We all lie to ourselves – it is part of the human condition. Sometimes the lies are a simple mechanism design to protect our ego’s. Sometimes they are to create a more palatable or interesting narrative about our lives ala Walter Mitty. Occasionally they are designed to protect our psyche during turbulent moments when we…
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Call it the optimism fallacy. It’s widely thought that staying happy and stress-free helps keep you healthy. But a massive study on the link between mood and mortality suggests that happiness actually has no effect on death rates. Other research that has found the opposite must have been mixing up cause and effect, says epidemiologist…
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More here – Worthly
Scientists have long wondered if the human brain contains neural mechanisms specific to music perception. Now, for the first time, MIT neuroscientists have identified a neural population in the human auditory cortex that responds selectively to sounds that people typically categorize as music, but not to speech or other environmental sounds. “It has been the…
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More here – Bloomberg
The world economy explained with just two cows
This is a long form piece that the New York Times excels at. It is sad and depressing but thoughtful and gentle. It is also worth reading this follow up piece on the comments to the original article.
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