I saw this study the other day that played the sounds that monkey's make to other monkeys. The sounds were scientifically labeled: "coos, grunts, barks, and harmonic arches." I thought that "harmonic arch" probably isn't what the monkey had meant to say! There is an even more extensive list in this paper Y. E. Cohen 2006, but I have censored it for the general public . . . you'll know why if you look it up.
Some time ago I reported on a NYC MTA bus engineering test. At the time, I asked for translations of the German word "Nothahn" appearing on a sign. Courtesy of the FailBlog, I think I might know what Nothahn means:
Although, this is clearly a mistranslation, I believe that we can deduce that Nothahn means "Emergency Lock," similar to some of the suggestions we got in the comments back then. Mystery solved!
These optical illusions are so great that they have the privilege of gracing my new wall.
The gray Diamonds are all the same shade of brightness. Note the much stronger effect in the upper one.
The gray rectangles inside are the same shade of brightness.
Below is my current all time favorite. The two inside diamonds are identical.
Unlike the normal illusions of brightness, this time one of the diamonds appears "Hazy" quite an impressive feat. It takes some nuance to explain why this happens (E. H. Adelson 2000), but the other illusions are easily explained by the similar illusion below:
If you were to see this in real life, the actual reflectance of B would be lighter than A, and so your brain computes this and tells you that its brighter even though on the screen they have the same brightness.
I recently got a job. I am now a Rutgers University employee, working for the Associate Director of the CAIT building. Basically what I do is work out how to use a 9.5 foot helium balloon with a remote control Pan Tilt Camera system, so I could literal be watching you right now. However, the really cool bit is that I have a big lab all to myself.
You can see the pan tilt on the left, with the remote control right next to it, and next to that is the battery chargerThis is the blimp (not inflated of course, and with no tail fins)
I started work in a Neurobiology lab which works with children who have Williams Syndrome. In order to see the data I needed to take a funny online course on doing studies with human subjects. The highlights are below:
The graphics were possibly the best part, especially the names they used for the files, below you see intro_questionMan.jpg
So you see I'm not making this up you can take a look:
http://phrp.nihtraining.com/introduction/images/intro_questionMan.jpg My favorite line: It is not considered ethical behavior to use individuals solely as means to an end.
And a close second . . with graphic!Individuals should be treated as autonomous agents
Prisoners were another hot topicThis picture is called mugshot.jpg!
Here is one example question which was very difficult:
For research involving pregnant women, participation requires ...
That women have completed the first trimester.
That the study be conducted first in men.
Permission of the father.
Consideration of risks and potential benefits for the fetus and the pregnant woman.
They were very intent on keeping the subjects data private and secure: Here is one more example question: What is an appropriate method for maintaining confidentiality of private information obtained from human subjects?
This question was a tongue twister
True or False: For HIV antiretroviral treatment trials conducted in developing countries, the NIH expects investigators/contractors to address the provision of antiretroviral treatment to trial participants after their completion of participation in the clinical trial.
In the end I passed all the quizzes and received my certificate of completion:
Last week when shopping for produce I noticed "Water Coconuts." They weren't too expensive, so we bought one.
After some Googling I figured out that I needed to hack into this thing somehow. Unfortunately, I don't have a machete, which seems to be the traditional method of access. So I used this little, weird, essentially useless knife we got for free with some of our pots.
After much hacking:
I reached an impasse. This point was rock hard - kind of like a coconut shell. I wonder why. Anyway, I figured I might have been hacking at the wrong end of the thing. So I flipped the thing over and kept and whacking:
Finally, after a lot of hard work, I knocked the top off!
And had a drink:
Truth be told, it didn't taste that good. But, it was fun!
I'd also like to note, that today marks the third Blogversary of the blog! But we couldn't think of anything special to do (and we're all desperately trying to catch/keep up in school), so it's just business as usual here. You know, no posts from Yoni/Jonathan or Aryeh this week...
You know how some stores like to give out free samples of their food? You know, usually the house brand whatever, to show off how good and tasty it is? Well, we were in Walmart a few weeks ago, and look what they were giving out:
Update:
OK, for those who don't recognize the containers, due to the crapcam compression, I hope this helps:
This is a photo of the last page of a passport from Iran. It says "The holder of this passport is not entitled to travel to the occupied palestine. I find it interesting that they use the lowercase 'p'
I saw this study the other day that played the sounds that monkey's make to other monkeys. The sounds were scientifically labeled: "coos, grunts, barks, and harmonic arches." I thought that "harmonic arch" probably isn't what the monkey had meant to say!
