CULTURE & ENTERTAINMENT: The Science Behind Pixar's Inside Out

Movie still via Vulture.

"Ever since Pixar began showing previews of Inside Out, critics have been raving about its stunning animation, beautiful soundtrack, and creative portrayal of protagonist Riley's inner world. Daphna Shohamy, a researcher at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, appreciates Pixar’s latest movie for a different reason: She believes it has potential as an educational tool.
“I’m excited that people will learn from this movie about how malleable memories are,” she said. Shohamy was part of a group of scientists the filmmakers consulted during the making of the movie, and she explained a few things Inside Out can teach us about memory and the brain." Read full article in Vulture. E.T.P. 4'

SCIENCE

Image: A graphical representation of one person’s network neighborhood on Facebook.
Cameron Marlow/Facebookvia New York Times.

So, love is not written in the stars but in your Facebook profile. Or at least that's what Cornell University's computer scientist Jon Kleinberg, and senior engineer at Facebook, Lars Backstrom, argue to have found. According to the New York Times "the pair used a hefty data set from Facebook as their lab: 1.3 million Facebook users, selected randomly from among all users who are at least 20 years old, with from 50 to 2,000 friends, who list a spouse or relationship partner in their profile. That makes for a lot of social connections to analyze, roughly 379 million nodes and 8.6 billion links. The data was used anonymously." Read full article here. E.T.P.: 3'20''

Photo: The Procrastinator (some) Times.

Memory is tricky. Most of us probably already experience that feeling of remembering something vividly but being unable to distinguish if that something is an actual memory or a dream. Well that happens to me, I always hoped it happens to someone else, and apparently so it is. Maria Popova recollects in a Brain Pickings' article some interesting reflections about memory, forgetting, plagiarism and creativity made by neurologist Oliver Sacks: "It is startling to realize that some of our most cherished memories may never have happened — or may have happened to someone else. I suspect that many of my enthusiasms and impulses, which seem entirely my own, have arisen from others’ suggestions, which have powerfully influenced me, consciously or unconsciously, and then been forgotten." Read full article here. E.T.P.: 8'.

Procrastinator (some) Times Sunday 25 of August Edition

EDITORIAL

This was a very peculiar week. A lot of references to memory floating around coming from the most diverse sources, from films, to events, to championships, to Jorge Luis Borges fantastic taxonomies. Somehow, as usual, it's all related, and it made us think a lot about the art of remembering (and forgetting!) and if we actually are outsourcing this abilities to our phones and computers.

In a very less intense note we welcome in this edition at our new contributor Carola Melguizo of La Guía del Perro (The Dog's Guide) who will be sharing with us the best links of all things dog in her new section: In Dog We Trust. Hope you enjoy this new edition of The Procrastinator (some) Times.

NEWS

Photo via The Guardian.

Gibraltar: life under siege. Now that the tension between Spain and the British colony had scaled, Stephen Moss asks in The Guardian: what's the mood on the Rock? Also, have a look at the results of a The Telegraph's poll on whether Gibraltar is British or Spanish that went viral in Spain (care to guess the results?). Finally if you want to read about the Rock in the Rock's words, have a look at the Gibraltar Chronicle and if you understand Spanish have a look at the conflict's highlights from another perspective in El País.

Photo: The Procrastinator (some) Times

Monogamy is outdated and “polyamorous” relationships, involving multiple partners, could become the new normal, according to a controversial BBC investigation. Radio 4 documentary Monogamy and the Rules of Love argues that the “taboo” around sharing lovers between an unlimited number of sexual partners could disappear within a decade. Do you agree? Have a look at the full article in The Independent.
A number of panicked Russians have contacted the authorities to report concerns over the bizarre behaviour of 'zombie pigeons' in Moscow. Yes, pigeons can be worst, they can be zombie pigeons. Probably some AMC or Showtime executive is taking notes right now. Read full article in The Independent.

Photo: The Independent.

“Memory is misunderstood, but it is the highest form of thinking, always remember that” says Tony Buzan, the co-founder of the World Memory Championships, to The Independent correspondent Paul Gallagher, who joined the 13 contestants of the 6th UK Open Memory Championships and learned a couple of tricks to remember. Read his article here.

Kevin Daum of INC also writes about the challenge that represents remember something important when there is so much other stuff going on around you, and he shares 10 Tips for Improving your Memory. Have a look here.