Archive for December, 2012
Your other brain (It’s in your pants but not that)
When it comes to your moods, decisions and behaviour, the brain in your head is not the only one doing the thinking
IT’S been a tough morning. You were late for work, missed a crucial meeting and now your boss is mad at you. Come lunchtime you walk straight past the salad bar and head for the stodge. You can’t help yourself – at times of stress the brain encourages us to seek out comfort foods. That much is well known. What you probably don’t know, though, is that the real culprit may not be the brain in your skull but your other brain.
Yes, that’s right, your other brain. Your body contains a separate nervous system that is so complex it has been dubbed the second brain. It comprises an estimated 500 million neurons – about five times as many as in the brain of a rat – and is around 9 metres long, stretching from your oesophagus to your anus. It is this brain that could be responsible for your craving under stress for crisps, chocolate and cookies.
Embedded in the wall of the gut, the enteric nervous system (ENS) has long been known to control digestion. Now it seems it also plays an important role in our physical and mental well-being. It can work both independently of and in conjunction with the brain in your head and, although you are not conscious of your gut “thinking”, the ENS helps you sense environmental threats, and then influences your response. “A lot of the information that the gut sends to the brain affects well-being, and doesn’t even come to consciousness,” says Michael Gershon at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York.
Read Gut instincts: The secrets of your second brain in New Scientist.
“It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it.”
We can still see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey during the Metro Manila Film Festival. As far as we know, Sisterakas and the other MMFF entries are not available in IMAX 3D, so IMAX theatres will continue showing The Hobbit this month.
Last year we reviewed all the MMFF entries—a quest that nearly took our life. We are still deciding whether to repeat the process this year. Vivien, who normally encourages us to watch everything, now fears what may awaken in the darkness of Khazad-dûm. Thus far we have seen the trailers for just three MMFF movies: the much-awarded Thy Womb, the horror movie starring Enchong Dee with a beard, and “Everything ends except…Shake, Rattle and Roll”. Which ones do you intend to see?
P.S. It just occurred to us that Thranduil, the elk-riding Elvenking in the movie, is the father of Legolas. And that one of the Dwarves, Gloin, is the father of Gimli.
Then we remembered the casualty rate. Aaaaaaaaaa
Hilarious: the 13 Dwarves ranked according to hotness. Everyone disagrees.
Donnie Andrews, the inspiration for Omar Little on The Wire, dies
He was even more badass than Omar.
Donnie Andrews, inspiration for Omar character on ‘The Wire,’ dies
By Justin Fenton and Jessica Anderson, The Baltimore Sun
Like the television character he helped inspire, Donnie Andrews lived by a code.
In his earlier years when he was robbing rival dealers as a young hustler in West Baltimore — experiences that would later form the basis for the popular Omar Little character on the Baltimore crime drama “The Wire” — he vowed to never involve women or children in his crimes.
But after confessing to a murder and helping authorities bring down a crime syndicate, he took on a different mission: working to prevent youth from going down the same path that he did.
Andrews died Thursday following heart complications while in New York City, where he was attending an event as part of his efforts to promote a non-profit outreach foundation. He was 58.
Back again, but not there yet: Our Hobbit review
One does not simply walk into Tolkien. There are geeks there and they do not sleep.
Our review of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey at InterAksyon.com.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
