recs:Can anyone recommend a good non-spiritual, practical guide to meditation that doesn't talk about anything wifty/unscientific sounding? To give you an idea of my (non)tolerance levels: even talking about things like "releasing negative energy" (or use of the word energy at all) would probably set me on edge but be ignorable if used in low ( Read more... )

I have often wondered about the possible effectiveness of carrying signs and shouting in the streets at persuading the public of things or altering government behavior. I have participated in some demonstrations myself, and it's not that I think demonstrations can never be effective. There were some very powerful demonstrations during the civil ( Read more... )

Want to help me with something fun? Give me nonsense words! Ones that can be pluralized by just adding 's'! One to three syllables, preferably.

(Also, veek, I'll have you know I am sorely tempted to toss your username into this experiment. "These are veeks! Find the tall veeks!" It would make me giggle.)

I will probably need some pilot subjects sometime very soon to look at a picture and answer two quick questions about it. (If you've already been a subject, you can do it again, and I swear the answering method should be less painful this time.) Anyone interested?

Thanks to those who have volunteered so far! (I'm still happy to accept more volunteers, and you don't need any special expertise at all; the questions should be easy for anyone to answer ( Read more... )

Does anyone want to help with SCIENCE for a few minutes? Before I describe the last bit of my research in detail here, I could use help from some people getting some insights into something I haven't quite figured out yet. If you want to help out, I'll send you a file (PDF or Word doc) sometime in the next 24 hours, and you can look at some items ( Read more... )

New research has determined that migraine sufferers have "brain differences" (Reuters), or more specifically, thicker regions in the somatosensory cortex that deal with head and face sensation, as compared to the corresponding brain region in a control group (Nature blog -- see link to actual study there). As both articles are careful to point out ( Read more... )

My friend has a cool online experiment that I can't participate in, because I know too much about it. :) But there are a bunch of people on my friends list who don't know her, who might like to participate. Please feel free to spread the word as well as to participate! The details:

# The study URL is: Read more... )

dan4th asked me some questions. You can ask me some too, if you feel like it. Or you can ask for some questions, and if I can think of any, I'll give you some to answer.

( cut because I ramble a lot )

I get very annoyed at statements like, "Science is just another kind of religion," or, "Science involves taking lots of things on faith," or, "Science is a type of faith." Cut that out, people. You (where "you" mostly means "people who are not actually the ones reading this journal") are using a bad analogy. I've tried to explain why, and to ( Read more... )