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10 Facts About the Brain

Thu, 08 May 2008 21:36:24 GMT

clipped by: willhelm

Your brain is the most energy-consuming part of your body. The brain represents only 2% of the body weight, but it uses up to 20 percent of the body’s energy production.

Your brain contains about 100 billion neurons which is about 16 times the number of people on earth.

The neocortex (a section of the brain involved with language and consciousness) accounts for about 76% of the mass of the human brain.

Neurons multiply at a rate 250,000 neurons per minute during early pregnancy.

750ml of blood pumps through your brain every minute which is 15-20% of blood flow from the heart.

The human brain is about 75% water.

Your brain generates 25 watts of power while you’re awake which is enough to illuminate a lightbulb.

Humans do not use only 10% or less of their brain. This is a common misconception.

It is estimated that the human brain has a raw computational power between 10¹³ and 10¹⁶ operations per second.

Our brain often fools us.

The Dawn of the Apatheist

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:01:28 GMT

clipped by: Antara
clipper's remarks: Article by Jonathan Rauch......food for thought

Clip Source: www.theatlantic.com

The greatest development in modern religion is not a religion at all—it's an attitude best described as "apatheism"

It came to me recently in a blinding vision that I am an apatheist. Well, "blinding vision" may be an overstatement. "Wine-induced haze" might be more strictly accurate. This was after a couple of glasses of Merlot, when someone asked me about my religion. "Atheist," I was about to say, but I stopped myself. "I used to call myself an atheist," I said, "and I still don't believe in God, but the larger truth is that it has been years since I really cared one way or another. I'm"—that was when it hit me—"an ... apatheist!"

That got a chuckle, but the point was serious. Apatheism—a disinclination to care all that much about one's own religion, and an even stronger disinclination to care about other people's—may or may not be something new in the world, but its modern flowering, particularly in ostensibly pious America, is worth getting excited about.

Tags: religion, atheists, faith, who really cares, lol

Volcanic Thunderstorms

Thu, 08 May 2008 09:25:16 GMT

clipped by: coconutshell
clipper's remarks: Wow.

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

PHOTOS: Chile Volcano Erupts With Ash, Lava, Lightning

May 6, 2008—After 9,000 years of silence, Chile's Chaitén volcano (pictured on May 3) is erupting with lava, ash—and lightning (full story).

Since the volcano awoke on May 2, it has continued erupting intermittently, blanketing the area in ash and forcing more than 4,000 people to flee.

The little-understood storms may be sparked when rock fragments, ash, and ice particles in the plume collide to produce static charges—just as ice particles collide to create charge in regular thunderstorms. (More: "Volcanic Lightning Sparked by 'Dirty Thunderstorms,' Study Finds" [February, 2, 2007].)

The mingling of lightning and ash seen above may be a "dirty thunderstorm."

Clip Source: www.ohgizmo.com

Tags: thunderstorm, volcation, chile, eruption, chaiten, photos, national geographic