Senile Memory Loss

Senile Memory Loss

Andre Willers

31 Aug 2013

Synopsis :

A pill to remember things . Will an overdose remember fantasies ?

 

Discussion :

1.Such a pill will be on the market soon . This research is about 3 days old (as at 31 Aug 2013)

Protein RbAp48 is a protein that can be used as an nutritive supplement , bypassing any pesky legal requirements .

2.Since some analogue of it seems to be in cocoa , it is even natural .

3. How it works .

The gene RBBP4 encodes for the protein RbAp48 . This protein then causes a cascade of reactions by loosening the histone windings of the chromosomes , in controlled order . See Appendix C .

But things get screwed up if not enough RbAp48 is produced .

The cascade does not start .

Memory fades as the necessary fetch-and-carry molecules are not being produced .

Like a company where the file clerks are on strike .

 

4.Background

Appendix 0 gives some background .

Appendix A a popscience account of the research .

Appendix B is something that can done immediately .

Drink cocao or eat chocolate .

Appendix C is a fairly general view of genetics .

If you are unclear about histones , see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histone

 

5.What can be expected .

This report See Appendix A) is about 3 days old . Expect a massive , quick response from the nutraceutical establishment .

I myself is going to see the effect of drinking 2 cups of cocao per day .

 

6.Anti-remembering.

PTSD therapy . Antibodies to RbAp48 precisely delivered should excise any bad memory .

People in PTSD stress should steer away from cocao .

 

Know yourself !

Andre

 

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Appendix 0

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatin_remodeling

Chromatin remodeling is the dynamic modification of chromatin architecture to allow access of condensed genomic DNA to the regulatory transcription machinery proteins, and thereby control gene expression. Such remodeling is principally carried out by 1) covalent histone modifications by specific enzymes, i.e., histone acetyltransferases (HATs), deacetylases, methyltransferases, and kinases, and 2) ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes which either move, eject or restructure nucleosomes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RBBP4

Function[edit source | editbeta]

This gene encodes a ubiquitously expressed nuclear protein that belongs to a highly conserved subfamily of WD-repeat proteins. It is present in protein complexes involved in histone acetylation and chromatin assembly. It is part of the Mi-2/NuRD complex complex that has been implicated in chromatin remodeling and transcriptional repression associated with histone deacetylation. This encoded protein is also part ofcorepressor complexes, which is an integral component of transcriptional silencing. It is found among several cellular proteins that bind directly to retinoblastoma protein to regulate cell proliferation. This protein also seems to be involved in transcriptional repression of E2F-responsive genes.^[3]

Clinical significance[edit source | editbeta]

A decrease of this protein in the dentate gyrus part of the hippocampus in the brain is suspected to be a main cause of memory loss in normal aging.^[4]

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Appendix A

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23868116

Protein clue to old-age memory loss

By James GallagherHealth and science reporter, BBC News

Why does memory decline in old age?

·         Memory 'more consistent with age'

·         Stress linked to OAP memory loss

·         Cocoa 'might prevent memory decline'

A clue to why memory deteriorates with age has been found by US researchers.

Experiments on mice suggested low levels of a protein in the brain may be responsible for memory loss.

It is hoped the discovery could lead to treatments to reverse forgetfulness, but it is a big leap from the mouse to a human brain.

The study, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, said age-related memory loss was a separate condition to Alzheimer's disease.

The team at Columbia University Medical Centre started by analysing the brains of eight dead people, aged between 22 and 88, who had donated their organ for medical research.

They found 17 genes whose activity level differed with age. One contained instructions for making a protein called RbAp48, which became less active with time.

Memory boost

Young mice genetically engineered to have low RbAp48 levels performed as poorly as much older mice in memory tests.

Using a virus to boost RbAp48 in older mice appeared to reverse the decline and boosted their memory.

One of the researchers, Prof Eric Kandel, said: "The fact that we were able to reverse age-related memory loss in mice is very encouraging.

"At the very least, it shows that this protein is a major factor, and it speaks to the fact that age-related memory loss is due to a functional change in neurons of some sort. Unlike with Alzheimer's, there is no significant loss of neurons."

It is still not known what impact adjusting levels of RbAp48 in the far more complex human brain will have or even if it is possible to manipulate levels safely.

Dr Simon Ridley, from Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "While the findings may seem clear cut from these studies, in reality people reaching older age may well have a combination of changes happening in the brain - both age-related and those involved in the early stages of Alzheimer's.

"Separating early changes in Alzheimer's from age-related memory decline in the clinic still presents a challenge, but understanding more about the mechanisms of each process will drive progress in this area."

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Appendix B

Cocoa 'might prevent memory decline'

It is not the first time cocoa has been linked with health benefits

Drinking cocoa every day may help older people keep their brains healthy, research suggests.

A study of 60 elderly people with no dementia found two cups of cocoa a day improved blood flow to the brain in those who had problems to start with.

Those participants whose blood flow improved also did better on memory tests at the end of the study, the journal Neurology reported.

Experts said more research was needed before conclusions could be drawn.

It is not the first time cocoa has been linked with vascular health and researchers believe that this is in part due to it being rich in flavanols, which are thought to have an important role.

In the latest study, researchers asked 60 people with an average age of 73 to drink two cups of cocoa a day - one group given high-flavanol cocoa and another a low-flavanol cocoa - and consume no other chocolate.

Blood flow

Ultrasound tests at the start of the study showed 17 of them had impaired blood flow to the brain.

There was no difference between those who drank flavanol-rich cocoa and those who had flavanol-poor cocoa.

But whichever drink they were given, 88% of those with impaired blood flow at the start of the study saw improvements in blood flow and some cognitive tests, compared with 37% of people whose blood flow was normal at the beginning of the study.

 “Start Quote

A cocoa-based treatment would likely be very popular, but it's too soon to draw any conclusions about its effects”

Dr Simon RidleyAlzheimer's Research UK

MRI scans in 24 participants found that people with impaired blood flow were also more likely to have tiny areas of brain damage.

"We're learning more about blood flow in the brain and its effect on thinking skills," said study author Dr Farzaneh Sorond a neurologist at Harvard Medical School.

"As different areas of the brain need more energy to complete their tasks, they also need greater blood flow. This relationship, called neurovascular coupling, may play an important role in diseases such as Alzheimer's."

The researchers said the lack of difference between the flavanol-rich and flavanol-poor cocoa could be because another component of the drink was having an effect or because only small amounts were needed.

Dr Simon Ridley, head of research at Alzheimer's Research UK, said this was a small study but that it added to a wealth of evidence.

"A cocoa-based treatment would likely be very popular, but it's too soon to draw any conclusions about its effects.

"One drawback of this study is the lack of a control group for comparison, and we can't tell whether the results would have been different if the participants drank no cocoa at all."

But he added: "Poor vascular health is a known risk factor for dementia, and understanding more about the links between vascular problems and declining brain health could help the search for new treatments and preventions."

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Appendix C

http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2010/02/beauty-of-genetic-code.html

Monday, February 22, 2010

The Beauty of the Genetic Code .

The Beauty of the Genetic Code .
Andre Willers
22 Feb 2010

Synopsis:
The present TerraIII genetic code is elegantly optimized to give the most robustness possible per unit of information .

Discussion :
You have to be familiar with the concepts in:
1. http://andreswhy.blogspot.com "NewTools:Reserves" and Beth(n) orders of Randomness .
2.NewScientist of 23 Jan 2010 p34 "Another kind of evolution"

Brief recap of Reserves argument :
We take any identifiable entity , slice and dice it with an order of randomness like that of a coin (ie Beth(0) ) . We then calculate a minimum reserve (which is equivalent to the least errors of all possible Beth(0) paths per benefit . )
This works out at 1/3 on the average over Aleph(0) infinities .

The Beauty of the Genetic Code :
Four Base pairs (A,U,C,G) in triplet codons give a possible 4*4*4 = 64 codons .
But together , they code only for 20 amino acids , plus a Stop and a Semi-Start .

This gives
20/64 = 31.22% for 20 amino acids
21/64 = 32.81% for 20 amino acids + Stop
21.3333…/64 = 33.3333… for 20 amino acids + Stop + Semi-Start
22/64 = 34.375 %

Stop = (UGG) , (UGA) , (UAG) ,
Start = (AUG) , but this also codes for methionine . Hence the decimal notation . The system cannot come closer to 1/3 because of quantal considerations . Try it and see .
This also is the portal for the Epigenetic System ( note use of methiolization) .

Beautiful !!

Consider the ways of Gaia .

Linear and Sideways evolution .
Linear :
The standard , gene and chromosome based inheritance
Equivalent to Beth(1+x) in our notation .
1>= x >=0

Sideways :
Genetic material exchanged without going through all that genotype-phenotype procedures .
Equivalent to Beth(1-x) in our notation .
1>= x >=0

Note that the system could not possibly get as close to the optimum reserve without this stage .

Designer:
The Breeder , genetic engineer .
Equivalent to Beth(2+x) in our notation . Humans or proto-humans .
Infinity>= x >=0

This gives a full spectrum of Beth capabilities .
(Negative Beth is outside the scope of this discussion)

Singularities
You will notice that the system becomes chaotically unstable as x->0 from any direction . At that point , the system will exhibit symptoms of great stress and bifurcation . Once over the hump , it steadies either in an evolutionary manner (in
Probability = 1 - ( Beth(n+1)/Beth(n) ) ^0.5 . Admittedly a rough estimate .)

Or in a devolutionary manner , evolutionary manner here described as degrees of complexity .

Stable Gene Engineering :
1.Keep the same Triple-Base Codon Cell-Machinery .
The easiest . Existing cells can be used . Increase the number of bases to 5 .
Then we can optimally reliable make 1/3*5^3 = 40 amino acids + stop + semistart .
Different kinds of Stop and Start would be advisable .
So , maybe 18 new amino acids + 2 different types of Stop + SemiStarts

This would not even be hard .
Well within present technological capability .
(Wanna make an animal with a Kevlar skin ? Well , you can using this method .)

The system would even be self-assembling under the right condition . The main thing is the optimal stability .

This is already evolving as we speak . There a fifth base occasionally involved . So there is a fruitful interaction point .

2.Make 4-Base Codon Cell-Machinery .
A real remake . Not within human capability at the moment .

3.General :
nAminoAcids + nStops + nStarts = 1/3 * ( (nDNA-bases) ^ (nBasesPerCodon) )
where the prefix n denotes "number of"

A further stability would be introduced if nStarts ~ 1/3 * nStops in a fractal fashion .
This because life-forms evolve in a pedal-to-the-metal fashion . The problems are the brakes .

There is a relationship between the Beth level and the nBasesPerCodon . The minimum number sufficient for Beth(2+) is nBasesPerCodon=3 .
Else there is insufficient complexity .

Now go out there and evolve !

Andre .

Posted by Andre at 10:15 AM 

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Failing States

Failing States

Andre Willers

28 Aug 2013

“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.”

 WB Yeats .

 

Synopsis :

Is Everybody safer after the Police has arrived (including the criminals) ? This is the Definition of Civilization and a Non-Failed Society . Usually seen as the Rule of Law .

 

Discussion :

1.Is South Africa failing ?

“South Africa at present ranks a lowly 66 and falling,” See appendix C

 

2. Is a successor state to a Failed State more prone to failure ?

See Appendices A and B below .

This is the critical question , as most States in the World has a failed state in its ancestry.

Germany – Reichs

Japan – Co-Prosperity Sphere

USA – British Colony

France – Ancien Regime

Russia – Tsars

Britain – Kings (up to James II)

RSA - Apartheid

Etc , etc .

 

So  , a failed state does not necessarily mean failed successor states .

Since all present states are descended from previous failed states , the mechanisms to prevent repetition are the important ones .

 

3.Ab-initio attempts are almost certainly doomed to failure .

This is what is happening in RSA . A Brave New World , but an inexperienced one . Cf Education , Jurisdiction , etc .

Good intentions , but surrounded by experienced jackals .

 

4.Where to look on how to do it ?

Try China . They have been through it numerous times . The most glorious example is the Ming Rebellion against the Mongols .

 

5.Why you don’t want to be near it .

Enormous energies are unleashed . It is not safe to be near . Exciting place to visit .

 

6. Percentage of failed states :

Yes , you guessed it . 2/3 of close-successor states fail . Sum this and it becomes 100% . But these end successor states are quite different from the old previous ones .

The USA is not Athens  or Rome .

 

7.All states fail .

The trick is to pick the ones with the least catastrophic failure , or at least the smallest rate of change .

Unless you are a Fate Surfer .

 

8.An example :

Ireland during the collapse of the Western Roman Empire .

Roman refugees from North Africa , Brittannia and sundry other parts of the Empire took their money and decamped to Ireland .

Known as the Irish Flowering . But they did not take any Legions . The Vikings destroyed them . Yet they were rich enough to easily defend themselves .

 

9.Peace flows out of the barrel of a gun .

“Those who want peace , prepare for war” Vegetius .

 

10 .Minimum GDP expenditure on War

Do not go to a place that expends less than 1/3 of 1/3 of 1/3 =3.7% of GDP on keeping the varmints at  bay .

http://m.engineeringnews.co.za/article/sa-spends-much-less-on-defence-in-gdp-terms-than-the-global-average-2013-04-09

South Africa today spends about 1% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defence, in comparison to the global average figure of 2.5%, reported auditing and consultancy firm Deloitte on Tuesday. This low level of defence spending is exemplified by the fact that the South African Air Force has placed 12 of its 26 Gripen fighters in long-term storage. In the 1980s, defence expenditure absorbed 4% of the country’s GDP.

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS

If Police are included , the figure is 1.3% of GDP .

 

This is woefully inadequate .

11. The quickest way to prevent a Failed State is to ramp up Police+Army Expenditure to 3.7% of GDP . The ripple effects work through .

 

12 Conclusion :

RSA is drifting into a Failed State , but the Zuma Emperor Scenario could prevent that .\

Best to be watched from afar .

 

Civilizations-R-Us

 

Andre

 

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Appendix A

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failed_state

The definition of a failed state according to the Fund for Peace is often used to characterize a failed state:

·         loss of control of its territory, or of the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force therein

·         erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions

·         an inability to provide public services

·         an inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community

Common characteristics of a failing state include a central government so weak or ineffective that it has little practical control over much of its territory; non-provision of public services; widespread corruption and criminality; refugees and involuntary movement of populations; and sharp economic decline.^[1]

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failed_States_Index

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Appendix B

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochlocracy

Ochlocracy ("rule of the general populace") is democracy ("rule of the people") spoiled by demagoguery, "tyranny of the majority", and the rule of passion over reason, just like oligarchy ("rule of a few") is aristocracy ("rule of the best") spoiled by corruption, and tyranny is monarchy spoiled by lack of virtue. Ochlocracy is synonymous in meaning and usage to the modern, informal term "mobocracy", which emerged from a much more recent colloquial etymolo

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Appendix C

http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/2013/03/07/what-is-a-failed-state-and-how-does-sa-measure-up

What, then, is a failed state? In its terminal form, a state fails when it implodes, leaving only a shell. Max Weber defined the state as the entity that possesses "a monopoly on the legitimate use of force". This is a vital part of any definition of the state, but modern usage stretches the definition to incorporate the idea of sovereignty over a territory.

Others insist that the idea of the state embodies a commitment as the "institutional representation of the people’s will". The more limited notion of the state would exclude, as failed states, countries such as North Korea or Zimbabwe, where the state is intact, possesses a monopoly of force, but lacks the essential ingredient of legitimacy. Somalia is one of several cases where the central government has imploded and controls only a small part of the country.

South Africa is far from such extreme situations. There is no threat to its territorial integrity, no threat of a violent overthrow of the government or even of a conflict that threatens to get out of hand. It enjoys democratic institutions (however poorly they perform), the rule of law and protected civil liberties.

There are, however, some disquieting signs. State failure occurs along a continuum: dysfunctional institutions, popular protests (such as the regular service delivery protests), illegal and often violent strikes and the evident growing alienation of young, urban blacks, who face a lifetime of unemployment. Other symptoms will be obvious to anyone who studies the demographic landscape.

It is generally reckoned that constitutions that survive for 20 years have put down roots that render them resistant to destruction. But there are exceptions. A danger South Africa faces is less the abolition of the constitution than its being hollowed out, that is, its key (supposedly) independent institutions being staffed by politically reliable people. The judiciary may be a prime candidate, followed by the public protector. We should never forget the wise warning in The Federalist Papers that a constitution is a "mere parchment barrier".

There are other danger signals of threats to key institutions: cadre deployment, which has already played havoc with the efficient running of the government in all spheres; the weakness of parliamentary oversight; and the reluctance to answer probing parliamentary questions. The list of manifestations of a reluctance to heed the constitutional requirement of transparency is long.

Much of this stems from the nature of nationalism, African in this case, but applicable also to Afrikaner nationalism in earlier times. What has occurred since 1994 is the steady development of a fusion between party and state, accompanied by a refusal to fully accept the legitimacy of opposition parties.

The African National Congress (ANC) appears to believe it has a divine right to rule, which is the only inference one can draw from some of the statements made by President Jacob Zuma.

The quest for hegemonic control of all the levers of power has gone far. Increasingly, independent sources of information will be shackled, with consequences for the freedom of the press. Obstreperous civil society organisations will feel the heat — remember: a strong civil society is one of the best guarantors of a democratic political system. Our democratic institutions have survived, but longer-term threats are apparent. Endemic corruption is having a corrosive effect. Whether Planning Minister Trevor Manuel’s stirring calls for public servants to mend their ways will have any effect is debatable.

While it is true that the complex of factors that lead to the failed state mutate into a vicious cycle, there is nothing inevitable about failure. But strong corrective measures are required and those require strong leadership, which is precisely what we lack. The ANC is faction-ridden and its alliance with the South African Communist Party and Congress of South African Trade Unions makes it difficult to take decisive steps.

Many African nationalist parties begin to fragment after 20-25 years in office. The period of fragmentation is also a time of huge danger to democratic institutions, as threatened politicians flail about in search of scapegoats and other imagined causes.

These days, "failed state status" is a term of art in the analysis of geopolitics and global economics. Twelve criteria are used to determine the chances of failure and an index of countries around the world exists so those interested can make a study of the phenomenon, decide where to invest or even where to take their next holiday. Of the 10 countries least likely to fail, only three come from the English-speaking world — New Zealand, Canada and Australia. South Africa at present ranks a lowly 66 and falling, but stands well away from the tail-enders, Somalia, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Pakistan, to name a few.

It is instructive to examine the criteria used to calculate the index. There are four social indicators. Demographic pressures, such as those created by disputes over the ownership and occupancy of land, redistribution of land and environmental issues, such as access to water and food, count. So, too, the presence of refugees in the border and urban areas of South Africa is considered, as are internal migrations. The internal displacement of people who live in squalor in informal settlements for long periods is regarded as a symptom of failure. A "legacy of vengeance-seeking group grievances", such as those harboured by locals against foreigners (xenophobic attacks) and locals against Afrikaner farmers (farm murders), as well as nationalistic political rhetoric ("the land was stolen from us") feature. Flight from the country under scrutiny, by its intellectuals and its middle class, is the last of the social factors. The shrinking size of the "white" population and its own demographic profile bear testimony to this factor.

Then there are economic factors that are regarded as relevant — a high Gini co-efficient such as South Africa’s and disparity in the development of groups. In short, high levels of inequality contribute to failure. Education levels and the state of the education system are vital to economic success and are considered, together with the rate of economic decline of the country being assessed. Poverty, unemployment and inequality nurture failure while prosperity, full employment and the achievement of equality in a sustainable fashion through proper education and long-term job creation are the conditions for success. Measures such as the infant mortality rate, gross national product, per-capita income, devaluation of the currency, commodity prices, foreign investment, the size of the drug trade and, of course, the prevalence of corruption are relevant to economic health.

There are six political indicators that bear mention: the delegitimisation or criminalisation of the state; the progressive deterioration of public services; the widespread violation of human rights; the security apparatus as a "state within a state"; the rise of factionalised elites; and intervention of other states and external factors.

Overall, our picture is not a pretty one, and Sunter’s scenario-planning prognostication appears chillingly accurate. The legitimacy of the state depends on the wholehearted embrace of its value system as reflected in the constitutional dispensation in place. Our constitution is sound, but it is constantly being undermined or hollowed out by the tenets of the "national democratic revolution", which is being pursued by those in the ANC who do not genuinely subscribe to the National Development Plan embraced by the ANC in Mangaung. Without genuine fealty to constitutionalism, our slide down the ratings is likely to continue.

• Welsh is a retired professor of political science. Hoffman is a director of the Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa.

Short-Term Memory Enhancement

Andre Willers

26 Aug 2013

Synopsis :

Visual training on an Sierpinsky Small World model can increase short-term memory recall in humans and computers .

 

Discussion :

1.The system is fractal . Sierpinsky meta-fractals are used to approximate a small world model .

2.The close-intensity of the Sierpinsky fractals represent short-term memory .

3. Links to other Sierpinsky fractals represent small World Network .

4.Image tells it better :

5.Shift your mental and eye focus at the image anti-clockwise from 6 o’clock for periodsof 16 , 24 , 32 , 40 , 48 , etc seconds .

Or just use the cursor .

Count 1-thousand , 2-thousand , … , 9-thousand  . You will notice a slight confusion of numbers as you count them . This is due to dimensional distortion in the image assembly . (This is what we are training)

 Repeat . for n= 2,3,4,5,.., etc to desired n’th degree of training .

6.This is training to enhance short-term memory by using all the mind’s tricks like chunking .

 

7.Distributed memory is shared more efficiently after training .

8. How it works ?

See Appendix Aleph

 

Cassandra says :

She does not know who will regret it most .

This technology will enhance individuals , but re-meld societies .

 

Oh well . God’s kitchen can always do with another dishwasher .

Andre

 

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Appendix Aleph

Optimal number of Concept Cells

http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2013/03/optimal-number-of-concept-cells.html

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Vertigo Grip

Vertigo Grip

Andre Willers

26 Aug 2013

Synopsis :

Gripping a shaggy surface firmly ameliorates or prevents vertigo .

 

Discussion :

1.Evolutionary argument:

As the infant leaves the safe grip on the mothers shaggy back and starts to crawl , vertigo develops as a safety mechanism . See Appendix A and Appendix C below .

 

2.Climbers use fur lined gloves . This ameliorates vertigo .

http://andy-kirkpatrick.com/articles/view/the_truth_about_gloves

“The feeling of dryness in wet handwear can only be achieved by low density fabrics like fleece, pile and wool, with the more brushed fabrics being the best (Bi-polar, brushed polyester and fibre pile). These fabrics wick the surface moisture off your skin fast, warming the skin and so in turn drying out the fabric. If this kind of next-to-the skin fabric is used and is backed up with a synthetic layer, then wet warmth will be further improved as less water will be held within the lofty fill. It seems that in the mad clamour for soft shell clothing most manufacturers have forgotten about soft shell gloves. So when you’re looking at handwear you need to ignore the impossible question of will they be waterproof and instead think about how dry they will feel.”

 

3. Infants :

Crib bars should be lined with shaggy material , and just thick enough so the little fingers can barely close around them . Tapered bars would be better .

 

4.Adult onset vertigo .

Many people only develop vertigo problems in later life . This has been seen and treated as a form of PTSD .

This can be ameliorated:

4.1 Heavy rimmed , polarised glasses to limit peripheral vision (see Appendix A ,C)

4.2 The Vertigo Pacifier . (The Trick !)

A short stick , tapered to bothe ends , covered with some shaggy material like the glove liner above , with weights on the ends .

This will work well with infants , too .

 

4.3 Virtual Reality can be used.

4.4 But Reality can be used as well .

 

5.Vertigo and Sports :

Many sports involve vertigo responses .

Eg

5.1 Golf . A golf club grip with lined with climber’s glove liners will give a much better game . (The vertigo comes from looking up)

5.2 Tennis , hockey , basketball ,etc  . Will all have that 2%-5% betterment .

 

6.Old people falling .

A Vertigo Pacifier should help .

 

7. Anorexia and Bulimia .

I did not expect this connection .

Fear of getting too heavy to cling to mommy’s back and thus falling off .

Once again , a Vertigo Pacifier should help , especially at weaning time .

 

8. Steel Construction worker’s gloves .

In cold weather , these have to be lined with shaggy , insulating material as above .

Prediction : the accident rates in cold weather was lower than in hot weather for high-rise construction workers .

 

Get a grip on it .

Andre

 

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Appendix A

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929264.500-gocarting-babies-reveal-origin-of-fear-of-heights.html#.UhuS6Bsy1FI

STEPPING out onto the glass platform of the Willis Tower, 412 metres above the streets of Chicago is enough to make most people dizzy. Not so babies, who are born with no fear of heights. Now it seems that this wariness develops as a result of crawling.

You might think fear of heights would be innate, since falling from high up can result in injury or death. But babies with little experience of crawling are not afraid of heights. "Mothers almost universally report that their babies go through a phase wherein they will go over the edge of a bed or a changing table if a caregiver doesn't intervene," says Joseph Campos at the University of California in Berkeley, who supervised the research. Then suddenly, six weeks or so after they learn to crawl, they seemingly become scared.

So what triggers this dramatic shift? To investigate, Audun Dahl, also at Berkeley and his colleagues put babies who couldn't yet crawl into go-carts that they could control with joysticks. After three weeks of training, the babies were lowered towards a 1.3 metre drop-off. The heart rates of the baby go-carters increased by 5 beats per minute, suggesting they were anxious, while the heart rates of the non-driving babies remained the same.

Babies were also tested in a "moving room" – a room with moving walls and ceiling to create the sensation of being projected forwards. The go-carting babies recoiled backwards when the walls moved, while the other babies moved far less.

This suggests that the act of propelling yourself around in space teaches the brain to become aware of information in the peripheral visual field and use it to correct balance, says Campos. What's more, the babies that reacted most to the moving room also had the greatest increase in heart rate when they were lowered over the drop-off (Psychological Science, doi.org/m7v).

In a separate experiment, babies who could already crawl were tested in the moving room and then positioned near one edge of a large glass table. One side was lined and the other left clear so the babies could see through to the floor. Those who reacted most dramatically to the moving room were most likely to avoid crossing the clear part of the table to reach their mother on the other side.

The finding might also explain why a passenger looking out of a plane window experiences no vertigo, while the same person in a transparent "bubble cockpit" helicopter can be reduced to a gibbering mess. When you look out of a plane window the information in your peripheral vision is relatively fixed, whereas in a bubble cockpit there is far more happening. "The passenger viewing the world through a transparent bubble canopy has to make lots of minute bodily adjustments, and gets a dizzying sensation," says Campos.

"What is striking about the origins of fear of falling is its intimate connection with self-movement," agrees Carlos Coelho of the University of Queensland in Australia. He found that people with extreme vertigo become anxious not only when they have to go higher, but also when they have to move laterally at a fixed height (CyberPsychology and Behavior, doi.org/bhgwjm). "Fear of heights also seems to be modulated by movement in adults," he says.

This article appeared in print under the headline "No vertigo until you can crawl"

Look who's talking now

You have to walk the walk to talk the talk – at least if you're a baby. Learning to walk appears to trigger a spurt in language development, overturning previous assumptions about how babies start to talk.

Until now, we assumed that language develops mainly as a function of age. Research also suggests that walking babies spend more time interacting and make more attempts to babble. To investigate further, Walle asked parents of 44 babies who were 10 months old to complete a bi-monthly survey on their baby's progress towards walking and talking, until their children were 13.5 months old.

He noticed a significant spurt in language development when babies started to walk, regardless of how old they were then (Developmental Psychology, doi.org/m8g).

Crawling also seems to prompt the development of other skills, such as locating hidden objects and gaining a fear of heights (see main story). "Starting to walk probably expands on those skills because walking takes the child much further," says Joseph Campos at the University of California in Berkeley. "They get spooked by being separated from their parent," he adds. "We think this necessitates an improvement in communication to keep track of them."

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Appendix B

You try this if you have a fear of heights or falling .

http://www.thehistorychannelclub.com/articles/articletype/articleview/articleid/296/the-mohawks-who-built-manhattan

“In the riveting gang, the heater fired the rivets in a portable, coal-burning forge until they were red-hot. With tongs he then tossed a rivet to the sticker-in, who caught it in a metal can as he stood with the other gang members on narrow scaffolding beside the steel. Thebucker-up re­moved one of the temporary bolts and the sticker-in then shoved the hot rivet into the empty hole. The bucker-up braced the rivet with a dolly bar while the riveter used a pneumatic hammer to turn the hot and malleable stem of the rivet into a permanent head, securing the steel. The men took turns at the four tasks, making sure to give the riveter a regular break from his bone-jarring job.”

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Appendix C

http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2007/08/human-nails.html

Human Nails .

Andre Willers

23 August 2007

http://andreswhy.blogspot.com

Synopsis :

Human fingernails are intimately linked to rhythm and pattern recognition neural systems . It is also the third most important element in human sexual selection .

Discussion:

Evolutionary roots:

Hominid bipedalism evolved quite early  .

Moropithecus (16 to 25 MY ago) showed adaptations to upright posture .

They walked on branches and clutched other breast-high branches for stability .

(See

Science DOI : 10.112 / science.1140779

New Scientist of 9 June 2007 p18 “Four legs new ,two legs much older”

http://andreswhy.blogspot.com  “The Squat and the Wobble” )

This adaptation was lost in some streams of  homonids , but retained in the homonin (ie our) ancestors . This means that for significant evolutionary time our ancestors clung to thin branches with their fingers curled around the branch and their fingertips pressed against the wood ..

The branch is not only a mechanical support , but also transmits information . The branches are elastically resilient , so waves caused by any large organism walking and stalking about can be picked up by suitably sensitive sensors and the type of organism identified by a neural-network .

The canopy-network is an information-rich network because of it’s resilience . Similar type of signals can be carried by the ground  (cf elephant feet ) , but the damping and bandwidth is totally different .

Small wonder that homonins have recreated the canopy in the Internet .

An Internet created by elephants or whales would look completely different .

The finger :

The sensor-network is the pressure-receptors below the nail . The finger part in touch with branch is liable to tissue destruction , abrasion and calluses . Any sensors here are degraded by wear-and-tear .

But , hydraulic pressure transmits around the finger bone to compress the pressure receptors in the nail-bed against the unyielding nail , giving quite fine detail to a neural-network .

Some Corollaries:

1. IFF (Identification Friend or Foe)

This evolved literally at the start of the dinosaur/mammal split , derived from reptiles and has been refined ever since .

Any predator has a particular rhythm caused by putting it’s feet down in particular sequence (gait) .

If the predator is on a branch (or any resilient surface) , the rhythm is transmitted  .

Soil can also be a medium , but less efficient (cf elephants)

This neural-network for IFF  evolved under the fingernails .

In other words , a lot of rhythm recognition (ie pattern-recognition) takes place in the nerve-plexus under the fingernail .

The survival advantages are obvious .

The primary advantage is in recognizing non-hostiles . False alarms are extremely wasteful , especially in hard times . A trinary classification at neural level  of hostile , neutral and friendly would evolve as an optimal solution .

There are circuits directly stimulating flight-or-fight mechanisms  . There is a direct tie to the hippocampus and amygdala through  stress proteins . There is a direct neural tie to muscles in the arm (from fingernails) and the legs (from toenails) .

This enabled the prey to identify a predator creeping or galloping up to it and take immediate reflex action .

Hyper-length neurons is the latest fashionable term to denote really long nervous connections without synapses .

The rich nexus of nerves under the fingernails have long been a target of human torture . But notice the aversion to nail-less humans or nail-biting . Notice how your attention is drawn to a nail-malformation (like a blue-nail)

2. Grooming.

Unarguably a defining social element in homonins .

But every human is complex of pressure waves .

Heartbeat , breathing , peritalsis  are only a few of the passive pressure-waves that can be sensed by fingertips . More active palpations enables joint-crackling , lung and abdominal spaces to be felt by fingertips . Ask any doctor .

By definition , some females would be better at fingertip sensitivity than others  . Since most infant mortality involves the gastro-intestinal system , which can be felt , sick babies allowed to be handled by the more sensitive woman are much more likely to survive . No language for this is needed initially .

Nursing and handling babies need sensitive touch .

Those females better at it ( ie well-shaped fingernails) evolve into  midwives , since they reduce infant mortality for the group .

The midwife is the first professional .

Indeed , the medical round has not changed much in about 70 000 years .

The dominant female shaman , surrounded by a cloud of students , stalks from infant to infant , subjecting them to tactile examination . Easily remedified complaints (like blockages) or tried and true herbal plants are used to reduce infant mortality . This information is transmitted to the students .

Note self-medication by chimps and gorillas .

3. What drives this language development ?

The problem with previous language-development models was that there is no really , really compelling evolutionary reason why language should evolve .

Hunters do not need it . Noise is contra-indicated . Modern warriors like the SEALs use sign language in combat .

Small-woman groups might have the tendencies , but how does being top-woman of a small , isolated group translate into a planetwide meme-and-gene dominance ?

We have to have a mechanism whereby local dominance is transmitted .

The Answer :

Old-Fashioned Darwin .

The reduction in infant-mortality  is the driver .

The transmission of information (ie language) then has an extremely direct relevance not only for a small tribe , but larger groups .

A tactile sensitive female with some language skill creates a positive feedback environment for higher infant survival rates . The language element enables her to teach students that scatter and repeat the process . The tribes that accept or send students to the college outbreed those that that don’t .

There is a crux point here relevant today :

Matriarchs (ie doctors) who tried to keep this advance in-tribe got overwhelmed by those that made it freely available .

Females , following an ancient imperative , would bring sick infants to the friendly neighborhood clinic .

The Matriarchal-Medical societal group outbred all others . And language was essential to the information transmission .

Argh!!

A bunch of doctors  huddling together and exchanging jargon is the origin of language. The jargon was expanded to include terms for social competition for resources and status . Language was born in all its glory .

Note that the invention of Peace

(See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “The origins of war and Peace”)

is a logical consequence of the above scenario during a stress episode like Toba .

Not to mention the College / University idea . Which morphed into Organised Religion .

The Dark Side .

The Rite of Passage (ie to qualify to be seen as human and worthy of procreation ) was an invention simultaneous with the invention of Peace . Youths who could not subordinate their impulses (to fairness , pain , boredom ) to the society , were expelled from the procreational pool , or even killed .

This mechanism (meme-structure) is still active today . (Flunked Varsity ? You’re drafted.) Can’t stand the fraternity initiation ? You are not human . Go flip burgers .

This works fine as long as the governing society is in charge . But by expelling it’s mutants , the society builds up a pool resentful beings of various degrees of humanity.

A sudden change (climate , plague , technology , etc) reduces the defenses of the original system sufficiently to bring about a revolution

Ie the climatic stabilization about 12 900 years ago that made profitable agriculture possible .

4. Snakes .

The alert reader would have noticed that a reliable , sensitive temperature sensor is lacking in the human sensorium . The most sensitive ones are in the elbows and the back of the knees , and these hardly lend themselves to easy usage .

So they bred snakes . Remember , these are the people that domesticated through selective breeding all our present domesticated species .

Snakes then would have been the  very first domesticated species .

A living thermometer .

The infra-red sensors of snakes are more sensitive than present thermometers used in hospitals .

The specially bred snakes would have been bred not only for thermo-sensitivity , but for chemo-sensitivity as well .

The forked-tongue could detect not only breakdown products of illnesses exuded through the skin or breath , but location as well . (That’s why it’s forked.)

A basket of specialized snakes would enable a medical practitioner of the era

70 000 – 12 900 BC to give first level medical care equivalent to that of country clinic in our era . Diagnostics would have been superior , since specialized snakes would be doing this . Think programmed bio-chips .

Problem cases would be referred to the local College center .

Poisonous snakes was bred for medicinal aspects of their poisons (still being done today) .

So where are these snakes today ?

Traces of their genetic material should be found in garden snakes in Western Europe .

Obviously , nobody has looked for genetic bottlenecks from this viewpoint .

So this is a verifiable test .

Evidence of deliberate breeding (especially in mitochondrial snake DNA ) should be found  . It is doubtful that really highly specialized snakes could survive in the wild (think feral Jersey cow or Merino) , but some would have gotten lucky . Their genetic traces should be traceable .

Cultural remnants :

The Caduceus is a cultural remnant . (Intertwined snakes is still the Western symbol of medicine  .) Not bad for a symbol about 30 000 years old .

Legends , statues and inscriptions of dragons .

Bible : Eden . The snake got the starring role as the baddie , since the victors wrote the history books .

Also note Isis , purging of Ireland of snakes , Feng Shui , etc

Spirals : in rock engravings , etc . Which way does a snake coil up ?

Midwives .

The memes for this civilization is coiled up inside the one set of humans that had to survive : the midwives .

 Remember , they thought biologically . The concepts of seeds inside reproducing systems came naturally to them .

The Matriarchs  had thousands of years to see their demise coming and to plant seeds 

Ho-ho-ho !

The New World Order is guaranteed to be completely different from the Bilderbirger vision .

So , there were  some good ones matriarchs and some bad ones .

The good ones tried to ensure the survival of what was good in their civilization .

The bad ones tried to ensure their dominance .

The ensuing civil wars destroyed almost everything .

Most of the good got thrown out with the bad .

The planet is littered with the ruins of their buildings , bioforms and still-active

bio- weapon systems .

Some meme markers that have survived the wars :

Bio-warfare vs numbers . Fear the disease-ridden stranger . If you are not for us , you are against us . Any writing or symbol is dangerous , since it can contaminated with mind-altering vectors by touching it .

Some remnants of these have survived in central-europe : psychotic and schizophrenic inducing chemicals in basic foodstuffs like rye (ergot fungi) . Some very localized near the original labs .

 (One particular variant of psychosis inducing behavioural change organisms was localized within about 50 km radius  in central Europe : symptoms :  fear of persecution : paranoia with very definite cut-off points . A weapon .)

Your attention is drawn to plasmodium induced behaviour changes where the carriers are cats (and dogs as well) .

This would be a civilizing influence in a mild form ( taking risks by trusting ) , but a mind-control form in a strong form (trust unconditionally) . (Oxytocin stimulation)

A horrible thought is that the sites of the Nazi extermination camps (and the very idea) came from people picking up extermination bio-weapon contamination from old weapon sites . Note that the Nazi camps are on a line that would be a natural defensive line about 9 000 years ago .

Old weapons that kill and kill again .

Why the sudden sanity in the late twentieth century ?

Acid rain .

The vectors of madness were in the fungi (forest rhizomes) in the ground .

The weaponized mind-altering fungi , bacteria and viruses were obviously spread as widely as possible over the defensive lines . The ones that could survive thousands of years would be in the old fungi structures underground . These (because they were carrying a non-survival payload) were the first to die in acid-rain .

Remember , they thought like biologists .

They would not pick up a rock and bash you on the head . They would breed some organism that makes you vulnerable to their memes . You then would pick up a rock and bash their enemies ‘ heads in .

Can these organisms recover ?

Of course . They doing so now . See the latest history .

Why did this civilization nearly vanish ?

(See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com “The origins of war and Peace” , “Costs”  , “Nazca” , etc)

Your attention is drawn to the putative small comet impact on North America about 12 900 years ago . See New Scientist  26 May 2007 “Firestorm from space wiped out prehistoric Americans.”

This resulted in a short-term planetary climatic stability 

(alas , now coming to an end ).

The resulting climatic stability led to usable , profitable , large-scale agriculture .

This led to an explosion in human numbers .

The Matriarchy tried to keep the lid on  . Things got ugly on both sides .

The sub-human mutants (partially our ancestors ) won and extirpated their enemies . The late bronze-age cataclysm was but the end stages of a 7 000 year old clash of memes , and was correspondingly bitter.

Think Paris Hilton vs Bill Gates .

5 .Rhythm .

Rhythm is then a very ancient IFF mechanism .

Music is used as a cultural defining mechanism . Era’s and societies are defined by ephemeral harmonies .

If you like my rhythms  , we are pals .

6. Musical instruments:

Nearly all human instruments are characterized by causing compression waves around fingertips in sequences and cadences .

Guitar , piano , flute , etc .The reason why they popular is that they are easy to play . The reason why they are easy to play is that pattern-recognition takes place in the fingertips .

A hardwired threat is a cat stalking along slender bough . The cadence of a four-footed stalk is known . The damping of vibrations along a bough of decreasing diameter is known . The speed of the approach of the predator can then be calculated .

In music this translates as impending threat or doom . Can you see how it goes ?

Now you too can design threatening music that operates at instinctive level .

Finger tapping .

This is a variant of “Counting to ten” .

The pressure impacts on the nail-beds causes interrupts in the amygdale , hippocampus and lower stem .  Hence the success of some stress therapies using fingerclicking .

You got rhythm  if you fingertap and foot/toe tap with the music .

Fingertip to forearm tapping .

You will not find this little item anywhere else .

Endorphin release is proportional to fingertip-to-forearm cadences .

Instead of tapping your fingers on the table , tap them on and around your forearms instead in time to the music . Notice you will automatically start waving your forearms about .

Endorphin release is increased by orders  of magnitude .

Why ?

Your forearm is like a branch . You are tapping your fingertips and moving your hands and forearms in a way that signals “ Only friendlies and non-hostiles” about .

Monkey’s joy .

Listen to some music that has a beat . Put your right hand on your left forearm and vice versa . Tap your fingers on the forearms as if you are conducting like mad . Go mad .

Try it .

Notice the flatness if you stop . This is endorphin production being stopped .  (Especially with semi-classical music)

Notice that you move your fingers about 3 times as frequently as your thumbs . To be more exact , e=2.718… more frequently . The reason is obvious .

Notice that all musicians move their instruments if they can . The pianist moves his head and torso as he moves through the virtual canopy . Notice the contortions of a violinist . What does the virtual monkey-mind cluster of a violinist see as she contorts and gyrates ?

7. Counting .

The relationship between mathematics and music is well known .

But why ten fingers? Many different variations have been tried .

The answer is simple : 4 fingers + 1 thumb on each hand .

The thumb gives a better grasp on the branch . The 4 fingers at roughly equal distances split the harmonics of the wave on the branch . This is a physical optimization , inherent in the nature of vibrations . A physical and mathematical law of vibrations .

4=2^2  ,  8 = 2^4 . Can you see it ?

A little prediction : the spread of thickness of 4 fingers in homonids will optimize natural harmonies in branches of varying taper .

This means that the thumb is not strictly necessary for rhythm recognition . Notice that most instruments do not require the thumb except for grasping . (Eg the guitar : the right thumb is usually replaced by a plectrum.)

This also means that the thumb could be used for something else , and that is what evolutionary systems did . Thumb systems specialized in acting as reference point for the other fingers . A weight-lifter , javelin-thrower , tennis-player , golf-player , violin-player , etc all do the same thing : their hands analyze the vibration-characteristics of their instrument to find the sweet-spot relative to the other fingers .

8. Golf:

The monkey swings through the air and grips a branch .

The 4x2 fingers hook over to top . Immediately , IFF is done in the fingertips . If  no enemy is detected , the thumbs hook underneath . By this time , the branch has deformed under the weight and vibrations set up . Using the positions of the thumbs as reference points , the vibrational characteristics of the branch is analyzed . If the monkey wants to stay  and have a firm grip , it must move to a vibrational node of the branch (ie where the standing wave caused by it’s weight cancels out . Usually called the Sweet Spot .) . notice that one hand must get there first , usually overshooting . The overshooting hand is adjusted closer to the sweet spot , then the other hand . This approximation process is repeated until the monkey is satisfied (inside the parameter.)

It moves its hands , the fingers frequently and the thumbs less frequently (ratio of about 3 to 1) until it feels happy .

Now do the same to the golf club .

If right-handed , cradle the club lightly at balance point in the left hand with the fingers underneath and the thumb over the top , the handle to the right . The right hand has a light overhand grip .

Hold the club horizontal (like a branch ) , waggle it gently up and down . With the fingertips on the club , shift your hand alternately to the right until it feels correct . Jiggle the right hand back to correct for overshoot .

Then lock the right thumb in . (Note , locking the thumb is characteristic of all golf-grips . Now you know why .)

This is the interesting bit . While locking the right thumb in place , wriggle the left fingers and thumb until they feel ok . The right fingers can be wriggled as well , but not the right thumb . Do not wriggle the fingers more than 3 times the thumbs at this stage .

9. Piano

An interesting corollary is that you will learn the piano better and faster if you tape the thumbs out of the way .

10 .Birds .

So why doesn’t birds have ten toes ? They have 8 = 3x2 + 2.

Birds can fly , so they don’t have to stick around and develop enhanced harmonic analysis .

11. Stochastic resonance .

The Stochastic resonance mechanisms which evolved in the brain and hands to deal with random branch movements due to weather was essential to the development of language .

Lying and an honest error  cannot be distinguished from each other . And it does not matter in the long term .

12 .Sexual Selection.

Men look at women and see at a subconscious level :

1. Her middle/hip ratio is about 0.75 . Enough room for babies head

2.High , conical breasts . They will not smother baby while suckling and running .

3. Well-kept nails . Tactile sensitivity for baby care and nursing .

Women look at men and see at a subconscious level :

1. A taut bum . Good runner . Essential for good hunter .

2.Muscled arms . Good hunter and protector .

3. Symmetric face . Behaviour not too weird .

That’s it . The systems can only count to three .

If you want to overcome any negative impression on any one of these factors ,  you will have to work hard at it .

I was surprised to see nails pop out as an important sexual selection criterion . Females are always buffing , colouring , shaping , hardening , etc nails .

Shaped nails .

Refer to magnetrons . Shaped guides to various wave-forms can magnify the effect million-fold . Women with wave-guide shaped nails are remnants of the old order . Good or bad ? Unfortunately , nobody can tell . But if you run into one , run like hell .

The groove is only quantum deep , but it is coupled across all time .

So much for this space-time .

Andre