photogs
‘You’re on Earth. There’s no cure for that.’ –Samuel Beckett
The researchers found that the effects that awe has on decision-making and well-being can be explained by awe’s ability to actually change our subjective experience of time by slowing it down. Experiences of awe help to brings us into the present moment which, in turn, adjusts our perception of time, influences our decisions, and makes life feel more satisfying than it would otherwise.
photo { Steven Siegel | more }
Not to mention another membrane
One definition is that a Type III error occurs when you get the right answer to the wrong question. This is sometimes called a Type 0 error.
photos { Stephen Shore, American Surfaces, 1972 }
The beautiful ineffectual dreamer who comes to grief against hard facts
There’s another problem with using common sense. The real world is very complex, and no one model can explain everything.
photo { Joel Meyerowitz }
Che bella giornata! [wink]
The theory that liars look up to the right has been proved wrong
A paper published in PLOS ONE has apparently disproved the long-standing theory that direction of eye gaze can indicate lying. The theory which forms part of the bed-rock of the controversial offshoot of psychology called ‘Neuro-linguistic programming’ (NLP) has in fact never actually been experimentally researched until now. The study found absolutely no correlation between eye gaze and lying. Considering that this theory has become such a staple of popular psychology, it really is astounding that this was not discovered sooner.
photo { Ewen Spencer }
With two circular perforated apertures through which his eyes glowered furiously
A man sits in front of a computer screen sifting through satellite images of a foreign desert. The images depict a vast, sandy emptiness, marked every so often by dunes and hills. He is searching for man-made structures: houses, compounds, airfields, any sign of civilization that might be visible from the sky. The images flash at a rate of 20 per second, so fast that before he can truly perceive the details of each landscape, it is gone. He pushes no buttons, takes no notes. His performance is near perfect.
Or rather, his brain’s performance is near perfect. The man has a machine strapped to his head, an array of electrodes called an electroencephalogram, or EEG, which is recording his brain activity as each image skips by. It then sends the brain-activity data wirelessly to a large computer. The computer has learned what the man’s brain activity looks like when he sees one of the visual targets, and, based on that information, it quickly reshuffles the images. When the man sorts back through the hundreds of images—most without structures, but some with—almost all the ones with buildings in them pop to the front of the pack. His brain and the computer have done good work.
photo { Michel Le Belhomme }
In the same tone, a dainty motif of plume rose
Nearly 500 species of animals (ranging from mammals through to insects) have been observed performing homosexual behaviour, according to Aldo Poiani, a biologist at the University of Melbourne.
In addition to penguins, he says, koalas, flamingos, giraffes, monkeys, killer whales and dolphins are on list. In some cases, the animals commit themselves to a same-sex partner for life (like penguins), although in other species it appears that they have no preference, but rather act ‘bisexually’. […]
“Homosexual behaviour occurs in over 130 species of birds, yet explaining its maintenance in evolutionary terms appears problematic at face value, as such sexual behaviours do not seem in immediate pursuit of reproductive goals,” McFarlane and colleagues wrote in the journal Animal Behaviour in late 2010. […]
Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection suggests that animals, including humans, exist in order to continue their species, or rather, reproduce. It is an evolutionary paradox, says McFarlane, that animals engage in homosexual behaviour when “the prevailing view (is) that sex is for reproduction only”, which makes it scientifically significant to explain. According to Darwin’s theory, it’s a scientific conundrum that evolution hasn’t eliminated individuals that are not going to actively reproduce.
According to RV Kirkpatrick, an anthropologist from the University of California, Davis, in the Darwinian view, individuals should seek to maximise reproductive success. “Homosexual behaviour is too widespread to be a fluke or an aberration, but evolutionists in particular should be puzzled by its ubiquity,” he wrote in the journal Current Anthropology in 2000. […]
One theory is that because the percentage of exclusive homosexuality in both the animal and human world is so small, it poses no threat to the continuation of a species.
photo { Cécile Menendez }
Keep that thing up for hours. Kind of a general all round over me and half down my back.
An analysis of five large-scale studies following about 2 million people in several different countries found that the life expectancies of people who said they spent more than three hours a day sitting were two years less than people who spent less than three hours sitting daily.
photo { Bjarne Bare }
Don’t grow up, it’s a trap
Psychiatrists used to say that personality never changes. […] Recent years have revealed a more liberating picture. Rather than being set in stone, qualities and traits evolve (often subtly) over time. Research shows that you aren’t likely to be the same person at 90 as you were at 19.
Although we are all different some general patterns occur. Typically, we become more introverted and more emotionally stable when progressing into older age (from 65+). Crucially, an average retired person is more ‘agreeable’ than either a young or middle-aged adult: they are more likely to be empathetic, considerate, friendly, generous, and helpful. […]
A large ‘quality of life’ survey performed in the UK and USA looked at the mental and physical well-being of 10,000 men and women. Comparing the differences between younger and older adults – physical health is worse after the age of 60 (no surprises there), but, mental wellbeing actually improves.
images { Julianna Brion | Hudson Hayden }
Just like a shadow
{ Two students swallowed 35mm film. After “collecting” the slides in a dark room, they fixed the silver and scanned the film with an electron microscope. | more }
And I will keep loving you, in spite of yourself. My heart beats faster when I think of you. Nothing else matters.
{ In a study of more than a thousand compliments, women accepted compliments from other women 22% of the time. When they came from men? 68%. | The Beheld | full story }
photo { Bill Sullivan }
‘Even a paranoid can have enemies.’ –Henry Kissinger
What if we someday learn how to model small brain units, and so can “upload” ourselves into new computer brains? What if this happens before we learn how to make human-level artificial intelligences?
{ Robin Hanson/Extropy, 1994 | Continue reading }
via:
One of the few pieces of evidence I find compelling comes from Mihály Csíkszentmihályi research into the experience he calls “flow.” His work suggests that humans are most productive, and also most satisfied, when they are totally absorbed in a clear but challenging task which they are capable of completing.
photo { Thomas Prior }
And when you’re running from yourself there’s just no place to hide
Could mirror universes or parallel worlds account for dark matter — the ‘missing’ matter in the Universe? In what seems to be mixing of science and science fiction, a new paper by a team of theoretical physicists hypothesizes the existence of mirror particles as a possible candidate for dark matter. An anomaly observed in the behavior of ordinary particles that appear to oscillate in and out of existence could be from a “hypothetical parallel world consisting of mirror particles,” says a press release from Springer. “Each neutron would have the ability to transition into its invisible mirror twin, and back, oscillating from one world to the other.”
photo { Aaron Fowler }
We’re all beautiful on the inside. If you like bones, blood and guts.
A couple of online articles have discussed whether you would be conscious of being shot in the head with the general conclusion that it is unlikely because the damage happens faster than the brain can register a conscious sensation.
While this may be true in some instances it ignores that fact that there are many ways of taking a bullet to the head.
This is studied by a field called wound ballistics. […]
Firstly, if you get shot in the head, in this day and age, you have, on average, about a 50/50 chance of surviving.
photos { Irving Penn | Larry Sultan and Mike Mandel | more }
‘Even the most courageous among us only rarely has the courage to face what he already knows.’ –Nietzsche
Mr D. was working on a reality television show when he was hospitalised after causing a public disturbance. While working on the production of the show, he came to believe that he was the one who was actually being broadcast: ‘‘I thought I was a secret contestant on a reality show. I thought I was being filmed. I was convinced I was a contestant and later the TV show would reveal me.’’
photo { Julius Shulman }
‘Although rivaled closely by SATAN PUT THE DINO BONES THERE, QUENTIN.’ –Malcolm Harris
Worst Companies At Protecting User Privacy: Skype, Verizon, Yahoo!, At&T, Apple, Microsoft.
photos { Marlo Pascual | Sean and Seng }
‘Idleness is the beginning of all psychology.’ –Nietzsche
HorrendousRex
No one seems to have mentioned it, so I’ll point out that this looks like an M4 Carbine with iron sights, without any magazine inserted (and I have to imagine no bullet round chambered, either).
It appears to have no attachments besides the iron sights, which I thought is surprising as I thought that the foregrip and picatinny rail and ACOG scope were standard attachments for the IDF. I would imagine this is because she is a new recruit (mentioned elsewhere in the thread). [Edit: Apparently no M4 attachments are standard in the IDF, they are either soldier-purchased or disbursed for relevant combat roles.]
The gun might also be the M4A1 automatic variant of the M4, but without any modifications I don’t really know how to tell. [Apparently it might also be a short-barreled variant of the M16 - but isn’t that what an M4 is?]
The umbrella stands belong to “Carlsberg” pale lager, a product of the Carlsberg Group. Their motto is “Probably the best beer in the world”, but it is not the best beer in the world.
I’m having trouble identifying the bikinis but the girl with the gun seems to be wearing a mismatched set, as is often the fashion.
The ass is good.voodoopredatordrones
you just Sherlocked that picture…for no apparent reasonlampkyter
If he really Sherlocked it he would have told us something like how many times she’s had sex.imatosserama
I can’t definitively say how many times, or if, she has had sex. What I can say is that it is unlikely that either of the two had orgasmed earlier that day.
Look at the way they hold their hips. When a woman orgasms, there is an involuntary relaxation of several of the hip muscles. The hips are carried in a way that looks relaxed and comfortable, rather unlike the somewhat stiff postures we see here. This effect usually lasts for several hours.
Of course, they could have had sex. Quite a lot, even. But it seems unlikely that they reached an orgasm that day. I could be wrong. But it seems unlikely. A more definite conclusion could be reached if we had a video of them walking.
Edit for proof: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18637995
