The Curio

Actually, what’s really interesting is the list of comments following the article.  I love it when science meets superstition.

Scientists discover ’shadow person’ | COSMOS magazine:

“Ever feel as though you’re being followed? As if someone is behind you, shadowing your every move? It might be your ‘shadow person’, created by unusual activity in a specific brain region, a new study shows.”

[Image from Wikipedia]

Probably one of the less convincing paranormal cases around. Play the video, you’ll see what I mean. All parents think their kids are special. Doesn’t mean they are.

What Are Indigo Children?:

“Indigo children refers to a New Age belief that some children, especially those born after the late 1970s, represent a higher state of human evolution.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZwyiy90X2I

This is actual news.

Of course, we all want to know why the psychics didn’t see this one coming…

Ben Goldacre: End is nigh for zombie slayers | Comment is free | The Guardian:

“Next month the Fraudulent Mediums Act will be repealed, and replaced with general consumer legislation, which is to regulate various popular psychic services… The burden of proof is shifted to the psychic, and they are up in arms, with their union visiting the government yesterday to lobby against the new regulations.”

[via]

Nick Redfern has a new blog, MAN-BEAST U.K - subtitled “In Search of the British Bigfoot”. Also available is his book “Man Monkey” with the same subtitle.

Check out the blog here, and read more about his book here.

It’s all in your head. Which is a bit boring.

Scientists “see” ghosts - Telegraph:

“The reason that apparitions, bogeymen and phantoms like to lurk in the shadows may have been revealed by scientists.”

Immediately I am reminded of this documentary, but clearly these baby dolls fulfil a different desire.

Fulfilling a deep human need, or a symptom of behavioural dysfunction? Maybe something more complex.

The author has restricted the embedding of this video, so watch here instead.

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Why does this look so weird?  Maybe it’s because we’re so good at identifying faces quickly that when there’s something not right about it, we get this jarring reaction inside. It’s a face, but not a face.

Mouth Eyes Pictures - Strange Mouth Eyes Pics:

“When it comes to horror images, one of the most disturbing depictions of human face is with mouths in the place of eyes - such illustrations are favorite of many horror books”

Victorian Occult Beliefs, Part One:

“Victorians believed in legends of beings of mystical lore including that of the historic Wild Men. In them, European and Asian legends met Western pioneers and explorers for some interesting tales and compilations of sightings.”

Part Two here.

Robots that look like humans. One of the weirdest and most inspiring things I can think of. Whilst this particular robot does look somewhat creepy, at the same time it does look reasonably human, and indeed is designed to closely mimic human behaviour in one particular scenario - a patient in the dentist’s chair.

But, as usual my mind is in the gutter, and after I read this posting over on the excellent Pink Tentacle blog, I thought of an entirely different application for this kind of technology.

Simroid: Dentistry in the uncanny valley (video) ::: Pink Tentacle:

“Kokoro says that for an extra touch of realism, Simroid exhibits a gag reflex when instruments are inserted too far into her mouth.”

If I owned one I would call her Priss, obviously.
Enough already.

I was in the sushi bar in question, two days before Litvinenko was poisoned.

Litvinenko poisoning caused limited public concern:

“Despite involving radioactive contamination in the heart of a major city, these results show that the polonium incident caused limited public concern about potential health risks, say the authors.”