Mimetic Mind Theater

The On/Off Psychedelic Swich

2012-01-27T00:49:00.001+01:00

Debate over the activity of entheogens. Recent developments in the studies of LSD, DMT, and other hallucinogenic components.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hallucinogenic-chemical-magic-mushrooms-subdues-brain-activity

Getting ready for the new year?

2011-12-30T00:08:00.001+01:00

Phi consciousness

2011-12-07T22:20:00.001+01:00

http://www.klab.caltech.edu/

Magic with Keith Barry

2011-11-07T15:21:00.001+01:00

Vezi mai multe peTeava.ro Vezi mai multe peTeava.ro Vezi mai multe peTeava.ro Vezi mai multe peTeava.ro

Photo of a dream

2011-11-01T16:27:00.001+01:00

Scientists measure dream content for the first time
Dreams activate the brain in a similar way to real actions
The ability to dream is a fascinating aspect of the human mind. However, how the images and emotions that we experience so intensively when we dream form in our heads remains a mystery. Up to now it has not been possible to measure dream content. Max Planck scientists working with colleagues from the Charité hospital in Berlin have now succeeded, for the first time, in analysing the activity of the brain during dreaming. They were able to do this with the help of lucid dreamers, i.e. people who become aware of their dreaming state and are able to alter the content of their dreams. The scientists measured that the brain activity during the dreamed motion matched the one observed during a real executed movement in a state of wakefulness.

http://www.mpipsykl.mpg.de/en/institute/news/press/pr1611.html

Theory of organized water

2011-10-26T17:46:00.001+02:00

Growing role of cilia in human body

2011-10-23T23:13:00.001+02:00

At Yale and labs across the country, scientists are proving that cilia, which exist on almost every mammalian cell, are not just tiny oars that move sperm or keep fluids moving over the surface of tissues in the oviduct or the throat and lungs. These tiny structures play a profound role in sensing the environment outside the cell in many biological processes….

http://news.yale.edu/2009/09/18/secrets-cilia

Quantum Levitation

2011-10-20T01:44:00.001+02:00

Brownian motion has memory

2011-10-14T17:14:00.001+02:00

An important aspect of Brownian motion predicted decades ago has been observed for the first time by researchers in Europe. The team has measured how micrometre-sized spheres interact with a surrounding fluid and have shown that the spheres "remember" their previous motion. Their experimental technique, the researchers claim, could be used as a biophysical sensor.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/47451

Visual illusion induced by sound

2011-10-13T01:49:00.001+02:00

We present the first cross-modal modification of visual perception which involves a phenomenological change in the quality-as opposed to a small, gradual, or quantitative change-of the percept of a non-ambiguous visual stimulus. We report a visual illusion which is induced by sound: when a single flash of light is accompanied by multiple auditory beeps, the single flash is perceived as multiple flashes. We present two experiments as well as several observations which establish that this alteration of the visual percept is due to cross-modal perceptual interactions as opposed to cognitive, attentional, or other origins. The results of the second experiment also reveal that the temporal window of these audio-visual interactions is approximately 100 ms.

http://neuro.caltech.edu/page/publications/shams-2002/

Artist travels around the world and records everything along the way

2011-10-11T00:05:00.001+02:00

Hasan Elahi is concerned with creativity and digital design…

http://elahi.umd.edu/

Psychedelic documentaries about complex adaptive emergent futureHi :-)

2011-10-06T02:28:00.001+02:00

You are a Receiver from notthisbody on Vimeo.

The Beginning of Infinity from notthisbody on Vimeo.

Syncing the reality

2011-09-24T13:10:00.001+02:00

Time on the Brain: How You Are Always Living In the Past, and Other Quirks of Perception

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/09/15/time-on-the-brain-how-you-are-always-living-in-the-past-and-other-quirks-of-perception

Fly over aurora

2011-09-22T14:07:00.001+02:00

Taken over the southern Indian Ocean, the movie spans a 23-min period from 17:22:27 to 17:45:12 GMT on Sept. 17.

http://spaceweather.com/swpod2011/22sep11/media.mp4

Long time since I posted music….?

2011-09-20T13:36:00.001+02:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq7aSC-ezBk

Jose Feliciano "California Dreamin' " (1968)

All the leaves are brown
And the sky is gray
I went for a walk
On a winter's day
I'd be safe and warm
If I was in L.A.
Oh, California Dreamin'
On such a winter's day, hey
I went into a church
I stopped along the way
Well, I got down on my, on my, on my bended knees
And I began to pray
You know the preacher did succumb
He knows I'm going to stay
Yes he knows cause I told him so
Oh, California dreamin'
On such a winter's day, yeah
Well baby, all the leaves, the leaves, the leaves are brown
And the sky is gray
Oh, I went for a walk
On a winter's day
I, I, I'd be safe and warm
If I was, mira, if I was in L.A.
Mmm, yeah, California dreamin'
On such a winter's day, yeah
On such a winter's day, yeah
On such a winter's day, eh-hey
Dream on, California dreamin', dream on
Oye mira yo quiero gozar en California
Porque yo me siento tambien
Y por eso yo te quiero porque tu me tratas tambien en California
Mira, no sienta mal a nena no me tratas asi
Y yo me quiero morir muchachita
Por favor, por favor, nada mas
Oye no me digas que no porque yo
Oye mulatta mira, baby, eh California dreamin'
It doesn't matter how you say it
All I want to say is I love, I love
California, baby yeah
I really love, I really love, I really need a little bit of lovin yeah
California dreamin' oh yeah, Calfornia dreamin'
California dreamin'...

8000 free fonts

2011-09-20T13:18:00.001+02:00

http://www.urbanfonts.com/

You are a receiver

2011-09-18T03:34:00.001+02:00

You are a Receiver from notthisbody on Vimeo.

More info http://bigthink.com/ideas/39804

Autorename utility

2011-09-08T03:11:00.001+02:00

Bulk Rename Utility is a free file renaming software for Windows. Bulk Rename Utility allows you to easily rename files and entire folders based upon extremely flexible criteria.

http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

2011-08-28T02:06:00.001+02:00

antematter

n. the dream versions of things in your life, which appear totally foreign but are still somehow yours—your anteschool, your antefriends, your antehome—all part of a parallel world whose gravitational pull raises your life’s emotional stakes, increasing the chances you’ll end up betting everything you have.

http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/

Reversible, positive-entropy, randomly evolving, virus model

2011-08-28T01:24:00.001+02:00

Cosmic rays influence weather, Episode “Big evil cloud chamber”

2011-08-27T03:57:00.001+02:00

Best known for its studies of the fundamental constituents of matter, the CERN particle-physics laboratory in Geneva is now also being used to study the climate. Researchers in the CLOUD collaboration have released the first results from their experiment designed to mimic conditions in the Earth's atmosphere. By firing beams of particles from the lab's Proton Synchrotron accelerator into a gas-filled chamber, they have discovered that cosmic rays could have a role to play in climate by enhancing the production of potentially cloud-seeding aerosols. Describing their findings in this week's Nature, the team has also found that our current understanding of the chemistry of these aerosols is inadequate and that manmade pollution could have a larger role in their formation than previously thought.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/46953

Outsourcing the experiments

2011-08-27T03:50:00.001+02:00

“Science Exchange - The Future Of Research”

The easiest way to get experiments conducted by researchers in top core facilities and institutions...

http://scienceexchange.com/

Nervous control of movement

2011-08-16T02:22:00.001+02:00

New neurological measurement technologies and algorithms are allowing researchers a more complete look into how the brain functions. Engineers at Stanford are using these tools to better understand how the brain prepares to instruct the body to make a motion and why sometimes we react more quickly than others.

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/august/neurons-measurement-shenoy-081511.html

original: http://www.stanford.edu/~shenoy/GroupPublications/AfsharEtAlNeuron2011.pdf

Free TV and radio from all around the world

2011-08-12T02:08:00.001+02:00

Program is loading the local contents via internet.

http://www.all-radio.net/

Misconceptions about human memory

2011-08-12T01:33:00.001+02:00

Human memory has been shown again and again to be far from perfect. We overlook big things, forget details, conflate events…

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/08/04/4-things-most-people-get-wrong-about-memory

Zarkon’s second coming tested

2011-08-04T02:46:00.001+02:00

Physicists Simulate the End of Time in a Maryland Lab

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=physicists-simulate-the-end-of-time-2011-07-28

(An analogy of analogy shown experimentally.

dr Wolf Mulder)

Dive into a Duck fractal

2011-07-29T15:52:00.001+02:00

“The Ducks algorithm involves a complex logarithm. Because of this, the patterns it creates do not quite live on the plane, but rather on an infinitely long cylinder…”

http://www.algorithmic-worlds.net/whoosh/whoosh.php?id=20110401-0&last=80

…original found at Samuel Monnier’s blog.

A spinon-holon current

2011-07-29T15:33:00.001+02:00

Your host dr Wolf Mulder discovers the very first fundamental science article that you won’t be able to understand. Behold.

An international group of researchers has measured, for the first time, the phenomenon of spin–charge separation in bulk in a solid. They also found that the material violates the empirical Wiedemann–Franz law that has held true for more than 150 years.

The Wiedemann–Franz law says that the ratio of thermal to electrical conductivity for a metal is approximately the same for different metals at the same temperature. It has been known indirectly, for some time, that 1D metals – chains just one atom thick – are very different from metals in 2D or 3D.The researchers, led by Nigel Hussey at the University of Bristol, UK, were looking to test a prediction made by physicists Charles Kane and Matthew Fisher in 1996, which suggested a violation of the Wiedemann–Franz law if electrons are confined to individual atomic chains…

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/46707

Cells communicate by nanotube of actin filaments!

2011-07-19T15:08:00.001+02:00

A Norway-based team reports today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences¹ that electrical signals can be transmitted between distant cells by means of nanotubes — ultrathin cables containing actin proteins — and that 'gap junctions' are involved in the process. Gap junctions are proteins that form pores between two adjacent cells, and that can link animal cells directly. Until now, electrical signalling was considered a fast but limited mode of communication, restricted mainly to cells in the heart and brain. But because many types of cells form nanotubes and gap junctions, it seems that electrical communication could be widespread…

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100920/full/news.2010.482.html

Eyes work on electricity!

2011-07-15T18:27:00.001+02:00

Researchers in the US claim to have overturned our understanding of the way in which the visual process is initiated by light entering the eye. They suggest that the initial trigger is provided by electrical processes rather than structural changes in the retina, as has been believed for the past 50 years. The work was carried out by a team led by Kenneth Foster at Syracuse University in the US.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/46479

Light trapped in a rotating medium

2011-07-08T16:20:00.001+02:00

Physicists in the UK and Canada claim to have demonstrated for the first time how a spinning medium can rotate a transmitted image. According to the researchers, the phenomenon could be used to encode images with extra data.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/46445

What is a photon?

2011-07-06T13:26:00.001+02:00

James Clerk Maxwell unknowingly discovered a correct relativistic, quantum theory for the light quantum, forty-three years before Einstein postulated the photon’s existence. In this theory, the usual Maxwell field is the quantum wave function for a single photon. When the non-operator Maxwell field of a single photon is second quantized, the standard
Dirac theory of quantum optics is obtained. Recently, quantum-state tomography has been applied to experimentally determine photon wave functions.

http://arxiv.org/ftp/quant-ph/papers/0604/0604169.pdf

Role of electromagnetic field in cellular organization

2011-06-29T22:35:00.001+02:00

Role of electromagnetic field in cellular organization and interactions by Michal Cifra.

www.ufe.cz/~cifra/papers/2010/Cifra-Summerschool2.pps

Detailed version:
http://www.ufe.cz/~cifra/DP.pdf

Are biological cells intelligent?

2011-06-28T01:36:00.001+02:00

Nobody in his right mind would believe that the contractile protein molecules in a person's throat speak English. Clearly, the molecules follow orders issued ultimately by the person's brain. This is not a matter of the size of the organism. The contractile proteins in the muscle cells of a small nematode are not gliding or swimming, either. They, too, receive orders from the nervous system of the worm. In short, the interactions between the molecules of any organism generally do not create the functions of the organism, but it is the other way around: The functions of the organism initiate and control the interactions between its molecules. The necessity for such control is obvious. Using the example of contractile proteins, the molecules can only polymerize, depolymerize or slide along each other, but they would not know when and with what force and when to stop. A signal-integrating mechanism is required.
Why should the situation be different for single cells? After all protozoa are in effect small, but quite universal organism and the above conclusion should apply to them as much as to a fly, a frog or the author of this website. Yet, the vast majority of today's biologists devote their efforts to prove the opposite, namely that specific molecular interactions create the cellular functions such as cell division, directed locomotion, differentiation, design of the extracellular matrix, adhesion to materials and other cells and so forth.
My research for the past 30 years or so was devoted to examine whether cells have such signal integration and control center(s). The results suggest that mammalian cells, indeed, posess intelligence. The experimental basis for this conclusion is presented in the following web pages…

http://www.basic.northwestern.edu/g-buehler/FRAME.HTM

Accelerated evolution machine

2011-06-28T00:49:00.001+02:00

Automated genetic tinkering is just the start – this machine could be used to rewrite the language of life and create new species of humans
IT IS a strange combination of clumsiness and beauty. Sitting on a cheap-looking worktop is a motley ensemble of flasks, trays and tubes squeezed onto a home-made frame. Arrays of empty pipette tips wait expectantly. Bunches of black and grey wires adorn its corners. On the top, robotic arms slide purposefully back and forth along metal tracks, dropping liquids from one compartment to another in an intricately choreographed dance. Inside, bacteria are shunted through slim plastic tubes, and alternately coddled, chilled and electrocuted. The whole assembly is about a metre and a half across, and controlled by an ordinary computer.
Say hello to the evolution machine. It can achieve in days what takes genetic engineers years. So far it is just a prototype, but if its proponents are to be believed, future versions could revolutionise biology, allowing us to evolve new organisms or rewrite whole genomes with ease. It might even transform humanity itself…

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028181.700-evolution-machine-genetic-engineering-on-fast-forward.html

Interesting movie: Life in a Day

2011-06-19T03:55:00.001+02:00

Does brain operate in analog and digital modes?

2011-06-18T18:39:00.001+02:00

Traditionally, neurons in the brain are thought to collect information from other cells as an analog signal (voltage) that is generated by barrages of synaptic potentials. These synaptic potentials arise from the activity of thousands of inputs that each cell receives on its cell body and dendrites. The traditional theory is that this analog signal is then encoded into a pattern of action potentials that travels down the axon, in a signal that is akin to a digital, or pulse, code. Once the action potentials reach the synaptic terminals, transmitter is released, and thus the message is converted back to an analog form and conveyed to the next cells in the network.

However, in some sensory organs and invertebrate systems, neurons can also communicate in the absence of action potentials by grading their transmitter release according to the presynaptic membrane potential, which is directly determined by the barrages of synaptic activity arriving in the cell. This graded synaptic transmission was thought to be irrelevant at the vast majority of synapses in the brain, because the electrotonic distance between the presynaptic cell and its axonal terminals was considered to large.

http://www.med.yale.edu/neurobio/mccormick/gradednew/gradedintro.html

Cellular laser

2011-06-16T16:00:00.001+02:00

Scientists have developed the first biological laser, made from a single living cell. This “living laser,” described in a new study in Nature Photonics, could one day lead to better medical imaging and light-based treatments for cancer or other diseases.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/06/13/researchers-build-a-living-laser/

Magnetic bubbles at the end of the solar system

2011-06-10T01:57:00.001+02:00

P2P currency invented

2011-06-08T02:39:00.001+02:00

Bitcoin is the first digital currency that is completely distributed. The network is made up of users like yourself so no bank or payment processor is required between you and whoever you're trading with. This decentralization is the basis for Bitcoin's security and freedom.

http://www.weusecoins.com/

Blood and shadow

2011-06-08T02:07:00.001+02:00

Casimir effect proven

2011-06-05T22:13:00.001+02:00

Calling forth light from the void was once an act of biblical proportions. Now all it takes is a bit of smoke and mirrors provided by the laws of quantum mechanics.

By creating particles of light from seeming nothingness, an international team of researchers has confirmed an idea first proposed in 1970.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/330721/title/Light_created_from_the_void

Cosmological enigma

2011-06-03T00:38:00.001+02:00

NMRS without magnetic field

2011-06-02T23:34:00.001+02:00

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is perhaps the most useful technique in the organic chemist's toolkit. But conventional NMR requires the sample to be placed in a very high magnetic field, which needs large and expensive superconducting magnets cooled by liquid helium. Now, an interdisciplinary group in the US has managed to accomplish NMR spectroscopy without magnets. The work could lead to portable NMR spectrometers, and possibly even small personalized spectrometers for medical diagnosis.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/46114

A sample of afterlife

2011-06-02T15:53:00.001+02:00

The article, “Religious factors and hippocampal atrophy in late life,” by Amy Owen and colleagues at Duke University represents an important advance in our growing understanding of the relationship between the brain and religion. The study, published March 30 in PLoS One, showed greater atrophy in the hippocampus in individuals who identify with specific religious groups as well as those with no religious affiliation. It is a surprising result, given that many prior studies have shown religion to have potentially beneficial effects on brain function, anxiety, and depression.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=religious-experiences-shrink-part-of-brain

Exploration of Persian poetry

2011-05-26T16:22:00.001+02:00

Romantic, Persian Poetry Offers View Into Medieval Islamic Culture

http://humanexperience.stanford.edu/persianpoetry

Equation shows why there is no soul

2011-05-26T01:48:00.001+02:00

The topic of "life after death" raises disreputable connotations of past-life regression and haunted houses, but there are a large number of people in the world who believe in some form of persistence of the individual soul after life ends. Clearly this is an important question, one of the most important ones we can possibly think of in terms of relevance to human life. If science has something to say about, we should all be interested in hearing.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=physics-and-the-immortality-of-the-2011-05-23

New site that turns you into a visualization

2011-05-22T23:56:00.001+02:00

Intro
There's so many startups nowadays. Everyone is trying to bring their ideas to the world, monetize them, make impact on the people all over the world. Internet business is a great framework to to that, especially for people interested in digital media and technology. This fact and my friend's advice to not to hesitate and try to work on mine has emerged into this little project - Lifetab.

What is it?
It’s an online application giving purpose to all our data. I mean ALL our data. At this point we are creating, using and deleting our data. But it can be much more. Life can be pretty harsh today in digital world speaking of organization and handling all the information. Lifetab will do this for us and it will reward us for doing so. One will be able to create individual or social goals which will make one proud as they gain rewards not only from the system – badges, experience points, achievements – but also from the users – acknowledgment for what one has done!
What does it do?
Basically, Lifetab is a virtual reality where one is their own avatar. One grows up by performing various actions, both virutal and 'Real Life', and as one grows, one gets cooler ranks, achievements and more accurate statistics. Thanks to the social factor one may share some of the information with their connections. Nevertheless, it is completely up to their choice which information one discloses to the other.
It logs on-line presence (if one wishes), pulls data from your facebook, twitter, foursqare…whatever profile / service you use and rewards one pretty much in the same way any mmorpg game does.
Last, but not least, it extends our real life with a handful of applications for various devices and various tasks, from AR games to Automatic data collection tools.
Why this is not another social network?
There are two major differences between this project and popular social networks.
Firstly, we’re not trying to create and operate data without understanding. We’re utilizing any data we can found, returning them to the user in acceptable form of graphs, vizualizations and game dynamics. There’s tons of hidden data about us on the internet, we want people to explore them, and use them.
Secondly, we’re going from bottom. We think if we [society] don’t create this kind of application, sooner or later, any government or business party will. And that would be end of the internet freedom. Here it is up to you what you share, say, do with your data. Keep it for yourself, tell all your friends or just your family; or make some money with it if you want. Of course we can’t prevent other companies from harvesting our data, but this way, we at least see what they know about us.
Our cornerstone
We really like honesty within society made of individuals sharing the same morals. That’s why in Lifetab you – an original individual – create the whole social structure with other individuals, rather than being part of unified artificial social network. We believe everyone has rights for anonymity and control over their life. You should be able to decide what you like and what is against the grain to you. Using the recent findings in psychology and game design we’re trying to build a platform solving major problems of modern age, engaging us more to our lives while using the latest accessible technology.
Undertaking this project we wish to pioneer in future internet society. We are proud to be on the beginning of something new and as major as the creation of internet itself.
For free
The service is planned to be and will be free to use.
More information can be found on our teaser website:

www.lifetab.me

Starvation pill in development

2011-05-22T21:04:00.001+02:00

Animals live long and prosper when eating from a menu that puts them just this side of starvation. So far, experiments with yeast, worms, flies, spiders, fish and rodents all have shown the antiaging power of severely restricting calories. And research in rhesus monkeys suggests similar benefits in primates: One study found that monkeys eating 30 percent less than their cage mates appeared to be protected from age-related diseases and had lower mortality 15 to 20 years later. At this moment, human volunteers at three different U.S. sites have given up 25 percent of normal daily calories to test whether the less-food, longer-life phenomenon applies to people as well.

Yet even if the human experiment confirms that it’s possible to diet your way to a 120-year life span, a society accustomed to supersizing probably isn’t going to replace an order of fries with a stick of celery. So scientists are looking for shortcuts that people could use to achieve the antiaging windfall of calorie restriction without actually having to do it — a way to eat your cake and survive it, too.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/74456/title/Healthy_Aging_in_a_Pill

Cosmic rays seed clouds!

2011-05-19T22:40:00.001+02:00

By firing a particle beam into a cloud chamber, physicists in Denmark and the UK have shown how cosmic rays could stimulate the formation of water droplets in the Earth's atmosphere. The researchers say this is the best experimental evidence yet that the Sun influences the climate by altering the intensity of the cosmic-ray flux reaching the Earth's surface.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/45982

Positive feedback discovered in retina

2011-05-19T22:38:00.001+02:00

Researchers in the US have discovered a new feedback mechanism that allows the human eye to be sensitive enough to see small details in a scene while also being able to detect the large contrast between bright and dark objects. The process involves boosting the output of certain light receptors in the retina while damping down others…

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/46010

Commute (short film)

2011-05-11T18:38:00.001+02:00

How to commute 5 days a week simultaneously.

Tetrachromatic people see the hidden world

2011-05-10T02:38:00.001+02:00

It has been long accepted that human color vision is based on having 3 cone receptors (trichromat) red, green and blue, but since the early 90's researches have been searching for people who have four (tetrachromat). These people would have a heightened color sense and the ability to see "rare subtleties of color." …

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2010/03/18/tetrachromacy-in-humans-you-may-have-super-color-vision

Monuments from old Yugoslavia

2011-05-05T14:59:00.001+02:00

These structures were commissioned by former Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito in the 1960s and 70s to commemorate sites where WWII battles took place (like Tjentište, Kozara and Kadinjača), or where concentration camps stood (like Jasenovac and Niš). They were designed by different sculptors (Dušan Džamonja, Vojin Bakić, Miodrag Živković, Jordan and Iskra Grabul, to name a few) and architects (Bogdan Bogdanović, Gradimir Medaković...), conveying powerful visual impact to show the confidence and strength of the Socialist Republic. In the 1980s, these monuments attracted millions of visitors per year, especially young pioneers for their "patriotic education." After the Republic dissolved in early 1990s, they were completely abandoned, and their symbolic meanings were forever lost.
From 2006 to 2009, Kempenaers toured around the ex-Yugoslavia region (now Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, etc.) with the help of a 1975 map of memorials, bringing before our eyes a series of melancholy yet striking images. His photos raise a question: can these former monuments continue to exist as pure sculptures? On one hand, their physical dilapidated condition and institutional neglect reflect a more general social historical fracturing. And on the other hand, they are still of stunning beauty without any symbolic significances.

http://www.cracktwo.com/2011/04/25-abandoned-soviet-monuments-that-look.html

Argumentative theory

2011-05-04T22:55:00.001+02:00

"Reasoning was not designed to pursue the truth. Reasoning was designed by evolution to help us win arguments. That's why they call it The Argumentative Theory of Reasoning. So, as they put it, "The evidence reviewed here shows not only that reasoning falls quite short of reliably delivering rational beliefs and rational decisions. It may even be, in a variety of cases, detrimental to rationality. Reasoning can lead to poor outcomes, not because humans are bad at it, but because they systematically strive for arguments that justify their beliefs or their actions. This explains the confirmation bias, motivated reasoning, and reason-based choice, among other things."

http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge342.html#mercier

Go USA!

2011-05-02T15:29:00.001+02:00

Osama BinLaden is dead!

Biofeedback via electromagnetic field

2011-04-29T22:54:00.001+02:00

Endogenous Electric Fields May Guide
Neocortical Network Activity

Local field potentials and the underlying endogenous
electric fields (EFs) are traditionally considered to be
epiphenomena of structured neuronal network activity.
Recently, however, externally applied EFs have
been shown to modulate pharmacologically evoked
network activity in rodent hippocampus. In contrast,
very little is known about the role of endogenous
EFs during physiological activity states in neocortex.
Here, we used the neocortical slow oscillation in vitro
as a model system to show that weak sinusoidal and
naturalistic EFs enhance and entrain physiological
neocortical network activity with an amplitude
threshold within the range of in vivo endogenous field
strengths. Modulation of network activity by positive
and negative feedback fields based on the network
activity in real-time provide direct evidence for a
feedback loop between neuronal activity and endogenous
EF. This significant susceptibility of active
networks to EFs that only cause small changes in
membrane potential in individual neurons suggests
that endogenous EFs could guide neocortical network
activity.

http://www.med.yale.edu/neurobio/mccormick/pubs/fields.pdf

Solar system explorer

2011-04-28T02:54:00.001+02:00

Grab a planet and scroll. Unlock the stars.

http://www.solarsystemscope.com/

Delta project (1987)

2011-04-28T02:36:00.001+02:00

Clarifying the Tubulin bit/qubit - Defending the Penrose-Hameroff Orch OR Model (Quantum Biology)

2011-04-24T14:42:00.001+02:00

BACKGROUND!

The 'Conscious Pilot' is a new model of the neural correlate of consciousness (NCC) consistent with the Orch OR model. The basic idea is that spatiotemporal envelopes of dendritic gamma synchrony move through the brain's neuronal networks. The movement is sideways to neurocomputational flow, occurring via dendritic-dendritic gap junction electrical synapses. A conscious pilot moving around an airplane while it flies on auto-pilot is used as a metaphor for dendritic synchrony moving through the brain's neurocomputational networks, conveying conscious experience and choice to otherwise non-conscious cognitive modes. http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/pilot.htm

Learning, memory and long-term potentiation (LTP) are supported by factors including post-synaptic calcium ion flux activating and transforming the hexagonal calciumcalmodulin kinase II (CaMKII) holoenzyme. Upon calcium-induced activation, up to six kinase domains extend upward, and up to six kinase domains extend downward from the
CaMKII association domain, the fully activated holoenzyme resembling a robotic insect 20 nanometers in length. Each extended kinase domain can be phosphorylated, and able to phosphorylate other proteins, thus potentially further encoding synaptic information at intraneuronal molecular sites for memory storage, processing and distribution. Candidate
sites for phosphorylation-encoded molecular memory include microtubules, cylindrical lattice polymers of the protein tubulin. http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/documents/membytespublished.pdf

Do robotic insects encode human memories?

2011-04-14T02:35:00.001+02:00

“MEMORY BYTES” — MOLECULAR MATCH FOR CaMKII
PHOSPHORYLATION ENCODING OF
MICROTUBULE LATTICES
STUART R. HAMEROFF, TRAVIS J. A. CRADDOCK
and J. A. TUSZYNSKI

http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/documents/membytespublished.pdf

The Journal of Cosmology

2011-04-12T17:48:00.001+02:00

Cosmology (from Greek κοσμολογία - κόσμος-, kosmos, "universe"; and -λογία, -logia-, "study") is the study and understanding of existence in its totality, encompassing the infinite and eternal, and the origins and evolution of the cosmos, galaxies, stars, planets, earth, life, woman and man.

Yet of the thousands of scientific journals published yearly world wide, not one is dedicated to the study of Cosmology.

Most scientific journals are aimed at specific, narrowly defined areas of research; tailored to those specialists who devote their lives to learning more and more about less and less. The alternative, we are told, is to learn less and less about more and more, and thus "generalists" and interdisciplinary journals are rare indeed, for how many wish to discover how little they know?

The interdisciplinary Journal of Cosmology is devoted to the study of "cosmology" and is dedicated to those men and women of rare genius and curiosity who wish to understand more and more about more and more: The study of existence in its totality.

http://journalofcosmology.com/

Fractal Ducks

2011-04-08T16:15:00.001+02:00

New type of fractals suitably combines the Julia and IFS patterns as well as the space-filling properties:

http://softologyblog.wordpress.com/2011/04/06/ducks-fractals-variations/

…try them out with Fragmentarium software:

http://syntopia.github.com/Fragmentarium/

Pioneer anomaly solved

2011-04-07T17:27:00.001+02:00

Known as the ‘Pioneer anomaly’, the unexplained deceleration of NASA’s two Pioneer spacecraft, Pioneer 10 and 11 (launched in 1972 and 1973 respectively) has provoked some exotic theories, including errors in Einstein’s theory of gravity or the presence of multiple universes.

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/news/4202/pioneer-anomaly-solved

The first map of visual cortex?

2011-04-07T14:13:00.001+02:00

In the cerebral cortex, local circuits consist of tens of thousands of neurons, each of which makes thousands of synaptic
connections. Perhaps the biggest impediment to understanding these networks is that we have no wiring diagrams of
their interconnections. Even if we had a partial or complete wiring diagram, however, understanding the network
would also require information about each neuron’s function. Here we show that the relationship between structure and
function can be studied in the cortex with a combination of in vivo physiology and network anatomy. We used
two-photon calcium imaging to characterize a functional property—the preferred stimulus orientation—of a group of
neurons in the mouse primary visual cortex. Large-scale electron microscopy of serial thin sections was then used to
trace a portion of these neurons’ local network. Consistent with a prediction from recent physiological experiments,
inhibitory interneurons received convergent anatomical input from nearby excitatory neurons with a broad range of
preferred orientations, although weak biases could not be rejected.

http://reid.med.harvard.edu/pdf/Bock-Lee-etal-Reid-2011-Nature.pdf

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v471/n7337/abs/nature09802.html#supplementary-information

Superconductivity–the first 100 years

2011-04-07T02:50:00.001+02:00

The quantum physics of materials is the worst reading experience known in the entire universe, and in a few parallel universes. The latest issue of Physics World did not sound that bad, which must the event of the millennium. Prepare to be bored with fascinating pieces of metallic equipment at high vacuum.

http://download.iop.org/pw/PW_apr11_sample_issue.pdf

FreeTeam Pokret

2011-04-03T02:43:00.001+02:00

Volonterska grupa, razne vrste aktivnosti - od joge, preko plesa, do kreativnih radionica.

http://www.freeteampokret.tk/

Superconductivity of vacuum

2011-04-02T02:53:00.001+02:00

According to Maxim Chernodub of the Université François-Rabelais Tours in France, superconductivity can appear – provided there is a very strong magnetic field – in the vacuum of empty space. If Chernodub is correct, the phenomenon could explain the origin of the extensive magnetic-field patterns seen in the cosmos. "This suggested vacuum superconductivity is very unusual," he says. "It has a few crazy properties that do not exist in 'normal' superconductors."

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/45558

A debate of neurons

2011-03-28T22:58:00.001+02:00

Neurons communicate by sending out electrical impulses called action potentials or “spikes” that code information much like Morse code with only dots and no dashes. Groups of neurons can choose to communicate information in one of two ways: by spiking simultaneously or by spiking separately.

“Neurons face a universal communications conundrum. They can speak together and be heard far and wide, or they can speak individually and say more,” explains Nathan Urban, distinguished professor of life sciences at Carnegie Mellon University. “Both are important. We wanted to find out how neurons choose between these strategies.”…

http://www.futurity.org/top-stories/how-neurons-hear-above-the-din/

Refresh the attention with a house plant

2011-03-18T01:49:00.001+01:00

Plants are restoring the attention.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=houseplants-make-you-smarter

Build your own linux distribution

2011-03-17T13:53:00.001+01:00

Build an appliance — or your own custom Linux distro — with a few mouse clicks. Customize it to your heart's content, and share it with the world!

http://susestudio.com/

…or download the latest SuSE Linux

http://www.opensuse.org/en/

Tractor beam

2011-03-13T17:44:00.001+01:00

The proposed device hasn’t yet been built. But a similar one conceived by an American physicist was tested last year. Each device would fulfill the science fiction dream of reeling in objects using light — though neither could move anything bigger than a bacterium, much less a starship.

The Chinese plan, reported online February 24 at arXiv.org, would use a laser to produce what is called a Bessel beam. This beam, unusual because it remains focused over large distances, could induce electric and magnetic fields in an object in its path. The spray of light scattered forward by these fields could push the object backward, against the movement of the beam itself. “This analysis established that light can indeed pull a particle.... Under appropriate conditions a [Bessel beam] can act as an ‘optical tractor beam,’” write physicist Jun Chen of Fudan University in Shanghai and colleagues.

http://www.sciencenews.org/index/generic/activity/view/id/70967/title/Tractor_beams_arrive_two_centuries_early

The inverse Doppler effect discovered

2011-03-11T17:50:00.001+01:00

The Doppler shift of sound or light waves from a moving source is familiar to physicists and non-physicists alike. Now, researchers in China and Australia have seen the more exotic inverse Doppler effect in light passing through a material made from tiny silicon rods. They say the result could enhance the use of the Doppler effect in all sorts of applications, from astronomy to medicine.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/45366

The nanoscale optical microscope

2011-03-08T17:49:00.001+01:00

The microscope imaged objects down to just 50 billionths of a metre to yield a never-before-seen, direct glimpse into the "nanoscopic" world.

The team says the method could even be used to view individual viruses.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12612209

Energy requirements of a supercomputer

2011-03-08T17:48:00.001+01:00

Hewlett-Packard researchers have proposed a fundamental rethinking of the modern computer for the coming era of nanoelectronics — a marriage of memory and computing power that could drastically limit the energy used by computers.

Today the microprocessor is in the center of the computing universe, and information is moved, at heavy energy cost, first to be used in computation and then stored. The new approach would be to marry processing to memory to cut down transportation of data and reduce energy use.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/science/01compute.html?_r=1

Update: quantum tornadoes in materials

2011-02-27T15:32:00.001+01:00

Quantum vortices can look like tiny rings that shatter into even more minuscule rings and then shrink away altogether. Connected one moment, in the next they appear to flex into curved lines — as if snipped with scissors. Sometimes these lines tangle like a ball of cat hair on a rug. And they can cross over each other into a letter X, swap ends and then shoot away with the gusto of a rubber band flinging from the finger of a mischievous third-grader.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/70232/title/Quantum_Whirls

Cell phones activate your brain!

2011-02-27T15:31:00.001+01:00

In the study, researchers measured the brain activity of 47 participants who had pairs of Samsung cell phones strapped to their heads, one on each side. The phone on the left ear was turned off, while the one on the right received a 50-minute recorded message. This phone was kept muted so that the subject didn’t know which phone was on, and also to prevent stimulation of the brain’s hearing center….

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/70134/title/Cell_phones_may_affect_brain_metabolism

(I am never calling women on the phone again.

dr Wolf Mulder)

Satellite images of earth in a fast window

2011-02-20T15:10:00.001+01:00

See the earth, choose from several sources:

http://www.flashearth.com/

Magnetricity discovered

2011-02-20T15:00:00.001+01:00

A team of physicists in England has created magnetic charges — isolated north and south magnetic poles — and induced them to flow in crystals no bigger than a centimeter across. These moving magnetic charges, which behave almost exactly like electrical charges flowing through batteries and biological systems, could one day be useful in developing “magnetronic” devices — though what such devices would do is anybody’s guess.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69822/title/Magnetricity_behaves_like_electricity

Antilasers invented

2011-02-20T14:57:00.001+01:00

New antilasers perform on the principle of time reversal.

“It’s a technique for rewinding and undoing a process by reversing the mathematics underlying it — in this case, by changing a plus sign to a minus sign to make the energy absorbed by the antilaser equal to the energy produced by a laser.”

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69961/title/Antilaser_sucks_up_light

(Say what?

dr Wolf Mulder)

What should everyone know?

2011-02-19T15:33:00.001+01:00

DNA filters electrons according to spin

2011-02-17T22:53:00.001+01:00

The discovery that DNA has a strong effect on electron spin suggests that spin interactions could also play a role in some biological processes.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/45152

Solar eruption of the century

2011-02-13T02:21:00.001+01:00

http://spaceweather.com/swpod2011/12feb11/plasmabullet_color.mov

Can you control yourself with a remote control?

2011-02-11T01:30:00.001+01:00

Can you spew out electricity? Are lasers intelligent? Find out AND more at Daito’s channel…

http://www.youtube.com/user/daito

Psychic birds see magnetic fields

2011-02-11T00:56:00.001+01:00

According to the radical pair model, the back of the bird's eye contains numerous molecules for magnetoreception. These molecules give rise to a pattern, discernible to the bird, which indicates the orientation of the field. Each such molecule involves three crucial components (see inset): there are two electrons, initially photoexcited to a singlet state, and a nuclear spin that couples to one of the electrons. This coupling is anisotropic, so that the molecule has a directionality to it.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/indepth/45059

papers:

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0906/0906.3725v5.pdf

Street lights

2011-01-28T19:14:00.001+01:00

http://www.spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Mike-Hollingshead-2011_01_26_13661_1296110252.jpg

“Surface detail” by subBlue

2011-01-25T16:30:00.001+01:00

Surface detail from subBlue on Vimeo.

Report on the space fog

2011-01-18T17:39:00.001+01:00

Small specks of dust found in our Milky Way galaxy are the fastest twirlers yet—spinning more than ten billion times a second, astronomers announced today.

Scientists found the tiny grains—each just 10 to 50 atoms wide—using the recently launched European Space Agency's Planck spacecraft. The find helps solve the mystery of a diffuse microwave "fog" in our galaxy that's puzzled astronomers for decades…

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/01/110111-fastest-dust-spinning-universe-planck-microwave-science-space/

TRANSIT OF THE ISS DURING THE SOLAR ECLIPSE OF JANUARY 4 2011 FROM OMAN

2011-01-04T23:44:00.001+01:00

Image of the solar transit of the International Space Station (ISS), taken from the area of Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman on January 4th 2011 at 9:09 UT, during the partial solar eclipse. Takahashi FSQ-106ED refractor on EM-10 mount, Canon 5D mark II. 1/5000s exposure at 100 iso.
Transit forecast calculated by www.calsky.com (many thanks to Arnold Barmettler for his help).
Transit duration: 0.86s. ISS distance to observer: 510 km. Speed in orbit: 7.8km/s (28000 km/h or 17000 mph).

The image shows three planes in space: the Sun at 150 million km, the Moon at about 400000 km and the ISS at 500 km…

http://legault.perso.sfr.fr/eclipse110104_solar_transit.html