Shall I respond to the email that just pinged, write this blog, referee the kids, or take the dog out? Every day, we are bombarded by multiple tasks that must be performed seemingly at the same time. Sometimes they are menial tasks that do not require much attention like a message coming into your phone […]
“Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,” considered one of Shakespeare’s best tragedies and perhaps one of the most famous English plays ever written, chronicles the quest of Prince Hamlet to avenge his father’s death through ruminating soliloquies and machinations. Hamlet, Act III Scene 1: “To be or not to be: that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler […]
In the late 90s, Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks starred in the romantic comedy, “You’ve Got Mail”, which romanticized the idea of online dating and amplified AOL’s fame. “The Dating Game” Shortly after this movie, the year 2000 was the official start to dating websites with the release of eharmony, according to the “history of […]
Beloved childhood friends for many – A. A. Milne’s characters from the Hundred Acre Woods also presented models for various psychological disorders – anxiety (Piglet), obsessive-compulsive disorder (Rabbit), depression (Eeyore), ADHD (Tigger). In fact, there is a full body of scientific research examining the various disorders represented by each character, such as a study conducted […]
Going to the market at the beginning of the day produces many options, most of which are of high quality and plentiful. Unfortunately, by the end of the day, the options are no longer bountiful or beautiful. The same principle applies to sub-human species including our close cousins, the primates. Many foragers live by learning how […]
Ready Player One. Valerian. Worlds in chaos that need human video gamers to save their worlds via virtual reality. Similarly, high-tech gadgets utilizing facial recognition or voice activation tools to access superpower suits or weapons are the secret to saving the world in Iron Man or The Incredibles. Even our smart phones today utilize various virtual […]
Many parents of three- and four-year old children learn very quickly that tantrums can be averted by dividing a cookie into two parts when the child “wants” two cookies or using two cups that are the same size when serving drinks. These tricks mediate the sense of equity or “fairness” that even young humans feel […]
Suppose I were to show you three different objects – a Jeep, Honda, and Ferrari. You could quickly name their shared category as “car”. Pigeons, honeybees, dogs, rats, and a variety of primates can answer that question just as fast as a human, after sufficient experience. Even more impressive is that all of these species can […]
Long ago (~ 1050 AD) in the Western Alps, a monk by the name St. Bernard de Menthon established a monastery to help travelers across the dangerous St. Bernard’s Pass. Roughly 600 years later, the monks of this monastery acquired their first St. Bernard dog; a breed that ultimately became renowned for its ability to […]
Last January, I celebrated the end of my sabbatical with a trip to a tropical paradise to conduct research, right before my next teaching term began. This enabled me to trade the middle of winter in south Texas for this: Paradise “lost”. To prepare for my forthcoming blog deadlines (and to avoid procrastination in its […]