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Sunday, November 27, 2011

Why Shorter Jaws In Modern Humans?

People living in "subsistence farming" communities around the world have shorter, wider jaws than those in hunting and gathering societies. This leaves less room for teeth, which have changed little in size or abundance over human history.

Changes in jawbone size arise due to "phenotypic plasticity", wherein environmental differences lead to anatomical changes. Longer jaws are advantageous for more intense chewing, whereas shorter jaws are more efficient for consuming agricultural fare like wheat, corn, or rice, which is relatively soft and consistent compared to hunter-gatherer grub.

Note: Children who chew tougher foods tend to have straighter teeth when they grow up.

http://tinyurl.com/caxxnkv
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenotypic_plasticity

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Splenda: Body Pollutant

I consider most 'sugar substitutes' to be pollutants. Splenda is a fine example.

Article excerpt:
"The FDA has no definition for “natural,” so please bear with us for a biochemistry moment: Splenda is the trade name for "sucralose", a synthetic compound stumbled upon in 1976 by scientists in Britain seeking a new pesticide formulation. It is true that the Splenda molecule is comprised of sucrose (sugar) — except that three of the hydroxyl groups in the molecule have been replaced by three chlorine atoms.

Once it gets to the gut, sucralose goes largely unrecognized in the body as food — that’s why it has no calories. The majority of people absorb about 15% of Splenda in their small intestine.

http://www.womentowomen.com/healthyweight/splenda.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_substitute

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/11/10/artificial-sweeteners-leading-cause-of-inflammatory-bowel-disease-in-canadians.aspx?e_cid=20111120_SNL_MS_1

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Telemarketer Predictive Dialer Harrassment

A relatively new phenomenon I've been experiencing is telephone solicitors' automatic predictive dialers' ringing my telephone without a caller ID showing and hanging before my answering machine can engage. This is in spite of my phone number being registered with the National Do Not Call Registry. As I understand it, the telemarketing software automatically dials my number as it's simultaneously being correlated with the Do Not Call List & quits ringing within a few rings when it drops the call when it identifies my number as a "do not call" number. This is too late though. I've already been disturbed. And this happens a half dozen times daily.

Google:  predictive dialer + automatic dialer + do not call compliance

http://privatecitizen.com/predictive.htm

Note: With "predictive dialer" software, those people who answer the phone 'live' are passed on to telemarketers. This helps telemarketers to be more productive. Then your number is sold to other outfits. I've been successful in greatly reducing the number of these trash calls by blocking their numbers. Rule of thumb: If you don't recognize the number on your caller id, DO NOT answer. If it's a legitimate call, they'll leave a message / you can pick up during the message if it's legit. If you've no caller id, then you're forced to let all callers start to leave a message before picking up.
http://www.callhunter.com/guides/robocaller-why-do-you-not-speak

Related topic:
"Caller ID Spoofing Scams"

Maybe the best thing is to simply add an incoming call block device that can block numbers from nuisance callers in the Blacklist (or block number list) / get kind with up to 1,500 telephone numbers in memory:
" T-lock Incoming PRO Call Blocker with LCD Display & Blacklist" 

If not, then buy a Panasonic phone (base station with cordless handset(s). They have a call block memory sufficient to block 30 different numbers. 
Panasonic KX-TG4771B Dect_6.0 1-Handset 1-Line Landline Telephone 

Monday, November 21, 2011

Coffee In Styrofoam Cups

The use of  styrofoam allows “styrene”, the single-molecule form of ‘polystyrene’, to migrate into your food or drink when used as a container.  Biopsies of fat from human subjects found styrene residues in 100% of the samples tested.  If you drink water, tea, or coffee from polystyrene cups four times a day for three years, you have consumed about one styrofoam cup-worth of styrene along with your beverages.  The amount that migrates into solid food is dependent upon the fat content of the food (the higher the fat content the greater the styrene migration).  The rate of migration also increases with temperature (e.g., hot coffee absorbs the most).   The health concerns related to this are numerous and readily available to read about on the internet. 

Saturday, November 19, 2011

"Born Again" Means?

Nicodemus came to Jesus and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.... no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

John 3 New International Version
"Jesus Teaches Nicodemus"
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3&version=NIV
[Be sure to study the footnotes.]

We know what Christianity teaches about being 'Born Again'. I propose that a way to help comprehend this is to consider that you were already in a 'spirit form' before you were born here into your physical body. And your 'spirit' will remain connected to your body through your soul until it's time for the real you to leave (return home). Your awareness of there being a spiritual world influences how smoothly or not it is for your Spirit to travel back to the 'spirit world' (be born again to where you came from). Those who have accepted spiritual truths such as those that Christ brought have the faith to go return straight home. Those who have not learned the essence of the Eleventh Commandment (or else simply reject it) will have a much harder time traveling home again. But, once they finally allow their "guardian angels" (Forces of White Light) to guide them, they'll make it in good order / even if they have been wandering spirits {lost souls} for awhile.

Causes of Great Depression & Great Recession

In my high school American History text, it told of how the Great Depression was preceded by speculation in the stock market. Speculation on stock led to the historic stock market crash in 1929 that brought on the Great Depression. It was fueled by "buying on margin" / with few regulations on stock market purchases, in the months and years leading up to the Great Depression, investors were able to buy stocks on margin, with the only requirement that they put 10% down. In other words, they could buy $100 worth of stock for a $10 investment, and if that stock went up by a mere 10%, they’d doubled their investment. This "leveraging" led to wild speculation, with people cashing in their life savings to funnel it into the stock market, which led to artificially high prices. Stock market regulations were put in place during the Great Depression to prevent the same catastrophe from repeating in the financial markets, but seventy years later, Americans
aimed a similar greed toward the housing market. Millions of people bought homes they couldn’t afford, with money they didn’t have, taking out 100% or 110% loans. Speculation on housing prices in 2003-2007 brought on the current recession.

http://www.museum.siu.edu/museum_classroom_grant/Museum_Explorers/school_pages/bourbonnais/page1.htm

http://www.thegreatdepressioncauses.com/then-and-now.html

Friday, November 18, 2011

Who Is GerryMandering?

Outside Independence Hall, ask a graduate student in line to see the Liberty Bell what he thinks of gerrymandering, and you might get this answer:

"I think Gerry Mandering is a great guy."

No, he isn't.

Read or Watch to see why not:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/18/politics/gerrymandering/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

Occupy Wall Street: The 99% Movement

The following select portion is from the 10-28-2011 issue of The Week, a weekly magazine well worth subscribing to:

Occupy Wall Street continues to gather momentum with satellite protests in more than 60 American cities. Yet as the growing protest continues, critics are still asking what it’s all about.

The answer is simple: “income inequality.” The wealthiest 400 people in the U.S. are now worth more than the bottom 150 million Americans. Three years after taxpayers bailed out the Wall Street gamblers whose recklessness plunged the country into the Great Recession, the average pay in the securities industry is $361,000, and the gap between the rich and everyone else is wider than ever. And the rich continue to rig the game, using their wealth to buy off politicians, and lobby for laws and tax policies that help them at the expense of everyone else.

Protesters have legitimate grievances, despite the nonstop demands for “democracy” / though democracy is necessarily an unglamorous, time-consuming process, which you can turn to your advantage only by immersing yourself in rules, laws, institutions, and elections.

Polls show that the “99 percent” movement is resonating with millions of people not present at the protests; the belief that wealthy Americans have grown too rich while the majority have been left behind is “shared by Americans across the political spectrum,” whether rich, poor, Republican, or Democrat. If you tune out the “anti-capitalist claptrap” of the usual “lefty fringe groups,” you’ll hear the “plaintive cry of a middle class in distress.” Who isn’t angry that Washington bailed out the big banks, which immediately went back to awarding their executives obscene bonuses? That “bipartisan dereliction of duty” is what unites the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street.

That’s why all politicians should heed the ongoing cry of distress. On the “99 percent” website, the stories that inspire the movement are a portrayal of the grinding misery of the Great Recession: a construction worker laid off from his job, now doing menial labor for $12 an hour; “hard-pressed single moms” who can’t afford health care; the Harvard graduate who owes $60,000 and can’t find a job. This is a moment that calls for bold political leadership and genuine economic reforms. But Obama’s only “misbegotten contribution” has been a costly, ineffective health-care law, and the Republican candidates don’t even seem to be aware of “the troubles of workers down the income scale.”

It’s about the “downward mobility” of middle-class Americans.

http://theweek.com/article/index/220577/the-lsquo99-percentrsquo-movement-will-it-matter

Emotional Stress Linked To Common Cold & Flu

Higher levels of mental and emotional stress increases the risk of both infection by cold viruses AND the appearance of cold symptoms.

Researchers administered questionnaires on psychological stress to 420 healthy adults. Participants reported the number of major stressful events experienced "in the past year", etcetera. The investigators used these data to divide volunteers into groups. Next, 394 volunteers received nasal drops containing a low dose of one of five respiratory viruses....

Among the virus-exposed volunteers, 325 became infected and 148 developed colds. Cold virus infections also showed up in five saline recipients from exposure to infected housemates.

The rates of respiratory infection and colds increased in accordance with stress levels reported on the questionnaires. Compared with the lowest-stress group, volunteers who reported the most psychological stress ran twice the risk of getting a cold and more than five time the risk of becoming infected with a cold virus. The pattern held despite statistical controls for varied influences on immune function, including age, sex, education, allergies, weight, viral status prior to the study, cigarette and alcohol use, exercise, diet, quality of sleep, number of housemates, and housemate infection rates. The ink between stress and colds also proved independent of the personality characteristics assessed on questionnaires.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_n9_v140/ai_11315142/?tag=content;col1
http://tinyurl.com/74wcmkv

Google: "Stress Management Tips"

Monday, November 14, 2011

Science of Sex Appeal

What we find sexually appealing is hard wired into our genes. It is based on finding the best mate (aka genes) for our offspring. And not surprisingly, it's the females who are the hardest to understand and predict as to who they'll find sexually appealing. It would bode well for young single adults to pay attention to the subject.

Could "copulance" be a hidden weapon in women's armory of attraction? Men seem to lose all ability to think clearly when exposed. Strippers who are ovulating receive much greater 'tips'. Meanwhile, a man's odor influences a woman's choices. However, note that a woman on birth control pills will make poorer genetically compatible choices than women who don't ovulate. Think of the implications .... etc... etc.

Science of Sex Appeal Videos
http://tinyurl.com/3bd67du
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/science-of-sex-appeal-female-copulance.html
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/science-of-sex-appeal/
http://health.discovery.com/videos/science-of-sex-appeal/
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/10/12/women-on-the-pill-may-choose-reliable-over-sexy-study-suggests/

Friday, November 11, 2011

Autism: Too Many Neurons?

Autism may be linked to an excess of neurons in a child's brain according to a SMALL study:
the brains of seven deceased autistic children were compared with the brains of six deceased kids who didn't have autism. The autistic kids had, on average, 67% more neurons — a type of brain cell and a building block of the nervous system — than boys without autism at a similar age. These neurons were concentrated in the prefrontal cortex, which is key to complex thoughts and behaviors, including language, social behavior and decision-making. The brains of autistic children were also found to be heavier, weighing an average of 17% more than the brains of kids without autism. 

What does it mean?
Neurons are only generated during development in the womb. Thus, this study lends compelling evidence to the argument that autism has something of a prenatal origin — and is not something triggered during early childhood. In the future, brain size could have a large impact on future autism screening. Pediatricians, for instance, might flag children with abnormally large brains as potential victims of the disease earlier than they do now, and be able to start treatment sooner.

 http://theweek.com/article/index/221322/is-autism-linked-to-too-many-brain-cells
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/11/09/extra-brain-cells-may-be-key-to-autism-study-says/