31 dezembro 2016

the end: earth, photographed by suomi npp weather satellite,...





















the end: earth, photographed by suomi npp weather satellite, 31st december 2016.

image credit: noaa

age
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Oops! We Crashed Into Mars (Again)

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The Chinese Emperor Xiaowu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was murdered by his favorite concubine,...

The Chinese Emperor Xiaowu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty was murdered by his favorite concubine, Consort Zhang. You see, she was almost thirty years old, and Emperor Xiaowu jokingly said  "Based on your age, you should yield your position. I want someone younger.“ She had him killed the same night.

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Be Careful This New Year's Eve

fakescience:

Be Careful This New Year's Eve

Caution.

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December 31st 1904: First Times Square NYE On this day in 1904,...







December 31st 1904: First Times Square NYE

On this day in 1904, New Year’s Eve celebrations were held in New York City’s Times Square for the first time. In 1904, the owners of the New York Times newspaper were celebrating their move to new offices in the area, then known as Longacre Square. The paper’s owner, Adolph Ochs, successfully had Longacre Square renamed Times Square in honour of the newspaper. As part of these celebrations, the paper launched a fireworks display at One Times Square/Times Tower in a new year event attended by almost 200,000 people. The popularity of the initial event encouraged efforts to host a more extravagant celebration to inaugurate the new year. Therefore, in 1907, Ochs commissioned the construction of an iron and wood ball which would be lowered from a flagpole at the newspaper’s headquarters to mark the final minute of the year. The ball was lit by one hundred bulbs, weighed 700 pounds, and measured five feet in diameter. It was built by a young Russian immigrant metalworker called Jacob Starr, whose sign company, Artkraft Strauss, became responsible for lowering the ball for most of the twentieth century. As part of the 1907 celebrations, waiters in deluxe restaurants around Times Square were given top hats featuring the numbers ‘1908’ in tiny bulbs, which, upon the stroke of midnight, they lit up to display the new year. While the Times later moved from the square, the tradition of lowering a ball at Times Square has continued ever since, with the exception of wartime years in the early 1940s. The design of the ball has changed several times since 1907, but the Times Square event remains one of the most famous New Year’s Eve celebrations in the world, and attracts around one million visitors every year.

Happy New Year!

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TODAY IN THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGYVisit –>...



TODAY IN THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY

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30 dezembro 2016

neurosciencestuff: Parkinson’s disease protection may begin in...



neurosciencestuff:

Parkinson’s disease protection may begin in the gut

Your gut may play a pivotal role in preventing the onset of Parkinson’s disease. And the reason may be its knack for sleuthing.

Researchers at the University of Iowa have found that the gut may be key to preventing Parkinson’s disease. Cells located in the intestine spark an immune response that protects nerve cells, or neurons, against damage connected with Parkinson’s disease. Acting like detectives, the immune intestinal cells identify damaged machinery within neurons and discard the defective parts. That action ultimately preserves neurons whose impairment or death is known to cause Parkinson’s.

“We think somehow the gut is protecting neurons,” says Veena Prahlad, assistant professor in biology at the UI and corresponding author on the paper published Aug. 30 in the journal Cell Reports.

Parkinson’s disease is a brain disorder that erodes motor control and balance over time. It affects some 500,000 people in the U.S., according to the National Institutes of Health. The disease occurs when neurons—nerve cells—in the brain that control movement become impaired or die. Normally, these neurons produce dopamine, and when they are damaged or killed, the resulting dopamine shortage causes the motor-control problems associated with the disease.

Scientists have previously linked Parkinson’s to defects in mitochondria, the energy-producing machinery found in every human cell. Why and how mitochondrial defects effect neurons remain a mystery. Some think the impaired mitochondria starve neurons of energy; others believe they produce a neuron-harming molecule. Whatever the answer, damaged mitochondria have been linked to other nervous disorders as well, including ALS and Alzheimer’s, and researchers want to understand why.

Prahlad’s team exposed roundworms to a poison called rotenone, which researchers know kills neurons whose death is linked to Parkinson’s. As expected, the rotenone began damaging the mitochondria in the worms’ neurons. To the researchers’ surprise, though, the damaged mitochondria did not kill all of the worms’ dopamine-producing neurons; in fact, over a series of trials, an average of only seven percent of the worms, roughly 210 out of 3,000, lost dopamine-producing neurons when given the poison.

“That seemed intriguing, and we wondered whether there was some innate mechanism to protect the animal from the rotenone,” Prahlad says.

It turns out there was. The roundworms’ immune defenses, activated when the rotenone was introduced, discarded many of the defected mitochondria, halting a sequence that would’ve led to the loss of dopamine-producing neurons. Importantly, the immune response originated in the intestine, not the nervous system.

“If we can understand how this is done in the roundworm, we can understand how this may happen in mammals,” Prahlad says.

The researchers plan to conduct more experiments, but they’ve got some interesting hypotheses. One is the intestinal immune cells are, according to Prahlad, “constantly surveilling mitochondria for defects.”

Even more, those cellular watchdogs may be keeping their eyes on the mitochondria “because they don’t trust them,” Prahlad suggests. The reason has to do with the prevailing theory that mitochondria originated independently as a type of bacterium and were only later incorporated into the cells of animal, plants, and fungi as an energy producer.

If that theory is correct, the intestinal immune responders may be especially sensitive to changes in mitochondrial function not only for its potential damaging effects, but because of the mitochondria’s ancient and foreign past as well.

“How it’s happening is suggestive of the possibility that the innate immune response is constantly checking its mitochondria,” Prahlad says, “perhaps because of the bacterial origin of the mitochondria.”

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Gregor MacGregor was a soldier of fortune in Latin America,...



Gregor MacGregor was a soldier of fortune in Latin America, having left his native Scotland for warmer climes. He fought for and against the armies of Portugal and Spain at different points, before deciding that risking dying for a foreign government was a sucker’s way to get rich. When he returned to Europe in 1820, Gregor MacGregor tried getting rich not by fighting but by talking. MacGregor announced that while in South America he had been put in control of a small (and absolutely fictional) countr, which he named Poyais. The nation was quite modern, he reassured Londoners, and friendly to European immigrants. MacGregor even produced hand-drawn maps and a copy of their constitution to sell the story.

Soon, the charming and flamboyant MacGregor was the toast of London. In his honor, the rich and noble threw lavish parties. MacGregor was quite popular with the upper class, including the mayor of London, by promising them non-existent positions in the government of Poyais. This in turn made Poyais even more popular because all the wealthy and famous were into it. So he had a bunch of people in England completely hooked, but how to turn that into cold, hard cash? MacGregor made the logical next step, and started selling plots of land in Poyais to unsuspecting settlers and raising money for a colony from investors. When the dust cleared, MacGregor had made off with thousands and two ships worth of settlers had arrived in Central America to find that Poyais was nothing but a tall tale.

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misteranthrope: historical-nonfiction: French cavalry –...



misteranthrope:

historical-nonfiction:

French cavalry – carrying swords – watch a plane fly overhead, 1916.

“Don’t pay any attention to that crazy contraption, men. Horses and swords are the future of warfare.”

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December 30th 1916: Rasputin killedOn this day in 1916, by the...





December 30th 1916: Rasputin killed

On this day in 1916, by the new style calendar, Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin was killed in St. Petersburg, aged 47. Born to a peasant family around 1869, Rasputin received little formal education, and joined a monastery before leaving to travel around Europe and the Middle East. He eventually arrived in St. Petersburg, where he cultivated a reputation as a mystic and a faith healer, and found a place in the Russian court of Tsar Nicholas II. Rasputin acted as an adviser to the tsar’s wife Alexandra, who sought help for her son Alexei’s hemophilia, which the mystic appeared to help alleviate; he thus secured a place as Alexandra’s personal adviser. As the credibility and popularity of the tsar’s rule began to wane, his critics used the position of the peasant ‘mad monk’ in the court to call for reform. While Rasputin’s influence over the Romanovs was limited, Alexandra’s defiant defence of him gave rise to rumours of impropriety and even an alleged affair between the tsarina and the mystic. On the evening of December 29th 1916, a group of conspirators invited Rasputin to the palace of Prince Felix Yusupov, who had cultivated a friendship with Rasputin, intending to kill him to save the monarchy. They fed him poison, which had no effect, then shot him, which he initially survived, and finally shot him in the head and threw his body into a river in the early hours of the morning. Rasputin’s body was found a few days later, with his hands frozen in a raised position, giving rise to rumours that he was still alive while underwater and had tried to untie the rope on his hands, only to finally die by drowning. A few months later, in March 1917, the tsar’s government was toppled by Bolshevik revolutionaries, and, the next year, Nicholas, Alexandra, and all their children were executed. The remarkable story of Rasputin’s murder is the final chapter in a peasant monk’s rise to becoming one of the most influential and notorious figures of Russian history.

100 years ago

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Small Satellite Deployed From the Space Station


A satellite is ejected from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Small Satellite Orbital Deployer on the International Space Station on Dec. 19, 2016. The satellite is actually two small satellites that, once at a safe distance from the station, separated from each other, but were still connected by a 100-meter-long Kevlar tether.

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French cavalry – carrying swords – watch a plane...



French cavalry – carrying swords – watch a plane fly overhead, 1916.

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Simpatias Poderosas para ter um ano maravilhoso!

Trazemos especialmente para você mais simpatias de Ano Novo, que podem ser feitas no réveillon de qualquer ano.

Para ganhar muito dinheiro no ANO que está entrando

Uma superstição tradicional para trazer dinheiro é pegar uma nota de alto valor, pode ser 100 ou 50 reais e deixar dentro do seu calçado. Deixar a nota durante a virada, precisa estar com ela no sapato pelo menos entre 23 horas e 59 minutos, até 0 hora e 1 minuto de 1º de Janeiro.
Passado o tempo use a nota para pagar qualquer coisa, enquanto faz o pagamento, imagine a seguinte frase (não é para dizer, apenas ficar pensando):
“Dinheiro vai, mas muito mais dinheiro vem
Ano que vai, ano que vem
Que volte para mim um milhão de notas de cem”

Atenção: Cuidado para não esquecer e perder a nota. Sair por aí tirando o sapato e esquecer.

Simpatia para ter um ano maravilhoso!

Outra simpatia poderosa e fácil de fazer que trazemos para quem gosta de rituais simples e de ótimo resultado. Para fazer esta simpatia você precisará de um caderno, caneta de qualquer cor e uma vela de cor branca.
No dia 31 de Dezembro, quando já for noite, você irá pegar o caderno e escrever em uma das folhas de papel o ano velho.
Ex: Se o ano velho é 2016, escreve 2016.
Logo depois, comece a riscar por cima do número lentamente e pensando em tudo que passou este ano. Lembre de acontecimentos que você vivenciou neste ano que está indo embora.
Tendo riscado completamente, acenda a vela e queime o papel. Depois que queimar o papel pode jogar fora em qualquer lugar.
A vela deixe queimar por completo e faça o mesmo.


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Visit –> http://ift.tt/2ieqUot for abnormal psychology information and resources.

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29 dezembro 2016

Who was this Chinese man? Hint: you might know who he is from...

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How Did The Emmys Get Their Name?

The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences originally called their awards the “Immys” – at the time, immy was common slang for “image-orthicon camera tube.” But the statue, a graceful, winged woman holding an atom, just looked too much like, well, a woman! Everyone started calling it “Emmy” even before the first ceremony. And the name stuck.

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2016 vai durar um segundo a mais

O minuto final da última hora de 31 de dezembro de 2016 terá 61 segundos, ao invés de 60 de duração.

O ajuste de tempo, que será aplicado a países que usam o Tempo Universal Coordenado, foi projetado para compensar o tempo que foi perdido devido à rotação lenta do planeta.

“Este segundo extra, ou segundo salto, torna possível o alinhamento do tempo astronômico, que é irregular e determinado pela rotação da Terra, com UTC que é extremamente estável e foi determinado por relógios atômicos desde 1967”, disse o Observatório de Paris, que abriga o Serviço Internacional de Rotação da Terra e Sistemas de Referência (IERS), em comunicado.

Aqueles que aguaram ansiosamente por 2017 terão que esperar por mais este inesperado segundo a mais.



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Misteriosa anomalia na Antártida ressurge novamente

Acredita-se que uma peculiar anomalia de 151 quilômetros de largura esteja situada abaixo de uma região da Antártica conhecida como Wilkes Land.

Conhecida como a “Anomalia de Wilkes Land”, esta característica misteriosa, que desce a uma profundidade mínima de 848 metros abaixo da superfície, é pensada para ser uma cratera de impacto gigante deixada por um asteroide cataclísmico – possivelmente mesmo responsável por aniquilar os dinossauros.

Ao longo dos anos, no entanto, várias teorias alternativas foram apresentadas e, mais recentemente, a internet tem sido inundada com rumores de que algo mais pode estar sob o gelo da Antártida.

Mais notavelmente, o controverso canal do YouTube ‘Secure Team 10’ apresentou a ideia de que o local, na verdade, seria o lar de uma base secreta nazista que permaneceu escondida desde a Segunda Guerra Mundial.

A alegação tem pelo menos algum mérito depois que cientistas russos revelaram que tinham localizado uma instalação secreta nazista no Ártico que tinha sido abandonada desde a década de 1940.

Dito isto, a Antártida é uma região muito menos acessível que o Ártico e o tamanho da anomalia está muito além da escala de quaisquer bases alemãs daquela época. Há também o fato de que grande parte da “evidência” em favor desta teoria consiste em imagens questionáveis ??do Google Earth da região.

Enquanto não deixe de ser uma ideia interessante, em última análise, está muito mais provável que o Wilkes Land Anomaly seja exatamente o que se acreditava ser – o local de uma grande cratera de impacto de asteroides.

“Esse impacto na Wilkes Land é muito maior do que o impacto que matou os dinossauros, e provavelmente teria causado danos catastróficos no momento”, disse Ralph von Frese, professor de ciências geológicas que descobriu o local por volta em 2006.

“Toda as mudanças no ambiente provenientes do impacto teriam criado um ambiente altamente cáustico que era realmente difícil de suportar “.

“Então, faz sentido que muita vida tenha sido extinta naquela época.”



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The anemometer, which measures wind speed, was invented by...



The anemometer, which measures wind speed, was invented by Leon Alberti in 1450.

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Hubble Gazes at a Cosmic Megamaser


This galaxy acts as an astronomical laser, beaming out microwave emission rather than visible light.

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December 29th 1170: Thomas Becket killedOn this day in 1170,...





December 29th 1170: Thomas Becket killed

On this day in 1170, Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was assassinated. He became Archbishop in 1162 after the death of Archbishop Theobald of Bec. Becket was killed inside Canterbury Cathedral by men loyal to King Henry II, with whom Becket was in a feud over the rights and privileges of the Church. The Archbishop had excommunicated various opponents to his church, which greatly angered the King. It appears that some knights believed the King gave them a command to kill Becket, and thus did so. Becket is considered a saint and a martyr by the Catholic Church.

“For the name of Jesus and the protection of the Church, I am ready to embrace death”
- Becket’s last words, according to eyewitness Edward Grim

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28 dezembro 2016

Curiosity Surveys Lower Mount Sharp on Mars


If you could stand on Mars -- what might you see? If you were the Curiosity rover, then just last month you would have contemplated the featured image -- a breathtaking panorama of the lower portion of Mount Sharp. The colors have been adjusted to mimic lighting familiar to Earthlings. Surveyed here was a rocky plain before increasingly high rolling hills. The rounded hills in the middle distance, called the Sulfate Unit, are Curiosity's highest currently planned destination. One reason these hills are interesting is because sulfates are an energy source for some micro-organisms. The immediate path forward, though, was toward the southeast on the left part of the image.

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TODAY IN THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGYVisit –>...



TODAY IN THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY

Visit –> all-about-psychology.com for free psychology information and resources.

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Mexican matador – photographed in Vera Cruz, 1898



Mexican matador – photographed in Vera Cruz, 1898

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Cientistas estão planejando entrar em contato com extraterrestres

Uma organização em San Francisco está planejando enviar mensagens para os planetas potencialmente habitáveis.

Conhecido como METI (Messaging Extra Terrestrial Intelligence), o grupo espera comunicar-se com uma civilização alienígena enviando mensagens de saudação para o cosmos.

O primeiro alvo será Proxima Centauri, uma anã vermelha situada a apenas 4,2 anos-luz de distância. No início deste ano os astrônomos descobriram por lá um planeta terrestre que poderia ter o potencial para sustentar a vida.

“Se quisermos iniciar uma troca ao longo de muitas gerações, temos que aprender e compartilhar informações”, disse o presidente do METI e ex-compositor de mensagens do SETI Douglas Vakoch.

A organização está a planejando enviar suas primeiras mensagens antes do final de 2018.

“Eu ficaria feliz em ver este feito”, disse o astrônomo sênior do SETI Seth Shostak.

“Acho que há algo a ser aprendido, nada a temer, e com a possibilidade de descobrir algo verdadeiramente revolucionário: que temos companhia próxima”.



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eclipse: photographed by dscovr’s epic instrument, 9th March...







eclipse: photographed by dscovr’s epic instrument, 9th March 2016.

13 frames. the first gif shows the images as they were shot, the 2nd arranged to leave the solar shadow motionless and the earth moving through it. 3rd gif shows a detail of the 2nd.

image credit: nasa.

age
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The original title of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground.” The...

The original title of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground.” The first, handwritten manuscript was bound and illustrated for young Alice Liddell. In 1926, widowed, Alice sold the manuscript to pay her bills. It was displayed at Columbia University. In 1946 a group of American citizens purchased it and gave the manuscript to Great Britain “…in recognition of Britain’s courage in facing Hitler before American came into the war…” It is now held by the British Library, which has uploaded the entire thing online if you would like to read it!

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Basking in Light


Sunlight truly has come to Saturn's north pole. The whole northern region is bathed in sunlight in this view from late 2016, feeble though the light may be at Saturn's distant domain in the solar system.

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TODAY IN THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGYVisit –>...



TODAY IN THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY

Visit –> all-about-psychology.com for free psychology information and resources.

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27 dezembro 2016

When Was The First C-Section Which Did Not Kill The Mother?

New evidence suggests an earlier date than previously believed, by over 150 years!

 And just to clear things up, Caesar could not have been born by the procedure named after him. Caesar’s mother is known to have lived beyond his birth, and since cesareans were a death sentence in the 1st century BCE, Caesar must have been born the old-fashioned way.

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The song Fly Me to the Moon was the first music heard on the moon. Buzz Aldrin played it on a...

The song Fly Me to the Moon was the first music heard on the moon. Buzz Aldrin played it on a cassette after he stepped out of the spacecraft.

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UFO Maps, o nosso sistema de monitoramento de OVNIs

Estamos estreando hoje o UFO Maps, o nosso sistema de monitoramento de OVNIs, que irá coletar dados e informações para encontrar as zonas quentes de avistamentos de objetos voadores não identificados.

Para participar é muito fácil: basta acessar o UFO Maps e preencher o formulário com todas as informações exigidas. Seu relato será, em poucas horas, anexado ao mapa para que outros usuários possam acompanhar os últimos avistamentos.

Em parceria com o Portal Burn, os relatos poderão ser analisados e investigados (caso a testemunha nos permita compartilhar seu relato com ufólogos e especialistas).

Visite agora mesmo o UFO Maps e participe!



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Jedi ‘não é uma religião’ diz comissão no Reino Unido

O Templo da Ordem Jedi falhou em sua última tentativa de ser reconhecido como uma organização religiosa.

O jediismo, que se baseia na franquia de ficção Star Wars, pode parecer um pouco mais do que um fã-clube, mas enquanto suas origens estão firmemente enraizadas nos reinos da ficção científica, a organização evoluiu além dos filmes no qual foi originalmente baseado.

Infelizmente, porém, seus esforços para ser reconhecida como uma religião genuína não estão indo muito bem.

Mais recentemente, o grupo foi rejeitado pela Comissão de Caridade do Reino Unido, alegando que “falta o elemento espiritual ou não-secular necessário” para ser classificado como uma organização religiosa.

“A Comissão considera que não há provas suficientes de que jediísmo e Doutrina Jedi, como a promovida pelo Templo da Ordem Jedi seja um sistema suficientemente estruturada, organizada ou integrada de crença para constituir uma religião”, escreveu a Comissão em seu relatório.

Uma aplicação semelhante por um grupo Jedi separado também foi rejeitada na Nova Zelândia no ano passado.

“Nós colocamos muito trabalho na aplicação e realmente fizemos o nosso melhor para ilustrar por que nos consideramos uma religião e porque acreditamos que nós oferecemos benefícios não apenas para os nossos membros, mas também para o público em geral”, disse o psicólogo e porta-voz do Templo Brenna Cavell.

“Não se baseia em adorar a força ou George Lucas, embora muitos de nossos membros se refiram a um poder superior ou o transcendente como a força. Mas você poderia facilmente trocá-lo por Deus, o universo … é a mesma coisa para nós. Nós apenas escolhemos esse nome”.



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A leitura da mente será possível em 2017?

Avanços recentes nas interfaces computador-cérebro poderiam tornar a comunicação cérebro-cérebro uma realidade.

Pode soar como algo como um filme de ficção científica, mas os pesquisadores já conseguiram criar interfaces cérebro-computador capaz de ler e interpretar padrões de pensamento humano.

Um dos maiores obstáculos na leitura do que alguém está pensando é entender como pensamentos específicos são representados por diferentes padrões de atividade cerebral. Estes padrões não são os mesmos para todos – como pensamos sobre qualquer conceito depende de nossas próprias experiências e memórias.

Para criar uma verdadeira comunicação cérebro-cérebro, será necessário interpretar os pensamentos de uma pessoa e, em seguida, acionar essas mesmas memórias no destinatário por meio de um computador.

Incrivelmente, algo como isso já foi tentado. Em um experimento, duas pessoas em salas separadas foram convidadas a jogar um jogo de 20 perguntas enquanto conectado a um computador.

Cada resposta “sim” ou “não” foi captada pelo sistema que então usou uma técnica chamada estimulação magnética transcraniana para desencadear uma corrente no cérebro da outra pessoa.

Um dia pode até ser possível para duas pessoas trocarem pensamentos pela internet, talvez até mesmo uma “rede cerebral” mundial de mentes interconectadas, todas compartilhando informações de um lado para o outro.

Se tal cenário é realizável (ou mesmo desejável) no entanto continua a ser visto.



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“Milagre de sangue” de 627 anos não ocorre e tragédia está marcada para 2017

Se você pensa que 2016 foi ruim, talvez seja melhor nem imaginar o que virá em 2017.

O sangue seco de São Januário falhou para liquefazer em uma cerimônia em Nápoles, Itália, de acordo com um relatório em italiano La Stampa, anunciando um desastre para o próximo ano.

Monsenhor Vincenzo De Gregorio, o abade da capela, disse: “Não devemos pensar em desastres e calamidades. Somos homens de fé, e devemos continuar a orar”.

A cerimônia do sangue de São Januário, ou San Gennaro, é realizada várias vezes por ano. O sangue é mantido em ampolas especiais e liquida durante a cerimônia.

O milagre foi registrado regularmente desde 1389. San Gennaro foi bispo de Nápoles no terceiro século e foi decapitado na perseguição dos primeiros cristãos pelo imperador romano Diocleciano, que matou cerca de 3.500 cristãos.

O sangue não se tornou líquido até 1939, o ano em que a Segunda Guerra Mundial começou, e em 1980, o ano do terremoto Irpinia, de acordo com o relatório Stampa.



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In south-central Japan, especially around Osaka and Nara, there...



In south-central Japan, especially around Osaka and Nara, there are very unique burial sites. Called “kofun” these burials are shaped like modern keyholes and surrounded by moats. They were built to be the eternal resting place of the imperial family and ruling elites. Size mattered. The bigger the person’s kofun, the more important the person. Some are shaped like circles or squares. The most common shape, however, is the keyhole where the circular mound contains the sarcophagus and the trapezoidal mound was used for ceremonies and ritual. Kofun were built between the 200s and early 600s CE.

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Lights in the Darkness


Just hours after the winter solstice, a mass of energetic particles from the Sun smashed into the magnetic field around Earth. The strong solar wind stream stirred up a display of northern lights over northern Canada.

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