US adopts tough new space policy
"The United States will preserve its rights, capabilities, and freedom of action in space... and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to US national interests."
Monday, October 23, 2006
Corpse Scam
US undertakers admit corpse scam
Other evidence includes X-rays and photographs of exhumed corpses showing that where leg bones should have been, someone had inserted white plastic pipes.
The pipes were crudely reconnected to hip and ankle bones with screws before the legs were sewn back up.
New York City Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly, said: "The unspeakable desecration of the bodies - PVC pipe was used to replace bones. Indeed, the very equipment that they used, the mask and gloves and surgical items were tossed into the bodies."
Other evidence includes X-rays and photographs of exhumed corpses showing that where leg bones should have been, someone had inserted white plastic pipes.
The pipes were crudely reconnected to hip and ankle bones with screws before the legs were sewn back up.
New York City Police Commissioner, Ray Kelly, said: "The unspeakable desecration of the bodies - PVC pipe was used to replace bones. Indeed, the very equipment that they used, the mask and gloves and surgical items were tossed into the bodies."
Monday, August 14, 2006
Pure Novelty Spurs The Brain:
Now, researchers Nico Bunzeck and Emrah Duzel report studies with humans showing that the SN/VTA does respond to novelty as such and this novelty motivates the brain to explore, seeking a reward. The researchers of University College London and Otto von Guericke University reported their findings in the August 3, 2006, issue of Neuron, published by Cell Press.
Now, researchers Nico Bunzeck and Emrah Duzel report studies with humans showing that the SN/VTA does respond to novelty as such and this novelty motivates the brain to explore, seeking a reward. The researchers of University College London and Otto von Guericke University reported their findings in the August 3, 2006, issue of Neuron, published by Cell Press.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
A Nation of Neurotics? Blame the Puppet Masters?
According to this blog entry, personality traits like self-doubt and insecurity, can sometimes be attributed to a brain parasite infestation.
"So Lafferty wondered, is there a relationship between a country's prevalence of Toxoplasma and its culture?
The answer, he argues, is yes. He selected a few key features of human personality that Toxoplasma appears to influence, and which have been measured on a national scale--such as neuroticism, uncertainty avoidance, and "masculine" sex roles. Lafferty predicted that in countries with higher Toxoplasma rates, these features would all be stronger. He gathered data from studies on 39 countries in from all five continents. He corrected for various factors, for example including per capita gross domestic product as a variable. He found a signficiant correlation between high levels of the parasite and high levels of neuroticism. There was a positive but weak correlation between Toxoplasma and levels of uncertainty avoidances and masculine sex roles. However, if he excluded the non-Western countries of China, South Korea, Japan, Turkey, and Indonesia, the correlations of both personality measurements with Toxoplasma got much stronger."
"So Lafferty wondered, is there a relationship between a country's prevalence of Toxoplasma and its culture?
The answer, he argues, is yes. He selected a few key features of human personality that Toxoplasma appears to influence, and which have been measured on a national scale--such as neuroticism, uncertainty avoidance, and "masculine" sex roles. Lafferty predicted that in countries with higher Toxoplasma rates, these features would all be stronger. He gathered data from studies on 39 countries in from all five continents. He corrected for various factors, for example including per capita gross domestic product as a variable. He found a signficiant correlation between high levels of the parasite and high levels of neuroticism. There was a positive but weak correlation between Toxoplasma and levels of uncertainty avoidances and masculine sex roles. However, if he excluded the non-Western countries of China, South Korea, Japan, Turkey, and Indonesia, the correlations of both personality measurements with Toxoplasma got much stronger."
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Friday, June 23, 2006
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."
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Self Publishing
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Sunday, April 16, 2006
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.
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.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
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.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
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.
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.
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.
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