This really isn’t new information, and most reading this will already know that this works. In my life I have had periods where I have turned off my brain and periods where I am thinking constantly. During the periods where I shut down I found that I don’t grasp things as fast and I make more poor decisions. When I am constantly working at figuring out problems then things seem to come to me much easier. The amount one thinks defines greatness. I honestly believe that anyone can become great if they put their mind to it. Most everyone knows someone who coasts through life. That person will never become great. The brain is like any other muscle and it needs to be challenged to grow and become smarter.

It is not an intelligence-boosting formula likely to impress an Oxbridge don: watching Countdown, playing Sudoku, remembering telephone numbers and taking a shower with your eyes closed. Yet doing ‘brain exercises’ such as these can make us all up to 40 per cent cleverer within seven days, according to research by a BBC programme this week.

link to GuardianUnlimited article

It might sound like an after school special, but if you don’t exercise your brain then it becomes lazy. This article brings up a good point. It is not always necessary to do extremely challenging problems to exercise your brain. Sudoku, for example, is not a very hard game. There isn’t any math involved or complex rules. It simply takes patience to solve the problems. The point is to get your brain thinking, and by doing so it is more receptive to problem solving. Sudoku is even recommended by some doctors to be played by the elderly to combat senility. In an age where you can get computer to do almost all of your thinking for you, it is easy to forget to stop and think.

I also found an excellent read on effective problem solving techniques.

I often sit and ponder time..  You know, where has it gone, how come I am not getting anything done in long amounts of time, why does time seem faster at some points and slower at others, and how does my perception of time change.

When time feels like it is moving slowly does this mean my brain is sped up?  Is this just my perception because I am just focusing on time more?  When I wake up in the morning, am really tired, and blink to find that 10 minutes has blown by is my brain really functioning that slowly? Maybe time has really spead up?  There is no indication that others think so.  Whats the deal when someone in a group says that time has dragged/flown and everyone in the group has the same perception?  On and on and on and my internal conversation never ends.  There is never any peace in the head of a strippee. :)

This article on the BBC News web site has some interesting information on time perception and sleep scheudles.  The really interesting stuff is the discussion about the man in a cave experiment.  Some dude that locked himself in a cave for two months and slept, awoke, and ate on his own schedule, without the influence of day/night or society.

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This link is part of Keven Kelly’s book, “Out of Control” . Its a case study with a mob of 5000 gammers with wands democratically controlling decisions made in the game. This would have been immensely interesting to have been a part of or to watch. Aside from the points that the author derives from this event, it has a huge potential for furture gamming and consider making business decissions in a virtual setting using a similar technique. This could provide a relentless competitive edge.

The audience roars in delight. Without a moment’s hesitation, 5,000 people are playing a reasonably good game of Pong. Each move of the paddle is the average of several thousand players’ intentions. The sensation is unnerving. The paddle usually does what you intend, but not always. When it doesn’t, you find yourself spending as much attention trying to anticipate the paddle as the incoming ball. One is definitely aware of another intelligence online: it’s this hollering mob.

The group mind plays Pong so well that Carpenter decides to up the ante. Without warning the ball bounces faster. The participants squeal in unison. In a second or two, the mob has adjusted to the quicker pace and is playing better than before. Carpenter speeds up the game further; the mob learns instantly.

This new species look like a formiable adversary to the Fat Penguin.

Check out its look:

Be afraid, be vely afraid….
Here’s the full article on this beast.

Yahoo news is running an article: Germany’s gay zoo penguins still fending off female advances.

So this is Sechs Punkt and Schraegstrich. Of 10 male penguins, they and 4 other male penguins have coupled together to hang out and they “refusing to mate with females of the species flown in from Sweden in 2005.”

The problem was that the female Humboldt penguins have proven too shy in their advances, the director of the zoo in the northern port city of Bremerhaven said.

The zoo has 10 male penguins of which six have shown strong signs of preferring male company and formed couples among themselves.

The initiative to “turn” the penguins and make them mate had prompted a furious response from gay rights groups.

A “furious responce”? I do not think that there were any physical threats were made against the penguins to encourage them to breed with the females? Any guns? Knives?

Anyways, I do not really care if these penguins are gay or not…. but I am not sure that the coupling together and not mating with the females makes them gay. If they were loners and wouldn’t mate with the females then they would just be considered sexually frustrated. I definately suggest a study. Each of the six penguins need to be shown large amounts of man penguin touching man penguin porn and large amounds of man penguin touching woman penguin porn. Judging by their facial expressions, retina state, and wedding tackle dongle they will know which penguins are probably gay. Then, to be sure, they need to forcefully try to get them to mate with females and forcefully get them to mate with males. Whichever the penguins enjoy more will reveal the truth.

And one other suggestion that will make everyone happy. These penguins look way to thin. If they could get these penguins some decent food (maybe some rainbow rolls and plenty of sake) the would eventually become so fat and atrocious that they wouldn’t be able to bare the idea of coupling with each other. The would then become loners and reach the happy state of sexual frustration.

Check this research news out, man…

Genetics researchers have uncovered the key gene behind the mystery of human earwax.

The report in Monday’s Nature Genetics journal solves a long-running anthropologist’s riddle - why many people in China and Korea, as well as elsewhere in Asia, have dry earwax while the rest of humanity enjoys the sticky variety.

The earwax riddle surprisingly comes down to a single gene, dubbed ABCC11.

humuhumunukunukuapuaa!!!

I came across this name from reading the Yahoo news - “Humuhumunukunukuapuaa Dethroned in Hawaii.”

Here’s an excerpt:

Everyone thought the humuhumunukunukuapuaa was Hawaii’s state fish. As it turns out, the brightly colored fish with the excessively long name has been dethroned.

It’s pronounced HOO-moo-HOO-moo-NOO-koo-NOO-koo-AH-poo-AH-ah

No! It’s your bleached anus that makes your ass look fat.

Ok, so that is a really bad comic (thanks to Bob Online which you have to visit to play the games), but it was that or something medically pornographic…

Regina Lynn of Wired News wrote an interesting article on plastic surgery in regards to genitals. It’s a serious article written in a humorous way.

And cosmetic genital surgery is not OK with me. I don’t care if porn star pussies make you feel bad about your labia minora, which leads to a loss of your self-esteem. That’s too damned bad. Go to Ghana where girls routinely suffer having their clitorises cut off and their labia sewn shut, only to be sliced open by their husbands when it’s time for him to have sex.

The Kurz Research Group is doing some very interesting testing.

Our experiments will provided insight on how penguins are able to use side-to-side motion for stability and how they harvest the mechanical energy from the waddling pattern. Based on our insights, we are developing new biotechnologies that will allow humans to use similar locomotive strategies to harvest the mechanical energy in the locomotive pattern and ensure stability.

This seems a bit silly, but who knows they may eliminate the need for the “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” lady.

This one is for Cory. See, it wasn’t so bad that you had to clean your keyboard to get the sugar out because by the look of yours, it could have been more dirty than 5 toilets combinend.

You shoud absolutly wash your hands after using a coputer keyboard. A swedish lab have research some of people keyboards and the result is very nasty. 265 more bacterias one a keyboard than on a toiletseat. Old reasarch got the same result, .read more

+ = Deliciious!

This is a good read that is quite entertaining, but also makes you think. Courtesy of Wired News.

Good read. Read what Steve McConnell have to say about software engineering vs computer science. Do you agree or disagree with his sentiments? Do discuss it! link

With only about 40 percent of software developers holding computer sci- ence degrees and practically none holding degrees in software engineering, we shouldn’t be surprised to find people confused about the difference be- tween software engineering and computer science.

The distinction between science and engineering in software is the same as the distinction in other fields.

1 Scientists learn what is true, how to test hypotheses, and how to ex- tend knowledge in their field.

Engineers learn what is true, what is useful, and how to apply well-understood knowledge to solve practical problems.

I really need some sleep. This is an interesting article that describes some of the negative impacts on the brain from losing sleep.

But sleep deprivation impairs spatial learning — including remembering how to get to a new destination. And now scientists are beginning to understand how that happens: Learning spatial tasks increases the production of new cells in an area of the brain involved with spatial memory called the hippocampus. Sleep plays a part in helping those new brain cells survive.

Scientists already know – and most of us can confirm from firsthand experience — that lack of sleep impairs cognitive function. Sleep-restricted individuals have a shorter attention span, impaired memory, and a longer reaction time. “Sleep is necessary for general health, but it now appears that the brain needs sleep more than any other part of the body,” Hairston said.

Learning appears to rejuvenate the brain

Fewer brain cells for the weary

Sleep restriction prompts use of a secondary strategy

Further studies could clarify learning strategies the brain employs

Most interesting was those poor rats that were kept up to prove that it made their brain more spatially stupid. Off for some of that blissful sleep.

“That’s impossible, Rhonda.

Ever wonder why, when you’re sick, you feel like you’re coughing up a lung? Guess what…behold the sight, suckaazzzz

Source: http://www.courses.vcu.edu/MED300FP-gso/RTH145/Unit7/mucuscast.htm

This cast of the bronchial tree is formed of inspissated mucus and was coughed up by a patient during an asthmatic attack. The outpouring of mucus from hypertrophied bronchial submucosal glands, the bronchoconstriction, and dehydration all contribute to the formation of mucus plugs that can block airways in asthmatic patients.

Note: Bronchial Submucosal Glands link has been changed from quoted material, as to provide more information, because the old link was no longer active.