Stay Safe at Halloween kids, beware the goblin infused M&M’s
Clearly this very serious issue needs all our attention: We need to get active and protect the children, ward away demons and find a more effective way to represent sarcasm in text format.
Eighth severed foot washes up on Canada’s Pacific coast
The foot, in a size 8.5 white Nike running shoe, was discovered on Tuesday by two men walking on a beach in a suburb of Vancouver, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement.
The British Columbia coroners’ office is conducting a forensic autopsy and other tests to try to match it to missing persons, police said.
Seven feet were previously found along the rugged coast of British Columbia province and the neighbouring US state of Washington, including one later determined to have belonged to a missing man who was depressed. The other feet discovered include a female pair, a male pair and a male right foot.
DNA testing has not yet determined the identities of the others, said police.
Scientists say the feet could have drifted dozens or thousands of miles because human body parts can remain intact in water for years when protected by shoes or sturdy clothing.
“There has been no evidence to date to support foul play in relation to these discoveries and it appears that all remains separated from the body, disarticulated, through a natural process,” police said.
Bottle bank arcade: small rewards change our behaviour
This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.
The above example is the third in a series of 3 current ideas that show how small and engaging rewards can be used to change peoples behaviour.
Radiologist Turns Scans Into Art
A radiologist has turned scans of his patients’ hearts, teeth and other body parts into works of art.
Kai-hung Fung maps various organs using 3D computed tomography (CT) scans.
After feeding the data into a computer, he adds colour to his works using a method he invented called the ‘rainbow technique’. But he makes no other alterations, preferring a pure picture of what body parts really look like.
He said: “The pictures I create are generated directly from the medical 3D workstation, representing what I see on it. I do not use software such as Adobe Photoshop to further change the image.
“My aim is to preserve the direct relationship between the data and the artwork.
“It is a true integration of art, science and technology and can be studied both scientifically and enjoyed as a visual art.
“The imagery is packed with information. Each line or point represents specific anatomical structures in the body in normal or diseased state. It creates an unusual perspective.”
Since he started producing his works at Pamela Youde Nethersole Easter Hospital in Hong Kong they have been shown in galleries across the world.
Proceeds from sales of his pieces are donated to charity.
Telegraph (thanks, KirstyJ)
Friday Fun: Funny looking vegetable
Well normally it’s a face or rude looking vegetable but this just takes the biscuit:
Friday Fun: Duck Sauce – Incredible reconstruction of 70′s styling
Here’s the Duck Sauce video. I just broke a shelf and bashed my wig on the wall dancing to this. It’s a fantastically fun song that is an obvious parody style tribute to the Jackson 5.
What’s incredible about the video (apart from the great song) is the attention to detail, from forming a fake band to using original 70′s tube camera equipment. The making of the video is a feature in itself:
Alcohol and cigarettes are more harmful than Ecstasy and LSD, says drugs tsar
Ecstasy, LSD and cannabis are less dangerous than alcohol and cigarettes, the Government’s chief drug adviser claims today. Professor David Nutt is calling for a new ‘index of harm’ to warn the public about the relative dangers of various substances.
He says alcohol should rank fifth, behind only cocaine, heroin, barbiturates and methadone, while tobacco should rank ninth, ahead of cannabis, LSD and Ecstasy.
His comments are likely to prove explosive, given the seniority of his position. Professor Nutt has also courted controversy in the past – by suggesting taking ecstasy was no more dangerous than riding a horse.
Article at the Mail
Would love to see Ben Golacre’s view on this – Phillis
Birds Use Light, Not Magnetic Field, to Migrate
A cell in the eye may be worth two in the beak, at least when it comes to a migratory bird’s magnetic compass. In European robins, a visual center in the brain and light-sensing cells in the eye — not magnetic sensing cells in the beak — allow the songbirds to sense which direction is north and migrate correctly, a new study finds. The study, appearing Oct. 29 in Nature, may improve conservation efforts for migratory birds.
“This is really fascinating science,” says biophysicist Klaus Schultenof the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who was one of the first to suggest that migrating birds can sense magnetic fields.
Researchers have known that built-in biological compasses tell migrating birds which way to fly, but the details of how birds detect magnetic fields has been unclear.
“This is basically the sixth sense of biology, but no one knows how it works,” says study co-author Henrik Mouritsenof the University of Oldenburg in Germany. “The magnetic sense is by far the least-understood sense in the natural world.”
What Does a Smart Brain Look Like?: Inner Views Show How We Think
We all know someone who is not as smart as we are—and someone who is smarter. At the same time, we all know people who are better or worse than we are in a particular area or task, say, remembering facts or performing rapid mental math calculations.
These variations in abilities and talents presumably arise from differences among our brains, and many studies have linked certain very specific tasks with cerebral activity in localized areas.
Answers about how the brain as a whole integrates activity among areas, however, have proved elusive. Just what does a “smart” brain look like?
