Happy Valentines Day!

I, for one, am not celebrating. (Foreveralone)

But here's a love themed post for you lovers.

"

Results from Ortigue’s team revealed when a person falls in love, 12 areas of the brain work in tandem to release euphoria-inducing chemicals such as dopamine, oxytocin, adrenaline and vasopression.
The love feeling also affects sophisticated cognitive functions, such as mental representation, metaphors and body image."

"Men and women can now thank a dozen brain regions for their romantic fervor. Researchers have revealed the fonts of desire by comparing functional MRI studies of people who indicated they were experiencing passionate love, maternal love or unconditional love. Together, the regions release neuro­transmitters and other chemicals in the brain and blood that prompt greater euphoric sensations such as attraction and pleasure. Conversely, psychiatrists might someday help individuals who become dan­gerously depressed after a heartbreak by adjusting those chemicals.

Passion also heightens several cognitive functions, as the brain regions and chemicals surge. “It’s all about how that network interacts,” says Stephanie Ortigue, an assistant professor of psychology at Syracuse University, who led the study. The cognitive functions, in turn, “are triggers that fully activate the love network.” Tell that to your sweetheart on Valentine’s Day.
Graphics by James W. Lewis, West Virginia University (brain), and Jen Christiansen.

"
So back at Stanford, researchers recruited 15 undergrads in the early euphoric throes of a relationship. The volunteers had photos of the romantic partner and of an attractive acquaintance. As they looked at the photos, their palms were safely heated to mild pain. Then the volunteers repeated the experiment but were distracted by tasks such as: think of sports that don’t use balls. Previous research found that distraction can ease pain.
Both distraction and the pictures of new loves reduced pain. But, the love photo acted in a totally different area of the brain—the primitive reward system region that lights up where addictive drugs work, and where pain-relieving opioids do their magic. The study was published in Public Library of Science One. [Jarred Younger et al., Viewing Pictures of a Romantic Partner Reduces Experimental Pain: Involvement of Neural Reward Systems]
So the next time you’re in pain, maybe you don’t need to pop a pill. Just fall in love.
—Cynthia Graber"

Skin Gun

This is something I heard about during a 4 hour long biology conference.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7722178/the_stem_cell_skin_gun_will_change.html

"The Stem Cell Skin Gun is a new treatment for burn wounds that uses stem cells. The demand for this treatment should change a lot of lives.This treatment is still being experimented with, but a dozen people have used

 this procedure and have experienced fast healing of severe burns in just a few days."
Caution: Gore in video.

Webb Telescope !

http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/

"I have serious nerd wood"

"A million miles from Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope will soar through a frigid void, peering back to the time when new stars and developing galaxies first began to illuminate the universe. Scanning the universe for the invisible radiation called infrared, Webb will have to be larger than any space telescope ever placed in orbit, and function at temperatures just tens of degrees above absolute zero — the temperature at which even atoms are frozen into immobility.
With its infrared vision, Webb will be able to see light from the early universe that has been stretched as it travels across the expanding fabric of space. It will be able to see through clouds of dust to the warm, infrared-emitting objects hidden within. Our view of the universe will expand as Webb opens up previously unexplored territory to our gaze." (http://webbtelescope.org/webb_telescope/science_on_the_edge/)

I think this is awesome although I cannot explain it in my own words.

Skins UK

I started Skins season 2. Its a different kind of complex from the first season of Skins. It deals with the bigger issues of today's youth like death, injury, homosexuality, divorce, forbidden love, best friends, first love etc. Beside for the heavy pill popping in season one, I see the parallels within my own teenage life and in my peers lives as well. The UK versions are much better than the US version. They're set in Bristol,UK. First season follows a group of kids in college  (which for US is like 10-12th grade up). They're close friends that get into trouble like any typical teenagers life. Seaon two follows the main male lead from the first season's little sister's life after he goes to university and she moves up to college. If you're looking for something to watch, its not half bad.

Expansion and Innovation.

I spent the entire night from midnight on watching this very captivating man paint on a huge piece of wood. We talked and listened to good music. He was smoking joints and hand rolled cigarettes. I ended up passing out at 4:20 AM.
I just woke up around 1:30 through a bunch of weird, exciting dreams. Lie in bed with my cats for a minute. Thats when I realized that I need to be more interesting. Work on hobbies and activities more than sit on  my ass thinking the computer will make me cool if I used it for 12 hours a day. James is coming over to paint and I'm going spend some time reading. I need to clean this fucking room and change the sheets. I'm goign to tackle the long list of books I've always wanted to read but was always too lazy to do. I need to work harder on my programming and music theory. My other classes are ordinary so I just need to make good grades. I want to start drawing and maybe painting again. I need an outlet. I need multiple outlets.

Any suggestions?

http://www.npr.org/2010/11/11/131245315/hauschka-gets-the-most-out-of-88-keys

Listening to a piece by Hauschka can be deceiving: What sounds like an ensemble of musicians and instruments is just one man, performing at one piano. His real name is Volker Bertelmann, and he hails from Dusseldorf, Germany, where he works with his "prepared piano." He wrests disruptive sounds from the instrument's 88 keys by outfitting the strings or mallets with objects such as ping-pong balls, aluminum foil and leather. His new album is titled Foreign Landscapes, and he recently visited NPR's studios to demonstrate his craft.

Q: As a non-musician, I'm curious what's inspiring to you about this
A: What he can do with a such a traditional instrument such as a piano to make it sound like a full symphony or concert band and how it uses it with composition to create polyphonic textures
Piano is a relatively new instrument. It is old enough that the original rock stars of music who created the theory and theoretical rules that every uses almost exclusively today figured out just a little bit more than a child sitting down at the instrument... but there are still things to be discovered. These are the same reasons why I find percussion interesting. Marimbasonly been aroudn since 1900, so w hen someone finds something to do with it it can be changed and improved. Possibilities are endless and its exciting to know that innovation is something I could get into

Q: It never occurred to me that way, mostly because the instruments I'm used to working with are determined by the philosophy of "if it's ineffective, build it better and throw the old one away"
(10:22:24 PM) ha ah: Well, as long as economics permit it 
(10:23:16 PM) exorhi: With music its less about the what and is more about the why and how 
(10:23:51 PM) ha ah: Theory as opposed to function, then?
(10:24:05 PM) exorhi: Function? Aesthetic
(10:24:12 PM) exorhi: Appeals to the music soul
(10:24:14 PM) exorhi: human ot music
(10:24:50 PM) ha ah: I understand what you're saying on an emotional level, I guess
(10:25:08 PM) ha ah: But nothing's really coming to mind, as it were
(10:25:41 PM) exorhi: Its just as artistic as english composition, but a man has to be taught to read and to write
(10:25:54 PM) exorhi: But we've been making music before we knew what itw as