Evolution

‘We are probably one of the last generations of Homo sapiens’ — Yuval Noah Harari

August 25, 2016

‘We are probably one of the last generations of Homo sapiens’ — Yuval Noah Harari

August 25, 2016

Historian and author of the international bestseller Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari predicts the future of humanity. “We are probably one of the last generations of Homo sapiens,” he tells BBC Radio 4′s Today programme. Animation by Cognitive.

related:

• Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
• http://www.kurzweilai.net/we-are-probably-one-of-the-last-generations-of-homo-sapiens-yuval-noah-harari

Topics: AI/Robotics | Evolutionary Biology

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Cosmic Eye

Dimensions: Cosmic Eye HD

August 26, 2016  Through Kurzweil

Danail Obreschkow

This movie was generated using the iOS App “Cosmic Eye“, written by Danail Obreschkow at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research at the University of Western Australia. This app draws inspiration from a progression of increasingly accurate graphical representations of the scales of our Universe, including the classical essay “Cosmic View” (1957), the short movie “Powers of Ten” (1977), directed by Charles and Ray Eames, and “Cosmic Zoom” (1968), directed by Eva Szasz. Where possible, it displays real photographs obtained with modern objectives, telescopes, and microscopes. Other views are phenomenal renderings of state-of-the-art computer models. All scientists and sources have given permission and are fully credited in the app.

related:

• A different way to teach astrophysics BBC News
• Danail Obreschkow: Cosmic Eye

Video Source: Danail Obreschkow

Topics: Physics/Cosmology

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1977 film that put the vastness of the universe into perspective

Opening at the scene of a picnic in a Chicago park, then gradually zooming out
to encompass a view 100 million light years away before magnifying down again
to a single proton, this classic 1977 short documentary by the legendary husband-
and-wife design team Charles and Ray Eames uses exponential powers of ten to
contextualise the scale of the known universe and chart the limits of human
understanding. An ‘adventure in magnitudes’, Powers of Ten has been used to teach
millions and millions about the cosmos and the microcosmic, and remains an
extraordinary journey nearly 40 years later.

Director: Charles Eames, Ray Eames

De Hobbes a Rousseau

Artigo na ZH de hoje de meu companheiro de Hidroginástica

Antonio Domingos Padula: de Hobbes a Rousseau: selvageria ou civilização? 

Antonio Domingos Padula: de Hobbes a Rousseau: selvageria ou civilização? Professor titular na Escola de Administração da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)

30/08/2016 - As estatísticas e os últimos acontecimentos sobre a violência e a
insegurança pública  no Rio Grande do Sul revelam que a sociedade gaúcha
está avançando a passos largos para o que o filósofo do século 17, Hobbes,
chamava de estado de "guerra de todos contra todos", ou seja, estado natural de
selvageria. Contrapondo Hobbes, outro filósofo, do século 18, Rousseau,
argumentava que o homem nasce bom, mas a sociedade o corrompe.
Hobbes e Rousseau propunham meios e caminhos para tornar a existência
humana civilizada e suportável.

Hobbes defendia que o papel civilizador deveria ser desempenhado pelo Estado, que chamou de Leviatã. Para Hobbes, o Estado deve criar regras de convivência social e exercer poder de polícia para impedir que os indivíduos se comportem de forma selvagem. Já para Rousseau, o processo civilizatório deveria ser conseguido por meio da celebração de um contrato social, que incentive e leve os indivíduos a se comportarem de forma civilizada.

No século 20, economistas institucionalistas (Coase, North, Williamson) argumentaram que para que haja desenvolvimento econômico e social, faz-se necessário estabelecer uma estrutura de regras de convivência social que incentive o comportamento colaborativo e desestimule o comportamento oportunista. A aproximação do estado de "guerra de todos contra todos" que nos encontramos parece que tem sua origem delineável. Tanto o Estado quanto a sociedade gaúcha foram, ao longo do tempo, estabelecendo contratos e regras de convivência que levaram o Estado a se afastar da razão de sua existência. Passou-se a responsabilizar o Estado por um conjunto vasto de serviços e atividades que ultrapassam sua capacidade de financiamento e execução.

Ao longo desse processo, o Estado acabou sendo capturado pelas corporações de ofício (sindicatos e representações de classes) de servidores dos três poderes, que se tornaram mais poderosas que o Estado e passaram a obter rendas (rent seeking) maiores do que a sociedade é capaz de financiar com o pagamento de impostos.

Assim, não resta ao Estado e à sociedade gaúcha outra alternativa que não seja a repactuação de um novo contrato social. Ao Estado, conforme os filósofos e economistas, cabe tão somente zelar pelas regras de convivência social que levem à segurança, ao desenvolvimento e à liberdade dos indivíduos. "Nunca antes na História", a sociedade esteve tão desejosa de que o Estado cumpra seu papel. A presença da Força Nacional no RS é bem-vinda, mas é apenas um paliativo efêmero.

Anthropocene

Leicester researchers involved in hunt for 'golden spike' that signalled new epoch

Posted by ap507 at Aug 30, 2016 09:05 AM | Permalink

Geologists search for the moment humanity changed the planet forever and triggered the Anthropocene era

Geologists - including Professor Jan Zalasiewicz and Dr Colin Waters from the Department of Geology - are on the hunt for the 'golden spike' that would signify the moment humanity changed the planet forever and triggered the Anthropocene era.

The worldwide hunt for a 'line in the rock' that shows the beginning of a proposed new geological epoch - the Anthropocene, which is defined by humanity’s extraordinary impact on planet Earth - is expected to get underway in the next few weeks.

Later this month, an expert working group convened by Professor Zalasiewicz and set up to investigate whether these changes are so significant that the 11,500-year-old Holocene epoch is now at an end will present its latest findings to the 35th International Geological Congress (IGC) in South Africa./.../

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Provisional recommendations 

This international scientific body (that includes the University of Leicester geologists Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams and honorary chair, the British Geological Survey geologist Colin Waters, and archaeologist Matt Edgeworth), has been active since 2009, analysing the case for formalization of the Anthropocene, a potential new epoch of geological time dominated by human impact on the Earth. The AWG is about to present its preliminary findings and recommendations at the International Geological Congress in Cape Town, at the same time indicating the range of voting opinion within the group on the major questions surrounding the Anthropocene. It will also map out a route towards a formal proposal on formalization, and indicate work that still needs be done to effect this.

Majority current opinion on the group indicates the following:

Elder Rights in China

Elder Rights in ChinaCare for Your Parents or Suffer Public Shaming and Desecrate Your Credit Scores FREE ONLINE FIRST

XinQi Dong, MD, MPH1

[+] Author Affiliations

JAMA Intern Med. Published online August 29, 2016. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.5011

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Article

References

Comments

The demographics of China are changing rapidly, straining long-standing values about aging, family, and caregiving. By 2025, it is likely that Chinese people will represent one-quarter of the world’s population over age 60 years. At present, the Chinese government lacks the structure and capacity to care for the elderly.1The rapid expansion of China’s cities and the nation’s focus on economic prosperity has also made it more difficult for younger people to care for their aging parents.1 Exacerbated by the One Child Policy, which was active from 1980 to 2015 and restricted family size to 1 child per couple, issues of aging have become seemingly insurmountable. As a delegate for the Chicago Sister Cities International’s Chicago-Shanghai Social Services Exchange Program in 2015, I witnessed firsthand the unintended consequences of the One Child policy and the 4:2:1 paradigm that has become shorthand for 1 child providing care for 4 grandparents and 2 parents. The unintended consequences include caregiver burden and elder abuse and neglect. According to XinHua, the Chinese State’s new agency, approximately 185 million people over the age of 60 years do not live with their children because many children move away to pursue economic opportunities/.../.1

Baruch Spinoza

From aeon

Essay / Values & Beliefs Why Spinoza still matters At a time of religious zealotry, Spinoza’s fearless defence of intellectual freedom is more timely than ever Steven Nadler

Utopia of Life

A New and Sweeping Utopia of Life: Gabriel García Márquez’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

An ennobled vision for a world “where no one will be able to decide for others how they die, where love will prove true and happiness be possible.”

BY MARIA POPOVA

On December 8, 1982, decades after his unlikely beginnings as a writer, Gabriel García Márquez(March 6, 1927–April 17, 2014) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. With the hindsight of a lifetime of reading, he took the stage at the Swedish Academy and delivered his tremendous acceptance speech under the title “The Solitude of Latin America.” The English translation of the transcript was later included in the altogether indispensable tome Nobel Writers on Writing (public library), which also gave us Bertrand Russell on the four desires driving all human behaviorand Pearl S. Buck, the youngest woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, on art, writing, and the nature of creativity./.../

2776 - AMICOR 19

Ultrasound after coma

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há uma hora

Scientists use ultrasound to jump-start a man's brain after comaNew noninvasive technique may lead to low-cost therapy for patients with severe brain injuryDate:August 24, 2016Source:University of California - Los AngelesSummary:A 25-year-old man recovering from a coma has made remarkable progress following a treatment to jump-start his brain using ultrasounds, scientists report. This is the first time such an approach to severe brain injury has been tried. The researchers targeted the thalamus with low-intensity focused ultrasound pulsation. *Credit: Martin Monti/UCLA* A 25-year-old... mais »

Freedom toward distraction and dependency

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há um dia

Essay / History of Technology from aeon The world wide cage Technology promised to set us free. Instead it has trained us to withdraw from the world into distraction and dependency Nicholas Carr Late in his life, the economist John Kenneth Galbraith coined the term ‘innocent fraud’. He used it to describe a lie or a half-truth that, because it suits the needs or views of those in power, is presented as fact. After much repetition, the fiction becomes common wisdom. ‘It is innocent because most who employ it are without conscious guilt,’ Galbraith wrote in 1999. ‘It is fraud because... mais »

Gaba Microbioma

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 2 dias

Gut bacteria spotted eating brain chemicals for the first time [image: Lactobacillus rhamnosus bacteria] Got GABA? Custom Medical Stock Photo/SPL By Andy Coghlan Bacteria have been discovered in our guts that depend on one of our brain chemicals for survival. These bacteria consume GABA, a molecule crucial for calming the brain, and the fact that they gobble it up could help explain why the gut microbiome seems to affect mood. Philip Strandwitz and his colleagues at Northeastern University in Boston discovered that they could only grow a species of recently discovered gut bacteria, cal... mais »

Light Pollution

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 2 dias

*Light Pollution* Video / Ecology & Environmental SciencesWhat else do we lose when we lose sight of the stars?

Radiosurgery for Atrial Fibrillation

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 3 dias

REVIEW ARTICLE PEER-REVIEWED Cost-Effectiveness of Cardiac Radiosurgery for Atrial Fibrillation: Implications for Reducing Health Care Morbidity, Utilization, and Costs Nikhilesh Bhatt , Mintu Turakhia, Thomas J. Fogarty ------------------------------ *Published:* August 01, 2016 (see history) *DOI:* 10.7759/cureus.720 *Cite this article as:* Bhatt N, Turakhia M, Fogarty T J. (August 01, 2016) Cost-Effectiveness of Cardiac Radiosurgery for Atrial Fibrillation: Implications for Reducing Health Care Morbidity, Utilization, and Costs. Cureus 8(8): e720. doi:10.7759/cureus.720 ----------... mais »

Lipids

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 4 dias

*Apontado pela AMICOR Maria Inês Reinert Azambuja. Artigo do NYTimes* http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/an-unconventional-cardiologist-promotes-a-high-fat-diet/?emc=edit_tnt_20160823&nlid=67891229&tntemail0=y

Alzheimer's D study

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 5 dias

World’s Most In Depth Study to Detect Early Signs of Alzheimer’s NEUROSCIENCE NEWSAUGUST 22, 2016 *Summary: Researchers announce a new study that aims to identify new biomarkers that can be detected during the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease.* Source: University of Oxford. *A new multimillion pound study, which will see the most thorough and rigorous series of tests to detect Alzheimer’s disease ever performed on volunteers, is announced today (Monday 22 August). The Deep and Frequent Phenotyping study is funded by the National Institute of Health Research and the MRC and hop... mais »

AD Risk Gene

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 6 dias

New Mechanism Discovered for Alzheimer’s Risk Geneby Neuroscience News A new discovery could help answer the question as to how extra ApoE4 may cause Alzheimer's disease. Read more of this post *Neuroscience News* | August 18, 2016 at 9:22 am | Tags: Alzheimer's disease , amyloid-beta,ApoE4, dementia, Genetics, HtrA1, Memory, memory loss, Neurology, Tau | Categories:Featured, Genetics, Neurology | URL: http://wp.me/p4sXNK-8Km Comment See all comments

WHO/NCD

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 6 dias

Michael R. Bloomberg Becomes WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases Alert from my friend Stephen Leeder - News release 17 AUGUST 2016 | GENEVA - WHO has today named Mr Michael R. Bloomberg, philanthropist and former three-term Mayor of the City of New York, as Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs). NCDs (including heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases) and injuries are responsible for 43 million deaths each year - almost 80% of all deaths worldwide. Each year, 16 million people die from NCDs before the age of 70. Road traf... mais »

Ultrasound after coma

Scientists use ultrasound to jump-start a man's brain after coma

New noninvasive technique may lead to low-cost therapy for patients with severe brain injury

Date:

August 24, 2016

Source:

University of California - Los Angeles

Summary:

A 25-year-old man recovering from a coma has made remarkable progress following a treatment to jump-start his brain using ultrasounds, scientists report. This is the first time such an approach to severe brain injury has been tried.

The researchers targeted the thalamus with low-intensity focused ultrasound pulsation.

Credit: Martin Monti/UCLA

A 25-year-old man recovering from a coma has made remarkable progress following a treatment at UCLA to jump-start his brain using ultrasound. The technique uses sonic stimulation to excite the neurons in the thalamus, an egg-shaped structure that serves as the brain's central hub for processing information./.../

The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles. The original item was written by Stuart Wolpert.Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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University of California - Los Angeles. "Scientists use ultrasound to jump-start a man's brain after coma: New noninvasive technique may lead to low-cost therapy for patients with severe brain injury." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 24 August 2016. .

Freedom toward distraction and dependency

Essay / History of Technology from aeon The world wide cage Technology promised to set us free. Instead it has trained us to withdraw from the world into distraction and dependency Nicholas Carr

Late in his life, the economist John Kenneth Galbraith coined the term ‘innocent fraud’. He used it to describe a lie or a half-truth that, because it suits the needs or views of those in power, is presented as fact. After much repetition, the fiction becomes common wisdom. ‘It is innocent because most who employ it are without conscious guilt,’ Galbraith wrote in 1999. ‘It is fraud because it is quietly in the service of special interest.’ The idea of the computer network as an engine of liberation is an innocent fraud.
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What Silicon Valley sells and we buy is not transcendence but withdrawal. We flock to the virtual because the real demands too much of us

Our craving for regeneration through virtuality is the latest expression of what Susan Sontag in On Photography (1977) described as ‘the American impatience with reality, the taste for activities whose instrumentality is a machine’. What we’ve always found hard to abide is that the world follows a script we didn’t write. We look to technology not only to manipulate nature but to possess it, to package it as a product that can be consumed by pressing a light switch or a gas pedal or a shutter button. We yearn to reprogram existence, and with the computer we have the best means yet. We would like to see this project as heroic, as a rebellion against the tyranny of an alien power. But it’s not that at all. It’s a project born of anxiety. Behind it lies a dread that the messy, atomic world will rebel against us. What Silicon Valley sells and we buy is not transcendence but withdrawal. The screen provides a refuge, a mediated world that is more predictable, more tractable, and above all safer than the recalcitrant world of things. We flock to the virtual because the real demands too much of us.

Gaba Microbioma

Gut bacteria spotted eating brain chemicals for the first time

Got GABA?

Custom Medical Stock Photo/SPL

By Andy Coghlan

Bacteria have been discovered in our guts that depend on one of our brain chemicals for survival. These bacteria consume GABA, a molecule crucial for calming the brain, and the fact that they gobble it up could help explain why the gut microbiome seems to affect mood.

Philip Strandwitz and his colleagues at Northeastern University in Boston discovered that they could only grow a species of recently discovered gut bacteria, called KLE1738, if they provide it with GABA molecules. “Nothing made it grow, except GABA,” Strandwitz said while announcing his findings at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston last month.

GABA acts by inhibiting signals from nerve cells, calming down the activity of the brain, so it’s surprising to learn that a gut bacterium needs it to grow and reproduce. Having abnormally low levels of GABA is linked to depression and mood disorders, and this finding adds to growing evidence that our gut bacteria may affect our brains.

Treating depression

An experiment in 2011 showed that a different type of gut bacteria, called Lactobacillus rhamnosus, can dramatically alter GABA activity in the brains of mice, as well as influencing how they respond to stress. In this study, the researchers found that this effect vanished when they surgically removed the vagus nerve – which links the gut to the brain – suggesting it somehow plays a role in the influence gut bacteria can have on the brain.

Strandwitz is now looking for other gut bacteria that consume or even produce GABA, and he plans to test their effect on the brains and behaviour of animals. Such work may eventually lead to new treatments for mood disorders like depression or anxiety.

“Although research on microbial communities related to psychiatric disorders may never lead to a cure, it could have astonishing relevance to improving patients’ quality of life,” said Domenico Simone of George Washington University in Ashburn, Virginia.

Read more: Psychobiotics: How gut bacteria mess with your mind

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• bacteria
• depression
• microbio