Busy week with many thousands of things to do. But what to do… the need to keep reader amused overwhelms the self…
So let me share the fascinating works of Vilayanur S Ramachandran. (Yes Pastrami, the brain guy. From Chennai. Correct. The very same.)
I am halfway through his first book, the tremendous Phantoms In The Brain, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. But to save you some of the 540 bucks it costs at the Imax Crossword here is, ah my love for you all, VSR’s talk at TED in March 2007. The intro from the TED site:
In a wide-ranging talk, Vilayanur Ramachandran explores how brain damage can reveal the connection between the internal structures of the brain and the corresponding functions of the mind. He talks about phantom limb pain, synesthesia (when people hear color or smell sounds), and the Capgras delusion, when brain-damaged people believe their closest friends and family have been replaced with imposters.
Wait wait. Don’t run away. Listen to the man. Listen and drool.
Pastrami is funnier than you..”I always think my closest friends and family are a bunch of self-serving pigs having their own agenda. My life is full of influence and delusion.” — What is this disease called? Can Pastrami reply to this comment??
Here is the link to the Reith Lecture Series – they also have the transcripts of the talks, in case you’re not the aural sort.
Yes Pastrami, the brain guy. From Chennai. Correct. The very same.
For a moment that got me confused. I thought you were telling the reader that vilayanur ramachandran was pastrami
Actually for more than a moment.I was wondering how an invetment banker had time to do all this in addition to meeting you regularly for dinner
Then I noticed the comma.
even i got confused with pastrami and this brain guy!!!
Erm..N I thought only lawyers had a way of making simple straight conversations into a LAbyrinth engraved on a Mobius strip!!!!Though I wonder, about the Status of HiS Brain..to put things the way he did..Shudder!!!!There’s a lot one can understand,just by the way a person gives examples,to convey his ideas…
Au contraire!
VSR is actually pretty acessible. Giev Phantoms a go. Please.
stumbled into this while bloghopping..
this was amazing..
it was not just the content that was mind boggling, but the way he presented it. do you notice how he is so fluent and coherent? what does it take, to have ones thoughts flow so effortlessly into words?
thanks for the link Sidin.
🙂
Fascinating stuff… Thanks for the link..
I was wondering how an invetment banker had time to do all this in addition to meeting you regularly for dinner….
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Whatay voice!
Finally, is he Pastrami?
Whatay difference a ‘coma’ can make!
Excellent presentation- here’s a guy who obviously knows what he’s talking about. And instantly, being a narrow-minded, regionalistic pig, I think, “Yay! He’s from Chennai! He’s Tamil! He’s one of Us.”Btw, nice work on the blog in generale. One of the few near-flawless blogs I’ve stumbled upon, in all my years of blog-stumbling; link supplied by a close friend, God bless him.
Are you still a student of IIM-A? I’m at XL, perhaps I could pop up down there sometime, take a pic with you and then show off on my blog. :-/