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The Visible Human Project: Full Body MRI GIF
09.22.2009
12:04 am
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From Neatorama: “According to several commenters, the images used in this animation are from The Visible Human Project and were taken from a deceased body, using MRI and CT scans and cryogenic cross sections. That body belonged to 39-year-old Joseph Paul Jernigan, who was executed for murder and had donated his body to science.”

Posted by Tara McGinley
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09.22.2009
12:04 am
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Project ?
09.21.2009
12:42 pm
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All my Facebook page would reveal is that I know a lot of freaks…

Two students partnered up to take on the latest Internet fad: the online social networks that were exploding into the mainstream. With people signing up in droves to reconnect with classmates and old crushes from high school, and even becoming online ?

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.21.2009
12:42 pm
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Snake Born with Hand Shocks Scientists
09.21.2009
10:15 am
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News from China of a startling discovery sure to have Darwin turning over in his grave…

An elderly Chinese woman who discovered a snake with a clawed hand protruding from its body was so scared she beat it to death, according to reports. Xiu Qiong Duan, 68, told the SINA Beijing news agency she woke up in the middle of the night to find the snake clinging to the wall of her bedroom.

“I woke up and heard a strange scratching sound ... at first I thought it was thieves” she said.“I turned on the light and saw this monster working its way along the wall using his claw.”

Ms Duan, from Suining in southwest China, said she then grabbed a shoe and beat the snake to death.She reportedly preserved its body in a bottle of alcohol which she gave to the Life Sciences Department at China’s West Normal University in Nanchang.

Snake expert Long Shuai said the discovery of the creature, which is 40cm long and the thickness of a little finger, was “truly shocking”. “We won’t know the cause until we’ve conducted an autopsy,” she said.

Via 9 News

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.21.2009
10:15 am
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Scientists Find The Gene That Produces THC
09.19.2009
09:42 pm
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Medical cannabis becomes more and more medical and scientific. Soon it’s going to be legal everywhere:

In one of the few scientific developments likely to interest both the Governor of North Dakota and Method Man, scientists at the University of Minnesota have identified the genes in cannabis that allow the plant to produce THC. Finding the genes opens the path to either create drug-free hemp plants for industrial purposes, or to develop plants with much higher concentrations of the psychotropic chemical.

Publishing in the Journal of Experimental Botany, the researchers note that they specifically targeted the genes responsible for generating the drug-filled hairs highlighted in many a High Times photo spread. By impairing or encouraging the growth of those hairs, scientists could gain precise control over the level of THC in the crop.

This development has important consequences for both the medicinal and industrial use of hemp.

On the industrial side, states like North Dakota have been looking to change state law to allow them to raise hemp as a cash crop, for oil and rope production. The ability to create hemp that doesn’t contain any banned substances would allow Dakotans to sow the crop without any changes in the law.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, precise control of the doses of THC found in pot could greatly enhance the medicinal marijuana industry. Currently, dosage is controlled through haphazard breeding and selection, not precise measurements as with most other medications.

It should also be noted that THC is not the only psychoactive compound found in marijuana, so more research is needed before the University of Minnesota scientists can completely control the potency of their crops.

Via Popular Science

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.19.2009
09:42 pm
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The Secrets Inside Your Dog’s Mind
09.18.2009
01:16 am
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The dog “standing in the corner” in the Charlie Brown sweater is our beloved little Chihuahua/Dachshund mutt, Paul aka “Jude Law” (don’t ask). Isn’t he cute? I took this picture about five years ago. He had done something “bad”—peed on the floor—and I made him stand in the corner. And stay there. He’d make to move away—“GET BACK”—and back he’d go. And so he stayed. For a long time. I was cooking and I just let him stay there. He kept his back straight and his nose right in the corner. Later, Tara came home and asked “WHAT is going on here?” and we had a rather good laugh about this. It was such an absurd thing.

The following day we saw him run into the kitchen, approach the corner, straighten his back and press his nose to the spot where he’d been punished the day before. We were in hysterics. It was this totally weird-sad-funny-pathetic canine thing: He was —or so it seemed to us—trying to simultaneously please us and yet still do his penance at the same time. That’s when the above picture was taken.

Not to just bore you with a story about our dog, there is a point. He obviously knew he’d done something wrong (he peed on the floor again) but he also thought—in a cause and effect kinda way—that we expected him to stand in the corner because he had done something wrong. That’s a fairly complicated thought for a two year old child, let alone a pooch, I think you’ll agree. Dig the doggie logic: he was punishing himself.

All pet owners have funny stories they can tell. Every dog and every cat, once you know them, can be seen to have a unique and quirky personality. I’m always saying “I wish I could be inside his head for one hour and know what he’s thinking” which is Tara’s cue to answer back “Circles. Squares. Triangles. Food. Mommy. Love. Circles. Squares. Triangles…”

I’m a sucker for anything that purports to explain canine and feline behavior to me. One cutting edge theory is that dogs are four-legged con artists who’ve connived their way into our homes and beds with their big innocent, brown eyes and wagging tails. Ditto for cats. but they’re more honest (apparently!).

If, like me, you enjoy pondering your dog’s IQ, you’ll probably like this article, The Secrets Inside Your Dog’s Mind by Carl Zimmer:

We’ve all seen guilty dogs slinking away with lowered tails, for example. Horowitz wondered if they behave this way because they truly recognize they’ve done something wrong, so she devised an experiment. First she observed how dogs behaved when they did something they weren’t supposed to do and were scolded by their owners. Then she tricked the owners into believing the dogs had misbehaved when they hadn’t. When the humans scolded the dogs, the dogs were just as likely to look guilty, even though they were innocent of any misbehavior. What’s at play here, she concluded, is not some inner sense of right and wrong but a learned ability to act submissive when an owner gets angry. “It’s a white-flag response,” Horowitz says.

While this kind of manipulation may be unsettling to us, it reveals how carefully dogs pay attention to humans and learn from what they observe. That same attentiveness also gives dogs—or at least certain dogs—a skill with words that seems eerily human.


The Secrets Inside Your Dog’s Mind

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.18.2009
01:16 am
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Snort Stem Cells to Get Them to Brain
09.16.2009
04:23 pm
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Oh for god’s sake. New Scientist reports:

Stem cells show promise for treating a range of neurological conditions, including Parkinson’s, strokes and Alzheimer’s, but it is tricky getting them into the brain. Perhaps inhaling stem cells might be the answer - if mice are anything to go by.

Other options all have their drawbacks. Drilling through the skull and injecting the stem cells is painful and carries some risks. You can also inject them into the bloodstream but only a fraction reach their target due to the blood-brain barrier.

The nose, however, might be a viable alternative. In the upper reaches of the nasal cavity lies the cribriform plate, a bony roof that separates the nose from the brain. It is perforated with pin-size holes, which are plugged with nerve fibres and other connective tissue. Since proteins, bacteria and viruses can enter the brain this way, Lusine Danielyan at the University Hospital of T?ɬ

Posted by Jason Louv
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09.16.2009
04:23 pm
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Surrealism Makes You Smarter!
09.16.2009
12:50 pm
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In that case, so must growing up reading William Burroughs, the Illuminatus trilogy, conspiracy theory books, dropping acid and listening to Firesign Theatre records!

From Science Digest:

Reading a book by Franz Kafka ?

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.16.2009
12:50 pm
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The Secret Art: Radionics Book by Duncan Laurie
09.14.2009
08:17 pm
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Dangerous Minds pal Duncan Laurie’s new book The Secret Art: A Brief History of Radionic Technology for the Creative Individual has just been published by Anomalist Books and is for sale at Amazon.

Duncan Laurie is one of the world’s foremost experts on the “forbidden science” of radionics. Some of you may recall Duncan from the Disinformation TV show. He’s the genteel mad scientist/artist from Jamestown, Rhode Island who looks like Harrison Ford and who works in laboratory housed in a glass building. In 2000 I recorded an interview with Duncan where he demonstrated the subtle energy exchange between plants and his mind-blowing collection of radionics devices. Fascinating stuff. He’s an amazing person with an amazing mind. Besides being an artist, Duncan designs all manner of radionic devices himself, such as radionic socks that make wishes come true—you walk around on the radionic circuitry printed on the socks—and a Purr Generator that utilizes the healing properties of a cat’s purr and amplifies these healing properties electronically to help people relax and lower blood pressure. I read an earlier draft of this book about five years ago and it was thrilling to read about Duncan’s unorthodox discoveries then and I eagerly await reading The Secret Art.

What is The Secret Art? The history of radionics is the story of how various inventors designed devices that employ directed intent to affect the real world. With these tools, they promoted healing without pills or surgery, grew crops without fertilizer, restrained insect predation without pesticides, and performed a host of other seemingly impossible feats that defy mechanistic science. The Secret Art traces this astonishing process beginning with early art designs suggestive of radionic intent. For many prehistoric and indigenous peoples, art was also a means of interacting with Nature to enhance healing, increase crop yields, and enable visionary experiences. Coincidentally, radionic inventors discovered by trial and error that even drawings and bizarre technology could function radionically. This discovery followed a long process of design innovation that started with mechanical devices, proceeded through a generation of electronic instruments, and most recently has been applied to computer and software technology. Conceivably, the theory and techniques outlined in this book could provide artists with a revolutionary approach to the creative process that is at once both new and timeless. A potential exists today for radionic ideas to empower creative individuals to develop skills in working with Nature that achieve profound real world results.

 

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Duncan Laurie website

Via Steve Nalepa

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.14.2009
08:17 pm
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The Woman Who ?
09.14.2009
01:48 pm
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Synesthesia is a neurological phenomenon, or condition, where neural pathways are confounded and confused. For instance, sounds or music may be experienced as something visual or the reverse, sights might trigger certain sounds in a synesthetes’ mind. There are many different modes of how this phenomenon can manifest itself. Here’s an interesting example, Edinburgh University psychologist Holly Branigan who can visualize time:

“For me it?

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.14.2009
01:48 pm
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The Cosmonaut of the Erotic Future
09.10.2009
06:34 pm
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Excellent essay from Cabinet Magazine, by Aaron Schuster.

What happens to levitation, one of the great imaginative figures of art and literature, in the transition from a religious culture to the disenchanted universe of modern science? What becomes of ecstasy, rapture, ascension, transcendence, grace wh?Ǭ?e?Ǭ?n these give way to “space oddity”: man enclosed in a tin can floating far above the world? Is the cosmonaut a prophet of the erotic future, avatar of man?

Posted by Jason Louv
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09.10.2009
06:34 pm
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