Surveilance Reports About Self-Touching “Most Self-Touches Are with the Nondominant Hand,” Nan Zhang, Wei Jia, Peihua Wang, Marco-Felipe King, Pak-To Chan, and Yuguo Li, Scientific Reports, vol. 10, no. 1, 2020, pp. 1-13. (Thanks to Adrian Smith for bringing this to our attention.) The authors, at The University of Hong Kong and The University of […]
Tag: Hand
Hand cooling from illusion not linked to change in body ownership
Researchers from Utrecht University have an update on temperatures in hands that may, or may not, belong to you. Their paper, “No consistent cooling of the real hand in the rubber hand illusion,” gives an example of the importance of distinguishing body ownership: “Consider a simple task such as walking towards another person –say, this […]
“Illusory Sense of Human Touch From a Warm and Soft Artificial Hand”
This most touching study was published in 2015: “Illusory Sense of Human Touch From a Warm and Soft Artificial Hand,” John-John Cabibihan, Deepak Joshi, Yeshwin Mysore Srinivasa, Mark Aaron Chan, and Arrchana Muruganantham, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol. 23, no. 3, 2015, pp. 517-527. The authors, at Qatar University, Graphic Era […]
President Lukashenko and the power of his Ig Nobel Prize
The Belarus Digest reports (on April 4, 2016): “There are permanent rumours within the Belarusian establishment that the main reason for Lukashenka’s peace initiatives was the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to US president Barack Obama in October 2009. Lukashenka is rumoured to have given orders to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ‘win’ […]
A machine for a Monday morning
This machine symbolizes Monday mornings. This machine also symbolizes almost anything else. This machine fails to symbolize almost nothing. Claude Shannon, who figured out some things about information, designed the machine, years ago.
How Not to Poke a Stick at a Machine Gun Bullet
There are many ways to clean a machine gun. Some of those ways are better than the one described in this study: “Unusual ignition of a bullet causing hand injury: case report,” Abdul Kerim Yapici, Salim Kemal Tuncer, Umit Kaldirim, Ibrahim Arziman, Mehmet Toygar, Injury Extra, epub November 19, 2013. The authors, at Gulhane Military […]
Hand Sanitizers, Breathalyzers, and Indications of Intoxication
Clean hands, skulduggery and/or incompetence can, if combined, lead to a muddle about drunkenness, suggests this study: “Common Hand Sanitizer May Distort Readings of Breathalyzer Tests in the Absence of Acute Intoxication,” Syed S. Ali, Michael P. Wilson, Edward M. Castillo, Peter Witucki, Todd T. Simmons, Gary M. Vilke [pictured here], Academic Emergency Medicine, vol. 20, […]
Archiving piano music for left handers
Takeo Tchinai, head of the Archiving Project for Left-Hand Piano Musicoversees a growing corpus* of music for pianist who, for whatever reason, have lost or never had some or all use of their left hand, perhaps because they have lost or never had some or all of their left hand, perhaps because they have dystonia, perhaps […]
Musicology 101: “Farmer plays… hand farts”
Music history, capture on video long ago, presented now by the Internet Archive, and described by the Public Domain Review: “Universal Newsreel from 1933 showing Cecil H. Dill, a farmer from Traverse Coty, Michigan, demonstrating his ability to render popular melodies by pressing his hands together. After the performance, which seems to be of Yankee […]
Belarus takes steps against discrimination
The nation of Belarus has taken big very public, perhaps symbolic gestures against discrimination. In Belarus, one infers, all persons are considered equally capable of performing important tasks. The Christian Science Monitor reports: In Belarus, one-armed man arrested for clapping The crackdown in Belarus grew more indiscriminate this week. Among the 400 arrested: a one-armed […]