The worst part of a really hard week is the weekend. No, I’m not kidding you! It’s really like that! All the work that you have to do for yourself somehow finds a way to just pile itself out, and leave you with no choice but to deal with them on the two days that you hope to catch up with some shut eye. God alone knows how this happens! Well I think that’s exactly what every chronic procrastinator’s going to give you.
Anyways, this weekend was one of the worst I’ve had in the recent past. It was Diwali. So there was loads to do at home. And then there was the freelance that you never find time for during the week. So, deadline on head, I work from 10 am Diwali morning to 8 am the next day, finish it, deliver it by 12, and get down to edit a film at the studio. (Which, by the way, found exactly that very day to go horribly wrong.) Work all night again, and get the first glimpse of the bed at 9 am the next morning.
That’s 48 hours non-stop.
Ok. So I finally hit the bed. Then what. 2 hours in, the phone (@#%&@!) decides to scream its tonsils out. Up again. I deal with the phone, something else comes up. It’s evening soon and there’s that hot girl waiting for me to catch a movie. So I catch the movie, down a couple of beers and head home at 3 am to hit the bed. The next thing I know, it’s 7 am on Monday and time to rush back to the grind.
Status now. Awake: 64 hours. Asleep: 6 hours.
Now, like all Mondays, this one was a bitch. And I ended up getting screwed around till 2 in the night. And then I hit bed. It’s 6 am and mom needs something real bad. So off I am scratching my backside, running errands with dog breath.
Situation. Awake: 96 hours. Asleep: 10.
By now, I feel completely out of my skin. I have goose bumps every 7 and a half seconds and yawn every other minute. I decide for the 37th time in 2 minutes to tear the pharynx out of Himesh Reshammiya. I hate tube lights, my art partner’s ultra sonic sneezes, laughter, the sound of a mouse click, and the entire species of client servicing. And I feel like I’ve had 71 cups of coffee.
Again, the day has a mind of its own. And I reach my bed at around 4 am. I decide that you have to be really demented to take clothes to sleep and sleep with my left shoe on. 7 am, and the damn alarm. Arrgh!
Awake: 120 hours. Asleep: 13 hours.
It’s 10.32 pm on Wednesday right now. And I have not the faintest how and where I’m gonna end this.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Electronic implants in the brain
Found this here.
Jose Delgado’s development of the Stimoceiver in the 1950s brought intelligence agencies’ ultimate dream of controlling human behavior one step closer to reality. The Stimoceiver—a miniature electrode capable of receiving and transmitting electronic signals by FM radio—could be placed within an individual’s cranium. And once in place, an outside operator could manipulate the subject’s responses. Delgado demonstrated the potential of his Stimoceivers by wiring a fully-grown bull. With the device in place, Delgado stepped into the ring with the bull. The animal charged towards the experimenter – and then suddenly stopped, just before it reached him. The powerful beast had been stopped with the simple action of pushing a button on a small box held in Delgado’s hand.
Dr. Delgado, a neurosurgeon and professor at Yale, received funding for brain electrode research on children and adults. He did research in monkeys and cats, and in one paper describes the cats as “mechanical toys.” He was able to control the movements of his animal and human subjects by pushing buttons on a remote transmitter box. In 1966, Delgado asserted that his experiments “support the distasteful conclusion that motion, emotion and behavior can be directed by electrical forces, and that humans can be controlled like robots by push buttons.”
An 11-year old boy underwent a partial change of identity upon remote stimulation of his brain electrode: “Electrical stimulation of the superior temporal convolution induced confusion about his sexual identity. These effects were specific, reliable, and statistically significant. For example, the patient said, 'I was thinking whether I was a boy or a girl,' and 'I’d like to be a girl.'" After one of the stimulations the patient suddenly began to discuss his desire to marry the male interviewer. Temporal-lobe stimulation produced in another patient open manifestations and declarations of pleasure, accompanied by giggles and joking with the therapist. In two adult female patients stimulation of the same region was followed by discussion of marriage and expression of a wish to marry the therapist.
Brain electrode research was also conducted independently at Harvard by Dr. Delgado’s coauthors, Drs. Vernon Mark, Frank Ervin, and William Sweet. Mark and Ervin describe implanting brain electrodes in a large number of patients at Harvard hospitals. A patient named Jennie was 14 years old when they put electrodes in her brain. In their book Violence and the Brain, photographs show 18-year old Julia smiling, angry, or pounding the wall depending on which button is being pushed on the transmitter box sending signals to her brain electrodes. The mind control doctors saw their patients as biological machines, a view which made them sub-human, and therefore easier to abuse in mind control experiments.
Dr. Robert G. Heath, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Tulane University, placed brain electrodes in a young homosexual man and fitted him with a box. A button on the box could be used to electrically stimulate an electrode implanted in a pleasure center. During one three-our period, the patient, referred to as B-19, stimulated himself 1,500 times. “During these sessions, B-19 stimulated himself to a point that he was experiencing an almost overwhelming euphoria and elation, and had to be disconnected, despite his vigorous protests."
Dr. John Lilly describes the technique of electrode implantation. “Electrodes could be implanted in the brain without using anesthesia. Short lengths of hypodermic needle tubing equal in length to the thickness of the skull were quickly pounded through the scalp into the skull. These stainless steel guides furnished passageways for the insertion of electrodes into the brain to any desired distance and at any desired location. Because of the small size of the sleeve guides, the scalp quickly recovered from the small hole made in it, and the sleeve guide remained embedded in the bone for months to years. At any time he desired, the investigator could palpate [rub] the scalp and find the location of each of the sleeve guides. Once one was found, he inserted a needle down through the bone. After withdrawing the needle, the investigator placed a small sharp electrode in the track made by the needle and pressed the electrode through the skull and down into the substance of the brain to any desired depth.”
Jose Delgado’s development of the Stimoceiver in the 1950s brought intelligence agencies’ ultimate dream of controlling human behavior one step closer to reality. The Stimoceiver—a miniature electrode capable of receiving and transmitting electronic signals by FM radio—could be placed within an individual’s cranium. And once in place, an outside operator could manipulate the subject’s responses. Delgado demonstrated the potential of his Stimoceivers by wiring a fully-grown bull. With the device in place, Delgado stepped into the ring with the bull. The animal charged towards the experimenter – and then suddenly stopped, just before it reached him. The powerful beast had been stopped with the simple action of pushing a button on a small box held in Delgado’s hand.
Dr. Delgado, a neurosurgeon and professor at Yale, received funding for brain electrode research on children and adults. He did research in monkeys and cats, and in one paper describes the cats as “mechanical toys.” He was able to control the movements of his animal and human subjects by pushing buttons on a remote transmitter box. In 1966, Delgado asserted that his experiments “support the distasteful conclusion that motion, emotion and behavior can be directed by electrical forces, and that humans can be controlled like robots by push buttons.”
An 11-year old boy underwent a partial change of identity upon remote stimulation of his brain electrode: “Electrical stimulation of the superior temporal convolution induced confusion about his sexual identity. These effects were specific, reliable, and statistically significant. For example, the patient said, 'I was thinking whether I was a boy or a girl,' and 'I’d like to be a girl.'" After one of the stimulations the patient suddenly began to discuss his desire to marry the male interviewer. Temporal-lobe stimulation produced in another patient open manifestations and declarations of pleasure, accompanied by giggles and joking with the therapist. In two adult female patients stimulation of the same region was followed by discussion of marriage and expression of a wish to marry the therapist.
Brain electrode research was also conducted independently at Harvard by Dr. Delgado’s coauthors, Drs. Vernon Mark, Frank Ervin, and William Sweet. Mark and Ervin describe implanting brain electrodes in a large number of patients at Harvard hospitals. A patient named Jennie was 14 years old when they put electrodes in her brain. In their book Violence and the Brain, photographs show 18-year old Julia smiling, angry, or pounding the wall depending on which button is being pushed on the transmitter box sending signals to her brain electrodes. The mind control doctors saw their patients as biological machines, a view which made them sub-human, and therefore easier to abuse in mind control experiments.
Dr. Robert G. Heath, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Tulane University, placed brain electrodes in a young homosexual man and fitted him with a box. A button on the box could be used to electrically stimulate an electrode implanted in a pleasure center. During one three-our period, the patient, referred to as B-19, stimulated himself 1,500 times. “During these sessions, B-19 stimulated himself to a point that he was experiencing an almost overwhelming euphoria and elation, and had to be disconnected, despite his vigorous protests."
Dr. John Lilly describes the technique of electrode implantation. “Electrodes could be implanted in the brain without using anesthesia. Short lengths of hypodermic needle tubing equal in length to the thickness of the skull were quickly pounded through the scalp into the skull. These stainless steel guides furnished passageways for the insertion of electrodes into the brain to any desired distance and at any desired location. Because of the small size of the sleeve guides, the scalp quickly recovered from the small hole made in it, and the sleeve guide remained embedded in the bone for months to years. At any time he desired, the investigator could palpate [rub] the scalp and find the location of each of the sleeve guides. Once one was found, he inserted a needle down through the bone. After withdrawing the needle, the investigator placed a small sharp electrode in the track made by the needle and pressed the electrode through the skull and down into the substance of the brain to any desired depth.”
Monday, November 05, 2007
What is Lorem Ipsum?
Again, I pulled this off the web. Unfortunately, I do not remember where I did that from. If you do, pls msg back!
What is Lorem Ipsum?
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Where does it come from?
Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..", comes from a line in section 1.10.32.
The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is reproduced below for those interested. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" by Cicero are also reproduced in their exact original form, accompanied by English versions from the 1914 translation by H. Rackham.
Why do we use it?
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).
What is Lorem Ipsum?
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Where does it come from?
Contrary to popular belief, Lorem Ipsum is not simply random text. It has roots in a piece of classical Latin literature from 45 BC, making it over 2000 years old. Richard McClintock, a Latin professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked up one of the more obscure Latin words, consectetur, from a Lorem Ipsum passage, and going through the cites of the word in classical literature, discovered the undoubtable source. Lorem Ipsum comes from sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" (The Extremes of Good and Evil) by Cicero, written in 45 BC. This book is a treatise on the theory of ethics, very popular during the Renaissance. The first line of Lorem Ipsum, "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet..", comes from a line in section 1.10.32.
The standard chunk of Lorem Ipsum used since the 1500s is reproduced below for those interested. Sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 from "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum" by Cicero are also reproduced in their exact original form, accompanied by English versions from the 1914 translation by H. Rackham.
Why do we use it?
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).
Thursday, November 01, 2007
What I found on the Web: Why does hydrogen peroxide foam when you put it on a cut?
Where I found it? Here!
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is something you can buy at the drug store. What you are buying is a 3-percent solution, meaning the bottle contains 97-percent water and 3-percent hydrogen peroxide. Most people use it as an antiseptic. It turns out that it is not very good as an antiseptic, but it is not bad for washing cuts and scrapes and the foaming looks cool.
The reason why it foams is because blood and cells contain an enzyme called catalase. Since a cut or scrape contains both blood and damaged cells, there is lots of catalase floating around.
When the catalase comes in contact with hydrogen peroxide, it turns the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) into water (H2O) and oxygen gas (O2).
2H2O2 --> 2H2O + O2
Catalase does this extremely efficiently -- up to 200,000 reactions per second. The bubbles you see in the foam are pure oxygen bubbles being created by the catalase. Try putting a little hydrogen peroxide on a cut potato and it will do the same thing for the same reason -- catalase in the damaged potato cells reacts with the hydrogen peroxide.
Hydrogen peroxide does not foam in the bottle or on your skin because there is no catalase to help the reaction to occur. Hydrogen peroxide is stable at room temperature.
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is something you can buy at the drug store. What you are buying is a 3-percent solution, meaning the bottle contains 97-percent water and 3-percent hydrogen peroxide. Most people use it as an antiseptic. It turns out that it is not very good as an antiseptic, but it is not bad for washing cuts and scrapes and the foaming looks cool.
The reason why it foams is because blood and cells contain an enzyme called catalase. Since a cut or scrape contains both blood and damaged cells, there is lots of catalase floating around.
When the catalase comes in contact with hydrogen peroxide, it turns the hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) into water (H2O) and oxygen gas (O2).
2H2O2 --> 2H2O + O2
Catalase does this extremely efficiently -- up to 200,000 reactions per second. The bubbles you see in the foam are pure oxygen bubbles being created by the catalase. Try putting a little hydrogen peroxide on a cut potato and it will do the same thing for the same reason -- catalase in the damaged potato cells reacts with the hydrogen peroxide.
Hydrogen peroxide does not foam in the bottle or on your skin because there is no catalase to help the reaction to occur. Hydrogen peroxide is stable at room temperature.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)