Planetary Grid and Sacred Geometry

Anthropologists may have found that the planetary grid of Earth is an icosahedron by mapping high magnetic field locations in anomaly zones such as the Bermuda Triangle. The icosahedron is the shape of Archangel Metatron’s cube (Sphere of creation), which is a sacred geometric energy form that includes all other forms including the Flower of Life, Seed of Life, tree of life, the golden ratio, the golden spiral, the golden mean, Phi, Fibonacci, tetrahedron, hexahedron, octahedron and the dodecahedron. Archangel Metatron’s cube has shown up unbiased in many traditions throughout history from the ancient Tibetan Book of the Dead, Freemasons, Judaism, in the shape water & diseases, etc. Archangel Metatron is believed by many ancient civilizations to be the right hand being of God/universal consciousness in the creation process.The message mapped out in the form of conclusive math as depicted in sacred geometry is a infinite unbreakable truth in nature, which is that everything exists in unity, harmony, and oneness. If any living thing doesn't realize this, then nature dismantles it and recreates new life forms that will work with the laws of nature. If we live in an icosahedron grid, then everything people focus on with their emotions & thoughts will manifest at a faster rate than before we entered the higher vibrating Sphere. A person’s fears may manifest first to release karmic debt and then positive experiences start surfacing to create loving experiences. So if someone has been deceiving others and fearful of their secrets surfacing, then such fears will surface so they can be forgiven or transcended. We may live in an era where all truths surface so we can start co-creating more beautiful experiences through a unified collective consciousness. This is why it’s important to live a life guided by your higher self than by your ego and live from your heart guiding your mind. Some may have a hard time working through their karmic fears in this era. 

“The Planetary Grid A New Synthesis” by William Becker, Professor of Industrial Design at the University of Illinois, Chicago and Bethe Hagens, Professor of Anthropology at Governors State University.
http://missionignition.net/bethe/planetary_grid.php 
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/mapas_ocultotierra/esp_mapa_ocultotierra_12.htm 

“1987 Planetary Grid Update” by Bethe Hagens, Professor of Anthropology at Governors State University.
http://missionignition.net/bethe/GSU_Geostat_Report.php 

“Planetary Grid System” by Christopher Bird.
http://missionignition.net/bethe/planetgrid_chrisbird1975.php 
http://www.biogeometry.org/page103.html 

“Earth Grids: Planetary Metaphysics”
http://earthacupuncture.info/earth_grid.htm 

“The Grid” by Token Rock
http://www.tokenrock.com/explain-Grid-121.html 

“Earth Grid Research”
http://montalk.net/science/115/earth-grid-research 

Very brief Wikipedia history of Archangel Metatron’s Cube. The Flower of Life is believed to be the first completed pattern of life formed out of sonic vibrations from the basic Seed of Life structure created by God. These patterns show up in various religious artworks throughout indigenous mandala artwork such as seen in ancient Tibetan Buddhism, ancient Egyptian, and many more much older traditions. The strongest sacred geometric shape known is Metatron’s Cube a.k.a the Sphere of Creation, which all other forms such as the Flower of Life, Seed of Life, tetrahedron, hexahedron, octahedron and the dodecahedron fit into the 5th element, which is Archangel Metatron’s icosahedron cube. The mathematical formulas of Phi, Fibonacci, Golden Ratio, and the Golden Spiral can be mapped consistently in all sacred geometric forms. Archangel Metatron is believed to be the scribe of God or consciousness’s right hand being in creation. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metatron 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_of_Life 

“Sacred Geometry 101E: Metatron’s Cube” and “Sacred Geometry 101F (Part 2): Pi - Phi - Fibonacci Sequence” by Charles Gilchrist. Here are the cliff notes for you if you don’t need to review the mathematical proof. We are all interconnected. We’re all one. We are all energy as mapped by the sacred geometric math in the creation of the sound waves of your spiral coiled DNA. You’re living a delusion by choice in this holographic universe if you think you’re separate from others and using whatever old dated constructs to justify such delusions. WAKE UP! 

                                                                  A discourse on the aspect of Sacred Geometry known as Metatron's Cube by Charles Gilchrist.


The powerful sounds at the end of this video were created my my very talented friend Jandy, from Australia. Her YouTube Channel is JezebelDecibel. The name of the piece is "Quent Laxis; Music & Solfeggio frequency 396".


For more details on Sacred Geometry: go to our very expansive Sacred Geometry website:

Enjoyable exercise has benefits

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

The study showed that people could increase their fitness level while exercising at an enjoyable pace. Image: buzzanimation/iStockphoto Exercise doesn't need to be all about ‘no pain, no gain’ to reap the associated health benefits, according to research published in two top-ranking journals.   The research showed that exercising at a ‘somewhat hard’  intensity was  perceived to be ‘pleasant’ and resulted in increased aerobic capacity and improved physical health including improved body mass index, blood pressure and blood lipid profile.   The research was published in A and A* ranked journals by University of South Australia academics Professor Roger Eston, who is Head of the School of Health Sciences, and Associate Professor in Exercise and Sport Psychology Gaynor Parfitt, along with their PhD student Harrison Evans from the University of Exeter in the UK, now a PhD student at UniSA.   Prof Eston says the first study, published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, is significant because a recent position statement of the American College of Sports Medicine stated there was insufficient evidence to support using the rating of perceived exertion as a primary method of exercise training.   “However, we now have excellent evidence to show that it can be used to improve aerobic capacity,” Prof Eston says.   “This first-time study observed a 17 per cent increase in aerobic capacity from a self-paced, eight-week treadmill training program where previously sedentary participants exercised for 30 minutes, three times per week, at a level they perceived to be ‘somewhat hard’.   “Their aerobic function was improved so that as the program went on, they could work physiologically harder, but their rating of perceived exertion was the same. So they increased their fitness levels and received associated health benefits such as improved body mass index and reduced blood pressure.”   Prof Eston says that a most important component of the program was that participants perceived the exercise to be pleasant.   “If you’re going to prescribe someone exercise, you’re going to have a much stronger chance of having them stick with it if they’re enjoying it. And these people actually enjoyed the experience. They found it to be pleasant,” he says.   “Another important thing here is the intensity was left to the individuals to set for themselves, so they were given the autonomy to control the exercise, the speed and the gradient of the treadmill according to this level of perceived exertion. That’s important because you’re giving the individual the autonomy to control the exercise intensity ... and at the end of the day the brain is in control.”   The second study, published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, showed using the rating of perceived exertion was just as effective as a VO2 max test to measure cardiovascular fitness.   “With a VO2 max test you keep cranking up the treadmill until you physically can’t keep going anymore, which has risks in sedentary and middle-aged populations, but with our study we were able to show that when individuals were instructed to exercise at four incremental, perceptually regulated intensities set at levels perceived to be ‘very light’, ‘light’, ‘somewhat hard’ and ‘hard’ we could reliably predict their maximal aerobic capacity,” Prof Eston says.   “This was possible because of the very strong linear relationship between the ratings of perceived exertion and submaximal measures of physiological intensity such as oxygen uptake and heart rate. The RPE is as good as or better than heart rate for predicting maximal oxygen uptake.   “This study has implications for the clinical environment because we should be able to use this sort of predictive protocol for cardiac patients and in other clinical settings.” Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Sharpest teeth in history found

MONASH UNIVERSITY

The razor-sharp teeth of the conodonts were only one millimetre in length but allowed them to apply significant pressure to their food. Image: D. Jones, A. R. Evans, K. K. W. Siu The tiny teeth of a long-extinct prehistoric fish are the sharpest that have ever been recorded, according to new research.  Research published this week in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B by scientists from Monash University and the University of Bristol showed the teeth of conodonts, a group that first appeared around 500 million years ago, were easily able to bite through the animal's food despite measuring only a millimetre in length.  The fragile nature of the tiny fossil remains of animals that died out more than 200 million years ago meant scientists had to create virtual 3D models of the material using X-rays from a particle accelerator in Japan before they could conduct thorough research.  One of the study's authors, Dr Alistair Evans of Monash University's School of Biological Sciences, said evidence suggested the conodonts were the first vertebrates to develop teeth.  “Conodonts had no other skeleton than the teeth in their mouths. These came together a bit like scissors, to slice up food,” Dr Evans said.  The research findings offered insights into the evolution of teeth in larger vertebrates, including humans.  "The conodonts took an alternative route through evolution to humans, who developed less efficient, but less breakable, blunter teeth, to which greater force can be applied by jaw muscles," Dr Evans said.  "The sharpness of conodont teeth allowed them to overcome the limitations of their small size. Since pressure is simply force applied divided by area, to increase pressure you must either increase the force or shrink the area. Conodont evolution took the latter route, allowing them to apply enough pressure to break up their food." Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Harder than diamond, stronger than steel

JIRI CERVENKA, THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

Imagine a material just one atom thick, 300 times more potent than steel, more complex than diamond, a fantastic conductor of heat and electricity, and super-flexible. This might sound like the stuff of science fiction, but believe it or not, such a material already exists. The name of this supermaterial is graphene, one of the most exciting prospects in science today. In the latest graphene-related research – released last week – researchers from Vanderbilt University found a way to overcome one of graphene’s most problematic flaws – a high sensitivity to external influences, which causes graphene-based devices to operate more slowly than they should. The researchers found a way to dampen external influences on the graphene and could then observe electrons moving through their graphene three times faster than was previously possible. This development could lead to a new generation of graphene-based devices, including touch screens and solar panels. More on the uses of graphene in a moment, but first, what is graphene? Graphene is a new structural form (or 'allotrope') of carbon – one of the most versatile elements in the universe. It was discovered in 2004 by Russian-born physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who jointly received the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for their troubles. Graphene is a single, flat layer of carbon atoms packed tightly into a two-dimensional honeycomb arrangement. The in-plane (two-dimensional) carbon-carbon bonds in graphene are the strongest bonds known to science. It is these bonds that give graphene its unbelievable mechanical strength and flexibility. Graphene is a single layer of graphite, the material found in pencil 'lead'. When you draw on paper with a pencil, weakly bound graphene sheets in the graphite spread over your paper like a pack of cards. But because graphene is so thin – the thickness of a single carbon atom – it is tough to see. This is one of the reasons it took researchers so long to find graphene sheets among thicker stacks of graphite. Despite being so thin, graphene is an excellent conductor of electricity. Electrons flow through graphene with almost zero electrical resistance. This unusual property, combined with its nearly invisible nature, makes graphene an ideal material for the transparent electrodes used in computer displays and solar cells. While scientists have known about graphene since 2004, it was in 2010 that researchers from Samsung and Sungkyunkwan University took a critical step in developing the commercial applications of this material. They developed a scalable fabrication method that produced transparent and flexible graphene electrodes measuring 30 inches (76 cm) diagonally. This method enabled them to manufacture multi-layer electrode films and incorporate these into a fully functional touch-screen panel device capable of withstanding high strain. As a result of this development, it mightn’t be too long before graphene is powering the displays on your favourite electronic gadgets. One of the most promising aspects of graphene is its potential as a replacement to silicon in computer circuitry. Graphene conducts electricity faster (at room temperature) than any other material, it produces very little heat dissipation and it consumes less power than silicon – the building block of modern computing. These characteristics could make graphene ideal as the basis for superior signal processing components in superfast computers and mobile technologies. However, there are still many obstacles that need to be overcome. The biggest barrier is the low 'on-off current ratio' of current, superfast graphene transistors. Put another way, electrons in graphene are almost unstoppable and, therefore, very hard to control. As a result, it is nearly impossible to set graphene transistors to an 'off' state. If graphene is to compete with existing silicon technology, this current ratio of on-off will need to be improved. In other words, we’ll need to find a way to control electrical currents within graphene transistors to turn them 'off'. Many researchers are working on this exact problem, trying to gain control over the disobedient charge carriers by opening a gap in graphene’s “electronic band” – the part of the material that conducts electricity. Graphene can also be modified to take on different properties found in its normal form. For instance, researchers have: made graphene magnetic turned graphene into a supercapacitor, a new energy-storage device with remarkably high storage capacity and superfast energy release, and improved graphene’s world-leading thermal conductivity by creating 'isotopically pure' graphene – graphene made from just one carbon isotope. Each of these modifications has potential technological applications. Graphene sheets can also be incorporated in different composite materials, harnessing graphene’s extraordinary mechanical, thermal and electrical properties. These composite materials could lead to stronger, lighter car and aeroplane parts, better electrical batteries, and electricity-conducting super-tough textiles. However, perhaps one of the most surprising and unusual graphene discoveries relates to membranes made of graphene oxide – a chemical derivative of graphene. When these membranes were used to seal a metal container, not even the smallest gas molecule, such as helium, could penetrate the membrane. However, when the researchers tried the same with water, they found it could pass through the graphene-oxide membrane without problems. Although the principle behind this unusual behaviour is not yet understood, it could one day be used to selectively remove water or for other filtration applications. This surprising result shows how much we still have to learn about graphene. If current research and development is anything to go by, we’ll be hearing plenty more about this amazing material in the coming years. Jiri Cervenka receives funding from ARC. The University of Melbourne is a Founding Partner of The Conversation. Editor's Note: This article was originally published by The Conversation, here, and is licenced as Public Domain under Creative Commons. See Creative Commons - Attribution Licence.

அம்மை நோயை கட்டுப்படுத்தும் நுங்கு!

இயற்கையானது காலத்திற்கு ஏற்ப உணவுகளை அளிப்பதில் ஆற்றல் படைத்தது. கோடை காலம் வந்துவிட்டாலே நுங்கு சீசன் தொடங்கிவிடும். கோடை காலத்தில் உடலுக்கு குளுமை தரவே இயற்கையானது நுங்கினை அறிமுகப்படுத்தியுள்ளது. நுங்கு பனை மரம் தரும் அரிய பொருளாகும். இதில் கால்சியல், பாஸ்பரஸ், வைட்டமின் பி காம்ளக்ஸ், தையாமின், ரிபோஃப்ளோவின் போன்ற சத்துக்கள் அடங்கியுள்ளன.

குளுமை தரும் நுங்கு
கோடையின் வெம்மையை கட்டுப்படுத்துவதில் நுங்கு சிறந்த உணவுப் பொருளாகும். இது குளிர்ச்சி தருவதோடு வைட்டமின் பி, சி சத்துக்கள் நிறைந்துள்ளதால் உடலுக்கு ஆரோக்கியத்திற்கு ஏற்றது.

துவர்ப்பு சுவை
பனங்காயை வெட்டினால் மூன்று அல்லது நான்கு நுங்குகள் தனித்தனியாக கிடைக்கும் அதனை அப்படியே விரலால் எடுத்து சாப்பிடலாம். இளம் நுங்கினை அப்படியே சாப்பிட வேண்டும். ஒருசிலர் மேல்தோல் துவர்ப்பாக இருக்கிறது என்பதற்காக அதனை நீக்கிவிட்டு வெறும் சதையை மட்டுமே சாப்பிடுவார்கள். இதனால் சத்துக்கள் முழுமையாக கிடைக்க வாய்ப்பில்லை. சிறு குழந்தைகளுக்கு ஜீரணமாக நேரமாகும் என்பதால் நசுக்கிக் கொடுக்கவேண்டும். முற்றிய நுங்கு, பெரியவர்களுக்கே ஜீரணமாகாது எனவே இளம் நுங்கே உண்பதற்கு ஏற்றது.

அம்மைநோய்
அம்மை நோயால் அவதிப்படுபவர்கள் இளம் நுங்கை சாப்பிட்டு வர உடல் குளிர்ச்சி ஏற்படும். குடலில் உள்ள சிறு புண்களையும் ஆற்றும்.

பதநீரும் நுங்கும்
பனை மரத்தில் இருந்து கிடைக்கும் பதநீர் சுவை மிகுந்தது. பனை மட்டையில் பதநீர் ஊற்றி இதனுடன் நுங்கை எடுத்துப்போட்டு குடித்தால் அதன் ருசியே அலாதிதான். எப்படிப்பட்ட கோடை வெப்பத்திலும் இந்த பானம் தாகத்தை தீர்க்கும் குடலுக்கும், உடலுக்கும் குளுமையை ஏற்படுத்தும்.

வேர்குரு போக்கும் நுங்கு
கோடையில் வேர்குரு தொல்லையினால் அவதிப்படுபவர்கள் நுங்கை தொடர்ந்து சாப்பிட்டு வர வேர்க்குரு நீங்கும். தோலுடன் நுங்கை சாப்பிட்டு வர சீதக்கழிசல் நீங்கும்.

Exercise can lead to female orgasm, sexual pleasure

This is researcher Debby Herbenick. Credit: Indiana University

Findings from a first-of-its-kind study by Indiana University researchers confirm anecdotal evidence that exercise -- absent sex or fantasies -- can lead to female orgasm.

While the findings are new, reports of this phenomenon, sometimes called "coregasm" because of its association with exercises for core abdominal muscles, have circulated in the media for years, said Debby Herbenick, co-director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion in IU's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. In addition to being a researcher, Herbenick is a widely read advice columnist and book author.

"The most common exercises associated with exercise-induced orgasm were abdominal exercises, climbing poles or ropes, biking/spinning and weight lifting," Herbenick said. "These data are interesting because they suggest that orgasm is not necessarily a sexual event, and they may also teach us more about the bodily processes underlying women's experiences of orgasm."

The findings are published in a special issue of Sexual and Relationship Therapy, a leading peer-reviewed journal in the area of sex therapy and sexual health. Co-author is J. Dennis Fortenberry, M.D., professor at the IU School of Medicine and Center for Sexual Health Promotion affiliate.

The results are based on surveys administered online to 124 women who reported experiencing exercise-induced orgasms (EIO) and 246 women who experienced exercise-induced sexual pleasure (EISP). The women ranged in age from 18 to 63. Most were in a relationship or married, and about 69 percent identified themselves as heterosexual.

Here are some key findings: 

• About 40 percent of women who had experienced EIO and EISP had done so on more than 10 occasions.
• Most of the women in the EIO group reported feeling some degree of self-consciousness when exercising in public places, with about 20 percent reporting they could not control their experience.
• Most women reporting EIO said they were not fantasizing sexually or thinking about anyone they were attracted to during their experiences.
• Diverse types of physical exercise were associated with EIO and EISP. Of the EIO group, 51.4 percent reported experiencing an orgasm in connection with abdominal exercises within the previous 90 days. Others reported experiencing orgasm in connection to such exercises as weight lifting (26.5 percent), yoga (20 percent), bicycling (15.8), running (13.2 percent) and walking/hiking (9.6 percent).
• In open-ended responses, ab exercises were particularly associated with the "captain's chair," which consists of a rack with padded arm rests and back support that allows the legs to hang free. The goal is to repeatedly lift the knees toward the chest or toward a 90-degree angle with the body.

Herbenick said that the mechanisms behind exercise-induced orgasm and exercise-induced sexual pleasure remain unclear and, in future research, they hope to learn more about triggers for both. She also said that study findings may help women who experience EIO/EISP feel more normal about their experiences or put them into context.

Herbenick cautioned that it is not yet known whether such exercises can improve women's sexual experiences.

"It may be that exercise -- which is already known to have significant benefits to health and well-being -- has the potential to enhance women's sexual lives as well."

The study did not determine how common it is for women to experience exercise-induced orgasm or exercise-induced sexual pleasure. But the authors note that it took only five weeks to recruit the 370 women who experienced the phenomenon, suggesting it is not rare.

"Magazines and blogs have long highlighted cases of what they sometimes call 'coregasms,'" Herbenick said. "But aside from early reports by Kinsey and colleagues, this is an area of women's sexual health research that has been largely ignored over the past six decades."

Provided by Indiana University

"Study: Exercise can lead to female orgasm, sexual pleasure." March 19th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-female-orgasm-sexual-pleasure.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

The Japanese traditional therapy, honokiol, blocks key protein in inflammatory brain damage

Microglia are the first line defence of the brain and are constantly looking for infections to fight off. Overactive microglia can cause uncontrolled inflammation within the brain, which can in turn lead to neuronal damage. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Journal of Neuroinflammation shows that, honokiol (HNK) is able to down-regulate the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and inflammatory enzymes in activated microglia via Klf4, a protein known to regulate DNA.

Scientists from the National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, India, used lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a molecule present on the surface of bacteria, to stimulate an immune response from microglia cells. LPS mimics the effect of a bacterial infection and the microglia cells spring into action, releasing proinflammatory cytokines, such as TNFa.

Activation of microglia also stimulates the production of nitric oxide (NO) and Cox-2, which co-ordinate the immune response, leading to inflammation. However uncontrolled inflammation can lead to neuronal death and permanent brain damage. Microglial inflammation is also observed in several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis.

The team led by Dr Anirban Basu found that the inflammatory response was mediated by Klf4, a 'transcription' factor which binds directly to DNA to enhance or impede gene expression. Treating microglia with HNK reduced their activation and HNK treated cells secreted less cytokines in response to LPS. HNK also down regulated the activity of Klf4 (and pNF-kb - another regulator of inflammation).

Dr Basu suggested that HNK down regulates Klf4 which in turn down regulates NO and Cox-2 production. He said, "HNK can easily move across the blood brain barrier and we found that HNK reduced levels of pNF-kb and Klf4 as well as the number of activated microglia in the brains of LPS treated mice."

He continued, "Our work with HNK has found that Klf4 is an important regulator of inflammation. Both HNK and Klf4 may be important not only in regulating inflammation due to infection, but may also have applications in other diseases which affect the brain and nervous system."

More information: Therapeutic targeting of Kruppel-like factor 4 abrogates microglial activation, Deepak K Kaushik, Rupanjan Mukhopadhyay, Kanhaiya L Kumawat, Malvika Gupta and Anirban Basu, Journal of Neuroinflammation (in press)

Provided by BioMed Central

"The Japanese traditional therapy, honokiol, blocks key protein in inflammatory brain damage." March 19th, 2012.http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-japanese-traditional-therapy-honokiol-blocks.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

Tracking proteins behaving badly provides insights for treatments of brain diseases

(Medical Xpress) -- A research team led by the University of Melbourne has developed a novel technique that tracks diseased proteins behaving badly by forming clusters in brain diseases such as Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s.

The technique published in Nature Methods today is the first of its kind to rapidly identify and track the location of diseased proteins inside cells and could provide insights into improved treatments for brain diseases and others such as cancer. 
  
Developed by Dr Danny Hatters and his team of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne, the technique uses a flow cytometer to track the protein clusters in cells at a rate of 1000s per minute. In addition, cells with clustered proteins can be recovered for further study - neither of which had been possible before. 
  
“Being able to identify locations of diseased proteins in cells enables drugs to be developed to target different stages of disease development,” he said. 
  
He said the technique has application to many neurological diseases, which are characterised by formations of proteins clustering such as in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases.

“A challenge for researchers has been trying to understand how proteins cluster and cause damage in diseases like Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s. This is the first approach which could enable us to answer those questions.” 
  
“Now we can see how the proteins form clusters inside a cell and can examine which cell functions are being damaged at different steps of the clustering process.”

“No drugs at this stage can stop the clustering process in Huntington’s disease for example. This sets up platforms to develop drugs that block the formation of clusters,” Dr Hatters said. 
  
The technique can also be used to examine how signaling processes occur such as when genes are switched on and off. 
  
“It has application to track events of abnormal gene signaling such as in cancer ” Dr Hatters said. 
  
“This technique offers hope in improving treatments for a range of neurological and other conditions,” he said. 
  
This work builds on Dr Hatters previous research where he and his team identified the behaviour of diseased Huntington proteins forming into clusters. 
  
The work was done in collaboration with Monash University.

Provided by University of Melbourne

"Tracking proteins behaving badly provides insights for treatments of brain diseases." March 19th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-tracking-proteins-badly-insights-treatments.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

New research about facial recognition turns common wisdom on its head

A team of researchers that includes a USC scientist has methodically demonstrated that a face's features or constituents – more than the face per se – are the key to recognizing a person.

Their study, which goes against the common belief that brains process faces "holistically," appears this month in Psychological Science.

In addition to shedding light on the way the brain functions, these results may help scientists understand rare facial recognition disorders.

Humans are great at recognizing faces. There are even regions in the brain that are specifically associated with face perception – the most well-known one is the fusiform gyrus in the temporal lobe.

Common wisdom has it that humans recognize the face "holistically," meaning that there is something about the picture created by the entire face – the particular arrangement of a face's eyes, nose, and mouth and not just these features themselves – that makes it easier for the human brain to make a positive ID.

That common wisdom appears to be wrong.

"There is this belief that faces are special," said the study's coauthor Bosco Tjan, associate professor of psychology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. "But why? How is the face special?"

To use an automotive metaphor, would it be easier for a car aficionado to identify a '58 Corvette by its distinctive quad headlights, chunky chrome grille and swoop on the side – or if shown the car that all these pieces make when added together?

Tjan and collaborators Jason M. Gold, associate professor of psychology at Indiana University, Bloomington and IU undergraduate student Patrick J. Mundy tested participants on how accurately they were able to identify a set of faces by the parts of those faces – the nose, left eye, right eye or mouth.

Then, using a well-established formula that Tjan developed in an earlier study, the researchers extrapolated how accurately each participant should be able to identify an entire face.

If humans were better at face recognition than nose or eye recognition, one would expect each participant to do a better job of identification when the features are all arranged together into a face. But in fact, the participants did a little worse than predicted by Tjan's formula.

Facial recognition, it appears, hinges on recognizing the face's features more than the "holistic" picture they add up to create.

Provided by University of Southern California

"New research about facial recognition turns common wisdom on its head." March 19th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-facial-recognition-common-wisdom.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

New model show how the brain is organized to process odor information

Glomeruli in the olfactory bulb (shown in green), the first waystation for incoming olfactory signals, play an important role in the processing and identifying smells. Credit: Courtesy of Limei Ma, Stowers Institute for Medical Research

Just like a road atlas faithfully maps real-word locations, our brain maps many aspects of our physical world: Sensory inputs from our fingers are mapped next to each other in the somatosensory cortex; the auditory system is organized by sound frequency; and the various tastes are signalled in different parts of the gustatory cortex.

The olfactory system was believed to map similarly, where groups of chemically related odorants - amines, ketones, or esters, for example - register with clusters of cells that are laid out next to each other.

When researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research traced individual odor molecules' signal deep into the brain, they found evidence that this "chemotopic" hypothesis of olfaction is insufficient, paving the way for a new model of how the sense of smell works, and how it came about.

"When we mapped the individual chemical features of different odorants, they mapped all over the olfactory bulb, which processes incoming olfactory information," says Associate Investigator C. Ron Yu, PhD, who led the study published in this week's online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "From the animal's perspective that makes perfect sense. The chemical structure of an odor molecule is not what's important to them. They really just want to learn about their environment and associate olfactory information with food or other relevant information."

The brain receives information about odors from olfactory receptors, which are embedded in the membrane of sensory neurons in the nasal cavity. Any time an odor molecule interacts with a receptor, an electrical signal travels to so-called glomeruli in the olfactory bulb. Each glomerulus receives input from olfactory receptor neurons expressing only one type of olfactory receptor. The overall glomerular activation patterns within the olfactory bulb are thought to represent specific odors.

This video is not supported by your browser at this time.

Any time an odor molecule interacts with an olfactory receptor in the nasal cavity, an electrical signal travels to so-called glomeruli in the olfactory bulb. Each glomerulus receives input from olfactory receptor neurons expressing only one type of olfactory receptor. The overall glomerular activation patterns within the olfactory bulb are thought to represent specific odors. Credit: Courtesy of Limei Ma, Stowers Institute for Medical Research

"Chemotopy is a lovely model," says Yu. But it had never been mapped accurately based on the earlier available technologies and recent experiments suggested that the chemotopic hypothesis breaks down at a fine level. To increase the resolution of the "olfactory map," Yu and his team generated a new line of transgenic mice with superb sensitivity and devised equipment to deliver hundreds of odor stimuli to a single mouse.

When the Stowers researchers examined the activation pattern at the level of single glomeruli, they found that certain odors activated glomeruli within a distinct area of the olfactory bulb, while others signaled to glomeruli located all over the map. Odors from different classes intermingled, too, suggesting that the glomeruli have not evolved to only detect the chemical shapes of specific odorants.

This makes sense, as there are hundreds of thousands of odors, says Limei Ma, PhD, a research specialist at Stowers and first author on the new study. "Many of them could be really novel to the organism, something they never encountered before," she says. "The system must have the capability to recognize and encode anything."

So if glomeruli didn't have fidelity to specific molecular shapes, as the chemotopic hypothesis suggested, what united them? The team was led to a "tonotopic" hypothesis of the olfactory system. Individual olfactory receptors are "tuned" during evolution not to one particular odorant but to a variety of molecules. In combination, these receptors can then respond to those millions of smells. Glomeruli with similar tuning properties tend to be near each other. From a computing standpoint, this arrangement helps to enhance contrast among similar odors, explains Ma.

"The evolution of these receptors is not dictated by the chemical structures that they recognize," says Yu. "Most of our receptors have descended from a few common ancestral genes. Initially, they are more likely tuned to similar odors. When receptors accumulate mutations, it adds to their repertoire of natural odors they recognize."

Imagine a roomful of musicians. In chemotopy, the musicians are clustered according to their instruments and never play with other instruments. The team's tunotopic hypothesis is closer to an actual symphony: Different instruments overlap to create many more different sounds than the individual ones could.

Yu and his team think, further, that the tunotopic hypothesis may help us understand visual, auditory, and somatosensory processing as well. In the case of olfaction, tunotopy allows the animal to better distinguish among the nuances of odors. That precision, from an evolutionary perspective, would come in handy as the animal sorted through its environment.

It also helps us adapt to a constantly changing world.

"When you have a new chemical synthesized, like new perfumes and food flavors, you don't have to create new brain regions to react to it," says Ma. "What you do is use the existing receptors to sense all these chemicals and then tell your brain whether this is novel, similar, or something really strange."

Provided by Stowers Institute for Medical Research

"New model show how the brain is organized to process odor information." March 19th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-brain-odor.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

Have a lot of Facebook friends? You are probably up yourself

• Link between number of friends and narcissistic qualities
• People with more friends tend to "self-promote" more
• Researchers also attribute Facebook to rise of narcissism

CONFIRMING the suspicions of many social media sceptics, researchers have established a direct link between the number of friends a person has on Facebook and the degree to which they are a narcissist.

A study published in the journal, Personality and Individual Differences, found people who scored highly on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory questionnaire had more friends on Facebook, tagged themselves more often and updated their newsfeeds more regularly.

The study also found narcissists were more likely to take offence to derogatory comments about them and also changed their profile picture more often.

A number of previous studies have linked narcissism with Facebook use, but this is some of the first evidence of a direct relationship between Facebook friends and the most "toxic" elements of narcissistic personality disorder.

The research comes amid growing evidence that young people are becoming increasingly narcissistic and obsessed with self-image.

The researchers, from Western Illinois University, discovered two social factors of narcissism - grandiose exhibitionism and entitlement/exploitativeness.

Grandiose exhibitionism (GE) is characterised by ''self-absorption, vanity, superiority, and exhibitionistic tendencies" and people who score high on this aspect of narcissism need to be constantly at the centre of attention.

The entitlement/exploitativeness (EE) aspect includes "a sense of deserving respect and a willingness to manipulate and take advantage of others".

The research found the higher someone was to score on aspects of GE and EE, the greater the number of friends they had and the more likely they were to accept friend requests from strangers and seek social support.

Numerous researchers have attributed Facebook to the rise of narcissism among teens as it provides a platform for people to "self-promote".

Christopher Carpenter, who ran the study told The Guardian: "In general, the 'dark side' of Facebook requires more research in order to better understand Facebook's socially beneficial and harmful aspects in order to enhance the former and curtail the latter.

"If Facebook is to be a place where people go to repair their damaged ego and seek social support, it is vitally important to discover the potentially negative communication one might find on Facebook and the kinds of people likely to engage in them. Ideally, people will engage in pro-social Facebooking rather than anti-social me-booking."

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/technology/have-a-lot-of-facebook-friends-you-are-probably-up-yourself/story-e6frfro0-1226304226602#ixzz1pbRA6KOT

 

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

sai baba live darshan.mp4

Marvel Avengers Assemble (2012) Watch the Official trailer | HD

Marvel's ultimate team of heroes, the Avengers, storm into UK cinemas on 26th April in 'Marvel Avengers Assemble'.

Assemble at the Avengers official UK Facebook page:http://www.facebook.com/AvengersUK

Visit the official website http://uk.marvel.com/avengers-assemble/

See the new trailer in 3D and IMAX 3D in cinemas exclusively on John Carter 3D from March 9 2012.

When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as SHIELD, finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins.

Marvel Avengers Assemble continues the epic big-screen adventures started in "Iron Man," "The Incredible Hulk," "Iron Man 2," "Thor" and "Captain America: The First Avenger". Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson, and directed by Joss Whedon, "Marvel Avengers Assemble" is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series "The Avengers," first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since.

Prepare yourself for an exciting event movie, packed with action and spectacular special effects, when "Marvel Avengers Assemble" hits the UK on 26th April.

•