Endless Knots

Dance your PhD

Enough of those dry defenses. Science, the esteemed journal of AAAS, the weekly (or is it a daily) which I, for one, don't normally associate with modern dance (or rap), sponsors an annual "Dance your PhD" contest and I'm rooting for my friend, Mount Sinai Medical School PhD-candidate Kate Collins (scroll down for her bio).

Here's how the brilliant Kate (the lead dancer/cell of the basal nucleus of the amygdala!) explains her submission to the contest (I just like the moves, never mind that my nephew, James Murrough, plays the only male role in the video): 

When first encountering a fear-eliciting stimulus, animals evince innate defensive behaviors, such as freezing. With time, most are able to overcome their automatic fear reactions and regain the capacity for organized, goal-directed action. Rodent research suggests that activity in the central nucleus of the amygdala drives stereotyped, automatic fear responses. Activity in the basal nucleus of the amygdala, conversely, appears to enable flexible and adaptive fear responses. Evidence suggests that the central and basal nuclei compete for dominance during fear, with the "winning" (more active) nucleus determining the behavior expressed.

Do similar patterns of neural activity subsume these behaviors in humans? In Kate Collins' dissertation, she is exploring the neural substrates of both automatic and goal-directed fear responses, and the transition between the two opposing states.

And now, for your enjoyment, neural substrates performing to Finger Eleven's "Paralyzer" and Young MC's "Bust A Move."

Dance Your PhD - Bust A Move: Taking Action in the Face of Fear from Alex Susse on Vimeo.

 

 

WebSite Story

Perfect. Thanks to Georges Grinstein who put me on to this, for all of us online fanatics. Just wait until you get to the line about Evite... or eHarmony... or ... just sit back and e(n)joy!

 

"PPPSSEOT(3)SIL: Please, please, please stop sending e-mails over three (3) sentences in length"

If it makes you laugh once (yes, lol), it's a pretty funny piece.

Twice, well, you're thanking Martin Marks, for "E-mail Auto-Response" in October 25, 2010, New Yorker. Some lols:

"Thank you for your e-mail, which, if it is under three (3) sentences long, I have read...

"If your e-mail has been cc’d to three (3) or more people, and includes complicated yet unresolved logistical information regarding the location, time, or general coördination of an upcoming social gathering involving five (5) or more people, then please wait until two (2) hours after the last respondent has answered and then please call the number provided at the bottom of the e-mail. (Be prepared to detail the conclusions reached by the e-mail chain.)...

"Should you receive a speedy one-to-two-word response, please do not read anything into it. More often than not, such a response doesn’t even correspond to the content of your e-mail..."

And my very favorite:

"In closing, I would like to say that the Internet has become a veritable buzzing, stinging hornet’s nest of pings and pongs and klings and klangs, so please do not e-mail, text-message, instant-message, direct-message, Facebook-message (if you’re still on MySpace or Friendster, that’s just plain creepy), Facebook-chat, iChat, tweet, retweet (don’t even mention Twitter mentions), StumbleUpon, LinkIn with, zoom into, Google Buzz, Plaxify, Jigsaw, Digg, Skype, Spoke, poke, flick, or tag me..."

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"She brought Norm" - #NACD

A four-year old was asked to bring her favorite thing to pre-school. "She brought Norm," said the speaker, introducing the recipient of the NACD Lifetime Achievement Award tonight. Norm Augustine (long list of major positions in companies, non-profits, government, and academia) then clarified, saying that in fact his granddaughter was asked to bring "a really old thing."

You never know who's going to bring down the house but Norm really did. The room was dark (it was a banquet where a number of people got awards, MSNBC's Norah O'Donell hosted, and Senator Amy Klobuchar presented another award) so I couldn't scribble down all the funny things he said but just take this advice: If you ever get an award, be like his granddaughter. Bring Norm, virtually speaking. Be funny. And self-effacing. It really works.

I'd gone to a session earlier in the day ("The Board's Role in Corporate Strategy") where Norm, Peter Boneparth, and Beverly Behan held a lively discussion about who should set strategy, board or management, (Peter had a good formula: "Management creates it, the board trouble shoots it, management carries it out").

There, Norm had explained something that has vexed me for years. Why, when you're shutting down a PC, do you hit "start?" Norm's explanation: It was designed by engineers (among whom he numbers himself).

Hierarchy of digital distractions

Patti Anklam (grazie, P) found this terrific graphic/insight from David McCandless's Information Is Beautiful site (kudos, David). If it's too small, go directly to its link or double click and it will open in a new window here.

Clowning around

I guess I must attract them.
 Got out of the elevator today at the hospital and who was waiting for me?

Dr. Quackenbush and Dr. Binkie

Doctors specializing in cachinnation

 

Dr. Van Loon and Dr. Noodle

World specialists
in the esoteric healing art of cachinnation

Spotted today at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital
on their way into surgery

These clowns can be my doctors anytime

Next time I need medical care, I'm scheduling with these physicians. Spotted today at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, they come from Big Apple Circus's Community Program. I dug a bit to track down Maria Parra, below, but haven't been able to web-o-locate her partner. So, without further ado, I present to you...

 

Dr. Filibuster and Dr. MooChaCha

Another way to look at it

This just in from Daughter #2: At 2 am Wed, meaning right after the election results became evident, someone with a bullhorn drove through Brooklyn blaring:

Happy New Year!

New test for funny - be a man

Could this possibly be true? BBC, that trusted source of humor, is reporting on a unicycle-riding professor who claims that being funny stems, so to speak, from testosterone.