Random shit. Now and then... language related topics.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Check out my neurons getting connected
Seeing a brain as it learns to see
DURHAM, N.C. -- A brain isn't born fully organized. It builds its abilities through experience, making physical connections between neurons and organizing circuits to store and retrieve information in milliseconds for years afterwards.
Now that process has been caught in the act for the first time by a Duke University research team that watched a naïve brain organize itself to interpret images of motion.
"This is the first time that anyone has been able to watch as visual experience selectively shapes the functional properties of individual neurons," said David Fitzpatrick, professor of neurobiology and director of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences. "These results emphasize just how important experience is for the early development of brain circuits." The group's findings appear online Oct. 22 in the journal Nature.
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Great web tool: Easy abs
Monday, October 20, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
Staying alive
Why 'Stayin' Alive' could literally save your life: Disco song has perfect rhythm to jump-start a heart, says doctor
By Daily Mail Reporter
'Stayin' Alive' might be more true to its name than the Bee Gees ever could have guessed: At 103 beats per minute, the old disco song has almost the perfect rhythm to help jump-start a stopped heart.
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Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Yet another example of what is done in the name of religion
Hanged for being a Christian in Iran
Eighteen years ago, Rashin Soodmand's father was hanged in Iran for converting to Christianity. Now her brother is in a Mashad jail, and expects to be executed under new religious laws brought in this summer. Alasdair Palmer reports.
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Think about what they would do to someone who became an atheist. No fucking way I will ever visit such a place. At least while crazy religious zealots are in command.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Gross and whacky!
Mama's milk ice cream cone, anyone?
By JOHN CURRAN – Sep 25, 2008
WATERBURY, Vt. (AP) — Mooove over, Holsteins. PETA wants world-famous Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream to tap nursing moms, rather than cows, for the milk used in its ice cream.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is asking the ice cream maker to begin using breast milk in its products instead of cow's milk, saying it would reduce the suffering of cows and calves and give ice cream lovers a healthier product.
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Friday, October 3, 2008
Do you know who Norman Borlaug is?
I must confess that a year or so ago I had never heard about the guy (ok, he is an old man today and his Nobel peace prize is from 1970). Or maybe my memory failed yet again, but I doubt I ever saw his name on my high school textbooks. My point: it is really fucked up that most people never heard about him and his work. Get informed and think twice next time you buy the supposedly environmentally friendly overpriced organic produce.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
An old bad boy
Tissue sample suggests HIV has been infecting humans for a century
48-year-old lymph node biopsy reveals the history of the deadly virus.
A biopsy taken from an African woman nearly 50 years ago contains traces of the HIV genome, researchers have found. Analysis of sequences from the newly discovered sample suggests that the virus has been plaguing humans for almost a century.
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