I hate a capella...

...but this shit is pretty brilliant. Good jorb, Honda commercial dudes.

My Morning Jacket

If anyone wants to burn the new album from Louisville, Kentucky's own My Morning Jacket they can get the disc from me. It is a good album. I'll leave it at that. Damn is it good.
jeff

Architectural Mess

http://www.impactlab.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7189

The amount of work that must have gone to this is ridiculous, and I want our house to have some also. 2nd floor of 106 Governor will have swirls of yellow and black paint that, when viewed from Jeff's corner room, settles into a happy face centered on my room.

Example:

Connexions

This week, a kind and sensible counselor at the Brown Career Development Center told me, "In academia, getting jobs is all about connections." I had heard similar sentiments from cynical job-searching seniors, but the force of this idea never really struck me until I heard it from this counselor, herself a former academic involved in Brain Science. I understand that hiring in Hollywood and on Wall Street is often influenced by nepotism, but shouldn't we expect more from academia, where, from kindergarten on, teachers drill into our skulls the idea that we will be graded not on our status or charm, but on our merit?

It got me thinking about connections. In the abstract sense, connections are an essential and benevolent part of the human experience. Connections bind our families, cultures, and socities together. Connections give us humanity, the idea that we are innately and intricately linked to all other people simply by the virtue of their being human.

But in the job market context, connections is an ugly word. It connotes rigid class structures, reduced financial mobility, and the adulteration of free-market economies. Connections in this sense carries with it the specter of disconnections, which afflict those who have intelligence and skill, but are unlucky enough not to have powerful people in their acquaintance.

To rectify this tension, I propose we resurrect connexions. This largely antiquated and largely British variant could be used when one is speaking of the dark and hushed alternatives to meritocracy, while connections is reserved for the noble ties of man to mankind. Now then, does anyone have any connexions in the Neuroscience field?

Fraternal Love

Hello all and goodbye all. Just feeling this thing out with a quick post and a picture of Bevan and Hatty sharing their fraternal love. It doesn't get more fraternal than this.


If I find an example of sororital love, I'll put that up too.

-Yoshi

Good God McSweeney

Ripped off from McSweeney's Internet Tendency: "Troubling Tyra Mails Censored from Aired Episodes of America's Next Top Model"

Models must not fear death. To become America's Next Top Model, you'll have to learn to stop a moving train with only your gaunt bodies and a tube of Cover Girl lip-gloss. Call your loved ones before 9:00 a.m. tomorrow.
-Tyra

Tomorrow you will know the wrath of God and feel the fury of the heavens raining down upon thee. What you learned about runway walking might come in handy. Be ready at 7:00 a.m.
—Tyra

I never understood why criminals are able to lift weights and get really strong while incarcerated. The van will be outside at 9:00 a.m.
—Tyra

Rest of the piece is here.

Dangerous Questions

Every year Edge.org (an online forum for the world's top scientists and thinkers) poses a question for its contributors to answer. This year's is "What is your dangerous idea?"

"The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?"

There's also a recent article about mirror neurons by Ramachandran on the main page, for you neuroscience buffs.

This site is aaaaaaaawsome.

a request from a friend

subject: put this in the jug

my dear andy,
Being dumb, I am unable to figure out how to post something on the blog and my blogspot invitation thingee didn't seem to work. I wanted to post attached photo to showcase alan's (supposedly) FIRST hickey EVER bestowed on another human, an achievement necessitating documentation. He deserves his hickey merit badge, no doubt. Are we able to post photos? Teach me, andy.
yours, molly finnegan

PIITJ

Will the AIM warning be anonymous or ananonymous? Also, goodbye.

Put It In The Jug

We hereby launch Put It In The Jug, a forum for free expression by those who eventually find their way to this page. It is also a forum for love, but only fraternal or sororital love. Love between men and women, no matter how platonic, is unacceptable and will result in your AIM account being warned.