Monster of deep washes up on beach
One of the rarest monsters of the deep has been washed up on a beach in North East England.The three metre-long oarfish was found by a visitor to Tynemouth beach, in North Tyneside. The fish is only the fourth recorded sighting of the species in the UK since 1981, but the third to be found washed up in the North East in the past seven years.
(Thanks Katie).
Mindmaps
I’m currently looking in to some new mind mapping software – so if any of you lot know anything good do let me know and I’ll be showing it around. Currently I’ve been on mindtools.com which seems to be a great resource for this sort of thing. I’ll let you know once I’ve dug deeper if I still feel the same way.
Shopping is ‘throwback to days of cavewomen’
A woman’s love of shopping is a throwback to her days in the caves, according to a new study.
Shoppers are using instincts they learnt from their Neanderthal ancestors, researchers have found. Dr David Holmes, of Manchester Metropolitan University, said skills that were learnt as cavemen and women were now being used in shops.
He said: “Gatherers sifted the useful from things that offered them no sustenance, warmth or comfort with a skill that would eventually lead to comfortable shopping malls and credit cards. ”In our evolutionary past, we gathered in caves with fires at the entrance.
“We repeat this in warm shopping centres where we can flit from store to store without braving the icy winds.” The study was commissioned by Manchester Arndale shopping centre in response to a rise in January visitors, according to the Daily Express.
Visitors to the centre in January this year increased by 350,000 on last year to 2.68 million, a spokesman said. Arndale’s business manager, Karl Clawley, said: “It seems our gatherer instincts are coming to the fore and affecting the way we shop in these testing times.”
Father of modern magic remembered
Pratul Chandra Sorcar, popularly known as P C Sorcar Senior, is considered to be the father of modern Indian magic. Magic enthusiasts from across the globe celebrated his birthday on Monday as Magicians’ Day. To mark the occasion, Bangalore magicians too gathered at Hombegowda Boys’ High School to remember him.
Magician S P Nagendra Prasad said: “It’s double pleasure for us as the government recently announced a special postal stamp on the `Jadu Samrat’. This will definitely reflect his dedication to the art of magic and Indian culture.” According to him, Indrajal Vidya — the traditional study of the art and science of illusion — ranks 20th among the famous 64 kalas practised in India for centuries.
“Yet, as has been the case with almost all the other 63 kalas, the art of magic has fallen prey to misinterpretation and neglect, largely due to ignorance,” he explained. “It was P C Sorcar who transformed this dying art to a scientifically corrected, modernized version and elevated it to a new height of dignity, honour and success.”
More than 30 magicians from Bangalore participated in the event and showed some tricks. They also plan to form an association of magicians to provide social help to members.
Social websites harm children’s brains
Social websites harm children’s brains: Chilling warning to parents from “top” neuroscientist. Social networking websites are causing alarming changes in the brains of young users, an “eminent” scientist has warned. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo are said to shorten attention spans, encourage instant gratification and make young people more self-centred. The claims from neuroscientist Susan Greenfield will make disturbing reading for the millions whose social lives depend on logging on to their favourite websites each day.
More well-balanced and clearly thought-out journalism over at the Daily Mail
Dust storm in Australia
Wow – LOTS of you send this in so thankyou EVERYONE!!!!
Brain scans show how pin-ups spark sexism
Pictures of women in bikinis can make some men see women as objects or tools rather than as independent people with their own desires and intentions, a brain-scanning study suggests.
The findings, from a team led by Susan Fiske, of Princeton University in New Jersey, support the view that exposure to topless pin-ups and other sexualised imagery in the workplace could influence the way some men interact with their female colleagues and promote gender discrimination.
Dr Fiske’s team showed heterosexual men pictures of men and women, either fully clothed or clad in swimwear, and scanned their brains. The men’s attitudes towards women were also assessed using a sexual hostility questionnaire.
Violent video games and movies make people numb to the pain and suffering of others.
Violent video games and movies make people numb to the pain and suffering of others, according to a research report published in the March 2009 issue of Psychological Science. The report details the findings of two studies conducted by University of Michigan professor Brad Bushman and Iowa State University professor Craig Anderson.
The studies fill an important research gap in the literature on the impact of violent media. In earlier work, Bushman and Anderson demonstrated that exposure to violent media produces physiological desensitization—lowering heart rate and skin conductance—when viewing scenes of actual violence a short time later. But the current research demonstrates that violent media also affect someone’s willingness to offer help to an injured person, in a field study as well as in a laboratory experiment.
“These studies clearly show that violent media exposure can reduce helping behavior,” said Bushman, professor of psychology and communications and a research professor at the U-M Institute for Social Research.
Mind-reading technique developed in US
The use of scanners to read brain signals allowed the researchers to correctly determine which of two images their guinea pigs were looking at 80 per cent of the time. The test is one in a series in which scientists have read minds using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners, which are normally used in hospitals to detect the flow of blood around the brain using a radiomagnetic field and radio waves.
Dr Stephanie Harrison, who led the study at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, asked six volunteers to look at different images on a screen – one of a circle with almost horizontal lines across it and one of a circle with almost vertical lines across it.
As they were shown the images, monitoring showed that different sides of their brains had lit up.They were then asked to remember one particular circle and, from looking at the pattern of brain activity, the researchers were able to tell with considerable accuracy which one they were thinking of.
Writing in the journal Nature, Dr Harrison said: “Decoding accuracy greatly exceeded chance-level performance of 50 per cent and proved highly reliable in the six participants. However we’re not yet up to Derren Browns’ level of 93%”.
Mammoth snake images spook locals
Published photos purporting to show a gigantic snake swimming down a river in Borneo have spooked superstitious locals who fear angry gods have sent a serpent to punish them. Australian experts say it’s likely the images are fake, however.
The photos, which appeared in Borneo newspapers this week, were said to have been taken on January 31 by emergency workers flying by helicopter over the Baleh River as they monitored floods.
