How Much Caffeine Would Kill You?

Death by Caffeine

Reality Grip

Our grip on reality is slim, says UCL scientist:

The neurological basis for poor witness statements and hallucinations has been found by scientists at UCL (University College London). In over a fifth of cases, people wrongly remembered whether they actually witnessed an event or just imagined it, according to a paper published in NeuroImage this week.

"Our work has implications for the validity of witness statements and agrees with other studies that show that our mind sometimes fills in memory gaps for us, and we confuse what we imagined occurred in a situation - which is related to what we expect to happen or what usually happens - with what actually happened.

"Most of us, though, have a critical reality monitoring function so that we are able to distinguish well enough between what is real and what is imagined and our imagination does not have too great an impact on our lives - unless the reality check system breaks down such as after stroke or in cases of schizophrenia."

Self Publishing

BookSurge Publishing:

BookSurge Publishing is a key partner for authors who, like you, choose to initiate the publishing of their work. We provide professional services throughout your publishing experience and beyond, from polishing your manuscript and creating an effective cover to providing valuable expertise and marketing services for maximum results.

Our staff are experts in publishing and marketing books, and our company is a pioneer in the self-publishing industry. BookSurge services are offered with one goal in mind: to provide you with a quality, marketable book and to arm you with a strategy to reach your full potential as an author.

Robots embedded at school in quest to bond with humans:

And Then They Can Clean My Pool!

Globe Talk Robots answer to immigration:

And Then They Can Rule The World!!

Japan eyes moon colonized by robots:

Japan will develop advanced robots which can operate exploration vehicles and make decisions on their own to build a base on the moon.

The exploration vehicles will be sent to the moon within 10 years, and the base completed within 20 years, officials said.

Nanogenerators

Nanogenerators May Spark Miniature Machines Update:

Child Sacrifice Cult

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Horror of India's child sacrifice

Disabled Japanese to scale Swiss mountain aided by 'robot suits':

The battery-powered suit, code-named HAL, detects muscle movements through the natural electrical currents that pass over the surface of the skin and anticipates the next move. In this way, it aids movement and enhances the strength of the wearer.

New StringTheory Notion Redefines the Big Bang:

A group of theoretical physicists has recently published an interesting string-theory scenario that describes a new way to approach the development of the Big Bang. They propose that the universe began as a type of theoretical space-filling object called a “brane.”

“Perhaps the most ambitious problem in cosmology is the question of the initial conditions of the universe — what it looked like before expanding into the stars and planets we see today,” said a physicist involved in the study, Robert Leigh of the University of Illinois, to PhysOrg.com. “We propose that the universe, before expansion, was an unstable brane that decayed into innumerable string-loops to form the universe as we now know it.”

Neural Space

The Universe trapped in its own web:

This inhomogeneous distribution of matter is called the “Large-scale distribution of the Universe.” When the Universe is considered as whole, this distribution has a similar appearance to a spider’s web or the neural network of the brain.

Paper Enigma Machine:

Selfish Gene the Dancing Machine

Edge 178:

The Selfish Gene: Thirty Years On

audio files

Italian scientists find ancient Ur tablets:

And Away We Go....

Welcome to my new online home. I've finally decided to establish my world-wide domination with a place where I can post my boring crap and don't bother anyone else. As you can probably see, I've posted a lot of stuff today, but don't worry gentle reader, my hands are not bloody from typing. I've just transferred a bunch of things I've posted on a group blog over the past year or so, to make it seem as if I'm not just starting this thing out today.

Clever, eh?

Okay. Not really.

Anyway, I think I'm gonna try to keep this updated and use it as a place to store news items and ideas that I might be able to use somewhere down the line. Thus, there will be a definite slant toward weird news, tech stuff, pictures from around the house (including kitty pics -- sorry) and my own drunken, late-night ramblings.

Let's see if I can actually keep up with this.

Lent Lent Lent

So, I know this is a little late, but even though I'm not religious in the least, I thought about what I might want to give up for Lent and realized that I wanted to give up giving up shit.

Take that, Lent!



By the way, I stole this cartoon from somewhere online a long time ago and have no idea where it came from now. If it's yours, I'm not taking credit for it. It made me laugh.

Now I Know Not To Do This...

Professor Allegedly Shows Explicit Video.

To his criminal justice class.

Of a man having sex with a pig.

"His pedagogy was to teach real life. His classes were very earthy. Some students took that very well, and some students didn't."

Sigh.

To his credit, I suppose, he hadn't planned on showing it. It wasn't part of the curriculum. It seems some of the students "begged" him "to show the 10-second footage." If they're anything like the 101 students I'm teaching at the moment, I can believe that.

He's still an idiot for showing it. And now he doesn't have a job. Brilliant.

Kitty Cuteness

Although, while cute, it was really all about both Tomie and Dru wanting the sweet spot on the back of the couch. They sat like this for a little while, groomed each other a bit, then Tomie made Dru leave.

But it was cute while it lasted. Tee-hee.

Jewish Millionaire Marries Dolphin

Jewish Millionaire Marries Dolphin

I'm not sure why her being Jewish is essential to the headline...

Best quote: "And I am not a pervert," she has stressed.

Welcome to a brand new year of weird.

Happy Holidays from Pope Palpatine!