Skeptophilia

A scarily long list of friends who have been coping with serious illnesses in the last six months has brought home to me how fragile life is...

I've wondered for years why certain pieces of music elicit such a powerful emotional response. Partly that's because I react powerfu...

A couple of days ago I was in my car, listening to Sirius XM Satellite Radio's station Symphony Hall , and was delighted when one of my ...

When I think about what my favorite song lyrics are, they can generally be sorted into two categories: 1.  Heartwrenchingly poignant/sad exa...

One of the most important things in my life is music, and to me, music is all about evoking emotion. A beautiful and well-performed song or ...

We just got back from a week-long trip to visit friends in Seattle, which meant boarding our two dogs with a local kennel.  We know and trus...

About eighteen years ago, my wife and I went on a vacation to Hawaii.  The trip was awesome, and we had a fantastic time in Kauai, appreciat...

As we get closer and closer to something that is unequivocally an artificial intelligence, engineers have tackled another aspect of this; ho...

I've always been fascinated with memory. From the "tip of the tongue" phenomenon, to the peculiar (and unexplained) phenomeno...

I've recognized for some time that I'm very sound-sensitive.  When I'm around loud, chaotic noise for too long, I get a little f...

It is a source of tremendous curiosity to me why music is as powerful an influence as it is.  Music has been hugely important in my own life...