Mindframe

Our story this week begins around 1500 BC. It was roughly 3500 years ago that somehow––let’s be honest, probably through some kind of accident that doesn’t bear thinking about––Egyptians discovered that a mixture of flour and water, left in the right conditions, could bubble and ferment into a tangy ball of risen dough, and that this ball, when baked, was not only edible but delicious. In all likelihood, this was the beginning of leavened bread. Sourdough, as we call it today, harnesses yeast at its simplest, its most elemental. All the crucial microbes––the wild yeast and the lactic acid bacteria––already exist in the air around us, floating freely, just waiting for the chance to metabolize some glucose and release pockets of carbon dioxide. All you need for a good starter is flour, water, and a dream. (And the willingness to consume a lot of microscopic critters). This simplicity led to its appeal among cowboys and other assorted ramblers of the American West. Today in San Fra...

I’m writing to you from Shanghai tonight, a city of contradictions where it’s just as likely you’ll find a person on their Macbook Air as someone using an abacus. I’m sitting in a Starbucks, that most American of institutions, right around the corner from my hotel on the eastern side of the old city. As I watch the people pass by me, I can’t help but see the doppelgangers of my friends and family, the mind’s trickery played out on stranger's faces. Face is important. It’s estimated that a third of the brain is dedicated to reading and interpreting faces. If that area, specifically the fusiform gyrus, gets damaged, you walk around without the ability to recognize anyone. People with prosopagnosia, or face blindness, as it’s sometimes called, are literally unable to pick their mother or best friend out of a lineup. If that’s face blindness, how good is your face vision? Try this experiment. Think of someone you know really well and then try to describe their features. After se...

Throughout the ages, the enlightened among us have passed along many ideas that shape our lives. It is estimated that nearly 40% of all modern technology owes its success in some small part to Einstein’s notion that electromagnetic waves are the embodiment of moving photons. Quantum theory, as it’s called, is at the heart of everything from moon landings to iPhones. In 1983, while working as a teacher, I came across another profound theory. One of my fellow staff members was a janitor named Dennis. He was a short, bushy-browed bulldog of a man who found most of his janitorial duties to be repugnant. On the less than rare occasion that a student might barf (euphemistically known as tossing one’s cookies), Dennis always made it a point to be conspicuously absent. When there was manual labor to be performed, like moving a new boiler into the school, not only was Dennis available, but he made sure that every able-bodied male teacher was present as well. It was during such times that...

Mickey Mouse is far more formidable than you might imagine. It’s no secret that Walt Disney has built an entire empire––or kingdom, if you will––on the unlikely foundation of a winsome talking rodent. From his inception as a wannabe sea captain to his more recent everyman persona, Mickey is an American icon on the magnitude of apple pie and Coca Cola. " Steamboat Willie " sprang onto celluloid--and into cartoon history--in 1928. It, along with pretty much everything else copyrighted that year, was set to enter the public domain in 2003. You see, American patents are designed with a shelf life in mind. As the inventor, you own all the rights to your creation––and reap all the profits--for a set number of years. When your time is up, the ideas become free and available for everyone to copy, adapt, and improve upon . The goal was a robust environment for learning and advancing new technologies. So why aren’t we drowning in innovative Mickey Mouse remixes? By the reckon...