Ladies and gentlegeeks, here is “Still Alive”, Jonathan Coulton‘s awesome song that plays at the end of Portal, as performed by the Gifford Children’s Choir. Enjoy!
Skeletor Getting a Root Canal [PIC]
Because, you know, everyone needs to pay a visit to the dentist sometimes, especially villains like Skeletor, who want to keep their evil-looking grin in good shape at all time.
Hit the link for a picture of He-Man getting a haircut.
[Link] [Edit: Somehow, the link doesn’t work for a lot of people. To make it work, after clicking the link, put your cursor at the end of the url in the address bar and hit enter]
Magnets mask morals
If you think your morals are immutable, think again. It turns out nothing more complicated than a set of magnetic pulses could impair moral judgments.
Researchers at the Massachussets Institute of Technology have identified the so-called moral compass as being a section of the brain known as the right temporo-parietal junction, located just behind the right ear (marked in red in the picture above.) They found this through brain scans which showed increased activity in the area when moral judgments were being made.
The researchers then carried out two sets of tests to see if this could be manipulated, both involving the use of magnetic stimulation to create an electrical current which temporarily disables the relevant part of the brain.
In one test, it was found that a 25 minute sessions of stimulation left volunteers who read a story judging the characters by events rather than by their intentions.
In the other test, the participants were given the current for just half a second. The scenarios in this test included one where a man let his girlfriend cross a bridge he knew to be unsafe. After receiving the magnetic pulse, participants were much more likely to consider the man had acted acceptably.
Another scenario involved a character visiting a chemical plant making coffee for a friend and taking sugar from a container marked “toxic”. After receiving the pulse, participants were more likely to consider the character hadn’t acted irresponsibly as no harm came to her friend.
In both sets of tests it appears the specific difference was that judgments became biased towards assessing outcomes and downplayed the perceived importance of people’s intentions.
The researchers say this is only one part of the puzzle: moral judgments also include factors such as the circumstances and previous behavior of the person being judged.
The next step in the research is to investigate what role luck plays in the way a person is judged by others. One example would be the difference between a drunk driver who kills a pedestrian and one who avoids any incident: though the only difference between the two is luck, most people would probably take a harsher view of the former’s behavior.
Pac-Man on the Moon
From its position in orbit around Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft revealed some interesting images of the icy moon Mimas – “unexpected hot regions” that happen to resemble Pac-Man about to chomp down on a pink dot.
Though the heated dot was expected due to the warm spot around Herschel Crater (which is what makes the moon itself rather remarkably resemble the Death Star), scientists claim to be “completely baffled” by the Pac-Man-shaped heat signature on the left. It could be due to surface texture variations, though that still doesn’t explain the sharp boundaries.
A NASA scientist described the moon as “more bizarre than we thought it was.” Awesome.
[Via NASA]
Job Offer: [GaS] is looking for a few good contributors
Edit: Please note that the position has been filled. Thanks to everyone who sent in an email!
[Geeks Are Sexy] is currently looking for passionate IT people / geeks who are up to the challenge of blogging a few days each week about geekdom, technology and other IT related topics. Here are some reasons you should consider writing for us:
- Exposure
- Write about your passion
- Improve your writing skills
- Be part of a community
- Get a salary out of something you’ve always been doing for free (payable via Paypal only)
The candidate must have creativity, strong english writing skills, and some experience in the world of blogging and technology. If you think you are up to the task, then we would love to hear more from you. Be sure to send us examples of your writings + links to sites where you’ve worked before.
Zero Clutter: The Battle for Desk Space Begins
Produced by Youtube user meerakapur for Lenovo, Zero Clutter is a stop-motion animation that uses clay to partly recreate a semblance of The Matrix’s famous Agent Smith vs. Neo fight scene. Check it out.
[Via TechEblog]
Galactic Empire State of Mind
More Photoshop CS5 Content-Aware Fill Awesomeness
We’ve posted about Photoshop’s upcoming content-aware fill feature last week, but according to YouTube user wopkins, this new feature is actually a lot more powerful then we initially thought. Check it out:
[Via Neatorama]