01.30.08
Out Of Body Experiences
If you want to have an “out of body experience“, there’s no need to appeal to the supernatural.
Last year, two research groups induced out-of-body experiences in healthy participants with virtual reality techniques. The experiments, described last August in studies by H. Henri Ehrsson and Olaf Blanke and colleagues in Science, demonstrate that out-of-body experiences, previously confined to the realms of psychiatry, fiction and the occult, occur when the normal processing of sensory information is disrupted. This research provides an important tool to understand how the feeling of self is generated by the brain.
Link (to “The Lab Route To Out-Of-Body Experiences” in Scientific American)
01.22.08
Japanese Cell Phone Novel Craze
Of last year’s Top 10 best-selling novels in Japan, half were originally written as cell phone novels.
The country that gave us the world’s first novel, The Tale of Genji, is thought to have started the cell phone novel genre in early ’00’s.
Imagine reading, let alone writing — with your thumb! — an entire novel on a cell phone. Granted, most cell phone novels are shorter than traditional ones — Wikipedia says the average chapter in a Japanese cell phone novel is about 70 words.
I hope that some of these will eventually be translated into English.
Link (to “Thumbs Race As Japan’s Bestsellers Go Cellular” on NY Times website)
Link (to “Mobile Phone Novels” on Wikipedia)
And just for fun, here’s what claims to be Indian’s first SMS (text message) novel. It is written in SMS style and allows readers to have input into the direction of the story: Link (to Cloak Room — India’s first SMS novel)
01.20.08
Wear Something Yellow On Darwin Day
February 12, 2008 is Darwin Day and people all around the world who support science and reason will be wearing something YELLOW to show their solidarity.
Closet atheists can just wear yellow underwear.
Also, many people are throwing parties with their friends on February 12.
Who doesn’t love an extra holiday every year? 
Link (to Darwin Day lens on Squidoo)
