Learn about how many megapixels your eye can see; some of the coolest airport activities you can find during your next layover; and the research-backed WOOP method for working toward and achieving your goals. In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes: Buy ANOMIA on Amazon — https://amazon.com (please support our sponsors!) How Many Megapixels Is the Human Eye? — https://curiosity.im/2DffH2o These Airports Have the Weirdest, Coolest Layover Activities — https://curiosity.im/2De0Hlh WOOP Is a Research-Backed Method for Working Toward and Achieving Your Goals — https://curiosity.im/2Df2zdM Please tell us about yourself and help us improve the show by taking our listener survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/curiosity-listener-survey If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron! Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Learn about how many megapixels your eye can see; some of the coolest airport activities you can find during your next layover; and the research-backed WOOP method for working toward and achieving your goals.
In this podcast, Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer discuss the following stories from Curiosity.com to help you get smarter and learn something new in just a few minutes:
Please tell us about yourself and help us improve the show by taking our listener survey! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/curiosity-listener-survey
If you love our show and you're interested in hearing full-length interviews, then please consider supporting us on Patreon. You'll get exclusive episodes and access to our archives as soon as you become a Patron!
Learn about these topics and more on Curiosity.com, and download our 5-star app for Android and iOS. Then, join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus: Amazon smart speaker users, enable our Alexa Flash Briefing to learn something new in just a few minutes every day!
Full episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/achieve-goals-with-the-woop-method-what-to-do-during-layovers-and-megapixels-in-your-eyes
[MUSIC PLAYING] CODY GOUGH: Hi. We've got three stories from curiositydotcom to help you get smarter in just a few minutes. I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: And I'm Ashley Hamer. Today, you'll learn about how many megapixels the human eye is, some of the coolest airport activities you can find during your next layover, and a research-backed method for working toward and achieving your goals.
CODY GOUGH: Let's satisfy some curiosity on the award-winning Curiosity Daily.
ASHLEY HAMER: Have you ever wondered about the resolution of the human eye? As in, how many megapixels it is? Well, it turns out scientists can answer that question. But it might be the wrong question to ask.
CODY GOUGH: I don't even know what a megapixel is.
ASHLEY HAMER: The number of megapixels in a camera is, basically, a measure of the resolution of that camera. Basically, that's how detailed of an image it can take. The more megapixels you have, the smaller the individual squares that your camera is going to pick up in a given image so you can have much smaller details.
CODY GOUGH: Got it.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah.
CODY GOUGH: And the megapixel is like about a million pixels?
ASHLEY HAMER: Exactly.
CODY GOUGH: OK. Not exactly a million pixels, but about a million pixels?
ASHLEY HAMER: Right.
CODY GOUGH: Cool. So how many megapixels are on your eye, Ashley?
ASHLEY HAMER: Well, there is one person who has figured this out. According to Scientist and Photographer Dr. Roger Clark, the resolution of the human eye is 576 megapixels. There you go. That's the answer. That means that in order to create a screen with a picture so sharp and clear that you can't distinguish the individual pixels, you would have to pack 576 million pixels into an area the size of your field of view.
To get this number, Dr. Clark assumed optimal visual activity across your field of view. In other words, he assumes your eyes are moving around the scene in front of you. But in a quick glance, the speed of a snapshot, the resolution drops to a fraction of that. Around 5 to 15 megapixels. That's because your eyes actually have a lot of flaws that cameras don't.
You only see high resolution in a very small area in the center of your vision called the fovea. You've got a blind spot where your optic nerve meets with your retina. And you don't just move your eyes around a scene to take in more information, you also move your eyes to correct for these imperfections in your visual system.
And that's why asking about the megapixel resolution of your eyes is asking the wrong question. Your eye isn't a camera lens that takes snapshots to save to a memory card in your brain, it's more like a detective that collects clues from what it sees then takes them back to the brain to put the pieces together and form a complete picture. When it comes to our daily visual experience, talking in megapixels is way too simple. I hope the reason is clear.
CODY GOUGH: The holidays are coming up and that means you might be traveling. And that means you might have to deal with a layover. Most of the time, you don't have a lot of options when you're sitting around an airport for 6, 8, or even 12 hours, but there are a few airports with unexpected amenities that might make the wait a little more tolerable. Although I got to say, I usually don't have long layovers. I usually get those 45-minute layovers where you have to basically sprint to the next gate.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. Same. I wish I had long layovers then I could enjoy myself, maybe eat at one of the restaurants. Sometimes, they have restaurants from the local area that I could try new food without ever going to the city.
CODY GOUGH: I love the local area stuff.
ASHLEY HAMER: Totally.
CODY GOUGH: But these airports have even more local area stuff.
ASHLEY HAMER: I'm ready.
CODY GOUGH: If you are of legal drinking age, then a Munich airport in Germany is a pretty great place to be. Sure, lots of airports have bars like Ashley mentioned, but in the Munich airport, you'll also find the actual brewery that supplies the beer. [INAUDIBLE] is home to an award-winning lineup of cold ones, and you can even take a brewery tour if you've got the time.
If beer is not your thing but you love art, then you might want to stop over-- then you might want to skip over to the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Amsterdam's world famous museum, the Rex Museum, has a branch in the airport itself, right in the leisure zone between lounge 2 and 3 at the airport. That makes this airport the only one in the world with a display of 17th century art.
Here in the US, Los Angeles International Airport has a great way to de-stress, assuming you're like animals. It's called the Pets Unstressing Passengers program or PUP. Therapy dogs and their handlers roam the departure levels of each terminal, providing both comforting fur balls and flight information.
ASHLEY HAMER: I was just in LAX and I kept my eyes peeled for dogs but I did not see any.
CODY GOUGH: Oh, no. Hopefully next time.
ASHLEY HAMER: I'm holding out hope.
CODY GOUGH: And if you like animals of a less fluffy variety, then you should stop by to see our neighbors in Canada at the Vancouver International Airport. The Vancouver Aquarium has an airport exhibit there where you'll see wolf eels, iridescent striped seaperch, and brightly covered kelp greenlings all zipping around among 20,000 marine plants.
We've got even more fun airport activities in our full write up on curiositydotcom and on our free Curiosity app for Android and iOS. But I hope you're inspired to do a little research on wherever you're spending your neck layover. Who knows? It could be fun.
ASHLEY HAMER: Speaking of cool activities for airports, you've got to check out this game called Anomia spelled, A-N-O-M-I-A which also happens to be today's sponsor.
CODY GOUGH: I'm a gamer and I totally recommend this game. When I say gamer, I mean like, I will play four to six hours strategy board games with friends at actual gaming conventions. But not all my friends are hardcore gamers, including my wife. So I'm always on the lookout for games that use a little brainpower and are fun but don't take two full hours to set up and explain. That's the thing I literally deal with. We tried this game, Anomia, here in the office and I was like, yes.
ASHLEY HAMER: Yeah. I usually do not like board games. But I loved this one. Anomia is pretty engaging because as each player flips over cards, it could be anyone's turn at any time. So you're not just sitting there spacing out waiting for someone to take their turn and wishing you were somewhere else, when it is your turn, you've got to think fast. You might have to name a breakfast cereal or a scientist or a dinosaur.
CODY GOUGH: So that sounds easy, right? But when you're under pressure, there can be some pretty hilarious results, especially, based on our experience playing the game. And new for 2018 is a kids version called Anomia Kids for ages five and up. So there's fun for all ages. Look for Anomia and Anomia Kids-- spelled A-N-O-M-I-A at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and your local toy and game shop. We'll also put a link to buy it in today's show notes.
ASHLEY HAMER: If you feel stuck in your life and don't know what to do or you're just trying to change a habit or deal with a transition, then we've got just the acronym for you. This research-backed method has helped people in a number of studies improve their behavior, and all you need to remember is the word, whoop.
CODY GOUGH: Whoop.
ASHLEY HAMER: Whoop.
CODY GOUGH: Not woo like Ric Flair. Woo. There's a P at the end of this.
ASHLEY HAMER: That's right.
CODY GOUGH: You don't know who Ric Flair is?
ASHLEY HAMER: No, I don't.
CODY GOUGH: It doesn't matter. Keep going.
ASHLEY HAMER: OK. Well, to give you an idea of how effective the WHOOP method can be, here are a few examples of how it's helped participants in different studies. In one study, participants doubled how much they exercised in a four-month period. WHOOP has also helped patients suffering from type II diabetes improve their self care and it increased how diligently high schoolers worked on preparing for standardized tests by 60%. Pretty solid results.
So here's how it works. WHOOP stands for wish, outcome, obstacle, plan. It's a four-step mental strategy for realizing and achieving your wishes or goals. In studies, this method is described as mental contrasting. Basically, this means picturing yourself achieving your goals, then comparing it with where you are in your present life. Doing this helps you identify the obstacles preventing your present life from becoming your dream life. Here's a breakdown of the four steps.
For wish, you identify your wish. Could be a big career goal or just a small personal goal like forming a daily habit. Then for outcome, you identify the best possible outcome of that wish coming true. How would you feel if you could achieve your goal? Then for obstacle, you identify the obstacles keeping you from fulfilling your wish. What's holding you back from your wish and stopping you from getting that outcome?
And finally, for plan, you identify a plan to fulfill your wish. What can you do to start overcoming those obstacles? So let's try the WHOOP method with making your bed every day. You wish you could make your bed every day. The outcome could be that your room would look cleaner and you'd feel more focused during your day.
The obstacles could be that you're too sleepy or too rushed in the morning. And your plan could be to go to bed earlier or do jumping jacks when you wake up, so you're not so sleepy or just wake up earlier, so you're not as rushed. Try the WHOOP method yourself and let us know if it helps.
CODY GOUGH: Read about today's stories and more on curiositydotcom.
ASHLEY HAMER: Join us again tomorrow for the Curiosity Daily, and learn something new in just a few minutes. I'm Ashley Hamer.
CODY GOUGH: And I'm Cody Gough.
ASHLEY HAMER: Stay curious.
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SPEAKER: On the Westwood One Podcast Network.