Why do lovers hold hands? Because it feels good, brings comfort? It may also be sexually arousing. A recent study published in the Proceeding of the National Academy of science demonstrates that the wave patterns of the lovers’ brains also synchronize, and can result in significant pain alleviation. The study […]
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Preposterous (def. Collins dictionary) adjective contrary to reason or common sense; utterly absurd or ridiculous. “a preposterous suggestion” Synonym absurd, ridiculous, foolish, stupid, ludicrous, farcical, laughable, comical, risible, etc. The Latin origin of the word implies putting “the cart before the horse”. That the future […]
While the tendency in tourism recently has been to offer more activities and stimulation, for some time the Finish tourist bureau has been promoting silence as Finland’s most special natural resource. In Finland, you’re never far from silence. In a city it’s easy to get away into a natural […]
By Paul Kieniewicz I live in an ancient forest, and often wonder about the relationships between the trees. For the past 80 years nobody interfered with the forest’s growth. No large trees were removed, there was no pest control or forest management. One result was that the forest developed a […]
By Henryk Skolimowski (SMN) SMALL ASPIRATIONS A SMALL PERSON GREAT ASPIRATIONS A GREAT PERSON BE GREAT REACH FOR THE STARS If you do not reach for the stars You are not fully mature. Small concerns will never make you A great person, but only a fledgling. […]
By Paul Kieniewicz Back in 1975 I ran a bookshop called “The Gateway” in Ojai, California: Books for Mind Body and Spirit. Meanwhile on this side of the Atlantic the Scientific and Medical Network was taking shape. In those days, the Network was a group of scientists and doctors brought […]
By Paul Kieniewicz Back in the 1960’s, the Polish Science Fiction writer, Stanisław Lem wrote a short story about robots. A rocket along with its calculator lands on an uninhabited planet and subsequently spawns a race of robots. The robots (who call themselves Magnificans), build an entire city along […]
By Paul Kieniewicz A series of recent articles in the Guardian, expressed a measure of outrage that many water companies in the UK today still employ dowsers to locate underground pipes or leaks. The writers described dowsing as pseudoscience, a “medieval practice”, essentially witchcraft. The articles inspired an outpouring of […]
By Paul Kieniewicz So, we may one day all be replaced by intelligent machines. One day, given enough computational power, machines will become self-aware. According to some AI researchers, some machines already have a measure of self-awareness. Of consciousness. And then, there’s the fabled Singularity, when the machine surpasses the […]
By Paul Kieniewicz The slime mold Physarum polycephalum (diameter: around 10 centimeters), made up of a single cell, was here cultivated in the laboratory on agar gel. It’s a fair assumption. If we’re looking for intelligent behavior in an animal, it had better have a brain, or at the very […]