sometimes, always and never

dorkly: Things That Are Bigger On the Inside Size matters.

Thu, 23 May 2013 18:36:56 -0700

dorkly:

Things That Are Bigger On the Inside

Size matters.

"Yep."

Sun, 12 May 2013 17:09:36 -0700

“Yep.”

- the only word I really don’t say in actuality; just on the interwebs.

theparisreview: “As a child I thought it was very boring when I...

Sun, 12 May 2013 16:52:40 -0700

theparisreview:

“As a child I thought it was very boring when I had to sit with [my mother] on the city streets, but the time sank deep and surfaced later.” —Reynolds Price

neurosciencestuff: What It’s Like to See Again with an...

Sun, 12 May 2013 16:37:50 -0700

neurosciencestuff:

What It’s Like to See Again with an Artificial Retina

Elias Konstantopoulos gets spotty glimpses of the world each day for about four hours, or for however long he leaves his Argus II retina prosthesis turned on. The 74-year-old Maryland resident lost his sight from a progressive retinal disease over 30 years ago, but is able to perceive some things when he turns on the bionic vision system.

“I can see if you are in front of me, and if you try to go away,” he says. “Or, if I look at a big tree with the system on I can maybe see some darkness and if it’s bright outside and I move my head to the left or right I can see different shadows that tell me there is something there. There’s no way to tell what it is,” says Konstantopoulos.

A spectacle-mounted camera captures image data for Konstantopoulos; that data is then processed by a mini-computer carried on a strap and sent to a 60-pixel neuron-stimulating chip that was implanted in one of his retinas in 2009.

Nearly 70 people around the world have undergone the three-hour surgery for the retinal implant, which was developed by California’s Second Sight and approved for use in Europe in 2011 and in the U.S. earlier this year (see “Bionic Eye Implant Approved for U.S. Patients”). It is the first vision-restoring implant sold to patients.

Currently, the system is only approved for patients with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye condition that strikes around one in 5,000 people worldwide, but it’s possible the Argus II and other artificial retinas in development could work for those with age-related macular degeneration, which affects one in 2,000 people in developed countries. In these conditions, the photoreceptor cells of the eye (commonly called rods and cones) are lost, but the rest of the neuronal pathway that communicates visual information to the brain is often still viable. Artificial retinas depend on this remaining circuitry, so cannot work for all forms of blindness.

Read more

Holy shit, science is cool!

laura-berger: be gentle card // © laura berger

Sun, 12 May 2013 16:34:50 -0700

laura-berger:

be gentle card // © laura berger

Photo

Wed, 08 May 2013 19:00:49 -0700

"No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them."

Tue, 07 May 2013 14:54:15 -0700

“No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them.”

- Assata Shakur (via ethiopienne)

Gender Bias Found in How Scholars Review Scientific Studies

Tue, 07 May 2013 14:44:42 -0700

Gender Bias Found in How Scholars Review Scientific Studies:

women-in-science:

The research found that graduate students in communication — both men and women — showed significant bias against study abstracts they read whose authors had female names like “Brenda Collins” or “Melissa Jordan.”

These students gave higher ratings to the exact same abstracts when the authors were identified with male names like “Andrew Stone” or “Matthew Webb.”

In addition, the results suggested that some research topics were seen as more appropriate for women scholars — such as parenting and body image — while others, like politics, were viewed as more appropriate for men.

A lot of scientific journals only use the authors’ first initial rather than the full first name. I am ok with this because it means my research isn’t as likely to have bias against it because I am female; I am not ok that I feel like I need this convention to prevent bias against my work. If that makes sense.

"Dearest Mama, I must tell you what my opinion of my own mind and powers is exactly—the result of a..."

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:13:21 -0700

“

Dearest Mama,

I must tell you what my opinion of my own mind and powers is exactly—the result of a most accurate study of myself with a view to my future plans during many months. I believe myself to possess a most singular combination of qualities exactly fitted to make me preeminently a discoverer of the hidden realities of nature.

[…]

Firstly: owing to some peculiarity in my nervous system, I have perceptions of some things, which no one else has—or at least very few, if any. This faculty may be designated in me as a singular tact, or some might say an intuitive perception of hidden things—that is of things hidden from eyes, ears, and the ordinary senses…This alone would advantage me little, in the discovery line, but there is, secondly, my immense reasoning faculties. Thirdly: my concentrative faculty, by which I mean the power not only of throwing my whole energy and existence into whatever I choose, but also bringing to bear on any one subject or idea a vast apparatus from all sorts of apparently irrelevant and extraneous sources. I can throw rays from every quarter of the universe into one vast focus.

Now these three powers (I cannot resist the wickedness of calling them my discovering or scientific trinity) are a vast apparatus put into my power by Providence; and it rests with me by a proper course during the next twenty years to make the engine what I please. But haste, or a restless ambition, would quite ruin the whole.

”

- Reconstructionist Ada Lovelace, the world’s first computer programmer, is very, very confident in her intellectual abilities in this 1841 letter to her mother. She was twenty-six at the time. (via explore-blog)

I believe today we would refer to this as “swagger”.

(via jtotheizzoe)

Step 295: Print this out for your laundry room

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 21:02:48 -0700

adulting:

"For fear you will be alone you do so many things that aren’t you at all."

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 20:31:27 -0700

“For fear you will be alone
you do so many things
that aren’t you at all.”

- Richard Brautigan, “For fear you will be alone” (via the-final-sentence)

neuroconnoisseur: Portuguese man o’ war (Physalia...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 20:30:16 -0700

neuroconnoisseur:

Portuguese man o’ war (Physalia physalis)

We have this in hawaii. They are assholes.

madeleineishere: 💨Post-it-Love-Note What’s that smell edition💨

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 19:47:36 -0700

madeleineishere:

💨Post-it-Love-Note What’s that smell edition💨

criminalwisdom: QUIET BABYLON: ALGORITHMIC RAPE JOKES IN THE...

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:06:05 -0800

criminalwisdom:

QUIET BABYLON: ALGORITHMIC RAPE JOKES IN THE LIBRARY OF BABEL»

wtf, is this real?!

we live in a rape culture and it is NEVER okay to make jokes about rape in any form or forum. the fact that this company is trying to make money off of rape is disturbing and disgusting. quite frankly, i wish it were illegal to promote rape; afterall, it’s promoting a criminal act of violence against another human being. i sincerely hope this company goes down in flames.

La Femme homme by Annette Messager, 1975Also this.

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:58:20 -0800

La Femme homme by Annette Messager, 1975

Also

this.

yup.

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:49:30 -0800

yup.

"This tribe called ‘Women of Color’ is not an ethnicity. It is one of the inventions of solidarity,..."

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:46:17 -0800

“This tribe called ‘Women of Color’ is not an ethnicity. It is one of the inventions of solidarity, an alliance, a political necessity that is not the given name of every female with dark skin and a colonized tongue, but rather a choice about how to resist and with whom.”

- Aurora Levins (via counterstorytelling)

women-in-science: meera-07: women-in-science: women-in-science...

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:41:43 -0800

women-in-science:

meera-07:

women-in-science:

women-in-science:

http://www.beatricebiologist.com/2012/03/women-science-and-awesome-graphs.html

But watch what happens …

I wonder if this data represents just one country or is it worldwide?

I imagine that it is worldwide, but it could also be the US. I could be wrong. The blogger who made this lovely set of graphs does not say. I recommend you click on the link and check out the page, there are a few more on there as well as some funny graphics.

FUCK YEAH!

laura-berger: upcoming zine peek.a page from “feel better...

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:38:17 -0800

laura-berger:

upcoming zine peek.
a page from “feel better now” :: 64 pages, 6 full color, gocco printed cover, free vinyl sticker.

©laura berger

everyday!

tastefullyoffensive: [butthorn] i feel especially validated in...

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:35:09 -0800

tastefullyoffensive:

[butthorn]

i feel especially validated in my choice to work from home in pjs & fuzzy socks with some mate