For example, Roy was able to track the length of every sentence spoken to the child in which a particular word–like “water”–was included. Right around the time the child started to say the word, what Roy calls the “word birth,” something remarkable happened.“Caregiver speech dipped to a minimum and slowly ascended back out in complexity.” [...]

…another clue regarding one of my favorite historical mysteries: The book’s estimated 250,000 characters are totally alien. Arranged in groups like words and sentences, some resemble Latin letters and Roman numerals; others are unlike any known language.Moreover, the puzzling handwriting is surrounded by intricately drawn illustrations: plants that can’t be identified, astrological symbols, elaborate networks [...]

Here’s the first three: 1. Filtering: You take the negative details and magnify them, while filtering out all positive aspects of a situation. A single detail may be picked out, and the whole event becomes colored by this detail. When you pull negative things out of context, isolated from all the good experiences around you, [...]

The difference between [opinion/thought/desire] and [belief/meme] is illustrated by these three points: * 1 – People’s opinions, thoughts, and desires are often molded by the questions they are asked. * 2 – People’s thoughts, opinions, and desires are often created in the moment and have little or no relationship with what they will actually do [...]

…the egregore is not in total control… as the action of the social or corporate body is determined through the action of its parts, the individuals. These are intelligences that are emergent properties of the complex system that compose their bodies, and the individual people within these social or corporate bodies are not in control [...]

A new study suggests that humanity’s sense of fair play and kindness towards strangers is determined by culture, not genetics. Speculation: the finding may be directly related to the rise of religion in human history, as well as more complex economies. via Whence Altruism? | MetaFilter.

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Although there is no way of breaking down the types of book being self-published, [Jane] Rowland [editor of The Self Publishing Magazine] estimates that it’s 60 per cent fiction and 40 per cent non-fiction. With the growing number of self-publishers comes a new public respect for self-published authors. So commentators who once derided “vanity published” [...]

The Blip Festival, now one of the worlds largest and longest running events of its kind, continues to evolve with a greater breadth of international artists, a growing sophistication of styles and creative vocabulary, and a forward-thinking enthusiasm driven home by over two dozen of the worlds best musicians and visualists. If there’s one thing [...]

Stephen Toulmin, an influential philosopher who conducted wide-ranging inquiries into ethics, science and moral reasoning and developed a new approach to analyzing arguments known as the Toulmin model of argumentation, died on Dec. 4 in Los Angeles. He was 87. via Stephen Toulmin, a Philosopher and Educator, Dies at 87 – Obituary Obit – NYTimes.com.