Science Can't Explain These Recent Mysteries

Most people can agree that there's a logical explanation for everything while others believe in the undefinable.  Which ever side of the fence you're on there are many mysteries known today that will leave both sides scratching their heads.  It's a personal passion of mine to find those instances of life that do not have clear cut explanations and are simply baffling in nature.  I came across a couple of interesting life oddities that have yet to be explained.

1.  So people have known about and have coincided with cows for almost a millennium now.  There's one odd cow behavior we overlooked in all this time.  In 2008 through the analysis of Google Earth images of cows it was determined that they almost always align themselves to face the north or south poles when they graze. Coincidentally it was also discovered that deer exhibit the same abilities.  The only current working theory is that the reason these animals might have this ability is because it was the only discernible way they could navigate earth's terrain effectively a long time ago.  As for how these animals can detect the magnetic fields has been described simply by scientist "I have no real idea".

2.  Would you consider flowers scary?  What if they took over other plant types to make up 90% of all living plant species today?  Bet you didn't plan on knowing that flowers have a dark side.  In fact, it was bothersome for the likes of Charles Darwin who considered flowers an "abominable mystery".  Yet without them we would not have many of the essential plant factors that keep our planet going today such as the carbon dioxide filter as well as a vast majority of food items that are plant based. 

3.  Did you possibly know that there are complex organisms on earth that are living without the need for oxygen?  This is exactly what spinoloricus cinzia is doing at the bottom of the Mediterranean seas as we speak.  It's the first documented multi-cell organism cpaable of living and reproducing without using oxygen.  

This last bit of information is one of the most interesting stories because this really opens up a world of possibilities when considering life beyond earth.  Not only could this mean that the potential for life beyond earth is not as crazy as people think but it could mean that organisms could have developed over time to be able to live within the empty spaces that is space.  What do you think?

Outsmarted by the Simpsons Once Again

If you had cable television within the past decade than you are aware of the show The Simpsons.  What you might not have known about the show is that a bunch of math geniuses are running the show.  In fact these mathematicians pay tribute to their passion by dropping actual equations of physics equations directly into some of the simpsons episodes.

One such episode that aired in 1998, homer writes down an equation on a black board that actually turns out was capable of predicting the mass of the "God Particle".  Guess there's a reason the show has lasted as long as it has..

Weekly Series: 'What A Time To Be Alive'

So to start off, no this is not a cheesy online advertisement that's too good to be true. This is an actual possibility for you or anyone who wishes to try.  More recently I have been finding new ways to occupy my free time.  A couple of my friends in the past have suggested I check out the website Twitch.  The concept behind twitch is that any body with a webcam and a console that plays games can stream their own gaming adventures through the internet live in real time.  Basically watching live television of people playing specific video games all over the world in real time.   Ever since giving it a chance I can say that this a wonderful concept.  It doesn't require money to watch the various channels offered on the site effectively making it basically a version of free television for gaming individuals.  The thing about Twitch that led me to write this article is how during the watching of a specific Twitch streamers channel I quickly saw that there was tons of money being thrown around.

If you don't know what twitch is or how it works just head over to their website at twitch.tv and you'll become familiarized quite quickly.  A major part of being a streamer on Twitch is that the people watching your stream can donate money to you in multiple ways.  One way is subscribing to a channel which more or less gives the streamer $5 per subscriber, then users can also choose to donate whatever amount they want to streamers.  This seems to be where the most money can be made for Twitch streamers as I saw as one streamers made over $30,000 in a couple hours from donations.
Needless to say I was amazed that such a thing was even possible and then immediately questioned the potential of how much money could actually be made.

An article published on a gaming website in August of last year touched on this exact topic.  After doing some digging on a rather popular streamer they found that he made on average $60 an hour when he was streaming which earns him over $110,000 per year.  The article goes on to say that basically anyone is capable of making this kind of money through streaming.  I think I might've just found my new hobby..

New Year New Things

Greetings life explorers.  Today marks a  continuation for my blog after a rather long hiatus.  To ring in the new year I figured I'd start off on the topic of hope with a new development in the field of neuroscience.  Tony Coles is a drug industry guru of sorts.  He was able to flip a cancer drug developing company for $10.4 billion after 5 years at it's helm.  Personally, he made $60 million off the deal which combined with his powers and understanding of the drug industry could have created another cancer company or take the helm of another large drug company.  Instead, Coles has decided to allocate his resources to start a company focusing on harvesting the powers of yeast in order to create drugs that can combat deadly brain related diseases such as Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's, and Parkinson's.  Coles believes that there is a need to focus on brain diseases as the there has been a lack of focus on creating novel drugs within the field of neurology and brain diseases.

In the past decade we've made some discoveries and insights into the field of neurology Here's the kicker. Two insights into this field were found in 2004 that might be considered pretty controversial to say the least.  The first insight was found by researches from the National Institute of Health who proposed that a brain receptor known as NMDA that is key factor in the formation of memories can also be related to depression.  At the same time, researchers from Yale found that the controversial club drug and widely known anesthetic ketamine blocked NMDA.  Both these insights led to a small test trial in what effects ketamine could have on victims of depression.  The drug was administered to 17 participants.  The results were astounding.  Twelve (71%) of the participants immediately had improved conditions and the remaining five (29%) had their depression go into remission.  You read that correctly.  Ketamine has seemingly found it's real purpose as a fast-acting anti-depressant.

Since this study there have been multiple advances in creating a ketamine derivative that get's rid of the nasty side effects and focusing on being able to rid human kind of one of the most prevalent brain diseases in our world today.

I'm not sure about the current readers here but this article has given me hope in the future of battling the ailments most all of us have encountered in some shape or form in our lifetime.  I know personally I struggle with bouts of depression, anxiety and stress.  It really feels as if a small burden has lifted knowing that there are significant people in this world who are actively trying to make a change and help humanity for the better.  It's just a matter of time now.

3 Unique Yet Weird Phobias

3 - Deipnophobia 

As you couldn't guess from the name or picture, deipnophobia is the fear of dinner conversations. Dinner conversations can be awkward at times, usually when you're not talking in between eating, but some people have such an extreme fear for conversing over dinner that they avoid dining out scenarios all together.


2 - Pentheraphobia 

This irrational fear has become a well known meme within the United States.  The fear of one's mother-in-law.  As you might have guessed, this fear affects mainly (only) married people.  Of the various ways to treat such a fear, it seems that divorce is the most widely used method because being honest about being afraid of your mother-in-law takes way too much effort.

1 - Cathisophobia

Ever sit on something sharp or possibly have a bad case of hemorrhoids? You might just acquire the fear of sitting down.  The reasoning being that painful past or current experiences with sitting down can lead a person to form a horrible fear of sitting again.  When put into the situation of having to sit down the person usually tends to quickly develop symptoms such as sweating, heavy or short breathing, an anxiety.  I now feel pretty great about a whoopi cushion being the worst sitting experience I've had in the past.

Historically Bizarre Encounter with Supposed UFO

Portage County Chase

On the early morning of April 17th, 1966 in Portage County, Ohio, two deputies, Dale Spaur and Wilbur Neff, were investigating a car that was abandoned on the side of a rural road. What happens next I couldn't describe any better than the direct statement signed from Deputy Sheriff Dale Spaur:

"Spaur noticed a light over the trees on the hill next to the berm, and called Neff’s attention to it. As we watched, the light came closer and a large, self-illuminated object was seen as its source. The object came directly overhead and hovered above us. Its light lit up the ground where we were standing, and our cruiser, P-13. It was too bright to look at without hurting the eyes."

To which they took it as a sign that it's good time to high tail it back to their patrol car.  Once back, they called in the bizarre object which at this point had started traveling away from the area.  The two deputies proceeded to pursue the object in a high speed car chase across Ohio.  Five more officers joined in the pursuit that would last over half an hour and would cross state lines into Pennsylvania before losing sight of the object.

An official report of the incident was released and acquired by an Air Force Base near by.  Their official judgement on the entirety of the situation was that the bright lit object the half dozen officers chased was merely the planet Venus and that it appeared to be moving due to atmospheric factors.  The deputies were livid when they found out it was being insinuated that they were stupid enough to confuse a planet for something that made them and 5 other officers engage in a high space chase for over half an our crossing states in the process.  Even more unfortunate is that Police Chief Gerald Buchert had encountered a bright saucer-like object on his property prior to this whole ordeal and even had a enough time to snap a picture of it before it took off.  The negatives of that photo were sent to the Air Force Base as well to come back as "fogged images" that proved nothing, thus the negatives have yet to be seen since.

3 Examples of U.S. Government Hypocrisy

I felt that this list seemed appropriate with the government shutting itself down.  What better way to appreciate our government then to take a look at some big hypocritical examples of its past.


1 - Congress Broke (and probably is still breaking) Their Own Inside Trading Laws

Insider trading is basically the highly immoral practice of using non-public information, such as a law being changed, in order to take advantage of the market and gain a ton of money doing so.  It's something that's supposed to be very illegal, unless you happen to be a member of congress.

Back in 2010 the Wall Street Journal revealed that people from congress and their staff had been reviewing proposed legislation in order to rack up large sums of money from the stock market.  We're not just talking about a few black sheep either. We're talking about at least 72 people breaking their own laws while at the same time they were putting bankers in jail for doing the same thing they were.


2 - Extradition Treaties Make Less Here

Extradition Treaties are important in that they help to reassure justice world wide by making countries send back people convicted of crimes to the country they were convicted of those crimes.  Recently, Washington requested the extradition of Edward Snowden from Russia to which Putin refused.  Obama had a temper tantrum over it in spite of his own denial of smaller extradition requests from other countries.  The Guardian helped point out that Obama's White House is currently harboring a terrorist who bombed an airplane murdering 73 Cuban's as well as a genocidal dictator.

3- The Fact That We Use Chemical Weapons

Some of you may know that white phosphorus is a highly flammable, light-emitting substance that is legally used to illuminate a battlefield or to create a smokescreen.  It is highly illegal the moment the stuff is used physically against people as it has the tendency to not stop burning the moment it touches skin, continuing through muscle and bone.  It also simultaneously releases a toxic gas that burns the eyes and throat and damages the lungs.  All together this makes its use as an offensive weapon one that is highly criminal.  So you might be surprised to learn that the U.S. Government used it during the 2004 siege of Felluja.

Looking into this is where the hypocrisy unravels.  We were invading this Iraqi city with chemical weapons based on the accusation of the country's dictator for being in possession of chemical weapons just like the ones we used. Thanks to the pentagon's description of white phosphorous as only burning people (conveniently leaving out the part about the toxic gas) that it falls under the incendiary weapons protocols and has since been left alone.