Kaksoisagentti

Ihminen on sodan heikoin lenkki

Economist: Towards immortality
Transhumanists question the conventional wisdom that the human lifespan is coming to a natural limit. History shows that every limit announced by experts is quickly overturned. Back in 1928, an American demographer, Louis Dublin, calculated that the upper limit on average life expectancy would be 64.8 years, a daring figure at the time, with American life expectancy then just 57 years. But now his figure looks timid, given that life expectancy for women in Okinawa, Japan, has passed 85.3 years, 20 years more than Dublin claimed possible. Also looking timid are the scientists who later predicted that life expectancy would nowhere pass 78 years (in 1952), 79 years (1980) and 82.5 years (1984).

SciAm: Juicing the Brain - Unenhallintaa, pelonhallintaa, muistinhallintaa.
There is a multibillion-dollar demand from civilians who wish to sleep only when they want to sleep. The neuroscientific key lies in a part of the hypothalamus called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), the brain's biological clock. About the size of a pinhead and nestled deep within the brain, the SCN, composed of 20,000 neurons, acts as the pacemaker for circadian rhythms in mammals. If the SCN is cut or removed in animals, their sleep-wake cycle can be profoundly disturbed. And when people are deprived of light, the SCN runs on a 25-hour clock; for some reason that is our innate length of a single day, which helps to explain insomnia and other sleep disorders in those who are blind. Though subject to some variation, the clock can be reset by exposure to light signals transmitted from the retina, which is why we can function on a regular 24-hour cycle.

Urban Cactus - Gaudimaisen tyylikästä arkkitehtuuria Rotterdamissa.

Scientology: TR Demo - Video siitä, kuinka skientologit tekevät ihmisistä meemirobotteja hypnoositekniikoilla.

Posted by kaksoisagentti at December 1, 2006 12:25 AM