Out-of-Body

Out of Body Simulation

Dr. Persinger's work with magnetic stimulation of the brain has resulted in his God Helmet.  The High-Tech motorcycle helmet fires directed fields at specific areas of the brain in order to simulate Out of Body experiences.

Prediction

On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins offers that the mind is a prediction machine.  We predict.  We predict more than you may think.  

Bayes' Theorem is Nate Silver's key to managing predictions.

Self Comes to Mind by Antonio Damasio talks about how homeostasis comes about and how predictions are essential.  The brain began to predict "good" by sensing the molecules like dopamine or oxytocin.  

Three very enlightening and enjoyable books

Twitter:
@numenta Jeff Hawkins of Numenta
Nate Silver @fivethirtyeight
Antonio Damasio

Technology and Manufacturing

Bob Dylan thought "Times, they are a changing" back in the 60's.  If he were alive today, what would he think about the robotic technology in today's manufacturing.  Okay, so he is alive, but that's not the point.

Phrases like "3D Printing" are all the buzz now.   WorldSkills International hosts an Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies  contest to highlight the State-of-the-Arts in this field.

For an in-depth look, catch Russ Robert's interview with former Editor of Wired and current CEO of DIY Drones, Chris Anderson, on Makers and Manufacturing.

Twitter: Chris Anderson @chr1sa Russ Roberts @EconTalker World Skills @WorldSkills 

An Apple A Day

Always seek out the seed of triumph in every adversity.
 -- Og Mandino

What makes us healthy, wealthy and wise?

The Harvard Grant Study - 70 Years of Research on a group of young men of the 1940's.  The study provided psychologist with a large body of individualized data over a wide range of years.  A similar database involves the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness  program developed for the Army with the help of Martin Seligman.

Triumphs of Experience by George E. Vaillant looks into the vast amounts of data from the Harvard Grant Study and comes away with an interesting analysis of human behavior.  Chris Gondek interviews George E. Vaillant on The Invisible Hand podcast.

Twitter: @ChrisGondek

Subliminal

If the grace of God miraculously operates, it probably operates through the subliminal door.

-- Williams James

Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior


@lmlodinow

Statistics - Signal versus Noise

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.
-- Niels Bohr


Just happen to be reading both The Signal and The Noise by Nate Silver and The Only Three Questions That Still Count by Ken Fisher and find the overlap on statistics quite serendipitous.

From Baseball to Investing to Earthquakes and TED Talks, statistics can be used as an effective tool to uncover the elusive.

Nate Silver, Ken Fisher and Sebastian Wernicke all use the science of learning from data with great success.  Nate Silver began his journey into data analysis as a young baseball fan.  Ken Fisher wanted to find out what no other investors knew.  And Sebastian Wernicke wanted the perfect TED Talk.

Twitter: @_wernicke @fivethirtyeight @fisherinvest

3D Printing

3D Printing -- Star Trek, right.  Nope, more like Plastic soft serve ice cream.

Howard Lindzon was discussing companies like 3D Systems Corp on StockTwits.  Check out how well the stock (DDD) is doing since the beginning of 2012 where it was trading for $14 a share.  Now in the $45 range the multiple is fairly high.

Scott Hanselman interviewed Bill Steele about his 3D printer called the Ultra-Bot based on the original MakerBot CupCake.

Venture Capitalist in the 3D Printing arena:

Fred Wilson
Brad Feld

Open Source 3D Printing movement with RepRap

Neurology of Memory

Dean Buonomano (Good Hand) discusses how the memory is structured -- Declarative and Procedural. The American Academy of Neurology hosts the podcast. The video covers his book, Brain Bugs.

MP3 of Podcast

Entire Neurology Podcast

American Academy of Neurology PSAs

Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

Natalia Toro of Perimeter Institute in Waterloo gives a detailed overview of the work at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the physics behind it.

TVO Lecture
Podcast Feed of Lecture

Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics Bio

Interesting

Peer Review or Bust!

Memories

Moonwalking with Einstein is a book by Joshua Foer chronicling his serendipitous stumble into The World Memory Championship.

Cognitive Neuroscience

• Video Intro
• Richard Ivry of Berkley