dangerousmeta!, the original new mexican miscellany, offering eclectic linkage since 1999.

Jay Mug: Ira Glass to all beginners …

May not want to hear it, but it’s the best advice.

LA Review of Books: An Appreciation for James Hillman (1926-2011).

“The soul sees by means of affliction … the wound and the eye are one and the same.” I have to admit, shamefacedly, that I missed the announcement of James Hillman’s demise on October of last year. A great man. The NY Times did him a disservice by prominently linking him to the Bly/Men’s movement. Hillman was so much more than that. His books got me through some rough patches with grace and style, linking today’s modernity to Greek myth (myth being a continuing thread in my life). I had the opportunity to meet and thank him in person here in Santa Fe. I will cherish that memory. Rest in peace, James. 

Daily Beast: The Fireplace Delusion - A Metaphor for Religious Belief.

“Among adults, wood burning is associated with more-frequent emergency room visits and hospital admissions for respiratory illness, along with increased mortality from heart attacks. The inhalation of wood smoke, even at relatively low levels, alters pulmonary immune function, leading to a greater susceptibility to colds, flus, and other respiratory infections.”

Salon: Stories don’t need morals or messages.

“The weakness of this approach to fiction should be obvious: If what you really want is a set of fortifying maxims, why bother with stories about feckless romances or foolish kings? Why not just go straight to the self-help section — the secular equivalent of the sermon — as so many American readers already do?” As a character in John Fowles The Magus expresses (and I paraphrase), why sit through a couple of hundred pages of dreck for one threadbare moral? Why not read autobiographies instead and find out how real people accomplished great things?

It’s a question I ask myself over and over and over again.

New Scientist: Self-portraits of a declining brain.

“’It sounds awful,’ Gentleman told me, ‘but in cases like these, you really hope that the patient themself loses understanding as quickly as possible, because to be in a body whose brain is failing and still have insight into what is going on must be simply horrendous.’ The works on display indicate that Utermohlen did not have even this small mercy.” God.

WSJ: What’s Wrong With the Teenage Mind?

“The crucial new idea is that there are two different neural and psychological systems that interact to turn children into adults.” I remember, as a kid, not being able to correlate my logical brain to my physical actions. I’ll have to keep track of this ... fascinating.

NY Times: Children’s A.D.D. Drugs Don’t Work Long-Term.

“Attention-deficit drugs increase concentration in the short term, which is why they work so well for college students cramming for exams. But when given to children over long periods of time, they neither improve school achievement nor reduce behavior problems. The drugs can also have serious side effects, including stunting growth. Sadly, few physicians and parents seem to be aware of what we have been learning about the lack of effectiveness of these drugs.”

CNN: Study - Multitasking hinders youth social skills.

“‘If you eschew face-to-face communication, you don’t learn critical things that you have to learn,’ Nass said. ‘You have to learn social skills. You have to learn about emotion.’”

WSJ: When Stress Is Good for You.

“In addition to thinking positively about stressors, deep abdominal breathing and training in meditation and mindfulness, or regulating one’s own mental and physical states, help moderate stress.” For those who recycle worries. Nothing earth-shattering here, but thought it would be helpful.

SciAm: The Power of Introverts - A Manifesto for Quiet Brilliance.

“An interesting line of research by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist suggests that the most creative people in many fields are usually introverts. This is probably because introverts are comfortable spending time alone, and solitude is a crucial (and underrated) ingredient for creativity.” Thank you.

Discovery News: Belief in Evolution Boils Down to a Gut Feeling.

“Gut feelings may trump good old-fashioned facts, and even religious beliefs, when it comes to accepting the theory of evolution, new research suggests.” So, belief in evolution does not necessarily predict the believers’ faith in the scientific method ...

S+R Today: Why Would Americans Be More Willing Now to Say They Have No Spiritual Interest?

“One-third of Americans have always been pretty indifferent to religion, but those people are now less likely to describe themselves as belonging to a particular faith tradition and more likely to say that they don’t belong to one—and don’t care much.”

Guardian.UK: The first sexual revolution - lust and liberty in the 18th century.

“Everywhere in the west, sex outside marriage was illegal, and the church, the state and ordinary people devoted huge efforts to hunting it down and punishing it. This was a central feature of Christian society, one that had grown steadily in importance since late antiquity. So how and when did our culture change so strikingly?” Titillating read.

Luminous Landscape: Everything Matters.

“DO NOT rely on engineering specs and marketing claims. Test a product and look at the final results. Sensors with exactly the same DxO dynamic range measurements can produce completely different visual dynamic range results, lenses with exactly the same resolution specs can look very different in terms of sharpness, and so on. Your eyes and brain should be the ultimate judge, not some numbers on a piece of paper.” I received similar advice from a local pro photographer nearly a decade ago. I was complaining that I had just purchased the latest camera, and I just couldn’t make good photos with it, in spite of all the great specs. “I don’t like the feel of the thing, it doesn’t work in predictable ways.” He said: “Your relationship with your camera is essential. If it’s not working for you, get rid of it. Sell it. Get another.” Seems simple, but it didn’t seem so at the time - product reviews of ‘best’ cameras tend to make us blind to very real limitations.

Poynter: False Paterno death reports highlight journalists’ hunger for glory.

“Readers remember the best story, not the first story.” Listening, webloggers and social media mavens?

The 99%”: On Criticism, Cynicism & Sharpening Your Gut Instinct.

“… cynicism is a form of doubt resulting from ignorance and antiquated ways.” Oh, great. 

BPS Research Digest: You’re most creative when you’re at your groggiest.

“Guess what? Early in the day, when you’re bleary eyed, stumbling about in the fog of sleepiness, you’re probably at your creative peak.” Your inhibitions haven’t been jump-started by caffeine yet.

Globe and Mail: All hands on deck - How can we make more heroes?

“There’s an individual moral compass [that] orients human beings to the right things ...”

Miller-McCune: Sex on the Brain Proves Costly for Men.

“Ladies: Do you have any idea how much power you have over us men? To quote the classic song, it seems the very thought of you is enough to dull our brains. That’s the conclusion of a research team from the Netherlands, which reports the mere anticipation of interacting with a woman can temporarily impede men’s mental abilities.” And how many women read this weblog? I’m surprised I can put two words together.

Eurekalert: Illusion of courage: Why people mispredict behavior in embarrassing situations.

“Because social anxiety associated with the prospect of facing an embarrassing situation is such a common and powerful emotion in everyday life, we might think that we know ourselves well enough to predict our own behavior in such situations. [snip] But the ample experience most of us should have gained with predicting our own future behavior isn’t sufficient to overcome the empathy gap — our inability to anticipate the impact of emotional states we aren’t currently experiencing.” Empathy gap. I’ll have to remember that one. A lack of empathy with one’s future self. Sets up all kinds of permutations.

Big Think: Innumeracy (In a Data-Driven Age).

“Innumeracy, in a data-driven age, means ceding control and understanding of an substantial chunk of yourself – your online reputation, the scores that colleges and employers use to screen out undesirable candidates – to others.” Hmmm. I suspect, as with other data, we’re simply counting on having calculators and other devices around (smartphones). The likelihood of anyone needing to calculate a hypotenuse sans smartphone or other device is rather small nowadays. Yet using our brains for mathematical calculations is the equivalent to the benefits of taking a long vigorous walk, isn’t it? Good for the old synapses?

ReadWriteWeb: Study - Why Do People Use Facebook?

“A 2009 study (Ross et al., 2009, ‘Personality and motivations associated with Facebook use,’ in Computers in Human Behavior, 25, 578-586) found that personality types that ranked high on neuroticism claimed the Facebook Wall as their favorite component. People who were low on neuroticism, however, said photos were their favorite.” Someone has a *favorite* component of Facebook’s UI? Oh. My. God.

Guardian.UK: YA novel readers clash with publishing establishment .

“The hardest thing a writer has to learn is that once you publish a book, it’s no longer truly yours – even though it’s got your name on the front and it lives inside you. It belongs to the readers now.”

Harvard Business Review: Make Your Cubicle a Better Place to Work.

Unmentioned is the fact that this is mostly straight Feng Shui. Of course, now that *environmental psychology* has approved it, it’s not considered nutty. I started making sure I faced doorways and entries decades ago, and my productivity and overall calmness skyrocketed.

Adbusters: Rural/City/Cyberspace.

“series of psychological studies over the past 20 years has revealed that after spending time in a quiet rural setting, close to nature, people exhibit greater attentiveness, stronger memory, and generally improved cognition.”