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ThinkGeek.com

I've spent more time browsing on ThinkGeek.com than I'll ever admit. Enjoy!

The Star Wars Trilogy Explained By Someone Who Has Never Seen It

Joe Nicolosi made this hilarious animated video of the Star Wars Trilogy explained by his friend Amanda who has never seen any of the films.

Dream Camera

Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep.

The scientists were able to reconstruct various images viewed by a person by analyzing changes in their cerebral blood flow. Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, the researchers first mapped the blood flow changes that occurred in the cerebral visual cortex as subjects viewed various images held in front of their eyes. Subjects were shown 400 random 10 x 10 pixel black-and-white images for a period of 12 seconds each. While the fMRI machine monitored the changes in brain activity, a computer crunched the data and learned to associate the various changes in brain activity with the different image designs.

Then, when the test subjects were shown a completely new set of images, such as the letters N-E-U-R-O-N, the system was able to reconstruct and display what the test subjects were viewing based solely on their brain activity. [via]

This reminds me of Until the End of the World, one of my favorite movies, where William Hurt's character uses his father's invention, a camera that records your brain reacting to the act of seeing, to collect "footage" for his blind mother. And, like the movie, dream-viewing looks like the next step. Yikes.

Star Wars Tenugui

These neat Star Wars themed "hanging banners", available from ThinkGeek, are called tenugui, a Japanese cotton towel that is often used as a headband, for souvenirs and as decoration. [via]

Which Superhero Am I?

I'm Superman!

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

Superman 100% Green Lantern 65% Spider-Man 60% Batman 60% Supergirl 55% The Flash 50% Robin 45% Hulk 45% Iron Man 45% Wonder Woman 35% Catwoman 30%

Take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...

Stormtrooper Armor

You can buy Stormtrooper helmets and armor made from the original molds from Shepperton Design Studios, the prop design and fabrication company that originally made them for Star Wars! It's pricey though... A complete outfit can run you close to $3,000.