Garden of Sinners @epenthese-blog - Tumblr Blog

"You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives."

Clay P. Bedford (via neuromorphogenesis)

word-stuck

irusu 居留守 (いるす)

smolandneedy

because we all need to be reminded how rad this guy is, okay

licensetocannibalize

accurate

Conversation on the Bus Today

Lady: I'm not saying all Muslims are terrorists. I'm just saying that the terrorists are Muslims; they have the same holy book, the same beliefs. The terrorists are just more open about about it.

Me: So you've heard about Westboro Baptist Church right?

Lady: Oh my yes, they're an awful group of people.

Me: They're Christian.

Lady:...

Me: I'm not saying all Christians are like the Westboro Baptist Church, but they have the same holy book, the same beliefs.

Lady:...

Me: They're just a lot more open about it.

Random Guy Next To Me: *High fives*

amandakaitlanbentley

IM SORRY WHAT

epenthese-blog

I am sorry but nobody ever said it was 'sexy' or 'attractive' that children were killing each other in the Hunger Games. Whereas the 50 Shades series pretends to accurately depict a relationship based on BDSM (which, to my knowledge, does not encourage forceful sexual actions), the Hunger Games are clearly viewed as dystopian fantasy. With them, even young readers know that what is happening in the books is HORRIBLY WRONG. With 50 shades, people might rather get the idea 'oh so that's how people in fact to it! So it's okay.'

#argh

sixpenceee

The Gulf War was a war from 1990 to 1991 between the United States and Iraq. American pilots were bombed by an Iraqi convoy. Many US media declined to publish the photograph above. War is often romanticized in media. In reality, it is brutal. Here’s a thread where people have commented with their experiences in war or a relative’s experiences. (Thread)

woodsy-woman

It’s messing people up, this social pressure to “find your passion” and “know what it is you want to do”. It’s perfectly fine to just live your moments fully, and marvel as many small and large passions, many small and large purposes enter and leave your life. For many people there is no realization, no bliss to follow, no discovery of your life’s purpose. This isn’t sad, it’s just the way things are. Stop trying to find the forest and just enjoy the trees.

Sally Coulter (via jasfuckinq)

queenholocene-deactivated202211

you know you're a 90s kid when your vaccinations were mandatory and no one in your class got measles

actual kinksters: 50 Shades is an abusive relationship

fans: whatever, you just don't get it

actual kinksters: this is not what a good Dom does

fans: no, he's TORMENTED!

actual kinksters: this is actually really unhealthy

fans: stop kinkshaming!

actual kinksters: this is not at all what real bdsm looks like

fans: yes it is! i own the 50 Shades special edition handcuffs!

sixpenceee

Click on each picture to enlargen and read the text!

For those of you who asks me what scares me the most, it’s things like these. The fact that yes we do know a lot, but at the same time we know nothing.

95% of the ocean remains unexplored.

This is just a representation of the Mariana Trench, the deepest known part of the ocean.

Next to the letters at the bottom, take a closer look.

It caught me by surprise the first time too

we-are-star-stuff

How Much of the Brain Can a Person Do Without?

Last year a 24-year-old woman in China’s Shandong Province walked into a hospital complaining of nausea and dizziness, and walked out having learned that she was missing a huge portion of her brain. A CAT scan showed that her entire cerebellum, a vital chunk of brain in charge of motor control, never developed. The void where it should have been was nothing but a swamp of cerebrospinal fluid.

How could a person live a full life not knowing so much of her brain was gone? Her doctors believe that her cortex (a nearby area of the brain) took over most of the load as her incomplete brain developed, thanks to an amazing feature of the brain called neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to fundamentally rewire itself to cope with new demands. The brain can’t cope with everything, and the more of it is lost, the less it can reassign functions to the remaining pieces. But neuroplasticity is nonetheless quite remarkable.

The woman from China’s is far from the only such bizarre and fascinating story. A short trip through the annals of modern medicine reveals even more surprising cases of missing brain structures.

Missing Half of the Cerebral Cortex

There are a surprising number of known cases of people missing half of their cerebral cortex—the outermost chunk of brain tissue. A currently living and healthy 16-year-old German girl is one. She was born without the right hemisphere of her cortex, though this wasn’t discovered until she was 3 years old. According to her doctors, who published a full case study on her 6 years ago, “despite lacking one hemisphere, the girl has normal psychological function and is perfectly capable of living a normal and fulfilling life. She is witty, charming, and intelligent.”

The physical ailments caused by her missing brain tissue were seizures (since treated) and a slight weakness on the left side of her body. But here’s something amazing about the way her brain has coped: While most people missing half their cerebral cortex lose sight in one eye, her left eye processes visual information from both the right and left visual field. In other words, her doctors say that while she has no depth perception (which is dependent on two eyes seeing slightly different images), her vision is otherwise like that of someone with two eyes, encompassing the entire mental field of vision.

Missing Half the Entire Brain

In a more severe case, Michelle Mack, a 42-year-old Virginia native, is missing not only half of her cortex but most of the deeper, underlying brain structures on her left side as well. This neural abnormality is believed to be the cause of a prebirth seizure, but was not diagnosed until Mack was 27.

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