Why do clowns freak us out? And why are robots cute until they look too much like people, and then then they creep us out?It's our old friend the Uncanny Valley and it basically postulates that the more realistic something gets to a human likeness, the more repulsive it is. I don't mean like realistic special effects as in "Wrath Of The Titans" - that giant, flaming lava hand of...
read moreWe tend to associate with people we like and that like us because they are like us - so it's no surprise I hang out with wickedly smart, outrageously attractive people. Long-term relationships, even non-sexual ones with women as ridiculously awesome as me, are part of what separates us from food...I mean, other animals. Well, sort of. Maybe birds do that too. read...
read moreWe know that voting changes your brain a little - just reading that sentence changed your brain a little, so actions and behaviors certainly change us. But does voting change your descendants?Epigenetics is really a nascent field and that means there is a lot of interpretation. That also means people can try to make the case that politics is genetic. Which means partisan spinmeisters,...
read moreIn a modern culture that promotes releasing the Id to do as it pleases (but then over-regulating what it can have access too, so no cigarettes, video games or trans-fats) fasting is out of place. Yet people still do it, to the frustration of neo-rationalists and atheist zealots, who note with condescension that it has as little impact on behavior as wearing a football jersey has on the...
read moreThis weekend is the first episode in a three-part "Brain Games" series on the National Geographic channel. Since National Geographic does not have a show on the 'science' of ghost hunting, and since statistics show 97% of Internet readers never finish an article, if you are not a regular Science 2.0 reader I am okay endorsing this and telling you in the first paragraph you will enjoy it, so...
read moreIn the immortal Richard Donner classic "Scrooged", the following exchange takes place between Frank, the president of the network, and his boss, Preston:Preston: Do you know how many cats there are in this country?Frank: No, ummmm...I don't have...no.Preston: Twenty-seven million. Do you know how many dogs?Frank: ...in America?Preston: Forty-eight million. We spend four billion on pet food...
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