If you are an avid sports fan, undoubtedly, you watch ESPN's SportsCenter. Reflecting its primary focus on entertainment, rather than sports, the folks at ESPN are conducting yet another unscientific and haphazard fan voting contest-Title Town, USA.

Have you ever stopped to think about how much children learn in their first few years of life, before they start school, before anyone tries in any systematic way to teach them anything? Next time you are in viewing range of a child under the age of about five years old, sit back and watch for awhile. You're in for a treat.

Linguists and philosophers argue that rational thought is impossible without words or symbolic forms of language. But one primate puzzler challenges us to consider forms of effective thinking that do not involve words or numbers.

Anyone who knows the comic will know about the characters and what they represent: 1) The Joker = chaos, 2) The Batman = order; 3) Two Face = pure chance. There are many lines in the film which "spank your face" with these metaphors, and if the acting was not so good, the joker's lines could have easily been over the top in making the deeper, existential questions within the film too obvious and contrived for most moviegoers.

It's been said that advertising is a form of sorcery. Consider the use of brand logos. Symbols bring reality into being.

As adults we do have certain responsibilities toward our children and the world’s children. It is our responsibility to create safe, health-promoting, respectful environments in which children can develop. It is our responsibility to be sure that children have proper foods, fresh air, non-toxic places to play, and lots of opportunities to interact freely with other people across the whole spectrum of ages. It is our responsibility to be models of human decency. But one thing we do not have to worry about is how to educate children. ...

Will Smith remains as the hero of Fourth of July movie debuts with his most recent film, Hancock. However, in an interesting twist, the superhero Hancock, that Smith portrays, is actually an anti-hero. 

Japanese game shows have been satirized by a variety of long-running American television shows such as "The Simpsons" and "Saturday Night Live." Americans found these parodies to be amusing despite little knowledge of actual Japanese game shows. Finally, ABC decided to take advantage of this form of popular culture by airing "I Survived a Japanese Game Show." So, what took so long?

Everywhere we turn these days we find pundits and politicians arguing for more restrictive schooling. Of course they don’t use the word “restrictive,” but that’s what it amounts to. They want more standardized tests, more homework, more supervision, longer school days, longer school years, more sanctions against children’s taking a day or two off for a family vacation. This is one realm in which politicians from both of the major parties, at every level of government, seem to agree.

Dance therapy has recently been recognized in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, autism, and posttraumatic stress. And dance—whether you can move and groove with the best or not-- offers more than just good medicine; it unites the heart and soul of humanity on a global level. Enjoy a compelling film, a testament to the power of dance, that was 14 months in the making, spans 42 countries, and includes an international cast of thousands.

In the "Ugly Duckling", a young swan goes from awkward and ugly to graceful and beautiful. This kind of transformation is also seen in abilities, and those who go from average to extraordinary are typically labelled "late bloomers". How are late bloomers possible? How can a nuanced understanding of genes contribute to our understanding?

Can animals be creative? What if you could demonstrate that an animal not only invented a new behavior, but that other animals copied it? And what if this behavior was then modified and transformed to solve yet another problem?

Independence. What a wonderful word. In 1776, the colonies declared their independence from the British Empire. As time progressed, the United States would become a world power.  

In China and Myanmar, the innate impulse to communicate through art, play, and imagination is emerging as children begin the long process of recovery. But what about those who don’t want to remember what happened or discuss the terror they have experienced? Some children are so traumatized they may never learn to be children again.

Any Sheryl Crow fans out there? If so, you'll no-doubt remember her big breakthrough record, unoriginally called "Sheryl Crow." A few years ago, we noticed something very strange about that record.

Every season, hundreds of thousands of contestants audition for the myriad of television talent shows that exist.

To make it far in these shows, you have to possess an "X Factor", a certain unidentifiable quality that makes you stand out from the rest.

What is this elusive X-Factor, and how may a nuanced view of genes contribute to our understanding of this factor?

Historically, metaphors and figurative language have been ignored as a serious topic of study in psychology and philosophy, exiled to the land of rhetoricians or literary analysts. But it seems wrong to ignore the poetic when you find it.

I'm writing this from a town I've never been in before. And I decided that an account of my thought process in my first hour here in Missoula, Montana is as good a way as any to introduce myself and what I will be writing about in this blog on art, media and the mind. Why? I want to suggest that we think about art more often than we might think.

High gas prices and global warming got you down? Humor is a natural stress-reducer and symptom-reliever that has been related to improved health, increased life expectancy, and overall well being. Whether you get a deep belly laugh from watching a comedy routine or “you fake it ‘til you make it”-- it’s all good.

Who creates, and how? One never-to-be-forgotten experience of an elementary school classroom, story-telling time, and a diffident little boy suggests answers for people of all ages.