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I am a huge fan of Halo ever since my friend introduced me to it. I have played all three Halo games so far. I have seen every episode of Master Chief Sucks At Halo and Arby 'n' the Chief. I have also seen the only three episodes of It's A Wonderful Live.Fake info: Was born on Harvest and selected for the SPARTAN-II program. Was one who barely made it through augmentations.
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Canuck homesickness, 'The Office' opening in Russia, and magic reveals a new understanding of the brain and vision!
[edit] Study says classic magic tricks reveal inner-workings of brain and vision
The trick starts simple enough: A magician pulls out a cigarette and a lighter and casually tries to light up.
As he fumbles around with the objects in his hands, the lighter vanishes into thin air. And then, just as quickly, the cigarette is gone, too.
It's classic sleight-of-hand. In fact, the magician drops the lighter and the cigarette into his lap, and he doesn't even try to hide it.
The reason you don't notice - even if you're watching for it - can reveal a lot about how we perceive the world around us, say researchers from Canada and the United Kingdom who are studying the science behind magic.
"Cognitive science has been around for about 50 years; magic has been around for thousands," says Alym Amlani, a practising magician and one of the co-authors of a paper in the current issue of the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
"So, what magicians have done from generation to generation is passed down methods to create effects that work in the brain and work consistently on everybody. We're now at a point in cognitive science where we can begin to understand how these things all come together."
Amlani, a recent graduate from the University of British Columbia, is collaborating with a colleague at UBC and another magician-cum-academic at Durham University in the U.K. to study how people see magic tricks.
They argue that there are many unanswered questions about how magicians can so easily deceive the brain, and answering them could have far-reaching implications ranging from driver safety to how we interact with computers.
The researchers gathered volunteers and showed them magic tricks, and then asked them how they thought the illusions worked. They also measured the eye movements of the participants as the tricks unfolded to see where they were looking.
For the cigarette and lighter trick, most participants didn't notice the magician drop the cigarette under a table, even though it was dropped from 15 centimetres above the tabletop in plain view.
Instead, they were watching his other hand, where he was revealing the lighter, too, had disappeared.
"When you look through your eyes, what you're seeing in front of you feels like a complete picture, but that's really far from the truth," says Amlani, who graduated from UBC's cognitive sciences program, which mixes a number of fields including computer science and psychology.
"You're actually aware of what you're consciously paying attention to, and what magicians do on a day-to-day basis is direct people's attention away from what they don't want people to consciously perceive."
The paper argues that further study of magic could help scientists understand how our brain processes information in a range of situations.
For example, studying misdirection tricks could reveal more about what our eyes pay attention to and why.
That could improve computer interfaces to better guide users through vast amounts of information and control where their attention is drawn to on a screen, or help understand where drivers focus their attention on how easily they can be distracted.
"A common (car) accident is that a driver looked but failed to see - just because your eyes are focusing on something doesn't mean you're paying attention to it," says Amlani, who notes that even participants who were looking directly at the hand dropping the cigarette fell for the trick.
"As technology gets more and more complicated, we have systems competing for our attention, and it becomes more important to design systems in such away that people can pay attention to what they need to pay attention to."
Durham University's Gustav Kuhn, also a magician, says there's much about magic - and, in turn, how it relates to human cognition - not yet understood.
But as he studies some of the oldest tricks in the book, he's careful not to pull the curtain back too far.
"It's something that we're very aware of, and we've always tried to make a big point about not giving away any of the secrets," says Kuhn, who says his childhood interest in magic steered him towards studying psychology.
"Most people who go and see a magic show know that misdirection will be taking place, so just knowing that you're going to be distracted is not actually going to help you find out how the trick is done."
[edit] THN.com Blog: Homesickness will hit Canucks hardest
Travel is a part of the game, but Vancouver will give new meaning to the term 'Road Warriors' this upcoming season.
The NHL schedule has been released for about a week now, which I'm sure has given all the coaches a chance to peek at their travels, plan their grievances to the league and devise when they should, maybe, take it easy on the troops.
Which team has the worst slate will always be a point of debate between Western Conference teams situated on or near the Pacific Ocean, but after a little number crunching I've found who I think has the worst stretches.
While having to venture great distances wears on teams after a while, it's not so bad traveling across the continent to spend a week or two hopping and skipping up and/or down the eastern seaboard.
But when teams have to travel across, up, down and all around the Western hemisphere is when their mental focus wanes and is, perhaps, when their playoff aspirations are extinguished.
Twenty-five times next season a team must travel at least 2,000 miles to their next destination with only one full day of rest after its previous contest. Vancouver gets stuck with such a trek four times, while San Jose, Anaheim and Los Angeles have to face it three times.
Eight other teams will jump that hurdle, with Toronto, Tampa Bay, Boston and Columbus doing it twice each. And say what you will about the Atlantic Division's schedule, but at least New Jersey and the Islanders don't escape this mile-high headache.
To me, it seems the Canucks have the most to dread.
After they get comfortable with a six game home stretch, the Canucks go on the road after a game against Toronto on Nov. 15. Between then and when they return to GM Place on Nov. 24, Alain Vigneault's boys will travel approximately 6,300 miles and play five games in eight nights.
Not only that, but after the Christmas turkey settles, Vancouver again hops on a jet and flies for nearly 4,500 miles between New Year's Eve and Jan. 4, playing three games in four nights.
So while I'm sure a couple of bench bosses will air their frustration over the scheduling at some point this season, no one has as bad a run as Vancouver. They have to do a lot of traveling for eight games, all in the first half, which can have a significant impact on their place in the standings.
I'm not of the belief they'll be in the playoffs in 2009, but if the Canucks are in a good position playoff-wise at the all-star break, I'll become a big believer in their ability to overcome and finish as one of the West's crazy eight.
If you want to analyze your team's schedule, check out this "Super Schedule" composed by our Nashville team blogger, Dirk Hoag.
The super schedule is at http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pc9iV9RP9nEdyp8GJRUPTYAandhl=en and apparently does not exist. If it did it'd be a spreadsheet.
[edit] Russia gets own ‘Office’
http://tvguide.sympatico.msn.ca/TVNews/Articles/080725_carell_stays_BB
Russia is the next country to get its own version of The Office, reports Variety.
BBC Worldwide has signed a deal with Channel One, which will produce 24 episodes of the Russian version of the comedy.
“Russia is an important territory for us,” said Ben Donald, BBC Worldwide’s head of sales for the country. “We’ve had much success with other formats, such as Dancing With the Stars, Junior Mastermind and most recently Great Russians.”
The Office, created by Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais (who also starred in the original version) first aired in the U.K. in 2001 and has since been shown in more than 70 countries and has several localized versions.
“It's very exciting and very flattering,” posted Gervais on his blog after the announcement of the Russian version. “I can't believe how things have gone.”
And there’s more good news for Gervais – Steve Carell has signed on to play U.S. Office boss Michael Scott for three more seasons.
Though he hit it big it Hollywood with films like Evan Almighty and Get Smart, it’s nice to see Carell still willing to stick around in the show that helped his career. Not to mention the steady paycheque.
[edit] Player Exploits Glitch, Transforms Into Private Leroy Jenkins
A player earlier today in Sandtrap exploited a wierd glitch and transformed into Leroy Jenkins. Flood then assaulted him on the map.
When admins finally came to the area all they found was a broken piece of a Frag Grenade.
