I enjoy those minimalist illustrations like below (there are more after the jump) that wraps up the cultural differences between Paris and NewYork. From a cultural perspective, it’s like the top of an iceberg. 

Paris vs. New York: Minimalist Illustrated Parallels of Culture | Brain Pickings via kwout

Those illustrations are taken from the book Paris vs New York reviewed by the excellent Brain Picking blog: Paris vs. New York: Minimalist Illustrated Parallels of Culture | Brain Picking

A useful Mindmap to avoid distractions. The full version is available after the jump. 

Focus-mindmap-for-web.jpg (1220×889) via kwout

Found via The Next Web.

There is really a model for everything. BBC reports the results of a study that states that there is a link between sleep position and personality. The most common sleep positions are:

BBC NEWS | Health | Sleep position gives personality clue via kwout

The personalities according the position are:

• Foetus: tough on the outside but sensitive at heart
• Log: These sleepers are easy going, social people who like being part of the in-crowd
• Yearner: are said to have an open nature, but can be suspicious, cynical
• Soldier: are generally quiet and reserved
• Freefaller: Often gregarious and brash people, but can be nervy and thin-skinned underneath, and don’t like criticism, or extreme situations.
• Starfish: These sleepers make good friends because they are always ready to listen to others, and offer help when needed.

I already wrote a post about the spinning lady optical illusion: It’s a Right brain VS Left Brain test. The new animated GIF below with 2 additional dancers can be used to change the rotation direction. It’s still amazing.

I came across a very interested social model called Power Distance Index reading Malcolm Gladwell‘s book “Outliers-the story of success”.  The Power Distance Index (PDI) is one of the five intercultural dimensions developed by the psychologist Geert Hofstede. This index defines how much a particular culture values and respects authority. Here is a map of PDI by country:

A World Map of Hofstede’s Power Distance Index via kwout

Some low power index countries are:

• United Stated: 40
• United Kingdom: 35
• Ireland: 28
• Sweeden: 31

Some high power index countries are:

• France: 68
• China: 80
• India: 77
• Brazil: 69

In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell reports that the pilots PDI match up closely the plane crashes by country. 

Power Distance Index – Intercultural Business Tips

In the post referenced below Seth Godin recall (with style) an idea already highlighted by Tim Ferris in the 4h week: Act before to ask other people what they think. Because most of the time they will prevent you (with their advices) to start anything. 

By the way this post is today the most popular link in delicious.

Seth’s Blog: Without them

A very interesting interactive info-graphic from the New York Times that suggests that  the economy is turning a corner. The Blue line represents  industrial production and the Orange line O.E.C.D indicators like consumer confidence. As they say, these indicators turn before the economy does. So they provide a preview of where the economy might be in a few month. This last sentence sounds like a prediction that realizes by itself. I hope it will

Dictionary lookups statistics is a way to identify the subjects that interest people. Therefore the Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year 2008 shows the huge impact of the financial crisis and the the US elections:

Merriam-Webster Online via kwout

I found this link via Daily Writing Tips that provides also some comments about each word.

In the small film below, Jerry Andress Shows a few amazing optical illusions. We can call this perception failure:

"The wonderful brain interprets something different as it actually is but it doesn’t mean that it made a mistake. It took the information that it had and did it’s best job"

Learn Magic Tricks at 5min.com How the brain works: Illusions video and other Weird Science videos at 5min

Mindomo is a versatile Web-based mind mapping tool, delivering the capabilities of desktop mind mapping software in a Web browser – with no complex software to install or maintain. The application is based on Flash.  Mindomo  offers several solutions. The free solution allows only to store 7 privates maps online.
The presentation of the Mindomo free is available here.
The Getting started page is here.