long ago

I haven't posted here in a long time, instead, I am writing in a new blog. bye.

Phantom... Baby and a Greedy Panda

A giant panda at the Chengdu Breeding Research Center in China named Aj Hin was starting to show signs of pregnancy. The staff at the Research Center planned to film the first ever live broadcast of a panda giving birth. But before the birth could be filmed, the whole project was cancelled due to the fact that the panda was never really pregnant in the first place. Aj Hin was experiencing phantom pregnancy and probably faked the whole thing just to get attention and more food. Once a panda shows symptoms of pregnancy, they are moved to a room with air conditioning and are given more food. Aj Hin's behavior returned to normal after two months of observation. Phantom pregnancy is common among bears that are endangered. They want special treatment that other bears get when they are pregnant. This reminds me of how kids envy their friends or siblings when they are sick. They get special treatment just like a pregnant panda does. The mother will carry a tray to their room and the sick child doesn't have to go to school. Therefore some kids probably pretend to be sick sometimes. I've done it before and most kids probably have. The Munchausen syndrome is when someone will fake illnesses for attention and sympathy.

Phantom Limb

Phantom limb syndrome occurs when an amputee senses and feels their limb that isn't really there. Even when the limb isn't real, the amputee will still feel pain from their "phantom limb". Although phantom limb syndrome only happens to amputee's, a group of researchers discovered how to let non-amputees feel this sensation of having an "extra limb". They hope that this will lead to better understanding of phantom limb syndrome and find a way to prevent it. The scientists experimented by making a person put one hand on one side of the table, cover it in a way so that the person cannot see their hand. Next two paintbrushes are used to stroke the covered hand and to stroke the "invisible hand". This gave the sensation that the person had another hand. When the stroking stopped, a knife was raised and was swung around at the "invisible hand". By measuring sweat, scientists were able to know that the people really felt the "invisible hand". But when a person did not have a phantom hand, they did not feel as stressed when the knife was waved around. I am reading a book by William Sleator called the Phantom Limb. I won't reveal much of the story, but I will say that the main character discovers a mirror box. A mirror box is used in mirror therapy to help with phantom limb syndrome. When the amputee is feeling pain they insert their hand in the box. There is a mirror in the middle of the box that reflects their one existing arm and hand. Because their arm and hand is reflected, it looks like they have both arms. If they unclench their hand, it looks as though the other hand unclenched as well, the "phantom hand". This was invented by Vilayanur S. Ramachandran. I thought that this was very cool. I want to try it out, but it is kind of creepy as well. If a non amputee were to stick their hands in the box and move their left hand the mirror will show the right hand moving as well even though the person isn't actually moving their hand. I think that this would feel really cool.

Hey! I'm Back!

Hey I'm back to write some more. I was in San Francisco for a week. It was GREAT!

Perfect Pitch

I didn't know I was perfect pitch until I was in 5th grade. My sister and I were just playing around the piano, tapping keys and I just blurted out the notes she was playing without looking. She stopped and looked at me. She claimed that I was perfect pitch and that I had the ability to hear a tone and tell what note it is. I had thought all along that anybody was able to do it, because I was able to do it all my life, and so when my sister couldn't do it, I was rather surprised. Only 1 in 10,000 people have perfect pitch. That's amazing. I never knew that and I feel quite proud of myself now, for being the 1 in 10,000 people that has perfect pitch. Perfect pitch is usually acquired at the age of 4-6 which makes kind of sense since I started learning piano at the age of 5. But study shows that a pill used as a mood stabilizer also allows people to recognize notes better. The name of the drug is Valproate. Not only does this drug allow you to become better at recognizing notes, it also helps people learn a second language. Learning a second language or being perfect pitch all starts when you are young, but the drug Valproate restores the plasticity of an adult brain to a juvenile state. Making adults to be able to do things that kids can do. Even though this drug can do good for other people, although this sounds selfish, it kind of makes me sad that now that all the things I can do, are now becoming something that anybody can do.

Dreaming

The subject of dreaming automatically brings up the thought of my favorite movie of all time; Inception. (If you haven't watched that movie, you should, because it is the best movie ever!) Anyway, when I first learned that it was possible to control your dreams, I was really excited. I read about it in a book and I wanted to try it. Although there were many different steps and things you needed to do the control your dream, they never really worked out to well for me. Controlling your dream is called: lucid dreaming. But really, it's not controlling your dream, it's about controlling yourself and recognizing that you are in a dream while you are dreaming. 58% of people claim that they have lucid dreamed at least once. I really want to lucid dream because then, anything is possible because I no longer think that the dream is real, I know that I can do whatever I want because it's my dream! Soldiers from the military that have "military dreams" are unable to pull the trigger of their gun in the face of danger, but soldiers who have played video games to help out with nightmares were able to shoot back at the enemy. Robert Waggoner, an author of a book called Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self, said, "The sailor does not control the sea, and neither does the lucid dreamer control their dream." I really wish that I would one day be able to lucid dream.

Rube Goldberg

Brett Doar has a peculiar job; create intricately designed Rube Goldberg machines. For those of you that don't know, a Rube Goldberg machine is a contraption that is overly complex and has many components that lead to something very simple. Brett Doar creates these machines for companies that use them for advertisements. Rube Goldberg machines remind me of GBC's or Great Ball Contraption, which is similar to a Rube Goldberg machine. A GBC is a cycle where you can throw balls into the start of a contraption and they go through different parts of the machine and eventually comeback to the beginning. Here is an example:

I used to really think that these machines were really cool and so I tried to make my own versions and I made new contraptions. It's a fun thing to do. I really like small, compact, and simple mechanical contraptions. They are fun to make and really neat if they have a cool design. A Rube Golberg machine takes a bunch of those and puts them together to create a big contrapion that does something. I think making Rube Goldberg machines would be a fun but painstakingly difficult job.