by david allan van nostrand | Nov 14, 2022 | Americana, Human Behavior, The world around us
Studies show that reading on paper goes lots faster than reading on a screen. Those who read on paper generally are more aware of how well they understand what they are reading than screen readers, a skill called metacognition, or thinking about your own thinking. At...
by david allan van nostrand | Oct 31, 2022 | Human Behavior, The world around us
Pheidippides was a courier employed by the Athenian army in the days when important messages were sent by runner, sometimes over very long distances that took days to deliver, sort of like Pony Express riders without the horses. The Athenian army planned on fighting...
by david allan van nostrand | Oct 17, 2022 | Human Behavior, Social archaelogy, Unintended Consequences
On October 19, 1856, someone at the Royal Surrey Gardens Music Hall in London falsely shouted “Fire!” and in the panicked rush to escape, seven were killed. On December 5, 1876, a fire broke out in The Brooklyn Theater. Employees didn’t want to panic people by...
by david allan van nostrand | Oct 10, 2022 | How to tell good research from bad, Human Behavior, Organizational Behavior, Social archaelogy
A pecking order is a social hierarchy. With domestic fowl, it is the social hierarchy of a flock of chickens in which the dominant birds peck the subordinate birds who submit to it as a signal of acceptance of the difference between their social standings. All up and...
by david allan van nostrand | Sep 26, 2022 | Americana, Human Behavior, The world around us
In the 1800s, cowboys of the wild west rode horses all day every day, day and night, rain and shine. Much of their time was spent herding cattle back in the days when everything west of the Mississippi was open range where the deer and the antelope play and...
by david allan van nostrand | Sep 19, 2022 | Human Behavior, Social archaelogy, The world around us
Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, America’s sweethearts, starred in Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, two well-regarded romantic comedies by Nora Ephron, director and screenwriter. Ephron was not involved in the film Joe Versus the Volcano, where Hanks played Joe, a...
