There are an unbelievable number of illnesses causing an exaggerated startle response. MS, PTSD, autism. Apparently lack of awareness of your surroundings is tied into startle response to peripheral vision stimuli. Peripheral Visual Awareness: The Central Issue “Many cases show that with functional (and therefore reversible) deficits, similar problems arise for individuals who have inefficient […]
Into the Void
Back off, man, I'm co-creating my reality.
Posted in Science
You Really Can’t Argue With Them
You really *can’t* argue with them. —– Original Message —– From: <A REALLY BRIGHT PROGRESSIVE> To: ‘Leslie’ (not so bright) Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 2:02 AM Subject: An interesting study, and my comments… It’s tricky, talking with these poor brain-damaged souls. If it weren’t so normal, I’d call such mental misreasoning a disease.It’s easy […]
The Astrologers Can No Longer Predict The Future
I haven’t looked at a weather report today but last night they were saying possibly a foot of snow. The weather people run a Monte Carlo simulation then incorrectly take an average of the results. This is stupid because the European model is sometimes so far off the American models that the average is wrong, […]
Michael Shermer On Patternicity
Patternicity is Shermer’s name for apophenia, the tendency to find meaning in noise. This is how we see constellations in the stars, faces on Mars, and Kaziklu Bey’s visage grinning evilly from a slice of cinnamon toast. In its negative form, patternicity is behind many forms of self-deception, from superstition to conspiracy theory. This video […]
Sometimes There Is No Movie
Conversation: K: It just ocurred to me. A major flaw in the premise of the movie “Signs “. Why would anyone go to a planet that contained such vast quantities of a substance so extremely toxic to them? Me: USUALLY they don’t. In those cases the native species all die and there is no movie. […]
Epiphanies
Cthulhu: Genetic risk and stressful early infancy join to increase risk for schizophrenia Me: Dr. Fuller Torrey says schizophrenia caused by cat shit. Pfffft! Cthulhu: Ah, the Toxoplasmosis link? Yeah, I’m a little wary about that myself. I’d have to see more data on that published than has been. Me: Empirical data shows that sometimes […]
Mouse Song
Male mice sing ultrasonic songs. I’d like to hear them. Singing Mice, Songbirds, and More: Models for FOXP2 Function and Dysfunction in Human Speech and Language Although the most widely appreciated vocalizations of mice are audible, it has been known for several decades that mice and other rodents also vocalize at ultrasonic frequencies. In the […]
TFTD: Shark Week
Live every week like it’s shark week. Photo credit: Source: Flickr Author: WIlly Volk
Twitter: As for physics…
void57 As for physics, what does reality look like when one doesn’t know the first thing about math or classical mechanics? Oh, right, God. [Source]
Cat Personality and Coat Color
There is some question as to whether a cat’s coat color is a good predictor of his personality. Any cat owner will tell you this is true, and the web has several lists of personality types. This quote provides three possible mechanisms for the relationship between cat coat color and personality type. Coloring can affect […]
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