BRAINS! Read all my ideas about brains as well as others theories
BRAINS! Read all my ideas about brains as well as others theories
I am without words (ok .. clearly not).... but seriously this is the one and only time where I think PETA might make a worthwhile contribution to eliminating this silly behavior.
That dog really looks unhappy!
If you're really interested in torturing your pet here's the link to the costumes at spoiledrottondoggies.com (yes really).
Read the comments on this post...Seriously, a cat named George is a registered hypnotherapist with three professional organizations in Britain. The article not only presents these organizations as full of shit, it highlights the absolute stupidity of almost all applications of hypnosis.
Here's the details:
Chris Jackson, presenter of Inside Out in the North East and Cumbria, registered pet George with three industry bodies.Each one accepted a certificate from the non-existent Society of Certified Advanced Mind Therapists as proof of George's credentials.
It follows a similar investigation by an American clinical psychologist.
Dr Steve Eichel suspected industry bodies in the US were not running checks on their members.
He said: "I felt I'd test my hypothesis and I did that by getting my cat certified by a number of the most prominent lay hypnosis organisations in the United States. It was a frighteningly simple process."
In the UK, George was registered with the British Board of Neuro Linguistic Programming (BBNLP), the United Fellowship of Hypnotherapists (UFH) and the Professional Hypnotherapy Practitioner Association (PHPA).
Maybe I'll rant about hypnotherapy later if I can get this article resubmitted.
Read the comments on this post...juuuuust kidding.
But someone DID steal the Ig Nobel Prize. Bastards.... Be on the lookout for some funny looking dice mounted on a wooden thing.
Read the comments on this post...juuuuust kidding.
But someone DID steal the Ig Nobel Prize. Bastards.... Be on the lookout for some funny looking dice mounted on a wooden thing.
I've seen a lot of illusions... but this one is really f'n cool:
-via neatorama-
Read the comments on this post...Seriously... well not about the Zombie thing. Maybe if him and his family weren't such assholes people wouldn't do this kind of thing. Well, maybe people shouldn't do this to begin with. Here's the schtick from ESPN:
In "Frozen," Larry Johnson, a former executive at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Ariz., writes that Williams' head, which had been severed and frozen for storage, was abused at the facility. Johnson claims a technician took baseball-like swings at Williams' frozen head with a monkey wrench.
Seriously... look what they did to his head!
Wow, their brains are small. It all makes sense now - all they want to do is eat shit and kill their competitors.
Anyone want to translate the, what I'm assuming, is Japanese for me?
-Via Neatorama-
Read the comments on this post...I've written before about the various ways of telling whether someone is gay by things like their finger length. Now it seems that there is a new way to tell if someone is gay. If you're a guy and you are looking at the top of another guys head who is currently performing oral sex on you - you can be 30% sure if he's gay or not according to this study.
Check out the abstract (I absolutely LOVE the introducing statement):
While most men prefer women as their sexual partners, some are bisexual and others are homosexuals. It has been debated for a long time whether a person's sexual preference is innate, learned, or due to a combination of both causes.
It was recently discovered that the human right-versus-left-hand use preference and the direction of scalp hair-whorl rotation develop from a common genetic mechanism. Such a mechanism controls functional specialization of brain hemispheres. Whether the same mechanism specifying mental makeup influences sexual preference was determined here by comparing hair-whorl rotation in groups enriched with homosexual men with that in males at large. Only a minority of 8.2% (n = 207) unselected 'control' group of males had counterclockwise rotation. In contrast, all three samples enriched with homosexual men exhibited highly significant (P < 0.0001), 3.6-fold excess (29.8%, n = 272) counterclockwise rotation. These results suggest that sexual preference may be influenced in a significant proportion of homosexual men by a biological/genetic factor that also controls direction of hair-whorl rotation.
Now what would this hair swirl exactly look like so you can be an informed citizen? Here's the culprit. Be on the look out for this person who may be homosexual (or more likely not homosexual).
Here's an interesting video from boingboing:
Boing Boing presents a remix of "Synesthesia," a documentary directed by Jonathan Fowler about people whose senses blend, or mix. For instance: a synesthete might see colors when listening to music, or taste flavors when hearing a spoken word.In this documentary, Dr. David Eagleman of Baylor College of Medicine explains this condition, and four synesthetes explain how they perceive the world.
Zombies are attacking Detroit! This is why all of the brains are disappearing out of the city! Check out the picture here's the undeniable evidence:
Not only are the Zombies eating Detroit's brains it sounds like the young folk are escaping and leaving no brains left for the Zombies to eat! Check out this snippet from CNN.com:
Broad numbers are difficult to come by, but nearly a quarter of respondents in a survey for Fusion, the area's young professional association, said they plan on leaving Detroit within the next two years.Among the larger population of 4.6 million people, 63,000 households left the greater Detroit area in 2007 alone, according to Internal Revenue Service numbers supplied by the Urban Studies Department at Wayne State University.
City leaders are well aware of this problem, and are working hard to fix it.
As it turns out, young people generally want the same things other people want out of a city - good jobs, safe streets, stuff to do at night, decent schools, quality healthcare, ample parks, easy public transport. Basically, they want a pleasant life.
Zombies!!!!
Read the comments on this post...
I was reading an article this morning that I found on fark (yeah yeah...) and for once I actually read the comments underneath the main article. I was pretty surprised on the consistency of the attribution errors that the religious folks were making and thought it would be something interesting to share here and get your thoughts.
For the setup here's the (really pretty amazing!) story:
On the hike, Cole started fooling around by walking in the water. It was not incredibly steep, but the water had lots of slippery algae and rocks.To Johnson, it looked dangerous. She pleaded with her boyfriend to get back on dry ground.
"He's one of those daredevil kids, so it (the warning) did not do any good," Johnson said.
Suddenly Cole slipped. For a split second, it seemed OK.
"Then I lost control and could not stop," he said.
He careened about 120 feet, bashing his head on rocks. He stopped, bloody and unconscious, face-down in a pool of water. That was actually a lucky break because he just missed sliding off a tall drop-off.
His second lucky break was the fact his girlfriend of four years is a senior nursing student at the University of Michigan.
Cole was not breathing when she reached him, so she gave him a few "rescue breaths." It worked. Cole coughed and spit water.
Johnson took off her swimming suit to bandage gashes on his head, then carried him down a hill that took them 45 minutes to climb. Most of the way, she said, she cradled him, talked to him and tried to keep him conscious.
"With head injuries, I knew it was important to keep him from going into a coma," she said.
Johnson is athletic -- a state champion hurdler at Grass Lake -- but it defies explanation that she, at 115 pounds, carried a 160-pound man so far.
"She tried picking me up again the other day and could hold me for only a few seconds," Cole said.
"If all the money in the world was placed on it now," she said, "I don't think I could do it again. It was adrenaline and God."
Cole's third piece of luck came at the bottom of the hill. The first people to find them were an intensive-care nurse and an emergency-room nurse.
Now here's the problem, comments praising God all fall into a very similar pattern...
Read the rest of this post... |Hellloooooo Of Two Minds.
On Monday morning Shelley of Retrospectacle and I will be opening up the brand spankin' new blog over in a slightly new location. So come on over and check us out first thing in the morning, a couple hours later, a couple hours after that, and then rinse & repeat. We have some great posts lined up for your reading pleasure.
Bye Bye! See you on Monday in our new location.
Read the comments on this post...
I haven't been blogging lately because Shelley and I have been getting the new blog ready to go public on March 1st. However... I read this crap on CNN and got so irritated that I had to post it.
Evidently CNN feels that people who measure peoples facial features and predict personality characteristics is both legitimate science and worth reporting to the unknowing populace. This is some of the most ridiculous and irresponsible reporting I have ever seen. It's nearly as bad as a reporter writing that mercury in vaccines causes Autism.
Here's the basic gist:
If the "personology" believers had their way, they'd want you to judge every book by its cover. Well, actually, they'd want you to judge every person by his or her facial features. Because practitioners of personology, which is a form of face reading, believe the features on our face tell, literally, the inside story of what kind of person we are.The theory of reading personality traits in facial features dates back to Aristotle.
Nobody is more passionate about this facial fact-finding than the president of Face Language International, Naomi Tickle (her real name). Tickle has devoted her life to the study of personology, and she informs us in a lovely British accent that this is no fleeting New-Age fad.
Ms. Tickle is correct that this is no new age fad. It is a full blown scam that has persisted since the beginning of recorded history. It is as bad as phrenology, hand writing analysis, or anything that measures body features that have no direct influence on personality. Of course if you're morbidly obese and/or horrendously ugly that is going to affect your personality because of the way the public will treat you... but give me a break! This stuff needs to go the way of phrenology and die...quickly. CNN should be ashamed to report this kind of crap.
Well wait up Steve... let's see whether her constructs make any sense. Maybe she has something going?
So what are there traits that Tickle is talking about?Well, for example, she says "Somebody who has very close-set eyes is very good with detail. They don't like being interrupted, and they don't like people being late. They like people to be on time.
"The flip side of that," she adds, "is they can focus on things that aren't working till it becomes bigger than life.
A person with wide-set eyes is much more laid back, she continued. "They are the multi-task people. They're the ones that say, 'Oh I can do this and I can do that and I can do that as well,' and because of this behavior, they have a tendency to run late."
Nope. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. What kind of mechanism could possibly link these things? On the other hand maybe there actually is some evidence.
...the theory goes back much further than the 1920s. In fact, it dates back to Aristotle, who wrote a treatise on physiognomy, or the idea that one's temperament can be discerned from his or her outward features.
This later morphed into an odder head-reading trend known as the criminal head bump indicator, or phrenology. But don't lump (ahem) these items in with personology.Tickle says her method goes by the numbers. "We actually measure the eye to determine the distance," she says. "We measure the width of the eye, and we measure the space between them to see which is the bigger of the two. And so if the eye is bigger than the space between the eyes, this person is very tolerant and very good with details."
She asserts that "thousands and thousands of people" report 100 percent accuracy on the personology analysis.
100% Accuracy and a long history!? Wow! She must be totally right then. Alright first lets throw out the history thing. There was a long history of slave trade and lynching - that's certainly not legitimate. And now for that 100% accuracy. Have any of you scientists encountered any sort of manipulation at all that has given rise to 100% success rate? My toilet doesn't even flush at 100%
So Ms. Tickle and CNN... go away and stop leading poor people on.
Read the comments on this post...I'm supposed to be editing a journal article for submission. It's been sitting on my desk for a long time. I've even finished the experiments for the follow up paper! I really need to stop looking at garbage on the internet - Including this comic defining my exact situation.
Via this place
Read the comments on this post...In the hospital the relatives gathered in the waiting room, where their family member lay gravely ill.Finally, the doctor came in looking tired and somber.
"I'm afraid I'm the bearer of bad news," he said as he surveyed the worried faces."The only hope left for your loved one at this time is a brain transplant. It's an experimental procedure, very risky but it is the only hope. Insurance will cover the procedure, but you will have to pay for the brain yourselves."
The family members sat silent as they absorbed the news. After a great length of time, someone asked, "Well, how much does a brain cost?"
The doctor quickly responded, "$5,000 for a male brain, and $200 for a female brain."
The moment turned awkward. Men in the room tried not to smile, avoiding eye contact with the women, but some actually smirked.
A man unable to control his curiosity, blurted out the question everyone wanted to ask, "Why is the male brain so much more?"
The doctor smiled at the childish innocence and explained to the entire group, "It's just standard pricing procedure. We have to mark down the price of the female brains, ecause they've actually been used."
As Ginny says... har har.... or something like that.
Read the comments on this post...Are you excited?! A new blog! Coming soon!
Watch out! Of Two Minds is going live on March 1st.
Shelley and I are hard at work behind the scenes getting the blog ready to launch. More info coming in the next couple weeks.
Read the comments on this post...To reduce the severity of his seizures, Joe had the bridge between his left and right cerebral hemispheres (the corpus callosum) severed. As a result, his left and right brains no longer communicate through that pathway. Here's what happens as a result:
From The Man With Two Brains.
"God damn your drunk tests are hard!"
"Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing."
- William James, American psychologist and philosopher (1842 - 1910)
-via Neatorama-
Read the comments on this post...Of Two Minds!
Thanks to the a commenter named Speedwell we have a new name for the unholy alliance of Retrospectacle and Omni Brain. He/She will be receiving a Seed subscription, some sciencey books, and some other paraphernalia in the mail (like Sb Stickers). We had many many many wonderful suggestions and we had a hard time picking just one. We almost had to start a bunch of new blogs.
The new blog should be up and running sometime around March 1st. We need to get some banners, create the page, have a powwow on how to take over the world, figure out our first posts, etc etc etc. We'll both be continuing to post on our regular blogs until then so don't worry - we're not really going anywhere.
Here's a wonderful spoof of .. well... I'm not really sure what. Perhaps an old Documentary focusing on the diseases of the mind? In any case it's terribly entertaining.
Check out the newest events at the Exploratorium. They Sound Great!
Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Flow/Optimal Experience Researcher)
Among Renowned Speakers To Appear
Mind Lecture Series Continues
February 2, 9, and 23, 2008
"Flow" (Optimal Experience) researcher Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (February 9) is among the renowned speakers featured in the Exploratorium's continuing Mind Lecture Series in February 2008. The series is presented in conjunction with the opening of Mind, a major new Exploratorium collection, four years in the making, made possible by the National Science Foundation. At the exhibition, visitors experience their own thoughts, feelings and actions in provocative and unexpected ways. Lectures (and the exhibition) are included in the price of admission. Advance lecture reservations are required. To reserve tickets, go to www.ticketweb.com. The Mind Lecture Series schedule for February is as follows:
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Art, Emotion and the Brain
Prize-Winning Documentary War Photographer Smith Patrick and
Assistant Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company Rob Clare
Featured in Panel Discussion Hosted by Pireeni Sundaralingam
McBean Theater, 2pm
How do artists affect our emotions? How do our emotional reactions inform art? Join prize-winning war photographer Smith Patrick, Royal Shakespeare Company director Rob Clare, film composer William Susman, and neuroscientist Pireeni Sundaralingam in a symposium on the mood-altering powers of music, drama, and visual art.
Host Pireeni Sundaralingam likes hiking around on the Nabokovian ridge where "scientific knowledge meets artistic imagination." Educated at Oxford, she has held national fellowships in both cognitive science and poetry, and was the founding director of the Number Perception Laboratory at California State University, Los Angeles.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
The Creative Person and The Creative Context
A Talk with Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
McBean Theater, 2pm
When do you feel creative? Where does creativity come from? From inkling to invention, follow the course of imagination with the foremost authority on positive psychology and flow, Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. He'll review the common traits of creative people and introduce the "Systems Model" of creativity, which describes the types of environments that foster innovation.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is C.S. and D.J. Davidson Professor of Psychology and Management and Director of The Quality of Life Research Center at Claremont Graduate University. He has written several books, including the best-selling Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience and Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. He is a member of the American Academy of Education, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Leisure Sciences.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
21st Century Brain: How Neuroscience is Changing the Way We Shop, Vote, and Pay Taxes With Joshua Freedman -- UCLA Psychiatry Professor
Panel Discussion Hosted by Pireeni Sundaralingam
McBean Theater, 2pm
What makes us choose one beauty product over another, or one presidential candidate over another? How free is our free will in the 21st century? Dr. Joshua Freedman of FKF Applied Research and Hans Lee of EmSense join neuroscientist Pireeni Sundaralingam to examine how retail companies, economic think tanks, and political campaign organizers use neuroscience to change the ways we think and feel.
Host Pireeni Sundaralingam likes hiking around on the Nabokovian ridge where "scientific knowledge meets artistic imagination." Educated at Oxford, she has held national fellowships in both cognitive science and poetry, and was the founding director of the Number Perception Laboratory at California State University, Los Angeles
# # #
Read the comments on this post...Friday February 1st is the final day for you to submit your wonderful ideas for the name of the news ScienceBlogs super blog started by Shelley of Retrospectacle and Steve Higgins of Omni Brain (me!). So get out those thinking caps and submit some great ideas right here.
Here's some guidelines from Shelley:
We're holding a contest to Name That Blog, with the winner receiving a slew of recent science books, a subscription to SEED, and a host of other sciency prizes. Plus my eternal love and adoration! The blog will be general wonderful science stuff with a neuroscience slant, so feel free to be creative as hell with the naming. Leave ideas in the comments here, or email them to me. Since there is a prize please be sure to let me know how to contact you in case you win. Multiple entries are fine! Thanks and good luck!Read the comments on this post...
The Super Bowl is all about chips and dip - so be careful. It could kill you!
If you're a Seinfeld watcher you probably remember this scene:
TIMMY: What are you doing?
GEORGE: What?
TIMMY: Did...did you just double-dip that chip?
GEORGE: Excuse me?
TIMMY: You double-dipped the chip!
GEORGE: "Double-dipped"? What are you talking about?
TIMMY: You dipped the chip. You took a bite.
And you dipped again. GEORGE: So...?
TIMMY: That's like putting your whole mouth right in the dip! From now on, when you take a chip - just take one dip and end it!
GEORGE: Well, I'm sorry, Timmy...but I don't dip that way.
TIMMY: Oh, you don't, huh?
GEORGE: No.
You dip the way you want to dip... I'll dip the way I want to dip. TIMMY: Gimme the chip!
Gimme the chip!
And the video:
Timmy is clearly onto something with this. According to research by Judith Trevino, Brad Ballieu, Rachel Yost, Samantha Danna, Genevieve Harris, Jacklyn Dejonckheere , Danielle Dimitroff, Mark Philips from the Deptartment of Food Science & Human Nutrition at Clemson University, "Double-dipping does transfer bacteria: George was wrong!"
I'm imagining doing this experiment right now and giggling to myself. Basically the bacteria levels of each students mouth were measured and then
Each student in the CI team conducted four treatments. For the dipping treatments, a cracker was bitten, dipped in the sterile water then discarded (Figure 1). The control treatments consisted of dipping a cracker without biting. The four treatments were: 3 dips without biting, 6 dips without biting, 3 dips with biting, and 6 dips with biting.After all the dipping and letting stuff sit around for a while they measured the bacteria levels in the sterile water.
Unsurprisingly they found that
For the "double dipping" experiment, a higher population of bacteria ( P?0.05)was found in solutions dipped with crackers after biting compared to solutions dipped without biting (Figure 3). There was no difference between the 3 and 6 dips (P>0.05) as far a bacteria transferred to the dipping solution. Bacterial populations found in the solution after crackers were dipped without biting were less than 10 cfu per ml of the dipping solution. The results of our research proved that bacteria can be transferred from the mouth to the dip.
If you're interested in more details you can Download the poster right here.
Have a happy and healthy Super Bowl - don't forget to only dip once!
HT:Brian L
Read the comments on this post...I started Omni Brain over two years ago on Blogger and eventually gained a number of co-bloggers that have come and gone, most notably Sandra. About a year ago we were invited to blog at ScienceBlogs which is really the ideal place to be for a science blogger. I've had a great run here on Omni Brain but I believe it is time to move on to bigger and better things. So a couple weeks from now a new blog is going to appear - a super blog ;)
Shelley Batts from Retrospectacle is going to join me in this wonderful new adventure in blogging. We'll still be here at ScienceBlogs but just under a new name. But that's actually the catch - We need a new name! Which is where you come in...
In the words of Shelley:
We're holding a contest to Name That Blog, with the winner receiving a slew of recent science books, a subscription to SEED, and a host of other sciency prizes. Plus my eternal love and adoration! The blog will be general wonderful science stuff with a neuroscience slant, so feel free to be creative as hell with the naming. Leave ideas in the comments here, or email them to me. Since there is a prize please be sure to let me know how to contact you in case you win. Multiple entries are fine! Thanks and good luck!
Any good ideas?
Read the comments on this post...Do it! In the address book: 4971 9184 7926 5393
We can share Mii's and stuff!
Read the comments on this post...Reading Thoughts by RadioCan thoughts be read by radio? "Madam Radora" seems to prove that they can. Madam is not a human being, but a life-size automaton shown at the Permanent Radio Fair in New York. Her "thoughts" and movements are controlled entirely by wireless; no wires of any kind are attached to the table whereon she rests, and a liberal reward is promised the person who can prove that this is not true. Persons desiring to ask questions simply stand before "Madam Radora" with their hands resting on a special pedestal carrying a number of electrical contacts. Radora then bends over her crystal, and answers the questions put to her in a clear, feminine voice.
So what do you guys think this is? What exactly is going on?
Read the comments on this post...If I only had a brain:
According to this highly intelligible comment from YouTube this song was featured on Beavis and Butthead - surprise surprise!
Read the comments on this post...
DaDrizzL31214 (2 weeks ago)
On Beavis and Butthead, they were waatching this vid and Beavis started going with the tune for the whole song. He wouldn't shut the hell up even after Butthead smacked him upside his head a couple of times. Lol then Butthead started doing the same at the end. XD
For all of you Illusion Junkies out there:
**** THE FOURTH ANNUAL BEST VISUAL ILLUSION OF THE YEAR CONTEST**** http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com*** We are happy to announce the world's 4th Annual Best Visual Illusion of
the Year Contest!!*** The deadline for illusion submissions is February
15th, 2008!The 2008 contest will be hosted by Stuart Anstis and held in Naples, Florida
(Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts, http://www.thephil.org) on Sunday,
May 11th, 2008, during the week of the Vision Sciences Society conference
(VSS). The Naples Philharmonic Center is an 8-minute walk from the main VSS
headquarters hotel in Naples, and is thus central to the VSS conference.The 2007 annual contest, held in Sarasota, Florida, drew numerous accolades
from attendees and international media coverage, as well as over *** ONE
MILLION*** website hits from viewers all over the world. The First, Second
and Third Prize winners were Frederick Kingdom, Ali Yoonessi and Elena
Gheorghiu (McGill University, Canada), Pietro Guardini and Luciano Gamberini
(University of Padova, Italy), and Arthur Shapiro and Emily Knight (Bucknell
University, USA). To see the illusions, photo galleries and other highlights
from the 2007 contest, go to http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.comVisual Illusion Contestants are invited to submit novel visual or multimodal
illusions (unpublished, or published no earlier than 2007) in standard
image, movie or html formats. An international panel of impartial judges
will rate the submissions and narrow them to the TOP TEN. Then, at the
Contest Gala in Naples, the TOP TEN illusionists will present their
contributions and the attendees of the event (that means you!) will vote to
pick the TOP THREE WINNERS!The renowned sculptor and artist, Guido Moretti, has created three amazing
works of art to serve as trophies for the TOP THREE winners!See the trophies at:
http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_
user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=98&MMN_position=41:41Illusions submitted to previous editions of the contest can be re-submitted
to the 2008 contest, as long as they meet the above requirements and were
not among the top three winners in previous years.Submissions will be held in strict confidence by the panel of judges and the
authors/creators will retain full copyright. No illusions will be posted on
the illusion contest's website without the creators' explicit permission. As
with submitting your work to any scientific conference, participating in the
Best Illusion of the Year Contest does not preclude you from also submitting
your work for publication elsewhere.Submissions can be made to Dr. Susana Martinez-Conde (Illusion Contest
Coordinator, Neural Correlate Society) via email (smart@neuralcorrelate.com)
until February 15, 2008. Illusion submissions should come with a (no more
than) one-page description of the illusion and its theoretical underpinnings
(if known). Illusions will be rated according to:* Significance to our understanding of the visual system
* Simplicity of the description
* Sheer beauty
* Counterintuitive quality
* SpectacularityVisit the illusion contest website for further information and to see last
year's illusions: http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.comSubmit your ideas now and take home this prestigious award!
I'll actually be at this conference this year so perhaps I can live blog the awards :)
Read the comments on this post...Check out this fark photoshop contest using neurons. Here's one of my favorites:
I'm sure it's a rough life being a clown, you know... driving a clown car with 18 other passengers in the driver seat alone, walking and tripping around with those really big shoes, and hours of makeup application. But their job is about to get a lot harder, a new study in a nursing journal shows that kids are terrified of clowns.
A poll by researchers looking at what decor to put in hospital children's wards found that youngsters do not like clowns on the walls and even older ones think they are scary."We found that clowns are universally disliked by children. Some found them quite frightening and unknowable," said Penny Curtis, senior researcher at the University of Sheffield which questioned 250 children aged between four and 16.
But their findings, published in a nursing magazine on Wednesday, has put the red noses of the clowning community out of joint.
In a deluge of emails to Reuters, they say they misrepresent just how popular they really are.
I'm with the survey participants - keep those clowns away from me! Creeeepy. If you're freaked out by clowns you might want to head over to ihateclowns.com.
Read the comments on this post...Ahh.... an animated brain on drugs - how could it get any better?!
Just a short note via Sports Illustrated:
Georgia football legend Herschel Walker is expected to reveal in an upcoming book that he has multiple personalities -- a revelation that surprises the man who coached the 1982 Heisman Trophy winner.
...
"Breaking Free" will chronicle Walker's life with multiple personality disorder, according to Shida Carr, the book's publicist at Simon & Schuster.Carr said the book will be published in August, but gave no other details and declined to provide excerpts.
I wonder whether this developed after football? I'm curious to see the book when it comes out. Of course many in the mental health field don't buy dissociative personality disorder. But we'll give Herschel Walker a pass since he did win the Heisman Trophy.
Read the comments on this post...According to Nicholas Epley from the University of Chicago:
"Biological reproduction is not a very efficient way to alleviate one's loneliness, but you can make up people when you're motivated to do so," said Nicholas Epley, Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. "When people lack a sense of connection with other people, they are more likely to see their pets, gadgets or gods as human-like."
In his experiments he showed that the lonelier a person was the more likely they were to believe in supernatural entities such as God, angels, etc. They were also more likely to attribute human characteristics to their pets, such as thoughfulness or compassion. This effect seems to be specific to feelings of loneliness, not just any negative state. For example fear did not produce similar patterns of results.
So what's this all about?!
Loneliness is both painful to experience and potentially deadly. "It's actually a greater risk for morbidity or mortality than cigarette smoking is. Being lonely is a bad thing for you," he said.But anthropomorphizing pets or God may actually confer many of the same psychological and physical benefits that come from connections with other people. The same benefits may not apply to gadgets, which were a component of Epley's studies.
"Non-human connections can be very powerful," Epley said. "A brain's not so sensitive to whether it's a person or not. If it's something that has a lot of traits associated with what it means to be a human, then all the better for us, it seems."
The study also provides insight into the flip side of anthropomorphism: dehumanization. People who enjoy a strong sense of social connection are less likely to perceive humanlike mental states in people who seem different from them. Classic examples occur during times of war, during which a strong sense of nationalism or group identity tend to emerge.
"It may be that strong in-group identity is one of the things that facilitates dehumanizing the opposing side," Epley said.
-Via EurekAlert-
Read the comments on this post...Don't play any of the embedded videos if you've ever had a seizure.
Now that we're done with the warning...
We've all heard of the Pokemon incident in Japan where nearly 700 school aged children were admitted to the hospital with "convulsions, vomiting, irritated eyes and other symptoms" common to epilepsy. This lead to a number of government investigations and media companies searching their offerings to determine whether any of their shows had similar scenes that might induce photosensitive epilepsy. According to a CNN report of the incidents:
Dr. Yukio Fukuyama, a juvenile epilepsy expert, said that "television epilepsy" can be triggered by flashing, colorful lights. Though the phenomenon was observed before television, photosensitive epilepsy, as it is also called, has become far more common as TV has spread. The same symptoms have also been observed in children playing video games.
It is relatively rare for epileptics to be the photosensitive type, and according to Wikipedia only between three and five percent of epileptics are of the photosensitive type. In the general population only about two people per 10,000 are epileptic. Epilepsy peaks in puberty, so it is relatively rare for adults to present with epilepsy, especially photosensitive epilepsy. So if you are an adult with no history of epilepsy you'll probably be safe watching the famous Pokemon Epilepsy Episode. If you're a teen, perhaps you should watch this with a parent. After all you're better off knowing if you have photosensitive epilepsy in a safe environment with a caretaker. You don't want to be walking down the street and then suddenly wake up in a hospital with your head busted open (It happened to a friend of mine - so I know it's possible!)
As soon as I heard about this effect back in college I went looking for the video but YouTube just wasn't available then so I had to wait until recently to see the Pokemon Epilepsy Episode. So here it is:
In addition to Pokemon there have been a number of other incidents on TV, Dragonball Z as well as a London Olympics 2012 ad campaign have been reported to have caused a number of seizures. Of course there a number of things that can induce seizure in people, annoying spouses, mother-in-laws (kidding about those I hope), and of course seizures can occur for no reason many many times a day. Now there is one more way to induce a seizure for one woman. The song Temperature by Sean Paul has been reported to induce seizures in a Canadian woman. Before I we continue with the story here's the song we're talking about (Warning: If you don't like crappy music you should probably not listen to this!)
-Via Modern Mechanix-
Or course you could always get a pair of 0.50$ ear plugs, but hey if you've got the money ;)
Read the comments on this post...This has to be the coolest face out of art I've ever seen.
-Via Neatorama-
Read the comments on this post...
The memory-evaluation study, headed by Dr. Franklin McCarroll of New York University's School of Psychology, revealed that approximately 47 percent of Jenkins' hippocampus is dedicated to storing notable video-game victories and frustrating last-minute defeats, while 32 percent of his amygdala contains embedded neurological scripts pertaining to game strategies, character back stories, theme songs, and cheat codes. In addition, his entire dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is devoted to remembering the time he did a helicopter dunk from half-court with Shawn Kemp at the buzzer to beat the Charlotte Hornets 82-81 in NBA Jam: Tournament Edition.
Amazing huh? Too bad it's not true since it's from The Onion. However, they might be onto something... As a recent post at Mind Hacks reports London Taxi drivers had larger Hippocampi the longer they were on the job. So the question is, do video game players who play first person shooters have larger hippocampi than those who play sports games?
Read the comments on this post...This is a good collection of illusions, some of which I haven't seen before. I'm not so sure why they had to include a stupidtramp sound track though.
Here's another collection with some overlap and a techno soundtrack:
Unsurprisingly the James Randi Educational Foundation has had a problem giving away their million dollar prize to someone who could demonstrate scientifically under controlled circumstances that they could perform some sort of paranormal ability. They aren't even that specific on what kind of paranormal ability it has to be. It could be ESP, telekinesis, talking to ghosts, oh hell even showing the existence of a ghost - no talking needed. Many have stepped up, usually confused individuals, but none have been able to claim the prize. For some strange reason no big name has stepped up to try their luck. Hmm... weird! It's almost as if they didn't want their abilities to be disproved since they make their money from lying to people.. hmpf...
In any case, since this cool 1,000,000 dollars is just sitting around not doing anything (or even have the chance to ever do anything) for the James Randi Foundation they decided to discontinue the challenge to free the money for more worthwhile pursuits. Here's the details:
As of March 6th, 2010 - twelve years after the challenge was first offered - it will be.The James Randi Educational Foundation Million-Dollar Challenge will be discontinued 24 months from this coming March 6th, and those prize funds will then be available to generally add to our flexibility. This move will free us to do many more projects, which will be announced at that time.
This means that all those wishing to be claimants are required to get their applications in before the deadline, properly filled out and notarized as described in the published rules.
Now, we're sure that there will be those who will offer all kinds of objections to this decision - though they could have simply applied and won the prize. There will be accusations that the JREF is concerned about the safety of the prize money - which was never any sort of concern, I can assure you - and there will be more claims that the money was never there in the first place. I can see the professionals out there sighing in relief that they no longer have to answer questions about why they won't take the prize, and they'll just wait out the remaining period that the prize is available. All that's to be expected.
Ten years is long enough to wait. The hundreds of poorly-constructed applications, and the endless hours of phone, e-mail, and in-person discussions we've had to suffer through, will be things of the past, for us at the JREF.
Those who believe they have mystic powers now have two full years to apply... Let's see what happens.
So don't worry! You still have a full two years to waste the foundations time showing them you're amazing! paranormal abilities.
-via boingboing-
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It's a new year, bringing new changes. I've decided to quit Omni Brain and move on to less important things, like creating baffling and somewhat offensive art and writing more books that I won't want anyone to read. It's been fun to be here, though. I'm grateful to Steve for being a terrific co-blogger, thankful to ScienceBlogs for hosting, and am glad we've all shared lots of laughs.
There's been plenty of silliness and also some seriousness. On pondering what to write in a farewell post, it seems appropriate to share a piece of writing I never really knew what to do with. It exposes the fragmented angles comprising the mental health field. So un-funny that it's absurdly funny; none of the factions involved would publish it and concede to some of the other points of view. Grey in a B&W world is near invisible.
Thanks for the lolz! Bye!
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...Some scientists seem to think so. Check out this comparison between a sagittal section of a brain and this piece of art:
Partly as a joke to entertain sceptical colleagues, he and the team went on a brain trawl, and found many other examples. The team is convinced the artists were fascinated by the scientific discoveries being made by anatomists, but their theories had to be concealed in the imagery of their paintings, particularly when their clients were so often senior clergy who might see their scientific interests as blasphemous or even heretical, an offence punishable by death. The study, Brain imaging in the Renaissance, features in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
I'm not sure if I buy their explanation but hey it's pretty cool either way.
-Via Mind Hacks-
Read the comments on this post..."A thrilling documentary covering the origins and troubles surrounding the severe disease, Brain Freeze [a.k.a. Iceberger's Syndrome]." Link.
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The mind is a complicated and a still very much unknown entity. The earliest conceptions of the mind didn't even have it placed in the brain, instead it was very much separate from the body. More recently some philosophers have declared that it is an emergent property of the brain and that it is not the sum of its biological parts. This is of course all very silly, the only possibility is that the mind wholly and completely resides in the neural system and that system is responsible for every aspect of the mind, from perception, to language, and even for experiencing the presence of a higher power.
With all of these misperceptions of the mind it isn't surprising that people could think that this emergent mind of ours could interact with other minds, so much so that they could actually communicate with each other. Among all of the psychic phenomena Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) has had the longest and most fruitful history of experimentation, so successful in fact that a number of psychology departments have divisions or faculty members studying this phenomena as well as the military and CIA spending millions of dollars training psychic spies during the cold war. This was also the job of the Ghost Busters before they got fired from their academic positions and entered the ghost extermination business. Some of these researchers (not just in the movies) even have evidence to 'prove' that ESP exists!
The most common method to study ESP is by using a Ganzfeld experiment. This experiment usually consists of placing half of a ping pong ball over each eye and shining a colored light onto it in order to create a single color visual field which essentially deprives the subject of useful vision (note that this is different than making a room dark since the eyes/brain are actually being stimulated). Pink or White noise is also played to the ESP receiving subject to accomplish the same goal as the visual noise - to put them in a state of isolation, readying them to receive psychic messages. Once this person is in the correct receiving state a person in another room will be given an image and asked to mentally transmit it to the receiver. This might go a little something like this:
Clearly Billy Murray isn't using proper experimental protocols but you get the point ;)
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After reading well over 400 blog submissions for the second edition of the "Open Laboratory" the judges have finally whittled the list to the best 51 to be included in the book. Surprisingly, one of the Omni Brain posts has made it into the anthology - I think perhaps one of the only serious blog posts I've written this year.
The winning list has a great variety of wonderful posts from a great variety of blogs, some of which I have never heard of. So head over to A Blog Around The Clock for the winning list and links to all of the great articles.
Read the comments on this post...This is one odd video. This French Orangina TV ad has furries wearing kinky lingerie and an octopus giving a lap dance to a bear.
Check it out:
I guess I shouldn't be surprised after this previous post about a French set of ads on safe sex practices.
-Via BoingBoing-
Brain Candy, a film by Toronto's sketch comedy troupe Kids in the Hall, is a satirical take on drug development. A scientist creates an antidepressant (Gleemonex) that evokes the happiest memory of the consumer, recreating that joy in the present. Gleemonex becomes a big success, until it all goes horribly wrong... a very funny film.
Here's a holiday-related clip in which the first test subject takes the drug. We see the capsule enter her system after she swallows it, then the drug reaches her brain and takes effect. Her happiest memory is a Christmas visit from her son and his family. "Sorry we're a few hours late, Ma, you know how the kids hate old people."
Read the comments on this post...Title: Brain Juice.
Year: 1996-1997
Summary: A Brain comes to life and tries to take over the world through cable access TV.
And obviously made in Canada ;)
Weird eh?!
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"Why do those holiday tunes get stuck in your head so much?" I was invited to pose this question to Dr. Robert Zatorre, Co-Director of the BRAMS: Brain Music and Sound lab at the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University. Dr. Zatorre is a leading expert in neuroscience research on the biological foundations of music. If anyone is able to explain why Jingle Bell Rock is haunting me, it's him.
Commonly known as earworms, some songs repeat in our mind. They are "typically annoying," said Dr. Zatorre. We often can't control it, the sounds won't go away, and they loop, repeating a refrain or short segment of music. I asked if earworms are related to symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder and he said they are "maybe a mild form of obsessive thoughts" since they are intrusive, but everyone experiences them.
The auditory cortex is extremely efficient, he explained. In neuroimaging studies (like this one) he discovered that the same regions of the brain are active when you experience external sound as in imagining music. He theorizes that with intrusive imagined music, the auditory cortex is hyper-excited and "goes off on its own."
I asked why it's so easy to remember a song even we haven't heard it for a long time: it's the way it's encoded, and the context. "We know from psychology experiments that the more information, the more it sticks around," he said.
In pre-literate cultures, bards shared knowledge through songs, which may have been an evolutionary advantage (despite Stephen Pinker's claim that music is "auditory cheesecake" - in a 2007 Science article Zatorre was quoted as saying, "Pinker has served as a useful foil" for music biology researchers). He explained that trying to remember a list of 12 words on their own is difficult, but if he put them into a weird story then set it to music they're far easier to recall. It links one piece of information to another. As well, lyrics are easier to remember than regular speech because they are more poetic and rhythmic. He said that "may be the reason songs get stuck in your head: they are hard to forget, and also hard to suppress."
But if you don't want to think about Rudolph's shiny nose, "dashing through the snow" or you can't get Kylie Minogue's voice out of your head, Dr. Zatorre offers some advice. Substitute another song, but don't just listen to it, "active engage in other musical activity. It's much better to sing or play an instrument, since it's using more of that circuitry." Even with mashups and multitasking, you can't have more than one earworm in your mind simultaneously.
Still, beware Frosty the Snowman - he'll be back again one day.
Read the comments on this post...Why Duck and Cover of course! Check out this great video from the cold war:
The answer is a resounding sorta. Scientists at Harvard have done that calculations and found that "the aerodynamics of a flexible, rippling sheet moving through a fluid" ... should make it "possible to make one that will stay aloft in air." However,
No such carpet is going to ferry people around, though. The researchers say that to stay afloat in air, a sheet measuring about 10 centimetres long and 0.1 millimetres thick would need to vibrate at about 10 hertz with an amplitude of about 0.25 millimetres. Making a heavier carpet 'fly' is not forbidden by the laws of physics. But the researchers say that their "computations and scaling laws suggest it will remain in the magical, mystical and virtual realm", as the engine driving the necessary vibrations would need to be so powerful.
How about those hover boards from Back to the Future then? I want one of those!
I've entitled this illusion 'The Purple Nurple' Exciting eh? I haven't actually seen this particular one before today so I thought I'd throw it up.... so here it is:
Celebrate with Omni Brain today - It's a Festivus for the rest of us!
What are your feats of strength going to be this year?
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I've been using google reader for a while now and I figured I'd explore its many options today. There is a neat little feature that allows me to share what I'm reading with other people. So if you'd like to keep up with what I'm reading on the feeds you can check it out on the sidebar right here on Omni Brain, or you can go here or subscribe to the feed here.
If you'd like you can add me as a friend and share what you're reading as well! My email address is j.stephen.higgins-at-gmail-dot-com
Enjoy and let me know what you think!
And don't forget to visit the Omni Brain City!
Read the comments on this post...Since you've all been clamouring to see it, here's my new tattoo, and a video clip of the work in progress. It's an intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cell, my favourite type of neuron. The artist was Gordon at Brain Drops, highly recommended. :)
Enjoy your holidays!
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Fortune has announced the year's 101 Dumbest Moments in Business, including Prozac for dogs.
Thank God. We've been so worried since Lucky dyed his hair jet black and started listening to the Smiths.Eli Lilly wins FDA approval to put Prozac into chewable, beef-flavored pills to treat separation anxiety in dogs.
It's not just dogs - cats are treated with SSRI antidepressants, along with psychotherapy. If treatment fails to calm behaviour, the next step is neutering. Imagine that veterinary approach integrating with current practices for humans. Patients who have trouble with adhering to prescribed meds might become more motivated in that scenario.
"I asked ''The feline Freud' Carole Wilbourn to ask: if Prozac might not the answer for [difficult cats], what about psychotherapy?She pointed out that dogs with OCD respond very well to Prozac [as do humans with OCD], and sometimes owners mistake changes as negative side effects when in fact things like slackened muscles and a trance-like appearance are signs the cat is relaxing. And just as some humans become more agitated and suicidal from SSRIs, animals can turn more aggressive.
Also as in humans, drugs aren't the whole answer. "Sometimes drugs can work but I'd rather start on a behavioral program," said Wilbourne.
Via Mind Hacks
Read more about Carole Wilbourne's work
Also read the funny Barking at Prozac, with dogs speaking on their unique experiences with meds.
The Onion shares news of a drug designed to alleviate distrust of drug manufacturers.
"Out of a test group of 180, 172 study participants reported a dramatic rise in their passion for pharmaceutical companies," said Pfizer director of clinical research Suzanne Frost. "And 167 asked their doctors about a variety of prescription medications they had seen on TV."Frost said a small percentage of test subjects showed an interest in becoming lobbyists for one of the top five pharmaceutical companies, and several browsed eBay for drug-company apparel.
PharmAmorin, available in 100-, 200-, and 400-mg tablets, is classified as a critical-thinking inhibitor, a family of drugs that holds great promise for the estimated 20 million Americans who suffer from Free-Thinking Disorder.
Pfizer will also promote PharmAmorin in an aggressive, $34.6 million print and televised ad campaign.
One TV ad, set to debut during next Sunday's 60 Minutes telecast, shows a woman relaxing in her living room and reading a newspaper headlined "Newest Drug Company Scandal Undermines Public Trust." The camera zooms into the tangled neural matter of her brain, revealing a sticky black substance and a purplish gas. The narrator says, "She may show no symptoms, but in her brain, irrational fear and dislike of global pharmaceutical manufacturers is overwhelming her very peace of mind." After a brief summary of PharmAmorin's benefits, the commercial concludes with the woman flying a kite across a sunny green meadow, the Pfizer headquarters gleaming in the background.
It'll soon be available over the counter.
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There are many brain fitness software products available these days so when I was offered a copy of Core Learning's program Mind Builder, I agreed to check it out. It offers a series of test questions similar to America's SAT, while Mind Builder Pro is a fuller package that also incorporates IQ, career and aptitude tests intended to be "fun mental exercises." Unlike some similarly-marketed software there were no unproven claims of preventing age-related cognitive decline or improving processing speed. There were vague promises like "get smart, stay smart" and "build brain power" - whatever that means - but it's just a package from a company specializing in educational software that encourages (older) kids and adults to challenge themselves with established types of tests.
If questions that combine multiple anagrams with Raven's progressive matrices and grammar aren't hard enough for you, there are options to divert attention and make it more difficult. Some people would probably find a ticking clock annoying, but to me it was like a metronome and I found myself mentally practicing old piano lessons while I attempted pattern recognition. I'm not sure if this helped my scores or not, but it was kind of fun. Or maybe I was just bored.
Other "distracting sounds" included a car horn, crying baby, airplane takeoff, whistles, alarms and such, all of which were definitely irritating. Your mileage may vary, of course. A loud vacuum and car alarm going off while I try to solve hateful math problems is fairly (artificially) stressful. Maybe if I was talking to a creditor on the phone at the same time it'd be worse - but at least I wouldn't have to worry about the bill for this software, priced under $40. [Disclosure: my review copy was free.]
I do have complaints: the program wouldn't run in separate windows, instead dominating my screen until I shut it down. I couldn't find a way to turn off all the sounds completely, which is a pretty serious flaw. Finally, it has a very heavy emphasis on math, which is not to my taste. But if you enjoy brain teasers and do like math problems, give it a try.
Read the comments on this post...I always joke around that I would make the worst therapist since my 'therapy' would consist of something like this:
Surprisingly (well maybe not that surprisingly since the internet appeared) this method seems to be practiced somewhere seriously. The Kadir-Buxton Method involves:
making a fist of both hands, and striking both ears of the patient at exactly the same time and pressure with the soft part of the inner hand which is where the thumb joins the hand.
So let me get this straight... I hit someone hard in the head and it cures things like: Manic depression, eating disorders, pedophilia, drug addiction, and manic depression.
Not surprisingly,
You will find that the Kadir-Buxton Method is also effective against comas and senility, amongst other things. I am hoping that Medical Professionals across Europe will evaluate and bring into use the biggest breakthrough in Medicine since my invention Microsurgery. I am having a hard time getting the Kadir-Buxton Method used in the UK because it would cut down the number of professionals that are needed at present, and of course, cut the amount of expensive drugs that drug companies sell at present. I intend to shut down all Mental Health Wards, and pass on the patients to trained nurses in local surgeries, and would like the money saved to be spent on Health and Education. According to the magazine Ecologist the savings would be £100 billion per year.
Be careful in your application of this method because each disorder requires you to hit the patient a specific number of times. Head over to this wonderful mental health resource to find out how you can practice this amazing new method.
-via Improbable Research-
Read the comments on this post...Help us increase the population and build by visiting our new city.
Read the comments on this post...In a parody of Make Magazine projects, Austrian group Monochrom demonstrate how to create a brain computer interface, a.k.a. braicin, using household materials like duct tape, old ice skates, a vintage calculator, and onions in alcohol ("preferably Romanian"). Via Boing Boing TV. Link to extended director's uncut version (shown here).
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December 13 is my birthday! Yippee, you say, how old am I? Old enough to not say... I will shamelessly mention the Amazon wish list linked from my contact page, and remind you that Omni Brain has a tip jar in the sidebar (shared with Steve). But I'm not desperate for anything and there are plenty of deserving charities who need your money (I recommend UNIFEM). I'm thankful they are helping people in a more direct way than I can.
Anyway. I'm celebrating aging with a new tattoo, and am very excited about it! I've been interested in intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs). These cells are sensitive to light but nonvisual, connect directly to the lateral geniculate nucleus and express melanopsin, which helps regulate chronobiology. They were only discovered a few years back. Bora could tell you a lot more about them, but here's a good overview from Brown that includes a sound recording.
Another article: Melanopsin-expressing ganglion cells in primate retina signal colour and irradiance and project to the LGN., Dennis et al., Letter to Nature, 2004. A drawing in Figure 3 is what I'm getting inked on my shoulder.
Hey, it was either that or Hello Kitty.
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Every one of us in acadaemia has had our fair share of blathering idiots come into our labs to work. I just wish I could write a letter like this. It's a shame that the letter is not actually going to go out. Ohhhh well.... check it out:
Dear Admissions Committee,Mr. Bronze Malheur has asked me to write a letter in support of his application to your graduate program. I am dumbfounded: not only am I astonished that he has asked me to write this letter, but also that he has any intention of going to graduate school or that he believes he could possibly be successful.
I met Mr. Malheur when he was a student in my statistics class. He distinguished himself by rarely coming to class and earning a C-. He ranked in the lower half of the class. He then began following me around like a puppy, and, for lack of anything else to do with him, I permitted him to perform menial tasks in my lab.
As a laboratory assistant, he was obnoxious and unreliable. On those rare occasions when I permitted him to collect data, the data were flawed and had to be discarded. He was incapable of being on time for anything, and consistently put his research responsibilities dead last on his list of priorities. He was always very sorry for his mistakes and lapses in judgment, and was very careful to telephone me to apologize at length and make excuses for himself. I know more about this student's personal life than I do about my sister's, and none of it makes for very pleasant reading.
On top of everything else, he is not a very pleasant person to be around. He is a groveling toady, a sycophant. Within a few hours of meeting him, his hollow flattery will chafe like a sandpaper thong. His sartorial decisions leave much to be desired and little to the imagination. The underside of his hairy belly haunts my dreams. He also experiences frequent flatulence; if you admit him to your program I recommend that you stock up on Oust. If your research involves human subjects, under no circumstances should Mr. Malheur be permitted to have contact with them.
In sum, I can think of no one with a college diploma less qualified for graduate work than Mr. Malheur. I suggest you burn his application materials and return his application fee. If you admit him to your program, you will curse the day you were born.
Sincerely,
Angry Professor
Well... it looks like ScienceBlogs is now in German - I really wish I could read it! I'm sure it's very interesting though. So now that we've taken over Germany who should be our next conquest be for global domination? We're attempting to take over the world one language at a time. Head over to the official Sb's blog, 3.14 to weigh in on the next language.
A Photographic Exhibition from
Pioneering Psychologist
Paul Ekman
The Search for Universals in Human Emotion
Ekman is One of the Most Influential Psychologists of the 20th CenturyAt the Exploratorium January 22-April 27, 2008
The Exploratorium presents a photographic exhibition, The Search for Universals in Human Emotion, from the internationally acclaimed psychologist Paul Ekman, celebrating the fortieth anniversary of his influential work with the isolated South Fore people of New Guinea. Ekman was named by the American Psychological Association as one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century. His research and photographic study of human facial expressions has had a powerful impact on researchers' understanding of both our emotions and our evolutionary history. In addition to the exhibition, Paul Ekman presents a live presentation on his work in the Exploratorium's McBean Theater on Saturday, January 26th, 2008 at 2pm. Both the presentation and the exhibition are presented in conjunction with the Exploratorium's new Mind collection, and are included in the price of admission to the Exploratorium. Reservations to the talk are required; please call (415) 674-2870.
Beginning in 1967, Ekman and his colleagues visited the isolated New Guinea highlands to study the South Fore people, an indigenous tribe with whom the developed world had only recently made contact. These expeditions focused on establishing whether the facial expressions associated with key emotions (smiling for happiness, scowling for anger, etc.) are biologically determined or learned through culture and imitation.
The former view, of a set of innate human expressions shaped by evolution, was advanced by Charles Darwin in 1872's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. This argument would be supported by evidence that widely-separated groups of people shared the facial expressions associated with common emotional experiences. However, another view held that such facial expressions were learned rather than innate, implying that different cultures could develop and transmit different sets of emotion-specific facial expressions.
Ekman's team found that the Fore's facial expressions for happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, anger, and disgust were strikingly similar to those found in other cultures. For example, when asked to imitate the expressions associated with meeting an old friend or stumbling upon a decaying animal, they showed the same patterns of eye and mouth muscle movements seen in Westerners under similar circumstances. The fact that the Fore showed these facial "universals" despite little contact with representatives of other cultures (or modern popular media) strongly suggested that Darwin's view of innate expressions was correct.
Ekman's findings formed the basis of a series of influential books and articles that gave new direction to the study of human emotions. His study of the complexities of facial expressions also revealed humans' understanding of the links between facial expressions and deception, information that has lately been of interest to such agencies as the Department for Homeland Security.
I wish I was going to be in town for this one!
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After all, nearly every aspect of our continued existence relies on science, from climate control, to curing existing diseases and preventing new ones. New advances rely on a great deal of funding from the federal government and support from the public at large. Why is it that at best science is an ignored industry when candidates are running for office? The only time science is brought up is in reaction to public religious pressure (stem cell debate) or corporate pressure (global warming).
Maybe Al Gore screwed us! He was one of the only candidates ever to talk openly about and support science. Maybe since he never made it into office people think its a bad idea? In reality though, we've been living under a fundamentalist anti-science administration for the last 8ish years. Researchers have been moving over seas to do important stem cell research, climate science has been directly manipulated by the Bush administration, and researchers in all fields have had tremendous difficulty attaining grants from federal funding sources. It's time to fix this stone age of science funding the Bush administration has knocked us into.
To remedy this problem the science community has gathered together to demand the 2008 presidential candidates publicly debate about science.
Science Debate 2008 is a grassroots initiative spearheaded by a growing number of scientists and other concerned citizens. The signatories to our "Call for a Presidential Debate on Science & Technology" include Nobel laureates and other leading scientists, presidents of Universities, congresspersons of both major political parties, business leaders, religious leaders, former presidential science advisors, the editors of America's major science journals, writers, and the current and several past presidents of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, among many others.
Support this great cause by visiting their webpage and pledging you support.
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Yeah you heard me right... there is no good reason why Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, or any of the other tabloid celebs are so payed attention to. They contribute nothing to society - and they aren't even that attractive. Dr Torkel Klingberg and Fiona McNab have come up with a potential explanation as to why these celebrity vampires have come to take over the press - inability to filter out irrelevant stimuli. Basically... the U.S. is undergoing a pervasive bout of ADHD.
Here's some of the study details from BBS news (which of course over blows the significance of this research just like I just did):
Scientists believe they have located a new brain area essential for good memory - the "irrelevance filter".People who are good at remembering things, even with distractions, have more activity in the basal ganglia on brain scans, the Swedish team found.
The work in Nature Neuroscience could help explain why some people are better at remembering things than others.
Clinically, it could also aid the understanding of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
So what we here at Omni Brain recommend for the pervasive Britney Spears problem is a large scale distribution of Ritalin. Perhaps inserted into twinkies, cheap beer, potato chips, and all McDonalds food.
Oh hey... by the way... did you guys see that Britney got caught stealing a lighter from a gas station the other day? Check it out! People Magazine says:
Britney Spears walked out of a Sherman Oaks, Calif., gas station on Friday and joked to cameras that she stole a lighter.Now, the gas station owner wants her to come back... and pay $1.39.
Chevron owner Jatinder Kaur tells PEOPLE: "Yes, Britney stole a blue lighter here last night. The lighter is $1.39. I'm hoping maybe the next time she comes back she will pay for it. I know she can afford to pay for it, but I'm not planning to file a police report. It's still not right for her to steal the lighter. I hope she will do the right thing the next time she comes here."
What do you guys think of this? Should she get in trouble? I can't wait to find out what happens over this most recent incident!
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This will probably never be made into an anti-drug ad campaign, but I can't imagine a stronger deterrent.
Angel's Trumpet is a flower that contains scopolamine and other alkaloids. It's known as a "biogenic drug" and presumed by naive recreational drug users to be harmless because it's a plant. However, it can cause psychosis, delirium, visual hallucinations, agitation, incoherence, aggressive behaviour, memory problems and "convulsive sobbing" as well as somatic symptoms and well, things like this incident.
A case study describes an 18-year-old male with no history of mental disorders who consumed Angel's Trumpet and snipped off his penis and his tongue with garden pruning shears. He was rushed to hospital but the amputated parts could not be re-attached. He later had complete amnesia for the event. "... illustrating that consuming this beautiful flower with the name of an angel and the poison of the devil can be very dangerous."
Self-amputation of penis and tongue after use of Angel's Trumpet. Marneros et al., European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 2006 Oct;256(7):458-9 [paywall]
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Stunning vector art by Brazilian illustrator Guilherme Marconi. Marconi is a fabulously talented designer who has created a number of unique works related to thought and brain. Check out this contribution to the Vector Magazine calendar in a href="http://www.vektorjunkie.com/kalendar/uv07/PDF07/UV-OCT-2007.pdf">pdf, and view more of his portfolio (including an Absolut Vodka ad) at his web site.
Read the comments on this post...Not so much walking as rocking and rolling, a brain moves along a desk in a supremely pointless amateur video. Watch the shadow on the wall behind the brain...
Read the comments on this post...Here are some comics and images I've been saving up for so long that I mostly forget where I found them. Click the fold below to view. Enjoy!
Read the rest of this post... | Read the comments on this post...The Neurocritic highlighted a recent study in which sildenafil (brand name Viagra) and related drug rolipram (they're both phosphodiesterase inhibitors) improved cognitive performance in monkeys.
Both drugs were equally effective in improving the monkeys' ability to correctly reach a food treat in a transparent box with one open side, which was billed as a prefrontal "executive function" task.
PDEIs may have a neuroprotective effect, as well. But if laughter is the best medicine, Viagra art rather than the drug may be the thing to try. Learn how to make Viagra tablet-shaped cufflinks out of tampons--yes, tampons--in this step-by-step guide, or horrify guests at holiday potluck parties by bringing a Viagra-shaped mousse made with gelatin, mayonnaise, and Spam (recipe here). The study did provide more appealing food treats (apple and pear) for the object retrieval task, as no monkey would want to reach for that.
In other news about brain-shaped toys, here's the Walking Brain. Wind it up and, yes, it walks. The really stupid thing, though, is that someone's created a 15 second video of it waddling across a blank screen that they think people will pay to download (you can watch it for free), while the toy costs way less than the video.
Get this 'Magical Thinking Hat' from the Anatomical Chart Company.
Colorful, anatomically correct brain on the cap - flip up the brim and expose the words,"Think, Think, Think..." when you need extra brainpower. 100% cotton. One size fits all.Read the comments on this post...
I love science blogs but you know... I really get sick of the acronym filled science talk, the obnoxious politics, and of course the religion sometimes. I just discovered a great new blog that has all the natural curiosity of a science blog but non of the crap. It is wonderfully written by a non-scientist in a 'what I did today' format (which for the first time ever I like!)
The Daily Coyote chronicles, through pictures and stories, the life of Shreve Stockton, her cat, and her coyote friend. Here's the scoop from her:
Charlie is a wild-born coyote who was unexpectedly delivered to my doorstep this past April after both his parents were shot for killing sheep. Whatever reservations I had about raising a wild animal simply didn't matter - couldn't matter - when I realized his survival, at least in the short term, depended on me.At the time I write this, Charlie is nearly six months old. I don't think of him as "my pet," even though he sleeps curled against me every night (every night except the nights around a full moon), and happily rides in my truck, and adores my cat. I don't wish to own him, just to live together in harmony. And that we do.
Check out the cat and coyote together!
I've always heard that a beard can keep you warmer during the winter months but how can you really know?! After all, if you start with a beard and then shave it off there might be some strange adaptation effect going on. And who knows the memory of cold might be completely inaccurate anyway. That's where Pete Hickey from Canada comes in (of course he lives in Canada).
I had only one choice. Shave half of my beard.The experiment
I shaved the right half of my beard. The result can be seen in the picture above. I then proceeded to perform my various outdoor activities.Weight
I encountered several parameters I hadn't previously expected. One side of my face was heavier than the other. In my case, this posed no problem since I'm told that I'm too right brained, the excess weight on the other side balanced things out.Wind resistance
At higher speeds, I found increased wind resistance on the side of my face with a beard. This caused me to have to force the muscles in my neck on one side to counteract the force of the wind.Temperature
Is spite of the above inconveniences, I was able to conduct the experiment. I ran, cycled, and skied. Yes, it does feel warmer with a beard. Also more comfortable. The side without the beard felt colder.Further Research
Needless to say, I've only scratched the surface. Much work remains to be done in this area. Although I've determined that it felt warmer with a beard, no analytical tests were performed. I did not determine skin temperatures. It is quite possible that I had only thought I felt warmer. I suggest that a better test would be to shave half a person's beard off, but not tell them which half. This would give a fairer test of warmth.It may also be that one side of my face is less sensitive than the other. I must repeat the experiment with the beard on the other side. It will take a bit of time for it to grow again.
"In my case, this posed no problem since I'm told that I'm too right brained, the excess weight on the other side balanced things out." haha.... that's pretty funny. It's like 'right brained' people (if that were even a legitimate construct) have a heavier right hemisphere. Can anyone think of any good improvements to his study? Maybe I'll grow a big red beard this winter!
-via Neatorama-
Read the comments on this post...Anaesthetist's Hymn performed by the comedy duo Amateur Transplants, set to the music of Total Eclipse of the Heart.
[P.S. What's this got to do with the brain? Consciousness.]
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According to Jennifer Argo it is possible to get a guy to want to watch a so called 'chick flick', all you need to do is tell him its fictional. According to the press release:
"We looked at fact and fiction stories and found that if people have high empathy - usually women - they will enjoy a story more if it's based on fact," she said. "Conversely, people who are low in empathy, typically males, when you tell them in advance that it's fiction they'll enjoy it more. We think it's because it gives them an excuse to enjoy it. They let down their guards."
Bullshit....
I love all chick flicks!
Ok.. I'm lying - can someone please explain to me the draw of Dirty Dancing?
Read the comments on this post...Just because animals doing human things are funny I give you an elephant throwing darts:
-via Neatorama-
Read the comments on this post...Check out this Discussion led by Charlie Rose with guests Eric Kandel, Aaron Beck, Steven Roose & Peter Fonagy:
Here are some interesting home videos of the Freud family as well.
Whenever I meet someone new and I tell them I'm studying psychology I inevitably get asked the ever annoying question "Are you analyzing me right now?" which of course always leads to the same response from me, "I'm as qualified to analyze or give therapy as an engineering student." Which is not at all.
I'm thinking of changing that response to "English majors are more qualified to do that than any psychology student." After all, the humanities and other social sciences seem to be paying much more attention to the classic analysis of old, namely psychoanalysis than any self-respecting psychology department.
It's not just the experimental psychologists who are ignoring Freud (I've never even taken a course on therapy or mental disorders. I study cognition and vision, why bother?) it seems that even the clinical psychologists are ignoring him. In a recent article in the New York Times, Patricia Cohen reports that psychoanalysis is dead in psychology departments and mostly only being taught in english, history, and art departments.
...a computer-based analysis of course descriptions at 150 public and private institutions that are highly ranked in U.S. News and World Report's college survey. It found that of the 1,175 courses that referenced psychoanalysis, more than 86 percent were offered outside psychology departments.
I'm completely happy with this statistic and am actually pretty surprised that the rate of classes about psychoanalysis is as high as 14% being taught in psychology departments. At the University of Illinois (one of the best clinical programs in the U.S.) I've been told that psychoanalysis is only covered as a small unit as part of a larger therapy course.
While Freud brought much attention to psychology it isn't clear to me (or anyone since the research is sparse on the positive benefits of psychoanalysis) that anything besides a historical perspective should be taught - in any department. Of course there are many people who disagree with my sentiments, especially the professional schools of psychoanalysis and the confused new aged people that pay money to learn woo at these institutions.
At the end of the NYTimes article there is a pretty silly argument on why psychoanalysis won't die,
Neither the split between the humanities and science, nor the warnings of the demise of psychoanalysis are as serious as they are often made out to be, said Jonathan Lear, a trained psychoanalyst and a philosopher who works on integrating the two fields at the University of Chicago.Wanting to measure the effectiveness of psychoanalysis is natural, he said, but figuring out how to do so is not simple.
"Some of the most important things in human life are just not measurable," he said, like happiness or genuine religious feeling. Freud, though, is particularly useful for gaining insights into questions of human existence. "There will be the discovery of problems that the standard ways don't address," he said, and then "there will be a swing back to Freud."
Lear is blatantly wrong, I don't think either Martin Seligman (ex president of the APA) or Ed Diener would agree that happiness is not measurable. While Experimental Psychology and Neuroscience have a difficult time answering questions about the human condition I don't think Psychoanalysis offers any more insight to the truth and if anything is a crutch psychology and society have leaned on way too long.
HT: Mind Hacks
Read the comments on this post...This Friday is a holiday (in America, at least) and what's better on a holiday than a rerun? Yay for reruns. So, I've written about the Amygdaloids before, but here's an introduction video in case you didn't see it (or want to enjoy it again). Also, this band of rockin' cognitive scientists has a CD available now.
The Amygdaloids: Live concert at Union Hall
Preview their new CD here (buy it here) alongside descriptions of each brain-based song.
"Past lovers often leave strong and enduring memories. 'A Trace' tells a story about this. Memory researchers in the know will figure out that the scientific theme underlying this song is the dominant trace theory."
'Memory Pill' tells a more controversial theory related to some of lead singer/neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux's research on memory, while the 'Mind-Body Problem' in their song is a classic one.
Here's another video of them in a concert at Madison Square Gardens, getting The Wave. More info.
Read the comments on this post...Everyone has been talking about stem cells in the last couple days. Here's something to offend most of you - Christopher Reeve eating fetuses for their Stem Cells. Enjoy ;)
Now that you are probably horribly offended about something or other here's why I'm posting this video now:
Now paralyzed people can eat their own stem cells to become superpeople!
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One of the earliest references to a controlled experiment is from Daniel 1: 1-16 in the Old Testament of the Bible. In this 'experiment' Daniel pits his nutrition regime of pulse to eat and water to drink versus the best cuts of meat and the most highly rated wine. Check out the experimental methods and results below:
1:1 In the third yearof the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. 1:2 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God: which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god. 1:3 And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes; 1:4 Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans. 1:5 And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king's meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king. 1:6 Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: 1:7 Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abednego. 1:8 But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. 1:9 Now God had brought Daniel into favour and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. 1:10 And the prince of the eunuchs said unto Daniel, I fear my lord the king, who hath appointed your meat and your drink: for why should he see your faces worse liking than the children which are of your sort? then shall ye make me endanger my head to the king. 1:11 Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 1:12 Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink. 1:13 Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king's meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants. 1:14 So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days. 1:15 And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king's meat. 1:16 Thus Melzar took away the portion of their meat, and the wine that they should drink; and gave them pulse. 1:17 As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. 1:18 Now at the end of the days that the king had said he should bring them in, then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. 1:19 And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king. 1:20 And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm. 1:21 And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus.
I'm not so sure why Daniel was so favored by God since he couldn't come up with the greatest of experimental designs. There are so many problems with the design and interpretation of this study! The first and foremost of the problems involves the experimental groups. The children really should have been randomly assigned to the nutrition groups. Who knows Daniel might have passed his "all matters of wisdom and understanding" gene onto his kids while none of the others were imbued with this wonderful gene. Which leads us to another problem... "all matters of wisdom and understanding" is a very poorly defined construct. How does measure this? Were there IQ tests, feats of strength and bravery, or what?
Let us know in the comments what some of the many other problems with this study are.
I wonder whether Daniel's children also gained a substantial amount of weight on this diet since they were eating so many carbs? Hmmm... maybe the carbs in the wine offset this difference. I guess the peer review process for the bible wasn't scientifically rigorous so we'll never know.
We here at Omni Brain (don't forget the disclaimer) don't advocate using this biblical diet for your children in order to increase their abilities "in all matters of wisdom and understanding," instead we recommend a balanced diet of meat, pulse, and wine. In addition, exercise 4-5 times a week for an hour will guarantee a great abundance of "wisdom and understanding" developing in your offspring.
Read the comments on this post...I couldn't wait for Multimedia Friday to post this video, it's just too funny.
I Am the Very Model of a Psychopharmacologist is set to Gilbert and Sullivan's classic song with animation. Created by Stephen M Stahl, MD, PhD, of the Neurosciences Education Institute, Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego, author of Essential Psychopharmacology. Credentials for neuropsychopharmacological hilarity.
Read the comments on this post...A Flickr user took the all the U.S. currencies with buildings on them and lined them up to the real ones in Washington D.C. Pretty cool!
Omni Brain loves these tricks of vision. Check out some more here.
-via Neatorama-
I'm sure this comes as no surprise to my readers but this blog has been rated as having a Junior High Reading level. You know what though?! I'm proud of that. I'm happy that I'm not a scientist who can only write bland big worded journal articles and use words like affinage, nugatory, pukka, or bouleversement. Now that I've ruined the readability of the blog by using the previously mentioned words I have to admit that I would get angry if I were reading a journal article and found big words as well. In any case... here's the official rating (before I added the big words):
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Anti-drug ad parody that's also an anti-drug ad itself. This is Your Brain on Heroin: Any Questions?.
Read the comments on this post...The one... the only... Jesus made from Sushi and Chopsticks!
Actually... that's a cucumber for the head, ginger for the body, and shrimp fins (or whatever they're called) for the legs. I tried to make a crown out of onion but it didn't work too well.
I ate the body of Christ afterwards. That makes me religious right?!
Read the comments on this post...David Ng from The World's Fair has decided to start another meme.... Here's the lowdown:
Anyway, this meme asks that you come up with your own scientific eponym. What's that exactly? Well, first read this excellent primer by Samuel Arbesman, which basically provides a step by step description of how to do this effectively. Then have a go at your own blog. If all goes well, I'd like to create a page at the Science Creative Quarterly, that collects (and links to) the good ones.
So onto the Higgins-Levinthal Dictum:
Also known as "the why fat smoking republicans are responsible for 9/11 number".
Do you want to know why you aren't getting comments on your blog? Do you wonder why you manage to piss off everyone you come across?
Your answer is here! This fabulous new equation will determine how many comments you will get for your obnoxious posts!
Thanks to Lowk and Andrew (who both sent in versions) of our fancy new equation!
a = How many non-overlapping groups you piss off
b = How offensive comment is
c = How stupid/gullible group is
d = How likely group is to do vanity searches on themselves and not be able to restrain themselves from commenting.
e = size of group (note the inverse correlation!)
k = some as of yet unknown constant.
By the way.... this same post was essentially posted here a while ago.
Read the comments on this post...
An entertaining posting on craigslist:
Survival Of The FittestRead the comments on this post...
Date: 2007-08-30, 2:03PM EDT
Whenever I get a package of plain M&Ms, I make it my duty to continue the strength and robustness of the candy as a species. To this end, I hold M&M duels.Taking two candies between my thumb and forefinger, I apply pressure, squeezing them together until one of them cracks and splinters. That is the "loser," and I eat the inferior one immediately. The winner gets to go another round.
I have found that, in general, the brown and red M&Ms are tougher, and the newer blue ones are genetically inferior. I have hypothesized that the blue M&Ms as a race cannot survive long in the intense theater of competition that is the modern candy and snack-food world.
Occasionally I will get a mutation, a candy that is misshapen, or pointier, or flatter than the rest. Almost invariably this proves to be a weakness, but on very rare occasions it gives the candy extra strength. In this way, the species continues to adapt to its environment.
When I reach the end of the pack, I am left with one M&M, the strongest of the herd. Since it would make no sense to eat this one as well, I pack it neatly in an envelope and send it to M&M Mars, A Division of Mars, Inc., Hackettstown, NJ 17840-1503 U.S.A., along with a 3x5 card reading, "Please use this M&M for breeding purposes."
This week they wrote back to thank me, and sent me a coupon for a free 1/2 pound bag of plain M&Ms. I consider this "grant money." I have set aside the weekend for a grand tournament. From a field of hundreds, we will discover the True Champion.
There can be only one.
I Q Mind Brain Memory Self Help Library.
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