Men are dogs.

Is this what that statement means? ;)
Hmm.. some more wacky science.

A male dog will whine and beg in deference to a stronger dog, but will lower its voice into a guttural growl if it thinks it has a fighting chance. Men unconsciously do a similar thing, scientists say. A new study finds that the lower the pitch of a man's voice, the more physically dominant other men think he is. And men lower their voice pitch when addressing a man they believe to be less dominant than themselves, but raise it when speaking to someone they think is more dominant. The findings, detailed in the July issue of the journal of Evolution and Human Behavior, could help explain why vocal pitch in men and women are so different.

So what about a faker?

An experiment with sparrows done in the 1980's provides a case in point. Male sparrows have black patches on their chests that advertise their status to other males. The more dominant and older a male sparrow is, the bigger and darker his patch is. Researchers painted dark patches on the chests of male sparrows that weren't very dominant before. The ruse worked for a while, but eventually the posers were challenged to fight.

Some Changes - Science Points (tm)

Hello again,

Since I'm in the process of writing up a paper I'm kinda procrastinating by futzing with the blog. I've removed all the advertisements since they don't actually generate any money - hey I thought I'd try to get a little extra cash ;)

I've also added voting buttons to implement Brian's "Science Points (tm)"
I'm not sure how voting should proceed - whether it should be points for good science - points for bad science - or just points for funny stuff. What do you guys think?

P.S. This is a voting both from somewhere in Israel.
P.P.S. Click the Bump This button to add Science Points (tm).
P.P.P.S. Hopefully soon there will be an archive of popular blog posts.
P.P.P.P.S Just thought I'd add another one...

Virtual faces

I've heard of green (or blue) screens before but not green faces ;)
A former apply guy has developed some pretty neat technology to help create better virtual faces based on the real ones.

Contour, a futuristic camera system that will add photorealistic three-dimensional effects to digital entertainment. The new system will be introduced today at the Siggraph computer graphics conference in Boston, and effects created with it could start appearing as early as next year.

The system could change the nature of cinematography in several ways, according to leading Hollywood producers and technologists who are planning to use the system. For example, it will make it possible to create compellingly realistic synthetic actors by capturing the facial movements of real actors in much greater detail than is currently possible.

The Feed.

So I discovered a pretty neat feature on Feedburner today after a frustrating battle with blogger and feedburner (seems that syncing a feed is a more complicated than it seems..ugh). In anycase... feedburner will take my new del.icio.us links each day and create a summary of the things I'm reading but might not find worth blogging about (or am too lazy/busy - which is perhaps more typically the case). These links are only viewable on the feed...so you neanderthals who don't use feed readers should really get with it ;) And those of you who don't subscribe to my feed should really get with it! Here's the feed if you're having a hard time finding it ;)

"Sex Gets Up Womens Noses"

Quite the headline. The article in Sciencebase is about melanocortin receptors and an experimental nasal inhalant drug called PT-141 (or bremelanotide) touted as an aphrodisiac and weight loss drug (learn more from The Neurocritic).

It's possible to order synthetic PT-141 by the kilogram online from factories in China...nevermind amateur psychiatrists, there are amateur psychopharmacists afoot. Fab. Interest seems to be growing - just wait for the spam.

This was a post from sandra from a couple days ago - I'm having issues with blogger/feedburner and had to repost this.

Conflict of interest?

From the NYTimes:

Coal-burning utilities are contributing money to one of the few remaining climate scientists openly critical of the broad consensus that fossil fuel emissions are intensifying global warming.

The drug companies have been doing it for years - why not the utility companies?
It seems like there's something different about it though, but I'm not sure what.
Any opinions?

Hitting the links

Okay...this post has nothing to do with golf.
Here are some interesting links:

From Wired: This guy is suggesting that background noise is actually good for your working/concentration ability (although psych research would disagree)

You suggest that adding the right amount of random signal can actually enhance reception.
Adding small amounts of electrical noise helps a nanotube antenna detect faint binary signals. And noise can help digital photographers, too – injecting a little bit of random pixel noise can allow you to see hidden details in an overexposed image.

Can background music make you smarter?
The more you can concentrate with background noise, the more it strengthens the brain. Isaac Asimov used to set his typewriter up in stores and other loud places to work. His claim was that you get really good at writing when you’re in a crowd. You want to be energized by that background noise, rather than distracted.

And then there's this guy who is advancing the idea of genetic memory:

Whether called ancestral, genetic, or racial memory, or intuitions or congenital gifts, the concept of a genetic transmission of sophisticated knowledge, well beyond 'instincts,' is necessary to explain how prodigious savants particularly can know things they never learned.

Speaking of savants...
Some artists created some crazy AI installment at a festival:

The artists spread their multicolored creation across 10 high-resolution screens with speakers, each representing a different orchestra section. In the interplay between sound and image, Mozart's music is taken apart, with computers searching for the right sequence of notes that was recorded by real musicians — even making mistakes and detours — before reconstructing the final, perfect end to the masterwork.

Here's an interesting article from Scientific American about the expert mind and what
we've learned from chess masters.

Have you ever wondered what those bacteria/amoeba looking things are in your vision? Here's the answer.

And another eye related item - a guy at Penn is estimating "that our eyes transmit visual information to our brains at about the same rate as an Ethernet connection."

Hungry men prefer larger women

This has to be my new favorite study...

A study of 61 male university students found those who were hungry were attracted to heavier women than those who were satiated. The hungry men also paid much less attention to a woman's body shape and regarded less curvy figures as more attractive. The study appears in The British Journal of Psychology.

Blog Roll

I did some blog roll updating - added a couple, fixed a couple, made it alphabetical (instead of by the size of the blog name - which looked good but didn't make any sense). But now... I need your help (yes you!). Do I need to fix any others or add any? Am I missing something really important?

Thanks!

P.S. Here's a random picture for your enjoyment.

Synthetic Worlds and Simulated Violence

According to this press release, psychologists at Iowa State have done the first study on violence desensitization from video games.

Surprising as that may be (the "first study" part, not the desensitization part), it seems there's disagreement brewing over the intellectual honesty of the paper. See, for example, this critique by Ed Castronova, a "synthetic worlds" researcher.

mothballs? come on now!

Whatever happened to good ol' fashioned drugs - marijuana, cocaine, whatever...
I mean who can't get some drugs - even people who don't do drugs...

The 18-year-old French woman was hospitalized with scaly skin on her legs and hands, appearing unsteady and mentally sluggish, doctors said.

They found the condition puzzling, especially since the woman's twin sister displayed similar, but less severe, symptoms and there was no family history of the problem, the doctors reported in this week's New England Journal of Medicine that

Several days later, doctors discovered the cause: a bag of mothballs stashed in her hospital room.

The teenagers had been using the mothballs to get high, inhaling air from the bag for about 10 minutes a day because classmates had recommended it. The sicker of the young women also had been chewing half a mothball a day for two months.

The doctors described the high as "dangerous" and most likely under-reported in medical literature.

You know... it surprises me sometimes what comes up when you type stuff into google image search. Can anyone figure out what this picture has to do with mothballs?

Nutcracker Suite

From Neurology.org's Cyber Museum, Nutcracker Suite is described by its donor Dr Wallace B. Hamby:

"This tableau was carved and assembled in 1955 and served as a centerpiece on the Banquet table when Dr. W. James Gardner was inducted as President of the Society of Neurological Surgeons in Chicago.

"Originally conceived as a caricature of my operating suite at the Buffalo General Hospital, it includes two of Dr. Gardner's innovations: surgery in the sitting position, adopted from Dr. Th. DeMartel of Paris, and the first use of colored linen in the operating suite, introduced to improve the quality of color photography."

So that's why scrubs are blue and other colours - more photogenic!

What's the best online and paper brain atlas?

Any suggestions on the best online and paper brain atlases?

multi-tasking baaaad.

We're all screwed now... I think everyone in todays technology age is a constant multitasker.

Multi-tasking affects the brain's learning systems, and as a result, we do not learn as well when we are distracted, UCLA psychologists report this week in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Multi-tasking adversely affects how you learn," said Russell Poldrack, UCLA associate professor of psychology and co-author of the study. "Even if you learn while multi-tasking, that learning is less flexible and more specialized, so you cannot retrieve the information as easily. Our study shows that to the degree you can learn while multi-tasking, you will use different brain systems.

Cures they don't want you to hear about.

This guy is a complete nut job. Check out the Bad Medicine article over at Live Science about Kevin Trudeau.

Ok... so maybe I do like it when the FDA gets involved in order to shut people like this up.

Kevin Trudeau wants to save your life, and the Nazis at the FDA and FTC will stop at nothing to bring him down. They have made it clear to him that their intent is to imprison him, confiscate his latest book, and burn it.

So begins Trudeau's self-published "More Natural Cures Revealed," a fascinating cross between a health book, fictitious novel, and a paranoid, hate-filled rant along the lines of "Mein Kampf."

Normally I wouldn't highlight such lunacy for risk of advertising it. And at first glance, one would think that this book could only attract a fringe audience, like those websites advocating to drink your own urine. But "More Natural Cures" is a follow-up to the self-published "Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You To Know About," which sold several million copies and reached the New York Times best-seller list.

New members of the Omni Brain hippie commune.

I'd like to welcome Lars and Chris (of Developing Intelligence) to Omni Brain!I look forward to seeing their first posts :)

Chocolate brain treats

ClinkShrink from ShrinkRap sent me these great (anatomically correct) brain treats. If anyone wants to get me a Valentines day present - this would be it ;)

Do men and women view colors differently?

Here is part of a post from brah.blog suggesting that men and women view colors differently. Is there any truth to this statement? (I mean scientific evidence - besides the usual red-green color blindness thing). I'm pretty sure that it's completely wrong - but hey.. who knows!

I realized the other day that men and women view colors differently. Well, I didn't just realize this-I knew this since I was younger. It occurred to me that the reason we men see colors differently than women is because men tend to view colors relatively and women see colors absolutely.

Pain control and hypnosis: The Neurocritic

The Neurocritic concludes a compelling series of posts on neuroimaging and hypnosis with a look at hypnosis and pain control:

What hypnosis does is to increase activity in the ACC [anterior cingulate cortex], which may then downregulate activity in the sensory regions (see also Faymonville et al., 2000). 1

Would I have surgery under hypnosis?

Meurisse M, Defechereux T, Hamoir E, Maweja S, Marchettini P, Gollogly L, Degauque C, Joris J, Faymonville ME. (1999). Hypnosis with conscious sedation instead of general anaesthesia? Applications in cervical endocrine surgery. Acta Chir Belg. 99:151-8.

Uh, NO!

1 Functional connectivity analysis methods DO NOT prove causality, although some practitioners might want to believe otherwise.

Many interesting references along with way cool ALE meta-analysis images mapping pain that The Neurocritic generated from BrainMap's fMRI database.

The whole series:

I Suggest...Neuroimaging Studies of Hypnosis
Hypnosis and Consciousness
Hypnosis and Genetics
Hypnosis and Pain Control

Join Omni Brain

I would love to have a couple more bloggers join the efforts at omnibrain.
If you are interested(ing) please email me: omnibrainblog@gmail.com

-steve

Why the cornea is clear.

Now researchers have pinpointed why the cornea, the thin covering that allows light into the eye, is completely see-through. The discovery could lead to potential cures for eye disease and possibly even cancer.

Huh? cancer?

How To Grow A Chair

Retinal motion and motion perception

Science Journalism

Interesting editorial from Columbia Journalism Review:

Like many beat reporters, science journalists spend a great deal of time educating their editors about the peculiarities of their fields, and by and large those exchanges are not only illuminating but ultimately lead to better stories. But there’s one place we hit a wall.

No, it’s not that editors aren’t smart enough to understand science. Actually, it’s the opposite: they’re too accustomed to being smart, and thus can’t deal with the fact that they don’t understand it. And because they’re uncomfortable feeling confused, readers are left in the dark about a universe of research that eludes easy explanation.

I was discussing this problem recently with a colleague who had been beating his head against the wall for months trying to get a story about a mysterious “dark force” in cosmology past editors at The New Yorker: “They kept saying they didn’t understand it!” he complained. Well, of course they didn’t understand it. Nobody understands it. That’s precisely what makes it so interesting.

Zoloft game

Depressed Zolie is a Zoloft ad parody Flash animation game. The music is euthymic but the sad blob needs your help to chase the ladybug and score points. Simple and mildly entertaining.

Enough of the Zoloft parodies yet? Just one more image:

Top 10 mysteries of the mind

Seeing with sound

There was the time a fifth grader thought it would be funny to punch the blind kid and run. So he snuck up on Ben Underwood and hit him in the face. That's when Ben started his clicking thing. "I chased him, clicking until I got to him, then I socked him a good one," says Ben, a skinny 14-year-old. "He didn't reckon on me going after him. But I can hear walls, parked cars, you name it. I'm a master at this game."

I'm sure some of you saw this story over at mindhacks, and I'm sure many of you also know I just attended the summer institute for cognitive neuroscience in which the first week was devoted to Neural Prosthetics. One of the talks by Beata Jarosiewicz covered a very interesting and pertinent topic. There is a system which has met with some astounding (if not very limited- I'll get into that more later) success. The vOICe system (haha.. get it... "ohh I see!"..ohh geez) creates complex sounds based on what the video system sees.

From Beata's presentation:

Left and Right Image is scanned left to right, one snapshot per second. So left and right get encoded by time (and stereo). Dark and Light Brightness is encoded by loudness: the brighter the visual pattern, the louder the sound. Up and Down Elevation is encoded by pitch: the higher the position of the visual pattern, the higher the pitch.

These sounds which impart all sorts of information are very very obnoxious (well at least to me). This is one of the potential problems with blind people using this system. Many blind people have come to depend on having a good sense of hearing to navigate through the world and if that's taken up with the vOICe system then you could imagine a number of people not liking it. Here is a video of the vOICe system in action - you can see what the system is "looking" at and the sounds it makes in response to the various environmental stimuli.

Besides the obvious drawbacks of the system it has met with some astounding success.
From Beata:

2000: “Well the other day I was again washing dishes. I had let the water out of the sink and turn to get a towel to dry my hands. Then when I turn back to rinse the sink I was stunned to see the sink in a “depth” like image. I stepped away from the sink and walked slowly up to it again to see if my mind was playing tricks on me. No, the feeling of seeing depth in the sink bowl was still there.”ound?.... No, It is by far more, it is sight! There IS true light perception generated by the vOICe. When I am not wearing the vOICe the light I perceive from a small slit in my left eye is a grey fog. When wearing the vOICe the image is light with all the little greys and blacks. Yet a definite light image.”

2002: “Just sound?.... No, It is by far more, it is sight! There IS true light perception generated by the vOICe. When I am not wearing the vOICe the light I perceive from a small slit in my left eye is a grey fog. When wearing the vOICe the image is light with all the little greys and blacks. Yet a definite light image.”
- Pat Fletcher, long-term vOICe user

This brings up all sorts of interesting questions about cortical reorganization and consciousness. But that's for another time and place.

More ad fun

MigroLax spoof:



Sharp Canadian satire TV series This Hour Has 22 Minutes created a super-awesome spot. Can't link it directly so scroll down to the bottom of this page and click on Viagro: Don't take too much to view. One scene is NSFW. Potential side effects include self-injurious behaviour (knee-slapping) and incontinence.

Join Omni Brain

I would love to have a couple more bloggers join the efforts at omnibrain.
If you are interested(ing) please email me: omnibrainblog@gmail.com

-steve

Bloggers

Why do people read/participate in collaborative blogging (think digg/slashdot/etc.)
via boingboing.

• mostly young and male, especially those who visit technology-related sites.
• very active in their use of the sites.
• looking for “a fix of unique, informative fun.”
• and “filling in the blanks” left by traditional news sources.
• sharing what they know.
• looking for and finding multiple perspectives.

Seeing the bride

Cambridgeshire: Andrew Hall savoured every moment watching his bride walk down the aisle toward him at the altar.

As tears ran down her cheeks, the occasion was full of joy. It was particularly poignant for Mr Hall as it was the first time he had been able to see his bride properly.

He was diagnosed with a serious eye disorder as a teenager and was registered as blind when he met Carolyn Rendle in 1998.

But the 30-year-old businessman was determined that he would have a visual memory of his bride.

So a month before their big day, he started taking a special drug that steadily improved his sight.

But it was only on the day itself that the extent of its success became truly apparent as 25-year-old Miss Rendle cried.

Mr Hall said: “I could see her really clearly. She started crying and I passed her a tissue. She said ‘You can see me, can’t you?’ I said, ‘Yes’.”

The amazing moment was made possible by Mr Hall’s doctor, who prescribed the drug Acetazolamide to dry up the excess water in his eyes, enabling him to see.

Even though the effects lasted just a week, his mother Patricia Hall said it was a dream come true.

I don't understand... I wish the article had more information as to how a drug could fix retina pigmentosa for a short while and then have the effects disappear. Anyone know how this works?
Then again this comes from the Mumbai Mirror, which if it's anything like many of the other indian periodicals - could be completely bogus.

Prescription drug misuse and abuse

"Don't blame me! It's the Percocet. If you ask me, that stuff rots your brain. And now a word from our new sponsor...Percocet. Oh CRAP!"

- Krusty the Klown, prescription painkiller addict.

More ad parodies

Vaughan at Mind Hacks mentioned the Zoloft ad parody I posted about last week, and linked to more funny spoofs of antidepressant ads. Drug ad (and anti-drug ad) satire is indeed popular on the internets so I dug up a few more; here's another riff on Zoloft called Zolift. Watch the video:



One of Vaughan's links is a great story by The Onion, Pfizer Launches 'Zoloft For Everything' Ad Campaign. Other gems from their archives include Wonder Drug Inspires Deep, Unwavering Love Of Pharmaceutical Companies and Freshman Psych Student Diagnoses Roommate With Bipolar Disorder.

More lolz to come!

Testing for telepathy with VR.

You know I don't have anything really to say about this - but I feel like I have to post this stuff whenever it pops up.

Scientists at The University of Manchester have created a virtual computer world designed to test telepathic ability.

The system, which immerses an individual in what looks like a life-size computer game, has been created as part of a joint project between The University's School of Computer Science and School of Psychological Sciences.

Approximately 100 participants will take part in the experiment which aims to test whether telepathy exists between individuals using the system. The project will also look at how telepathic abilities may vary depending on the relationships which exist between participants.

The test is carried out using two volunteers who could be friends, work colleagues or family. They are placed in separate rooms on different floors of the same building to eliminate any possibility of communication.

Participants enter the virtual environment by donning a head-mounted 3D display and an electronic glove which they use to navigate their way through the computer generated world.

Once inside participants view a random selection of computer-generated objects. These include a telephone, a football and an umbrella. The person in the first room sees one object at a time, which they are asked to concentrate on and interact with.

The person in the other room is simultaneously presented with the same object plus three decoy objects. They are then asked to select the object they believe the other participant is trying to transmit to them

.

Pythagorean Theorem

Bionic eye thrown out by the FDA

In the 1970s TV show "The Six Million Dollar Man," the strapping young astronaut got a bionic eye. A U.S. company had hoped that next year that might be your grandmother. Not so fast, a federal advisory panel said Friday.

A tiny telescope designed to be implanted in the eyes of some elderly patients should not receive

Food and Drug Administration approval, the panel recommended on a 10-3 vote.

The FDA's ophthalmic devices panel recommended against the pea-sized bionic device for safety reasons, spokeswoman Heidi Valetkevitch said.

The first-of-its-kind device is called the Implantable Miniature Telescope. The telephoto lens could enable some patients to do away with the special glasses and handheld telescopes they now use to compensate for the loss in central vision caused by age-related macular degeneration, according to VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies Inc., its manufacturer.

...

In clinical trials, 141 of 193 patients implanted with the device showed after a year improved distance and near visual acuity, defined as the sharpness of vision in reading an eye chart, according to FDA documents. Ten patients reported a loss in acuity in either distance or near vision. Doctors removed eight of the devices, four of them from patients dissatisfied with how they worked, FDA documents show.

It seems like the FDA is entirely too strict with their decisions. Shouldn't it be my own choice what I put in my body? Isn't it my own decision what I consider an acceptable risk? I guess I shouldn't be surprised - considering the draconian drug laws of this country.

Brain washing for religions, corporations, and YOU!

This is a bit strange - I'm not sure who this guy is or what audience it's intended for, but in anycase it's an interesting read (well at least an interesting skim - I'm not gonna lie... I didn't really read it).
Here's the table of contents:

Persuasion and Brainwashing
Techniques Being Used On The Public Today

Introduction

The Birth of Conversion: Brainwashing in Christian Revivalism in 1735. The Three Brain Phases: The Pavlovian Explanation

How Revivalist Preachers Work

The "Voice Roll" Technique The Build-up Process.: Inducing Altered States Assured Continuation: Fleecing the Flock Bonding by Fear and Suggestion Testimony: Creating Community Spirit Miracles The Grey Area of Legitimacy A Game in Which the Rules Keep Changing


Six Conversion Techniques

Isolation Intimidation, Deprivation and Indoctrination. The "Sell It By Zealot" Technique. Wearing Down Resistance Increasing Tension Introducing Uncertainty About Identity Jargon Lack of Humor: No Release, No Resistance


Not Always a Bad Thing

Cults: A Captive Course in Stockholm Syndrome The Only Hope of Immunity The US Marines as a Brainwashing Cult


Steps in the Decognition Process

Alertness reduction Programmed Confusion Thought Stopping


Thought-Stopping Techniques

Marching Meditation Chanting


True believers and mass movements.

Persuasion techniques: "Yes Set" Embedded Commands The Power of NLP Interspersal Technique Practical Examples Shock and Confusion


Subliminal Programming

Does Subliminal Programming Work? Mass Misuse of Subliminal Programming Vibrato Extra-low Frequency Vibrations (ELFs) The Neurophone Technological Tools for Mass Manipulation In Closing...

Treatment for Smilies

Roy at the Shrink Rap blog recently made a hilarious post on psych notes for smilies. Examples:

:-) stable. cont prozac 40mg. f/u 3 mos.
:-)) reduce prozac to 20mg. f/u 1mo.
:-)))) d/c prozac. add lithium 300 tid. check TSH, creat. f/u 1wk.
:-D add depakote. check lithium level, LFTs, CBC. f/u 1wk.
:-( increase prozac to 60mg. f/u 2wk.
:'-( add wellbutrin SR 150mg. f/u 1wk.
X-( call 911. send to ER. check for OD.

Proloxil

Click me or the picture for the animation.

Flash animation Zoloft ad parody that's - oh, just watch. :)

Raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Please support a good friend of mine:

Hello!

Right now, many of you may be feeling a small sense of deja vu, saying to yourself: “didn’t Nicole JUST fundraise for and run a marathon?” And you’re right – I DID just run a marathon… and I’m back for more! All last winter I trained and raised money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS), which culminated with the rainy, freezing, windy Napa Marathon on March 5. Although the weather was awful during the race (even by my tough Seattle standards), I finished in 4 hours and 45 minutes (under my goal of 5 hours), made wonderful friends AND raised over $6400 for blood cancer research and patient care! This would not have been possible without the amazingly generous donations from you, so thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!!!!

This season I have assumed more of a leadership role with TNT, and am training as a mentor for both the Maui Half Marathon (woo Hawaii!) and the Nike Women's Full Marathon in San Francisco. As a mentor, I am responsible for helping 10 new participants successfully raise money, train for and finish their goal events, just like my mentor Jocelyn helped me last season. It's really fun, and is an even more satisfying way to contribute to fighting blood cancers. Since I am also working to help my “mentees” raise money, I have set a more reasonable goal for this season, $2500, which is why I write to you today.

Those of you who donated last season heard about my mom, who was diagnosed with stage 4 mantle-cell lymphoma about a week after I moved down to Palo Alto in August to begin graduate school. Since then, she had 6 rounds of aggressive chemotherapy, received over 100 units of blood, swallowed countless pills, and underwent a stem-cell transplant in January, which involved massive radiation and even more chemo, as well as a 3 week hospital stay. For someone so independent, my mom endured her treatments with a grace, humor and strength so amazing; I can only hope it's genetic! Since January, she gotten stronger, grown her hair back and resumed living her life... and just a couple of weeks ago she was officially deemed "in remission"! While this is a HUGE cause for celebration, we still have 5 years to wait before we can begin to breathe easier, since the chance of recurrence dramatically drops after 5 cancer-free years. However, before LLS-funded research helped develop the her life-saving treatments, the survival rate for mantle cell lymphoma was just FIVE percent. This number has increased dramatically in the last couple of years, but it still has a long way to go.

While my mom was recovering, the mom of a close friend of mine from college was diagnosed with acute mylogenous leukemia (AML). For those of you who know, AML is a particularly nasty form of leukemia, and the sub-type she had made it even nastier. She fought valiantly, but succumbed to the cancer 2 months later. This loss has only solidified my determination to do as much as I can to make sure that in the near future, no one else has to watch someone they love suffer so. And, while I will always train in honor of my mom, this season I dedicate my training and fundraising to my wonderful friend Julia, her family, and the memory of her mom, Sandra Gottlieb.

Please help me to put an end to blood cancers by making a donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This money goes directly towards research, patient care... and more fundraising! You can either donate on the secure website below (where you will also find a recent family photo and a shortened version of this letter), or email me and I can provide you with a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

One amazing thing that happened with my fundraising last season was that my brother, Dan, forwarded my letter to his football team at Colby College, and many of his teammates then forwarded the letter to their friends and families. As a result, both he and I received even more support than we had ever hoped for. Thank you, guys: BTP! So, if any of you know of anyone who knows our family, who has been touched by leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma, or you think would be interested in donating, please pass this letter along. As a mentor, I can also try and answer any questions you or others may have about TNT and the LLS.

So, please go to this website, check out the recent family photo, and please support the LLS and my training:

http://www.active.com/donate/tntsvmb/nicolegiuliani

Thank you again, for all of your support, past, present and future.

Love,
Nicole

This chimp is better than I am.

Neural Prothesisesisessss

Most neural prosthetics (this isn't invasive-but you get the point) are made specifically to help disabled people - deaf, blind, paralyzed, etc. This one is geared toward optimizing our natural ability to recognize interesting objects/people in scenes. This device seems specifically geared toward military and intelligence settings, but things like this should start becoming more common in our day to day lives. The idea behind this device is right on, in that computers and humans have distinct advantages and disadvantages when it comes to vision and this device attempts to combine all the good aspects, not depending too much on bad computer vision.

I'm looking forward to strapping on a couple electrodes, some eye tracking equipment and getting to work.

From Wired News:

The system harnesses the brain's well-known ability to recognize a