Far From Home

Long Live Mighty Mouse!

 No, not the cartoon character.  Although he's cool too, I guess.

Turns out science has presented us with yet another genetic marvel--  A mouse that lives 20% longer, with nothing more than one gene removed from its' genetic makeup.

Also compelling is the fact that the increase of lifespan is accompanied by (or facilitated by?) a distinct lessening of age-related ailments.  

Dominic Withers, the co-author of the study explains, "These mice were resistant to type 2 diabetes ... and they also appeared to have reduced incidence of the mouse-equivalent of osteoporosis -- so they had stronger bones." 

The list of noted improvements goes on, including improved balance, strength, coordination, and brain health-- the latter indicated by an abnormally inquisitive nature.

Here's the twist, however..  All this super-mouse greatness wouldn't do Mighty Mouse any good...  or Mickey, for that matter.  These effects were witnessed exclusively in female mice.

Relax, Minnie.  

One intelligent and uplifting commenter on the original blog post on Discover's website had this to contribute:

No thanks… Lifes not really working out for me so well. Im not interested. Somebody else can have mine. Death may be the only way I can escape you f***ers.

Ah, gotta love the internet.  

via [gizmodo] via [Discover]

Good News, EDM Fans: Loud Music Boosts Brain Health

I just couldn't resist posting this one.  So many times I've lamented the obvious damage to my hearing from the excessive exposure to loud music that I've experienced in my life.  At least now I can say that something beneficial has come from it, however!

In lifehacker's post Boost Your Brain's Health with Loud Music, they cite a recent article from Daily Mail that brings to light some information that explains why we all love the way it feels to experience loud, pumping bass..  And here I thought it was just because I couldn't hear well enough to enjoy it when it was quiet (just kidding):

According to researchers at Manchester University, music fans are stimulating part of the inner ear known as the sacculus, which responds to the beat in music. This gives the brain pleasure and makes us feel good — during the music and afterwards.

[When loud music is playing,] the brain is stimulated into releasing feelgood hormones that make us calm, happy and responsive. So to trigger a dose of happy hormones on a Monday morning, you should, in theory, choose Black Sabbath over chamber music.

...Or perhaps some dirty-as-hell minimal grooves, as the case may be.  Whatever it is, the beat is crucial.  Lifehacker goes on to point out that the research states that the sacculus only responds to sounds of 90db or more.  That's pretty loud. 

Just how loud is 90db?  According to this page from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association on noise and hearing loss, it falls into the lower end of the "extremely loud" category, comparable to the noise produced by a lawnmower, shop tools, truck traffic, or a subway.  And bear in mind, this is the minimum volume level to stimulate your sacculus. 

Next time someone asks you to "turn it down", tell them to piss off-- nobody's coming between you and your sacculus stimulus. ;)

via [lifehacker.com] via [daily news]

Easy on the Caffeine, People...

One of the more amusing things about having started this blog is seeing what subject matter most commonly brings traffic.  Some posts barely seem to make a difference, but others have continued to bring traffic from the moment I posted them to the present.  One of the most unexpected cases would be my post Caffine: Common Workplace Hallucinogen from back in January of this year.

Even more amusing, however, are some of the searches that have brought people to this article, including:

• "maximum caffeine intake not to hallucinate"
• "coffee consumption increases likelihood of hallucinogens"
• "coffee makes me hallucinate"
• "coffee beans hallucination"

The list goes on, and on, and on...  I wish I'd made note of some of the better ones that I've seen that I no longer have a record of, but still... pretty funny.

Seems like a lot of people experience this phenomenon.  Let's hear about it if you have!

Six Animals That Can Get You High...

Aside from toads, I had no idea that these other animals had physiological (or behavioral) characteristics that produce compounds that are highly psychoactive to humans.  Deadly, yes, but psychoactive?  The six animals covered in the article from cracked.com are the following, which is all I'm going to give you, because the article itself is far better than any synopsis I could produce here:

1. Giraffes
2. Salamanders
3. Cobras (I thought they just uh... killed you)
4. Bees
5. Toads (okay, we all knew this one.)
6. Scorpions (see comment on #3)

Pretty interesting and humorous stuff.

DISCLAIMER: I do not partake in, advocate, or suggest any of these means of psychoactive exploration.  This information is intended for amusement and novelty purposes and nothing further. :)

via [cracked.com]

Baby Steps Toward Marijuana Legalization

Since my last post on the subject, a even greater tempest of media coverage is swirling and picking up speed.  I'll go out on a limb and say that Obama seems to be waiting for "the people" to make enough of a stand on the matter so it doesn't have to be "his idea".  But seriously -- Obama can't truly be opposed to pot legalization on a personal level.. that just isn't believable, if you ask me.  I can understand, that said, the tactical avoidance of any bold moves in this already incredibly intense political climate. 

Anyhow, here are some links to keep you up to speed on the latest progress, segmented logically.  This is a merely a tiny subset of the vast sea of media coverage.  It is quite remarkable.

General / Perspective

• America's New Marijuana Zeitgeist (thehill.com)
• Let's Tell The Truth About Marijuana (Reality Catcher)  
• Marijuana Legalization Gaining Steam Across the US (thinkingfluidly.com)
• Mr. President, It's Time To Talk About Marijuana (eyesonobama.com)

Political / Policy Related

• Is Marijuana Legalization Politically Risky Anymore? Not Really.. (stopthedrugwar.com)
• Medicinal Marijuana is Legal in Michigan (mapinc.org)
• Michigan Accepts First Application for Medicinal Marijuana (detnews.com)

Studies / Scientific Findings

• Marijuana Cuts Lung Cancer Tumor Growth In Half, Study Shows (sciencedaily.com)  

"The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University. Researchers do not know why THC inhibits tumor growth, they say the substance could be activating molecules that arrest the cell cycle." (sciencedaily.com)

• Possibility of Marijuana as Cancer Treatment (cancermarijuana.com)

This blog (cancermarijuana.com) has fascinating discoveries to speak about, offered in easily-consumed, weil-written articles.  Highly recommended reading material, even if it does lack the scientific references to truly be considered "unbiased reporting." :)

Celebrities / Cultural 

•   Drew Carey Responds to Obama about Marijuana (jimboland.com)
•   Carlos Santana Tells Obama to Legalize Marijuana (huffingtonpost.com)

Cows, Magnets, and Power Lines.

It's been a while since I got a chance to really post on this thing, so it seems appropriate to approach this void with a topic critical to the many issues we face today.

It's official.  Cows have a magnetic sixth sense.  And no, you can't develop one too by eating at McDonalds a lot.  Trust me, I've tried.  Mad cow disease, maybe.  Sixth sense?  Not a chance.  Besides, it's debatable how much actual cow goes into those burgers anyway... 

At any rate, it seems that herds are disturbed by the presence of power lines, or more specifically, the mild electromagnetic field that power lines emit.  The effect of this disturbance causes the cows to stray from their typical orientation along a north-south axis.

"These findings constitude evidence for magnetic sensation in large mammals as well as evidence of an overt behavioral reaction to weak [extreme low-frequency magnetic fields] in vertebrates," the research states.

Interestingly enough, this tendency for herds to be oriented in this manner was discovered in the study of none other than Google Earth satellite imagery.  The breadth of uses for Google Earth never ceases to amaze, right?

Apparently, herds of deer exhibit the same behavior, only more pronounced.  If deer have such a killer magnetic sixth sense, why on earth are they so bad at dodging cars?  I mean seriously...these guys were in the bathroom when they were handing out spacial navigation skills, not unlike myself.

Not surprisingly, there is a loose connection here, as the researchers theorize that the sensitivities to magnetic fields probably evolved as a means of aiding their directionally challenged ancestors during migration.  

As of today, the physiological mechanism for this potential magnetic sixth sense is unknown.  The research presents itself as "challenge [to] neurophysicists and biophysics to explain the proximate mechanism."

While they are at it, they could work on figuring out why I'm so damn bad with directions... and if goats have similar mechanisms.  

links:

Magnetic alignment in grazing and resting cattle and deer (pnas.org)

Cows Really Do Have a Magnetic Sixth Sense (wired)

Google Earth Reveals Sixth Sense of Cattle, Deer (wired)

The Bone Printer

This is really quite remarkable.  How come my inkjet can't do this? :)

Thumbs Up for Bone Printer!

Sorry for the short posts, all.  I'm spending time on the redesign rather than posting as much these days.  That will change.

DNA Telepathy?

A fascinating recent scientific discovery has revealed behavior of DNA strands that cannot yet be explained.  Strands are capable of recognizing similar genetic material from a distance and tend to congregate together.

"There is no known reason why the DNA is able to combine the way it does, and from a current theoretical standpoint, this feat should be chemically impossible."

DNA Found to have "Impossible" Telepathic Capabilities (dailygalaxy.com)

Marijuana Legalization on the Horizon

There's so much about this in the media that I'm not even going to attempt to summarize it myself.  Instead, I'm just going to provide you with a selection of links on the subject.

• Legalization of Marijuana Bill in California (sfweekly.com)
• Legalizing Marijuana More Popular than GOP Leaders (thinkprogress.org)
• US: 40% Say Marijuana Should Be Legalized (rasmussenreports.com)
• New Jersey votes today on bill to legalize medical marijuana (pressofatlanticcity.com)
• Cali. to legalize marijuana and produce 1 billion in taxes?? (drugscience.org)
• Republican Christian: What My Life Was Like Before Cannabis (timberjay.com)
• Zogby Poll: US Weed Legalization Support Grows (norml.org)  

Seriously, I could go on for pages.  This news is everywhere, so I'm sure most of my readers know to some extent... but hot damn!  Exciting prospect, to see common sense starting to pop up in American policy making!  Too bad it takes a crisis of such magnitude to affect this kind of change.  Hopefully we will be a more proactive nation in general after this mess is over.

Caffeine: Common Workplace Hallucinogen

This isn't in the least bit surprising, but it's funny:

"Research suggests people who drink more than seven cups of instant coffee a day have an increased tendency to hallucinate."

Frankly, if you aren't hallucinating after that many cups of office coffee, you probably have bigger problems than drinking too many cups of coffee...

"They studied 200 students who were asked about their typical intake of caffeine products.

Those who had a high caffeine intake were three times more likely to have the heard voice of someone non-existent than "low" users who consumed less than one cup of instant coffee or its equivalent.

Seeing things that were not there, hearing voices and sensing the presence of dead people were among the experiences reported. Researchers also found that people drinking as few as three cups of brewed coffee each day may experience mild hallucinations, such as hearing voices that aren't there."

This explains a lot about my average workday.  With the amount of coffee consumed by some people I've worked with, it's amazing they aren't speaking in tongues at least 60% of the time.  In all seriousness, many people are heavily dependent on it, which isn't a big problem, generally, but it falls into the category of behavior that probably has a negative impact on one's maximum life expectancy in some way or another, surely.

"Researchers believe the hallucinations stem from the caffeine, rather than the coffee. Besides coffee, caffeine can be obtained from sources such as tea, chocolate, "pep" pills and energy drinks."

Really, you think it might be the fairly powerful stimulant causing these effects?  Or is it the "coffee"?   What is this mysterious "coffee" in scientific terms?  Perhaps the aroma of the fresh brew is simply too intoxicating to handle. :)

Or perhaps this is a sensationalized repositioning of nothing more than the information found on a No-Doz(TM) warning label?  On wikipedia, a description:

"An acute overdose of caffeine, usually in excess of about 300 milligrams, dependent on body weight and level of caffeine tolerance, can result in a state of central nervous system over-stimulation called caffeine intoxication,[71] colloquially "caffeine jitters". The symptoms of caffeine intoxication are not unlike overdoses of other stimulants. It may include restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, flushing of the face, increased urination, gastrointestinal disturbance, muscle twitching, a rambling flow of thought and speech, irritability, irregular or rapid heart beat, and psychomotor agitation.[69] In cases of much larger overdoses mania, depression, lapses in judgment, disorientation, disinhibition, delusions, hallucinations and psychosis may occur, and rhabdomyolysis (breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue) can be provoked.[72][73] "

At any rate, don't try this at home, folks.  There is nothing fun or interesting or amusing about the psychadelic effects that you might acquire from excessive caffeine consumption.  They would more aptly described as hellish and should be avoided at all costs.  There are significant cardiovascular risks when consuming such large doses of caffeine, as well.

[source: foxnews]