Attack on Totoro.

(source: http://moe.vg/1cgu9B9)

Innovative iPhone wallpaper.

First world gamer problems.

If one animal could become an honorary superhero, my vote would be for the planarian. This flatworm has truly astonishing powers of regeneration. Accidentally cut off your planarian’s head? No problem! It will grow a new one … and its old head will grow a new body, giving you two pets instead of one! But that’s not all. According to this study, if you trained your original flatworm, both of the animals that result from cutting it in half will remember the training. That’s right — planarian memories can survive decapitation. Anyone out there know of an animal with a real-life superpower more awesome than that?

An automated training paradigm reveals long-term memory in planaria and its persistence through head regeneration.

“Planarian flatworms are a popular system for research into the molecular mechanisms that enable these complex organisms to regenerate their entire body, including the brain. Classical data suggest that they may also be capable of long-term memory. Thus, the planarian system may offer the unique opportunity to study brain regeneration and memory in the same animal. To establish a system for the investigation of the dynamics of memory in a regenerating brain, we developed a computerized training and testing paradigm that avoided the many issues that confounded previous, manual attempts to train planaria. We then used this new system to train flatworms in an environmental familiarization protocol. We show that worms exhibit environmental familiarization, and that this memory persists for at least 14 days – long enough for the brain to regenerate. We further show that trained, decapitated planaria exhibit evidence of memory retrieval in a savings paradigm after regenerating a new head. Our work establishes a foundation for objective, high-throughput assays in this molecularly-tractable model system that will shed light on the fundamental interface between body patterning and stored memories. We propose planaria as a key emerging model species for mechanistic investigations of the encoding of specific memories in biological tissues. Moreover, this system is likely to have important implications for the biomedicine of stem cell-derived treatments of degenerative brain disorders in human adults.”

Related content:
NCBI ROFL: Absolut memory distortions: alcohol placebos influence the misinformation effect.
NCBI ROFL: The tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth: how belief in the Tooth Fairy can engender false memories.
NCBI ROFL: The more weed you smoke, the more f*cked up you get.

The post Memories that can survive decapitation. appeared first on Seriously, Science?.

There are numerous studies that investigate how drinking alcohol affects our brains. However, most of these studies take place in laboratories and medical settings that have almost nothing in common with the bars and parties where most of us drink. This raises the question of how applicable the results are to drinking in more typical settings. So, these scientists tried to measure brain activity while socializing and drinking in a more “normal” setting. To do this, they devised special electroencephalography (EEG) hats that let participants roam and interact with each other like they would at any party while measuring the electrical activity of their brains. Which is pretty awesome. However, all that being said, Fig. 1 (above) probably represents the nerdiest cocktail party EVAR!

Towards measuring brain function on groups of people in the real world.

“In three studies, EEGs from three groups of participants were recorded during progressively more real world situations after drinking alcoholic beverages that brought breath alcohol contents near the limit for driving in California 30 minutes after drinking. A simple equation that measured neurophysiological effects of alcohol in the first group of 15 participants performing repetitive cognitive tasks was applied to a second group of 15 operating an automobile driving simulator, and to a third group of 10 ambulatory people recorded simultaneously during a cocktail party. The equation derived from the first group quantified alcohol’s effect by combining measures of higher frequency (beta) and lower frequency (theta) power into a single score. It produced an Area Under the Receiver Operator Characteristic Curve of .73 (p

Related content:
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Social drinking in a simulated tavern: an experimental analysis.
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Oktoberfest week: Development of a simulated drinking game procedure to study risky alcohol use.
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Alcohol consumption and handwriting: a kinematic analysis.

The first rule about Light Music Club is, don’t talk about Light Music Club.

Hodor.

I love this cat. 

Best rug ever.

VLC IRL.

Godzilla Flamewolf.

Hardcore photography.

(View on YouTube) | Subscribe to us on YouTube
Created and Directed by Charlie Todd / Music by Tyler Walker

For our latest mission, we surprised random people by turning back the clock 150 years at a local bar, completely transforming it into 1860s New York. We worked with accomplices to invite unsuspecting friends to the Black Rabbit Bar in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The bar was completely lit by candles and kerosene lanterns and was filled with actors in period dress. Beer cost pennies, and music was provided by a live band. By the end of the night, our surprised guests found themselves in the middle of an old-fashioned bar fight.

We’ve also launched a new series, Mission Report, which features news and behind-the-scenes from Improv Everywhere projects. The first installment shows some additional footage from the 1860s bar. Check it out.

This project was a collaboration with the BBC America series Copper.

Enjoy the videos first and then go behind the scenes with our mission report and photos below.

CREDITS
Created and Directed by: Charlie Todd
Production: Generate
Shot by: TV Boy
Edited by: Deverge
Music: Tyler Walker
Photography: Katie Sokoler – (photo credit for all photos on this page.)
Principal Cast: (in order of appearance) Ryan Karels; Erik Dies; Kent Lanier; Alan Starzinski; Josh Sharp; Cody Lindquist; Amber Nelson; Tyler Walker; Joe Exley, Stefan Zeniuk, Brian Belcinski, Jonathan Erdman, Matt Adams; Kevin Hines

Actors hanging out before the prank

Improv Everywhere rarely does missions that are “set-ups.” Those who experience our projects are usually completely random people who stumble upon the right place at the right time. The last time we did a set-up prank like this was Ted’s Birthday, which also took place in a bar. In many ways, The 1860s Bar is a sequel to Ted’s Birthday. Both projects feature actors approaching random strangers in a bar and mistaking them for someone they are not. While Ted’s Birthday really focused on the misidentification aspect, this project was more about surprising people with an entire world.

We completely transformed the Black Rabbit Bar into 1860s New York, down to the last little detail. Even the newspaper the actor at the bar read was from the 1860s. Light bulbs were removed and replaced with candles, the computer cash register was covered with a burlap sack and replaced with a period cash register, liquor bottles were replaced with generic old bottles, beer taps were replaced with old wooden taps, barrels were lurking in the corners, and actors played poker with old cards.

Art director Andy Meyers shows bartender Agent Ryan Karels how to use the old cash register

Since we wanted everything to be extremely historically accurate, it was crucial to keep the cameras completely hidden. We used really great lenses that actually see better than the human eye. The bar was actually MUCH darker than it appears in the video. It was really only lit by candles and kerosene lanterns. This helped hide the cameras really well. One camera operator sat in the booth with the poker players above, his head under the black sheet over the camera. In the darkness, he was invisible.

One camera operator stood on a ladder at the back of the bar, his lens poking through a black sheet, also invisible in the dim bar.

Getting great audio was key for this project. I think we used the most wireless mics we’ve ever used in an Improv Everywhere mission. All of the principal actors were mic’d and we hid mics along the bar as well to pick up the patrons.

In the back patio of the bar we could see playback of all of our cameras. I was able to watch everything as it went down and cue the actor entrances at the appropriate times.

Agents Brian Belcinski (the cop) and Matt Adams rehearse the fight earlier in the day

Agent Tyler Walker gets dressed

The costumes were also very important for this one. Costume designer Dede Ayite did a great job outfitting our cast. The men’s facial hair helped out quite a bit too.

Dede tries out options for Agent Cody Lindquist

Unfortunately we don’t have any photos from the mission itself– we couldn’t have a camera in the room snapping pictures in the 1860s. Hopefully the video tells the story and gives a true sense for what it was like.

A storm rolled in right when we got started and we were lucky to have all of our equipment underneath tents in the back! The lightning in the opening shot in the video is very much real.

This was a really fun night, despite weather. In fact, I think it made the whole thing more eerie and strange.

Mission Accomplished

---

OTHER RESOURCES:

Related Videos:

Ted’s Birthday

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Fake tampon flasks for women. I bow down before the genius of this.  

The best drinks for a Star Wars fan.

Go home Hello Kitty, you’re drunk.

Fun with logos.

What happens when someone pretends to have superpowers? Obviously, they don’t actually gain superhuman strength, but maybe it makes them less vulnerable in non-physical ways. This study set out to test whether pretending to have superpowers changes how people deal with being socially excluded or rejected. As the authors put it: “Whereas owning such powers in reality would certainly be a life-changing experience, it is possible that simply possessing superpowers in one’s imagination can be enough to defeat some inner demons.” Be sure to read the fun passages that the researchers had the participants (gathered using mTurk) read to help them in their role-playing.

Superman to the rescue: Simulating physical invulnerability attenuates exclusion-related interpersonal biases.

“People cope with social exclusion both by seeking reconnection with familiar individuals and by denigrating unfamiliar and disliked others. These reactions can be seen as adaptive responses in ancestral environments where ostracism exposed people to physical dangers and even death. To the extent that reactions to ostracism evolved to minimize exposure to danger, alleviating these foundational concerns with danger may lessen people’s need to cope with exclusion. Three studies demonstrate how a novel physical invulnerability simulation lessens both positive and negative reactions to social exclusion. Study 1 found that simulating physical invulnerability lessened exclusion-triggered negative attitudes toward stigmatized groups, and demonstrated that perceived invulnerability to injury (vs. imperviousness to pain) accounted for this effect. Studies 2 and 3 focused on another facet of social bias by revealing that simulating physical invulnerability lessened the desire for social connection.”

Here is a pretty awesome quote from the materials and methods:

“Forty-one mTurk participants completed a guided visualization task in which they imagined themselves acquiring a particular superpower. Participants in the invulnerability condition were asked to imagine the following scenario:

“On a shopping trip, you wander into a strange store with no sign out front. Everything is dimly lit and the shopkeeper calls you by name even though you have never seen him before. He tells you to come close and he says to you in a weird voice ‘I have decided to give you a gift. Tomorrow, you will wake to find that you have a super-power. It will be an amazing ability, but you must keep it absolutely secret. If you purposely tell anyone or show off your power, you will lose it forever.’”

They then read:

“That night, you have a hard time sleeping, but when you wake, you find that you do indeed have a super-power. A glass falls on the floor and without meaning to you accidentally step on the broken glass. It doesn’t hurt you at all though, and you realize that you are completely invulnerable to physical harm. Knives and bullets would bounce off you, fire won’t burn your skin, a fall from a cliff wouldn’t hurt at all. You don’t have any other super-powers though (for example, no super-strength). Everything else is exactly the same as it was yesterday.”

In the control condition, they read a similar passage, except they imagined being able to fly instead of being invulnerable (see Appendix A). Participants were then explicitly instructed that they did not have any other superpowers and they could not reveal their powers to anyone (to minimize self-presentation issues). To make the mental simulation more salient, they were also asked to write briefly about what it would feel like to have the superpower and how they would use it in their own lives.”

Thanks to Thomas for the tip!

Related content:
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No…it’s silly research!
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Batman to the rescue!
Discoblog: NCBI ROFL: Study shows reading Twilight makes you more vampiric.

Web browsers.

The Girl Genius comic for Wednesday, April 10, 2013 has been posted.

Media adapter overload.

Artist autopsies. This is genius.

Alien Astronomers

Let's assume there's life on the the nearest habitable exoplanet and that they have technology comparable to ours. If they looked at our star right now, what would they see?

—Chuck H.

Answer:

Let’s try a more complete answer. We’ll start with ...

Radio transmissions

Contact popularized the idea of aliens listening in on our transmissions. Sadly, the odds are against it.

Here’s the problem: Space is big. Really big.^[1]

You can work through the physics of interstellar radio attenuation, but the problem is captured pretty well by considering the economics of the situation: If your TV signals are getting to another star, you’re losing money. Powering a transmitter is expensive, and creatures on other stars aren’t buying the products in the TV commercials that pay your electricity bill.

The full picture is more complicated, but the bottom line is that as our technology has advanced, less of our radio traffic has been leaking out into space. We’re closing down the giant transmitting antennas and switching to cable and fiber and tightly-focused cell-tower networks.^[2] 

While our TV signals may have been detectable—with great effort—for a while,^[3] that window is closing. In the late 20th century, when we were using TV and radio to scream into the void at the top of our lungs, the signal probably faded to undetectability after a few light-years.^[4] The potentially habitable exoplanets we’ve spotted so far are dozens of light-years away, so the odds are they aren’t currently repeating our catchphrases.

But TV and radio transmissions still weren’t Earth’s most powerful radio signal. They were outshone by the beams from early-warning radar.^[4]

Early-warning radar, a product of the Cold War, consisted of a bunch of ground and airborne stations scattered around the Arctic. These stations swept the atmosphere with powerful radar beams 24/7, often bouncing them off the ionosphere, and people obsessively monitored the echos for any hints of enemy movement. (I wasn’t alive during most of this period, but from what I hear, the mood was a little tense.)

These radar transmissions leaked into space, and could probably be picked up by nearby exoplanets^[5] if they happened to be listening when the beam swept over their part of the sky. But the same march of technological progress that made the TV broadcast towers obsolete has had the same effect on early-warning radar. Today’s systems—where they exist at all—are much quieter, and may eventually be replaced completely by new technology.

Earth’s most powerful radio signal is the beam from the Arecibo telescope. This massive dish in Puerto Rico can function as a radar transmitter, bouncing a signal off nearby targets like Mercury and the asteroid belt. It’s essentially a flashlight which we shine on planets to see them better. (This is just as crazy as it sounds.)

But it transmits only occasionally, and in a narrow beam. If an exoplanet happened to be caught in the beam, and they were lucky enough to be pointing a receiving antenna at our corner of the sky at the time, all they would pick up would be a brief pulse of radio energy, then silence.

So hypothetical aliens looking at Earth probably wouldn’t pick us up with radio antennas.

But there’s also ...

Visible light

This is more promising.  The Sun is really bright^{[citation needed]} and its light illuminates the Earth.^{[citation needed]} Some of that light is reflected back into space as “Earthshine”. Some of it skims close to our planet and passes through our atmosphere before continuing on to the stars. Both of these effects could potentially be detected from an exoplanet.^[4][6]

They wouldn’t tell you anything about humans directly, but if you watched the Earth for long enough, you could figure out a lot about our atmosphere from the reflectivity. You could probably figure out what our water cycle looked like, and our oxygen-rich atmosphere would give you a hint that something weird was going on.

So in the end, the clearest signal from Earth might not be from us at all. It might be from the algae that have been terraforming the planet—and altering the signals we send into space—for billions of years.

Of course, if we wanted to send a clearer signal, we could. A radio transmission has the problem that they have to be paying attention when it arrives.

Instead, we could make them pay attention. With ion drives, nuclear pulse propulsion, or just clever use of gravitational slingshots, we could probably send a probe out of the Solar System fast enough to reach a given nearby star in a few dozen millennia. If we can figure out how to make a guidance system that survives the trip (which would be tough) we could use it to steer toward any inhabited planet.

To land safely, we’d have to slow down. But slowing down takes even more fuel. And, hey, the whole point of this was for them to notice us, right?

So maybe if those aliens looked toward our Solar System, this is what they’d see:

(View on YouTube) | Subscribe to us on YouTube
Created and Directed by Charlie Todd / Music by Tyler Walker

For our latest mission, we converted a New York City subway car into a late night talk show set. Host Pat Cassels (CollegeHumor) interviewed random commuters from his desk as bandleader Evan Gregory (The Gregory Brothers) kept the car rocking.

Enjoy the video first and then go behind the scenes with our mission report and photos below.

CREDITS
Created and Directed by: Charlie Todd
Video Produced and Edited by: Deverge (Alan Aisenberg, Ilya Smelansky, Andrew Soltys)
Senior Producer for Improv Everywhere: Matt Adams
Music:: Tyler Walker
Shot by: Matt Adams, Denis Cardineau, Ilya Smelansky, Dave Szarejko
Sound: Tony Leonardo
Photography: Ari Scott – Flickr set (photo credit for all photos on this page.)
Production Assistants: Sam Grant, Michael Tannenbaum, Ryan Wolff
Cast: Craig Benzine, Pat Cassels, Evan Gregory, Charlie Todd

We’ve done dozens of ridiculous projects on the subway over the years. We’ve staged a scene from Star Wars, brought 50 redheads onto the same car, put 15 pairs of identical twins across from each other, set up three beds for people to sleep on their way home, thrown birthday parties and marriage proposals, given out dollar bills, and played BINGO, just to name a few off the top of my head. The subway continues to be our favorite stage in New York City. I was excited to take our subway missions to the next level with the project, which I think was the biggest transformation we’ve ever done in terms of the amount of set pieces and props used.

We met at the Deverge production office where the team set up a to scale subway car set with chairs and polls. We ran through the show a few times, making sure everyone knew what props and set pieces they were in charge of setting up. We wanted to set up the show as quickly as possible. Agents Pat Cassels and Evan Gregory also had a chance to rehearse their lines.

We carried everything over to the N train on 28th street and waited on the platform for the last car on the train. We staged this at 9 PM on a Sunday night when knew the trains would be mostly empty. At times it was too empty, but this project wouldn’t work on a crowded train. Our set would be way too annoying. Late at night on a Sunday it would be a welcome diversion.

Agent Ilya Smelansky custom-built the talk show desk with the exact measurements of the N train in mind. He knew down the the inch what would fit on the train. We bought a white IKEA chair off of Craigslist for our guests, and custom created the backdrop with some fabric and paint. When the doors opened our team sprung into action putting everything in place: lights, gopro cameras, coffee mugs with the show logo, and a big talk show microphone. The train was pretty empty, but those that were there got on board pretty quickly with the idea as I invited them in with my producer character.

People reacting as we set up.

Agent Craig “Wheezy Waiter” Benzine served as our stage manager, holding up applause signs for the crowd.

When we first got on the train, the guy pictured above was asleep right next to where we were setting up. He was using his jacket as a pillow and was completely passed out. We set up the entire set around him, and then when the music started he woke up. The look on his face when he realized a talk show set had magically materialized around him as he slept was priceless. He immediately wanted to be a guest on the show, but then later got cold feet about it.

The desk and mugs.

We covered all of the ads in the subway car with ads for our show.

Bandleader Evan Gregory and the Downtown Sound starts the show.

Your host, Pat Caaaaaaaassels! Agent Cassels exited the car in the middle and ran down the platform to the last door to make his entrance. He started the show with 4 monologue jokes, all of which were about the subway. Agent Benzine held up cue cards with the jokes on them.

At each new stop, more people would get on the train, and I would welcome them to the show and let them know there were seats available.

Even the people who sat on the far side of the car still helped out by clapping when the applause sign was up.

I loved this woman’s reaction. It was at Times Square and there were stairs right by our car. So people were running down the stairs trying to make it onto the train and our door was the closet one. They didn’t have an opportunity to see what was going on until they were already inside.

Although she was surprised when she walked in, she ended up enjoying the show.

These guys saw us from the adjacent car through the windows and decided to switch cars. As soon as I saw them coming through the doors, I shouted, “You guys are the next guest on the show!” They got really excited and we interviewed both of them right away.

This was a German couple from Hamburg, visiting New York on vacation. They got on at Times Square and ended up staying on the train for a half hour. At first, they weren’t interested in being guests, but after watching several others, the guy eventually agreed to do it. He was great!

The crowd cheers.

I went back and forth on how to stage this, thinking it might be fun to have actors or even real celebrities as the guests on the show. Ultimately I decided it was way more fun to interview random New Yorkers on the train. This was a talk show on the train, for the train.

Towards the end of the night a couple got on the train who had just come from a party. They were in great spirits and immediately got on board. The woman gave a great interview.

All in all it was a great night on the train. At one point we experienced a train delay of about 10 minutes. Usually train delays are the absolute worst. Everyone on the train starts rolling their eyes and complaining to themselves. But during this delay, the show kept on going, and everyone had a super fun distraction. It was definitely the most fun I’ve ever had on a stalled train.

Mission Accomplished

---

OTHER RESOURCES:

Related Videos:

Our No Pants Subway Ride series!

Photos:

Full set of photos from photographer Ari Scott: Flickr Link

Music:

Listen to the full Theme to Late Night Underground, written by Tyler Walker:

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-our over 100 other missions can be seen here: Missions
-sign up for our RSS feed and Newsletter
-Subscribe to our YouTube channel, twitter, and Facebook page.
-We have merch for sale!

Random picture found on a Japanese website while researching yesterday’s J-List post on McDonald’s raising prices in Japan. It amused me.

Android apparently thinks I have a potty mouth.

To be fair, it’s right. I do have a potty mouth. I also regard this as none of my phone’s goddamn business.

Specifically the problem is that Android does not auto complete or correct profanity. It’s in the dictionary, but it will never correct typos for profanity or allow me to swipe type it. Apparently it’s really convinced that I like to talk about ducking, and that when I complain about this fact I am hitching.

I did a bunch of searching on this and couldn’t find a solution. Some mild lateral thinking provided me with one though. Here’s some Google bait to share it.

Basically, the problem is that the word is in the dictionary with a special flag that says “You can’t use this word”. It’s recognised but disallowed.

So the solution is to get it to ignore the fact that it’s in that dictionary. As well as the system dictionary you have your personal dictionary (where it remembers words you’ve said “Remember this word”). You can manually edit that dictionary. This feature is mostly to remove existing words that you’ve accidentally added, but it works for adding new words too.

How to do this:

1. Go to settings
2. Select “Language and Input”
3. Select “Personal Dictionary”
4. Select “+”
5. Select the Phrase field
6. Add the specific profane word you want to use in that field
7. Select “Next” on your keyboard
8. Select “Done” on your keyboard
9. Select “Back” to go back to the dictionary
10. That word is now in your personal dictionary and should be usable.

You have to manually add every word that you want to use this way, but once you add any given word it will be picked up correctly. About fucking time.