[MyAppleMenu] May 19, 2013

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** Can Playing Dots On Your iPhone Make You Smarter? ****
<http://www.salon.com/2013/05/18/can_playing_dots_on_your_iphone_make_you_smarter_partner/>
Jared Keller, Salon


> Playing casual games like Dots and Bejeweled are the cognitive equivalent of working out a single muscle: you strengthen a very specific skill without necessarily improving your overall mental dexterity. But if you’re like me and concerned about your addiction, this news may still come as some comfort: you may be giving up hours of your life, but at least you’re getting very good at making a bunch of colored dots disappear.



**** Spark Inspector Offers Real Time iOS Interface Inpection ****
<http://www.tuaw.com/2013/05/18/devjuice-spark-inspector-offers-real-time-ios-interface-inpecti/>
Erica Sadun, TUAW


> Targeting devs looking to refine their user interfaces, it enables you to interactively tweak view properties like frames and layers.



**** How iPads, Apps And YouTube Can Be A Band’s Best Practice Tools ****
<http://gigaom.com/2013/05/18/how-ipads-apps-and-youtube-can-be-a-bands-best-practice-tools/>
Mark Crump, GigaOM






MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** The Secrets Of Consciousness And The Problem Of God ****
<http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=1676>
William Flesch, Los Angeles Review Of Books


> To put the question simply, if God exists, how could “He” know that <i>we</i> existed? How could He know that we weren’t merely animated matter, zombies, or biological machines, like the pedagogical mannequin, a Turing machine affectlessly oppressing the seekers after truth in the dream world of Giulio Tononi’s <i>Phi: A Voyage from the Brain to the Soul</i>? How could God know that we were living souls, and not just perfect simulations?



**** Some Of My Best Friends Are Germs ****
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/magazine/say-hello-to-the-100-trillion-bacteria-that-make-up-your-microbiome.html?ref=magazine>
Michael Pollan, New York Times


> Medicine used to be obsessed with eradicating the tiny bugs that live within us. Now we’re beginning to understand all the ways they keep us healthy.



**** The Plane Was About To Crash. Now What? ****
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/magazine/the-plane-was-about-to-crash-now-what.html?ref=magazine&_r=0>
Noah Gallagher Shannon, New York Times


> I woke to a nudge. “The pilot’s going to make an announcement,” the flight attendant said. I palmed at my eyes, nodded and looked around, feeling my hangover creep back in. The girl next to me was flicking at her nails while she paged through a fashion magazine. I slumped back against the window after the flight attendant passed. White clouds blanketed the sky floor.

> I sat up suddenly. <i>Wait — since when do they wake you up for a pilot talk?</i>