6 Creepy Brainwashing Techniques You Can Use Today You're standing in line at a Starbucks. A busy-looking suit taps on your shoulder and asks, "Do you mind if I cut in front of you?" A week later, an identical-looking dude does the same thing, only this one says, "Do you mind if I cut in front of you, because I need to get my coffee?" Which one are you more likely to tell to fuck off? Mario Tama/Getty Images News/Getty Images"Well, I have two middle fingers, so ..." Of course, your answer is "Both, and if he tries anything, so help me, I will initiate a slap-fight." Why It Works: The key is that it really only works on requests that don't require a lot of time or effort on the other person's end -- once they have a moment to think about what was said, they usually build up some resistance. Monkey Business Images/Monkey "Hm? When the brain is in the automatic state, our reasoning becomes simplified, to the point where almost any reason to do something is good enough for us. Paul K Pickett is a Canadian writer.
The 7 Most Elaborate Dick Moves in Online Gaming History Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) are a psychological test we pay to fail. We've looked at the biggest dick moves in online gaming before, but multiplayer games are just like the rest of the Internet -- no matter how big a dick you've seen, somewhere there's an even bigger one doing unspeakable things to people. Runescape is a free MMPORG that anyone can access through a browser. Lowering the barrier to entry means that they have to create conditions to keep their game from devolving into a wasteland of constant murder and anarchy. There are various controls around combat -- players can fight each other, but only in designated places or as part of combat mini-games. The system has worked so well that the only real problem is people trying to pay real money for in-game accomplishments, rather than earning them through good old fashioned hard work. She's just so clingy they stop breathing. runescape.wikia.comAny discovery requires repeated trials.
Most Theories of Consciousness Are Worse Than Wrong - The Atlantic According to medieval medicine, laziness is caused by a build-up of phlegm in the body. The reason? Phlegm is a viscous substance. Its oozing motion is analogous to a sluggish disposition. The phlegm theory has more problems than just a few factual errors. After all, suppose you had a beaker of phlegm and injected it into a person. In the modern age we can chuckle over medieval naiveté, but we often suffer from similar conceptual confusions. One corner of science where phlegm theories proliferate is the cognitive neuroscience of consciousness. The oscillation theory of consciousness became popular in neuroscience in the 1990s and still has its adherents. Neuronal oscillations probably do play an important role in the flow of information in the brain, although the exact role is debated. Most people have a set of intuitions about consciousness. Another popular explanation of consciousness is the integrated information theory. Again, it flatters intuition.
The 6 Weirdest Cities People Actually Live In Look, we're idiots: None of us knows what, exactly, goes into city planning, but we assume it's probably a lot of distinguished gentlemen emailing each other about math, statistics and blueprints. But somewhere along the line, somebody accidentally CC'ed the insane asylum, and we wound up with the following civilizations that simply should not be: #6. Neft Dashlari: A Hacked Together City in the Middle of the Sea Via Skyscraper.talkwhat.com Back in 1945, the USSR discovered oil just off the coast of Azerbaijan. Via Skyscraper.talkwhat.com"If you find yourself plummeting into the sea, you've gone too far." Five thousand people live and work on Neft Dashlari, right there in the face of logic and Poseidon alike. Via Skyscraper.talkwhat.comThey went a little crazy on the swimming pool, though. Via Skyscraper.talkwhat.comOur guess? #5. Via Acontecimientos2012 Manshiyat Naser is a city with zero unemployment, extremely cheap housing and a populace that mostly describe themselves as "happy." #4.
Holonomic brain theory - Wikipedia The holonomic brain theory, developed by neuroscientist Karl Pribram initially in collaboration with physicist David Bohm, is a model of human cognition that describes the brain as a holographic storage network.[1][2] Pribram suggests these processes involve electric oscillations in the brain's fine-fibered dendritic webs, which are different from the more commonly known action potentials involving axons and synapses.[3][4][5] These oscillations are waves and create wave interference patterns in which memory is encoded naturally, and the waves may be analyzed by a Fourier transform.[3][4][5][6][7] Gabor, Pribram and others noted the similarities between these brain processes and the storage of information in a hologram, which can also be analyzed with a Fourier transform.[1][8] In a hologram, any part of the hologram with sufficient size contains the whole of the stored information. Origins and development[edit] Theory overview[edit] The hologram and holonomy[edit] Recent studies[edit]
The 6 Most Creative Abuses of Loopholes The best way to get away with cheating isn't to avoid getting caught... it's to technically not do anything wrong, and still get all the rewards. That's where you find the line between lawbreakers and those who simply think outside the box... and that line is very thin indeed. Bar Declares Everyone to be Actors to Circumvent Smoking Ban Back in 2007, Minnesota followed a national trend by passing an anti-smoking law that banned smoking in pretty much every public building, including bars. "...or, we could get stoned and play Xbox." The good owners of the Barnacles Bar were determined to find a loophole that would let their nicotine-addicted clientele feed their deadly vice in peace. There was a line in the law that said if you were an actor in a play, and your character smoked, then you'd get a pass. "Now can I fucking smoke?" The thing was, the law didn't bother to specify what was meant by "stage performances," and really, how do you argue? Man Flies Free Thanks to Pudding
Brain is 10 times more active than previously measured -- ScienceDaily A new UCLA study could change scientists' understanding of how the brain works -- and could lead to new approaches for treating neurological disorders and for developing computers that "think" more like humans. The research focused on the structure and function of dendrites, which are components of neurons, the nerve cells in the brain. Neurons are large, tree-like structures made up of a body, the soma, with numerous branches called dendrites extending outward. Somas generate brief electrical pulses called "spikes" in order to connect and communicate with each other. Scientists have believed that this was dendrites' primary role. But the UCLA team discovered that dendrites are not just passive conduits. "Dendrites make up more than 90 percent of neural tissue," said UCLA neurophysicist Mayank Mehta, the study's senior author. The research is reported in the March 9 issue of the journal Science. Recent studies in brain slices showed that dendrites can generate spikes.
4 Evolutionary Explanations for Modern Annoyances Soren Bowie is on assignment in the jungles of South America. Filling in for him today is Los Angeles based writer Joe Donatelli. At some point, your appendix was vital to your survival. Well, not yours in particular. #4. Let me preface this by saying that it comes from first-hand experience. Getty"Wait, there might be someone in the bathroom I haven't said goodbye to." Women say goodbye to the host, to their friends, to people they've met that night and even to strangers. With her friends, it's not enough to say goodbye. Getty"My boyfriend is already in the car. For those of you keeping track, that's two goodbyes apiece for friends and strangers, plus more planning than took place before the Yalta Conference. When I'm at a party with my friends, I do the polite thing: I thank the host and leave. I then drive home safely. GettyPassing out at parties is harder when you have to find couch space for a second person. In research published by Daniel Balliet, Norman P. #3. Of course.
Artificial Stupidity Artificial Stupidity by Ali Minai "My colleagues, they study artificial intelligence; me, I study natural stupidity." —Amos Tversky, (quoted in “The Undoing Project” by Michael Lewis). Not only is this quote by Tversky amusing, it also offers profound insight into the nature of intelligence – real and artificial. Most of us working on artificial intelligence (AI) take it for granted that the goal is to build machines that can reason better, integrate more data, and make more rational decisions. The work of Tversky and Kahneman focused on showing systematically that much of intelligence is not rational. The field of AI began with the conceit that, ultimately, everything is computation, and that reproducing intelligence – even life itself – was only a matter of finding the “correct” algorithms. One of the biggest gaps between AI and natural intelligence is speed. When an artificial system such as a car or computer is first deployed, it is not surprising to see it work perfectly.
5 Ways You Know It's Time to Get Married I've talked about my often-disastrous relationships in a number of my columns, and every time I do, I get dozens of messages from people asking me to elaborate. Not that I'm an expert -- it's more like how you see a guy come screaming out of the woods covered in bees and you ask him where he found the hive, so you can avoid it. So, the most common question I get (besides "Will you please stop sending me pictures of your penis?") is "How do I know if this is the one?" Well, if you want to avoid the bees, I say you should always keep in mind ... #5. Photos.com If you try to pet 49 stray cats, and all of them embed their claws in your forearm, you're going to assume that the 50th will, too. Since most of us don't find our "true love" on the first shot, we're cursed to endure attempt after attempt at connecting with people who we normally wouldn't allow into the trunk of our car, let alone our personal, emotional space. Photos.comWorks every time, baby. Photos.comWhat? Try This: #4. #3.
Why upgrading your brain could make you less human | Aeon Ideas Within the lifetimes of most children today, bioenhancement is likely to become a basic feature of human society. Personalised pharmaceuticals will enable us to modify our bodies and minds in powerful and precise ways, with far fewer side-effects than today’s drugs. New brain-machine interfaces will improve our memory and cognition, extend our senses, and confer direct control over an array of semi-intelligent gadgets. Genetic and epigenetic modification will allow us to change our physical appearance and capabilities, as well as to tweak some of the more intangible aspects of our being such as emotion, creativity or sociability. Do you find these ideas disquieting? But if we’re not careful, we ignore the fact that these ‘products’ are altering key aspects of a human being’s selfhood. Get Aeon straight to your inbox The problem of dehumanisation isn’t new, as the bleak history of war, colonialism and slavery attests. So, what can you do?
6 Mind-Blowing Ways Zombies and Vampires Explain America Here's the weirdest graph you'll see all week. It's graphing the popularity of zombie movies versus vampire movies, split out by whether the president at the time was a Republican or a Democrat. There are exceptions, but in general when a Republican is in office, it's all about zombies. When it's a Democrat, it's all about vampires: Via mrscienceshowAnd apparently all our apocalypses started with Eisenhower. Night of the Living Dead shambled into cinemas during the Nixon era. Actually, it makes perfect sense. #6. Vampires represent a combination of all the things the right fears about the left -- a breakdown of traditional morality and sexuality, a rejection of religion (there's a reason you can ward off a vampire with a cross), and the seduction and corruption of the innocent. They're really afraid of this: Via TimeTo be fair, we're pretty sure this crew could whoop the cast of Twilight hard. Via mydisguisesNo, vampires wouldn't need razors. A fate worse than crumpets. #5. ... #4. ...
Single-Cell Genomics Allows Identification of New Cell Types How many types of cells are there in the human body? Textbooks say a couple of hundred. But the true number is undoubtedly far larger. Piece by piece, a new, more detailed catalogue of cell types is emerging from labs like that of Aviv Regev at the Broad Institute, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which are applying recent advances in single-cell genomics to study individual cells at a speed and scale previously unthinkable. The technology applied at the Broad uses fluidic systems to separate cells on microscopic conveyor belts and then submits them to detailed genetic analysis, at the rate of thousands per day. Regev says she has been working with the new methods to classify cells in mouse retinas and human brain tumors, and she is finding cell types never seen before. Other labs are racing to produce their own surveys and improve the underlying technology. Such surveys have only recently become possible, scientists say.