Your brain is awesome

Human brain has more switches than all computers on Earth | Health Tech - CNET News:

Throw this on the stack of "Artificial intelligence is still WAY off" - cause it is.

Placebo: everything you wanted to know, but were afraid to ask

Disgruntled PhD: Placebos: All you never wanted to know (Part 4) - Neurobiology:

I recommend looking at the archives of the post and reading all 4 parts of the series - even though it WAY more information than you'll want.

Mmmm....Sleep...

Sleep makes your memories stronger:

I've posted plenty about how sleep helps memory, so just add this to the pile.

Illusory perception

The illusion of time: Perceiving the effect before the cause : Neurophilosophy:

Who knew that we experienced optical illusions so frequently?

Yahoo! Optical Illusions

Optical illusions and brain teasers | SharpBrains:

Another great catalog of optical illusions. I'm a sucker for this stuff.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics

Look at Data Like a Statistician, Minus the Ph. D:

This is a fundamental skill that I think everyone should have. Learn how to look at statistics. Learn to understand what they mean. You don't have to be able to do the math, but you should be able to at least interpret results.

Quantum Psychology

Quantum Psychology? « Permutations:

This is a new realm of study, but it is growing in popularity. This article is from early 2010, but I've already seen several in late 2011. To me it's incredibly fascinating.

And now for something completely different...

John Cleese on neuroanatomy « Mind Hacks:

John Cleese could read binary code and make it sound funny. This is a brilliant video.

Can you love your job?

Beyond Passion: The Science of Loving What You Do:

This is a fantastic article that provides a lot of very good basic information about motivation and the principles behind motivation that are contrary to a lot of "common sense" principles that are very prevalent today.

Don't get scammed

The 7 Psychological Principles of Scams: Protect Yourself by Learning the Techniques — PsyBlog:

This is helpful information for anyone.

Don't be afraid to fail

Be Open to Failure | Psychology Today:

It's a well known aspect of motivational research. If you are willing to take chances and are not afraid to fail, if you are willing to learn from your failures, then you will be more successful. At anything.