Download or read book Minding the Climate written by Ann-Christine Duhaime and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-18 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The human brain evolved to prioritize short-term rewards over long-term goals. But while this adaptation served our ancestors well, it is maladaptive in the face of a slow-moving climate crisis. Luckily, brains can adjust. Ann-Christine Duhaime explores how we can reframe what we find rewarding to counteract climate change.
Download or read book Minding the Weather written by Robert R. Hoffman and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-08-15 with total page 501 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A detailed study of research on the psychology of expertise in weather forecasting, drawing on findings in cognitive science, meteorology, and computer science. This book argues that the human cognition system is the least understood, yet probably most important, component of forecasting accuracy. Minding the Weather investigates how people acquire massive and highly organized knowledge and develop the reasoning skills and strategies that enable them to achieve the highest levels of performance. The authors consider such topics as the forecasting workplace; atmospheric scientists' descriptions of their reasoning strategies; the nature of expertise; forecaster knowledge, perceptual skills, and reasoning; and expert systems designed to imitate forecaster reasoning. Drawing on research in cognitive science, meteorology, and computer science, the authors argue that forecasting involves an interdependence of humans and technologies. Human expertise will always be necessary.
Download or read book Making Space written by Jennifer M. Groh and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2014-11-05 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Knowing where things are seems effortless. Yet our brains devote tremendous computational power to figuring out the simplest details about spatial relationships. Going to the grocery store or finding our cell phone requires sleuthing and coordination across different sensory and motor domains. Making Space traces this mental detective work to explain how the brain creates our sense of location. But it goes further, to make the case that spatial processing permeates all our cognitive abilities, and that the brain’s systems for thinking about space may be the systems of thought itself. Our senses measure energy in the form of light, sound, and pressure on the skin, and our brains evaluate these measurements to make inferences about objects and boundaries. Jennifer Groh describes how eyes detect electromagnetic radiation, how the brain can locate sounds by measuring differences of less than one one-thousandth of a second in how long they take to reach each ear, and how the ear’s balance organs help us monitor body posture and movement. The brain synthesizes all this neural information so that we can navigate three-dimensional space. But the brain’s work doesn’t end there. Spatial representations do double duty in aiding memory and reasoning. This is why it is harder to remember how to get somewhere if someone else is driving, and why, if we set out to do something and forget what it was, returning to the place we started can jog our memory. In making space the brain uses powers we did not know we have.
Download or read book Who s Minding the Farm written by Patrice Newell and published by Penguin Group Australia. This book was released on 2019-06-18 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an era of rapid climate change, this vital account of how agriculture can address major issues is an Australian story with global ramifications. Patrice is at the frontline of enormous challenges, from water scarcity and land stewardship to food security and the rural-urban divide. The devastation of drought and the crises created by industrial-scale chemically-dependent primary production are discussed and alternatives proposed – along with bold ideas for new sources of energy. Patrice has travelled the world exploring best practice and invested heavily in organic methods on her farm. She believes we can produce enough good food to feed the world without further environmental wreckage or loss of bio-diversity. With glimpses of the individuals who make working the farm so rewarding, Who's Minding the Farm? provides a window into the pains, pleasures and politics of life on the land, and promotes new ways of thinking, no matter where you live. Who’s minding the farm? A shared responsibility for us all.
Download or read book The Omnivorous Mind written by John S. Allen and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-15 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this gustatory tour of human history, John S. Allen demonstrates that the everyday activity of eating offers deep insights into human beings’ biological and cultural heritage. We humans eat a wide array of plants and animals, but unlike other omnivores we eat with our minds as much as our stomachs. This thoughtful relationship with food is part of what makes us a unique species, and makes culinary cultures diverse. Not even our closest primate relatives think about food in the way Homo sapiens does. We are superomnivores whose palates reflect the natural history of our species. Drawing on the work of food historians and chefs, anthropologists and neuroscientists, Allen starts out with the diets of our earliest ancestors, explores cooking’s role in our evolving brain, and moves on to the preoccupations of contemporary foodies. The Omnivorous Mind delivers insights into food aversions and cravings, our compulsive need to label foods as good or bad, dietary deviation from “healthy” food pyramids, and cross-cultural attitudes toward eating (with the French, bien sûr, exemplifying the pursuit of gastronomic pleasure). To explain, for example, the worldwide popularity of crispy foods, Allen considers first the food habits of our insect-eating relatives. He also suggests that the sound of crunch may stave off dietary boredom by adding variety to sensory experience. Or perhaps fried foods, which we think of as bad for us, interject a frisson of illicit pleasure. When it comes to eating, Allen shows, there’s no one way to account for taste.
Download or read book Minding the City written by Harrison Fraker and published by Oro Editions. This book was released on 2020-10 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book calls attention to the public space of cities. It proposes that the environmental performance of public space is underdeveloped, and is primed to play a more integrated role in combatting the urgency of climate change, while also creating a more meaningful experience of the city. The approach is influenced by recent insights from neuroscience that are generating a growing body of evidence for the underlying bodily basis of mind and meaning imply a reformulation of urban design theory. Minding the City is an effort to refocus the subject of urban design on the tangible and visceral experience of public space, to remind urban designers that our concept of the city is grounded in bodily experience. It discusses emerging insights from neuroscience and their potential impact on urban design in detail, not as a formula for design, but to bring awareness, a new sensibility to the design process. It uses a set of case studies to illustrate how the insights from neuroscience are operative in how we experience and value the built environment. It finishes with an exploration of the sensory and aesthetic potential of sustainable systems and then illustrates, through a series of urban design studies, how they might be used to create better environmental performance while creating more meaningful, even poetic urban spaces.
Download or read book Unstoppable Global Warming written by Siegfried Fred Singer and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2007 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that global warming is a natural, cyclical phenomenon that has not been caused by human activities and that its negative consequences have been greatly overestimated.
Download or read book Rewired written by Carl D. Marci MD and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Living in an age of digital distraction has wreaked havoc on our brains—but there’s much we can do to restore our tech–life balance. We live in a world that is always on, where everyone is always connected. But we feel increasingly disconnected. Why? The answer lies in our brains. Carl D. Marci, MD, a leading expert on social and consumer neuroscience, reviews the mounting evidence that overuse of smart phones and social media is rewiring our brains, resulting in a losing deal: we are neglecting the relationships that sustain us and keep us healthy in favor of weaker and more ephemeral ties. The ability to connect and form strong social bonds is fundamental to human experience and emerged through unique structures in our brains. But ever-more-powerful technologies and ubiquitous access to media have hijacked our need to connect intimately and emotionally with others. The quick highs of clicking “like” and swiping right overstimulate the same neurological reward centers associated with social relationships. The habits that accompany our digital lifestyles are putting tremendous pressure on critical components of the brain associated with attention, emotion, and memory, changing how we process information and altering how we communicate and relate, even at a physiological level. As a psychiatrist working at the forefront of research on the impact of digital technology, Marci has seen this transformation up close and developed a range of responses. Rewired provides scientifically supported solutions for everyone who wants to restore their tech–life balance—from parents concerned about their children’s exposure to the internet to stressed workers dealing with the deluge of emails and managing the expectation of 24/7 availability.
Download or read book Animal Electricity written by Robert B. Campenot and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2016-02-15 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like all cellular organisms humans run on electricity. Cells work like batteries: slight imbalances of electric charge across cell membranes, caused by ions moving in and out of cells, result in sensation, movement, awareness, and thinking—the things we associate with being alive. Robert Campenot offers an accessible overview of animal electricity.
Download or read book Minding the Brain written by Georg Northoff and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-09-09 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neuroscience has raised many questions for philosophy and its traditional focus on the mind, but what does the emerging field of neurophilosophy teach us about the relationship between mind and brain? How have the new debates transformed our understanding of consciousness, the self and free will? Georg Northoff is a world-leading expert in this exciting area, and in Minding the Brain he provides a comprehensive introduction to non-reductive neurophilosophy, charting the developments of the discipline and applying its ideas to the debates that have captivated philosophers for centuries. Minding the Brain: - Employs extensive pedagogy to help the reader get to grips with complex concepts - Takes a transdisciplinary approach unifying science, psychology and philosophy Unearthing new ways to tackle age-old debates, Minding the Brain is a stimulating text for anyone interested in philosophy, psychology, the cognitive sciences and neuroscience.
Download or read book Governing Behavior written by Ari Berkowitz and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-14 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From simple reflexes to complex movements, all animal behavior is governed by a nervous system. But what kind of government is it—a dictatorship or a democracy? Ari Berkowitz explains the variety of structures and strategies that control behavior, while providing an overview of thought-provoking debates and cutting-edge research.
Download or read book Minding the Earth Mending the World written by Susan Murphy and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We all know our earth is in trouble. But is it beyond repair? Are we stuck with a planetary disaster we cannot hope to address?Despite the reality we find ourselves in, Zen practitioner and author Susan Murphy reminds us of the astounding intelligence and magnificence of nature and argues that not only is it not too late, but that we all have the capacity to embrace this challenge with a sense of hope and reason.By shining a sober light on the current state of emergency, Murphy delivers a brilliant rethink of the crisis we face, radically reimagining the stories we tell ourselves about the world, and illuminating the ways humanity might become the solution, rather than the problem.What if we were to choose courage and resolve, rather than fear? What if we discovered the difference each of us could make and started to listen closely to what the earth is saying, and to our own connections with it?In the tradition of the great eco-theologian Thomas Berry, Minding the Earth, Mending the World offers a profoundly hopeful second chance to engage with what it means to deeply mind the earth once more.
Download or read book Field Notes from a Catastrophe written by Elizabeth Kolbert and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2015-02-03 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new edition of the book that launched Elizabeth Kolbert's career as an environmental writer--updated with three new chapters, making it, yet again, "irreplaceable" (Boston Globe). Elizabeth Kolbert's environmental classic Field Notes from a Catastrophe first developed out of a groundbreaking, National Magazine Award-winning three-part series in The New Yorker. She expanded it into a still-concise yet richly researched and damning book about climate change: a primer on the greatest challenge facing the world today. But in the years since, the story has continued to develop; the situation has become more dire, even as our understanding grows. Now, Kolbert returns to the defining book of her career. She has added a chapter bringing things up-to-date on the existing text, plus three new chapters--on ocean acidification, the tar sands, and a Danish town that's gone carbon neutral--making it, again, a must-read for our moment.
Download or read book Minding the Store written by Stanley Marcus and published by . This book was released on 2001-08-15 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stanley Marcus spent most of his life helping to create the retail enterprise Neiman Marcus, and his business philosophies remain an important part of the training of the store's personnel. This is both a portrait of a man and a celebration of the store that is a well-known landmark in Texas.
Download or read book Minding Closely written by B. Alan Wallace and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2011-07-16 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Draws on wisdom from both Theravada and Vajrayana traditions to offer a systematic and practical approach to liberation through mindfulness.” —Jack Kornfield, author of The Wise Heart Bringing his experience as a monk, scientist, and contemplative, Alan Wallace offers a rich synthesis of Eastern and Western traditions along with a comprehensive range of mindfulness meditation practices interwoven throughout the text. An ideal reference for both students and teachers, Minding Closely presents the guided meditations systematically, beginning with very basic instructions, which are then gradually built upon as one gains increasing familiarity with the practice. This edition includes a new preface and three never-before-published translations by B. Alan Wallace from three renowned traditional Buddhist works on mindfulness.
Download or read book Canadian Climate of Mind written by Timothy B. Leduc and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2016-05-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The twenty-first century is a period of great environmental and social transformation as climate change increasingly marks lives at levels that are personal, familial, communal, national, and global. A Canadian Climate of Mind presents stories that emerge from the waters, lands, and climate of Canada, and which have the potential to renew a compassionate energy for changing human relations with each other and with our world. The turbulent effects of climate change are popularly discussed in the modern language of scientific knowledge, political policies, economic mechanisms, and technological innovation. While there is much to be learned from these views, Timothy Leduc suggests a more profound call for change by returning to past understandings of the land and climate. He argues that the world is initiating us into a broader and humbler sense of what it is to be human in an interconnected reality. The world is doing this by responding to unsustainable practices such as our devastating reliance on fossil fuels. Weaving together voices from numerous backgrounds and time periods with Indigenous views on present and past environmental challenges, A Canadian Climate of Mind illuminates a world that is being shaken to its core while we hesitate to act.
Download or read book Buddha s Brain written by Rick Hanson and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2011-07-13 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Gandhi, and the Buddha all had brains built essentially like anyone else's, yet they were able to harness their thoughts and shape their patterns of thinking in ways that changed history. With new breakthroughs in modern neuroscience and the wisdom of thousands of years of contemplative practice, it is possible for us to shape our own thoughts in a similar way for greater happiness, love, compassion, and wisdom. Buddha's Brain joins the forces of modern neuroscience with ancient contemplative teachings to show readers how they can work toward greater emotional well-being, healthier relationships, more effective actions, and deepened religious and spiritual understanding. This book will explain how the core elements of both psychological well-being and religious or spiritual life-virtue, mindfulness, and wisdom--are based in the core functions of the brain: regulating, learning, and valuing. Readers will also learn practical ways to apply this information, as the book offers many exercises they can do to tap the unused potential of the brain and rewire it over time for greater peace and well-being.
