News

If the human mind is split to parts that manage overt appearances, and parts that manage covert strategies, which parts do you think more control our personalities? Yup, personalities are closer to overt appearances:

By using composite images rendered from three dimensional (3D) scans of women scoring high and low on health and personality dimensions, we aimed to examine the separate contributions of facial shape, skin texture and viewing angle to the detection of these traits, while controlling for crucial posture variables. After controlling for such cues, participants were able to identify Agreeableness, Neuroticism, and Physical Health. … Information allowing accurate personality identification is largely lateralized to the right side of the face. (more)

Chimpanzees, other primates, and humans produce asymmetrical facial expressions with greater [emotional] expression on the left side of the face (right hemisphere of the brain). (more)

In most animals, left brains tend to manage and initiate actions within the current mode, while right brains watch in the background for patterns and reasons to veto current actions and switch modes. In humans, it seems the current-action-sequencer brain half was recruited to focus more on managing overt rule-following language, decisions, and actions, ready to explain away any apparent rule-violations. The less-introspectively-accessible pattern-recognizing background-watcher brain half, in contrast, was apparently recruited to focus on harder-to-testify-on-and-so-more-easily-covert meaning, opinion, and communication, including art and music. (more)

I spoke again yesterday to mostly retired folks at GMU’s lifelong learning institute, on “You & the Distant Future” (audio; slides). I talked on near-far theory, long-term bequests, and cryonics.

Once upon a time planes were only a minor part of world transportation. No longer:

A large and growing share of international trade is carried on airplanes. Air cargo is many times more expensive than maritime transport but arrives in destination markets much faster. … We estimate that each day in transit is equivalent to [a tax] of 0.6 to 2.3 percent and that the most time-sensitive trade flows are those involving parts and components trade. …

Ocean-borne cargo leaving European ports takes an average of 20 days to reach US ports and 30 days to reach Japan. Air borne cargo requires only a day or less to most destinations. … In 2005, goods imported into the US faced per kilogram charges for air freight that were, on average, 6.5 times higher than ocean freight charges. … Excluding Canada and Mexico, 36 percent of US imports by value and 58 percent of US exports by value were airborne in 2000. … In 2004, air cargo as a share of export value was 29 percent for the UK, 42 percent for Ireland, and 51 percent for Singapore; 22 percent of Argentine and 32 percent of Brazilian imports were airborne. … From 1965-2004, worldwide use of air cargo grew 2.6 times faster than use of ocean cargo. (more)