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10 Weird Science Facts
Science is strangely complicated and complexly weird.
* The blood vessels, are responsible for enabling the transport of blood throughout the body. If blood vessels were made to lay end to end, all of them together would encircle the Earth twice, by stretching up to a distance of about 100,000 kilometers.
* The human brain, which is the core of the central nervous system and a miraculous creation of nature, can process as many as 70, 000 thoughts in a day!
* Seahorses reproduce in a weird way. It is the male seahorses that get pregnant and give birth to the offsprings. A male seahorse can give birth to as less as one to as many as two thousand fry at one time. One pregnancy lasts for about two to four weeks. When the fry are ready to be born, the male seahorse undergoes muscular contractions to expel the offspring from its pouch.
* Polar bears can run about 25 miles an hour and jump to about 6 feet in air. Polar bear fur consists of a layer of thick under-fur covered by an outer layer of guard hairs. The guard hairs appear in shades of white to tan but are actually transparent. The transparent fur makes the polar bears almost invisible under infrared photography!
* Venus, the second-closest planet to the Sun has continued to arouse the interest of many scientists for years after its discovery. It is the brightest natural object in the night sky, except for the Moon. Interestingly, it orbits the Sun in a clockwise direction, whereas the rest of the planets revolve in an anticlockwise manner. A strange aspect of the orbital of Venus is that it reaches the point closest to Earth after every 584 days.
* Science has revealed that a tropical cyclone releases heat energy at the rate of 50 to 200 exajoules per day. This rate of the release of energy comes to about 200 times the world’s capacity of generating electrical energy. This rate of energy release is equivalent to that released during an explosion of a 10-megaton nuclear bomb every 20 minutes!
* ‘Foetus in foetu’ is a rare abnormality that refers to the phenomenon of a fetus getting trapped inside a twin’s body. The fetus continues to grow like a parasite inside a person’s body, leeching the person’s blood supply. It gradually grows so large that it begins harming the host’s body, after which it has to be surgically removed.
* On an average, a person accidentally eats about 430 bugs in each year of his/her life. This one is definitely weird.
* Bamboo trees fall under the group of woody perennial evergreen plants. Interestingly, giant bamboo species form the largest members of the grass family. Bamboo is the fastest growing woody plant in the world. Some species of bamboo achieve a growth rate of an astonishing 3-4 feet per day!
* Coffee is a daily drink of the most of you all. But did you know that a single cup of coffee contains over 1000 chemical substances?
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Understanding Evil
about 11 months ago - No comments
I’ve found an interesting article the other day and thought that I should share, because as always, ‘sharing is caring’ people. 
Dr. Evil
It is a much mentioned, but little understood concept. Any individual in the world is likely to have strong conceptions of “evil,” but very few could define it, or ascribe a cause to it. Dictionary.com defines “evil” as “morally bad or wrong,” and also “causing ruin, injury or pain.” While the word “immoral” is more commonly used to connote the first definition (“morally bad or wrong”), colloquially, the word “evil” is most often used to convey the sense of the second definition (“causing ruin, injury or pain”). Realizing that the phrase “evil” is subjective and has many implications, in this essay I will use the word “evil” to convey the sense of the second definition.
From time immemorial, some humans have been perceived to have the tendency to cause harm to others for no apparent or rational reason. These humans, we assume, like to take pleasure in the pain of others. Thus, what appears to be an alien sensibility to us, one which is characterized by an inexplicable perniciousness, is termed as evil. Why “evil” humans are different from the rest of us is not understood by most people. Evil, they assume, is just an inborn quality. And because it is inherent to the individuals who possess it, people believe that the only way to stop them is to their exterminate them, or at the very least incarcerate them, so that they remain away from a society that they could destroy if given free rein.
But is evil indeed an inherent characteristic? Or is it a mentality inculcated by way of the environment in which one is raised–the unique circumstances one had to deal with? More importantly, are good and evil concepts independent of one another, or inter-related to one another?
I believe that all actions perceived as evil are rooted in the desire for good in some way or the other. I will explain.
The best analogy that illustrates the point was made by a TV evangelical named Ramesh Richard, who has been referred to by his website as, “a global spokesman for the Lord Jesus Christ.” While his show is cluttered with unsurprising references to the Bible and Jesus, his discussion of the nature of evil truly struck me. He showed the audience a piece of paper with a hole in it. He then compared the paper to “good” and the hole to “evil”. In the absence of the paper, there is no hole, just as in the absence of good, there is no evil. That was an ingenious way to get his point through. Evil, to me, simply does not exist as an independent concept. I view it more as an aberration from good, or to be more precise as a perverse reflection of the frustration at our inability to attain the good, the pure.
One characteristic shared by all human beings is jealousy. On a beach we may watch a young boy break down his brother’s sand-castle when it is better than his. In doing so, he is not exactly angry with his brother for building a better sand-castle than him. He is angry at a strange system, a happenstance, that appeared to reward someone else with a better sand-castle even though he himself had tried his level best to build one. All “evil” actions are marked by these very feelings of frustration. I do not think I need to provide any evidence to substantiate my assertion. Why don’t you, my readers look into your past and remember actions which had shades of so-called “evil” in them? Was it not the helplessness, frustration, and your want to gain power over the situation that caused you to commit the deed?
Read more: http://dangerousintersection.org
Awesome discovery of the week: Glass melts when it gets too cold
about 11 months ago - No comments
Anyone who’s seen enough old Sesame Street episodes or been to enough Renaissance Fairs knows that when glass gets hot enough, it turns to liquid. Applied heat pumps energy into the solid pieces of glass, getting their molecules jiggling. As the heat dissipates, the glass becomes cool and solidifies again.p
Glass melts when it gets too cold
Most of the time, not many interesting things happen once a substance gets below the temperature required for solidification. Its atoms are bound to one another, and without the introduction of some kind of energy, they’ll stay that way. Glass, it turns out, is the exception. Once it gets close to absolute zero, it melts again.
But what could make that happen? The atoms in glass chilled to near-absolute zero have almost no energy, so they can’t be jiggling fast enough to tear apart from each other. And yet, on paper and in computer simulations, glass returned to a liquid form when brought close enough to absolute zero.
The wild card turned out to be quantum mechanics. Once the atoms of glass became still enough, they stopped acting like particles and instead acted like waves. The wave-like atoms now were able to flow, moving through spaces too small for particles to get through. This motion, and this ability to fit through small spaces, causes ultra-cold glass to melt into a liquid. No word yet if this works on the T-1000.
How to Have a Lucid Dream – Wake up in a Dream – Part I
about 11 months ago - No comments
Lucid dreaming need not be elusive. Some simple techniques can make it possible for almost anyone.
Lucid dreaming
Lucid dreaming can be a very powerful experience for the dreamer. “You can be the absolute master of your dream world,” says MortalMist.com, a website and forum dedicated to lucid dreaming. “The very laws of nature can be bent and broken. No experience is beyond your reach, no feat too difficult or risky. If you can imagine it, you can make it happen.”
Many people report wonderful experiences in the dream worlds they’ve created. For some, though, lucid dreaming remains elusive. But there is good news; becoming skilled at “waking up” in a dream may be easier than it seems. There are several techniques that can be used to enter the world of lucid dreaming.
Lucid dreaming requires three things:
- the ability to recall dreams,
- a technique, known as a reality check, to become aware of dreaming, and
- strategies to remain in the dream.
Tips for Recalling Dreams
Everyone dreams, but not everyone remembers his or her dreams. Sometimes even people who revel in dream recall go through periods where they can’t remember dreams. But that doesn’t mean lucid dreaming is lost to those who have trouble remembering dreams.
Dream recall is a skill that improves with practice. In fact, improved dream recall can happen readily, and all it requires is lying in bed, according to Ryan Dungan Hurd, editor of DreamStudies.org and a member of the International Association for the Study of Dreams.
Hurd suggests that people use the Snooze Method for Dream Recall. The name of the method may seem strange, but most find that it’s a fairly easy way to remember dreams.
He explains that when people wake up, they usually change their body position almost immediately. “This actually dispels the body’s emotional traces of the last dream….And it’s totally over for remembering dreams once we start thinking about the day ahead.”
Hurd believes that memory traces are not just stored in the brain; he says they can be stored virtually anywhere in the body. The lungs, the belly, and the heart are among the largest of these body-cognition centers, and they process memory and emotion. He notes that people can use this same natural capacity of the body to help remember dreams, too.
So, to improve dream recall, remain in position upon waking; avoid moving into a new position. Then, actively attempt to recall the dream. If no images come, one may try focusing on any emotional residue that the dream may have left behind.
Once the dream is remembered, record it in a journal kept near the bed.
NASA: Alertă de furtună geo-magnetică
about 11 months ago - No comments
NASA a emis o alertă de furtună geo-magnetică provocată de o masă uriaşă de particule solare degajate de două explozii recente.
Potrivit datelor de pe satelitul STEREO, plasma ejectată se deplasează cu o viteză de 410 kilometri pe secundă
Una dintre explozii, cea mai mare, s-a produs luni 14 februarie şi a trimis spre Pământ o masă însemnată de particule şi radiaţii. Imensa furtună solară declanşată poate afecta câmpul magnetic al Terrei.
Norul imens de particule încărcate electric se deplasează cu viteză spre planeta noastră, timpul parcurgerii distanţei fiind de aproximativ 24 de ore.
Explozia solară, cea mai puternică înregistrată în ultimii patru ani, a fost catalogată de astronomi ca aparţinând clasei X – cel mai puternic tip de pe scara de măsură. Ea este prima de acest fel din noul ciclu de activitate solară, început în 2011 şi cu un maxim estimat a se produce în 2013.
Profesorul doctor George Iana, şeful secţiei Radiologie şi imagistică medicală în cadrul Spitalului Universitar de Urgenţă Bucureşti, spune că, pentru a vorbi despre consecinţele acestui fenomen trebuie să ştim spectrul electromagnetic al benzii de radiaţii.
Dacă sunt semnalaţi fotoni – ceea ce pot preciza fizicenii, atunci există un potenţial iradiant.
Consecinţele sunt indirecte. În primul rând, populaţia trebuie să fie informată asupra concentraţiei de iradiaţii din atmosferă. Pentru că, în mod curent, există un fond de radiaţii. Dacă acesta este de 4-7 ori mai mare decât în mod curent, atunci pot fi afectate pielea şi organele vitale.
Efectele se înregistrează în timp, în special prin apariţia de malformaţii, aşa cum s-a întâmplat în cazul exploziei de la Cernobîl.
Dacă fenomenul este asociat cu lumină vizibilă înseamnă că există o concentraţie mare de energie care poate provoca arsuri ale pielii. Dacă fenomenul este însoţit de unde radio, acestea generează dureri de cap, stări de vomă, agitaţie, creşterea tensiunii arteriale.
Profesorul doctor George Iana consideră că, decomadată nu sunt motive de îngrijorare, dacă Inspectoratul pentru situaţii de urgenţă şi controlul mediului nu a emis avertismente. Totuşi, profesorul Iana recomandă femeilor însărcinate şi tinerilor să stea mai puţin afară în aceste zile.
Experiment creat de cercetătorii români, transportat pe Staţia Spaţială Internaţională
about 11 months ago - No comments
Un experiment realizat de cercetătorii români va fi transportat pe Staţia Spaţială Internaţională (ISS) la ultimul zbor al navetei spaţiale Discovery, programat pentru 24 februarie, a declarat directorul general al Agenţiei Spaţiale Române (ROSA), Marius-Ioan Piso, citat de Mediafax.
Experiment creat de cercetătorii români, transportat pe Staţia Spaţială Internaţională
Experimentul românesc a fost realizat de Institutul de Ştiinţe Spaţiale din Bucureşti.
“Creşterea şi Supravieţuirea Fungilor Coloraţi în Spaţiu” (CFA-A) este un experiment ce are ca scop determinarea efectelor pe care le are microgravitaţia şi radiaţiile cosmice asupra creşterii şi supravieţuirii speciilor de fungi, potrivit site-ului rosa.ro.
Potrivit lui Piso, experimentul a fost coordonat de Dumitru Haşegan, de la Institutul de Ştiinţe Spaţiale din Bucureşti (ESA). El a plecat deja la centrul spaţial Kennedy de la Cape Canaveral (Florida, SUA), pentru a pregăti experimentul.
La începutul lui ianuarie, NASA a anunţat că a reuşit să remedieze problema fisurilor din rezervorul extern al navetei Discovery şi că intenţionează să o lanseze spre Staţia Spaţială Internaţională (ISS) pe 24 februarie. John Shannon, responsabilul programului de lansare a navetei Discovery (misiunea NASA STS-133), dădea atunci asigurări că a fost rezolvată problema fisurilor din rezervorul extern al Discovery, care a ţinut la sol naveta încă de la începutul lui noiembrie. Modificările tehnice urmau să fie încheiate până pe 23 ianuarie.
Lansarea navetei Discovery a fost amânată de mai multe ori, începând din noiembrie 2010, din cauza unei scurgeri de hidrogen în timpul umplerii cu combustibil a rezervorului extern.
Acesta este ultimul zbor pentru Discovery şi, totodată, al 39-lea pentru navetă, cea mai veche din flota spaţială a NASA.
Aceasta este, de asemenea, penultima lansare a unei navete americane, înainte de retragerea lor din circulaţie şi trimiterea la un muzeu tehnic.
Ultimul zbor al unei navete americane va fi efectuat, în principiu, de Endeavour, cel mai devreme în aprilie.
Morgellons Disease
about 1 year ago - No comments
Morgellons disease is a mysterious skin disorder characterized by disfiguring sores and crawling sensations on and under the skin. Although Morgellons disease isn’t widely recognized as a medical diagnosis, experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are investigating reports of the condition, which they refer to as unexplained dermopathy.
Morgellons Disease
If you suspect that you have Morgellons disease, you may have many questions about the condition. Here’s what you need to know about Morgellons disease, including practical tips for managing your signs and symptoms.
What are the signs and symptoms of Morgellons disease?
People who have Morgellons disease report the following signs and symptoms:
- Skin rashes or sores that can cause intense itching
- Crawling sensations on and under the skin, often compared to insects moving, stinging or biting
- Fibers, threads or black stringy material in and on the skin
- Severe fatigue
- Inability to concentrate and short-term memory loss
- Behavioral changes
- Joint pain
- Vision changes
Morgellons disease shares characteristics with various recognized conditions, including Lyme disease, liver or kidney disease, schizophrenia, drug or alcohol abuse, and a mental illness involving false beliefs about infestation by parasites (delusional parasitosis).
How widespread is Morgellons disease?
Reports of Morgellons disease have been made in every state in the United States and 15 countries around the world. Most reported cases are clustered in California, Texas and Florida.
What do researchers know about Morgellons disease?
Beyond anecdotal reports, researchers know little about Morgellons disease. The CDC reports no known causes of Morgellons disease and no successful treatment for the condition. Whether Morgellons disease is contagious remains a mystery.
How controversial is Morgellons disease?
Current attitudes toward Morgellons disease fall into various categories:
- Some health professionals believe that Morgellons disease is a specific condition that needs to be confirmed by future research.
- Some health professionals believe that signs and symptoms of Morgellons disease are caused by another condition, often mental illness.
- Other health professionals don’t acknowledge Morgellons disease or are reserving judgment until more is known about the condition.
Some people who suspect Morgellons disease claim they’ve been ignored, criticized as delusional or dismissed as fakers. In contrast, some doctors say that people who report signs and symptoms of Morgellons disease typically resist other explanations for their condition.
How can you cope with the signs and symptoms of Morgellons disease?
The signs and symptoms linked to Morgellons disease can be distressing. Even though health professionals disagree about the nature of the condition, you deserve compassionate treatment. While research continues, take positive steps to manage your signs and symptoms.
- Establish a caring health care team. Find a doctor who acknowledges your concerns and does a thorough examination. Since Morgellons disease often requires frequent follow-up visits, a local health care team may be most convenient.
- Be patient. Your doctor will likely look for known conditions that point to evidence-based treatments before considering a diagnosis of Morgellons disease.
- Keep an open mind. Consider various causes for your signs and symptoms, and follow your doctor’s recommendations for treatment — which may include long-term mental health therapy.
- Seek treatment for other conditions. Get treatment for anxiety, depression or any other condition that affects your thinking, moods or behavior.
- Keep track of the latest news about Morgellons disease. Supplement the information you find online with articles published in peer-reviewed medical journals. Remember that some sources are more reputable than are others.
Stem Cell Transplant Cures HIV In ‘Berlin Patient’
about 1 year ago - No comments
On the heels of World AIDS Day comes a stunning medical breakthrough: Doctors believe an HIV-positive man who underwent a stem cell transplant has been cured as a result of the procedure.
Stem cell transplant
Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the “Berlin Patient,” received the transplant in 2007 as part of a lengthy treatment course for leukemia. His doctors recently published a report in the journal Blood affirming that the results of extensive testing “strongly suggest that cure of HIV infection has been achieved.”
Brown’s case paves a path for constructing a permanent cure for HIV through genetically-engineered stem cells.
Last week, Time named another AIDS-related discovery to its list of the Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs of 2010. Recent studies show that healthy individuals who take antiretrovirals, medicine commonly prescribed for treating HIV, can reduce their risk of contracting the disease by up to 73 percent.
While these developments by no means prove a cure for the virus has been found, they can certainly provide hope for the more than 33 million people living with HIV worldwide. Alongside such findings, global efforts to combat the epidemic have accelerated as of late, with new initiatives emerging in the Philippines and South Africa this week.
Congenital Insensitivity To Pain – People Who Can’t Feel Pain – CIPA
about 1 year ago - No comments
CIPA or congenital insensitivity to pain is one of the rarest diseases in the world. A very rare condition and it is also known as congenital analgia. People diagnosed with this condition have their pain sensors turned off and they can’t feel any pain. The condition is extremely dangerous as these people are prone to danger not knowing the level of pain inflicted.
Congenital Insensitivity To Pain – People Who Can’t Feel Pain
What caused the disorder? It is an unknown condition when the brain that recognizes the pain does not connect to the nerves that sense the pain. This unknown condition only happens to the pain sensors. People with CIPA have their other sensory areas completely checked and normal. Incredibly a rare disease, 35 people in the United States is diagnosed with CIPA. Sadly, people with CIPA has low survival rate and many doesn’t live that long to the age of 25 making the case a difficult case to study.
Pains are relatively a unique sense. It keeps us out of trouble, our body defense against harmful actions and not being able to feel pain is totally dangerous. Children especially will need to know how to sense this pain. We need to know what we should or shouldn’t do when we feel pain and we also know how not to cause pain to ourselves. Pain can help you to avoid danger and what causing this danger.
Anhidrosis, a condition of the body’s inability to sweat is found in people with CIPA. This condition can worsen the issue. With Anhidrosis, people with CIPA are not able to feel extreme temperature. Together with this and the body’s inability to sweat only means that their body is unable to regulate its temperature.
Proper attention should be made to the children with CIPA. They need to be watched more often than the normal children and may need regular checks to the doctor to see whether they are not suffering from anything that they may not be aware of. To make sure that nothing is bleeding or there’s an open cut, they should be constantly checked since they are unable to differentiate this pain from other feelings.
In a case involving CIPA, a little girl who was three years old burnt her skin from a hot oven. The little girl put her hand on the hot oven and smiling with her blood all over the kitchen. The parents who found her were shocked. It is also known that when this little girl began teething, she shredded her own lips too.
Another case in China showed a perfectly healthy 10 year old boy with a body temperature of 43 degrees. In another case in Iraq, a boy who is awake for more than 2 years without sleeping. There are many of other cases of children with CIPA condition.
Congenital insensitivity to pain is very serious. Few people with CIPA do not live to see age 25 because these people can’t feel pain. They may catch simple illness and unknowingly catching few other simple illnesses along the way but was unable to get proper treatments since they can’t feel this pain. Their body too was unable to tell them and that’s why CIPA is the rarest disease in the world with no cure yet.
18 Health Tricks to Teach Your Body – Part I
about 1 year ago - No comments
Cure a Tickling Throat
Doctor Checking the Blood Pressure of a Patient
When you were 9, playing your armpit was a cool trick. Now, as an adult, you can still appreciate a good body-based feat, especially if it serves as a health remedy. Take that tickle in your throat: It’s not worth gagging over. Here’s a better way to scratch your itch: Scratch your ear. “When the nerves in the ear are stimulated, it creates a reflex in the throat that can cause a muscle spasm,” says Scott Schaffer, M.D., president of an ear, nose, and throat specialty center in Gibbsboro, New Jersey. “This spasm relieves the tickle.”
Experience Supersonic Hearing
If you’re stuck chatting up a mumbler at a cocktail party, lean in with your right ear. It’s better than your left at following the rapid rhythms of speech, according to researchers at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. If, on the other hand, you’re trying to identify that song playing softly in the elevator, turn your left ear toward the sound. The left ear is better at picking up music tones.
Overcome Your Most Primal Urge
Need to pee? No bathroom nearby? Fantasize about Jessica Simpson. Thinking about sex preoccupies your brain, so you won’t feel as much discomfort, says Larry Lipshultz, M.D., chief of male reproductive medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine. For best results, try Simpson’s “These Boots Are Made for Walking” video.
Feel No Pain
German researchers have discovered that coughing during an injection can lessen the pain of the needle stick. According to Taras Usichenko, author of a study on the phenomenon, the trick causes a sudden, temporary rise in pressure in the chest and spinal canal, inhibiting the pain-conducting structures of the spinal cord.
Clear Your Stuffed Nose
Forget Sudafed. Here’s an easier, quicker, and cheaper remedy to relieve sinus pressure: Alternate thrusting your tongue against the roof of your mouth, then pressing between your eyebrows with one finger. This causes the vomer bone, which runs through the nasal passages to the mouth, to rock back and forth, says Lisa DeStefano, D.O., an assistant professor at the Michigan State University college of osteopathic medicine. The motion loosens congestion; after 20 seconds, you’ll feel your sinuses start to drain.
Fight Fire Without Water
Worried those wings will repeat on you tonight? Try this preventive remedy: “Sleep on your left side,” says Anthony A. Starpoli, M.D., a New York City gastroenterologist and assistant professor of medicine at New York Medical College. Studies have shown that patients who sleep on their left sides are less likely to suffer from acid reflux. The esophagus and stomach connect at an angle. When you sleep on your right, the stomach is higher than the esophagus, allowing food and stomach acid to slide up your throat. When you’re on your left, the stomach is lower than the esophagus, so gravity’s in your favor.
Trichotillomania
about 1 year ago - No comments
Trichotillomania is hair loss from compulsive pulling or twisting of the hair until it breaks off.
Trichotillomania
Causes
Trichotillomania is a type of compulsive behavior. Its causes are not clearly understood.
It may affect as much as 4% of the population. Women are four times more likely to be affected than men.
Symptoms
Symptoms usually begin before age 17. The hair may come out in round patches or across the scalp. The effect is an uneven appearance. The person may pluck other hairy areas, such as the eyebrows, eyelashes, or body hair.
These symptoms are usually seen in children:
- An uneven appearance to the hair
- Bare patches or all around (diffuse) loss of hair
- Bowel blockage (obstruction) if people eat the hair they pull out
- Constant tugging, pulling, or twisting of hair
- Denying the hair pulling
- Hair regrowth that feels like stubble in the bare spots
- Increasing sense of tension before the hair pulling
- Other self-injury behaviors
- Sense of relief, pleasure, or gratification after the hair pulling
Exams and Tests
People with this disorder often will first seek the help of a doctor who treats skin problems (dermatologist).
A piece of tissue may be removed (biopsy) to rule out other causes, such as a scalp infection, and to explain the hair loss.
Treatment
Experts don’t agree on the use of medication for treatment. However, naltrexone and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have been shown effective in reducing some symptoms. Behavioral therapy and habit reversal may also be effective.
Outlook (Prognosis)
Typically, trichotillomania is limited to younger children who tend to outgrow the behavior. For most, the hair pulling ends within 12 months. Children who start pulling hair early (before age 6) tend to do better than those who start later.
Possible Complications
People can have complications when they eat the pulled-out hair (trichophagia). This can cause a blockage in the intestines or lead to poor nutrition.
Prevention
Early detection is the best form of prevention because it leads to early treatment. Decreasing stress can help, because stress may increase compulsive behavior.
Alternative Names
Trichotillosis; Compulsive hair pulling.
