At the risk of bringing up a sore subject… From NPR, “How ‘The Hidden Brain’ Does The Thinking For Us”: After making a silly mistake, it’s not uncommon for a person to say, “Oops — I was on autopilot.” In his new book, The Hidden Brain, science writer Shankar Vedantam explains how there’s actually a lot of truth to that. Our brains have two modes, he tells NPR’s Steve Inkseep

…one day we’ll all be asking, “where were you the day the right wing blogosphere lost its collective shit over a self-important nobody named Ellie Light“? Me, I was at home, watching football, doing my best not to act like some political hyena or wannabe investigative journalist. Unlike most everyone else. But then, I’ve never been much of a pack animal, anyway.