I have been editing some more photographs to within an inch of their lives recently and trying out a few new effects. The wonders of things you can do with Photoshop may never amaze me and, as I have said in the past, you would be mad to think the camera never lies…
[piflasa]http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/data/feed/base/user/tas.spaceholder/albumid/5095261742046817249?kind=photo&alt=rss&hl=en_US|400[/piflasa]
I will upload more to this collection as I get the chance.
Wow. Is this, like, totally, serendipity or what?
I was sent a link to a May 2005 paper on APA site, about brain-lesions that stop people recognising sarcasm At the same time I get a link to Baptists for Brownback and their take on the Scarlet Letter.
Even here in Yoorp – where Southern baptists often seem crazed beyond our wildest imagining, so it’s hard to distinguish parody from reality – it’s obvious that this is a pretty blatant spoof site. There are posts with titles like “Update: Some kilt-wearing men might be heterosexual after all.” It is really funny.
Also, some comments on the Scarlet A post are double funny. There are some commenters, atheists and believers alike, in whose brains the sarcasm-detecting function seems to have completely atrophied.
Some atheist responses seem so stupid that I suspect that they were in on the joke and just playing an “outraged atheist” part. For a laugh. Though by that time, the joke is getting too abstract to be comedy and may have achieved high art.
I start to assume Pharyngula has masterminded the whole thing anyway. He has posted this on his site, gathering a collection of outraged responses, even after almost the first comment points out it’s a joke.
The Christian responses tend twoards being so off the wall that most are obviously sarcastic. I naturally assume this is a spoof post:
# Connie Mack Says:
What I see is a whole bunch of satan worshipers coming here to try and steal the souls of Christians. Guess what? You are SOL because we are born again in the Blood of the Christ you don’t believe in – yet. In case you are too ignorant to read this is a Baptist website which mneans that we are saved. So your hate speech won’t be tolerated here.
But it links to a real site “CWA” which I’m absolutely not putting a link to. I have no reason to believe it’s real, other than someone else’s authority (and they were guessing). It’s actually noticeably much more ludicrous than the Baptists for Brownback.
Don’t make me mention looking glasses again, please.
Scientists have bred mice to be schizophrenic, according to the BBC. What? Well, “mimic schizophrenia?” What? In mice?
There seems to be an ingrained monotheistic-religion-originated view that man is master of the universe and everything else is here just for us to pull its wings off. This isn’t a particulalrly heinous example but it ‘s set me off….
US scientists have genetically modified mice to exhibit both the anatomical and behavioural defects associated with the complex condition schizophrenia.
Previous studies that rely on drugs can only mimic the symptoms of the disease, such as delusions and paranoia.
Well, straight off, I am impressed that the anatomical basis of human schizophrenia seems to have been clearly identified and even located in genetics. Or is that not the implication? This seems to be
a key gene – dubbed DISC 1 – which makes a protein that helps nerve cells assume their proper positions in the brain.
So messing about with this protein in mice, by genetic engineering, makes them also “schizophrenic”?
In what meaningful sense can a mouse be said to be “schizophrenic”? I am completely baffled. Isn’t schizophrenia characterised by a whole collection of feelings and behaviours that are most definitely human? So how did these manifest themselves in the mad mice?
As these mice matured, they became more agitated when placed in an open field, had trouble finding hidden food, and did not swim as long as regular mice – behaviours that echo the hyperactivity, smell defects and apathy observed in schizophrenia patients.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) also revealed characteristic defects in brain structure, including enlarged lateral ventricles, a region that circulates the spinal fluid and helps protect against physical trauma
OK, on the Frankenstein Scale (TM me) of mad science, this scores relatively low (say, a mere 2 out of 10.) This might prove that the observed brain damage relates to the actions of that specific gene.
But on the WTF scale (TM me) this scores pretty creditably (say, 8 out of 10)
In what way can the mouse behaviour be seen as “schizophrenic?”
Anxiety? I can’t even hazard a meaningful guess about how you determine this in mice ( “So do you feel agrophobic about being in an open field, Jerry?”)
Swam for a shorter time? Well, that’s me buggered then, if anyone tries to extrapolate back from the mouse “schizophrenia” to humans. Because I can barely swim at all. My best attempts lead to me going backwards at a rate of knots for a few minutes. Then giving up. In fact, giving up several hours before any of the people I’ve ever accidentally been “swimming” with who swim at national club level. (One of whom was once diagnosed as schizophrenic ….)
Trouble finding hidden food? Hmm, don’t think I’ve looked recently. Make that lost keys and I could probably out-mad the mice again.
These behaviours may indeed be wierd for mice. They can’t apply to humans or, if you try, they don’t correlate with “schizophrenia” at all. So, why breed some unfortunate mice to suffer brain disease, then kill them to check if their brains were damaged?
Is the scientific ethics bar set so high that a stilt-walker could pass through without needing to bend at the knees?
Just a reminder for all WordPress users out there. Version 2.2.2 has now been released and, as this is a security upgrade, it probably makes sense to upgrade now.