Digging and noodling

This is why I love the Internet #goth #renfaire #minotaur #funny

I really, really don’t understand how Google decided this was an appropriate ad to serve up during a cat video. Is this a cat lady insult?

Does BuzzFeed Know the Secret?

Great long read with thoughts on how content goes viral, how Buzzfeed is tracking the flow of information, how things become popular and why branded content is so important

oldfilmsflicker:

oceanaroll:

lemonistas:

daunt:

teiledesganzen:

ronstormer:

effinglioness:

ninjabrianhasanstd:

mortallyfoolish:

Elle Woods was hollering back before the movement. This is why i love this movie. It’s so progressive. Elle is a femme feminist who comes by it the hard way. She doesn’t change for the bookish people, the elitists, or for the feminists. She just does what she needs to do, and what she wants, even when at first it was chasing a boy. Then the movie drops the romance. IT DROPS THE ROMANCE. chick flicks don’t do that. Emmett asking her out is a footnote at the very end. And this whole time, she is classy, and lady like, and has pride in herself and her work. She’ll go to a costume party as a playboy bunny, but like hell will she sleep with her professor for an internship. Elle is my feminist role model

Same.

Elle Woods 4ever

I remember listening to my DAD defend Legally Blonde. An uncle was saying “Oh look, it’s that stupid movie again.” as he flipped through the channels. My dad responded with “Oh yeah, that movie where the blonde girl with great grades works really hard to get into pre-law, studies hard and proves herself to her peers and bosses while maintaining her integrity and not sleeping with her boss? What a terrible message to send girls.”

Also, I love this movie because Reese Witherspoon. 

And don’t forget that she has serious female friends and wins the case by way of her specialist knowledge of so-called “feminine things” that no one else takes seriously enough to even bother with.

The movie also passes the Bechdel test.

I SCOFFED at this movie and my mother was like, ‘Meg no, you need to watch this with me. It’s so good.’ and I can never resist when mom gets cute over movies so I reluctantly said yes and then THIS MOVIE HAPPENED. It’s perfect.

She never changes WHO SHE IS but she learns and grows and does right by herself and I love that.  :’)  SO YES, this movie is my feminist movie choice.  <3  Elle is a great role model!  

Great female character!

If you haven’t seen it WATCH IT.

“You got into Harvard Law?”
“What, like it’s hard?”

I’ve reblogged this a lot, but I love it so much that I need to reblog it again.

they also have girl vs. girl enemies, who over time realize aren’t all that different and their feud was dictated by society, rather than who they were as people and once they realize that, they become good friends. this movie says so much so simply.

What happens in our meta world when one cultural movement moves, shifts and blends with other movements? Looking at examples like Vh1 and MTV using Tumblr to communicate with one other or the Hadouken meme evolving into and being responded to with a Star Wars meme, there is a trend of these bits of culture influencing and interplaying with eachother to make new memes. Does this change the original meaning or help create the actual story? Different pieces of culture work together to ultimately form the collective interpretation of the meme. There is a metanarrative that exists outside of the individual piece – meaning occurs when you see multiple versions of the meme. For example, when you learn about a new meme character like Ridiculously Attractive Convict, the syntax of the meme is only clear with repeat viewing. The collaborative and fan driven culture of memes means that our collective ends up creating the meaning and growing it all together.

Think how different things would be if electromagnets could be used to stop addictive behavior and depression - this could be amazing

neurosciencestuff:

Laser Light Zaps Away Cocaine Addiction

By stimulating one part of the brain with laser light, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at UC San Francisco (UCSF) have shown that they can wipe away addictive behavior in rats – or conversely turn non-addicted rats into compulsive cocaine seekers.

“When we turn on a laser light in the prelimbic region of the prefrontal cortex, the compulsive cocaine seeking is gone,” said Antonello Bonci, MD, scientific director of the intramural research program at the NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), where the work was done. Bonci is also an adjunct professor of neurology at UCSF and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University.

Described this week in the journal Nature, the new study demonstrates the central role the prefrontal cortex plays in compulsive cocaine addiction. It also suggests a new therapy that could be tested immediately in humans, said Billy Chen of NIDA, the lead author of the study.

Any new human therapy would not be based on using lasers, but would most likely rely on electromagnetic stimulation outside the scalp, in particular a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Clinical trials are now being designed to test whether this approach works, Chen added.

The High Cost of Cocaine Abuse

Cocaine abuse is a major public health problem in the United States today, and it places a heavy toll on society in terms of lost job productivity, lost earnings, cocaine-related crime, incarcerations, investigations, and treatment and prevention programs.

The human toll is even greater, with an estimated 1.4 million Americans addicted to the drug. It is frequently the cause of emergency room visits – 482,188 in 2008 alone – and it is a top cause of heart attacks and strokes for people under 35.

One of the hallmarks of cocaine addiction is compulsive drug taking – the loss of ability to refrain from taking the drug even if it’s destroying one’s life.

What makes the new work so promising, said Bonci, is that Chen and his colleagues were working with an animal model that mimics this sort of compulsive cocaine addiction. The animals, like human addicts, are more likely to make bad decisions and take cocaine even when they are conditioned to expect self-harm associated with it.

Electrophysiological studies involving these rats have shown that they have extremely low activity in the prefrontal cortex – a brain region fundamental for impulse control, decision making and behavioral flexibility. Similar studies that imaged the brains of humans have shown the same pattern of low activity in this region in people who are compulsively addicted to cocaine.

Altering Brain Activity with a Laser

To test whether altering the activity in this brain region could impact addiction, Chen and his colleagues employed a technique called optogenetics to shut the activity on and off using a laser.

First they took light-sensitive proteins called rhodopsins and used genetic engineering to insert them into neurons in the rat’s prefrontal cortex. Activating this region with a laser tuned to the rhodopsins turned the nerve cells on and off.

Turning on these cells wiped out the compulsive behavior, while switching them off turned the non-addicted ones into addicted, researchers found.

What’s exciting, said Bonci, is that there is a way to induce a similar activation of the prelimbic cortex in people through a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which applies an external electromagnetic field to the brain and has been used as a treatment for symptoms of depression.

Bonci and his colleagues plan to begin clinical trials at NIH in which they will use this technique a few sessions a week to stimulate the prefrontal cortex in people who are addicted to cocaine and see if they can restore activity to that part of the brain and help them avoid taking the drug.

thedailywhat:

Photo Fad of the Day: Hadoukening Inspires Vadering

This is America’s answer to Hadokening, the latest Dragon Ball-inspired Twitter meme from Japan. Hat tip goes to Kotaku! See more at Know Your Meme

Remix culture in effect - Americanizing the Hadouken meme. Takes away from the promotional intent for Dragonball Z but fun for people

Monday evening, my Facebook and Twitter feeds became a sea of red, with pink equal signs. It started with my LGBTQ friends and quickly spread to allies and supporters. The Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocate in the country, uses an equal sign as its logo and had posted a red and pink one to mobilize support for marriage equality as the Supreme Court reviewed Prop 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act this week. This was a lean-in campaign intended to ask what the sign was for (supporting marriage equality) that quickly spread throughout social media.

As the original meme was remixed into bacon, placed ontop of Grumpy Cat and made into a butter stick to be straddled by Paula Dean, I couldn’t help but wonder, is this a positive message? How does remixing change meaning?

I’ve been going back and forth on this ever since- does it matter if a message is remixed if the intended communication remains the same? Or does it undermine the original pure intent and take away the value of the message? On the one hand, a sea of red on every form of social media still shows support. However, using tacos, hot dogs, Corgis, the Ermahgerd girl and so on instead of equal signs seems to make light of a serious issue. The act of customizing and appropriating memes is a Millenial behavior, but was this too far?

When brands got involved, I was even more torn. When a brand latches onto a meme, it fundamentally suggests that they agree with the idea behind it.  Brands like Smirnoff have always been an advocate of the LGBTQ community and their message “every pairing is perfect” was a fantastic example of the right tonality. On the other hand, Orbitz inserting a message to visit their gay travel specialty site within the center of the equal sign feels incredibly tacky, tone deaf and insensitive. There’s clearly a line between an authentic showing of support and an opportunistic insertion of your brand into a conversation. Remembering what your brand really stands for and has historically been associated with and finding the right tone is key for any newsjacking.

 As more and more remixes appeared, the Human Rights Campaign posted a message of thanks saying how happy they were to have received such support and seen so many remixes. They compiled a slideshow of some of their favorites and have even turned them into a collage for their Facebook cover photo. They have even included most brand messages.

 My conclusion? Remixes are positive for the campaign because they are still a way of raising a hand to say “I believe in marriage equality”. But, we must all remember brands are not consumers and inserting a brand message into a meme is still an act of advertising, so tread carefully.