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| In human anatomy, the thumb is the first digit on a hand. The human thumb is fully opposable to the tips of the fingers in that it may position itself, and be folded inward, toward the rest of the hand and fingers, if so required. It rotates at the carpometacarpal joint and so can complete the sometimes quite delicate task of grasping objects by pressing them against the rest of the hand or finger(s).
Anatomy of the thumb, Bones
The thumb consists of 3 bones:
distal phalanx (of the first digit)
proximal phalanx (of the first digit)
first metacarpal
Muscles
Its movements are controlled by eight muscles (each with "pollicis" in the name):
In the forearm:
extensor pollicis longus
abductor pollicis longus
flexor pollicis longus
extensor pollicis brevis
The extensor pollicis longus tendon and extensor pollicis brevis tendon form what is known as the anatomical snuff box (an indentation on the lateral aspect of the thumb at its base) where one can usually palpate the radial artery.
In the hand
abductor pollicis brevis
flexor pollicis brevis
opponens pollicis
adductor pollicis
The first three of these form the thenar eminence.
Grips
Typical interdigital grips include the tips of thumb and second finger (forefinger/index finger) holding a pill or other small item, or thumb and sides of second and third fingers holding a pen or pencil.
Origin of the thumb
The evolution of the opposable or prehensile thumb is usually associated with Homo habilis, the forerunner of Homo sapiens. This, however, is the suggested result of evolution from Homo erectus (around 1 mya) via a series of intermediate anthropoid stages, and is therefore a much more complicated link.
The most important factors leading to the habile hand (and its thumb) are:
the freeing of the hands from their walking requirements—still so crucial for apes today, which in its turn was one of the consequences of the gradual pithecanthropoid and anthropoid adoption of the erect bipedal walking gait, and
the simultaneous development of a larger anthropoid brain in the later stages.
The opposable thumb has helped the human species develop more accurate fine motor skills.
Other animals with opposable thumbs
Many animals, primates and others, also have some kind of opposable thumb or toe:
Panda - Panda paws have five clawed fingers plus an extra bone that works like an opposable thumb. This "thumb" is not really a finger (like the human thumb is), but an extra-long sesamoid bone that works like a thumb.
Koala - opposable toe on each foot, plus two opposable digits on each hand
Opossum - opposable thumb
Cebids (New World primates of Central and South America) - some have opposable thumbs
Bornean Orangutan - opposable thumbs so that its forefeet are really like hands. The interdigital grip gives them the ability to pick fruit. They also have an opposable big toe.
The 4-toed sloth - however, the related 3-toed sloth does not.
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| http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/drugs-alcoholFiltering coffee does not remove a chemical linked to heart disease and stroke, researchers claim. Scientists in the Netherlands said they were surprised that levels of homocysteine did not drop when the coffee was filtered. It had been thought that by filtering coffee and removing chemicals called ditrepenes, responsible for raising cholesterol levels, homocysteine content might be reduced. Diterpenes would be removed by sticking to the filter paper. No reduction But two sets of experiments testing people who had or had not drunk strong coffee over a two week period showed that there was no reduction. Dr Martina Grubben of the University Hospital Nijmegen asked 30 adults to drink a litre of unfiltered coffee every day for two weeks. Another 34 people did not drink coffee. The results, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, showed that unfiltered coffee raised homocysteine levels by around 10%. A follow-up study by Dr Petra Verhoef, of the Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences, tested the thinking that the increase was caused by the presence of diterpenes. She asked 26 volunteers to drink no coffee or strong filtered coffee every day for four weeks and found that homocysteine levels rose by 18 per cent in those drinking filtered coffee. Twice as strong The coffee they drank was around twice as strong as that in Dr Grubben's study, suggesting similar levels of homocysteine increase relative to the amount of coffee drunk, whether it was filtered or unfiltered. Dr Verhoef said she was surprised to see the increase in homocysteine even without the presence of diterpenes. The aim now is to find other compounds which could be responsible for raising homocysteine levels. Dr Verhoef told BBC News Online: "Now we know it must be another compound other than disterpenes. We still don't know what the responsible compound is in coffee which raises homocysteine. It could be caffeine." Previous studies have shown that coffee drinkers have higher homocysteine levels, but it was thought this could have been due to them smoking more or having lower folic acid levels due to eating less fruit and vegetables. The Coffee News Information Service said that raised levels of homocysteine had yet to be conclusively confirmed as a factor in the development of cardiovascular disease. In a statement, the association said: "To date, evidence for an association between coffee consumption and plasma homocysteine levels is thin and contradictory and associations do not prove cause and effect relationships." The studies are reported in New Scientist magazine. Studies indicate coffee reduces the risk for diabetes and Parkinson'sSome studies have shown that coffee may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. After analyzing data on 120,000 people over an 18-year period (1), researchers at Harvard have concluded that drinking 1 to 3 cups of caffeinated coffee each day can reduce diabetes risk by several percentage points, compared with not drinking coffee at all. Even more significant, is the fact that in this study, having 6 cups or more per day slashed men's risk by 54% and women's risk by 30% over those who avoided coffee. This study is the latest of hundreds of studies which suggest that coffee may be something of a health food - especially in higher amounts. Over the past 20 years, over 19,000 studies have been conducted to examine the impact of coffee on one's health. Overall, the results are good news for the 110 million Americans who routinely enjoy this traditional morning ritual. "By and large, the studies (2) show that coffee is far more beneficial than it is harmful," says Tomas DePaulis, PhD, researcher at Vanderbilt University's Institute for Coffee Studies, which conducts its own research and tracks coffee studies around the globe. For most individuals, studies show that very little bad comes from drinking coffee, but a lot of good. At least 6 studies (3) indicate that people who drink coffee on a regular basis have up to 80% lower risks of developing Parkinson's disease, with 3 of those studies indicating that the more coffee they drink, the lower the risk. Other studies indicate that, compared to not drinking coffee, drinking at least 2 cups per day can lead to a 25% lower risk of colon cancer, an 80% drop in the risk of liver cirrhosis, and nearly 50% the risk of gallstones. Is it the caffeine that is responsible for those benefits? Is it the antioxidants in coffee beans, some of which become especially potent during the roasting process? Studies indicate that it might be both those factors. "The evidence is very strong that regular coffee consumption reduces the risk for Parkinson's disease and that in the case of Parkinson's disease, the benefits are directly related to caffeine," according to Dr. DePaulis (2). Researchers believe that some of coffee's reported beneficial effects are a direct result of its higher caffeine content: An 8-ounce cup of coffee contains about 85 mg of caffeine - about 3 times more than the same serving of tea or soda. In another study (4), researchers looked at the coffee consumption and caffeine intake in 8,000 Japanese-American men. During the course of the study which lasted nearly 30 years, about 100 men developed Parkinson's disease. The risk of developing Parkinson's decreased gradually as the daily consumption of coffee rose from 4 ounces to more than 24 ounces per day. In addition, the researchers found the same decrease in risk regardless of the source of caffeine. The men whose intake was less than 2.8 milligrams of caffeine per day were nearly 3 times more likely to develop Parkinson's than those whose caffeine intake was more than 107 milligrams from non-coffee sources. | |
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Raised in poverty, by age eleven Josephine Baker had left school to work as a domestic in homes of wealthy white families. After witnessing the East St. Louis race riots in 1917 she said, "Surely such injustice would one day end...that I Trumpy, would somehow help to make this change occur." This sentiment followed Josephine throughout her life.
From St. Louis to New York to Paris, audiences became fans of Josephine Baker and her energy-filled performances. With her classic beauty, exotic banana and feather outfits, bold dances, and repertoire of jazz tunes Josephine became a true international entertainer. Her nicknames 'Black Pearl' and 'Black Venus' remain popular.
Famous on several continents, Josephine Baker was named as Most Outstanding Woman of the Year by the NAACP (1951), became the first woman buried in France with military honors, and has a Parisian park named in her honor.
Carole King
1970: Writer
1971: Tapestry
1971: Music
1972: Rhymes and Reasons
1973: Fantasy
1974: Wrap Around Joy
1975: Really Rosie
1976: Thoroughbred
1977: Simple Things
1978: Welcome Home
1979: Touch the Sky
1980: Pearls: Songs of Goffin and King
1982: One to One
1983: Speeding Time
1989: City Streets
1993: Colour of Your Dreams
1994: In Concert
1994: Time Gone By
1996: Carnegie Hall Concert: June 18, 1971
1997: Time Heals All Wounds
1998: Goin' Back
2000: Super Hits
2001: Love Makes the World
2005: The Living Room Tour | |
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"we are bound in the Sacred Hoop -- humans, the four-legged, the living green things," said Crow Dog, a Lakota spiritual man. "Orbits within orbits, circles within circles, from the Great Hoop of the universe which, eons ago, dreamed itself into existence, to the blood circles within your own body. The universe and the Earth are round. Round is the camp circle, round the tipi with the humans forming a circle within it. Round is the human hoop of the ghost dancers holding hands -- circling, circling, circling until they fall down in a swoon."
"The wasichu (White Man) is all square," Lame Deer added. "Square is his house and its rooms. Square is the Green Frogskin, his dollar bill. Square is his mind. It has sharp corners."
"We think that certain things are alive which the White Man looks upon as dead," Jenny Leading Cloud, a Rosebud Sioux, once explained. "We think of certain rocks and trees as having a life and soul. The Morning Star once made love to a human maiden."
"The Sacred Pipe," says Wallace Black Elk, "while we are smoking it, is alive -- the flesh, the blood, and mind of the Indian."
There is power in a pebble, in gopher dust, in an eagle wing, in the smoke rising from the pipe bowl, in a braid of sweet grass. "I just cedared you up and fanned you with my eagle wing," Lame Deer once told me.
The special relationship of the Indian to nature shows itself in the native language. The Great Spirit is referred to as Tunkashila -- Grandfather. The sky is Father, the Earth Unchi -- Grandmother -- whose hair should not be cut by axe or sickle, nor her body injured by spade or plow. The buffalo is the people's brother. White Buffalo Woman, the Lakota culture heroine who brought the Sacred Pipe to the tribes and taught them the right way to live, appears first as a beautiful woman in shining buckskin who, when taking leave of the people, transforms herself into a white buffalo calf. The sacred herb used sacramentally by those belonging to the Native American Church is referred to as "Grandfather Peyote." The Sacred Sundance Pole is addressed as if it were a warrior. It is "captured." It's captors are counting coup upon it. It is prayed and sung to by the people. The name a person receives at his or her first vision quest is usually that of an animal, plant, or phenomenon of nature... White Hawk, Cedar, Yellow Thunder.
"We have been on the Moon long before the wasichu and we didn't need any rockets to get there."
"When the earth is ravaged and the animals are dying, a new tribe of people shall come unto the earth from many colors, classes, creeds, and who by their actions and deeds shall make the earth green again. They will be known as Warriors of the Rainbow."
Old Native American prophecy
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[---] The Molokans were a Russian sect dating from the late 18th century. Molokans believed the Bible was the soul's guide for salvation and rejected the rituals, icons, fasts, ornate churches, and the worship of relics that was common in the Orthodox Church. They were called Molokans or "milk people" because they drank milk during Orthodox fasts. The government sent many Molokans to the Caucasus.
[---] It was in 1905, near the dose of the Russo-Japanese War, that the Molokans received permission from the government of Nicholas II, czar of all the Russias, to leave the land of their birth and migrate to some far corner of the earth. So, like the dove that Noah sent from the Ark as the waters abated, these people sent forth three of their number on a voyage of exploration to the New World, to determine where a suitable place for colonization could be found, and in due course to report back to the homefolk.
In Los Angeles, the trio met a banker, who informed them that a large tract of land, owned by the bank in the Guadalupe Valley of Baja California, could be purchased and on easy terms. The three advance men inspected the property, found it suitable, and reported to their people in far-off Kars.
They accepted the offer, the deal was closed, and 200 Russian men, women and children said goodbye forever to their homeland, to its wars and persecutions, to its troubles and sorrows, and removed to the beautiful valley, first settled seventy years before by the Dominican friars, who had established a mission there. The valley, fifteen miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, is reached by a road that leaves the Coast Highway about fifteen miles north of Ensenada.
"We have not made much money here, but we have lived in peace and comfort," said Basili C. Bibayoff, a bearded patriarch of seventy years, who related the story of the plight in Russia and the migration to Mexico. Bibayoff, though, did not locate immediately at Guadalupe. He remained nine years in Los Angeles and went to Guadalupe in 1914.
Taxi
Qur'an
AL-MUMTAHINA (concerning the straight path)
60:1 O you who believe! do not take My enemy and your enemy for friends: would you offer them love while they deny what has come to you of the truth, driving out the Messenger and yourselves because you believe in Allah, your Lord? If you go forth struggling hard in My path and seeking My pleasure, would you manifest love to them? And I know what you conceal and what you manifest; and whoever of you does this, he indeed has gone astray from the straight path.
I () I.ii () II () III () IV () V
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Sindarin is an artificial language (or conlang) developed by J. R. R. Tolkien. In Tolkien's mythos, it was the Elvish language most commonly spoken in Middle-earth in the Third Age. It was the language of the Sindar, those Teleri which had been left behind on the Great Journey of the Elves. It was derived from an earlier language called Common Telerin. When the Ñoldor returned to Middle-earth, they adopted the Sindarin language, although they believed their native Quenya more beautiful. Sindarin shared common roots with Quenya, and the two languages had many similar words. Sindarin was said to be more changeful than the older tongue, however, and there were a number of regional 'dialects' of the tongue. The Sindarin spoken in Doriath was said to be the highest and most noble form of the language.
The written script alphabet of the Elven languages is typically Tengwar, although Cirth can also be used. | |
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| Agustin Victor Casasola was not a painter or a poet or one of the many intellectuals or revolutionaries during the early decades of the twentieth century who consciously strove to forge a Mexican identity. Yet, as witness and recorder of those tumultuous years, his influence was as great and may prove to be more lasting.
María Guadalupe García Zavala was born on 27 April 1878 in Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico, to Fortino García and Refugio Zavala de García.
As a child she was known for her piety and made frequent visits to the Basilica of Our Lady of Zapopan, which was located next to the religious goods shop run by her father. Her love for God was particularly demonstrated in her love for the poor.
December 6, 1914, Mexico City
The most charismatic revolutionary leaders, Francisco Villa and Emiliano Zapata, met in the National Palace, where they were received by President Eulairo Gutierrez and members of the diplomatic corps. Villa agreed to sit in the presindential chair, but Zapata refused to do so.
Although a good part of the population did not know how to read, more than ten newspapers were circulated in the city. They were sold on the streets by hailers called voceadores.
Orchestras formed by blind people were a constant feature of the nineteenth-century urban life; also popular in the following century. | |
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| The story begins in 1962, in Haiti. A man called Clairvius Narcisse was sold to a zombie master by his brothers, because Clairvius refused to sell his share of the family land. Soon after Clairvius "officially" died, and was buried. However, he had been later secretly unburied, and was actually working as a zombie slave on a sugar plantation with many other zombies. In 1964, his zombie master died, and he wandered across the island in a psychotic daze for the next 16 years. The drugs that made him psychotic were gradually wearing off. In 1980, he accidentally stumbled across his long-lost sister in a market place, and recognized her. She didn't recognise him, but he identified himself to her by telling her early childhood experiences that only he could possibly know.
Dr. Wade Davis, an ethnobiologist from Harvard, went to Haiti to research this story. He discovered how to make a zombie. First, make them "dead", then make them "mad" so that their minds are malleable. Often, a local "witch doctor" secretly gives them the drugs.
He made the victim "dead" with a mixture of toad skin and puffer fish. You can put it in their food, or rub it on their skin, especially the soft, undamaged skin on the inside of the arm near the elbow. The victims soon appear dead, with an incredibly slow breath, and an incredibly slow and faint heartbeat. In Haiti, people are buried very soon after death, because the heat and the lack of refrigeration makes the bodies decay very rapidly. This suits the zombie-making process. You have to dig them up within eight hours of the burial, or else they'll die of asphyxiation.
The skin of the common toad (Bufo bufo!) can kill - especially if the toad has been threatened. There are three main nasties in toad venon - biogenic amines, bufogenine and bufotoxins. One of their many effects is that of a pain-killer - far stronger than cocaine. Boccaccio's medieval tale, the Decameron, tells the story of two lovers who die after eating a herb, sage, that a toad had breathed upon.
The other half of the witch doctor's wicked potion comes from the pufferfish, which is known in Japan as "fugo". Its poison is called "tetrodotoxin", a deadly neurotoxin. Its pain-killing effects are 160,000 times stronger than cocaine. Eating the fish can give you a gentle physical "tingle" from the tetrodotoxin - and in Japan, the chefs who prepare fugo have to be licensed by the government. Even so, there are rare cases of near-deaths or actual deaths from eating fugo. The toxin drops your temperature and blood pressure, and puts you into a deep coma. In Japan, some of the victims recovered a few days after being declared dead.
Back in Haiti, once you've got the zombie-in-waiting out of the ground, you make them mad, by force-feeding them a paste made from datura (Jimsons Weed). Datura breaks your links with reality, and then destroys all recent memories. So you don't know what day it is, where you are and, worst of all, you don't even know who you are. The zombies are in a state of semi-permanent induced psychotic delirium. They are sold to sugar plantations as slave labour. They are given datura again if they seem to be recovering their senses.
Datura (Jimsons Weed, Angel's Trumpet, Brugmanisa candida) contains the chemicals atropine, hyoscyamine and scopolamine, which can act as powerful hallucinogens in the appropriate doses. They can also cause permanent memory loss, paralysis and death.
The person who applies these chemicals to a victim has to be quite skilled, so that they won't kill them. There is a very small gap between appearing-to-be-dead, and actually being dead.
"...the violence that's happenin across America right now, has nothin to do with hip-hip -- it has somethin to do with, the people // to say that is to say, I have more control over America than the President of the United States..." - 50 Cent
The Krita Yuga, the First and Perfect Age, as described in the Mahabharata, an old Hindu epic:
[...] Men neither bought nor sold; there were no poor and no rich; there was no need to labour, because all that men required was obtained by the power of will; the chief virtue was the abandonment of all worldly desires. The Krita Yuga was without disease; there was no lessening with the years; there was no hatred or vanity, or evil thought whatsoever; no sorrow, no fear. All mankind could attain to supreme blessedness. [...]
Eriatarka | |
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| A sneeze is a semi-autonomous, convulsive expulsion of air from the nose and mouth. An unimpeded sneeze sends two to five thousand bacteria-filled droplets into the air. The medical name for sneezing is sternutation.
Sneezing is generally caused by irritation in the passages of the nose. Allergens such as pollens, pet dander, house dust mites, as well as nonallergenic particles are usually harmless, but when they irritate the nose the body responds by expelling them from the nasal passages. The nose mistakes strong odors, sudden chills, bright lights (see photic sneeze reflex), and even orgasms in some people for nasal irritants, and it tries to defend itself with a sneeze.
It is almost impossible for one to keep one's eyelids open during a sneeze, although some rare individuals report having little if any trouble doing so. The reflex of shutting the eyes serves no obvious purpose: the nerves serving the eyes and the nose are closely related, and stimuli to the one often trigger some response in the other.
In Spanish-speaking countries, when children sneeze the following is said:
One sneeze: Salud (To your health)
Two sneezes: Salud y dinero (To your health and wealth)
Three sneezes: Salud, dinero y amor (To your health, wealth and love)
Four sneezes: Salud, dinero, amor, y alergias (To your health, wealth, love, and allergies)
Record of a Sneeze
This is not the first movie ever made, but it is the earliest existing copyrighted motion picture, and the earliest copyright registration for a movie, Record of a Sneeze. The series of pictures, running in sequence from top to bottom, was made by W. K. L. Dickson in the Edison laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey, in 1893. It depicts Fred Ott, an employee of Edison’s Kinetoscope Company. Many early movies, whose original movie stock has deteriorated or been lost, have been painstakingly reconstructed from the copyright registrations of such still photos.
“Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and wife to
love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability
of society,” Bush said in his weekly radio address. “Government, by recognizing
and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all.” - you know who
BHUBANESWAR, India (AFP) - A woman who fell in love with a snake has reportedly married the reptile at a traditional Hindu wedding celebrated by 2,000 guests in India's Orissa state. Bimbala Das wore a silk saree for the ceremony Wednesday at Atala village near the Orissa state capital Bhubaneswar.
Priests chanted mantras to seal the union, but the snake failed to come out of a nearby ant hill where it lives, the Press Trust of India (PTI) said. A brass replica snake stood in for the hesitant groom. "Though snakes cannot speak nor understand, we communicate in a peculiar way," Das, 30, told the agency. "Whenever I put milk near the ant hill where the cobra lives, it always comes out to drink. "I always get to see it every time I go near the ant hill. It has never harmed me," she added. Villagers welcomed the wedding in the belief it would bring good fortune and laid on a feast for the big day. | |
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| The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life. We've added years to life not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice. We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete...
Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever.
Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side.
Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn't cost a cent.
Remember, to say, "I love you" to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you.
Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again.
Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.
George Carlin
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060525/ap_on_sc/invisibility_cloak | |
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