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Study helps unlock how the brain sees

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:27:33 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: They hope to use the findings, to Recreate the capacity to see in Robots, and Artificial Intelligence

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Julie Steenhuysen

Scientists who tricked monkeys by swapping images of sailboats for teacups have figured out how the brain learns to recognise objects, a finding that could lead to robots that see.

"One of the central questions of how the brain recognises objects and faces is that you never essentially see the same image twice," says James DiCarlo, an associate professor of neuroscience at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He says humans have no trouble recognising a dog, regardless of whether it is running, lying down, wagging its tail or begging for food.

"The pattern of light in your eyes is never the same when you view your wife or your dog, yet you can still recognise that as the person or creature that you love," says DiCarlo, whose research appears in the journal Science.

Scientists believe people do it by gathering a host of different snapshots of the same object over a short period of time.

nearby images in time tend to be images of the same object,

Oral sex

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 04:08:41 GMT

clipped by: dakotayii
clipper's remarks: "Well," Grandpa said, "She goes to bed in her bedroom, and I go to bed in my bedroom ... And she yells, 'Fuck You!!!!!' and I holler back, 'Fuck You too.' "

Clip Source: losangeles.craigslist.org

A young fellow was about to be married and was asking his grandfather about sex. He asked how often you should have it.

His grandfather told him that when you first get married, you want it all the time ...and maybe do it several times a day.

Later on, sex tapers off and you have it once a week or so.

Then as you get older, you have sex maybe once a month. When you get really old, you are lucky to have it once a year..... maybe on your anniversary.

The young fellow then asked his grandfather, "Well how about you and Grandma now?"

His grandfather replied, "Oh, we just have oral sex now."

"What's oral sex?" the young fellow asked.

Tags: jokes

Emotional robots in the spotlight

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 18:52:51 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Robots displaying emotional responses, is one of the greatest challenges not only of robotics, but also in understanding ourselves. What exactly makes us emotionally engaged? Is emotional behavior corresponds to real emotions? What are real emotions anyway?

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

[Video]

Heart Robot has a beating heart, a breathing belly, and sensors that respond to movement, noise and touch. Cuddle him, and he seems to soak up the affection. His limbs become limp, his eyelids lower, his breathing relaxes, and his heart beat slows down.

But if he is given a violent shake, or shouted at, he gets upset. He flinches, his hands clench, his breathing and heart rate speed up, and his eyes widen.

Heart Robot, created by scientists at the University of the West of England in Bristol, was designed to explore how humans react to a machine that appears to show feelings.

Clip Source: blogs.fayobserver.com

It’s interesting to see people’s responses. I tend to have as much of an uncanny valley experience as the average person. I just recognize it when it happens.

(The Uncanny Valley is a phenomenon in which, the closer to human an artificial being gets, it actually becomes more strange and repulsive to an actual human.)

It seems to be a hard threshold to cross, but that isn’t stopping scientists and animators from trying

Tags: robotics, man machine interaction

Love after Love

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 08:00:08 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.poemhunter.com

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror

and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.

Sit. Feast on your life.

Derek Walcott

Tags: poetry, walcott

Aloe Vera, real or fiction?

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 09:04:57 GMT

clipped by: balthazarus
clipper's remarks: "THE BOTTOM LINE?

Inconclusive. Studies of aloe vera’s effect on burns have produced conflicting findings."
Maybe its power lies in what people believe it to be doing, which by itself can have healing powers...

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The Claim: Aloe Vera Gel Can Heal Burns

Aloe vera has been a common skin-care remedy since the Greek physician Dioscorides advocated using it for burns in the first century A.D.

But only in recent years have scientists conducted research to determine whether it lives up to its reputation. Some have found that aloe contains certain anti-inflammatory compounds and may act as an antibacterial agent. But studies on its effects on minor and moderate burns have been mixed.

In 2007, for example, a study in the journal Burns analyzed data from four controlled clinical trials involving a total of 371 patients, some were treated with topical aloe vera and others with placebo. Patients in the aloe vera group appeared to have slightly shorter healing times, but the evidence was not convincing, and the authors recommended further research.

it decreased “subdermal temperature within the skin,” but did not reduce bacterial counts or speed the regeneration of skin.

Tags: aloe vera, myth, research