Where did the term “OK” come from?
I love etymology – or the origin of words … Why do we say ‘OK’? It started as an inside joke but blew up when it hit the mainstream. You may be surprised to learn that the universally recognized term for neutral affirmation, “OK,” has humble linguistic roots. It all started as a cheesy inside joke amongst Boston hipsters. Back in the 1830s, it…
A Neurologist’s Tips to Protect Your Memory
By Hope Reese for the NY Times Memory decline is not inevitable with aging, Dr. Restak argues in the book. Instead, he points to 10 “sins,” or “stumbling blocks that can lead to lost or distorted memories.” Seven were first described by the psychologist and memory specialist Daniel Lawrence Schacter — “sins of omission,” such as absent-mindedness, and “sins of…
There Are Better Ways to Study That Will Last You a Lifetime
By Daniel T. Willingham for the NY Times Picture your preschooler’s teacher pulling you aside at pickup time to say that your child was “not taking responsibility” for learning the alphabet. You’d be puzzled and probably angry. It’s not up to a 4-year-old to make sure he learns the alphabet. That’s the teacher’s job. But as your child gets older,…
Taking Notes vs. Photographing Slides
By Erik Ofgang for Tech and Learning New research has found that students who take notes outperform students who photograph slides during an online lecture. “We consistently found that note-takers remembered more information from the lectures than photo-takers or no-note-takers,” says Dr. Sarah Shi Hui Wong, an instructor at the National University of Singapore, and the lead author of the paper….
This Is The Most Fun Way To Make Your Life Awesome
From Eric Barker, author of “Plays Well with Others“ We just don’t take humor that seriously. Yeah, it makes us happier, but its effects are much, much more profound than you might guess. People who use humor to cope with stress have better immune systems, reduced risk of heart attack and stroke, experience less pain during dental work and live longer. Surgery patients who watched…
Carl Sagan’s wonderful thoughts on books and libraries
“The measuring rod, the unit of information, is something called a bit (for binary digit). It is an answer – either yes or no- to an unambiguous question…The information content of the human brain expressed in bits is probably comparable to the total number of connections among the neurons- about a hundred trillion, 10^14 bits. If written out in English,…
