From: @nybooks
Sent: 14 Dec 2011 12:56
RT @longformorg: Our Best of 2011 list is here. Top 20 stories of the year, plus favorites in crime, a&e, tech, sex and more: http://t.co/PNCyYNr4
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Wednesday, December 14, 2011
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More best longreads of 2011
Sent to you by Nigel via Google Reader:
via kottke.org by Jason Kottke on 12/13/11
Longform has their top picks of 2011 up too.
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Tuesday, December 13, 2011
The Single Best Thing You Can Do for Your Health
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via Health : The Atlantic by Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg on 12/13/11
In his visual lecture "23 1/2 Hours" Dr. Mike Evans describes a wonder treatment that, when administered for 30 minutes a day, greatly improves health and quality of life. Clever whiteboard illustrations from Liisa Sorsa keep the fast-paced talk engaging, as Evans lists the many medical studies that support his conclusion. Don't let the goofy cartoons fool you -- this nine-minute video packs a lot of valuable information.
Evans is an Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of Toronto and a staff physician at St. Michael's Hospital. The video was directed by Nick de Pencier of Mercury Films.
Via Devour.
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LED Billboards Threaten Safety and Public Space, Say Critics
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via Torontoist by Hamutal Dotan on 12/13/11
More than mere annoyances, these big signs may have big implications for the future of outdoor advertising in Toronto.
This section of the Gardiner Expressway, known as "Billboard Alley," may soon be home to three new LED billboards. Photo by IanMuttoo from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
If invasive roadside advertising has you driven to distraction, public space activist Dave Meslin would like to remind you that you have a voice, and on December 14, a chance to use it. On that date the City will be hosting a public consultation, where Torontonians will have the opportunity to discuss a proposal put forth by Allvision to install 17 LED billboard signs at 10 locations across the city.
Blair Murdoch, president of Allvision Canada, hopes to secure several amendments to Chapter 694 of the City of Toronto Municipal Code, which covers third-party ground signs. He made his request earlier this year on behalf of CN Rail, the company that owns the land on which Allvision wants to erect the massive billboards.
A staff report released by the City on September 21 indicates that the 10 LED billboards (seven of which have two sign faces) will replace 10 standard paste-and-paper billboards along CN Rail corridors. Acceptance of Allvision's proposal is contingent on the permanent removal of 30 additional billboards.
The staff report notes that "Toronto has more third party signs per capita than any other Ontario municipality" and claims that council's goal is to "reduce the total [number] of third party signs currently erected and displayed within the City."
Although the proposed elimination of 40 signs achieves that goal, its effect on the amount of advertising space taken up by third-party signs is negligible. The total area of advertising space occupied by the 40 signs slated either for removal or replacement is 780 square metres, while the proposed LED billboards total 738 square metres of signage. The difference of 42 square metres is roughly equivalent to the total area of just two paste-and-paper billboards.
Meslin argues that this small sacrifice of advertising surface area is more than offset by the superior effectiveness of LED billboards. He adds that "effective and intrusive are one and the same in advertising." According to Meslin, that intrusiveness will be especially evident at night. "The light [from the signs] is strong enough that if it's coming through a window it would disrupt your sleep," he says. He notes that several of the signs will be erected in clear view of residential areas.
LED billboards—such as these at Yonge-Dundas Square—are bright enough to interfere with sleep patterns when erected in residential areas. Photo by ~EvidencE~ from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
"They're (Allvision and the City) misleading the public in saying this is a reduction in advertising. It's an enormous growth."
Meslin, who is a member of the Toronto Public Space Initiative (TPSI) advisory board, says the proliferation of outdoor advertising in recent years has cheapened the city. Although the proposed LED billboards are to be built on private land, he says they nonetheless constitute an improper use of public space.
"It doesn't matter if it's on public or private land; it's about who it's affecting," Meslin says. "I don't care where their sign is. If it's affecting the public space then it's a public issue."
In addition to impinging upon the public space, Meslin says the billboards raise serious safety concerns for drivers.
One of the billboards, to be located on Leslie Street near Highway 401, is in close proximity to North York General Hospital. "I think that's a really good idea in terms of placement, because I think these things are going to cause accidents," says Meslin, sarcastically. "You might as well put one close to a hospital."
Citing a statistic from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Meslin states that 80 per cent of car accidents are caused by distracted drivers. By entertaining a proposal to erect additional sources of distraction on busy streets and highways, he says the City is putting drivers at risk.
"It's not rocket science," Meslin says. "We've already banned cellphones in cars. You're not allowed to watch your own personal TV screens in cars. So why would we install electronic signs on the highway? It's just a bad idea."
In defence of Allvision's proposal, Murdoch cites a study conducted by the United States Department of Transportation, which asserts that "the states of Nevada, Utah, Texas, New York, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts reported no evidence of increased traffic safety problems after the installation of electronic information displays in their city centers and along their highways."
It is worth noting that several U.S. cities—including six in Texas—have banned LED billboards due in part to the potential safety hazards they present to drivers.
Murdoch also quotes a study by Tantala Associates, which claims that "digital billboards [...] have no statistically significant relationship with the occurrence of accidents." Murdoch's emailed response to Torontoist does not mention that the study was commissioned by the Foundation for Outdoor Advertising Research and Education, a non-profit organization affiliated with the Outdoor Advertising Association of America.
Photo by chromewaves from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
While Murdoch refuses to concede or deny that LED billboards are a distraction to drivers, Meslin says it is clear that attracting attention is their sole purpose. "Obviously they're going to distract [drivers]," he says, "because that's what they're supposed to do."
On October 6, the City's Planning and Growth Management Committee voted to defer consideration of Murdoch's proposal to January 5, explaining the deferral would "allow consultation to take place with the City Planning division, affected communities, and stakeholders, in cooperation with local councillors."
But according to Meslin, residents of affected communities have not been properly informed of the public consultation scheduled for December 14. "I don't think that the people who are going to be affected by these signs have any clue this is happening," he says. "I think it's a total scam."
In an email, Robert Bader of the City's Sign By-Law Unit notes that an advertisement published in print editions of the Toronto Star informs the public of the consultation. Yet the advertisement fails to mention the locations where the LED billboards are to be erected–essential information that can only be ascertained by typing out and following a 68-character URL printed along with the advertisement (http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2011.PG8.1). The URL leads to a webpage containing a list of eight hyperlinks. The first of these hyperlinks, titled "Report from the Chief Building Official and Executive Director, Toronto Building on Amendments to Chapter 694 of the City of Toronto Municipal Code Respecting a Comprehensive Consolidation and Upgrade Program for Third Party Ground Signs Located on Certain Rail Lands within the City of Toronto," leads to a PDF file. On the fifth page of that file, the locations of the proposed LED billboards are listed.
That such basic information about the issue can only be arrived at by following an absurdly circuitous route will likely discourage many from participating in the consultation. Meslin believes this is by design. "There definitely is a culture at City Hall of doing things without consultation," he says. Still, Meslin plans to attend the event, noting the importance of combating the commercialization of public spaces.
"When we see all these corporate brands in our [public] space, I think we can easily forget something: this is our city."
Proposed LED billboard locations:
- Kipling Avenue near Belfield Road
- Lawrence Avenue West near Weston Road
- York Mills Road near Leslie Street
- Leslie Street near Highway 401
- Victoria Park Avenue near Gerrard Street East
- Eglinton Avenue East near Bellamy Road North
- Steeles Avenue West near Alness Street
- Gardiner Expressway (three billboards within 425 metres of Atlantic Avenue)
The public consultation on Allvision's LED billboard proposal takes place tomorrow (December 14) from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at City Hall (100 Queen Street West) in Committee Room #1 on the second floor.
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Monday, December 12, 2011
Longform’s Best of 2011
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via Longform.org by Editors on 12/12/11
| | 
Longform's Best of 2011
Our picks for the top 20 articles of the year, plus 2011′s best writing about crime, science, tech, sex and more. Best of 2011
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Dreams Can Heal Mental Wounds
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via Health : The Atlantic by Alice G. Walton on 12/12/11
The dream stage of REM sleep, because of its unique neurochemical composition, can provide us with a soothing form of overnight therapy
A new study finds that sleep may play a role in how we process emotionally-charged memories, which could have important implications in how we understand how post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) works in the brain. Though researchers haven't quite reached a consensus on why we sleep, we do know that sleep helps our brains rebound after a long day. Also among its functions are sleep's ability to help consolidate memories, enhance cognitive function, and boost decision-making.
More Reasons to Get Your Zzzzs
When Neurons Nap, Mistakes are Made
Stressed Out, Part II: Managing Stress
To see how sleep might affect how memories are processed, researchers showed participants 150 emotional images (like an open-mouthed shark) twice, separated by a 12-hour period. Half of the participants were shown the images in the morning, and then again at night. The other half were shown the images at night, and, after a full night's sleep, were presented with the second set of images. The team asked the participants about their subjective responses to the images, and looked at their brain activity with fMRI and EEG.
The participants who slept between the two viewings reported a less pronounced reaction to the second set of images. The researchers saw that the reactivity of the amygdala -- a brain region important in emotion and stress -- was reduced during the second viewing in the participants who had slept. Electroencephalograms or EEGs verified that reduced levels of the stress neurochemical norepinephrine were linked to less emotional reactivity the following morning.
"We know that during REM sleep there is a sharp decrease in levels of norepinephrine, a brain chemical associated with stress," said study author Matthew Walker. "By reprocessing previous emotional experiences in this neuro-chemically safe environment of low norepinephrine during REM sleep, we wake up the next day, and those experiences have been softened in their emotional strength. We feel better about them, we feel we can cope."
Altered sleep patterns have been linked to mood disorders like depression, anxiety, and PTSD. REM sleep in particular seems to be disrupted in PTSD patients. Walker says he got the idea for the study when he heard that a side effect of a blood pressure drug was decreased incidence of nightmares in PTSD patients: The blood pressure drug is known to reduce norepinephrine levels in the brain. "This study can help explain the mysteries of why these medications help some PTSD patients and their symptoms as well as their sleep," Walker said. "It may also unlock new treatment avenues regarding sleep and mental illness."
The REM "therapy" will be important both for PTSD patients who are coping with extremely stressful memories and for regular people coping with stressful situations in their daily lives. "The dream stage of sleep, based on its unique neurochemical composition," says Walker, "provides us with a form of overnight therapy, a soothing balm that removes the sharp edges from the prior day's emotional experiences."
The study took place at the University of California at Berkeley, and was published in the November 23, 2011, online edition of Current Biology.
Image: Dmitriy Shironosov/Shutterstock.
This article originally appeared on TheDoctorWillSeeYouNow.com, an Atlantic partner site.
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Dreams Can Heal Mental Wounds
Sent to you by Nigel via Google Reader:
via Health : The Atlantic by Alice G. Walton on 12/12/11
The dream stage of REM sleep, because of its unique neurochemical composition, can provide us with a soothing form of overnight therapy
A new study finds that sleep may play a role in how we process emotionally-charged memories, which could have important implications in how we understand how post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) works in the brain. Though researchers haven't quite reached a consensus on why we sleep, we do know that sleep helps our brains rebound after a long day. Also among its functions are sleep's ability to help consolidate memories, enhance cognitive function, and boost decision-making.
More Reasons to Get Your Zzzzs
When Neurons Nap, Mistakes are Made
Stressed Out, Part II: Managing Stress
To see how sleep might affect how memories are processed, researchers showed participants 150 emotional images (like an open-mouthed shark) twice, separated by a 12-hour period. Half of the participants were shown the images in the morning, and then again at night. The other half were shown the images at night, and, after a full night's sleep, were presented with the second set of images. The team asked the participants about their subjective responses to the images, and looked at their brain activity with fMRI and EEG.
The participants who slept between the two viewings reported a less pronounced reaction to the second set of images. The researchers saw that the reactivity of the amygdala -- a brain region important in emotion and stress -- was reduced during the second viewing in the participants who had slept. Electroencephalograms or EEGs verified that reduced levels of the stress neurochemical norepinephrine were linked to less emotional reactivity the following morning.
"We know that during REM sleep there is a sharp decrease in levels of norepinephrine, a brain chemical associated with stress," said study author Matthew Walker. "By reprocessing previous emotional experiences in this neuro-chemically safe environment of low norepinephrine during REM sleep, we wake up the next day, and those experiences have been softened in their emotional strength. We feel better about them, we feel we can cope."
Altered sleep patterns have been linked to mood disorders like depression, anxiety, and PTSD. REM sleep in particular seems to be disrupted in PTSD patients. Walker says he got the idea for the study when he heard that a side effect of a blood pressure drug was decreased incidence of nightmares in PTSD patients: The blood pressure drug is known to reduce norepinephrine levels in the brain. "This study can help explain the mysteries of why these medications help some PTSD patients and their symptoms as well as their sleep," Walker said. "It may also unlock new treatment avenues regarding sleep and mental illness."
The REM "therapy" will be important both for PTSD patients who are coping with extremely stressful memories and for regular people coping with stressful situations in their daily lives. "The dream stage of sleep, based on its unique neurochemical composition," says Walker, "provides us with a form of overnight therapy, a soothing balm that removes the sharp edges from the prior day's emotional experiences."
The study took place at the University of California at Berkeley, and was published in the November 23, 2011, online edition of Current Biology.
Image: Dmitriy Shironosov/Shutterstock.
This article originally appeared on TheDoctorWillSeeYouNow.com, an Atlantic partner site.
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Sunday, December 11, 2011
The Science of Smiling
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via Life : The Atlantic by Maria Popova on 12/10/11
In March, entrepreneur and health advocate Ron Gutman gave a fascinating TED talk, synthesizing a wealth of studies about smiling. Now, TEDBooks, one of our seven innovative platforms changing the future of publishing, is releasing Smile: The Astonishing Powers of a Simple Act -- a fantastic short Kindle book, in which Gutman expands on his popular talk to examine the last 200 years of science on smiling, facial mimicry, and mirror neurons, the tell-tell signs of fake smiles vs. authentic smiles (something that goes back to Darwin's photographic studies), and even how smiling affects our longevity.
Lots of smiling can actually make you healthier. Smiling can help reduce the level of stress-enhancing hormones like cortisol, adrenaline, and dopamine; increase the level of mood-enhancing hormones like endorphin; and reduce overall blood pressure. --Ron Gutman
For a deeper exploration of the science of smiles, don't forget Marianne LaFrance's Lip Service: Smiles in Life, Death, Trust, Lies, Work, Memory, Sex, and Politics.
This post also appears on Brain Pickings, an Atlantic partner site.
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