MooPig Brain Industries :: "Some blind people have learned to echolocate ..."

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BBC News - Human brain's 'bat sight' found: "Increased activity in the calcarine cortex was discovered."
Retrieved by Pat Darnell  |  May 31, 2011  |  Bryan TX

Consider the brain in your own head. Go on, try to think about it as the most crazy, crawdad, living saw-daddy.... your whole body is a caddy ... for your brain. Is it starting to zizzz you out? It does me. Your brain doesn't contract and expand like the heart and lungs; it just sits up there and delegates. It takes in stimulus from eyes, ears, mouth, hands, nose ... and  makes sense of it all.

Now consider blind people. They can learn to "see" by using clicking sounds that bounce back to their good functioning ears: it is called echo-location, just like bats do. And with fMRI researchers found: "Increased activity in the calcarine cortex was discovered."

BBC reported that: "Dr Lore Thaler, from University of Western Ontario, said: "This suggests that visual brain areas play an important role for echolocation in blind people." (Read entire article SOURCE)

So, again with the Brain Slices -- you should be getting used to it by now -- anyway you slice it, you will be engrossed in Brain Industries for the rest of your life.

Dissection of Visual Pathway, Inferior View

1. Optic nerve
2. Optic chiasma
3. Optic tract
4. Lateral geniculate body
5. Medial geniculate body
6. Optic radiation
7. Calcarine cortex
8. Lentiform nucleus
9. Caudate nucleus
10. Interpeduncular fossa
11. Cerebral aqueduct (SOURCE)

The sensory homunculus is the topographical representation of body parts on the brain. In the figure one can see that the hands have a disproportionately large representation compare to the eyes with respect to sensation but the perception of vision of course is in area 17 of the calcarine cortex. (SOURCE of Cool Slice; 2nd Picture)
Macular fibers are represented more posteriorly in the calcarine cortex whereas nasal fibers are projected more anteriorly. The individual fibers can be related to the visual field and its representation on the calcarine cortex. In the figure it is evident that the projection from nasal retinal fibers ... project to the contralateral anterior calcarine cortex with synapses in the lateral geniculate body. The left side of the brain views the right visual field and the images are projected as upright compared to the visual field.

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(Echolocation in bats: SOURCE)
" ... Using echolocation, bats can detect objects has thin as a human hair in complete darkness. Echolocation allows bats to find insects the size of mosquitoes, which many bats like to eat."

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Shazzam is worth Five Pounds per Second

Today's College Graduates were in Third Grade when Harry Potter Came Out ... How about That?
by Pat Darnell | May 31, 2011 | Bryan TX

Since the 30 June 1997 release of the first novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (re-titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States), by Rowling, the books have gained immense popularity, critical acclaim and commercial success worldwide. The series has also had some share of criticism, including concern for the increasingly dark tone. As of June 2008, the book series has sold more than 400 million copies and has been translated into 67 languages, and the last four books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history.
________References
^ Allsobrook, Dr. Marian (18 June 2003). "Potter's place in the literary canon". BBC. Retrieved 15 October 2007.
^ a b "Rowling 'makes £5 every second'". British Broadcasting Corporation. 3 October 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2008.
^ a b "All Time Worldwide Box Office Grosses". Box Office Mojo, LLC.. 1998–2008. Retrieved 29 July 2008.

Memorial Day 2011

In honor of Robert D. Darnell and Edward U. McMullen -- Surviving Veterans of WWII ... memories of whom if my life had been without I would be incomplete.

Guitar Flame Candidate from Space

NASA Talk -- Flame Burst in Space Micro-Gravity

I Want this Flame Burst on my Tele
Retrieved by Pat Darnell | May 29, 2011 | Bryan TX

Burning
Because of the absence of gravity, fuels burning in space behave very differently than they do on Earth. In this image, a 3-millimeter diameter droplet of heptane fuel burns in microgravity, producing soot. When a bright, uniform backlight is placed behind the droplet and flame and recorded by a video camera, the soot appears as a dark cloud. Image processing techniques can then quantify the soot concentration at each point in the image. On the International Space Station, the Flame Extinguishing Experiment examines the combustion of such liquid fuel droplets.

This colorized gray-scale image is a composite of the individual video frames of the backlit fuel droplet. The bright yellow structure in the middle is the path of the droplet, which becomes smaller as it burns. Initial soot structures (in green) tend to form near the liquid fuel. These come together into larger and larger particles which ultimately spiral out of the flame zone in long, twisting streamers.
[NASA LINK]
Image Credit: NASA
Page Last Updated: May 25, 2011
Page Editor: Yvette Smith
NASA Official: Brian Dunbar

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NASA Talk -- Spacewalker at ISS

Spacewalker
Astronaut Andrew Feustel reenters the space station after completing n 8-hour, 7-minute spacewalk at 10:12 a.m. EDT Sunday, May 22, 2011. He and fellow spacewalker Mike Fincke completed this, the second of the four STS-134 spacewalks, for a mission total of 14 hours 26 minutes. It was the 246th spacewalk conducted by U.S. astronauts, the 116th from space station airlocks, and the 157th in support of space station assembly and maintenance. It was Feustel's fifth spacewalk and Fincke's seventh spacewalk.
[NASA LINK]
Image Credit: NASA
Page Last Updated: May 23, 2011
Page Editor: Yvette Smith
NASA Official: Brian Dunbar

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NASA Talk -- Largest Scientific Collaboration of ISS

Exploring the Wonders of the Universe
The newly-installed Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2 is visible at center of the International Space Station's starboard truss. The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, or AMS, is the largest scientific collaboration to use the orbital laboratory. This investigation is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and made possible by funding from 16 nations. Led by Nobel Laureate Samuel Ting, more than 600 physicists from around the globe will be able to participate in the data generated from this particle physics detector. The mission of the AMS is, in part, to seek answers to the mysteries of antimatter, dark matter and cosmic ray propagation in the universe.
[NASA LINK]
Image Credit: NASA
Page Last Updated: May 22, 2011
Page Editor: Yvette Smith
NASA Official: Brian Dunbar

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FWD Emails Department :: MooPig Enrichment Program "Modern Totem Poles"

Back Story:
" ... All the old cottonwood trees in the area of Craig , Colorado , had some disease and needed to be removed. So the city council approved a chainsaw competition in the park and offered a prize. The attached pictures are a result of the competition in the park. ... (SOURCE Unknown)"

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MooPig's Posturing Honkey's Feature

Gumball 3000 Celebrity Photocall Pictures
By Michelle Wray  |  May 28, 2011  |   LINK

America's Got Talent :: his T-shirt says "Don't HASSEL the Hoff"

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MooPig Site Review :: "Warning Sign Generator"

Know Your Warning Signs
Reviewed by Pat Darnell

Go To this SITE:
Warning Sign Generator

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Introducing Method Maestro, Arch Enemy

Introducing Doctor Loo

MooPig Celebrity Roast :: "Oprah Winfrey Hosts Final Show"

Oprah Winfrey Hosts Final Show: "CHICAGO - U.S. television star Oprah Winfrey, 57, has ended her quarter-century-long talk show, tearing up as she told her millions of worldwide viewers that they and the program have been “the great love” of her life."

What's Next?

MooPig Graphics :: "Big Idea DOODLES"

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Lubricating Spacewalking astronauts encounter bolt trouble - Technology & science - Space - msnbc.com

Spacewalking astronauts encounter bolt trouble - Technology and science - Space - msnbc.com

EXCERPT  |  " ... Mike Fincke, one of NASA's most experienced spacemen, had to settle for a partial lube job, after the bolts holding down covers on the massive joint started popping off unexpectedly.

"Bummer," said his spacewalking partner, Andrew Feustel. ... (SOURCE)"

by Pat Darnell  |  May 26, 2011  |  Bryan TX
This is an interesting tale for some. We never think about what it must be like to work on the International Space Station, ISS, in this way. The space walking astronaut lost a "bolt" ..."while trying to lubricate a joint in the life-sustaining solar power system of the International Space Station...(Dunn, Marcia. May 22, 2011. HERE)."

For instance, if I focus on the "bolt" now floating in space around the earth in micro-gravity, I could be tempted to exaggeration. You know the feeling, like this 'bolt missing leaves a gap, a fissure in the structure of the Solar Power System that eventually leads to the shut down of the whole program...' type exaggeration.

Let's move on. It is a bit humbling to think of the giant space construct ISS hovering in orbit has the same needs as a truck's stopover at Dixie Truckers' Home in McLean IL. They both need constant lubrication. A truck will continue for a long while without proper lube-ing, but it won't be pretty. No, that Mack will shudder and shake, and squeak its way down the highway.

It links us all to know the ISS needs a regular lube job.

We are all part of the great space walk. We can lube our vintage cars with a same vigor as a space walking astronaut. It also rings home that a 'buck fifty' part like a bolt can bring the whole mechanical dynamo down.

Follow LINKS to read entire article: "Spacewalkers cope with flying hardware during lube job: One bolt lost as astronauts grease up space station joint; coolant system topped off

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It's Tuesday and I'm Confused

I don't know how this factory can stay open! Was this due to layoffs? The Safety folks don't seem to think so.