Have you played with Google Labs' NGram Viewer? It's an addicting tool that lets you search for words and ideas in a database of 5 million books from across centuries. Erez Lieberman Aiden and Jean-Baptiste Michel in this TED briefing show us how it works, and a few of the surprising things we can learn from 500 billion words.
Professor Philip Zimbardo conveys how our individual perspectives of time affect our work, health and well-being. Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships and how we act in the world.
He covers all this in more detail in his book the Time Paradox. A short preview and lecture is excerpted below:
Your every significant choice -- every important decision you make -- is determined by a force operating deep inside your mind: your perspective on time -- your internal, personal time zone. This is the most influential force in your life, yet you are virtually unaware of it. Once you become aware of your personal time zone, you can begin to see and manage your life in exciting new ways.
In The Time Paradox, Drs. Zimbardo and Boyd draw on thirty years of pioneering research to reveal, for the first time, how your individual time perspective shapes your life and is shaped by the world around you. Further, they demonstrate that your and every other individual's time zones interact to create national cultures, economics, and personal destinies.
You will discover what time zone you live in through Drs. Zimbardo and Boyd's revolutionary tests. Ask yourself:
• Does the smell of fresh-baked cookies bring you back to your childhood?
• Do you believe that nothing will ever change in your world?
• Do you believe that the present encompasses all and the future and past are mere abstractions?
• Do you wear a watch, balance your checkbook, and make to-do lists -- every day?
• Do you believe that life on earth is merely preparation for life after death?
• Do you ruminate over failed relationships?
• Are you the life of every party -- always late, always laughing, and always broke?
These statements are representative of the seven most common ways people relate to time, each of which, in its extreme, creates benefits and pitfalls. The Time Paradox is a practical plan for optimizing your blend of time perspectives so you get the utmost out of every minute in your personal and professional life as well as a fascinating commentary about the power and paradoxes of time in the modern world.
No matter your time perspective, you experience these paradoxes. Only by understanding this new psychological science of time zones will you be able to overcome the mental biases that keep you too attached to the past, too focused on immediate gratification, or unhealthily obsessed with future goals. Time passes no matter what you do -- it's up to you to spend it wisely and enjoy it well.
Over the past two decades the documentary film has graduated into mainstream cinema, becoming a major box office draw and an important part of contemporary culture.
To celebrate this new age of the cinematic documentary, Current TV has commissioned a brand-new series that explores the most powerful, memorable and moving documentary feature films to have hit our cinema screens in recent years.
The shows count down from fifty to one, eventually revealing what our panel of preeminent film critics, academics and industry insiders has chosen as the most entertaining, powerful and influential modern documentary. However, this is not your average list show.
Renowned documentarian Morgan Spurlock embarked on a road trip to track down the filmmakers and characters behind some of the most remarkable moments in contemporary cinema. Along the way, he met maverick directors and eccentric contributors, traveled to iconic locations and explored the impact that the documentaries have made on both their subjects and society.
Of course, not everyone agrees with this list. A recent article in the New Yorker by Richard Brody suggests alternatives that might have been included.
The whole collection describing the films has been captured in Youtube short segments, and can be viewed at this link when you are looking for ideas on some film stimulation for a quiet evening as winter approaches.
