Neuroscientist Craig Bennett bought a salmon to test an fMRI machine and work out some protocols.

So, as the fish sat in the scanner, they showed it “a series of photographs depicting human individuals in social situations.” To maintain the rigor of the protocol (and perhaps because it was hilarious), the salmon, just like a human test subject, “was asked to determine what emotion the individual in the photo must have been experiencing.”

The salmon, as Bennett’s poster on the test dryly notes, “was not alive at the time of scanning.”

Those involved got a laugh out of the situation, until the scans came back and showed that activity was detected in different areas of the brain when the fish was “shown” the pictures. Remember, the fish was dead.

The result is completely nuts — but that’s actually exactly the point. Bennett, who is now a post-doc at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his adviser, George Wolford, wrote up the work as a warning about the dangers of false positives in fMRI data. They wanted to call attention to ways the field could improve its statistical methods.

Which is not to say that scans aren’t a useful research tool, but that they must be carefully monitored to avoid false positive results. Link -via reddit

Schools are spending less time than ever teaching the art of cursive handwriting, especially as more time is devoted to typing in the early grades. On the 2007 SAT essay questions, only 15% of college-bound students used cursive writing. The rest wrote in print. Some teachers argue that writing in script helps hand-eye coordination, even though average legibility peaks around 4th grade.

Text messaging, e-mail, and word processing have replaced handwriting outside the classroom, said Cheryl Jeffers, a professor at Marshall University's College of Education and Human Services, and she worries they'll replace it entirely before long.

"I am not sure students have a sense of any reason why they should vest their time and effort in writing a message out manually when it can be sent electronically in seconds."

For Jeffers, cursive writing is a lifelong skill, one she fears could become lost to the culture, making many historic records hard to decipher and robbing people of "a gift."

What do you think? Is it important for children to learn cursive, or should it go the way of the dinosaur? Link -via Digg

(image credit: AP/Bob Bird)

(YouTube link)

Distraction is a film by Mike Stern, who probably didn’t have to listen to the boss’ favorite music while creating this. Still, you know he’s been through it at one time or another! Link -via YesButNoButYes

You know about these historic events, but do you remember who was president of the United States when it happened? This Lunchtime Quiz from mental_floss will strain your historic perspective. I scored 50%, mainly by remembering the events of my lifetime. http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/34482

Previously: Who Was President? Part One.

Normally, babies learn how to look at the world before they can communicate their experiences. The rare cases of people who have been blind all their lives and then had their sight restored offer scientists a unique opportunity to study how we learn to interpret visual signals. MIT professor Pawan Sinha is studying children and adolescents in India who are seeing the world for the first time after treatment for blindness.

MIT neuroscientists asked patients who had recently had their sight restored to identify and trace the shapes they saw. While a normally sighted person would likely trace two overlapping squares, these patients interpreted the drawing as three separate shapes.

Research so far suggests that seeing moving objects is crucial for learning to interpret visual signals in the three-dimensional world. Link -via Digg

(image credit: Sinha Laboratory/MIT)

Because this is what you want to smell like:

A creeping, wet, slithering scent, dripping with seaweed, oceanic plants and dark, unfathomable waters.

Available from Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, the scent of Chtulhu is $15 for 5 milliliters or $25 for 10 milliliters. Link -via Simply Left Behind

Update 9/18/09 by Alex - The image on this post has been removed. It was a fan-made photoshop rendition without credit to the original artist. I've replaced it with a thumbnail of the original image of H.P. Lovecraft drawn by Bruce Timm, owned by Steven Gettis of Hey Oscar Wilde! blog - Thanks for the heads up, Steven!

The two sportswear companies Puma and Adidas, based in Herzogenaurach, Germany were founded by Adi and Rudolf Dassler. The two brothers made shoes together beginning in the 1920s but split apart during World War II, probably over politics. Sixty years later, the two companies on either side of the river will officially end the feud on September 21st.

When the brothers set up their separate companies in 1948 the town was also split, with residents loyal to one or other of the only major employers.

In a joint release, the two companies said they were making up to support the Peace One Day organisation, which has its annual non-violence day on Monday.

They say that the events will be the first joint activities held by the two companies since the brothers left their shared firm in 1948.

Adi and Rudolf Dassler went to their graves without settling their differences, and their descendants do not control either of the public companies. Link -via the Presurfer

This lamp post is an ad for McDonalds in Vancouver. You have to wonder 1. how much light does it really emit, and b. is the coffee still free? -via Gizmodo

Washing dishes in a full-loaded dishwasher without pre-rinsing saves water (particularly expensive hot water) over washing by hand. This steam dishwasher designed by Vincent Liew saves even more water and energy!

As the title suggests, this dishwasher uses pressurized steam to dislodge food particles on dishes and sanitize them. A hearty rinse after the cleaning process gives you squeaky clean dishes!

Now for the Eco-friendly part. Since no detergents are used, there is less of “ozone depleting solvents” going around. The water used in the steam and rinsing is collected in the recycling bay and using “Membrane Technology” (read more info on this here), the grime and food particles are separated from the water. The clean water is recycled to be used again for the next wash.

Contaminated water, too harsh for reusing is discarded via an outlet and only then is a fresh load of water consumed.

Link

(Funny or Die link)

A seriously cute video of four pugs trying to decipher English at once! -via Digg

Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberte is paying $35 million to catch a ride to the International Space Station on a Russian spacecraft later this month. Laliberte calls himself “the first clown in space.”

Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte told reporters he plans to tickle the professional astronauts while they're sleeping, and he's also bringing red clown noses to try to lighten things up on the orbiting station.

"I'm a person with a pretty high spirit, who's there to crack jokes and make jokes to those guys, and while they're sleeping, you know, I'll be tickling them," Laliberte said.

Laliberte will also use his trip to raise awareness of world drinking water issues. Link -via Dave Barry's Blog

John Manley of Wilmington, North Carolina suffered frequent pneumonia and coughing spells for over a year before the real culprit was found: there was a jagged inch-long piece of plastic lodged in his left lung. It turned out to be part of a utensil from Wendy’s Hamburgers. Manley was referred to Dr. Momen Wahidi, director of interventional pulmonology at Duke University for removal of the object.

Wahidi said Manley's case presented challenges because so much scar tissue had formed around the object. But he was soon able to uncover more and more of the mystery item. He called out letters -- an A, a B, a U, an R.

"We figured out during the case that it was saying hamburger," Wahidi says. "But why would something that says hamburger be in this patient's body?"

Manley thinks he probably inhaled the plastic when he gulped a drink. He now drinks with a straw. http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1693202.html -via Terra Sigillata

Traditional lederhosen can cost up to €700 a pair, and one good beer spill can ruin them. So what are you going to wear to Oktoberfest? Austrian restaurant owner Peter Kolb has an alternative: swim trunks he designed that look like lederhosen will be on sale during Oktoberfest in Munich.

"You wouldn't even need to wash the beer off, it's a fabric that dries immediately," he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. The shorts look remarkably like the real thing, with elaborately embroidered deer heads, a front bib and traditional side stitching. They retail at €79, a fraction of the cost of the leather alternative.Alpine traditionalists who last year complained about the growing trend towards cheap lederhosen imported from Asia may cry heresy at the sight of Kolb's lederhosen. After all, they're manufactured in China and don't contain a scrap of leather.

But Kolb insists he is helping to introduce Alpine traditions to younger generations, and is even exporting the region's folk culture to a global audience.

Link -via Metafilter

Move over, Bao Xishun and Leonid Stadnik (who was stripped of his title) the Guinness Book of World Records has certified that 27-year-old Sultan Kosen from Turkey is the world’s tallest man. Kosen is eight feet and one inch tall! What does Kosen want to do with his new fame?

"The first thing I want to do is have a car that I can fit in, but more than that I want to get married," he said.

"Up until now it's been really difficult to find a girlfriend. I've never had one, they were usually scared of me. I'm hoping now I will find one."

He went on: "Hopefully now that I'm famous I'll be able to meet lots of girls. I'd like to get married."

Link to story (with video). Link to a biography and more pictures. -via reddit

Holy Moley, it’s a wireless Rube Goldberg contraption. Nearness, a video by Jack Schulze and Timo Arnall uses RFID chips to activate each step.

The film Nearness explores interacting without touching. With RFID it’s proximity that matters, and actual contact isn’t necessary. Much of Timo’s work in the Touch project addresses the fictions and speculations in the technology. Here we play with the problems of invisibility and the magic of being close.

Link -via Boing Boing