The World Is Not Boring

There is no "God Spot" in the human brain.

2009-08-12T00:58:00.008-04:00

Mix_lazy/overworked/undereducated science reporters with the sensationalism that keeps profit-driven publications alive and you're bound to get ridiculous reports on solve-all "science" that has "solved" humanity's greatest mysteries with a few well-designed double-blinds.

Recently, it's been reports that neuroscientists have found a spot in the human brain responsible for religious intensity. A God Spot, of course.

I declare, "bull," and so does the blogger at Reuters' "Faith World."

"There is no one place in the brain responsible for religion, just as there is no single location in the brain for love or language or identity. Most popular articles these days actually say that, but the headline writers continue to speak of a single spot.

“There isn’t a separate religious area of the brain, from what we can tell from the data,” said Dr. Andrew Newberg, an associate professor of radiology and psychiatry at the Penn university hospital and author of several books on neuroscience and religion. “It’s not like there’s a little spiritual spot that lights up every time somebody thinks of God."

The blogger is finding out about this at Penn's "Neuroscience Bootcamp," a conference designed to explain neuroscience to people outside of the field- an effort that people in the media, ethicists, religious thinkers, and policy makers could/are benefit/ting from enormously. Science needs to remember how many important people would believe its case if it just spoke up in a more broadly thrown voice. This conference is awesome. Maybe I will go next year.

I Have to Post This: Unexplained Photo

2009-08-10T13:29:00.004-04:00

BoingBoing says this is "Unexplained space phenomena captured in Saturn's rings."

I don't believe in UFO's since there is no real evidence, but I love, love LOVE the unexplained, the new things that humans are still learning about.

If I had to guess, it's a comet, a beautifully weirdly-moving comet. But I do love not knowing some things, still having some mysteries to solve.

What's Holding Green Power Back?

2009-08-08T22:01:00.002-04:00

Money.

This Forbes article, explains.

I love Iceland. Not just because of Bjork, or a pity over how their country imploded with a cold "squish" sound. I really love their famous geothermal energy usage.

So why don't we do it here?

It's too expensive for a profit-based model, this article says.

Excerpt of Forbes article:

"Unlike with wind or solar, geothermal power developers have to raise money just to see if there's a power source to be exploited. According to Mark Taylor, a geothermal analyst at New Energy Finance, it can cost $10 million to $15 million to drill two or three holes to prove there's enough heat there to spin a turbine. "You need resources just to prove your resources," he says."

Damn.

Cleaning Arteries, Oceans

2009-08-05T23:36:00.007-04:00

Probably the most notorious disease of affluence, other than simple obesity itself, is the epidemic of heart disease in the US. What the American white man needs is a way to reduce their risk that doesn't involve things like, you know, diet change, or vigorous and tedious exercise.

Enter: Fish Oil.

"There is mounting evidence that omega-3 fatty acids from fish or fish oil supplements not only help prevent cardiovascular diseases in healthy individuals, but also reduce the incidence of cardiac events and mortality in patients with existing heart disease. A new study, published in the August 11, 2009, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, extensively reviews data from a broad range of studies in tens of thousands of patients and sets forth suggested daily targets for omega-3 consumption.

"This isn't just hype; we now have tremendous and compelling evidence from very large studies, some dating back 20 and 30 years, that demonstrate the protective benefits of omega-3 fish oil in multiple aspects of preventive cardiology," said Carl Lavie, M.D., F.A.C.C., medical director of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention, Ochsner Medical Center, New Orleans, LA, and lead author of the article. " From this new article.

So now all we need is to down a translucent flax-colored pill with every one of our Pepperoni Mozzarella Crispy Crust P'zones, to protect our critical little life-pump.

We must obviously see a huge fish oil extraction increase, if this health strategy catches on. But what about overfishing? Peru, for example, is one of the top fish oil producers in the world, and they've already overfished their anchovies to near-depletion. According to the documentary The End of the Line, all of the world's oceans are being overfished, and the problem is only going to become more severe as time goes on.

Fish is probably not going to go away, though. It will probably just become much more expensive. Perhaps too expensive to eat in a pill every day.

It's probably cheaper, for both you and the overused oceans, to just not eat that deep-fried twinky.

That sandwich is patented

2009-07-29T16:35:00.002-04:00

I just want you to know, before you bite into it, that that sandwich is patented.

A Repurposing: This Blog is now Sciencey

2009-07-29T13:41:00.003-04:00

If you love the word "kludge" as much as I do, then you can call this a "kludge."

A summer of researching what it would be like to do nonfiction film and how interesting other hobbies resulted in a re-realization that I really, really should stop this year-long (almost exactly) break from Journalism and go back to it, my money-free, difficult, addictive medium. I must continue writing real things about things that happen in the real world, again, since it needs to happen, and since I was actually good at it. Oh, it's fun, too.

But, since this is the 00's, and I can not count on being the next Mencken or Thompson, I must choose a specific subject and STICK WITH IT, and that specific subject, for THIS BLOG, for NOW, is SCIENCE.

I use that in the broadest term. I will basically write original articles on and link to readings about

Psychology
Sociology
Statistics in general (many news stories use them HORRIBLY, a pet peeve of mine.)
Environmental science
Technology
Gadgets
Zoology
A little bit of medicine but mostly COOL medicine like cybernetics and all the awesome things we are currently learning about the brain.

I might touch on economics, too, though that is the conservative, suit-wearing bastard of the generally humanitarian-minded social science family, and I often get into unpleasant arguments with its self-interested mouthpieces.

This blog will be a resource then, for people who like the interesting side of what is happening in a culture rife with conflict centered on science. Personally, it will be a collection of bookmarks found in the process of researching original stories and essays.

"Here we go." I hope it becomes enjoyable.

Slideshow of Disturbing Med Student Photos

2009-04-26T14:22:00.005-04:00

These photos are from medical students fooling around with cadavers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. To modern people,they are downright wrong. But damn, they look cool. If anyone on here was looking for an album cover for their dark metal band's next album, your welcome.

GOGOL BORDELLO: Immigrant Rebels

2009-04-26T00:47:00.003-04:00

This is an excerpt from a paper I am writing now about immigration in American media. I chose to focus on the kickass gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello.

A Scene Witnessed by the Author

December 21, 2006, at the Irving Plaza in Manhattan, the lights flash and the music swells. A guitar lets out machine-gun riffs, a bearded fiddler summons screams from his strings. An acrobatic woman bangs on a giant drum, and an accordianist squelches belching notes from his squeezebox. The crowd is a pulsing mass that shakes the floor, bulging the ceiling of the lower level in. A skinny man takes the drum from the woman and gingerly places it on top of the crowd. He climbs onto it and kneels, and the crowd pushes the drum along, slowly, as if he were riding on a gentle sea. He reaches down and pulls a young woman up from the teeming masses, and holds her steadily on top of the drum. Her face is rapturous, and she is panting, exhilarated, riding with the man across the crowd and back onto the stage.
“Party!” the man screams into the microphone, with a thick Ukrainian accent.
What does this intense scene have to do with the experience of immigration? Everything, when it's created by the New York punk rock band Gogol Bordello, self-described “multi-kontra-culti” immigrant punks.

An example of the incredible stage presence and crowd reactions:

Monster Logic

2009-03-03T19:44:00.002-05:00

Illustration Time: Punk Romance

2009-02-22T01:26:00.002-05:00

How to Not Be When Drunk

2009-02-20T22:39:00.001-05:00

Do not be a minister of finance for a powerful country at an international summit.

Happy Cheery News Times!!

2009-02-17T19:09:00.002-05:00

Comic Blog SKETCHBOOK Special! 1

2009-02-11T00:29:00.004-05:00

This is a woman who sells things on the subway platform. GUESS WHAT SHE SELLS!
Based on an amalgamation of at least 4 subway riders, since I need references, but people move too much, so each person can only give a part for this picture. Little imagination used.

Oh and I am supposed to be reading the New York Times. This is the coolest, about a newer, more natural-feeling cybernetic arm, and this is the scariest, about a town having trouble finding...food.

More in depth ...later. 10:10 class to attend to tomorrow. Sleep is good, for us still fully human humans.

What's going to happen! Agh! I don't know but I will definitely be on the front lines... drawing...comics. Ahem. I AM USEFUL DAMN IT.

NY Comic Con: Impressions

2009-02-10T00:41:00.003-05:00

ComicBlog: The Nifty Trinity

2009-02-08T21:41:00.001-05:00

Girls are Not for Sale

2009-01-31T01:31:00.004-05:00

This isn't necessarily a media post, but this isn't necessarily a media blog. Necessarily.

I just got done watching a sobering documentary on (child) prostitution in the states. I put (child) in parentheses because the truth is, most prostitutes fall into that position before they turn 18.

Very Young Girls-
Produced by Showtime, 2008

The filmakers didn't have to squeeze fake emotion into it, the subject matter itself is powerful enough. Watching these older men completely control these girls is gut wrenching, but even complaining about the effects a film had on me, feels privileged, and foolish, when just these several minutes of footage are not enough for me to even BEGIN to feel what these girls feel.

All I can say is,

This is one of the most disgusting things that happens, and unlike so many global humanitarian crises, this is just a subway stop or a freeway ride away from your seat.

The world is full of disgusting things. Some things just shouldn't happen, and exploring these subjects, one feels a deep well of injustice that goes on forever beneath your feet...piquing curiosity along with the outrage...

A Prayer for Forgiveness

2009-01-29T00:42:00.001-05:00

Lord of Journalism, Forgive me, for I have Sinned, in Not reading the New York Times today as I have promised myself I would, Every day, but let it be known, that if there were WiFi on the Subway, I would have Perused during my Insanely Long Commute, but that Alas! I am Broke as Shit today and do not want to spend the mere $1.25 (and More expensive Hassle of Carrying it around) on such a thing, and let my homework Sneak up and Bite my Timing in the Ass, and Lord,

Forgive me, do not curse me with

24 hours of being out

of
s
tep

with the fastpaced coolness of daily readings.

Amen.

(Normal nonfreak English version: I planned on updating this every day with some comment on something I read there, but will start that project TOMORROW. Promise, K? I PROMISE. PINKY SWEAR.)

Masturbating the Eye

2009-01-27T23:24:00.004-05:00

I am so psyched, my media class is taught by this dude Stuart Ewen who is using his own self-written textbook, but it's a great one so far, he's a total pattern-addict. Either that or all of media studies is that fun to read, McLuhan not being the last to think in such fun, crazy, airy ways.

In the introduction there is a quote, that makes me giggle and love this academic bullshit so much.

"In 1930, the French surrealist writer Georges Duhamel described the visual media of the United States as defined by 'flashes, repetitions, and explosions...conceived to excite the reflexes...a kind of masturbation of the eye.'"
-Ewen, "All Consuming Images"

Ahahah. Try to get that quote out of your head next time you watch Fox News or a music video. It makes my eye hurt, actually, imagining rubbing it so hard.

God Damn You, NYT.

2008-08-04T19:26:00.002-04:00

You get away with such snarky wordplay in serious news coverage.

Your headline writers are too damn talented. This is poetry, people, news-ish poetry that mocks the very idea of snappy headlines. Yes, I am jealous of their talent.

"Ragtag Taliban Show Tenacity in Afghanistan"

Snarky, clever, ironic, awesome bastards...

Single Global Currency?

2008-06-25T15:42:00.005-04:00

These guys are based on proving that it's a great idea. Creepiest web site I've read. Aum. Ever?

Excerpt:

"This is the home page of the Single Global Currency Association, which is dedicated to the goal of implementing a single global currency by 2025. We shall achieve this goal through education and persuasion.

We believe that once the peoples (including their corporations and labor and other organizations) of the world understand the benefits of a single global currency, they will demand it from their governments. The single global currency is what the peoples of the world need, and it is what they want."

Wow!

Good thing this web site is around to tell us, the world, what it is that we want! Thank goodness.

Here's the thing, though. Most of their "latest news" shows failure. Most of the news on there is just their own operatives talking about how awesome this idea is, to themselves, or on the internet.

They were rejected by the IMF, multiple times. The IMF is kinda important. Let's hope they continue to reject them.

The only recent, serious economic conference they seemed to be accepted at was the The Global Accounting and Organizational Change Conference in Australia. How important is it? Anyone out there know enough about economics to judge how big an accomplishment that is?

I've been hearing rumors that it's going to happen, but I wouldn't bet on it, judging by this site. Really sounds like an uphill battle. BUT, the main advantage to the plan is it being cheaper to do international business (converting between currencies is costly.) So it's an uphill battle, in the name of cheapness, amongst a bunch of economists and businessmen.

Well, economists and businessmen who may have strong senses of national identity.

The people on Longbets, an entertaining site for intelligent future-obsessees, would seem to agree with me.

2 Months After the Rest Discovered it..."Possess Your Heart"

2008-06-04T14:58:00.004-04:00

I finally gave in and took a listen. I am so stubborn with popular music. My indie complex usually keeps me from listening to bands that I have seen hundreds of teenagers wearing T-Shirts for. Really, I should stop that.

I don't even LIKE Death Cab that much. Always been sort of lukewarm in my eyes.

But...god. This is...great! I am listening to their newest, Narrow Stairs, over and over again. I am now a convert.

I am SO MAINSTREAM. Oh well. Some things, well, some things are popular for a reason.

Never heard a long-form song that kept me from getting bored, without relying on giant dance breaks in the middle. It smashes the 3:00 pop length requirement to pieces, but its style and words are still what Death Cab are good at: dark, beautiful, emotionally in-tune pop rock.

The first half is instrumental, but once you hear the lyrics, you understand what it was referencing with those four minutes of pained, desirous indie-rock-sounding build-up: unrequited love, natch. A typical subject- for good reason. Ever actually felt it? Yeah, it's the type of feeling one could write hundreds of songs about. Gibbard doesn't need to write any more, though, since he can't do another unrequited song as perfect as this one.

Is that me underestimating him? Hopefully, I will see in the coming years, as his band releases more and more music. I have such respect for them now.

Best Unintentionally Hilarious News Quote of the Week

2008-02-16T17:12:00.006-05:00

"The perception that he struggles to control his anger makes Mr. McCain angry."

-New York Times, today.

So will Hillary and Barack be running mates?

2008-02-16T16:00:00.003-05:00

I mean, just wondering. Wouldn't that make sense? Or am I an idiot for predicting that?

Obama Clinton 2008? Yes?

OMG Missile Defense System put to test...

2008-02-14T17:05:00.003-05:00

Finally, the 21st Century's crazy space-age ground-to-space-missile program will be used publically for a practical use: shooting down a giant 5000 lb broken-down spy satellite, so it doesn't harm people by coming down in one big, toxic-fuel-filled piece...

"If the satellite is not intercepted, it will tumble out of control into the atmosphere in early March, [Gen. James Cartwright, of the Marine Corps] said." -From the NYT article.

I wonder how many satellites are going to do this in the next 10 years. Will this be a new part of the weather forecast: % chance broken satellite will fall near or in your city today? Hah!

Unintentionally Hilarious News Photo Of The Day

2008-02-11T13:40:00.001-05:00

"HRRRAAAAAAAYH!!!! WE WANT TO EAT YOUUUUU!!!!!"
"Hmm.... NO."

This Yahoo! News story succeeds in giving me another news photo that is not supposed to be funny. No LOLcat text needed this time.