WTF..LOL, what do you say Share? Isn't this Price-less or Price-full or Price-ic post, the post of 2013 so far?
On Sun, Jan 27, 2013 at 4:29 PM, Bob Price <[email protected]> wrote: > ** > > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXPgd3CiQ6Y > > Sorry Share Long, I wasn't ignoring you, I've been attending a course in > Mexico: "An > alchemists guide to quantity surveying, general relativity, scent > development > and compassionate list making"; I'm presently on a break before we get > started on the next module: "The specific gravity of an ECHO". > > Something that may not have come through in my previous communications is > how much of a fan of > yours I am, I think you're one of the originals on this list; as an > unrepentant > capitalist (granted, with anarchist leanings), I'm drawn to the countless > forms > of human consumption (except, of course, the wasting disease kind); I see > the truth > in "eat more", as a remedy for constipation (offered by witch doctors > to their patients), and encourage whenever possible all forms of > consumption > (economic and spiritual). In short, I consider heroic consumption the Holy > Grail of what makes capitalism such a stand out system for bringing out > the best in people. > > I think your whole approach to the consumption of spiritual techniques, > amulets, essence > oils, counselors, motivational speakers, cranial adjustments, and > astrologers, has > more than a few legs, and may be what so many of us are looking for; not > unlike > participating in Black Friday at Best Buy needs legs, if you're not going > to > end up on the wrong end of the stampede. > > So Share Long, I say go for it, and know you have a friend in old "grumpy > boots", who > is watching your back with all these mono Mayan types on FFL, who wouldn't > know > a true seeker from a bag of Erewhon rice: I say, why be a sniper when you > can > defoliate the jungle with bullets. > > And BTW, presently (changes daily) my own practice includes: mantras used > in Aryan twelve step programs > to treat soma addiction in their pre Merv settlements, Nigerian sea foam > tourmaline light therapy, cedar ship baths, tantric techniques for sand > boarding as taught by Malikat Saba (the Queen of Sheba) in Mareb prior to > her > rendezvous with Solomon, a Coptic tutor who is helping me with the > discourses > of Athanasius on the short comings of the Arian heresy, fluttering > visualization > of newborn glass wing butterflies, Norman Mailer's THE ARMIES OF THE > NIGHT*, and > why Oprah couldn't get Lance to get real;-)**. > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyBSrBqogPY > > *A Pulitzer Prize winning example of the *non-fiction novel*, (arguably, a > genre invented by > Truman Capote with IN COLD BLOOD, please don't mention this to the Dutch > poster who believes Capote couldn't write, particularly compared to > Kerouac; the > writer the Dutch poster most wants to be when he grows up---type, type, > type) where > the author referred to himself (the protagonist) in the third person as > "Mailer"; IMO, a technique used just as effectively in ALL THE PRESIDENTS > MEN. > > **Instead of teaching her judo; I'm attempting to convince the daughter > that *smiley faces* are the > canary in the coal mine of our rapid descent into illiteracy, but, after > way > too long, I've figured out that smiley faces on FFL are used the way some > lawyers > use the term "without prejudice";-). > > "All paradises, all utopias are designed by who is not there, by the > people who are not allowed in." > > -Toni Morrison > > ________________________________ > From: Share Long [email protected]> > To: "[email protected]" [email protected]> > Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2013 4:28:11 AM > Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] In space no one will hear you scream. Because > you won't..... > > Salyavin, as I read this tiny muscles around the base of each hair folicle > tensed and the hair stood up. But that's ok because I now know that > whenever I'm sitting, I'm also floating. Yay! BTW, you and Bob Price tie > for Best Post of 2013 IMHO (-: > > ________________________________ > From: salyavin808 [email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2013 2:59 AM > Subject: [FairfieldLife] In space no one will hear you scream. Because you > won't..... > > > 20 amazing facts about the human body > Many of the most exciting discoveries in all fields of science are being > played out in the human body > > * The Observer, Sunday 27 January 2013 > * > > From DNA to the atoms inside us, the human body is a scientific marvel. > Photograph: David Smith/Alamy > 1 APPENDIX TO LIFE > The appendix gets a bad press. It is usually treated as a body part that > lost its function millions of years ago. All it seems to do is occasionally > get infected and cause appendicitis. Yet recently it has been discovered > that the appendix is very useful to the bacteria that help your digestive > system function. They use it to get respite from the strain of the frenzied > activity of the gut, somewhere to breed and help keep the gut's bacterial > inhabitants topped up. So treat your appendix with respect. > 2 SUPERSIZED MOLECULES > Practically everything we experience is made up of molecules. These vary > in size from simple pairs of atoms, like an oxygen molecule, to complex > organic structures. But the biggest molecule in nature resides in your > body. It is chromosome 1. A normal human cell has 23 pairs of chromosomes > in its nucleus, each a single, very long, molecule of DNA. Chromosome 1 is > the biggest, containing around 10bn atoms, to pack in the amount of > information that is encoded in the molecule. > 3 ATOM COUNT > It is hard to grasp just how small the atoms that make up your body are > until you take a look at the sheer number of them. An adult is made up of > around 7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (7 octillion) atoms. > 4 FUR LOSS > It might seem hard to believe, but we have about the same number of hairs > on our bodies as a chimpanzee, it's just that our hairs are useless, so > fine they are almost invisible. We aren't sure quite why we lost our > protective fur. It has been suggested that it may have been to help early > humans sweat more easily, or to make life harder for parasites such as lice > and ticks, or even because our ancestors were partly aquatic. > But perhaps the most attractive idea is that early humans needed to > co-operate more when they moved out of the trees into the savanna. When > animals are bred for co-operation, as we once did with wolves to produce > dogs, they become more like their infants. In a fascinating 40-year > experiment starting in the 1950s, Russian foxes were bred for docility. > Over the period, adult foxes become more and more like large cubs, spending > more time playing, and developing drooping ears, floppy tails and patterned > coats. Humans similarly have some characteristics of infantile apes – large > heads, small mouths and, significantly here, finer body hair. > > 5 GOOSEBUMP EVOLUTION > Goosepimples are a remnant of our evolutionary predecessors. They occur > when tiny muscles around the base of each hair tense, pulling the hair more > erect. With a decent covering of fur, this would fluff up the coat, getting > more air into it, making it a better insulator. But with a human's thin > body hair, it just makes our skin look strange. > Similarly we get the bristling feeling of our hair standing on end when we > are scared or experience an emotive memory. Many mammals fluff up their fur > when threatened, to look bigger and so more dangerous. Humans used to have > a similar defensive fluffing up of their body hairs, but once again, the > effect is now ruined. We still feel the sensation of hairs standing on end, > but gain no visual bulk. > 6 SPACE TRAUMA > If sci-fi movies were to be believed, terrible things would happen if your > body were pushed from a spaceship without a suit. But it's mostly fiction. > There would be some discomfort as the air inside the body expanded, but > nothing like the exploding body parts Hollywood loves. Although liquids do > boil in a vacuum, your blood is kept under pressure by your circulatory > system and would be just fine. And although space is very cold, you would > not lose heat particularly quickly. As Thermos flasks demonstrate, a vacuum > is a great insulator. > In practice, the thing that will kill you in space is simply the lack of > air. In 1965 a test subject's suit sprang a leak in a Nasa vacuum chamber. > The victim, who survived, remained conscious for around 14 seconds. The > exact survival limit isn't known, but would probably be one to two minutes. > 7 ATOMIC COLLAPSE > The atoms that make up your body are mostly empty space, so despite there > being so many of them, without that space you would compress into a tiny > volume. The nucleus that makes up the vast bulk of the matter in an atom is > so much smaller than the whole structure that it is comparable to the size > of a fly in a cathedral. If you lost all your empty atomic space, your body > would fit into a cube less than 1/500th of a centimetre on each side. > Neutron stars are made up of matter that has undergone exactly this kind of > compression. In a single cubic centimetre of neutron star material there > are around 100m tons of matter. An entire neutron star, heavier than our > sun, occupies a sphere that is roughly the size across of the Isle of Wight. > 8 ELECTROMAGNETIC REPULSION > The atoms that make up matter never touch each other. The closer they get, > the more repulsion there is between the electrical charges on their > component parts. It's like trying to bring two intensely powerful magnets > together, north pole to north pole. This even applies when objects appear > to be in contact. When you sit on a chair, you don't touch it. You float a > tiny distance above, suspended by the repulsion between atoms. This > electromagnetic force is vastly stronger than the force of gravity – around > a billion billion billion billion times stronger. You can demonstrate the > relative strength by holding a fridge magnet near a fridge and letting go. > The electromagnetic force from the tiny magnet overwhelms the gravitational > attraction of the whole Earth. > 9 STARDUST TO STARDUST > Every atom in your body is billions of years old. Hydrogen, the most > common element in the universe and a major feature of your body, was > produced in the big bang 13.7bn years ago. Heavier atoms such as carbon and > oxygen were forged in stars between 7bn and 12bn years ago, and blasted > across space when the stars exploded. Some of these explosions were so > powerful that they also produced the elements heavier than iron, which > stars can't construct. This means that the components of your body are > truly ancient: you are stardust. > 10 THE QUANTUM BODY > One of the mysteries of science is how something as apparently solid and > straightforward as your body can be made of strangely behaving quantum > particles such as atoms and their constituents. If you ask most people to > draw a picture of one of the atoms in their bodies, they will produce > something like a miniature solar system, with a nucleus as the sun and > electrons whizzing round like planets. This was, indeed, an early model of > the atom, but it was realised that such atoms would collapse in an instant. > This is because electrons have an electrical charge and accelerating a > charged particle, which is necessary to keep it in orbit, would make it > give off energy in the form of light, leaving the electron spiralling into > the nucleus. > In reality, electrons are confined to specific orbits, as if they ran on > rails. They can't exist anywhere between these orbits but have to make a > "quantum leap" from one to another. What's more, as quantum particles, > electrons exist as a collection of probabilities rather than at specific > locations, so a better picture is to show the electrons as a set of fuzzy > shells around the nucleus. > 11 RED BLOODED > When you see blood oozing from a cut in your finger, you might assume that > it is red because of the iron in it, rather as rust has a reddish hue. But > the presence of the iron is a coincidence. The red colour arises because > the iron is bound in a ring of atoms in haemoglobin called porphyrin and > it's the shape of this structure that produces the colour. Just how red > your haemoglobin is depends on whether there is oxygen bound to it. When > there is oxygen present, it changes the shape of the porphyrin, giving the > red blood cells a more vivid shade. > 12 GOING VIRAL > Surprisingly, not all the useful DNA in your chromosomes comes from your > evolutionary ancestors – some of it was borrowed from elsewhere. Your DNA > includes the genes from at least eight retroviruses. These are a kind of > virus that makes use of the cell's mechanisms for coding DNA to take over a > cell. At some point in human history, these genes became incorporated into > human DNA. These viral genes in DNA now perform important functions in > human reproduction, yet they are entirely alien to our genetic ancestry. > 13 OTHER LIFE > On sheer count of cells, there is more bacterial life inside you than > human. There are around 10tn of your own cells, but 10 times more bacteria. > Many of the bacteria that call you home are friendly in the sense that they > don't do any harm. Some are beneficial. > In the 1920s, an American engineer investigated whether animals could live > without bacteria, hoping that a bacteria-free world would be a healthier > one. James "Art" Reyniers made it his life's work to produce environments > where animals could be raised bacteria-free. The result was clear. It was > possible. But many of Reyniers's animals died and those that survived had > to be fed on special food. This is because bacteria in the gut help with > digestion. You could exist with no bacteria, but without the help of the > enzymes in your gut that bacteria produce, you would need to eat food that > is more loaded with nutrients than a typical diet. > 14 EYELASH INVADERS > Depending on how old you are, it's pretty likely that you have eyelash > mites. These tiny creatures live on old skin cells and the natural oil > (sebum) produced by human hair follicles. They are usually harmless, though > they can cause an allergic reaction in a minority of people. Eyelash mites > typically grow to a third of a millimetre and are near-transparent, so you > are unlikely to see them with the naked eye. Put an eyelash hair or eyebrow > hair under the microscope, though, and you may find them, as they spend > most of their time right at the base of the hair where it meets the skin. > Around half the population have them, a proportion that rises as we get > older. > 15 PHOTON DETECTORS > Your eyes are very sensitive, able to detect just a few photons of light. > If you take a look on a very clear night at the constellation of Andromeda, > a little fuzzy patch of light is just visible with the naked eye. If you > can make out that tiny blob, you are seeing as far as is humanly possible > without technology. Andromeda is the nearest large galaxy to our own Milky > Way. But "near" is a relative term in intergalactic space – the Andromeda > galaxy is 2.5m light years away. When the photons of light that hit your > eye began their journey, there were no human beings. We were yet to evolve. > You are seeing an almost inconceivable distance and looking back in time > through 2.5m years. > 16 SENSORY TALLY > Despite what you've probably been told, you have more than five senses. > Here's a simple example. Put your hand a few centimetres away from a hot > iron. None of your five senses can tell you the iron will burn you. Yet you > can feel that the iron is hot from a distance and won't touch it. This is > thanks to an extra sense – the heat sensors in your skin. Similarly we can > detect pain or tell if we are upside down. > Another quick test. Close your eyes and touch your nose. You aren't using > the big five to find it, but instead proprioception. This is the sense that > detects where the parts of your body are with respect to each other. It's a > meta-sense, combining your brain's knowledge of what your muscles are doing > with a feel for the size and shape of your body. Without using your basic > five senses, you can still guide a hand unerringly to touch your nose. > 17 REAL AGE > Just like a chicken, your life started off with an egg. Not a chunky thing > in a shell, but an egg nonetheless. However, there is a significant > difference between a human egg and a chicken egg that has a surprising > effect on your age. Human eggs are tiny. They are, after all, just a single > cell and are typically around 0.2mm across – about the size of a printed > full stop. Your egg was formed in your mother – but the surprising thing is > that it was formed when she was an embryo. The formation of your egg, and > the half of your DNA that came from your mother, could be considered as the > very first moment of your existence. And it happened before your mother was > born. Say your mother was 30 when she had you, then on your 18th birthday > you were arguably over 48 years old. > 18 EPIGENETIC INFLUENCE > We are used to thinking of genes as being the controlling factor that > determines what each of us is like physically, but genes are only a tiny > part of our DNA. The other 97% was thought to be junk until recently, but > we now realise that epigenetics – the processes that go on outside the > genes – also have a major influence on our development. Some parts act to > control "switches" that turn genes on and off, or program the production of > other key compounds. For a long time it was a puzzle how around 20,000 > genes (far fewer than some breeds of rice) were enough to specify exactly > what we were like. The realisation now is that the other 97% of our DNA is > equally important. > 19 CONSCIOUS ACTION > If you are like most people, you will locate your conscious mind roughly > behind your eyes, as if there were a little person sitting there, steering > the much larger automaton that is your body. You know there isn't really a > tiny figure in there, pulling the levers, but your consciousness seems to > have an independent existence, telling the rest of your body what to do. > In reality, much of the control comes from your unconscious. Some tasks > become automatic with practice, so that we no longer need to think about > the basic actions. When this happens the process is handled by one of the > most primitive parts of the brain, close to the brain stem. However even a > clearly conscious action such as picking up an object seems to have some > unconscious precursors, with the brain firing up before you make the > decision to act. There is considerable argument over when the conscious > mind plays its part, but there is no doubt that we owe a lot more to our > unconscious than we often allow. > 20 OPTICAL DELUSION > The picture of the world we "see" is artificial. Our brains don't produce > an image the way a video camera works. Instead, the brain constructs a > model of the world from the information provided by modules that measure > light and shade, edges, curvature and so on. This makes it simple for the > brain to paint out the blind spot, the area of your retina where the optic > nerve joins, which has no sensors. It also compensates for the rapid jerky > movements of our eyes called saccades, giving a false picture of steady > vision. > But the downside of this process is that it makes our eyes easy to fool. > TV, films and optical illusions work by misleading the brain about what the > eye is seeing. This is also why the moon appears much larger than it is and > seems to vary in size: the true optical size of the moon is similar to a > hole created by a hole punch held at arm's length. > > > > >
