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YOU, You ANIMAL!

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:05:53 GMT

clipped by: skwirlinator

Clues to Why We Dream at All

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 16:13:26 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks:

...
In a recent paper in Psychological Bulletin, Dr. Nielsen and Dr. Levin proposed that dreaming served to create what they call “fear extinction memories,” the brain’s way of scrambling, detoxifying and finally discarding old fearful memories, the better to move on and make synaptic space for any novel threats that may show up at the door. “The brain learns quickly what to be afraid of,” Dr. Nielsen said. “But if there isn’t a check on the process, we’d fear things in adulthood we feared in childhood.”

Ordinary bad dreams rarely recapitulate unpleasant events from real life but instead cannibalize them for props and spare parts, and through that reinvention, Dr. Nielsen explained, the fears are defanged. “A bad dream that doesn’t lead to awakening is successful in dealing with intense emotion,” he said. “It’s disturbing, but there is some kind of resolution to the extent we don’t wake up.”
...

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

In the Dreamscape of Nightmares, Clues to Why We Dream at All

nightmares and dreadful dreams offer potentially telling clues into the larger mystery of why we dream in the first place, how our dreaming and waking lives may intersect and cross-infect each other, and, most baffling of all, how we manage to construct a virtual reality in our skull, a seemingly life-size, multidimensional, sensorily rich nocturnal roundhouse staffed with characters so persuasive you want to ... strangle them, before they can strangle you.

A big reason bad dreams offer insight into the architecture of dreams generally is that, as a host of studies have shown, most of our dreams are bad.

about three-quarters of the emotions described are negative.

When slipping into REM sleep

“The limbic system becomes incredibly active, much more so than when you’re awake, which is why you’re emotionally on edge in dreams.”

At the same time, the prefrontal cortex, seat of rational thought and critical reasoning, is on lunch break

Tags: dreams, dream, sleep, brain, emotion, science, research, neuroscience, nightmare

Bacteria of the Living Dead

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 21:23:47 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

Halloween Science: Bacteria of the Living Dead

Chop up their DNA and the buggers still keep comin' back to life.

A team of scientists melted five samples of ice from Antarctica in hopes of reviving the oldest known frozen bacteria—millions of years older than any previously brought to life. And, in fact, the bacteria, ranging in age from 100,000 to a stunning 8 million years old, came groaning back in the culture flask. The younger the bacteria, the more quickly the resurrection occurred. It took the younger bacteria just seven days to reproduce; the oldest samples took up to 10 times as long.

The finding could have a profound effect on microbial life (see “The Last Hidden Place on Earth,” page 44). As Antarctic ice melts, the bacteria frozen inside may revive and be taken up by microbes in the ocean, says Paul Falkowski, a Rutgers University biologist who directed the bacteria project.

Tags: bacteria, biology, evolution, global warming

Church of Hate Pays Thru the Nose

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:14:27 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: Though money cannot comfort the father who lost his son hopefully it will have an effect on this despicable "church". I actually cheered when I heard the outcome of this suit on the news.

Clip Source: www.baltimoresun.com

Father of slain Marine wins case against funeral protesters

Pa. man awarded nearly $11 million in compensatory and punitive damages

The brokenhearted father of a Marine killed in Iraq won a long-shot legal fight today after a federal jury in Baltimore awarded him nearly $11 million in a verdict against members of a Kansas church who hoisted anti-gay placards at his son's Westminster funeral.

The jury's announcement 24 hours after deliberations first began was met with tears and hugs from the family and supporters of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, whose March 2006 funeral was protested by members of the Westboro Baptist Church with signs including "Thank God for dead soldiers."

Snyder's father, Albert, won on every count of his complaint, as well as $2.9 million for compensatory damages and $8 million for punitive damages.

Tags: hate, homophobia, religion, racism

Hearing Things? New Study Might Explain Why

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 10:14:27 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Shhh! Did you hear that? The ghostly whispers that grab your attention could be the result of chit-chatting nerve cells in your ears that were there in the womb.

The finding, reported in the Nov. 1 issue of the journal Nature, has implications for treating a phenomenon called tinnitus in which people hear annoying high-pitched sounds with no apparent source.

While the study involved rats, the scientists say the results likely apply to humans who are equipped with similar ear structures.

Silent spectators?

Once a person's (or other mammal's) auditory machinery is fully developed, it works something like this: Sound waves travel through the ear canal and get detected by hair cells in the cochlea. This snail-shaped organ translates the sound signals into electrical impulses that travel along the auditory nerve into the brain's hearing region.

The activity showed up even without sound input.

Tags: science, hearing, ghostly whispers, tinnitus

The Great Cosmic Roller-Coaster Ride

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:18:50 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: better than sci-fi

Clip Source: sciam.com

Could cosmic inflation be a sign that our universe is embedded in a far vaster realm

You might not think that cosmologists could feel claustrophobic in a universe that is 46 billion light-years in radius and filled with sextillions of stars. But one of the emerging themes of 21st-century cosmology is that the known universe, the sum of all we can see, may just be a tiny region in the full extent of space. Various types of parallel universes that make up a grand “multiverse” often arise as side effects of cosmological theories. We have little hope of ever directly observing those other universes, though, because they are either too far away or somehow detached from our own universe.

Some parallel universes, however, could be separate from but still able to interact with ours, in which case we could detect their direct effects. The possibility of these worlds came to cosmologists’ attention by way of string theory, the leading candidate for the foundational laws of nature

Tags: science, cosmos, cosmology, parallel universes, multiverse, string theory

No woman can get ready in ten minutes

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:51:43 GMT

clipped by: Rashid Malik
clipper's remarks: Is this true ladies?

Clip Source: jo-kes.blogspot.com

Jones came into the office an hour late for the third time in one week and found the boss waiting for him. "What's the story this time, Jones?" he asked sarcastically. "Let's hear a good excuse for a change."

Jones sighed, "Everything went wrong this morning, Boss. The wife decided to drive me to the station. She got ready in ten minutes, but then the drawbridge got stuck. Rather than let you down, I swam across the river -- look, my suit's still damp -- ran out to the airport, got a ride on Mr. Thompson's helicopter, landed on top of Radio City Music Hall, and was carried here piggyback by one of the Rockettes."

"You'll have to do better than that, Jones," said the boss, obviously disappointed. "No woman can get ready in ten minutes."

Tags: jokes, humor, boss jokes, office jokes, women jokes

Superfast Laser Turns Virus Into Rubble

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:18:07 GMT

clipped by: iskandar

Clip Source: www.wired.com

Superfast Laser Turns Virus Into Rubble

A physicist and his biologist son destroyed a common virus using a superfast pulsing laser, without harming healthy cells. The discovery could lead to new treatments for viruses like HIV that have no cure.

In the latest research, Tsen and his son demonstrated that their laser technique could shatter the protein shell, or capsid, of the tobacco mosaic virus, leaving behind only a harmless mucus-like mash of molecules.

The virus-deactivating laser works on a principle called forced resonance. The scientists tune the laser to the same frequency the virus vibrates on. Then they crank up the volume. Like a high-pitched sound shattering glass, the laser vibrates the virus until it breaks.

Tags: science, medicine, research

Aliens among us

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:24:16 GMT

clipped by: Fast T friend
clipper's remarks: To love flies up-close

Clip Source: www.pbase.com

Tags: flies, nature, photography

A Sneeze Shows You Ready for Sex

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 08:58:29 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.meridianinstitute.com

Irritation of the nasal mucosa will cause congestion and erection.

A reflex sneeze is not infrequent previous to erection. In preparations for coition the involvement of the nasal mucosa is quite apparent in animals, as the horse, dog, bull, etc. In monkeys the nasal mucosa is not only involved in coition, but it is evident that the larynx is highly involved, from the active and vigorous chattering, emitted previous to and during coition. The mare neighs at the approaching of the stallion or cow bellows at the approach of the bull, the growling of dogs, noise of cats and cackling of hens, are doubtless not accidental at times of coition, but due to irritation of nerve tracts.

laymen have for ages noted that the organ of smell is closely related to the generative organs, but it is very recently that specialists

are putting together the connected story

path of travel from the nasal mucous membrane to the genitals is through the fifth cranial nerve

Tags: vagus nerve pathway

Taming Baby Rage: Why Are Some Kids So Angry?

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:46:44 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "it's surprising that the idea that children and adolescents learn aggression from the media is still relevant,"
finally some sense..

Clip Source: www.sciammind.com

New research indicates babies are born with violent tendencies that most learn to control

It is not the cartoons that make your kids smack playmates or violently grab their toys but, rather, a lack of social skills, according to new research.

"It's a natural behavior and it's surprising that the idea that children and adolescents learn aggression from the media is still relevant," says Richard Tremblay, a professor of pediatrics, psychiatry and psychology at the University of Montreal, who has spent more than two decades tracking 35,000 Canadian children (from age five months through their 20s) in search of the roots of physical aggression. "Clearly youth were violent before television appeared."

Tremblay's previous results have suggested that children on average reach a peak of violent behavior (biting, scratching, screaming, hitting…) around 18 months of age

Tags: science, research, babies, rage, violence, nature, genetics

Crazy Billboards

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:52:09 GMT

clipped by: vandamonium
clipper's remarks: I'm sure most of these have been altered but they are funny still the same.

Clip Source: www.djron.com

Tags: billboards, crazy, photoshoped