Homer every day

Homer Every Day from Noah K. on Vimeo.

From TED: John Hodgman: A brief digression on matters of lost

Check out my neurons getting connected

Seeing a brain as it learns to see

DURHAM, N.C. -- A brain isn't born fully organized. It builds its abilities through experience, making physical connections between neurons and organizing circuits to store and retrieve information in milliseconds for years afterwards.
Now that process has been caught in the act for the first time by a Duke University research team that watched a naïve brain organize itself to interpret images of motion.
"This is the first time that anyone has been able to watch as visual experience selectively shapes the functional properties of individual neurons," said David Fitzpatrick, professor of neurobiology and director of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. "These results emphasize just how important experience is for the early development of brain circuits." The group's findings appear online Oct. 22 in the journal Nature.
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Great web tool: Easy abs

If you ever want to organize a conference, the whole submission/review process can de done online and for free. There are several website which offer such services and now Linguistlist.org also lauched one: Easy Abs. Nice to see that LinguistList keeps going strong and providing useful services for linguists worldwide. If you are not a subscriber (again, free), become one now. I recommend the digest mode, but you can receive individual e-mails too.

A nerd goes to a nightclub

If you like good music

Staying alive

Why 'Stayin' Alive' could literally save your life: Disco song has perfect rhythm to jump-start a heart, says doctor

By Daily Mail Reporter

'Stayin' Alive' might be more true to its name than the Bee Gees ever could have guessed: At 103 beats per minute, the old disco song has almost the perfect rhythm to help jump-start a stopped heart.
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Funny shit of the day

Yet another example of what is done in the name of religion

Hanged for being a Christian in Iran

Eighteen years ago, Rashin Soodmand's father was hanged in Iran for converting to Christianity. Now her brother is in a Mashad jail, and expects to be executed under new religious laws brought in this summer. Alasdair Palmer reports.
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Think about what they would do to someone who became an atheist. No fucking way I will ever visit such a place. At least while crazy religious zealots are in command.

Pure Gold

Sarah Palin Sex Doll Now On Sale

Funny shit from the past

And that's why I don't miss the 80's.

Gross and whacky!

Mama's milk ice cream cone, anyone?

By JOHN CURRAN – Sep 25, 2008

WATERBURY, Vt. (AP) — Mooove over, Holsteins. PETA wants world-famous Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream to tap nursing moms, rather than cows, for the milk used in its ice cream.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is asking the ice cream maker to begin using breast milk in its products instead of cow's milk, saying it would reduce the suffering of cows and calves and give ice cream lovers a healthier product.

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On Blogging

Do you know who Norman Borlaug is?

If you don't, you really should. Really. The guy is responsible for saving probably over 1 billion lives by leading the green revolution of the 60s and 70s in developing countries. Way more lives than any religion, especially if you discount those taken in the name of religion and by organized church.

I must confess that a year or so ago I had never heard about the guy (ok, he is an old man today and his Nobel peace prize is from 1970). Or maybe my memory failed yet again, but I doubt I ever saw his name on my high school textbooks. My point: it is really fucked up that most people never heard about him and his work. Get informed and think twice next time you buy the supposedly environmentally friendly overpriced organic produce.

An old bad boy

Tissue sample suggests HIV has been infecting humans for a century

48-year-old lymph node biopsy reveals the history of the deadly virus.

Heidi Ledford

A biopsy taken from an African woman nearly 50 years ago contains traces of the HIV genome, researchers have found. Analysis of sequences from the newly discovered sample suggests that the virus has been plaguing humans for almost a century.

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The revolution is right around the corner