# s-brain: 'silent' macaques

<< the evolution of human speech capabilities required neural changes rather than modifications of vocal anatomy. Macaques have a speech-ready vocal tract but lack a speech-ready brain to control it >>

Macaque monkeys have the anatomy for human speech, so why can’t they speak? Dec. 14, 2016

http://www.kurzweilai.net/macaque-monkeys-have-the-anatomy-for-human-speech-so-why-cant-they-speak

W. Tecumseh Fitch, Bart de Boer, Neil Mathur and Asif A. Ghazanfar. Monkey vocal tracts are speech-ready. Science Advances.  09 Dec 2016: Vol. 2, no. 12, e1600723
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1600723

http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/12/e1600723

# s-astro: exploring the sea of ‘noise’ to understand intricacies

<< Rather than trying to filter out the signal “noise” from stars around which exoplanets are orbiting, (AA) studied all of the signal information together to understand the intricacies within its structure >>

Jim Shelton. Searching a sea of ‘noise’ to find exoplanets — using only data as a guide.  Dec. 20, 2016

http://news.yale.edu/2016/12/20/searching-sea-noise-find-exoplanets-using-only-data-guide

Sahil Agarwal, Fabio Del Sordo and John S. Wettlaufer. Exoplanetary Detection by  multifractal spectral analysis. Publ. 2016  Dec.  20, 2016. The  Astronomical  Journal, Volume  153, Number  1;  doi 10.3847/1538-3881/153/1/12

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/153/1/12

# s-behav: soon we'll love the way Japan loves ...

<< Japan has a long ongoing love affair with humanoid robots >>

<<  It involves the concept 'The Uncanny Valley' (translated from 'Bukimi no Tani Genshō'), which was coined by Japanese robotics professor Masahiro Mori in 1970. It means that there is a correlation between how human a robot's appearance and actions are and how we view them >>

<< In Buddhism or Animism, everything has a spiritual aspect, including machines >>

Marc Prosser. Soon We'll All Love Robots the Way Japan Loves Robots. Oct 20, 2016.

http://singularityhub.com/2016/10/20/soon-well-all-love-robots-the-way-japan-loves-robots

# s-behav: collective behavior following strong periodic patterns

<< by using big data to analyse massive data sets of modern and historical news, social media and Wikipedia page views, periodic patterns in the collective behaviour of the population can be observed that could otherwise go unnoticed. >>

<< people's collective behaviour follows strong periodic patterns and is more predictable than previously thought >>

Tom Lansdall-Welfare. Big data shows people’s collective behaviour follows strong periodic patterns. 8 Nov.2016

http://thinkbig.enm.bris.ac.uk/big-data-shows-peoples-collective-behaviour-follows-strong-periodic-patterns/

Dzogang F. et al. Discovering Periodic Patterns in Historical News. PLoS ONE 11(11): e0165736. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0165736

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0165736

2016 IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM)

http://icdm2016.eurecat.org/

# e-behav: smart obsessions ...

<< On the crowded morning metro in Helsinki, silence prevails >>

<<  A loud "yeah!" breaks the quiet, along with delighted screech from a toddler whose mother has just handed him her smartphone to calm him down with a video >>

Anne Kauranen. Smartphone-obsessed Finns rank tops in screen time. Dec. 27, 2016.

http://m.phys.org/news/2016-12-smartphone-obsessed-finns-tops-screen.html

<< tefficient’s  14th  public  analysis  on  the  development and  drivers  of  mobile  data  usage >>

http://tefficient.com/unlimited-pushes-data-usage-to-new-heights/

doc:   http://media.tefficient.com/2016/12/tefficient-industry-analysis-5-2016-mobile-data-usage-and-pricing-1H-2016-1.pdf

# s-brain: we may be biologically tuned to allow seemingly confident people to ...

<< In today's political climate in particular, we should be aware that when facts aren't clear, we may be biologically tuned to allow seemingly confident people to hold more sway on our own beliefs >>

How our brains are biologically tuned to be influenced by confident people. Dec. 13, 2016.

http://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2016-12-brains-biologically-tuned-confident-people.html

Daniel Campbell-Meiklejohn, Arndis Simonsen, Chris D. Frith and Nathaniel D. Daw. Independent Neural Computation of Value from Other People's Confidence. J. of Neurosci. 9 Dec. 2016, 4490-15; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4490-15.2016

http://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2016/12/09/JNEUROSCI.4490-15.2016

s-brain-ethno: beliefs vs brain networks responding

<< When political beliefs are challenged, a person's brain becomes active in areas that govern personal identity and emotional responses to threats >>

<< Political beliefs are like religious beliefs in the respect that both are part of who you are and important for the social circle to which you belong >> Jonas Kaplan.

Emily  Gersema. Which  brain networks respond  when someone sticks to a belief? Dec. 23, 2016.

http://news.usc.edu/114481/which-brain-networks-respond-when-someone-sticks-to-a-belief/

Jonas T. Kaplan, Sarah I. Gimbel,  Sam Harris. Neural correlates of maintaining one's political beliefs in the face of counterevidence. Nature. Scientific Reports 6, Article number: 39589 (2016). doi :10.1038/srep39589

http://www.nature.com/articles/srep39589