Oh Hey There

Nothing like an inscrutable captcha

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:57:25 -0600

pterodactyls:

to leave you feeling like a real live human.

If only your inscrutable captcha actually was the phrase “inscrutable captcha”…

a youtube channel about one 11'8" bridge and all the trucks that crash into it

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:49:05 -0600

a youtube channel about one 11'8" bridge and all the trucks that crash into it

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-8-29)

Tue, 31 Aug 2010 01:47:07 -0600

My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-8-29):

Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz

(via roario)

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:13:05 -0600

(via roario)

My brother got married a couple weeks ago. I have nine brothers...

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 17:48:00 -0600

My brother got married a couple weeks ago. I have nine brothers and sisters, so this occasion marked our first ten-for-ten family picture since 2005.

Guile’s Theme Goes With Everything is the meme/theory that...

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:47:44 -0600

Guile’s Theme Goes With Everything is the meme/theory that the Street Fighter’s theme goes well with any video. Here it is mashed up with Bambi’s mom dying. I laughed hysterically at 1:35. I’m a sicko like that. (via orringejoosejonze)

theeconomist: According to my smart-phone’s GPS, I’m lying on a...

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:44:00 -0600

theeconomist:

According to my smart-phone’s GPS, I’m lying on a heap of watermelons. (Mobile phone firms are increasingly reliant on bells and whistles for growth).

Dear Economist,

This is your finest Tumblr post yet.

neurolove: This is another example of a test that can be done...

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:08:16 -0600

neurolove:

This is another example of a test that can be done with a split brain patient (for more information about this, see this post). They will look at a half picture of a child on the right (left hemisphere) and a woman on the left (right hemisphere). When asked whom they saw, they will only be able to tell you the picture on the right, as the left hemisphere has language. However, when asked to point to the image they saw, their left hand (right hemisphere) can point to the image on the left. This is akin to the word task, but done with facial recognition (which is a specialized process that occurs in the fusiform face area of the temporal lobe).

[Image Source]

more incredible split-brain findings

"The Department of Justice is seeking to hire linguists fluent in Ebonics to help monitor, translate,..."

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 12:02:00 -0600

“The Department of Justice is seeking to hire linguists fluent in Ebonics to help monitor, translate, and transcribe the secretly recorded conversations of subjects of narcotics investigations, according to federal records. A maximum of nine Ebonics experts will work with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Atlanta field division, where the linguists, after obtaining a “DEA Sensitive” security clearance, will help investigators decipher the results of “telephonic monitoring of court ordered nonconsensual intercepts, consensual listening devices, and other media””

- Justice Department Seeks Ebonics Experts | The Smoking Gun (via sexartandpolitics)

neurolove: These are examples of drawings done by each hand of...

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:21:08 -0600

neurolove:

These are examples of drawings done by each hand of a split brain patient. You can see that the right hand (left hemisphere) is clearly lacking in spatial reasoning and the ability to get the depth of the original images, while the left hand (right hemisphere) is clearly better at this type of task. For more information about split brain patients, see yesterday’s post.

[Image Source, Fig 13.8]

neurolove: Split brain is a term used to refer to someone who...

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:32:41 -0600

neurolove:

Split brain is a term used to refer to someone who has had the corpus callosum (a white fiber tract connecting the two sides of the brain) severed. Therefore, the two sides of the brain cannot communicate with each other. The reason that this would be done is usually in very severe cases of epilepsy. Seizures are caused by brain activity synchronizing at extremely high levels. Therefore, you can prevent seizures by preventing the whole brain from being able to synchronize its neuronal activity.

Split brain patients act entirely normally during normal life. It is only when doing tasks, such as those that only use one side’s visual field, that you can notice abnormal behavior. The left side of the brain contains all of the language centers. Therefore, whatever is in the left visual field (above: “RING”) can be spoken aloud. The right side of the brain is more abstract- relating to more “artistic” things- like spatial reasoning. Therefore, whatever can be seen in the right visual field (above: “KEY”) can be drawn or picked out, but it cannot be verbalized. This becomes extra cool when you ask the patient, “Why did you pick up the key?” In asking verbally, you are talking to the left side of their brain, which did not see the word KEY (They will say they only saw the word RING). Instead, they will come up with some logical reason (For instance, they might say something like “Oh, I was thinking about when I get to go home- I’ll need to grab my keys.” or “I liked the texture of the key.” or “I saw RING, and thought of my key ring.”). The reason depends on the person, but the mind can come up with a reasonable explanation (albeit inaccurate) for any behavior. Split brain research helped us to realize that this sort of reasoning happens in the left hemisphere.

Additionally, the right hand (which receives input from the left brain) is terrible at drawing or spatial reasoning tasks (matching a pattern of blocks for instance) in split brain patients who don’t have the normal communication, which helped us to learn that this behavior is localized to the right hemisphere. I was lucky enough to see a talk by Gazzaniga who is one of the pioneers of split brain research a few years ago. He showed a really interesting video of a patient having to put together a set of blocks in a pattern. He had them sit on the left hand and do the task with the right. The right hand would just make a mess of the blocks. The left hand of one patient kept trying to come in and fix what the right hand was making such a mess of. Kind of like a “No, no, you’re doing it wrong- let me!” response. It was really fascinating. I’ll show more about this tomorrow.

[Image Source]

perpetua: Ted Leo and the Pharmacists“Bottled In Cork” The best...

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:02:41 -0600

perpetua:

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
“Bottled In Cork”

The best song on the new Ted Leo album! Video written and directed by Tom Scharpling! Paul F Tompkins! John Hodgman! Julie Klausner! AP Mike! DJ Terre T! My friend Christine!! That guy from Titus Andronicus! Musical theater! Hilarity! Best video of 2010!

Super Mario Bros. Can Can (via SizzlechestXXX, ahem know your...

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:13:00 -0600

Super Mario Bros. Can Can (via SizzlechestXXX, ahem know your meme)

fuckyeahnervoussystem: Alzheimer’s disease brain. by AJC1

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 09:23:49 -0600

fuckyeahnervoussystem:

Alzheimer’s disease brain.

by AJC1

life: On August 16, 1960, a 32-year-old U.S. Air Force Captain...

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 21:09:14 -0600

life:

On August 16, 1960, a 32-year-old U.S. Air Force Captain named Joe Kittinger flew in a helium balloon to 102,800 feet (roughly 19 miles) above the Earth … and jumped. His free-fall lasted 4 minutes and 36 seconds. He experienced temperatures approaching minus-100 degrees Fahrenheit. As he fell, Kittinger neared the speed of sound, his pressure-suit-encased body traveling at more than 600 mph before he opened his parachute at 14,000 feet. To this day, he still holds world records for highest parachute jump and longest-ever free-fall. On the 50th anniversary of his jump — an achievement considered among the most technologically significant, and ballsiest, of the 20th century — Joe Kittinger spoke with LIFE.com about the highlights of his storied career…

Joe Kittinger: A Legend Looks Back

hay guys

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 17:04:53 -0600

hay guys

Unfinished work - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 22:55:31 -0600

Unfinished work - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

p.c. me

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 19:34:00 -0600

bro: what's a troglodyte?
tristn: a caveperson
tristn: ha, i just said "caveperson". i didn't even think about it.
bro: what the aitch

hatethefuture: Some Republican Options In 2010: Holy Shit You...

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:17:47 -0600

hatethefuture:

Some Republican Options In 2010: Holy Shit You Have To Be Kidding Me

the wall above my 18-month-old niece’s crib

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 22:20:42 -0600

the wall above my 18-month-old niece’s crib