brains and bots: March 2012

20120331

I totally wish I was in London right now for the Wellcome Center's new exhibit.

They have pieces of Einstein's brain, as well as many other interesting items. Check out this 360 degree look at a brain

20120330

TATU "Robot"

Music Video Week! I love foreign music videos

20120329

20120328

20120327

20120326

Now We Know Science is Cool...

Cause Justin Bieber and Bono say so.

20120325

20120324

Check out Robot 13

This is a great app available both at iTunes and the android store.
Released by Robot Comics.

20120323

Studies have shown

After attaching a human eye to the robot, it only sees black and white. This is probably due to its binary programming. There is no moral ambiguity.

20120322

A Real Head-Scratcher

Do you think it's possible to scratch an itch on your head all the way to your brain?
Find out here: http://nyr.kr/GFy6PG

20120321

20120320

20120319

Stick Around part 1

Andy Kaufman pilot where he is a robot.Thanks StillCrazyInsane

20120318

Gary The Cylon

Did you ever sit there at work and wonder... "Is this all there is? I want more."Good job by One Minute Galactica

20120317

There will be Robots that think for themselves

But they will have Irish brains so probably a lot of drinking and tomfoolery will be going on.

Will robots become conscious one day?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7SWvDHvWXok#t=01m10s "Why am I conscious? What is consciousness? Will robots become conscious one day?"

GREAT COMIC ABOUT ROBOTS

Russ Manning created Magnus. Basically a reverse Tarzan. Tarzan, fallback to rougher times raised by animals. Magnus, a look ahead to more scientific and rational times, raised by a benevolent robot.

20120316

Get your brain in Check

Here are the ten plates for the Rorschach. Now you can study them and come up with really creative ways of answering them when someone wants to administer the test to you.

Best advice, don't take this pseudoscientific test.

Psychologists base too many findings on a silly thing as the response to a limited number of cards.

In public domain.

20120315

Movie Marathon!

During Brain Awareness Week here is a great movie marathon...

Hannibal

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Return of the Living Dead

each one features at least on scene where the characters eat brains.

Return of the Living Dead is actually the zombie movie that introduced the idea of zombies eating specifically brains instead of any part of the human flesh.

Have fun, eat some popcorn, or better yet use this recipe to join in

20120314

Electroconvulsive Therapy Yeah!

With the amount of depressed individuals increasing some are finding medication is not the answer.
There has been an uptick in the amount of patients requesting Electroconvulsive Therapy. It is a therapy now used for depression and bipolar disorder. Doctors still seem to not know how it works but they will take your cash to give you a dose of current through your temples.

I know that whenever I run electricity over my scalp I feel better when I am done.

here is more information on the process from a reputable source.

Pi Day! YAY!

It's Pi day.

3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038196 4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436 7892590360 0113305305 4882046652 1384146951 9415116094 3305727036 5759591953 0921861173 8193261179 3105118548 0744623799 6274956735 1885752724 8912279381 8301194912 9833673362 4406566430 8602139494 6395224737 1907021798 6094370277 0539217176 2931767523 8467481846 7669405132 0005681271 4526356082 7785771342 7577896091 7363717872 1468440901 2249534301 4654958537 1050792279 6892589235 4201995611 2129021960 8640344181 5981362977 4771309960 5187072113 4999999837 2978049951 0597317328 1609631859 5024459455 3469083026 4252230825 3344685035 2619311881 7101000313 7838752886 5875332083 8142061717 7669147303 5982534904 2875546873 1159562863 8823537875 9375195778 1857780532 1712268066 1300192787 6611195909 2164201989 3809525720 1065485863 2788659361 5338182796 8230301952 0353018529 6899577362 2599413891 2497217752 8347913151 5574857242 4541506959

So have some pi.

20120313

Celebrating Brainiac

On Brain Awareness Week we would like to celebrate a guy who many times has come very close to being the villain to face Superman on the big screen... BRAINIAC

Kevin Smith and Tim Burton both featured him in their treatments of the franchise and unfortunately instead we recieved the rather crappy Superman Returns instead.

Brainiac first appeared in Action Comics #242 in 1958 and is definitely one of Superman's best enemies.

20120312

Blow your mind right in front of your face

Gordon's continuing problems

Gordon Brainbottle could not believe the audacity of TR-497q2's attempt to steal his girlfriend.

Little did he know that the bot's entire torso was filled with a combustible fuel.

Brain Awareness Week

During Brain Awareness Week we will be trying to bring you a mix of fun brain bustin puzzles and tricks as well as interesting articles we find on the study of neuroscience.

Also we will be using the Brain Awareness Week Logo on the blog to alert you to the event.

There will be a link to The Dana Foundation when you click the logo.

20120311

Brain Awareness Week

Brain Awareness Week! March 12 - 18 2012 Be cool to your brain

20120310

They've made their choice

She Creatures "Sexy Robot"

20120309

Caveman Robot Meets Robot Caveman!

http://www.tetragrammatron.com/RobotCaveman/RobotCaveman.html

20120308

Shortcuts for Robots

Pretty Interesting stuff. David Chandler from the MIT News Office writes of "New methods and software developed at MIT can predict optimal paths for automated underwater vehicles" These will help with the realtime changes of the underwater system the drones are traveling through.

One of the problems stated in the article below is that it had so much computational data to go through real time adjustments were difficult.

Anyone who has swam in a flowing body of water can attest to the fact that continuous adjustments need to be made. Many changes can affect current. Tidal considerations, wind, even a moving vehicle like a jetski can affect you.

MIT will present their research in May to the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation

The article also links to more information

Sometimes the quickest path is not a straight line - MIT News Office

20120307

New IPad

Thanks to Engadget's Daniel Cooper here is a breakdown

iPad 2

New iPad

Display	9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD	Same
Resolution	1024 x 768	2048 x 1536 "Retina Display"
CPU	1GHz dual-core Apple A5	dual-core Apple A5X
Graphics	PowerVR SGX 543MP2	TBA (but "Quad-Core," our first guess a PowerVR SGX MP4+)
Memory	512MB RAM	TBA
Storage	16GB / 32GB / 64GB	Same
Front Camera	VGA (640 x 480)	Same
Rear Camera	0.7-megapixel, fixed focus	5-megapixel, autofocus
Cellular	EDGE plus Quadband HSPA or CDMA EV-Do Rev.A (Verizon)	"World-Ready" 3G, HSPA+, DC-HSPA, 4G LTE (AT&T, Verizon)
WiFi	802.11 a/b/g/n	802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth	2.1 + EDR	4.0

Thickness	0.34-inch (8.8mm)	0.37-inch (9.4mm)
Weight (WiFi)	1.33 pounds (601 grams)	1.44 pounds (652 grams)
Weight (3G / LTE)	AT&T 1.35 pounds (613 grams) Verizon 1.34 pounds (607 grams)	1.46 pounds (662 grams)
Battery Life	25-watt-hour lithium polymer (rated 10 Hours)	42.5-watt-hour lithium polymer (rated 10 hours / 9 on 4G)
Ports	30-pin dock, 3.5mm headphone	30-pin dock, 3.5mm headphone
Location (WiFi)	WiFi, Digital Compass	WiFi, Digital Compass
Location (3G / LTE)	aGPS, 3G, Digital Compass, WiFi	aGPS, 3G, 4G, Digital Compass, WiFi