Space Porn: New Sexy Images From the Hubble Telescope

Oooh, looky!  NASA has released a new series of images from the refurbished Hubble telescope.  They are super gorgeous, like the above picture of Omega Centauri.  I’m just going to sit here and stare at this space porn for a bit, I think.

Buddy Can You Spare a Smoke?

Today in science:  “Researchers from the University Gabriele D’Annunzio in Chieti, Italy, found that the majority of patrons in a noisy club responded to requests for cigarettes if they could hear the question more clearly on their right side.  In fact, testers obtained the most cigarettes when they spoke directly into the right ear.”

(Note to self:  Purchase earplug for use in right ear to more effectively drown out people’s requests to bum a smoke.)

The Harry Potter Delusion: Richard Dawkins Is Your New Voldemort

Evolutionary biologist-slash-author-slash-atheist Richard Dawkins — the man who coined the term meme — is turning his staunch efforts to institute strict rational thought from disproving the existence of God towards another enemy of his, one Harry Potter. More specifically, “anti-scientific” fairytales. Though! Fun fact: He admits to not having actually read a single volume of the “Harry Potter” series. Actually, he’s just using the myths and the magics as a backdoor to go after his favorite topic, religion. He says of the book project, “I plan to look at mythical accounts of various things and also the scientific account of the same thing. And the mythical account that I look at will be several different myths, of which the Judeo-Christian one will just be one of many.”

In fact, he thinks kids reading about all this hocus pocus can be downright detrimental. “Prof Dawkins is targeting children as the audience of his next project because he believes they are being ‘abused’ by being taught about religion at school and labelled Christian, Jewish or Muslim from a young age.”

Jack was busy tending to his beanstalk and could not be reached for comment. Rose Red, on hearing the news, said Dawkins “could go fuck himself.”

Maybe Try This at Home: Hallucinate with Ping-Pong Balls and Radio Static*

Perhaps due to our economic downturn you find you have to cut back on your recreational drug purchasing, choosing to rather spend that money on food, or rent, or whatnot. Or, say, you’ve never had the experience of LSD but really want to know why those kids you went to college with were always giggling or doing some version of Surrealist automatic drawing, or tripping balls at Disney World, consuming those giant “turkey legs” which were actually emu,  or maybe doing elaborate glowstick routines to Madonna’s Ray of Light album. (But who did that? In the late ’90s?  While attending UCF and living in a rented pink house off a dirt road near a cow pasture, with a bi-curious white trash neighbor and one time an Amazonian chick who jumped through a bonfire while a full rock band played in your living room, the living room where your roommate, on the first day after you moved in, spilled bleach on the maroon carpet thereby creating a giant discolored spot, and then tried to hide it?  *Cough*  Who indeed?)

Anyway!  Here’s the thing: you can apparently “hack your brain” and simulate the full hallucinatory experience with nothing more than a ping-pong ball and a staticy radio by doing something called the Ganzfeld Procedure (see above graphic).  So simple, anyone can use it!  There are also other mind tricks in the article, but I’m pretty sure I know where your head is at.

*I hereby absolve myself of any responsibility should you indeed try this at home.  Hello, you read it on the internet.  Do not always trust the internet.  That said, let me know if it works.

Hack your brain [Boston Globe]

Night Time Is The Right Time

I can’t speak to the efficacy of my creative spurts no matter what hour they come, but research has shown that people are more likely to have their best ideas at night.  Around 10:04 pm at the earliest.

Night owls came up with the most creative thoughts – perhaps because they are more likely to be unconventional and bohemian than early birds – according to the research by the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan.

Congrats, late night Tumblrers.  Your witticisms are veritable bloggy genius.  And if you have any sort of creative day job, good luck coming up with a great idea:  “The creativity drought just gets worse over the nine-to-five working day, hitting rock bottom at 4.33pm.”

Courier Mail [via Neatorama]