So animals have these things called Central Pattern Generators, which are a group of nerve cells (neurons) that function to activate muscle cells. The intersting thing about these Central Pattern Generators is that they do not recieve motor input from the brain. The only thing the brain tells them to do is start and stop, and once started they'll continue until they get the stop command from the brain. These Central Pattern Generators are common in such involuntary activities as walking, chewing, and breathing.

But what's funny is how they discovered this phenomenon of CPG's: two Russian scientists started a cat walking on a treadmill and when it was all good and settled on the treadmill, they chopped its spinal cord. As they hypothesized, the hind legs amazingly kept on walking on the treadmill. I really wish I could see a video of this experiment.

I read in the New York Post Police Blotter that some guy got arrested in Queens for assualting someone with a wooden door.

DAMN, LOOK AT THESE CAMELS FROM ABOVE!! THIS SHIT IS CRAZY




my dad sent me this, and he got it from our friend Richard who works at our favorite Chinese restaurant back home

In the months leading up to the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago an Academy Award Winning Cinematographer named Haskell Wexler was given the opportunity to direct his own feature film to be distributed by Paramount Pictures. Originally the film was going to be based off a book called The Concrete Wilderness, but Wexler, being a rational filmmaker, thought the book sucked and decided to make his own movie. He changed the name of the movie to Medium Cool and centered it around a news cameraman in Chicago in the Summer of 1968 (the Democratic Convention took place in August). Wexler anticipated a confrontation between protestors and 'the man' at the convention, so the original screenplay incorporated demonstrations in response to the Democratic presidential nomination. Although, no one had expected the ensuing violence in Chicago that August. What resulted is a fictional film taking place in a very real and violent historical context.

Basically, it was one of the most badass directorial calls of all time. Wexler, himself, and other crew members were tear-gassed during the filming, leaving them incapacitated for days. Unfortunately the film was a commercial disaster, although critically acclaimed, and now it is next to impossible to find (Kim's said they had a copy, but when I showed up they couldn't find it...fags).

There's a really interesting website that has a whole bunch of information about the filming of the movie including interviews with Wexler and other crew members. In my opinion, the interview responses are a little over dramatic, but still worth watching.

Hey sorry there hasn't been a post in a long time, I just had to make the switch to Google Blogger from regular blogger. More proof that Google is taking over and will be the downfall newspapers and a whole bunch of other shit that is awesome.

Well here's what I learned today:

(from the Wall Street Journal)
"A baseball card sold for a record $2.35 million. The buyer of the 1909 Honus Wagner tobacco card was identified as a California collector."

I wonder who identified him?

I wish they still made tobacco cards.