http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Exhibits/Bond/Bond_comic_page_01.html
Clicking on this link will take you to an anti-war comic book written in 1967. Many civil rights leaders and popular events are featured in this visual depiction of the late 1960s.
This video has received over eight million views since its debute on YouTube on October 18, 2009. While I am not an animal lover, I would definately want a kitten like this one:
Look at an optical illusion and you may think you’re seeing things — such as a curved line that’s actually straight, or a moving object that’s standing still. You wonder if your eyes are playing tricks on you.
(Courtesy Michael Bach)
It’s not your eyes. An illusion is proof that you don’t always see what you think you do — because of the way your brain and your entire visual system perceive and interpret an image.
Visual illusions occur due to properties of the visual areas of the brain as they receive and process information. In other words, your perception of an illusion has more to do with how your brain works — and less to do with the optics of your eye.
An illusion is “a mismatch between the immediate visual impression and the actual properties of the object,” said Michael Bach, a vision scientist and professor of neurobiophysics at the University of Freiburg Eye Hospital in Freiburg, Germany, who studies illusions and has a large collection of them on a Web site.
Everything that enters the senses needs to be interpreted through the brain — and these interpretations occasionally go wrong, Bach told ABCNews.com. Illusions, he said, may serve as a test bed to determine whether scientists understand vision correctly.
Susana Martinez-Conde, director of the laboratory of visual neuroscience at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Ariz. offered a similar definition. “An illusion is a phenomenon in which our subjective perception doesn’t match the physical reality of the world.”
Although people popularly call some brain teasers “optical illusions,” this might not be the best term for them, as scientists make a distinction between optical illusions and what they call visual illusions.
An optical illusion suggests that the illusion arises because of some properties of the eye, Bach pointed out.
But since optical illusions are rare, a better and more accurate term is “visual illusions,” because this helps to explain why these perceptions happen.
A good example of an optical illusion – one that actually occurs inside the eye – is floaters.
Floaters are small specks, spots or shadowy shapes that seemingly float in your field of vision. To some, they look like a bright white snow or flashes of light.
Floaters are caused by tiny irregularities in the fluid that fills the eye. In other words, they’re real. They become more common as one gets older.
But nearly every other illusion happens at the brain level, which is why scientists say they shouldn’t be called “optical illusions,” and why the term “visual illusions” is more appropriate.
Instead of thinking that you cannot trust your eyes when you see an illusion, you really should be saying, “I cannot always trust my visual system,” said Bach. The visual system includes not only the eyes but the optic nerve, which links the eye to the brain; and the primary visual cortex, the area of the brain that processes visual information.
Another example of an illusion is when you “see stars” after a hard blow to the head.
According to Bach, seeing stars results from a mechanical stimulation and activation of the neurons in the eye, which your brain misinterprets as light. Light does not enter the eye when you hit your head, but your visual system perceives it that way.
There are other real-world examples of illusions. Pilots might encounter visual illusions while in flight, such as a false horizon, or when landing, such as a narrow runway. They are trained to recognize and ignore these illusions so they can safely fly their aircraft.
But while some illusions may pose a safety threat, others may actually be used as safety measures. On Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive, for example, visual illusions have been used to control drivers’ speed on a hazardous curve. Stripes on the road are painted closer together as drivers approach the sharpest part of the curve. The illusion makes drivers think they’re speeding up — so they slow down and, it’s hoped, have fewer accidents.
Illusions can offer scientists new insights on how vision and the brain work — and are more than intriguing parlor tricks.
“They widen the mental horizons and make it clear that things are a little different than they seem,” Bach said.
Visual illusions are not just some nice puzzle, like a crossword, or an entertainment feature, said Martinez-Conde. “They’re important tools in visual research to help us understand how visual processing works in the normal brain and also in the diseased brain.”
Beyond their amusement value, one researcher speculated that illusions may also serve an evolutionary purpose.
“The brain is always constructing things, which is helping you survive. Some of these constructions can be fiction,” said Mark Changizi, a neurobiologist and assistant professor of cognitive science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.
Changizi came up with a theory to help explain why we see illusions. He argued that illusions are due to the brain’s attempt to “see” the future. They occur during the slight time lag after light reaches the retina in your eye, but before your brain translates it into a visual perception.
According to Changizi, author of “The Vision Revolution,” when the brain attempts to generate a perception, it basically is taking a guess at the near future by trying to fast-forward a tenth of a second. As a result of this “neural delay,” you might not be perceiving an image as it actually is, but as you expect it might soon be.
“Illusions occur when the brain attempts to perceive the future, and those perceptions don’t match reality,” he said.
Although there is no single reason illusions take place, Martinez-Conde offered another possible explanation.
The brain is a limited structure with limited resources, including its number of neurons, wires, and neuronal connections, she suggested. “So in some cases, illusions may be due to the brain’s need to take shortcuts.” Simply put, the brain might need to quickly give more importance to some features in a visual scene than others.
Color, motion, shape and the amount of light that hits your eye are just a few of the factors that might cause you to see an illusion.
Some people like to design new illusions and, in fact, there is an annual international contest to recognize the best — and most novel — visual illusion of the year. First place this year went to an entry called “The Break of the Curve Ball,” which depicted the path of a spinning disk and helped illustrate why the abrupt shift of this pitch is so good at fooling baseball hitters.
No doubt, the lessons learned from illusions extend beyond the baseball diamond — and deep into your mind.
Found on 2 December, 2009; http://abcnews.go.com/Health/EyeHealth/optical-illusions-eye-brain-agree/story?id=8455573&page=2
I had a very busy, yet relaxing, weekend. On Thanksgiving, I celebrated the holiday with my family and friends. My sister and I went to see the movie Ninja Assassin on Saturday night. It was incredibly bloody, violent, and fast-paced. My sister had to hold me back from jumping into the screen and she said that I was giggling half of the movie.
Watching the movie, I thought that it would be awesome for all of you to have the opportunity to fight ninjas as well. For English today, you will battle ninjas in a quest for proper grammar domination. Please go to:
http://www.kwarp.com/portfolio/grammarninja.html
I trust that you will choose a level that is appropriate for your comprehension of parts of speech. Once you have accomplished the rank of Master Ninja on a level, move onto the next level.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/sentencebasics/verbsubjectagreement/game.shtml
Choose a level of this game to conquer during the last part of English today
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From left, actor Eddie Barbanell, star of the hit movie “The Ringer,” Andy Myiers, Nick Zamorano, Hyun-Woo Lin, Nancy Sawyer and Noah Gray are seen during the ‘Spread the Word to End the Word’ Youth Rally at Palmetto Senior High School in Pinecrest, Fla., on Tuesday. The rally is part of a campaign by the Special Olympics to get people to stop using the word “retarded.”
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WASHINGTON – The Special Olympics launched a campaign Tuesday to banish the word “retard,” a casual insult that derives from an out-of-favor medical term and has long been considered inappropriate.
People signed pledges not to use the word and students gathered to denounce its use at rallies from Florida to Alaska. Over the long-term, organizers hope to change attitudes about people with mental disabilities, who number more than 190 million worldwide, according to the World Health Organization
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“It’s insulting, it’s painful and it hurts people,” said actor Eddie Barbanell, who has Down syndrome and appeared in the movie “The Ringer.” “Get that word out! End the word! Bury it!”
While “retard” itself was never a medical term, it derives from the phrase “mental retardation,” which by around 1900 was commonly used by scientists and doctors, said Peter Berns, executive director of The Arc of the United States, a nonprofit advocate for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Even though Berns said its pejorative connotation was established in the 1960s, the phrase “mental retardation” is still used in many state and federal laws, much to the dismay of those trying to stamp out its use.
“People with intellectual disabilities themselves really mounted a movement that they did not want to be referred to with the word ‘retarded,’” he said.
As such, the American Association of Mental Retardation changed its name in 2007 to the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities after its members pleaded for the organization to do so. In another sign that the formal use of the term “mentally retarded” had lost currency, The Associated Press replaced it in its stylebook in 2008 with “mentally disabled.”
Governors sign on
Still, those seeking to end the term’s use face a difficult battle.
“This word is deeply ingrained in our psyche. It comes up in a lot of different contexts,” said Andrew Imparato, president and chief executive officer of the American Association of People With Disabilities. “We have to kind of call it out and start a conversation about why it’s not OK to use the word.”
Among the signatures collected Tuesday were several that belonged to governors: In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — whose mother-in-law founded Special Olympics — signed a proclamation to stop using the word, as did Oklahoma Gov. Brad Henry. Iowa Gov. Chet Culver issued a certificate of recognition in support of the campaign.
But the manpower behind the “Spread the Word to End the Word” campaign comes from the students who devised the campaign last month during a Special Olympics youth summit in Idaho and organized rallies around the country.
In Florida, 16-year-old Noah Gray organized a rally for some 600 students at Miami Palmetto Senior High School that featured a rap performance and a speech by Barbanell about his experiences of being called a “retard.”
“Like many other high school students and adults, I used to use the word ‘retarded’ all the time,” said Gray, who was invited to speak at last month’s youth summit. “Since coming down from the Special Olympics, I have not used that word once … and I’m discouraging other people” from using it.
‘The R-word’
At Bowie High School in Maryland, 18-year-old Shannan Barksdale helped gather 861 pledges that will be sent to the Special Olympics organization. During the school’s lunch periods, Barksdale yelled, “Say no to the R-word!” and urged students to sign pledges.
“The word should be eliminated from everyone’s vocabulary,” she said.
Special Olympics has enlisted actor John C. McGinley of the TV show “Scrubs” as a spokesman for the campaign. McGinley, whose 11-year-old son has Down syndrome, said many people don’t realize the word is hateful.
“It is saturated in the vernacular, and this will take a while. And it’s OK,” he said Tuesday. “But it’s important to get under way.”
What’s up, eighth grade!
Many of you guys no me, but my name iz miss clark. I am a student at cardinal stritch university and I will be working with all of you in Mr. Skonecki’s class.
When I was in eighth grade, my favorite subjects were social studies and writing but I din’t like math that much because I never really understood why we had to do all of the steps and show our work. Science was hard to because I didn’t have good science teachers who taught us science.
I hope you like my formal introduction. But if you didn’t, please correct my errors. the end.
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