Startling True Science Facts!
I learned two things today! Guess that means I've used up Wednesday's quota already.
Via Unqualified Offerings, summarizing a subscription-only New Scientist article: We all know that giving people drugs that do nothing can often make them feel better, thanks to the "placebo effect." (And thanks to the British sketch comedy show Smack The Pony, we know it doesn't work if you tell the patient it's a placebo.) Now it turns out that some actual painkillers don't work unless the patient knows they're being given a painkiller. Apparently the researchers are calling these "placebo amplifiers" - in other words, drugs that work better than placebos if you believe in them, and do bugger all if you don't.
Meanwhile, you may already have seen yesterday's New York Times article, which reports that crows and related birds can recognize human faces and react based on their past experiences with the person in question. That won't come as news to anyone who's seen Dario Argento's Opera, but the details of the research - in which scientists wandered around wearing caveman and Dick Cheney masks, being variously kind or annoying to the neighborhood crows - are pretty amusing. More surprising, to me anyway, was the finding that crows communicate their findings to one another; mistreat one bird, and it'll warn all its friends about you. So that's what all that cawing is about!
Otherwise, a slow week here. Just finished up a humongous art project, and I've got classes starting next week, so this is my tiny window for goofing off. Ever since San Diego Comic-Con, thedeadlyhook and I have been conducting a kind of rolling nostalgia-fest: She's immersing herself in '80s Marvel comics and Modesty Blaise novels, and I've been wallowing in all the compilations of vintage 2000 A.D. strips I picked up at the show. I'm pleased to report that classic Judge Dredd and Nemesis the Warlock are just as excellent and weird now as they were when I was ten.
Speaking of which, tomorrow's new-comics haul should include the latest issue of Mark Millar's "Old Man Logan" story, a post-apocalyptic Wolverine adventure which suggests that the "Cursed Earth" arc of Judge Dredd made as lasting an impression on Millar as it did on yours truly. And I'll shamefully admit that, as of last issue, I may suddenly have an Amazing Spider-Man monkey on my back. To my shock and surprise, Spidey's controversial post-mindwipe status quo strikes me as kind of fascinating, and I'm loving the ultra-dynamic John Romita JR-and-Klaus Janson artwork...
Via Unqualified Offerings, summarizing a subscription-only New Scientist article: We all know that giving people drugs that do nothing can often make them feel better, thanks to the "placebo effect." (And thanks to the British sketch comedy show Smack The Pony, we know it doesn't work if you tell the patient it's a placebo.) Now it turns out that some actual painkillers don't work unless the patient knows they're being given a painkiller. Apparently the researchers are calling these "placebo amplifiers" - in other words, drugs that work better than placebos if you believe in them, and do bugger all if you don't.
Meanwhile, you may already have seen yesterday's New York Times article, which reports that crows and related birds can recognize human faces and react based on their past experiences with the person in question. That won't come as news to anyone who's seen Dario Argento's Opera, but the details of the research - in which scientists wandered around wearing caveman and Dick Cheney masks, being variously kind or annoying to the neighborhood crows - are pretty amusing. More surprising, to me anyway, was the finding that crows communicate their findings to one another; mistreat one bird, and it'll warn all its friends about you. So that's what all that cawing is about!
Otherwise, a slow week here. Just finished up a humongous art project, and I've got classes starting next week, so this is my tiny window for goofing off. Ever since San Diego Comic-Con, thedeadlyhook and I have been conducting a kind of rolling nostalgia-fest: She's immersing herself in '80s Marvel comics and Modesty Blaise novels, and I've been wallowing in all the compilations of vintage 2000 A.D. strips I picked up at the show. I'm pleased to report that classic Judge Dredd and Nemesis the Warlock are just as excellent and weird now as they were when I was ten.
Speaking of which, tomorrow's new-comics haul should include the latest issue of Mark Millar's "Old Man Logan" story, a post-apocalyptic Wolverine adventure which suggests that the "Cursed Earth" arc of Judge Dredd made as lasting an impression on Millar as it did on yours truly. And I'll shamefully admit that, as of last issue, I may suddenly have an Amazing Spider-Man monkey on my back. To my shock and surprise, Spidey's controversial post-mindwipe status quo strikes me as kind of fascinating, and I'm loving the ultra-dynamic John Romita JR-and-Klaus Janson artwork...