Archive for August, 2007
Senryu from a dream
Posted by Grg in General stuff on Thursday, August 30, 2007
I honest-to-god heard most of this in a dream:
Ten million miles wide
A synthetic diamond sink
to halt heat death breaks
Not word-for-word, so I might come back to edit it.
The dulcet sounds of lstr
Posted by Grg in General stuff, Sincere Apologies on Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Subliminal Seduction
Posted by Grg in Grg's Reference on Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Yeah, they’re BS, according to Brian Dunning, who apparently writes out his Skeptoid rants beforehand. [Link]
Harcourt Assessment, which was known at the time as The Psychological Corporation, invited Vicary to repeat his experiment under controlled conditions. He did, but this time no increases in sales were shown at all. Pressed for an explanation, Vicary confessed that he had falsified the results from his original study. Indeed, five years later in a 1962 interview with Advertising Age, Vicary revealed that he had never even conducted the Fort Lee experiment at all. He had literally made up the entire thing. But of course, by then, it was too late. The headlines had run their course, and to this day it’s a generally accepted fact that flashing brief messages onscreen produces a desired behavior, despite the fact it never happened.
Not that I don’t trust Dunning, but I’d like to see that article. Read the entire thing for some insight on other notes on the difference between subliminal (hint: to be subliminal you can’t actually consciously perceive it) and suggestive ads. Or listen to his podcasts — they’re brief, but very entertaining.
StarStuff
Posted by Grg in General stuff on Tuesday, August 28, 2007
I wonder whatever happened to Chris and Ingrid.
Meanwhile…
Just like a gigolo, I ain’t experience no body
Posted by Grg in Grg's Reference, Science/Geek, Skeptic on Monday, August 27, 2007
Here’s a reference-y bit for me: a NYT article reports on inducing Out-of-Body experience. And here, from the Telegraph. While not conclusive, of course, it does add to the ever-growing body of evidence that many supposedly paranormal things are simply due to the problems in the hard-wiring of our brains.
Basically, researchers induce an OBE by decoupling the sense of sight from their physical body through virtual reality goggles. (Oh wait, did I say basically?)
Money quote in the telegraph article from reformed parasychologist Susan Blackmore:
Dr Susan Blackmore, University of the West of England, commented: “Scientists have long suspected that the clue to these extraordinary, and sometimes life-changing, experiences lies in disrupting our normal illusion of being a self behind our eyes, and replacing it with a new viewpoint from above or behind. By using virtual reality techniques they have now shown that the feeling of being out of the body can actually be induced this way. This adds to previous work inducing OBEs in epileptics using direct brain stimulation, and extends it to healthy volunteers.
“Finding out that OBEs are a perfectly natural phenomenon does not prove there is no astral body, or soul, or spirit, but it certainly makes their invention superfluous. OBEs should be understood, not as evidence for the supernatural or life after death, but as a fascinating and exciting experience that potentially we can all have. Nothing really leaves the body in an OBE but the experience is no less interesting for that.”
That’s OBE, yeah, you know me, some more text after the break.
Continue Reading Just like a gigolo, I ain’t experience no...
Don’t you do cocaine at me…
Posted by Grg in General stuff on Thursday, August 23, 2007
Second, MSNBC reports that the coast guard has seized a sub-like vessel carrying 5.5 tons of cocaine. What the heck’s a sub-like vessel? I don’t know, there’s no picture, but I’d gather a semi-submersible would float just below the surface of the water, with some portion of the boat above the waterline — just the tip of the ice berg, so to speak.
It was only a matter of time before the 90′s came back…
Posted by Grg in General stuff on Thursday, August 23, 2007
Ballistic Bookbag for school and travel safety solutions
I remember seeing the local Philly news emitting sensational reports about how scared parents are buying kevlar hats and bags. I don’t think anyone bought them then, either.
Wild Philly
Posted by Grg in General stuff on Wednesday, August 22, 2007
While walking down Market Street this morning, at about 8:30 AM, I spied a red tail hawk on a cast iron ledge of the Litt Brothers building (an old block-long department store) near the corner of 8th and Market.
It had in its talons a pigeon which it had just grabbed and killed. As it flew off with its prize, the hawk lost its grasp, sending the pigeon three stories down into the street. It hit with an audible thud…right near a heavyset lady waiting for the bus.
She of course screeched. And, from that moment, nothing short of getting fired could ruin my workday.
It was cooler than the time I saw a red tail hawk nab a rat on Drexel’s campus.
Cut down the rainforest! Save the Earth!
Posted by Grg in General stuff on Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Not good.
“We are only able to state that the slowing in growth that we observed is consistent with the hypothesis that increases in temperature will cause decreases in tree growth,” explained one of the researchers, Joseph Wright, from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama.
If this is the case, in the future tropical forests could emit large amounts of carbon dioxide, write the researchers.
WIRED
Posted by Grg in Dumb thoughts, Grg's Reference, Rant/Rave, Science/Geek on Monday, August 20, 2007
Now that WIRED and Wired News (aka Hotwired) are reunited, the magazine itself seems interesting again. Fancy that.
UPDATE:
Speaking of which: