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