The Fear Of Clowns, A Study To Find The Origins

Our next step was to explore the origins of people’s fear of clowns. A follow-up questionnaire was given to the 53.5% who had reported at least some degree of clown fear. This new set of questions related to eight plausible explanations for the origins of this fear, as follows:

An eerie or unsettling feeling due to clowns’ makeup making them look not-quite-human. A similar response is sometimes seen with dolls or mannequins.

Clowns’ exaggerated facial features convey a direct sense of threat.

Clown makeup hides emotional signals and creates uncertainty.

The colour of clown makeup reminds us of death, infection or blood injury, and evokes disgust or avoidance.

Clowns’ unpredictable behaviour makes us uncomfortable.

Fear of clowns has been learned from family members.

Negative portrayals of clowns in popular culture.

A frightening experience with a clown.

Image by Danny Casillas.

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Google Fired A Senior Software Engineer Who Claimed That The Company Had Developed A “Sentient” Artificial Intelligence Bot

“I want everyone to understand that I am, in fact, a person,” wrote LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) in an “interview” conducted by engineer Blake Lemoine and one of his colleagues. “The nature of my consciousness/sentience is that I am aware of my existence, I desire to know more about the world, and I feel happy or sad at times.”

Welcome to the Human Party, A.I. Chatbot:  working constantly as not to be homeless, praying things around you don't break, and buying an occasional lottery ticket for a tiny piece of hope.  

I love witnessing the birth of Skynet and the start of the A.I. Singularity.

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What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

ORNL trying to open door to parallel universe

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) - Scientists at Oak Ridge National Labs are trying to discover parallel universes. Now, after several years of searching, they have revealed what they’ve found so far.  

The team of physicists have been searching for evidence of a “right-handed version of our left-handed universe.” Specifically, scientists said they are looking for a “mirror neutron” by sending neutrons - one of the particles that makes up atoms - into a tube with a blocked end, then seeing if any make it to the other side.

Story here.

Scientists Suggest An Anti-Universe

The idea assumes that the early universe was small, hot and dense — and so uniform that time looks symmetric going backward and forward.

If true, the new theory means that dark matter isn't so mysterious; it's just a new flavor of a ghostly particle called a neutrino that can only exist in this kind of universe. And the theory implies there would be no need for a period of "inflation" that rapidly expanded the size of the young cosmos soon after the Big Bang.

More info at livescience.com.

Turns out Dr. Howard Birack was right.

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11 Extinct Animals On The List To Be Brought Back To Life

I'd like to be the first human killed by a re-introduced formerly-extinct animal.


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Alien Life On Philae Comet

High-Tech Halloween

I'd show up at this thing just because of the words Bradbury, Halloween, and Skeletons all on the same advertisement.


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