Brain’s reaction to hand transplant
When he was 19, David Savage lost his hand in a machine accident.
Thirty-five years later, he had a replacement hand installed.
Amazingly, the same region that controlled his hand when he had one
kicked right back into gear to deal with his new appendage. This
surprised scientists because other research has shown that once a limb
is gone, the associated brain region quickly picks up other duties.
From Science News:
When Savage had both hands, part of his right brain
responded to his left hand, and a corresponding part of his left brain
responded to his right hand. After the amputation, that same part of
his left brain would have been sensory-deprived and thus ready to adopt
duties of adjacent sensory areas, such as those for the right arm and
possibly his face.Much animal and human research has documented that such neural
reorganization begins within hours of limb loss or debilitation…“It’s remarkable that an original neural pathway for the hand can be
reinstated after years and years,” (Vanderbilt University
neuroscientist Jon) Kaas says.
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Cat Flushing
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Imagine being excited about a Paul McCartney album
Paul is NOT dead.
Paul goes into the studio, alone, no songs prepared at all. Thirteen
songs in thirteen days — one each day — Paul playing every
instrument, writing lyrics on the fly, ripping a line from a poem, the
next spontaneous, off the cuff, really gutsy. The album, Electric Arguments, to be released next month.
Maybe getting fleeced in a public and nasty divorce was the best thing
to happen to this man. I’ve not liked much if anything I’ve heard since
he split from Lennon, but I damn sure love this
single — “Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight” – it’s ragged and rugged, the thing bleeds and howls and moans. I think I’m gonna buy the album — Electric Arguments — as soon as it’s out.
Free download of Nothing Too Much Out of Sight here.
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Nerd library to end all nerd libraries
Stephen Levy toured the personal library of Priceline founder Jay
Walker and discovered nerdvana: a wunderkammer piled to the rafters
with the most pricelessly awesome nerd artifacts of all time — an
original Sputnik, the Thing hand from the Addams Family, a globe of the
moon signed by every astronaut who’s walked on it, an original of
Robert Hooke’s Micrographia, an Enigma machine, etc. You know, I’ve
often turned my nose up at the absurd excesses of wealth, but this is
one guy who knows how to spend several million on really rad junk. I think I pee’d a little reading the inventory, I’m such a nerd.
Nothing
quite prepares you for the culture shock of Jay Walker’s library. You
exit the austere parlor of his New England home and pass through a
hallway into the bibliographic equivalent of a Disney ride. Stuffed
with landmark tomes and eye-grabbing historical objects–on the walls,
on tables, standing on the floor–the room occupies about 3,600 square
feet on three mazelike levels. Is that a Sputnik? (Yes.) Hey, those
books appear to be bound in rubies. (They are.) That edition of Chaucer
… is it a Kelmscott? (Natch.) Gee, that chandelier looks like the one
in the James Bond flick Die Another Day. (Because it is.) No matter
where you turn in this ziggurat, another treasure beckons you–a 1665
Bills of Mortality chronicle of London (you can track plague fatalities
by week), the instruction manual for the Saturn V rocket (which
launched the Apollo 11 capsule to the moon), a framed napkin from 1943
on which Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined his plan to win World War II.
In no time, your mind is stretched like hot taffy.Browse the Artifacts of Geek History in Jay Walker’s Library
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Lego Batman Cake!
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Spotted on Flickr, a cake (yes, that’s all cake) made for the Lego
Batman videogame launch party. The cake was created by cake designer Elisa Strauss.
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6 Towers fit for a Super Villain
I thought I’d offer some assistance to any super villains who may be looking for a menacing building to call headquarters. Admittedly they’re quite noticeable so unless you have the necessary means to defend the building or are managing to operate under the radar, you may want to look for something underground. All chosen structures look either creepy as hell, flat-out brutal, or both, and as far as I know none or on the market at present so you may have to use underhand tactics to actually move in.
1. Jin Mao tower, Pudong, Shanghai
you to survey the surrounding area for miles assuming cloud cover is
minimal. As for sturdiness, it’s been designed by hardcore
architects/engineers and as a result can withstand winds up to 200km/h
and earthquakes to a maximum of 7 on the Richter scale. inside, the
building is home to one of the tallest atriums on planet earth (375ft),
a perfect place for henchmen to dispose of unwanted guests.
2. Moser tower, Naperville, Illinois
huge amount of habitable space for evil operations. The reason for its
inclusion here is purely an aesthetic one – of all the structures here,
it looks the best in terms of badassness – so I’d suggest maybe
building a lair underneath and using the tower itself solely as a
front. One potential positive is that, as it’s essentially an enormous
musical instrument, you could adapt it to play any villainous music at
will. Alternatively, the giant bells could surely be used as some kind
of torture device if a pesky human were attached.
photo sources: 3. Fernsehturm Berlin, Berlin
The fernsehturm is a TV tower in Berlin and it’s extremely tall at
1207ft. it could easily serve as a European headquarters and would be
pretty difficult for non-airborne enemies to infiltrate as all the
prime living space is located 669ft up in a sphere, its only point of
entry located at the bottom of the tower’s shaft on ground level. also,
within the sphere is a revolving restaurant, a feature which could
easily be transformed into a revolving control centre / spinning
turret, although you may have to speed up the mechanism as it’s
currently making just one revolution per 30 minutes.
4. Oriental Pearl Tower, Pudong, Shanghai
As with the fernsehturm, pearl tower is a TV tower, but this one is
located in shanghai and looks far more menacing and sturdy. It’s
basically a fernsehturm on steroids: instead of one supporting vertical
column, it has 3. Instead of one large sphere, this one has 2. plus
it’s also taller at 1535ft. another benefit is that it’s located just
supercharged spitting distance from Jin Mao tower (see above), meaning
a firmer grasp over shanghai could be quickly attained providing both
towers were commandeered.
5. Taipei 101, xinyi district, Taipei
Taipei 101 has a lot going for it in terms of evil HQ suitability. Its
height is a staggering 1670ft. it can withstand practically all natural
disasters and presumably a few of the attacks you’ll likely be subject
to. visually, it resembles a giant evil robot and completely dominates
the surrounding area, instantly sending out an intimidating message
before you’ve even settled in. it’s also the only tall structure to be
seen in that particular area meaning attacks from all sides will be
visible providing you have all corners manned.
6. žižkov television tower, žižkov, Prague
There’s not much that needs to be said about this one. It’s an
enormous, intimidating tower, and its supporting legs are covered with
faceless babies. If you’re the kind of super villain who’s obsessed
with image, look no further.
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2008 Nobel Prize for Physics
Nobels for Physics announced. The prize will be shared between three individuals, including one American teaching at the University of Chicago. The other two winners are from Japan, Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa .
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Better Stripshows through Science!
This is interesting, an interactive pole dance experiment that uses
strain gauges to change the lighting and colors by Daito Manabe + Motoi
Ishibashi. The best part about this video is you get to see a couple
Japanese hacker/engineers test it out. Well, at least that was my
favorite part.
Somewhat related, here’s a nice exchange about using a strain gauge from a scale to weigh a keg, clever!
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Fucked Up keep fucking things up
Aptly named hardcore deconstructionists Fucked Up are slated to play a free, 12-hour show in NYC on Tuesday, October 14th.
The show will feature appearances from the likes of John Cale, Matt
Sweeney, David Cross, Mobb Deep, Akon, Vivian Girls, U2’s The Edge, and
others.
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How to draw an apple in Photoshop
Eren Göksel provides a step-by-step for drawing this apple. How to Create a Delicious Green Apple Illustration
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Extreme rubber band gun, extremely well made!
Incredible rubber band gun, from Japan, of course…
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Punching bag changes color when hit
Love Hate Punch is a punching bag that gives light if you hit it and if
you do your best it changes color from dark red to bright red to yellow
to white.
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One Month in Corral for Disorderly Woman
32-year-old reportedly shows up for sentencing still wearing the costume.
(Middletown, OH) — Saturday night, people in the 3100 block of Wilbraham Road called police to report a woman wearing a cow costume was chasing kids, and blocking traffic. Michele Allen also allegedly urinated on the
porch of one neighbor.
When officers arrived, they told her to go home. But later that night, they found her again, in the 2400 block of Verity, standing in traffic. This time, officers say, Allen smelled of alcohol and swore at them.
She was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Allen plead guilty, Monday morning, in Middletown Municipal Court, and sentenced to a month in jail.
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A Neurotic Scotsman
A Neurotic Scotsman Cannot Help Himself From Commenting On The Mistakes Made By Some Of America’S Favorite Film Characters
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Sinestro had the script printed on YELLOW PAPER.
The Green Lantern movie is back on! Minus Jack Black! Early concept art is looking exciting, though sadly we’ll never see Paul Newman in the role of Hal Jordan.
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Diesel SFW XXX
Diesel’s SFW XXX viral will have you looking at pinball machines in a whole different light. And harmonica playing. And the maracas. And corn on a cob. The list goes on.
RobDurdle.com 
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