humor

Dear Twitter: Please Learn about CUP’A and Check Out My Publications

Dear Twitter,

As you may have noticed, I don’t visit you very often. If you want to attract me, try serving me content that is not only superficially Appealing to me (by this, I am referring to the “A” in “CUP’A“), but that is actually of high Caliber, Usefulness and Potency (yes, that is the part you are meant to drink from, the “CUP”). In other words, please become a content discovery tool towards which I would turn with cognitive enthusiasm. Continue reading Dear Twitter: Please Learn about CUP’A and Check Out My Publications

The Benefits of Corporate Romance: Left is Right for Me

As you might recall, at ISRE-2015 in Geneva, I presented a paper on romantic emotions (“limerence”), in the context of our affect regulation project. The thing about romance is that like other emotions it is a state characterized by a certain loss of control. Control of what? One’s thinking processes. Continue reading The Benefits of Corporate Romance: Left is Right for Me

Why Is A Christmas Story — The Musical — So Hilarious? Inside Jokes, The Mating Mind and Mental Spaces We’d Rather Not Explore

“You don’t mean to say that this charming, clever young lady has been so foolish as to accept you?”
Lord Caversham to Lord Goring in Oscar Wilde’s, An Ideal Husband

“Evolution is an examination with two papers. To succeed demands a pass in both.”
Steve Jones, Darwin’s Ghost (p. 76)

The Arts Club of Vancouver’s performance of A Christmas Story—The Musical had me in stiches. But why?

A Christmas Story—The Musical
Continue reading Why Is A Christmas Story — The Musical — So Hilarious? Inside Jokes, The Mating Mind and Mental Spaces We’d Rather Not Explore

Jon Stewart Skewered Stephen Harper on the Daily Show: Illustrating Cognitive Productivity with Twisted Canadian Politics

The Globe & Mail published an article yesterday morning by Lawrence Martin called “We need Jon Stewart to set Canada straight“. He wrote “Too bad [Stewart didn’t cover Harper]. Imagine the fun he could have lampooning this place?”

As it happens, on June 3, 2015 I sent Comedy Central an email urging them to cover Mr. Harper and to invite Mr. Mulcair or Mr. J. Trudeau to The Daily Show.

Well, it can be said that Jon Stewart did cover the Conservative Government of Canada —in his own way.

Continue reading Jon Stewart Skewered Stephen Harper on the Daily Show: Illustrating Cognitive Productivity with Twisted Canadian Politics

The Tenacity of Paper

Since 2001, I have been specifying the problems we face in learning with technology. I have been developing products—knowledge, software and services—to the cognitive-productivity challenges we face. The first draft of my first book on the subject is written. I am not giving up…

This video, however, provides an original view of the tenacity of paper. It suggests that people will not ditch paper. However, I believe it also demonstrates that people will ditch paper after they have put it to good use.

How About a Round of Applause?

My ‘diversion’ today was to help a distant relative who yesterday, in order to resolve an issue with her Mac, followed my suggestion to click the “Repair Disk” button in Disk Utility. When she phoned me today, it was to exclaim in horror “All my files have disappeared!” She confessed to disregarding my request, “Call me back when it’s done repairing the disk and we’ll determine what to do next”. After the repair she had impatiently proceeded to click some nearby buttons until she had … reinstalled her iMac’s operating system. More precisely (and less conveniently), she had installed a previous version of the OS (the extinct Tiger).

Continue reading How About a Round of Applause?