BEWARE POTATOES

Really weird science - the top 10 barmy theories boffins are researching

Does the Earth have a hidden second sun? Will we all become vampires?

It seems, as Einstein once said, “imagination is more important than knowledge” when it comes to science. So BBC Focus magazine looked at 10 of the most radical theories boffins are researching – and they read like science-fiction...

Mind-bending drugs are good

Researchers are testing for positive effects in many previously vilified drugs.

Of particular interest is the use of psychedelic drugs in treating mental illness. A team at Imperial College London has been studying how LSD can be used to combat depression.

And a single dose of psilocybin compound, from magic mushrooms, reduced anxiety and depression in cancer patients for six months.-read more

Chair Saga.

This post s our account of problems that have occurred whilst using this chair.My wife Enid was given a reclining chair via loacl ot worker to help her rest legs and stand up.But the chair has caused her to get sores on back of leg and shering on her bottom which are being treated with creams and biatain on a daily basis and visited by community nurses once a week was twice .To you dear reader this may seem what is the problem well it has taken a long time to convince the nurses this was the case .Enid mental health was affected as got too point of not wishing to get up and parniod that noone else believed the phyiscal discomfort she was in and hates advice to go back to specialised bed -air mattress to prevent bed sores -as makes her fees isolated and does not wish to see family members like tis as feels like a hospital visit.Enid has been given a plastic step with handle as aid to help sit back better but itslips and she has nearly fallen a couple of times so does not use.We are getting as visit from the company involed that designed the chair and we now of one other person in holswortrhy that has a simlar problem so we suspect a design fault.I f we can make sugestions for improvement s here are our ideas.1 the bar that runs in front of chair needs extra padiing ,cahir needs to be less bak and deep and seting are needs extra padding.Enid is even wiling to trail new design and give back fedback to help others in the future..

Wheelchair news.

Saw article the other day how bus drivers may have to force reluctant paasengers to give up spaces for wheelchair usersby refusing them to continue journey on said bus due to supreme court ruling.

Just a rose?

Roses have been around for a long time and often given as a romantic gesture to a person you love .But the rose has some intestesting history like the Nebuchadnezzar who used them to adorn his palacewith tem.In Persia were grown as perfume and petals used to fill sultans matress.Mogul emperor,s grow them in rose gardens and were stern in river to welcome them on return home.And the rose has a bit of a dark past due to romans as thier made  local peasants gow roses instead of food to satify the neds of thier emperors.Roman emperors used roses to fill swimming baths,fountainswith rose water and as a carpets for feasts and orgies.-Read More

As the CIA release 800,000 declassified files online, we take a look at some of the US’ past secrets

Following long-running campaign and lawsuit, the Central Intelligence Agency has finally allowed online publication of hundreds of thousands of files
His special powers are revealed in a trove of 800,000 files – a total of 13 million pages – of declassified documents released online after a long campaign by freedom-of-information activists and a lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency.
While the information was previously available for public viewing, it could only be looked at on one of four computers in a library at the National Archives in Maryland.20 per cent of the 1,500 UFO sightings in the past 70 years are unexplained
OF 1,500 UFO reports since 1947, 20 per cent were unexplained.
One of the most dramatic cases was a sighting by two police officers in Lithuania on June 26, 1996.
The report reads: “They noticed a spherical object hanging and ‘pulsing’.
“They heard a strange sound like an electric or electronic crackle.
“The sphere moved away, rose higher and rapidly departed.”
IN 1980, the CIA compiled a report into whether it was possible to see into the future or move objects solely with the mind.
It is claimed that psychic Ingo Swann, along with others, “demonstrated the ability to describe distant rooms, they had never previously observed, with considerable accuracy”.
Reports also investigated the “bond between men and plants”.
One test in 1974 claims that the connection is so extreme that “the plant would respond automatically whenever the man was injured”.
REVELATIONS on the infamous MKUltra project, dubbed the CIA mind control programme, list bizarre experiments on human subjects to develop drugs and procedures for interrogation and torture.
The subjects were hypnotised, tested for psychic abilities and even given the psychedelic drug LSD.
A 1953 report found that LSD could be used to interrogate any “unwilling subjects” as it stimulates them “to talk more freely”.-Read More

What was phrenology?

What was phrenology?

Phrenology was a science of character divination, faculty psychology, theory of brain and what the 19th-century phrenologists called "the only true science of mind." Phrenology came from the theories of the idiosyncratic Viennese physician Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828). The basic tenets of Gall's system were:

1.The brain is the organ of the mind.
2. The mind is composed of multiple, distinct, innate faculties.
3. Because they are distinct, each faculty must have a separate seat or "organ" in the brain.
4. The size of an organ, other things being equal, is a measure of its power.
5. The shape of the brain is determined by the development of the various organs.
6. As the skull takes its shape from the brain, the surface of the skull can be read as an accurate index of psychological aptitudes and tendencies. (For a description in Gall's own words see: Letter to von Retzer)

So it was believed that by examining the shape and unevenness of a head or skull, one could discover the development of the particular cerebral "organs" responsible for different intellectual aptitudes and character traits. For example, a prominent protuberance in the forehead at the position attributed to the organ of Benevolence was meant to indicate that the individual had a "well developed" organ of Benevolence and would therefore be expected to exhibit benevolent behaviour.

However, like so many popular sciences, Gall and the phrenologists sought only confirmations for their hypotheses and did not apply the same standard to contradictory evidence. Any evidence or anecdote which seemed to confirm the science was readily and vociferously accepted as "proof" of the "truth" of phrenology. At the same time, contradictory findings, such as a not very benevolent and disagreeable person having a well-developed organ of Benevolence were always explained away. This was often done by claiming that the activity of other organs counteracted Benevolence. What was never accepted by phrenologists, however, was that admitting that the activity of a particular faculty could be independent of the size of its organ undermined the most fundamental assumptions of the science- and thereby rendered all of its conclusions inconsistent and meaningless. (For a more in depth account of the origins of phrenology see: van Wyhe-Read more