links.lmorchard.com

April 2015

152 bookmarks saved in April 2015

You Won’t Be Able to Ride This Bike | Nerdist

http://nerdist.com/you-wont-be-able-to-ride-this-bike/
Riding a bike is just like…riding a bike, right? Once you learn how to propel yourself along on two wheels, you’ll never forget how to do so, and it’s always easy to jump back in the seat. But change just one skill that riding a bike involves — the way the handlebars turn — and everything falls apart. Below, Destin from Smarter Everyday shows that the bike riding “algorithm” our brains develop is actually quite fragile. You can’t change any aspect of riding a bike without unlearning how to ride a bike in the first place: I had the same thought Destin had: I would be able to figure it out pretty quick even with the steering reversed. But only after months and months of practice could he master the new locomotion. When he finally was able to move more than a few feet, he couldn’t ride a normal bike anymore. Destin may be making a lot of claims based on a few people’s experiences, like that his son could master the bike more quickly because of brain plasticity, for example, but I think he has a point. The brain comes up with models of the world that work most of the time, and burns them into neural pathways that are harder to change the more they are used. The eureka moment was when Destin could suddenly ride the normal bike again, after eight months of trying to unlearn it. His brain apparently switched back to a model it was more familiar with. The video is a great example of how we learn, and how knowledge and understanding are not the same thing. And it’s a great idea for an unwinnable bet…
#imported:pinboard #needs-tags #shared #ttrss
archive.org #31608

You Won’t Be Able to Ride This Bike | Nerdist

http://nerdist.com/you-wont-be-able-to-ride-this-bike
Riding a bike is just like…riding a bike, right? Once you learn how to propel yourself along on two wheels, you’ll never forget how to do so, and it’s always easy to jump back in the seat. But change just one skill that riding a bike involves — the way the handlebars turn — and everything falls apart. Below, Destin from Smarter Everyday shows that the bike riding “algorithm” our brains develop is actually quite fragile. You can’t change any aspect of riding a bike without unlearning how to ride a bike in the first place: I had the same thought Destin had: I would be able to figure it out pretty quick even with the steering reversed. But only after months and months of practice could he master the new locomotion. When he finally was able to move more than a few feet, he couldn’t ride a normal bike anymore. Destin may be making a lot of claims based on a few people’s experiences, like that his son could master the bike more quickly because of brain plasticity, for example, but I think he has a point. The brain comes up with models of the world that work most of the time, and burns them into neural pathways that are harder to change the more they are used. The eureka moment was when Destin could suddenly ride the normal bike again, after eight months of trying to unlearn it. His brain apparently switched back to a model it was more familiar with. The video is a great example of how we learn, and how knowledge and understanding are not the same thing. And it’s a great idea for an unwinnable bet…
#needs-tags #shared #ttrss
archive.org #25646

Erector Sets are more fun than the Sum of their Parts | The Retroist

http://www.retroist.com/2015/04/23/erector-sets-are-more-fun-than-the-sum-of-their-parts/
Here is a great ad for Erector from the early eighties that features a kid floating in a field of Erector parts and sets. I always thought that, like Lego, Erector would only grow in popularity. Sadly, while Erector is still going strong, it is nothing like the success of those toy bricks.
#imported:pinboard #needs-tags #shared #ttrss
archive.org #31617

Erector Sets are more fun than the Sum of their Parts | The Retroist

http://www.retroist.com/2015/04/23/erector-sets-are-more-fun-than-the-sum-of-their-parts
Here is a great ad for Erector from the early eighties that features a kid floating in a field of Erector parts and sets. I always thought that, like Lego, Erector would only grow in popularity. Sadly, while Erector is still going strong, it is nothing like the success of those toy bricks.
#needs-tags #shared #ttrss
archive.org #25635

Capt. Janeway cosplayer anticipating real coffee aboard International Space Station | Polygon

http://www.polygon.com/2015/4/17/8444831/star-trek-janeway-coffee-international-space-station
On Tuesday Space X launched another shipment of supplies off to the International Space Station, and there to receive it today is none other than Captain Janeway. Sam Cristoforetti is an Italian astronaut currently aboard the International Space Station. She's been in orbit since November of last year, and from the looks of it she did a little extra packing for the trip. She's clearly wearing a Starfleet uniform and a tiny ISS pin in place of the traditional chevron. "There's coffee in that nebula"... ehm, I mean... in that #Dragon. pic.twitter.com/9MYrqIOXnI — Sam Cristoforetti (@AstroSamantha) April 17, 2015 The text of her tweet is an in-joke that fans of the Star Trek: Voyager series will recognize. In Voyager's fifth... Continue reading…
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archive.org #25614