Neuroscience Website

The link to the site

Today at this website I found. I learned about the West Nile Virus, and how the mosquito's actually get it from birds. I also learned a lot about your Eyes and about afterimages and illusions. I also learned how to find your blind spot. I also did the Stroop effect and learned how to do brain in sign language. I also learned the names of some phobias, and some of them I had, such as My opinion major Toxiphobia(fear of Poison), Arachnophobia(we all know is the fear of Spiders), Minor Entomophobia(insects, I don't fear them all though), Cancerophobia(fear of, you guessed it, Cancer), and Panthophobia(fear of disease). Chemicals with the Brain, like Caffeine is not bad for your brain, but cocaine can confuse it. I also did a game they had called Neuro-Jeopardy, I thought it was pretty good. I did Brain Response Time Experiments. I also did some Brain Facts that would make you go Hmmmmm. Looked at some kind of funny Brain Jokes. I learned about Yawning, yes yawning. The purpose of yawning is too stretch, not to warm up your blood or get rid of excess carbon dioxide and bring in more oxygen, although that is a good Theory. Another myth is that you have 2 brains, but its not true, your brain is just divided in a Left Hemisphere and Right Hemisphere. Its also a myth that you use 10% of your brain, that was a misquote of Albert Einstein. I learned how much your computer is like your brain. It learns, calculates, both uses electricity. They also can get damaged, a brain can get a disease and a computer can get a virus, they can learn, they can have a memory that grows and more. I learned an interesting thing about chocolate, it contains approx. 380 chemicals! No wonder its poisonous to dogs! I also added more stuff to my brain about Synesthesia. Also about yawning, its contagious! I learned about Rabies, which from the Latin words means "to rage". It is a virus. I learned about Lead. I was relieved that graphite is in pencils not lead. There used to be lead I think.

Synesthesia. A gift, and a curse.

Synesthesia is a condition of the brain which is harmless, that gives the senses a certain connection to each other. It allows stuff such as if you taste Spaghetti you could see Pink, even though Spaghetti is not pink. You could smell Licorice and hear an Oboe. You could feel a metal doorknob, and taste metal, vice versa. There are so many connections they cant be counted!

How Synethesia occurs
* After birth the neuronal wiring's in the brain are not yet specialized. They are overlapping each other. Until the forth month there is a process of pruning this connections. The failing of this process could lead to Synaesthesia. So this theory emphasizes that Synaesthesia is a result of too less neuronal inhibition. Inhibition enzymes could be involved. So basically, you can only get it from birth.

An overload could be if you go into a loud room, for example, your Synesthesia could make you very very uncomfortable! You could probably figure out why, You taste a lot of grilled cheese sandwich's listening to very loud music, or feel very smooth things while hear loud noises, etc.

Synesthesia is a very cool condition. The only harmful thing that it could possibly do is cause a small discomfort like I added above. Although, people could also have red skin, because of how you see them.
* Source 1

Good News Report

Here are some good news in one big report

A School in the United Kingdom (England) is getting rid of homework, other schools are doing the same or atleast cutting it down. Think about this, You get up at 6:00, go to school at 8:00, do 6-8 hours school, its 3-4:00, you get home, and then you have homework til you can do anything fun(tv, computer, outside, etc)! Barry Day, probably the future savior of the American School System, is the one that started this.
Frank Tunison, liked medieval stuff. He had swords and porcelain dragons, a lot of that stuff. He has bone marrow cancer, and he really wanted to go to the Renaissance Festival, but he was too weak. Then his daughter talked to the Festivals main line, and asked if they could do anything about his father. Then the festival came to him, so he could see it.
David Huckvale lost his leg because the doctors found a benign tumor. One day he walked into an English Pub, with his prosthetic leg and crutches he met a surgeon. After talked, the surgeon offered him a free bionic leg. Free of charge, Huckvale was saving up to buy one himself but it cost forty thousand pounds ($80,000)
Ok people, the future is coming! Japan's Nissan has just created Self-Healing Paint! That means that your Car can heal scratches! To speed up the process, just pour warm water on it!

Vice Presidential Debate

Yesturday was the vice presidential debate. I watched it on CNN. They had a group of Ohio Uncommitted voters. Overall Palin did pretty well, but according to the voters I think they prefered Biden a little bit more. I think Palin did a really good job, I wish they would of bottomed out everytime the camera went to the moderator :). Palin and Biden topped out a lot of times. Palin was good on energy and some other stuff, but Biden was better to the Ohio Uncommited Voters on Foreign Policy, I just dont think Palin's best point is foreign policy, Biden, I think, topped out on Iraq with the OUV. He was good with the Women OUV. Palin was good with the Men OUV. So anyway, they talked about Taxes, same-sex marriage, energy policies, foreign policies. Always, Palin attacked Biden with a smile, strange, she attacked alot more then Biden attacking Palin. Biden attacked John McCain alot. Palin then defended McCain. The Debate was 90 minutes. It seemed longer. I wonder if they get tired standing there. The moderater was Gwen Ifill, from PBS. Biden was better with getting 51% to the OUV. They thought he was better qualified.. idiots. Anyway, on same-sex marriage they both agree a marriage is between a man and a woman. I think it was a tie between the two. In a few days will be the second presidental debate.

English words from the French, German, Indian and Spanish origin.

French
Here is a shocking fact, 30% of the English Vocabulary are from the French Origin.
Here are some, if you want the complete list, go to : Wikipedia French origin list
A: Able, Abuse, Absence, Ace, Acid, Adhesive, Agree, Anatomy, Application, Average, Aviation.
B: Boil, Bomb, Blond, Beef, Bacon, Band
C: Catholic, Campaign, Cattle, Cache, Capacity, Car, Captain, Category, Chance, Change, Cheat, Coin, Common, County, Custom
D: Detroit, Diet, Digestion,
E: Empire, Emplacement, Endurance, Endure
F: Face, Farm, Fatal, Female

The rest your going to have to view :)

Spanish
Here are some spanish words: To view them all go here

M: Mosquito, Montana, Mustang, Mole
P: Palmetto, Paella, Patio, Papaya
S: Salsa, Savanna, Sierra, Sombrero,
T: Tornado, Tuna, Tomato, Tobacco, Tilde, Tequila, Tango, Taco

German
Here are some German Words: To view them all go here

Bratwurst
Delicatessen (Deli)
Hamburger
Kraut (as in Sauerkraut)
Wiener
Wiener schnitzel
Dachshund
Kaput
Kindergarten
Rottweiler
Schnauzer
Spitz
Waltz.

American Indian Words, For more go here

bayou
chipmunk
hickory
igloo
kayak
moose
pecan
squash
succotash
tepee
toboggan
tomahawk
totem

Hebrew Origin, More here

Amen
Armageddon
Behemoth
Cider
Halleujah
Leviathan
Kosher
Messiah
Pharaoh
Sabbath
Sack

Dow falls 500 points, worst day ever since 2001.

Dow falls 504 points today. Thanks to the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Yep, that's right, they filed the accursed Chapter 11. Also, Merrill Lynch & Co. is sold to Bank of America. This is a bad day for stocks. They say that AIG might be next, when that happens, I think the Dow will be down probably 1000+ points.

A Firefighter Revives a Cat.

In New Beford, Massachusetts, a fire happened in an apartment, tons of animals were saved, but 2 cats died. The cat that was revived need mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The Firefighter, bringing the cat outside of the burning apartment, gladly gave the cat mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Afterwards the cat rested. Thanks to that firefighter, that cat has it's life. I wonder who wouldn't of done that. I would of :)