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(Source: considerthishippie)
25th May 2012
Reblogged From peace-be-dreams
Notes: 29
Royal Stag whisky
Sort of crazy that guy even got a show when we all know stars are just the holes in Satan’s cape letting in Jesus rays.
The pink tendrils on the back of its head are its lungs.
(Source: sluttiest-virgin)
Don’t look now, but the world’s fisheries are plummeting.
An engineer for the space exploration company SpaceX has outlined an elaborate plan to build Star Trek’s USS Enterprise, which he says could be ready to fly within the next 20 years.
“We have the technological reach to build the first generation of the spaceship… so let’s do it,” writes BTE Dan on his website, BuildTheEnterprise.org (which has been loading intermittently because of heavy traffic).
The website includes conceptual blueprints, budgeting proposals, a timeline for research and development, and almost every other conceivable detail.
Mars Rover Opportunity Emerges From Winter Doldrums, Gets Back On Move
A mosaic of images taken in January 2012 shows Opportunity’s vista north (left) and northeast (right), in an outcrop known as “Greeley Haven,” where the rover spent its fifth Martian winter. The image released by NASA is presented in “false color,” to make differences in the landscape easier to see.
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With the darkest days of the Martian winter now over, NASA took its Opportunity Mars Rover for a drive this week. The rover had been stationary while its solar panels lacked enough sunlight to power its batteries.
The rover’s drive Tuesday was a short one: “about 12 feet northwest and downhill,” according to NASA. The agency says Opportunity has driven 21.4 miles since it landed on Mars in January of 2004.
Opportunity’s current area of southern Mars reached its winter solstice at the end of March. And that means the rover’s “break time” is over.
(via NPR)
Has mankind outgrown Earth?
A new report from the World Wildlife Fund says we’re gobbling up the planet’s resources at such an alarming rate that by 2030, even a second Earth wouldn’t be enough to sustain us
Which resources are we depleting?
Renewables like fish, water, timber, and food are being used up much faster than previously thought. According to experts, mankind’s “ecological footprint” is now over 50 percent higher than it was in 2008, meaning it takes 1.5 years for Earth to regenerate the natural resources we use up annually.Why is our ecological footprint growing?
The world’s population, which according to the U.N. surpassed 7 billion last October, is getting too big, and the average individual is using more than he or she needs. “The excessive demands that we are putting on the planet will inevitably lead to acute water shortages, a chronic food crisis, and rising prices for energy, metals, and minerals,” says Robert Walker at the Huffington Post.
That’s what the WHO recommends, at least, and I’ll take their word for it; it doesn’t get much cheaper than free. After just six hours, the UV rays from the sun have destroyed all the microbes in your water, making it safe to drink.
Recent research shows two hacks, both equally easy and nearly as cheap, to improve water purification. Add a dash of salt, of the table salt variety, to cause sediment to clump and fall out of suspension. And use some lime juice, which contains chemical compounds called psoralens, to cut the UV wait time from 6 hours to 30 minutes.
Click through the link to read more.
(Source: bestrooftalkever)
Did you know that neurons come in a variety of extraordinary shapes? Imaged above is Ferris Jabr’s drawing, based on reconstructions and drawings by neuroanatomist Santiago Ramón y Cajal, of different types of neurons: A. Purkinje cell B. Granule cell C. Motor neuron D. Tripolar neuron E. Pyramidal Cell F. Chandelier cell G. Spindle neuron H. Stellate cell. In addition to their varying shapes, they each have different functions.
Some neurons send electrical signals along fibers that stretch several feet; other neurons’ branches extend only a few millimeters away from the cell body. Some neurons possess a fractal beauty similar to that of ferns and corals: Purkinje cells, for example, often sport finely branched nets, like a sea fan. But some of their neighbors look more like tangled tumbleweeds. One neuron might appear more or less round under the microscope—like a firework frozen in climax—whereas another might spider through the brain like a daddy longlegs.
Excitatory neurons mostly stimulate other cells; inhibitory neurons prefer to stifle. Most neurons fire in patterns, but their tempos vary: some keep a steady beat, others remain largely silent except for the occasional burst of activity and still other cells continually fire like a trigger-happy toddler playing laser tag.
This is a part of Ferris Jabr’s Know Your Neurons series where he will be exploring the “cellular diversity of the nervous system.” He goes on to explain the discovery and naming of the neuron.
How The Brain Turns Reality Into Dreams
Dreams make perfect sense when you’re having them. Yet, they leave you befuddled the next morning, wondering “where did that come from?” The answer may lie in the dreams of people with amnesia, researchers report in an issue of Science.
Much of the fodder for our dreams comes from recent experiences. For this reason, scientists have tentatively supposed that the dreaming brain draws from its “declarative memory” system, which includes newly learned information.
The declarative memory stores information that you can “declare” you know, such as the square root of nine, or the name of your dog. Often, you can even remember when or where you learned something - for example, the day you discovered the harsh truth about Santa Claus. That’s called episodic memory.
People who permanently suffer from amnesia can’t add new declarative or episodic memories. The parts of their brains involved in storing this type of information, primarily a region called the hippocampus, have been damaged. Although amnesiacs can retain new information temporarily, they generally forget it a few minutes later.
If our dreams come from declarative memories, people with amnesia shouldn’t dream at all, or at least dream differently than others do. But new research directed by Robert Stickgold of Harvard Medical School suggests quite the opposite. Just like people with normal memory, amnesiacs replay recent experiences when they fall asleep, Stickgold’s study shows. The only difference seems to be that the amnesiacs don’t recognize what they’re dreaming about.
Dreaming of Tetris
Every day, the people in the study played several hours of the computer game Tetris, which requires directing falling blocks into the correct positions as they reach the bottom of the screen. At night, the amnesiacs didn’t remember playing the game. But, they did describe seeing falling, rotating blocks while they were falling asleep.
A second group of players with normal memories reported seeing the same images. Therefore, Stickgold’s research team concluded, dreams must come from the types of memory amnesiacs do have, which are called “implicit memories.” These are memories that scientists can measure even when individuals don’t know that they have them.
One class of implicit memories is found in the procedural memory system, which stores information that you use without really being able to say how you know what you’re doing. When you ride a bicycle for the first time in years, or type on a keyboard without looking, you’re relying on procedural memory.
Another type of implicit memory uses “semantic” knowledge, and resides in different parts of the brain, including a region called the neocortex. Semantic knowledge involves general, abstract concepts. Both groups of Tetris players, for example, only described seeing blocks, falling and rotating, and evidently did not see a desk, room, or computer screen, or feel their fingers on the keyboard.
Without help from the hippocampus, new semantic memories are too weak to be intentionally recalled. But they can still affect your behavior - for example, causing you to buy a certain brand of something you saw in an advertisement you don’t remember.
In contrast, the information in episodic memories is associated with specific times, places or events. Without these “anchors” to reality, it’s no wonder that dreams are so illogical and full of discontinuity, the study’s authors say.
Stickgold believes that dreams serve a purpose for the brain, allowing it to make necessary emotional connections among new pieces of information. “Dreams let you consolidate and integrate your experiences, without conflict with other input from real life,” Stickgold said. “Dreaming is like saying, ‘I’m going home, disconnecting the phone, nobody talk to me. I have to do work.’”
Because the hippocampus seems to be inaccessible for this “off-line” memory processing, the brain may use the abstract information in the neocortex instead. According to Stickgold’s theory, dreaming is like choosing an outfit by reaching into bins labeled “shirts,” “pants” and so on. You’ll rummage up something to wear, but it won’t be a perfectly matching ensemble.
Lighting On The Bay Bridge in San Francisco!!!!
(Source: swaqqcitybitch)
