Trying to lead a healthier lifestyle? This data visualization can help you filter-out the marketing hype to help you find the vitamins, minerals and herbs that deliver tangible benefits … versus those that serve only as a "Guaranteed Genuine Placebo".
This is an updated interactive model of the most current research data.
It is interesting because of the health research itself … and also because models, like this, have far-reaching applications. It comes from the site Information is Beautiful.
Daniel Simons' experiments on visual awareness have become famous. The primary conclusion drawn from his research is that we can miss incredibly obvious things, right in front of us, if our attention is focused elsewhere.
Test Your Awareness.
Watch this video and count how many passes the team in white makes.
This is worth doing so you experience it yourself.
Try to ignore the black team. Just focus on the white team, and see if you can accurately count how many times they pass the ball.
OK, click the video to do it now.
Did you get the right answer? Even though I knew what to expect, the result or effect was surprising.
By the way, there is a newer version of this video, here.
Think how often your focus blinds you to the obvious.
Change Blindness.
Missing an invisible gorilla or a moon-walking bear may seem strange. However, the next experiment may be more surprising.
This video demonstrates "change blindness". In an experiment, 75% of the participants didn't notice that the experimenter who bent under a counter was replaced by a different person.
If you liked that, here is a version done by Derrin Brown. It is quite clever and worth watching. It was even more surprising to me because it was done in public with "real people". How did people not notice a white male switching with a black guy (or an asian female) in the middle of a conversation?
Warning: Objects In Your Attention Span Are Fewer Than You Perceive.
Moment by moment, the brain selectively processes information it deems most relevant. Experiments, like these, show the limits of our capacity to encode, retain, and compare visual information from one glance to the next.
More importantly, this suggests that our awareness of our visual surroundings is far more sparse than most people intuitively believe. Consequently, our intuition can deceive us far more often than we perceive.
Clearly, in an information-rich environment, attention is a scarce and essential resource. So, pay attention (or automate the things you know need to be done right, every time).
Daniel Simons' experiments on visual awareness have become famous. The primary conclusion drawn from his research is that we can miss incredibly obvious things, right in front of us, if our attention is focused elsewhere.
Test Your Awareness.
Watch this video and count how many passes the team in white makes.
This is worth doing so you experience it yourself.
Try to ignore the black team. Just focus on the white team, and see if you can accurately count how many times they pass the ball.
OK, click the video to do it now.
Did you get the right answer? Even though I knew what to expect, the result or effect was surprising.
By the way, there is a newer version of this video, here.
Think how often your focus blinds you to the obvious.
Change Blindness.
Missing an invisible gorilla or a moon-walking bear may seem strange. However, the next experiment may be more surprising.
This video demonstrates "change blindness". In an experiment, 75% of the participants didn't notice that the experimenter who bent under a counter was replaced by a different person.
If you liked that, here is a version done by Derrin Brown. It is quite clever and worth watching. It was even more surprising to me because it was done in public with "real people". How did people not notice a white male switching with a black guy (or an asian female) in the middle of a conversation?
Warning: Objects In Your Attention Span Are Fewer Than You Perceive.
Moment by moment, the brain selectively processes information it deems most relevant. Experiments, like these, show the limits of our capacity to encode, retain, and compare visual information from one glance to the next.
More importantly, this suggests that our awareness of our visual surroundings is far more sparse than most people intuitively believe. Consequently, our intuition can deceive us far more often than we perceive.
Clearly, in an information-rich environment, attention is a scarce and essential resource. So, pay attention (or automate the things you know need to be done right, every time).
Celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking knows more about the universe than almost any other person ever to walk the planet, but some answers still escape even him.
When asked by ABC News' Diane Sawyer about the biggest mystery he'd like solved, he said, "I want to know why the universe exists, why there is something greater than nothing."
Other topics covered include: how Hawking reconciles
the idea of religion and science; and what he considers the best
and worst decisions of our generation.
So, watch this video as the physicist discusses everything from the universe to family.
Celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking knows more about the universe than almost any other person ever to walk the planet, but some answers still escape even him.
When asked by ABC News' Diane Sawyer about the biggest mystery he'd like solved, he said, "I want to know why the universe exists, why there is something greater than nothing."
Other topics covered include: how Hawking reconciles
the idea of religion and science; and what he considers the best
and worst decisions of our generation.
So, watch this video as the physicist discusses everything from the universe to family.
Here is a picture that puts things in perspective. It overlays a representation of how big the oil spill is, now, over a map of where you live. Since I live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, here is the result. Try it yourself by clicking the graphic.
The disaster in the Gulf started with an explosion on the BP operated Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20, 2010. Current estimates put the amount of oil being discharged from the broken well at above 1,050,000 US gallons per day. No one ever said cleaning up an oil spill was cheap: the U.S. government served BP with a hefty $69 million bill for the initial costs of contending with the worst oil disaster in U.S. history. Here is a link to a site devoted to the spill and its fallout.
Reading about it is one thing … However, seeing what is happening is often a better way to gauge reality. So judge for yourself; here is a live stream from an under-water "Spill-Cam".
Here is a picture that puts things in perspective. It overlays a representation of how big the oil spill is, now, over a map of where you live. Since I live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, here is the result. Try it yourself by clicking the graphic.
The disaster in the Gulf started with an explosion on the BP operated Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20, 2010. Current estimates put the amount of oil being discharged from the broken well at above 1,050,000 US gallons per day. No one ever said cleaning up an oil spill was cheap: the U.S. government served BP with a hefty $69 million bill for the initial costs of contending with the worst oil disaster in U.S. history. Here is a link to a site devoted to the spill and its fallout.
Reading about it is one thing … However, seeing what is happening is often a better way to gauge reality. So judge for yourself; here is a live stream from an under-water "Spill-Cam".
What looks "normal" in real-time, is something quite different when you have the means to perceive it.
Very cool stuff. See for yourself.
Here is a video showing a water-drop in ultra-slow-motion (2,000 frames per second). It is from the Discovery Channel's series 'Time Warp', where MIT scientist and teacher Jeff Lieberman and digital-imaging expert Matt Kearney use the latest in high-speed photography to turn never-before-seen wonders into an experience of beauty and learning.
What it Means.
Wisdom comes from finer distinctions.
Think about how being able to make more distinctions per unit time is changing the world.
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