Universcale
Nikon has put together an amazing interactive site that puts the world in perspective, literally. This is one site you must check out.
Posts tagged ‘science’
Jun 23
How Deja Vu Works
There are more than 40 theories as to what deja vu is and what causes it, and they range from reincarnation to memory glitches. In this article, we’ll explore a few of those theories to shed some light on this perplexing — and scientific — phenomenon.
Déjà vu is a French term that literally means “already seen” and has several variations, including déjà vécu, already experienced;déjà senti, already thought; and déjà visité, already visited. French scientist Emile Boirac, one of the first to study this strange phenomenon, gave the subject its name in 1876.
There are often references to déjà vu that aren’t true déjà vu. Researchers have their own definitions, but generally déjà vu is described as the feeling that you’ve seen or experienced something before when you know you haven’t. The most common misuse of the term déjà vu seems to be with precognitive experiences — experiences where someone gets a feeling that they know exactly what’s going to happen next, and it does. An important distinction is that déjà vu is experienced during an event, not before. Precognitive experiences — if they are real — show things that will happen in the future, not things that you’ve already experienced. (However, one theory about déjà vu deals with precognitive dreams that give us a “déjà vu feeling” afterwards.
Down the Tube: the Sad Stats On Happiness, Money
A new study suggests that Americans today are no happier than earlier generations despite an increased standard of living due to a poor use of leisure time.
Despite the sharp rise in our standard of living in recent decades, Americans today are little or no happier than earlier generations. Why not?
A new study suggests one possibility: Maybe we need to be smarter about how we spend our time. And, no, that doesn’t mean watching more TV.
Feeling unpleasant. You can think of your happiness as having three components. First, there’s your basic disposition — whether you are, by nature, a happy person or not. Clearly, there isn’t a whole lot you can do about this.
Second, there are your life’s circumstances, such as your age, health, marital status and income. Often, this stuff isn’t nearly as important as folks imagine. If your income doubled, you would initially be delighted. But research suggests you would quickly get used to all that extra money.
That brings us to the third factor, which is how you spend your time — something you have a fair amount of control over. This is the subject of a major new study by academics Daniel Kahneman, Alan Krueger, David Schkade, Norbert Schwarz and Arthur Stone.
