Intermittens Remix Deck: CutUp in the Strange Times

[Telarus]

I'm using this thread to store weblinks and snippets that would make great filler for Intermittens articles (or Verwirrung, for that matter.. what heappend to the new homepage?).

linkfrenzy.livejournal.com

"when i was in college, my sociology professor gave what i consider to be the perfect example of what challenging assumptions is all about. "the norm," he said, "is one penis per urinal. to challenge that, all you have to say is 'move over.'"

http://woodburner.livejournal.com/479322.html

Google search: number of horns on a unicorn, number of horns on a unicorn in googols, number of horns on a unicorn barn in teaspoons per light year..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/5118283/Bacon-sandwich-really-does-cure-a-hangover.html

A bacon sandwich really does cure a hangover - by boosting the level of amines which clear the head, scientists have found.

http://www.examiner.com/x-1242-Science-News-Examiner~y2009m3d29-Researchers-identify-brain-activity-related-to-phantom-limbs

Researchers identify brain activity related to phantom limbs
While not technically strange weekend news, the concept of phantom limbs has always been a bit weird to me.  As someone who has only ever experienced phantom cell phone rings (and been thoroughly creeped out by them), the idea of experiencing the feeling of an entire limb that is no longer in existence causes a good case of what my mother refers to as "The Whams" (an upgrade from the willies).

Phantom limbs are not restricted to amputations.  Some stroke victims who suffered paralysis of one half of the body also confide that they feel movement associated with their immobile limbs.  And it is not restricted to merely ­­feeling the presence of the limb.  "In some unusual cases...patients have reported seeing their phantom limb or feeling objects or body parts with it, which indicates that multiple areas of the brain may be involved in SPLs [supernumerary phantom limb]." [EurekAlert]

Researchers in Switzerland think they had identified the regions of the brain responsible for creating phantom limbs and the senses that go along with them. Scientists studied a stroke victim who claimed that the phantom limb of her now-paralyzed left arm could do a number of things a normal limb could do, including "scratch an itch on her head, with an actual sense of relief." [EurekAlert]  fMRI was used to observe the woman using and imagining to use her functional right hand, imagining using her paralyzed left hand, and imagining to use her SPL.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7976606.stm

How scratching can stop an itch
Scientists have shown scratching helps relieve an itch as it blocks activity in some spinal cord nerve cells that transmit the sensation to the brain. However, the effect only seems to occur during itchiness itself - scratching at other times makes no difference.

That's it for now. Commentary will be helpful and probably shape any articles that come out of this thread.