Newspaper - Blog Posts

The Twin-City Daily Sentinel, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, March 11, 1912

Yesterday I visited my dad at work (he works at a newspaper company) and no one got my newsies references ):

[img id- pink octupus animation that has blue evie eyes and moves its tentacles rollingly in purple ocean - end id]

octupi r v nice. 

in continuation to this article, David Nichols, who pioneered studies of MDMA for therapy, wonders how ecstasy might help untangle the fear circuitry in octopuses: “Connecting the dots in the octopus may lead to scientists being able to connect the dots, so to speak, in other species, including man,” Dr. David Nichols has said.Though just beginning, Dr. Dölen is my rockhard and rightly believes that we need to be taking full advantage of these compounds to see what they’re doing to the brain.She stated that when the octopuses came down from their serotonin highs, they acted completely normal — for an octopus.

time for a diversion from the drugs are evil narrative isn’t it? They are dangerous because they were given to people who’d like them being dangerous and promoted them so, they should be used differently is all. Water would be dangerous if we tried to breath it, wouldn’t it? Octopuses are indeed cute. And we must learn from all cute evies.

[img id- newspaper article titled “On ecstasy, octopuses reach out for a hug”, article content: Octopuses are smart. They open jars, steal fish and high-five each other.Though interactive, they’re generally asocial, and temperamental, with unique behavior patterns, like those shown by Otto, who caused blackouts at a German aquarium and Inky, who famously escaped a tank in New Zealand. They learn through experience and observation, forming lasting memories with brain-like bundles of hundreds of millions of neurons in each arm and a centralized bundle in the middle.A desire to understand the evolutionary underpinnings of this brain power led scientists to give octopuses ecstasy. Yes, ecstasy — molly, E, MDMA, the party drug, which in humans reduces fear and inhibition, induces feelings of empathy, distorts time and helps people dance to electronic music all night.And under the influence of MDMA, the researchers report in a paper published Thursday in Current Biology, asocial octopuses seemed to become more social.“Even though octopuses look like they come from outer space, they’re actually not that different from us,” said Gül Dölen, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine who led the study with Eric Edsinger, an octopus researcher at Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole.They also found that humans and octopuses share parts of an ancient messaging system involved in social behaviors, one enhanced by the presence of MDMA in both animals. These shared lineages may have been conserved to reduce fear and enable social behaviors. And although preliminary, the authors think octopuses present a promising model for studying MDMA’s effects on the human brain, treating PTSD and better understanding how the brain evolved to conjure social behaviors.[Like the Science Times page on Facebook. | Sign up for the Science Times newsletter.]MDMA helps release, among other chemicals, serotonin. That ancient molecule is involved in regulating mood and social behaviors in invertebrates like locusts as well as vertebrates, like fish, dogs and humans.Smarter Living: The best advice from The Times on living a better, smarter, more fulfilling life.For Dr. Dölen, who is interested in evolution of social behavior, the octopus offered an interesting test of MDMA and serotonin, because it is separated by 500 million years of evolution from humans, but also has complex behavior.Octopuses suspend their aggression for a few minutes to mate, perhaps accessing an otherwise switched-off neural signaling system — potentially similar to the one that helps humans behave socially, she reasoned. And any similarities in octopus and human genetic code related to this system could help her understand how the brain — down to its tiniest bits — evolved to govern social behaviors.Like a wedge in Pac-Man’s mouth, MDMA fits inside a protein that moves serotonin in and out of neurons. The drug eventually causes a flood of serotonin between synapses, increasing its signals. When the researchers compared the genome of the California two-spot octopus (Octopus bimaculoides) to those of other animals, they discovered humans and octopuses could both make this protein, and it was nearly 100 percent similar at that special Pac-Man spot.But would that protein on ecstasy also make octopuses social?They put the octopuses in the center of a three-chambered tank where they could explore a Star Wars figurine on one side or another octopus on the other (it was contained beneath an overturned orchid pot with holes, in case the MDMA hadn’t worked and violence ensued).Undosed, octopuses of either sex spent more time with the toy than the other octopus (if it was a male; they seemed less concerned when it was female).But after soaking in low-dose MDMA-laced baths, the octopuses seemed to relax. They spent more time with the male octopuses on the other side of the tank.They also hugged the pot with several arms, showing off their ventral ends, or mouths, almost like how the Larger Pacific Striped Octopus, the only known social octopus species, mates beak to beak in an eight-armed hug.Though they tested only a few octopuses and MDMA likely acts on more molecules than serotonin, Charles Nichols, a pharmacologist at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine, was impressed: “I’ve been giving psychedelics to fruit flies for years in my lab, but had yet to have seen one given to an octopus.”- end id]

Ghent, Brussels Werregarenstract (Graffiti Street) is certainly worth investigating as the artists are free to create their own designs.

 via  Gridllr.com   —  rediscover your old Likes!

Grunge Revival

Coffee, a good book, comfortable silence with my moon, absolutely a perfect way to spend a post Christmas Saturday.

Reporting All Robots!

This FIRST Robotics season I joined forces with BlueDevil Press to live report on the Duluth Robotics Regional. BlueDevil Press is a collaboration of three teams to give an unbiased view of the robotics world to the community. As a part project mentor part alumna I helped edit articles, devise interview questions and follow beats. For the Duluth Regional we crafted a wrap around the Duluth News Tribune, submitted four articles to the paper and published eight articles on the BlueDevil Press blog. Some of the stories include...

"Starting ’em Young" - Kindergartners visit the FIRST Robotics Regional

"FIRST President Don Bossi Interview" - FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) President shares he visions for the future of robotics

"Phoenix Robotics" - A norm busting robotics team

"A “FEARless” Season" - Overcoming disaster, robot drove off the stage during community demo

Wrap around the Duluth News Tribune. Part program part “What is robotics?”

Following the competition I visited the Kindergarten class that took a field trip to watch the robots. We reviewed the robotics challenge reveal video one more time, then they were challenged to build a robot of their own out of odd materials. Students were given googly eyes (cameras), clothes pins (robot defense manipulators), pom poms (boulders), foam (robot structure),  construction paper (robot field) and pipe cleaners (aluminum rods). I expected the students to glue their creations down on provided construction paper but instead they made the robots 3-D! Folding and building their robots like a diorama recreating the scenes they saw at the competition. Every time I give a class a design challenge I am amazed by what they imagine!

Robot shooting a boulder into a tower.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED

Watch FIRST robotics competitions live every Thursday to Saturday until May 1st, 2016.

Support your local FIRST Robotics team. Teams often have their own website and 501c3 so you can donate to them. Find them here.

Visit a classroom and read a book, teach some coding, talk about your career. Teachers will love the extra prep time and students love a fresh perspective.

Pit area where teams work on their robot between matches.

A Collegiate Cat

Just a wonderful poem about a cat, but make it old and fancy sounding – found on Smithsonian

The Prosaic, Now-Perennial Paper

This started out as a vocabulary assignment way back in middle school, with the article "Venerable Citizen Exonerated: A Follow-Up to 'Mr. P.G. Tips in Hot Water.'" Then I ended up continuing it into a whole mini-newspaper personifying various teas in the kitchen, and their society and escapades. It's been an off-and-on project over... egads, the last ten years, I think. (Sheesh!) Anyway, thought I'd post the more recent issues of the paper (those from the past 3 years). The earlier ones are a bit sillier, the ads aren't as well-done, and the quality of the writing is lower.

Bicycle made out of waste newspaper

reading

CHUUYA READS NEWSPAPER?? HELLO? HOW DID NO ONE NOTICE THIS HOLY SHIT-

à Paris 

Go Fish