Benefits of Sleeping for Memorization

Researchers at a City College of New York sleep lab have found that a 45-minute daytime nap can help a person remember facts.
The brain files newly acquired memories into two main compartments. Those relating to skills go into our procedural memory compartment while those concerning facts, such as the stuff we learn from books, documentaries, and from interacting with other people, end up in our declarative memory compartment.
The experiment, led by Dr. Matthew Tucker, a Harvard Medical School fellow, tested 33 people on their declarative memory capability to remember unrelated word pairs, mazes, and complex line drawings.
The volunteers who took a 45-minute nap at the start of the 3-hour break between memorizing and testing performed much better than those who stayed in the lab and watched TV.



p.s. I am so sleepy Zzz -_-

Fun Website: OHPAI.COM

CONTENT WARNING!
IT IS NOT SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN, PEDOPHILES, AND GAYS!
IT IS ABLE TO CAUSE AN INSTANT HARDNESS FOR A CERTAIN PART OF YOUR BODY!
Attention, please! I just found an interesting website, Ohpai.com!
How does it works? It's quite simple, you just need to type a name inside the box and click the button.
Wait a moment and then...TAADAA! You will see the result, a name can determine breast size and shape.
You don't believe me? Well, you should try it then ;)



p.s. 1300135

Windows to Your Health

Here's a new reason not to cancel your next eye appointment; subtle signs in your eyes could tell your optometrist if you are risk of having a stroke.
After dilating your pupils, the doctor uses an ophthalmoscope or takes a photograph to look for changes in the retina that signal retinopathy, ballooning or bursting of the tiny vessels of the retina. These signs can also tell your doctor whether you have a pre-existing condition such as diabetes and high blood pressure. In a study headed by ophthalmologist, Professor Paul Mitchell from the University of Sydney, 3654 patients' eyes were examined. Those with blood vessel damage were 70% more likely than those without the lesions to have a stroke within seven years.



p.s. an eye for an eye...

Deadly Demons

These supernatural creatures disturb dreams throughout Asia. They make you sick, kill, and even eat your liver.

1. Moksin Tongbop, Korea
The Moksin Tongbop is the sort of house guest you can do without. It sneaks in by hitching a ride on wooden object and then, unless you follow specifics rules, it may infect you with various maladies, sometimes leading to death. Moving furniture, embarking on construction projects, and cutting down trees are all likely to spur an assault.

2. Jiang Shi, China
This Chinese vampire cuts a ghastly profile; pale-faced with its arms stretched out and fingernails and tongue elongated, it hops along seeking new victims to infect. It's said to detect its targets when they exhale, so if you sense one coming near, you might be able to outwit it by holding your breath.

3. Kappa, Japan
With its tortoise shell and bird beak, this water goblin might look like a joke, but wander too close to a river inhabited by one and the joke may be on you. The childlike oddity is known for yanking horses, cows, and people into the water and feasting on their livers. But there is some hope. The secret to the Kappa's super strength is a magic liquid that it carries on its head, spill the stuff and you will defeat it.



p.s. Kappa loves cucumber :d

Asian Hair

Hairdressers know that East Asians have the thickest hair in the world, and now scientists know why.
Geneticists in Thailand, Indonesia, and Japan found Asian hair 30% thicker than African and 50% thicker than European. They then turned to the HapMap Project, where scientists throughout the world compared gene variations among Nigerians, Europeans, Chinese, and Japanese and discovered that 88% of the Asians had a variation or mutation in a gene named EDAR, which is involved in the creation of hair follicles. The other two races didn't have the variation nor such thick strands of hair.



p.s. credit goes to Charlie, TIMOTEI!

Brother Tiger

How much of an animal's behavior is from nature? How much is from nurture? Can nurture change an animal's nature? Can early life experience have an influence on an adult animal?
You might think that for a hungry tiger, a piglet would naturally be lunch. However, for Saimai, a two years old Bengal tiger, piglets are not lunch. According to "Best Friends Magazine", Saimai plays with them as if they were his brothers. That is because when he was a cub, Saimai grew up with piglets. He thought that their mother was his mother. She suckled him while she was suckling her real babies.
Will this behavior continue or will Saimai suddenly return to his instinctive nature? Nobody knows the answer, but maybe those piglets shouldn't get too close to their "brother tiger", just in case.



p.s. RAWR!!!

Animal Communication: Monkeys & Apes

In the wild, monkeys and apes have several ways to communicate. One kind of African monkey has three calls to communicate with other monkeys in the group. Each call is distinct and communicates a specific kind of danger. The monkeys use a different call for each of the three animals that prey on monkeys. In Africa, Apes communicate in many of the same ways that humans do. They use body movements, gestures, and calls. One group of chimps in forest of East Africa has twenty five distinct calls.



p.s. don't worry, bananas will do...

Cat and Catnip

Why do cats love catnip?
The main active ingredient of catnip is nepetalactone. Its structure has little obvious resemblance to mammalian biochemicals, but just happens to fit particular receptor molecules. In several carnivores, nepetalactone molecules seem to fit vomeronasal receptors for sex pheromones and induce orgasmic behaviour, complete with a period of resolution.
The response is genetically determined; some cats are unaffected. This supports the suspicion that nepetalactone is different from the real pheromone. The drug should be of little selective relevance to cats, because few of their ancestors would have encountered catnip lactones.



p.s. so, catnip = cat's viagra?

Gakushu-shido-yoryo

Today, moral education becomes a popular topic in the fields of psychology and education. Media reports of increased crime, teen pregnancy, and suicide are a proof of moral crisis in our nation, because of that, systematic research and scholarship on moral development has been starting to solve this problem.
For example, the method of moral education in Japan.
Japanese moral education was discussed based on the course of study that called “Gakushu-shido-yoryo”, published by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. The course of study is based on national laws. Therefore all schools, regardless of whether they are public or private, are expected to follow. It provides academic standards of all academic subjects, moral education, and special activities and minimal hours allotted to them at elementary through high school level because moral education is implementing only in elementary and junior high schools. In Japan, moral education may vary from classroom to classroom, and also many arguments concerning moral education, such as the objection against the course of study and highly centralized education system, are being raised today.



p.s. BANZAI!

Octopus Intelligence

With its eight powerful arms, an octopus can swim backward or pull itself over rocks on the ocean floor. An octopus is very strong, but is it intelligent? People at the Hellabrunn Zoo, in Germany, might have an opinion about this.
Glass jars don't exist in the ocean, the natural environment of an octopus, so you might not expect an octopus to know how to open one. However, at the Hellabrunn Zoo, an octopus named Frieda had the motivation to learn how to open a jar. The motivation was food. Frieda watched her human keepers as they opened glass jars with food inside. From watching them, she learned how to twist off the lid and reach inside for the food.
Interestingly, she will not open just any jar. She doesn't open jars that contain fish. According to a representative of the zoo, "She will open only jars containing her favorite foods, such as shrimp, clams, and crabs."



p.s. I want to eat "takoyaki" :d

Life's Toughest Questions: Love & Marriage

1. Can love really last a lifetime?
Absolutely - but only if you chuck the fairy tale of living happily ever after. A team of scientists recently found that romantic love involves chemical changes in the brain that last 12 to 18 months. After that, you and your partner are on your own. Relationships require maintenance. Pay a visit to a nursing home if you want to see proof of lasting love. Recently I read an article about a man whose wife 0f 60 years was suffering from advanced Alzheimer's disease. He came to sit with her everyday and hold her hand. "She's been my best friend since high school," he said. "We made a promise to stick together." Now, that is a love story.

2. Why do married folks begin to look like one another?
Watch any two people who like each other talking, and you will see a lot of mirroring. One smiles, and so does the other. One nods or raises his/her eyebrows, and so does the other. Faces are like melodies with a natural urge to stay in sync. Multiply those movements by several decades of marriage, all those years of simultaneous sagging and drooping, and it is no wonder!

3. Can a marriage survive betrayal?
Yes, it can. It takes time and work, but experts are pretty unanimous on this one. In her book "The Monogamy Myth", Peggy Vaughan estimates that 60% of husbands and 40% of wives will have an affair at some point in their marriages. That is no advertisement for straying, but the news is good for couples hoping to recover from devastating breaches of trust. The offended partner needs to make the choice to forgive and learn to live with a memory that can't simply be erased. Infidelity is never forgotten, but it can gradually fade into the murky background of a strong, mature marriage.



p.s. and they lived happily ever after :P