me how!

erasing the almost

reading this post's title probably had you thinking "what?" but i promise i'll explain. here was my "about me" yesterday:
almost high school aged girl who loves star wars, gladwell, lehrer, radio lab and indie rock and is too lazy to capitalize when typing.
this is my "about me" today:
high school aged girl who loves star wars, gladwell, lehrer, radio lab and indie rock and is too lazy to capitalize when typing.
are you seeing the missing "almost"? i start high school tomorow! aaaaaaaah! no, hopefully i'll be ok. i can open my combination lock in 12 seconds flat (i've been practicing) and all my awesome friends who love me for being a giant nerd (see last parentheses) are going to the same school. so cross your fingers i don't get egged on freshmen fridays (yah, they do do that, but luckily there are only four) and i'll keep writing! i'm definitely not going anywhere.

referendum day

i am pleased to announce that the next three weeks will have very special blog posts pertaining to non western views of psychology and pop culture because i'm in mombasa, kenya! it's beautiful here, but also sad because of the huge social-economic differences between the different subgroups. however, we might start to see some of that change starting today.

today is referendum day here in kenya, so all citizens have a chance to vote on the countries new constitution, which is looking like it will pass (washington post, 2010). it's so awesome that i get to be here to witness what is essentially history in the making.

this referendum also poses some interesting questions: how would the u.s. be if we did not have the electoral college? our founding fathers designed the electoral college because they worried about the common man not having enough information to make informed decisions in the voting process, however, in today's internet society this is hardly an issue. we all know that the electoral college can be manipulated (he hem, george bush). if we had the chance, how would the u.s. remake it's government? how would you?
PLEASE comment below, i'd love to hear your opinion. you owe me from the last post. read that one and comment too. anything you want me to cover while i'm here? tell me about it and i'll try to get to it. thanks.

what does it mean to be human?

we're going to try something new, okay? this post is more like a forum, i want to hear everyone's opinions. what does it mean to be human to you? and how would you fill the voyager space capsule? read the post to hear my opinion, then write your own in the comments section.

i think that what makes humans different from all other species is that we are the only species that feels a need to alter our environments. we want to grow, to nourish, to create, to love, maybe even to injure, we do all these things because we want to be known. we want to be remembered for having an affect on our world, and i'm sure everyone, even hitler, believes their affect is positive. we know that we are successful human beings when we reach the end of our lives and decide that we added more to the world than we took away. this is part of the lure of religions, they promise to make us eternal, be it in heaven, or reincarnation or what have you. it's no mistake we're called human beings, because that is our goal in life, to always be in at least one form. that's the main goal of evolution too, to keep our genes, a portion of ourselves, in existence. it's why most people believe in some sort of afterlife. it's also why we are fascinated with vampire and other immortals. we love the concept of existing forever, especially in perfection, because we are incredibly vain. that's how we like to think of ourselves, as perfect. this is the reason we say god made us in it's image, because it makes us feel more perfect and human.

how would you reflect what it means to be human? have you ever heard of the voyager space project? they sent two identical gold records into space, with recordings of what the researchers thought reflected what it means to be human. if i were filling that space capsule, i would put things that reflect the joy of being alive and the beauty of human choice. while there will always be dictators and tyrants, there will also always be people who protest their acts. for every slave owner, there were people who marched on washington. for every war criminal, there are people dedicating their lives to helping others. i would use the shuttle to show that although humans vary in their beliefs and attitudes, we have a great potential for good. although it probably wouldn't matter, because aliens would probably find our need to be known and leave a mark on the future baffling.

remember to comment your opinion!

freud and elvis: b.s. at it's best

first off, thanks for the feedback guys, i appreciate it. i'll try to get to the achievement gap soon, but until then, you might like an earlier post i did called "the world gap".

so, i was reading my psych textbook and the author (david g. meyers, not that you were wondering) wrote this about freud: "in the popular mind, he [freud] is to psychology's history what elvis presley is to rock music's history." i thought, "david, you're more right than you know." do you know why david is right? have no fear if you don't, because i'm about to tell you.

the big similarity between elvis and freud is that they are famous for making contributions they didn't really make and nobody knows about the admittedly smaller contributions they actually made. let's start off with elvis, shall we?

okay, so what is elvis famous for? being the king of rock 'n' roll, right? so let's just say the requirements of being the king of rock 'n' roll are revolutionizing music by creating rock and writing really original, cool music. well, elvis didn't really do those things. elvis didn't create rock, rock was around way before elvis, invented by black americans who just couldn't become popular with a white audience. he even admitted this himself, saying, "rock 'n' roll has been around for many years. It used to be called rhythm and blues." he also is famous for songs he only covered. elvis is attributed with covering 302 songs and writing only 133. many of the songs he is famous for, including "hound dog", "blue christmas", "mystery train", and "money honey" are covers. but elvis did make some important contributions to music, mainly in the form of the things i just listed. sure, tons of his work is covers of the work of black americans, but no one would have ever heard of these songs if he hadn't covered them. and because elvis took went through a lot of media slandering bringing that music to the public, later black artists were socially acceptable. while he did take perhaps a bit more credit than he was due, it was more by ommission than anything else. from all accounts, he was respectful of african americans and the debt he owed to them for his success. it's not elvis' fault that there was, and to a lesser extent, still is racism in america. but it is good for us to know the whole story.

now we move on to freud, a more controversial figure, mostly because his theories had no scientific evidence and were kinda sexist. here's a basic rundown of freud's theory: everything is related to our unconscious, which handles all of our socially unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, and memories. there are three levels of the mind, the id, which runs on sexual and aggressive drives, the superego, the more "rational" part of the mind, and the ego, which mediates between them to make decisions. so, nowadays we know almost all of this was just kind of, dumb. freud's theories have no real scientific basis, and yet he is one of the most famous "psychologists" (in a loose sense of the term) ever. freud also believed all women "acknowledged" their were inferiority to men. (not so much, guys.) so do we just call freud an incredible idiot who somehow managed to dupe tons of people into believing his whacked out theories? no. because without freud, would so many people really have gone into psychology? his notoriousness during the victorian era shocked so many people who thought they were sophisticated because he essentially said "nope. underneath your well composed exterior is a beast that only cares about aggression and sex just dying to break out." that shock is what made him so famous, and is probably the reason at least 100 people went into psychology. kinda good for a guy whose theories were complete b.s, don't you think?

so freud and elvis, two incredibly famous people who absolutely didn't do the thing they were famous for but made some contribution no one knows about. makes you wonder, who are the elvises and freuds of this generation?

state anthems/shameless plea for attention

so i want to start out by saying i have no excuse for not posting for so long except that it's summer and it's hard to do and i have a ton of work for psychology class and i'm beginning to feel that no one reads this blog. so if you do, i'd appreciate like a comment or something, cause it's easier to be entertaining when you know someone will actually be entertained. thanks.

and now, on to the real post

so by now everyone has heard jay-z's and alicia key's song about new york called "empire state of mind" (is that what you're supposed to do with song titles? i can never remember these type of writing rules). so thinking about it got me thinking about other state anthems (sweet home alabama, ect.). then i was like, well, does california have one of those? what would that be? hotel california? california by join mitchell? nah. neither are mainstream enough. i kinda want the postal service to write one, but that just may be cause i'm listening to the postal service right now. if you don't know them, a great song is called "nothing better".

that's all i have to say for now, so i'm gonna go all shameless public radio on you only possibly existent readers and say, if you care about this blog, fund it by showing support so i don't feel like no one's out there listening. can anyone tell that i'm tired :)?

cute babies

why do we sigh at the sight of baby humans and animals? why do we even deal with the screaming, crying messes they are? "well, duh yasmeen!" you may say, "they're cute!" but stuffed animals are cute, and grown people do not posses the urge to take care of them for the rest of their lives. so whats going on here? and what's the point of making some species of babies cute, but not others?

you might have seen this coming, but it's evolution! babies are cute so we don't leave them defenseless when they get annoying. i know you're thinking, "well, yasmeen, everyone already knows that already. do you have any other obvious things to tell us?" (may i add that you are very critical?) but take a look at these pictures below.

a b c

i'm guessing you thought "b" was the cutest, right? well, i bet you critics haven't thought of this: guess which animals survive independently from birth? that's right, the puffer fish and the snapping turtle. animals that don't need parents to survive just don't really get that cute gene.

plus, all species have the same idea of cute. it's universal. what do all the babies in these pictures have in common?

they all are small compared to their parents, have big eyes, and, most importantly, are not green. they also all need their parents to survive, so they're cute. but seriously, can you think of any cute, green animals? i can't either.

so basically, nature knows what it's doing. it keeps it's babies alive. and lucky for you, you got to be a mammal (unless you happen to be a literate fish), so your way of surviving involves being cute as a button. so love yourself! you are genetically designed to be beautiful.

a cool experiment for your preschooler

do you have a young sibling or child who is in between the ages of two and six? well, if you do, you can use a very cool experiment to figure out how much their mind has developed. this specific experiment determines whether or not your child has developed a theory of mind, or understands that other people think differently than them. it's very easy and simple, and also cool.

the first step in this experiment is to find a labeled box that your child is familiar with, be it band-aids, candy, or cereal. next, empty the box and fill it with a different object such as sand, crayons, or pebbles. now show the child the closed box and ask them what is inside. once they have answered band-aids (or candy, cereal, ect.), ask them what a friend would think was in the box if they saw it closed. if they answer from their new knowledge of what is actually in the box, they are still ego centered. if they answer the "logical" response (band-aids, ect.), they have developed theory of mind.

remember, ego centered means that a child still thinks that everyone knows what they know, not that they're snobby. this is why young children become so offended when you cannot immediately tell that their scribble is a cow, or why they don't understand that you can't see when they stand in from of the tv. also, don't worry if your child seems a little bit behind their friend in their development. everyone develops at their own pace. obviously though, if your seven year old has not developed theory of mind, you should worry.

so try this out, and comment on your experience below!

epigenetics

so, i'm taking this really cool intro to psych class over the summer, and part of our last homework assignment was to watch this video on epigenetics (which you can view here). well, i watched it, and let me tell you, epigenetics is really cool! here's a basic explanation:
epigenome translates into something like "above the gene" and that's basically what it is. little tags in our cells block or coil our dna in different ways for different outcomes. these tags can be controlled by food or environment, either the ones you've been exposed to or the ones your parents or grandparents have been exposed to. this explains why one identical twin can get a life threatening disease or cancer and the other might not. how you take care of your body really does have an effect.
so while i don't like to state the obvious, take care of your body! eat organic foods and try not to drink from plastic water bottles that leach chemicals. i was born near a place in louisiana called "cancer alley". there was a factory nearby that probably leached a lot of chemicals. this might have altered everyones epigenomes, which might be why people "caught cancer like the cold". try not to live in a place like that either. and really, you already know this, but don't smoke. harmful alteration to your epigenome is not the first way we know cigarettes can kill.
epigenetics can also be beneficial though. it's a lot easier to alter your epigenome than your genes, so we can use this in a lot of circumstances in medicine. it could probably kill a lot of hereditary diseases that keep getting passed on. i believe epigenetics is the first step toward gene therapy. but what do you think we could do with it?

the possible psychological affects of buying a record player

yes, i have bought a record player! well, my mom did. but it was due to my suggestion. and my dad is giving my his old records, so i can now listen to aretha franklin, the neville brothers, charlie parker, cat stevens, la pachanga, bob marley and the wailers, the beach boys, frank sinatra and duke ellington, duke ellinton's jazz party, great hits of the '60s, grateful dead, john davidson, linus the lionhearted, james taylor, brazilian byrd and charlie byrd, chicago, tommy dorsey and frank sinatra, julian lennon, bobby hutcherson, prince, the cannonball adderley quintet, abba, and mgmt (i received this one from my mom as a promotion present).

so, is this gonna alter my mind? i dunno. maybe it will make me have a slower pace of life, but my pace of life is already pretty slow. well, what about other people? what if we randomly picked up like 100 ipod wearing teens and said "i'm taking your ipod away, for the next 2 months you can only listen to music on this record player but you have unlimited credit at your local record store. come back and meet me here in 2 months." would they all have musical epiphanies? would they share their experiences with others? would they even know how to work the record player?

yah, itunes is super awesome, and its cool to be able to find more obscure music online, but i think we're missing something when record stores close. i mean, for the older generation, remember the thrill of finding something you were expecting not to find? and it's gonna become more and more difficult to connect with strangers without record and bookstores. you can't strike up a conversation about someones tastes in the checkout line online.

record and bookstores are closing really quickly due to amazon and itunes. are the services these companies provide worth the potential loss in culture and human connection? i don't think so. lately, artists are releasing lp's with online download codes. i think that's cool, cause you can garnerthe benefits of both technologies. but hey, you decide if you wanna let itunes and amazon accidentally kill records and books. what are they worth to you?

due to all of the above, i think the psychological effect of buying a record player is more social awareness. i think it makes you make more human connections. i also believe having to work for your music a bit more makes you appreciate it more. so if you've got some spare money laying around, think about it.

umami

so first i just wanna apologize for being gone for so long, i was in the process of moving. yes, the new place is nicer, and its right by a school so i can go on the swings all the time

so everyone has known since the days of titchener that there are only four elements of taste, right? bitter, sweet, salty, and sour. wrong! there's a new taste on the block, and it's kicking butt and taking names! well, not really new, but semi new to western culture. it's called..... (drumroll please) babababababababababababababa............. umami!

umami is described by the japanese as an "earthy taste". examples of this include: soy sauce, parmesan cheese, anchovies, and ripe tomatoes. hey, they could make it into a pizza! according to wikipedia (which people shouldn't diss, in studies it was found more accurate than a regular encyclopedia) umami was discovered in 1908, by kikunae ikeda while researching the powerful flavor of seaweed broth. this discovery led to him discovering msg, so you can partially blame him for america's obesity crisis if you want. i'm willing to bet that because of us he's a very rich man.

but there are healthy ways to eat umami. it's the taste westerners often discribe as savory, so think meats and stuff. you can also flavor your dishes with an soy sauce, or if thats too unhealthy fo you, braggs. yummy!

so take that titchener! you are now even less believable than you were before. you weren't even right about tastes. (does it show that i don't like structuralism very much?) so eat the humble pie kikunea made for you. it tastes just like msg.

*note:you can comment below, and if any of you happen to know jonah lehrer through the six degrees of seperation, tell him to return my email!

teach for the future

as i get ready to graduate eighth grade, i just want to thank all of the teachers who've ever taught me. they've given me so many ideas about how the world works. that includes school teachers and regular people who have taught me about life. for example, i have the coolest friends ever. we know binary code, love star wars, listen to radiolab, and give out cookies to random strangers.

teachers are such an important part of our society today, but they're paid so little. they shape our future by educating children. there is no higher calling than being a teacher, but many of the people with great teaching skills teach at colleges where they are well paid. we should pay our teachers more so that more people who have a passion for teaching will be able to influence the younger generations. this could affect every level of our society. more students would be steered towards careers in science and math so they can engineer a new future.

so go thank a teacher today! donate books to a classroom, or write a letter to your local representative and ask them to give more funding to schools. come in and talk to students about what interests you. if you talk about something you care about, people will listen.

in this rough economic climate, a lot of funding for schools is being cut. this is the worst thing we could possibly do. the more money our schools have, the better our children our children are educated, and the more technological strides we make. so, if it's not too late (which it never is) consider a career in teaching. you'll shape the future.

placebos over peer pressure

the placebo affect is one of the coolest psychological phenomena ever. if you're not familiar with the placebo affect, here's how it works: if people believe something to be true, their bodies will act accordingly. for example, in this ---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiNPhQJXpuQ episode of "freaks and geeks", a tv show from 1999 about being in high school in the 80's, three boys replace a sister's keg with non alcoholic beer at her party. because of the placebo affect, all of the party goers experience drunkenness even though they have not consumed any alcohol.

i thought this was so cool when i saw it. i mean, what a perfect way to get yourself out of a sticky situation! for instance, say you are pressured into throwing a party. instead of facing the embarrassment of calling the whole thing off, just buy a keg of non alcoholic beer. your rep remains intact, everyone is safe, you haven't broken any laws, and you have a great time at a party. see, disgruntled teens? science is applicable to the "real world" too!

but seriously, the placebo effect actually has useful applications too. just think about what it could do for medicine. instead of taking icky drugs with dangerous side effects (side effects may include nausea, internal bleeding, and the loss of your left arm), doctors could give their patients sugar pills for a ton of illnesses. some may argue that this is not morally okay, but what if patients signed a form that gave doctors permission to use placebos where proven effective? the patients would never know what medicine was real and what was fake, but if it works, why does it matter?

even if we don't use it, the placebo effect is still really cool. learn more about it on radiolab, a book, or the internet. i promise it will be interesting.

the world gap

i guess i should bend to the pressure and write about the world cup. while i am personally not a fan of soccer, this may just be the psychological effect of living with soccer nuts. but i do see how other people could like it.
what interests me about the world cup is how hard you have to work to be in it. soccer is one of those sports that you have to start training for at a very young age to be spectacularly good at. holland starts training the best players at their top notch facility at age seven. this type of thing is extremely disappointing to all the children of countries who abhor any elements of socialism, like the u.s., because in reality, to become really good at anything, you have to start training at a young age, and to start training at a young age, money needs to change hands. and in the u.s., the government doesn't pay for much.
this is the extreme inequality of talent in the united states. wealthier kids are exposed to more options and have parents who have the resources to help them explore these options. most of the prodigies of any talent started training at a young age. but if you're on welfare, you're not exactly worried about putting your kids in piano lessons.
even in an academic setting, this disparity shows. it's called the achievement gap. if you go to many events for high achieving students, you will notice that the majority are white and asian, even in racially and economically diverse places.
so how do we close these achievement gaps? obviously academics is the most important gap to close, but gaps in the creative arts should be closed as well. parents shouldn't be the only people trying to make improving the future easier for america's youth. our government should make an invest in our youth's future just like other countries. if we have to pay a bit more taxes, so be it. the extra money the coming generations will make due to improved education will more than make up the difference.
so support your local programs! lobby your government to spend money on educating kids and developing skill sets, not putting them in jail. really inspiring programs to let kids expand their horizons are being cut across the nation. to protect our future, maybe it's time to be a bit more socialist. you can get what you pay for and we're paying a lot for jails and war. where's the money for future leader's and innovators? it's time to close the gap between other countries and ourselves.

kindness and compassion

who do you want to be? not even career wise, just as a human being. who are your heroes? are you doing everything you can to be like them?
the world is a messed up place. some would say we can't change that. i say we can. there are so many things that are easy to change but we just... don't. it takes five seconds to compliment someone who might be having a bad day. there are millions of small contributions anyone can make to society every day. some of them are environmental. bike, walk, bus, skate, or carpool instead of driving. shop locally to decrease the amount of driving done to put food on your table. but i feel the most important contribution anyone can make to the universe is kindness and compassion, because it spreads. if you're kind to one person, and they're kind to one person, and that person is kind to one person, and the next person is kind to one person, you can see how quickly that could increase kindness in your area. but then what if you're kind to everyone you see? how much more quickly would compassion to everyone else spread? compassion is such an important issue because it affects everything we do. we can be kind to our earth, other people, animals, and ourselves.
positive psychology focuses on the positive elements of the human mind rather than the disorders and malfunctions many other branches of psychology focus on. it's becoming more popular now, and there are many books about obtaining happiness using methods learned through positive psychology. i think we need to do with our own outlooks on life what has been done with psychology. yes, we do need to figure out how to solve problems, but we also need to focus on making ourselves happy by doing things we enjoy. so, if you'll excuse me, i'm going to go make today a random act of kindness day. because like h.h. the dalai lama said "if you want others to be happy, practice compassion. if you want to be happy, practice compassion."

imagine it!

in class, my champion and a beast of an algebra teacher (i won't post your name for your own privacy, but you know who you are) showed us a video called "imagine it!". it was all about engineering and the applications of math and science in changing the world in the future. it was really cool, so much so that i decided that my reflection on it would be interesting for you guys to read.

"imagine it!" reflection

"what's more important, asking questions or answering questions?" this was, to me, the most important issue discussed in "imagine it". all day in school, we are asked questions with only one right answer, but in real life, this is not the case. there are often many different ways to achieve the things we wish to achieve. yes, kids do need to learn discipline and order, but there can be an order in chaos. it's called emergence. according to wikipedia, emergence is "the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions." ants don't really know what they're doing as individuals, but as a group they're more evolutionarily successful than human beings. maybe learning could work the same way. the seemingly simple interaction of a large group of students asking questions of each other could create a complex learning environment where everyone learns from each other and the teacher is a facilitator rather than an instructor. our total collection of knowledge as human beings is expanding by the day, but schools are required by their districts, who are required by their states, who are required by their countries to teach the same standards every year. my little sister is ten years younger than me, but in all probability the main difference between my education and hers will be that she will never learn to call pluto a planet. the world constantly shifts and changes, and asking children to ask questions will make sure that our education system can keep up.

note: you can find out more about "imagine it!" at imagineitproject.com

medicine for "beiber fever"

if you've read a magazine, gone on the internet, or listened to the radio lately, you've probably heard of justin beiber. you also may have heard of the millions of deranged girls he draws to him like moths to a flame. coincidentally, he also seems to damage their brains, much like how a flame can burn a moth to a crisp. now, i realize that i am not the first to rant about popular culture, but when i turned on the radio this morning to distract myself from the image of the rat my cat tore up and left on the front porch, i was only slightly more disgusted by the memory of slimy rat guts. sadly, mainstream music nowadays is largely composed of this equation:

bouncy beat + digitally altered voice + meaningless/vulgar/objectifying lyrics + semi-attractive "artist"= major hit

but why do we listen to them? we, the people of the world (i've always wanted to say that) are the ones who make these songs major hits. why? we could chalk it up to those deranged girls, but i remain confident that fans of beiber and other "musicians" are like republicans; as a group, they do many bad things to society, but as individuals, a lot of them are pretty cool. look up tom campbell if you don't believe me on the republican thing. so who's fault is the death of real music going to be? the ipods? although vinyl aficianandos would probably disagree with me, i believe that it is possible to appreciate great music on an ipod. so, therefore, maybe we should blame our own minds.

we know that people have rioted because of music that's too unfamiliar for their brains to correctly process. (for a play by play of how this actually happened in paris on may 29, 1913, listen to this radiolab podcast-> http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2006/04/21) so maybe our brains are just too familiar with this type of music, so much that it's addictive. if a group of neurons in our brains "freak out" when we hear music different than everything we've ever heard before (again, listen to the podcast, i'm not gonna spoil it for you), maybe they can be placated by music they've heard a million different variations of. maybe these little neurons in our heads are like couch potatoes. they can get up and do quadratic equations, but they'd much rather expend a lot less effort and watch daytime television. and we comply with their insane little neuron decisions because, to be honest, we don't much feel like actually listening to music, we just want a little background noise.

but the insanity must stop! if we don't force our stubborn little neurons to expend some effort, a whole bunch of great music will be lost! so send your neurons to the gym, and listen to some music that you wouldn't normally listen to. it'll expand your horizons, and while i don't have proof of this, i'm sure it'll make you smarter. or at least a cooler person to hang out around. and if you discover something new that you really like, pandora it. find more music worth saving. and tell your friends to do the same [and about this blog! :)], cause living in a musical monoculture would suck.

here's a list of suggestions of artists to start with:

1. mgmt

2. broken social scene

3. cat stevens

4. tribe called quest

5. elvis costello