Category Archives: Nonsense

They’re Made Out of Meat!

July 7, 2011 – 1:56 pm

“They’re Made Out of Meat” is a short story by Terry Bisson. It’s a great riff on the improbability of the human situation, and particularly relevant to psychologists (e.g. “So … what does the thinking?”) The full text is here. The story has its own wikipedia page, and there’s a YouTube film here. Now, for [...]

By tomstafford | Comments (13)

The neurology of the undead

June 30, 2011 – 10:58 pm

Wired has an excellent neurological guide to surviving the zombie holocaust that will keep you one shamble ahead when the undead attack.     The article and the wonderful accompanying infographics were inspired by the work of neuroscientist Bradley Voyek who, when he is not poking around in the decaying brains of zombies, looks at [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Inside the Brain | Comments (4)

Brain’s hot mess centre discovered

June 15, 2011 – 5:38 pm

Wake up in the morning feeling like R-Sperry…   Link to (original?) image on Beats not Bombs tumblr (via @pepperbee)

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Inside the Brain | Comments (6)

Pink fluffy cat ears – controlled by brain waves

May 5, 2011 – 12:36 pm

Wired UK have documented how another barrier in the fashion revolution has come crashing down. A Japanese company called Neurowear have created pink brainwave-controlled cat ears for humans. The company claim that they stand up when you concentrate and lay flat when you relax. However, as the ears almost certainly pick up on different EEG [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (14)

Parents a risk factor for psychological maladjustment

May 1, 2011 – 3:24 pm

The Onion has a funny story with the headline ‘Man Raised By Parents Struggling To Adjust To Human Society’. MINNEAPOLIS—Two years after his discovery by a team of developmental psychologists, David Sullivan, a man raised by a pair of mated parents, is still struggling to adapt to normal human society, sources confirmed Friday. According to [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (3)

Five ways to boost your intelligence – now!

April 12, 2011 – 1:17 am

1. Talk to lots of high falutin’ people 2. Perfect a knowing smile 3. Name drop obscure Russian authors 4. Grow a beard and wear with matching tweed jacket or floral print dress HAVE YOU TRIED OUR PENIS ENLARGEMENT PILLS? 5. Make disdainful comments about popular entertainment

By vaughanbell | Comments (8)

A symphony of synapses

March 24, 2011 – 1:58 am

Those autotune-friendly science remix chaps Symphony of Science have just released a new track called ‘Ode to the Brain!’ about our favourite piece of pinkish grey sludge. As well as being a decent track, it is also a piece of useful recycling as it incorporates several of the dodgiest bits of popular neuroscience into a [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Inside the Brain | Comments (2)

Existential internet states

February 20, 2011 – 8:18 pm

Thought Catalog has an amusing and unsettlingly accurate piece on ‘Five Emotions Invented by the Internet’ which has a series of existential feelings uniquely evoked by our favourite worldwide communication network. The state of being ‘installed’ at a computer or laptop for an extended period of time without purpose, characterized by a blurry, formless anxiety [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (8)

Funky shit

February 19, 2011 – 8:41 pm

In the debate about the ability of language to adequately describe conscious experience, jazzed-out rappers The Jungle Brothers came out firmly behind the skeptical position of philosopher of mind Eric Schwitzgebel with their 1997 track ‘Brain’. In the 2007 book Describing Inner Experience? Proponent Meets Skeptic psychologist Russell Hurlburt argued that modern research methods make [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Theory | Comments (3)

Brain area for empty news stories discovered

February 15, 2011 – 12:16 pm

Satirical website Newsbiscuit has a cutting article making fun of the regular ‘brain scans show…’ news items that are a staple of the popular science pages. Scientists are heralding a breakthrough in brain scan technology after a team at Oxford University produced full colour images of a human brain that shows nothing of any significance. [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (6)

I’m Gladwell to hear it

February 9, 2011 – 12:00 am

The Malcolm Gladwell Book Generator is simultaneously a very silly and a very funny website that generates Malcolm Gladwell books from a parallel universe. If you never knew you wanted to read: “The Tripping Point: How Psychoactive Substances Created a… Wait, I Can’t Feel My Face Bro” or “The Paradox Paradox: Why Nobody Gives a [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (3)

Suck two of these and call me in the morning

February 5, 2011 – 6:55 pm

While in Barcelona I discovered a fantastic psychiatry-themed sweet shop called Happy Pills which sells every possible candy you could imagine packaged into mood-lifting pill bottles. You can also browse their website although if you’re not a Spanish speaker wait for the ‘ingredients’ intro to pass before you can click to see the rest of [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (2)

See Think Mash

January 19, 2011 – 6:05 pm

Online scallywags The Daily Mash have a funny piece satirising the way neuroscience studies get reported in the media. To be honest, I think I might keep the first paragraph and use it to improve any dodgy science stories that come my way from now on. Scientists at the Institute for Studies have finally established [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (1)

Bogotá neuronaut

January 6, 2011 – 10:55 pm

Some futuristic brain graffiti found in the centre of Bogotá. You may remember I found some futuristic brain graffiti in the centre of Colombia’s second city, Medellín, in 2009. Coincidence, I think not.

By vaughanbell | Comments (2)

Treating the madness of the hippies

December 23, 2010 – 7:13 pm

In 1972, Colombian psychiatrist Miguel Echeverry published a book arguing that hippies were not a youth subculture but the expression of a distinct mental illness that should be treated aggressively lest it spread through the population like a contagion. I found the book, called Psicopatologia y Existencia del Hippie (Psychopathology and Existence of the Hippy), [...]

By vaughanbell | Also posted in Remembering | Comments (22)

The brain scanner’s prayer

December 17, 2010 – 9:37 pm

The brilliant Neuroskeptic has created a version of The Lord’s Prayer for the fMRI generation. It is at once spiritually uplifting, scientifically edifying and very, very funny. Our scanner, which art from Siemens, Hallowed be thy coils. Thy data come; Thy scans be done; In grey matter as it is in white matter. Give us [...]

By vaughanbell | Comments (2)
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