Justice is Served

Making decisions about crime and punishment is, it turns out, as complicated as a legal brief. For the first time, scientists have peered into the brains of people who are deciding whether a crime deserves punishment and how severe the penalty should be.

Those decisions involve parts of the brain associated with rational thought, but emotion-processing regions weigh in too, a team of law and neuroscience researchers from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., show in a new study in the Dec. 11 Neuron. The findings suggest that brain areas active in deciding a harsh punishment for a crime deliberately committed are different than those active when giving the accused some benefit of the doubt.

Canada ties for last among developed countries for child services: UNICEF

Canada fails to meet nine of out 10 proposed standards aimed at ensuring children get the best start in life through education and support programs, putting the country in a tie for last place among affluent nations, an analysis released Wednesday by UNICEF concludes.

The UNICEF benchmarks are crucial for children in their formative years, the United Nations organization says.

The New Face of business in America

In light of the recent changes in economic perspective, a few clever artists have come up with versions of famous logos with much more "truthiness"!

TV Censors in Italy gut Brokeback Mountain

IMHO: Removing the two scenes described below would make it completely impossible for a viewer to either understand or feel the emotion of this film.

Gay rights groups and free speech advocates have taken Italian state broadcaster RAI TV to task for cutting two sex scenes from Brokeback Mountain when it aired the Oscar-winning movie late Monday evening.

The expurgated version of the 2005 cowboy romance did not include the scene in which the two main characters, played by Jake Gyllenhaal and the late Heath Ledger, make love in a tent, and a later scene showing the two men kissing.

Cool new 5-Euro commemorative coin with theme ‘Netherlands and Architecture’

A new 5 euro commemorative coin pays tribute to the history of Dutch architecture.

Designer’s inspiration
The Architecture five-euro coin was designed by artist Stani Michiels (b. 1973). The design on the obverse of the coin pays tribute to the history of Dutch architecture, with the portrait of Queen Beatrix being distinctively constructed using the names of important architects from Dutch history. The artist used the internet as a popularity-meter to determine the names’ order of appearance.

The reverse of the Architecture five-euro coin draws attention to the striking fact that many Dutch architects have also included publishing books on architecture in their professional activities. To illustrate this phenomenon, recent books on architecture rise up from the sides of the coin like buildings. Through their careful placement they combine to outline the Netherlands, while birds’ silhouettes suggest the capitals of all the provinces.

Link to the Dutch Mint webpage

Pin-up icon Bettie Page dies at 8

American glamour model and pin-up girl Bettie Page has died at the age of 85.

Raven-haired pin-up icon Bettie Page, whose provocative magazine photo spreads helped set the stage for the 1960s sexual revolution, died Thursday at 85.

"She was a remarkable lady, an iconic figure in pop culture who influenced sexuality, taste in fashion, someone who had a tremendous impact on our society," said Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, who featured Page as his then-fledgling magazine's January 1955 centrefold.

Mission Accomplished ... mas o menos

Glad to be back to blogging!

The move is over and I am now finding my way through a new city, but I am up for it.

I will hopefully be able to start publishing this blog on a regular basis again, but for now it may be in fits and starts. So, please forgive me for now.

It will however, show you some of the things that I thought were cool, funny, conceptual, ironic, well-designed, inspiring, satirical, heart-warming and/or life-changing along the way.

If you get why I put it here, please let me know as a Comment - it will inspire me to share more.

Douglas

Put your mouse where your mouth is ... Eyeball it !!

This is a very cool and surprisingly fun visual challenge that you must try. WARNING: It may show you whether ... or not ... you have ACTUALLY been right all these years!

THIS IMAGE | Featurepics.com

Some people are bothered by pictures on the wall hanging slightly crooked. Others may not even be aware that something may be amiss.

If you are somebody who is into woodworking or construction, its good to be one of the people who notice when things are crooked. But I suspect the ability to notice that things might be just a little off square, off centre, or not quite straight, varies greatly. I thought it would be fun for people to try to test their abilities to see if things are straight or crooked in a little game.

And thanks to LCD monitors, its possible to display geometry with absolute accuracy on a computer now. So what better way to try this game concept than to put it on the web!

How the game works
The best way to figure out how the game works is to simply play it.

Support companies that support LGBT equality

More than 300,000 people have used The Human Rights Campaign's Buying for Equality Guide to make informed choices about their purchases. This year, you can do your part to support fair-minded businesses by requesting or downloading Buying for Equality 2009.

Next time you are buying groceries, planning a trip, or making investment decisions check out who supports the advancement of LGBT rights and who doesn't.

TTC barns finally become artists' colony

A community initiative has transformed a set of 95-year-old streetcar maintenance barns into an artists' colony and community centre in mid-town Toronto.

The Wychwood Barns Project (Christie + St. Clair, Toronto) opens Thursday after a $21.2-million redevelopment of former Toronto Transit Commission barns unused for more than 25 years.

The barns, built between 1913 and 1921, were converted into:

• 26 units of housing for artists and their families.
• 15 affordable studio spaces.
• 13 offices for non-profit arts and environmental groups.
• Two theatre spaces and an art gallery.
• A community space that will be home to a farmers market.
• A year-round greenhouse.
• Parkland and playgrounds.