Robyn Paterson's Blog, page 35

The Flying Man

This short film makes me think a bit of the Alex Ross illustrated series Marvels that came out in 1994- a citizen’s eye view of what it’s like to live in a world with superbeings and how terrifying that would be.

Fukushima–beyond urgent

Well, this is sufficiently terrifying.

LiveLeak.com – Fukushima–beyond urgent.

If Fukushima had a full meltdown with radiation spewing into the air, I’m not sure what I’d do. Then again, I’m not sure what any of us could do except try not to be downwind.

Male and female brains wired differently, scans reveal | Science | The Guardian

So much for the feminist ideal that the only gender differences are learned.

Scientists have drawn on nearly 1,000 brain scans to confirm what many had surely concluded long ago: that stark differences exist in the wiring of male and female brains.

Maps of neural circuitry showed that on average women’s brains were highly connected across the left and right hemispheres, in contrast to men’s brains, where the connections were typically stronger between the front and back regions.

via Male and fem...

Hosting Horror

To me, as a kid, Saturday afternoon was a sacred time. I spent each Saturday from 1pm until 6pm watching Superhost Marty Sullivan show old horror and sci-fi movies from Cleveland, OH. In fact, I dare say it was a more religious experience to me than my Sunday mornings at church!

As such, I have a great fondness for Horror Hosts and the Creature Feature programs they hosted. According to what I read, they were the result of packages of old B-Grade Horror Movies being sold to small and independe...

Jokes for Friday

I half-read a headline this morning, and it inspired the following joke:

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The Population vs. Productivity Paradox

This is one of the most fascinating discussions I’ve listened to in a while, and also one of the most sobering. Take the time to listen to this episode of the Cracked podcast, it’s 100% worth it, although a little unsettling in its conclusions. You don’t expect to get something this deep and thoughtful from a “comedy” podcast, but here it is…

Listened to it? (Really, go listen to it, it’s worth the time.)

Okay, now my own thoughts.

I think Jason’s pretty much 100% right, and while I wouldn’t qui...

This 6-Foot, 330-Pound Robot May One Day Save Your Life

WOW! The future is here. Scary and cool at the same time!

This 6-Foot, 330-Pound Robot May One Day Save Your Life | Danger Room | Wired.com.

GUNDAM BUILD FIGHTERS

Y’no, I have to say I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying Gundam Build Fighters. It’s not a great show by any means, but it does manage to be cute and kind’ve charming in a very geeky and toy-riffic sort of way. Of course, it also helps I know where all these Gundam suits come from already, having watched the shows, so I can appreciate what the show’s creators are doing. Damn, do I wish that I had that setup when I was a kid! (I mean, I kinda did, and it was called Battletech, but this would...

Phoning It In

I often think that we are merely becoming mobile data terminals, sub-cells of a greater internet brain that exist more in the virtual world more than we do the actual real and physical world. Perhaps this is irreverable and our destiny as a species, but it’s still sad to watch sometimes.

I’m as big a technology nerd as anyone, and I love my iPhone too, but there are times when I wonder if I’m not spending too much time interacting with media instead of people. What am I losing by putting my ph...

On the Hunt for Surivival Horror

After talking about Fatal Frame with some students earlier this week, I decided this weekend to go check out some Survival Horror games- games where the focus is on the psychological/mystery side of things instead of just shooting at monsters.

Unfortunately, Fatal Frame isn’t available for PC, and I didn’t want to spend much money, so I decided to see what was out there for free. There are a number of free indie horror games, and so I thought I’d check those out. Unfortunately, it may be a cas...