////////////////////////Check these out:
* 20% of criminals account for 80% of crime
* 20% of motorists account for 80% of accidents
* 20% of married individuals account for 80% of divorces
* 20% of your carpet probably gets 80% of the wear
* 20% of streets account for 80% of the traffic
* 20% of product flaws account for 80% of problems
* 20% of clients usually account for 80% of an organization’s profits
////////////////////////Chapter IX: The Yoga of the Royal Science and Royal SecretIX.16. AHAM KRATURAHAM YAJNAH SWADHAA'HAMAHAMAUSHADHAM; MANTRO'HAMAHAMEVAAJYAM AHAMAGNIRAHAM HUTAM. (Krishna speaking to Arjuna)I am the Kratu; I am the Yajna; I am the offering (food) to the manes; I am the medicinal herb and all the plants; I am the Mantra; I am also the ghee or melted butter; I am the fire; I am the oblation.
GON-GOM- PANTHEISM
/////////////////////The Vinegar Tasters is antasting it; one man reacts with a sour expression, one reacts with a bitter expression, and one reacts with a happy expression.
Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Each man's expression represents the predominant attitude of the religion: Confucianism saw life as sour, in need of rules to correct the degeneration of people; Buddhism saw life as bitter, dominated by pain and suffering; and Taoism saw life as fundamentally good in its natural state.
///////////////////Understanding Role Of Stress In Just About EverythingStress, to put it bluntly, is bad for you. It can kill you, in fact. A study now reveals that stress causes deterioration in everything from your gums to your heart and can make you more susceptible to everything from the common cold to cancer. Thanks to new research crossing the disciplines of psychology, medicine, neuroscience, and genetics, the mechanisms underlying the connection are rapidly becoming understood.http://www.curingdeath.com/research/Understanding_Role_Of_Stress_In_Just_About_Everything.asp
NATURAL STRESS-SEE THE SQUIRRELS
////////////////////1964: Riots in Calcutta leave more than 100 deadHindu-Muslim rioting breaks out in the Indian city of Calcutta resulting in the deaths of more than 100 people.
/////////////////////Irreligion · Religion
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(either due to not having information about religion or to not believing in it)
hostility to religion
behaving in such a way that fails to live up to one's religious tenets
Although people classified as irreligious might not follow any religion, not all are necessarily without belief in the . In particular, those who associate organized religion with negative qualities, but still hold spiritual beliefs, might describe themselves as irreligious.
//////////////////////////MCLWP=Having the option of taking one's life is a comfort even to some who never do it.
////////////////////Why don't penguins' feet freeze? The answer is counter-current exchange.
///////////////////// [Framing Science]
Posted: 09 Jan 2008 08:00 AM CST
One other possible explanation for the inaccurate NH poll predictions is the so-called Bradley Effect. Below is part of the discussion at , a hypothesis that Krosnick is then quoted as doubting:
This sort of jarring of our expectations conjures up past examples of black candidates who have polled significantly higher than their white opponents, only to confront a very different reality when the votes are counted. Pollsters know this as the "Bradley Effect," christened for former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, a black man who narrowly lost the 1982 California gubernatorial election to a white opponent even though Bradley led in the polls. (It's sometimes also referred to as the "Wilder Effect," after Douglas Wilder, who had been polling at 10 points ahead of Marshall Coleman in the 1989 governor's race, beat Coleman by less than a point.) Harold Ford Jr., who lost his bid for a Senate seat in Tennessee in 2006, also polled better than he performed.
One theory is that voters contacted by pollsters are more likely to say they support a black candidate running against a white candidate out of desire to seem progressive. Social psychologists called this "social desirability" - the urge to act in ways that one believes his or her environment finds appropriate.
In a February 2007 article, the Pew Research Center noted that this effect was decidedly less pronounced in 2006. While black candidates lost four of five statewide races against white opponents, the polling tended to reflect this. "Taken together," it states, "the accuracy of the polling in these five biracial elections suggests that the problems that bedeviled polling in the 1980s and early 1990s may no longer be so serious."
//////////////////////Fears for oldest human footprints
Fossilized tracks pose preservation puzzle
Threats to the world's oldest hominid footprints in Tanzania are again stirring debate over how to best protect the 3.7-million-year-old tracks.
////////////////////........... saw a cast of the Laetoli footprints in the National Museum of Kenya. It was one of the most moving moments of my life. I encourage formation of a fund to help with the best locally determined preservation method
//////////////////You should be proactive about change and not reactive,
////////////////////
Prairie Grass: Fuel of the Future?
Josh Funk, Asssociated Press
jan 9, 2008 -- New research shows that prairie grasses grown using only moderate amounts of fertilizer on marginal land can produce significant amounts of ethanol.
The five-year study of switch grass done by the University of Nebraska
//////////////////ocates cholesterol genes; finds surprises about good, bad cholesterol
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---An international study of 20,000 people found seven new genes that influence blood cholesterol levels, a major factor in heart disease, and confirmed 11 other genes previously thought to influence cholesterol.
The international study led by researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health set out to identify or confirm genetic variants that influence lipid levels, and secondly, to see if those variants were linked to the decreased or increased risk of heart disease. The findings will be published online in the journal Nature Genetics on Jan. 13.
The results may lead the medical community to rethink the role of HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol) in heart disease, said Goncalo Abecasis, associate professor in the U-M School of Public Health. Abecasis co-directed the study with Karen Mohlke, assistant professor of genetics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.
"It was surprising that while genetic variants that increase your bad cholesterol are also associated with increased risk of heart disease, we did not find that variants influencing your good cholesterol were associated with decreased risk of coronary artery disease. Perhaps that result will lead us to reexamine the roles of good and bad cholesterol in susceptibility to heart disease," Abecasis said.
Coronary artery disease, a condition where plaque accumulates on the walls of coronary arteries, is the most common type of heart disease and a leading cause of death in industrialized countries. The type and amount of cholesterol and other lipids in the bloodstream contribute to the risk of coronary artery disease, which can cause heart attack, stroke, angina and other heart conditions. Both genetic and environmental factors influence a person's cholesterol and blood lipid levels.
"Finding new gene regions associated with cholesterol levels may bring us one step closer to developing better treatments, said Cristen Willer, co-first author and a research fellow in the Department of Biostatistics. "Nearly all of the gene regions that we found to be involved in higher LDL levels were also involved in coronary artery disease risk. This is a remarkable result and suggests that new drug therapies that target the genes in these regions will also help prevent coronary artery disease and allow people to live longer and healthier lives." Serena Sanna, who worked on the paper as a post-doctoral student in Abecasis' group and who is now at the National Research Council di Cagliari in Italy, is co-first author.
Of the seven new variants, two influenced HDL, one influenced LDL, and three influenced triglycerides, which are found in fat and in the bloodstream and like LDL, are associated with increased risk of heart disease. One variant influenced triglycerides and LDL.
Scientists initially examined 2 million genetic variants in 8,800 individuals and ended up focusing on a total of 25 genetic variants on 18 genes. Altogether the variations reported are responsible for less than a quarter of the genetic contributions to lipid levels.
The completion of the map of human genetic variation, or HapMap, has fueled a surge in this type of genome-wide association study, with most of the growth coming in the past 10 months. Researchers around the globe have now associated more than 60 common DNA variants with the risk of more than 20 common diseases or related traits.
###
The research received major support from the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, all of which are part of the National Institutes of Health; the American Diabetes Association; the Department of Veterans Affairs; the British Heart Foundation; the United Kingdom's Medical Research Council; and the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.
The University of Michigan School of Public Health has been working to promote health and prevent disease since 1941, and is consistently ranked among the top five public health schools in the nation. Faculty and students in the school's five academic departments and dozens of collaborative centers and initiatives are forging new solutions to the complex health challenges of today, including chronic disease, health care quality and finance, emerging genetic technologies, climate change, socioeconomic inequalities and their impact on health, infectious disease and the globalization of health. Whether making new discoveries in the lab or researching and educating in the field, our faculty, students and alumni are deployed around the globe to promote and protect our health.
EDITORS: An image is available at: http://www.umich.edu/news/index.html?Releases/2008/Jan/lipid
/////////////////////
Monday, 14 January 2008
Sunday, 13 January 2008
CDS 141108
/////////////////////////HALLA BOL-PROTEST
///////////////////////////frm dr weil=
Healthy Body: Yoga Pose: Cobra Pose
Yoga can invigorate your immune system, release stress and enrich your life overall. The Cobra Pose is especially powerful: it is said to promote flexibility in the spine and encourage the chest to open.Yoga for Your Health
///////////////////////////NEGOTIATED OR LITIGATED SETTLEMENT
/////////////////////////Bad cholesterol genes discoveredScientists find novel genes linked with 'bad' cholesterol, paving the way for therapies to treat the risk.
///////////////////////Biggest black hole evah... [Greg Laden's Blog]
Posted: 12 Jan 2008 10:10 AM CST
There are about 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Imagine taking twenty percent of those stars and stuffing them into one, single black hole. That would be one hell of a black hole.
///////////////////
Ego Development
How You Can Get 14 Extra Years of Life
Posted: 09 Jan 2008 05:27 AM CST
People who assume four principles for a healthy lifestyle can add as much as 14 years to their lives, a study revealed in january 2008.
Researchers found that not smoking, taking exercise, drinking in moderation and eating five servings of fruit and vegetables, a day could have a enormous impact on life expectancy.
Academics at Cambridge University monitored the health of 20,000 men and women aged between 45 and 79 from Norfolk between 1993 and 2006.
The study concluded: “The results strongly suggest that these four achievable lifestyle changes could have a marked improvement on the health of middle-aged and older people, which is particularly important given the ageing population in the UK and other European countries.” (more…)
/////////////////////Cave Bears More Carnivorous Than Previously Thought [Greg Laden's Blog]
Posted: 08 Jan 2008 04:00 PM CST
From a University of Bristol Press Release: "Rather than being gentle giants, new research reveals that Pleistocene cave bears, a species which became extinct 20,000 years ago, ate both plants and animals and competed for food with the other contemporary large carnivores of the time such as hyaenas, lions, wolves, and our own human ancestors."
///////////////////////////frm dr weil=
Healthy Body: Yoga Pose: Cobra Pose
Yoga can invigorate your immune system, release stress and enrich your life overall. The Cobra Pose is especially powerful: it is said to promote flexibility in the spine and encourage the chest to open.Yoga for Your Health
///////////////////////////NEGOTIATED OR LITIGATED SETTLEMENT
/////////////////////////Bad cholesterol genes discoveredScientists find novel genes linked with 'bad' cholesterol, paving the way for therapies to treat the risk.
///////////////////////Biggest black hole evah... [Greg Laden's Blog]
Posted: 12 Jan 2008 10:10 AM CST
There are about 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Imagine taking twenty percent of those stars and stuffing them into one, single black hole. That would be one hell of a black hole.
///////////////////
Ego Development
How You Can Get 14 Extra Years of Life
Posted: 09 Jan 2008 05:27 AM CST
People who assume four principles for a healthy lifestyle can add as much as 14 years to their lives, a study revealed in january 2008.
Researchers found that not smoking, taking exercise, drinking in moderation and eating five servings of fruit and vegetables, a day could have a enormous impact on life expectancy.
Academics at Cambridge University monitored the health of 20,000 men and women aged between 45 and 79 from Norfolk between 1993 and 2006.
The study concluded: “The results strongly suggest that these four achievable lifestyle changes could have a marked improvement on the health of middle-aged and older people, which is particularly important given the ageing population in the UK and other European countries.” (more…)
/////////////////////Cave Bears More Carnivorous Than Previously Thought [Greg Laden's Blog]
Posted: 08 Jan 2008 04:00 PM CST
From a University of Bristol Press Release: "Rather than being gentle giants, new research reveals that Pleistocene cave bears, a species which became extinct 20,000 years ago, ate both plants and animals and competed for food with the other contemporary large carnivores of the time such as hyaenas, lions, wolves, and our own human ancestors."
Friday, 11 January 2008
GD-THE FAILED HYPOTHESIS
/////////////////////STENGER
/////////////////////Richard Dawkins, Author of the New York Times best-seller The God Delusion"Darwin chased God out of his old haunts in biology, and he scurried for safety down the rabbit hole of physics. The laws and constants of the universe, we were told, are too good to be true: a set-up, carefully tuned to allow the eventual evolution of life. It needed a good physicist to show us the fallacy, and Victor Stenger lucidly does so. The faithful won't change their minds, of course (that is what faith means) but Victor Stenger drives a pack of energetic ferrets down the last major bolt hole and God is running out of refuges in which to hide. I learned an enormous amount from this splendid book."
Sam Harris, author of the New York Times bestsellers, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation"Marshalling converging arguments from physics, astronomy, biology, and philosophy, Stenger has delivered a masterful blow in defense of reason. God: The Failed Hypothesis is a potent, readable, and well-timed assault upon religious delusion. It should be widely read."
/////////////////////
Jaume Puigbo Vila "cosmos fun" (Barcelona, Spain) - See all my reviews In a time when any human group is coming out of the closet, finally atheists are doing the same and are being outspoken. Articles and books by Dawkins, Harris, Dennet and Stenger are much needed in America, less so in old Europe where Sunday church attendance is low. I always wonder if there is a connection between a highly religious society and one with a high percentage of inmigrants o descendants of inmigrants. Religion is one of the last taboos, "the opium of the people" as marxism declared. Books such as Stenger's probably will not convince believers, but will reaffirm non believers. Religion is more part of our emotions than of our rationality. Why some people in Spain support Real Madrid soccer team and others Barcelona? There is no rationale, only emotions. Naturally, you can still debate in the light of science and philosophy whether such and such god is likely to exist or not. I read Stenger's book with interest in a couple of days and found some interesting things such as: -Jesus was not the first to say that you must love your enemies. Taoism and buddhism had already expressed the same ideas much earlier. -"Nothing" is unstable so it is bound to produce "something". This answers the central philosophical question: Why is there something rather than nothing? -There is no archeological evidence that Nses spent 40 years in the desert with 600.000 people (what a logistic nightmare!). -Simplicity begets complexity (that I already knew since reading "The Blind Watchmaker" and knowing about genetic algorithms). Stenger gives so many (most simple) scientific arguments why God cannot exist that we should wonder why so many people still believe in it. The answer may lie in Sartre's dictum: "Man's essence is its desire to be God". In other words: God is our projection. Man may be the first entity by means of which the Univers wonders about itself. What are we doing here? Man has a desire to be trascendent, however the harsh reality is that we are all mortal. Having said that, isn't mortality needed so the Mankind and the Univers can evolve? Where would we be if the inquisitors, Hitler, Stalin wouldn't be dead? In other words: we still do not deserve immortality. But if we cannot be immortal (at least our soul), what is life's meaning? Stenger also provides some answers such as learn science, diminish the suffering, enjoy life and also quotes Aristotle's answers: contemplation, politics and the pursuit of pleasure which should equate approximately with the previous three. For me it all boils down to love, being a good citizen and finding a worthwhile activity that you like. As Woody Allen expressed succintly: "I enjoy making films". That's all there is, at least, for the time being.
/////////////////////
watzizname "watzizname" (Murfreesboro, Tennessee) - See all my reviews No, this book doesn't prove that there is no god, nor does it claim to. What it does clearly demonstrate is that the arguments and "evidence" that have been offered to buttress the assertion of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic God fail, and in many cases actually weaken what they are presented in support of. Dr. Stenger explains why it is unnecessary to posit a god to explain the existence of the universe or the existence of life. As knowledge of the way the universe works has increased, there have been fewer and fewer phenomena that seemed to need a god to explain them. That is why Michael D. Goulder, a leading New Testament scholar, resigned the priesthood and became an atheist, saying that he couldn't worship an unemployed God. This book offers no refutation of the god of Pantheism; the Pantheist god is defined as everything that exists, and it would be difficult to refute the claim that what exists exists. However, that definition of god is not what most people mean by the word. Stenger offers a list of 8 definitional attributes that he suggests (I think correctly, for the most part) fit what most people mean by "God." (this list is abbreviated) 1. Creator of the universe. 2. Author of the laws of nature. 3. Occasionally violates his own laws by performing miracles. 4. Creator of life, especially human life. 5. Provider of immotal souls for humans. 6. Source of morality. 7. Revealer of Truth via Scripture and directly to certain persons. 8. Does not deliberately hide from humans who seek him. (Read the complete text of each item on pp. 41-42.) It is these 8, plus 2 of the 3 O's (Omnipotent and omnibenevolent) which Stenger refutes. He does not discuss omniscience, perhaps because Kurt Goedel and Werner Heisenberg have demonstrated that an omniscient entity cannot exist. NOTE: Mr. Wesley Janssen (in the comments) has demonstrated that I was in error in the previous sentence; Goedel and Heisenberg did not prove quite what I thought they did. Thank you, Mr. Janssen; I stand corrected. I have only one small complaint: Like too many books these days, it fails to put the footnotes where they belong, on the pages that reference them.
/////////////////////////////qntm pntff=What Is an Uncomputer?
Posted: 11 Jan 2008 01:31 PM CST
Sean watches a panel discussion on whether the universe is a computer, looks up the definition of a computer, and decides that instead the universe is a calculation. If thinking about the universe as a computer is designed to make computer scientists feel important, thinking about the universe as a calculation seems designed to make theoretical physicists feel important :) But what I find interesting is that Sean points to a question asked by Tony Leggett: "What kind of process does not count as a computation?"
//////////////////////
/////////////////////Richard Dawkins, Author of the New York Times best-seller The God Delusion"Darwin chased God out of his old haunts in biology, and he scurried for safety down the rabbit hole of physics. The laws and constants of the universe, we were told, are too good to be true: a set-up, carefully tuned to allow the eventual evolution of life. It needed a good physicist to show us the fallacy, and Victor Stenger lucidly does so. The faithful won't change their minds, of course (that is what faith means) but Victor Stenger drives a pack of energetic ferrets down the last major bolt hole and God is running out of refuges in which to hide. I learned an enormous amount from this splendid book."
Sam Harris, author of the New York Times bestsellers, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation"Marshalling converging arguments from physics, astronomy, biology, and philosophy, Stenger has delivered a masterful blow in defense of reason. God: The Failed Hypothesis is a potent, readable, and well-timed assault upon religious delusion. It should be widely read."
/////////////////////
Jaume Puigbo Vila "cosmos fun" (Barcelona, Spain) - See all my reviews In a time when any human group is coming out of the closet, finally atheists are doing the same and are being outspoken. Articles and books by Dawkins, Harris, Dennet and Stenger are much needed in America, less so in old Europe where Sunday church attendance is low. I always wonder if there is a connection between a highly religious society and one with a high percentage of inmigrants o descendants of inmigrants. Religion is one of the last taboos, "the opium of the people" as marxism declared. Books such as Stenger's probably will not convince believers, but will reaffirm non believers. Religion is more part of our emotions than of our rationality. Why some people in Spain support Real Madrid soccer team and others Barcelona? There is no rationale, only emotions. Naturally, you can still debate in the light of science and philosophy whether such and such god is likely to exist or not. I read Stenger's book with interest in a couple of days and found some interesting things such as: -Jesus was not the first to say that you must love your enemies. Taoism and buddhism had already expressed the same ideas much earlier. -"Nothing" is unstable so it is bound to produce "something". This answers the central philosophical question: Why is there something rather than nothing? -There is no archeological evidence that Nses spent 40 years in the desert with 600.000 people (what a logistic nightmare!). -Simplicity begets complexity (that I already knew since reading "The Blind Watchmaker" and knowing about genetic algorithms). Stenger gives so many (most simple) scientific arguments why God cannot exist that we should wonder why so many people still believe in it. The answer may lie in Sartre's dictum: "Man's essence is its desire to be God". In other words: God is our projection. Man may be the first entity by means of which the Univers wonders about itself. What are we doing here? Man has a desire to be trascendent, however the harsh reality is that we are all mortal. Having said that, isn't mortality needed so the Mankind and the Univers can evolve? Where would we be if the inquisitors, Hitler, Stalin wouldn't be dead? In other words: we still do not deserve immortality. But if we cannot be immortal (at least our soul), what is life's meaning? Stenger also provides some answers such as learn science, diminish the suffering, enjoy life and also quotes Aristotle's answers: contemplation, politics and the pursuit of pleasure which should equate approximately with the previous three. For me it all boils down to love, being a good citizen and finding a worthwhile activity that you like. As Woody Allen expressed succintly: "I enjoy making films". That's all there is, at least, for the time being.
/////////////////////
watzizname "watzizname" (Murfreesboro, Tennessee) - See all my reviews No, this book doesn't prove that there is no god, nor does it claim to. What it does clearly demonstrate is that the arguments and "evidence" that have been offered to buttress the assertion of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic God fail, and in many cases actually weaken what they are presented in support of. Dr. Stenger explains why it is unnecessary to posit a god to explain the existence of the universe or the existence of life. As knowledge of the way the universe works has increased, there have been fewer and fewer phenomena that seemed to need a god to explain them. That is why Michael D. Goulder, a leading New Testament scholar, resigned the priesthood and became an atheist, saying that he couldn't worship an unemployed God. This book offers no refutation of the god of Pantheism; the Pantheist god is defined as everything that exists, and it would be difficult to refute the claim that what exists exists. However, that definition of god is not what most people mean by the word. Stenger offers a list of 8 definitional attributes that he suggests (I think correctly, for the most part) fit what most people mean by "God." (this list is abbreviated) 1. Creator of the universe. 2. Author of the laws of nature. 3. Occasionally violates his own laws by performing miracles. 4. Creator of life, especially human life. 5. Provider of immotal souls for humans. 6. Source of morality. 7. Revealer of Truth via Scripture and directly to certain persons. 8. Does not deliberately hide from humans who seek him. (Read the complete text of each item on pp. 41-42.) It is these 8, plus 2 of the 3 O's (Omnipotent and omnibenevolent) which Stenger refutes. He does not discuss omniscience, perhaps because Kurt Goedel and Werner Heisenberg have demonstrated that an omniscient entity cannot exist. NOTE: Mr. Wesley Janssen (in the comments) has demonstrated that I was in error in the previous sentence; Goedel and Heisenberg did not prove quite what I thought they did. Thank you, Mr. Janssen; I stand corrected. I have only one small complaint: Like too many books these days, it fails to put the footnotes where they belong, on the pages that reference them.
/////////////////////////////qntm pntff=What Is an Uncomputer?
Posted: 11 Jan 2008 01:31 PM CST
Sean watches a panel discussion on whether the universe is a computer, looks up the definition of a computer, and decides that instead the universe is a calculation. If thinking about the universe as a computer is designed to make computer scientists feel important, thinking about the universe as a calculation seems designed to make theoretical physicists feel important :) But what I find interesting is that Sean points to a question asked by Tony Leggett: "What kind of process does not count as a computation?"
//////////////////////
Thursday, 10 January 2008
E HILLARY-RIP
////////////////////GUCKING IND APATHY
//////////////////IND=APATHIA
//////////////////////MEDSCAPE=News and Approvals from the FDA Body Position Affects Gastroesophageal Reflux in Premature Infants Postprandial gastroesophageal reflux (GER) in premature infants is increased when infants are placed in the right lateral or supine positions, according to the results of two studies appearing in the Journal of Pediatrics for December.
////////////////////Childhood Cancer Survivors Have Increased Risk of Developing New Malignancies Survivors of childhood cancers have a markedly increased risk of developing new cancers relative to the general population, according to findings published in the November 15th issue of the International Journal of Cancer.Reuters Health Information 2007
DBL BANG FROM NATR=LH=GUAGO=GV UP AND GO
//////////////////////////////GO-OBAMA=GOBAMA
////////////////////From where came the Slavs? [Gene Expression]
Posted: 09 Jan 2008 06:19 PM CST
In my previous post I contended that biology is an important causal factor to keep in mind when we model the behavioral ecology (a.k.a., history) of H. sapiens. A separate, but complementary, tack is to use genetic data to supplement what we know from other historical sciences (history, archeology, economic history, etc.) to obtain a better picture of the dynamics which were operative in the past and the sequence of events which result in the shape of the present. The Etruscan genetics story is a perfect case study; genetic data pretty much sealed the deal in allowing us to distinguish between equally plausible hypotheses (or, more honestly, it radically altered the weights of plausibility). Another historical demographic question that I've been mulling recently: how is it that the Slavic speaking peoples expanded to occupy their current range with the last 2,000 years? Did they migrate or expand through demic diffusion? Maybe a small elite acculturated a pre-Slavic substratum? Or was it a combination of both contingent upon the period and locale?
/////////////////////
//////////////////IND=APATHIA
//////////////////////MEDSCAPE=News and Approvals from the FDA Body Position Affects Gastroesophageal Reflux in Premature Infants Postprandial gastroesophageal reflux (GER) in premature infants is increased when infants are placed in the right lateral or supine positions, according to the results of two studies appearing in the Journal of Pediatrics for December.
////////////////////Childhood Cancer Survivors Have Increased Risk of Developing New Malignancies Survivors of childhood cancers have a markedly increased risk of developing new cancers relative to the general population, according to findings published in the November 15th issue of the International Journal of Cancer.Reuters Health Information 2007
DBL BANG FROM NATR=LH=GUAGO=GV UP AND GO
//////////////////////////////GO-OBAMA=GOBAMA
////////////////////From where came the Slavs? [Gene Expression]
Posted: 09 Jan 2008 06:19 PM CST
In my previous post I contended that biology is an important causal factor to keep in mind when we model the behavioral ecology (a.k.a., history) of H. sapiens. A separate, but complementary, tack is to use genetic data to supplement what we know from other historical sciences (history, archeology, economic history, etc.) to obtain a better picture of the dynamics which were operative in the past and the sequence of events which result in the shape of the present. The Etruscan genetics story is a perfect case study; genetic data pretty much sealed the deal in allowing us to distinguish between equally plausible hypotheses (or, more honestly, it radically altered the weights of plausibility). Another historical demographic question that I've been mulling recently: how is it that the Slavic speaking peoples expanded to occupy their current range with the last 2,000 years? Did they migrate or expand through demic diffusion? Maybe a small elite acculturated a pre-Slavic substratum? Or was it a combination of both contingent upon the period and locale?
/////////////////////
Monday, 7 January 2008
JIA
//////////////Long–term outcome of juvenile idiopathic arthritis following a placebo–controlled trial: sustained benefits of early sulfasalazine treatment.
////////////////Ask the Expert: Psychiatric Implications of Paediatric Rheumatologic DiseaseElsevier Global Medical News
//////////////////////
Caught on Tape: Death Star Galaxy December 18, 2007 - 6:19pm
This composite photo provided by NASA shows A powerful jet from a supermassive black hole is blasting a nearby galaxy in the system known as 3C321, according to new results from NASA. This galactic violence, never seen before, could have a profound effect on any planets in the path of the jet and trigger a burst of star formation in the wake of its destruction. (AP Photo/NASA)
By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The latest act of senseless violence caught on tape is cosmic in scope: A black hole in a "death star galaxy" blasting a neighboring galaxy with a deadly jet of radiation and energy.
A fleet of space and ground telescopes have captured images of this cosmic violence, which people have never witnessed before, according to a new study released Monday by NASA.
"It's like a bully, a black-hole bully punching the nose of a passing galaxy," said astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, who wasn't involved in the research.
But ultimately, this could be a deadly punch.
The telescope images show the bully galaxy shooting a stream of deadly radiation particles into the lower section of the other galaxy, which is about one-tenth its size. Both are about 8.2 billion trillion miles from here, orbiting around each other.
The larger galaxy has a multi-digit name but is called the "death star galaxy" by one of the researchers who discovered the galactic bullying, Daniel Evans of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Tens of millions of stars, including those with orbiting planets, are likely in the path of the deadly jet, said study co-author Martin Hardcastle of the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.
If Earth were in the way _ and it's not _ the high-energy particles and radiation of the jet would in a matter of months strip away the planet's protective ozone layer and compress the protective magnetosphere, said Evans. That would then allow the sun and the jet itself to bombard the planet with high-energy particles.
And what would that do life on the planet?
"Decompose it," Tyson said.
"Sterilize it," Evans piped in.
The jet attack is relatively new, in deep space time. Hardcastle estimates it's no more than 1 million years old and can stretch on for another 10 to 100 million years.
"A truly extraordinary act of violence," Evans said. "The jet violently slams into that lower half of the neighboring galaxy after which the jet dramatically twists and bends."
The good news is that eventually an area of hot gas that gets hit and compressed by this mysterious jet _ astronomers are still baffled by what's in it and how it works _ over millions and billions of years can form stars, Tyson said.
NASA, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in United States and the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom used ground optical and radio telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope to get an image of the violence on various wavelengths, including invisible ones. The results will be published in The Astrophysical Journal next year.
The two galaxies are only 24,000 light-years apart and are in a slow merging process. The jet has already traveled 1 million light-years. A light-year is about 5.88 trillion miles.
Tyson said there are two main lessons to be learned from what the telescopes have found:
"This is a reminder that you are not alone in the universe. You are not isolated. You are not an island."
And "avoid black holes when you can."
___
On the Net
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory: http://chandra.nasa.gov/ (Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The latest act of senseless violence caught on tape is cosmic in scope: A black hole in a "death star galaxy" blasting a neighboring galaxy with a deadly jet of radiation and energy.
A fleet of space and ground telescopes have captured images of this cosmic violence, which people have never witnessed before, according to a new study released Monday by NASA.
"It's like a bully, a black-hole bully punching the nose of a passing galaxy," said astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, who wasn't involved in the research.
But ultimately, this could be a deadly punch.
The telescope images show the bully galaxy shooting a stream of deadly radiation particles into the lower section of the other galaxy, which is about one-tenth its size. Both are about 8.2 billion trillion miles from here, orbiting around each other.
The larger galaxy has a multi-digit name but is called the "death star galaxy" by one of the researchers who discovered the galactic bullying, Daniel Evans of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Tens of millions of stars, including those with orbiting planets, are likely in the path of the deadly jet, said study co-author Martin Hardcastle of the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.
If Earth were in the way _ and it's not _ the high-energy particles and radiation of the jet would in a matter of months strip away the planet's protective ozone layer and compress the protective magnetosphere, said Evans. That would then allow the sun and the jet itself to bombard the planet with high-energy particles.
And what would that do life on the planet?
"Decompose it," Tyson said.
"Sterilize it," Evans piped in.
The jet attack is relatively new, in deep space time. Hardcastle estimates it's no more than 1 million years old and can stretch on for another 10 to 100 million years.
"A truly extraordinary act of violence," Evans said. "The jet violently slams into that lower half of the neighboring galaxy after which the jet dramatically twists and bends."
The good news is that eventually an area of hot gas that gets hit and compressed by this mysterious jet _ astronomers are still baffled by what's in it and how it works _ over millions and billions of years can form stars, Tyson said.
NASA, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in United States and the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom used ground optical and radio telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope to get an image of the violence on various wavelengths, including invisible ones. The results will be published in The Astrophysical Journal next year.
The two galaxies are only 24,000 light-years apart and are in a slow merging process. The jet has already traveled 1 million light-years. A light-year is about 5.88 trillion miles.
Tyson said there are two main lessons to be learned from what the telescopes have found:
"This is a reminder that you are not alone in the universe. You are not isolated. You are not an island."
And "avoid black holes when you can."
___
///////////////////////////////////Most expensive paintings (sale prices expressed in dollars and adjusted for inflation):
No. 5, 1948, Jackson Pollock: $142.7 million (2006)
Woman III, Willem de Kooning: $140.2 million (2006)
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, Gustav Klimt: $137.6 million (2006)
Portrait of Dr. Gachet, Vincent van Gogh: $129.7 million (1990)
Bal au moulin de la Galette, Montmartre, Pierre-Auguste Renoir: $122.8 million (1990)
Garçon à la pipe, Pablo Picasso: $113.4 million (2004)
Irises, Vincent van Gogh: $97.5 million (1987)
Dora Maar au Chat, Pablo Picasso: $97.0 million (2006)
Portrait de l'artiste sans barbe, Vincent van Gogh: $90.1 million (1998)
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II, Gustav Klimt: $89.1 million (2006)
Japanese industrialist Ryoei Saito bought both #4 and #5 in 1990 and then announced he would have them burned during his cremation. Perhaps fortunately, he later ran into financial difficulties and was forced to sell them.
////////////////////////////////fc-Rejoinder
Does any English word contain all six vowels?
Unquestionably.
///////////////////5 Emergency Tips to Avert Diet Disaster
by J. M. Graham ("Crabby McSlacker")
Say you've recently resolved to lose weight and eat healthier, and you've been doing a great job. You've been eating the right foods in reasonable portions, and when you have an occasional treat, it's small and it's part of your overall plan.
But then one day your friends drag you to a fast food restaurant, and instead of choosing the grilled chicken salad like you were going to... somehow you end up ordering a double cheeseburger and fries like everyone else. Or you're at home and you find your spouse's stash of Oreos and you're pretty sure you could eat the entire bag...
Is this the beginning of the end of your weight loss resolution?
It doesn't have to be. The worst problem with going "off" a diet or healthy eating plan is not the few extra calories of a single indulgence--it's the sense of failure that can make you feel like giving up entirely. When faced with overwhelming temptation, here are some simple suggestions to keep you on track.
Abort!We have a natural tendency to want to finish what we've started, even when what we've started is incredibly stupid. If you can "snap out of it," just stop in your tracks. What if you've already ordered the cheeseburger? You could give it to a friend or even throw it away. It might feel weird, but the extra money you spend on the second "right" choice will be worth it for the feeling of accomplishment in sticking to your plans.
CompromiseSo let's say you can't make yourself abort, and you really are seriously bent on having that burger or those cookies. Then it's time to abandon the "all or nothing" thinking that makes it seem just as bad to have half a burger as it is to have two of them, or to have four Oreos versus forty.
Throw part of the cheeseburger or other offending item away. Or share it with someone. Take three or four Oreos and enjoy them but before you do, put the rest of them out in the garage or in the mailbox or somewhere inconvenient.
Perform food surgery: scrape off sauces and mayo, peel fried skin off chicken, take the white bread or bun off a burger or sandwich, even scrape the filling out of an Oreo. (Though this renders the whole Oreo pointless and is not advised unless you really like the chocolate part best).
CompensateAnother way to regain control is to take what seems to be a screw-up and make it less of a big deal to your overall goals. Walk an extra mile or two; skip the potato you were going to have for dinner and eat more broccoli instead. It will help you feel "back on track" and in control again.
Don't Indulge in GuiltGuilt feels so miserable it's hard to recognize it as an indulgence, but it is. It plays into perfectionism and all-or-nothing thinking. Everyone slips up. Beating yourself up over it can be an unconscious way to get yourself off the hook. "I'm a failure, I got off track, so there's no use trying." Look forward, not back, and take the energy you'd waste on remorse to plan better for next time.
Learn from your slip-upsRather than stew about it, ask some questions: What set you off? Were you too hungry? Did you not have enough healthy snacks around? What helped you regain control and how can you remember to do that again next time?
Does anyone else struggle with unplanned temptations? What helps you avoid overindulgence or get yourself back on track when you slip?
/////////////////////
////////////////Ask the Expert: Psychiatric Implications of Paediatric Rheumatologic DiseaseElsevier Global Medical News
//////////////////////
Caught on Tape: Death Star Galaxy December 18, 2007 - 6:19pm
This composite photo provided by NASA shows A powerful jet from a supermassive black hole is blasting a nearby galaxy in the system known as 3C321, according to new results from NASA. This galactic violence, never seen before, could have a profound effect on any planets in the path of the jet and trigger a burst of star formation in the wake of its destruction. (AP Photo/NASA)
By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The latest act of senseless violence caught on tape is cosmic in scope: A black hole in a "death star galaxy" blasting a neighboring galaxy with a deadly jet of radiation and energy.
A fleet of space and ground telescopes have captured images of this cosmic violence, which people have never witnessed before, according to a new study released Monday by NASA.
"It's like a bully, a black-hole bully punching the nose of a passing galaxy," said astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, who wasn't involved in the research.
But ultimately, this could be a deadly punch.
The telescope images show the bully galaxy shooting a stream of deadly radiation particles into the lower section of the other galaxy, which is about one-tenth its size. Both are about 8.2 billion trillion miles from here, orbiting around each other.
The larger galaxy has a multi-digit name but is called the "death star galaxy" by one of the researchers who discovered the galactic bullying, Daniel Evans of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Tens of millions of stars, including those with orbiting planets, are likely in the path of the deadly jet, said study co-author Martin Hardcastle of the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.
If Earth were in the way _ and it's not _ the high-energy particles and radiation of the jet would in a matter of months strip away the planet's protective ozone layer and compress the protective magnetosphere, said Evans. That would then allow the sun and the jet itself to bombard the planet with high-energy particles.
And what would that do life on the planet?
"Decompose it," Tyson said.
"Sterilize it," Evans piped in.
The jet attack is relatively new, in deep space time. Hardcastle estimates it's no more than 1 million years old and can stretch on for another 10 to 100 million years.
"A truly extraordinary act of violence," Evans said. "The jet violently slams into that lower half of the neighboring galaxy after which the jet dramatically twists and bends."
The good news is that eventually an area of hot gas that gets hit and compressed by this mysterious jet _ astronomers are still baffled by what's in it and how it works _ over millions and billions of years can form stars, Tyson said.
NASA, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in United States and the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom used ground optical and radio telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope to get an image of the violence on various wavelengths, including invisible ones. The results will be published in The Astrophysical Journal next year.
The two galaxies are only 24,000 light-years apart and are in a slow merging process. The jet has already traveled 1 million light-years. A light-year is about 5.88 trillion miles.
Tyson said there are two main lessons to be learned from what the telescopes have found:
"This is a reminder that you are not alone in the universe. You are not isolated. You are not an island."
And "avoid black holes when you can."
___
On the Net
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory: http://chandra.nasa.gov/ (Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.) By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The latest act of senseless violence caught on tape is cosmic in scope: A black hole in a "death star galaxy" blasting a neighboring galaxy with a deadly jet of radiation and energy.
A fleet of space and ground telescopes have captured images of this cosmic violence, which people have never witnessed before, according to a new study released Monday by NASA.
"It's like a bully, a black-hole bully punching the nose of a passing galaxy," said astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, who wasn't involved in the research.
But ultimately, this could be a deadly punch.
The telescope images show the bully galaxy shooting a stream of deadly radiation particles into the lower section of the other galaxy, which is about one-tenth its size. Both are about 8.2 billion trillion miles from here, orbiting around each other.
The larger galaxy has a multi-digit name but is called the "death star galaxy" by one of the researchers who discovered the galactic bullying, Daniel Evans of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Tens of millions of stars, including those with orbiting planets, are likely in the path of the deadly jet, said study co-author Martin Hardcastle of the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.
If Earth were in the way _ and it's not _ the high-energy particles and radiation of the jet would in a matter of months strip away the planet's protective ozone layer and compress the protective magnetosphere, said Evans. That would then allow the sun and the jet itself to bombard the planet with high-energy particles.
And what would that do life on the planet?
"Decompose it," Tyson said.
"Sterilize it," Evans piped in.
The jet attack is relatively new, in deep space time. Hardcastle estimates it's no more than 1 million years old and can stretch on for another 10 to 100 million years.
"A truly extraordinary act of violence," Evans said. "The jet violently slams into that lower half of the neighboring galaxy after which the jet dramatically twists and bends."
The good news is that eventually an area of hot gas that gets hit and compressed by this mysterious jet _ astronomers are still baffled by what's in it and how it works _ over millions and billions of years can form stars, Tyson said.
NASA, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in United States and the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom used ground optical and radio telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the infrared Spitzer Space Telescope to get an image of the violence on various wavelengths, including invisible ones. The results will be published in The Astrophysical Journal next year.
The two galaxies are only 24,000 light-years apart and are in a slow merging process. The jet has already traveled 1 million light-years. A light-year is about 5.88 trillion miles.
Tyson said there are two main lessons to be learned from what the telescopes have found:
"This is a reminder that you are not alone in the universe. You are not isolated. You are not an island."
And "avoid black holes when you can."
___
///////////////////////////////////Most expensive paintings (sale prices expressed in dollars and adjusted for inflation):
No. 5, 1948, Jackson Pollock: $142.7 million (2006)
Woman III, Willem de Kooning: $140.2 million (2006)
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, Gustav Klimt: $137.6 million (2006)
Portrait of Dr. Gachet, Vincent van Gogh: $129.7 million (1990)
Bal au moulin de la Galette, Montmartre, Pierre-Auguste Renoir: $122.8 million (1990)
Garçon à la pipe, Pablo Picasso: $113.4 million (2004)
Irises, Vincent van Gogh: $97.5 million (1987)
Dora Maar au Chat, Pablo Picasso: $97.0 million (2006)
Portrait de l'artiste sans barbe, Vincent van Gogh: $90.1 million (1998)
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II, Gustav Klimt: $89.1 million (2006)
Japanese industrialist Ryoei Saito bought both #4 and #5 in 1990 and then announced he would have them burned during his cremation. Perhaps fortunately, he later ran into financial difficulties and was forced to sell them.
////////////////////////////////fc-Rejoinder
Does any English word contain all six vowels?
Unquestionably.
///////////////////5 Emergency Tips to Avert Diet Disaster
by J. M. Graham ("Crabby McSlacker")
Say you've recently resolved to lose weight and eat healthier, and you've been doing a great job. You've been eating the right foods in reasonable portions, and when you have an occasional treat, it's small and it's part of your overall plan.
But then one day your friends drag you to a fast food restaurant, and instead of choosing the grilled chicken salad like you were going to... somehow you end up ordering a double cheeseburger and fries like everyone else. Or you're at home and you find your spouse's stash of Oreos and you're pretty sure you could eat the entire bag...
Is this the beginning of the end of your weight loss resolution?
It doesn't have to be. The worst problem with going "off" a diet or healthy eating plan is not the few extra calories of a single indulgence--it's the sense of failure that can make you feel like giving up entirely. When faced with overwhelming temptation, here are some simple suggestions to keep you on track.
Abort!We have a natural tendency to want to finish what we've started, even when what we've started is incredibly stupid. If you can "snap out of it," just stop in your tracks. What if you've already ordered the cheeseburger? You could give it to a friend or even throw it away. It might feel weird, but the extra money you spend on the second "right" choice will be worth it for the feeling of accomplishment in sticking to your plans.
CompromiseSo let's say you can't make yourself abort, and you really are seriously bent on having that burger or those cookies. Then it's time to abandon the "all or nothing" thinking that makes it seem just as bad to have half a burger as it is to have two of them, or to have four Oreos versus forty.
Throw part of the cheeseburger or other offending item away. Or share it with someone. Take three or four Oreos and enjoy them but before you do, put the rest of them out in the garage or in the mailbox or somewhere inconvenient.
Perform food surgery: scrape off sauces and mayo, peel fried skin off chicken, take the white bread or bun off a burger or sandwich, even scrape the filling out of an Oreo. (Though this renders the whole Oreo pointless and is not advised unless you really like the chocolate part best).
CompensateAnother way to regain control is to take what seems to be a screw-up and make it less of a big deal to your overall goals. Walk an extra mile or two; skip the potato you were going to have for dinner and eat more broccoli instead. It will help you feel "back on track" and in control again.
Don't Indulge in GuiltGuilt feels so miserable it's hard to recognize it as an indulgence, but it is. It plays into perfectionism and all-or-nothing thinking. Everyone slips up. Beating yourself up over it can be an unconscious way to get yourself off the hook. "I'm a failure, I got off track, so there's no use trying." Look forward, not back, and take the energy you'd waste on remorse to plan better for next time.
Learn from your slip-upsRather than stew about it, ask some questions: What set you off? Were you too hungry? Did you not have enough healthy snacks around? What helped you regain control and how can you remember to do that again next time?
Does anyone else struggle with unplanned temptations? What helps you avoid overindulgence or get yourself back on track when you slip?
/////////////////////
LIPID LOWERING DRUGS
Ezetimibe for the treatment of primary (heterozygous–familial and non–familial) hypercholesterolaemiaNational Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence – Technology Appraisals
//////////////////////nejm=God in the Brain — Efforts to Localize Higher Brain Functions
Solomon H. Snyder, M.D., D.Sc.
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Seeking God in the Brain — Efforts to Localize Higher Brain Functions -->
Solomon H. Snyder, M.D., D.Sc.
-->Neuroscientists have long eschewed global questions about brain function, and books reviewing the current state of neuroscience usually allocate only a small section to "higher functions." But with the advent of novel imaging techniques such as positron-emission tomographic scanning and functional magnetic resonance imaging, attitudes have begun to change. It is now feasible to visualize functions of discrete brain regions while subjects are engaged in diverse activities — doing arithmetic, composing songs, writing poetry, or watching pornographic movies. Information about which parts of the brain are activated during various mental activities has supplemented and, in general, confirmed previous insights derived from observations of alterations of thinking and feeling associated with brain lesions, epilepsy, and the use of diverse drugs.
Efforts to elucidate higher brain functions have intersected with a burgeoning literature on the neural underpinnings of not only language and art but also religion. At one extreme, some scientists, such as Francis Collins, in The Language of God, have even used what we know of molecular biology and brain function to argue for the existence of a personal God.1 Collins reviews anthropologic data emphasizing the universality of the search for God among a diverse group of primitive and advanced cultures over many thousands of years; he interprets this universality as implying that some basic structure in the brain "needs God." Similarly, noting that humans have an intuitive sense of right and wrong, Collins suggests that this characteristic, too, originates in an intrinsic structure of the brain. He goes so far as to conclude that the moral law was implanted in our brains by God, but many scientists have argued, from the same universality, that moral, altruistic behavior is programmed into the brain because it facilitates social behavior that leads to the preservation of the species.
Others have used similar data to argue that all of religion is an artifact of evolution. Neuroscientist David Linden, for instance, has recently suggested specific mechanisms whereby evolutionary alterations in the structure of the brain might account for the development of religion as well as love, memory, and dreams.2 As the brain evolved, he explains, the overgrown cerebral cortex came to overlie the more primitive, emotion-regulating limbic structures, which in turn surmount the most primitive brain-stem structures and the associated hypothalamus. Linden argues that the accidental linking of these portions of the brain accounts for many of the tribulations of humankind — anxiety and other emotional disturbances arise in substantial part from the ongoing war between the "rational" higher centers and the emotion-laden limbic system. Linden argues that if an "intelligent designer" had assembled the brain, it would surely have done an elegant, impeccable job, but the more we learn about the brain, the more clearly we see that it is an ad hoc concatenation of structures designed for unrelated functions — a sort of Rube Goldberg contraption. Though the brain somehow manages to function rather elegantly, breakdowns manifested in emotional and other disturbances are all too frequent.
Linden speculates about the neural mechanisms that may underlie religious impulses. He regards religious ideation as reflecting beliefs — such as the concept of a virgin birth or the notion of a God who knows every thought of every human being — that violate our everyday perception of reality. He likens such conceptualizations to the confabulations that persons with split brains arrive at in order to make sense of the incompatible data encountered by the two separated hemispheres.
In his recent book The Soul in the Brain, British neurologist Michael Trimble looks to his area of expertise, epilepsy, to explore a possible relationship between the human brain and religion: religiosity, he notes, is often brought to the fore by seizures.3 Trimble points out that some of the greatest religious figures in history had what were probably complex partial seizures, which are known to be associated with religious ideation. For instance, during Saint Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus, he is said not only to have suffered 3 days of blindness but also to have fallen to the ground frequently and experienced ecstatic visions. Muhammad described falling episodes accompanied by visual and auditory hallucinations. Joseph Smith, who founded Mormonism, reported lapses of consciousness and speech arrest, noting that "When I came to . . . I found myself lying on my back looking up at heaven." Joan of Arc reported, "I heard this voice [of an angel] . . . accompanied also by a great light."3
Trimble recalls that in The Varieties of Religious Experience, the 19th-century psychologist William James also highlighted the trances, visions, and auditory hallucinations associated with religion, emphasizing the ineffable, altered state of consciousness of most religious mystics. Such mystical states, encountered in most religions, remarks Trimble, are extraordinarily similar to the mental states elicited by psychedelic drugs such as LSD and mescaline. Almost 50 years ago, the psychiatrist Walter Pahnke came to this conclusion on the basis of experiments in which the psychedelic drug psilocybin was administered to students at the Harvard Divinity School. More recently, Roland Griffiths and colleagues have replicated these studies in a more rigorous fashion and found that subjects receiving psilocybin reported long-lasting changes in a religious sense of self.4 Drugs whose mechanism of action is understood can be powerful tools for elucidating the molecular basis of mental states — we know much more about the neurotransmitters that mediate emotions, for instance, from studying the actions of antidepressant drugs than from direct manipulations of the brain — and psychedelic drugs are known to act as agonists of one subtype of serotonin receptors.4 Since serotonin neurons arise from a discrete set of raphe nuclei in the brain, it may be possible to narrow the search for the biologic cause of at least one type of religiosity to these few cells.
But given the variability of what we mean by "religion" and "poetry," attempts to localize such purported functions within the brain are always fraught with hazards. With his focus on epileptic causes of both religious and creative impulses, Trimble enumerates several candidate regions, most of them in the temporal lobe — an area that receives a substantial input from serotonin neurons — which is consistent with what we know of sites of action of psychedelic drugs. In this issue of the Journal, Sanai and colleagues (pages 18–27) report on a study in which they mapped sites involved in diverse modes of language use in patients with gliomas who were undergoing debulking of their tumors. They found a far wider dispersal than might have been expected, with parietal and temporal as well as frontal regions providing important contributions. However, any extrapolation from a mapping of brain areas that mediate language use to likely cerebral contributions to religious or creative dispositions would be highly speculative.
So where do all these brain explorations lead us? In seeking a general relationship between religious states, poetry, and music, Trimble ascribes all three to the right, nondominant side of the brain. He assumes that integration of the activity of the right-sided emotional brain with that of the left-sided analytic brain gives rise to the greatest intellectual achievements in the arts. I suspect that major advances in science, too, are the product of more than pure reason — in the finest scientists I have encountered, I have always detected a notable creative, artistic flair.5 Artistic, intuitive approaches are evident even in the most abstract intellectual achievements, such as Einstein's theories. Needless to say, a simple dichotomy of right and left brains is a gross oversimplification. Nonetheless, as imaging technology and associated cognitive testing become ever more sophisticated, we may be able to discriminate ways in which religious and creative sensibilities relate to one another and to brain areas that mediate emotions that are deranged in psychiatric illness. Whether any of these advances will provide the answer to the cerebral basis of religion, if one exists, is anybody's guess.
Source Information
Dr. Snyder is a professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore.
////////////////////////////Mystery Solved: The Cause of Iceberger's Syndrome
Posted: 07 Jan 2008 11:01 AM CST
True to form, OmniBrain has posted an informative video about the "ice cream headache" also known as "Iceberger's syndrome." This is the nominally painful headache one experiences after eating too much of something extremely cold. While no "silent killer," as the video jokingly claims, "brain freeze" is actually a real thing (sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia) with a perfectly reasonable cause.
When you consume something very cold like ice cream or a 40 oz Slushie, it rapidly chills the roof of your mouth (the hard palate). Just above the hard palate is the sphenopalatine nerve which is extremely sensitive to rapid changes in temperature. As the cold food cools the hard palate, it stimulates the sphenopalatine nerve, "tricking" the brain into thinking that you are in an extremely cold environment. And, the body's reaction to suddenly being in a very cold place is to constrict the blood vessels in the brain, reducing blood flow to the brain. The pain is actually caused by the subsequent influx of warm blood which then forces the vessels open. Since the pain is actually felt in the head, rather than the roof of your mouth, the pain is "referred."
However, Iceberger's syndrome has a cure! Just warm the hard palate by placing your tongue on it. This will reduce the stimulation on the nerve behind it and reduce the stricture of the cerebral blood vessels.
(Note: I thought it might also be from cooling the blood traveling to the brain via the vessel sitting close to the throat. Read the comments on this post...
///////////////////////////Apatheism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Apatheist)
Jump to: navigation, search
Apatheism (a portmanteau of apathy and theism/atheism), also known as pragmatic or practical atheism, is acting with apathy, disregard, or lack of interest towards belief, or lack of belief in a deity. Apatheism describes the manner of acting towards a belief or lack of a belief in a deity; so applies to both theism and atheism. An apatheist is also someone who is not interested in accepting or denying any claims that gods exist or do not exist. In other words, an apatheist is someone who considers the question of the existence of gods as neither meaningful nor relevant to his or her life; nor perhaps to human affairs.
The eighteenth century French philosopher Denis Diderot, when accused of being an atheist, replied that he simply did not care whether God existed or not. In response to Voltaire, he wrote,
It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley; but not at all so to believe or not in God.[1]
Jonathan Rauch described apatheism as "a disinclination to care all that much about one's own religion and even a stronger disinclination to care about other people's". [2]
////////////////////ROMANTIC FORESTER
//////////////////A rare type of ileal atresia due to intrauterine intussusception Huang WC et al. - Intrauterine intussusception is an extremely rare cause of intestinal atresia. We report on a full-term neonate with clinical manifestations of intestinal obstruction two days after birth. The prenatal sonography at the late stage of pregnancy did not show any abnormality [more...]
European Journal of Pediatrics, 01/02/08
//////////////////////Eat by Color for Optimum Health
Posted: 07 Jan 2008 02:44 AM CST
Both doctors and nutritionists suggest eating a variety of foods rich in color in order to obtain the highest levels of protection of the health of antioxidants in your diet. Each color you see that occurs naturally in foods is due to an antioxidant, which protects the body in his own way.
We all know that fruits and vegetables are good for us, but here’s a list of what the different colors mean for your health:
- The color: Reds such as strawberries, red grapes, beets, papayas, and tomatoes. The payoff: Improves blood flow to the heart, protects against Alzheimer’s disease. Rich in lycopene, a carotenoid that appears to reduce the risk for prostate cancer.
- The color: Greens like kiwi, pears, broccoli, spinach, avocado and peas. The payoff: Helps build strong bones and teeth and protects your vision. Rich in lutein and zeaxanthin, which protect the eyes from cataracts and age-related macular degeneration, as well as sulforaphane, which helps ward off cancer.
- The color: Blues/Purples like figs, blueberries, eggplant, prunes and cabbage. The payoff: Protects your memory, helps your urinary tract stay healthy. Rich in antioxidants called anthocyanins, which may protect against cancer, and cell damage caused by aging. (more…)
//////////////////////////
//////////////////////nejm=God in the Brain — Efforts to Localize Higher Brain Functions
Solomon H. Snyder, M.D., D.Sc.
PDA Full Text
Add to Personal Archive
Add to Citation Manager
Notify a Friend
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by Sanai, N.
PubMed Citation
Seeking God in the Brain — Efforts to Localize Higher Brain Functions -->
Solomon H. Snyder, M.D., D.Sc.
-->Neuroscientists have long eschewed global questions about brain function, and books reviewing the current state of neuroscience usually allocate only a small section to "higher functions." But with the advent of novel imaging techniques such as positron-emission tomographic scanning and functional magnetic resonance imaging, attitudes have begun to change. It is now feasible to visualize functions of discrete brain regions while subjects are engaged in diverse activities — doing arithmetic, composing songs, writing poetry, or watching pornographic movies. Information about which parts of the brain are activated during various mental activities has supplemented and, in general, confirmed previous insights derived from observations of alterations of thinking and feeling associated with brain lesions, epilepsy, and the use of diverse drugs.
Efforts to elucidate higher brain functions have intersected with a burgeoning literature on the neural underpinnings of not only language and art but also religion. At one extreme, some scientists, such as Francis Collins, in The Language of God, have even used what we know of molecular biology and brain function to argue for the existence of a personal God.1 Collins reviews anthropologic data emphasizing the universality of the search for God among a diverse group of primitive and advanced cultures over many thousands of years; he interprets this universality as implying that some basic structure in the brain "needs God." Similarly, noting that humans have an intuitive sense of right and wrong, Collins suggests that this characteristic, too, originates in an intrinsic structure of the brain. He goes so far as to conclude that the moral law was implanted in our brains by God, but many scientists have argued, from the same universality, that moral, altruistic behavior is programmed into the brain because it facilitates social behavior that leads to the preservation of the species.
Others have used similar data to argue that all of religion is an artifact of evolution. Neuroscientist David Linden, for instance, has recently suggested specific mechanisms whereby evolutionary alterations in the structure of the brain might account for the development of religion as well as love, memory, and dreams.2 As the brain evolved, he explains, the overgrown cerebral cortex came to overlie the more primitive, emotion-regulating limbic structures, which in turn surmount the most primitive brain-stem structures and the associated hypothalamus. Linden argues that the accidental linking of these portions of the brain accounts for many of the tribulations of humankind — anxiety and other emotional disturbances arise in substantial part from the ongoing war between the "rational" higher centers and the emotion-laden limbic system. Linden argues that if an "intelligent designer" had assembled the brain, it would surely have done an elegant, impeccable job, but the more we learn about the brain, the more clearly we see that it is an ad hoc concatenation of structures designed for unrelated functions — a sort of Rube Goldberg contraption. Though the brain somehow manages to function rather elegantly, breakdowns manifested in emotional and other disturbances are all too frequent.
Linden speculates about the neural mechanisms that may underlie religious impulses. He regards religious ideation as reflecting beliefs — such as the concept of a virgin birth or the notion of a God who knows every thought of every human being — that violate our everyday perception of reality. He likens such conceptualizations to the confabulations that persons with split brains arrive at in order to make sense of the incompatible data encountered by the two separated hemispheres.
In his recent book The Soul in the Brain, British neurologist Michael Trimble looks to his area of expertise, epilepsy, to explore a possible relationship between the human brain and religion: religiosity, he notes, is often brought to the fore by seizures.3 Trimble points out that some of the greatest religious figures in history had what were probably complex partial seizures, which are known to be associated with religious ideation. For instance, during Saint Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus, he is said not only to have suffered 3 days of blindness but also to have fallen to the ground frequently and experienced ecstatic visions. Muhammad described falling episodes accompanied by visual and auditory hallucinations. Joseph Smith, who founded Mormonism, reported lapses of consciousness and speech arrest, noting that "When I came to . . . I found myself lying on my back looking up at heaven." Joan of Arc reported, "I heard this voice [of an angel] . . . accompanied also by a great light."3
Trimble recalls that in The Varieties of Religious Experience, the 19th-century psychologist William James also highlighted the trances, visions, and auditory hallucinations associated with religion, emphasizing the ineffable, altered state of consciousness of most religious mystics. Such mystical states, encountered in most religions, remarks Trimble, are extraordinarily similar to the mental states elicited by psychedelic drugs such as LSD and mescaline. Almost 50 years ago, the psychiatrist Walter Pahnke came to this conclusion on the basis of experiments in which the psychedelic drug psilocybin was administered to students at the Harvard Divinity School. More recently, Roland Griffiths and colleagues have replicated these studies in a more rigorous fashion and found that subjects receiving psilocybin reported long-lasting changes in a religious sense of self.4 Drugs whose mechanism of action is understood can be powerful tools for elucidating the molecular basis of mental states — we know much more about the neurotransmitters that mediate emotions, for instance, from studying the actions of antidepressant drugs than from direct manipulations of the brain — and psychedelic drugs are known to act as agonists of one subtype of serotonin receptors.4 Since serotonin neurons arise from a discrete set of raphe nuclei in the brain, it may be possible to narrow the search for the biologic cause of at least one type of religiosity to these few cells.
But given the variability of what we mean by "religion" and "poetry," attempts to localize such purported functions within the brain are always fraught with hazards. With his focus on epileptic causes of both religious and creative impulses, Trimble enumerates several candidate regions, most of them in the temporal lobe — an area that receives a substantial input from serotonin neurons — which is consistent with what we know of sites of action of psychedelic drugs. In this issue of the Journal, Sanai and colleagues (pages 18–27) report on a study in which they mapped sites involved in diverse modes of language use in patients with gliomas who were undergoing debulking of their tumors. They found a far wider dispersal than might have been expected, with parietal and temporal as well as frontal regions providing important contributions. However, any extrapolation from a mapping of brain areas that mediate language use to likely cerebral contributions to religious or creative dispositions would be highly speculative.
So where do all these brain explorations lead us? In seeking a general relationship between religious states, poetry, and music, Trimble ascribes all three to the right, nondominant side of the brain. He assumes that integration of the activity of the right-sided emotional brain with that of the left-sided analytic brain gives rise to the greatest intellectual achievements in the arts. I suspect that major advances in science, too, are the product of more than pure reason — in the finest scientists I have encountered, I have always detected a notable creative, artistic flair.5 Artistic, intuitive approaches are evident even in the most abstract intellectual achievements, such as Einstein's theories. Needless to say, a simple dichotomy of right and left brains is a gross oversimplification. Nonetheless, as imaging technology and associated cognitive testing become ever more sophisticated, we may be able to discriminate ways in which religious and creative sensibilities relate to one another and to brain areas that mediate emotions that are deranged in psychiatric illness. Whether any of these advances will provide the answer to the cerebral basis of religion, if one exists, is anybody's guess.
Source Information
Dr. Snyder is a professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore.
////////////////////////////Mystery Solved: The Cause of Iceberger's Syndrome
Posted: 07 Jan 2008 11:01 AM CST
True to form, OmniBrain has posted an informative video about the "ice cream headache" also known as "Iceberger's syndrome." This is the nominally painful headache one experiences after eating too much of something extremely cold. While no "silent killer," as the video jokingly claims, "brain freeze" is actually a real thing (sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia) with a perfectly reasonable cause.
When you consume something very cold like ice cream or a 40 oz Slushie, it rapidly chills the roof of your mouth (the hard palate). Just above the hard palate is the sphenopalatine nerve which is extremely sensitive to rapid changes in temperature. As the cold food cools the hard palate, it stimulates the sphenopalatine nerve, "tricking" the brain into thinking that you are in an extremely cold environment. And, the body's reaction to suddenly being in a very cold place is to constrict the blood vessels in the brain, reducing blood flow to the brain. The pain is actually caused by the subsequent influx of warm blood which then forces the vessels open. Since the pain is actually felt in the head, rather than the roof of your mouth, the pain is "referred."
However, Iceberger's syndrome has a cure! Just warm the hard palate by placing your tongue on it. This will reduce the stimulation on the nerve behind it and reduce the stricture of the cerebral blood vessels.
(Note: I thought it might also be from cooling the blood traveling to the brain via the vessel sitting close to the throat. Read the comments on this post...
///////////////////////////Apatheism
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Apatheism (a portmanteau of apathy and theism/atheism), also known as pragmatic or practical atheism, is acting with apathy, disregard, or lack of interest towards belief, or lack of belief in a deity. Apatheism describes the manner of acting towards a belief or lack of a belief in a deity; so applies to both theism and atheism. An apatheist is also someone who is not interested in accepting or denying any claims that gods exist or do not exist. In other words, an apatheist is someone who considers the question of the existence of gods as neither meaningful nor relevant to his or her life; nor perhaps to human affairs.
The eighteenth century French philosopher Denis Diderot, when accused of being an atheist, replied that he simply did not care whether God existed or not. In response to Voltaire, he wrote,
It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley; but not at all so to believe or not in God.[1]
Jonathan Rauch described apatheism as "a disinclination to care all that much about one's own religion and even a stronger disinclination to care about other people's". [2]
////////////////////ROMANTIC FORESTER
//////////////////A rare type of ileal atresia due to intrauterine intussusception Huang WC et al. - Intrauterine intussusception is an extremely rare cause of intestinal atresia. We report on a full-term neonate with clinical manifestations of intestinal obstruction two days after birth. The prenatal sonography at the late stage of pregnancy did not show any abnormality [more...]
European Journal of Pediatrics, 01/02/08
//////////////////////Eat by Color for Optimum Health
Posted: 07 Jan 2008 02:44 AM CST
Both doctors and nutritionists suggest eating a variety of foods rich in color in order to obtain the highest levels of protection of the health of antioxidants in your diet. Each color you see that occurs naturally in foods is due to an antioxidant, which protects the body in his own way.
We all know that fruits and vegetables are good for us, but here’s a list of what the different colors mean for your health:
- The color: Reds such as strawberries, red grapes, beets, papayas, and tomatoes. The payoff: Improves blood flow to the heart, protects against Alzheimer’s disease. Rich in lycopene, a carotenoid that appears to reduce the risk for prostate cancer.
- The color: Greens like kiwi, pears, broccoli, spinach, avocado and peas. The payoff: Helps build strong bones and teeth and protects your vision. Rich in lutein and zeaxanthin, which protect the eyes from cataracts and age-related macular degeneration, as well as sulforaphane, which helps ward off cancer.
- The color: Blues/Purples like figs, blueberries, eggplant, prunes and cabbage. The payoff: Protects your memory, helps your urinary tract stay healthy. Rich in antioxidants called anthocyanins, which may protect against cancer, and cell damage caused by aging. (more…)
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COOKING PASTA
//////////////////Whole grain pastas are also more slowly digested. Pasta should be cooked "al dente" (slightly firm), as the more you cook it, the faster it is broken down into sugar.
////////////////////SAGAN-COSMOS IS ALL THAT IS,WAS OR WILL BE
/////////////////////Koenigs et al., publishing in Nature Neuroscience, take an interesting approach to this problem in PTSD. They looked at a large number of Vietnam War veterans, some of whom had damage to their brains in combat. Then the looked at the ratio of individuals who later got PTSD and compared that with where in their brains they were injured. They show that injuries to two areas of the brain -- the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the amygdala -- lower the risk for PTSD, strongly implicating these regions as causative for the disease.
///////////////////////////STRESS IS NATURAL-LOOK ATH F£$%^&G SQUIRREL LOOKING FOR A NUT
////////////////////////Fraser Syndrome: Recurrence in a Family Singh R et al. - We report a family with affected child where the pregnant woman was referred at 24 weeks of gestation for termination of pregnancy. The aborted fetus showed typical findings suggestive of Fraser syndrome [more...]
Indian Pediatrics, 01/04/08 Free Full Text
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////////////////////SAGAN-COSMOS IS ALL THAT IS,WAS OR WILL BE
/////////////////////Koenigs et al., publishing in Nature Neuroscience, take an interesting approach to this problem in PTSD. They looked at a large number of Vietnam War veterans, some of whom had damage to their brains in combat. Then the looked at the ratio of individuals who later got PTSD and compared that with where in their brains they were injured. They show that injuries to two areas of the brain -- the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and the amygdala -- lower the risk for PTSD, strongly implicating these regions as causative for the disease.
///////////////////////////STRESS IS NATURAL-LOOK ATH F£$%^&G SQUIRREL LOOKING FOR A NUT
////////////////////////Fraser Syndrome: Recurrence in a Family Singh R et al. - We report a family with affected child where the pregnant woman was referred at 24 weeks of gestation for termination of pregnancy. The aborted fetus showed typical findings suggestive of Fraser syndrome [more...]
Indian Pediatrics, 01/04/08 Free Full Text
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