September 16, 2013 · 5:33 am

Cute Dogs for Your Monday Blues

More cute dog pictures for your Monday Blues!  Enjoy!

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September 15, 2013 · 8:24 pm

Binge-Watching. A New Trend to Watch Whole Seasons in One Sitting

Do you binge watch?  I have, a lot.  My wife and I rarely find anything on TV worth watching and there are only so many movies worth seeing.  So my son hooked us up with Roku.  It’s a device that hooks up to your system and you get access to Netflix, Hulu, and like a dozen other services.  You still have to pay any fees of course, but you can pretty much access the world.  Add to this option, our cable provider which allows you to watch episodes you miss on TV, AND the digital recorder that lets you record as you go.  I even have access to these on my smart phone, my wife’s Kindle, our computers, and my laptop.

roku

Roku – Your conduit for everything

It starts out with looking for something to watch.  “Hey, I heard Breaking Bad was good, but we never really watched it.  Look, it’s on Netflix.”

So we curl up with the hounds and check out the first episode.  “Wow, that was pretty good.  Would you like to see another one honey?”  “Sure sweetie, why not?”

Twelve hours later in the wee hours of the morning our bodies are insisting that we stop and get some sleep.  Watching episodes one after the other is like a form of visual and auditory crack.  Not all shows do this of course.  Some we watch for fifteen minutes and never watch again.  Others though were popular for many years and have tons of episodes.  Did you know that Deep Space Nine had over 170 episodes?  The best and worst for me is the access to some great BBC programs.  Foyle’s War was awesome!  Catching up on all the Dr. Who episodes that my wife had never seen – awesome!  Watching a few episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, or reliving a few original Mission Impossible shows… where does it stop?

breaking bad

Is this an addiction you also suffer from?  I get 1,000 channels on my TV but rarely watch anything live.  I usually record things and then zap the commercials.  I can watch a 3 hour University of Oklahoma game in about 30 minutes now.  (My alma mater – Go Sooners!)  If you binge watch is that good or horrible?

Other than the obvious health concerns of sitting prolonged periods and the hygiene issues, some have noted other, artistic issues.  Here are some points made by Jim Pagels at Slate:

1. Episodes have their own integrity, which is blurred by watching several in a row.

TV series must constantly sustain two narrative arcs at once: that of the individual episode—which has its own beginning, middle, and end—and that of the season as a whole. (Some shows, like Breaking Bad and The Wire, operate on a third: that of the entire series.) To fully appreciate a show, you must pay attention to each of these arcs. This is one of the defining features of television as a medium and one of the things that makes it great. A TV show is not “an imagistic tone poem,” and it shouldn’t be viewed as one.

2. Cliffhangers and suspense need time to breathe.

Taking the time to ponder which Oceanic flight 815 member the Dharma Initiative brought back to the island or why Peggy decided to tell Pete she had his baby are an essential part of the experience of a series. Take the first season of Homeland: Much of the pleasure it provided came from wracking one’s brain each week—and changing one’s mind multiple times—trying to decide whether or not Brody was a double agent. That pleasure evaporates when you simply click “play” on the next episode.

3. Episode recaps and online communities provide key analysis and insight.

Contra David Simon, TV recaps really do enhance one’s experience of a TV show. Even if you’re catching up on DVD or Netflix, you can still take the time to read recaps of nearly any episode on the A.V. Club, Hitfix, and here on Slate. They all provide great perspectives that you likely wouldn’t have picked up on your own.

4. TV characters should be a regular part of our lives, not someone we hang out with 24/7 for a few days and then never see again.

Our best friends are the ones we see every so often for years, and TV characters should be the same way. I feel like I grew up with Michael Scott, because I spent 22 minutes a week with him every Thursday night for seven years. A friend of mine who recently cranked through all eight seasons of The Office in two weeks (really) probably thinks of Carrell’s character like someone he hung out with at an intensive two-week corporate seminar and never saw again. Binge-watching reduces the potential for such deep, Draper-like relationships. While the Grantland piece argues that binges are the only way to forge “deep emotional connections,” in fact, the opposite is true.

5. Taking breaks maintains the timeline of the TV universe.

There are many exceptions to this rule, but TV series tend to place a few diegetic days between episodes and a few months between seasons. Thus, its rhythms match our own—when we watch them on their schedule. Watch an episode of Party Down a few days after finishing the last one, for instance, and notice how all the caterers have also had a few days off since their last gig. Or return to a new season of 30 Rock after a summer away, and see how the TGS writers are also returning from their vacation.

If you need to catch up with a show, here are the guidelines: Wait a minimum of 24 hours between episodes and at least a couple weeks between seasons. If one TV show doesn’t provide a full night’s entertainment for you, pick out a few programs you’ve been meaning to catch up with and watch one episode of each.

For the whole article you can read his commentary here:  http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/07/09/binge_watching_tv_why_you_need_to_stop_.html

I am not sure I agree with him on those points.  It sounds more like the controversy when Ted Turner colorized movies that no one was watching.  People started to watch them.  Without Netflix, I would never have watched Breaking Bad.  There had been too many seasons gone by for me to figure it out.  I am SO glad I did see it.  The same with Walking Dead and many other shows I only saw because I could “catch up.”

walking dead

As a futurist, one has to consider what this trend will develop into when it is fully implemented.  Just think, one day you will be able to watch anything, listen to any music, watch flash videos, plays, whatever you want, whenever you want, where ever you wish.  As an author, that certainly gives legs to my books that did not exist when traditional publishers left you on the shelf for a few months then replaced you with a newer book.  Something to think about, in between watching whole seasons…

tv

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September 15, 2013 · 2:52 pm

More Cosplay Pictures

More cosplay pictures for your enjoyment.  Cosplay is the term for dressing up as a favorite character and having fun.  Costume + roleplaying = Cosplay.  If you have not tried it, it is like Halloween but you don’t have to be a kid and you don’t go door to door for candy.  Cosplayers are some of the nicest people around.  Enjoy!

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September 14, 2013 · 3:33 pm

Anthology Submissions Needed!

Twisted Futures!

Visions of the Future Anthology

Submissions Needed, 5,000 words or less, only futuristic themes.  Short stories, flash fiction and poetry are all welcome.  Paint your picture of a dsytopic, utopic or otherwise unique vision of the future.  WORD format preferred, only electronic submissions accepted.  Submission is FREE and you can submit multiple entries if you wish.

Publishing by Michael Bradley, President, Eiverness Consulting Group, Ltd., An Arizona Corporation in Good Standing.  Earlier anthologies were Twisted History and Twisted Nightmares.

Submissions required by December 15, 2013.  Expected publication prior to May 2014 both in print and published in Kindle format.

the future

the future 2

Please send inquiries and submissions to:

eiverness@cox.net

For the subject put:  Anthology Submission

Selected authors will receive two free printed copies of the final anthology and will be able to purchase unlimited print versions at cost.  All other sales will be retained by Eiverness Consulting Group, Ltd.

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September 14, 2013 · 3:00 pm

Toselli Locomotive Coffee Maker – 1864

c. 1864:

Toselli Locomotive Coffee Maker

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September 14, 2013 · 2:45 pm

Brain Surgery To Remove Amygdala Leads To Woman’s ‘Hyper Empathy’

Brain Surgery To Remove Amygdala Leads To Woman’s ‘Hyper Empathy’

Posted: 09/13/2013 10:39 am EDT

brain surgery hyper empathy

By Bahar Gholipour, Staff Writer
Published: 09/13/2013 07:47 AM EDT on LiveScience

In a strange case, a woman developed “hyper empathy” after having a part of her brain called the amygdala removed in an effort to treat her severe epilepsy, according to a report of her case. Empathy is the ability to recognize another person’s emotions.

The case was especially unusual because the amygdala is involved in recognizing emotions, and removing it would be expected to make it harder rather than easier for a person to read others’ emotions, according to the researchers involved in her case.

During the woman’s surgery, doctors removed parts of her temporal lobe, including the amygdala, from one side of the brain. The surgery is a common treatment for people with severe forms of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) who don’t respond to medication.

After the surgery, the seizures she had suffered multiple times a day stopped. But the woman reported a “new, spectacular emotional arousal,” that has persisted for 13 years to this date, the researchers said. [9 Oddest Medical Cases]

Although patients with epilepsy treated with surgery have been known to experience new psychological issues afterward, such as depression or anxiety, “the case of this patient is surprising because her complaint is uncommon, and fascinating: hyper empathy,” said Dr. Aurélie Richard-Mornas, a neurologist at University Hospital of Saint-Étienne in France, who reported the case.

Her empathy seemed to transcend her body — the woman reported feeling physical effects along with her emotions, such as a “spin at the heart” or an “esophageal unpleasant feeling” when experiencing empathic sadness or anger. She reported these feelings when seeing people on TV, meeting people in person, or reading about characters in novels, the researchers said.

She also described an increased ability to decode others’ mental states, including their emotions, the researchers said. Her newly acquired ability to empathize was confirmed by her family, and she performed exceptionally well in psychological tests of empathy, the researchers said.

The case, published Aug. 14 in the journal Neurocase, is the first in the scientific literature describing this kind of emotional change after removing parts of the temporal lobe, Richard-Mornas said. [Image: Patient’s MRI Scan after Surgery]

Kinds of empathy

Psychologists define two major forms of empathy: emotional and cognitive.

“Emotional empathy refers to feeling another person’s emotion,” Richard-Mornas said. “While cognitive empathy is the ability to adopt the other person’s point of view, or ‘put oneself in his/her shoes,’ without necessarily experiencing any emotion.”

It’s not exactly clear how the human brain is able to understand and re-create the mental and emotional state of another person, but it appears that not everyone is equally good at it. For example, people with autism are thought to have difficulty understanding other people’s intentions, and psychopaths are thought to show a lack of empathy, being unable to experience the emotional reaction people usually have when seeing another person in distress.

In studying the woman with hyper empathy, the researchers evaluated her psychological condition with a series of standard tests, and found that her mental health appeared normal.

The researchers also analyzed how the woman responded to a questionnaire aimed at measuring empathy, made of items such as “I am good at predicting how someone will feel” and “I get upset if I see people suffering on news programmes.” She also completed a test of recognizing the emotions in 36 photographs of only people’s eyes, and her scores were compared to those of 10 women who served as controls.

Her performance in empathy tests was above average, and her score on the eye test was significantly higher than that of the controls, according to the researchers.

The missing amygdala

The amygdala is a small almond-shaped structure, sitting deep in the temporal lobe. It appears to be involved in social interaction, and is thought critical for quickly evaluating and responding to emotional stimuli, such as a frightening predator or a sad face.

The new case comes in contrast to previous observations of people who endured damage to the amygdala and suffered emotional deficits. In a 2001 study involving 22 people who had parts of their temporal lobe removed, researchers found that people with more extensive damage to the amygdala performed worse in learningemotional facial expressions.

However, in the absence of the amygdala, other brain regions, and perhaps newly organized connections among them, may be responsible for driving stronger empathy, the researchers of the new case report said.

“Neural substrates of complex emotions such as empathy are poorly understood,” said Dr. Joseph Sirven, a neurologist at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, who was not involved with the case.

“What we are finding is that there is not just one anatomical correlate of emotion. Rather, complex emotions like empathy, hope, etc., are likely to occur as a complex interplay from a number of areas in the brain and the amygdala is one,” Sirven said.

The woman’s case suggests it is possible to have unexpectedly re-organized neural networks after this kind of surgery, the researchers said, and may have lessons for a better understanding of the brain.

“Most of modern neuroscience has its basis on observations of individual cases such as this one, that help to illuminate the complex working of the brain,” Sirven said.

Email Bahar Gholipouror follow her @alterwired. Follow LiveScience @livescience,Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.

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September 14, 2013 · 1:56 pm

13-Year-Old Makes $100K Reinventing the Scooter Wheel

13-Year-Old Makes $100K Reinventing the Scooter Wheel

By Gabrielle Karol

Published September 13, 2013

FOXBusiness
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  • LB Scoots - Home (1).png

Nicholas Pinto may be one year away from high school, but he’s already doing big business.

The 13-year-old says he’s always loved scooters, but was frustrated by how quickly the wheels would break.

“As you develop your skills, like landing on the scooter harder when you’re going off of a ramp, what you want is for the parts not to break,” says Pinto, who lives with his parents and three siblings in Cranford, New Jersey.  He says he was spending a lot of money replacing the wheels every few weeks.

“I was saying, ‘Wow, this can’t be!’ I was trying so many wheels, I thought I better make my own and help the world,” says Pinto, who enjoys competing in scooter competitions.

Over a year ago, the entrepreneurial eighth-grader began researching manufacturers who could reinvent the wheel, so to speak. He says he finally located a manufacturer in California to make a durable, polyurethane wheel that would be tougher than the breakable plastic wheels found on most scooters.

“I made a step-by-step design with all of the dimensions and they did it,” says Pinto, who borrowed $2,000 from his parents to create 500 wheels, bringing his fledgling company LB Scoots to life.

“The LB stands for ‘Little Boy.’ It’s the name of my dog, a chocolate lab,” says Pinto.

Grassroots Marketing Helps LB Scoots Get Off the Ground

Once the wheels were made, Pinto says he built an e-commerce website with the help of Youtube tutorials and his mother, who had created a website herself for her own small business, a modeling and acting agency.

From there, Pinto says he started selling wheels thanks to word of mouth, showcasing his new wheels at skate parks and competitions.

“We went to competitions and had a big banner there.  We were giving out stickers and saying, ‘Everyone check us out online!’” says Pinto.

Within a year, Pinto was receiving orders from all over the country, and even as far away as Australia. “We made about $100,000 in the first year,” says Pinto.

Pinto says he’s going to stick to LB Scoots for now, but isn’t ruling out the possibility of branching out down the road.
“As I grow up, I want to keep having LB Scoots, and I would also like to start other companies,” says Pinto. He’s also mentoring his little sister, who’s an entrepreneur in her own right.

“She makes duct-tape wallets and paintings and sells them online,” says Pinto.

And with three years on his little sister and experience running a $100,000 business, Pinto’s got a lot of advice to share.

“She’s 10 … I help her out a lot,” he says.

Read more: http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/entrepreneurs/2013/09/13/13-year-old-makes-100k-reinventing-scooter-wheel/#ixzz2eu1uwftR

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September 13, 2013 · 4:08 pm

The Aluminum Airship of the Future Has Finally Flown

The Aluminum Airship of the Future Has Finally Flown

There was once a time when man looked to the skies and expected to see giant balloons rather than airplanes drifting above. The Hindenburg Disaster promptly put an end to those dreams. But nearly a century later, one company may have finally figured out how to build a dirigible suitable for the 21st century. Just don’t call it a blimp.

This fully rigid airship, dubbed the Aeroscraft, differs fundamentally from, say, the Goodyear blimp. Blimps, by definition, have no internal structure and maintain their shapes only through the pressure of the gas they contain; when the gas escapes, they deflate like the gigantic balloons they are. Rigid airships, like zeppelins before them, maintain their shape regardless of gas pressure thanks to an internal skeleton structure—the Hindenburg utilized highly flammable balsa wood, but the Aeroscraft’s is made of aluminum and carbon fiber—and maintains its buoyancy with a series of gas-filled bladders. And unlike hybrid airships, the Aeroscraft doesn’t require forward momentum to generate lift via a set of wings. It’s all helium power.

The Aeroscraft has been under development by Aeros Corp, the world’s largest airship and blimp maker, since 1996. The project has received over $35 million in R&D funds and the government has even lent the company a couple of NASA boffins to help develop the aerodynamics and control systems. And with the successful launch of its half-scale prototype, the Pelican, last weekend, the investment looks to have paid off. The future of lighter-than-air travel looks to be imminently upon us.

The Aluminum Airship of the Future Has Finally Flown

At 266 feet long and 97 feet wide, the Pelican prototype is just about half the size of what a full-scale Aeroscraft will be. If completed the Aeroscraft will measure more than 400 feet long and be capable of lifting 66 tons or more.

Unlike blimps that maintain a constant buoyancy and rely on ballast and fans to adjust their altitude, the Aeroscraft will employ a unique bladder system that can alter the craft’s static heaviness (relative to air) at will, dubbed COSH (Control of Static Heaviness). The system actually works quite similarly to how submarines use compressed air to float.

The Aeroscraft is equipped with a series of pressurized helium tanks. When the pilot wants to increase altitude, non-flammable helium is released from the tanks through a series of pipes and control valves, into internal gas-bladders called helium pressure envelopes (HPEs). This increases the amount of lift the helium generates, reduces the craft’s static heaviness, and allows it to rise. When the pilot wants to descend, the process is reversed. This allows the Aeroscraft to easily land and take on cargo or passengers without having to be tied down or add external ballast. Additionally, the Aeroscraft will be equipped with a trio of engines—one on each side and a third on the belly—and six turbofan engines to provide thrust and augment the COSH’s lift, as well as aerodynamic tail-fin rudders and stumpy wing control surfaces, for high speed travel—that is, above 20 mph. Oh it’ll get you there, it’s just going to take a while.

Now, the US government didn’t drop $35 million just to build a better balloon. Airship technology is being developed to provide a vital role in modern world: runway-less cargo delivery. Getting even modest amounts of supplies and people to remote areas by plane can be a nightmare; you’ve either got to find a suitable runway or be prepared to parachute. From the Australian outback to the Alaskan hinterlands, there are plenty of locations around the world that are simply inaccessible to conventional airplanes. Not so with the Aeroscraft.

The Aluminum Airship of the Future Has Finally Flown

With a proposed lifting capability of 66 tons and no need for a landing strip, these airships should be able to deliver just about anything just about anywhere in the world. Cargo can either be loaded into the Aeroscraft’s internal cargo bay or slung under the blimp using the company’s proprietary ceiling suspension cargo deployment (CSCD) system. which automatically balances the hanging load to prevent it from swinging around and crashing the dirigible.

While the Pelican successfully lifted off last Sunday, it did so under cautionary tethers. Its first untethered flight is expected to happen within the next few weeks. Eventually, the company hopes to produce a trio of Aeroscraft models: the 66-ton capacity ML866, the 250-ton ML868, and the 500-ton ML86X. There’s even discussion of turning them into giant floating hotels for serene 80-day global circumnavigations.

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September 13, 2013 · 1:00 pm

My Friend Angela Ferrari Releases New Album

Angela Ferrari is a great friend of mine and an awesome singer.  Great looks, great voice and a very cool name – yes that is her real name.  She is also headlining with the Angela Ferrari Trio at the Sanctuary Jade bar TONIGHT from 7-10 pm in Arizona.

Please join me in enjoying her music and soulful tones.  Here is the link to get her album for just $5.

http://angelaferrari.bandcamp.com/album/mercy

 

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September 13, 2013 · 11:19 am

Welcome to New Followers!!

I really appreciate all of you who come to this blog site for some fun and interesting reading.  I am now up to 468 followers on my blog and if you throw in the twitter feed @mbtimetraveler, linkedin, FB, pinterest, etc., up to around 4,000.  Every one of you are awesome!  Thanks for the support, you reading the posts makes it fun for me to put them on here.  If you think this is an enjoyable blog, please recommend it to others so we can reach that 500 blog followers mark.

Also, if you ever want some longer reading, feel free to visit my store for links to my books.  I just finished the first draft of my fifth book, Blood Bank.  I am rewriting it and then it goes to the agents/publishers for consideration.  Wish me luck!

Here are some early concept covers courtesy of the lovely Cara Nicole (AZ Powergirl) posing as the heroine of the story, Shawna.  At the beginning she is dropped naked into the Blood Bank and has nothing to defend herself but her fierce spirit and a screwdriver.  Photography and design by Alfred Trujillo:

Front Cover

Front Cover

 

Back Cover

Back Cover

 

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