More on neurons and related subject

signal transduction - the cascading of signals is very relevant to electricity outside of the brain - such as in electronic or robotic things - and can be the beginning of something very interesting, even on a small simulation in a program type of beginning.

reference: neural net

more interesting: Neurons - and synaptic transmission - the way photoreceptors process information about light and colour in the environment transmitting light in its intensity and wavelength to something that is recognized in a dual process (rods and cones) and reformulated into information about the environment in the mindboggling miracle of the human (or animal) eye.

mathematical musings

Quadratic equation - in program, it is said that we do not need to test if the discriminant is less than 0, why is this. -- "Thus the roots are distinct, if and only if the discriminant is non-zero, and the roots are real, if and only if the discriminant is non-negative." Thus, if the discriminant is negative, the values returned will not be real numbers, and thus will not be able to be presented by the program? No, because we have tested if the result is positive, and if the absolute value of it is less than 0. If it has failed those two tests, it is a negative number and thus will produce non-real roots (complex).

Other:
positive and negative number facts

brain language links

Neurolinguistics and article (semantic processing in music and words).

Cognitive neuroscience

                      Plato
                    /  |
  Descartes -?- Kant   |
    /          /       |
Schopenhauer__/________|

Chomsky

visual imaging in the brain - cognitive processes and psycholinguistics.

links, and a strange dyslexia I am experiencing

Equanimity, Charisma, Enlightenment, satori, asceticism,

Ocular dominance and Anisometropia and cross-dominance.

Other Notes: I have farsightedness in my left eye, and nearsightedness in my right eye. Before I began to wear glasses, my art teachers noticed a decided 'slant' to some of my work, especially when concerning the human body. I would reverse hands on the figure without noticing the problem.

I favour my right hand for most tasks - but can use my left hand for legible writing and taking up of other tasks more convenient to the left (shooting across the table in pool - grabbing something that is falling etc.) I am decidedly left-leg dominant (aches after a walk of several miles to a much greater degree when the muscles are not used to the activity).

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Personal Note: There are two things that assist me in reading comprehension - that is, to absorb deep or difficult material with certainty that it has been understood.

method 1: To read at normal pace, and - when something particularily seems important and/or difficult to wrap my head around, to write it out with my right hand while looking at it with my dominant left eye.

method 2: To put on wordless flowing music (classical strings or orchestral are perfect for this) at a medium tone. I believe that this occupies my right brain just enough that it relinquishes some dominance over the reading of the text to the left brain - which can better deal with the language concepts. This is not always practical - but for true study, it is useful.

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However - since I have a strange ability to draw large works, possessing of often literal symbolic translations - perhaps all of this shows some that my right brain takes a part in my language processing, moreso than is normal or average - and perhaps it has interfered with some of my learning in the past.

When I was six years old in the first grade, my teacher came to the house to speak with my mother. I was not learning to read as quickly as my peers - even though I seemed to pick up on things very quickly in general - there were certain elements that seemed very difficult, specifically words where the letters were unlike their sounds (laugh, cough, other, hour) etc.

My mother does not read or write very well, either - but she is a very artistic person. After speaking with my mother - the teacher began private tutoring with me She brought me a set of books, which were to be read in order - and a children's Bible. I did a lot of extra reading practice - out loud, and silently. Before the halfway point of the year (midterm) - I was promoted to the advanced reading group within the class. (Mrs. Nikki Holden - I am still in your debt for this, although I have not seen you since this time and I know you have passed away.)

This was also the time we were learning to write - and several of my letters, although appearing forwards, were drawn in reverse order of what was taught - starting a letter 'B' at the bottom right, or a letter 'N' at the right side going to the left. I still catch myself doing this on occasion - and can write legibly with my left hand, and backwards legibly with my right hand, as well as forwards.

Something about all of this - not the typical dyslexia, but something akin to it - is still being experienced in my adult life. It is not exactly hampering - and can even be helpful - if I learn where to improve it(where it is deficient from 'normal') and where it excels.

Genies and Demons

Genies and Demons
an Essay by Marie Winger-Meyer.
copyright 12/21/2006

The genies and the demons are both myself and I am them.

The genie is when I feel the potential and the enormity of the world and all of its complexities. As the frantic beating of the wings of a hummingbird, inside my arm muscles - inside my head - my legs - all of me - I want to go out and run the fields - build the Tower of Babel - draw circles in the sand. The enormity of the possibilities is contrasted against my very limited resources, my mind, my body - time and space itself. It is as if I am the genie residing in the bottle of this place, time, and substance. And yet, there are still great things to be done inside this bottle - or - as if a funnel or a lens, through it. And the bottle itself holds great secrets that can satiate bits of the mind with their surprising intricacies and unexpected treasures. The genie is a wonderful force, a frustrating force, my goal and, when listened to and reacted to - the best thing about being alive.

The demons.
This is hard to describe - but beside the genie force there is a dark thick thread that wraps itself around things. It pervades them. It suggests and I deny. Perhaps every human being has this - my mother told me when I was a little girl that it was the opposite of the conscience - or very close to it. It tells you what could be wrong - what evil could occurr, to inform and allow you to keep yourself from it. And especially to keep yourself from being the cause of it.

It is frightening. It is disturbing. And it does that job well. It is a deep sense of dread and shock that something could be crushed, cut, fall and otherwise be damaged by my hands, (or by my actions or inaction). It is almost a premonition - that rarely comes true. I see it - I feel it, it terrifies me to no end, I hate it, as strongly and as deeply as humanly possible.

Yet as much as I hate it, I respect it, and have come to appreciate it. Initially, it seems to take the beauty out of things - and yet then it lets it flow back in, stronger than before - more purposeful and fully understood just how beautiful it all really is.

To hold a newborn kitten and wonder at it - take extreme joy in the life and essence of it, and have that dark thread boil up - 'it is fragile, so fragile your hands could damage it easily' - it frightens me for a second, then reminds me as well 'be careful, be gentle, it is so soft and so wonderous, so tiny and defenseless. It trusts you - it is real and separate and beautiful in itself. Your care and carefulness keep it beautiful, keep it as it should be. And you - you are the one who could also protect it, keep it as it is by not allowing anything else to harm it - to ruin it - to take away that which makes it as it is.' It is a tangible interior dichotomy - a split-second that occurrs in the spaces in-between. I am very aware of it. Maybe I am too aware of it, and other people simply ignore it.


And there I am, between the genies and the demons. The genies, with their potential and restriction as the two faces of a coin, joined face to face, opposite - but required - predestined, to be as they are, and to make on the edge of it what can be made... And the demons, with their potential for evil - that becomes a shield of resistance, opposite of it's intention, yet beautiful in that same regard. It prevents what it predicts. By the sheer shock of its suggestion - it causes caution.

The "I" has always existed between the two, in some indescribable way. I am all of it and, again, neither of them entirely. These poles, they are not at one end or the other. They are both above me as much as they are both below me. They are both to the right and left of me simultaneously. They attract and repel - absorb me and spit me out. I am made up of them, as much as they would not exist without me.

And of the good? The protective, beauty-preserving instinct? Is it a separate thing as well? I can't say at this time. Perhaps it is the genie - reacting to the demon? Or is it me? I'd like to think it is me. And the things I achieve, that which I know, those abilities I have gained from following the genie - I hope those are me as well. The genie is only inspiration - a door through which to view and realize what can be done.

The genie leads. I follow. The demon presses. I repel.

Folktales and narrative structure

AT numbers explained, for classifying folk tales

Vladimir Propp Russian folklorist who further defined morphology of the classifications used in the Aarne-Thompson classification system (AT numbers)

Heuristics
Mythography

Note : Looked all over last night, finally found my star charts - where else, but in an old Astronomy magazine, at the bottom of the maps and magazine drawer. So nice to have them again - used to always have them close at hand while drawing to make connections and get ideas, along with a stack of anatomy books (human and animal), math, physics and medical books. Wow - I don't travel light... at least not when it comes to intense drawing sessions.

Good clear light, a pen and a pad of paper are the absolute minimum, though. Add classical music and I can start jamming on it - add stacks of visual information, and you probably won't get me away from it for several hours unless something really important is going on that requires my attention.

Food Cravings

I've been having strong, strange food cravings this past week - and I've been listening to them.
For the past month I've been feeling run-down - but now I feel energized and have been sleeping incredibly well (in less time than usual). I really wonder what is going on (it's not pregnancy - that is a one in a hundred-shot without a doctor atm...).

Highest Cravings
Curry, cumin and paprika - (I just smell it and have to add it to whatever I'm eating)
Almonds (eating them like candy)
Barley (very strange, but wow pearled barley tastes good right now, with olive oil, pepper and soy sauce)

Strong Cravings
Turkey
Eggs
Salt

Funny thing is - Most of that was not a large part of my diet at all. My husband is vegan, so we usually don't have eggs or meat in the house at all. He doesn't like the barley, so I've been cooking him his own meals and making curried or soy sauce barley for my dinner.

It looks like some of this is high in vitamin B and E.