How not to get phished, the mozart of chess, and one sentence reviews of all the podcast apps
Welcome to the Hurt Your Brain internet playlist from May 28, 2017. It's a collection of podcasts, videos, and other links for people who love to learn online and are fascinated by the world. Click here to get playlists emailed to you as they come out.
A Reply All crash course on how not to become a sucker on the modern internet The Russian Passenger 38 minutes Beware All 40 minutes The Secret Life of Alex Goldman 31 minutes What Kind of Idiot Gets Phished? 28 minutes These four episodes serve as an amazing reminder that hackers or nefarious types are endlessly creative and we could all use an update on what they are capable of. If you only pick one, pick the one about phishing, because it kind of scared the shit out of me. The way people can get past two factor authentication is pretty devilish.
The Daily: Planning the Perfect Death (May 26, 2017) 22 minutes Usually The Daily provides great insight into the biggest news stories of the day. But apparently sometimes — out of nowhere — they like to deliver a nice little emotional gut punch. This story is about medically assisted death and is really powerful.
Planet Money: Small Change 21 minutes The world is moving increasingly faster and faster at a pace never seen before. Right? Well, it turns out, not really. This is a pretty compelling argument that the industrial revolution brought on changes that make the last 50 years seem pretty relaxed in comparison.
Science Vs conclusions
Science Vs: Meditation 34 minutes Conclusion 1: Studies in fMRI machines have shown that meditation can change the brain in specific ways, but it's hard to know what that actually means for any individual person. Conclusion 2: Meditation has shown benefits in some people with anxiety and depression. Conclusion 3: Meditation has been shown in some studies to increase telomeres (which are associated with longevity), but much more needs to be studied to understand how this plays out in the real world. And BTW: I love that most episodes of Science Vs don't have black and white answers. To me this shows how science rarely is as simple as the sexy headlines that some news outlets peddle.
VIDEOS
Magnus (documentary trailer) 75 minutes Magnus Carlsen is a Norwegian 26 year old who has been a chess Grandmaster since the age of 13 and has been the Chess World Champion for the past 5 years, with the highest ranking of all time. He is described as the Mozart of chess and the coach of the previous world champion describes his abilities as akin to someone walking up to the top of Mt Everest wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I'm no chess aficianado but I found this to be a pretty fascinating documentary. Available on Netflix. ARTICLES AND OTHER LINKS Have you noticed how there are now a million different podcast apps? I wrote an article for the Bello Collective giving a one sentence review to each of them.
HBR: Talking to Yourself (Out Loud) Can Help You Learn "In the modern economy, there are few skills more important than the ability to learn."
Have I been pwned? This is mentioned in one of the Reply All episodes in the playlist above. Super simple website where you put in your email address and it tells you if any sites where you use that email for your login have been breached and what kind of data was stolen.
From Reddit: r/IamA: AMA request for a simultaneous interpreter who has translated Trump. The top comment is someone who actually fits the request perfectly and delivers a pretty fascinating description of their job as an expert interpreter.
r/askscience: Why does removing a battery and replacing the same battery (in a wireless mouse for example) work? I always do this kind of thing and just never think about how it actually works. Here's the top answer: "The contacts on the battery and your device can develop a layer of corrosion as they're exposed to oxygen. This layer does not conduct well. By replacing it you're scraping the contacts clean allowing better conductivity. When the batteries get low, this can make the difference between a usable amount of current and not."
Quote: “Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider." – Francis Bacon
That's all for this week!
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