Want to know what a baby does all day? Well, here is a time-elapsed video of 4 hours of 9-month old baby at play squeezed into 2 minutes.
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Books That Say Stress Kills Brain Cells
Chronic stress is damaging to the brain. If you want to maintain brain health, you have to keep the stress hormone cortisol levels low to the extent possible. This is mentioned in many brain health related books and web articles.
- In Dr. Mark Hyman’s book The UltraMind Solution
, key #7 is to “Calm Your Mind”. On page 53, he writes that cortisol damages the hippocampus part of the brain.
- The book Brain Longevity
by Dr. Dharma Khalsa, it says similarly that cortisol affects the hippocampus, and that the hippocampus of Alzheimer patients are significantly smaller as the disease progresses. It also points out that day-after-day and year-after-year of chronic stress can kill billions of brain cells. [page 121] Dr. Khalsa talks more about stress on the brain in his web article and in a video on fora.tv.
- In the book You: The Owner’s Manual, Dr. Michael Roizen and Dr. Mehmet Oz says that action number 4 of the section “Your Brain: The Live Younger Action Plan” is to “reduce stress”. And it again mentions the link between cortisol, stress, and brain health.
- Page 30 of Dr. Daniel Amen’s Magnificent Mind at Any Age points out that older adult with long-term elevated levels of cortisol had smaller hippocampus and performed worse on memory tests.
- The book The Memory Cure says on page 76 that chronic stress is one of the risk factors for Alzheimer’s. The type of stress can be that of a stressful job for example. The stress is damaging to many organs of the body including the brain.
- Page 176 of the book The Brain’s Behind It again mentions that stress can kill hippocampal neurons.
- In book Ultraprevention, page 112 of the Kindle Edition, it says “Cortisol kills neurons, especially in a particularly sensitive area called the hippocampus.”
- Page 66 of book Fat Chance it writes “In particular, cortisol kills neurons that play a role in the inhibition of food intake.”
Since it might be difficult for you to find the references to all of those books mention, here are some links to some web articles that say’s basically the same thing — that stress is harmful to the brain.
- In article stanfordalumni.org, Physiologist Robert Sapolsky looked at baboons and also came to the conclusion that high levels of stress hormones kills cells in the hippocampus. Similar article about Robert Sapolsky. Read also the article This is Your Brain on Stress.
- In the Q&A section of Dr. Andrew Weil’s website, he says that cortisol is toxic to neurons.
- ScienceCentral.com says “stress really is bad” and chronic stress can change our brains.
There are also YouTube videos about stress on the brain.
- Google Talks video of Dr. John Medina talking about brain health. Dr. Medina says that “stress damages cognition in virtually every way cognition can be measured”
- And here is a video reporting on stressed versus unstressed rats in a memory task of remembering location of submerged platform.
- In page 75 of the book, The Chemistry of Calm, it says that prolonged elevation of cortisol can lead to fat storage, insulin resistance, inflammation, and brain degeneration.
Douglas Adams Humorous Talk about Conservation
Science function writer and satirist Douglas Adams gave this humorous talk…
But it has a serious message about conservation of our planet. He talks about his adventures tracking down exotic animals and what he learned from them.
Atlantis Space Shuttle Launch Video
Have you ever watched a space shuttle launch before?
You can watch on YouTube, this video by NASAtelevision of Atlantis STS-129 launch to the International Space Station. You see the countdown, launch, and solid rocket booster separation. You also get commentary on what exactly is happening as well as hearing the crew in the shuttle and controllers.
The commentator gives interesting facts and explanation (providing stats on the shuttle speed and time of the flight)
World’s Largest Snake
The world’s largest living snake specie in terms of weight is the green anaconda. The scientific name is Eunectes murinus. It can weigh over 200 pounds and reach lengths of 16 feet. Although some pythons can be longer, the anaconda is larger in the sense that they are heavier.
The fictional action thriller movie “Anaconda” is about that snake. However in the movie, they use a mechanical snake, which was built to a size larger than the real size one. I don’t think you can train a snake to do those things.
References:
Blue Lobster Found
A very rare blue lobster was found by a fishermen in King Edward’s Island in Canada in 2011. The rarity is about one in 2 million and some estimates say it is one out of 4 million. The blue is due to a rare gene. Due to its rarity, the lobster will be kept in an aquarium and will not be eaten. But if it were to be cooked, it would turn red just like regular lobsters.
Besides blue lobsters, there are also blue crayfishes (also rare).
See pictures in these sources: Nationalpost.com and MSNBC
iPad 2 model A1395
The iPad 2 model A1395 is the second generation iPad (or iPad 2) with WiFi-only connectivity. The iPad 2 is a tablet device by Apple that was released in the United States on March 2011. It was then subsequently released to other parts of the world. The iPad 2 is lighter, thinner, and faster than the original iPad.
The iPad 2 comes in three models depending on the connectivity abilities.
iPad 2 Model A1395: WiFi-only connectivity
iPad 2 Model A1396: Wi-Fi / GSM / A-GPS
iPad 2 Model A1397: WiFi / CDMA / A-GPS
For each model, you can have black or white color. And for each of the model, you can select the amount of memory capacity: 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB. Depending on your selections, the price will vary.
The model number can be found on the back of the iPad. Alternatively, on the iPad, you can tap on “Settings” on the Home screen and then go to “General -> About -> Regulatory”. There you should see the model number of the device.
If your model number shows A1219 or A1337, then you do not have the iPad 2; you have the original iPad. But an easier way to determine whether you have the iPad 2 or the original iPad is to simply look to see whether it has cameras. The iPad 2 has two cameras, one on each side, with rear camera being able to capture HD video. The camera would look like a tiny pinhole, so it might be hard to spot. The original iPad does not have any camera.
Because of the added camera, the iPad 2 has FaceTime app for video calling and PhotoBooth.
The iPad 2 uses the Apple dual-core A5 chip as opposed to the A4 in the original, making it up to twice as fast. And better graphics (especially for games). There is even a gyroscope, so that the display can rotate as you rotate the device. There are games that takes advantage of the tilt sensing ability of the iPad 2. Battery life is about 10 hours.
Of course, it can surf the web and send emails, but it can do a lot more. Watch the below video by Apple.
The Apple iPad 2 Smart Cover is sold separately. As you saw in the video, the iPad can detect when you remove and put on the cover and will wake and sleep appropriately. The cover is magnetically attached, and can be folded into a stand for typing and watching videos.
It is recommended that you purchase either a Smart Cover or a third party case to protect the touch sensitive screen during transport.
Magnet Balls
This toy is exactly as it says. They are balls of magnets – 216 of them. But they stick together into a cube. You can form and shape them.
Indian Farmers commit suicide every 30 minutes
Video report on DemocracyNow.org with a report from Smita Narula in 2011…
According to statistics, a quarter of a million Indian farmers committed suicide in the last 16 years. Doing some math, this is equivalent to one suicide every 30 minutes for years.
This is due to insurmountable debt caused by government’s removal of agricultural subsidies and global competition with genetically modified cotton seeds which are resistance to pests. Farmers go into debt in order to purchase these more expensive seeds in order to compete. Unfortunately these seeds require more water than traditional seeds. And since most farms in India are watered by rain and have lack of irrigation, the crops often fail. Trapped in a cycle of insurmountable debt, some farmers consume the pesticide that they purchased in order to kill themselves. Some write suicide notes to government hoping that someone would listen.
One farmer had to put her teenage children to work in the 7 acre farm. After daily toiling for a year, they probably earn about $250 for the entire year.
Beautiful Anarctic animals in Video of TED talk
Paul Nicklen gave a Ted talk in 2011 where he showed this beautiful slideshow of an Antarctic animals set to music which includes some great shots of a rare white bear. He also got some great shots of leopard seals when he got into the water with them. Besides having very beautiful photographs, the talk also has some humor in it. But the main point of the talk is to generate awareness of the global warming problem and its danger to the wildlife that inhabits the icy world. You also see a photograph of a dead polar bear.