Dystopitastic
I've mentioned before about brain scanning being all the rage. The latest story in yesterday's Irish Times described the largest imaging study of the human brain ever conducted, with 2,400 brains scanned so far, in eight centres across Europe (the study is funded by the EU).
The study claims to have tracked down the networks in the brain that cause some young teens to behave more impulsively than others, hoping to 'explain why some rush to participate in risky activities, such as drinking and drug-taking, while others don’t'.
The object being, presumably, that future parents can engineer their offspring to just do what they're told. Or, presumably, that future authorities can engineer their citizens to just do what they're told.
Dead Load on the Internet
If you didn't get to see Dead Load on TV on Monday night, or if you want to watch it again, it's up now on the RTÉ Player. It will be up there, contrary to what I said in the last post, for three weeks... but why wait?
Dead Load on TV Tonight
Dead Load, a short film I co-wrote with its director Greg Corcoran, will have its Network Television Premier at 11:55pm on RTÉ 2 tonight, as part of the Shortscreen series. After that, you'll be able to watch it on the RTÉ player, I think for a week...
End the letter by simply saying “I love you”
Found, today, at www.accord.ie:
"DOING" AN APPRECIATION LETTER
Appreciation letters are so simple that it's a wonder to us that the world isn't overflowing with them. WRITING AN APPRECIATION LETTER TO YOUR PARTNER IS AN EFFECTIVE WAY OF SHOWING your love and gratitude. The soft language of appreciation wrapped in a letter which is intimate and special is a powerful way of appreciating your partner.
Because You Can’t Smell Someone On Skype
This morning, walking down to begin my first 5-day-working-week since before Christmas, I listened to Liam Nolan's new radio documentary Because You Can't Smell Someone On Skype, the story of a couple who met over the internet.
I'm a pretty cynical guy, most of the time. Liam's a friend of mine, and he told me about this marriage soon after it happened in real life. I was pretty cynical about it. I'd met Ciarán, the guy in question, a few times before, and that didn't stop me being cynical, and once a few months ago I met him and Kelly, his new wife, and I thought, sure, they seem happy, for now.
But listening to them tell their own story, this morning, I was blown away. It's a brilliant 15 minutes of life-affirming radio, which I would recommend even to those of you who don't normally go in for that kind of thing, and you can download it now from the RTÉ website. Well done Liam, well done Ciarán and Kelly, and who wants a hug?
11+ /11
Compared to, say, 2010, or any month from the mid-1990s, 2011 was a little disappointing for the human race's output of new music – at least the new music I came across. That said, I have already added Songs of the Week from Gillian Welch, Wild Beasts, Low, Fleet Foxes, PJ Harvey and Elbow, and there have been plenty of albums through the year that have caught my attention, without compelling me to sit down and make up some way to blog about them.
So here's 11 more from 2011.
