Image:
-
The Wisdom of Psychopaths
In this engrossing journey into the lives of psychopaths and their infamously crafty behaviors, the renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton reveals that there is a...
Read More »
Created, written & designed by John Pavlus / Screencasts produced by Andrew Cahill / Music by Jeff Alvarez
Check out previous episodes of The Monitor. Subscribe to this video podcast via iTunes or RSS
Background on this week's stories:
#1. Mapping the brain''s own O''Hare
Olaf Sporns, co-author of the study in question (press release here) is no stranger to the creation of high-resolution maps of activity in the brain, having previously generated interesting results on all the electrical chatter present in the "resting" brain.
This time around, Dr. Sporns et al. discovered that the brain has a "central clearinghouse" of electrical activity that, as The New York Times put it, "provides a striking demonstration of how new imaging techniques focused on the brain's white matter—the connections between cells, rather than the neurons themselves—are filling in a dimension of human brain function that has been all but dark." (Other coverage of the finding can be found at Technology Review and National Geographic.)
Could the discovery of the brain's "activity hub" bear on previous findings that the aging brain is less connected than the younger brain? Only more research will tell.
Credits: Airport hub image via NASA, crowded airport image from Scott, and ranking of "Major Airport On-Time Arrival Performance" via the U.S. Department of Transportation.
#2. Next stop: Never?
Like a meme heard round the world, we first spotted the train that never stops on Carectomy, which was only the latest in a long chain of blog pickups stretching from BoingBoing through DVICE and Deputy Dog, arriving at the only mainstream coverage of the phenomenon so far, at Taiwan Headlines.
Details are sketchy, because the inventor, despite having an honorary doctorate, is more of a dreamer than an engineer.
Credit: Image of train arriving in station via Littlebtc and Wikimedia Commons.
See what we're tweeting about
8 Comments
Add CommentAllow no further online advertisements that punch the user with unsolicited music or other audio.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI can turn my eyes away from things visual. I can't turn my ears off.
We find it an insensitive thing to do, to roll music without a LARGE very easy to find button to make it stop. What about those living in small spaces that don't want to disturb sleeping children? Time to rethink the advertising. Let the user decide first whether he/she wants the audio onslaught. This kind of advertising shows just how greedy and selfish corporations can be. STOP IT.
Thanks for the nice work!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSince the beginning I've been able to get The Monitor (Sciam Vodcast) via iTunes... however the last time this worked was with the vodcast on 1 July, since then only the website seems updated and my iTunes feed reports an error... unfortunately not giving any details other than to say it's not working.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust thought I'd let you know.
Please answer immaterialman's comment about the flaky behavior about the iTunes connection and download function. I have come to look forward to the regular electronic posting of "the Monitor" on iTunes and find it problematic when it becomes impossible to download the latest video podcast especially when there is no explanation of the problem.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWish i could have got this through itunes as i have been a subscriber since the start of this series
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNice program!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHowever, I want to make one thing clear here. The pic at 1:30 is indeed the KMRT at Taiwan. But the inventor of "train that needn't stop" is call CHEN jianjun from Wuhan, China. (1:30~2:00) And the youtube clip (2:05~2:10) used to show how to get all the people abord the bording cart is actually Seibu railway (http://www.seibu-group.co.jp/railways/tourist/english/index.html) in Japan.
Just let you know that I'm a Taiwanese, and it's a shame for me to say this - Sometimes the info on the newspaper in Taiwan is not correct. Since I can understand Mandarin Chinese, if you look at the video carefully enough you will find a disclaimer on the top of the video that read like this: "Train without Stops at Stations 不停站可上下車的火車 Designer: chen jianjun (China)" And the train in the video is departed from Beijing to Guangzhou. I am not sure how come Peng Yu-lun takes this credit on the Taiwan Headlines? And I'm not sure who came out with this idea first either. But one thing for sure is that this video is made by 人馬動畫 in China!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've been watching since the beginning and am a huge fan! We at commandn.tv have also had iTunes problems as well, as for the ads, I'm glad you found sponsors and honestly ads are the way these shows grow and become better, I hope you all tolerate the ads for the benefit of all podcasters.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisChris D.
commandn.tv