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Mottainai: "a sense of regret concerning waste when the intrinsic value of an object or resource is not properly utilized."
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Is GPS technology actually harming our sense of direction? "[Cognitive] mapping strategies fall into two basic categories. One is a spatial strategy that involves learning the relationships between various landmarks... The other is a stimulus-response approach that encodes specific routes by memorizing a series of cues, as in: get off the bus when you see the glass skyscraper, then walk toward the big park."
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This is an idea I had: a residential real estate/construction company that is only involved in building houses that are replicas of ones on television or movies. You can have a "Full House" house (difficult, because the house would technically be mushroom shaped), a "Growing Pains" house (a great one, because of the apartment above the garage), Gilligan's Island huts, Ferris Bueller, Home Alone, the "What About Bob?" vacation house, etc. Apartment shows, too. The idea would be that these homes serve as characters in the shows/movies, and we must bring together architects and scholars of popular TV shows (probably mostly me), to capture the house's character in a design. For instance: Do certain features need to be exaggerated if this is to be recognized as a particular house? Do people hit their head on things or trip over things ("Dick Van Dyke")? Where do people congregate in the house and where do they not go - should they be bigger or smaller than they are to accommodate the interest? That sort of thing.
It's a consultative process, too. Someone might want the "Step by Step" house, but it isn't practical if you don't have any kids - "Golden Girls" might be better. Someone might want "The Wonder Years" house, but we need to explore why they want it - have they gone back and watched the show recently? Is it because they liked the show back then, or because they truly love the house? You need to emphasize different elements depending on the answer - it's a tradeoff between faithful accuracy and its livability/usefulness as a house.
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The Intelligence of Dogs. I had a sense that my parents' shih tzu had a lower capacity to behave than other dogs. At least someone else thinks so, too.
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"He's gotta degree in economics/ Maths - physics and bionics/ He thinks that I'm a cabbage/.../ He always beat me at Subbuteo"
