Generating monsters is reason’s elated dream.

For the record: The Sleep of Reason Produces  Monsters is a famous painting by Francisco Goya. The sentence has become an oft-used paean to logic and awareness, which is not bad. Needless to say, paralogical thrills and unconscious fun are necessary and welcome too.

22 Words | Thrift store monsters — Adding fantastical creatures to second-hand art.

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Thomas in the Sky with Pen & Inks

 

Sky Art: Thomas Lamadieu Illustrates in the Sky Between Buildings | Colossal.

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Don’t take “ill” for an answer.

Sue Austin, an artist from the core.

A power chair simply makes her self-empowering choices visible. And her new, fresh, amazing narratives heal the implicit bigotry that plagues and paralyzes most bodies – especially those labeled ‘normal’ yet deeply challenged when it comes to many activities children relish, such as singing, dancing, running, hugging… The limitations that were in the eye of the beholder only vanish with each swirl she takes.

Kudos and thanks.

Sue Austin, un’artista fin nel midollo.

La sua sedia a rotelle (potenziata) rende visibili le scelte interiori con cui lei si è riconosciuta un’identità dotata di nuovi poteri, a dispetto della percezione altrui che la vedeva sminuita e ridotta. Dice ‘Ho dovuto inventare di sana pianta le mie narrative’. L’ha fatto per tutti noi, perché osiamo incarnare i nostri sogni di libertà corporea, ovunque e comunque noi siamo.

Chapeau.

TED Blog | Much more of Sue Austin’s incredible wheelchair art.

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How to please – and placebise – oneself.

So now there’s some physiological evidence to the old adage: God helps those who help themselves. The placebo effect has been regarded in ways as diverse as “A magical mystical self healing tool” and “A treacherous trick from some crackpot’s pot”. This piece of research sheds some light on the psychological traits that allow the effect to take place – and there’s some lightness indeed.

 

Neuroscientist Jon-Kar Zubieta of the University of Michigan

 

 “… found that people with certain personality traits—specifically, those who scored high on resiliency, altruism, and straightforwardness, and low on measures of “angry hostility”—were more likely to experience a placebo-induced painkilling response. Importantly, such individuals also had decreased cortisol levels and greater activation of endogenous opioid receptors in brain regions associated with reward.”

 

While Tor Wager, a neuroscientist at the University of Boulder, Colorado (not involved in the study), comments:

 

“Studies like this are giving us a new set of candidate personality measures that can predict for placebo analgesia, and they’re mostly positive traits,” said Wager. “So placebo responders are being cast in a much more positive light, personality-wise, than they were a few decades ago, when they were thought to be hysterical and neurotic. ”

Personality Predicts Placebo Effect | The Scientist Magazine®.

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It’s time to shoot Time.

 

Short Sharp Science: Shot from a Doctor Who camera.

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The first shadow puppet made by a rabbit.

by (or from?) Greg Gordon on Facebook

 

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Creative seeds need fertile soil.

Burdens of the brilliant | Naturally Selected.

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Chi sogna dipinge pesci?

“Goldfish Salvation” Riusuke Fukahori – YouTube.

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Volare, oh-oh!

 

Johan Lorbeer.

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My body is more than my body, yet it may not be my body. Clear?

“A year after removing his subjects from their own bodies, Ehrsson learned how to trick them into acquiring new ones.” Now that’s kind of him, besides clever.

 Out-of-body experience: Master of illusion : Nature News & Comment.

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