Hilarious geek license plate on 13th Street in the East Village.
I just love this entry from Matt Jones about pareidolia, the phenomena that leads us to see faces in things. As he explains, it actually turns out that there is a reason for what happens, as we respond to faces more quickly than other images. Jones quotes a paper called Early (M170) activation of face-specific cortex by face-like objects.:
The tendency to perceive faces in random patterns exhibiting configural properties of faces is an example of pareidolia. Perception of ‘real’ faces has been associated with a cortical response signal arising at approximately 170 ms after stimulus onset, but what happens when nonface objects are perceived as faces? Using magnetoencephalography, we found that objects incidentally perceived as faces evoked an early (165 ms) activation in the ventral fusiform cortex, at a time and location similar to that evoked by faces, whereas common objects did not evoke such activation. An earlier peak at 130 ms was also seen for images of real faces only. Our findings suggest that face perception evoked by face-like objects is a relatively early process, and not a late reinterpretation cognitive phenomenon.
He then goes on to wonder how we can use this knowledge to help people comprehend data, showing some of the work they’re doing with the idea. Be sure to watch the Chernoff Schools sketch. As a side note, there is a lovely American Express commercial that taps into pareidolia.
Via: Pareidolia // NoahBrier.com
National Geographic’s International Photography Contest 2009 - The Big Picture - Boston.com
Interesting article from Inside Higher Ed about how Sarah Palin is changing the way politics is done by manipulating the media in completely new ways:
I’m not sure what Sarah Palin’s favorite work of postmodern theory might be (all of them, probably) but she seems to take her lead from Jean Baudrillard’s Seduction. Other political figures use the media as part of what JB calls “production.” That is, they generate signs and images meant to create an effect within politics. For the Baudrillardian “seducer,” by contrast, the power to create fascination is its own reward.
Watching Palin respond to questions about her book Going Rogue (or not respond to them, often enough) is, from this perspective, no laughing matter. She grows ever more comfortable talking about herself. If no more capable of simulating knowledge of public issues, she is getting her story straight, more or less. And this matters. For now she does not have to be accurate, just coherent. She is consolidating her presence, her “brand.” Teams of professional ideologists can feed Palin her lines later.
The article, which is roughly a book review for a collection of Palin-related essays called Going Rouge (which I just bought) is worth a read.
Via: Palin as Postmodernist // NoahBrier.com
What a great idea: Threadless x Griffin iPhone case collaboration.
For those curious, here is the very gory final result.
“Gordon Shumway and his family are forced to flee his home world of Melmac after nuclear war threatens all life on the planet. As he is exiting Melmac’s atmosphere, an atomic detonation destroys the planet, and his ship, and he is forced to eject in a life vessel. After floating through space for years, he finally picks up a faint radio signal. His life vessel locks onto the signal, which sends Shumway crashing into the suburban home of the Tanner family. He passes the Bar Exam and proceeds to become a powerful anti-nuclear lobbyist, diplomatic peace-maker, and black-belt karate champion, going from country to country to urge their leaders to abandon nuclear technology and weaponry, sometimes by force.” (via 6 Campy Sci-Fi Shows That Need Dramatic Remakes: Pics, Videos, Links, News)
Someone make this happen. Please.
“That’s design debt.” —
Rick Webb.
I beat him to posting his new idea.
“New York City startups are as likely to be focused on the arts and crafts as on the bits and bytes, to be influenced by our unparalleled culture as by the latest browser features, and informed by the dynamic interaction of different social groups and classes that’s unavoidable in our city, but uncommon in Silicon Valley. Best of all, the support for these efforts can come from investors and supporters that are outside of the groupthink that many West Coast VC firms suffer from. When I lived in San Francisco, it was easy to spend days at a time only interacting with other web geeks; In New York, fortunately, that’s impossible.” — New York City is the Future of the Web - Anil Dash
“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.” — George Orwell