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Friday, August 21, 2015

Movies For Business Lessons

Break out the popcorn, get comfy on the couch and watch these movies to get inspired and enlightened:

1. Deli Man

deli-man-movie-poster
Image credit: Deli Man | Cohen Media Group
This fun documentary chronicles the rise of delis in the U.S. during the 1930s. The filmmakers interview many deli owners, including star Ziggy Gruber, a third-generation deli man and owner of Kenny & Ziggy’s, a tremendously successful authentic New York-style deli in Houston.

Gruber is charismatic and inspiring, and the movie shows how much he cares about his business and customers. He is energetic, obsessed with high quality, and loves what he does and the deli industry as a whole. He is very focused on delivering top-notch quality in every dish and every customer-service interaction.
He is also hands-on and brings warmth and love to his customers, and importantly, his employees, by engaging with them and showing he cares. Overall, the movie illustrates the importance of passion and heart in business and shows that those who find their passion will find success.

2. Woman in Gold

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Image credit: Women in Gold | BBC Films (UK) | The Weinstein Company (US)
Woman in Gold tells the story of an elderly Jewish woman who 50 years later tries to reclaim artwork taken from her family by the Nazis. She begins a long and difficult legal battle with the Austrian government to get her family’s paintings back.  
The movie depicts the struggle between knowing when to give up and knowing when to persevere. This balance is one the hardest elements entrepreneurs need to master.
Don’t be afraid to fail -- if a business isn’t a winner, discard it and move on. On the other hand, giving up too early can ruin real chances for success, which often only come after tremendous trials and tribulations. Certain fights can last for decades, just as the main character’s fight for justice did.

3. The Wolf of Wall Street

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Image credit: The Wolf on Wall Street | Paramount Home Entertainment
The Wolf of Wall Street details the decadence and depravity of real-life stockbroker, Jordan Belfort. From crazy office parties to reckless drug use, the film depicts the flashy and shady side of business.
Greed, hedonism and fraud may be tempting for some, but for all will eventually lead to failure. There are no shortcuts to succeeding in business and life. Take the time to grow a credible business built on solid values and ethics.

4. Boyhood

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Image credit: Boyhood | Paramount Home Entertainment
Boyhood not only attracted tremendous attention and acclaim after its release, but also way before, because it was a true purple cow that stood out in the industry. The movie chronicles the childhood of a young boy, and is the first to use the same actor as he aged over a 12-year period.
“If you've seen one cow, you've seen them all. But what if one of the cows were purple?” writes Seth Godin in his book, Purple Cow. “Make a purple cow. Get people's permission to find out what they really want.”
Purple cows have the power to capture attention and start conversations. Be remarkable, be different and get the attention of industry peers and consumers alike.

5. The Queen

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Image credit: The Queen | Miramax
The Queen depicts how the British royal family reacted and publicly responded to the death of Princess Diana. Although she was urged to make an official statement and expression of grief, Queen Elizabeth II was stubborn in considering the death a private family matter.
Her strategy was a public-relations disaster, and the media and British people were outraged at the Queen’s seemingly cold composure. As more and more people displayed their grief at Buckingham and Kensington Palaces, the Queen finally took the advice of the prime minister, made a public statement about the death, and visited the palaces to acknowledge flowers and gifts the public has left.
The movie shows that no matter how powerful a person is, they still need to listen to others and take advice during times of crisis. Brand image can make or break a business, and during a crisis, that image is tested. Listen to what the public is saying, consider advice from trusted peers and let go of stubbornness and outdated traditions.
Thanks http://www.entrepreneur.com/

How blood vessels help in the peripheral nerve regeneration


The peripheral nervous system has remarkable regenerative capacities in that it can repair a fully cut nerve. This requires Schwann cells to migrate collectively to guide regrowing axons across a ‘bridge’ of new tissue, which forms to reconnect a severed nerve.
Researchers show that blood vessels direct the migrating cords of Schwann cells. This multicellular process is initiated by hypoxia, selectively sensed by macrophages within the bridge, which via VEGF-A secretion induce a polarized vasculature that relieves the hypoxia.
Schwann cells then use the blood vessels as “tracks” to cross the bridge taking regrowing axons with them. Importantly, disrupting the organization of the newly formed blood vessels in vivo, either by inhibiting the angiogenic signal or by re-orienting them, compromises Schwann cell directionality resulting in defective nerve repair.
This study provides important insights into how the choreography of multiple cell-types is required for the regeneration of an adult tissue.
http://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(15)00898-3

A Surprise Source of Life’s Code




Emerging data suggests the seemingly impossible — that mysterious new genes arise from “junk” DNA.
Genes, like people, have families — lineages that stretch back through time, all the way to a founding member. That ancestor multiplied and spread, morphing a bit with each new iteration.
For most of the last 40 years, scientists thought that this was the primary way new genes were born — they simply arose from copies of existing genes. The old version went on doing its job, and the new copy became free to evolve novel functions.
Certain genes, however, seem to defy that origin story. They have no known relatives, and they bear no resemblance to any other gene. They’re the molecular equivalent of a mysterious beast discovered in the depths of a remote rainforest, a biological enigma seemingly unrelated to anything else on earth.
The mystery of where these orphan genes came from has puzzled scientists for decades. But in the past few years, a once-heretical explanation has quickly gained momentum — that many of these orphans arose out of so-called junk DNA, or non-coding DNA, the mysterious stretches of DNA between genes. “Genetic function somehow springs into existence,” said David Begun, a biologist at the University of California, Davis.
This metamorphosis was once considered to be impossible, but a growing number of examples in organisms ranging from yeast and flies to mice and humans has convinced most of the field that these de novo genes exist. Some scientists say they may even be common. Just last month, research presented at the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution in Vienna identified 600 potentially new human genes. “The existence of de novo genes was supposed to be a rare thing,” said Mar Albà, an evolutionary biologist at the Hospital del Mar Research Institute in Barcelona, who presented the research. “But people have started seeing it more and more.”
Researchers are beginning to understand that de novo genes seem to make up a significant part of the genome, yet scientists have little idea of how many there are or what they do. What’s more, mutations in these genes can trigger catastrophic failures. “It seems like these novel genes are often the most important ones,” said Erich Bornberg-Bauer, a bioinformatician at the University of Münster in Germany.
The Orphan Chase
The standard gene duplication model explains many of the thousands of known gene families, but it has limitations. It implies that most gene innovation would have occurred very early in life’s history. According to this model, the earliest biological molecules 3.5 billion years ago would have created a set of genetic building blocks. Each new iteration of life would then be limited to tweaking those building blocks.
Yet if life’s toolkit is so limited, how could evolution generate the vast menagerie we see on Earth today? “If new parts only come from old parts, we would not be able to explain fundamental changes in development,” Bornberg-Bauer said.
The first evidence that a strict duplication model might not suffice came in the 1990s, when DNA sequencing technologies took hold. Researchers analyzing the yeast genome found that a third of the organism’s genes had no similarity to known genes in other organisms. At the time, many scientists assumed that these orphans belonged to families that just hadn’t been discovered yet. But that assumption hasn’t proven true. Over the last decade, scientists sequenced DNA from thousands of diverse organisms, yet many orphan genes still defy classification. Their origins remain a mystery.
In 2006, Begun found some of the first evidence that genes could indeed pop into existence from noncoding DNA. He compared gene sequences from the standard laboratory fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, with other closely related fruit fly species. The different flies share the vast majority of their genomes. But Begun and collaborators found several genes that were present in only one or two species and not others, suggesting that these genes weren’t the progeny of existing ancestors. Begun proposed instead that random sequences of junk DNA in the fruit fly genome could mutate into functioning genes.
Yet creating a gene from a random DNA sequence appears as likely as dumping a jar of Scrabble tiles onto the floor and expecting the letters to spell out a coherent sentence. The junk DNA must accumulate mutations that allow it to be read by the cell or converted into RNA, as well as regulatory components that signify when and where the gene should be active. And like a sentence, the gene must have a beginning and an end — short codes that signal its start and end.
In addition, the RNA or protein produced by the gene must be useful. Newly born genes could prove toxic, producing harmful proteins like those that clump together in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. “Proteins have a strong tendency to misfold and cause havoc,” said Joanna Masel, a biologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “It’s hard to see how to get a new protein out of random sequence when you expect random sequences to cause so much trouble.” Masel is studying ways that evolution might work around this problem.
Another challenge for Begun’s hypothesis was that it’s very difficult to distinguish a true de novo gene from one that has changed drastically from its ancestors. (The difficulty of identifying true de novo genes remains a source of contention in the field.)
Ten years ago, Diethard Tautz, a biologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, was one of many researchers who were skeptical of Begun’s idea. Tautz had found alternative explanations for orphan genes. Some mystery genes had evolved very quickly, rendering their ancestry unrecognizable. Other genes were created by reshuffling fragments of existing genes.
Then his team came across the Pldi gene, which they named after the German soccer player Lukas Podolski. The sequence is present in mice, rats and humans. In the latter two species, it remains silent, which means it’s not converted into RNA or protein. The DNA is active or transcribed into RNA only in mice, where it appears to be important — mice without it have slower sperm and smaller testicles.
The researchers were able to trace the series of mutations that converted the silent piece of noncoding DNA into an active gene. That work showed that the new gene is truly de novo and ruled out the alternative — that it belonged to an existing gene family and simply evolved beyond recognition. “That’s when I thought, OK, it must be possible,” Tautz said.
A Wave of New Genes
Scientists have now catalogued a number of clear examples of de novo genes: A gene in yeast that determines whether it will reproduce sexually or asexually, a gene in flies and other two-winged insects that became essential for flight, and some genes found only in humans whose function remains tantalizingly unclear.
At the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution conference last month, Albà and collaborators identified hundreds of putative de novo genes in humans and chimps — ten-fold more than previous studies — using powerful new techniques for analyzing RNA. Of the 600 human-specific genes that Albà’s team found, 80 percent are entirely new, having never been identified before.
Unfortunately, deciphering the function of de novo genes is far more difficult than identifying them. But at least some of them aren’t doing the genetic equivalent of twiddling their thumbs. Evidence suggests that a portion of de novo genes quickly become essential. About 20 percent of new genes in fruit flies appear to be required for survival. And many others show signs of natural selection, evidence that they are doing something useful for the organism.
In humans, at least one de novo gene is active in the brain, leading some scientists to speculate such genes may have helped drive the brain’s evolution. Others are linked to cancer when mutated, suggesting they have an important function in the cell. “The fact that being misregulated can have such devastating consequences implies that the normal function is important or powerful,” said Aoife McLysaght, a geneticist at Trinity College in Dublin who identified the first human de novo genes.
Promiscuous Proteins
De novo genes are also part of a larger shift, a change in our conception of what proteins look like and how they work. De novo genes are often short, and they produce small proteins. Rather than folding into a precise structure — the conventional notion of how a protein behaves — de novo proteins have a more disordered architecture. That makes them a bit floppy, allowing the protein to bind to a broader array of molecules. In biochemistry parlance, these young proteins are promiscuous.
Scientists don’t yet know a lot about how these shorter proteins behave, largely because standard screening technologies tend to ignore them. Most methods for detecting genes and their corresponding proteins pick out long sequences with some similarity to existing genes. “It’s easy to miss these,” Begun said.
That’s starting to change. As scientists recognize the importance of shorter proteins, they are implementing new gene discovery technologies. As a result, the number of de novo genes might explode. “We don’t know what things shorter genes do,” Masel said. “We have a lot to learn about their role in biology.”
Scientists also want to understand how de novo genes get incorporated into the complex network of reactions that drive the cell, a particularly puzzling problem. It’s as if a bicycle spontaneously grew a new part and rapidly incorporated it into its machinery, even though the bike was working fine without it. “The question is fascinating but completely unknown,” Begun said.
A human-specific gene called ESRG illustrates this mystery particularly well. Some of the sequence is found in monkeys and other primates. But it is only active in humans, where it is essential for maintaining the earliest embryonic stem cells. And yet monkeys and chimps are perfectly good at making embryonic stem cells without it. “It’s a human-specific gene performing a function that must predate the gene, because other organisms have these stem cells as well,” McLysaght said.
“How does novel gene become functional? How does it get incorporated into actual cellular processes?” McLysaght said. “To me, that’s the most important question at the moment.”
https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150818-a-surprise-source-…/

The Rise of an Intuitive Humanity

Social and cultural change is occurring fast right now across this planet, and it looks as if it will accelerate further. Many people are experiencing a wide range of personal impacts, disruptions, and rearrangements in their lives. At the same time, we are also seeing how our social infrastructures, modes of communication, and connectivity are adjusting and shifting to these changes. Within the last 150 years alone we have witnessed an amazingly rapid process of transition in human civilization, perhaps even without being consciously aware of it. In terms of the bigger picture, this is an incredibly swift rate of change.

The ebb and flow of human history has cradled the gradual unfolding of the individual and the growing responsibility that this implies. This emerging ‘blooming of the individual’ has occurred alongside the story of the slow decline in aristocracy, elite rule, and the demise of tyranny. This human story has accelerated in recent centuries, with the fall of feudalism; the birth of democracy; and the growth of an increasingly connected global humanity. Alongside this we have also seen the increasing acceptance and sharing of planetary values. We could say that human society is in the early contractions of the birth of a planetary civilization.

Conscious development is a psycho-spiritual process, aided by socio-cultural impulses and influences that have woven throughout our history. Most recently, the strong impulses in the 1960s and the end of the 1980s have helped to catalyze the conscious awareness of many people the world over. Many seeds were planted that would actualize over time. The psychic states experimented with in the 1960s showed that there were alternative dimensions of consciousness and gave a taste of these to a hungry young audience. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the end of several archaic political institutions, gave a taste of the power for change when many thought it almost impossible.

Impulses of renewal and regeneration have long been part of the ongoing processes of human, cultural, and psycho-spiritual development. True revolutions are not those of physical violence but of radical shifts in perceptions, knowledge, and ultimately the individual self. The increasing presence of human consciousness has been evident over the years through the expansion of intelligence, psychological awareness, humanitarianism, empathy, and creative innovation. The emergence of the intuitive human has been seen out on the playing fields of the world – in stadiums, fields, and in streets the world over. The collaborative nature of sport, with its team work, its shared rules and game-play, is one example that has arisen to help shift the human spirit.

What I am suggesting is that as this trend unfolds we are likely to see new generations of individuals coming into the world who will be the change, rather than being born into change. And these new arrivals will challenge even further our social systems and ‘big institutions’ from the very fact that they will be acting more from instinct and intuition. The age of Guru-hood, spiritual elitism, and the throng of commercial ‘Teaching’ methods is going to be replaced by a greater gnosis within humanity. External belief systems that we often depend upon will be challenged, and gradually replaced, by the recognition of a living intelligence – an intelligence that has always existed within the human race. When the truth is known instinctively, it no longer requires cultural preservation: domes, spires, institutions, or Teachings. The living intelligence is more fluid and exists everywhere, for everyone, all of the time. We only need the means to access it. This means of access is a process that will increasingly manifest as developmental impulses between human-planet-cosmos continue to unfold.

Over the coming years of this century humanity will increasingly gain greater access to heightened inner awareness (gnosis) as the connection to a pervasive living intelligence strengthens. The old roles of central hierarchy are diminishing; human societies around the globe are forming decentralized networks of connection and communication, much the same as our ancestral bacterial networks. Our social milieu is increasingly mirroring how biology has long since organized itself. This new arrangement facilitates a different form of energy to be active upon the planet. An energy that supports a different way of doing things and of making things happen. The days of a singular Messiah speaking to the multitudes are over. We are now moving into a time upon this planet where it will be the multitudes that will amplify and spread the new understanding.

Our young children are being born into a world where on a daily basis – 24/7 – human thought patterns and consciousness flows through millions upon millions of computers, networks, and connected devices, forming a nonlocal realm of information and living intelligence. Yet this is not only occurring in the digital spaces, but also through the cultural sphere of artifacts such as movies, books, articles, songs, videos, etc, forming a field of connectivity that transcends our old temporal and spatial boundaries. Our external information technologies are now increasingly mirroring, or being superimposed upon, the living field of intelligence that underlies our reality. Such a physical matrix/construct is the external reflection of our inherent, non-visible connectivity. These impacts (or overlays) are also likely to catalyze a release of some form of transformative energy. There is no external model of communication and connectivity that does not have its corresponding reality in consciousness.

The children and young adults of today are beginning to break the old patterns and become the early wave of pioneers and system-change agents. They are showing a remarkable intuitive grasp of our modern technologies. They are reaching out and connecting, forming networks, supporting ecological practices and alternative health practices, forming community projects, seeking out healthy food, prioritizing well-being over career roles, re-invigorating a sense of the sacred, and pushing out the boundaries for new thinking. It is not occurring everywhere, or with everyone. There is still much confusion and emotional angst in our younger generations. However, a more intuitive human is coming through.

The Emperor Finally Has No Clothes
New thinking patterns and expressions of consciousness are now emerging in communities and societies throughout the world that are no longer tolerant of the old paradigm structures of separatism, egoism, and conflict. Rather than being a full-frontal revolt against incumbent systems, a more subtle wave of reformist change is arising that contributes to constructive social transition. Part of this reformist change will be the increase in transparency in our social systems. It is already happening now – we are seeing increased instances of corruption (political, financial, personal, etc) coming to the surface and being exposed. As the sun rises, they say, the shadows will at first become sharper and more visible. As the patterns of a different consciousness begin to be expressed through people, the inadequacies of many of our systems will increasingly be exposed. Those institutions, practices, and societies built upon fear and disingenuous values will falter as a new awareness within people demands a change in values and integrity. Old patterns of thinking – especially the disruptive patterns – will become increasingly obsolete over time as an intuitive intelligence is expressed through human consciousness. Soon, even our youngest babes will be pointing at the old idols and declaring, open-mouthed: ‘But look, they are not wearing any clothes!’ At that point, edifices and traditions will be forced to either disintegrate or re-calibrate themselves according to the new patterns.
The protective veneer of social appearance and status that once held sanctuary for certain people will no longer operate. Celebrities, politicians, wealthy elites, religious figures, once-respected public figures, and the rest – the façade will drop for many such people and the wave of transparency will make visible their misdemeanors. So much dirty laundry will be washed in public as a generation of intuitively-driven young minds and hearts will wish to heal a planet in order to bring in reform. The early tremors of youth insecurity (witnessed in violent outbursts and psychological instability) will come to be replaced by greater expressions of human intuition and inner confidence and balance. Many of us are already becoming students to our children and to the young adults in the world. We are seeing how our once unquestioning faith in external sources of information, opinions, and authority are now questioned by these young minds. Young people the world over are stepping away from dogmatic belief structures that they find limiting to the self and that take away the responsibility for an individual’s own self-empowerment.

A new form of common sense will emerge – one that is neither ‘common’ nor makes ‘sense’ to us now – and it will originate from a different state of awareness. Human behavior that made sense for when we imagined we lived as islands of individuality will no longer ‘make sense’ – nor be functional – for a species that consciously experiences the interconnectivity of all life. The more the human species transforms internally, the greater the change we will see occurring in our physical world, in our societies, technologies, culture, etc. The next generation can not be the same as the present, or the previous. In this moment of human history, to give birth to a duplicate generation – with the same ideals and values – would result not in a perpetuation of human societies but in their demise. That is why we need transformational change at the psycho-spiritual level both within and between generations. For those of us in the world now it has taken consistent exertion and energy to challenge our conditioning structures. In the past also we have struggled greatly against socio-cultural systems that were opposed, or unsupportive, to individual inner development. Now, however, change will come easier and at a more rapid pace.

The changes that we are likely to see in the coming years will be more profound than the changes that took place during our previous industrial revolutions. The period of our western industrialization transpired over several centuries. Now we are going to witness great changes set to occur within the span of just one single human lifetime. We will observe that communication, transparency, and honesty are much more powerful tools than secrecy, fear, and confrontation. The emperor’s false suit of body armor will disintegrate in the face of transparent, honest eyes. The sham elements within our political, financial, corporate, and media structures will scramble to maintain their façade. Yet their desperate actions will be viewed for what they truly are in the eyes of a more aware, informed, and awakened generation of young minds and hearts.

With or without us, the new young minds will create their own freedom to inspire and renew their world into being. They will have access not only to a vast intuitive inner world, but they will simultaneously be connected to a planetary network of information, contacts, and friends. Fearful incumbent structures of authority will attempt to control such networks of connection and communication, yet they will ultimately fail against the inevitable tide of great human awakening.

The younger generation(s) will likely be the ones to free humanity from the dominance of erroneous ideas – ideas that forged war, created poverty and hunger, and sustained dis-ease. We are seeing a generation that will be successful in removing these illusions from old thinking patterns. The new intuitive human has been in the making for some time now. Our world is far more peaceful today than it has been at any time in recent past epochs – despite what the mainstream media may be saying. This signals to us that the way energy patterns flow over the Earth is changing, encouraging people to seek peaceful solutions wherever possible. The living intelligence that is a part of the intuitive human is also a spiritual, empathic, and nurturing intelligence, which has been lacking in much of modern civilization.

Those of the new generation(s) will usher in a period where the feminine and masculine energies of the world will be re-configured and placed into greater balance and harmony. Human values of love, compassion, understanding, patience, tolerance, and empathy will be more openly expressed and part of an informed world – and not erroneously seen as being only predominantly ‘female’ values. The division that separates the masculine and feminine energies will continue to dissolve, and be replaced by a newer energy of unity – of coming together. Similarly, the artificial stigma around ‘male’ and ‘female’ roles in the world will be challenged and forced into change through the younger men and women actively re-modelling role expectations. Women’s participation will be more keenly appreciated, sought after, and brought into collaboration in such major areas as global politics, economy, and business. An intuitive energy will be more present in the world in the upcoming decades, and will find expression as younger women increasingly hold key influential positions in society. We are more open to recognize now that notions of duality – of one side having dominance over the other, whether male or female – is an old energy. The newer energies will be focused more on balance, and on bringing everything together into an integral whole that respects diversity within unity.

Humanity is now poised upon the cusp of a transition for which developmental potentials have long been preparing for. It seems that the rate of our preparedness grows exponentially with each passing year. A new form of energy has now entered upon this planet, and which facilitates an altogether different mode of operation. It is an energy that supports a networked and decentralized way of connectivity. It is now working through our human societies to engage with change from within. Its aim may be to help form a membrane of conscious human-planet intelligence across the Earth.
These energies are also spreading more rapidly from human to human through our integrated digital and biological fields of energetic connectivity. Soon there will not be an area isolated from such influence, as each village and town will have amongst its midst a new intuitive human – more so when the younger generations enter upon the Earth and begin to take up their roles and responsibilities.

There is something immensely exciting happening here on this planet. Something is rising within us, amongst us, through us, and penetrating the very fabric of our reality. It is a transformation without words, passing through each and every individual. It appears that some latent human capacities are now set to become activated, in alignment with evolutionary requirements.

See my earlier book ‘The Struggle for Your Mind: Conscious Evolution & The Battle to Control How We Think’


 Kingsley L. Dennis

Glass paint could keep metal roofs and other structures cool even on sunny days



 (This is the interesting phenonmenon what scientists have found):
Sunlight can be brutal. It wears down even the strongest structures, including rooftops and naval ships, and it heats up metal slides and bleachers until they're too hot to use. To fend off damage and heat from the sun's harsh rays, scientists have developed a new, environmentally friendly paint out of glass that bounces sunlight off metal surfaces—keeping them cool and durable.
The researchers present their work today at the 250th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
"Most paints you use on your car or house are based on polymers, which degrade in the ultraviolet light rays of the sun," says Jason J. Benkoski, Ph.D. "So over time you'll have chalking and yellowing. Polymers also tend to give offvolatile organic compounds, which can harm the environment. That's why I wanted to move away from traditional polymer coatings to inorganic glass ones."
Glass, which is made out of silica, would be an ideal coating. It's hard, durable and has the right optical properties. But it's very brittle.
To address that aspect in a new coating, Benkoski, who is at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, started with silica, one of the most abundant materials in the earth's crust. He modified one version of it, potassium silicate, that normally dissolves in water. His tweaks transformed the compound so that when it's sprayed onto a surface and dries, it becomes water resistant.
Unlike acrylic, polyurethane or epoxy paints, Benkoski's paint is almost completely inorganic, which should make it last far longer than its counterparts that contain organic compounds. His paint is also designed to expand and contract with metal surfaces to prevent cracking.
Mixing pigments with the silicate gives the coating an additional property: the ability to reflect all sunlight and passively radiate heat. Since it doesn't absorb sunlight, any surface coated with the paint will remain at air temperature, or even slightly cooler. That's key to protecting structures from the sun.

China's Monster Three Gorges Dam Is About To Slow The Rotation Of The Earth


The Myth: The filling of the reservoir behind Three Gorges Dam in China changed the rotation of the Earth.
The Evidence: Three Gorges Dam, China crosses the Yangtze River in Hubei province, China. It the world’s largest hydroelectric power station by total capacity, which will be 22,500 MW when completed. When the water level is maximum at 175 meters (574 ft) over sea level (91 meters (299 ft) above river level), the reservoir created by the dam is about 660 kilometers (410 mi) in length and 1.12 kilometers (0.70 mi) in width on average. The total surface area of the reservoir is 1045 square kilometers, and it will will flood a total area of 632 square kilometers, of land. The reservoir will contain about 39.3 cu km (9.43 cubic miles) of water. That water will weigh more than 39 trillion kilograms (42 billion tons).
A shift in a mass of that size would affect the rotation of the Earth due to a phenomena known as the moment of inertia, which is the inertia of a rigid rotating body with respect to its rotation. The moment of inertia of an object about a given axis describes how difficult it is to change its angular motion about that axis. The longer the distance of a mass to its axis of rotation, the slower it will spin.
You may not know it, but you see examples of this in everyday life. For example, a figure skater attempting to spin faster will draw her arms tight to her bodies, and thereby reduce her moment of inertia. Similarly, a diver attempting to somersault faster will bring his body into a tucked position. Raising 39 trillion kilograms of water 175 meters above sea level will increase the Earth’s moment of inertia and thus slow its rotation. However, the effect would extremely small. NASA scientists calculated that shift of such as mass would increase the length of day by only 0.06 microseconds and make the Earth only very slightly more round in the middle and flat on the top. It would shift the pole position by about two centimeters (0.8 inch). Note that a shift in any object’s mass on the Earth relative to its axis of rotation will change its moment of inertia, although most shifts are too small to be measured (but they can be calculated).
The Verdict: True.
Story Source: Business Insider.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

இதைத் தான் சூத்திரக்கிணறு என்று முன்னோர் சொன்னார்களாம்.


எம் முன்னோர்களிடம் தொழில்நுட்ப அறிவு மேலோங்கி நின்றது என்பதற்கு சூத்திரக்கிணறு நல்லதொரு உதாரணமாகும். விவசாயத்திற்கு தேவையான நீர்ப்பாசன முறையை இலகுவாக்குவதற்காக இப்பொறிமுறை பாவிக்கப்பட்டது. செக்கு போல இரு மாடுகள் சுற்றிவர அதில் தொடுக்கப்பட்ட கப்பி மூலம் சங்கிலிக்கோர்வையாக வாளி அல்லது பட்டையை பயன்படுத்தி நீர் பாய்ச்சப்பட்டது. பின்னர் நவீன நீரிறைக்கும் இயந்திரத்தின் வருகையுடன் இப்பொறி முற்றாக மறைந்துள்ளது. எனினும் சில இடங்களில் இதன் எச்சத்தை இன்றும் காணக்கூடியதாக உள்ளது. மறந்து போன எம்முன்னோர்களின் கண்டுபிடிப்பில் இதுவும் ஒன்றாகும்.
சூத்திரக்கிணறுஎம் முன்னோர்களிடம் தொழில்நுட்ப அறிவு மேலோங்கி நின்றது என்பதற்கு சூத்திரக்கிணறு நல்லதொரு உதாரணமாகும். விவசாயத்திற்கு தேவையான நீர்ப்பாசன முறையை இலகுவாக்குவதற்காக இப்பொறிமுறை பாவிக்கப்பட்டது. செக்கு போல இரு மாடுகள் சுற்றிவர அதில் தொடுக்கப்பட்ட கப்பி மூலம் சங்கிலிக்கோர்வையாக வாளி அல்லது பட்டையை பயன்படுத்தி நீர் பாய்ச்சப்பட்டது. பின்னர் நவீன நீரிறைக்கும் இயந்திரத்தின் வருகையுடன் இப்பொறி முற்றாக மறைந்துள்ளது. எனினும் சில இடங்களில் இதன் எச்சத்தை இன்றும் காணக்கூடியதாக உள்ளது. மறந்து போன எம்முன்னோர்களின் கண்டுபிடிப்பில் இதுவும் ஒன்றாகும்.

What is Prosthesis ?

  1. prosthesis is a device designed to replace a missing part of the body or to make a part of the body work better. Diseased or missing eyes, arms, hands, legs, or joints are commonly replaced by prosthetic devices.
Maxence was born without a right hand, but on Monday the six-year-old French boy got one through an effort highlighting the growing use of 3D printing technology to make prostheses.
"He is going to have a superhero hand the colour of his choice, that he can take off when he wishes," said his mother Virginie.
"It will be fun for him on the school yard with his friends."
The prosthesis comes through an American foundation called e-NABLE, which since 2013 has been connecting owners of 3D printers with families of children missing fingers or hands.
More than 1,500 prostheses have already been provided through the foundation, and the hand for Maxence was the group's first in France.
The device, which is worn like a glove and attatches with Velcro, cost less than 50 euros ($55) to produce and can easily be replaced with a larger model as the boy grows up.
It is designed for children who, like Maxence, have a wrist and a palm. The artificial hand grasps objects when the user bends his or her wrist, and is attached without surgery.
The prothesis does not allow for more precise activities like tying shoes, but does allow users to do things like riding on swings or a scooter that are difficult to do without fingers.
According to Thierry Oquidam, the volunteer who produced the prothesis, the advantage of the hand is its "fun" aspects which can make the child feel like he is dressed up in a costume instead of wearing a medical prothesis.
[This piece of information may be the most amazing thing in the life of a child who is missing fingers or hand. So, kindly let more people know about this noble foundation.]



WHAT IS HEART MURMUR

This is an unexpected sound that a doctor hears when they listen to the beating of someone’s heart through a stethoscope. They can hear the normal sounds made by the blood flowing through the heart, and of the heart valves opening and closing. If there is alteration to the smooth flow of blood through the heart this can be heard as a ‘murmur’. These can be heard when the heart relaxes – knownas a ‘diastolic’ murmur – or when it contracts, calleda ‘systolic’ murmur.

¤ CAUSES
Many murmurs are completely harmless – pregnant women often have them because of the increased amount of blood in their circulation for example – and the heart can be totally healthy and still have a murmur, such as sometimes occurs in people with anaemia. This means it is quite possible to have a heart murmur and require no treatment.
Sometimes murmurs are caused by congenital conditions such as a hole in the heart, or if there are problems with the heart valves such as prolapsed, leaking or narrowed valves.
About 30% of children will have a heart murmur at some time, but the vast majority of these are harmless (or ‘innocent’), disappearing as the child gets older or by the time they reach puberty.
Common conditions can make your heart beat faster and lead to heart murmurs. It can happen if you're pregnant or if you have:
  • Anemia
  • High blood pressure
  • Overactive thyroid
  • Fever
It could also be a problem with a heart valve. The valves close and open to let blood flow through the heart's two upper chambers (the atria) and two lower chambers (the ventricles). Valve problems include:
Mitral valve prolapse: Normally, your mitral valve closes completely when the lower left chamber of your heart contracts. It stops blood from flowing back into the upper left chamber. If part of that valve balloons out so that it doesn't close properly, you have mitral valve prolapse. This causes a clicking sound as your heart beats. It's fairly common and it's often not serious. But it can lead to the blood flowing backward through the valve, also called regurgitation.
Mitral valve or aortic stenosis: Your mitral or aortic valves are on the left side of your heart. If they narrow, which doctors call stenosis, your heart must work harder to pump blood out to the rest of your body. If untreated, it can wear out your heart and can lead to heart failure. You might be born with this condition. It can also happen as part of aging, or as a result of scarring from infections, such as rheumatic fever.
Aortic sclerosis and stenosis: One in three elderly people have a heart murmur due to the scarring, thickening, or stiffening (which doctors call sclerosis) of the aortic valve, although it hasn't narrowed. It's usually not dangerous, since the valve can work for years after the murmur starts. Aortic sclerosis is usually seen in people who have heart disease. But over time, the valve can narrow, also called stenosis. This can lead to chest pain, shortness of breath, or passing out. In some cases, the valve may need to be replaced.
Mitral or aortic regurgitation: In this case, regurgitation means the blood is going the wrong way through the mitral valve or the aortic valve. To counteract this backflow, the heart must work harder to force blood through the damaged valve. Over time, this can weaken or enlarge the heart and can lead to heart failure.
Congenital heart defects: About 25,000 babies are born each year with heart defects, such as holes in heart walls or abnormal heart valves. Surgery can correct many of these problems.

Treatment

Many children and adults have harmless heart murmurs, which don't need treatment.
If another condition, such as high blood pressure, is causing your heart murmurs, your doctor will treat the underlying cause.
Some types of heart valve disease may require medication or surgery:
  • Medicines to prevent blood clots, control irregular heartbeat or palpitations, and lower blood pressure
  • Diuretics to remove excess salt and water from the body, making it easier for your heart to pump
  • Surgery to correct heart defects someone is born with
  • Surgery to correct certain types of heart valve disease
  • It's not common, but doctors sometimes ask people to takeantibiotics to help prevent heart infection before dental work or some kinds of surgery.

Diagnosis

Usually, doctors find heart murmurs during a physical exam. Your doctor will be able to hear your heart murmur when listening to your heart with a stethoscope.
Your doctor may order one or more of the following tests to see whether your heart murmur is innocent or whether it is caused by acquired valve disease or a defect you were born with:
  • Electrocardiogram (ECG), which measures the electrical activity of the heart
  • Chest X-rays to see if the heart is enlarged due to heart or valve disease
  • Echocardiography, which uses sound waves to map the heart's structure

What About Prevention?

In most cases, you can't prevent heart murmurs. The exception: Treating an underlying condition, such as high blood pressure, or avoiding heart valve infection, can stop heart murmurs before they start.

When to Call Your Doctor

Call your doctor about a heart murmur if you feel:
  • Chest pain
  • Breathlessness, fatigue, or fainting for no obvious reason
  • Heart palpitations

☞ Tejin Rana.

What if the process and ability of Ascension is actually a process of 'INscension'?

Within the spiritual community, much of the current focus seems to be on the process of Ascension, bridging to other worlds of reality, and becoming aware of our Extraterrestrial Connections. One way to connect with all three is to access the 'timeless space'. It's available for everyone, and it can be experienced by all of us as we stay in the moment. When you are in the moment, it becomes timeless. In this place, you can start to access other parts of your reality.

By focusing and existing in the now, we can actually access all that is! One thing that many people tell me is that they wish to bring their power 'in', learn how to get out of the body, or connect with their space brothers, (who are somewhere out 'there'), when all of everything is actually here now, available, and present in the moment-you don't have to go anywhere to just be.

What if the process and ability of Ascension is actually a process of 'INscension'? As we commit to be fully here, fully present, with all of our essence, we can access who we truly are. About fifty percent of the people we work with will shift into another, completely different reality, where they will find themselves on a space ship, or other planet, or space, and become consciously aware of doing that. It's my belief that all of us co-exist throughout many dimensions simultaneously, and all of us have affiliations and aspects with what many would term 'space groups.'

As all of us can simply BE, we may reach the 'end of time' that so many of us have heard about, or have been waiting for. Maybe, the 'end of time,' as we know it, is simply moving into the timeless state of the now, and simply being. When you are in the moment, you are timeless.

By choosing a new idea about 'Now,' we can create a new reality, not bound, limited, or restricted by others. If we are in the moment, we can let go of what was, and in fact can create what never has been. As soon as you let go of your ideas, memories, and imprints about what was, you access what is, along with all that is.

The moment is not a place, it is a holographic state of beingness. It's in this state of being that we can create what we truly wish, without distortion. The moment, being timeless, is unlimited. In this state and space, we are all things, with all our aspects, qualities, abilities, and beingness available to us. We don't have to "go anywhere" to experience all there is-we just simply have to be.

Allow yourself to just simply be who you already are. In the process of accessing what is, we need to be fully and passionately present in mind, body, and spirit. If our mind is continually roaming around in the past or the future, we are not fully present mentally. If we ignore, resent, or fail to honor and respect our bodies, we are not fully present physically. If we fail to take full responsibility for our lives and our actions as direct creations of our own Higher Self and spirit, we are not fully present spiritually. Perhaps it will be our total commitment to being here, being responsible creators, and being willingly and fully in our body that will provide the 'undoing' of time, and the accessing of all dimensions and spaces. Perhaps it will be the act of being present in mind, body, and spirit, right where we are, in the 'Now,' that will lead us into true physical immortality.

So here is the good news and the bad news, all rolled up into one. We don't have to ascend, wish we could be out of the body, or actually go anywhere to reach timelessness, we simply have to BE, and BE ourselves.

Perhaps, along with any 'spring cleaning' this year, just make yourself aware of your 'unfinished business', and then just do your best to stay in the moment, be yourself, do what you truly enjoy and want to do, as often as you can. Beginning now, with this very moment, make time for YOURSELF, and then be in it, BEING yourself. Now is the only place you can ever really BE anyway. Be fully present. Become the moment, don't just be in it, become it- be yourself, be NOW.

Ken Page 

Friday, August 14, 2015

‘Electric highway’ trials to start this year in England


With a lack of engine charging points around the country seen as a barrier to consumer take-up of electric vehicle technology, Highways England considers so-called ‘electric highways’ as a possible future for motor transport.


Ultimately, every motorway and trunk road could be dug up to have ‘dynamic wireless power transfer’ technology buried underneath them.
Off-road trials of the technology will take place later this year following the completion of a feasibility study commissioned by Highways England. They will test how the technology would work safely and effectively on the country’s motorways and major A roads, allowing drivers of ultra-low emission vehicles to travel long distances without needing to stop and charge the car’s battery.


Transport minister Andrew Jones said: “The potential to recharge low emission vehicles on the move offers exciting possibilities. The government is already committing £500m over the next five years to keep Britain at the forefront of this technology, which will help boost jobs and growth in the sector. As this study shows, we continue to explore options on how to improve journeys and make low-emission vehicles accessible to families and businesses.”
Highways England chief highways engineer Mike Wilson said: “Vehicle technologies are advancing at an ever increasing pace and we’re committed to supporting the growth of ultra-low emissions vehicles on our England’s motorways and major A roads.
“The off-road trials of wireless power technology will help to create a more sustainable road network for England and open up new opportunities for businesses that transport goods across the country.”
The trials are expected to begin later this year following the completion of a procurement process. The trials will involve fitting vehicles with wireless technology and testing the equipment, installed underneath the road, to replicate motorway conditions. Full details of the trials will be publicised when a contractor has been selected.
The trials are expected to last for approximately 18 months and, subject to the results, could be followed by on road trials.
As well as investigating the potential to install technology to wirelessly power ultra-low efficient vehicles, Highways England is also committed in the longer-term to installing plug-in charging points every 20 miles on the motorway network as part of the government’s road investment strategy.


சுற்றுப்புற சூழலுக்கு தீங்கு ஏற்படுத்தாத மின்சார கார்களை வாங்க விரும்புபவர்களுக்கு மிகப்பெரிய தலைவலியும், அச்சமூட்டும் விஷயமாக இருப்பது, அதற்கு சார்ஜ் ஏற்றுவதுதான். பேட்டரி சார்ஜில், குறிப்பிட்ட தூரம் வரை மட்டுமே செல்ல முடியும் என்ற அச்சுறுத்தலும், அதனை சார்ஜ் ஏற்றுவதற்கு ஆகும் கால விரயமும் பலரை பின்வாங்க செய்கிறது. மேலும், அந்த கார்களில் சார்ஜ் தீர்ந்து போனால், நடுவழியில் தவிக்கும் நிலை ஏற்படும். மின்சார கார்களை சார்ஜ் ஏற்றுவதற்கு போதிய கட்டமைப்பு வசதிகள் இன்னும் ஏற்படுத்தப்படவில்லை. ஆனால், அதற்கான முயற்சிகள் நடந்துகொண்டுதான் இருக்கிறது. இந்தநிலையில், இங்கிலாந்து அரசு மின்சார கார்களின் பயன்பாட்டை அதிகரிக்கும் விதத்தில், ஓர் முன்னோடி திட்டத்தை தீவிரமாக கையிலெடுத்துள்ளது. அதாவது, மின்சார கார் அல்லது வாகனங்கள் ஓடிக்கொண்டிருக்கும்போது, அதன் பேட்டரி சார்ஜ் ஆகும் விதத்தில், பொது பயன்பாட்டு சாலைகளில் மின் தட பாதையை அமைக்க உள்ளது. இந்த புதிய மின் தட சாலையில், மின்சார வாகனங்களை செலுத்தி, சோதனை ஓட்டங்களும் நடத்தப்பட இருக்கின்றன. சோதனைகள் வெற்றிபெறும் பட்சத்தில், எலக்ட்ரிக் வாகன போக்குவரத்தில் இந்த புதிய மின்மயமாக்கப்பட்ட சாலை தொழில்நுட்பம் ஓர் புதிய பாதையை வகுக்கும்.

Read more at: http://tamil.drivespark.com

What are the Three Key Principles of Healing



Healing is not simply a matter of finding the one single cause of an illness or problem, and then finding the one single "magic bullet" that will destroy the intruder. Such reductionistic thinking is not only out-dated, it is incorrect and is the basis for bad medicine. The power of belief is so important in healing that we will take a long hard look at it now. The essence of healing is this:
1. The healer/doctor must believe the patient. This is the first step in healing. Most Americans have had the experience of a physician telling them that, "It's all in your head." When a doctor believes his or her patient, trust and hope are fostered. Without trust and hope, healing is much less likely to occur. Hope, inspired by the doctor/healer is the first step in developing a healing relationship both with your doctor, and with yourself. If you can't get your doctor to believe you, fire him or her!
2. Doctor and patient should share the same ideas about what causes illness and what cures illness. Both, ideally, should trust the same diagnostic methods and treatment modalities.
3. Doctor and patient should come to an agreement about the cause and cure and proceed with treatment under the banner of shared belief, which inspires hope, trust, and faith. It is important that doctor and patient have a shared belief in the causes and cures of illness.
These three principles are universal and can be seen in high-tech Western operating rooms, chiropractic offices, and shamans huts and caves all over the world.
Health and illness are intimately woven into the fabric of life in every culture on earth. We, in the West, believe that we can separate illness from the individual, from society, from culture. We try to separate the mind from the body and relegate the spirit to the clerics. However, a complete diagnosis must take into account body, mind, spirit (and energy), as well as the cultural beliefs, rites, and rituals. In a sense, all healing is "faith healing," even our own.
Along these lines, it is important to know about the power of the placebo effect, which accounts for a third of healing. That is, when people are given a placebo, or simply a sugar pill, a third of them will show a dramatic improvement in their symptom or illness.
Of equal, or more importance, is the nocebo effect, the opposite of the placebo effect. It is twice as powerful as the placebo effect. Here is an example: If your doctor gives you a placebo (sugar pill with nothing else in it) and tells you that it will probably cause you to feel dizzy, nauseated, and weak, 66% of people will have some type of such negative reactions.
Placebo and Nocebo are vital in our understanding of healing. It gets back to the 3 essential ingredients in a healing relationship. Trust in the healer and the healing process fosters healing (placebo effect). Words can heal and they can kill.
David Gersten MD

What The Planets Rule in One Word


The Sun rules your personality
The Moon rules your emotions
Mercury rules your mind
Venus rules your love
Mars rules your drive
Jupiter rules your wisdom
Saturn rules your challenges
Uranus rules your originality
Neptune rules your dreams
Pluto rules your power

Diver swimming between two tectonic plates in Iceland