Gathering of The Tribes: October 2015

Friday, October 30, 2015

Nov. 5th GOTT Radio

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* "UIC researchers study gut feelings of identical twin astronauts" (2015-10-13, news.uic.edu) [http://is.gd/ePE7O7]
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* "Mathematicians find 'magic key' to drive Ramanujan's taxi-cab number" (2015-10-22, news.emory.edu) [archive.is/6CBVz]
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* "May the 5th force be with you; Ephraim Fischbach revisits the wealth of research emerging from the quest for the fifth force, which he hypothesised in the 1980s as being a new fundamental force in nature" (2015-10-27, springer.com) [archive.is/xqbSM]
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* "World’s First Sonic Tractor Beam Manipulates Objects With Sound; Just in time for the latest Star Wars saga, a team of physicists have created a working tractor beam. Composed of "acoustic holograms," their device creates a force field out of sounds, one capable of manipulating and moving small objects" (2015-10-29, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/Q2PzB], attached video [https://youtu.be/s5r2nmvxA4s]
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* "Physicists learn how to control the movement of electrons in a molecule; Practicing researchers from ETH Zurich and an international group of theoretical physicists have just proved to be able to track and control the movement of electrons in molecules" (2015-10-22, MOSCOW INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY) [archive.is/fkJ95]
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* "Quantum Coherent-like State Observed in a Biological Protein for the First Time; So-called Fröhlich condensation, a state in which protein molecules' vibrational modes coalesce at the lowest frequency, was first predicted almost five decades ago, but never experimentally demonstrated until now" (Structural Dynamics journal) [archive.is/UiGw4]
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* "Carnegie Mellon researchers hack off-the-shelf 3-D printer toward rebuilding the heart" (2015-10-23, engineering.cmu.edu) [archive.is/dJ6te]

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* "Microbiomes could hold keys to improving life as we know it; A Unified Microbiome Initiative to accelerate microbiome research would unlock new insights and speed translation of discoveries into numerous potential technologies for health, industry, and the environment" (2015-10-28, wyss.harvard.edu) [archive.is/4XBvH]
* "Researchers Call for Ambitious Research to Unlock the Power of Earth’s Smallest Ecosystems" (2015-10-28, kavlifoundation.org) [archive.is/Fkg6l]
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* "Robot's influent speaking just to get attention from you; Dynamically adapting robot's utterance and body language based on subtle human cues" (2015-10-22, Toyohashi University of Technology) [archive.is/rLFXk]

Space News

* "NASA reveals images of ‘Spooky’ asteroid that zipped past Earth on Halloween" (2015-11-04, rt.com) [archive.is/Iebbj]

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* "WTF to Careen Into Earth on Friday the 13th; A mysterious object from space will enter Earth's atmosphere in November -- on Friday the 13th, no less. Researchers are saying there’s no need to panic, but who really knows what might happen…" (2015-10-30, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/CQ0OM]
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* "Signs of acid fog found on Mars" (2015-11-02, The Geological Society of America) [archive.is/Vztix]

Ancient News

* "Hueyatlaco: 250,000 Year Old Settlement In Mexico Found Under Volcanic Ash" (2012-10-05, beforeitsnews.com) [archive.is/QRl0Y]. Not so much evidence for an ancient city, but insight into the deficiencies of "scientific dating" methods... or, perhaps, this really is a 250,000 year-old city.
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* Possible ancient drill hole in andesite stone [archive.is/zMhIw]
* Brien Foerster writes [archive.is/vBDFK]: One of my favourite stones at Puma Punku in Bolivia yesterday. The groove clearly seems machined, and the drill holes are evenly spaced and could only have been achieved with a POWER DRILL

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* Cave di Cusa "Quarry of Accusation" [archive.is/saVzj]. The question is, "How did the 'Ancient Greeks' cut out these massive stone columns straight out of the rock?"

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* "Metal From City Of Atlantis Found Off Sicilian Coast" (2015-01-07, inquisitr.com) [archive.is/OGIOz]: The metal was recovered from a ship that sunk more than 2,600 years ago. The metal, orichalucum, was believed by the Ancient Greeks to have been found in only one place: the lost city of Atlantis.
Experts believe that the ingots from Atlantis were arriving to Gela in southern Sicily – possibly being delivered from Greece or Asia Minor. The ship carrying the metal was most likely caught in a storm and sunk just as it was about to enter a Sicilian port.
Sicily’s superintendent of the Sea Office, Sebastiano Tusa, spoke about the shipwreck and the discovery.
“The wreck dates to the first half of the sixth century.It was found about 1,000 feet from Gela’s coast at a depth of 10 feet. Nothing similar has ever been found. We knew orichalcum from ancient texts and a few ornamental objects.”
Orichalcum, the metal of Atlantis, has an ancient and mysterious history. For centuries, experts have hotly debated the metal’s composition and origin. According to the ancien Greeks, orichalcum was invented by Cadmus, a Greek-Phoenician mythological character. The Greek philosopher Plato mentioned orichalcum as a legendary metal when he mentioned it in the Critias dialogue. Plato described the city of Atlantis as flashing “with the red light of orichalcum.” Plato said that the metal, second only in value to gold, was mined on Atlantis used to cover all the surfaces in Poseidon’s temple.
Most experts agree today that orichalcum is a brass-like allow which was actually made by cementation. This is a process whereby zinc ore, charcoal and copper metal are combined in a crucible. When analyzed with X-ray fluorescence, the 39 ingots of Atlantis metal turned out to be an allow made with 75-80 percent copper, 14-20 percent zinc and smaller percentages of nickel, lead and iron.
Tusa commented on the importance of the discovery.
“The finding confirms that about a century after its foundation in 689 B.C., Gela grew to become a wealthy city with artisan workshops specialized in the production of prized artifacts.”
Mentioned briefly in only two of Plato’s works, Critias and Timaeus, readers have latched onto the legend of the island of Atlantis with unending fascination. Reportedly consisting of an advanced society – a utopia of sorts – that ultimately displeased the Greek gods and was sunk to the bottom of the ocean as a result. Since Atlantis was first mentioned in ancient Greece, man has attempted to determine its location, searching everywhere from the Mediterranean Sea to the polar ice caps to the South Pacific.
As of yet, however, Atlantis has remained hidden, if it ever existed at all. Is the orichalcum discovered near Sicily evidence of Atlantis? And if not, why was the metal so rarely used in the ancient world if it was so beautiful? Perhaps one day we’ll know the answers.
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* "Does New Theory Pinpoint Lost City of Atlantis? An author’s obsessive quest leads to a site off the coast of Morocco" (2015-03-18, news.nationalgeographic.com) [archive.is/8Mxgx]
* "Ruins of Atlantis located on land in Morocco, experts claims" (2015-03-16, inquisitr.com) [archive.is/LewSz]
* "Did Atlantis really exist on the Moroccan coast?" (2015-03-15, nypost.com) [archive.is/oqgJJ]
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* "A submerged monolith in the Sicilian Channel (central Mediterranean Sea): Evidence for Mesolithic human activity" (2015-09, Journal of Archaeological Science) [archive.is/A6qsN]
* "Underwater 'Stonehenge' Monolith Found Off Coast of Sicily" (2015-08-06, news.discovery.com) [http://is.gd/TKvgGO]
* "New evidence of Atlantis? 'Underwater Stonehenge' found from 10,000-year-old society, scientists say" (2015-08-07, inquisitr.com) [archive.is/bUwiC]
* "Mysterious 10,000-Year-Old ‘Atlantis’ Monolith Is Found In Sea Off Sicily; The 10-foot monolith was definitely man-made" (2015-08-07) [archive.is/jvSrP]: A mysterious Stonehenge-style monolith has been discovered in deep sea off the coast of Sicily - offering an insight into ancient civilisations lost beneath the waves.
The monolith, found by researchers from Tel Aviv University, has three holes of similar diameter along its length.
The researchers believe it was man-made around 10,000 years ago.
‘There are no reasonable known natural processes that may produce these elements,’ wrote Zvi Ben-Avraham of Tel Aviv University.
The monolith was found in 131 feet of water at Pantelleria Vecchia Bank - an area believed to have been colonised by an ancient civilisation which was submerged 9,500 years ago.
Some interpretations of Plato’s stories of ‘Atlantis’ identify the legendary ‘lost’ island with Sicily.
The researchers write, ‘The Sicilian Channel is one of the shallow shelves of the central Mediterranean region where the consequences of changing sea-level were most dramatic and intense.
‘This discovery reveals the technological innovation and development achieved by the Mesolithic inhabitants in the Sicilian Channel region.
‘Such an effort undoubtedly reveals important technical skills and great engineering. It could have been some sort of a lighthouse or an anchoring system, for example.’
Photo from University of Tel Aviv:

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* "Secrets of Britain's lost Atlantis hidden under North Sea for 7,500 years to be uncovered; The secrets of Britain's own vast Atlantis lost to the North Sea thousands of years ago could soon be uncovered" (2015-09-12, express.co.uk) [archive.is/3gu8I]
* "British Atlantis: archaeologists begin exploring lost world of Doggerland; Archaeologists at the University of Bradford will be taking deep sea core samples to find the DNA of Doggerland to reconstruct the environment" (2015-09-01, telegraph.co.uk) [archive.is/j9GjG]
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* "NASA releases images of enormous 8,000-year-old patterns" (2015-10-30, rt.com) [archive.is/N2jrp]
* "Mysterious Geoglyphs in Northern Kazakhstan Get a Boost from NASA; NASA has uploaded satellite images of ancient earthworks that were discovered by a Kazakh archaeologist" (2015-10-31, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/CHv7p]
* "Turgay Trough Geoglyphs" lecture slides (2015-09-09, by Dmitriy Dey, pitt.edu) [is.gd/DaGycG], some interesting slides [is.gd/kR2cez], [is.gd/XcdNVL]

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* "New Research Led by Florida Tech Finds Amazonian Natives Had Little Impact on Land" (2015-10-28, newsroom.fit.edu) [archive.is/O0XgW]
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* "Ancient babies boost bering land bridge layover; DNA links many Native Americans to infants in Alaskan grave" (2015-10-26, unews.utah.edu) [archive.is/x97O7]
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* "Research backs human role in extinction of mammoths, other mammals" (2015-10-26, popular-archaeology.com) [archive.is/kiNBK]

* "Lost Giant Poop Disrupts Whole Planet; Study shows declines in whales, fish, seabirds and large animals damage Earth’s nutrient cycle" (2015-10-26, uvm.edu) [archive.is/otrEw]

* "Massive Herbivores Fell to 'Hypercarnivores'; How big does a mammoth's predator have to be? Pretty big" (2015-10-26, research.duke.edu) [archive.is/HQNZI]. Image caption: Juveniles of even the largest herbivores could have been felled by the Pleistocene's massive predators, especially if the carnivores worked together. (Painting courtesy of Mauricio Anton)

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* "Preshistoric plumage patterns Ornithomimus dinosaur with preserved tail feathers and skin tightens linkages between dinosaurs and birds" (2015-10-28, University of Alberta) [archive.is/Cch4g] [begin excerpt]: An undergraduate University of Alberta paleontology student has discovered an Ornithomimus dinosaur with preserved tail feathers and soft tissue. The discovery is shedding light on the convergent evolution of these dinosaurs with ostriches and emus relating to thermoregulation and is also tightening the linkages between dinosaurs and modern birds.
"We now know what the plumage looked like on the tail, and that from the mid-femur down, it had bare skin," says Aaron van der Reest. This is the first report of such preserved skin forming a web from the femoral shaft to the abdomen, never before seen in non-avian dinosaurs. [end excerpt]

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Oct. 29th, GOTT Radio

Gathering of the Tribes radio! [link], A Liberated Zone on the FM, to enhance alternative culture and cognitive freedom! Listen Live! Thursdays, 5 to 6pm with Music, Tribal News and info, convened by Dr.G., a Renegade Illuminati with Thee Temple [link], alongside a psychonautical crew affiliated with the Northbay Evolver network [link]. Sponsored by H2C.org, providing holistic medicine for a variety of physical and mental conditions, as provided under Cal. Prop. 215. Tune in at 89.5FM in the northeast San Pablo Bay Area (American Canyon, Benicia, Crockett, Fairfield, Suisun, Vallejo), Smart Phone Tune-in App [link], Desktop U-stream [link], w. chat box [link], Live Mp3 (.pls) stream[link], Netbook / Laptop [link].
Send info, music tracks, events listings etc., to [GOTT.PRODUCTIONS@) Gmail.com]

Stranger News

* "Amputee kids everywhere can soon get awesome, 3D-printed Star Wars prosthetics" (2015-10-17, rt.com) [archive.is/luHXx], video [https://youtu.be/gRZeC7zLYlQ], more at [www.openbionics.com]

* "Mind hack: Scientists use magnets to change attitudes on immigration, religion" (2015-10-16, rt.com) [archive.is/Ruxmx]

Space News

* NASA's EPIC: Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera [epic.gsfc.nasa.gov]
* "Hey look, it’s Earth! NASA unveils website posting daily images of our blue marble" (2015-10-20, rt.com): NASA has launched a new website offering at least a dozen color images of Earth’s sunlit side taken as recently as 12 hours earlier from a camera a million miles away on a daily basis. The images will show Earth as it rotates, covering the entire planet.
The website, which will include a searchable archive of daily images, will feature photos taken with the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC). The pictures will show Earth as it rotates, featuring the entirety of the planet over a one-day period.
EPIC, a four megapixel CCD camera and telescope, takes a series of 10 three-megabyte images with various narrowband filters, such as ultraviolet or near infrared, to compile images used by scientists who study Earth’s vegetation, ozone, and cloud cover, among other variables.
"The color Earth images are created by combining three separate single-color images to create a photographic-quality image equivalent to a 12-megapixel camera,"NASA said.
EPIC has to take quick exposure images (20 to 100 milliseconds) to compensate for Earth’s brightness in the dark of space, according to NASA. The short exposure times do not allow EPIC to record fainter stars in the background.
The camera is affixed to the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR), which is operated by NASA, in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US Air Force, to maintain solar wind monitoring for space weather alerts and forecasts.
The website's images will be in the public domain, the agency said.
"NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records," NASA concluded. "The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing."

* "Earth Art: NASA ‘artist’ stuns Twitter with Sahara Desert pics taken from space" (2015-10-20, rt.com) [archive.is/fVnbX]

* "Free Booze, Delivery not Included: Astronomers Spot Alcohol-Spewing Comet; An international team of researchers has proved how rightfully comet C/2014 Q2 was nicknamed Lovejoy: while observing the atmosphere of the celestial body they found that it, among others, releases alcohol in crazy amounts: as much as 500 bottles of wine every second" (2015-10-24, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/Hh690]

* " ‘WTF’: Mysterious artificial space object heading towards Earth" (2015-10-26, rt.com) [archive.is/nyuOg]

* " 'Alien civilizations' may be found on 'megastructures' near Milky Way star, scientists say" (2015-10-15, rt.com) [archive.is/gbviw]

* "NASA reveals first official findings of Pluto mission" (2015-10-16, rt.com) [archive.is/s0avc]
* "Much like Earth’s Moon’: NASA releases high-res pics of Pluto’s satellite Charon" (2015-10-18, rt.com) [archive.is/PiGpF]

* "Wave near equator: NASA's Hubble Telescope animation shows Jupiter in 4k Ultra HD video" (2015-10-14, rt.com) [archive.is/NrOC4]

Ancient News

* "Cat Fur and Amber Generator: An Ancient Electricity Generator" [archive.is/jwFlg]
Image: Reproduction of a fur and amber generator - ancient Greece.

There can be no doubt that ancient civilizations were aware of static electricity even if they may not have fully understood it. They also appreciated the godlike power of lightning and must have been curious to observe this effect replicated in miniature when the fur of a cat was rubbed against certain materials in a darkened room.
The effects of static electricity were first recorded by a Greek philosopher, Thales of Miletus, who lived between 624 BC and 546 BC. He is said to have experimented with amber, which the Greeks referred to as Elektron, and cat fur to create an electrical discharge as well as magnetism. From this observation a simple machine consisting of two spinning disks, one covered with leopard fur and one coated with glass or amber could be connected to gold axles and foil strips which would produce an electrical charge capable of generating sparks several inches in length.
By spinning the disks in opposite directions a static electrical charge could be transferred to the gold foil strips to create visible sparks.

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Oct. 8th, GOTT Radio

Ancient News
* "Students revive extinct squash with 800-year-old seeds; Seeds found during an archaeological dig on First Nations land revive a long-lost varietal" (2015-10-01, mnn.com) [archive.is/5jhSm], photo caption: The seed that grew this squash were preserved for 800 years in a clay pot in Wisconsin.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

October 1st GOTT Radio

Coming back in from the summer's ‪#‎GlacierTour‬
[facebook.com/manifestiv] [manifestiv.bandcamp.com/] [instagram.com/manifestiv/] [twitter.com/manifestiv] [reverbnation.com/manifestiv] [soundcloud.com/manifestiv]
Check live performances of "Stranger", "Can't Stop" & "I Can't See You" alongside spruced with high energy interviews with Daisy (Marguerite Karoline Mauterer) [https://youtu.be/dOVZ3dNbIZk].

See ManifestiV Live at Phantasm #16, with Kali Kat, at the Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, featuring industrial * Goth * Glam * Post Punk, presented by Chromespider with hosts Roxy Roller and Grimmy Grumm!!

Stranger News
* "What’s behind million-dollar crop failures in oil palm? Would you believe bad karma?" (2015-09-09, cshl.edu) [archive.is/KBZZz]
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* "Researchers Create 'Zombie' Bacteria Which Rise Up to Kill Living Cells" (2015-05-06, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/yLJ1R]: Researchers in Israel found that Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria killed with silver are very effective at killing similar bacteria which are still alive.
Researchers at the University of Jerusalem have found that Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria killed with silver nitrate can be used to kill living bacteria. "It worked even better than our expectation. It's a new, previously unrecognized mechanism of how an antibacterial agent kills," researcher David Avner told Chemistry World. The scientists found that the silver absorbed by the cells are used as silver "reservoirs for further killing." However, the bacteria in the experiment are themselves dead, having been killed by the silver nitrate. "The experiments here conclusively show that the bacteria are dead," Dr. Peter Chivers told Chemistry World. The report on the experiments, published in the journal Nature, concludes that the effectiveness of the cells is due to the silver absorbed by them rather than the residue from dead cells. A control group of bacteria cells killed by heat did not lead to the same effect.

* "Russian Scientists Find Ancient Bacteria That Can Lead to 'Elixir of Youth' " (2015-09-18, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/XhFpP]: A group of Russian scientists discovered an ancient strain of bacteria deep in the Siberian permafrost that could lead to the development of organisms capable of destroying petroleum molecules, turning them into water, and rejuvenating the overall health of living beings, similar to “the elixir of life.” If properly developed, the discovery could lead to a breakthrough in environmental protection, as with the help of the ancient bacteria scientists will clean up oil spills and dangerous chemical leaks by simply turning them into water, Viktor Cherniavskiy, a renowned Russian doctor and epidemiologist, told Sputnik.
There are three different strains of bacteria that were found in the permafrost. The first one is loosely called "the petroleum destroyer," for its ability to break apart petroleum molecules, turning them into water. The second strain is capable of eliminating cellulose molecules. This could help scientists get rid of a great deal of urban and industrial garbage. And the third strain has shown to significantly boost the overall health of living beings.
The bacteria dates back to over 18,000 years, and was found in the permafrost along with the remains of a woolly mammoth in Russia's Republic of Yakutia. When the ancient strains of bacteria were discovered, after a thorough scientific research group of about 10 scientists from several Siberian cities found out that the ancient microorganisms had the potential to change the world, Cherniavsky said.
"Nobody has ever discovered the bacteria that we have discovered, because they were kept frozen under the ground for thousands of years," Cherniavskiy told Sputnik.
The doctor also warned that before further work could be done, scientists need to find out if the bacteria might carry strains, hidden under the permafrost, which could be dangerous to people. Fortunately, so far, scientists have found no ill-effects.
Another difficulty when developing the strains is the fact that they quickly lose their "magical" abilities when exposed to warm temperatures. Cherniavskiy explained that the ideal temperature range is between 4C and 8C. This is something that scientists need to further work on, developing methods that could sustain the transforming and regenerating abilities of the bacteria strains.
A few days ago, Russian media reported on the ancient microorganisms that could lead to the development of an "elixir of life," a substance that allegedly could give people endless youth. According to reports, scientists from Novosibirsk, Ekaterinburg and Yakutsk tested a probiotic substance, derived from the ancient bacteria, on old mice in laboratory settings.
The results were astonishing. The old mice under the experiment showed the signs of rejuvenation — their overall health improved and they recovered breeding abilities, lost due to old age. Now if the same substance were to be given to people, it could cause a significant improvement in their health as well, leading to the discovery of an "elixir of life," Dr. Cherniavskiy speculated.
Unfortunately, it's too soon to say when this could happen due to laws that prohibit testing on humans. However, the Russian epidemiologist said that for centuries the local populations in North-Eastern Siberia were known to have very good health until very old age, despite very harsh environmental conditions. It could have been because they consumed local food that contained specks of the ancient bacteria, Cherniavskiy hypothesized.
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* "Dog Gazes Hijack the Brain's Maternal Bonding System" [http://is.gd/nikBQc].
When people say they feel a real connection with their dogs, they aren’t crazy or erroneously anthropomorphizing their schnauzer. Now their emotional feelings are backed up with hard scientific evidence. The brains of both dogs and people secrete oxytocin, a hormone linked to strengthening emotional bonds between mothers and babies. A new study shows that dogs and humans simultaneously secrete oxytocin when they look at each other, thus creating a bond. And it’s a phenomenon that doesn’t happen when wolves look at people, even when they’ve been raised by humans. Woof!

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* "Speaking of “Remote Viewing” – Telepathy and “Schizophrenia” Light Up Same Part of Brain?" (2015-09-15, mikemcclaughry.wordpress.com) [archive.is/062jQ] [begin excerpt]: There was an interesting study in 2008 about this that discovered that telepathy activates a specific area of the brain: the right parahippocampus. This study referenced other research projects that demonstrated this same area of the brain was activated during remote viewing (using Ingo Swann as a test subject) and when a psychic accurately “knew” the personal information of strangers. The cuneus, an area inside the occipital lobe, was stimulated during what they called “distant intentionality”, such as distant healing.
The same study also hypothesized that empathy has a connection to special abilities. Turns out that the hippocampus and the cuneus are areas of the brain associated with empathy.
Read the studies here: "Investigating paranormal phenomena: Functional brain imaging of telepathy" (US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) [archive.is/OwCAW] and at [archive.is/yhfhP].
Descartes suggested that the body works like a machine, that it has the material properties of extension and motion, and that it follows the laws of physics. The mind (or soul) was described as a nonmaterial entity that lacks extension and motion, and does not follow the laws of physics. Descartes thought the mind interacts with the body at the pineal gland. Dualism proposes that the mind controls the body, but that the body can also influence the otherwise rational mind. [end excerpt]
* "The Physiology of Psychic Ability" (2009-05-30, believeittour.com) [archive.is/pHHIv] [begin excerpt]: The pineal gland is located in the geographical center of the brain, directly behind the eyes, between the two hemispheres. Psychics and sages throughout the ages have known about this small pine cone-shaped body and called it the “third eye.” The pineal body evolved from our eyes, and is made of the same cells as the retina. So, I suppose one could say quite literally that it is a “third eye.”
Jack Houck earned his MS degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from the University of Michigan and retired after 42 years with Boeing as a systems engineer. (That’s the guy who designs and manages the extremely complex projects.) In his spare time, though, he researches the paranormal. He first became interested in this field back in the 70’s when he read an article by Targ and Puthoff who reported that the CIA trained remote viewers to psychically spy on the Russians during the Cold War.
He collected the EEGs of psychics, yogis, shamans, and psychic healers and observed that they all had a specific brain frequency in common: 7.8Hz. He then wondered what would happen if he could stimulate this frequency in a non-psychic person. Would that person become sensitive? To find the answer, Houck translated this 7.8 Hz into sound, (this frequency is too low for the human ear to hear, so Houck coupled it with an audible frequency), and then placed headphones on non-psychics. Within a few minutes to 20 minutes, 50% of the test subjects had an out-of-body experience.
Houck also states that this same 7.8 Hz is attained naturally during REM sleep, and when in a meditative, yogic state. This could explain why some people have premonitions or ghostly encounters while dreaming, and why some psychics need to be in a self-hypnotic trance state to conduct readings or communicate with the dead. Perhaps this frequency trait is genetic, explaining why psychic ability is passed from generation to generation.[end excerpt]
* "Investigating paranormal phenomena: Functional brain imaging of telepathy" (.pdf) [http://is.gd/Dmr1vr]
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* "Reality Glitches" [archive.is/vr7PL]
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* "Italian-Chinese medical team to perform first head transplant" (2015-09-11, AFP newswire) [archive.is/XqFcf]
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* "New Tool for Studying Magnetic, Self-Propelled Bacteria that Resemble Compass Needles" (2015-09-15, Review of Scientific Instruments) [archive.is/iqndK]

Space News
* "Russians to Get Rocket Fuel, Water, Oxygen from Ice on the Moon; Russian scientists are currently studying lunar ice, hoping to get hydrogen rocket fuel, water and oxygen from the moon, Igor Mitrofanov from the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) told Radio Sputnik" (2015-09-26, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/QO11F]
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* "NASA confirms that liquid water flows on Mars It's the first direct evidence of a long-suspected theory" (2015-09-28, theverge.com) [http://is.gd/qWrWp7], photo caption: Dark narrow streaks called recurring slope lineae emanating out of the walls of Garni crater on Mars. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

* "NASA confirms: Mars has liquid water" (2015-09-28, rt.com) [archive.is/c20Mb]: For the first time, NASA has confirmed the existence of liquid water on the surface of Mars, according to new research announced Monday. The finding stems from data and analysis by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has verified that the dark, seasonal streaks that have appeared on Mars' surface come from briny water flows.
MRO found evidence of narrow channels containing water cut into cliff walls through Mars' equatorial band, though the source and chemistry of the water is yet unknown. The streaks, or recurring slope lineae, appear during the warmer summer months on the Red Planet. They disappear when the temperature drops.
The findings advance the potentiality for life on Mars, researchers said. While it is likely that life exists in the crust of Mars, the new findings further the possibility of life closer to the surface of the planet, Alfred McEwen, a planetary scientist with Arizona State University, said during a NASA press conference.
“It took multiple spacecraft over several years to solve this mystery, and now we know there is liquid water on the surface of this cold, desert planet,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. “It seems that the more we study Mars, the more we learn how life could be supported and where there are resources to support life in the future.”
Scientists had previously run into difficulties analyzing the streaks, which measure less than 16 feet, or 5 meters, wide. The MRO's instruments were able to process trace measurements, and scientists successfully observed the findings thanks to a computer program that can focus in on individual pixels. MRO's data was then compared with high-resolution images of the slopes. Scientists found a match between their locations and the presence of hydrated salts.
"We're not claiming that we found ... evidence of liquid water. We found hydrated salts," said Lujendra Ojha, a graduate student at Georgia Institute of Technology and lead author of the report, published in the journal Nature Geosciences.
While NASA has rushed to announce the findings, Ojha expressed reserve.
"It's a little bit over-the-top announcement by NASA," Ojha said. "There's so many mysteries to be solved about RSL (recurring slope line)."
The presence of water on Mars in the form of ice caps has been known for years. However, proof of liquid water on the Red Planet will have major ramifications for the study of Mars. It may mean that microbial life may still survive under the Martian surface, if there ever was any in the first place.
The discovery "confirms that water is playing a role in these features," according to McEwen. "We don't know that it's coming from the subsurface. It could come from the atmosphere."
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity previously found evidence that Mars had suitable conditions for microbial life that existed at some point in the past.
During the summer, Mars can reach up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit along its equator. Ojha and his research team found that this high temperature -- far from the planet's average of -80 degrees Fahrenheit -- allowed salty water to flow down the planet's slopes. The water combines with perchlorates to form a brine solution that helps the water to remain a liquid as temperatures drop.
"We found the hydrated salts only when the seasonal features were widest, which suggests that either the dark streaks themselves or a process that forms them is the source of the hydration. In either case, the detection of hydrated salts on these slopes means that water plays a vital role in the formation of these streaks," Ojha said.

* "What Color is the Red Planet, Really?" (2013-03-20, blogs.discovermagazine.com) [archive.is/hi0HT] [begin excerpt]: Sounds like a trick question, doesn’t it? Sort of like “Who is buried in Grant’s Tomb?” And yet the answer keeps confounding a lot of smart people. (DISCOVER even published a whole feature on the question.) Now the issue keeps coming up again in the latest images from the Curiosity rover. Blue skies on Mars? Can that be right? Which of these images shows what Mars really looks like?
The very first Viking images from the surface of Mars in July, 1976 showed blue skies, largely because that’s what people were expecting and so that is how the imaging experts initially set the color balance. They quickly realized their error and reissued the image with tangerine skies.
The Martian atmosphere is fully of orange tinted dust that dominates the color of the sky, it turns out. Changing the color balance to reflect that unexpected reality was a fairly straightforward adjustment, and yet even today images of the same scene on Mars often seem to take on different tones. Sometimes the landscape looks ruddy and rusty, sometimes tangerine, sometimes butterscotch, sometimes a drab brownish yellow.
Different magazines and web sites make their own color adjustments, of course, and there are plenty of amateurs out there doing their own corrections and distortions. But NASA itself still seems confused at times about what Mars really looks like. Consider three images of Mars from space. The first two are from the Hubble Space Telescope. The third is from the Mars Global Surveyor. You’ll notice that they don’t match up very well, even though Mars is very much the same planet and two of the images even come from the exact same telescope.
The short explanation is that color balance is a highly subjective thing. No two spacecraft use the exact same filters; even two instruments on the same telescope can use different filters and channels. Once the data come in from the digital detectors, then the imaging specialists process the data to make the most meaningful kind of picture. Sometimes they highlight what seems most scientifically significant. Sometimes they try to simulate what the human eye would see–what most people mean when they ask, “What does it really look like?” But even then, the color receptors of the human eye do not match up exactly with any of our instruments, so creating a color balance that resembles human vision is itself something of a subjective art.
The confusions and the lies are as old as photography itself, and digital imaging only makes the manipulations easier and the subjectivity more evident.
At least there is a solid scientific motivation for NASA’s latest color manipulations. The white-balanced color adjustment that turns the sky blue in the latest Curiosity panoramas from Mars’s Gale Crater are designed to make the surface rocks look the way they would under normal terrestrial illumination. That makes life easier for planetary geologists who are used to looking at rock formation on Earth, and so simplifies the process of understanding the exotic setting where Curiosity is exploring. [end excerpt]
Is this the real Mars? A mosaic from NASA’s Curiosity rover shows Mount Sharp in raw color. NASA describes raw color as the way the scene would look “in a typical smart-phone camera photo.” (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Or is this the real Mars? The scene has been given a white-balanced color adjustment that turns the sky blue. That change simulates Earth-like lighting, making it easier to interpret the geology. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Mars as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in July, 2001. (Credit: Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team)

Mars as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope in March, 1997. (Credit: David Crisp; the WFPC2 Science Team; NASA)

Mars as seen by the Mars Global Surveyor in February, 2006. Say, that planet doesn’t look red at all. (Credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems)

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* "Saturn’s moon Enceladus hosts a global ocean" (2015-09-15, seti.org) [archive.is/J73ay]. Image caption: Illustration of the interior of Saturn's moon Enceladus showing a global liquid water ocean between its rocky core and icy crust. Thickness of layers shown here is not to scale.

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* "Calling All Stargazers! NASA Looks to Crowdsource Mysteries of Ceres; Stumped NASA researchers are welcoming help from the public to solve the many mysteries of dwarf planet Ceres of the Solar System’s asteroid belt. We’ve got some ideas" (2015-10-01, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/33asM]

* "Ceres' Bright Spots Seen in Striking New Detail" (2015-09-09, jpl.nasa.gov) [archive.is/Q5z7Q], photo caption: This image taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft, shows Occator crater on Ceres, home to a collection of intriguing bright spots. The bright spots are much brighter than the rest of Ceres' surface, and tend to appear overexposed in most images. This view is a composite of two images of Occator: one using a short exposure that captures the detail in the bright spots, and one where the background surface is captured at normal exposure.

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* "New Horizons Probes the Mystery of Charon’s Red Pole" (2015-09-09, nasa.gov) [archive.is/NXA5L]. Photo caption: Details of Pluto’s largest moon, Charon, are revealed in this image from New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), taken July 13, 2015, from a distance of 289,000 miles (466,000 kilometers), combined with color information obtained by New Horizons’ Ralph instrument on the same day. The marking in Charon’s north polar region appears to be a thin deposit of dark material over a distinct, sharply bounded, angular feature.

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* "Stonehenge on Mars? UFO hunter spots strange rock formation on red planet" (2015-09-25, rt.com) [archive.is/VEe30]

Ancient News
* "The six women scientists who uncovered a new species of ancient human" (2015-09, amightygirl.com) [archive.is/4IaIc]
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* "Mammoth Find: Oil Workers in Siberia Find Remains of Woolly Mammoth" (2015-03-29, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/88pCv]
* "Genome Study Brings Woolly Mammoth DNA Back From the Dead" (2015-07-04, sputniknews.com) [archive.is/wGp0t]
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* "Hunter-gatherers were enjoying oatmeal 30,000 years ago" (2015-09-17, UPI Newswire) [archive.is/r63ol]
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* "Unlocking secrets of how fossils form" (2015-09-16, acs.org) [archive.is/xC5wa]