"How is it that people remain optimistic even though information challenging those predictions is abundantly available?"

"It turns out it is not commencement speeches or self-help books that make us hopeful. Recently, with the development of non-invasive brain imaging techniques, we have gathered evidence that suggests our brains are hard-wired to be unrealistically optimistic. When we learn what the future may hold, our neurons efficiently encode unexpectedly good information, but fail to incorporate information that is unexpectedly bad."

(NYT link.)

"So, there's a Japanese artistic concept called a Thomasson."

"In short, they are 'defunct and useless objects, attached to someone's property and aesthetically maintained.'"

***

"You see these in every city; how many apartments, like ours in Hell's Kitchen, had a fireplace mantlepiece but no fireplace? Semi-blocked doors, walled-off terraces, connecting passageways of an old large house blocked off to make two smaller houses, staircases deprived of their entryways, all common sights. And while I enjoy all the mystical connotations of these, they also kind of make me sad; poor abandoned things. And also a little annoyed at what, most of the time, is just poorly-done renovation work."

ADDED: Wisconsin Law School old-timers remember — before the renovation — there was a short stairway near the library that ended in a bit of floorspace just big enough for the old sofa someone put there. Above it was a sign that read "Reality Checkpoint."

My Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T9 died...

... so I bought a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T900.

I've always loved my little Sony digital cameras, and I've gotten a lot of use out of them. I passed the first one along to one of my sons because I wanted something skinnier to fit in a handbag. That second one was the T9. It developed a weird error that caused it to vibrate. Searching the web, I saw that this does happen, and there didn't seem to be much to do about it. Tapping on it could sometimes get the vibrating to stop for a while, but that got less and less effective. Another option was the optimist's approach: Look for the good. See? It's a special effect!



That's a dilapidated barn, by the way. Cute, but not versatile. I found myself in a Sony Store yesterday, and I decided to buy what looked to be the best current Sony. Despite the malfunction of the T9, I love Sony cameras. They've served me well. I've taken many 1000s of photos with that T9 and banged it around in my handbag for years. And I'm ready to see what the new one can do. (HD video for one thing.) So I went with the Sony again.

Can you feel the optimism?

I'm just scanning this morning's bloggable stories over at Memeorandum, and I'm getting the feeling we've stepped way back from the brink of disaster.

Pirates, tea parties, Sarah Palin's diapers, "Nicolas Sarkozy puts Barack Obama in the doghouse," slightly dangerous meat ....

This blogger is breathing a sigh of relief!

Today's object in rebellion: My car.

Over the weekend, my furnace died. I have a boiler and a furnace, so it's not a huge problem if one or the other goes out. Still, some rooms were quite nippy. But my heating people quickly responded on Monday, and everything is fine.

Today, my car died. Some switch went bad, causing the brake lights to stay on, which destroyed the battery. I was stranded in a parking lot, but not in the middle of nowhere, and a competent technician came by to jump start the car, which I drove to the Audi dealer, where they fixed everything, while I waited with WiFi.



When little, fixable things like this go wrong, I take it as a reminder that there are so very few problems. What great good luck I have!