So you guys are in Indy for 500 Day? (That's kind of craxy all on it's own.)

Who us? No, not in Indy yet. When we lived there we used to leave on 500 day. Our apartment was right by the track, so we had lots of the teams living there (at highly inflated) short term lease rates for the month. Not the big dudes. People like Arie Luyendyk's tire guy. Who was from my hometown, and we spent more time talking about Ohio than the race, much to the SO's consternation.

But yeah, no. We're not there yet. We won't leave until after the race is over. It's the next week that we travel.

On a star forming in the constellation of Orion, it’s raining crystals

Only posted because it's fun to imagine that headline read in David Tennant's voice.

Oh, and this...

One of the awesome things about the universe is that it's big enough for crazy-wonderful things to happen.

...coud be in Matt Smith's voice.

eta: Ooh, an error in the piece:

When it eventually heats enough to cause nuclear fission, the proto-star joins the big leagues.

It's fusion, ma'am.

Spock's Daughter

Mike Hawk is a good one. Hah. I also like Jesse calling out the guys go wear super super long shorts (but those aren't capris!)

I am wearing a dress and boots, but that's because I had to fly to San Diego for work today. At airport, heading back now!

That is super awesome. The universe is cool.

Okay. Laundry is folded and put away. The room is not awesome, but it is habitable. Off to wish happiness to graduates! I really am happy about this one. About five years ago she OD'd, a botched suicide attempt. But today she's graduating, happy, healthy, with plans for her future. Admittedly she was adopted more or less by the ministry leaders, and that's not going to be the solution for all kids, but it sure was for her. Yay graduation!

OK, add this to the "do we have free will?" debate.

Very interesting....

Disbelieving Free Will Makes Brain Less Free

A test of people who read passages discrediting the notion of free will found an immediate decrease in brain activity related to voluntary action. The findings are just one data point in ongoing scientific investigation of a millennia-old philosophical conundrum, but they raise an intriguing possibility.

“Our results indicate that beliefs about free will can change brain processes related to a very basic motor level,” wrote researchers led by psychologist Davide Rigoni of Italy’s University of Padova in a study published in May’s Psychological Science.

...

Tested on when they decided to press the button, the non-free-will group reported doing so a fraction of a second before their counterparts. To lose confidence in free will seemingly introduced a lag between conscious choice and action.

Earlier psychological studies of free will have found that discrediting free will seems to trigger an increase in cheating aggressiveness, encourage people to be less helpful and generally sap motivation.

The latest findings extend the effects of disbelieving to a more basic physical level. Whether there’s a relationship between free will, motor activity and more complex behaviors is yet to be determined, but “abstract belief systems might have a much more fundamental effect than previously thought,” wrote the researchers.

Evidently, free will is all in your mind.

Evidently, free will is all in your mind.

Duuuuuuuude.

That seems interesting, tommyrot, I need to read up on it.

My very vague, not-a-scientist understanding was that there appears to be a particular neurochemical associated with willful actions. In other words, release of the neurochemical triggers the perception that one has chosen a certain action. And that decisions reached by the brain in the absence of that neurochemical are perceived as involuntary.