Fog Catchers "If we can help generate alternative sustainable economic activities, we will be increasing the community’s chances for a viable livelihood in the face of climate change." Juan José RodríguezThe Nature Conservancy’s Coasts and Deserts coordinator by Marcela Torres Vea también en español Have you ever seen a desert turn into a lush green valley bursting with life? The lomas’ ability to capture fog and turn it into water that plants, animals and people can use is key to the survival of the biodiversity and human populations living in this otherwise arid environment. But centuries of unmanaged livestock grazing and chopping of trees for firewood have left the lomas depleted, with less vegetation to capture fog the way they once could. How Does Fog Cover a Desert? Three unique features coincide to form these rare desert oases: Who Needs Fog? Ancient human populations in the area used to collect water that dripped from branches of native trees and cacti by placing containers underneath them.
Religion May Cause Brain Atrophy -- Science of the Spirit Faith can open your mind but it can also cause your brain to shrink at a different rate, research suggests. Researchers at Duke University Medical Centre in the US claim to have discovered a correlation between religious practices and changes in the brains of older adults. The study, published in the open-access science journal, Public Library of Science ONE, asked 268 people aged 58 to 84 about their religious group, spiritual practices and life-changing religious experiences. Changes in the volume of their hippocampus, the region of the brain associated with learning and memory, were tracked using MRI scans, over two to eight years. Protestants who did not identify themselves as born-again were found to have less atrophy in the hippocampus region than did born-again Protestants, Catholics or those with no religious affiliation. Although the brain tends to shrink with age, atrophy in the hippocampus has been linked with depression and Alzheimer's disease.
mr. div all in our heads // video 16,984 notes Kris Menace ‘The Entirety of Matter’ // Album art by Mr. www.entiretyofmatter.com Check out the first in a series of 'gif videos’ for the album here: Kris Menace - Mona 827 notes ANCIENT MYSTERIES EXPLAINED Mindfulness meditation training changes brain structure in eight weeks Participating in an 8-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. In a study that will appear in the January 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, a team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers report the results of their study, the first to document meditation-produced changes over time in the brain's grey matter. "Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day," says Sara Lazar, PhD, of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program, the study's senior author. "This study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these reported improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they are spending time relaxing."
30 Creative Ways to Repurpose & Reuse Old Stuff We all have stuff that no longer serves any purpose around the house, but we still have trouble getting rid of it. Either it’s “still OK”, or “might come in handy” or just holds some sentimental value to it. In extreme cases, this might lead to hoarding, but if you’re creative enough, you can solve the problem by repurposing, upcycling and reusing your old things. Besides serving a purpose (again), repurposed items add this lovely touch of creativity and coziness to the space. In order to help you get started, we made a selection of 30 creative repurposing, upcycling and reuse ideas. 1. (link) 2. (link) 3. (link) 4. (link) 5. (link) 6. (link) 7. (link) 8. (link) 9. (link) 10. 11. (link) 12. 13. (link) 14. (link) 15. (link) 16. (link) 17. (link) 18. (link) 19. Toasted bagel + avocado in a CD spindle. 20. (link) 21. (link) 22. (link) 23. (Buy: here or here) 24. (link) 25. (link) 26. (link) 27. (link) 28. (link) 29. (link) 30. (link)
Clarity on Spirit Science (A MUST SEE!) There have been a lot of questions recently about Spirit Science and it’s evolution. What are we up to, where are we going. Some people had made up some ideas as well about Spirit Science becoming Cult-Like and a new Religion, which Jordan and I thought was ridiculous. So we decided to put together this video to shine some Clarity on the matter. We both apologize for creating any confusion that we may have, and we thank you loving beings for staying loving and kind no matter what video is posted. Were new to this whole “travel the world, make fun videos, shift the planet” stuff as well, so we ask that you be patient with us. Keep asking questions, make decisions for yourself, and move forward into light! I love you! And if you’re interested in the New Years Video, here it is!
Where is The Mind?: Science gets puzzled and almost admits a non-local mentalscape. This will be the last "home-produced" blog entry for a while [save the short "Everyday Spirituality" which will follow it as a sign-off] . West Virginia beckons tomorrow morning and off I will go to whatever that entails. As I said in one of the commentary responses the other day, I hope that reading two journal runs "cover-to-cover" will bring up a few thoughts worth sharing. This day's entry was inspired by two articles bumped into coincidentally which had scientists puzzling about a holographic universe and a non-local mind. The first of these articles [both from the New Scientist] was "Where in the World is the Mind?" That brings in the second serendipitous article. It reminded me then, also, of a moment when I was able to spend a [too short] time with David Bohm, the famous theoretical physicist. I am happy to be [in body] a holographic projection of force dimensions--not from the "edge" of the universe but its core reality.
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Brain Games & Brain Training Open Culture Smart materials get SMARTer Cambridge, Mass. – July 11, 2012 – Living organisms have developed sophisticated ways to maintain stability in a changing environment, withstanding fluctuations in temperature, pH, pressure, and the presence or absence of crucial molecules. The integration of similar features in artificial materials, however, has remained a challenge—until now. In the July 12 issue of Nature, a Harvard-led team of engineers presented a strategy for building self-thermoregulating nanomaterials that can, in principle, be tailored to maintain a set pH, pressure, or just about any other desired parameter by meeting the environmental changes with a compensatory chemical feedback response. Called SMARTS (Self-regulated Mechano-chemical Adaptively Reconfigurable Tunable System), this newly developed materials platform offers a customizable way to autonomously turn chemical reactions on and off and reproduce the type of dynamic self-powered feedback loops found in biological systems.