Now on ScienceBlogs: Oxytocin: Starting with the basics
An exploration of the serious/fun/ridiculous - past/present/future of the brain and the science that loves it.
The Omnibrain is a psychology graduate student at an online university. He hopes that the three weeks and $29.95 that he is spending on his Ph.D. will get him a job at a Tier 1 research university. Do online universities have postdocs? Ok...just kidding, The Omnibrain is a real graduate student at a real school somewhere in the continental United States - or maybe Europe.
OmniBrain is now Of Two Minds!
Category: Animals
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...
Posted by The Omnibrain at 1:02 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Psychology
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...
Posted by The Omnibrain at 8:05 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Brain Toys
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...
Posted by The Omnibrain at 12:02 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Psychology
It's looks to me like people are blaming the boyfriend and his poor judgment for the accident and the grace of God for this girls ability to physically pull the boyfriend out and down the hill (as well as her being a nurse in training or something, as well running into trauma nurses at the bottom). Now I don't hang out with many religious folks so I'm not sure how consistent this is but I've definitely seen this before (anyone want to do the study?!). This is very similar to the ultimate attribution error to me, except that it doesn't focus on an out-group. The ultimate attribution error is a common cognitive bias that causes people to attribute behavior of out-group (ethnic, social, or anyone not like us) members to either internal or external factors depending on whether it was a positive or negative outcome. So if someone does something positive, like the other team winning, it was an external factor - such as the weather or home-field advantage. On the other hand if someone does something stupid it wasn't because the situation led them to it, instead it was them being a dumbass - like the boyfriend falling into the water.
Posted by The Omnibrain at 11:16 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Stupid People
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...
Posted by The Omnibrain at 9:59 AM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Parapsychology
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...
Posted by The Omnibrain at 3:31 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Parapsychology
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. This is of course all very silly, the only possibility is that the mind wholly...
Posted by The Omnibrain at 6:29 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Video
Why Duck and Cover of course! Check out this great video from the cold war:...
Posted by The Omnibrain at 8:23 AM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Mental Health
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...
Posted by The Omnibrain at 11:55 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: Neuroscience
Yeah you heard me right... there is no good reason why Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, or any of the other tabloid celebs are so paid attention to. They contribute nothing to society - and they aren't even that attractive. Dr Torkel Klingberg and Fiona McNab have come up with...
Posted by The Omnibrain at 10:23 AM • 11 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
