Lace & Hearts / Mind Reading & Barnum

As promised yesterday, here is my new Choies wig and Yes Walker flats together in an outfit! It is super dooper hot weather today (Australia doesn't seem to understand that it is autumn yet), but I really wanted to wear these tights, so I paired it all with this simple, summery lace dress from Koogal. dress - c/o Koogal tights - c/o My Tights shoes - c/o Yes Walker necklace - c/o Oasap wig - c/o Choies Okay, guys. For something different today, I'm going to tell you, yes you, reading right now, some things about yourself. Before you read below, just read this list of qualities, and take tick each one off if it applies to you. And then ask yourself - does Annika know me? Has she read my mind?? (Didn't you guys know that I can read minds now?) So, here goes - Most of the time you are positive and cheerful, but there is a time in the past where you were very upset. At times you feel very sure of yourself, whereas other times you are not as confident. You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. At times you have serious doubts whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing, but generally you have had a positive influence on the people in your life. You have just experienced what is known in psychology as "The Barnum Effect". Popular with astrology sections in magazines and psychics, the Barnum effect shows how easily we can be manipulated into believing that the vaguest statements are actually meaningful insights into our own lives. Think about the above sentences. Did they apply to you? They probably also applied to most of the people reading this post. Okay, so it's likely you thought this test in particular was silly, because it's obvious that I, Annika, am not going to know all about you and your personality through some kind of psychic blogger powers. But this test, when given by some kind of authority figure (or by someone who claims to have 'mysterious powers') works extremely well. In fact, the original "Barnum test" was masked as a "personality test" (just like a self-test you might find in a trashy mag), in which psychology students in the 1940s had to answer some questions on their personality. They were then all given pieces of paper with "feedback", and asked to rate how well it applied to themselves. Most gave it a rating of 4 to 5 out of 5 for accuracy. Only afterwards was it disclosed that all the "feedback" given was entirely identical to everyone elses. (original image source) Our brains are interesting things, and it's good to know how your own one can be fooled ;) I hope you're all super well, Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Lolita in Fukushima / Neuroscience

Determined to buy a lolita-style coat some time on my trip, I finally picked this one up from a Bodyline shop in Osaka for only $50! The shape of the coat is absolutely gorgeous, with its tie-up cape and how the bottom part of the skirt flounces out. This new wig is also from the same Bodyline store! I'm more than happy to be spending all my money in that shop, because no only do they provide wannabe Japanese lolitas with cheap lolita-style clothing, they also have some transgender employees, which is awesome because I think it can often be hard for transgendered people to find jobs, just because of who they are. I paired my beautiful new cape with these platform shoes from Tokyo, and as it was Valentines day, these "Je t'aime" tights sent to me by My Tights! wearing coat - Bodyline shoes - from Tokyo tights - c/o My Tights necklace - 315 yen store in Osaka headband - 315 yen store in Tokyo As my Japanese-related science factoid for today, I'm going to talk about Japanese neuroscientist/biophysicist Ichiji Tasaki - a scientist who I look up to - who made a massive breakthrough in the world of neuroscience: this guy discovered the purpose of myelin sheath. In our brains, we have special cells called neurons. The electrical signals passed between neurons is essentially the basis of all sensations, thoughts, movements and memories we experience. For example, a signal passed from the nerve cells of the hand to the brain along neurons is what tells the brain that your hand is touching a hot stove, and also helps move your hand away. Ichiji Tasaki discovered the myelin sheath, which is what wraps around each neuron's axon, acting like an insulator on an electric wire. Without it, the electrical signals that go around our brain would be much, much slower, and our brains wouldn't have the capabilities that they have. We'd also have very slow reaction times. The myelin is what is attacked and destroyed by the immune system in the autoimmune disease MS (multiple sclerosis). Ichiji Tasaki's discovery helped the world understand what was going on in MS, and also greatly advanced the field of neuroscience. More from me soon, p.s. Thanks so much for leaving such super dooper lovely comments on my Valentines day post, featuring the first-time appearance of my boyfriend Luciano! You made him super happy, and much more confident about his appearance!! Hopefully he will now be appearing on the blog more regularly, as he often wears really cool outfits I want to snap photos of! p.p.s. Fukushima probably sounds familiar because of the devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake & tsunami. I'm not in that particular Fukushima in this photo, I'm in a ward called Fukushima in Osaka.

Harajuku & The Uncanny Valley

Aren't these just the best shoes that have ever been conceived of?? I was pretty sure that Japanese shoes didn't fit me - last time I was here, even their Extra-Large was just a smidgeon too small - however this time I seem to be getting really lucky - all the X-Large sizes fit my giant western feet! These tights (sent to me by My Tights) go so perfectly with the shoes as well, because the stripes match up and make my legs look super cool from behind, haha. They're also perfect for Valentines day and I'll be wearing them again come February 14th - they're cheesy, but kind of perfect. In these photos I'm posing in a side-street just off the main shopping street (Takeshita dori) in Harajuku. I decided purple hair was appropriate for a Sunday afternoon in this suburb, and I was glad I got all dressed up because "dressing-up" over-the-top in Harajuku is the norm. It has not been cold here AT ALL, more like autumn weather in fact, and I haven't even needed my coat in the daytime. wearing dress - c/o Sheinside boots - from a store in Koenji tights - c/o My Tights cardigan - Forever 21 Continuing with my Japanese-themed science posts, today I'm going to talk about the "Uncanny Valley" phenomenon. Uncanny Valley was proposed by a Japanese robotics professor named Masahiro Mori in the 1970s, but has become more relevant today now that we have started to create life-like animations and robots that look like humans. The Uncanny Valley Humans react most positively to the sight of other humans. When we see animations and robots that have human characteristics, our reaction towards them is more and more postive the closer to humans they become - until a point. When the robots/CGI start to look almost identical to humans but just not quite, our reaction to them is quite severe. They make us shudder. They make us cringe. We don't like them one bit. For example, this is a robot called CreepyGirl. You kind of just want to punch that robot in the face, don't you? But a robot like this, that doesn't try to look too realistic, we find likeable and even cute. This video explains the uncanny phenomenon really well and I recommend you watch it! It explains why even though CGI has become really quite advanced, all the animated films that we see still feature very cartoon-like characters. Hope you're all having a lovely Tuesday!