Energetic vampirism is the process whereby one person, through manipulation, essentially steals some life energy from another. […]

Vampirism is all around you.  In fact, most of us have done it a little, at least.  […]

According to Roy Masters and some other authorities on this subject, women who are not well enough developed spiritually vampirize others more than men.  This may occur because such women, whom Roy Masters calls “females”, have their energy centers reversed, and they tend to absorb energy rather than radiate energy.  Also, they may steal some energy from others, particularly men, in an effort to correct their energy centers. […]

We find that most successful vampires are fast oxidizers on hair tests. This is a higher amperage state, electrically speaking, and this may be necessary to extract energy from another person. It could also just be a result of the vampirism, but it is an interesting observation.

{ Dr. Lawrence Wilson | Continue reading }

Several temporal paradoxes exist in physics. These include General Relativity’s grandfather and ontological paradoxes and Special Relativity’s Langevin-Einstein twin-paradox. General relativity paradoxes can exist due to a Gödel universe that follows Gödel’s closed timelike curves solution to Einstein’s field equations.

A novel biological temporal paradox of General Relativity is proposed based on reproductive biology’s phenomenon of heteropaternal fecundation. Herein, dizygotic twins from two different fathers are the result of concomitant fertilization during one menstrual cycle. In this case an Oedipus-like individual exposed to a Gödel closed timelike curve would sire a child during his maternal fertilization cycle.

As a consequence of heteropaternal superfecundation, he would father his own dizygotic twin and would therefore generate a new class of autofraternal superfecundation, and by doing so creating a ‘twin-father’ temporal paradox.

{ Progress in Biophysics & Molecular Biology | Continue reading }

The paper is called Prolonged apnea and the sudden infant death syndrome: clinical and laboratory observations and it was written in 1972 by Dr Alfred Steinschneider of Syracuse, New York. In this paper, Steinschneider described the case of a woman, “Mrs H”, who had already lost three children, ostensibly to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Dr Steinschneider describes how two additional children from the “H” family were studied in his sleep laboratory in an effort to determine whether sleep apnea was a risk factor for SIDS. Both children did show apnea in the lab, and both died shortly after being discharged from the clinic back home with Mrs H.

Steinschneider concluded that apnea was “part of the final pathway” leading to infant death in SIDS.

But over twenty years later, “Mrs H” – her real name Waneta Hoyt – was convicted of murdering her children by smothering.

A forensic pathologist, Linda Norton, had formed suspicions about “Mrs H” after reading Steinschneider’s paper, and she brought them to the attention of a prosecutor in Syracuse. In 1992, the prosecutor opened a case against Hoyt.

Under police interrogation, Hoyt confessed to killing each of her five children by smothering. She later retracted her confession and denied the charges, pointing to Steinschneider’s paper as evidence of her innocence. It didn’t work: Hoyt was convicted of murder in 1994. She died in jail four years later.

{ Neuroskeptic | Continue reading }

People’s capacity to generate creative ideas is central to technological and cultural progress. Despite advances in the neuroscience of creativity, the field lacks clarity on whether a specific neural architecture distinguishes the highly creative brain. […]

We identified a brain network associated with creative ability comprised of regions within default, salience, and executive systems—neural circuits that often work in opposition. Across four independent datasets, we show that a person’s capacity to generate original ideas can be reliably predicted from the strength of functional connectivity within this network, indicating that creative thinking ability is characterized by a distinct brain connectivity profile.

{ PNAS | Continue reading | Read more }

related { Neurobiological differences between classical and jazz musicians at high and low levels of action planning }

…America’s system of government. The bureaucracy is so understaffed that it is relying on industry hacks to draft policy. They have shaped deregulation and written clauses into the tax bill that pass costs from shareholders to society.

{ Economist | Continue reading }

graphite pencil, crayon and collage on paper { Jasper Johns, Green Flag, 1956 }

More recently we have supertasks such as Benardete’s Paradox of the Gods,

A man decides to walk one mile from A to B. A god waits in readiness to throw up a wall blocking the man’s further advance when the man has travelled ½ a mile. A second god (unknown to the first) waits in readiness to throw up a wall of his own blocking the man’s further advance when the man has travelled ¼ mile. A third god … etc. ad infinitum. (Benardete 1964, pp. 259-60)

Since for any place after A, a wall would have stopped him reaching it, the traveller cannot move from A. The gods have kept him still without ever raising a wall. Yet how could they cause him to stay still without causally interacting with him? Only a wall can stop him and no wall is ever raised, since for each wall he must reach it for it to be raised but he would have been stopped at an earlier wall. So he can move from A.

[…]

In the Nothing from Infinity paradox we will see an infinitude of finite masses and an infinitude of energy disappear entirely, and do so despite the conservation of energy in all collisions. I then show how this leads to the Infinity from Nothing paradox, in which we have the spontaneous eruption of infinite mass and energy out of nothing. […]

{ European Journal for Philosophy of Science | Continue reading }

photo { Alex Prager, Crowd #2 (Emma), 2012 }

This study documents that men and women experience and perform consumer shopping differently. […]

There is an abundant literature on sex differences in spatial abilities and object location that follow from the specific navigational strategies associated with hunting and gathering in the ancestral environment. In addition to sex differences in navigational strategies, the unique features of hunting and gathering may have influenced other aspects of foraging psychology that underlie sex differences in modern male and female shopping experiences and behaviors. […]

It is well accepted that humans do not simply develop new behaviors for every new situation we encounter but instead modify or extend existing behaviors to suit the new situation. Thus, the behaviors we exhibit in a modern and recently developed (i.e., with respect to an evolutionary timeframe) shopping mall, should be based on previously developed behaviors and skills. We believe, and study findings support this belief, that modern shopping behaviors are an adaptation of our species’ ancestral hunting and gathering skills. […]

For the most part, contemporary stereotypes of women in modern industrial countries perceive women as enjoying shopping more than men. Our research provides evidence that this popular stereotype exists because most shopping activities have a greater similarity to women’s traditional activities of foraging and gathering than they do to men’s traditional activity of hunting. The results of our study show that shopping has significantly more in common with gathering than it does with hunting.

{ Journal of Social, Evolutionary, and Cultural Psychology | Continue reading }

related { Hunter-gatherer lifestyle could help explain superior ability to ID smells }

…the “Trump Carousel” in New York’s Central Park.

The problem there: “It was never named Trump Carousel,” said Crystal Howard of the New York City parks department.

She said the Trump Organization — which had a contract to operate the attraction, whose name is the Friedsam Memorial Carousel — had simply put up a sign that renamed it “Trump Carousel.” The sign seems to have been up for months, but the city only learned of it in April 2017. Officials ordered the sign taken down that day.

{ Washington Post | Continue reading }

America’s largest city, 8.5 million strong, is taking decisive action on two separate fronts. We are demanding compensation from those who profit from climate change. And we plan to withdraw our formidable investment portfolio from an economic system that is harmful to our people, our property and the city we love and invest it in more productive ways. This week, the City of New York filed a lawsuit in federal court against the five investor-owned fossil fuel companies: Exxon, BP, ConocoPhillips, Shell and Chevron. We are seeking billions of dollars in damages from these giants because they are central actors in this crisis. We’re proud to join cities like San Francisco, Oakland and Santa Cruz in taking on Big Oil in court.

{ Bill de Blasio, Mayor of New York City | Washington Post }

latex, rope, string, and wire { Eva Hesse, no title, 1969–70 }

Two people were accidentally shot at a church in Tellico Plains during a discussion about the recent church shooting in Texas

A Bangkok clinic that has drawn 100 men a month to its penis whitening service has caused a stir in Thailand

There are two vastly different worlds of garbage in New York City: day and night. Inside the Deadly World of Private Garbage Collection

A looming shortage of sand – a crucial resource once thought endless – could sink infrastructure projects, including those in China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Americans spend an average of 17 hours a year parking, but rather than get used to it, drivers allow themselves to become entitled and aggressive. A 2014 study found that 20 percent of men and 12 percent of women have had a verbal confrontation with another driver in a parking lot, and 8 percent of men and 2 percent of women have actually gotten physical over a parking incident.

Tokyo Restaurant Lets You Work a 50-Minute Shift to Earn a Free Meal

Have you ever looked up flights or hotels on an app on your phone, only to open your laptop and see different prices? How Retailers Use Personalized Prices to Test What You’re Willing to Pay

Two Ebola survivors are to sue the government of Sierra Leone in the first international court case intended to throw light on what happened to some of the millions of dollars siphoned off from funding to help fight the disease.

Why the U.S. spends so much more than other nations on health care: Studies point to a simple reason, the prices, not to the amount of care. And lowering prices would upset a lot of people in the health industry. [NY Times]

How blue eyes get their color

Fifty psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid: a list of inaccurate, misleading, misused, ambiguous, and logically confused words and phrases

How We Hurt The Ones We Love

The scent of a romantic partner can help lower stress levels, new research found [Previously: Smell Dating]

Chinese dating apps closed after women revealed to be robots

How to Use Cognitive Faculties You Never Knew You Had

The Dunning-Kruger effect: The more limited someone is in reality, the more talented the person imagines himself to be.

Arbitrary deadlines are the enemy of creativity, according to Harvard research

How emoji are born

Can Machines Create Art?

Can Washington Be Automated? An algorithmic lobbyist sounds like a joke. But it’s already here. Here’s who the robots are coming for next.

The new machine isn’t an ATM, but a BTM—a Bitcoin teller machine. There are now more than 80 in New York City, and dozens more around the country.

Good Luck Spending Your KodakCoins

Rule 30 is a Class III rule, displaying aperiodic, chaotic behaviour [Related: A British train station with walls designed using “Rule 30″]

The Geometry and Pigmentation of Seashells [PDF]

Some birds intentionally spread fire from place to place, sometimes in cooperation with other birds, study

Gene editing can change an animal’s sex. Meet the Woman Using CRISPR to Breed All-Male “Terminator Cattle”

The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

Daniel Defoe (c. 1660 – 1731) was an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, which is second only to the Bible in its number of translations. He died on 24 April 1731, probably while in hiding from his creditors. He often was in debtors’ prison.

How to Fight 70′s-Era Ryan O’Neal

Chinese Kung Fu master demonstrates ‘ball-breaking stamina’

{ Shares of Eastman Kodak surged 40 per cent to $4.40 on Tuesday after it announced that it had partnered with Wenn Digital to launch a blockchain-based image-rights management platform, KODAKOne, and KODAKCoin }

collage { John Stezaker, Untitled (Photoroman), 1977 and The word made flesh lll (Photoroman), 1977-78 }

total $XRP now worth $380 bn…. makes Ripple labs worth $225bn.. tenth largest company by market cap in the world… makes Chris Larsen worth $55bn tying Mark Zuckerburg as 5th richest man in the world…..

At one Point in the 1989 Japanese real estate bubble, the Imperial Palace in Japan was said to be worth more than the entire state of California, things that don’t make sense don’t last….

{ Michael Novogratz‏ | More: CNBC }

Thomas P. “Boston” Corbett (1832 – presumed dead 1894) was a Union Army soldier who shot and killed President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865. Corbett was initially arrested for disobeying orders, but was later released and was largely considered a hero by the media and the public.

Known for his devout religious beliefs and eccentric behavior, Corbett drifted around the United States before disappearing around 1888. Circumstantial evidence suggests that he died in the Great Hinckley Fire in September 1894, although this remains impossible to substantiate. […]

On July 16, 1858, Corbett was propositioned by two prostitutes while walking home from a church meeting. He was deeply disturbed by the encounter. […] In order to avoid sexual temptation and remain holy, he castrated himself with a pair of scissors.

{ Wikipedia | Continue reading }

lithograph { Jim Dine, Rainbow Scissors, 1969 }

Here, we present a method that estimates socioeconomic characteristics of regions spanning 200 US cities by using 50 million images of street scenes gathered with Google Street View cars.

Using deep learning-based computer vision techniques, we determined the make, model, and year of all motor vehicles encountered in particular neighborhoods.

Data from this census of motor vehicles, which enumerated 22 million automobiles in total (8% of all automobiles in the United States), were used to accurately estimate income, race, education, and voting patterns at the zip code and precinct level.

The resulting associations are surprisingly simple and powerful. For instance, if the number of sedans encountered during a drive through a city is higher than the number of pickup trucks, the city is likely to vote for a Democrat during the next presidential election (88% chance); otherwise, it is likely to vote Republican (82%).

{ PNAS | PDF }

photo { Tod Papageorge }

Hairdresser Arrested for Giving a Bad Haircut

Panda poop is being turned into tissues in China

‘Scientist leading ‘de-extinction’ effort says Harvard team could create hybrid mammoth-elephant embryo in two years

The most common physiological changes result from the lack of gravity. “Your inner ear thinks you’re tumbling. Meanwhile your eyes are telling you you’re not tumbling.” What One Year of Space Travel Does to the Human Body

People avoid learning the calories in a tempting dessert to protect their preferences to eat the dessert. People sometimes choose to remain ignorant.

“There’s a lever to control how much tear gas goes in the water cannon.” Tear Gas author Anna Feigenbaum visits Milipol, the world’s largest security expo

Since 2015, the NSA has lost several hundred hackers, engineers and data scientists

Bitcoin’s long gestation and early opposition indicates it is an example of the ‘Worse is Better’ paradigm in which an ugly complex design with few attractive theoretical properties compared to purer competitors nevertheless successfully takes over a niche, survives, and becomes gradually refined.

Why did everything take so long?

Slaughterbots

One photo (not a composite) [zoomed out]

The woman, who calls herself Theodora, is a financial dominatrix, which means clients — many of whom never meet her in person — derive sexual pleasure from giving her gifts and money. Exchanges of money can range from several dollars in “tributes,” as they are called, to gifts of more than six figures. Some clients even become a “human ATM,” meaning they give her complete control over a bank account. […] Last year she made over $1 million in cryptocurrency alone.

{ MarketWatch | Continue reading | @TheOnlyTheodora }

An assassination market is a prediction market where any party can place a bet (using anonymous electronic money and pseudonymous remailers) on the date of death of a given individual, and collect a payoff if they “guess” the date accurately. This would incentivise assassination of individuals because the assassin, knowing when the action would take place, could profit by making an accurate bet on the time of the subject’s death. Because the payoff is for accurately picking the date rather than performing the action of the assassin, it is substantially more difficult to assign criminal liability for the assassination.

{ Wikipedia | Continue reading }

{ This Brooklyn Heights fake townhouse is actually a subway emergency exit }

Brothers Vincenzo and Giacomo Barbato named their clothing brand “Steve Jobs” in 2012 after learning that Apple had not trademarked his name. […]

The Barbatos designed a logo that resembles Apple’s own, choosing the letter “J” with a bite taken out of the side. Apple, of course, sued the two brothers for using Jobs’ name and a logo that mimics the Apple logo. In 2014, the European Union’s Intellectual Property Office ruled in favor of the Barbatos and rejected Apple’s trademark opposition. […]

While the Barbatos currently produce bags, t-shirts, jeans, and other clothing and fashion items […] they plan to produce electronic devices under the Steve Jobs brand.

{ Mac Rumors | Continue reading }

art { Left: Ellsworth Kelly, Nine Squares, 1977 | Right: Damien Hirst, Myristyl Acetate, 2005 }