NEWS

Guest Post: Music and Happiness

An Excerpt From The Happiness Trip, By Eduardo Punset

The most recent research has revealed that music, by acting on the central nervous system, raises levels of endorphins, the brain’s own opiates, as well as other neurotransmitters such as dopamine, acetylcholine, and oxytocin. Endorphins have been found to provide motivation and energy for life, to cause joyfulness and optimism, to decrease pain…

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I Wonder Update #1

I’m happy to announce that John Rowe has completed all of the paintings for I Wonder. I went to visit John at his studio yesterday, and it was magical to be surrounded by all of the illustrations for the book – the paintings are truly spectacular!

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Guest Post: The Future Of Intelligence

An Excerpt From On Intelligence, By Jeff Hawkins

Like a supersmart diplomat, intelligent machines may play a role in reducing conflict and human suffering. You might think intelligent machines would need emotions to foresee patterns involving human behavior, but I don’t think so…

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Guest Post: On Changing Your Mind

An Excerpt From The Blank Slate, By Steven Pinker

When law enforcement vanishes, all manner of violence breaks out; looting, settling old scores, ethnic cleansing, and petty warfare among gangs, warlords, and mafias. This was obvious in the remnants of Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union, and parts of Africa in the 1990′s, but can also happen in countries with a long tradition of civility…

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