New Era of Medicine: Robots study how humans think and then gives them drugs to treat disorders

                              Good Day Humboldt County!

What wonders the future holds. I recently read about a robotic eye that gives the once sightless vision! I’ve always had my reservations about robots – see my column - Workplace Reality: more robots, fewer humans – but it hasn’t dampened my curiosity about them.

Do you remember Robby the Robot a fictional character who made a number of appearances in science fiction movies and television programs after his first appearance in the 1956 MGM science fiction film Forbidden Planet?  Robby is the root of my interest in “artificial intelligence.” And walking talking tin cans.

Robby the Robot made several appearances in other movies and TV shows over the next few decades, including episodes of The Thin Man and The Addams Family. While Robby's appearance was generally consistent, there were notable exceptions, such as the 1962 Twilight Zone episode "Uncle Simon", where he was given a slightly more human "face."

So, it’s no surprise that I bring you the latest in robotics. Enjoy…

“Brain scientists have built a robot that can find and record information from individual neurons in the living brains of mice. Yes, robots are becoming real-world brain scientists.

In the future, these same robots could be studying how humans think and even deliver targeted drugs to the brain – to treat disorders such as schizophrenia, Parkinson’s, autism or epilepsy. The robotic procedure automates the well-known, albeit time consuming, difficult and mind-numbing, task for human neuroscientists known as whole-cell patch clamping.

The technique involves bringing a tiny, hollow glass pipette in contact with the cell membrane of a neuron, then opening up a small pore in the membrane to record the electrical activity within the cell, explains MIT.The skill took graduate student Suhasa Kodandaramaiah four months to learn.

“When I got reasonably good at it, I could sense that even though it is an art form, it can be reduced to a set of stereotyped tasks and decisions that could be executed by a robot,” he said in a news release. And so, that’s what he and his colleagues did – building a robotic arm that lowers a glass pipette into an anesthetized mouse with more superior precision and speed than humans.

Their procedure is described in the May 6 issue of Nature Methods. The same technique can be used to determine the shape of the cell and they are working on a way to extract a cell’s contents to read its genetic profile.

According to the MIT news release, this is a new era for robotics:

The researchers are now working on scaling up the number of electrodes so they can record from multiple neurons at a time, potentially allowing them to determine how different parts of the brain are connected.

They are also working with collaborators to start classifying the thousands of types of neurons found in the brain. This “parts list” for the brain would identify neurons not only by their shape — which is the most common means of classification — but also by their electrical activity and genetic profile.

“If you really want to know what a neuron is, you can look at the shape, and you can look at how it fires. Then, if you pull out the genetic information, you can really know what’s going on,” [team member Craig Forest at Georgia Tech] says. “Now you know everything. That’s the whole picture.”

--Via MIT

Time for me to walk on down the road…

There’s no such thing as a routine day – it’s the first day of the rest of your life

              Good Day Humboldt County!

For those of you who actually read this blog daily you’ll notice I didn’t post something new on Monday. I took a blog break. Went to Oregon. On the way home, my wife and I stopped in Crescent City to watch one of our grandson’s first musical recital (he plays the trumpet – think Satchmo someday I told him… and he looked at me like I was crazy!)

Moments like that are fleeting and you can’t count on them. They are precious moments when you connect at some level with loved ones. Each day brings promise, or grief, depending on your current path in life. You can expect the unexpected with assurance. It’s going to happen. Good or bad. Every day. It’s best to live each day like it was your last.

         Recent examples in the news:

 FAMILY TRAGEDY IN TENNESSE - Jo Ann Bain and her daughters, Adrienne, 14, Alexandria, 12, and Kyliyah, 8, are believed to have been abducted by a family friend, Adam Mayes. Police believe the two younger girls are still with Mayes.

A Tennessee medical examiner identified two bodies Monday as those of Jo Ann Bain and her eldest daughter, Adrienne, 14, who are believed to have been abducted from their home in Whiteville,Tenn. on April 27, 2012----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                              Community Comes Together To Fulfill Fallen Soldier’s Final Wish

Bruce Hays was a member of the Wyoming Army National Guard and had been in Afghanistan for less than a month when he was killed

via Daily Mail |

It took more than a village to help bring the last wish of a fallen soldier to come true, but ten months and the help of strangers led to its completion.

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Is this something that interests you?

Jennifer Pahlka: Coding a better government

via TED |

Can government be run like the Internet, wide open and no rules? Coder and activist Jennifer Pahlka believes it can.

Jennifer said that apps, built quickly and cheaply, are a powerful new way to connect citizens to their governments -- and their neighbors.

 

 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Everyone loves to hear about people beating the odds.

 

Svante Myrick, Ithaca’s Youngest-Ever Mayor, Grew Up Homeless

via MSNBC |

Svante Myrick, Ithaca's newly-elected 24-year-old mayor has an incredible story to tell.

Not only is he the town's youngest mayor in history, he also surmounted huge odds to get there.

 

Time for me to walk on down the road…

AS IT STANDS: Holy Hackcalypse Batman! What should we do?

                                 

           By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard
  Beware of the coming Hackcalypse!
A worldwide reckoning among competing hackers is coming sooner than you think. Future generations will refer to this monumental Clash of the Nerds as the day we went back to the Stone Age.
 We know governments have hired hackers for years to steal state secrets, scientific advances, and to sabotage other country’s networks, causing internal chaos. Hackers prank the FBI and break into credit card networks to steal people’s personal information.
   Some hackers claim to be for the common man and attack corporations they don’t like for political reasons. Others have no problem going onto social websites and creating havoc there. ESingles has been relentlessly mocked, both by LulzSec Reborn and other hackers who have compared the stolen data with what's on the site.

  LulzSec Reborn broke into ESingle’s  database and stole passwords, email addresses, and other information from nearly 171,000 accounts, according to several security experts on the case.
   Hackers hack because they can. For every one that gets caught, ten more are laughing safely behind numerous firewalls and other people’s IP addresses. A hacker can be 12 years old or 89 years old. There are no age requirements.
   Hackers hang with con artists and scammers and often help them rip off unsuspecting victims by setting cyber traps.
   The US has a high powered cyber team fighting 24 hours a day against thousands of attacks from around the world seeking to break into sensitive government, military, and corporate websites. There’s never a time out.

  China, Russia, and the Ukraine currently have the worst reputation when it comes to using state sponsored hackers to attack American interests. A recent article in Data Protection - Ukraine seen as a growing 'haven for hackers' - by Taylor Armerding, talks about Ukraine's would-be major crackdown on cyber crime.
  The article suggests that the government’s efforts increasingly look futile.
In the view of analysts, including some Ukrainian security officials, the country is becoming a haven for hackers.
   Taras Kuzio, editor of Ukraine Analyst, quoted extensively from a 2011 book by former Guardian Moscow correspondent Luke Harding titled, "Mafia State: How one reporter became an enemy of the brutal new Russia." Harding says organized crime hackers have close ties to senior leaders of both countries.

   Most recently, Chinese hackers have been linked to a cyber-espionage campaign that planted data-gathering malware in a total of 233 computers of Tibetan activists and military and industrial entities in Japan and India.
   According to security vendor Trend Micro, the so-called "Luckycat" campaign has been active since at least June 2011 and has been linked to 90 attacks that use malware tailored for each victim.
   Here comes the scary part. You may want to sit down while you read this. There is not a thing we can do about hackers! That’s right. It’s virtually impossible to stop people from hacking. For every new security patch that comes up, a new malware attack, or virus, is created. Cyber security is a huge business, and so far there’s enough good Nerds to keep providing remedies to buy time. Still, our days are numbered.

   There’s no fix that will stop hackers from growing more sophisticated. We have a desperate race in cyberspace trying to hold off the growing power of very smart hackers. At some point, vital infrastructures worldwide (from power grids to water supplies) will be sabotaged.
  Governments everywhere will be crippled. Totally unable to function for the good of the people. Almost like right now, but they won’t be able to make the hackers pay taxes!

  With no power, automatic doors and vaults on timers won’t open. Gas pumps won’t work. Hot tubs won’t heat. The bright lights in cities and homes will dim and die. The ensuring panic will outdo any disaster movie ever made.
    Those who somehow survive this final hackcalypse will find themselves in a new Stone Age. Now, the good news: there will be no more hackers! Problem solved. Amid the smoking debris of crashed computers littering the planet, the survivors can start over.
    As It Stands, is my apocalypse scenario any stranger than some people’s concerns about an ancient Mayan calendar predicting the earth’s end in December?

Have you heard of Methane Hydrates? It’s a new fuel source that could provide energy security for USA

Could the future of cleaner fossil fuel really be frozen crystals now trapped in ocean sediments and under permafrost?

Backed by an oil industry giant, the Obama administration recently tested a drilling technique in Alaska's Arctic that it says might eventually unlock "a vast, entirely untapped resource that holds enormous potential for U.S. economic and energy security." Some experts believe the reserves could provide domestic fuel for hundreds of years to come.

Those crystals, known as methane hydrates, contain natural gas but so far releasing that fuel has been an expensive proposition.

The drilling has its environmental critics, but there’s also a climate bonus: The technique requires injecting carbon dioxide into the ground, thereby creating a new way to remove the warming gas from the atmosphere. (Read story here)

Another State Signs Law Legalizing Medical Marijuana – Connecticut Joins 16 Other States and the District of Columbia

As the feds continue their senseless war on marijuana, another state has given it’s voters what they want – legal medical marijuana.

Connecticut's State Senate approved a bill legalizing medical marijuana early this morning morning. The final vote was tallied just after 2:30 a.m. Saturday after nearly 10 hours of contentious debate. Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, a staunch opponent to the measure, spoke for close to five hours before she began introducing amendments to the bill. 48 amendments were filed by Boucher and other Republican opponents trying to delay the vote.

Governor Dannel Malloy commended the General Assembly for passing the bill.  He said he will sign it into law. When he does, Connecticut will join 16 other states and the District of Columbia where medical marijuana is legal.

Every time another state signs a bill legalizing medical marijuana another crack appears in the feds feeble justification for criminalizing it. Numerous polls have shown over 50 percent of Americans want marijuana to be legalized. One of these days the feds are just going to have to back off and go after real crimes like Mexican cartels invading the USA.

Today is National FREE COMIC BOOK DAY–what do you think about that?

        Good Day Humboldt County!

       Happy Free Comic Book Day (FCBD).

Do you like reading comics? Collect them? Curious about what’s out there these days?   Today is the day for folks like you to get a great sampling of more than 40 free titles offered at participating stores (For Humboldt County residents you can go to *NORTH COAST ROLE PLAYING -1846 Broadway, Eureka, CA, 95501 (707) 444-2288).

Titles from Marvel and DC,  to independents like Red 5 Comics, and Boom Entertainment will be available. Not coincidentally, FCBD comes at the start of summer movie blockbuster season, and the much-anticipated opening of “The Avengers” this weekend only adds to the air of four-color festivity.

And this year there are more comics than ever to discover: More than 2 million copies will be given away Saturday, featuring such iconic figures as Spidey, Superman and even Elvis, as well as newcomers like the Incredible Rockhead (a put-upon schoolkid whose head turns into a giant rock) and Jurassic Strike Force (a squad of mutated dinosaur soldiers).

* Disclaimer – I don’t know anyone at North Coast Role Playing and am in no way being compensated for mentioning the business. Frankly, they are the only location I could find on the north coast that was a participant in this national event.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Just What Do You Think You’re Doing, Dave?

I was immediately reminded of Hal 9000 and his memorable voice addressing Dave Bowman in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I won’t talk about how great this movie really was, and how it marked the whole era, I’d rather see what you think of the illusion. Creepy or what?

Lightning strikes below the belt (yep right there) of unlucky Spaniard…ouch!

There’s a guy in Spain right now fervently hoping that the old adage about lightning not striking twice in the same place is true.

“Lightning struck a 53-year-old man's scrotum and then exited his body through one of his feet in Madrid, Spain. The good news: he survived. The bad news: his testicles were burned. A lucky man. Or maybe not.

The man was walking on Avenida de La Ilustración—a street in Madrid's suburb Tres Cantos—when the lightning struck his scrotum through his pants, travelled down one of his legs and went to the sidewalk through his foot. He fell unconscious.

His son called the emergency services, who treated the burns on his scrotum and feet. They moved him to the Hospital de la Paz, where he got under several tests. Luckily, his heart and brain were not affected by the lightning, said the doctors.” (source)

Actually, the guy was lucky getting off with just roasted nuts and feet. Talk about a shock of a lifetime. I can just see the poor guy grabbing his crotch every time there’s lightning in the skies. He might want to invest in a shock-proof jock!

Somewhere there’s an ex-Secret Service Agent who really wishes he wouldn’t have been so cheap

                        Good Day Humboldt County!

I have a high school buddy that use to be in the Secret Service. He’s retired from that now, and doing something else for the Department of Homeland Security. I can’t tell you what, because I don’t know. And I don’t want to know.

This latest scandal about a Secret Service agent who was too cheap to pay the full price for a working girl, made me think about that friend. I wonder if he come out of retirement? You wouldn’t believe how cheap he is. There was this time in high school…wait a moment! Maybe I ought to keep my trap shut? Just kidding buddy!!!!

Here’s some news links and some humor for your entertainment: 

1) Secret Service closes ranks in sordid scandal 2) 3 Secret Service Agents Refuse Polygraph In Prostitution Scandal

Looking for a job? There are lots of new openings at the Secret Service. They provide the sunglasses and foreign travel, but you have to pay for your own hookers (in full).

Secret Service Man
[ Secret Agent Man ]

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Top 10 Countries That Read This Blog for Whatever Reason… and Why Do the Bulgarians Like Me?

 Looking over my visitor lists for April I was struck by how Bulgaria has been contributing more and more readers every month.

I have relatives in The United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, but none that I know of in Bulgaria. It just strikes me odd that my blog is becoming popular in Bulgaria. (That even sounds funny doesn’t it?)

             Readership -Top Four Countries 

United States -24,247; United Kingdom - 6,038; Bulgaria - 4,309; Canada - 3,154 - The Remaining Six: India –1,745; Germany – 1,628; Australia – 1,012; Russia – 856; France – 748; and the Philippines – 596. A Total of 40,0679 visitors for April.

After nearly four years of blogging, I still can’t predict what posts will be the most popular. One reader demographic that has stayed steady throughout my blogging has been from public schools, and colleges. Students of all ages seem to find it amusing. Don’t ask me why. I have no idea. I know I get a lot of new traffic on Sundays when my newspaper column comes out because I listed my blog URL on my tagline. The majority comes from the Internet Explorer search browser, followed by Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. In other words…randomly.

Thank you all for stopping by in April. I hope you find May as interesting.

What Not To Do After Breaking Up With Someone Part 1: Don’t Keep Them As Your Dentist

Have you ever looked into someone’s eyes and realized the hamster wheel wasn’t turning? I’ve heard of some pretty stupid breakup stunts in the name of vengeance, but this guy has to be at least four bottles short of a six-pack!

The bar for break-up revenge stories has just been raised. Anna Mackowiak, 34, a dentist in Wroclaw, Poland, is facing jail time after pulling out all of her ex-boyfriend's teeth in a calculated fit of rage.

While this is obviously unacceptable behavior, 45-year-old Marek Olszewski's head is clearly missing more than just teeth, if he thought he could walk into his ex's office without hesitation only days after dumping her for another woman and ask her to work on a toothache!

Mr. Olszewski will have many lonely nights to ponder his actions. His new girlfriend was not cool with the toothless look and has left him. (source)

Money Free: Man Lives Without Using Money and Finds Happiness…

    Good Day Humboldt County!

We all have unique paths to travel in this world. Some of us go to greater extents to explore different lifestyles, or by embracing different ways of looking at life or odd ball philosophies. 

  I really like the idea of living without money, but I doubt I could ever go to the extremes Daniel Suelo has. He’s the subject of a new book "The Man Who Quit Money," by Mark Sundeen.

I’m not exactly a social butterfly, but I admit I like seeing and talking with people on a daily basis. I’m sure Mr. Suelo sees people, from time-to-time, but there can’t be too much foot traffic where he lives. In a cave.

Has Suelo discovered the key to a happy life? I don’t think I’d go that far. He’s on a private spiritual quest that involves living off of charity, the generosity of strangers, and foraging in the hills. Not exactly Shangri La or Atlantis. Still, he’s seeking enlightenment and I respect him for that. What he’s doing is reminiscent of the Native American practice of vision quests – where one sets out alone to discover themselves and their place in the natural world. The only difference I see is Suelo doesn’t look like he’s going back to “civilization,” unlike Native Americas who eventually went back to their tribe.

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

Man Sues BMW After Motorcycle Gives Him An Erection That Won’t Go Away

While an extended state of arousal after a motorcycle ride might sound like typical rhetoric of the two wheel crowd, one man is now suing BMW Motorrad USA and the maker of an aftermarket seat after a motorcycle ride left him with an erection that wouldn't go away.

The California man is claiming that a BMW motorcycle and a dealer installed custom seat are responsible for causing priapism. Clearly the Beemer owner doesn't find this issue to be a laughing matter, the suit filed in the Superior Court of San Francisco County this past week seeks damages for lost wages, personal injury, medical expenses, product liability, and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

Rather than make tasteless jokes at the expense of this BMW owner I’ll include an excerpt of the complaint and leave the rest to you:

"Plaintiff was riding his 1993 BMW motorcycle equipped with a Corbin-Pacific seat. The ride lasted approximately two hours each way to plaintiff's destination, after which plaintiff developed a severe case of priapism (a persistent, lasting erection). Plaintiff alleges that this condition was caused by the ridge-like seat on his motorcycle, negligently designed, manufactured and/or installed by defendants.

"Plaintiff now suffers from priapism (a long lasting erection), and has been experiencing continuing problems since his motorcycle ride. He is now unable to engage in sexual activity, which is causing him substantial emotional and mental anguish. Plaintiff is distraught and distressed because of this. Defendants, and each of them, are liable to plaintiff due [to] their negligent design, manufacture and/or installation of the seat on plaintiff's motorcycle."

(News source)

Back To The 50s: Do You Remember The Really Cool ‘Mold-A-Rama’?

The Mold-A-Rama machine was invented in the mid-fifties. You could watch as the machine used injection molding to create a plastic figurine in the shape of an animal, submarine, plane, monster, train and so many more designs. These were the usual cheap souvenirs of your visit of course, but with these objects you could actually observe the manufacturing process. These machines were mostly located at theme parks, zoos, museums and sometimes at special events - everything about Mold-A-Rama here:

 

images via 1, 2, 3, 4)
There is a whole Flickr pool devoted to these cool machines...

Futuristic Prediction: Is this what San Francisco is going to look like in 2018?

                   Good Day Humboldt County!

  Growing up I didn’t think much about what future cities would look like. The one time I did think about it was while on a trip to Disneyland and it’s “World of Tomorrow” exhibit sponsored by Monsanto.

Yep, that Monsanto. The infamous chemical corporation that brought us Agent Orange, and a whole slew of deadly pesticides and herbicides.

Back in 1957 when I went, Monsanto’s sneaky practices hadn’t been exposed, and they were considered “good guys.” Good enough to bring Mom, Dad’s, and their kids, visions of life in the future. About all I can clearly remember ( I was six at the time) was pictures of flying cars on murals showing weird shaped buildings.

So here I am today, still wondering about what future cities may look like and I read about what the future may hold for the City of San Francisco.

It’s going to make an interesting skyline complete with technologies like algae harvesting towers, fog catchers, and geothermal energy mushrooms. It’s called the Hydro net project. Link below

Hydro-Net Project of San Francisco Futuristic City in 2018!

Basically its a network that will connect water with other distribution systems across a city. The design also uses carbon nanotube walls in the walls of the network.

In recent times the concept has won $10,000 grand prize for the entry of Future Competition which was organized by History Channel.

The futuristic world with lot of green is possible with these kinds of technologies.

 Inspired

 Time for me to walk on down the road…

Art Comes in Many Mediums: Like These Magic Angle Shadow Sculptures

Shadow art is nothing particularly new, but the way John V. Muntean sculpts his creations to form three distinct images with their shadows, is something worth checking. When his wooden creations are placed on a skewer, held up from one side by a plastic column, and then lit from above, the light cast produces different shadow every time the skewer is rotated for 54.7 degrees.

Perhaps one of the most enjoyable things about this artwork is the way his creations all seem to relate one to another. For example, his dog/cat/fish piece shows three pets known to harass one another. On the other hand, John’s man/woman/heart sculpture seems to depict the three things necessary to create a standard romance story. You may think of this as Shigeo Fukuda’s Encore art installation, except this one includes a third view! Go to his website it’s definitely worth a visit. You get to play with one of his sculptures in virtual space!

Tired of forgetting peoples names? There’s a way to solve that

                        Good Day Humboldt County!

I freely admit that I often forget people’s names. I can blame part of that on my PTSD short term memory, but it goes beyond that. When I was working, I was meeting new people daily for over 20 years, and I struggled remembering names back then.

Are you tired of going down that road…where faces don’t bring automatic recognition after meeting someone for the first time? Would you like to improve your memory? It just so happens I ran across an interesting article that may help you. Here it is:

“Tired of finding yourself in that awkward situation where you recognize someone's face, yet you can't recall their name? New research in Psychological Science sheds some light on the phenomenon.

Scientists recently discovered that a face's features, more than the entire face per se, are the key to recognizing a person. "In the past, it was believed that we look at faces holistically in order to recognize the face," says Jason M. Gold, coauthor of the study and associate professor of psychology at Indiana University. "But surprisingly, we found that the whole was not greater than the sum of its parts."

Avoid a Memory Meltdown

But how can you put this ability to hone in on features to good use? We reached out to Scott Hagwood, author of Memory Power and four-time National Memory Champion, to teach you how to utilize that memory of yours and never forget a name again.

Wordplay
The key to remembering someone's name is making a connection between their name and something that you can easily remember, says Hagwood. So right off the bat, see if the name itself does the work for you. Alliteration and rhyming can be very helpful, says Hagwood. For example, you remember Lucy due to her luscious lips (alliteration), or you were introduced to Cole, who has a large facial mole (rhyming).

Form a trigger
Let's say you meet "Henry," yet this isn't the first "Henry" you know. Since you have an old Henry in mind, try to form a connection between the new Henry's features and the original Henry, says Hagwood. By drawing this parallel, this conditions the brain to use that feature as a memory trigger. A weak example: Both men have short hair. "Since hair styles can frequently change, it's not the wisest choice to make connections to," says Hagwood. A better method: Pick something you despise about old Henry and compare it to the new. Maybe Old Henry has absolutely horrible skin, yet the new once looks like he just stepped out of a Clinique ad.

A simple way to get an individual's name to go hand in hand with their face is to say their name aloud in conversation. This technique practices mindfulness and can condition your brain to associate the sound of their name to their face, says Hagwood. Just don't overdo the repetition, otherwise the interaction feels forced.  (source)
Related article: Sharpen Your Memory While Sleeping

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Hello! My name is Dave, and believe it or not, I don’t have a tattoo!

My name is Dave and I don’t have a tattoo.

I know, it’s hard to believe. My wife has one, as do all three of my sons. Outside of a few old high school buddies, I feel like the last person around without a tat. No skulls adorn my biceps. No hearts with “Mom” in the center and an arrow piercing it decorates either forearm. I’m without tribal tats full of intricate designs starting at my neck and weaving down my back or chest. I’m also in the minority.

According to the FDA, more than 45 million Americans are now tatted up. I see myself rather differently. From my untattooed point of view, I am the last heroic holdout. I’m like Charlton Heston in The Omega Man, that movie where he plays the one remaining normal person on Earth.

The trend for tattoos is not exactly breaking news. In the past there was one reason, and one reason only, to ink up: A tattoo confirmed your status as a scary outsider rebel carny outlaw sociopath. “Don’t mess with me because I am insane,” was the intended message. And it worked. Remember Robert Mitchum in Night of The Hunter? When he cuts Shelley Winters’ throat we are hardly surprised: We knew trouble was on the horizon as soon as we saw the words LOVE and HATE inked across his knuckles. Tattoos meant mayhem.

Most tat artists charge about $150 per hour nowadays. A full sleeve can take 40 hours. Thats $6,000 (!), plus another $6,000 for laser removal when you hit late middle age and it’s gone all wrinkly and is no longer recognizable as a dragon but looks more like a squashed squirrel. And it only cost $12K and hours of agony! Who could resist?

Aside from all the usual blood-born suspects, new research suggests that certain inks do horrid things to your lymph nodes. I’m too old to mess with my lymph nodes, so I’ll gladly use this as another excuse for not getting a tat. I’ve had plenty of opportunities in my life to get a tat, but have let them slip away with no regrets.

Like Charles Heston, I’m satisfied with my outlook on life, and tattoos.  

Dreaming or awake, we perceive only events that have meaning to us

              Good Day Humboldt County!

All of our journeys in life don’t just come during our waking hours. With some people, dreams are like alternate realities where we wander through hostile landscapes in our brain. I wish I knew more about dreams and their purpose.

I’m tortured by nightmares at certain times of the year. Psychiatrists refer to this phenomena as an “Anniversary date.” Mine are tied to a traumatic period in Cambodia (1970) when I watched my best friend die during an ambush. I survived. He didn’t.

There was a time when I didn’t experience nightmares, back before I went into the Army. dreaming was a blissful experience for me once. Now I take meds to make me sleep so sound I don’t dream, and I seldom have nightmares.

This article is about dreaming. I think you’ll find it interesting:

“When your head hits the pillow, for many it's lights out for the conscious part of you. But the cells firing in your brain are very much awake, sparking enough energy to produce the sometimes vivid and sometimes downright haunted dreams that take place during the rapid-eye-movement stage of your sleep.

Why do some people have nightmares while others really spend their nights in bliss? Like sleep, dreams are mysterious phenomena. But as scientists are able to probe deeper into our minds, they are finding some of those answers.

Here's some of what we know about what goes on in dreamland.

1. Violent dreams can be a warning sign

As if nightmares weren't bad enough, a rare sleep disorder — called REM sleep behavior disorder — causes people to act out their dreams, sometimes with violent thrashes, kicks and screams. Such violent dreams may be an early sign of brain disorders down the line, including Parkinson's disease and dementia, according to research published online July 28, 2010, in the journal Neurology. The results suggest the incipient stages of these neurodegenerative disorders might begin decades before a person, or doctor, knows it.

2. Night owls have more nightmares

Staying up late has its perks, but whimsical dreaming is not one of them. Research published in 2011 in the journal Sleep and Biological Rhythms, revealed that night owls are more likely than their early-bird counterparts to experience nightmares.

In the study 264 university students rated how often they experienced nightmares on a scale from 0 to 4, never to always, respectively. The stay-up-late types scored, on average, a 2.10, compared with the morning types who averaged a 1.23. The researchers said the difference was a significant one, however, they aren’t sure what's causing a link between sleep habits and nightmares. Among their ideas is the stress hormone cortisol, which peaks in the morning right before we wake up, a time when people are more prone to be in REM, or dream, sleep. If you’re still sleeping at that time, the cortisol rise could trigger vivid dreams or nightmares, the researchers speculate. [ Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders ]

3. Men dream about sex

As in their wake hours, men also dream about sex more than women do. And comparing notes in the morning may not be a turn-on for either guys or gals, as women are more likely to have experienced nightmares, suggests doctoral research reported in 2009 by psychologist Jennie Parker of the University of the West of England.

She found women's dreams/nightmares could be grouped into three categories: fearful dreams (being chased or having their life threatened); dreams involving the loss of a loved one; or confused dreams.

4. You can control your dreams

If you're interested in lucid dreaming, you may want to take up video gaming. The link? Both represent alternate realities, said Jayne Gackenbach, a psychologist at Grant MacEwan University in Canada.

"If you're spending hours a day in a virtual reality, if nothing else it's practice," Gackenbach told LiveScience in 2010. "Gamers are used to controlling their game environments, so that can translate into dreams." Her past research has shown that people who frequently play video games are more likely than non-gamers to have lucid dreams where they view themselves from outside their bodies; they were also better able to influence their dream worlds, as if controlling a video-game character.

That level of control may also help gamers turn a bloodcurdling nightmare into a carefree dream, she found in a 2008 study. This ability could help war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Gackenbach reasoned.

5. Why we dream

Scientists have long wondered why we dream, with answers ranging from Sigmund Freud's idea that dreams fulfill our wishes to the speculation that these wistful journeys are just a side effect of rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. Turns out, at least part of the reason may be critical thinking, suggests Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett who presented her theory in 2010 at the Association for Psychological Science meeting in Boston.

Her research revealed that our slumbering hours may help us solve puzzles that have plagued us during daylight hours. The visual and often illogical aspects of dreams make them perfect for the out-of-the-box thinking that is necessary to solve some problems, she speculates.

So while dreams may have originally evolved for another purpose, they have likely been refined over time for multiple tasks, including helping the brain reboot and helping us solve problems, she said.”  (Source)

Headline source quote by Jane Roberts

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Dad sues school district after son is punished for cheating

A father is suing his son's Northern California school district for throwing the boy out of an honors English class after he was caught cheating.

The sophomore at Sequoia High School in Redwood City copied someone else's essay, which aside from being just plain wrong, also goes against the "honesty pledge" students sign at the beginning of the class, making it explicitly clear that any cheating will result in expulsion from honors courses. Clear cut, right? Well, the dad is pointing out a conflicting school policy that says students won't be punished for cheating until the second time they're caught. Um, can the second incidence of cheating be this dad trying to cheat the school system and bend the rules for his kid? (source)