Scientists ‘See’ YouTube Videos in the Mind
What if what you saw with your eyes could be interpreted in a brain-scanner? Well, that just happened. Check it out:
Gallant’s coauthors acted as study subjects, watching YouTube videos inside a magnetic resonance imaging machine for several hours at a time. The team then used the brain imaging data to develop a computer model that matched features of the videos — like colors, shapes and movements — with patterns of brain activity.
“Once we had this model built, we could read brain activity for that subject and run it backwards through the model to try to uncover what the viewer saw,” said Gallant.
Subtle changes in blood flow to visual areas of the brain, measured by functional MRI, predicted what was on the screen at the time — whether it was Steve Martin as Inspector Clouseau or an airplane. The reconstructed videos are blurry because they layer all the YouTube clips that matched the subject’s brain activity pattern. The result is a haunting, almost dream-like version of the video as seen by the mind’s eye.
(via ABC News)
The Apple Blogs Vs. Brooke Crothers
Congratulations to CNET’s Brooke Crothers for writing one of the most ridiculous things I’ve read in a while — and successfully getting myself (and undoubtedly many others) to link. Even more impressive: he didn’t have to break 400 words to do it. My guess is that he wrote this in 10 minutes. If not, that’s just sad.
You used to see a lot more of these types of posts a few years ago. But once those writing them started getting exposed as fools, they slowed down. You see, the argument used to be that those constantly writing positively about Apple were both morons and brainwashed — Apple was insignificant in the all-important PC market at the time, so those who liked the products were obviously whack jobs on the fringe of humanity.
Then a funny thing happened.
Apple became one of the most successful companies and the most valuable company in the world. They transformed the entertainment landscape, the retail landscape, the mobile landscape, and did something all the naysayers said was impossible: created an actual market for tablets. Now most companies around the world are trying to copy at least part of Apple’s business.
I hope everyone enjoyed Appaloosa’s Come On In My Disco last week, because it’s time for another one already..
This mixtape is done by the Icelandic folk-collective amiina, who recently released their second album Puzzle (which you should definitely check out). This is something completely different from last week, containing a lot of classical and traditional songs. Well worth a listen though. Enjoy winter nostalgia, as collected by amiina.
amiina - winter nostalgia (35 mb)
1. Haukur Mortens and Elly Vilhljalms - Threk og Tar song (Otto Lindblad cover)
2. amiina - Leather and Lace (Lee Hazlewood cover)
3. Lee Hazlewood - The Night Before
4. Marissa Nadler -Diamond Heart
5. Amália Rodrigues - Amália Fado (Frederico Valério cover)
6. Nina Simone - Black Is The Colour Of My True Love’s Hair
7. Leonard Cohen - Suzanne
8. Hamlet Gonashvili - Satrpialo
9. Tom Waits - FawnLots of love to amiina for creating this wonderful mixtape.
The summer sun sets on the path home in Central Park
This is beautiful. Beautiful photo, beautiful article.
Throughout any given year I shoot thousands of photos, so when I was recently asked which one was my personal favorite of 2011, I had a difficult time answering. However, when thinking about it over a couple of days, the one above kept jumping out at me.
On 11-11-11 I documented Jason Webley‘s concert at The Moore in Seattle. That was where I caught this moment in time. Webley is talking about the virtues of love, while Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer sit together behind him, listening.
There is a love story there, and it starts with a look of genuine happiness on Jason Webley’s face, as he looks up into the light, sharing his joy with (and for) the audience. Amanda Palmer represents that audience to me, relaxed, attentive and having a good time, and Neil Gaiman ties the story together, looking down at his wife with complete adoration and a smile that says simply: “I Love You.”
There is enough intimacy in this photo, that I felt a little like a peeping tom as I put it through post processing, like I was crashing a private party. I actually had to remind myself that it was taken at a public event. That is why this is my favorite photo of 2011. It makes me feel like giving my wife a kiss, putting on some good music and take pleasure in the little things in life.
TCGS #28 - Ruin This Show
Chris has to deal with the consequences after going on national television and announcing on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon that he wanted everyone to come to the next taping of TCGS and attempt to ruin the show. No touching the panel. No touching equipment. Everything else was fair game. What resulted was a cacophony of chaos as performers and audience members alike came out in droves to ruin the Chris Gethard Show. Chris’ only ally for the night was CollegeHumor’s Jeff Rubin who made his first appearance on the show and waded through the insanity with Chris. Aside from Jeff the only other rest from the chaos were the amazing and hilarious dance routines of the bad-ass Cocoon Central Dance Team. In the end, Chris asked the audience to ruin the show, and the audience delivered. Consider this show ruined.
Subscribe on itunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-chris-gethard-show/id446647559
Watch past episodes on Blip.tv: http://blip.tv/thechrisgethardshow
