And Then, I started Blogging Again...

Upon arrival at the store, I was first annoyed to discover that, once again, the science section had apparently migrated. After making several laps around the floor in search of it's new hiding place; pausing briefly to glare at the MASSIVE religious/spirituality section that had swelled to gargantuan proportions since my last visit, I decided to ask for help in my search.

More than slightly annoyed, and a little bewildered by the idea that the science section might actually be gone altogether, I approached an employee and asked,

" Um, do you not even have a science section anymore?".
"Yes, we still have a science section", the clerk replied, "it's right over here."

He then proceeded to lead me to the back of the store, where, crammed onto a few shelves facing the back wall -safely shielded from view of the casual browser, and centrally located next to the bathroom and encyclopedias- sat the tiny, sad little selection of science books seen above.To put things into perspective; remember the obscenely large religious and spirituality section I mentioned? Well, here's a photo of just the floor space this particular store has dedicated to bibles alone.

Including the section labeled, "Religious Fiction" (Ill spare you the obvious observation here), the books seen in that photo represent about 25% of the total collection of books on religion and spirituality available at this particular store. Now, take a moment to consider the rest of the credulous, pseudo-scientific, nonsensical, and superstition filled publications that we all know dominate the shelves of this, and every other bookstore in the country, and you'll start to see why this trip managed to set off something in my brain. Because, these days more than ever, brick and mortar stores like B&N have to make the most of their inventory in order to compete with online retailers like Amazon -less they suffer the same fate as Borders. Which means, the content of this, and any other store's inventory, is a direct reflection of what people actually have an interest in buying, and clearly -it ain't science.

Now, I know that this may not sound like much of a catalyst for an Epiphany. But for me, watching the selection of science books -which actually used to be fairly large at this particular location BTW- slowly shrink, and disappear from view, was a stark, and frankly depressing, reminder of just how unpopular science and critical thinking are -and just how prominent irrational thought, and supernatural belief, continue to be in the mind of the average person. so while I still harbor no delusions of grandeur where my place in the world is concerned, it did manage to remind me of why any effort to promote science and critical thinking, however small, was well worth it.

-CAINE-

Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011)

As you have no doubt heard by now, Christopher Hitchens, who had been receiving treatment for esophageal cancer since the middle of last year, died of pneumonia Thursday night at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, he was 62.

While I am, as always, days late in hearing the news, and I can't even pretend to have any great insight to add to the meaning of his life or the impact of his death. As someone whose taken great inspiration from his work for many years now, I can't help but at least try to express who he was and what his work meant, to me.

Hitchens was best known to most of mainstream culture, at least here in America anyway, as one of the most vocal, and aggressive, members of the modern atheist movement. He was a polarizing figure, even amongst those of us who shared his values, and was often characterized as a loud-mouthed intellectual. One who could always be found -drink in one hand, cigarette in the other- happily dismantling the most sacred ideals, icons, and beliefs, of much of modern society. All while displaying little to no regard for whose feelings he might hurt or whose sensibilities he might offend along the way. Which, all in all, is a fair enough characterization of his public face I suppose, and to me, a description of a man I would have loved to have met.

Christopher Hitchens, as I saw him, was a man who believed that intellectualism was not a dirty word. That being a so-called intellectual, was not a pursuit beyond the means of the average mind. He was a man who believed that acquiring a true higher understanding of our world was something that we should all aspire to, and he correctly identified religion as one of the primary enemies of that pursuit, and treated it accordingly.

It was this unapologetic promotion of free thought, and his effort to promote and reinvigorate interest in the values of the enlightenment movement -the philosophical and intellectual phenomena that was, not only the true parent of America, but of the modern scientific era in which we live today- that meant the most, and had the greatest affect and influence on me personally. Because I believe that what the world needs most is to learn not to tolerate ignorance, injustice, or hatred; or to settle for mediocrity for the sake of tradition, superstition, or fear of offense. And that, to me, was the overwhelming theme of Hitchens' work, and the reason that I will most miss having his voice in the world.

Goodbye Hitch.

-CAINE-

Researchers Reconstruct Visual experience from Brain Activity

Last week researchers from the University of California released a paper describing an experiment in which scientists managed to generate rough representations of visual stimuli by monitoring activity in the brain. This paper's release was also accompanied by the above video, which shows a comparison of the original images shown to participants in the test, along side the reconstructed versions generated by the computer.

While it's an impressive, even if imperfect, result. Chances are the reconstructed images seen in the video were not generated the way you think they were. Assuming of course that, like me, your mind is filled with images of people wearing funny devices on their heads, staring into some kind of strange optical device with their eyelids wired open like Clockwork Orange, or maybe even having their brains somehow jacked directly into computers all Johnny Mnemonic style -whoa-. No? Okay, so maybe it's just me, and I need to get out more and watch less sci-fi. Either way, Not surprisingly, that isn't the case.

In reality, these images were not collected directly from the subject's mind using any form of what you'd likely consider to be "mind-reading", in the traditional sci-fi sense. Instead, these images were generated by first collecting data from a subjects brain, via FMRI(Functional, Magnetic, Resonance, Imaging), and then asking a computer to reinterpret that data, and generate an image.

In order to accomplish this, the machine tasked with generating these images was first fed some 18 million 1 second YouTube clips -clips that were never shown to the participants in the experiment. Next, the subjects themselves each spent several hours lying inside an MRI machine and staring at a blue dot while being shown random YouTube clips; this allowed researchers to generate a map of basic visual activities within the brain during viewing using FMRI. Finally, those activity maps were then fed into the computer as well, and that computer was then was then asked to select from it's newly generated database of video clips, the images which best represented those being seen by the participants based solely on the activity shown on the scans.

In other words; the images you're seeing aren't actually images taken from "inside" any one's head like you might think. But rather, are a collection of images chosen by a computer and compiled together to represent what it determined to be the best visual representation of what the subject was seeing at the time, based on his or her brain activity.

So while this may not yet be the astonishing sc-fi milestone you may have thought it to be upon first reading the headlines surrounding it, it is an impressive feat. And though actually reading someone's thoughts and turning them into images is a very different thing than reinterperating direct visual stimulations of the brain, this could still potentialy be a major step towards achieving that goal. An accomplishment that would be invaluable to individuals who are otherwise unable to communicate.

-CAINE-

Source: dawn.com Paper Summary: sciencedirect.com

Octopus Kites by Tamas Kalman

Man Attempts to Survive Soley on Wife's Breast Milk

From This Week's Compendium:

See that? THAT, is an entire freezer full of human breast milk. More importantly, THAT, is an entire freezer full of human breast milk produced entirely by one human being. No, really. Why would someone have a freezer full of breast milk, much less what looks to be multiple gallons of the stuff?

When a couple’s newborn had to spend time in the NICU, mom became concerned that she might stop lactating. So, she began pumping -and storing. Eventually, the baby came home, and the milk the couple didn’t end up using for their own infant, was donated to milk banks; cause apparently that’s a thing you can do. It wasn’t long before the couple was once again, with child, -cause, ya know, the first time around went so smoothly- and once again, that child would spend time in the NICU, prompting mommy to resume her pumping regime. Like their first, the couple’s second child eventually made it’s way home, where their was -if nothing else- certainly plenty to eat. But this time, the couple was unable to donate the excess milk mommy made -at least where milk banks were concerned, I presume they overlooked the: “random fetishists on the internet” option- because of certain medications she was taking at the time of pumping; thus leaving the couple with a freezer full of unused -potentially, chemically tainted- breast milk.

As so often happens when starting a family, the couple was soon faced with a move, and paying the high cost of transporting a freezer full of mommy juice; seriously, think about how much of this stuff you have to have in order to determine it to be, TOO EXPENSIVE TO MOVE! Not wanting to throw out the precious fluid, cause, ya know, what kind of sensible person would do that? Daddy, soon had a solution.That solution of course, was to try and see just how long he could survive, on nothing but mother’s milk. Cause, Ya know, There’s nothing creepy or weird about that.

Just how far will this experiment go? And what will the results be? Well, it looks like we'll never REALLY know the answer to either of those questions, as the couple had intended to blog about Pop’s little experiment, but appear to have rather quickly discovered that the internets, is not always a kind place, as that blog is already down. Now if I could just keep my lunch that way, everything will be fine.

And you guys thought Ice cream made from human breast milk was creepy.

-CAINE-

Source: Gothamist.com

VIA: Compendium oF Strange

Shatner "Sings" Iron Man...

Posted by Youtube user: WilliamShatner

In case you don’t already know, amongst his various other activities, William Shatner occasionally likes to release…let’s call them “vocal albums”. My favorite of his offerings came from His 2004 album “has Been”, in the form of a track called “I can’t get Behind That”; which featured a guest appearance from Henry Rollins -yes, THAT Henry Rollins. For his next album, “Seeking Major Tom”, due out in 2011, Shatner recorded this version of Iron Man, featuring Zakk Wylde. The results are…well, let’s call it “Shat-tastic™”.

And if you thought was good, wait till you hear his version of Bohemian Rhapsody…

-CAINE-

VIA: GGB On Tumblr