Amazon: Firefly: The Complete Series [Blu-ray] - $31.99

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Amazon is offering Firefly: The Complete Series [Blu-ray] for only $31.99 with FREE shipping. This popular television show is a must for the hardcore fans and if you do not have it - now is a great time to own your own high def copy!

They previously offered it for only $25 during this past Black Friday, but this is the second best price.

Five hundred years in the future there's a whole new frontier, and the crew of the Firefly-class spaceship 'Serenity' is eager to stake a claim on the action. They'll take any job, legal or illegal, to keep fuel in the tanks and food on the table. But things get a bit more complicated after they take on a passenger wanted by the new totalitarian Alliance regime. Now they find themselves on the run, desperate to steer clear of Alliance ships and the flesh-eating Reavers who live on the fringes of space. Features:

"Here's How It Was: The Making Of 'Firefly'"; "Firefly Reunion: Lunch With Joss Whedon, Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk And Ron Glass"; "Serenity: The 10th Character"; "Alan Tudyk's Audition"; "Joss Sings The 'Firefly' Theme"; "Joss Tours The Set"; "Easter Egg: Adam Baldwin Sings 'Hero Of Canton'", Actor Commentary, Audio Commentary, Behind The Scenes Featurette, Deleted Scenes, Director Commentary, Featurette, Gag Reel, Producer Commentary, Trailers, Writer Commentary.

Can Digit Span and Sequential Processing Increase Cognitive Functioning?


Researchers have demonstrated that a person’s digit-span—the ability to memorize sequences of digits—can be improved with practice; as the person’s digit span increases, their cognitive functioning also increases.

 

Researcher Bob Doman conducted a study in 2002 to determine if it was possible to teach someone how to increase their digit span and to see what effects an increase of digit span had on the participants in the study.

 

 

 

 

The results, as noted by the Huffington Post, were extremely impressive:

 

“Within an eight-month time period, test scores (as measured by state mandated tests) increased at a level of approximately 2.9 years in reading recognition, 3.0 years in reading comprehension and 1.67 years in math computation. Make note: These children got no extra remedial work in reading or math, yet their test scores showed improvement far beyond a normal expectation of advancement from typical classroom learning. The finding suggests that when you increase digit span, you increase brain functionality on many other levels.”

 

The idea of digit spanning is not new to Doman; the researcher has been teaching people of all ages—including infants—how to increase their digit spans for thirty years.

 

As the writer in this article from the Huffington Post describes it, sequential processing—or digit span—is a foundation for many kinds of cognitive functions which range from tying shoelaces to playing an instrument to remembering the plot of a novel. The writer first met Doman when she took her daughter (who had been diagnosed with a learning disability) to see him to see if her daughter could increase her digit span. Her daughter excelled despite her prior diagnosis and is on the honor roll at her school.

 

There are programs which can help teach you how to improve your digit span, but there are other methods as well. (I’m uncertain as to how effective the other methods are, but since it only takes about ten minutes a day to try and improve your digit span, it’s probably worth a shot.) This site  recommends using a deck of cards to practice with. The writer suggests trying to remember two cards—both the number and the suit-- and then recording your results on graph paper. The site suggests trying it again with different kinds of music.

 

While I’m not sure that the Ehow method will be all that effective, the iPad app Brain Baseline has several different tests to improve cognitive functioning; one of the tests works on the user’s digit span by slowly increasing the amount of digits in a series of numbers. The program offers several other tests on cognitive functioning, but there isn't a way to correlate whether or not any other improvements in cognitive functioning are based on an increased digit span. 

The Magic of Clothes: How Did My Beige Collar Turn Orange?

When I was a kid, one of my favorite books was about the magic buttons of certain buttons when used correctly. Since then, I’ve read about the magical powers of the invisibility cloak in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, but I’ve never actually encountered any magical pieces of clothing or buttons. Until last weekend, that is.

 

I went on a short trip out of town. When I returned from my trip and found myself standing in front of a mirror, I noticed that the faux fur collar of my beige jacket had turned orange. Let me clarify that, the left side of my faux fur collar had turned orange and I had no idea how it happened.

 

I did what anyone else would do when confronted with a similar situation; I sniffed for bleach. I couldn’t smell any. I smelled again, but didn’t smell any bleach or any other clothing dyes for that matter. It was just an ugly shade of orange and there was nothing I could do about it.

 

Obviously, the collar was magical and had dyed itself because no one around me was admitting to spilling any chemicals on it and I hadn’t washed it yet.

 

Enter item number two. Which isn’t nearly quite as magical as the case of the orange collar: my jeans ripped in the washing machine. Unfortunately, there are more logical explanations for this than the other:  the washing machine is old and hard on clothes, I accidentally poured too much cheap laundry soap to wash the clothes, and the jeans were worn from a long motorcycle trip I’d taken a couple of years ago.

 

So, although there is a logical explanation for the ripped jeans—unfortunate because they are one of my favorite pairs—I can’t think of any possible logical explanation for the orange collar on my jacket. If this were a TV show, I would be able to call someone to investigate the possibility of a mischievous poltergeist living in my apartment, but I live in the real world, in a real apartment, and in a city where ghost sightings are not looked upon all that favorably.

 

This isn’t the first time I’ve had a mysterious alteration to a piece of clothing; when I was in class one time, my then-favorite jeans ripped in the bottom, though there weren’t any nails on my chair. (It should be noted that the jeans were slightly baggy in the butt region, so it’s unlikely that the jeans were ripped because of my butt.) Another time, I opened a piece of luggage after an international trip and found a ripped shirt and a DVD for the TV series Witchblade—that can probably be attributed to a stoned baggage handler rather than a creative poltergeist, but again, I have to question the motives of the baggage handler and wonder what the "f" he was trying to pull.

 

Have you ever had any strange clothing karma?

Reading Books About Physics

Trying to Understand String Theory


I recently picked up The Fabric of the Cosmos, by Brian Greene—not the first physics book I’ve read and probably not the last. I have a laywoman’s understanding of physics, which pretty much means that I have a vague definition of the Big Bang, dark matter, particles, and a few other physics-related concepts, but have ZERO understanding of what anything beyond four dimensions might actually resemble. I was hoping that reading The Fabric of the Cosmos would help me understand more about the ideas current physicists are floating around about the physical world.

 

Although Brian Greene is a great writer, The Fabric of the Cosmos is just a book and not a miracle-worker, so I’m not all that sure how much more I understand about science after reading the book. Brian Greene does seem much more adept than some of the other physics’ writers at using examples to show his points. After reading the first few chapters of The Fabric of the Cosmos, I felt as if I had a much firmer grasp on the general theory of relativity than I had before, and also felt as if I understood some of the finer nuances of physics because of his specific analogies.

 

That said, I still don’t understand string theory even after reading his lengthy explanation; since Brian Greene is one of the leaders in string theory---along with Michio Kaku—I have a strong feeling that the concept of string theory and its many dimensions will stay out of my grasp.

 

Lisa Randall is another physicist who understands the importance of using stories as examples to explain difficult physics concepts to laypeople; in her book, Warped Passages, she begins each chapter with a different story—often with the same characters—designed to illustrate her points about physics. When Lisa Randall explains string theory, however, she doesn’t seem to do a better job than anyone else at explaining the controversial theory. (Her story at the beginning of the chapter focuses on a scientist or future-man who has just received a special viewing device that doesn’t quite work because of the sheer number of short strings floating around.)

 

As Lisa Randall explains string theory:

 

Particles arise from the resonant oscillation modes of strings. Each and every particle corresponds to the movements of an underlying string, and the character of those vibrations determines a particle’s properties.

 

So far, so good. But to me as a laywoman, string theory gets increasingly difficult to understand when it gets into the realms of superstring theory and curled up dimensions. The fact that physicists are still unsure about how to prove or disprove string theory doesn’t help matters much either.

 

If anyone has a good resource to recommend about string theory or physics in general, I’d be happy to read it.  

UFO hovers over Jerusalem

Item from ITN News -- "Two different films have surfaced of a glowing ball hanging over the Dome of the Rock." See the video.

What is it? An UFO? A solid object? Or is it the just the creation of jokers running a gag? Doing a light show? Or is it a physical manifestation of a spiritual presence? Is it a sign? The sign? The return of the Holy Spirit?

Whatever!

Well, there is buzz on the Internet and believers will believe what they want. The image in the video could be a clever hoax devised by a clever lad or lass. It would be ET dropping in and flying about, on a visit. It could be a spy craft. Jerusalem is just the kind of space where everybody is spying on everybody. Which ever it is, the video is entertaining. Why? Because it is grabbing eyeballs and making heads wonder. Well, some heads.

Jared Diamond's "Collapse" is a Book Worth Buying, Not Just Reading

Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed is one of the least dry works of non-fiction I’ve ever read despite its serious subject matter. The amount of information that Diamond manages to pack into the book is incredible.

 

Diamond starts off Collapse with an introduction, and then goes into the eco-politics of Bitterroot Valley in Montana; he discusses a few specific environmental problems as they relate to larger environmental problems including de-forestation through logging, mining, and agriculture-related issues. If Collapse was all like the first chapter, I wouldn’t recommend it so highly, so it’s important to continue reading.

 

As Collapse progresses, Diamond examines the causes for population loss in a few small societies. His basic premise is that as societies grow more quickly, they tap into more of their resources. He believes the rapid growth, combined with natural environmental causes that are unavoidable, has directly contributed and possibly caused the demise of several small societies (or civilizations depending on how you want to label them.) Fortunately, Diamond goes beyond the causes for a society’s collapse and discusses the building up of societies and the remnants that are left from previous societies. One of the most interesting examples he provides is of the statues left at Easter Island which some believe were left by aliens. (I’m not joking.) He also discusses incidents of cannibalism and other interesting factors related to the collapse of small societies; these details not only make for interesting reading, they can give you fodder for discussion for days on end.

 

Despite the inclusion of juicier tidbits about cannibals and alien theories, Collapse stays on target through the book as a serious discussion about what contributes the rise and fall of societies; the later chapters focus on larger civilizations where Diamond poses more hypothesis about why the larger societies or civilizations vanished over the years. One of the very last chapters looks into environmental problems that will eventually face Australia over time; as I was reading that particular chapter, Queensland was flooding, so it appears that Diamond may not be all that off in his predictions.

 

Collapse has an enormous amount of information and it’s difficult to choose what’s most important from the text. De-forestation and over-population are constant themes throughout the book and are definitely more emphasized than the more interesting tidbits scattered through the book about cannibalism and the like. Diamond also examines the difficult subject of genocide and ethnic cleansing and the possibility that Malthusian principles of over-population may play a role in certain situations.

 

Although Collapse will definitely be available at your local library, I strongly recommend buying a copy because you will probably want to have the book on hand as a reference or to read again because of the sheer amount of factual information and theories in the book. If you read Guns, Germs, and Steel, but didn't like it, you might still like Collapse.

96% of Some Bee Species Gone

Does knowing that at least four species of common US bees are approaching extinction make you a bit uncomfortable? It should. According to Albert Einstein, humans could not survive without bees for more than four years; and while many modern scientists disagree (there have been a few advances, after all, following his death), we won’t really know until it happens, will we?

90% of what we grow—from our food to our clothing—does require pollination from these bees. Relying on other insects that are helpful pollinators isn’t going to work, either, as many of those species—such as moths and hoverflies—are declining substantially as well.

We seem to forget how connected we are to the rest of the world—how our survival, as easy as it largely is for us in the West, isn’t so individual as we’d like to think. Bats are on the decline, as well, due to White Noise Syndrome; their loss leads to an increase in mosquitoes—or, at least, less of the creatures being eaten, which means being more bothered—and, in some cases, more susceptible to disease—for humans.

How many of these “nearly gone” to “completely gone” stories are we going to have to read before we wake up and pay attention to the vast numbers of species that are dwindling away? Sure, people might get choked up about polar bears drowning due to loss of habitat, but they go on their merry little ways, not doing much about it beyond signing the occasional petition.

These things aren’t going to get better on their own. They’re not going to improve until we—the species responsible for the majority of species loss—stand up and act against it. Is extinction always our fault? No, but it usually is in some way. It’s going to be uncomfortable to stand against species and environmental loss, for sure—we’ll lose some of our pleasure comforts, which is actually a good thing. The world doesn’t exist to simply make sure we’re taking hour-long hot showers or driving somewhere all of the time, just for the fun of it. It’s time that we made some sacrifices to help preserve our fellow inhabitants of earth.

In the meantime, there are a few things that humans have been doing to try to help increase the bee population—from planting more native species to attract bees, to refraining from killing them, to donating to conservation efforts, to even raising them—that we can all try to do to help bring back the bees.

Pineapple Express

Until I moved to Washington state, I'd never even heard the phrase "pineapple express." But then one October, when it had been raining and cold all week, the weather turned. While the air was still heavy with moisture, it was balmy and even tropic, with a pronounced wind. That was my first pineapple express.

The pineapple express refers to a weather phenomenon wherein warm moist air from the Central Pacific, or more specifically, from Hawaii (hence the name) comes blowing up along the coast of California, right on through Washington and Montana. In western Washington, the pineapple express translates to unseasonably warm weather, and warm but constant rain with strong winds. It's sometimes a cause of flooding, but it's not like this region isn't used to lots of water falling from the sky.

In Southern California, the pineapple express means buckets of endless rain falling for days—and nowhere to go. In Southern California, the Pineapple Express brings floods and mudslides, and houses sliding from the cliffs into the sea. In the desserts of California and Nevada, it means fast-moving flash floods, washing away everything in their path. In Montana, heavy rain and warm air melting snow can create sudden flash floods as well. The graphic above is a NASA image showing the pineapple express that hit Southern California in December of 2010. From the 15th to the 22nd of December, California was deluged with record-breaking storms dropping from 12 to 24 inches of rain on coastal slopes. You can read more here, and here.

Human Cannibals

 

Jonathon Swift joked in “A Modest Proposal” about eating a certain percentage of the babies being born. Dutch artist Gerard David painted three children jumping into a tub next to a religious figure—also a scene depicting cannibalism. A Facebook friend recently asked the time-old question, “If you were trapped on a desert island, which Facebook friend would you eat and why?”

(Predictably, the responses were more about the condiments—no one was brave enough to answer the question correctly.)

 

While human cannibalism conjures up images of certain Gilligan’s Island episodes and nightmares of plane crashes gone wrong, it’s interesting to learn about the history and practicality of cannibalism. In a crunch, eating a human might actually be healthier than you might think. Here’s one of the grosser statistics that I’ve read on the “eatability”—sorry for the made-up word—of people by other people.

 

“One pair of anthropologists, for example, actually crunched the numbers, concluding that the average human adult provides 66 pounds of edible food, including fat, connective tissue, muscle, organs, blood, and skin. Protein-rich blood clots and marrow are said (by the rare connoisseur) to be special treats.”

 

If humans are edible and provide nutritious value, why aren’t there more examples in history of humans eating humans? I apologize for the ick-factor in this post, which is extremely high. Jared Diamond’s “Collapse”, an evaluation of why societies fall, offers a couple examples of cannibals. One interesting (and admittedly pretty gross) example of cannibalism in the book is that of the Ansazi who ate the bodies of enemies killed in war or ate relatives who had died of natural causes. Diamond states that there are anthropologists who refuse to believe that the Ansazi were cannibals, but contends that the evidence on the side of cannibalism is too strong.

As fair warning, if you were too disgusted or otherwise disturbed by the last quote about cannibalism, you will not like this quote from “Collapse” about the site of a war raid.

 

“The most direct sign of cannibalism at the site that dried human feces, found in the house’s hearth and still well-preserved after nearly a thousand years in that dry climate, proved to contain human muscle protein, which is absent from normal human feces, even from the feces of people with injured and bleeding intestines. This makes it probable that whoever attacked that site, killed the inhabitants, cracked open their bones, boiled their flesh in their pots, scattered the bones, and relieved himself or herself by depositing feces in that hearth had actually consumed the flesh of his or her victims.”

 

The more recent example of cannibalism that comes to mind is even more disturbing—again this is not a topic for the faint of heart or overly-squeamish—a German weirdo advertised for someone to first cut off his penis, then kill him, and then eat him. He actually found a willing participant to be his killer/eater. The penis was cut, flambéed, and eaten. Later the same evening, the man’s throat was slit and his flesh was eaten over the course of the next few months. (40 pounds of it anyway.) The cannibal was prosecuted for murder, but at the time couldn’t be prosecuted for cannibalism, which wasn’t a crime in Germany.

 

The Donner Party, which is the most infamous cannibalism story in the United States, is now being questioned by at least one anthropologist who came out in April stating that there wasn’t any cannibalism there. Unlike the earlier story I cited from “Collapse”, anthropologists didn’t find any evidence that were human bones in the Donner hearth that was recently analyzed. (The Donner Party, for those who might not know, was a group of 84 people who were trapped together in the Appalachians.) 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

http://history.howstuffworks.com/historians/cannibalism.htm

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