The book, Reflections on Pareidolia: Mirrored images at the University of Minnesota takes the reader on a reflected visual tour of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus. At each location a photo of the location is included with information about the building's architect and its current use. Mirror images similar to those above and below follow. Most of the images were taken in 2015 and 2016. Please visit, Mirror image photography for more examples. An Amazon Kindle version of Reflections on Pareidolia is also now available.
John R. Hale's series of lectures on The Great Courses: Art of Public Speaking - Lessons from the Greatest Speeches in History offers sound advice for constructing and delivering a speech to a wide variety of audiences.
He suggests that you do not use words but only images in power point presentations. The words displayed on the screen interfere with the audiences' ability to understand what you are saying.
You don't have to start out your speech with a powerful beginning, instead use it to get a sense of the audience and create some room to maneuver. Keep the attention of your audience by avoiding being too predictable. Finish strong with a memorized conclusion and avoid immediately asking for questions upon completion of the speech.
Use triads to deliver messages. Churchill said I only have to "offer you blood, sweat, toil, and tears." Audiences have chosen to forget the word toil to make the phrase more memorable.
Professors Hale 's background as an anthropologist gives more depth to his suggestions as he is not only an expert in giving speeches, he also conducts field research and lectures on the results.
John R. Hale - Why do civilizations fall and flourish? - 12 min.
In my experience people generally respond favorably to having a door opened for them, but Lynne has often encountered indifference which is troubling. People do need to exchange phatic phrases ("Thank you. Hello. How are you? Nice to meet you.") that acknowledge that we are not in our own bubble but are interacting with the rest of the world.
How do we confront bad behavior in social situations. We have to weigh the risks. Is this person likely to do me physical harm or will my failure to correct the bad behavior cause harm to myself or others? Enforcing the no smoking rule on campus can be dependent on the situation with safety taking priority. While I was on an emergency response, a man walked up to me, took a drag from his cigarette, and asked, "So where's the natural gas leak?" I firmly but politely told him to extinguish his cigarette. I then pointed them towards the gas leak and told him that's why my meters was beeping.
High end table manners with some arbitrary rules about which way to eat peas with which utensil are used as methods of class distinction rather than assessing if some one has good overall manners. Reducing the tendency to tell people to "eff off" as Lynne puts it would go a long way to increasing civility, as would decreasing those behaviors which elicit that response.
Punctuation at English School with Lynne Truss - 19 minutes
Dan Riskin's book, Mother Nature Is Trying to Kill You: A Lively Tour Through the Dark Side of the Natural World is not a happy feel good stroll through the beauty of the natural world. The desire of DNA to reproduce and the fierce competition for energy create an amoral world where the survival of the next generation is paramount. The book's chapters are organized according to the seven deadly sins in the bible.
The extremely narrow variety of edible plants in this world provide evidence that they were not put here for us to consume. Less than 20 plant species provide 90% of the diet for humans. Many plant were made edible/tasty through careful breeding of humans. The tasty apples of today have a much wider variety of flavors then the original ones found in nature. This is a shout out to the U of Minnesota for Honeycrisp and SweeTango. The author views genetically modified crops as a natural extension of this breeding process. It moves the process along faster with more precision.
The author gets very close to nature as he slides on his back through bat guano in South America as he attempts to find vampire bats roosting in a cave. He and his future wife lie on their backs in the scratching sand attracting bats who associate the sound with their primary food source.
In summary, the colorful examples in the book are not for those who have a weak constitution. As human beings we can rise up above our primitive survival instincts and treat others with kindness. We can also appreciate nature for all its beauty, violence, and raw creativity as each species attempts to successfully live to reproduce another generation.
Radio interview with Dan Riskin - 12 minutes
Book summary by Dan Riskin, Ph.D. - 3 min.
All Things Dull and Ugly - from MontyPython with Portuguese subtitles - 2 min.
Researchers currently have the ability to create a very low resolution video of a person's dream. Blurry images of people's faces and other images are now visible. This will improve in the future.
Treatment of brain disorders such as Parkinson's and some forms of depression can now be addressed by externally regulating the activity of certain parts of the brain. All of the talk therapy is useless if parts of the brain are not working right. It is like trying to make an air conditioner work without the proper level of coolant in the system.
If a certain section of the brain is stimulated a person can be made to have an out of body experience. This experience can be turned on and off at the flip of a switch. The tunnel of light noted by many people having near death experiences can be duplicated by regulating blood flow to visual nerves.
He compares a dog's brain to a human's and notes that the dog's brain has much more space devoted to processing olfactory stimuli than humans. An alien's brain is also likely to be much more differently arranged than ours. An alien may view the world in a different light spectrum, detect different chemical odors, and communicate at different audio frequencies.
I appreciated the breadth and depth of the book's exploration. It allows me to at least know enough to ask questions of researchers in the field when I interact with them at the University.
The Great Course, The Great Courses: Life Lessons from the Great Books, provides historical background from some of the Greatest literature ever written. I appreciate getting to know the background of the authors and the historical context for the literature. The lecturer, J. Rufus Fears is a master story teller often putting these historical novels into a modern context to improve comprehension.
Professor Fears skillfully links Seneca's philosophical text with the Gospel of John. He provides some background behind why the Gospel of John is so different than the synoptic gospels of Mathew, Mark and Luke. This gospel is written from the perspective of a Greek philosopher.
The lessons learned from the Great Books surprised me. Life is often tragic with people of mediocre talent and abilities often working hard to destroy others showing any unique talents or abilities. The uplifting and destructive power of love has created beauty and havoc throughout recorded history. History is also filled with countries and individuals balancing freedom with the need for order ( Russia vs. Western democracies).
The Rational Animal: How Evolution Made Us Smarter Than We Think by Douglas T. Kenrick and Vladas Griskevicius (U of MN professor) attempts to describe the underlying evolutionary behaviors that explain why behaviors that first appear irrational have solid reasons for being part of the human and animal responses to environmental stimuli. They authors refer to a wide range of studies and offer these up with tasteful goblet of dry wit served slightly chilled.
The authors suggest that humans do not possess a single character but consist of seven fragmented sub-selves that respond to priming. The classic marshmallow experiment that predicts future success in life can be be altered easily. If the person offering up the marshmallows demonstrates unreliable and untrustworthy behavior, the kids will choose to not wait for the next marshmallow.
People who grow up in stable environments will often adopt long term conservative delayed gratification strategies for accumulating and retaining wealth. See rock star Gene Simmons' book Me INC . Individuals growing up in unstable environments live fast and burnout quickly. Many other rock stars, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and others don't even make it to age 30. M.C Hammer went quickly from rags to riches to back again in a very short period of time.
Mating behavior can be deadly and expensive if the male to female ratio is out of balance. The authors point to a study of credit card balances in two Georgia counties. In the county with many more males than females, men's credit card balances were significantly higher as they spent money attempting to woo females. The risky showing off behavior results in male death rates at 5 times those of females in Spain for those in their 20's.
In a section on parasites, the authors explain how the advertising slogan, "A diamond is forever", now successfully extracts approximately 2 month's salary from the proposing fiance. Prior to the early 30's there was no strong tradition of exchanging diamonds. The diamond company has also penetrated the Japanese market where the exchange of diamonds had previously not been part of the wedding ritual.
Rational Animal - 3.5 minutes
Why Do We Put Diamonds on Engagement Rings -Brain Stuff - 2.5 min.
takes the reader on a reflected visual tour of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus. At each location a photo of the location is included with information about the building's architect and its current use. Mirror images similar to those above and below follow. Most of the images were taken in 2015 and 2016. Please visit, Mirror image photography for more examples. An Amazon Kindle version of Reflections on Pareidolia
is also now available. 
- Lessons from the Greatest Speeches in History offers sound advice for constructing and delivering a speech to a wide variety of audiences.
, the author describes the current state of rudeness in society. In Lynne's previous book, 
is not a happy feel good stroll through the beauty of the natural world. The desire of DNA to reproduce and the fierce competition for energy create an amoral world where the survival of the next generation is paramount. The book's chapters are organized according to the seven deadly sins in the bible. 
, he describes the current state of research on brain function, and explores the outer limits of this research that comply with the laws of physics as we currently know them.
, provides historical background from some of the Greatest literature ever written. I appreciate getting to know the background of the authors and the historical context for the literature. The lecturer, J. Rufus Fears is a master story teller often putting these historical novels into a modern context to improve comprehension. 
by Douglas T. Kenrick and Vladas Griskevicius (U of MN professor) attempts to describe the underlying evolutionary behaviors that explain why behaviors that first appear irrational have solid reasons for being part of the human and animal responses to environmental stimuli. They authors refer to a wide range of studies and offer these up with tasteful goblet of dry wit served slightly chilled.