omnibrain | April 6, 2007Actually, more appropriately,
"Hey do you believe in past lives, aliens or CIA mind control?"
"yes!"
"Do get the feeling that you owe someone money?"
"yes!"
"Yeah, you owe me some money"
There's an interesting article in the March issue of Consciousness and Cognition about the link between false memories and the totally out there belief of reincarnation.
Here's the basic design and results of the study from Live Science/MSNBC
Subjects were asked to read aloud a list of 40 non-famous names, and then, after a two-hour wait, told that they were going to see a list consisting of three types of…
omnibrain | April 4, 2007This topic usually falls into the realm of ESP and parapsychology but there is no reason that it has to. For starters check out this snippet from a Wired article:
"It was slightly strange at first," Wächter says, "though on the bike, it was great." He started to become more aware of the peregrinations he had to make while trying to reach a destination. "I finally understood just how much roads actually wind," he says. He learned to deal with the stares he got in the library, his belt humming like a distant chain saw. Deep into the experiment, Wächter says, "I suddenly realized that my…
omnibrain | April 3, 2007I'm sad to report today that watching panda pornography didn't excite the two pandas enough for them to engage in kinky panda sex. Perhaps the porn built unrealistic expectations for the male panda and the girl panda didn't match his kinky panda fantasies?! Maybe they should have given the girl panda some breast implants and included another girl panda into the mix. [edit by Sandra - or maybe the girl panda doesn't need to change her body, which is fine the way it is, to conform to some artificial panda porn ideal beauty standard.]
Here's the shtick:
After panda porn failed to spark amour,…
omnibrain | April 3, 2007I've been waiting for a long time for major press to finally come around and start telling people how Baby Einstein videos or listening to Mozart isn't going to make your baby into a genius. If you have a baby and are wondering whether a certain product will help your baby become smarter, there is a good rule to follow. If it's on TV it's not going to help and if it costs more than $10 it's not going to help either. I'm sure watching these videos are probably better than kids watching random flashing colors on a TV, but come on.
Here's a snippet of an article from USA Today (Which I'd…
omnibrain | April 2, 2007Is this an April Fools Joke?!
Here's a challenge for everyone - see how many you can debunk!
1. Men's brains are larger, but as they age, they also shrink faster than women's brains.
2. Women's brains operate at a higher temperature, due to burning more glucose.
3. Women use more of their brains when they think.
4. In general, men are better at math and women are better at language skills. This is suggested by research on the brain that has found that the "gray matter" in men's brains is more active during thought while the "white matter" in women's brains is more active. Gray matter is the…
omnibrain | March 30, 2007Here's some entertainment from Big Bend. This is my friend Gary who has to be the worst yodeler - ever.
omnibrain | March 29, 2007Here's a music video that some students from a neuroscience lab made. Perhaps they should be given more work to do?!
omnibrain | March 29, 2007
There's an interesting debate happening at I believe, Cognitive Science, this year. Jerry Fodor has come out with a full force denial of evolutionary psychology and in the process has managed to piss off Daniel Dennett who has responded with a very nasty paper of his own.
I'll give you a couple snippets of the exciting debate as well as the papers concerned.
Fodor:
This started out to be a paper about why I am so down on Evolutionary Psychology (EP), a topic I've addressed in print before. (see Fodor, 19xx; 19xx). But, as I went along, it began to seem that really the paper was about what…
omnibrain | March 29, 2007This type of new age crap bothers me a whole lot. There's always a whole lot of words and ideas but no content or real evidence. It bothers me even more when evidence is used that is so very distal to the actual point. Physics and vibrations?! you've got to be kidding me!
So enjoy the video and the text below ;)
Everything in our known, physical universe is made up of energy. All the things you can see, touch, and feel are made up of energy. Your computer, your bed, your clothes, your music, your body, other people, trees, the wind, are all made up of vibrating energy. Even the things…
omnibrain | March 29, 2007I'll bet this foolish school district would also have a problem with a kid deciding they were Muslim and wearing a Burka to school.
In all seriousness though I'm sure this kid did this just to be an obnoxious teenager and push some peoples buttons, but come on?! who is the school district to decide on what is a 'legitimate' religion and what is not. I'd be tempted to disallow all expressions of religion in my school if I were in charge... of course I don't think I'd have many students since so many people are religious.
Here's the basic story:
Bryan Killian doesn't think that's a fair…
omnibrain | March 28, 2007It seems that college dropout of Facebook fame, Mark Zuckererg, may need to go back to college and take some psychology courses to learn something about aging and intelligence.
According to VentureBeat, Zuckerberg told attendees at the Y Combinator Startup School event at Stanford this weekend that old people (you know, over 30), are just well, a little slow.
"I want to stress the importance of being young and technical," he stated, adding that successful start-ups should only employ young people with technical expertise. (Zuckerberg also apparently missed the class on employment and…
omnibrain | March 28, 2007The new Mini-AIR brought this wonderful article to my attention: James K. Beggan, Scott T. Allison (2005) Tough Women in the Unlikeliest of Places: The Unexpected Toughness of the Playboy Playmate
The Journal of Popular Culture 38 (5), 796-818. Here's an excerpt:
The contradiction created by the juxtaposition of the nude imagery and "tough" background is the basis for the present article. Our analysis of centerfold pictorials for the past two decades suggests that it is a mistake to view Playboy Playmates exclusively through a lens of sexuality. Although our culture most often conceptualizes…
omnibrain | March 27, 2007 It seems that perhaps pandas don't have mirror sex neurons or something?
Chuang Chuang the panda has been spending his days in front of a big-screen television watching panda porn.
Authorities at the Chiang Mai Zoo in northern Thailand hope the images will encourage him to mate with his partner, Lin Hui, and serve as an instructional lesson in how to do it right.
So far, it's been a tough sell, the zoo's chief veterinarian, Kanika Limtrakul, said Tuesday.
"Chuang Chuang seems indifferent to the videos; he has no reaction to what he's seeing on TV," Kanika said. "But we're continuing to show…
omnibrain | March 27, 2007Remember those classic psychology experiments where people walk around for a couple days with glasses that either flip the image up/down or right/left and then their brain seems to adjust to the swap? I'm curious about the effect and would love to get a hold of some of the glasses they used.
Does anyone know of a commercial (or have one they can send me) pair of goggles that will do a left right image swap?
omnibrain | March 27, 2007The first story is from Wired and focusses on the use of neuroscience techniques (fMRI, EEG, etc.) to help soldiers be more effective killers.
Since 2000, Darpa, the Pentagon's blue-sky research arm, has spearheaded a far-flung, nearly $70 million effort to build prototype cockpits, missile control stations and infantry trainers that can sense what's occupying their operators' attention, and adjust how they present information, accordingly. Similar technologies are being employed to help intelligence analysts find targets easier by tapping their unconscious reactions. It's all part of a…
omnibrain | March 27, 2007Sometimes when I'm futzing around the web looking for interesting pieces of news a theme just seems to pop out at me. Today it happens to be the over reliance and distractions of technology.
The first story is an old one...
The elderly German motorist set out sans a clue of what route(s) he'd be taking to reach his destination, but obviously felt that his trusty navigation unit knew far more about the highways and byways than he did. After blatantly ignoring a prominent "closed for construction" sign, he threw common sense to the wind and put that 4MATIC system to good use by wheeling over…