@neuroghetto

The excellent Neurocritic presents an updated and comprehensive survey of some really interesting, current independent blogs on the matters of psychiatry, psychology and the mind.
Although it’s more likely for algorithms to be the topic of conversation, we humans still do retain a skill-set, a problem-solving paradigm that can be mimicked but not wholly imparted since it’s not fully reducible to data or what’s trending: heuristics mean hunting around for a solution, experimenting and being dogmatic and intuitive when perfect, ideal results aren’t forthcoming. This is a very different strategy from the way machines think and as much and so long as computers may care to parse nuanced decision-making (the need to be convincing to a human audience would seem to have a limit that’s within reach and there’s no more need for pretending) and possibly, practically the one abiding mystery that human behaviour could secret away. This is the stuff of neuroscience. Browse through the different feeds and I’ll vouch for certain that you’ll find something to pique your interests.

finn maccool or disunited kingdom

I appreciated the controversy that the outcome of the Brexit referendum had regionally for the United Kingdom, with a significant majority of Scotland and Northern Ireland voting to remain. I understood how the Scots might try again to declare independence and that Northern Ireland has the only land border with a European Union member, but did not realise just how thorny it was.
Not only is it an unpalatable prospect to have frontiers returned between the exclave of the UK and the Irish Republic and create obstacles to movement and trade, the Republic has extended the right of citizenship to any resident of the island in hopes of reconciliation and ultimate union after so many years of violence and animosity. So called Peace Lines partition sections of Belfast and Londonderry, cities still divided by sectarianism long after the wall came down in Berlin. What would it mean to the notion of dominion if seven out of every ten adults chose to see past historical difference and protest against very recent developments that don’t play their self-interests and trade their allegiances? I am not sure how Britain would react to a de facto reunification.

tiny hand

Though perhaps the attributing the pictured typeface sampler to its signatory would be wholly antithetical to those who’d champion the importance of good penmanship and the atrophying effects of typing all the time (the person behind this font is said not to be overly fond of computers, except for their ability to spew out hate-fuelled attacks against his opposition), but recognising the æsthetics of one US presidential contender’s handwriting (a little bit like Disney, superficially) one type founder (threats of legal action to follow) created a font out of it. The typeface can be downloaded here and is of course called Tiny Hand.

7x7

brettspiel: a look into the biggest international board game convention, held in Essen

big, no—huge: Brooklynites create a Zoltar-like fortune-telling machine (from the Tom Hanks’ movie) in the form of a vitriolic presidential candidate

it means heir to the kingdom: faced with slumping bookings one hotel and resort chain is rebranding itself as “Scion”

my name’s not baby—it’s Janet, Ms Jackson because you’re nasty: Weird Al Yankovic moderates a bizarro, musical version of the final presidential debate

mercator reflection: a tour of the stained-glass Mapparium of Boston that gives visitors perhaps a new global perspective

wind in your sails: sometimes swans will just coast along

enunciation: interesting and rather baffling test for prospective radio-announcers, with what was considered the standard and accepted pronunciation and stress at the time