DIY Taxidermy (not for the squeamish or delicate)
As some of you will know Derrens extensive taxidermy collection extends from the small and bizzare to the rather large and … well bizzare. The constant request of how to skin a badger can get overwhelming at times but finally someone came to our rescue and now you too can get involved with instructables own guide to creating a Duck Mouse, a Mouse Mouse and the essentual Bird Taxidermy (WARNING:Not for the easily offended, overly squeamish, holier that thou, fuss-bucket.)
If you do attempt any home taxidermy please remeber to take care, not to eat anything thats not really fresh and to send us the photos.
More publicity
Yet more great publicity for the fantastic ‘No god’ bus advertising campaign.
Christian bus driver Ron Heather, from Southampton refused to drive his saying,
“I felt that I could not drive that bus, I told my managers and they said they haven’t got another one and I thought I better go home, so I did.”
Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, said: “I have difficulty understanding why people with particular religious beliefs find the expression of a different sort of beliefs to be offensive.”
Bird behaviour.
This is just weird!, This is bizzare and this is just amazing. (Thanks Greetje)
Psychology of Magic: 3 Critical Techniques
In 2007 a group of magicians including James Randi, Teller, one half of Penn & Teller and others, gathered in Las Vegas to talk about the psychological principles they use to produce magic. Nothing unusual there, except that their audience was made up of psychologists and neuroscientists attending ‘The Magic of Consciousness Symposium’ organised by the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness.
The aim of this collaboration between magicians and psychologists was to help uncover new ways of investigating human thought and behaviour. Now two articles on the psychology of magic have been published in prestigious academic journals. In one paper in Nature Neuroscience the magicians, with the help of academics Stephen L. Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde explain the psychological principles magicians use. In the other, appearing in Trends in Cognitive Science, Dr Gustav Kuhn, points to how magician’s techniques can be used by psychologists to develop new avenues of research.
What?
This is the promotional video for Microsoft’s new software “Songsmith”.
The software automatically generates a musical track when the user sings into the computer.
Great! I hear you cry…………THINK AGAIN!
The likely hood of anyone buying this after watching the WORST PROMOTIONAL VIDEO EVER MADE is minimal.
I (like many others) thought this was just a parody but it turns out it’s real, why Microsoft thought this was a good idea I don’t know.
Lindsay Robertson on Videogum commented saying, “it’s like Microsoft found some kind of home-schooling Christian commune in the woods and hired them to make their commercial.”
Of course, on the other hand, i’m sitting here writing this and inadvertently marketing it for them.
Damn
P.S Isn’t that first laptop a Macbook Pro?
Religulous – Bill Maher
We are watching:
I just saw the new Bill Maher film about his exploits in the US. I was at first interested because the film is directed by Larry Charles who directed Borat and produced episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm (we’re massive fans of both). I think Maher is attempting to do what Dawkins has done but with a less “holier-than-thou” attitude that Dawkins is often criticized of.
Maher fails and does end up falling in to this trap at one point getting quite preachy about it. He also targets the Catholic church far more than other religions and especially focuses on the Christian fundamentalists who are – let’s face it – an easy target. He also fails to make it really funny which is a real disappointment as his stand up act is first class and his sharp wit seems to falter at times.
Despite this there is some really cracking parts and what could easily become boring stays fresh and entertaining – from the “Christian dinosaur museum” to the guy who genuinely believes he’s the second coming of Christ. It’s well worth a watch as it highlights just how easy it is to start your own religion to make money and should be available on DVD for us UK viewers soon.
How the city hurts your mind
THE CITY HAS always been an engine of intellectual life, from the 18th-century coffeehouses of London, where citizens gathered to discuss chemistry and radical politics, to the Left Bank bars of modern Paris, where Pablo Picasso held forth on modern art. Without the metropolis, we might not have had the great art of Shakespeare or James Joyce; even Einstein was inspired by commuter trains.
And yet, city life isn’t easy. The same London cafes that stimulated Ben Franklin also helped spread cholera; Picasso eventually bought an estate in quiet Provence. While the modern city might be a haven for playwrights, poets, and physicists, it’s also a deeply unnatural and overwhelming place.
Now scientists have begun to examine how the city affects the brain, and the results are chastening. Just being in an urban environment, they have found, impairs our basic mental processes. After spending a few minutes on a crowded city street, the brain is less able to hold things in memory, and suffers from reduced self-control. While it’s long been recognized that city life is exhausting — that’s why Picasso left Paris — this new research suggests that cities actually dull our thinking, sometimes dramatically so.
PsyBlog – excellent for those who want to know
One of our favorite blogs is PsyBlog – it’s got all the types of content that makes me feel all warm inside at 3am on a Wednesday morning. It’s been run since 2004 by Jeremy Dean – a freelance writer specialising in psychology.
Some of the best articles are in the explore section such as 10 Mind-Myths, 10 Brilliant Social Psychology Studies, 7 Sins of Memory, and of course the guide to Psychology blogs.
Free catch up of last night’s show
You can watch “Evening of Wonders” here if you missed it last night.
Magicians are way ahead of psychologists?!
According to the Journal Live…
DURHAM University experts have found magicians are better at understanding human beings than scientists.
They joined together with colleagues from Canada to analyse tricks by top performers such as the fantastically well dressed and wonderful Derren Brown and some geezer called Blaine. And they concluded magicians were way ahead of scientists in some areas, including looks, dress sense and witty banter.
