“
What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.

Carl Sagan, on books

There is something about holding an organized pile of wood pulp and dried ink that gives the reader a shared stake in the author’s experience, some small part-ownership of a piece of information. “This is mine, and although the words in it are not, the experience is purely personal.”

Where will this take us with e-books? I am a huge fan of their accessibility and their rich creative potential, but will the magic persist?

(via Brain Pickings)

(Reblogged from jtotheizzoe)

jtotheizzoe:

Using Music To Unlock a Locked Brain

Have you seen this video? If not, grab some tissues and get comfortable, because the water, it just comes out of your face.

Dementia, Alzheimer’s, stroke … the list of horrible neurological impairments goes on and on. These are people whose brains are no longer communicating with the world around them, failing to make sense of the inputs and outputs. But that doesn’t mean that their brains are completely broken.

When we look into the eyes of those suffering from these disorders, we see that the human is still inside, in different ways for different patients. Are they fully vocal and trapped in a body without speech? Do they hear your every word and are unable to respond? For some, like this wonderful clip shows, the brain’s connections between music, emotion, and how we use it to communicate beyond speech might still be intact. Music could be our only way in for some people.

I’ve posted the original video here from MusicandMemory.org. If you’d like to help or donate a new or used iPod, visit their website.

The film “Alive Inside” is playing at NYC’s Rubin Museum of Art beginning next week. For more on the science behind music therapy, check this out. And here’s some Cab Calloway for ya, Henry!!!!!

Ahh, the pure joy of science :)

(by MusicandMemory1)

(Reblogged from jtotheizzoe)
thedailywhat: Infographic of the Day: Of course the MPAA doesn’t want people to see Bully. If people stopped turning a blind eye to bullying the MPAA could no longer exist. [thanks jill!]

thedailywhat:

Infographic of the Day: Of course the MPAA doesn’t want people to see Bully. If people stopped turning a blind eye to bullying the MPAA could no longer exist.

[thanks jill!]

(Reblogged from thedailywhat)
smokyquest: Internet Grammar View high resolution

smokyquest:

Internet Grammar

(Reblogged from smokyquest)

Timeline of ANTISEC as Created and Operated Under FBI Supervision

Trying to understand how this is not a form of entrapment. FBI creates the situation and controls its direction, to include escalation of events, and then what? Everyone involved is a terrorist based on regulations put in place as a result of the situation that the FBI created in the first place? /mind.blown.

wilwheaton:

Wow.

(Reblogged from wilwheaton)

Avoid Smoking Cigarettes

canisfamiliaris:

Avoid Smoking Cigarettes

(via fakescience)

(Reblogged from canisfamiliaris)
gjmueller: This is the Coffee Cycle, one of the great driving forces of life on Earth. View high resolution

gjmueller:

This is the Coffee Cycle, one of the great driving forces of life on Earth.

(Reblogged from jtotheizzoe)
“
It’s not that Chris Brown is categorically unforgivable. It’s more that he’s no longer an acceptable vehicle for corporations to use to sell products to young adults. On a human level, I’m more than willing to eventually forgive Chris Brown, once he seems genuinely remorseful and changed (which, at this point, he definitely does not). But there’s no obligation to continue supporting him as a pop star. Chris Brown would not exist without millions of dollars of production and marketing and styling and whatever else. He’s not some troubled genius that exists on his own, creating pop music in a corner. He’s just a handsome and fit guy who can dance and sing pretty well. There are plenty of other people who are more than capable of filling that role and who haven’t beat a woman into a state of unconsciousness. Why not give one of them a chance to be rich and famous instead?
VICE on Cord’s Chris Brown post (via ceedling)

(Source: cordjefferson)

(Reblogged from wilwheaton)
jtotheizzoe: Valentine’s Day Climate Denial Bombshell In documents leaked yesterday, The Heartland Institute, a right-wing think tank funded at various times by the Koch family, ExxonMobil and and R.J. Reynolds, detailed plans to create a K-12 curriculum designed to dissuade teachers from teaching science in order to support climate change denial. A key passage: We are pursuing a proposal…to produce a global warming curriculum for K-12 schools…[this] effort will focus on providing curriculum that shows that the topic of climate change is controversial and uncertain – two key points that are effective at dissuading teachers from teaching science. A coal industry consultant named David Wojick (who has a Ph.D. in something called “Philosophy of Science”) was to be paid $100,000 to design these classroom materials. Heartland also targeted publications like Forbes as new mouthpieces, since “Efforts at places such as Forbes are especially important now that they have begun to allow high-profile climate scientists (such as [Peter] Gleick) to post warmist science essays that counter our own. This influential audience has usually been reliably anti-climate and it is important to keep opposing voices out.” The documents were released by an anonymous leak, and have thus far been verified by budget comparisons, tax documents and metadata in the documents that were released. Ironically, Heartland was one of the cheerleaders for the manufactured email-leak controversy known as “ClimateGate” in 2009-2010. This is some of the most damning proof I’ve ever seen of the depth of organization, money and conspiracy that goes into today’s science denialism movement.  Rundown of good coverage: DeSmogBlog has released the full documents and has more background Bad Astronomy for comparisons with ClimateGate Shawn Otto details the denialist machine at HuffPo Science Chris Mooney at Science Progress’ Intersection blog View high resolution

jtotheizzoe:

Valentine’s Day Climate Denial Bombshell

In documents leaked yesterday, The Heartland Institute, a right-wing think tank funded at various times by the Koch family, ExxonMobil and and R.J. Reynolds, detailed plans to create a K-12 curriculum designed to dissuade teachers from teaching science in order to support climate change denial.

A key passage:

We are pursuing a proposal…to produce a global warming curriculum for K-12 schools…[this] effort will focus on providing curriculum that shows that the topic of climate change is controversial and uncertain – two key points that are effective at dissuading teachers from teaching science.

A coal industry consultant named David Wojick (who has a Ph.D. in something called “Philosophy of Science”) was to be paid $100,000 to design these classroom materials. Heartland also targeted publications like Forbes as new mouthpieces, since

“Efforts at places such as Forbes are especially important now that they have begun to allow high-profile climate scientists (such as [Peter] Gleick) to post warmist science essays that counter our own. This influential audience has usually been reliably anti-climate and it is important to keep opposing voices out.”

The documents were released by an anonymous leak, and have thus far been verified by budget comparisons, tax documents and metadata in the documents that were released. Ironically, Heartland was one of the cheerleaders for the manufactured email-leak controversy known as “ClimateGate” in 2009-2010.

This is some of the most damning proof I’ve ever seen of the depth of organization, money and conspiracy that goes into today’s science denialism movement. 

Rundown of good coverage:

(Reblogged from jtotheizzoe)
jtotheizzoe: The State of State Science Standards The Fordham Institute released grades on how states’ science education standards stack up. We know that students need to do better when it comes to STEM education. But when states are undermining science education, how can we even begin to improve? What grade did your state get? (via Greg Laden’s Blog) View high resolution

jtotheizzoe:

The State of State Science Standards

The Fordham Institute released grades on how states’ science education standards stack up. We know that students need to do better when it comes to STEM education. But when states are undermining science education, how can we even begin to improve?

What grade did your state get?

(via Greg Laden’s Blog)

(Reblogged from jtotheizzoe)