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Minggu, 25 Maret 2012

10 Astounding Facts About the Human Brain

Here are ten remarkable facts about our most complex organ.
A cross-section of the human brain
1. The human brain is so sophisticated it takes nearly 20 years to mature
2.In the womb, humans grow 8,000 new brain cells every second 
3.By the time humans are born they have all the brain cells they will ever need 
4.The human brain is the “most sophisticated thing” in the known universe 
5.New-born babies can recognise their mother’s face after just a few hours 
6.Babies can see in the womb but only in black and white. However their eyes are sensitive enough to detect the dim light passing through their mother’s belly 
7.Humans blink up to 20 times every minute. Each blink lasts around half a second. But add them together, and humans are living in the dark for more than an hour every day 
8.Each brain cell will make, on average, 10,000 connections with other brain cells 
9.Learning to balance and co-ordinate your body is so complex the area of the brain devoted to this task contains as many cells as the rest of the brain put together 
10.Young divers in Thailand have taught their eyes to focus underwater by 

Sabtu, 24 Maret 2012

20 facts about McDonald's

01. In 1970, Americans spent on this meal $ 6 billion a year in 2001 - more than 110 billion is larger than for higher education, computers, cars. More than books, movies, magazines, newspapers, videos and music - together. 

02. The average American eats three hamburgers and four servings of potatoes every week.  

03. One in eight U.S. workers had worked in the "McDonald's."  


04. "McDonald's" consumption of pork, beef and potatoes, more than anyone else in the U.S., chicken - a little less than fast food "Kentucky Chicken frayed."

05. Especially for the "McDonald's" breed of chickens bred with huge breasts, "Mr. MD." Of white breast meat is a popular dish on the menu, "Chicken McNuggets." It changed the whole industry production of chicken meat. The chicken was sold not as a whole as 20 years ago, and cut into pieces.


06. Golden arches "of McDonald's," according to psychologist Louis Cheskin - Freudian symbol. It is "a huge pair of breasts," McDonald's mother.

07. Two-thirds of all employees of fast food chains do not have 20 years. They work in a very small salary, performing simple operations. In 1958, the "McDonald's" had the first 75 pages of instructions, describing in detail the procedure for all the actions of cooking and ways of communicating with customers. Today, in this book, 750 pages, and it is called the "bible of McDonald's."


08. Staff turnover in the fast food - up to 400%. A typical worker goes from the cafe after 4 months. Among the employees a lot of teenagers from poor families and immigrants, especially from Latin America, who know in English only the name of dishes on the menu. 


09. Low salary and lack of labor protection is replaced by the creation of "Team spirit" of the young workers. For a long time managers "McDonald's" learn how to properly praise subordinates and create the illusion of indispensability. It's cheaper than raise wages.

10.Injuries among the younger staff at two times higher than in adults. Each year, crippled in their cafes 200,000 people. 

11. A young slave labor loves to joke. Videos in fast food in Los Angeles have shown that teenagers sneeze into the food, lick your fingers, pick their nose, put out cigarettes on the products, drop them on the floor. In May 2000, three teenagers from the "Burger King" in New York were arrested for being about 8 months of spit and urinated in the food. In mixers live cockroaches, and mice swarm at night left to defrost hamburger ... It is known that many workers do not eat fast food cafe in his home until it is cooked for a portion. 

12. Taste the potatoes from the "McDonald's" everybody likes. Previously, he depended entirely on the fat in which it is roasted. For decades it was a mixture of 7 percent cottonseed oil and 93 percent beef tallow. In 1990, the people turned against cholesterol, fast food and switched to 100% vegetable oil. But the taste, it was required to leave the same! Today, if you ask for the "McDonald's" information on the composition of dishes at the end of a long list of modest look "natural flavoring". This is a universal explanation for why everything is so tasty fast food.

13. Recipes potatoes and hamburgers can not be found in cookbooks and in the writings of "Food Technology" and "engineering of food." What we eat there, over the past 40 years has changed more than in the previous 40 000. And the taste, and smell of hamburgers and the like is done in huge chemical plants in New Jersey.

14. About 90% of all the products we buy, have been pre-processing. Conservation and frost kill the natural flavor of food. For the past 50 years, neither we nor the fast food could not survive without chemical plants.

15. In addition to the taste of products for "McDonald's" company "International flavors Fragransez End" makes the smell of six of the 10 most popular spirits of the world, including "Beautiful," "Estee Lauder" and "Tresor" "Lankoma." Also smells of soap, dishwashing detergents, shampoos, etc. All of this is the result of a process. Shave you're actually the same as you have for dinner.

16. Work at the factory has become the most dangerous in America, only the official figure is 40,000 injuries per year. U.S. meat plants process up to 400 carcasses per hour, whereas in Europe more than 100. Because of the low wages here are working alone immigrants.

17. Cows fed the farmers how they should be, with grass. Cows are designed for large fastfudovskoy grinder, three months before the killing of huge herds are driven to a special area where they are fed grain and anabolics.

18.. One cow can eat more than 3000 pounds of grain and 400 pounds of weight gain. The meat in this case becomes very fat, just right for stuffing.

19. The increase in grain prices has worsened an already dire situation. Prior to 1997 - the first call of mad cow disease - 75% of U.S. cattle ate the remains of sheep, cows and even dogs and cats from animal shelters. During a 1994 U.S. cows have eaten three million pounds of chicken manure. After 1997, the diet supplements were from pigs, horses and chickens, along with sawdust from the chicken coops.


20. Obesity - the second leading cause of death after smoking in the United States. Every year on his 28 000 people die. 2 times increased levels of obesity in England, which most Europeans love fast food. In Japan, with its marine and vegetable fat diet had almost no - they have now become like everyone else.


Sources: techysci.com

Top 5 Events Surrounding September 11



5. US Government Exercises


On September 11, 2001, the United States government held a series of military exercises and drills. Operation Northern Vigilance was a NORAD operation, which involved deploying fighter aircraft to the northwestern part of North America, specifically Alaska and Northern Canada. The exercise was one part simulation, one part real world. It was in response to a similar test acted out by Russia on September 11, where long-range bombers were dispatched to Russia’s high north. The exercises were immediately called off after the news of the terrorist attacks, and all simulated information was purged from NORADs computer screens. However, the event was a distraction for the US government on 9/11.
Operation Northern Vigilance was not the only US exercise planned for September 11. A series of war games were also acted out, specifically Global Guardian. Global Guardian is an annual, command-level exercise held in the United States. It is an important task, and the purpose of the drill is to test and validate US nuclear command, control and execution procedures. Vigilant Guardian is an exercise that was run in conjunction with Global Guardian. It involved a simulated bomber attack from the former Soviet Union. The drill was conducted in real time, and appeared legitimate in offices and on computers, but without any planes in the air. One of the drills included was a traditional simulated hijacking.
The National Reconnaissance Office drill that was being conducted on September 11, 2001, is the strangest. In the exercise, a simulated small aircraft crashed into one of the towers at the NRO headquarters. No plane was involved in the drill, but to simulate damage from the crash, some stairwells and exits were closed off. A bioterrorism exercise was planned for September 12, 2001. It was named Operation Tripod and included a real life test of the US plan to distribute antibiotics to an entire city population during a bioterrorism attack.

4. Nimda Virus 

In the months before and after September 11, 2001, the United States was bombarded with a series of cyber attacks. A group of criminals exposed vulnerabilities in the Microsoft operating system, and created a buffer overflow virus, which executed arbitrary code and infected hundreds of thousands of computers. By July 19, 2001, the amount of infected hosts reached over 350,000 zombies. A series of separate viruses named Code Red I and Code Red II crippled valuable servers and made calculated attacks on US government computers.
On September 18, 2001, a new virus attacked United States operating systems. The worm was given the name Nimda, and it was an advanced version of Code Red II. Some might say that the Code Red viruses were created in preparation for the much larger Nimda attack, which was executed the week following the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Due to the release date of the virus, members of the American government speculated on a link between the cyber attacks and Al Qaeda, but this theory ended up proving unfounded. The American media did not report much on the virus because of the terrorist attacks.
Multiple propagation vectors allowed Nimda to become the Internet’s most widespread and dangerous virus. It took only 22 minutes for the worm to rip through the American financial sector, causing over $3 billion in damage. The Nimda virus was so effective because it used five different infection vectors. People could, and still can, get the virus via e-mail, open network shares, infected websites, exploitation or via back doors left behind by the Code Red II virus. The group of people behind the Nimda virus and the theft of billions of dollars are unknown. The event greatly damaged the world’s financial sector and economy.

3. Wave of Accidents 

In the months following September 11, 2001, there was a wave of international accidents and events. On September 21, 2001, the AZF chemical factory located near Toulouse, France exploded. The event occurred when three hundred tons of ammonium nitrates ignited. The blast left a crater with a depth of 20 to 30 m (65 to 100 ft), and with a diameter of 200 m (650 ft). It was a major incident in France, and 29 people were killed. The event is recognized as an environmental catastrophe, and the total damages already paid by insurance groups are exceeding 1.5 billion euros. The blast is believed to have occurred due to the improper handling of ammonium nitrate, including the mixing of chemical impurities. However, on October 2, 2001, France’s then Environment Minister, Yves Cochet, announced that the explosion “may have been a terrorist attack” and identified Hassan Jandoubi as a person of interest.
On October 4, 2001, Siberia Airlines Flight 1812 crashed over the Black Sea. The plane was en route from Tel Aviv, Israel, to Novosibirsk, Russia, and all 78 people aboard were killed. The crash was initially thought to be a terrorist attack, since an Armenian plane near the scene reported seeing the Russian plane explode before it crashed into the sea. However, American intelligence reported that the crash was due to an errant S-200 surface to air missile fired as part of a Ukrainian Air Defense Forces exercise. Many people have labeled this hypothesis unlikely, considering the missiles range and safety features, claiming that the US was in fear of mass hysteria with yet another terrorist attack in the weeks following September 11. Ultimately, the government of Ukraine officially recognized their military’s fault in the accident and started negotiating compensation payments for victims’ relatives.
On November 12, 2001, the United States experienced its second deadliest aviation accident in history. It occurred when American Airlines Flight 587 crashed into the Belle Harbor neighborhood of Queens, New York. The accident took place two months after the September 11 terrorist attacks, and it caused panic in New York. Thousands of people witnessed the Airbus A300 crash to the ground, killing all 260 people on board. Many people reported a fire and explosion before the plane crashed, but the National Transportation Safety Board attributed the disaster to the first officer’s overuse of rudder controls. Al-Qaeda has listed the crash among its successes, but physical evidence was never presented indicating terrorist activity. Surprisingly, the story was widely underreported in the United States, considering the magnitude of the crash. In the months after the tragedy, rumors were circulated that suggested that the plane was exploded by a shoe bomber, similar to the failed attempt of Richard Reid, but these claims are unsubstantiated.

2. 2001 Anthrax Attacks 

Most people are familiar with the wave of anthrax attacks waged against the United States in the weeks following September, 11. Beginning on September 18, a group of letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to US media outlets, and the offices of two US senators. In all, five people were killed in the terrorist activity, and seventeen others were seriously affected. The letters addressed to the US senators, Democrats Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, were laced with a highly refined dry anthrax powder. Shortly after the first wave of attacks, two letters were sent to the New York Post and NBC News. The letters contained threats mentioning 9/11, and implied a new wave of terrorist activity. For this reason, it was highly reported in America that Al-Qaeda was behind the 2001 anthrax attacks.
On September 11, George W. Bush and the White House staff began taking a regimen of Cipro, which is a powerful antibiotic. This activity has led to a list of conspiracy theories accusing the US government of having pre-knowledge of the anthrax attacks. The investigation into the crimes was one of the longest and most complex in the history of law enforcement. Ultimately, investigators began to focus their attention on an American scientist named Bruce Edwards Ivins. Ivins worked at the US government’s biodefense labs at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland. After extensive research, on August 6, 2008, federal prosecutors declared Bruce Edwards Ivins to be the sole culprit of the 2001 anthrax attacks. He committed suicide on July 29, 2008, after learning that he was going to be formally charged with the crimes. One would think that a media circus would have ensued, but little was mentioned about Bruce Edwards Ivins in the US press. His motives for blaming the attacks on Al-Qaeda are unknown.

1. USA PATRIOT Act 

On October 26, 2001, US President George W. Bush enacted the USA PATRIOT Act. The bill was in direct response to the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11. The goal of the Act was to reduce restrictions on law enforcement and government officials when investigating criminal activity. It gave international law organizations the right to probe and search citizen’s e-mail, medical, financial and personal records. Some of the main sections of the law enacted restrictions on foreign intelligence gathering, expanded the Secretary of the Treasury’s authority to regulate financial transactions, and broadened immigration laws in regards to detaining and deporting immigrants suspected of terrorism-related acts. The bill was passed by a wide margin in the US Congress. It was supported by some people and seen as an attack on civil liberties by others.
Entire websites have been dedicated to examining the Patriot Acts apparent lack of safeguards surrounding the rights of American citizens and foreign advocates. The bill made significant amendments to over 15 important constitutional statutes. The sections of the Patriot Act discussing Internet supervision and monitoring are confusing and extensive, ultimately reaching far beyond simple e-mail correspondence. One of the most surprising aspects of the USA PATRIOT Act is the lack of public and media debate regarding its introduction. Before September 11, provisions of the Act related to electronic surveillance were proposed and highly debated. However, many people feel that the Patriot Act has helped make America a safer place and stopped terrorist activity. In the first part of 2010, Barack Obama signed a one-year extension on several provisions in the Patriot Act.

Sources: top5s.net

Kamis, 22 Maret 2012

Trayvon Martin case: Study shows holding gun increases perception of threat


A recent study on people who carry guns may shed new light on the case of a black teenager killed by a neighorhood watch volunteer, the Associated Press reported.
George Zimmerman, the volunteer, has said he was acting in self-defense, but Trayvon Martin's family has insisted the case must be investigated as the 17 year old was unarmed. The case has raised outrage and protests, and a federal investigation has been launched.
The study finds that carrying a gun may make someone more likely to perceive threat, and it raises the question: Could the fact that Zimmerman was holding a gun have influenced his belief that Martin was armed? 

James Brockmole of the University of Notre Dame and psychology Jessica Witt at Purdue University conducted the study in which they learned that volunteers who held a toy gun and glimpsed fleeting images of people holding an object were biased towards thinking that the object was a gun.  
According to the AP, Brockmole stressed that he had no insider information on the shooting, but that it's possible that Zimmerman's perception might have been skewed by being armed.  
Past research suggests that people can be more likely to perceive a poorly seen object as a gun if it's held by a black person than by a white person. Martin was black. Zimmerman was Hispanic.  
In Brockmole's study, undergraduates at both Notre Dame and Purdue glimpsed scenes of people holding objects and had to decide quickly if the object was a gun.  While having a gun nearby didn't make a difference, researchers found that holding a gun made you more likely toward thinking that the object was a gun. 
According to Brockmole, "people are primed to act in the world rather than just passively see it. So their minds have to contain information both about what they see and what they might do in response. Evidently, each kind of information can influence the other."  
The study is set to be published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, and is not intended to support gun control.
According to the AP, Dennis Proffitt, who studies visual perception at the University of Virginia, said that while there are many reasons that someone would act such as Zimmerman did, the effect of holding a gun oneself "could be part of the story" in Florida.  

Sources : globalpost.com

Rabu, 21 Maret 2012

Jeremy Shockey wants reunion with Giants

Jeremy Shockey, who once berated Jerry Reese in front of some of his teammates, now would like the Giants' general manager to re-sign him. This, according to a report by the Daily News in today's editions.
Shockey, an unrestricted free agent, is coming off a season with the Carolina Panthers in which he caught 37 passes for 455 yards and four touchdowns. Previously, he played three seasons for the New Orleans Saints, to whom the Giants traded him for a pair of draft picks in July 2008.
Shockey, 31, forced that trade by skipping all of the offseason workouts that year and creating a scene at minicamp that included sitting inside old Giants Stadium while the team was on the field practicing. He also shouted at Reese, who had refused to trade him up until that point.
Reese and the entire Giants organization apparently haven't forgotten any of this because word is they're not exactly welcoming Shockey back with open arms.
Someone informed of the communication between the former first-round pick and the Giants said recently even the staunchest of Shockey supporters resisted the idea of his return. The person, who requested anonymity because none of the parties have gone on record, said Shockey told the team he'd accept a veteran-minimum salary ($925,000) but that didn't get him anywhere.
Another person kept abreast of the situation said this morning there have been no talks between the Giants and Shockey. The person asked not to be named because all free-agent discussions, or lack thereof, were to remain private.
And, oh yeah, the Giants signed Martellus Bennett on Wednesday. They still have room for another tight end on the roster (they lost both Jake Ballard and Travis Beckum to torn ACLs in the Super Bowl) but indications right now are it's extremely unliklely that player will wind up being Shockey.
* * * *
9:26 a.m. UPDATE
You can count Amani Toomer in the don't-bring-Shockey-back camp.
"'I will never play 4 you again' he yelled at Jerry Reese in 08," Toomer tweeted this morning. "Let him keep his word. Bad teammate, worse person."
Um, wow...
* * * *
9:45 a.m. UPDATE The Giants will host free-agent WR Kevin Ogletree today, per ESPN's Adam Schefter. Ogletree, a Queens native, had 25 receptions in three seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. He also had 20 kick returns with an average of 19.5 yards per return.
Sources : www.nj.com
Originally Posted By Mike Garafolo/The Star-Ledger