The New York Times

Synesthesia and “Phantom Vibration Syndrome”

by Ross Kaplan on October 1, 2011

I first reported the phenomenon in a post more than 18 months ago (“Where’s the Rest of Me?  The Phantom Cellphone Vibration“):  you’re standing in the shower — presumably undressed — and you feel your left (or in my case, right) hip vibrate.

You think you’re wearing your phone — until you realize you aren’t.

It was just a matter of time, but that experience now has a name:  “Phantom vibration syndrome” (“You Love Your iPhone.  Literally“; The New York Times, 9/30/2011).  

The same article discusses a related sensation called “synesthesia.”

Also referred to as “cross-sensory phenomena,” it’s when someone “sees” a smell or “hears” a vibration.

Imagine trying to explain that one to your grandparents . . .

P.S.:  Once upon a time, before I moved on to the business world, I was a Stanford psych major. 

I switched to Economics when it dawned on me that the department’s focus was brain synapses and neural architecture; Freud and Yung were taught in the Religious Studies department.

{ 0 comments }

“Personal Frequencies”

by Ross Kaplan on September 1, 2011

“Different (Key)strokes for Different Folks”

Once upon a time, two ham radio operators who wanted to communicate with one another had to first agree on a frequency. 

More recently, someone who wanted to use their 300 or 1200(!) baud modem to get on the Internet had to do a “handshake” with the connecting service.

How quaint.

Today?

If you want to communicate with someone, you first have to establish which of a dozen or more platform(s) and media the recipient prefers:

You hear so much about how instantly reachable we all are, how hyperconnected, with our smartphones, laptops, tablets and such. But the maddening truth is that we’ve become so accessible we’re often inaccessible, the process of getting to any of us more tortured and tortuous than ever.

There are up to a dozen possible routes, and the direct one versus the scenic one versus the loop-de-loop versus the dead end changes from person to person. If you’re not dealing with your closest business associates or friends, whose territory and tics you’ve presumably learned, you’re lost.

There are some people partial to direct messages on Twitter and others oblivious to that corner of the Twitterverse. There are some who look at Facebook messages before anything else, and others whose Facebook accounts are idle, deceptive vestiges of a fleeting gregariousness that didn’t survive their boredom with Rebecca’s bread dough (“It isn’t rising! Tips?”) or Tim’s poison ivy (“Itching and itching! Remedies?”).

–Frank Bruni, “Sorry, Wrong In-Box“; The New York Times (9/1/2011)

To go along with financial bankruptcy, a few years ago someone coined the term “email bankruptcy”:   when your email account is so inundated with unread messages that you simply close the account rather than try to catch up.

{ 0 comments }

“Yoga and Cable TV”

by Ross Kaplan on July 2, 2011

Reading yesterday’s New York Times piece on the Minnesota government shutdown, I didn’t learn anything new about the stand-off between state Republicans and Democrats.

But I picked up a couple tidbits about Minnesota prisons:

The state Department of Corrections said it was ending family and volunteers’ visits and yoga classes for prisoners and — if the shutdown lasts long enough for service to lapse — prisoners will see no more cable television.

–Monica Davey, “No End in Sight as Minnesotans Grapple With State Shutdown“; The New York Times (7/1/2011)

What, no wi-fi?

Please don’t tell me we (also) give convicts better health care than average citizens.

P.S.:  And no, I don’t think the shutdown casts the state in the same light as Florida or California — or Greece.

It just says that Minnesotans are tackling a problem others are ducking, at least so far.

{ 0 comments }

Glass Half Full? Half Empty? How About Completely Different Glasses?

May 20, 2011

Macro Matters If you want an excuse to simply tune out the news altogether and remain (blissfully) ignorant, look no further than yesterday’s dueling headlines in The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times: Focus on Obama as Tensions Soar Across Mideast –The New York Times (5/19/2011) Gas Prices Fall as Mideast Jitters Ease –The [...]

Read the full article →

Enlightened Capitalism

January 10, 2011

Planning for Life After, uh . . Retirement “Be smart.  Save your money, get educated, buy property. Plan for life after retirement.” Guess which enlightened CEO said the above to their employees? The CEO of Exxon Mobil?  Maybe Best Buy? Try, Dawn Rizos, the chief executive of the Lodge, a Dallas strip-club (albeit the high-end kind).  See, “Naked [...]

Read the full article →

Groupon’s Sales Price: No Bargain?

November 30, 2010

Google is near a deal to acquire Groupon, the pioneering online discounter, for as much as $6 billion. –The New York Times (11/30/2010) There’s got to be not a little irony in Groupon being bought out at something like 15x its annual revenues of $350 million. By contrast, established consumer goods companies can sell for [...]

Read the full article →

"We Bailed OURSELVES Out??"

November 28, 2010

“We” Minus the “Us”; or,More Pronoun Confusion The bailout and stimulus that we have administered to ourselves have left us without much cushion. There may be room, and even necessity, for a little more stimulus. But we have to get this moment right.” –Thomas Friedman, “Got to Get This Right“; The New York Times (11/27/2010) [...]

Read the full article →

← Older Entries