Tuesday, August 18, 2009

A visit from Kate: Phoning it in, I'm melting, Animals don't have jobs

NYtimes jam about how your brain changes when you are stressed out to perpetuate the cycle of stress:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/science/18angier.html?em

"Happily, the stress-induced changes in behavior and brain appear to be reversible. To rattle the rats to the point where their stress response remained demonstrably hyperactive, the researchers exposed the animals to four weeks of varying stressors: moderate electric shocks, being encaged with dominant rats, prolonged dunks in water. Those chronically stressed animals were then compared with nonstressed peers. The stressed rats had no trouble learning a task like pressing a bar to get a food pellet or a squirt of sugar water, but they had difficulty deciding when to stop pressing the bar, as normal rats easily did.

But with only four weeks’ vacation in a supportive setting free of bullies and Tasers, the formerly stressed rats looked just like the controls, able to innovate, discriminate and lay off the bar."

Did you catch that? Waterboard rats and they get really stressed out and their brains change, but if you give them vacations free of TASERS and BULLIES their brains start to recover. This seems relevant to me, and also diffuses some of the rage I experienced Saturday at 4 am drunk reading the jibberish trend piece about the supposed rising fashionability of potbellies.

Anyway I guess I'm going to call this "animals don't have jobs?" So some of them get stressed out.

Or hit the streets. This guy's doing ok, he'll definitely make it to Hartford
Or vacation


But mostly they just be hangin out


















How's that blogging gig working out for you dude? Let me know aight?

8 comments:

Adam Humphreys said...

sweet wallride re the parakeet

Dap said...

was just about to say, that picture really helped me break free from my current rut

Dap said...

2 thoughts...

1st thought: I think something overlooked in this study might be the 'bully mice' used in the experiment, what happened to them after the study? imagine, all the pussy mice are removed from the cage and it's just a couple of assholes with nothing to do? you think they started like a rodent Das Racist? Is saying 'rodent das racist' racist?

the 2nd thought: mad hard to scroll down and comment on yr awesome photo posts, but totes worth it

bob weisz said...

SONIC THE HEDGE BLOG

bob weisz said...

obviously the 'sonic' part was unnecessary, but i felt it added to the immediacy of the joke.

also, it should be a blog about hedge funds.

Mooner said...

dude, everyone knows to never play ozzie rules with a llama. looks vicious.

ps. bunny can haz ice cream

Leebert said...

Kate, this blog is a breathtaking work of genius. the way you tied it in with the new york times article at the beginning? and then the little mouse sleeping inside a computer? Eleven and a half stars out of five.

KOOL A.D. said...

i'm really getting tired of thinking of new ways to say something to the effect of "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BEST SHIT EVER!!!!!!!!!" every time you blog.

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