A daily miasma of frivolity by two wanna-be cultural critics. Or: just, like, some good links, dude.

Mar 19 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Scientists Claim Brain Memory Code Cracked

Scientists Claim Brain Memory Code Cracked

ScienceDaily:

Despite a century of research, memory encoding in the brain has remained mysterious. Neuronal synaptic connection strengths are involved, but synaptic components are short-lived while memories last lifetimes. This suggests synaptic information is encoded and hard-wired at a deeper, finer-grained molecular scale.

In an article in the March 8 issue of the journal PLoS Computational Biology, physicists Travis Craddock and Jack Tuszynski of the University of Alberta, and anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff of the University of Arizona demonstrate a plausible mechanism for encoding synaptic memory in microtubules, major components of the structural cytoskeleton within neurons.

I had the opportunity to see Dr. Hameroff speak at Google in 2007 — you can view a video of that talk here. He’s an interesting fellow with a lot of very interesting ideas — some of which are (as far as I can tell as a layman) somewhat outside the mainstream.

What I’m saying is: check this out, but take it with a grain of salt.

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Mar 19 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Wikipedia: Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!

Wikipedia: Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now!

However, two years later, when Seuss was challenged by political columnist Art Buchwald for never having written a political book, Seuss took a copy of the book and crossed out “Marvin K. Mooney” and wrote in “Richard M. Nixon.” Buchwald was so delighted that with Seuss’s consent he printed the text as his column for July 30, 1974. Nixon resigned ten days later on August 9th.

ahahahaha what is this

DR. SEUSS: TOPPLER OF PRESIDENTS

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Mar 19 2012
Mark Twain, probably

A gay jock takes off the mask

A gay jock takes off the mask

Heartwarming piece in the Ottawa Citizen about a teenage hockey player who came out. Don’t miss his daily Youtube videos that documented the process.

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Mar 18 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Dean Walton’s poster for Blade Runner. Gorgeous. I bought this and the Fifth Element one, but check out his whole store — he’s got some great stuff there, including a series inspired by classic cars from classic movies.

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Mar 18 2012
Mark Twain, probably

The Spanking Machine: A Resilient Myth in Popular Culture

The Spanking Machine: A Resilient Myth in Popular Culture

C. Farrell put together a piece for his site World Corporal Punishment Research on the concept of a spanking machine through time. I don’t really need to say any more than that.

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Mar 17 2012
Mark Twain, probably

A Child’s Reaction to a Gay Couple

A Child’s Reaction to a Gay Couple

It’s a talking point so overused it’s almost a trope by this point. “How will I explain this to my children?” Obviously that’s a question parents have to answer for themselves. Unless they don’t explain anything and let the children work things out for themselves. What would that look like? It might look a little something like this classic video, where a young boy named Calen meets his first gay couple — without knowing what “gay” could be.

Absolutely adorable.

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Mar 17 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Male Fruit Flies, Spurned by Females, Turn to Alcohol

Male Fruit Flies, Spurned by Females, Turn to Alcohol

Benedict Carey, New York Times:

Fruit flies apparently self-medicate just like many humans do, drowning their sorrows or frustrations for some of the same reasons, scientists reported Thursday. Male flies subjected to what amounted to a long tease — in a glass tube, not a dance club — preferred food spiked with alcohol far more than male flies that were able to mate.

The study, posted online in the journal Science, suggests that some elements of the brain’s reward system have changed very little during evolution, and these include some of the mechanisms that support addiction. Levels of a brain chemical that is active in regulating appetite predicted the flies’ thirst for alcohol. A similar chemical is linked to drinking in humans.

What’s really cool is that they think this could help them develop treatments to help people with alcohol and other substance abuse problems. Science!

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Mar 16 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Apple and the Time Machine

This is what Mike Daisey had to say for himself when confronted by Rob Schmitz of Marketplace about his aforelinked fabrications.

“Look. I’m not going to say that I didn’t take a few shortcuts in my passion to be heard. But I stand behind the work,” Daisey said. “My mistake, the mistake I truly regret, is that I had it on your show as journalism. And it’s not journalism. It’s theater.”

I don’t buy it. As Dan Frakes says, the fact that he lied to TAL about this makes no sense — why not just adjust the monologue for radio? Or only broadcast an accurate portion? Or at least make the producers aware that he hyped it up.

The problem though, is that he couldn’t do any of that. Jason Snell:

I agree with Daisey that his art is to make a point about truth, not report facts. But his show was structured around assumed reportage.

That’s it exactly. His stage show, which you can read a transcript of here, is structured around the idea that he went to China, saw all this stuff, and gosh what does that say about globalization and corporations and aren’t we basically just Eloi? If he had to adjust his work to report accurately about what he saw, or reframe portions in the second-hand, all the drama would be lost: he would not longer be entering the Morlock tunnels and exposing the future’s degeneracy.

All that aside, good on Ira Glass and TAL for coming forward right away and admitting their part in this. Like Patton Oswalt says:

Man, Ira Glass’ dream journal is about to get a fucking workout.

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Mar 16 2012
Mark Twain, probably

$100 to Fly Through the Airport

$100 to Fly Through the Airport

So here’s the latest thing really rustling my jimmies, courtesy of Scott McCartney of The Wall Street Journal:

The Transportation Security Administration is rolling out expedited screening at big airports called “Precheck.” It has special lanes for background-checked travelers, who can keep their shoes, belt and jacket on, leave laptops and liquids in carry-on bags and walk through a metal detector rather than a full-body scan. The process, now at two airlines and nine airports, is much like how screenings worked before the Sept. 11 attacks.

…

“It’s a completely different experience than what you’re used to,” said Matt Stegmeir, a platinum-level Delta Air Lines Inc. frequent flier who was invited into Precheck when it opened at his home airport, Minneapolis-St. Paul.

YOU KNOW

WE USED TO BE USED TO THIS

THEN SOME REALLY STUPID SHIT HAPPENED TO AIR TRAVEL IN THIS COUNTRY

To qualify, frequent fliers must meet undisclosed TSA criteria and get invited in by the airlines. There is also a backdoor in. Approved travelers who are in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s “Global Entry” program can transfer into Precheck using their Global Entry number.

…

Enrolling requires a $100 application fee for a background check, plus a brief interview with a Customs officer.

So I guess we’ve quantified the value of being treated like a human being as $100 and a background check.

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Mar 16 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Retraction

Retraction

This American Life:

Regrettably, we have discovered that one of our most popular episodes was partially fabricated. This week, we devote the entire hour to detailing the errors in “Mr. Daisey Goes to the Apple Factory,” Mike Daisey’s story about visiting Foxconn, an Apple supplier factory in China.

The episode itself isn’t available yet, but it should be available this evening. However the summary alone is pretty upsetting. Update: Andy Baio has a cached copy of TAL’s textual retraction, which contains some of the details on the fabrications at hand.

Recall that Daisey is also the author of a one-man play The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, also based on his “experiences” in China.

Something about Daisey’s work and attitude on this topic never really sat right with me — I could never quite put it into words, and honestly just dismissed it as fanboyism on my part. However, recall that the concurrent Foxconn suicides imbroglio was also quite a bit less shocking than it was at first brush.

I think Merlin said it best though:

Mmmm…investigative performance non-journalism. What could possibly go wrong?

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