Hi all.
I haven't really had time or energy lately to keep up with my blog, but I did get some good news today that I want to pass along to everyone. I got accepted to grad school in the UK. The program is an Masters in Advanced Japanese Studies (Japanese to English translation). This does not mean that I will be moving to the UK, because this is a correspondence course. Correspondence classes have a bad reputation but this is from a very famous UK school called Sheffield. As soon as the course starts (April 1st I will have even less time to update this blog, but I will try to keep it up.
It is going to feel good to be on the other side of the desk for once.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
JJNN: Audio Pareidolia
Welcome again to JJNN for March 10th, 2009. Today I will be talking more about that friend of ours, pareidolia.
Yesterday I talked about pareidolia and how it can make us see images in a random pattern. Well, as it turns out, pareidolia does not just affect the eyes. There is also an audio version of this phenomenon. A good example of that is electric voice phenomenon, or EVP. This happens when people listen to static or audio interference and think that they hear voice or similar sounds. Watch this next video on EVP and than I will point out some things about audio pareidolia that totally discredit the video.
The important thing here is not really the sound. The important thing is the suggestion that that sound is a voice that is saying something specific. Once someone suggests that a sound actually sounds like a certain word, it is hard to get that word out of our head when we hear that sound. For example, listen to the first "EVP" again but go in with the suggestion that the "voice" is saying "Man, it's hot this summer." Do you hear that the second time you listen to it? It is just a noise that our brain is trying to make into something that is important when it really isn't.
Another example of this audio pareidolia is misheard lyrics to songs. The following video is Wishmaster by Nightwish.
The lyrics are:
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Elbereth
Lorien
A dreamy-eyed child staring into night
On a journey to storyteller`s mind
Whispers a wish speaks with the stars the words are silent in Him
Distant sigh from a lonely heart
"I`ll be with you soon, my Shalafi"
Grey Havens my destiny
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Silvara
Starbreeze
Sla-Mori the one known only by Him
To august realms, the sorcery within
If you hear the call of arcane lore,
Your world shall rest on Earth no more
A maiden elf calling with her cunning song
"Meet me at the Inn of Last Home"
Heartborne will find the way!
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Wishmaster
Crusade for Your will
A child, dreamfinder
The Apprentice becoming...
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
OK, now watch this video and see if you can hear the other set of lyrics.
Yesterday I talked about pareidolia and how it can make us see images in a random pattern. Well, as it turns out, pareidolia does not just affect the eyes. There is also an audio version of this phenomenon. A good example of that is electric voice phenomenon, or EVP. This happens when people listen to static or audio interference and think that they hear voice or similar sounds. Watch this next video on EVP and than I will point out some things about audio pareidolia that totally discredit the video.
The important thing here is not really the sound. The important thing is the suggestion that that sound is a voice that is saying something specific. Once someone suggests that a sound actually sounds like a certain word, it is hard to get that word out of our head when we hear that sound. For example, listen to the first "EVP" again but go in with the suggestion that the "voice" is saying "Man, it's hot this summer." Do you hear that the second time you listen to it? It is just a noise that our brain is trying to make into something that is important when it really isn't.
Another example of this audio pareidolia is misheard lyrics to songs. The following video is Wishmaster by Nightwish.
The lyrics are:
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Elbereth
Lorien
A dreamy-eyed child staring into night
On a journey to storyteller`s mind
Whispers a wish speaks with the stars the words are silent in Him
Distant sigh from a lonely heart
"I`ll be with you soon, my Shalafi"
Grey Havens my destiny
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Silvara
Starbreeze
Sla-Mori the one known only by Him
To august realms, the sorcery within
If you hear the call of arcane lore,
Your world shall rest on Earth no more
A maiden elf calling with her cunning song
"Meet me at the Inn of Last Home"
Heartborne will find the way!
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Wishmaster
Crusade for Your will
A child, dreamfinder
The Apprentice becoming...
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
Master!
Apprentice!
Heartborne, 7th Seeker
Warrior!
Disciple!
In me the Wishmaster
OK, now watch this video and see if you can hear the other set of lyrics.
Monday, March 9, 2009
JJNN: Subaru pareidolia
Welcome again to JJNN for March 9th, 2009. Today I will be talking about a Japanese contest.
I want to you take a look at a picture and tell me what you see. Just keep your eyes open and your mind blank and see what comes to you. Here is the picture, look hard.
So, what do you see? I will give you a hint. The giant picture is made by 339 cars. How is that a hint? Well, the picture has something to do with the cars that make up the picture. I will tell you about why all those cars came together and than I will tell you what the picture actually is.
This event all started in 2007 in Portugal. There was a group of people that want to get into the Guinness book of records. And like any respectful group that wants to get into the Guinness book of records, they decided to do something stupid. In this case it was to make a giant mosaic using just cars. They type of car that they used was a Japanese car, so some Japanese people that heard about the Guinness record decided that they should out do the Portuguese. There is Japanese pride on the line after all. So last saturday they got 339 cars made by the same company together and made a huge mosaic of that car's symbol. Did that hint help you figure out what car symbol it is? It is actually the Suburu symbol. Take a look at the symbol below and compare it to the mosaic above.
Does it actually look anything like the Suburu symbol? Well, I would say that it has a passing resemblance. But, of course before I knew what the Subuer symbol looked like I couldn't tell you what the mosaic was representing. This leads to something called pareidolia. Pareidolia is seeing an image in an random pattern (or in this case a pattern that is just hard to make out). There is also another version of pareidolia that covers hearing things in a random sound pattern.
Pareidolia has been the root cause of many different types of pseudoscience. The most obvious one is of course seeing the face of Jesus or Mary in the pattern caused by the grain of the wood or the pattern caused by the melted cheese stuck to the bottom of a pizza box. You can see one such example below.
So, why would this happen? Is Jesus really reaching out his all powerful hand and burning himself into a piece of bread for all to see? I would have to say a big "no!" to that question. What happens is that the burn pattern of the bread is natural and the image of Jesus is so engrained into everyone's heads (even those who are not religious have spent most of their lives seeing that image in different places) that it jumps out at us. All I got to say is that the next time you see the image of Jesus burnt onto some toast you better be looking for his signature in the bottom right hand corner of the burn mark before you believe it is a divine sign of anything.
I want to you take a look at a picture and tell me what you see. Just keep your eyes open and your mind blank and see what comes to you. Here is the picture, look hard.
So, what do you see? I will give you a hint. The giant picture is made by 339 cars. How is that a hint? Well, the picture has something to do with the cars that make up the picture. I will tell you about why all those cars came together and than I will tell you what the picture actually is.
This event all started in 2007 in Portugal. There was a group of people that want to get into the Guinness book of records. And like any respectful group that wants to get into the Guinness book of records, they decided to do something stupid. In this case it was to make a giant mosaic using just cars. They type of car that they used was a Japanese car, so some Japanese people that heard about the Guinness record decided that they should out do the Portuguese. There is Japanese pride on the line after all. So last saturday they got 339 cars made by the same company together and made a huge mosaic of that car's symbol. Did that hint help you figure out what car symbol it is? It is actually the Suburu symbol. Take a look at the symbol below and compare it to the mosaic above.
Does it actually look anything like the Suburu symbol? Well, I would say that it has a passing resemblance. But, of course before I knew what the Subuer symbol looked like I couldn't tell you what the mosaic was representing. This leads to something called pareidolia. Pareidolia is seeing an image in an random pattern (or in this case a pattern that is just hard to make out). There is also another version of pareidolia that covers hearing things in a random sound pattern.
Pareidolia has been the root cause of many different types of pseudoscience. The most obvious one is of course seeing the face of Jesus or Mary in the pattern caused by the grain of the wood or the pattern caused by the melted cheese stuck to the bottom of a pizza box. You can see one such example below.
So, why would this happen? Is Jesus really reaching out his all powerful hand and burning himself into a piece of bread for all to see? I would have to say a big "no!" to that question. What happens is that the burn pattern of the bread is natural and the image of Jesus is so engrained into everyone's heads (even those who are not religious have spent most of their lives seeing that image in different places) that it jumps out at us. All I got to say is that the next time you see the image of Jesus burnt onto some toast you better be looking for his signature in the bottom right hand corner of the burn mark before you believe it is a divine sign of anything.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
JJNN: Remap
Welcome again to JJNN for March 3rd, 2009. Today I will be talking about the remapping of Japan.
There are a lot of little dangers when you live in the land of active volcanoes and earthquakes. I mean, your house could be swept away by a river of magma, or something could fall on you and kill you during an earthquake. Those are both terrible, but they don't even come close to the terror of not being able to find your way around with your car's navigation system. Sure, it is not as obvious as buildings falling down and burning to the ground, but that is also one of the side effects that you have to deal with when you live in land of active plate tectonics.
According to this news story, there have been changes in the landscape of Japan because of earthquakes and plate tectonics. A good example of this is Mt. Odaigahara in Southern Japan. The height of the mountain actually increased 12 centimeters (almost 5 inches) since last they measured how high it was. At another place in southern Japan the Geographical Survey Institute has to remeasure over 3000 triangulation points because they have moved. They are using GPSs to help make the measurements.
I will leave you with a picture of the new taller Mt. Odaigahara.
There are a lot of little dangers when you live in the land of active volcanoes and earthquakes. I mean, your house could be swept away by a river of magma, or something could fall on you and kill you during an earthquake. Those are both terrible, but they don't even come close to the terror of not being able to find your way around with your car's navigation system. Sure, it is not as obvious as buildings falling down and burning to the ground, but that is also one of the side effects that you have to deal with when you live in land of active plate tectonics.
According to this news story, there have been changes in the landscape of Japan because of earthquakes and plate tectonics. A good example of this is Mt. Odaigahara in Southern Japan. The height of the mountain actually increased 12 centimeters (almost 5 inches) since last they measured how high it was. At another place in southern Japan the Geographical Survey Institute has to remeasure over 3000 triangulation points because they have moved. They are using GPSs to help make the measurements.
I will leave you with a picture of the new taller Mt. Odaigahara.
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