The brain does much more than just recollect

This meme is replicating all around the science blogohedron. I can't stop it.



If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch
You must first invent the universe

Space is filled with a network of wormholes
You might emerge somewhere else in space
Some when-else in time

The sky calls to us
If we do not destroy ourselves
We will one day venture to the stars

A still more glorious dawn awaits
Not a sunburst, but a galaxy burst
A morning filled with 400 billion suns
The rising of the Milky Way

The Cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths
Of exquisite interrelationships
Of the awesome machinery of nature

I believe our future depends powerfully
On how well we understand this cosmos
In which we float like a mote of dust
In the morning sky

But the brain does much more than just recollect
It inter-compares, it synthesizes, it analyzes
it generates abstractions

The simplest thought like the concept of the number one
Has an elaborate logical underpinning
The brain has it’s own language
For testing the structure and consistency of the world

For thousands of years
People have wondered about the universe
Did it stretch out forever
Or was there a limit

From the big bang to black holes
From dark matter to a possible big crunch
Our image of the universe today
Is full of strange sounding ideas

How lucky we are to live in this time
The first moment in human history
When we are in fact visiting other worlds

The surface of the earth is the shore of the cosmic ocean
Recently we’ve waded a little way out
And the water seems inviting

Crows use 3 tools in sequence

From here.

Car crash

From Fucked Gaigin: "The poster comments on YouTube that airbags and seatbelts did their job but everyone is still shaken up and feeling the aches."

As jarring as this is, I feel it's worth seeing. It's a good reminder to wear your seatbelt and stay alert. Bad stuff can happen fast.

Pale Blue Dot

Wingsuits - Depends not included

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

How Bacteria Cause Disease

I've been reading and watching a lot of CAM material lately. So when I bumped into a non-woo health lecture, I felt as though someone had opened a window. Ah, words that have actual meanings! Facts that fit together and make sense! Knowledge presented clearly, without any effort to convince me of "New Medicine" or "wellness" or "empowerment"!

The real world is really real, and we can know stuff about it! Awesome!

This talk by UCSF's Warren Levinson MD, is designed for a lay audience. It's a great overview of infection and immunity for anyone who doesn't know much about germs. I recommend you watch it then go watch something by Weil™ or Chopra. The manipulative, cultish rhetoric of the latter will be immediately apparent.

I Felt Your Shape

The Microphones

Dualism is what happens when you walk around with a virtual reality machine in your head. Other people with their intentions, their feelings toward us, their reactions to events, are mental constructs. Normally these creations correlate with actual, physical people in our environment. But sometimes the other person isn't there, yet our sense of the other personality is so strong, it's as if they are somehow present.

Patrick McGoohan Dies

My favorite Everyman, Number 6, has passed away.  Long ago I extracted from him the secret of allegory, the language of secrets.  

Be seeing you old friend.

9543

The Dresden Dolls: RIP

Girl Anachronism: reflections on being the product of a c-section delivery and feeling out of time, with bad ass piano banging.

I'd intended to catch the Dolls live several times. But stuff always came up. Now the band is kaput. Love and misery and "separate ways."

So where am I to get my Weimar punk cabaret fix?

Missed Me


Lonesome Organist Rapes Page Turner


He told me that I knew just what to laugh at
And I wanted to but I just couldn't ask
If he would take it back
So I could know for certain

So on the bench I watched his left hand crossing
While doubling entendres with the voicings
He said "O darling, you're charming
Please don't find it alarming
If I pull this stop out to free up a hand for heavy petting"

Now there there - I'm a friendly man
I joke about sex because it's funny when you're frightened

Silently I sat and turned the pages
Recalculating our respective ages
Over my shoulder, he muttered, "If I get any older
You can hack my wrists off with your choice of objects --no, I'm kidding"

Don't be scared - I'm a friendly man
I joke about death because it's funny when you're frightened

This is as far as I could get
He jabbed a needle in my back
Erasing all the evidence
But there were matchsticks in my pants
And if a rock should hit my head
And I remember what he did
You'll be the very first to know
Maybe I'll find out why this damn thing won't stop bleeding

He told me that I showed a great potential
That given I turned heads and pages fame would be a piece of cake
But practice was essential
So like a stupid child I believed him
But golly who would ever have believed that
I'd been Schubert or Mozart devoted to the fine art
Of perfecting absolutely everything inconsequential

Don't be sad - I'll come back again
I joke about trash 'cause it takes class to be enlightened

So several decades have gone by
I am still sitting by his side
I turn the pages faithfully
He turns his head and smiles at me
And with a wink he says, "I doubt
We would be anywhere without
Your gift for keeping truth and consequence from meeting"

Amanda Palmer solo: I Want You, But I Don't Need You

Faun Fables

I'd like to be...

Hitler + Tits = Titler!

1. Song his mother would sing to his father

2. Song for the Catholics

Jesus never existed
The Jews had it right all along
The Christians have history twisted
And that's why I'm singing this song

Oh I'm sure a Jesus lived
And a Moses lived
We all know Mary had a little lamb
But one's got magic bread
The other parts the sea
It all seems a little made up to me

The Passenger

Iggy Pop and the Stooges.

This song invariably makes my eyes water. Life is so fucking short. There are moments of seeing and wonder and sharing. There's make-believe. But there's no agency, no control.

What do you mean no control? I can pick any banana I'd like off the tree!

Oh yes, little monkey. I see your banana. It's a nice one!

Oh the passenger
How, how he rides
Oh the passenger
He rides and he rides
He looks through his window
What does he see?
He sees the bright and hollow sky
He sees the stars come out tonight
He sees the city's ripped backsides
He sees the winding ocean drive
And everything was made for you and me
All of it was made for you and me
'Cause it belongs to you and me
So let's take a ride and see what's mine

Anonymous Year in Review

Who has seen Anonymous?
Neither I nor you.
But when the memes fill all our heads,
Anonymous is passing through.
--anonymous

Thunderf00t says: LIVE LIFE!

Cool road trip video. Makes me wanna get up 'n go right now!

I like how Thunderf00t mixes in a few Google Earth shots (check it out Billy). And the camera mounted on an RC airplane is sweet!

Go to YouTube and give Thunderf00t 5 stars for this. Creationists are always hating on him with low ratings. Five stars is the least we can do for a guy who works so hard to bring the people lulz, joy, and smart stuff.

One Year in 40 Seconds

One year in 40 seconds from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo.

Wind at 30 knots

When does the Round Britain and Ireland race happen? Seems cold and gray.

I like how the guy on the winch gradually sheds his foul weather gear.

PengWIN!

Mr. Penguin catches a lucky break.

Planing in a 5O5

Nice example of planing.

Did you know that boats have a top speed determined by their length at the water line? Here's the formula: hull speed in knots = (square root of the hull length in feet at waterline) * 1.34.

When I learned of this limit a few months ago, I was surprised. Imagine if cars were like this. Imagine shopping for a fast car: No need to bother about its width or height or weight. Check its length and there's your max speed.

But unlike cars, boats make waves. The wavelength of these waves imprisons the boat, from bow to stern. Well... so long as the boat is in the water. A boat at the surface of the water, a boat that is planing, can break this hull speed rule.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planing_(sailing)

The capsize at the end of the 5O5 video is all too familiar. Although the crew slides onto the centerboard quickly, the boat seems eager to turtle.

Like the 5O5, my V15 sits high on the water after a capsize. A few seconds of wind and wave action and it's upside down.

I agree that a capsize is "part of the fun" of sailing a little racing dinghy. But a turtled boat is no fun at all. When turtled in shallow waters, the tip of the mast can bang against the lake or ocean bottom. It can bury itself so hard that the boat won't move. Then you've no option but to call for a motorized rescue. Even so, the effort to pull the boat free may dismast the boat.

A float at the top of the mast can keep the boat from turtling for several minutes - long enough for the crew to get the boat upright. The downside: any weight at the top of the mast makes the boat less stable and may increase drag.

At this point, I'm not taking my boat anywhere without some sort of float on the mast. Four empty 2-liter soda bottles seem to do the trick, albeit without elegance. Three soda bottles --trust me on this-- do not suffice.

I'm shopping for a better answer. The Hobie Bob looks heavy. I'd like to see the Flying Dutchman float, which seems to integrate with the top of the mainsail.

Sailing the Surf

Hobie Tigers surfing.

Before I bought my boat I would run YouTube searches for "sail fast" or similar. Lots of the videos I watched were blurry, thanks to spray on the camera lens. Many had wind artifacts or bad metal music dubbed in. But a few, like this one, were just ace.

Tacking

I get a buzz off this video. I think it's the well choreographed team-work. Just brilliant.

The sample is from: http://www.harkensailinggear.com/cds/cds.php