“So, I was over at my brother’s today and apparently Scout (the brother’s puppy) likes to tear the eyes out of his toys. Just the eyes. Like, there was Batman with just his eyes missing and I was like… 
and there was Pikachu but his entire face was gone and I was like
‘I don’t wanna be here anymore…!’”
They look like Pollocks…
But actually, these are two simulations of a whole cortical column, and 1000 pyramidal cells (a type of neuron) during a network simulation (blue cells are silent, red cells are firing), respectively, left—›right.
via EPFL, at Henry Markram’s Human Brain Project.
a number of scientists have expressed serious reservations about Markram’s project.
Some say we don’t know enough about the brain to simulate it on a supercomputer. And even if we did, these critics ask, what would be the value of building such a complicated “virtual brain”? Some researchers say it is premature to invest money in a simulation while important principles of brain function remain to be discovered.
Haim Sompolinsky, a neuroscientist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said: “The rhetoric is that in a decade they will be able to reverse-engineer the human brain in computers. This is fantasy. Nothing will come close to it in a decade.”
But those who say “it’s fantasy” and “never” have consistently been proven wrong. Although I agree with Sompolinsky, I do hope he will be, as well.
Meanwhile, despite all this, Itskov and the 2045 project…
The ever-lovely Deborah Ann Woll as Jessica Hamby in True Blood.
darlingkeepthatbreathlesscharm:
“fresh, warm cookies delivered until 3 AM”
WHAT IS THIS SORCERY
WHY IS THIS ONLY AN AMERICAN THING OH MY GOD
one of my good friends goes to Rutgers University and he says this is the best thing ever in the whole wide world
they have these in boston they’re so great and the people who work there are so cool once they gave my store a box of free cookies because we told them one of their employees sucked then they fired her
Chicago needs to get one
chicago HAS one and it’s AMAZING
WHAT????Seriously, the best cookies ever!
Canada plox
best shit evah yo, theres one like 2 blocks away from my house and all his cookies are handmade every day and the frozen custard store my sister works at buys his cookies to make ice cream sandwiches and they are the best shit ever (or maybe the other way around i dont know its just GOOD)
This place is pretty wonderful. It’s not in my neighborhood but it is worth the trip. And, they actually deliver. It’s a great go-to on the way home from the bar or from The Vogue — which is how I managed to get my Insomnia Cookie. I approve.
I honestly don’t know why people like tequila so much. Maybe I just have a high tolerance but I certainly did not get the expected yelling and stereotypical “SHOTS!” face when I had tequila last night.
It doesn’t even have an overpowering flavor, and it certainly didn’t affect my buzz. I’ll stick with my whiskey and my vodka drinks, thank you very much.
we’re terribly sorry, but you can’t put your disobedient child in the stowaway luggage, you’re just going to have to carry on your wayward son
get out
George Takei responds to “traditional” marriage fans.
Last night’s excursion into what used to be my usual Thursday night was fairly mellow. The scene has died down drastically as other events pull the majority of the crowd out of the city or just out of the venue. It was still a good time, though. I had three drinks, bought my driver two drinks at the beginning of the night, and we played some pool after visiting people. The DJ that I used to date was spinning when we got there so we had to wait nearly two hours just to get a chance to talk to him. He stuck by me the majority of the night and when he wasn’t there, I was able to fully entertain my friend/driver.
Surprisingly, I’m actually going out tonight. That… never happens. My coworkers don’t invite me anywhere, my best friend forgets about me and hasn’t spoken to me since March, and I am lucky to even hear from the majority of my friends. Even when I was in class last year, I didn’t have any friends. I suppose it’s due to the fact that this campus is quite large in comparison to the college that I started at back in 2007.
At any rate, as long as I provide gas money, I’m set to go out tonight. After this month being such a wreck, I could stand for a drink and a night of billiards and hugs.
Time to blare music, feel better, and look fantastic. I can’t wait!
