Friday 26 December 2008
Tuesday 23 December 2008
CDS 231208-HbSC DISEASE
////////////////////Accelerated genetic drift on chromosome X during the human dispersal out of Africa
Alon Keinan1,2, James C Mullikin3, Nick Patterson2 & David Reich1,2
Top of page
Comparisons of chromosome X and the autosomes can illuminate differences in the histories of males and females as well as shed light on the forces of natural selection. We compared the patterns of variation in these parts of the genome using two datasets that we assembled for this study that are both genomic in scale. Three independent analyses show that around the time of the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa, chromosome X experienced much more genetic drift than is expected from the pattern on the autosomes. This is not predicted by known episodes of demographic history, and we found no similar patterns associated with the dispersals into East Asia and Europe. We conclude that a sex-biased process that reduced the female effective population size, or an episode of natural selection unusually affecting chromosome X, was associated with the founding of non-African populations.
////////////////////////////////////Darwinian evolution provides a wonderful explanation for physical
pain: it has survival value, and that's pretty much the story. But
the full range of our suffering goes way beyond physical pain.
Buddhism meditation practice lets us witness the difference between
the pain that belongs to the body and the pain that is created by the
mind. And it provides a systematic, though certainly not easy,
technique for eliminating the later.
>
Even with purely physical pain, not all of it has survival value.
Examples: pain from childbirth, terminal cancer, shingles, the
various neuropathies in which irritated pain neurons fire in the
absence of any surrounding tissue damage. True, the suffering from
physical pain can be ameliorated by learning to overcome the
associated fear, to engage in various relaxation techniques and
physical therapy exercises, to persist in one's usual activities
despite pain, and probably to engage in various forms of meditation.
But people like to believe that their suffering serves some purpose.
(Giving birth is a fine purpose, but why should it be painful? And
death is not always so.)
My own general explanation of suffering is that in order for
organisms that can get around on their own to survive and evolve,
they must not only learn to avoid tissue damage; they must as well
have a biologic drive to survive. And yet in order for us to evolve,
we have to die and make way for new generations. So the biologic
drive to survive must be frustrated. This works better as an
explanation for psychic distress than it does for physical pain from
such things as childbirth, terminal cancer, shingles and
neuropathies. About the best that can be said for such conditions is
that they amount to collateral damage.
And then there is the suffering that involves neither physical pain
nor unhelpful attitudes: the punishing auditory hallucinations of a
schizophrenia, the hypervigilence, emotional numbing and flashbacks
of PTSD, the black hole of despair in severe depression. Cognitive
therapy can help in some such cases, as can medication, but these
things are not merely a matter of mistaken thinking: there is actual
tissue damage in the brain. Presumably the damage can also occur in
the part of the brain which enables us to experience insight, though
exactly where that part is located either has not been determined, or
has been and I have not yet heard about it. How does any of this
have survival value?
It was long ago discovered that the very painful, debilitating and
life-shortening disease of sicle cell anemia has survival value in
areas endemic to malaria, in that those heterozygous to the condition
are more resistant to malaria. If you are homozygous it is just
tough luck. Perhaps other diseases, whether they affect the brain or
other organ systems, will also turn out to be relics of the interplay
between genetics and environment. For example, the calorie-hoarding
propensity found in obesity has survival advantage in places like
Eastern Europe where for millenia there were frequent famines. Now
that food is more widely and consistently available, people get fat
and develop diabetes and other problems.
J
/////////////////////////////////// "Avoiding Temptation"
It is so difficult this time of the year for me to
follow my own advice with everyone bringing candy,
cakes, etc. (I have a sweet tooth.)
It is too tempting for me to leave the "goodies"
alone, so I am trying to get most of them out of
the house immediately.
As I was unbuttoning my belt after having much
too much to eat yesterday, I asked myself why I
was dealing myself such misery. I know in my heart
of hearts that I feel sooooooooo much better
when I don't eat those sweets at all.
Years ago I had a boss who had a stroke and
recovered with only a slight limp. He lost a lot
of weight and was very thin. When offered
some goodies at a party, he refused. He said that
if he ever took the first bite he would be in trouble.
He would want to eat the whole platter of goodies.
This is good advice for me and for you. Don't
get started eating the goodies in the first place!
They are so hard to leave alone after that first bite.
As with many other things, they are like that old
commercial, "Bet you can't eat just one!"
Avoiding them altogether may be the best thing
you can do for yourself this season.
////////////////////////////////////Set in Our Ways: Why Change Is So Hard
Millions of us dream of transforming our lives, but few of us are able to make major changes after our 20s. Here's why
By Nikolas Westerhoff
Share
Reddit Review it on NewsTrust
Fark
ShareThis
Exclusive to iStockphoto
Key Concepts
* Studies of personality development often focus on traits such as extroversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism and openness to new experiences. In most people, these traits change more during young adulthood than any other period of life, including adolescence. Openness typically increases during a person’s 20s and goes into a gradual decline after that.
* This pattern of personality development seems to hold true across cultures. Although some see that as evidence that genes determine our personality, many researchers theorize that personality traits change during young adulthood because this is a time of life when people assume new roles: finding a partner, starting a family and beginning a career.
* Personality can continue to change somewhat in middle and old age, but openness to new experiences tends to decline gradually until about age 60. After that, some people become more open again, perhaps because their responsibilities for raising a family and earning a living have been lifted.
///////////////////////////////////DARK MATTER/ENERGY
By studying far-flung galaxy clusters, astronomers are able to look back in time at the state of those objects millions or even billions of years ago, when the light just now reaching us was emitted. By comparing relatively close clusters with those more distant, the physical evolution of these gargantuan structures can be traced over time. Their observed development is "exactly what's expected for a universe with a low density of matter and a high density of dark energy," Vikhlinin said. (By current estimates, dark energy makes up nearly three quarters of the universe, dark matter comprises another 20 to 25 percent, and ordinary matter—all that we can see and touch—constitutes a mere 4 percent.)
What Vikhlinin and his co-authors observed is also what was expected for a universe described by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, the reigning theory of gravity. At the news conference, Princeton University astrophysicist David Spergel, who did not contribute to the research, called this further confirmation of dark energy "a triumph of general relativity."
Study co-author William Forman, a CfA astrophysicist, noted that although general relativity fit well with his team's observations, Einstein's vision may still require future adjustments. Livio agrees, but believes that the galaxy-cluster result nonetheless provides an important test for relativity. "There was the potential here, with this method," he says, "to tell us whether we had to modify our theory of gravity."
/////////////////////////////The fossil record tells us that the oldest member of our own species lived 195,000 years ago in what is now Ethiopia. From there it spread out across the globe. By 10,000 years ago modern humans had successfully colonized each of the continents save Antarctica, and adaptations to these many locales (among other evolutionary forces) led to what we loosely call races. Groups living in different places evidently retained just enough connections with one another to avoid evolving into separate species. With the globe fairly well covered, one might expect that the time for evolving was pretty much finished.
But that turns out not to be the case. In a study published a year ago Henry C. Harpending of the University of Utah, John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and their colleagues analyzed data from the international haplotype map of the human genome [see “Traces of a Distant Past,” by Gary Stix; Scientific American, July 2008]. They focused on genetic markers in 270 people from four groups: Han Chinese, Japanese, Yoruba and northern Europeans. They found that at least 7 percent of human genes underwent evolution as recently as 5,000 years ago. Much of the change involved adaptations to particular environments, both natural and human-shaped. For example, few people in China and Africa can digest fresh milk into adulthood, whereas almost everyone in Sweden and Denmark can. This ability presumably arose as an adaptation to dairy farming.
////////////////////////////1. He´s got the whole world in His hands,
|: He´s got the whole world in His hands, :|
He´s got the whole world in His hands.
2. He´s got the wind and the rain in His hands,
|: He´s got the wind and the rain in His hands, :|
He´s got the whole world in His hands.
3. He´s got the the tiny little baby in His hands,
|: He´s got the the tiny little baby in His hands, :|
He´s got the whole world in His hands.
4. He´s got you and me, brother, in His hands,
|: He´s got you and me, brother, in His hands, :|
He´s got the whole world in His hands.
5. He's got ev'rybody here in His hands.
|: He's got ev'rybody here in His hands. :|
He's got the whole world in His hands.
/////////////////////////////////////
Alon Keinan1,2, James C Mullikin3, Nick Patterson2 & David Reich1,2
Top of page
Comparisons of chromosome X and the autosomes can illuminate differences in the histories of males and females as well as shed light on the forces of natural selection. We compared the patterns of variation in these parts of the genome using two datasets that we assembled for this study that are both genomic in scale. Three independent analyses show that around the time of the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa, chromosome X experienced much more genetic drift than is expected from the pattern on the autosomes. This is not predicted by known episodes of demographic history, and we found no similar patterns associated with the dispersals into East Asia and Europe. We conclude that a sex-biased process that reduced the female effective population size, or an episode of natural selection unusually affecting chromosome X, was associated with the founding of non-African populations.
////////////////////////////////////Darwinian evolution provides a wonderful explanation for physical
pain: it has survival value, and that's pretty much the story. But
the full range of our suffering goes way beyond physical pain.
Buddhism meditation practice lets us witness the difference between
the pain that belongs to the body and the pain that is created by the
mind. And it provides a systematic, though certainly not easy,
technique for eliminating the later.
>
Even with purely physical pain, not all of it has survival value.
Examples: pain from childbirth, terminal cancer, shingles, the
various neuropathies in which irritated pain neurons fire in the
absence of any surrounding tissue damage. True, the suffering from
physical pain can be ameliorated by learning to overcome the
associated fear, to engage in various relaxation techniques and
physical therapy exercises, to persist in one's usual activities
despite pain, and probably to engage in various forms of meditation.
But people like to believe that their suffering serves some purpose.
(Giving birth is a fine purpose, but why should it be painful? And
death is not always so.)
My own general explanation of suffering is that in order for
organisms that can get around on their own to survive and evolve,
they must not only learn to avoid tissue damage; they must as well
have a biologic drive to survive. And yet in order for us to evolve,
we have to die and make way for new generations. So the biologic
drive to survive must be frustrated. This works better as an
explanation for psychic distress than it does for physical pain from
such things as childbirth, terminal cancer, shingles and
neuropathies. About the best that can be said for such conditions is
that they amount to collateral damage.
And then there is the suffering that involves neither physical pain
nor unhelpful attitudes: the punishing auditory hallucinations of a
schizophrenia, the hypervigilence, emotional numbing and flashbacks
of PTSD, the black hole of despair in severe depression. Cognitive
therapy can help in some such cases, as can medication, but these
things are not merely a matter of mistaken thinking: there is actual
tissue damage in the brain. Presumably the damage can also occur in
the part of the brain which enables us to experience insight, though
exactly where that part is located either has not been determined, or
has been and I have not yet heard about it. How does any of this
have survival value?
It was long ago discovered that the very painful, debilitating and
life-shortening disease of sicle cell anemia has survival value in
areas endemic to malaria, in that those heterozygous to the condition
are more resistant to malaria. If you are homozygous it is just
tough luck. Perhaps other diseases, whether they affect the brain or
other organ systems, will also turn out to be relics of the interplay
between genetics and environment. For example, the calorie-hoarding
propensity found in obesity has survival advantage in places like
Eastern Europe where for millenia there were frequent famines. Now
that food is more widely and consistently available, people get fat
and develop diabetes and other problems.
J
/////////////////////////////////// "Avoiding Temptation"
It is so difficult this time of the year for me to
follow my own advice with everyone bringing candy,
cakes, etc. (I have a sweet tooth.)
It is too tempting for me to leave the "goodies"
alone, so I am trying to get most of them out of
the house immediately.
As I was unbuttoning my belt after having much
too much to eat yesterday, I asked myself why I
was dealing myself such misery. I know in my heart
of hearts that I feel sooooooooo much better
when I don't eat those sweets at all.
Years ago I had a boss who had a stroke and
recovered with only a slight limp. He lost a lot
of weight and was very thin. When offered
some goodies at a party, he refused. He said that
if he ever took the first bite he would be in trouble.
He would want to eat the whole platter of goodies.
This is good advice for me and for you. Don't
get started eating the goodies in the first place!
They are so hard to leave alone after that first bite.
As with many other things, they are like that old
commercial, "Bet you can't eat just one!"
Avoiding them altogether may be the best thing
you can do for yourself this season.
////////////////////////////////////Set in Our Ways: Why Change Is So Hard
Millions of us dream of transforming our lives, but few of us are able to make major changes after our 20s. Here's why
By Nikolas Westerhoff
Share
Reddit Review it on NewsTrust
Fark
ShareThis
Exclusive to iStockphoto
Key Concepts
* Studies of personality development often focus on traits such as extroversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism and openness to new experiences. In most people, these traits change more during young adulthood than any other period of life, including adolescence. Openness typically increases during a person’s 20s and goes into a gradual decline after that.
* This pattern of personality development seems to hold true across cultures. Although some see that as evidence that genes determine our personality, many researchers theorize that personality traits change during young adulthood because this is a time of life when people assume new roles: finding a partner, starting a family and beginning a career.
* Personality can continue to change somewhat in middle and old age, but openness to new experiences tends to decline gradually until about age 60. After that, some people become more open again, perhaps because their responsibilities for raising a family and earning a living have been lifted.
///////////////////////////////////DARK MATTER/ENERGY
By studying far-flung galaxy clusters, astronomers are able to look back in time at the state of those objects millions or even billions of years ago, when the light just now reaching us was emitted. By comparing relatively close clusters with those more distant, the physical evolution of these gargantuan structures can be traced over time. Their observed development is "exactly what's expected for a universe with a low density of matter and a high density of dark energy," Vikhlinin said. (By current estimates, dark energy makes up nearly three quarters of the universe, dark matter comprises another 20 to 25 percent, and ordinary matter—all that we can see and touch—constitutes a mere 4 percent.)
What Vikhlinin and his co-authors observed is also what was expected for a universe described by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, the reigning theory of gravity. At the news conference, Princeton University astrophysicist David Spergel, who did not contribute to the research, called this further confirmation of dark energy "a triumph of general relativity."
Study co-author William Forman, a CfA astrophysicist, noted that although general relativity fit well with his team's observations, Einstein's vision may still require future adjustments. Livio agrees, but believes that the galaxy-cluster result nonetheless provides an important test for relativity. "There was the potential here, with this method," he says, "to tell us whether we had to modify our theory of gravity."
/////////////////////////////The fossil record tells us that the oldest member of our own species lived 195,000 years ago in what is now Ethiopia. From there it spread out across the globe. By 10,000 years ago modern humans had successfully colonized each of the continents save Antarctica, and adaptations to these many locales (among other evolutionary forces) led to what we loosely call races. Groups living in different places evidently retained just enough connections with one another to avoid evolving into separate species. With the globe fairly well covered, one might expect that the time for evolving was pretty much finished.
But that turns out not to be the case. In a study published a year ago Henry C. Harpending of the University of Utah, John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and their colleagues analyzed data from the international haplotype map of the human genome [see “Traces of a Distant Past,” by Gary Stix; Scientific American, July 2008]. They focused on genetic markers in 270 people from four groups: Han Chinese, Japanese, Yoruba and northern Europeans. They found that at least 7 percent of human genes underwent evolution as recently as 5,000 years ago. Much of the change involved adaptations to particular environments, both natural and human-shaped. For example, few people in China and Africa can digest fresh milk into adulthood, whereas almost everyone in Sweden and Denmark can. This ability presumably arose as an adaptation to dairy farming.
////////////////////////////1. He´s got the whole world in His hands,
|: He´s got the whole world in His hands, :|
He´s got the whole world in His hands.
2. He´s got the wind and the rain in His hands,
|: He´s got the wind and the rain in His hands, :|
He´s got the whole world in His hands.
3. He´s got the the tiny little baby in His hands,
|: He´s got the the tiny little baby in His hands, :|
He´s got the whole world in His hands.
4. He´s got you and me, brother, in His hands,
|: He´s got you and me, brother, in His hands, :|
He´s got the whole world in His hands.
5. He's got ev'rybody here in His hands.
|: He's got ev'rybody here in His hands. :|
He's got the whole world in His hands.
/////////////////////////////////////
Saturday 20 December 2008
Thursday 18 December 2008
BLUE LIGHT PREVNTS SUICD
There is a lot of research into the psychology of color, but not as much has looked into the color of blue illumination itself (as opposed to the color of an object or wall). But some research looking into short wavelength light (blue) has demonstrated that it is a potentially effective treatment for seasonal affective disorder (a seasonal type of depression; see for instance, Glickman, et al., 2006), and helps to reduce the stress response in fish (it hasn’t been yet tested on humans).
If this finding is robust and the behavior change associated with it is still prevalent a few years from now (when everyone has become accustomed to the new light color), it would be an interesting finding. A simple, inexpensive change might be effective in helping reduce at least one method of suicide (and reduce crime to boot).
///////////////////////////////DRD2 GENE=HGHR EDUCN
Gene Reduces College-Going for Men Who Lack Social Support
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Young men are less likely to attend college if they carry a common form of a gene associated with poor impulse control, a new study has found. But the study also found that a strong environment—a high-quality high school and heavily involved parents—can counteract that genetic risk. For boys with this gene who grow up in supportive environments, there was no drop in college attendance.
The study, which was written by three sociologists and a behavioral geneticist, examined genes and survey data from more than 2,500 people who have participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The paper appears in the November issue of the American Journal of Sociology, which was published last week.
The lead author, Michael J. Shanahan, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, insists that the study should not be used to support fatalism or genetic determinism. On the contrary, he says, the study offers a new kind of evidence about the roles that social institutions play in reproducing or ameliorating inequality. ...
Among white men, 59.3 percent of those without DRD2 risk continued their educations beyond high school, whereas only 44.4 percent of those with DRD2 risk did so. Among African-American men, 51.5 percent of those without DRD2 risk continued their educations, but only 34.7 percent of those with DRD2 risk did so.
//////////////////////////////////// Natural ability can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation; but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural ability.--SCHOPENHAUER.
/////////////////////////////////////
If this finding is robust and the behavior change associated with it is still prevalent a few years from now (when everyone has become accustomed to the new light color), it would be an interesting finding. A simple, inexpensive change might be effective in helping reduce at least one method of suicide (and reduce crime to boot).
///////////////////////////////DRD2 GENE=HGHR EDUCN
Gene Reduces College-Going for Men Who Lack Social Support
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Young men are less likely to attend college if they carry a common form of a gene associated with poor impulse control, a new study has found. But the study also found that a strong environment—a high-quality high school and heavily involved parents—can counteract that genetic risk. For boys with this gene who grow up in supportive environments, there was no drop in college attendance.
The study, which was written by three sociologists and a behavioral geneticist, examined genes and survey data from more than 2,500 people who have participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The paper appears in the November issue of the American Journal of Sociology, which was published last week.
The lead author, Michael J. Shanahan, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, insists that the study should not be used to support fatalism or genetic determinism. On the contrary, he says, the study offers a new kind of evidence about the roles that social institutions play in reproducing or ameliorating inequality. ...
Among white men, 59.3 percent of those without DRD2 risk continued their educations beyond high school, whereas only 44.4 percent of those with DRD2 risk did so. Among African-American men, 51.5 percent of those without DRD2 risk continued their educations, but only 34.7 percent of those with DRD2 risk did so.
//////////////////////////////////// Natural ability can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation; but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural ability.--SCHOPENHAUER.
/////////////////////////////////////
Wednesday 17 December 2008
BLUE LIGHT PREVNTS SUICD
There is a lot of research into the psychology of color, but not as much has looked into the color of blue illumination itself (as opposed to the color of an object or wall). But some research looking into short wavelength light (blue) has demonstrated that it is a potentially effective treatment for seasonal affective disorder (a seasonal type of depression; see for instance, Glickman, et al., 2006), and helps to reduce the stress response in fish (it hasn’t been yet tested on humans).
If this finding is robust and the behavior change associated with it is still prevalent a few years from now (when everyone has become accustomed to the new light color), it would be an interesting finding. A simple, inexpensive change might be effective in helping reduce at least one method of suicide (and reduce crime to boot).
///////////////////////////////DRD2 GENE=HGHR EDUCN
Gene Reduces College-Going for Men Who Lack Social Support
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Young men are less likely to attend college if they carry a common form of a gene associated with poor impulse control, a new study has found. But the study also found that a strong environment—a high-quality high school and heavily involved parents—can counteract that genetic risk. For boys with this gene who grow up in supportive environments, there was no drop in college attendance.
The study, which was written by three sociologists and a behavioral geneticist, examined genes and survey data from more than 2,500 people who have participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The paper appears in the November issue of the American Journal of Sociology, which was published last week.
The lead author, Michael J. Shanahan, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, insists that the study should not be used to support fatalism or genetic determinism. On the contrary, he says, the study offers a new kind of evidence about the roles that social institutions play in reproducing or ameliorating inequality. ...
Among white men, 59.3 percent of those without DRD2 risk continued their educations beyond high school, whereas only 44.4 percent of those with DRD2 risk did so. Among African-American men, 51.5 percent of those without DRD2 risk continued their educations, but only 34.7 percent of those with DRD2 risk did so.
//////////////////////////////////// Natural ability can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation; but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural ability.--SCHOPENHAUER.
/////////////////////////////////////
If this finding is robust and the behavior change associated with it is still prevalent a few years from now (when everyone has become accustomed to the new light color), it would be an interesting finding. A simple, inexpensive change might be effective in helping reduce at least one method of suicide (and reduce crime to boot).
///////////////////////////////DRD2 GENE=HGHR EDUCN
Gene Reduces College-Going for Men Who Lack Social Support
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Young men are less likely to attend college if they carry a common form of a gene associated with poor impulse control, a new study has found. But the study also found that a strong environment—a high-quality high school and heavily involved parents—can counteract that genetic risk. For boys with this gene who grow up in supportive environments, there was no drop in college attendance.
The study, which was written by three sociologists and a behavioral geneticist, examined genes and survey data from more than 2,500 people who have participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The paper appears in the November issue of the American Journal of Sociology, which was published last week.
The lead author, Michael J. Shanahan, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, insists that the study should not be used to support fatalism or genetic determinism. On the contrary, he says, the study offers a new kind of evidence about the roles that social institutions play in reproducing or ameliorating inequality. ...
Among white men, 59.3 percent of those without DRD2 risk continued their educations beyond high school, whereas only 44.4 percent of those with DRD2 risk did so. Among African-American men, 51.5 percent of those without DRD2 risk continued their educations, but only 34.7 percent of those with DRD2 risk did so.
//////////////////////////////////// Natural ability can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation; but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural ability.--SCHOPENHAUER.
/////////////////////////////////////
CDS 171208-JB CTS,DTHS EVRYWHR
////////////////
CME Late Preterm Infants May Have Long-Term Neurodevelopmental Complications
A study shows that even in infants born at 34 to 36 weeks, prematurity is associated with long-term neurodevelopmental consequences, with risks increasing as gestation decreases.
//////////////////Apparent Rise in Autism Prevalence Linked to Shift in Age at Diagnosis
The increase in autism prevalence that many studies have reported in recent years may be attributable, at least in part, to a drop in the age at diagnosis over time, the results of a Danish study suggest.
////////////////////////////////Procalcitonin Discriminates Between Bacterial and Aseptic Meningitis in Children
Serum procalcitonin is highly sensitive and specific for differentiating bacterial from aseptic meningitis in pediatric patients, physicians in Europe report in the December issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
///////////////////////////////////bl.com=At age 4, success is...not peeing in your pants.
At age 12, success is...having friends.
At age 16, success is...having a driver's license.
At age 20, success is...having sex.
At age 35, success is...having money.
At age 50, success is...having money.
At age 60, success is...having sex.
At age 70, success is...having a driver's license.
At age 75, success is...having friends.
At age 90, success is...not peeing in your pants.
//////////////////////////////ACD ATTCK DSFGRD VCTMS-IND-GONBU-MHU
///////////////////////////
Learn To Be Quiet
Franz Kafka
You need not do anything.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
You need not even listen, just wait.
You need not even wait,
just learn to be quiet, still and solitary.
And the world will freely offer itself to you unmasked.
It has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
Franz Kafka, 1883-1924, was a popular Czech novelist and short story author.
WANTED ALL WORKS TO BE BURNT AFTR HS DTH
///////////////////////////////Depression and Anxiety Stress the Heart
Although depression and anxiety are risk factors for cardiovascular disease, new research suggests mental stressors may also contribute to adoption of health behaviors that exacerbate cardiac ...
http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/12/16/depression-and-anxiety-stress-the-heart/3511.html
//////////////////////////////////Ever wonder about those people who spend $2.00 apiece on those little bottles of Evian water? Try spelling Evian backwards. NAIVE
////////////////////////////\TOWELHEAD-FLM SN
//////////////////////////////
From Chapter VII: The Yoga of the Division of Wisdom
VII.8. RASO'HAMAPSU KAUNTEYA PRABHAASMI SHASHISOORYAYOH;
PRANAVAH SARVAVEDESHU SHABDAH KHE PAURUSHAM NRISHU.
(Krishna speaking to Arjuna)
I am the sapidity in water, O Arjuna! I am the light in the moon
and the sun; I am the syllable Om in all the Vedas, sound in
ether, and virility in men.
VII.9. PUNYO GANDHAH PRITHIVYAAM CHA TEJASHCHAASMI VIBHAAVASAU;
JEEVANAM SARVABHOOTESHU TAPASHCHAASMI TAPASWISHU.
I am the sweet fragrance in earth and the brilliance in fire, the
life in all beings; and I am austerity in ascetics.
THAT IS PANGON
////////////////////////
CME Late Preterm Infants May Have Long-Term Neurodevelopmental Complications
A study shows that even in infants born at 34 to 36 weeks, prematurity is associated with long-term neurodevelopmental consequences, with risks increasing as gestation decreases.
//////////////////Apparent Rise in Autism Prevalence Linked to Shift in Age at Diagnosis
The increase in autism prevalence that many studies have reported in recent years may be attributable, at least in part, to a drop in the age at diagnosis over time, the results of a Danish study suggest.
////////////////////////////////Procalcitonin Discriminates Between Bacterial and Aseptic Meningitis in Children
Serum procalcitonin is highly sensitive and specific for differentiating bacterial from aseptic meningitis in pediatric patients, physicians in Europe report in the December issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
///////////////////////////////////bl.com=At age 4, success is...not peeing in your pants.
At age 12, success is...having friends.
At age 16, success is...having a driver's license.
At age 20, success is...having sex.
At age 35, success is...having money.
At age 50, success is...having money.
At age 60, success is...having sex.
At age 70, success is...having a driver's license.
At age 75, success is...having friends.
At age 90, success is...not peeing in your pants.
//////////////////////////////ACD ATTCK DSFGRD VCTMS-IND-GONBU-MHU
///////////////////////////
Learn To Be Quiet
Franz Kafka
You need not do anything.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
You need not even listen, just wait.
You need not even wait,
just learn to be quiet, still and solitary.
And the world will freely offer itself to you unmasked.
It has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.
Franz Kafka, 1883-1924, was a popular Czech novelist and short story author.
WANTED ALL WORKS TO BE BURNT AFTR HS DTH
///////////////////////////////Depression and Anxiety Stress the Heart
Although depression and anxiety are risk factors for cardiovascular disease, new research suggests mental stressors may also contribute to adoption of health behaviors that exacerbate cardiac ...
http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/12/16/depression-and-anxiety-stress-the-heart/3511.html
//////////////////////////////////Ever wonder about those people who spend $2.00 apiece on those little bottles of Evian water? Try spelling Evian backwards. NAIVE
////////////////////////////\TOWELHEAD-FLM SN
//////////////////////////////
From Chapter VII: The Yoga of the Division of Wisdom
VII.8. RASO'HAMAPSU KAUNTEYA PRABHAASMI SHASHISOORYAYOH;
PRANAVAH SARVAVEDESHU SHABDAH KHE PAURUSHAM NRISHU.
(Krishna speaking to Arjuna)
I am the sapidity in water, O Arjuna! I am the light in the moon
and the sun; I am the syllable Om in all the Vedas, sound in
ether, and virility in men.
VII.9. PUNYO GANDHAH PRITHIVYAAM CHA TEJASHCHAASMI VIBHAAVASAU;
JEEVANAM SARVABHOOTESHU TAPASHCHAASMI TAPASWISHU.
I am the sweet fragrance in earth and the brilliance in fire, the
life in all beings; and I am austerity in ascetics.
THAT IS PANGON
////////////////////////
Monday 15 December 2008
SARCASM TEST FOR DEMENTIA
Sarcasm Useful For Detecting Dementia
Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday December 15, @12:28PM
from the yeah-that'll-work dept.
Medicine
An anonymous reader writes "Sarcasm may be the lowest form of wit, but Australian scientists are using it to diagnose dementia, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of New South Wales, found that patients under the age of 65 suffering from frontotemporal dementia (FTD), the second most common form of dementia, cannot detect when someone is being sarcastic."
////////////////////////////A 2007 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that one's level of physical fitness correlated with long-term survival better than one's level of obesity. That is, overweight people who were fit had a lower risk of death than non-overweight people who were sedentary.
//////////////////////////////A 2006 report in The Lancet suggested that individuals who were overweight but not obese (BMI of 25 to 29.9), actually had a slightly lower risk than patients who of "normal" weight (BMI 20 to 24.9).
////////////////////////On a population basis, being merely overweight (BMI between 25 and 29.9) is also associated with increased risk. But on an individual basis, the level of risk really does depend on several other factors, including your fitness levels, the amount of "excess" weight accounted for by muscle mass rather than fat, and your waist-to-hip ratio. (Your waist size should be less than your hip size.)
Importance of Your Waist-to-Hip Ratio
////////////////////////////////
Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday December 15, @12:28PM
from the yeah-that'll-work dept.
Medicine
An anonymous reader writes "Sarcasm may be the lowest form of wit, but Australian scientists are using it to diagnose dementia, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of New South Wales, found that patients under the age of 65 suffering from frontotemporal dementia (FTD), the second most common form of dementia, cannot detect when someone is being sarcastic."
////////////////////////////A 2007 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that one's level of physical fitness correlated with long-term survival better than one's level of obesity. That is, overweight people who were fit had a lower risk of death than non-overweight people who were sedentary.
//////////////////////////////A 2006 report in The Lancet suggested that individuals who were overweight but not obese (BMI of 25 to 29.9), actually had a slightly lower risk than patients who of "normal" weight (BMI 20 to 24.9).
////////////////////////On a population basis, being merely overweight (BMI between 25 and 29.9) is also associated with increased risk. But on an individual basis, the level of risk really does depend on several other factors, including your fitness levels, the amount of "excess" weight accounted for by muscle mass rather than fat, and your waist-to-hip ratio. (Your waist size should be less than your hip size.)
Importance of Your Waist-to-Hip Ratio
////////////////////////////////
OBSTY CRSS
Obesity 'controlled by the brain'
BBC News - 5 hours ago
Seven new gene variants discovered by scientists suggest strongly that obesity is largely a mind problem. The findings suggest the brain plays the dominant role in controlling appetite, and that obesity cannot easily be blamed on metabolic flaws.
/////////////////////////////////
Talking therapy has 'lasting impact' on those with eating disorders
Daily Mail - 48 minutes ago
By Daily Mail Reporter People with eating disorders could benefit from a special form of cognitive behavioural therapy, which works on their obsessive feelings researchers said.
//////////////////////////////////PEDIGREE COLLAPSE
2, 4, 8, 16 ... how can you always have MORE ancestors as you go back in time?
August 21, 1987
Dear Cecil:
Have you ever considered the puzzle of doubling ancestors? Everybody has two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents, and so on back through time, with the number of ancestors doubling in each generation. Go back 30 generations and the number of ancestors tops one billion. Eventually we arrive at a time when we have more ancestors than there could have been people in the world. How can this be? Common sense, not to mention the book of Genesis, suggests the human race started off with a handful of individuals whose numbers steadily increased. What are the implications of these two surging numerical tides, ancestors and descendants, butting head to head? Enclosed is a $10 check for the trouble of a personal reply.
— George M., Monrovia, California
Dear George:
You ask a question as cosmic as this one and you think a lousy sawbuck is going to cover it? Keep your money until you can fork over some real cash. The ancestor puzzle has its explanation in what one genealogist has called "pedigree collapse." This occurs when relatives, usually cousins, marry, in effect narrowing the family tree. (Fortunately for the gene pool, most of the cousins are only distantly related.) When this happens you find that many of the "slots" in a given generation of your family tree are filled by duplicates.
Consider an extreme case. Mr. and Mrs. Nosepicker have two children, a girl and a boy. These two develop an unnatural yen for one another and marry. Six months later the girl gives birth to an eight-pound horseradish with a lisp. In theory, the horseradish has four grandparents. In reality, its maternal and paternal grandparents are identical. Two of the four grandparent slots are thus filled by duplicates--pedigree collapse with a vengeance. Only slightly less extreme is the case of Alfonso XIII of Spain (1886-1941). Because of inbreeding in the royal family, he had only ten great-great-grandparents instead of the expected 16.
If you go back far enough, however, pedigree collapse happens to everybody. Think of your personal family tree as a diamond-shaped array imposed on the ever-spreading fan of human generations. (I told you this was cosmic.) As you trace your pedigree back, the number of ancestors in each generation increases steadily up to a point, then slows, stops, and finally collapses. Go back far enough and no doubt you would find that you and all your ancestors were descended from the first human tribe in some remote Mesopotamian village. Or, if you like, from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
/////////////////////////////////////
The fossil record tells us that the oldest member of our own species lived 195,000 years ago in what is now Ethiopia. From there it spread out across the globe. By 10,000 years ago modern humans had successfully colonized each of the continents save Antarctica, and adaptations to these many locales (among other evolutionary forces) led to what we loosely call races. Groups living in different places evidently retained just enough connections with one another to avoid evolving into separate species. With the globe fairly well covered, one might expect that the time for evolving was pretty much finished.
sci am
////////////////////////////////////////But that turns out not to be the case. In a study published a year ago Henry C. Harpending of the University of Utah, John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and their colleagues analyzed data from the international haplotype map of the human genome [see “Traces of a Distant Past,” by Gary Stix; Scientific American, July 2008]. They focused on genetic markers in 270 people from four groups: Han Chinese, Japanese, Yoruba and northern Europeans. They found that at least 7 percent of human genes underwent evolution as recently as 5,000 years ago. Much of the change involved adaptations to particular environments, both natural and human-shaped. For example, few people in China and Africa can digest fresh milk into adulthood, whereas almost everyone in Sweden and Denmark can. This ability presumably arose as an adaptation to dairy farming.
////////////////////////////////////////Even if intelligence is not at risk, some scientists speculate that other, more heritable traits could be accumulating in the human species and that these traits are anything but good for us. For instance, behavior disorders such as Tourette’s syndrome and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may, unlike intelligence, be encoded by but a few genes, in which case their heritability could be very high. If these disorders increase one’s chance of having children, they could become ever more prevalent with each generation. David Comings, a specialist in these two diseases, has argued in scientific papers and a 1996 book that these conditions are more common than they used to be and that evolution might be one reason: women with these syndromes are less likely to attend college and thus tend to have more children than those who do not. But other researchers have brought forward serious concerns about Comings’s methodology. It is not clear whether the incidence of Tourette’s and ADHD is, in fact, increasing at all. Research into these areas is also made more difficult because of the perceived social stigma that many of these afflictions attach to their carriers.
//////////////////////////////////18 LAKH SPECIES IN WORLD
/////////////////////////////////MR JB CTS-RECESSN
///////////////////////////////////ESN=
Boy or girl? It's in the father's genes
Published: Thursday, December 11, 2008 - 11:58 in Psychology & Sociology
Learn more about: evolutionary biology genes newcastle university prospective parents x chromosome y chromosomes
A Newcastle University study involving thousands of families is helping prospective parents work out whether they are likely to have sons or daughters. The work by Corry Gellatly, a research scientist at the university, has shown that men inherit a tendency to have more sons or more daughters from their parents. This means that a man with many brothers is more likely to have sons, while a man with many sisters is more likely to have daughters.
The research, published online today by the journal Evolutionary Biology, involved a study of 927 family trees containing information on 556,387 people from North America and Europe going back to 1600.
"The family tree study showed that whether you're likely to have a boy or a girl is inherited. We now know that men are more likely to have sons if they have more brothers but are more likely to have daughters if they have more sisters. However, in women, you just can't predict it," Mr Gellatly explains.
Men determine the sex of a baby depending on whether their sperm is carrying an X or Y chromosome. An X chromosome combines with the mother's X chromosome to make a baby girl (XX) and a Y chromosome will combine with the mother's to make a boy (XY).
The Newcastle University study suggests that an as-yet undiscovered gene controls whether a man's sperm contains more X or more Y chromosomes, which affects the sex of his children. On a larger scale, the number of men with more X sperm compared to the number of men with more Y sperm affects the sex ratio of children born each year.
Sons or daughters?
A gene consists of two parts, known as alleles, one inherited from each parent. In his paper, Mr Gellatly demonstrates that it is likely men carry two different types of allele, which results in three possible combinations in a gene that controls the ratio of X and Y sperm;
* Men with the first combination, known as mm, produce more Y sperm and have more sons.
* The second, known as mf, produce a roughly equal number of X and Y sperm and have an approximately equal number of sons and daughters.
* The third, known as ff produce more X sperm and have more daughters.
"The gene that is passed on from both parents, which causes some men to have more sons and some to have more daughters, may explain why we see the number of men and women roughly balanced in a population. If there are too many males in the population, for example, females will more easily find a mate, so men who have more daughters will pass on more of their genes, causing more females to be born in later generations," says Newcastle University researcher Mr Gellatly.
More boys born after the wars
In many of the countries that fought in the World Wars, there was a sudden increase in the number of boys born afterwards. The year after World War I ended, an extra two boys were born for every 100 girls in the UK, compared to the year before the war started. The gene, which Mr Gellatly has described in his research, could explain why this happened.
As the odds were in favour of men with more sons seeing a son return from the war, those sons were more likely to father boys themselves because they inherited that tendency from their fathers. In contrast, men with more daughters may have lost their only sons in the war and those sons would have been more likely to father girls. This would explain why the men that survived the war were more likely to have male children, which resulted in the boy-baby boom.
In most countries, for as long as records have been kept, more boys than girls have been born. In the UK and US, for example, there are currently about 105 males born for every 100 females.
It is well-documented that more males die in childhood and before they are old enough to have children. So in the same way that the gene may cause more boys to be born after wars, it may also cause more boys to be born each year.
How does the gene work?
The trees (below) illustrate how the gene works. It is a simplified example, in which men either have only sons, only daughters, or equal numbers of each, though in reality it is less clear cut. It shows that although the gene has no effect in females, they also carry the gene and pass it to their children.
In the first family tree (A) the grandfather is mm, so all his children are male. He only passes on the m allele, so his children are more likely to have the mm combination of alleles themselves. As a result, those sons may also have only sons (as shown). The grandsons have the mf combination of alleles, because they inherited an m from their father and an f from their mother. As a result, they have an equal number of sons and daughters (the great grandchildren).
In the second tree (B) the grandfather is ff, so all his children are female, they have the ff combination of alleles because their father and mother were both ff. One of the female children has her own children with a male who has the mm combination of alleles. That male determines the sex of the children, so the grandchildren are all male. The grandsons have the mf combination of alleles, because they inherited an m from their father and f from their mother. As a result, they have an equal number of sons and daughters (the great-grandchildren).
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/press.release/photos/516diagram_06.1.jpg
//////////////////////////////////////////
Research team explores causes of death on Mount Everest
Published: Tuesday, December 9, 2008 - 19:43 in Health & Medicine
Learn more about: british medical journal high altitude cerebral edema high altitude pulmonary edema leading causes of death massachusetts general hospital mount everest
An international research team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators has conducted the first detailed analysis of deaths during expeditions to the summit of Mt. Everest. They found that most deaths occur during descents from the summit in the so-called "death zone" above 8,000 meters and also identified factors that appear to be associated with a greater risk of death, particularly symptoms of high-altitude cerebral edema. The report, which will appear the December 20/27 issue of the British Medical Journal has been released online. "We know that climbing Everest is dangerous, but exactly how and why people have died had not been studied," says Paul Firth, MB, ChB, of the MGH Department of Anesthesia, who led the study "It had been assumed that avalanches and falling ice – particularly in the Khumbu Icefall on the Nepal route – were the leading causes of death and that high-altitude pulmonary edema would be a common problem at such extreme altitude. But our results do not support either assumption."
Thousands of climbers have attempted to reach the summit of 8,850-meter (29,000-foot) Mount Everest since the 1920s. In order to examine the circumstances surrounding all deaths on Everest expeditions, the research team – which included investigators from three British hospitals and the University of Toronto – reviewed available expedition records including the Himalayan Database, a compilation of information from all expeditions to 300 major peaks in the world's highest range. Of a total of reported 212 deaths on Everest from 1921 to 2006, 192 occurred above Base Camp, the last encampment before technical (roped) climbing begins.
///////////////////////////////
Mayo researchers find potential links between breast density and breast cancer risk
Published: Saturday, December 13, 2008 - 08:22 in Health & Medicine
Learn more about: breast cancer risk breast density core needle biopsies dense breast tissue dr ghosh mayo clinic researchers
Having dense breasts - areas that show up light on a mammogram - is strongly associated with increased breast cancer risk, but "why" remains to be answered. Now, by examining dense and non-dense tissue taken from the breasts of healthy volunteers, researchers from Mayo Clinic have found several potential links. In two studies being presented simultaneously in poster form at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center-American Association for Cancer Research (CTRC-AACR) San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, the researchers report that dense breast tissue contains more cells believed to give rise to breast cancer, compared to non-dense tissue. "We found a dramatic difference in tissue composition between dense and non-dense tissue in the breast," says Karthik Ghosh, M.D., a Mayo Clinic breast cancer researcher and physician who led one study.
In a second study, researchers also found that dense breast tissue has more aromatase enzyme than non-dense tissue. This is significant because aromatase helps convert androgen hormones into estrogen, and estrogen is important in breast cancer development, says that study's lead investigator, Celine Vachon, Ph.D.
///////////////////////////////////////
Inside the consumer mind: brain scans reveal choice mechanism (12/15/2008)
Tags:
advertising, decisions
That gorgeous sweater has your name written on it. But, those red suede pumps are calling your name too. What goes through your mind as you consider these choices? During normal economic times, you might indulge in a whole new wardrobe. But now, with considerably tighter budgets, consumers don't have the luxury of saying "It's the holidays -- I'll just buy both!" What happens in buyers' brains as they consider difficult choices? What can retailers do to make the choice process easier for consumers?
Akshay Rao, a marketing professor at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, has conducted research that shows that decision making is simplified when a consumer considers a third, less attractive option. For example, when a second, less desirable sweater is also considered in the situation above, the shopper could solve their conundrum by choosing the more attractive sweater. The less appealing sweater plays the role of a "decoy" that makes the other sweater appear more pleasing than before. "In some ways, it is quite straightforward," said Rao. "When a consumer is faced with a choice, the presence of a relatively unattractive option improves the choice share of the most similar, better item."
In their forthcoming Journal of Marketing Research article "Trade-off Aversion as an Explanation for the Attraction Effect: A functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study," Rao and co-author William Hedgcock (University of Iowa) explain the reasons for this decoy effect. Volunteers had their brains scanned while they made choices between several sets of equally appealing options as well as choice sets that included a third, somewhat less attractive option. Overall, the presence of the extra, "just okay" possibility systematically increased preference for the better options. The fMRI scans showed that when making a choice between only two, equally preferred options; subjects tended to display irritation because of the difficulty of the choice process. The presence of the third option made the choice process easier and relatively more pleasurable.
BM=
////////////////////////////////
The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Author and stress expert
BBC News - 5 hours ago
Seven new gene variants discovered by scientists suggest strongly that obesity is largely a mind problem. The findings suggest the brain plays the dominant role in controlling appetite, and that obesity cannot easily be blamed on metabolic flaws.
/////////////////////////////////
Talking therapy has 'lasting impact' on those with eating disorders
Daily Mail - 48 minutes ago
By Daily Mail Reporter People with eating disorders could benefit from a special form of cognitive behavioural therapy, which works on their obsessive feelings researchers said.
//////////////////////////////////PEDIGREE COLLAPSE
2, 4, 8, 16 ... how can you always have MORE ancestors as you go back in time?
August 21, 1987
Dear Cecil:
Have you ever considered the puzzle of doubling ancestors? Everybody has two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents, and so on back through time, with the number of ancestors doubling in each generation. Go back 30 generations and the number of ancestors tops one billion. Eventually we arrive at a time when we have more ancestors than there could have been people in the world. How can this be? Common sense, not to mention the book of Genesis, suggests the human race started off with a handful of individuals whose numbers steadily increased. What are the implications of these two surging numerical tides, ancestors and descendants, butting head to head? Enclosed is a $10 check for the trouble of a personal reply.
— George M., Monrovia, California
Dear George:
You ask a question as cosmic as this one and you think a lousy sawbuck is going to cover it? Keep your money until you can fork over some real cash. The ancestor puzzle has its explanation in what one genealogist has called "pedigree collapse." This occurs when relatives, usually cousins, marry, in effect narrowing the family tree. (Fortunately for the gene pool, most of the cousins are only distantly related.) When this happens you find that many of the "slots" in a given generation of your family tree are filled by duplicates.
Consider an extreme case. Mr. and Mrs. Nosepicker have two children, a girl and a boy. These two develop an unnatural yen for one another and marry. Six months later the girl gives birth to an eight-pound horseradish with a lisp. In theory, the horseradish has four grandparents. In reality, its maternal and paternal grandparents are identical. Two of the four grandparent slots are thus filled by duplicates--pedigree collapse with a vengeance. Only slightly less extreme is the case of Alfonso XIII of Spain (1886-1941). Because of inbreeding in the royal family, he had only ten great-great-grandparents instead of the expected 16.
If you go back far enough, however, pedigree collapse happens to everybody. Think of your personal family tree as a diamond-shaped array imposed on the ever-spreading fan of human generations. (I told you this was cosmic.) As you trace your pedigree back, the number of ancestors in each generation increases steadily up to a point, then slows, stops, and finally collapses. Go back far enough and no doubt you would find that you and all your ancestors were descended from the first human tribe in some remote Mesopotamian village. Or, if you like, from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
/////////////////////////////////////
The fossil record tells us that the oldest member of our own species lived 195,000 years ago in what is now Ethiopia. From there it spread out across the globe. By 10,000 years ago modern humans had successfully colonized each of the continents save Antarctica, and adaptations to these many locales (among other evolutionary forces) led to what we loosely call races. Groups living in different places evidently retained just enough connections with one another to avoid evolving into separate species. With the globe fairly well covered, one might expect that the time for evolving was pretty much finished.
sci am
////////////////////////////////////////But that turns out not to be the case. In a study published a year ago Henry C. Harpending of the University of Utah, John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and their colleagues analyzed data from the international haplotype map of the human genome [see “Traces of a Distant Past,” by Gary Stix; Scientific American, July 2008]. They focused on genetic markers in 270 people from four groups: Han Chinese, Japanese, Yoruba and northern Europeans. They found that at least 7 percent of human genes underwent evolution as recently as 5,000 years ago. Much of the change involved adaptations to particular environments, both natural and human-shaped. For example, few people in China and Africa can digest fresh milk into adulthood, whereas almost everyone in Sweden and Denmark can. This ability presumably arose as an adaptation to dairy farming.
////////////////////////////////////////Even if intelligence is not at risk, some scientists speculate that other, more heritable traits could be accumulating in the human species and that these traits are anything but good for us. For instance, behavior disorders such as Tourette’s syndrome and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may, unlike intelligence, be encoded by but a few genes, in which case their heritability could be very high. If these disorders increase one’s chance of having children, they could become ever more prevalent with each generation. David Comings, a specialist in these two diseases, has argued in scientific papers and a 1996 book that these conditions are more common than they used to be and that evolution might be one reason: women with these syndromes are less likely to attend college and thus tend to have more children than those who do not. But other researchers have brought forward serious concerns about Comings’s methodology. It is not clear whether the incidence of Tourette’s and ADHD is, in fact, increasing at all. Research into these areas is also made more difficult because of the perceived social stigma that many of these afflictions attach to their carriers.
//////////////////////////////////18 LAKH SPECIES IN WORLD
/////////////////////////////////MR JB CTS-RECESSN
///////////////////////////////////ESN=
Boy or girl? It's in the father's genes
Published: Thursday, December 11, 2008 - 11:58 in Psychology & Sociology
Learn more about: evolutionary biology genes newcastle university prospective parents x chromosome y chromosomes
A Newcastle University study involving thousands of families is helping prospective parents work out whether they are likely to have sons or daughters. The work by Corry Gellatly, a research scientist at the university, has shown that men inherit a tendency to have more sons or more daughters from their parents. This means that a man with many brothers is more likely to have sons, while a man with many sisters is more likely to have daughters.
The research, published online today by the journal Evolutionary Biology, involved a study of 927 family trees containing information on 556,387 people from North America and Europe going back to 1600.
"The family tree study showed that whether you're likely to have a boy or a girl is inherited. We now know that men are more likely to have sons if they have more brothers but are more likely to have daughters if they have more sisters. However, in women, you just can't predict it," Mr Gellatly explains.
Men determine the sex of a baby depending on whether their sperm is carrying an X or Y chromosome. An X chromosome combines with the mother's X chromosome to make a baby girl (XX) and a Y chromosome will combine with the mother's to make a boy (XY).
The Newcastle University study suggests that an as-yet undiscovered gene controls whether a man's sperm contains more X or more Y chromosomes, which affects the sex of his children. On a larger scale, the number of men with more X sperm compared to the number of men with more Y sperm affects the sex ratio of children born each year.
Sons or daughters?
A gene consists of two parts, known as alleles, one inherited from each parent. In his paper, Mr Gellatly demonstrates that it is likely men carry two different types of allele, which results in three possible combinations in a gene that controls the ratio of X and Y sperm;
* Men with the first combination, known as mm, produce more Y sperm and have more sons.
* The second, known as mf, produce a roughly equal number of X and Y sperm and have an approximately equal number of sons and daughters.
* The third, known as ff produce more X sperm and have more daughters.
"The gene that is passed on from both parents, which causes some men to have more sons and some to have more daughters, may explain why we see the number of men and women roughly balanced in a population. If there are too many males in the population, for example, females will more easily find a mate, so men who have more daughters will pass on more of their genes, causing more females to be born in later generations," says Newcastle University researcher Mr Gellatly.
More boys born after the wars
In many of the countries that fought in the World Wars, there was a sudden increase in the number of boys born afterwards. The year after World War I ended, an extra two boys were born for every 100 girls in the UK, compared to the year before the war started. The gene, which Mr Gellatly has described in his research, could explain why this happened.
As the odds were in favour of men with more sons seeing a son return from the war, those sons were more likely to father boys themselves because they inherited that tendency from their fathers. In contrast, men with more daughters may have lost their only sons in the war and those sons would have been more likely to father girls. This would explain why the men that survived the war were more likely to have male children, which resulted in the boy-baby boom.
In most countries, for as long as records have been kept, more boys than girls have been born. In the UK and US, for example, there are currently about 105 males born for every 100 females.
It is well-documented that more males die in childhood and before they are old enough to have children. So in the same way that the gene may cause more boys to be born after wars, it may also cause more boys to be born each year.
How does the gene work?
The trees (below) illustrate how the gene works. It is a simplified example, in which men either have only sons, only daughters, or equal numbers of each, though in reality it is less clear cut. It shows that although the gene has no effect in females, they also carry the gene and pass it to their children.
In the first family tree (A) the grandfather is mm, so all his children are male. He only passes on the m allele, so his children are more likely to have the mm combination of alleles themselves. As a result, those sons may also have only sons (as shown). The grandsons have the mf combination of alleles, because they inherited an m from their father and an f from their mother. As a result, they have an equal number of sons and daughters (the great grandchildren).
In the second tree (B) the grandfather is ff, so all his children are female, they have the ff combination of alleles because their father and mother were both ff. One of the female children has her own children with a male who has the mm combination of alleles. That male determines the sex of the children, so the grandchildren are all male. The grandsons have the mf combination of alleles, because they inherited an m from their father and f from their mother. As a result, they have an equal number of sons and daughters (the great-grandchildren).
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/press.release/photos/516diagram_06.1.jpg
//////////////////////////////////////////
Research team explores causes of death on Mount Everest
Published: Tuesday, December 9, 2008 - 19:43 in Health & Medicine
Learn more about: british medical journal high altitude cerebral edema high altitude pulmonary edema leading causes of death massachusetts general hospital mount everest
An international research team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators has conducted the first detailed analysis of deaths during expeditions to the summit of Mt. Everest. They found that most deaths occur during descents from the summit in the so-called "death zone" above 8,000 meters and also identified factors that appear to be associated with a greater risk of death, particularly symptoms of high-altitude cerebral edema. The report, which will appear the December 20/27 issue of the British Medical Journal has been released online. "We know that climbing Everest is dangerous, but exactly how and why people have died had not been studied," says Paul Firth, MB, ChB, of the MGH Department of Anesthesia, who led the study "It had been assumed that avalanches and falling ice – particularly in the Khumbu Icefall on the Nepal route – were the leading causes of death and that high-altitude pulmonary edema would be a common problem at such extreme altitude. But our results do not support either assumption."
Thousands of climbers have attempted to reach the summit of 8,850-meter (29,000-foot) Mount Everest since the 1920s. In order to examine the circumstances surrounding all deaths on Everest expeditions, the research team – which included investigators from three British hospitals and the University of Toronto – reviewed available expedition records including the Himalayan Database, a compilation of information from all expeditions to 300 major peaks in the world's highest range. Of a total of reported 212 deaths on Everest from 1921 to 2006, 192 occurred above Base Camp, the last encampment before technical (roped) climbing begins.
///////////////////////////////
Mayo researchers find potential links between breast density and breast cancer risk
Published: Saturday, December 13, 2008 - 08:22 in Health & Medicine
Learn more about: breast cancer risk breast density core needle biopsies dense breast tissue dr ghosh mayo clinic researchers
Having dense breasts - areas that show up light on a mammogram - is strongly associated with increased breast cancer risk, but "why" remains to be answered. Now, by examining dense and non-dense tissue taken from the breasts of healthy volunteers, researchers from Mayo Clinic have found several potential links. In two studies being presented simultaneously in poster form at the Cancer Therapy & Research Center-American Association for Cancer Research (CTRC-AACR) San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, the researchers report that dense breast tissue contains more cells believed to give rise to breast cancer, compared to non-dense tissue. "We found a dramatic difference in tissue composition between dense and non-dense tissue in the breast," says Karthik Ghosh, M.D., a Mayo Clinic breast cancer researcher and physician who led one study.
In a second study, researchers also found that dense breast tissue has more aromatase enzyme than non-dense tissue. This is significant because aromatase helps convert androgen hormones into estrogen, and estrogen is important in breast cancer development, says that study's lead investigator, Celine Vachon, Ph.D.
///////////////////////////////////////
Inside the consumer mind: brain scans reveal choice mechanism (12/15/2008)
Tags:
advertising, decisions
That gorgeous sweater has your name written on it. But, those red suede pumps are calling your name too. What goes through your mind as you consider these choices? During normal economic times, you might indulge in a whole new wardrobe. But now, with considerably tighter budgets, consumers don't have the luxury of saying "It's the holidays -- I'll just buy both!" What happens in buyers' brains as they consider difficult choices? What can retailers do to make the choice process easier for consumers?
Akshay Rao, a marketing professor at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, has conducted research that shows that decision making is simplified when a consumer considers a third, less attractive option. For example, when a second, less desirable sweater is also considered in the situation above, the shopper could solve their conundrum by choosing the more attractive sweater. The less appealing sweater plays the role of a "decoy" that makes the other sweater appear more pleasing than before. "In some ways, it is quite straightforward," said Rao. "When a consumer is faced with a choice, the presence of a relatively unattractive option improves the choice share of the most similar, better item."
In their forthcoming Journal of Marketing Research article "Trade-off Aversion as an Explanation for the Attraction Effect: A functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study," Rao and co-author William Hedgcock (University of Iowa) explain the reasons for this decoy effect. Volunteers had their brains scanned while they made choices between several sets of equally appealing options as well as choice sets that included a third, somewhat less attractive option. Overall, the presence of the extra, "just okay" possibility systematically increased preference for the better options. The fMRI scans showed that when making a choice between only two, equally preferred options; subjects tended to display irritation because of the difficulty of the choice process. The presence of the third option made the choice process easier and relatively more pleasurable.
BM=
////////////////////////////////
The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Author and stress expert
Friday 5 December 2008
Tuesday 2 December 2008
CDS 021208-AOD-1993-1ST OPAN-WF ILL-ATOBCFTOD
///////////////
>"The beginning is always today."
> - Mary Wollstonecraft
////////////////SINCERELY
FCK U
///////////////Celts descended from Spanish fishermen, study finds
By Guy Adams
Don't tell the locals, but the hordes of British holidaymakers who visited Spain this summer were, in fact, returning to their ancestral home.
A team from Oxford University has discovered that the Celts, Britain's indigenous people, are descended from a tribe of Iberian fishermen who crossed the Bay of Biscay 6,000 years ago. DNA analysis reveals they have an almost identical genetic "fingerprint" to the inhabitants of coastal regions of Spain, whose own ancestors migrated north between 4,000 and 5,000BC.
////////////////////////////
>"The beginning is always today."
> - Mary Wollstonecraft
////////////////SINCERELY
FCK U
///////////////Celts descended from Spanish fishermen, study finds
By Guy Adams
Don't tell the locals, but the hordes of British holidaymakers who visited Spain this summer were, in fact, returning to their ancestral home.
A team from Oxford University has discovered that the Celts, Britain's indigenous people, are descended from a tribe of Iberian fishermen who crossed the Bay of Biscay 6,000 years ago. DNA analysis reveals they have an almost identical genetic "fingerprint" to the inhabitants of coastal regions of Spain, whose own ancestors migrated north between 4,000 and 5,000BC.
////////////////////////////
Saturday 29 November 2008
CDS 291108-5/6 NIGHTS IN A ROW
/////////////////Money can't buy you happiness, but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.
(Spike Milligan)
////////////////
(Spike Milligan)
////////////////
Wednesday 26 November 2008
CDS 261108-AD JB CT CRSS
///////////////Eljay writes: "I agree with Tony that the fine tuning problem is a red
herring, but I agree by a different principle. The answer* to the
fine tuning problem being information theory (q.v. I Is The Law, by
Robert Matthews, New Scientist, 1999-Jan-30) ."
Unfortunately, Eljay, I can't access the article in question. But
having spent more than twenty years studying, contemplating and
discussing the fine-tuning problem and also quite a bit of time with
information theory, I think I can make a general statement why
information theory is not likely to provide an answer.
First, the fundamental notion of information requires the notion of a
highly organized context (see note below). Now the fine tuning
problem is at its base the problem of why we live in a highly
organized world. To have a full account of what information is, we
have to understand how it is that the world is organized, and to have
a full account of how it is that the world is organized, we must have
an answer to the fine-tuning problem.
The hope has long been that there was some necessary reason why the
parameters are they way they are, and thus we could discover a
theoretical reason for the fine-tuning problem. But it is now largely
agreed upon in the scientific community that this is not likely.
String theory has definitely come to the conclusion that there is no
necessary reason, and that's why the notion of infinite universes and
the anthropic principle are increasingly being taken seriously within
that theory.
I find the anthropic principle an ugly idea, particularly the version
that depends on an infinite number of universes. It explains nothing
because it explains everything. A recent version of this is based on
the idea of endless inflation. The problem with this is that it takes
an idea that explains a particular empirical problem associated with
big bang theory -- the uniformity of the back ground radiation -- and
makes this a fundamental cosmological notion -- one that ultimately
violates the conservation of matter/energy. As in the case of
information theory above, a more particular theory trumps a more
general theory.
Anyway, I'm sure that people will keep trying to make the fine-tuning
problem go away -- scientists hate mysteries, and the fine-tuning
problem is a huge mystery. Further, the fact that the world is highly
organized has always been an embarrassment for science, because
science has no real explanation for it. But the problem will not go easy.
*Note: Information, can be loosely defined as "a difference that makes
a difference." E.g., in an ecosystem, if a mutation (a difference)
simply causes an animal to die, it does not make a difference to the
ecosystem, but if it causes an animal to be a better predator, than it
does make a difference, the mutation becomes a gene, and it is part of
the total genetic information of an ecosystem. But it is only that an
ecosystem is a dynamic system, that something can make a difference,
i.e. that information can exist within it.
T
/////////////////////////////I disagree that the question is unanswerable. The answer may well be
that there is no reason or cause. The cosmos just IS! Isn't that
astounding?
You may be right, Brer Dave, but if that is the case, the question of Why
has not been answered. A Why question requires a Because (by cause of)
response.
It seems to me that the only response to the question can be "Because
nothing causes something," but that's a little too Buddhist to make a lot of
sense to me.
F
///////////////////////////////Well is it known that ambition can creep as well as soar.
— Edmund Burke
////////////////////////////
herring, but I agree by a different principle. The answer* to the
fine tuning problem being information theory (q.v. I Is The Law, by
Robert Matthews, New Scientist, 1999-Jan-30) ."
Unfortunately, Eljay, I can't access the article in question. But
having spent more than twenty years studying, contemplating and
discussing the fine-tuning problem and also quite a bit of time with
information theory, I think I can make a general statement why
information theory is not likely to provide an answer.
First, the fundamental notion of information requires the notion of a
highly organized context (see note below). Now the fine tuning
problem is at its base the problem of why we live in a highly
organized world. To have a full account of what information is, we
have to understand how it is that the world is organized, and to have
a full account of how it is that the world is organized, we must have
an answer to the fine-tuning problem.
The hope has long been that there was some necessary reason why the
parameters are they way they are, and thus we could discover a
theoretical reason for the fine-tuning problem. But it is now largely
agreed upon in the scientific community that this is not likely.
String theory has definitely come to the conclusion that there is no
necessary reason, and that's why the notion of infinite universes and
the anthropic principle are increasingly being taken seriously within
that theory.
I find the anthropic principle an ugly idea, particularly the version
that depends on an infinite number of universes. It explains nothing
because it explains everything. A recent version of this is based on
the idea of endless inflation. The problem with this is that it takes
an idea that explains a particular empirical problem associated with
big bang theory -- the uniformity of the back ground radiation -- and
makes this a fundamental cosmological notion -- one that ultimately
violates the conservation of matter/energy. As in the case of
information theory above, a more particular theory trumps a more
general theory.
Anyway, I'm sure that people will keep trying to make the fine-tuning
problem go away -- scientists hate mysteries, and the fine-tuning
problem is a huge mystery. Further, the fact that the world is highly
organized has always been an embarrassment for science, because
science has no real explanation for it. But the problem will not go easy.
*Note: Information, can be loosely defined as "a difference that makes
a difference." E.g., in an ecosystem, if a mutation (a difference)
simply causes an animal to die, it does not make a difference to the
ecosystem, but if it causes an animal to be a better predator, than it
does make a difference, the mutation becomes a gene, and it is part of
the total genetic information of an ecosystem. But it is only that an
ecosystem is a dynamic system, that something can make a difference,
i.e. that information can exist within it.
T
/////////////////////////////I disagree that the question is unanswerable. The answer may well be
that there is no reason or cause. The cosmos just IS! Isn't that
astounding?
You may be right, Brer Dave, but if that is the case, the question of Why
has not been answered. A Why question requires a Because (by cause of)
response.
It seems to me that the only response to the question can be "Because
nothing causes something," but that's a little too Buddhist to make a lot of
sense to me.
F
///////////////////////////////Well is it known that ambition can creep as well as soar.
— Edmund Burke
////////////////////////////
Sunday 23 November 2008
OUT OF AFRICA
Out of Africa model
See also: Recent single origin hypothesis
According to the Out of Africa Model, developed by Chris Stringer and Peter Andrews, modern H. sapiens evolved in Africa 200,000 years ago. Homo sapiens began migrating from Africa between 70,000 – 50,000 years ago and would eventually replace existing hominid species in Europe and Asia.[56][57] The Out of Africa Model has gained support by recent research using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). After analysing genealogy trees constructed using 133 types of mtDNA, they concluded that all were descended from a woman from Africa, dubbed Mitochondrial Eve.[58]
There are differing theories on whether there was a single exodus, or several (a Multiple Dispersal Model). A Multiple Dispersal Model involves the Southern Dispersal theory,[59] which has gained support in recent years from genetic, linguistic and archaeological evidence. In this theory, there was a coastal dispersal of modern humans from the Horn of Africa around 70,000 years ago. This group helped to populate Southeast Asia and Oceania, explaining the discovery of early human sites in these areas much earlier than those in the Levant. A second wave of humans dispersed across the Sinai peninsula into Asia, resulting in the bulk of human population for Eurasia. This second group possessed a more sophisticated tool technology and was less dependent on coastal food sources than the original group. Much of the evidence for the first group's expansion would have been destroyed by the rising sea levels at the end of the Holocene era.[59]. The multiple dispersals models is contradicted by studies indicating that the populations of Eurasia and the populations of Southeast Asia and Oceania are all descended from the same mitochondrial DNA lineages. The study further indicates that there was most likely only one single migration out of Africa that gave rise to all Non-African populations.[60]
////////////////////////////////Debate Continues
Loring Brace, an anthropologist at University of Michigan and a proponent of the idea that people descended from Neanderthals — he argues that features of skulls show a steady progression from Neanderthal to human — says the DNA evidence does not sway him. Different patterns of movement may have caused mitochrondial DNA to diverge more quickly in the past, he says. "The whole picture is still very spotty," Brace says.
Erik Trinkaus, an anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis, says the DNA evidence does not disprove his assertion that the 25,000-year-old skeleton of child unearthed in Portugal is the descendent of a human-Neanderthal hybrid. The new research, he says, just shows interbreeding was not common.
"There is no contradiction," he says.
Goodwin also says his finding isn’t the final word. Perhaps Neanderthals and humans mated and produced sterile offspring, similar to mules, the crossbreed of horses and donkeys. "It’s very hard to prove any negative," Goodwin says. "I wouldn’t claim this to be conclusive."
///////////////////////////
See also: Recent single origin hypothesis
According to the Out of Africa Model, developed by Chris Stringer and Peter Andrews, modern H. sapiens evolved in Africa 200,000 years ago. Homo sapiens began migrating from Africa between 70,000 – 50,000 years ago and would eventually replace existing hominid species in Europe and Asia.[56][57] The Out of Africa Model has gained support by recent research using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). After analysing genealogy trees constructed using 133 types of mtDNA, they concluded that all were descended from a woman from Africa, dubbed Mitochondrial Eve.[58]
There are differing theories on whether there was a single exodus, or several (a Multiple Dispersal Model). A Multiple Dispersal Model involves the Southern Dispersal theory,[59] which has gained support in recent years from genetic, linguistic and archaeological evidence. In this theory, there was a coastal dispersal of modern humans from the Horn of Africa around 70,000 years ago. This group helped to populate Southeast Asia and Oceania, explaining the discovery of early human sites in these areas much earlier than those in the Levant. A second wave of humans dispersed across the Sinai peninsula into Asia, resulting in the bulk of human population for Eurasia. This second group possessed a more sophisticated tool technology and was less dependent on coastal food sources than the original group. Much of the evidence for the first group's expansion would have been destroyed by the rising sea levels at the end of the Holocene era.[59]. The multiple dispersals models is contradicted by studies indicating that the populations of Eurasia and the populations of Southeast Asia and Oceania are all descended from the same mitochondrial DNA lineages. The study further indicates that there was most likely only one single migration out of Africa that gave rise to all Non-African populations.[60]
////////////////////////////////Debate Continues
Loring Brace, an anthropologist at University of Michigan and a proponent of the idea that people descended from Neanderthals — he argues that features of skulls show a steady progression from Neanderthal to human — says the DNA evidence does not sway him. Different patterns of movement may have caused mitochrondial DNA to diverge more quickly in the past, he says. "The whole picture is still very spotty," Brace says.
Erik Trinkaus, an anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis, says the DNA evidence does not disprove his assertion that the 25,000-year-old skeleton of child unearthed in Portugal is the descendent of a human-Neanderthal hybrid. The new research, he says, just shows interbreeding was not common.
"There is no contradiction," he says.
Goodwin also says his finding isn’t the final word. Perhaps Neanderthals and humans mated and produced sterile offspring, similar to mules, the crossbreed of horses and donkeys. "It’s very hard to prove any negative," Goodwin says. "I wouldn’t claim this to be conclusive."
///////////////////////////
JUPITER RADIO SIGNALS ON AM RADIO--DIFFRNTLY,NNDTHRAL CDE
///////////////////NEANDETHRAL CODE
///////////////////////Neanderthals are the closest hominid relatives of modern humans. The two species co-existed in Europe and western Asia as late as 30,000 years ago.
///////////////////////MGNFCNT TRCK ART OF PKSTN
////////////////////////The bias that most colored our view of Neanderthal man is the belief that evolution is an inherently progressive process. Evolution, it was believed, led through imperfect and primitive stages until finally achieving its pinnacle in Homo sapiens. But Stephen J. Gould and others spent their careers smashing this image of evolution. Gould argued that evolution is not inherently progressive. It merely adapts species to their local and immediate conditions. Any “progress” is purely an epiphenomenon. Gould’s non-progressivist view of evolution has dramatically shifted the consensus view of how evolution plays out over time, but there are still those who feel (and I think with good reason) that there may be a statistical trend toward something that can meaningfully be called progress at some times in some evolutionary lineages. This remains, as far as I can tell, a point of contention.
//////////////////////////////////The homo sapien’s tools are a lot smaller, which probably means you can carry more of them around, more conveniently. If you’re nomadic, a smaller tool could be a big advantage.
/////////////////////////////////xcerpt from High-Achieving Genes article found at:
http://www.forbes.com/2007/02/25/genghis-khan-descendants-lead_achieve07_cz_cz_0301khan.html:
“While some chunks of DNA are common today thanks to the conquest of kings or historical flukes, others have become widespread thanks to good old natural selection. People from time to time have been born with mutant genes that gave them a slight reproductive edge, one that their offspring enjoyed as well. These lucky mutants might be less likely to die of malaria, for example, or be better able to tolerate lactose or handle the complexities of full-blown language. In any case, their versions of genes spread through the human population while others dwindled away.
We’ll never know exactly who first carried those adaptive genes. But ultimately that doesn’t matter. It’s the genes, not the people, who have achieved this kind of greatness. The starkest proof of this comes from a gene called microcephalin, which is involved in brain development. All humans carry some version of microcephalin. One version is far more common than the others, found in 70% of all people.
Recently scientists at the University of Chicago compared the different versions of microcephalin to figure out how long ago they all originated from a single ancestral gene. The answer was startling: over a million years ago–long before our species emerged. But weirder still, the most common version of microcephalin only began to spread 37,000 years ago. What was that version of microcephalin doing in the intervening time?
The best explanation for this finding is that the most common version of microcephalin in our species came to us from Neanderthals. Neanderthals and humans evolved from a common ancestor that lived in Africa about half a million years ago. The ancestors of Neanderthals moved out of Africa and arrived in Europe about 300,000 years ago. These rugged, barrel-chested people survived the vast flux of Ice Age rhythms, hunting and building shelters. They had Europe to themselves until about 45,000 years ago, when modern humans arrived from Africa.
The slender, clever Africans came to stay. Over the next 15,000 years or so, Neanderthals shrank back into remote mountain refuges, while modern humans spread across the continent. And then the last true Neanderthal died–yet another species hurled onto the ash heap of extinction.
Neanderthals and humans presumably could have interbred, just as closely related species of other mammals do today. And the microcephalin study suggests that they did. Their Neanderthal-human hybrid children carried genes from both species, but it appears that most of the genes from the Neanderthals gradually disappeared from the human gene pool.
Microcephalin was different, though. Humans who carried the Neanderthal version had more children than those who didn’t, and the gene spread steadily.
Scientists don’t yet know why this particular Neanderthal gene gave humans such a reproductive edge. But scientists do know that microcephalin helps build brains. Its name–which means “tiny head”–comes from the devastating birth defects that can be produced when the gene is crippled by a mutation. So it’s possible that the human mind itself was reshaped by a Neanderthal gene.
In evolution, it seems, achievement is a very strange thing. A gene may break free from its ancestral species and go on to enjoy greatness, even as that species vanishes into extinction.”
Carl Zimmer is the author of At the Water’s Edge and Evolution: The Triumph of An Idea, among other books.
////////////////////////neanderthals originated in Europe, presumably from Homo erectus ancestry
///////////////////////////..........I think the early suggestions that microcephalin was related to brain size and was derived from Neanderthals was quite speculative and seems to have not been verified. It seems like all it has going for it was the time association. If when the Neanderthal genome is sequenced they find the now more common variant of microcephalin, that may increase the likelihood of gene flow from Neanderthal to human. But the gene flow could have been the other way, the microcephalin variant may have occurred in the human line and then been transferred to Neanderthal.
/////////////////////////Homo neanderthalensis
King, 1864
///////////////////////////////Neanderthals were generally only 12 to 14 cm (4½-5½ in) shorter than modern humans, contrary to a common view of them as "very short" or "just over 5 feet". Based on 45 long bones from (at most) 14 males and 7 females, Neanderthal males averaged between 164 to 168 cm (5 ft 4½ in to 5 ft 6 in) and females 152 to 156 cm (5 ft to 5 ft 1½) tall. Compared to Europeans some 20,000 years ago, it is nearly identical, perhaps slightly higher. Considering the body build of Neanderthals, new body weight estimates show they are only slightly above the cm/weight or the Body Mass Index of modern Americans or Canadians.[24]
/////////////////////EXTINCN-CANNOT PASS ONETO THEIR GENES
//////////////////////On November 16, 2006, Science Daily published an interview that suggested that Neanderthals and ancient humans probably did not interbreed. Edward M. Rubin, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), sequenced a fraction (0.00002) of genomic nuclear DNA (nDNA) from a 38,000-year-old Vindia Neanderthal femur bone. They calculated the common ancestor to be about 353,000 years ago, and a complete separation of the ancestors of the species about 188,000 years ago. Their results show the genomes of modern humans and Neanderthals are at least 99.5% identical, but despite this genetic similarity, and despite the two species having coexisted in the same geographic region for thousands of years, Rubin and his team did not find any evidence of any significant crossbreeding between the two. Rubin said, “While unable to definitively conclude that interbreeding between the two species of humans did not occur, analysis of the nuclear DNA from the Neanderthal suggests the low likelihood of it having occurred at any appreciable level.”
///////////////////////////////////Neanderthals also performed many sophisticated tasks which are normally associated only with humans. For example, it is known that they controlled fire, constructed complex shelters, and skinned animals. A trap excavated at La Cotte de St Brelade in Jersey gives testament to their intelligence and success as hunters [59].
Particularly intriguing is a hollowed-out bear femur with holes which may have been deliberately bored into it. This bone was found in western Slovenia in 1995, near a Mousterian fireplace, but its significance is still a matter of dispute. Some paleoanthropologists have hypothesized that it was a flute, while others believe it was created by accident through the chomping action of another bear. See: Divje Babe.
/////////////////////////////////Neanderthal children might have grown faster than modern human children. Modern humans have the slowest body growth of any mammal during childhood (the period between infancy and puberty) with lack of growth during this period being made up later in an adolescent growth spurt.[86][87][88] The possibility that Neanderthal childhood growth was different was first raised in 1928 by the excavators of the Mousterian rock-shelter of a Neanderthal juvenile.[89] Arthur Keith in 1931[90] wrote, “Apparently Neanderthal children assumed the appearances of maturity at an earlier age than modern children”. The earliness of body maturation can be inferred from the maturity of a juvenile's fossile remains and estimated age of death. The age at which juveniles die can be indirectly inferred from their tooth morphology, development and emergence. This has been argued to both support[91] and question[92] the existence of a maturation difference between Neanderthals and modern humans. Since 2007 tooth age can be directly calculated using the noninvasive imaging of growth patterns in tooth enamel by means of x-ray synchrotron microtomography.[93] This research supports the existence of a much quicker physical development in Neanderthals than in modern human children.[94] The x-ray synchrotron microtomography study of early H. sapiens sapiens argues that this difference existed between the two species as far back as 160,000 years before present.[95]
/////////////////////////////////Professor Trenton Holliday is a body plan expert from Tulane University, New Orleans. After seeing the skeleton, he believed it had comparatively short limbs and a deep, wide ribcage. This body plan minimises the body's surface area to retain heat, and keeps vital organs embedded deep within the body to insulate them from the cold.
///////////////////////////////The forests on which they depended began to recede, giving way to open plains. On these plains, Professor Shea believes, the Neanderthal thrusting spear and ambush strategy wouldn't have worked. So Neanderthals retreated with the forests, their population falling as their hunting grounds shrank.
///////////////////////////////Returning to the skeleton, Professor Holliday found an explanation for this - that the short limbs and wide pelvis of Neanderthals would have resulted in less efficient locomotion than modern humans. The energy costs in travelling would have been higher, and this would have been a serious evolutionary disadvantage.
For Neanderthal, it was an ironic end. The very body plan that had made Neanderthal so well adapted to the Ice Age, had locked him into an evolutionary cul-de-sac. He might have been better adapted to the cold than the first modern humans, but as the landscape changed, it was our ancestors, who could take better advantage of the more open environment, who survived.
///////////////////////////////Several features of the skeleton unique to Neanderthals appear to be related to cold climate adaptations. These features include limb-bone proportions and muscle attachments indicative of a broad, slightly short, and strong body; a large, rounded nasal opening; and a suite of anatomical traits of the skull (compare the crania of H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens).
///////////////////////////////////PORTUGAL -ATLANTIC SHORE-LAST PLACE OF THE NEANDETHRALS B4 EXTINCN
//////////////////////////////////////Neanderthal:
Neanderthal skeleton vs. modern human
Neanderthal skeleton vs. modern human
© AMNH Exhibitions
* long, low braincase and double-arched browridge
* flaring, funnel-shaped chest
* flaring pelvis
* robust fingers and toes
Modern human:
* tall, rounded braincase and small, divided browridge
* cylindrical, barrel-shaped chest
* narrow pelvis
* slender fingers and toes
///////////////////////////////////
///////////////////////Neanderthals are the closest hominid relatives of modern humans. The two species co-existed in Europe and western Asia as late as 30,000 years ago.
///////////////////////MGNFCNT TRCK ART OF PKSTN
////////////////////////The bias that most colored our view of Neanderthal man is the belief that evolution is an inherently progressive process. Evolution, it was believed, led through imperfect and primitive stages until finally achieving its pinnacle in Homo sapiens. But Stephen J. Gould and others spent their careers smashing this image of evolution. Gould argued that evolution is not inherently progressive. It merely adapts species to their local and immediate conditions. Any “progress” is purely an epiphenomenon. Gould’s non-progressivist view of evolution has dramatically shifted the consensus view of how evolution plays out over time, but there are still those who feel (and I think with good reason) that there may be a statistical trend toward something that can meaningfully be called progress at some times in some evolutionary lineages. This remains, as far as I can tell, a point of contention.
//////////////////////////////////The homo sapien’s tools are a lot smaller, which probably means you can carry more of them around, more conveniently. If you’re nomadic, a smaller tool could be a big advantage.
/////////////////////////////////xcerpt from High-Achieving Genes article found at:
http://www.forbes.com/2007/02/25/genghis-khan-descendants-lead_achieve07_cz_cz_0301khan.html:
“While some chunks of DNA are common today thanks to the conquest of kings or historical flukes, others have become widespread thanks to good old natural selection. People from time to time have been born with mutant genes that gave them a slight reproductive edge, one that their offspring enjoyed as well. These lucky mutants might be less likely to die of malaria, for example, or be better able to tolerate lactose or handle the complexities of full-blown language. In any case, their versions of genes spread through the human population while others dwindled away.
We’ll never know exactly who first carried those adaptive genes. But ultimately that doesn’t matter. It’s the genes, not the people, who have achieved this kind of greatness. The starkest proof of this comes from a gene called microcephalin, which is involved in brain development. All humans carry some version of microcephalin. One version is far more common than the others, found in 70% of all people.
Recently scientists at the University of Chicago compared the different versions of microcephalin to figure out how long ago they all originated from a single ancestral gene. The answer was startling: over a million years ago–long before our species emerged. But weirder still, the most common version of microcephalin only began to spread 37,000 years ago. What was that version of microcephalin doing in the intervening time?
The best explanation for this finding is that the most common version of microcephalin in our species came to us from Neanderthals. Neanderthals and humans evolved from a common ancestor that lived in Africa about half a million years ago. The ancestors of Neanderthals moved out of Africa and arrived in Europe about 300,000 years ago. These rugged, barrel-chested people survived the vast flux of Ice Age rhythms, hunting and building shelters. They had Europe to themselves until about 45,000 years ago, when modern humans arrived from Africa.
The slender, clever Africans came to stay. Over the next 15,000 years or so, Neanderthals shrank back into remote mountain refuges, while modern humans spread across the continent. And then the last true Neanderthal died–yet another species hurled onto the ash heap of extinction.
Neanderthals and humans presumably could have interbred, just as closely related species of other mammals do today. And the microcephalin study suggests that they did. Their Neanderthal-human hybrid children carried genes from both species, but it appears that most of the genes from the Neanderthals gradually disappeared from the human gene pool.
Microcephalin was different, though. Humans who carried the Neanderthal version had more children than those who didn’t, and the gene spread steadily.
Scientists don’t yet know why this particular Neanderthal gene gave humans such a reproductive edge. But scientists do know that microcephalin helps build brains. Its name–which means “tiny head”–comes from the devastating birth defects that can be produced when the gene is crippled by a mutation. So it’s possible that the human mind itself was reshaped by a Neanderthal gene.
In evolution, it seems, achievement is a very strange thing. A gene may break free from its ancestral species and go on to enjoy greatness, even as that species vanishes into extinction.”
Carl Zimmer is the author of At the Water’s Edge and Evolution: The Triumph of An Idea, among other books.
////////////////////////neanderthals originated in Europe, presumably from Homo erectus ancestry
///////////////////////////..........I think the early suggestions that microcephalin was related to brain size and was derived from Neanderthals was quite speculative and seems to have not been verified. It seems like all it has going for it was the time association. If when the Neanderthal genome is sequenced they find the now more common variant of microcephalin, that may increase the likelihood of gene flow from Neanderthal to human. But the gene flow could have been the other way, the microcephalin variant may have occurred in the human line and then been transferred to Neanderthal.
/////////////////////////Homo neanderthalensis
King, 1864
///////////////////////////////Neanderthals were generally only 12 to 14 cm (4½-5½ in) shorter than modern humans, contrary to a common view of them as "very short" or "just over 5 feet". Based on 45 long bones from (at most) 14 males and 7 females, Neanderthal males averaged between 164 to 168 cm (5 ft 4½ in to 5 ft 6 in) and females 152 to 156 cm (5 ft to 5 ft 1½) tall. Compared to Europeans some 20,000 years ago, it is nearly identical, perhaps slightly higher. Considering the body build of Neanderthals, new body weight estimates show they are only slightly above the cm/weight or the Body Mass Index of modern Americans or Canadians.[24]
/////////////////////EXTINCN-CANNOT PASS ONETO THEIR GENES
//////////////////////On November 16, 2006, Science Daily published an interview that suggested that Neanderthals and ancient humans probably did not interbreed. Edward M. Rubin, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), sequenced a fraction (0.00002) of genomic nuclear DNA (nDNA) from a 38,000-year-old Vindia Neanderthal femur bone. They calculated the common ancestor to be about 353,000 years ago, and a complete separation of the ancestors of the species about 188,000 years ago. Their results show the genomes of modern humans and Neanderthals are at least 99.5% identical, but despite this genetic similarity, and despite the two species having coexisted in the same geographic region for thousands of years, Rubin and his team did not find any evidence of any significant crossbreeding between the two. Rubin said, “While unable to definitively conclude that interbreeding between the two species of humans did not occur, analysis of the nuclear DNA from the Neanderthal suggests the low likelihood of it having occurred at any appreciable level.”
///////////////////////////////////Neanderthals also performed many sophisticated tasks which are normally associated only with humans. For example, it is known that they controlled fire, constructed complex shelters, and skinned animals. A trap excavated at La Cotte de St Brelade in Jersey gives testament to their intelligence and success as hunters [59].
Particularly intriguing is a hollowed-out bear femur with holes which may have been deliberately bored into it. This bone was found in western Slovenia in 1995, near a Mousterian fireplace, but its significance is still a matter of dispute. Some paleoanthropologists have hypothesized that it was a flute, while others believe it was created by accident through the chomping action of another bear. See: Divje Babe.
/////////////////////////////////Neanderthal children might have grown faster than modern human children. Modern humans have the slowest body growth of any mammal during childhood (the period between infancy and puberty) with lack of growth during this period being made up later in an adolescent growth spurt.[86][87][88] The possibility that Neanderthal childhood growth was different was first raised in 1928 by the excavators of the Mousterian rock-shelter of a Neanderthal juvenile.[89] Arthur Keith in 1931[90] wrote, “Apparently Neanderthal children assumed the appearances of maturity at an earlier age than modern children”. The earliness of body maturation can be inferred from the maturity of a juvenile's fossile remains and estimated age of death. The age at which juveniles die can be indirectly inferred from their tooth morphology, development and emergence. This has been argued to both support[91] and question[92] the existence of a maturation difference between Neanderthals and modern humans. Since 2007 tooth age can be directly calculated using the noninvasive imaging of growth patterns in tooth enamel by means of x-ray synchrotron microtomography.[93] This research supports the existence of a much quicker physical development in Neanderthals than in modern human children.[94] The x-ray synchrotron microtomography study of early H. sapiens sapiens argues that this difference existed between the two species as far back as 160,000 years before present.[95]
/////////////////////////////////Professor Trenton Holliday is a body plan expert from Tulane University, New Orleans. After seeing the skeleton, he believed it had comparatively short limbs and a deep, wide ribcage. This body plan minimises the body's surface area to retain heat, and keeps vital organs embedded deep within the body to insulate them from the cold.
///////////////////////////////The forests on which they depended began to recede, giving way to open plains. On these plains, Professor Shea believes, the Neanderthal thrusting spear and ambush strategy wouldn't have worked. So Neanderthals retreated with the forests, their population falling as their hunting grounds shrank.
///////////////////////////////Returning to the skeleton, Professor Holliday found an explanation for this - that the short limbs and wide pelvis of Neanderthals would have resulted in less efficient locomotion than modern humans. The energy costs in travelling would have been higher, and this would have been a serious evolutionary disadvantage.
For Neanderthal, it was an ironic end. The very body plan that had made Neanderthal so well adapted to the Ice Age, had locked him into an evolutionary cul-de-sac. He might have been better adapted to the cold than the first modern humans, but as the landscape changed, it was our ancestors, who could take better advantage of the more open environment, who survived.
///////////////////////////////Several features of the skeleton unique to Neanderthals appear to be related to cold climate adaptations. These features include limb-bone proportions and muscle attachments indicative of a broad, slightly short, and strong body; a large, rounded nasal opening; and a suite of anatomical traits of the skull (compare the crania of H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens).
///////////////////////////////////PORTUGAL -ATLANTIC SHORE-LAST PLACE OF THE NEANDETHRALS B4 EXTINCN
//////////////////////////////////////Neanderthal:
Neanderthal skeleton vs. modern human
Neanderthal skeleton vs. modern human
© AMNH Exhibitions
* long, low braincase and double-arched browridge
* flaring, funnel-shaped chest
* flaring pelvis
* robust fingers and toes
Modern human:
* tall, rounded braincase and small, divided browridge
* cylindrical, barrel-shaped chest
* narrow pelvis
* slender fingers and toes
///////////////////////////////////
MULTIVERSE-FINE TUNING
Anthropic Principle
Posted by: "Antony Van der Mude" vandermude@acm.org tonyvandermude
Sat Nov 22, 2008 9:33 am (PST)
> The multiverse may well be the only viable nonreligious explanation
> for what is often called the "fine-tuning problem" (or the anthropic
> principle)-- the baffling observation that the laws of the universe
> seem custom-tailored to favor the emergence of life.
I do not agree with this statement at all.
A fundamental result in twentieth century formal logic is the Recursion
Theorem which states that every enumeration of the partial recursive
functions contains a fixed point (a function that outputs its input).
That is a bunch of mathematical gobbledygook. Where it gets interesting
is a corollary whose upshot is that fixed point functions are
essentially machines that reproduce themselves. Computer viruses
implement the recursion theorem. Real viruses too. The proteins to copy
DNA, along with the DNA is a fixed point function. Evolution though
mutation is just a perturbation of this fixed point: instead of f(x)=x,
we get f(x)=x'.
The essence of life is the ability to reproduce. Therefore the
conclusion we can draw from the Recursion Theorem is that any universe
where it is possible to compute elementary arithmetic (functions that do
addition and subtraction) life is possible. Not having a range of
universes around to determine how likely arithmetic is, I can only
guess, but I would feel comfortable to claim that most possible
universes can implement arithmetic functions.
Therefore, the "fine tuning problem" is a red herring. It is very likely
that almost any universe having a basic complexity is capable of life,
although how that life is manifested can be wildly different from one
universe to another. The only fine tuning is in the result that life in
the universe is life in this planet and not a collection of quarks (or
other basic particles) in some kind interplanetary soup or at the heart
of that universe's equivalent of a sun.
A
////////////////////////////I'm getting beyond my level of neuroscience understanding here, but
I'll hazard some guesses. First of all, I'm not sure that there are
any clear operational definitions of losing the sense of self,
feeling that one is part of some larger community restricted to
humans or inclusive of other living beings, feeling at one with the
universe, and enlightenment. All 4 of these may be different ways of
describing the same experience, perhaps with some variation in degree
of intensity, or they may be distinctly different experiences.
Functional MRIs done on meditating Buddhist monks find an increase in
activity in certain limited areas of the prefrontal cortex, and what
is probably a reflex inhibition of the orientation- association area
in the left parietal lobe. I don't know how the monks involved
described their experience, and possibly a different cultural group
with substantially similar functional MRI scans would describe the
experience differently. Jill Taylor lost the function of her left
parietal orientation- association cortex when a malformed blood vessel
burst in her brain. She talked about feeling at one with the
universe, presumably in a way that she had not previously, and
experiencing herself very differently, but not about losing her sense
of self. Perhaps the 4 perceptual states categorized above each have
a distinctive functional MRI pattern, or maybe the patterns are the
same and different people just describe their experiences
differently. Or maybe functional MRI is not the tool with which the
differences in brain activity with these different experiences can be
visually detected.
The brain, in particular the pituitary gland, secretes not only
locally acting neurotransmitters but also blood borne hormones. One
in particular, oxytocin, is found in very high levels during labor
and breastfeeding, but is present in lower levels most of the time in
both men and women. People with autism have little or no oxytocin,
and they generally do not connect well with other people. One can
speculate that a low oxytocin level is the cause of their diminished
social perception, but this remains unproven. Meanwhile, some women
report an astounding sense of connectedness, sometimes to distant
generations of their blood line, both past and future, and sometimes
to other living beings or the universe as a whole as it presently
exists. I'm not aware that such experiences have been reported by
women who receive exogenous oxytocin to enhance uterine contractions,
but perhaps some have them. In my experience, those women find their
contractions much less bearable, and perhaps the pain distracts them
from a more pleasant experience.
Anyway, I would speculate that folks who easily experience a sense of
connectedness with at least some aspects of the world around them
might have higher levels of endogenous oxytocin, or that receptors on
their brain cells bind oxytocin more tightly, or that some other
mechanism that modulates oxytocin effects is at play. Perhaps the
act of meditation not only stimulates certain areas of the prefrontal
cortex, but also induces the pituitary gland to secrete more
oxytocin. Or perhaps the oxytocin-induced sense of connectedness and
the meditation-induced sense of connectedness are qualitatively
different.
Another possible neurochemical in play here is dopamine, which is a
localized neurotransmitter. Genereally people find high levels of
dopamine quite pleasant, and if I remember correctly, dopamine levels
are higher with and following orgasm. Much of drug, and presumably
also sex addiction seems to involve the seeking of higher dopamine
levels. My theory is that folks with this sort of problem have
defective dopamine receptors and need higher dopamine levels in order
to feel the way other people do. But unfortunately the drugs do more
than raise dopamine levels.
Of interest here is that dopamine receptors are also stimulated by
hihg levels of nor-epinephrine, which is probably the reason some
people like amphetamines as they induce nor-epinephrine secretion.
Folks with a manic episode, like folks on amphetamines, have a lot of
energy, overestimate what they can and have achieve(d), and don't
feel a need for much food or sleep, which leads me to believe that
nor-epinephrine levels are high during mania. So my guess would be
that a mania-induced sense of euphoria or peace is qualitatively
different from what occurs as the result of meditation or increased
oxytocin levels, if for no other reason than one does not see
amphetamine- like effects in those who are meditating. But perhaps
meditation increases dopamine, and produces a mania-like euphoria
directly, without the accompanying substantial nor-epinephrine
effects.
J
///////////////////////////////////To survive, a child has to learn to move about and manipulate
objects. I'm not sure readiness to experience or re-experience
oneness with the universe has got anything to do with developing
an "autonomous self" beyond the sense of being an organism with
physiologic needs that can move and manipulate objects in the
environment in order to satisfy those needs. Once the child has
learned how to satisfy its physiologic needs, presumably it could
also learn how to suppress activity in the orientation- association
area if taught the techniques for doing so."
>
The need to be an autonomous self from an evolutionary point of view
is obvious. We have to have the sense that we are in
a real way separate from our surroundings so that we will respond to
threats to our survival. So necessarily we carry around with us
almost all the time this sense of "me" that keeps us from the
experience of "oneness with the universe".
>
I just finished reading Sam Harris' "The End of Faith" wherein he has
a discussion about losing the sense of self and experiencing oneness
with the universe. I'm not sure why he included it in his book-
perhaps it is his opinion that this desire for experiencing oneness
with the universe was the original impetus for the development of
religions. In a sense such an experience is a pathology- as Judy
points out we must have a sense of self to function in the
environment. But in another sense it is, perhaps, enlightenment? I'm
not really familiar with this type of religious experience. Are there
any on list who have experienced this or who are chasing it?
>
When I had my big manic attack, there was a period of time when I was
apparently functioning but I don't remember any part of it. My wife
told me that during it I said, "I'm at perfect peace" while trying to
suppress laughter. It would be a shame if I experienced enlightenment
but don't remember it! One thing that did help precipitate this
attack was some writing I was doing, the theme of which was that the
fall of humankind was not knowledge of good and evil but knowledge of
self. It is this belief that we are a "self" that keeps us separate
from oneness with the universe. According to Sam Harris, it is
possible for humans to be conscious of the universe without also
being awareness of selfhood. Is this experience worth pursuing? The
older I get, the less I seem to want to pursue new things.
>
F
///////////////////////////////////Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
ROBERT FROST
////////////////////////NAZRUL-AMI BIDROHI RONOKLANTO,AMI SHEIDIN HOBO SHANTO....
Weary of struggles, I, the great rebel,
Shall rest in quiet only when I find
The sky and the air free of the piteous groans of the oppressed.
Only when the battle fields are cleared of jingling bloody sabres
Shall I, weary of struggles, rest in quiet,
I the great rebel.[8]
/////////////////////////////All You who Sleep Tonight
All you who sleep tonight
Far from the ones you love,
No hand to left or right
And emptiness above -
Know that you aren't alone
The whole world shares your tears,
Some for two nights or one,
And some for all their years.
Vikram Seth
////////////////////////////////EVOLUTION OF GIT
GASTROLITHS TO DIGEST FOOD-DINO,BIRDS-AS CRUSHER OF FOOD
///////////////////////////FOLK SCIENCE SO DIFFERENT FROM ACCURATE SCIENCE BCOS WE LIVE AND OBSERVE IN MIDDLE WORLD,NOT QUANTUM LEVEL OR ASTRONOMICAL LEVEL
///////////////////////
Posted by: "Antony Van der Mude" vandermude@acm.org tonyvandermude
Sat Nov 22, 2008 9:33 am (PST)
> The multiverse may well be the only viable nonreligious explanation
> for what is often called the "fine-tuning problem" (or the anthropic
> principle)-- the baffling observation that the laws of the universe
> seem custom-tailored to favor the emergence of life.
I do not agree with this statement at all.
A fundamental result in twentieth century formal logic is the Recursion
Theorem which states that every enumeration of the partial recursive
functions contains a fixed point (a function that outputs its input).
That is a bunch of mathematical gobbledygook. Where it gets interesting
is a corollary whose upshot is that fixed point functions are
essentially machines that reproduce themselves. Computer viruses
implement the recursion theorem. Real viruses too. The proteins to copy
DNA, along with the DNA is a fixed point function. Evolution though
mutation is just a perturbation of this fixed point: instead of f(x)=x,
we get f(x)=x'.
The essence of life is the ability to reproduce. Therefore the
conclusion we can draw from the Recursion Theorem is that any universe
where it is possible to compute elementary arithmetic (functions that do
addition and subtraction) life is possible. Not having a range of
universes around to determine how likely arithmetic is, I can only
guess, but I would feel comfortable to claim that most possible
universes can implement arithmetic functions.
Therefore, the "fine tuning problem" is a red herring. It is very likely
that almost any universe having a basic complexity is capable of life,
although how that life is manifested can be wildly different from one
universe to another. The only fine tuning is in the result that life in
the universe is life in this planet and not a collection of quarks (or
other basic particles) in some kind interplanetary soup or at the heart
of that universe's equivalent of a sun.
A
////////////////////////////I'm getting beyond my level of neuroscience understanding here, but
I'll hazard some guesses. First of all, I'm not sure that there are
any clear operational definitions of losing the sense of self,
feeling that one is part of some larger community restricted to
humans or inclusive of other living beings, feeling at one with the
universe, and enlightenment. All 4 of these may be different ways of
describing the same experience, perhaps with some variation in degree
of intensity, or they may be distinctly different experiences.
Functional MRIs done on meditating Buddhist monks find an increase in
activity in certain limited areas of the prefrontal cortex, and what
is probably a reflex inhibition of the orientation- association area
in the left parietal lobe. I don't know how the monks involved
described their experience, and possibly a different cultural group
with substantially similar functional MRI scans would describe the
experience differently. Jill Taylor lost the function of her left
parietal orientation- association cortex when a malformed blood vessel
burst in her brain. She talked about feeling at one with the
universe, presumably in a way that she had not previously, and
experiencing herself very differently, but not about losing her sense
of self. Perhaps the 4 perceptual states categorized above each have
a distinctive functional MRI pattern, or maybe the patterns are the
same and different people just describe their experiences
differently. Or maybe functional MRI is not the tool with which the
differences in brain activity with these different experiences can be
visually detected.
The brain, in particular the pituitary gland, secretes not only
locally acting neurotransmitters but also blood borne hormones. One
in particular, oxytocin, is found in very high levels during labor
and breastfeeding, but is present in lower levels most of the time in
both men and women. People with autism have little or no oxytocin,
and they generally do not connect well with other people. One can
speculate that a low oxytocin level is the cause of their diminished
social perception, but this remains unproven. Meanwhile, some women
report an astounding sense of connectedness, sometimes to distant
generations of their blood line, both past and future, and sometimes
to other living beings or the universe as a whole as it presently
exists. I'm not aware that such experiences have been reported by
women who receive exogenous oxytocin to enhance uterine contractions,
but perhaps some have them. In my experience, those women find their
contractions much less bearable, and perhaps the pain distracts them
from a more pleasant experience.
Anyway, I would speculate that folks who easily experience a sense of
connectedness with at least some aspects of the world around them
might have higher levels of endogenous oxytocin, or that receptors on
their brain cells bind oxytocin more tightly, or that some other
mechanism that modulates oxytocin effects is at play. Perhaps the
act of meditation not only stimulates certain areas of the prefrontal
cortex, but also induces the pituitary gland to secrete more
oxytocin. Or perhaps the oxytocin-induced sense of connectedness and
the meditation-induced sense of connectedness are qualitatively
different.
Another possible neurochemical in play here is dopamine, which is a
localized neurotransmitter. Genereally people find high levels of
dopamine quite pleasant, and if I remember correctly, dopamine levels
are higher with and following orgasm. Much of drug, and presumably
also sex addiction seems to involve the seeking of higher dopamine
levels. My theory is that folks with this sort of problem have
defective dopamine receptors and need higher dopamine levels in order
to feel the way other people do. But unfortunately the drugs do more
than raise dopamine levels.
Of interest here is that dopamine receptors are also stimulated by
hihg levels of nor-epinephrine, which is probably the reason some
people like amphetamines as they induce nor-epinephrine secretion.
Folks with a manic episode, like folks on amphetamines, have a lot of
energy, overestimate what they can and have achieve(d), and don't
feel a need for much food or sleep, which leads me to believe that
nor-epinephrine levels are high during mania. So my guess would be
that a mania-induced sense of euphoria or peace is qualitatively
different from what occurs as the result of meditation or increased
oxytocin levels, if for no other reason than one does not see
amphetamine- like effects in those who are meditating. But perhaps
meditation increases dopamine, and produces a mania-like euphoria
directly, without the accompanying substantial nor-epinephrine
effects.
J
///////////////////////////////////To survive, a child has to learn to move about and manipulate
objects. I'm not sure readiness to experience or re-experience
oneness with the universe has got anything to do with developing
an "autonomous self" beyond the sense of being an organism with
physiologic needs that can move and manipulate objects in the
environment in order to satisfy those needs. Once the child has
learned how to satisfy its physiologic needs, presumably it could
also learn how to suppress activity in the orientation- association
area if taught the techniques for doing so."
>
The need to be an autonomous self from an evolutionary point of view
is obvious. We have to have the sense that we are in
a real way separate from our surroundings so that we will respond to
threats to our survival. So necessarily we carry around with us
almost all the time this sense of "me" that keeps us from the
experience of "oneness with the universe".
>
I just finished reading Sam Harris' "The End of Faith" wherein he has
a discussion about losing the sense of self and experiencing oneness
with the universe. I'm not sure why he included it in his book-
perhaps it is his opinion that this desire for experiencing oneness
with the universe was the original impetus for the development of
religions. In a sense such an experience is a pathology- as Judy
points out we must have a sense of self to function in the
environment. But in another sense it is, perhaps, enlightenment? I'm
not really familiar with this type of religious experience. Are there
any on list who have experienced this or who are chasing it?
>
When I had my big manic attack, there was a period of time when I was
apparently functioning but I don't remember any part of it. My wife
told me that during it I said, "I'm at perfect peace" while trying to
suppress laughter. It would be a shame if I experienced enlightenment
but don't remember it! One thing that did help precipitate this
attack was some writing I was doing, the theme of which was that the
fall of humankind was not knowledge of good and evil but knowledge of
self. It is this belief that we are a "self" that keeps us separate
from oneness with the universe. According to Sam Harris, it is
possible for humans to be conscious of the universe without also
being awareness of selfhood. Is this experience worth pursuing? The
older I get, the less I seem to want to pursue new things.
>
F
///////////////////////////////////Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there's some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
ROBERT FROST
////////////////////////NAZRUL-AMI BIDROHI RONOKLANTO,AMI SHEIDIN HOBO SHANTO....
Weary of struggles, I, the great rebel,
Shall rest in quiet only when I find
The sky and the air free of the piteous groans of the oppressed.
Only when the battle fields are cleared of jingling bloody sabres
Shall I, weary of struggles, rest in quiet,
I the great rebel.[8]
/////////////////////////////All You who Sleep Tonight
All you who sleep tonight
Far from the ones you love,
No hand to left or right
And emptiness above -
Know that you aren't alone
The whole world shares your tears,
Some for two nights or one,
And some for all their years.
Vikram Seth
////////////////////////////////EVOLUTION OF GIT
GASTROLITHS TO DIGEST FOOD-DINO,BIRDS-AS CRUSHER OF FOOD
///////////////////////////FOLK SCIENCE SO DIFFERENT FROM ACCURATE SCIENCE BCOS WE LIVE AND OBSERVE IN MIDDLE WORLD,NOT QUANTUM LEVEL OR ASTRONOMICAL LEVEL
///////////////////////
CDS 231108-RMMBR NHRU STDIUM,DRGPR
/////////////////VI.5. UDDHAREDAATMANAATMAANAM NAATMAANAMAVASAADAYET;
ATMAIVA HYAATMANO BANDHURAATMAIVA RIPURAATMANAH.
(Krishna speaking to Arjuna)
Let a man lift himself by his own Self alone; let him not
lower himself, for this self alone is the friend of oneself
and this self alone is the enemy of oneself.
VI.6. BANDHURAATMAA'TMANASTASYA YENAATMAIVAATMANAA JITAH;
ANAATMANASTU SHATRUTWE VARTETAATMAIVA SHATRUVAT.
The self is the friend of the self for him who has conquered
himself by the Self, but to the unconquered self, this self
stands in the position of an enemy like the (external) foe.
//////////////////////paranjape also makes an interesting observation about how the
diasporic experience *transforms* the writer even as he gazes
homeward. naipaul takes it a step further in the essay in his book, A
Writer's People: Ways of Looking and Feeling,
where he compares the writing of 3 people and the degree to which
their own observation and transformation informed their writing. in
other words gandhi would never have become the mahatma and his
Experiments with Truth would never have been born had he not gone to
South Africa. his time and work there permanently changed his way of
observing india, and in particular at the peasants and their
condition, caste and pollution and sanitation.
champa
////////////////////////
kismet (n) Fate; a predetermined or unavoidable destiny.
/////////////////////////History would be an excellent thing if only it were true.
--Leo Tolstoy
/////////////////////////
ATMAIVA HYAATMANO BANDHURAATMAIVA RIPURAATMANAH.
(Krishna speaking to Arjuna)
Let a man lift himself by his own Self alone; let him not
lower himself, for this self alone is the friend of oneself
and this self alone is the enemy of oneself.
VI.6. BANDHURAATMAA'TMANASTASYA YENAATMAIVAATMANAA JITAH;
ANAATMANASTU SHATRUTWE VARTETAATMAIVA SHATRUVAT.
The self is the friend of the self for him who has conquered
himself by the Self, but to the unconquered self, this self
stands in the position of an enemy like the (external) foe.
//////////////////////paranjape also makes an interesting observation about how the
diasporic experience *transforms* the writer even as he gazes
homeward. naipaul takes it a step further in the essay in his book, A
Writer's People: Ways of Looking and Feeling,
where he compares the writing of 3 people and the degree to which
their own observation and transformation informed their writing. in
other words gandhi would never have become the mahatma and his
Experiments with Truth would never have been born had he not gone to
South Africa. his time and work there permanently changed his way of
observing india, and in particular at the peasants and their
condition, caste and pollution and sanitation.
champa
////////////////////////
kismet (n) Fate; a predetermined or unavoidable destiny.
/////////////////////////History would be an excellent thing if only it were true.
--Leo Tolstoy
/////////////////////////
Friday 21 November 2008
CDS -201108-DBL BNG TO CLLGS-ADEM,PANCR CA
////////////GONSAK
/////////////////LF IS FRAGILE=LEX/70
.///////////////////////////////
/////////////////LF IS FRAGILE=LEX/70
.///////////////////////////////
Thursday 20 November 2008
CDS -201108-DBL BNG TO CLLGS-ADEM,PANCR CA
////////////GONSAK
/////////////////LF IS FRAGILE=LEX/70
.///////////////////////////////
/////////////////LF IS FRAGILE=LEX/70
.///////////////////////////////
Monday 17 November 2008
RENUNCIATION
Chapter V: The Yoga of Renunciation of Action
V.24. YO'NTAH SUKHO'NTARAARAAMAS TATHAANTARJYOTIR EVA YAH;
SA YOGEE BRAHMA NIRVAANAM BRAHMABHOOTO'DHIGACCHATI.
(Krishna speaking to Arjuna)
He who is ever happy within, who rejoices within,
who is illumined within, such a Yogi attains absolute
freedom or Moksha, himself becoming Brahman.
V.25. LABHANTE BRAHMA NIRVAANAM RISHAYAH KSHEENAKALMASHAAH;
CCHINNADWAIDHAA YATAATMAANAH SARVABHOOTAHITE RATAAH.
The sages obtain absolute freedom or Moksha-they whose sins
have been destroyed, whose dualities (perception of dualities
or experience of the pairs of opposites) are torn asunder,
who are self-controlled, and intent on the welfare of all beings.
//////////////////////// “I have always been fascinated by the law of reversed effort.
Sometimes I call it the “backwards law.”
When you try to stay on the surface of the water you sink;
but when you try to sink you float.
When you hold your breath you lose it—”
Alan Watts—
The Wisdom Of Insecurity
//////////////////////////“I want to know God’s thoughts. The rest are details.”
///////////////////////STEEL LOSES ITS SHEEN
Shut factory gates, jittery workers and plunging production. If the scene in the Durgapur belt is anything to go by, the steel industry may be facing its worst crisis yet
Ajanta Chakraborty, Udit Prasanna Mukherji & Debajyoti Chakraborty | TNN
It’s 12 noon and Durgapur is glowing under a November sun. It’s a pleasant sight, but then you realize something is not quite right. For one, the smoke haze that hangs over Bengal’s most polluted town is gone. Then, you notice the chimneys on either side of Durgapur Expressway. Hardly any of them are spewing the black smoke that normally shrouds the town. Most of the factories have fallen silent, casting a cloud over Bengal’s industrial scene.
The source of Durgapur’s despair is a five letter word: steel. “Till a few weeks back, we hadn’t realized that global meltdown had hit us so hard. There’s no production. A total shutdown seems imminent,” said a senior official of a unit at Mongolpur.
There is a thin line between “no production” and “closed down” though. The
gates of most sponge iron units in the industrial estates of Mongolpur, Jamuria, Bamunara and Angadpur (in the Durgapur-Asansol belt) are locked. But that’s not to be read as “closed down”. The factories are silent, but not quite deserted. A peep inside one — Sri Gopal HiTech at Bamunara — gives you the real picture. Two or three groups of workers sit huddled together, while the management staff amble around. “The rolling mill isn’t manufacturing, but we’re getting our salaries,” says Akhil Karmakar, a hydro operator.
The blast furnace is still operating, but it’s not enough to stem the anxiety. The labourers say being paid without doing any work can be depressing. “It’s no use denying that the slump is here to stay — at least for the next year. By then, we don’t know what will happen,” admits Bipin Vohra, chairman, SPS group, which is an integrated steel plant at Durgapur.
“Everyone is on a cost-cutting spree and we’re no exception. The worst hit are the stand-alone sponge iron units,” he says. Vohra then voices the worst fear. “Largescale retrenchment is on the cards.”
The future is tense. These 20-odd workers inside the deserted Bamunara industrial estate are symbolic of the major crisis looming over Bengal’s key sector. The lucrative business of the past four-five years seems like a dream now. The catalyst then was China, which bought much of its steel for infrastructural upgrade before the Beijing Olympics from Bengal. The economics of demand-and-supply worked wonders, triggering vertical growth at sponge iron and ferro alloy plants in Durgapur. The good times spread to Bankura and Purulia (Jamuria, Kanksa, Nituria, Mezia, Borjora and Bishnupur) as well. Then came the slump.
Old-timers say this isn’t the first crisis the Steel City — or the industry itself — has seen. Soon after the British left, the steel sector went through a bad patch. Technology, or the lack of it, was the major hurdle. This was as true for Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP), a unit of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), as for smaller units. But the plants managed to live through the next decade until they bumped into the labour unrest in the late Sixties.
Years passed and good sense finally dawned. The government started thinking of reviving sick industries. DFID funds came handy. The late ’80s saw a turnaround in SAIL’s fortunes and DSP was modernised for a whopping Rs 5,000 crore even as it continued to make operational losses. The trade unions came to DSP’s aid and the public sector soon started earning profits.
Cut to 2001. The positivite vibes remained. Many first-generation entrepreneurs, who banked on the sector’s robust growth and received green signals from the state government, took the plunge. And why not? A sponge iron unit could be set up for just Rs 25-50 crore but earned profits to the tune of Rs 2,500 per tonne. A unit with a 100-tonne capacity raked in around Rs 60 lakh a month. The profit has now been replaced by a loss of Rs 30 lakh a month.
The euphoria continued till September 2008. By then, at least 15 middle and largescale industrialists had invested in iron and steel. Among them were bigger players like MB Group, Jai Balaji, Adhunik Group of Industries, Neo Metalic, Super Smelters and Shyam Steel. They were announcing crores of investment and the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation was only too happy to show them off as proof of Bengal’s industrial success. The plants mostly made value-added products like sponge iron, wire rod, thermomechanical treatment (TMT) — all used for construction, iron casting powder, etc.
It was too good to last. Lalit Beriwala, director, Shyam Steel (an integrated plant at Angadpur), cites four factors for the crisis. “Blame it on the unnecessary boom in real estate. The artificial requirement created a synthetic supply that couldn’t last. And now the bubble has burst,” he says. Around 26% of the manufactured steel caters to the real estate market.
Another factor was the steady erosion of the ferro alloy market and its near-zero export demand. Then there was the sudden plateau in the automobile sector. The final nail in the coffin was the go-slow at various industrial and infrastructure projects that had been hyped for political goals.
Now politicians, too, are at their wit’s end. Says P K Das, president of the Citubacked Steel Workers’ Federation of India, “This is the worst crisis the steel industry has faced since the 1930 recession.”
We’ve been making losses for the past two months. If we can’t decrease the workforce by 25% then most of the units here will be closed
////////////////////////I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.
--Samuel Johnson
/////////////////
V.24. YO'NTAH SUKHO'NTARAARAAMAS TATHAANTARJYOTIR EVA YAH;
SA YOGEE BRAHMA NIRVAANAM BRAHMABHOOTO'DHIGACCHATI.
(Krishna speaking to Arjuna)
He who is ever happy within, who rejoices within,
who is illumined within, such a Yogi attains absolute
freedom or Moksha, himself becoming Brahman.
V.25. LABHANTE BRAHMA NIRVAANAM RISHAYAH KSHEENAKALMASHAAH;
CCHINNADWAIDHAA YATAATMAANAH SARVABHOOTAHITE RATAAH.
The sages obtain absolute freedom or Moksha-they whose sins
have been destroyed, whose dualities (perception of dualities
or experience of the pairs of opposites) are torn asunder,
who are self-controlled, and intent on the welfare of all beings.
//////////////////////// “I have always been fascinated by the law of reversed effort.
Sometimes I call it the “backwards law.”
When you try to stay on the surface of the water you sink;
but when you try to sink you float.
When you hold your breath you lose it—”
Alan Watts—
The Wisdom Of Insecurity
//////////////////////////“I want to know God’s thoughts. The rest are details.”
///////////////////////STEEL LOSES ITS SHEEN
Shut factory gates, jittery workers and plunging production. If the scene in the Durgapur belt is anything to go by, the steel industry may be facing its worst crisis yet
Ajanta Chakraborty, Udit Prasanna Mukherji & Debajyoti Chakraborty | TNN
It’s 12 noon and Durgapur is glowing under a November sun. It’s a pleasant sight, but then you realize something is not quite right. For one, the smoke haze that hangs over Bengal’s most polluted town is gone. Then, you notice the chimneys on either side of Durgapur Expressway. Hardly any of them are spewing the black smoke that normally shrouds the town. Most of the factories have fallen silent, casting a cloud over Bengal’s industrial scene.
The source of Durgapur’s despair is a five letter word: steel. “Till a few weeks back, we hadn’t realized that global meltdown had hit us so hard. There’s no production. A total shutdown seems imminent,” said a senior official of a unit at Mongolpur.
There is a thin line between “no production” and “closed down” though. The
gates of most sponge iron units in the industrial estates of Mongolpur, Jamuria, Bamunara and Angadpur (in the Durgapur-Asansol belt) are locked. But that’s not to be read as “closed down”. The factories are silent, but not quite deserted. A peep inside one — Sri Gopal HiTech at Bamunara — gives you the real picture. Two or three groups of workers sit huddled together, while the management staff amble around. “The rolling mill isn’t manufacturing, but we’re getting our salaries,” says Akhil Karmakar, a hydro operator.
The blast furnace is still operating, but it’s not enough to stem the anxiety. The labourers say being paid without doing any work can be depressing. “It’s no use denying that the slump is here to stay — at least for the next year. By then, we don’t know what will happen,” admits Bipin Vohra, chairman, SPS group, which is an integrated steel plant at Durgapur.
“Everyone is on a cost-cutting spree and we’re no exception. The worst hit are the stand-alone sponge iron units,” he says. Vohra then voices the worst fear. “Largescale retrenchment is on the cards.”
The future is tense. These 20-odd workers inside the deserted Bamunara industrial estate are symbolic of the major crisis looming over Bengal’s key sector. The lucrative business of the past four-five years seems like a dream now. The catalyst then was China, which bought much of its steel for infrastructural upgrade before the Beijing Olympics from Bengal. The economics of demand-and-supply worked wonders, triggering vertical growth at sponge iron and ferro alloy plants in Durgapur. The good times spread to Bankura and Purulia (Jamuria, Kanksa, Nituria, Mezia, Borjora and Bishnupur) as well. Then came the slump.
Old-timers say this isn’t the first crisis the Steel City — or the industry itself — has seen. Soon after the British left, the steel sector went through a bad patch. Technology, or the lack of it, was the major hurdle. This was as true for Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP), a unit of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), as for smaller units. But the plants managed to live through the next decade until they bumped into the labour unrest in the late Sixties.
Years passed and good sense finally dawned. The government started thinking of reviving sick industries. DFID funds came handy. The late ’80s saw a turnaround in SAIL’s fortunes and DSP was modernised for a whopping Rs 5,000 crore even as it continued to make operational losses. The trade unions came to DSP’s aid and the public sector soon started earning profits.
Cut to 2001. The positivite vibes remained. Many first-generation entrepreneurs, who banked on the sector’s robust growth and received green signals from the state government, took the plunge. And why not? A sponge iron unit could be set up for just Rs 25-50 crore but earned profits to the tune of Rs 2,500 per tonne. A unit with a 100-tonne capacity raked in around Rs 60 lakh a month. The profit has now been replaced by a loss of Rs 30 lakh a month.
The euphoria continued till September 2008. By then, at least 15 middle and largescale industrialists had invested in iron and steel. Among them were bigger players like MB Group, Jai Balaji, Adhunik Group of Industries, Neo Metalic, Super Smelters and Shyam Steel. They were announcing crores of investment and the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation was only too happy to show them off as proof of Bengal’s industrial success. The plants mostly made value-added products like sponge iron, wire rod, thermomechanical treatment (TMT) — all used for construction, iron casting powder, etc.
It was too good to last. Lalit Beriwala, director, Shyam Steel (an integrated plant at Angadpur), cites four factors for the crisis. “Blame it on the unnecessary boom in real estate. The artificial requirement created a synthetic supply that couldn’t last. And now the bubble has burst,” he says. Around 26% of the manufactured steel caters to the real estate market.
Another factor was the steady erosion of the ferro alloy market and its near-zero export demand. Then there was the sudden plateau in the automobile sector. The final nail in the coffin was the go-slow at various industrial and infrastructure projects that had been hyped for political goals.
Now politicians, too, are at their wit’s end. Says P K Das, president of the Citubacked Steel Workers’ Federation of India, “This is the worst crisis the steel industry has faced since the 1930 recession.”
We’ve been making losses for the past two months. If we can’t decrease the workforce by 25% then most of the units here will be closed
////////////////////////I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.
--Samuel Johnson
/////////////////
CDS 171108-WTING FR FTHR,NOW WF TO CM HM
/////////////////
For what cannot be cured, patience is best.
-- Irish Proverb
Patience and passage of time do more than strength and fury.
-- Jean de la Fontaine
/////////////////
"It's not what happens to you in life that counts; it's how you take it, and what you make of it." -- Denis Waitley
/////////////////////BURDEN OF CHR DIS-CF-A/W ORGAN TX
//////////////////////Unhappy People Watch TV, Happy People Read/Socialize
A new study by sociologists at the University of Maryland concludes that unhappy people watch more TV, while people who describe themselves as very happy spend more time reading and socializing. Additionally, data from time use surveys, suggests that TV viewing may increase as the economy worsens and people lose their jobs.
Social Indicators Research, Dec-2008
//////////////////////ECO-WARRIOR-WORRIER
///////////////////////
"A problem well stated is a problem half-solved."
////////////////////////Craving chocolate? A walk may help
Researchers say that taking a brisk 15-minute walk may help you turn down chocolate and other tempting sweets. Read more>
//////////////////////WRLD RECESSION-MR JBCTS
//////////////////GOODBYE AND F*** U
/////////////////////
For what cannot be cured, patience is best.
-- Irish Proverb
Patience and passage of time do more than strength and fury.
-- Jean de la Fontaine
/////////////////
"It's not what happens to you in life that counts; it's how you take it, and what you make of it." -- Denis Waitley
/////////////////////BURDEN OF CHR DIS-CF-A/W ORGAN TX
//////////////////////Unhappy People Watch TV, Happy People Read/Socialize
A new study by sociologists at the University of Maryland concludes that unhappy people watch more TV, while people who describe themselves as very happy spend more time reading and socializing. Additionally, data from time use surveys, suggests that TV viewing may increase as the economy worsens and people lose their jobs.
Social Indicators Research, Dec-2008
//////////////////////ECO-WARRIOR-WORRIER
///////////////////////
"A problem well stated is a problem half-solved."
////////////////////////Craving chocolate? A walk may help
Researchers say that taking a brisk 15-minute walk may help you turn down chocolate and other tempting sweets. Read more>
//////////////////////WRLD RECESSION-MR JBCTS
//////////////////GOODBYE AND F*** U
/////////////////////
Tuesday 11 November 2008
Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm. Author unknown
/////////////Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.
Author unknown
////////////////Now I'm wondering if you believe that value existed before any sentient beings existed. My tendency is to say no, in the same way that physicists say that time did not exist "before" the big bang. However I get the impression that you believe that there was such a thing as value in nature before the existence of any beings capable of appreciating that value.
The question is rather like the old one about a tree falling in a forest- does it make a sound if no one is there to hear it?
Fred
////////////////Should healthy people take statins too?
Rosuvastatin appears to lower the risk of heart disease in healthy people.
/////////////Chapter V: The Yoga of Renunciation of Action
V.12. YUKTAH KARMAPHALAM TYAKTWAA SHAANTIM AAPNOTI NAISHTHIKEEM;
AYUKTAH KAAMAKAARENA PHALE SAKTO NIBADHYATE.
(Krishna speaking to Arjuna)
The united one (the well poised or the harmonised),
having abandoned the fruit of action, attains to the
eternal peace; the non-united only (the unsteady or the
unbalanced), impelled by desire and attached to the fruit,
is bound.
V.13. SARVAKARMAANI MANASAA SANNYASYAASTE SUKHAM VASHEE;
NAVADWAARE PURE DEHEE NAIVA KURVAN NA KAARAYAN.
Mentally renouncing all actions and self-controlled,
the embodied one rests happily in the nine-gated city,
neither acting nor causing others (body and senses) to act.
/////////////////
Author unknown
////////////////Now I'm wondering if you believe that value existed before any sentient beings existed. My tendency is to say no, in the same way that physicists say that time did not exist "before" the big bang. However I get the impression that you believe that there was such a thing as value in nature before the existence of any beings capable of appreciating that value.
The question is rather like the old one about a tree falling in a forest- does it make a sound if no one is there to hear it?
Fred
////////////////Should healthy people take statins too?
Rosuvastatin appears to lower the risk of heart disease in healthy people.
/////////////Chapter V: The Yoga of Renunciation of Action
V.12. YUKTAH KARMAPHALAM TYAKTWAA SHAANTIM AAPNOTI NAISHTHIKEEM;
AYUKTAH KAAMAKAARENA PHALE SAKTO NIBADHYATE.
(Krishna speaking to Arjuna)
The united one (the well poised or the harmonised),
having abandoned the fruit of action, attains to the
eternal peace; the non-united only (the unsteady or the
unbalanced), impelled by desire and attached to the fruit,
is bound.
V.13. SARVAKARMAANI MANASAA SANNYASYAASTE SUKHAM VASHEE;
NAVADWAARE PURE DEHEE NAIVA KURVAN NA KAARAYAN.
Mentally renouncing all actions and self-controlled,
the embodied one rests happily in the nine-gated city,
neither acting nor causing others (body and senses) to act.
/////////////////
CDS 111008-DTH-GRF-MOWM
BRVMNT-JNNI THMS TALK-MV ON WTH MMRIES
///////////////LOSS ORIENTED WMN -RESTORATIVE ORIENTED MN-STROUBE MODEL
//////////////////
Sunday 9 November 2008
CDS 081108-AILNG PRNTS
The Story of the Luckiest Man Alive
Posted in Weird and Funny by Neil on October 24th, 2008
Escaped from a derailed train, a door-less plane, a bus crash, a car into flames, another 2 car accidents… then won Million Dollar lottery!
Luck has always been on his side or vice versa for croatian music teacher Frane Selak (born in 1929), who is well known around the world for as many fatal accidents as spectacular escapes. The first of his numerous near-death experiences began on a cold January day in 1962, when Selak was on a train to Dubrovnik. Seldom had Selak thought where he was heading until odyssey terminated, with the train suddenly plunging into the icy river killing 17 passengers. Although he managed to escape, not without a broken arm, minor scratches and bruises.
A year later, Selak was flying from Zagreb to Rijeka when abruptly a door blew away from the cockpit of the plane, as he was blown off the plane. The accident took a tool of 19 people; however, Selak was lucky enough to land on a haystack, to wake up in hospital with minor injuries. It was in 1966 that he met with the third misadventure while traveling on a bus that crashed and plunged into a river. There were four people dead, astonishingly Selak managed to escape unharmed.
/////////////////RAKHE HARI MARE KE-JST LCK,NO DVN INTNTN
/////////////////////
Posted in Weird and Funny by Neil on October 24th, 2008
Escaped from a derailed train, a door-less plane, a bus crash, a car into flames, another 2 car accidents… then won Million Dollar lottery!
Luck has always been on his side or vice versa for croatian music teacher Frane Selak (born in 1929), who is well known around the world for as many fatal accidents as spectacular escapes. The first of his numerous near-death experiences began on a cold January day in 1962, when Selak was on a train to Dubrovnik. Seldom had Selak thought where he was heading until odyssey terminated, with the train suddenly plunging into the icy river killing 17 passengers. Although he managed to escape, not without a broken arm, minor scratches and bruises.
A year later, Selak was flying from Zagreb to Rijeka when abruptly a door blew away from the cockpit of the plane, as he was blown off the plane. The accident took a tool of 19 people; however, Selak was lucky enough to land on a haystack, to wake up in hospital with minor injuries. It was in 1966 that he met with the third misadventure while traveling on a bus that crashed and plunged into a river. There were four people dead, astonishingly Selak managed to escape unharmed.
/////////////////RAKHE HARI MARE KE-JST LCK,NO DVN INTNTN
/////////////////////
Saturday 8 November 2008
CDS 081108-AILNG PRNTS
The Story of the Luckiest Man Alive
Posted in Weird and Funny by Neil on October 24th, 2008
Escaped from a derailed train, a door-less plane, a bus crash, a car into flames, another 2 car accidents… then won Million Dollar lottery!
Luck has always been on his side or vice versa for croatian music teacher Frane Selak (born in 1929), who is well known around the world for as many fatal accidents as spectacular escapes. The first of his numerous near-death experiences began on a cold January day in 1962, when Selak was on a train to Dubrovnik. Seldom had Selak thought where he was heading until odyssey terminated, with the train suddenly plunging into the icy river killing 17 passengers. Although he managed to escape, not without a broken arm, minor scratches and bruises.
A year later, Selak was flying from Zagreb to Rijeka when abruptly a door blew away from the cockpit of the plane, as he was blown off the plane. The accident took a tool of 19 people; however, Selak was lucky enough to land on a haystack, to wake up in hospital with minor injuries. It was in 1966 that he met with the third misadventure while traveling on a bus that crashed and plunged into a river. There were four people dead, astonishingly Selak managed to escape unharmed.
/////////////////RAKHE HARI MARE KE-JST LCK,NO DVN INTNTN
/////////////////////
Posted in Weird and Funny by Neil on October 24th, 2008
Escaped from a derailed train, a door-less plane, a bus crash, a car into flames, another 2 car accidents… then won Million Dollar lottery!
Luck has always been on his side or vice versa for croatian music teacher Frane Selak (born in 1929), who is well known around the world for as many fatal accidents as spectacular escapes. The first of his numerous near-death experiences began on a cold January day in 1962, when Selak was on a train to Dubrovnik. Seldom had Selak thought where he was heading until odyssey terminated, with the train suddenly plunging into the icy river killing 17 passengers. Although he managed to escape, not without a broken arm, minor scratches and bruises.
A year later, Selak was flying from Zagreb to Rijeka when abruptly a door blew away from the cockpit of the plane, as he was blown off the plane. The accident took a tool of 19 people; however, Selak was lucky enough to land on a haystack, to wake up in hospital with minor injuries. It was in 1966 that he met with the third misadventure while traveling on a bus that crashed and plunged into a river. There were four people dead, astonishingly Selak managed to escape unharmed.
/////////////////RAKHE HARI MARE KE-JST LCK,NO DVN INTNTN
/////////////////////
PRNTS-70+/70
////////////Stop being offended.
The behavior of others isn’t a reason to be immobilized. That which offends you only weakens you. If you’re looking for occasions to be offended, you’ll find them at every turn. This is your ego at work convincing you that the world shouldn't be the way it is. But you can become an appreciator of life and match up with the universal Spirit of Creation. You can’t reach the power of intention by being offended. By all means, act to eradicate the horrors of the world, which emanate from massive ego identification, but stay in peace. As A Course in Miracles reminds us: Peace is of God, you who are part of God are not at home except in his peace. Being is of God, you who are part of God are not at home except in his peace. Being offended creates the same destructive energy that offended you in the first place and leads to attack, counterattack, and war.
////////////////////Let go of your need to win.
Ego loves to divide us up into winners and losers. The pursuit of winning is a surefire means to avoid conscious contact with intention. Why? Because ultimately, winning is impossible all of the time. Someone out there will be faster, luckier, younger, stronger, and smarter-and back you’ll go to feeling worthless and insignificant.
////////////////////Let go of your need to be right.
Ego is the source of a lot of conflict and dissension because it pushes you in the direction of making other people wrong. When you’re hostile, you’ve disconnected from the power of intention. The creative Spirit is kind, loving, and receptive; and free of anger, resentment, or bitterness. Letting go of your need to be right in your discussions and relationships is like saying to ego, I’m not a slave to you. I want to embrace kindness, and I reject your need to be right. In fact, I’m going to offer this person a chance to feel better by saying that she’s right, and thank her for pointing me in the direction of truth.
///////////////////Let go of your need to be superior.
True nobility isn’t about being better than someone else. It’s about being better than you used to be. Stay focused on your growth, with a constant awareness that no one on this planet is any better than anyone else. We all emanate from the same creative life force. We all have a mission to realize our intended essence; all that we need to fulfill our destiny is available to us. None of this is possible when you see yourself as superior to others. It’s an old saw, but nonetheless true: we are all equal in the eyes of God. Let go of your need to feel superior by seeing the unfolding of God in everyone. Don’t assess others on the basis of their appearance, achievements, possessions, and other indices of ego. When you project feelings of superiority that’s what you get back, leading to resentments and ultimately hostile feelings. These feelings become the vehicle that takes you farther away from intention. A Course in Miracles addresses this need to be special and superior: Special ness always makes comparisons. It is established by a lack seen in another, and maintained by searching for, and keeping clear in sight, all lacks it can perceive.
/////////////////Let go of your need to have more.
The mantra of ego is more. It’s never satisfied. No matter how much you achieve or acquire, your ego will insist that it isn’t enough. You’ll find yourself in a perpetual state of striving, and eliminate the possibility of ever arriving. Yet in reality you’ve already arrived, and how you choose to use this present moment of your life is your choice. Ironically, when you stop needing more, more of what you desire seems to arrive in your life. Since you’re detached from the need for it, you find it easier to pass it along to others, because you realize how little you need in order to be satisfied and at peace.
///////////////// Let go of identifying yourself on the basis of your achievements.
////////////////////Let go of your reputation.
/////////////////DYER=
/////////////////MTHR GTTING CAHECTIC-TALU
///////////////
The behavior of others isn’t a reason to be immobilized. That which offends you only weakens you. If you’re looking for occasions to be offended, you’ll find them at every turn. This is your ego at work convincing you that the world shouldn't be the way it is. But you can become an appreciator of life and match up with the universal Spirit of Creation. You can’t reach the power of intention by being offended. By all means, act to eradicate the horrors of the world, which emanate from massive ego identification, but stay in peace. As A Course in Miracles reminds us: Peace is of God, you who are part of God are not at home except in his peace. Being is of God, you who are part of God are not at home except in his peace. Being offended creates the same destructive energy that offended you in the first place and leads to attack, counterattack, and war.
////////////////////Let go of your need to win.
Ego loves to divide us up into winners and losers. The pursuit of winning is a surefire means to avoid conscious contact with intention. Why? Because ultimately, winning is impossible all of the time. Someone out there will be faster, luckier, younger, stronger, and smarter-and back you’ll go to feeling worthless and insignificant.
////////////////////Let go of your need to be right.
Ego is the source of a lot of conflict and dissension because it pushes you in the direction of making other people wrong. When you’re hostile, you’ve disconnected from the power of intention. The creative Spirit is kind, loving, and receptive; and free of anger, resentment, or bitterness. Letting go of your need to be right in your discussions and relationships is like saying to ego, I’m not a slave to you. I want to embrace kindness, and I reject your need to be right. In fact, I’m going to offer this person a chance to feel better by saying that she’s right, and thank her for pointing me in the direction of truth.
///////////////////Let go of your need to be superior.
True nobility isn’t about being better than someone else. It’s about being better than you used to be. Stay focused on your growth, with a constant awareness that no one on this planet is any better than anyone else. We all emanate from the same creative life force. We all have a mission to realize our intended essence; all that we need to fulfill our destiny is available to us. None of this is possible when you see yourself as superior to others. It’s an old saw, but nonetheless true: we are all equal in the eyes of God. Let go of your need to feel superior by seeing the unfolding of God in everyone. Don’t assess others on the basis of their appearance, achievements, possessions, and other indices of ego. When you project feelings of superiority that’s what you get back, leading to resentments and ultimately hostile feelings. These feelings become the vehicle that takes you farther away from intention. A Course in Miracles addresses this need to be special and superior: Special ness always makes comparisons. It is established by a lack seen in another, and maintained by searching for, and keeping clear in sight, all lacks it can perceive.
/////////////////Let go of your need to have more.
The mantra of ego is more. It’s never satisfied. No matter how much you achieve or acquire, your ego will insist that it isn’t enough. You’ll find yourself in a perpetual state of striving, and eliminate the possibility of ever arriving. Yet in reality you’ve already arrived, and how you choose to use this present moment of your life is your choice. Ironically, when you stop needing more, more of what you desire seems to arrive in your life. Since you’re detached from the need for it, you find it easier to pass it along to others, because you realize how little you need in order to be satisfied and at peace.
///////////////// Let go of identifying yourself on the basis of your achievements.
////////////////////Let go of your reputation.
/////////////////DYER=
/////////////////MTHR GTTING CAHECTIC-TALU
///////////////
CDS 081108-EVN THN NEED MCLWP
///////////////GATHERING SENSE OF POINTLESS SUFFERING
///////////////SWISS IDEAS-RED CROSS,DIGNITAS
////////////////////Team finds language without numbers (7/3/2008)
Tags:
language, mathematics, culture
A Piraha man participates in an experiment that MIT researchers say indicates his language contains no number words. - Photo Credit: Edward Gibson
A Piraha man participates in an experiment that MIT researchers say indicates his language contains no number words. - Photo Credit: Edward Gibson
Amazonian tribe has no word to express 'one,' other numbers
An Amazonian language with only 300 speakers has no word to express the concept of "one" or any other specific number, according to a new study from an MIT-led team.
The team, led by MIT professor of brain and cognitive sciences Edward Gibson, found that members of the Piraha tribe in remote northwestern Brazil use language to express relative quantities such as "some" and "more," but not precise numbers.
///////////////////Do not overreact. Remember, most incidents are temporary so don't magnify what happened. Serious jealousy stems from a fear of loss, reputation, control of ourselves, our spouses, or relationships. Losing control of our emotions and feelings will only make things worse.
//////////////// How hospitals make decisions -Just for a laugh
Posted by: "Dr.Anil Mohandas" anilmohandas@yahoo.com anilmohandas
Fri Nov 7, 2008 5:07 pm (PST)
When a panel of doctors was asked to vote on adding a new wing to their hospital:
The Allergists voted to scratch it and the Dermatologists said not to make any rash moves.
The Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but the Neurologists thought the administration had a lot of nerve, and the Obstetricians felt they were all labouring under a misconception.
The Ophthalmologists considered the idea short-sighted; the Pathologists yelled, 'Over our dead bodies,' while the Paediatricians said, 'Oh, grow up!'
The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, the Radiologists could see right through it and the Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing.
The Internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the Plastic Surgeons said, 'This puts a whole new face on the matter.'
The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the Urologists felt the scheme wouldn't hold water.
The Anaesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas and the Cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.
In the end, the Proctologists persuaded everyone to leave the decision up to some A*seh*le in Administration.
//////////////////////Cutting off healthy limbs OK, says Dr Christopher Ryan
By staff writers
NEWS.com.au
November 07, 2008 12:12am
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o What are these?
Amputee
Amputee wannabes ... a rare condition makes people crave having a healthy limb removed.
* Condition makes people crave an amputation
* Expert says let them become amputees
* Removing limbs "makes them far happier"
TO most people, the thought of amputating a perfectly healthy limb is unimaginable.
But for at least three Australians, possibly dozens more, cutting off their leg has felt perfectly normal.
These so-called "amputee wannabes" have a very rare condition in which they feel one of their limbs is not truly their own, and they become obsessed with cutting it off.
And people suffering from the bizarre body image disorder should be able to opt for amputation, a Sydney psychiatrist says.
Christopher Ryan, a psychiatrist at the University of Sydney, says there is a good argument for allowing patients with body integrity identity disorder (BIID) to have their unwanted limb removed.
///////////////////5 BEN NEVISES=1 MT EVEREST
//////////////////A man said to the Universe: "Sir, I exist!" "However," replied the Universe, "the fact has not created in me a sense of obligation."
--Stephen Crane
///////////////////A man of sixty has spent twenty years in bed
and over three years in eating.
-- Arnold Bennett
/////////////////In 1925 British adventurer Colonel Percy Fawcett disappeared into the wilds of the Amazon, never to be heard from again after going there in search of a lost city he called Z. But decades later, a city of sorts—actually a series of settlements connected by roads—has been found at the headwaters of the Xingu River where Fawcett went missing in an area previously buried beneath the dense foliage in what is now Xingu National Park.
///////////////Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
////////////////ACCEPT SKYPE VIDEO AS VIEWING-PRNTS TO HS
//////////////////"I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.”
////////////////////// “A well-spent day brings happy sleep [and] as a well spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.”
////////////////////////It's nothing more than a personal choice of whether you want to make life happen, or if you want life to happen to you.
/////////////////////"You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.”
///////////////////
Tuesday 4 November 2008
SHRUKH-43-BDAY
////////////////SANATAN DHARMA-PERENNIAL PHILO-B GITA
/////////////////BETEL NUTS-PAN SUPARI
////////////////M1 - the road leading 193 miles (311 km) out of London
///////////////
/////////////////BETEL NUTS-PAN SUPARI
////////////////M1 - the road leading 193 miles (311 km) out of London
///////////////
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