Mad Science
21-Feb-11
via abstrusegoose.com
Danny MacAskill – “Way Back Home”
21-Feb-11
via youtube.com
via guardian.co.uk
“”The study was carried out by a team led by Professor John Halpern of Harvard Medical School and published in the journal Addiction last week. Funded by a $1.8m grant from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse, it was launched specifically to avoid methodological drawbacks that have bedevilled previous attempts to pinpoint whether or not ecstasy users suffer brain damage.”
…..
“…Halpern was sharply critical of the quality of the research that had linked ecstasy to brain damage. “Too many studies have been carried out on small populations, while overarching conclusions have been drawn from them,” he said. For a start, some previous research has studied users who were taken from a culture dominated by all-night dancing, which thus exposed these individuals to sleep and fluid deprivation – factors that are themselves known to produce long-lasting cognitive effects. Non-users were not selected from those from a similar background, which therefore skewed results. In addition, past studies have not taken sufficient account of the fact that ecstasy users take other drugs or alcohol that could affect cognition or that they may have suffered intellectual impairment before they started taking ecstasy. In Halpern’s study only ecstasy users who took no other drugs and who had suffered no previous impairment were selected.
The resulting experiment whittled down 1,500 potential participants to 52 selected users, whose cognitive abilities matched those of a group of 59 non-users. “We even took hair samples of participants to test whether they were telling the truth about their drug and alcohol habits,” said Halpern. “Essentially we compared one group of people who danced and raved and took ecstasy with a similar group of individuals who danced and raved but who did not take ecstasy. When we did that, we found that there was no difference in their cognitive abilities.” In other words, previous studies highlighted problems triggered by other factors, such as use of other drugs or drink, or sleep deprivation.
But the drug still posed risks, he said. “Ecstasy consumption is dangerous because illegally made pills often contain contaminants that can have harmful side-effects.”
“
” Watson has lots in common with a top-ranked human Jeopardy! player: It’s very smart, very fast, speaks in an uneven monotone, and has never known the touch of a woman.”
— Ken Jennings on playing Jeopardy against Watson.
— Ken Jennings on playing Jeopardy against Watson.
Coldplay: The Scientist
16-Feb-11
The Dead Island trailer appears to be inspired by this Coldplay video:
http://www.mtv.com/videos/coldplay/19722/in-my-place.jhtml#artist=1111141
Dead Island
16-Feb-11
You wouldn’t think a CGI trailer for a zombie game would make you tear up…
Albion Castle buyers?
16-Feb-11
Anyone want to go in on the purchase of Albion castle? A friend of mine would like to talk with you.
Chris
Albion Castle is for sale
16-Feb-11
* lust *
http://atlasobscura.com/place/albion-castle
Built in 1870 by John Hamlin Burnell, a young English immigrant with plans for a brewery to supply the over 800 saloons serving the growing city. Beer was already a popular choice in San Francisco, with several local breweries already competing for business. But Burnell’s new property had a secret advantage: An underground aquifer that provided pure cold water, perfect for brewing – not to mention free. He built himself not only the workspaces for the Albion Porter & Ale Brewery, but also a castle home. Although relatively petite and built into a hillside, it features a distinctive tower built from stones pulled from cargo ship’s ballast, modeled after Norman fortifications Burnell loved back home.
Under the castle, Burnell dug out two stone cisterns, each capturing 8,000 to 10,000 gallons of spring water per day. The 200 foot pools are accessed
by a cave entrance, and still provide fresh clean water today.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/scavenger/detail?entry_id=71368
http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2009/09/care_to_get_your_castle_on_a_resto…
http://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/881-Innes-Ave-94124/home/21925213
Only $1.5 million. :)
Chris
Ambition
15-Feb-11
