Events

New thinking says longer ago than you might think—with implications throughout the animal kingdom: If [Attention Schema Theory (AST)] is correct, 300 million years of reptilian, avian, and mammalian evolution have allowed the self-model and the social model to evolve in tandem, each influencing the other. We understand other people by projecting ourselves onto them. But we also understand ourselves by considering the way other people might see us. Data from my own lab suggests that the cortical networks...

I rubbed these two butts all over and now I'm gettin' 'em hot: We'll see how they taste in 3½ hours. With a few different options for barbecue sauce.

WGN-TV is reporting this morning that we will have two extra days in February this year—and they'll be cold: No word yet on whether March will also have 30 days this year.

Demographers Richard Florida and Karen King crunched some numbers to determine which metro areas had more single men or single women. Some findings: In absolute numbers, heterosexual men have a considerable dating advantage in metros across the East Coast and South. New York City  has more than 200,000 more single women than men; Atlanta 95,000 more; Washington, D.C. 63,000 more; Philadelphia nearly 60,000 more. The pattern continues for Baltimore and Miami. Meanwhile, the opposite is true out West...

The company announced today that it has given up on building out its new headquarters in Queens: [T]he agreement to lure Amazon stirred an intense debate about the use of government incentives to entice wealthy companies, the rising cost of living in rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, and the city’s very identity. Amazon’s decision is a major blow for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had set aside their differences to bring the company to New York. But it was a remarkable win for...

I had these lined up to read at lunchtime: Bruce Schneier explains how blockchain shifts, but does not eliminate, trust; and Bitcoin isn't useful. A lined article from 2017 goes further and says Bitcoin is an environmental catastrophe. A new interactive project shows how the summers in your city will feel in 2080. (Chicago's then will feel like Kansas City's today.) It turns out, if you're liberal, your brain reacts much differently to repulsive pictures than your conservative friends' brains. I'm ready...

A telephone scam artist is going to prison after picking precisely the wrong victim: Keniel Thomas, 29, from Jamaica, pleaded guilty in October to interstate communication with the intent to extort, federal authorities said. He was sentenced to 71 months in prison last week by U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell in Washington, D.C., and will be deported after he has served his term, officials said. Thomas made his first call to [William] Webster, 94, on June 9, 2014, identifying himself as David...