Comments on: Crockusology

Crockusology

homunculus — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:40:25 -0800

How big is your crockus? In cutting edge neuroscience news, a new part of the brain has recently been identifed by the enigmatic Dr. Crockus. Described as "the detailed section of the brain, a part of the frontal lope," the crockus is apparently four times larger in females than in males, which is why girls see the details of experiences while boys see the whole but not the details.

Or just maybe the whole thing is a crock of shit. MindHacks thinks there should be an award named for the esteemed doctor.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:49:42 -0800

Well that explains a lot.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:52:44 -0800

the crockus is apparently four times larger in females than in males, which is why girls see the details of experiences while boys see the whole but not the details. *rolls eyes* We are very, very far away from being able to make these kinds of statements, IMO. You can tell that some part of the brain is "related" to some aspect of behavior, but an exact neurological cause is really stretching.

By: papakwanz

papakwanz — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:54:56 -0800

What a crockus of shit!

By: trip and a half

trip and a half — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:55:51 -0800

What a crockus...

By: trip and a half

trip and a half — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:56:08 -0800

Oh crap.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:00:17 -0800

Keep reading, delmoi. ;)

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:12:50 -0800

Ob. Mefi's Own: myl, aka Mark Liberman, who also recently wrote on ~~the~~ Language Log about this askme.

By: Tube

Tube — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:21:32 -0800

Butthead: Check it out. It's Krokus coming to kick their ass. Beavis: Yeh. Heh-heh. Butthead: It's the night of the living bands that suck.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:31:39 -0800

Gee, that Dan Hodgins seems to be getting away with a lot of bs. yikes. Simon Baron-Cohen, however, has done authentic research and written extensively on male-female brain differences.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:38:51 -0800

I can't stop laughing at this, but I realize the guy could actually do some harm if people in educational circles are buying this nonsense. Fortunately, it looks like people are getting savy to the crockus.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:47:58 -0800

A bizarre, toothless coincidence: there's apparently a character named Crockus who appears in the Wheel of Time books of the very recently deceased author Robert Jordan. Whether said character had anything to say about neuroscience is left for WoT fans to discuss.

By: washburn

washburn — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 21:49:05 -0800

while boys see the whole but not the details. Ah, but do they see the details of the whole?

By: thatwhichfalls

thatwhichfalls — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:08:17 -0800

Is the crockus related in any way to Shatner's Bassoon?

By: Kattullus

Kattullus — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:28:02 -0800

Damn, I can't believe somebody beat me to Shatner's Bassoon. Either way... here's the relevant Brass Eye clip. Also, with a name like "crockus" I can't help but think that this is some sort of joke.

By: amyms

amyms — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:35:00 -0800

the crockus is apparently four times larger in females than in males *wiggles her crockus in a dominant way*

By: bpm140

bpm140 — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:44:14 -0800

I love me some Krokus!

By: bpm140

bpm140 — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:45:41 -0800

Well crap, that was a lot funnier with the image. (The live preview lied to me!)

By: fandango_matt

fandango_matt — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 22:48:55 -0800

posted by amyms *wiggles her crockus in a dominant way* *watches whole*

By: gubo

gubo — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 23:05:26 -0800

Wait, this isn't a joke by Mark Liberman? Someone is actually going around lecturing about a Crockus? This is funny and tragic at the same time.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 00:19:48 -0800

I hope there's some kind of resolution to this, e.g., he gets shown up as a huge fraud in front of a large audience. Everyone should read language log!

By: strangeguitars

strangeguitars — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 00:39:31 -0800

via technorati via nickyskye's Google search. Recent blog post answering some questions about Hodgins' background and doings. I've been following myl's intriguing Language Log posts about this. He's very talented at debunking things like this and has a very clear writing style. Some of the things he can pop off in an hour are amazing. I get the feeling this Dan Hodgins' career is going to have some problems in the near future. Maybe rightly so. : )

By: blacklite

blacklite — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 00:56:59 -0800

He'll be in the Chicago area, October 3 and 4. (PDF calendar of Illinois STAR NET workshops) Anyone have a free Monday or Tuesday afternoon?

By: blacklite

blacklite — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 00:58:47 -0800

Not that I support unhelpful harassment, but, uh, I also don't support spewing nonsense to well-meaning parents and educators.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 01:02:32 -0800

What might be really fun is ginning up some very academic looking paper and having someone go ask him "is this it?" and have him say "oh! ... yes!" or just look very confused, or something. Maybe bury something low on page 5 about how Dan Hodgins is a fraud. Hmmm. I should find a hobby.

By: Jon Mitchell

Jon Mitchell — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 01:02:57 -0800

Ah, but do they see the details of the whole? That's pretty much all they see, which is, of course, the whole problem.

By: taz

taz — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 01:35:59 -0800

This is indeed bizarre. This page makes me wonder if he's been pimping the Crockus since as early as 2003? If you click on the "What About Those Boys" link, the summary points include the false statistic for larger female corpus callosum. I'd love to know how long Dan has been rocking the Crockusaurus. And why.

By: rob511

rob511 — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 01:50:31 -0800

Neuroscience as seen through one's toochis: The lobe — modest man — he dubs crockus "Explains" lack of XY perspective. Chill, gents, and curb your invective; Doc has plainly been hitting the Bacchus.

By: taz

taz — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 02:30:03 -0800

Thinking about this more... it occurs to me that Dan might be the victim of a prank. I wonder if someone rather wickedly fed him a Crockus, literally - contacting him with faked research info or something, just to see if he would take the bait without bothering to verify the material. Otherwise, I just don't get why he would do it. Why would one endanger his (apparently rather successful) livelihood as a speaker/lecturer for the sake of a joke?

By: toma

toma — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 03:53:08 -0800

I've been popping in every hour or so because I was curious to see where this discussion goes, and I'll put in my two cents now: I think taz sniffed it out. Dan's 'page' is especially loaded with simpleton 'boys are different/need help' pseudo-science. Check these What About Those Boys 'facts': -The resting female brain is more active than the activated male brain -On the average females produce more words than males -Males are better than females in bright lights -Boys project emotions to outside space -Males can go into a "cave" state for protection -Boys do not talk about their feelings And then the take home message: 'Adults are either Killing dendrites or Growing them!' Nice caps. Somebody fed this fool a 'crockus hit'.

By: Peach

Peach — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 04:41:04 -0800

What makes me crazy is the way credulous educators (especially boys' schools like the one where I work) are buying the whole bogus pop-neuro-psych line. Gah.

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 05:17:42 -0800

How big is your crockus? Well, uh, *sniff*, let's just say I've never had any complaints, if you know what I mean.

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 06:53:26 -0800

See how the information is evenly and tidily stored.

By: doctorschlock

doctorschlock — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 07:00:04 -0800

I'll be damned if have to crack open my skull to prove this theory wrong but in the name of science, here goes......... Ouchies! My bad.

By: fefofifum

fefofifum — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 10:37:48 -0800

I saw the crescent. You saw the whole of the moon. Nah, nah nah naaaaaaaahhhhhh. etc.

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 10:58:40 -0800

I am Crockus. Now it can be told.

By: jiawen

jiawen — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 11:16:02 -0800

"Frontal lope"? Is that like a jackalope?

By: maus

maus — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 12:44:12 -0800

it was pretty big at one point but it's still mostly known for covering heart

By: Maias

Maias — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 13:51:35 -0800

God, I can't believe anyone believes this. it's really sad that we are raising generations of scientifically illiterate teachers and students. Unfortunately, it's really easy to get nonsense into schools: the Scientologists taught drug education in California for years before anyone thought to question the idea that the body stores drugs and cravings occur because these toxins are released and when they come out, your skin can turn colors. Not to mention the continuing presence of DARE...

By: Maias

Maias — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 15:09:46 -0800

What's funny as well is that brain regions aren't usually named after people-- there are Broca's and Wernicke's regions, but as you can see, then this should be Crockus' region. Few people are finding "new" brain regions these days anyway-- in fact, there's apparently a neuroscience joke that if you think you have found something new, you should check Cajal's work because inevitably, he found it first in the late 1800's or so. The regions with the funny names like the hippocampus (seahorse), amygdala (almond), locus ceruleus (blue spot) etc. are named for what they look like, not who found them. And then there are the numerically named cortical regions like Brodmann's area 5-- again, they aren't the "brodmann."

By: cortex

cortex — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 15:17:27 -0800

numerically named cortical regions I love it when you talk dirty.

By: Maias

Maias — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 06:08:14 -0800

numerically named cortical regions I love it when you talk dirty. stimulated the old nucleus accumbens, eh?

By: flabdablet

flabdablet — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 08:02:59 -0800

Love potion: No. 9

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 09:44:54 -0800

Is the crockus related in any way to Shatner's Bassoon? They're practically next-door neighbors!