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POPSThe Mathematical Lives of Plants The seeds of a sunflower, the spines of a cactus, and the bracts of a pine cone all grow in whirling spiral patterns. Remarkable for their complexity and beauty, they also show consistent mathematical patterns that scientists have been striving to understand. ... Scientists have puzzled over this pattern of plant growth for hundreds of years. Why would plants prefer the golden angle to any other? And how can plants possibly "know" anything about Fibonacci numbers? For the first time, scientists have found convincing biochemical mechanisms responsible for the interlocking spiral growth patterns seen in many plants. (The Romanesco broccoli plant is a striking example.) The video of the experiment with magnetized liquid iron droplets demonstrates how the geometry of such growth could occur in nature.
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POPSLearn Out Loud This site is fabulous and one of my favourites. When you get tired, why not just lean back and let someone else do the reading for a change. LOTS of stuff here, to make you smarter. Go rummage through the titles. Tons of stuff for FREE and all downloadable. :) I clipped just a few titles at the end (until I ran out of characters) to show you what sort of stuff they offer. Enjoy! .:)
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POPSOh yeah, and don't trust yourself either! The Chinese philosopher Xun Zi said that human nature is not particularly good, but he went on to argue that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to make it better. Too many people resign themselves to say "that's just the way things are" because that's easier than challenging their own beliefs. Before we can be an agent for change, our ideas must be relentlessly refined in the furnace of critical introspection. Follow the link to read all these cognitive hazards, and see where you find them in your life!
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POPSSubconscious Remembers Everything If we tap into our subcoscious and become "aware" of particular unhealthy behaviours and thoughts, for instance, we are able to "reframe" our thinking and personality and replace them with positive, productive thinking and behaviour.
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POPSwe are nothing but the stories we tell ourselves You owe no allegiance to that self-image if it harms you. If you don't like the story your life has become — tell yourself a better one. Think about the person you want to be and do what that person would do. Act the way that person would act. Amazingly enough, once you start acting like that person, people will start treating you like that person.
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POPSThe Power Of Love One morning, as they marched out to lay railroad ties in the frozen ground miles from the camp, the accompanying guards kept shouting and driving them with the butts of their rifles. Anyone with sore feet supported himself on his neighbour’s arm. The man next to Frankl, hiding his mouth behind his upturned collar, whispered,”If our wives could see us now! I hope they are better off in their camps and don’t know what is happening to us. Frankl writes,”That brought thoughts of my own wife to mind. And as we stumbled on for miles, slipping on icy spots, supporting each other time and again, dragging one another up and onward, nothing was said, but we both knew: each of us was thinking of his wife. Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars were fading and the pink light of the morning was beginning to spread behind a dark bank of clouds. But my mind clung to my wife’s image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness."
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