Author Archives: Kevin Murnane

About Kevin Murnane

I am a cognitive scientist, a freelance writer and author (Nutrition for Cyclists: Eating and Drinking Before, During and After the Ride), a musician (Parametric Monkey - stream on Spotify, Soundcloud and YouTube), a bookstore owner (Monkey Books - first edition mystery, science fiction, fantasy and more, listed on ABE books, Amazon and Biblio), and a retired house painter, children's theater actor & owner, and university professor. I'm also a regular contributor to the technology section at Forbes and I write a cycling blog called Tuned In To Cycling. You can follow me on twitter @TheInfoMonkey and contact me at murnane.kevin@gmail.com.

Jerry Lawson: A video game pioneer

Jerry Lawson was a largely self-taught electrical engineer and video game pioneer who was almost forgotten during his lifetime. His father was a longshoreman who loved to read about science; his mother was uncompromising in her insistence that her son get a … Continue reading

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Baseball: Engaging the audience – Part 2

You want to attract fans? Help them engage with the game. Continue reading

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Twenty-six years of hip-hop in a brilliant infographic

  If all you saw was the image above along with the title – Billboard’s “Hot Rap Songs” Chart (1989-2015) – you’d have no idea what’s waiting at the other end of the link. Hit it and you’ll find that Matthew Daniels at Polygraph … Continue reading

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The toughest bass player on the planet

On February 4th, 1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin sat down together for the first day of the Yalta Conference where they divided up Germany and reconfigured Eastern Europe at the end of World War 2. The … Continue reading

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Taking a closer look at the confidence eyewitnesses have in the accuracy of their memory

The release last week of the Netflix documentary Making of a Murderer has generated renewed interest in the issue of rape convictions that are overturned on the basis of subsequent DNA analysis. In most of these cases, the prosecution’s case rested heavily … Continue reading

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The Sound of Silence

The Sound of Silence by Disturbed https://screen.yahoo.com/sound-silence-155408701.html?format=embed“> This post is for the neon god, Donald Trump. Thanks to Marc Fishman for bringing it to my attention.

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Microsoft takes customer support to another level

  Long wait times. Terrible music and constant reminders about how important your call is while you sit on hold. Listening to people who are hard to understand read from a script. Explaining your problem again and again after being put on hold … Continue reading

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General Mills thinks you’re a dumb ass, or why paying attention to nutrition labels is a good idea

  General Mills is making cereal for all those people who sat in math class and said “Why do we have to learn this stuff? I’ll never use any of it.” And they’re getting sued for it by the people … Continue reading

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Baseball, wheelhouses, and the effects of technological change on language

  If you watch baseball on TV, you’ve almost certainly heard an announcer describe a pitch as being in the batter’s wheelhouse when the pitch is in the area of the strike zone where the batter has the most success … Continue reading

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How virtual reality affects balance

In an earlier article we wondered whether Daredevil has a harder time keeping his balance because he’s blind. Blindness raises questions about balance because human balance rests on the complex interaction of visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive systems. Any problems Daredevil may have … Continue reading

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