What is Life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the winter time.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass
and loses itself in the Sunset."
-Crowfoot....April 1890, on his deathbed
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Information Overload is the Bane of my Life
My daily struggle is to understand what is important, to my situation, in the constant barrage of information on the Internet.
What can and should be ignored?
Is my purpose to seek distraction, novelty and entertainment?
Or is the goal and purpose to my Net Surfing to gain valuable knowledge?
What do I hope to accomplish?
“There are things that attract human attention, and there is often a huge gap between what is important and what is attractive and interesting."
- Yuval Noah Harari
And Donald Trump has not helped make being informed easy with all his mixed messages.
“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”
― The Marriage of Heaven and HellTuesday, April 23, 2019
How Thomas Friedman and Yuval Noah Harari Think About The Future of Humanity
Two of the greatest thought leaders of the 21st century– Yuval Noah Harari and Thomas L. Friedman – discuss the Future of Humanity on March 19, 2018, with moderator Rachel Dry, The New York Times. “How To Understand Our Times” is an event series collaboration between The New York Times and how to: Academy bringing together New York Times journalists and leading figures in diverse fields to examine pressing issues in a changing world, including gender equality, artificial intelligence, and alternatives to fossil fuels, among others. For upcoming events, visit timesevents.nytimes.com.
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Joseph E. Stiglitz, Economic Adviser
Joseph Eugene Stiglitz is an American economist, public policy analyst, and a professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979).
He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and is a former member and chairman of the (US president's) Council of Economic Advisers.
He is known for his support of Georgistpublic finance theory and for his critical view of the management of globalization, of laissez-faire economists (whom he calls "free market fundamentalists"), and of international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Joseph Eugene Stiglitz Quotes:
Macroeconomic policy can never be devoid of politics: it involves fundamental trade-offs and affects different groups differently.
Economists often like startling theorems, results which seem to run counter to conventional wisdom.
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Sam Harris and Yuval Harari - Meditation, Religion and God
Waking Up With Sam Harris #68 - Reality and the Imagination (with Yuval Noah Harari) Listen to Sam Harris and the Waking Up Podcast on : https://soundcloud.com/samharrisorg For more information visit: https://www.samharris.org
Link: https://youtu.be/nzvUZLD9ssY
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
GOAL-SETTING TIPS by TESSA VIRTUE
TESSA VIRTUE SHARES Eight GOAL-SETTING TIPS
Plus, how skating in nothing but body paint helped her feel limitless
by Renée Tse
April 01, 2019
If you’re ever in need of inspiration or want to get out of a rut, we highly recommend talking to Tessa Virtue to cure your woes. With five Olympic medals and a Barbie under her belt, the 29-year-old is kind of a pro when it comes pursuing dreams and making them come true. Recently, we got to witness that drive first-hand when we visited Virtue on the set of Nivea’s #NoLimits campaign shoot.
It features the ice dancing champ as we’ve seen her before, skating in nothing but feathers, knickers and body paint. Yep, you read that right. Set to a commissioned song entitled “Fearless” and choreographed by Sam Chouinard (he also created that gold-medal-winning “Moulin Rouge” number viewed millions of times over on YouTube), the piece is all about pushing your own boundaries.
“It’s about feeling really comfortable with who you are in your skin—with your own colours and feathers—which is so liberating,” explains Virtue. “I like to do that though movement and dance, but everyone has that within them. It’s about being uninhibited and allowing yourself to explore that.”
Here, the ice dancing champion shares how she cultivates that self-confidence and goes after her goals.
AIM HIGH
“Since the Olympics, I’ve talked about the feeling of being limitless, and it’s something I think I took for granted because I was raised by a very strong mom and an independent fierce grandma. I think they just instilled that in me, and I can equate it to almost a physical burning fire within me. I always felt I could do or be anything. But I didn’t realize until fairly recently that not everyone has that luxury of growing up with that ideology, and that kind of broke my heart. I think everyone should embrace that in their own way and in their own fields. It’s about setting your bar high, having standards for yourself and being committed to work for what you’re passionate about.”
STAY FOCUSED
“Part of being an athlete is constantly striving for more. We’re looking for perfection in a world where that doesn’t exist. No matter what we do and what we accomplish or how we perform, we’re always looking at areas we can improve upon. I think it’s easier to stay grounded when we’re constantly critiquing our work and dreaming bigger and bigger. I’m very task-oriented. The idea of constantly pursuing something with purpose helps me to stay focused. You don’t really get lost in the other noise when you are committed to following a passion so fully.”
EMBRACE THE CHALLENGES
“When you stop competing, it’s a tough transition for any athlete because every decision in the day used to revolve around winning. That’s the singular driving force, which makes things easier in a way. It simplifies your life. I was floundering a little bit afterwardsbecause the world opened up, and I was no longer in this protected insulated bubble. I think that’s the beauty of this stage in my life and career. It’s also a wonderful challenge to embrace and try to apply the skills I learned as an athlete into the business world or to different aspects of my life. The possibilities are endless, which is exciting when you trust yourself and have the confidence to embrace the challenge of it.”
STAY TRUE TO YOURSELF
“Throughout a competitive career, you can certainly lose yourself trying to please the judges. But [Scott Moir and I] had our best moments, our best seasons and our best performances when we were doing things in our own way and on our own terms. I faltered, I fell and failed multiple times, but it brought forth this confidence in knowing who I am and what I stand for and what I’m looking for. I trust my voice, and I think that’s very powerful, especially as a woman today. To be able to stand behind that and own it. Own who you are, your quirks, your abilities, your flaws. I think there’s nothing more beautiful that.”“I constantly have to layer on makeup for performances and events, and this product takes it all off so easily. I always take it with me when I’m travelling,” Virtue says of Nivea’s new micellar water for heavy makeup. Nivea MicellAIR Skin Breather Expert Micellar Water, $10, in drugstores.
DON’T BE AFRAID TO MAKE MISTAKES
“Scott and I practised failing in order to be the best at the Olympics. We would purposefully fall and practise regrouping. We learned our biggest lessons when we faced obstacles. When we showed up at training and we’re sick or injured, or the ice was bad or whatever it was, we knew that was preparing us in a more complete way than those training sessions where everything came easily. Because nothing of substance comes easily. Commander Chris Hadfield said something that resonated with me of this in his book. He’s obviously dealing with things on a totally different scale, but his approach to being an astronaut was, ‘How can I die next?’ And then he’d work backwards and devise a plan. We thought of our career that way. What’s the worst that can possibly happen and how do we combat that and how do we prepare better than any of our competitors?”
BELIEVE IN YOURSELF
“Olympic Rower Marnie McBean once told us that ‘Someone’s going to go out there to win the Olympics and someone’s going to be the next Canadian to fly into space. And someone’s going to create the next big tech thing. So why not you?’ What she was saying was, ‘Why can’t you be the ones to take home the gold medal?’ It sort of jolted us into this moment of realizing, ‘Sure why not.’ It’s important to continue to challenge ourselves and push ourselves, so we have something to be proud of. I promise, all that extra work makes it so much more fun.”
PLAY THE LONG GAME
“It’s that delayed gratification that we just don’t have anymore. I used to approach every training session thinking, ‘How do I want to feel at the end of this day?’ And I would feel anxious and sick driving to the rink because I knew I was in for a gruelling and demanding training day. But then I started seeing it differently. I wanted to know I’d given it my all, so that four years from now, it would pay off. It was about embracing that delayed gratification and playing that long game, which is so much more rewarding.”
RECONNECT WITH YOURSELF
“For 20 years, I would wake up every morning and do a head-to-toe scan of ‘How do I feel and what’s tense? What do I need to work on?’ Now, I’ve started to disconnect from that because it’s not an instrument the same way it once was. I’m trying new things like boxing, yoga and cycling and workout classes where you can turn the lights off and blare music. I’ve never experienced that before. Everything was so functional, so this is really fun for me. As women, we’re busy. We’re under stress and under pressure, and the expectations are so high for us, so the first thing to go is self-care. A priority for me for the next while is just to really reconnect with myself.”
Link: https://thekit.ca/beauty/celebrity-beauty/tessa-virtue-goal-setting-tips/
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Nationalism in the 21st Century - Yuval Noah Harari at the India Today Conclave
Nationalism in the 21st Century - Yuval Noah Harari
In the twenty-first century, humankind faces a set of unprecedented challenges, such as nuclear war, climate change and technological disruption.
Are nations still capable of handling such challenges effectively?
Watch Prof. Harari explore this question in detail at the India Today Conclave, in Mumbai
- March 2018.
The Future of Social Influence | Ann Tran | TEDxKoenigsallee
In 2013, Ann Tran took second place on the Forbes list of the "Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers".
She enjoys worldwide fame as a social media travel blogger and brand ambassador.
As a speaker and author, she is focuses how social media and the pursuit of influence shape our lives, online and off.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
Richard Evans Schultes' Explorations – Wade Davis
Richard Evans Schultes' Explorations – Wade Davis
Presented at the Alfred Russel Wallace Centennial Celebration at UCLA. November 15, 2014. From the UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology https://youtu.be/_Dup6kA7yD8
Yuval Noah Harari in conversation with Terrence McNally
Yuval Noah Harari in conversation with Terrence McNally at Live Talks Los Angeles , Sep. 10, 2018, discussing his book, "21 Lessons for the 21st Century." For more info on Live Talks Los Angeles -- upcoming events, videos and podcast --
Dr. Sanjay Gupta in conversation with Rich at Live Talks Los Angeles
Dr. Sanjay Gupta in conversation with Rich at Live Talks Los Angeles
Published on Apr 11, 2019
Dr. Sanjay Gupta in conversation with Rich at Live Talks Los Angeles discussing his upcoming series, "Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta," a six-part CNN Original Series that follows the multiple award-winning journalist and neurosurgeon as he goes on an immersive journey around the world in search of the secrets to living better.
His travels bring him to Japan, India, Bolivia, Norway, Italy and Turkey to explore the unusual traditions and modern practices that constitute a healthy and meaningful life. Some clips are included in this video.
2 Chainz - 2 Dollar Bill ft. Lil Wayne, E-40
2 Chainz - 2 Dollar Bill ft. Lil Wayne, E-40
RAP OR GO TO THE LEAGUE" OUT NOW!
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Exclusive merch available ⬇️đŸ”¥
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Follow Chainz:
https://www.instagram.com/2chainz/
https://twitter.com/2chainz
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Music video by 2 Chainz performing 2 Dollar Bill. © 2019 Gamebread, LLC, under exclusive license to Def Jam Recordings, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
http://vevo.ly/ix126o
https://2chainz.lnk.to/RapOrGoToTheLe...
Exclusive merch available ⬇️đŸ”¥
https://www.2chainzshop.com/store/
Follow Chainz:
https://www.instagram.com/2chainz/
https://twitter.com/2chainz
https://www.facebook.com/2Chainz/
Music video by 2 Chainz performing 2 Dollar Bill. © 2019 Gamebread, LLC, under exclusive license to Def Jam Recordings, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
http://vevo.ly/ix126o
Tank And The Bangas - "Nice Things" Live Performance | Vevo
Tank And The Bangas - "Nice Things"
Tank and The Bangas - Nice Things - Live Performance (Vevo)
New Orleans is a crazy place, so you expect something on the wild side from the artists it nurtures.
Something that blends a far-flung mix of sounds, from hip-hop to funk to swing to poetry to pop to…the list is endless.
Tank and the Bangas takes all these elements in stride, using ‘em where they fit best, changing ‘em to suit the situation at hand.
And because the NOLA squad has a massive collective imagination, the situation at hand is often morphing. From the nursery school piano tinkle of “Oh Heart” to the whimsy of “Smoke.Netflix.Chill.,” singer Tarriona (Tank) Ball leads the crew through lots of unexpected changes.
That why, when Team Bangas won NPR Tiny Desk Contest earlier this year, Phish’s Trey Anastasio called them a “psychedelic joy rap explosion.”
Ball is one of leaders who truly captivates in just a few seconds. A vet of the N’awlins slam poetry scene, she’s honed her stage chops.
Now lots of people are falling under her spell at Tank and the Bangas shows, and they’ve joined Verve Forecast, a much-deserved major label move. Those chops are obvious in their must-see Vevo performance of “Nice Things.”
Michael Lewis’ Podcast Makes the Case for Referees in all Facets of Life
Michael Lewis’ Podcast Makes the Case for Referees in all Facets of Life
Only on the “CBS This Morning” podcast, journalist and best-selling author Michael Lewis joins co-host John Dickerson to discuss his new podcast, “Against the Rules.”
Lewis’ successful books “Moneyball,” “The Big Short” and “The Fifth Risk” all examine fairness – or lack thereof – in various systems.
In his podcast, Lewis looks at referees in various areas of American life, including sports, politics, finance, criminal justice and journalism. He explains why this topic lent itself to a podcast rather than a book, why winners don’t want neutral arbiters and what he learned from other parents in his daughter’s youth softball league about how we tend to treat referees.
Link: https://soundcloud.com/cbsthismorning/michael-lewis-podcast-makes-the-case-for-referees-in-all-facets-of-life
Neuroplasticity: How the Brain can Change
Neuroplasticity
Link: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/health-and-medicine/nervous-system-and-sensory-infor/neural-cells-and-neurotransmitters/v/neuroplasticity
Good Question:
Would there be any specific examples as to why short-term or long-term potentiation/depression occurs? I understand the concept of neuroplasticity like building muscle, and if there is more synaptic activity, it will "grow," or if you "don't use it you lose it." However, why would there be more activity to foster this change? For instance, would a happier person who releases more dopamine become increasingly happy as their life goes on due to structural potentiation, or vice-versa for the lack of the neurotransmitter causing depression? This is probably an awful example, but it's the quickest example that occurred off the top of my head..
Great Answer
An example I would use is learning to play an instrument or a sport. Each time you practice you are activating the specific region of the brain involved in that time of activity or capacity. Therefore, more and more action potentials are being delivered in the area, which causes synaptic and structural changes, i.e. you get better at playing piano with time. Same with learning a language. If you start young, those specific neurons will "flourish", while not learning a language at all will result in "wilting" of those neurons, and wilting keeps happening until you start using those neurons again. That is why it's so much more difficult to pick up a language or learn any other new skills for that matter at a later age in life. I study french and I often say that it hurts my head to practice it, because its like breaking a new path in the jungles where there is thick woods and vegetation, since it is so much harder to sort of reactivate that region of the brain that's responsible for language learning.
Towards the end of the video, he discusses short term and long term potentiation/depression in the synapses and on a structural level.
What are examples of each of these? Would practicing maths problems be an example of short term potentiation? As you practice you get better? Long term structural depression and losing cells in Alzheimers, maybe?
I'm probably oversimplifying here, but I'm just trying to get a feeling of where this fits into the "bigger picture."
Carson Purnell
Neither of those are really examples of plasticity.
The most common example of short term potentiation is when an axon fires an AP, and then a second one which delivers more neurotransmitter. This is because calcium causes NT release, and requires two calcium ions. The first AP can leave some NT vesicles 'primed' with just one calcium ion, and the second AP can more easily activate the release of those transmitter vesicles.
Long term potentiation is usually an autocrine effect, where the neurotransmitter diffuses back to the presynaptic cell and activates metabotropic receptors that cause long duration depolarization, increasing the odds of firing action potentials.
If there are two neurons that do not have any direct connections between them (they could have connections via via other neurons), could they develop such direct connections (idk, by some crazy adventurous wild axon sprout) after repeatedly firing together?
In other words, is it possible for new connections to form, and not just old connections to strengthen?
I'd be happy if just given a link to where this is explained, too. Thanks. : )
This video operates with short term and long term neuroplasticity, but does not define what sort of time frame we are talking about. What sort of changes can be seen after short time effects like a single event (exs. a few hours of strong pain or fear), after a few sessions of a new learning experience in a week and in long time exposure (weeks and months)? How long does it take to reverse them?
If potentiation occurs when neurons are repeatedly stimulated, in that case, shouldn't the use of drugs that stimulate neurons in similar manners increase a person's sensitivity to the drug with repeated usage rather than build tolerance?
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duskpin ultimate style avatar for user Kai Orimura
Kai Orimura
a year ago
No, here's a quick and dirty explanation.... If you think about the case of Dopamine and it's effects with drugs. Certain drugs affect the amount of dopamine released, which causes the
"feel good effect" depending on the drug. With repeated use of the drug, the neurons that release dopamine will have to acquire more dopamine to get the same type of "high" the person was looking for. That tolerance is built up because the body is trying to compensate for the increase of abnormal amounts of dopamine thus reducing the receptors. So in order to get the high, people increase the dose of the drug because it will stimulate significantly more dopamine to be released to activate the few receptors that are on the effected cell.
It's like lifting weights; you consistently lift 25kg and eventually it'll feel light. In order for your body to feel the struggle again you need to increase the weight. The main point here is the fact that drugs cause an ABNORMAL amount of neurotransmitter released. The body wants to maintain homeostasis and so it responds in the way of reducing receptors.
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William Holbrook
3 years ago
What exactly is the difference between experience dependent and experience expectant plasticity? I am correct in thinking that expectant are things like a stimulus that prepares you for a experience, and that dependent is changes occurring due to an experience, or am I not?
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ILoveToLearn
3 years ago
This might help: http://www.slideshare.net/Psyccounting/sensitive-periods-and-experience-dependent-learning-vce-u4-psych-aos-1-13637930
Is it possible that a physical separation occurs between neurons with strongly established synaptic connections, with consequent functional loss, due to a very strong mechanical shock or head shaking? Can mechanical action cause synaptic pruning?
I have a few questions about the general topic here. What counts as neuroplasticity? Can any changes to brain structure count as neuroplasticity? For example, how about a blocked induction of long term potentiation in hippocampus due to a substance? Could we say that subtance has caused neuroplasticity?
Yes, because brain changes that occur due to long-term drug use are the body's response to its environment, it is changing because it has this difference in brain chemistry that it needs to compensate for. Neuroplasticity counts pretty much any change in the brain throughout life that changes its connections, which includes destroying connections, forming new ones, or changes in the synapse or dendritic spine or spike zone that alters how one neuron responds to stimulation from another.
Is chronic pain development has the neuroplasticity (specifically potentiation) mechanism behind it ?
In school we were taught the phrase "neurons that fire together, wire together". Is this saying outdated or is it still accurate when talking about the structural "sprouting" of axons/dendrites?
It is the saying of Donald Hebb who is best known for his revolutionary theory of Hebbian (associative) learning and, as far as I know, it is still accepted as accurate.
Video transcript
Voiceover: In this video I want to talk about neuroplasticity.
Neuroplasticity refers to how the nervous system changes in response to experience.
The nervous system isn't set in stone.
It's constantly changing, for instance when we form new memories or when we learn new things.
We have only a very limited understanding of how this happens.
At the level of the cells of the nervous system we know a few things that go along with neuroplasticity.
One way to define this term is that it refers to changes in synapses and/or other parts of neurons that affect how information is processed and transmitted in the nervous system.
Neuroplasticity goes in both directions.
The strength of information flowing through a particular part of the nervous system can increase, which we call potentiation.
Potentiation or the strength of information flowing through parts of the nervous system can decrease, which we call depression.
Depression. The use of the word depression in this context shouldn't be confused with the emotional state of depression or the psychiatric disorder of depression.
Here it refers to depressing the responses of cells to other cells in the nervous system versus potentiating the responses of cells.
The amount of neuroplasticity is highest during development of the nervous system and lower afterward.
It's still present throughout life. It transiently increases following nervous system injury.
Parts of neurons and chains of neurons that are used often grow stronger meaning that each action potential will have a larger effect on the target cell which we call potentiation.
Parts of neurons and chains of neurons that are used rarely grow weaker, which we call depression.
Neuorplasticity can happen at the synapse, which we can call synaptic neuroplasticity.
Synaptic neuroplasticity. Or neuroplasticity can occur at the level of entire cells where the total number of synapses between a neuron and its target cell are changed.
This we could call structural neuroplasticity.
Structural.
Let's go through a few examples of some of the changes that we know about occurring with neuroplasticity.
First, if we look at synaptic neuroplasticity, let's look at an individual synapse that's seeing a lot of activity and another synapse that's not seeing much activity.
Here in green will be the axon terminal of these different neurons.
Here in light blue will be the target cell membrane seeing a corresponding amount of activity from the axon terminal that it's synapsing with.
For this synapse that's seeing a lot of activity, let me just draw a little line for time and a bunch of little spikes representing action potentials.
We'll say that these are all action potentials. There's just lots of action potentials coming down this axon.
This axon terminal is frequently releasing neurotransmitter into the synaptic cleft and frequently stimulating the target cell by lots of neurtransmitter binding to the neurotransmitter receptors on the target cell membrane, on the post-synaptic membrane.
Several changes can happen at the level of this individual synapse for synaptic neuroplasticity that are potentiation meaning that each individual action potential will start to elicit a larger response in the target cell.
One change that can occur is that for each action potential reaching the axon terminal, more neurotransmitter may be released into the synapse so that a bigger response is going to be seen in the target cell because more neurotransmitter is released from the axon terminal with each action potential coming down the axon.
Or the change may occur on the post-synaptic membrane.
There may be an increase in the number of neurotransmitter receptors in the post-synaptic membrane or changes to the types of neurotransmitter receptors or the responses that occur through second messengers so that for any given amount of neurotransmitter that's released from the axon terminal from one action potential, a bigger response is seen in the target cell just because it's much more sensitive to the neurotransmitter that's being released.
Either or of these changes from the axon terminal releasing more neurotransmitter or the post-synaptic membrane becoming more responsive, we're going to see an increased response in the target cell per action potential that's reaching the axon terminal.
That would be synaptic potentiation.
There's a lot of research going on trying to understand how these changes occur.
It seems like there's communication going both directions from both the axon terminal to the post-synaptic membrane as well as backwards.
All the processes for this is happening have not been worked out yet.
Now let's consider the opposite.
Let's consider synaptic depression.
Let's say I draw a little line here to represent time.
Let's say we're having very few action potentials, just the occasional action potential.
I'll just show this little spike here.
We're just not having much activity.
We're not having many action potentials reach this axon terminal.
Basically the opposite responses that can happen with synaptic potentiation with synaptic depression, we may see that the amount of neurotransmitter released from the axon terminal decreases per action potential.
For each action potential less neurotransmitter is released into the synaptic cleft.
Therefore there'll be less of a response in the target cell, and/or we could see that the neurotransmitter receptors may decrease in number.
Maybe we had more neurotransmitter receptors to begin with and that some of those go away.
We have a smaller number of receptors or changes to the receptors to some less responsive receptor, or changes to second messengers, so that the target cell just doesn't respond as much to any given amount of neurotransmitter.
With either of these changes, we'd see less of a response in the target cell to an action potential reaching the axon terminal.
In addition to these changes at the level of individual synapses with synaptic neuroplasticity, we can also see changes in the total number of synapses between the neuron and its target cell that we can call structural neuroplasticity.
For example let's consider a couple of chains of neurons. Let me draw a couple of neurons in a chain for each of these examples, the potentiation and the depression.
Let's say they start out looking pretty similar.
They both have about the same amount of dendritic branches and the length of their dendrites are about the same.
I'll just leave the dendrites off this one.
We'll say that we have about the same number of axon terminals coming out and forming synapses between this neuron and this other neuron which'll be its target cell in this situation.
I'll just draw a little axon and the target neuron as well.
If these two neurons are firing together frequently; if this neuron firing lots of action potentials and this neuron is firing lots of action potentials in response to this neuron stimulating it, we can see an increase in the number of synapses between these two.
We can see that from the dendrites.
We can see the dendrites getting longer or growing more branches so they become more complex trees of dendrites.
Or we could see from this pre-synaptic neuron it could start sprouting more axon branches and terminals so that it's forming more synaptic connections with the dendritic tree over here.
With this structural potentiation, both of these neurons are sprouting lots more little branches or sprouting axon terminals or sprouting more dendritic branches.
I'll just write that down here, that we're doing lots of sprouting.
Just like plants may sprout lots of new shoots in the spring.
The opposite may occur here.
If we're not having very many action potentials being fired by this neuron or by this neuron and particularly if they're not firing action potentials together,
we can see the opposite where we actually start losing length of dendrites or losing dendrite branches.
The dendritic tree can become simpler and shorter.
We may start losing axon terminals.
We may simplify the axon terminals that are coming out of the axon.
If this neuron is not firing very often at all, we may actually lose this neuron.
It may actually go away.
This type of structural depression where we're actually losing parts of neurons or entire neurons because they're not very active, we call pruning.
Just like plants, if you're pruning pieces off a plant so that it has less twigs or branches, it's the same idea.
Both potentiation and depression can happen over a wide spectrum of time.
We often divvy it up into short term changes such as on the order of seconds or minutes or long term changes that can be months, years, or even decades.
Synaptic neuroplasticity can contribute to both short term and long term potentiation or depression.
The structural changes tend to go along with more long term potentiation or depression.
You could imagine how by changing the strength of information flow through individual synapses or between cells, by changing the total number of synapses that there are that neuroplasticity can play a very important role in development of the nervous system as it's wiring itself together based on the experience that the nervous system is receiving during its formative time.
Also this plays a huge role in memory and learning and recovery from injury to the nervous system when it's trying to wire itself back together after it's been injured.
These are a few of the things we know about neuroplasticity.
There's a lot more that we don't understand yet. There's still a lot of research going on trying to understand how all these processes happen and how they contribute to all these amazing functions of the nervous system that can change over time.
Source: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/health-and-medicine/nervous-system-and-sensory-infor/neural-cells-and-neurotransmitters/v/neuroplasticity
Sunday, April 14, 2019
Yuval Noah Harari: "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" | Talks at Google
Yuval Noah Harari, macro-historian, Professor, best-selling author of "Sapiens" and "Homo Deus," and one of the world's most innovative and exciting thinkers, discusses his newest work, "21 Lessons for the 21st Century."
Described as a “truly mind-expanding” journey through today’s most pressing issues, "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" reminds us to maintain our collective focus in the midst of dizzying and disorienting change.
Moderated by Wilson White.
What explains the rise of humans? - Yuval Noah Harari
Yuval Noah Harari
|
TEDGlobalLondon
What explains the rise of human
Seventy thousand years ago, our human ancestors were insignificant animals, just minding their own business in a corner of Africa with all the other animals.
But now, few would disagree that humans dominate planet Earth; we've spread to every continent, and our actions determine the fate of other animals (and possibly Earth itself).
How did we get from there to here?
Historian Yuval Noah Harari suggests a surprising reason for the rise of humanity.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.
Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/yuval_noah_harari_what_explains_the_rise_of_humans?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare
TimesTalks | Yuval Noah Harari
Bari Weiss, Op-Ed staff editor and writer at The New York Times, will join Yuval Noah Harari, historian, philosopher and international best-selling author of “Sapiens” and “Homo Deus” for a thought-provoking evening of conversation.
Harari’s new book, “21 Lessons for the 21st Century” untangles political, technological, social and existential issues.
It clarifies the most important questions humankind faces today, and empowers all of us to help answer them.
His provocative insights on the most pressing issues of the day have won him fans ranging from Bill Gates and Barack Obama to Natalie Portman and Janelle MonĂ¡e.
Yuval Noah Harari in Conversation with Jonathan Capehart
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Capehart interviews Yuval Noah Harari about his book, '21 Lessons for the 21st Century' - in Sixth & I, Washington, D.C.
Link: https://youtu.be/j9eCckqQBdk
Monday, April 8, 2019
Edvard Munch: booze, bullets and breakdowns
Edvard Munch
As a rare Munch show opens in Britain, we travel to Norway to find the forces that unleashed his macabre art – from flame-haired Medusas to primal screams
Edvard Munch: booze, bullets and breakdowns
Claire Armitstead in Oslo
@carmitstead
Mon 8 Apr 2019 16.07 BSTLast modified on Mon 8 Apr 2019 18.50 BST
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Vampire II, 1896, by Edvard Munch. Photograph: Henie Onstad Kunstsenter
Hidden away in the basement of Oslo’s Munch Museum lies a treasure trove. Here you’ll find madonnas and vampires, lions and tigers alongside the hefty white blocks from which they were printed, still blackened with printers’ ink. It feels like being conducted around the inside of Edvard Munch’s brain.
You might also spot, resting on an easel, a stunning early colour version of The Scream, scribbled with a rough urgency in pastel on cardboard, and therefore too fragile to be subjected to daylight. The distressed little figure, blocking its ears in horror against the scream of nature, has been described as the ultimate image for our catastrophic times. By far the best known Munch work outside his homeland, it is one of the few fine-art images to have its own emoji.
A lithograph version of The Scream, 1895, by Edvard Munch. Photograph: Thomas WiderbergThe Munch Museum is not too lofty to cash in on Scream merchandise, selling baby grows and tea towels, with more exotic novelty items displayed in a cabinet of curiosities from abroad (as a belatedly reformed alcoholic, Munch might have appreciated the Scream vodka bottles.) But it is also on a mission to challenge that painting’s monolithic reputation. Which is why it has partnered with British Museum in London on Edvard Munch: Love and Angst, an exhibition that promises to throw fresh light on an artist whose work is rarely shown in the UK.
The show will include a black-and-white lithograph of The Scream, on loan from a private Norwegian collector. But it presents the picture alongside more than 80 other works, making the case for Munch as one of art history’s most innovative and expressive printmakers, an artist who said, “I don’t paint what I see but what I saw,” obsessively reframing his memories using the printmaking technologies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
FacebookTwitterPinterest Towards the Forest I, 1897, by Edvard Munch. Photograph: Halvor BjørngĂ¥rd
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One of the most revelatory works I spot in the Munch Museum’s basement is a series of woodcuts that lines its walls. Towards the Forest – three impressions of which will appear at the British Museum – features a man and a woman walking arm-in-arm towards a wood. The palette varies widely, with the sky, the grass and the couple picked out in different colours to create very different moods. Some are ominous, some wistful and others hazily romantic. In some, the woman is wearing a long dress; in others her legs are bare.
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It seems a mystery how a single image could be so various until we are ushered towards a nearby bench to view the pair of woodblocks from which the prints were made. Delicately jigsawed into three pieces, with chunks missing, they are “the most complicated ever produced”, according to Giulia Bartrum, who curates the British Museum show. “Traditionally, woodblocks are in one colour and printed sequentially. But Munch found that if he chopped the blocks up he could ink the pieces separately, then fit the block together and print in one movement. Every impression is different, and there are 50 to 60 still in existence.”
To see the versions of a Munch print side by side is to understand something of the compulsion that drove him to repeat the same images again and again. One of the earliest and most familiar is The Sick Child, a haunted deathbed scene in which – over more than 40 years from his early 20s – he revisited the final hours of his older sister, Sophie, as she succumbed to the tuberculosis that he was convinced would eventually kill him, too.
FacebookTwitterPinterest Edvard Munch’s 1896 painting The Sick Child. Photograph: AP
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It was the picture that made his reputation in mainland Europe, causing such a furore in Germany in 1892 over its technique (one critic called it “a discarded, half-rubbed out sketch”) that the Berlin Artist Association, under pressure from the kaiser, voted to close the show. By then Munch was deep into the alcoholic spiral that would generate his most powerful work and lead to a breakdown in his mid-40s. His bohemian set included writers and theatre-makers; a section of the London exhibition is dedicated to his work for the stage, including a 1906 set design for Ghosts, Ibsen’s portrait of Norway’s syphilitic society.
While he was working on The Sick Child, Munch also painted an early version of his erotic Madonna, which he gave to an imprisoned anarchist friend to decorate his jail cell. (A later version emphasised her orgasmic state by encircling the image with sperm and foetuses.) But his celebrations of love were offset by his terror of romantic entanglement – often embodied, as Bartrum points out, in women with Medusa-like red hair. One painting, Self-Portrait With Tulla Larsen, memorialises a particularly turbulent relationship, which ended with a bang in 1902, when he was accidentally shot. (Among the Munch Museum’s more macabre possessions is an x-ray of his left hand showing the bullet lodged in his ring finger.) In his distress, Munch cut the painting in two; it will appear at the British Museum in its bifurcated state.
FacebookTwitterPinterest Madonna, 1895/1902, by Edvard Munch. Photograph: Ove Kvavik/Munchmuseet
There is bound to be plenty of interest in the show. Norway doesn’t often make the international news, but of the 20,000 to 30,000 headlines it does generate around the world each year, a quarter are about Munch. This startling statistic is rattled off by Stein Olav Henrichsen, director of the Munch Museum and the person responsible for moving it to a new home on the city’s waterfront, due to open in June 2020. Staff are already hard at work packing up the 45,000 objects bequeathed to Oslo by the artist on his death in 1944, including 1,100 paintings, 6,800 drawings and 18,200 works of graphic art – not to mention the 10,000 letters and other pieces of text.
The new 13-storey picture palace – which will be one of the largest monographic museums in the world – will include two floors for temporary exhibitions of other artists whose work is in dialogue with Munch’s. Among the most prominent of these is Tracey Emin, who will not only be the first guest to feature when the museum opens, but will have a permanent presence as part of a buzzy new waterfront cultural quarter when her seven-metre bronze sculpture, The Mother, is unveiled on its own island at the mouth of Munch’s beloved Akerselva River.
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It is ironic that a British artist should be chosen for this honour, since UK collectors were slow to appreciate Munch, only catching on after his death. How was this talented reprobate viewed among his compatriots at the time? One answer lies in Oslo’s Frogner Park, where the monumental sculptures of his contemporary and rival Gustav Vigeland – a local hero virtually unknown outside his home country – command the landscape. Much to Munch’s chagrin, Vigeland was given a grand studio and park by the city of Oslo. Both are now landmarks.
FacebookTwitterPinterest The two pieces of Self-Portrait With Tulla Larsen, circa 1905, by Edvard Munch. Photograph: Ove Kvavik/Munchmuseet
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Munch’s house and studio were on a remote hillside above Oslo, where he fled after his 1908 breakdown to escape “the enemy” – critics and fellow artists. He would live there with his beloved dogs, and the occasional horse, until his death. Liberated from his angst and alcoholism, he painted and repainted the nature around him, jealously hoarding his work while treating it with mind-boggling contempt. He would leave paintings outside in in all weathers beneath a narrow mansard, saying: “It does them good to fend for themselves.”
The house in Ekely has long been demolished but the studio survives, in the shelter of a huge beech tree, which can be seen as a sapling in a series of touching photographs taken during Munch’s lifetime. The studio is hard to reach and opens only sporadically to the public, but offers residencies to artists, the most recent of whom, Olav Ringdal, is in the final stages of preparing an exhibition. Ringdal admits to finding Munch’s legacy “a bit irritating … I wish I was a Dutch artist, because they have the whole spectrum. Here there is only Munch.” In an elegantly minimalist downtown gallery, the artist AK Dolven takes a different view. The centrepiece of her small show is a bed carved from pink, candy-striped Arctic marble, which visitors can touch and even lie on, and which she describes as “a conversation with Munch”.
FacebookTwitterPinterest Edvard Munch with brush and palette with his canvases at his house outside Oslo. Photograph: Munchmuseet
In Oslo’s elaborately painted city hall – the setting for the annual Nobel peace prize ceremony – there is no public sign of Munch, because he declined to enter a competition to decorate its civic centre. But his presence is everywhere in corridors and committee rooms; there is even a mythologically charged cycle of 19 lithographs, Alpha and Omega, which he designed while recovering from his breakdown.
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Charting the relationship of a couple marooned on an island, it ends with a tiger possessing the woman and killing the man. Munch drew animals beautifully, visiting zoos to study them. But he wrote: “We want more than a mere photograph of nature. We do not want to paint pretty pictures to be hung on drawing room walls. We want to create, or at least lay the foundations of, an art that gives something to humanity. An art that arrests and engages. An art created of one’s innermost heart.”
His ambition is echoed in a scrawl by Emin on an early sketch of the statue that will command Oslo harbour for future generations: “The Mother sits on Museum Island [with] her legs open – towards the fjord. She is welcoming all of nature. She is the companion of the ghost of Munch.”
• Munch: Love and Angst is at the British Museum, London, from 11 April until 21 July.
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