Stephen Colbert mixes it up with Jonah Lehrer, author of "How We Decide." The disjointed conversation does have its serious moments, with the focus being the emotional self versus the rational self. Sometimes I wonder whether Colbert is tempted to drop his character for ten minutes and just have a good conversation with a thoughtful guest. This might have been one of those times.
Richard Balmer is a historian of religion. On Jon Stewart's show, he surveyed the relationship between religion and the Presidency since John F. Kennedy:
Penn and Teller's explanation of sleight of hand is delightful. You get the whole lecture in about three minutes. As entertaining as this video is, it could also serve to remind us of a set of principles by which humans deceive each others through fallacious and misleading arguments. Because we are creatures of limited attention and growing fatigue, we are vulnerable to cognitive misdirection much as we are vulnerable to prestidigitation. For more on human attentional limitations, see here. Further, I have given considerable thought to the idea that much human decision-making could be explained in terms of attentional limitations. For more, see this paper I wrote in 1996.
Here is a beat poem that first appeared on YouTube as a concert bootleg with subtitles about a month ago. The artist quickly had the bootleg taken down. And then received a Storm of protests, requests to post it again. Finally, he put it up himself. Sans subtitles, or even video. So listen well to a rational rant that many of us would love to be capable of delivering. Storm, by Tim Minchin I've seen those warning eyes from both my wives, and held my piece for a while. But the temptation is great to emulate this artists storm of bile.
Movies are a staple of American culture. Videogames are another staple. And yes, movies that feature videogames constitute ultra-special moments for those who are fans of both. What are some of the top movies that have utilized videogames as part of their story lines? Nick Smith of pwnordie.com has taken away much of the guesswork by compiling video-gaming excerpts from National Lampoon's Vacation, Back to the Future II, Superbad, 40 Year Old Virgin, National Lampoon's Vacation and many other popular movies. If you follow this link to Nick's site