We have to stop consuming our culture. We have to create culture. Don’t watch T.V. Don’t read magazines. Don’t even listen to NPR. Create your own roadshow. The nexus of space and time where you are now is the most immediate sector of your universe. And if you’re worrying about Micheal Jackson or Bill Clinton then you are disempowered, you’re giving it all away to icons. Icons that are controlled by an electronic media. So you wanna dress like X or have lips like Y. This is shit-brained this kind of thinking. That is all cultural diversion. And what is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears. And we are told no, we are unimportant. We’re peripheral. Get a degree. Get a job. Get a this, get a that and then you’re a player. You don’t even want to play in that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers that want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that’s being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world.

— Terence McKenna (via cityyandcolour)
medicalschool: How Genes Organize the Surface of the Brain The first atlas of the surface of the human brain based upon genetic information has been produced by a national team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the VA San Diego Healthcare System. The work is published in the March 30 issue of the journal Science. The atlas reveals that the cerebral cortex – the sheet of neural tissue enveloping the brain – is roughly divided into genetic divisions that differ from other brain maps based on physiology or function. The genetic atlas provides scientists with a new tool for studying and explaining how the brain works, particularly the involvement of genes. “Genetics are important to understanding all kinds of biological phenomena,” said William S. Kremen, PhD, professor of psychiatry at the UC San Diego School of Medicine and co-senior author with Anders M. Dale, PhD, professor of radiology, neurosciences, and psychiatry, also at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. According to Chi-Hua Chen, PhD, first author and a postdoctoral fellow in the UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry, “If we can understand the genetic underpinnings of the brain, we can get a better idea of how it develops and works, information we can then use to ultimately improve treatments for diseases and disorders.” The human cerebral cortex, characterized by distinctive twisting folds and fissures called sulci, is just 0.08 to 0.16 inches thick, but contains multiple layers of interconnected neurons with key roles in memory, attention, language, cognition and consciousness. Other atlases have mapped the brain by cytoarchitecture – differences in tissues or function. The new map is based entirely upon genetic information derived from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of 406 adult twins participating in the Vietnam Era Twin Registry (VETSA), an ongoing longitudinal study of cognitive aging supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It follows a related study published last year by Kremen, Dale and colleagues that affirmed the human cortical regionalization is similar to and consistent with patterns found in other mammals, evidence of a common conservation mechanism in evolution.  More here
awhirlpoolofinspiration: Photo by Jeremy Drape
ermyeahwot: Why?