The Null Device

2000/7/6

Magnetic resonance imaging can tell whether you're really in love:

Seeing a lover prompted activity in four brain regions that were not active when looking at pictures of a friend, and caused a significant reduction in the activity of one other area... Two active areas lay deep in the cortex: the medial insula, which may be responsible for "gut" feelings, and a part of the anterior cingulate, which is known to respond to euphoria-inducing drugs... The inactive region was in the right prefrontal cortex--the region that is overactive in depressed patients.

It's probably only a matter of time before this appears on the market, as a device which tells you whether your partner is really in love with you, or just using you for money or sex or somesuch.

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Looking for bozotic samples for your latest tongue-in-cheek big-beat track? How about some Stupid Human Noises. Keep in mind, though, that they're of fairly low quality. (via Zannah)

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A Russian inventor has devised an ingenious running aid: petrol-powered running boots:

The boots are powered by 30-cm (12-inch) pistons strapped to the calf. They fire when the wearer steps down, pushing a metal platform away from the bottom of the shoe. This shoots the wearer up into the air.

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I'm rather annoyed with the host on this week's Midweek Crisis on 3RRR. Towards the end of the show, there was a really good song played (stark, melodic, with female vocals, repeated verses and dark, vaguely obsessive lyrics; imagine Frenté meets the Cranes or something). Then they played some six or seven other songs, and when it came time to backtrack, the announcer did so all in one breath, not mentioning song titles. Needless to say, I missed the name of the song.

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Political quote of the day:

"I ask the minister whether, no pun intended, it's appropriate in this case for a woman's body parts to be inserted into a sheep when that's normally been the domain of Tory males?"

-- New Zealand MP Grant Gillon, in debate on transgenic sheep containing female human DNA

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