At least for this student:

The American Institute of Psychical Research denied any involvement.

Mark Hay woke up from his food coma to bring you this week’s movie picks.

On Thursday the bulk of the nation was out cold in a tryptophan-induced coma, dreaming the troubled dreams of the turkey. For Columbians, especially, these next few days – too short for real work, too long for real stress – are a time of relaxation and catching up on our backlog of snoozing. But in this sleep, what dreams may come? Asking this age-old Danish question, Bwog presents a list of three films about dreams – their mythology, their power, and their meaning (best when watched just before drifting off to la-la land).

Ink (2009)

A rare and unexpected treat for the discerning fantasy fiend, so long starved since the last Guillermo del Toro release, Ink is a surprising piece of whimsy and compassion coming from the rather obscure Denver-based writer and director Jamin Winans. Despite a minimal budget, Winans creates a stark and disturbing world just past the veil of sleep, replete with a strong mythology, but avoids the blatant explanations and voice-overs that usually mar such intricate worlds. Nor does he insult the viewer by revealing too much of his plot, by illuminating the connections, at any one time. Instead the viewer lands directly and at full tilt into a disorienting parallel universe and must, by the power of their own intellect, piece together the bits of the story and the mythology of this dreamscape – and the revelations do not disappoint.

Read more…

What�s better than free food? Free Red Bull! And Sugar Free Red Bull, and new Red Bull Cola. Well, possibly not that last thing, because, well, gross.

Anyway, the drinks will be available from 11am-2pm today on the ramps in Lerner. Early in the semester though it is, your Sunday (or perhaps even Wednesday) night will thank you for it.

It’s also probably a good idea to get there closer to 11 than to 2 if missing out on free caffeine would truly crush your sleep-deprived spirit.

Red Bull generously donated the drinks to the Chinese Students Club for this year�s Lunar Gala.

Columbia has long had a penchant for the hazardous.

Shopping carts, to your hands.  Just by touching them, you risk diarrhea and worse.

Sleep deprivation, to your heart.  Nearly everyone with a college degree will probably have a heart attack 50 years after graduation.

Cancer drugs, to your fetuses.  But now, the miraculous techniques of freezing means you can prevent the first and save the latter.

Vermin, to your asthma.  Oh, and also to your general sanity.

Rocks, to carbon dioxide.  Nothing says “run away” like the word “sequestration.”

Live from the State of the Planet conference, an anonymous tipster with photography skills leads us to believe that the event may be… less than scintillating.

Jeff Sachs reads the news and checks his email, after the jump. Slacking off on laptops during lectures — professors: they’re just like us! Read more…

A group of first-years (who have collectively named themselves Floor 7 Productions) recently submitted their short film Waking Up and Other Hardships to Apple’s ’07 Insomnia Festival, in which high school and college student groups create their own three minutes of brilliance in under 24 hours based on a set of pre-listed elements. See if you can spot them for yourselves — although it may be a bit difficult to rationally explain the huge oven mits.

You can rate the film until November 9th to help the group win gain their eternal glory, so go! Vote! This is probably the right weekend to do it, anyway.

Podcasting His Life Away:

Electrical Engineering Prof. Daniel P.W. Ellis has a hobby even his wife finds creepy: digitally recording every waking moment of his day. Seeing it as an audiologged diary (or a “lifelog”), Ellis recounts such highlights as the fight with his wife in which he made “asshole” comments and his pleas to doctors for information on his injured infant son (as well as their queries as to why he was holding an Mp3 player the whole time). See the rest in this piece from the Chronicle of Higher Education on the lifelogging phenomenon.

MIDI-Makers Frozen Out…Again: In the week since Bwog reported on subzero temperatures shutting down the Computer Music Center in Prentis Hall, the heat has been turned on…and then off once more. After CMC officials thought the problem had been remedied, the chill returned. Now, CMC director Brad Garton is demanding a permanent solution – and spare heaters installed, just in case – before the center reopens and classes are resumed. Seriously, admins, it’s one thing to cut essential services to Columbia’s computer musicians – and another to give them a brief spell of hope before shutting them back out in the cold.

Get Your Beauty Rest: All nighters can make you fat. Really. According to the Daily Times of Pakistan, which assembled a compendium on US universities’ sleep research, Columbia scientists determined that “adults who sleep less than seven hours a night had an increased risk of obesity. The risk ranged from 23 percent for six-hour-a-night sleepers to 73 percent for individuals who slept only two to four hours. Experts attributed this phenomenon to the fact that sleep deprivation lowered the level of leptin, a protein that suppresses appetite, and raised grehlin, which makes you want to eat.” Columbia researchers: doing their homework so you have an excuse not to.

-CJS

You’ve probably had your library odysseys. Some last longer than others. In this second installment of a nine-night marathon, Butler Correspondent Maryam Parhizkar narrates what it’s like to have stayed longer than almost anyone. 

Night 5

By late evening the next night others have joined us in our little study spot. Someone brought pillows and blankets, and when I first came to the alcove in the morning I found Kate asleep on the floor, looking unwell. I kicked her awake, and as she woke up she gasped to see me there. The custodian can now recognize me by face. On the third floor across from the circulation desk, people were sound asleep on their couches, so comfortable you would think that this is normal for them. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were.

The narcoleptic woman was in the lab again. I heard her snoring from the other room. My guess is that the Red Bull didn’t work out so well. The lab printers have become completely worthless from ceaseless abuse – we’d get the lab consultant to fix them if there actually were lab consultants sitting in the appropriate place. Instead, various students had been using the consultant computers as a last resort, given that it’s impossible to find a fully functional terminal at this point. The only time I’ve encountered an actual consultant is when one asked me to put my Fruit Loops and coffee cup in the trash can, but I hid the Fruit Loops in my trusty Labyrinth tote. Those bitches will never catch me alive.

At this point I find myself wondering what my friends back in the state schools are doing at this hour. Ugh. Bad idea. Read more…