sloth unleashed

(via Human hearing beats sound’s uncertainty limit, makes MP3s sound worse | Ars Technica)

Modern audio compression algorithms rely on observations about auditory perceptions. For instance, we know that a low-frequency tone can render a higher tone inaudible. This perception is used to save space by removing the tones we expect will be inaudible. But our expectations are complicated by the physics of waves and our models of how human audio perception works.

This problem has been highlighted in a recent Physical Review Letter, in which researchers demonstrated the vast majority of humans can perceive certain aspects of sound far more accurately than allowed by a simple reading of the laws of physics. Given that many encoding algorithms start their compression with operations based on that simple physical understanding, the researchers believe it may be time to revisit audio compression…

Collie Head Human Body Arcade Photo (by WonderfullyStrange)

So Tired (by Jack Teagle)

“Drew this on a train, very tired.

I have nightmares of walking in the dark and coming across dogs with massive eyes and human faces.”

balnibarbi:

Hygienic Physiology, Joel Dorman Steele, c1901 by takeabreak http://flic.kr/p/d7Nbtw

biomedicalephemera:

“Inevitabile fatum” - The Inevitable Fate

Anato Miae, Hoc Est, Corporis. 1537, Ioannem Dryandrum [Joannem Dryandrum], 1537.

theblackcrystals:

Asian anatomical model (National Museum of Health and Medicine) by Prof. Jas. Mundie on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
From series James G. Mundie’s Cabinet of Curiosities

(via scientificillustration)

biomedicalephemera:

Reginald Southey with human and monkey skeleton

Albumen photograph by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (nom de plume Lewis Caroll, author of Alice in Wonderland), 1857.

Reginald Southey was an English physician who invented a specialized cannula (tube) for draining the excess fluid from limbs suffering from edema (dropsy). He also apparently served on England’s “Lunacy Commission” so…there’s that. Southey was lifelong friends with Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and was the one who encouraged him to take up photography.

The pensive expression on Southey’s face betrays the fact that he’s standing with his arm around a skeleton rather than a live human. The composition of the photograph and the portrayal of the abnormal as mundane strikes me as incredibly reminiscent of the worlds Dodgson created in his writings.

letthedeadshine:

I used to be petrified that I would swallow my tongue. But it’s still here, so all is swell.

(via scientificillustration)

oxane:

elena kulikova