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Posts about Carnegie Mellon and greater Pittsburgh.
Using 10% of Your Brain
May 24th, 2008 | No Comments
The 10% statistic is bogus. You, in fact, use almost all of your brain, almost all of the time. Depending on what you’re doing, your brain might not be working very hard, but it will be working. If I perform an fMRI on you while you lie there and do nothing, your entire brain will still light up*. If I put you through a sensory deprivation protocol for long enough, you will actually start to hallucinate, because your brain craves input and activity.
Chinese Watercress, How I’ve Missed You
April 13th, 2008 | No Comments
My favorite Chinese restaurant in Pittsburgh closed last summer and since then I’ve been without my Chinese watercress.
Chinese watercress, which is sometimes called on choy, is my favorite vegetable in the world. The Mandarin name for it literally translates to “empty-hearted vegetable”, a nod to its hollow stem. It’s sweet and tender and utterly […]
Smart People Opens Today!
April 11th, 2008 | No Comments
They filmed part of Smart People in my building. Lots of my fellow grad students managed to catch a glimpse of Dennis Quaid. I didn’t, because I sort of didn’t care enough to go look.
