Month: July 2006

Mind Hacks posits that the exact function of dreaming is still largely a mystery, but here’s a recent popular scientific theory.

Therefore I will try to explain a current view of dreaming and its possible functions, developed by myself and many collaborators, which we call the Contemporary Theory of Dreaming. The basic idea is as follows: activation patterns are shifting and connections are being made and unmade constantly in our brains, forming the physical basis for our minds. There is a whole continuum in the making of connections that we subsequently experience as mental functioning. At one end of the continuum is focused waking activity, such as when we are doing an arithmetic problem or chasing down a fly ball in the outfield. Here our mental functioning is focused, linear and well-bounded. When we move from focused waking to looser waking thought–reverie, daydreaming and finally dreaming–mental activity becomes less focused, looser, more global and more imagistic. Dreaming is the far end of this continuum: the state in which we make connections most loosely.

Link to Scientific American article ‘Why do we dream?’.

I caught these quips just moments ago.

“I’m not usually one for reflection…
“The wedding is just two months away…
“My job has gone from contract to full time…
“Woohoo! It’s a hockey nut’s dream.

Said to self, “Self, this is, always was, our source of energy.”

Ponder this:

Then ponder this site occasionally,

a study in manufacturing our times:

And memorize this:

mesmeriffic

If I’ve learned anything, I’m little.
All these years I thought that what I knew about big stuff mattered. HA.
It only matters to big people and there aren’t any. HA. HA.

As gas prices rise we think of China and India provoking demand.

One thought:
As gas costs, it is China and India that hurt first, thus reducing demand.

Be sure to use systems theory when factoring outright paranoia.

There is exciting work ahead.

Be heartful.

If there is a gas crisis, intense war, huge inflation, there are always other products.

The genetic diversity of wheat is as high as it was before the Green Revolution.

A study just published shows that modern breeding techniques have restored genetic diversity in wheat germplasm and brought wheat’s wild relatives back into the family.

It’ s good when our effort restores what we’ve overlooked.

Our prairie across America once held a great variety of grasses.

2 inches small to 10 feet tall, and more.

Grasses are the first industrialized, thus the first selected merely for sales. A narrow demand for a handful of types helped ignore hundreds, thousands, of related grasses.

The sands across Arabia were forests not long ago.

It’s important to learn what our knowledge destroys.

There is exciting work ahead.

Be heartful.

Germ.

Sleep, it seems, is a dangerous pastime. The less sleep you get, the greater your chances of becoming obese; the more sleep you get, the greater your chances of developing Parkinson’s disease.

“Enough to give you sleepless nights”, says MindHacks

The rise of organic food is a knee-jerk reaction to consumer health fears, and threatens to unhelpfully steer us away from improving the quality of food generally.

Everyone in the food supply chain has a responsibility to put all consumers back in touch with real food.

Organic food is pulling our attention away from the real problem, which is that the whole food supply chain needs to reconnect with its roots.

It is hard to believe, for example, that we live in a society where sliced white bread is almost as unhealthy as sugary fizzy drinks.

White bread sales have admittedly fallen over the last few years as consumers trade up to more wholesome varieties, but this still represents a strange state of affairs when one considers bread has been part of the human race’s staple diet for thousands of years.

The rise of organic food is partly a consumer reaction against this ‘dumbing down’ of real food, a plea for tastier, healthier and more locally sourced products.

Today’s supermarket-led food chain is still messing with reality.

The organic food movement may have unlocked growing public support for changes in the food supply chain, such as more variety, more local products and more nutritious foods. It is these core values, not organic food itself, that should take the food industry forward in the 21st Century.

foodproductiondaily.com

HortResearch has fine-tuned the science of gene discovery to such a degree that they can now accurately determine which genes create the individual flavors and fragrances found in fruits and flowers.

The Invention Connection features 100s of inventions — such as the Mirrored Toilet Seat — available for licensing, investment, sale, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, partnerships. Brilliant ideas waiting to bloom with the proper business nurturing.

Each invention has its own “cyber-booth” web page which includes a photo/drawing of the product, an extensive editorial-style product description with the special features and benefits, an outline of the product’s target market, what the inventor is seeking and the inventor’s personal contact information so interested parties can reach him directly and quickly.

People Per Square Mile in California: 217.2
People Per Square Mile in Northern California: 35.4

Most people in California live south of Sacramento.
Northern California is different.

Learn about efforts to create The Great State of Jefferson

More stats here

Hello Partner.
There are many Rules and Regulations.
It takes time to find a Contract.
It takes thought to write the changes.

• Manager for daily duties.
• Making mutual decisions.
• Ownership of the assets.
• How we will resolve issues.
• Taxes. Death.

Oh yes, and profits.

Much boilerplate but not too much heat.
Much cool but never chill.

And in the meantime, yes, in the meantime, folks are crawling out of the woods .

They each have a paper flag to wave.
The State.
The County.
The City.
The Broker.
The Accountant.
The Lawyer.
The Bank.
The Lease Manager.
The Manufacturer.
The Distributor.
And, oh yes, the Owners.

Each want $$.
Each want time.

This country would double small business productivity if every clerk, administrator, representative, agent, officer, consultant and licensed professional was required to call me to make appointments, submit proposed paperwork for my review, drive over to my office and wait until I can see them.

And then to demonstrate point by point, line by line, why I must sign on any line or pay any fee in order to carry out tasks only they insist are necessary.

Longer, original version:

Starting a business from the trenches

or

Starting a business is the trenches

I thought of marital stuff a few moments ago. Maybe you don’t have time for this. But I’m writing it anyway. I thought of marital stuff because I am working on the administration of a new business. The business required a partner. I got a partner.

Now I must assure that the partner and I stay happy. It takes dedication, good will. It will require patience. And warmth. Much effort. Enthusiasm. The mere preamble is absorbing. Hours of pondering. It consumes thought and exchange to compose an agreement to manage current duties, proposed outcomes and how we will resolve potential upsets. Buy Out. Taxes. Death. Oh yes, and profits.

Much boilerplate but not too much heat. Much cool but never chill.

And in the meantime, yes, in the meantime, folks are crawling out of the woods .

They each have a pulp & parchment flag to wave. The State. The County. The City. The Broker. The Accountant. The Lawyer. The Other Lawyer. The Bank. The Lease Manager. The Manufacturer. The Supplier. The Distributor. Each want $70, $62.93, $450, $4250, $27,450. They each want me to call them before AM coffee or a bit after lunch. They want me to drive over, stand in their lobby or sit a few minutes in their fresh customer service area. They expect me composed, clean, showing a posture but relaxed. A good credit score. Not too much tan. Appropriate creases.

They wait for two to thirty typed pages on their counter, their desk, or more personably in their hands. Each thumb pages. Some thumb each page. All search for errors. They want chat but not distraction. Slide a few pages in my direction. And then pause, point, focus, point, pause. Observing my signature, again, and here, then, yes, again, and so, and there too. And thanks for your check. Is that MasterCard? Sorry, no cash. It’s been such a pleasure. I hope I can crawl out of the woods to serve you again soon.

But it’s hot. My dog is in the car. To whom do I write the check?

And what’s the problem?
Computer scanners diagnose increasingly complex vehicles.
Dealers get the codes but not mom & pop shops.
You pay more because dealers charge more.

The Right to Repair Act forces automakers to give data to small shops.

But Consumer Reports is worried. They say too many “unscrupulous” mechanics will alter secret door locking codes and override pollution sequences.

Bogus solution to high auto-repair costs
Gaining steam in Congress, the “Motor Vehicle Owners’ Right to Repair Act” sounds great on the surface. Backed by four leading consumer groups, including AAA, the aim is to keep car-repair costs in check.

However, this bill may compromise vehicle antitheft systems and allow unscrupulous mechanics to retune vehicles to crank up performance–and tailpipe pollutants.

Information causes crime?
Run! The Luddites are coming.

FunFact from joe:
The retina of a 60-year-old receives 25% of the light absorbed by a 10-year-old child in the same environment, a result of gradually increasing opacification of the eye’s lens with aging.

The BBC eulogizes Pink Floyd founding member Syd Barrett dead at 60.

Summer of Love

“Over the subsequent months, everything changed.

“The record was a hit on the charts, even though the BBC banned it. What had been underground became mainstream, and suddenly became the exciting scene of 1967 and the Summer of Love.

“I think Pink Floyd were really at the heart of it – the songs, the guitar-playing and the personality of Syd were, in a way, the spearhead of so much of what went on, the aesthetic of what happened in London in 1967.

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London Free School

After the 1965 beat poetry happening, the next key event in the history of British counter-culture was the London Free School.

This community action group has been described as an ‘anarchic temporary coalition’ of housing activists and the new hippy generation. [… and included the Beatles manager Brian Epstein plus RD Laing.]

… it was “an idea – it lasted for a few months and so many interesting things came out of it.

“Stop Counterfeiting in Manufactured Goods Act”

“One of the problems we have is that people feel comfortable, at times, in trying to take a shortcut to success in the business world,” President Bush said prior to signing the bill into law.

“They feel like they can copy existing products, instead of designing their own.

“In order to keep this economy innovative and entrepreneurial, it’s important for us to enforce law, and if the laws are weak, pass new laws, to make sure that the problem of counterfeiting, which has been growing rapidly, is arrested, is held in check.”

“Counterfeiting costs our country hundreds of billion dollars a year,” he added.

The transportation sector is using 30% of the aluminum on the market.

Musing optimism, Anil Dash pushed me to read some profound musings when he asserted that Snarkout is one of the finest blogs on the web.

I caught this thought,

“…that in an amazingly wealthy world,
it’s possible to find almost anything.”

You see?

optimism. optimusing.

Go to water.

Visit the Liquid Sculpture website.

Intriguing high speed photos of water in motion.

Clear water. Not brought water.
Clear water. Given water.
‘would trickle.
‘would bubble.
‘would pour.

Better than these,
water appears.

Walk water.
Better said,
Flow.

I’m not saying life is buoyant.
I’m saying life is water.

Does water float?
Will water wait?

Our brain naturally reacts to images of faces and eyes. FuturePundit points out that “pictures of eyes make us more honest”.

Researchers monitored an Honesty Box as a way of paying for hot drinks in a staff room at a campus in the United Kingdom.

A poster featured an image banner across the top, alternating each week between different pictures of flowers and images of eyes looking directly at the observer.

The team recorded money collected and the total drink consumption.

On average, people paid nearly 3 times more for their drinks on the weeks when the poster featured pictures of eyes.

People behave differently when they believe they are being watched because they are worried what others will think of them.

Walking a dog is an unmet need and a healthcare cost savings states the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of NSW, Australia.

For human health, they have identified potential health gains if more dogs were walked. If all dog owners walked their dogs, substantial disease prevention and healthcare cost savings might accrue.

In their study, The Epidemiology of Dog Walking, the college recommends that “Dog walking should be promoted through national strategies.”

About one half of households in New South Wales have a dog. About one half walk their dog.

It’s time for politics to become more intelligent, and for democracy to really involve the people. Broadcast media tells you what to think and doesn’t let you get involved. It’s time to focus on what you need, what you care about, and the messages you want to get out.

Are you involved with a political campaign? Are you passionate about a cause?

Start contributing to the Campaigns Wikia, or find out how to get started.

While US policy focuses on immigration from Mexico and Latin America, a new Migration Policy Institute study identifies a reverse trend: increasing numbers of senior citizens from the United States moving to Mexico and Panama to retire.

With the US Census estimating that the population over 65 in the United States will double by the year 2030, understanding new and growing trends in international retirement migration will become increasingly important as baby boomers age.

Executive Summary

There are two stories we tell ourselves in life.
One is that things are getting better. The other is that things are getting worse.

The truth is the beauty that things are as we see them.

via jackzen