Archive for September 23rd, 2009

Dead Fish Gets Emotional Over Photos Of Humans

This is an article taken from Derren Brown’s blog. As you probably know, Derren is a very talented magician and illusionist who recently received great publicity for correctly predicting the UK lottery results. I am a great admirer of his work, as I’m sure many of you are. Here Derren considers the Multiple Comparisons Problem when looking at the results of an MRI scan on a dead fish.

This is a poster presented by Bennett and colleagues at this year’s Human Brain Mapping conference. It’s about fMRI scanning on a dead fish, specifically a salmon. They put the salmon in an MRI scanner and “the salmon was shown a series of photographs depicting human individuals in social situations. The salmon wasasked to determine what emotion the individual in the photo must have been experiencing.”

I’d say that this research was justified on comedic grounds alone, but they were also making an important scientific point. The (fish-)bone of contention here is multiple comparisons correction. The “multiple comparisons problem” is simply the fact that if you do a lot of different statistical tests, some of them will, just by chance, give interesting results.

In fMRI, the problem is particularly severe. An MRI scan divides the brain up into cubic units called voxels. There are over 40,000 in a typical scan. Most fMRI analysis treats every voxel independently, and tests to see if each voxel is “activated” by a certain stimulus or task. So that’s at least 40,000 separate comparisons going on – potentially many more, depending upon the details of the experiment.

Link

Cops Caught Playing Nintendo Wii During Drug Bust

With guns drawn and flashlights cutting through darkened rooms, Polk County undercover drug investigators stormed the home of convicted drug dealer Michael Difalco near Lakeland in March.

As investigators searched the home for drugs, some drug task force members found other ways to occupy their time. Within 20 minutes of entering Difalco’s house, some of the investigators found a Wii video bowling game and began bowling frame after frame.

Despite all the good that cops do, it’s a certain few, like these, that give the police force a bad name, even if they were just having a bit of fun.

I guess drug busts just aren’t that exciting anymore.

Link

World’s Longest Basketball Shot

‘Dude Perfect’ is a team of college guys making perfect basketball shots. In their latest video, they make the world’s longest basketball shot from the third deck of Kyle Field, Texas, but is it real or is it fake?

Alfredo from Asswass.com, has kindly made a poll for you to vote and decide. What do you think?

Vote here!

Thanks Alfredo.

The Man With a Hat as His Hair

This has got to be one of the coolest hairstyles I’ve ever seen. I bet it takes a lot of maintenance, but the high-fives he must get when he’s walking down the street surely make it worthwhile. I’d take my hat off to you sir, but the trend’s already caught on.

Link

How Far Can You Get Away From McDonald’s?

We all know that McDonald’s is a huge company, and it seems like you can’t go anywhere in the U.S. without seeing one.

Stephen Von Worley created this map of the U.S. illustrating where all the McDonald’s outlets are. The most depressing fact came from this though, is that you’ll have to go to South Dakota to get 107 miles away from one.

Link (Thanks Matt!)

Man Discovers Long Lost Brother at Work 35 Years After Adoption

Gary Nisbet, who had worked as a furniture mover for a bedding retail company for seven years, was joined by a new colleague, Randy Joubert who turned out to be his long lost brother who he hadn’t seen for 35 years.

The brothers were separated 35 years ago, when they were adopted by different families, however when customers saw the two together, they asked if they were brothers because they looked so much alike.

“This kid could have been anywhere in the world, and here I am riding in a Dow furniture truck with him,” Mr Joubert said.

“I said, ‘Gary, I’m going to ask you a strange question: Are you adopted?”‘ Mr Joubert recalled.

Mr Nisbet gave him a strange look and answered, yes, he was adopted.

Then Mr Joubert asked whether he knew his parents’ names. Mr Nisbet, who had learned details of his adoption through a court request, again answered yes.

Mr Joubert recited the couple’s names – only to meet a mixed reaction of amazement and annoyance.

“He takes off his hat and says, ‘How did you know that?”‘ Mr Joubert recalled.

When Mr Joubert asked about Mr Nisbet’s birth date, June 10, 1974, he knew he had found his long-lost brother.

“I about fell over,” he said, “because I knew that date.”

After all the attention the brothers’ story received in the Maine press, a half-sister turned up at Dow’s furniture with copies of her birth certificate and other documents proving their relationship.