Can You Train the Aging Brain?

The New York Times asks: Can an old brain learn, and then remem­ber what it learns? Can it keep nim­ble and throw off the rust? Hap­pi­ly, new stud­ies sug­gest that it can, and it large­ly comes down to nudg­ing neu­rons in the right direc­tion by chal­leng­ing our ingrained per­cep­tions, con­fronting new ideas, and con­stant­ly push­ing to dis­cov­er new things. Get more on how to keep your mind sharp here.

2009: The Year in Pictures

Some very pow­er­ful images in this New York Times fea­ture. But, tak­en togeth­er, they don’t say much good for 2009. Bring on the New Year…

One of the Biggest Risks is Being Too Cautious…

To eat bacon sand­wich­es? Or not to eat bacon sand­wich­es? That’s the ques­tion that David Spiegel­hal­ter, “Pro­fes­sor Risk” at Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty, tack­les in this short video exam­in­ing stats, life, and whether we should err on the side of cau­tion … or risk. This clip is part of Cam­bridge’s YouTube chan­nel, which now appears in our Smart YouTube Col­lec­tion.

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The Best of TED: A Stroke of Insight?

Last week, we wad­ed into the best of TED debate. What’s the best TED Talk out there? It’s hard to say. Pure­ly sub­jec­tive. But we can say one thing. Jill Bolte Taylor’s “Stroke of Insight” talk reach­es the top of many lists. What hap­pens when a neu­roanatomist expe­ri­ences a mas­sive stroke and feels all the brain func­tions she has stud­ied (speech, move­ment, under­stand­ing, etc) sud­den­ly start to slip away? And how do these loss­es fun­da­men­tal­ly change who we are? You’ll find out in a crisp (and at times emo­tion­al) 18 min­utes and 40 sec­onds. You can also read her book that elab­o­rates on her life-alter­ing expe­ri­ence. See My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Sci­en­tist’s Per­son­al Jour­ney.

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“The Wire” @ Harvard

bubblesDavid Simon once called his HBO series, The Wire, “a polit­i­cal tract mas­querad­ing as a cop show.” Think of it as a five sea­son, 3600 minute, artis­tic depic­tion of the esca­lat­ing break­down of urban soci­ety. The show is art. But it is also life in the biggest sense. And it’s why some thinkers have likened the epic series to (or even ele­vat­ed it above) Tol­stoy’s War & Peace. Now comes this… Accord­ing to The Har­vard Crim­son, William J. Wil­son, a Har­vard soci­ol­o­gy pro­fes­sor, will teach a new course that uses The Wire as “a case study for pover­ty in Amer­i­ca,” say­ing that “The Wire has done more to enhance our under­stand­ing of the sys­temic urban inequal­i­ty that con­strains the lives of the poor than any pub­lished study.” If you haven’t seen this series, and if this whets your appetite, you can find a nice deal on Ama­zon. The full series now goes for $125.00, 50% off the list price.

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Anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss Remembered

News broke today that Claude Lévi-Strauss, one of France’s tow­er­ing intel­lec­tu­als, has died. He was 100 years old. The New York Times has a lengthy obit that cov­ers the career of the anthro­pol­o­gist who brought us “struc­tural­ism” and helped us look at diverse cul­tures in new ways. NPR has also aired a short piece (in audio) that high­lights Lévi-Strauss’ intel­lec­tu­al accom­plish­ments. You can lis­ten below.

Audi­ble Starter Kit: Get 3 Audio­books, Plus a Free Phillips Spark 2GB MP3 Play­er

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Anne Frank: The Only Existing Video Now Online

There’s no sound, and the clip only runs 20 sec­onds. But this is the only known footage of Anne Frank, and it’s now online. The Anne Frank House does a good job of set­ting the scene for the video tak­en on July 22, 1941. “The girl next door is get­ting mar­ried. Anne Frank is lean­ing out of the win­dow of her house in Ams­ter­dam to get a good look at the bride and groom… At the time of her wed­ding, the bride lived on the sec­ond floor at Mer­wede­plein 39. The Frank fam­i­ly lived at num­ber 37, also on the sec­ond floor. The Anne Frank House can offer you this film footage thanks to the coop­er­a­tion of the cou­ple.” Find more videos on YouTube’s Anne Frank Chan­nel.

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Be a 2010 TED Fellow!

TEDWant to attend the 2010 TED Con­fer­ence and hang with some of the world’s great­est minds? Here’s your chance. Apply to the TED Fel­lows pro­gram.  Orga­niz­ers of the TED Con­fer­ence are look­ing for 25 promis­ing Fel­lows from around the world to par­tic­i­pate in TED 2010, and they’re accept­ing appli­ca­tions through Sep­tem­ber 25, 2009. Fel­low­ships include con­fer­ence admis­sion, round-trip trans­porta­tion, hous­ing and all meals. Fel­lows will also par­tic­i­pate in a pre-con­fer­ence with the oppor­tu­ni­ty to present a short talk for con­sid­er­a­tion for TED.com. Appli­cants should gen­er­al­ly between 21–40 years of age, though any­one over 18 and over 40 may apply. They must also be flu­ent in Eng­lish. Click here and get start­ed with your appli­ca­tion today!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Every TED Talk Under the Sun

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