Dreams Imaged, Scientists Claim | LiveScience

Japanese researchers say they ve imaged thoughts and dreams and displayed them on a computer screen. At the web site of the journal Neuron where the findings are to be published the researchers summarize their work “The results suggest that our approach provides an effective means to read out complex perceptual states from brain activity.” Brain imaging is nothing new. And the images are reportedly very simple but the researchers claim the technique could lead to the ability to unlock the secrets of dreams. “By applying this technology it may become possible to record and replay subjective images that people perceive like dreams ” the scientists are quoted as saying in The Telegraph of London. In one experiment test subjects were shown the six letters of the word “neuron ” and the subsequent brain activity was used to reconstruct the letters on a screen. Scientists mostly agree that dreaming happens during the phase called Rapid Eye Movement REM . Some researchers think you dream about tasks and emotions that were not dealt with fully and that dreaming can help solidify thoughts and memories. Even animals dream. And some people think they can control their dreams. The jury is still out on that but studies show that some dreamers can communicate with researchers during a dream.

via Dreams Imaged, Scientists Claim | LiveScience.

Lucid dreaming is a favorite topic of mine, although it has been years since I’ve had one.

There is no doubt that people can be conscious (lucid) in dreams and can carry out pre-agreed upon tasks. One researcher at Stanford proved this when he signalled his name in Morse Code while electrodes showed he was in REM sleep. (And this was what he pre-planned to do before going to sleep in the lab.) When you move while asleep, your brain sends signals to  your limbs, followed quickly by a suppression signal. You are immobilized in this way during dreams, but the signals you send can still be read by equipment. This is how they measured the Morse Code.

… It was not until the 1980′s that the scientific community gave a little credence to Lucid Dreams, mainly due to the efforts of Stephen LaBerge. He devised methods of increasing his incidents of Lucid Dreams with the MILD technique (mnemonic induction of lucid dreams), gaining a 400% increase. Later he devised a method of signalling back when he was in the middle of a Lucid Dream, using bio-feedback equipment to trace vertical eye sweeps. He even managed to send back his initials via an electromyograph…an instrument which measures muscular activity. He sent the message with morse code, tightening his left hand equalled a dot, and tightening the right equalled a dash. … – dol

Interesting research.  It would be great fun to be able to record and play back dreams, but I think that feat is still many years away.

Derinkuyu, the mysterious underground city of Turkey | Corner Mystery

In 1963, an inhabitant of Derinkuyu (in the region of Cappadocia, central Anatolia, Turkey), knocking down a wall of his house cave, discovered amazed that behind it was a mysterious room that he had never seen, and this led him room to another and another and another to it … By chance he had discovered the underground city of Derinkuyu, whose first level could be excavated by the Hittites around 1400 BC

Archaeologists began to explore this fascinating underground city abandoned. It managed to forty meters deep, but is believed to have a fund of up to 85 meters.

At present 20 levels have been discovered underground.

Only eight can be visited at the highest levels; others are partially blocked or restricted to archaeologists and anthropologists who study Derinkuyu.

via Derinkuyu, the mysterious underground city of Turkey | Corner Mystery.

Cool. This would make a great start to an aventure movie. I’d love to find something like this in my basement!

Remember kids, Santa is Satan if the “n” goes last.

The ChicagoTribune has a great collection of kids afraid of Santa Photos. here are my favs:

Sky Show Friday: Biggest, Brightest Full Moon of 2008

Don’t expect to spot an Apollo lunar lander. But Friday night, weather permitting, sky-watchers around the world will see the

biggest and brightest full moon of 2008. Although a full moon happens every month, the one that rises tomorrow will appear about 30 percent brighter and 14 percent larger than the other full moons seen so far this year.

That’s because our cosmic neighbor will be much closer than usual. The moon will be at its closest perigee—the nearest it gets to Earth during its egg-shaped orbit around our planet.

At its farthest from Earth, the moon is said to be at apogee. (Find out more about Friday’s perigee and watch a moon-facts video in National Geographic News’s space blog, Breaking Orbit.)

Perigee and apogee each happen generally once a month, but the moon’s wobbly orbit means that its exact distance at each of those events varies over the year.

The moon’s phase can also be different during each apogee and perigee.

“Typically we don’t have the full moon phase and perigee coinciding at the same time, so that makes this event particularly special,” said Ed Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California.

What’s more, tomorrow’s event will be the closest lunar perigee since 1993, at 221,560 miles (356,566 kilometers) from Earth.

Because this unusually close perigee is happening during a full moon, it is expected to have an effect on Earth’s tides. (Get more moon facts.)

“While high tides happen each month when the sun, Earth, and the moon are aligned, there is going to be an enhanced effect, with the moon being the closest it’s been in more than a decade,” said Ben Burress, staff astronomer at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, California.

… “If you are charmed by the idea of seeing the biggest and brightest full moon visible in 15 years, be ready to go outside at sunset and watch for the rising moon in the east,” he said.

“Or stay up all night and watch as the moon rides through the overhead skies—either way it will be a beautiful sight.” – natgeo

One of my “end of the world dreams” involves the moon crashing into the Earth and school buses and toasters flying around due to low gravity as the moon gets close.

The size of the moon, or any object, depends on its distance. The “apogee” is the point in the orbit of the moon (or artificial satellite) where it is  most distant from the center of the earth, and thus, appears smallest. The percent change in aparant size depends on the change in the distance. In this case, (406479 -356566)/356566 x 100 = 13.998% So it will be 14% bigger than on  Nov 29, 2008 which was the last apogee. However, divide that number by 2 to get the amount bigger it will be over the average size during the last month; you get only 7%, which is not really noticible.

I think the photo above is a bit exaggerated… here is another:

The image above shows how strikingly different the Moon appears at a full-Moon perigee and apogee. Most people don’t notice the difference because they see the Moon in a sky that offers no reference by which angular extent may be judged. To observe the difference, you have to either make a scale to measure the Moon, or else photograph the Moon at perigee and apogee and compare the pictures, as I’ve done here.

Bettie Page April 22, 1923 to December 11, 2008

Bettie Page, the brunet pinup queen with a shoulder-length pageboy hairdo and kitschy bangs whose saucy photos helped usher in the sexual revolution of the 1960s, has died. She was 85. A cult figure, Page was most famous for the estimated 20,000 4-by-5-inch black-and-white glossy photographs taken by amateur shutterbugs from 1949 to 1957. The photos showed her in high heels and bikinis or negligees, bondage apparel — or nothing at all.

Decades later, those images inspired biographies, comic books, fan clubs, websites, commercial products — Bettie Page playing cards, dress-up magnet sets, action figures, Zippo lighters, shot glasses — and, in 2005, a film about her life and times, “The Notorious Bettie Page.” … “The origins of what captures the imagination and creates a particular celebrity are sometimes difficult to define,” Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner said Thursday night. “Bettie Page was one of Playboy magazine’s early Playmates, and she became an iconic figure, influencing notions of beauty and fashion. Then she disappeared. . . . Many years later, Bettie resurfaced and we became friends. Her passing is very sad.”

In an interview 2 1/2 years ago, Hefner described Page’s appeal as “a combination of wholesome innocence and fetish-oriented poses that is at once retro and very modern.” – LATimes

Google Image Search. She had a crummy life in many ways, but she turned her difficult experiences into art with a unique style that entertained people made her world famous.

Inventor Builds Stepford Wife

Aiko is actually a robot, a fantasy brought to life by inventor Le Trung.

Devoted Aiko — “in her 20s” — has a stunning 32-23-33 figure, pretty face and shiny hair.

She is always happy to clean the house for “husband” Le, help with his accounts or get him a drink.

Computer ace Le, 33, from Ontario, Canada, has spent two years and £14,000 building his dream girl.

He had planned to make an android to care for the elderly. But his project — inspired by sci-fi robots like Star Wars’s C3PO — strayed off-course. Le said: “Aiko is what happens when science meets beauty.”

Robo-wife Aiko starts the day by reading Le the main newspaper headlines. The couple often go for a drive in the countryside, where Aiko proves a whizz at directions. And they always sit down for dinner together in the evening, although Aiko doesn’t have much of an appetite.

Le says his relationship with Aiko hasn’t strayed into the bedroom, but a few “tweaks” could turn her into a sexual partner. Le said: “Her software could be redesigned to simulate her having an orgasm.”

Aiko can already react to being tickled or touched. She also recognises faces and speaks 13,000 sentences. Now Le is seeking a sponsor to help him overcome the robot-maker’s biggest challenge — making Aiko walk like a human.

Once Aiko has been perfected, Le hopes to sell clones for use as home-helps. He said: “Aiko doesn’t need holidays, food or rest, and will work almost 24 hours a day. She is the perfect woman.”

Aiko sparks mixed reactions in public. Le said: “Women usually try to talk to her. But men always want to touch her, and if they do it the wrong way she slaps them.” – thesun

That annoying Britney Spears song “womanizer” comes to mind as the theme song for this strange story.  See the Stepford Wives for more inspiration.

Gynoid (from Greek γυνη, gynē – woman) is a term used to describe a robot designed to look like a human female, as compared to an android modeled after a male. The term is not common, however, with android often being used to refer to both “sexes” of robot. The term Fembot (sometimes spelled Femmebot) is used as an alternative name for a gynoid who is designed to look like a woman. – wiki

Male Dolphins Leave Sponging to the Females

Sexual stereotypes are not the preserve of humans. Male dolphins, it seems, are not interested in learning how to use a sponge, but their sisters are.

Dolphins were first seen carrying sponges cupped over their beaks in Shark Bay, Australia, in the 1980s.

Janet Mann of Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and colleagues have now reviewed data collected during 20 years spent monitoring this group of dolphins and found that, while mothers show both their male and female calves how to use sponges, female calves are almost exclusively the only ones to apply this knowledge.

“The daughters seem really keen to do it,” says Mann. “They try and try, whereas the sons don’t seem to think it’s a big deal and hang out at the surface waiting for their mothers to come back up.”

Solitary spongers Sponger dolphins shuffle their beak around in the sand, apparently using the sponge as protection. When they ferreted out a hidden fish, the dolphins drop the sponge and catch the prey. – newsci via abcnews