M31, also known as the Andromeda galaxy, is one of the closest galaxies to our own at “only” 2.5 million light-years away. Experts believe Andromeda holds about a trillion stars and spans over 200,000 light-years.
8 images of galaxies far, far away
Two charts from David Cay Johnston’s “The richest get richer”
"We open our eyes and we think we’re seeing the whole world out there. But what has become clear—and really just in the last few centuries—is that when you look at the electro-magnetic spectrum we are seeing less than 1/10 Billionth of the information that’s riding on there. So we call that visible light. But everything else passing through our bodies is completely invisible to us."
— Neuroscientist and author David Eagleman, in recent interview with Lifehacker. (via thelavinagency)
(via psydoctor8)
(via powertothehavenots)
The Ordeal by Fire, ca. 1460, by Dieric The Elder Bouts
Ordeals were a form of medieval justice; the judgement came from God. A common one was to hold a piece of burning metal, as this woman is doing. If the wound festers, she’ll be found guilty. If she heals, she’ll be found innocent, a sign from God she is innocent. The Ordeal by Fire might also include requiring the accused to walk across burning metal or to pull something out of a pot of boiling liquid.
There were other ordeals, such as being thrown into a body of water — float and be found guilty (the water is rejecting you), sink and be found innocent… .and hopefully they were able to pull you out in time to enjoy your innocence.
Trial by combat was another such ordeal. If you lose, you’re guilty. In many ways, video games are based upon this system: your character can be a terrible person, but since he/she wins the fight, he/she is clearly right.
Whoa. The MLA has officially devised a standard format to cite tweets in an academic paper. Sign of the times.
FYI.
An elite education not only ushers you into the upper classes; it trains you for the life you will lead once you get there. I didn’t understand this until I began comparing my experience, and even more, my students’ experience, with the experience of a friend of mine who went to Cleveland State. There are due dates and attendance requirements at places like Yale, but no one takes them very seriously. Extensions are available for the asking; threats to deduct credit for missed classes are rarely, if ever, carried out. In other words, students at places like Yale get an endless string of second chances. Not so at places like Cleveland State. My friend once got a D in a class in which she’d been running an A because she was coming off a waitressing shift and had to hand in her term paper an hour late.
That may be an extreme example, but it is unthinkable at an elite school. Just as unthinkably, she had no one to appeal to. Students at places like Cleveland State, unlike those at places like Yale, don’t have a platoon of advisers and tutors and deans to write out excuses for late work, give them extra help when they need it, pick them up when they fall down. They get their education wholesale, from an indifferent bureaucracy; it’s not handed to them in individually wrapped packages by smiling clerks.
— William Deresiewicz
(Source: visualturn, via infoneer-pulse)
![wired:
[via Dangerous Minds]:
Kraftwerk retrospective @ MoMA for eight days STRAIGHT?!?!
….hopefully this will somehow manage to find its way to the west coast! <3](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzgek7yKRd1r69k7do1_500.jpg)
[via Dangerous Minds]:
Kraftwerk retrospective @ MoMA for eight days STRAIGHT?!?!
….hopefully this will somehow manage to find its way to the west coast! <3
Photographer Simon Byrne was one of the lucky few given the secret location of this site. Even getting a permit to look for the spectacular Navaho sandstone formation known as ‘the Wave’ is a lottery. And then you have to find your own route through the Arizona desertPhotograph: Simon Byrne/Rex Features
Malachy, a Pekingese, is placed in the trophy cup after winning best in show at the 136th annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show held at Madison Square Garden on February 14, 2012 in New York City.
UPI /Monika Graff. (via The Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show - UPI.com)
Cenote Ik Kil (cenote means “natural well” in Spanish) is a large sinkhole on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula that’s sacred to the Mayans. The hole is 90 feet deep, adorned in tropical vegetation and filled with clear blue water that Mayan royalty used for both relaxation and ritual sacrifices. Red Bull has held its Cliff Diving World Series at the sinkhole, and divers have leapt from the cenote’s surface and reached speeds of 40 mph before entering the water.
"People who dismiss the unemployed and dependent as ‘parasites’ fail to understand economics and parasitism. A successful parasite is one that is not recognized by its host, one that can make its host work for it without appearing as a burden. Such is the ruling class in a capitalist society."
— Jason Read (via kateoplis)
![psydoctor8:
“Direct Brain Interventions to “Treat” Disfavored Human Behaviors: Ethical and Social Issues” - H.T. Greely. [via]
Where ought we to draw the line?
As neuroscience learns more about the causes of human behaviors, it will give us new ways to change those behaviors. When behaviors are caused by “brain diseases,” effective actions that intervene directly in the brain will be readily accepted, but what about direct brain interventions that treat brain-based causes of socially disfavored behaviors that are not generally viewed as diseases?
Neuroethics, you big studded masked beast..you just keep pulling me back in.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lybvg3QIuv1qan221o1_500.jpg)
“Direct Brain Interventions to “Treat” Disfavored Human Behaviors: Ethical and Social Issues” - H.T. Greely. [via]
Where ought we to draw the line?
As neuroscience learns more about the causes of human behaviors, it will give us new ways to change those behaviors. When behaviors are caused by “brain diseases,” effective actions that intervene directly in the brain will be readily accepted, but what about direct brain interventions that treat brain-based causes of socially disfavored behaviors that are not generally viewed as diseases?
Neuroethics, you big studded masked beast..you just keep pulling me back in.
