Posted 2 weeks ago

The Silver Lining on Depression's Dark Cloud

An intriguing look at the possible correlation of depression and its ability to increase focus, concentration, and creativity.

Charles Darwin was suspected to have suffered from depression. Could his world-changing discovery be attributed to his affliction?

Studies have found that during bouts of depression, blood flow increases to the portion of the brain that controls what we pay attention to (the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, or VLPFC for short).  Neuroscientists are speculating that the increased prefrontal activity facilitates rumination, allowing people to focus more deliberately on specific problems.  It’s also being said that depression can help people be more creative.  People have contemplated this very relationship for years, but this is interesting because it’s the first time that scientific data is being used to quantify this theory.

I’m no rocket scientist, but I do consider myself to be more analytical of certain situations.  I would also consider myself to be slightly more “real” about things, and sometimes feel like I suffer from “depressive realism”.  It could be perceived as pessimism, but like most pessimists, I get frustrated at telling haters that I’m not being negative, simply “realistic”.

Anyhow, the article is a very interesting one, and if you want a more concise, better written overview of it, you can find one here.

Posted 2 weeks ago

I dread to think at all the mean, heartless, inhuman things our cyborg children will be saying about all the ‘getting down’ we did in 2001!

Cyborg Child 1: “011100101 00101101011001 10001011,  10001 00101001  1001001100 101001 0101000001101000111000101!”

Cyborg Child 2: “1010101011101011001!”

Ok, I just gave myself nightmares.

Posted 3 weeks ago
Posted 3 weeks ago
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

The Hood Internet - THE XX GON’ GIVE IT TO YA (DMX vs THE XX)

I’ve been completely infatuated with the smooth, cool sounds of The xx lately, listening to the entirety of their self-titled debut album ‘XX’ on repeat on my iPhone for about 3 weeks now.

I guess this particular mash-up of the xx’s quiet, understated beats and DMX’s harsh voice and lyrics really caught my ear.  Dissonance to harmony.  It just works.

Props to The Hood Internet for continuing to create musical mash-ups, instead of the skipping-CD-player type of mash-up that has become so acceptable to many ‘artists’.

Give it a listen, and enjoy.

Posted 3 weeks ago
Posted 3 weeks ago

Is it wrong that this gave me a semi?

If watching Ben Linus get pummeled is wrong, I don’t want to be right.

Who’s with me?

Posted 4 weeks ago
Posted 1 month ago
The Japanese woman has a thing about going under the knife. They think it’s a sin against their parents.

- Journalist Yuko Ito, “Cult of the Living Doll in Tokyo”, NYTimes.com

I started reading this article because I was sure that a story on how Japanese girls are dressing like ‘living dolls’ would be good for a chuckle (e.g. - LOL, Japanese people are freaking INSANE!!!!).  But I ran across this quote, and it made me think…

Perhaps we’re the crazy ones?

amirite?

Posted 1 month ago
Imagine a world in which generations of human beings come to believe that certain films were made by God or that specific software was coded by him. Imagine a future in which millions of our descendants murder each other over rival interpretations of Star Wars or Windows 98. Could anything — anything — be more ridiculous? And yet, this would be no more ridiculous than the world we are living in.

Sam Harris (via cocknbull)

I kind of agree with this guy, but the fact of the matter is, there will always be crazy people.  We just have to try and give them less to be crazy about.

By the way, I’m talking about extremists here.  But, if you want to go down that road with me, I’d recommend a full reading of Sam Harris’ book from which I believe this quote was taken,  “The End of Faith”, in which he discusses the possibility (I’ll leave it there, and not take it all the way down) that by making accommodations for religious moderates, society ‘blinds us to the role that faith plays in perpetuating human conflict’.

ON second thought, I definitely don’t want to play that game, as I don’t want to encroach on anyone’s personal beliefs, out of respect for some friends and family that are believers..  This quote was made by Sam Harris, and I just thought it was a humorous notion, that in the future, wars could potentially be fought by people who disagreed on a particular discontinuity between the Matrix movies.  They will be called Wachowski’s Witnesses.

Posted 1 month ago

It’s exciting to see the entire city of New Orleans revel with such great jubilation.  There’s so much positivity, and (from what can be seen in the video) none of the rioting, looting, or vandalism that oftentimes puts a black eye on a city-wide celebration of this scale.

Congrats, NOLA.