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08 December 2007

The Thinking Blog Online Store?

An interesting and flattering email dropped in my inbox a while back from Derek Anderson of Widgets Lab. He asked me where to get a Thinking Blog t-shirt and if they even exists. I haven't thought about this before and perhaps it's time to think about it right now. There is one site that I follow regularly, it has a store in which the author sells shirts and other stuff at no profit. I think I might be able to do the same thing. However, what should the designs be like?

There are some graphics that could be readily used from the wallpaper and the banners with different slogans on them. I'm not sure as to what to go with and would like to ask you the same question I asked Derek. Could give me some feedback as to what you might enjoy wearing, what type of clothes (hoddie, shirt... etc.) and the design/slogan on it?

The other question in my mind is which store to have these produced by. I've heard that the stuff you get from CafePress are not as nice or longer lasting than some other stores like Brunetto or GoodStorm. What was your experience with merchandise from these store if you made previous purchases? Any other ideas?

Oh and here is one design that we could use:



What do you think?

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07 December 2007

Creativity in a Photo Booth

Fun and creative photobooth picture
Been creative lately? Submit your work in and next time you can be featured here too!

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06 December 2007

Being a Pavlov Dog in Holiday Season Shopping Spree

You probably heard about Pavlov's dog. In this experiment, Ivan Pavlov trained several dogs to salivate automatically when a specific bell rang. How did this happen? Well, because the sound had, through repetition, become associated with "dinner time" in dog's mind. Have you ever considered the implications of these experiments for humans? And, have you ever wondered if there's a relationship between "Pavlov's dog" and retailers' advertising for holiday season shopping?

Let's try to connect some dots:

What was going on in Pavlov's dog's brain at a physical level? There is a neuroscience saying that "Cells that fire together wire together." A dog brain, like a human brain, has billions of neurons, which fire (become active) in specific patterns whenever we do anything. As two neurons fire at the same time the "bridge" between them (called a synapse) becomes more and more fortified. At some point the connection or bridge becomes hard-wired. What happened in that dog's brain was that the neurons that fired when the dog saw food (to get the digestive system ready, hence the salivation) became hard-wired to or triggered the neurons that fire when dogs hears the sound of a bell.




How do we react to a movie trailer where we see our favorite actor, or a TV ad for our favorite beer? Salivating, perhaps - even if we are not aware of it.




Why is the name "lie detector" a stretch? Well, if you become anxious for any reason, the device will say that you are lying. Lie detectors do little more than measure some variables (such as skin conductivity, or how sweaty one's fingers become) to detect the emotion of anxiety that arises when one is lying. Think again about Pavlov's dog. What happens if you simply feel anxious for being accused of a crime that can take you to jail, and with police in sight (with their "sound-making bells" of their badges, uniforms, guns)?

On the other hand, how are CIA agents and military personnel trained to evade the power of the lie detector test? Either by deluding themselves into fully believing the stories they want to tell (which then become their "truth" and therefore evoking no anxiety) or by learning how to manage anxiety and break the relationship between the feeling of "lying" and the emotion of "anxiety".

Why is all this important? Well, it matters if you don't want to act like Pavlov's Dog during this holiday season when it comes to responding to the incessant ads for retail sales.



How can we break a learned reaction? There are a variety of ways, all require "mental training", attention and practice. A common guideline is that you cannot try to "break existing habits." That said, the connections between neurons will weaken over time if they are not used - but, this is a long process. The trick is to quickly build new, more powerful connections, that override the previous ones. For example:

- Adults with extreme fear to spiders have learned how to control emotions by using cognitive therapy techniques.
- Meditation practitioners can lead a more "mindful" life by being aware of emotions, feelings and thoughts as they arise, and learning how to let them go.
- Biofeedback-based programs often use games to help people learn how to manage emotions in order to win points.




But the starting point is always being conscious of what is going on. Now that the holiday season is approaching, how are advertisers trying to lure you to the stores to spend more money? Which ads respect your intelligence, and which ones treat you as if you were no better than Pavlov's dog?




UPDATE: This video just came in:



This article was written by Alvaro Fernandez from SharpBrains. If you are interested in contributing to the thinking process and become a guest writer on The Thinking Blog, find out more information here and be my guest!

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05 December 2007

How To Make Your Own BioDiesel Fuel At Home

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03 December 2007

The Turkish Legend of Derivation

This is the first major legend and one of the traditionally most famous among Turks. While the legend describes how the Great Turkish Empire succeeded to the highest position in the World, it also explains how the creation of their descendance came about. It had reinforced the belief among all Turkish clans that their descent arose from a divine source. The epic story is believed to have originated from the eight century, perpetuated by oral tradition up to the fifteenth century before being written down.

The Legend:

One of the biggest Turkish emperors had two daughters and they were both extremely beautiful. They were so beautiful that people believed these two daughters could only marry beings with supernatural powers and that these women were not created for humans.

As the emperor believed this same idea, he searched for ways of keeping his daughters away from people. In the farthest point of his land, a place where no man had neither walked nor seen before, he built a tall tower and locked his two daughters into this tower. He then prayed and begged so adamantly that the god who he believed in could not resist. The god came down to earth, took the form of a greywolf, and married the daughters of the emperor. Nine children were born after this marriage; They were named the Nine "Oguz" (meaning a good-hearted decent) and their voices resembled that of a greywolf.

In the end, these children all carried the spirit of the Greywolf, their population grew and thus the Turks embody characteristics such as great strength, great courage, and great agility.

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Removing The Veil

The veil has often been used to describe, at its most fundamental level, what we don't know or comprehend. Some perceive it as a deliberate attempt by an unforeseen force that keeps us from "the knowledge". In either case, understanding won't be perceived until the inner life becomes observant to what surrounds us based on confidence and courage dealing with uncertainty, with trial and error implicit.

Most insights with lasting impact are not the ones we were told, but those that are reached within our own thoughts, precipitating a recognized change in thinking. Persuasion from parents, teachers or friends who claimed to have the knowledge needed to overcome an obstacle are not insights. They are advice, often with varying impact on our judgement, depending on how we ascribe importance to their opinion.

Acting while influenced by someone else's "insight" is moving more with external experience by having too much faith in what was told by others, often at the expense of listening to what was internally felt. Results come perhaps without testing innate instincts rather than in conjunction with them. This can make accepting unpleasant consequences more difficult.

Eastern philosophies often refer to "removing the veil" as an allegory, understanding that knowledge is all around, but it takes a discerning eye to see the dots that are obscured by daily distractions, and wisdom to connect them. The veil is removed when it's ready to come off. Only the individual can resonate when that time has come.


This article was written by Jon Percepto from Eclectic Commons. If you are interested in contributing to the thinking process and become a guest writer on The Thinking Blog, find out more information here and be my guest!

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30 November 2007

Pictures Worth A Thousand Words - Post 15

Tobias Graf of Germany competes to win the gold medal in the men's individual 4,000 meters event in the Para-Panamerican of Cycling Games in Cali, Colombia, November 13, 2007.
via
"Pictures Worth A Thousand Words" series: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.

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29 November 2007

The Death of Email?

Do you remember when email was fun? There was a time when it was a great thrill to dial-up to the Internet, log into your email account and sift through the handful of messages from friends and family. Businesses too were impressed with the technology as a way of managing work flow and avoiding superfluous phone calls. Over time the business use of email has come to dominate and the amount of personal email sent has diminished. Which is when email started to fall apart.

In the beginning email was novel, an exciting tool. We didn’t have nearly the same volume of email flooding our inboxes so it was more pleasurable for us to exchange messages with friends and family. As businesses started utilizing email and computers grew as part of everyone’s daily life, it became more associated with work. Along with work email came a flood of spam, and it is hard to emphasize the negative impact this has had on email. Thomas Hawk has a fun read on this topic.

With everyone texting, IMing, Facebooking, and Twittering these days, some say email could be headed the way of snail mail. Which is, people will probably keep on using it, but it won't be the crucial method of communication. Except for spammers, of course. Which brings us to the next phase - what is bound to eventually happen in social networks?

Facebook et al are held as the way forward - but that's for now because they are still novel. Wait till businesses and spammers get a hand on them and find loopholes in the system of our connections which currently have our "friends and family" only. Wasn't junk mail, apart from being slow, one of the reason for the downfall of regular post?

What's more, these "cool" new ways of connecting are woefully inefficient as communication tools. For example, take a look at the number of transactions you need to undertake to read a Facebook message. My personal perspective is that email, or rather Gmail, is still the crucial method of communication and it will never die. Yes, it's not fun as it used to be, but hey - it still works. What do you think?

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27 November 2007

Country with Highest Standard of Living

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26 November 2007

Political Correctness Taken Too Far

There are news going around that this season Santas might be banned to use their traditional greeting of "ho, ho, ho" and thus have to use "ha, ha, ha" instead because the term "ho" is too close to the American slang for prostitute. It's said that the "ho ho ho" phrase could be offensive to women and could even frighten children. However, this has change in the tradition might have other negative results. What if kids everywhere become traumatized now that Santa is laughing mockingly at them?


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