The garden, it takes over…

These things get out of control so quickly… At first we just wanted to get rid of the clover, and maybe use some of the space for veggies. What started as five tomato plants has become a small jungle with its own drip irrigation system.

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Brain’s Problem-solving Function At Work When We Daydream

Brain's Problem-solving Function At Work When We Daydream

ScienceDaily May 12, 2009 — A new University of British Columbia study finds that our brains are much more active when we daydream than previously thought.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that activity in numerous brain regions increases when our minds wander. It also finds that brain areas associated with complex problem-solving – previously thought to go dormant when we daydream – are in fact highly active during these episodes.

“Mind wandering is typically associated with negative things like laziness or inattentiveness,” says lead author, Prof. Kalina Christoff, UBC Dept. of Psychology. “But this study shows our brains are very active when we daydream – much more active than when we focus on routine tasks.”

via Brain’s Problem-solving Function At Work When We Daydream.

If only I’d had this study to slap down on the desk of every teacher who ever got mad at me for daydreaming in class and yet acing their tests. Screw you Miss Lorenzo.

-Chris

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Amazon screws the early Kindle buyers

Today Amazon announced the newest Kindle model, the Kindle DX, and in the process gave all previous Kindle buyers a serious bitch-slap. You see, the new Kindle has a native PDF reader. Amazon is touting this as a feature difference between the new and old models. The problem is that the Kindle 2 isn’t exactly an ‘old’ model; it was released a scant three months ago. If I had just bought a Kindle 2 and now learned that Amazon now has native PDF support for other models, and wasn’t going to be adding native PDF support to my Kindle 2 via software update, I would be seriously pissed.

Way to go Amazon. Nobody has slapped down their early adopters this hard since Apple and the iPhone early adopter slap down.

I use Amazon affiliate links in some of my posts. I think it is fair to say my writing is not influenced by the $0.40 I earned in 2022.