omnibrain | January 4, 2007Well there's Ask a ScienceBlogger... I think I want to institute "Help a ScienceBlogger."
Can anyone help me find sources about the development of religious beliefs in children?
omnibrain | December 30, 2006After a previous post about mind control devices I received an interesting email from Catherine Heywood of the British Mind Control Network. It's a shame that "The British Mind Control Network (BMCN) is an online resource at present but hopes to become so within the next three years"
I'm sure there would be some pretty interesting reading on that site to say the least. Get that website up Catherine!
In any case, it seems that there is some serious mind control going on in Britain and elsewhere ;)
See below the fold for some details - and the document I received.
The British are deploying…
omnibrain | December 30, 2006Alan Turing - the father of computing - as a snowman.
Here's some more angles of the snowturing
Ohh and don't forget the statue (surely not as exciting as the snow sculpture!)
omnibrain | December 23, 2006Hi everyone!
I've been a little lax in my posting as of late. I apologize and as soon as the holidays are over and I'm not sleeping on lots of couches in different places, I'll be more active again.
In the mean time here:
omnibrain | December 22, 2006From the old blog:I thought I would share an abstract I ran across while paging through some journals that I ordered from the stacks.
Human Ethology: The snack-bar security syndrome
By David P. Barash
From State University College (SUC?!), Oneonta, N.Y.
Psychological Reports, 1972, 31, 577-578.
Summary.-- I studied the behavior of Homo sapiens in an eating-place and found indications of security-seeking behavior, perhaps suggesting an unconscious, species-preserving fear of predators. Solitary individuals showed a significant preference for wall tables over center tables while grouped…
omnibrain | December 18, 2006Something from the vaults:
Well...here it is: Dogs are not psychic. Ohh well I kinda thought they had a chance. Here's the originial report (scanned pdf) from the Army, it's pretty interesting actually. And here's a summary from the webpage:
In the early 1950s, Dr. Joseph Banks Rhine, based at Duke University, was the foremost researcher in the field of parapsychology, or, using the term he coined: "extrasensory perception." The Army hired Rhine and his Parapsychology Laboratory to research the possibility of using dogs and other animals to…
omnibrain | December 18, 2006Got an hour or two? Check out the 2 part documentary, The God Delusion with Richard Dawkins
Part 2 is below the fold, as are the results of the Omni Brain user survey on religion (well it's really a single question).
Would you call yourself religious?
yes 13.6%
no 86.4%
omnibrain | December 18, 2006This is quite an old piece of news...but still pretty ridiculous.
Mangalore University Applied Botany Professor Annaiah Ramesh is all set to enter the Guinness Book of World Records as he successfully completed a marathon lecture, running to 96 hours and 40 minutes, here on Sunday.
Dr Ramesh who started his lecture on the subject, "Molecular Logic of Life," on March 22, completed it at 03:45 hrs on Sunday, surpassing the record set by South African Moosawazi (88 hours and 4 seconds).
Dr Ramesh, who delivered the non-stop lecture at the jampacked Old Senate Hall in the varsity without any…
omnibrain | December 18, 2006We had a debate on my old blog as to what is causing this... what do you think?
omnibrain | December 18, 2006
-via mindhacks-
This is Temple Grandin, whose Autism helps her understand the cows she's working with. She helps them feel comfortable as they get taken to the slaughter house.
Temple was profiled by Oliver Sacks in An Anthropologist on Mars. I think she might have even made the comment that she feels like an anthropologist on mars which obviously became the title of the book (i could be wrong since its been a while since I've read it). I think she also created an interesting machine that could best be described as a 'hugging' machine.
omnibrain | December 18, 2006Well - this book has everything you ever really wanted to know about orgasms - 338 pages.... that's a lot of orgams? multiple orgasms?
Honestly, I'm a little surprised a book like this hasn't been written before.
"I wrote this book because no one had approached the topic from a holistic view with the neurophysiology and endocrinology as well as the effects of diseases, medication and other concerns on orgasm," said Whipple, a Voorhees, N.J. resident.
The 338-page book, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, is in its second printing after its release in late October.
Behind its "plain…
omnibrain | December 18, 2006
In no particular order...1) Being a south paw promotes survival from attacks (well at least in crabs). It seems thatThe left-handed advantage is realized when snails interact with predators of opposite handedness. Some predatory crabs are "righties" -- and have a specialized tooth on their right claw that acts like a can opener to crack and peel the snail shells. "The 'sinistral advantage,' or advantage to being left-handed, is that it would be like using a can opener backwards for the crab to crack and peel the snail shell,"
Does something like this apply to humans? We're still waiting…
omnibrain | December 17, 2006An interesting History channel segment about Aldous Huxley and his mescaline use.
If you haven't read The Doors of Perception - or really most of his other works - you should!
omnibrain | December 17, 2006Valentina Sivryukova knew her public service messages were hitting the mark when she heard how one Kazakh schoolboy called another stupid. "What are you," he sneered, "iodine-deficient or something?"
I think I'm going to start using this insult!
I always knew iodine was added to salt at some point for some health reason - but I was never sure actually why that was. It looks like iodine deficiencies can cause all sorts of nasty health problems:
Studies show that iodine deficiency is the leading preventable cause of mental retardation. Even moderate deficiency, especially in pregnant women and…
omnibrain | December 16, 2006Another classic...So I was watching Mythbusters the other night and they were testing a number of "mind contol" devices - they used EEG, etc. They even decided that a couple methods were "plausible."I decided what I could find out there on the internet...
The first place I looked was EBay - they really do sell everything (I once almost got an antique proctologists uhh.."probe" - it was going to be a gift .. i promise), but anyway - this picture popped up. Only $799.99!
Control people's minds with this amazingly simple technology. The Mind Control Machine converts your voice into something…
omnibrain | December 16, 2006
http://killersurvey.com/survey_code.php?sqs=1&id=294">http://killersurvey.com/survey_code.php?sqs=1&id=296">http://killersurvey.com/survey_code.php?sqs=1&id=297">http://killersurvey.com/survey_code.php?sqs=1&id=298">
Vote to see the results :) Or if you've already answered the survey the link to the results is below the fold.
(p.s. we can't see who votes for what - so don't worry too much about your privacy - I'm not saying the Dept. of Homeland Security isn't watching though.)
Here are the results so far...
omnibrain | December 16, 2006Since it's just about graduate application time, here are some useful links to help people out during this stressful experience:
Retrospectacle has a post about getting into graduate schools. I think Shelley also has a follow up post to this one - but you'll have to track it down.
Here is another set of advice from Katherine, also good, and also from the University of Michigan.
If you're thinking about going to grad school you should probably read these comics ;)
And good luck if you're applying now!