Author: tobias

  • It’s Christmas Time in the City

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    by Aileen Marshall Like the old song says, the “city sidewalks, busy sidewalks” are “dressed in holiday style.” Besides the hustle and bustle of this busy shopping season, New York has many time-honored holiday activities.  Here are just a few to help you feel that holiday cheer.

  • Improv Your Life

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    by Christina Pyrgaki Did you know that there is a Tri-Institutional improv group? Well, there is. A bunch of witty, quirky, and overall lovable improvers gather every Tuesday in the Caspary music room and, for an hour and a half, improvise their way out of their everyday life and into an imaginary, irrational world of…

  • On the Importance Of Fun

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    by Dan Gareau Everyone likes to have a good time and “laughter is the best medicine,” but for scientists, having fun may serve a greater purpose. Science is a creative process, and that creativity can be seen in glimpses that make it into mainstream culture. Bad Project1 got 3,000,000 hits, but Gangnam Style got 200…

  • New York State of Mind

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    This month Natural Selections interviews Alpha Greengard, from the Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience. Country of origin: Switzerland.

  • Life on a Roll

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    Boardwalk to Nowhere by Andrej Ondracka December 2012

  • For Your Consideration – And They’re Off! Edition

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    by Jim Keller The Oscar race can be best thought of as a horserace in which each studio bets on their thoroughbreds and hopes that they can at least place in the end. In this analogy, the studio is the owner, the public relations department is the jockey, and the horse is the actor or…

  • Natural Confections

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    by Carly Gelfond Pretend something with me for a minute. You are 28 years old. It’s August and you’re standing in Bloomingdale’s, a department store you rarely set foot in except for the occasional free spritz of perfume in the cosmetics department. On this particular visit, however, you are on a specific mission.

  • Political Polemics

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    by Daniel Briskin With the ultimate mandate of giving a select few the power of making decisions for the masses, politics carry an inherent nature of polarity, as differing viewpoints compete for legislative, executive, and judicial power. However, in the current era of hyper-partisan American politics, elected officials can appear more interested in denigration of…

  • CULTURE CORNER Book Review: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

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    by Bernie Langs The three current kingpins of British literature are, in my opinion, Martin Amis, Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes. In the past I have enjoyed novels by all three, reveling in their tragedies and comedies filled with satire, sarcasm, wit, fine prose, elegance, and decadence, all in the continued tradition of masters such…

  • Marx Was a Neuroscientist, Part 4: Dance Dance (Cognitive) Revolution

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    by Benjamin Campbell These petrified relations must be forced to dance by singing their own tune to them! Karl Marx In November, The Atlantic published an interview with Noam Chomsky on the state of contemporary cognitive science and “Where Artificial Intelligence Went Wrong.” Chomsky, a central figure in the “cognitive revolution”, lamented what appeared to…