Monday, January 19, 2009

Make me a genious

My Brilliant Brain: Make me a Genious. This is a documentary which shows how the art of chess can improve a child's mind for her to increase her cognitive capabilities enormously. In fact This documentary almost make me think that limits are virtual, if one starts at the right time, at the right age! Also the way as memory acts as the angular stone of our intuitive thinking and give us that right 'feeling' when we are faced with a problem requiring fast and elegant solutions. Very good documentary.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

On the Road revisited...

About 2 months ago I've finished reading Kerouac's On the Road. Now I give you the link to the work of Stefanie Posavec, who gave a graphical look to the masterpiece.

For what I've understood, she takes all chapters of the book and counts the number of paragraphs. Next she counts for each paragraph the number of sentences, and so on. In the end she creates plots which represent these informations. As an example the figure below, by changing direction, she is changing sentence, and the length of a sentence is given by the number of words it contains.



Her analysis can be done to any book, but that's not the question, nor anything about On the Road. It's the originality of this analysis and her amazing plots that surprise me.

You can see her analysis with more plots at http://www.notcot.com/archives/2008/04/stefanie_posave.php. You can also find her site by checking http://www.itsbeenreal.co.uk/index.php?/about-this-site/.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

What We Still Don't Know. Great!!!

Another great documentary!!!

What We Still Don't Know. This is the title of a documentary divided in three parts. Presented by renowed astrophysicist Sir Martin Rees, it deals with those questions that science still cannot explain. It follows the tracks of the recent scientific findings and ends in earthbreaking hypothesis.

It starts with the episode Why Are We Here?, which only by itself worths seeing this.



Are We Alone? continues by working on the changes in existing life somewhere on the universe (besides earth), but also on the almost impossibility in meeting these alien life.




Are We Real? The cherry on top of the cake. For me, the best part in this documentary.