We are asleep

image:quotespictures.net

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Journeys

Our journeys are about making choices. Whether it is a choice about where to go, how to go or when to go, the choice determines our outcome. Soul satisfying journeys are mindful trips that include self-awareness and a look within ourselves. This pertains to any journey, be it from place to place, action to action or decision to decision. The sum of our choices constitutes our life. The journey we take from start to finish. We may not always make the proper choices, but we are always allowed the ability to make another. No matter how far down the “wrong” road we may be, this road we chose, we chose for a reason. Here in lies life’s lessons. Learn the lesson, then make your next choice. This is how we discover the daily journeys in a span of time that is ours and ours alone.[peacefulmind.com]

Friday evening – time to relax! End of week – or start of new week? And I wonder what it is to take a soul trip – just to somewhere inbetween nowhere. I wonder how it is to go to a place you haven’t been to, a foreign country and just explore – do what you want to do and when you want to do it – and keep a journal of who you meet etc!
Mark Twain said:’Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.’

What I’ve read this week -which I believe: God will never take away something without giving something better in its place.
I’m a girl. I overreact. I underestimate. I overestimate. I over think everything. I dream big. And when I say I love you, I’m not lying. Sometimes silence is the best way to let someone know they did you wrong. Its simple… Never lie to someone who trusts you, and never trust someone who lies to you. We all blame society but the truth is, we are society. When you’re down to nothing, God is up to something. The faithful see the Invisible, Believe the Incredible and then receive the Impossible.

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If music be the food of love, play on

Image: allposters.com

From Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, 1601:

DUKE ORSINO:
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:
‘Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soe’er,
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.

Swallows in Durban – see the news article in this entry from ENS news

Enjoy “Village Swallows” by  Mantovani and his orchestra. It is a composition by Josef Strauss, one of the Strauss-brothers.

 

hmmm…just what I need…flowers and chocolates!! and on this video…the music of Strauss…”Roses from the South”

Swallow Flocks and World Cup Airport Try Coexistence

DURBAN, South Africa, November 12, 2007 (ENS) – This year, as five million barn swallows migrate from across Europe to roost in South Africa’s Mt. Moreland Reedbed, they will be greeted by air traffic controllers. The controllers will be waiting to warn pilots of the swallow flocks coming in to land so that bird-plane collisions can be avoided.

The plan to protect the birds was announced Monday at a ceremony at the reedbed, attended by the nonprofit conservation group BirdLife South Africa.

The decision to protect the swallows was made in response to global outcry last November, when BirdLife outlined its concern about the expansion of La Mercy Airport at Durban, in preparation for South Africa’s hosting of World Cup 2010.

The airport is being expanded to handle traffic expected for the soccer event and the KwaZulu Natal government wants to see the project completed by 2009.

The Airports Company of South Africa, which administers the existing Durban International Airport, owns the La Mercy land where the $8 billion King Shaka International Airport is under construction, 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Durban.

The new airport is expected to replace Durban International, which will be decommissioned. But for the swallows at the Mt. Moreland Reedbed, without special planning and accomodation, the airport would have been deadly.

Both the reed bed and Mount Moreland are situated South West of the proposed development are aligned exactly with the proposed runway and so are in the flight patch of aircraft leaving or arriving the airport.

The controllers at La Mercy Airport have been among those watching the millions of birds come in this year from all over eastern and western Europe. They will leave again at the onset of winter.
The threat that planes at an expanded La Mercy Airport would pose to the swallows roosting at the reedbed, among Africa’s largest roosts, was put across by conservationists and BirdLife partner organizations throughout Europe.The barn swallow, Hirundo rustica, undertakes one of the world’s most remarkable migrations. The birds fly thousands of miles from southern Africa in spring to breed in Europe and then repeat the feat in reverse in the autumn, to winter back in Africa.

“This has been a fantastic result, and we’re delighted to report on this outcome after a year of negotiations and meetings. The support of so many people via letters and petitions has played an important part.” said Neil Smith, conservation manager at BirdLife South Africa, which led the campaign.

The Airports Company of South Africa has been supportive of making accommodations for the birds.

“Since our campaign started, the Airports Company of South Africa has really come on board, quickly realizing the importance of this site as a reedbed of international significance,” said Smith.

Following BirdLife’s complaint, consultants were brought in to examine the roosting and flocking behavior of the swallows, using advanced radar imagery. They confirmed that constant monitoring of the swallow movements during take-off and landing of aircraft would be required.

The Airports Company of South Africa now says it will install in the airport control tower the same advanced radar technology that the consultants used to study the movement of the swallows.

This will mean that planes can take the option of circling or approaching from another angle when large flocks of swallows form over the reedbed site in the late evening.

Environmental management staff will be employed to make sure that suitable management of the reedbed continues, the airports company said.

Bird conservationists feel somewhat reassured about the swallows’ future. “Losing such a valuable site could have affected breeding swallow populations across Europe,” said Dr. Ian Burfield, Birdlife’s European research and database manager.

“Conserving migratory birds is about more than ensuring one site is protected or well managed,” said Burfield. “It takes global effort: at breeding sites, at stopover sites during migration, and at important non-breeding sites like this, where large numbers of birds roost.

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Jane Austen

I’m back! With Jane! as I promised in about 4 posts ago. If you’ve read the post saying…

“Let’s take the road”, you would have read about my sudden idea – or my “on the spur of the moment”-idea to “take the road”. We drove south, to the direction to Southampton and  went on the small countryside roads. On the roadmap we saw that we were near Jane Austen’s house and I was really excited and suggested that we go there. By looking at the images at the bottom of this post, you will agree with me that the garden is beautiful! I wish my garden was as big as this one! It was interesting to visit the house, but there were many other people too and some rooms are really small and you sometimes couldn’t look at everything in detail. We weren’t allowed to take pictures indoors. There are security cameras in all the rooms, but I’ve found a website where you can view the rooms in the house too. At the bottom of my post you can follow the museum-house-link to view more of the rooms. I’ve added the basin, Jane’s room and her piano from the museum-house-site here. Information in this post was found on the sites at the bottom of this post. Do enjoy!

Jane Austen, one of England’s foremost novelists, was never publicly acknowledged as a writer during her lifetime. She was born on December 16, 1775, at Steventon Rectory in Hampshire, the seventh child of a country clergyman and his wife, George and Cassandra Austen. She was primarily educated at home, benefiting from her father’s extensive library and the schoolroom atmosphere created by Mr. Austen’s live-in pupils. Her closest friend was her only sister, Cassandra, almost three years her senior.

Though Austen lived a quiet life, she had unusual access to the greater world, primarily through her brothers. Francis (Frank) and Charles, officers in the Royal Navy, served on ships around the world and saw action in the Napoleonic Wars. Henry, who eventually became a clergyman like his father and his brother James, was an officer in the militia and later a banker. Austen visited Henry in London, where she attended the theater, art exhibitions, and social events and also corrected proofs of her novels. Her brother Edward was adopted by wealthy cousins, the Knights, becoming their heir and later taking their name. On extended visits to Godmersham, Edward’s estate in Kent, Austen and her sister took part in the privileged life of the landed gentry, which is reflected in all her fiction.

As a child Austen began writing comic stories, now referred to as the Juvenilia. Her first mature work, composed when she was about 19, was a novella, Lady Susan, written in epistolary form (as a series of letters). This early fiction was preserved by her family but was not published until long after her death.
In her early twenties Austen wrote the novels that later became Sense and Sensibility (first called “Elinor and Marianne”) and Pride and Prejudice (originally “First Impressions”). Her father sent a letter offering the manuscript of “First Impressions” to a publisher soon after it was finished in 1797, but his offer was rejected by return post. Austen continued writing, revising “Elinor and Marianne” and completing a novel called “Susan” (later to become Northanger Abbey). In 1803 Austen sold “Susan” for £10 to a publisher, who promised early publication, but the manuscript languished in his archives until it was repurchased a year before Austen’s death for the price the publisher had paid her.

When Austen was 25 years old, her father retired, and she and Cassandra moved with their parents to Bath, residing first at 4 Sydney Place. During the five years she lived in Bath (1801-1806), Austen began one novel, The Watsons, which she never completed. After Mr. Austen’s death, Austen’s brothers contributed funds to assist their sisters and widowed mother. Mrs. Austen and her daughters set up housekeeping with their close friend Martha Lloyd. Together they moved to Southampton in 1806 and economized by sharing a house with Frank and his family.

In 1809 Edward provided the women a comfortable cottage in the village of Chawton, near his Hampshire manor house. This was the beginning of Austen’s most productive period. In 1811, at the age of 35, Austen published Sense and Sensibility, which identified the author as “a Lady.” Pride and Prejudice followed in 1813, Mansfield Park in 1814, and Emma in 1815. The title page of each book referred to one or two of Austen’s earlier novels—capitalizing on her growing reputation—but did not provide her name.

Chawton cottage…Jane’s house
Austen began writing the novel that would be called Persuasion in 1815 and finished it the following year, by which time, however, her health was beginning to fail. The probable cause of her illness was Addison’s Disease. In 1816 Henry Austen repurchased the rights to “Susan,” which Austen revised and renamed “Catherine.”

During a brief period of strength early in 1817, Austen began the fragment later called Sanditon, but by March she was too ill to work. She and Cassandra moved to 8 College Street in Winchester to be near her doctor. Austen died in the early hours of July 18, 1817, and a few days later was buried in Winchester Cathedral. She was 41 years old. Interestingly, Austen’s gravestone, which is visited by hundreds of admirers each year, does not even mention that she was an author.

Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published together in December 1817 with a “Biographical Notice” written by Henry, in which Jane Austen was, for the first time in one of her novels, identified as the author of Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, and Emma. Austen’s novels have never been out of print and are often included on lists of readers’ favorites. Her surviving letters are also a source of entertainment and biographical information (Jane Austen’s Letters, edited by Deirdre Le Faye, Oxford University Press, 1995).

4 Sydney Place, Bath…where she lived too.

A Selection of Biographies
J. E. Austen-Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen and Other Family Recollections, edited by Kathryn Sutherland (Oxford University Press, 2002) (also contains biographical memoirs by Austen’s brother Henry and her nieces Anna Lefroy and Caroline Austen).

Jan Fergus, Jane Austen: A Literary Life (Macmillan Press, 1991).

Park Honan, Jane Austen: Her Life (St. Martin’s Press, 1987).

Elizabeth Jenkins, Jane Austen: A Biography (1938 and later reprints).

Deirdre Le Faye, Jane Austen: A Family Record (Cambridge University Press, 2004).

Claire Tomalin, Jane Austen: A Life (Alfred A. Knopf, 1997).

Cassandra Elizabeth (1773-1845) was Jane Austen’s only sister, and her closest confidante. Over a hundred letters from Jane Austen to Cassandra have survived, giving us our most intimate look at some of the details of Jane Austen’s life. Cassandra’s fiancé Thomas Fowle died of yellow fever in the Caribbean in 1797; he had gone there as a military chaplain. Possibly Cassandra’s experience is reflected in Mrs. Musgrove and Mrs. Croft’s abomination of “long engagements” and “uncertain engagements” in Jane Austen’s Persuasion (he and Cassandra had continued engaged since about 1794, due to lack of money; see “Money and Marriage”). After this, Cassandra never married. (See Cassandra’s poem on love.) Cassandra (like Jane) frequently visited her brothers and their families, and other relatives and friends (it was the separations between herself and Jane, resulting from visits on which they did not both go, that necessitated the letters between them).

 This poem was written by her sister, Cassandra, to Jane

2. MISS AUSTEN (CASSANDRA).
Love, they say, is like a rose;
I’m sure ’tis like the wind that blows,
For not a human creature knows
How it comes or where it goes.
It is the cause of many woes:
It swells the eyes and reds the nose,
And very often changes those
Who once were friends to bitter foes.
But let us now the scene transpose
And think no more of tears and throes.
Why may we not as well suppose
A smiling face the urchin shows?
And when with joy the bosom glows,
And when the heart has full repose,
‘Tis mutual love the gift bestows.

 Jane Austen enjoyed social events, and her early letters tell of dances and parties she attended in Hampshire, and also of visits to London, Bath, Southampton etc., where she attended plays and such. There is a famous statement by one Mrs. Mitford that Jane was the “the prettiest, silliest, most affected, husband-hunting butterfly she ever remembers” (however, Mrs. Mitford seems to have had a personal jealousy against Jane Austen, and it is hard to reconcile this description with the Jane Austen who wrote The Three Sisters before she was eighteen).

In January 1805 her father died. As would have been the case for the Bennets in Pride and Prejudice if Mr. Bennet had died, the income due to the remaining family (Mrs. Austen and her two daughters, the only children still at home) was considerably reduced — since most of Mr. Austen’s income had come from clerical “livings” which lapsed with his death. So they were largely dependent on support from the Austen brothers (and a relatively small amount of money left to Cassandra by her fiancé), summing to a total of about £450 yearly. Later in 1805, Martha Lloyd (sister of James Austen’s wife) came to live with Mrs. Austen, Cassandra, and Jane, after her own mother had died.

QUOTES of Jane
I do not want people to be agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them.
—-
To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.
—

Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?
—-
One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.
Jane Austen, Emma
Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way.
Jane Austen, Emma
A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

Everybody likes to go their own way–to choose their own time and manner of devotion.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

I cannot think well of a man who sports with any woman’s feelings; and there may often be a great deal more suffered than a stander-by can judge of.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

I pay very little regard…to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory. There seems something more speakingly incomprehensible in the powers, the failures, the inequalities of memory, than in any other of our intelligences. The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient; at others, so bewildered and so weak; and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond control! We are, to be sure, a miracle every way; but our powers of recollecting and of forgetting do seem peculiarly past finding out.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

Nothing amuses me more than the easy manner with which everybody settles the abundance of those who have a great deal less than themselves.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

Oh! Do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

One cannot fix one’s eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

The enthusiasm of a woman’s love is even beyond the biographer’s.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
Where any one body of educated men, of whatever denomination, are condemned indiscriminately, there must be a deficiency of information, or…of something else.
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way.
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

In every power, of which taste is the foundation, excellence is pretty fairly divided between the sexes.
Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, 1818

For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1811
Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
How little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

I have no pretensions whatever to that kind of elegance which consists in tormenting a respectable man.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Loss of virtue in a female is irretrievable; that one false step involves her in endless ruin; that her reputation is no less brittle than it is beautiful; and that she cannot be too much guarded in her behaviour towards the undeserving of the other sex.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
No one can be really esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously…. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, first line.

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Basin

Jane’s bedroom

Her Piano..not her real piano, but they believe that her piano looked like this one.

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How could I resist the African Marigolds!!

http://www.artworksgallery.co.uk/book.html

http://www.jane-austens-house-museum.org.uk/

http://www.janeaustensociety.org.uk/

http://www.peopleandprofiles.com/ProfileLinks-28/Jane%20Austen.html?profile_id=235&type=link&st=160&linkid=28

http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/janelife.html#favniece

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My whole brain

A few years ago I was fortunate to be chosen to attend a day “course” on creativity and the whole brain. I really enjoyed the course and Dr Kobus Neethling (read about him at the bottom of my post) was expected to be there, but he was held up and we had only his videos to watch however, we were fortunate too to have brilliant speakers to lead the day. We had to do all sorts of activities and one “test” results pointed out that I was a “whole-brain”-person. They say that you should strive to use your whole brain. I’m not always sure if I really use my “whole brain”…e.g. today, I’m really in a lazy mood and I think I don’t want to use my brain at all! Picasso was also a “whole brain”-thinker! I’ve found this fun website where you can create your own “Picasso”!  THIS LINK to create your own Picasso!

If you’re a chess player, you will find this PDF-document-link interesting…or if you’re interested in the brain. Please click on chess and thinking to read the pdf document about chess and content- orientated psychology thinking – the link will open in a new window.

AND you might want to read on this forum about “Chess and the brain”…
http://www.chesscircle.net/forums/general-chess-forum/12623-article-chess-and-the-brain.html and this document/research was done by Brunel University. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/2274/1/Gobet-Intelligence+and+chess.pdf
Please click HERE to see a movie about chess that can sharpen your wits AND how chess helps with your logical thinking!! The link will open in a new window.

Whole Brain Thinking
What is WHOLE BRAIN THINKING? Whole Brain thinking is when the two cerebral hemispheres of the brain unify to create a “whole brain thinking” pattern. Using whole brain thinking enhances living, logic, intuition, analytical skills, mechanical reasoning and artistic ability. Whole brain thinking, essentially enriches brain functioning to a superior level of heightened awareness. To better understand the effects of whole brain thinking, read on:

Left Brain thinkers are often engineers and scientists; Right brain thinkers are most often artists and poets. In overview, left brain thinkers use structured analysis in their thought patterns; right brain thinkers use patterned recognition in their thought patterns. When both are combined, intuition is the ultimate achievement of the two. Clarification of whole brain thinking is that persons who use whole brain thinking have the ability not only to be creative in the arts, but could possibly fix a diesel truck engine as well. By using whole brain thinking, the impossible becomes possible.

Some of the world’s greatest pioneers, inventors and leaders use whole brain thinking. Leonardo da Vinci was not only a fine artist but a great scientist as well. Frederic Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty, utilized whole brain thinking — not only did he create the Statue of Liberty, he also engineered the scientific dimensions of his creation.
Source: http://www.holisticjunction.com/categories/HPD/whole-brain-thinking.html

http://www.12manage.com/methods_herrmann_whole_brain.html

The four thinking styles in the Whole Brain Model are:

1. Logician: Analytical, Mathematical, Technical and Problem Solving.
2. Organiser: Controlled, Conservative, Planned, Organised and Administrative in nature.
3. Communicator: Interpersonal, Emotional, Musical, Spiritual and the “talker” modes.
4. Visionary: Imaginative, Synthesizing, Artistic, Holistic and Conceptual modes.

Dr Kobus Neethling is the President of the South African Creativity Foundation. In 1998 he received “The Distinguished Leader Award” from the International Creative Problem Solving Institute and the Creative Education Foundation: The most prestigious creativity award in the world.

He is also the founder and Director of the South African Creativity Foundation and the Kobus Neethling Group. He holds 6 University degrees (Cape Town, Potchefstroom and Georgia USA), including two Master’s Degrees, a Doctorate and a Post Doctorate (Cum Laude). 

Update 2011: Sadly, the link about Dr Kobus Neethling doesn’t work anymore.

Please click on the link here to take your test to discover which part of your brain is dominant!
http://library.thinkquest.org/C0110299/interact/interact.php?brain_test

“Brain” quotes

“Genius is the ability to avoid work by doing it right the first time.”
— old saying

“The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do.”
— B.F. Skinner

“Improvement makes straight roads;
but the crooked roads without improvement are roads of genius.”
— William Blake [1757–1827]

“If the brain were so simple we could understand it,
[then] we would be so simple [that] we couldn’t.”
— Lyall Watson

“Most people would sooner die than think. In fact, they do.”
— Bertrand Russell [1872-1970]

“Geniuses are like thunderstorms. They go against the wind,
terrify people, cleanse the air.”
— Søren Kierkegaard [1813-55]

“When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this
sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.”
— Jonathan Swift [1667–1745]

“The first and last thing required of genius is the love of truth.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe [1749-1832]

“Some superior minds are unrecognized because there is no standard
by which to weigh them.”
— Joseph Joubert

“A genius is one who can do anything except make a living.”
— Joey Adams

“There’s nothing as stupid as an educated man,
if you get him off the thing that he is educated in.”
— Will Rogers [1879-1935]

“Talent, lying in the understanding, is often inherited;
genius, being the action of reason or imagination, rarely or never.”
— Samuel T. Coleridge [1772-1834]
Source: http://www.genordell.com/stores/maison/thinking.htm

Paintings from Picasso’s Blue and Rose Period are my favourites and I’ve uploaded some of my favourites here..

Picasso…Leaning Harlequin–1901

Picasso…Wounded bird and cat — 1938

Picasso…Le Gourmet from the Blue Period — 1901

This next article is about the brain…from the new scientist. The link will open in a new window.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/brain/dn9969

The Human Brain – With one hundred billion nerve cells, the complexity is mind-boggling. Learn more in our cutting edge special report. The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. It produces our every thought, action, memory, feeling and experience of the world. This jelly-like mass of tissue, weighing in at around 1.4 kilograms, contains a staggering one hundred billion nerve cells, or neurons.

The complexity of the connectivity between these cells is mind-boggling. Each neuron can make contact with thousands or even tens of thousands of others, via tiny structures called synapses. Our brains form a million new connections for every second of our lives. The pattern and strength of the connections is constantly changing and no two brains are alike. It is in these changing connections that memories are stored, habits learned and personalities shaped, by reinforcing certain patterns of brain activity, and losing others.

Grey matter
While people often speak of their “grey matter”, the brain also contains white matter. The grey matter is the cell bodies of the neurons, while the white matter is the branching network of thread-like tendrils – called dendrites and axons – that spread out from the cell bodies to connect to other neurons.

But the brain also has another, even more numerous type of cell, called glial cells. These outnumber neurons ten times over. Once thought to be support cells, they are now known to amplify neural signals and to be as important as neurons in mental calculations. There are many different types of neuron, only one of which is unique to humans and the other great apes, the so called spindle cells.

Brain structure is shaped partly by genes, but largely by experience. Only relatively recently it was discovered that new brain cells are being born throughout our lives – a process called neurogenesis. The brain has bursts of growth and then periods of consolidation, when excess connections are pruned. The most notable bursts are in the first two or three years of life, during puberty, and also a final burst in young adulthood.

How a brain ages also depends on genes and lifestyle too. Exercising the brain and giving it the right diet can be just as important as it is for the rest of the body.

Chemical messengers
The neurons in our brains communicate in a variety of ways. Signals pass between them by the release and capture of neurotransmitter and neuromodulator chemicals, such as glutamate, dopamine, acetylcholine, noradrenalin, serotonin and endorphins.

Some neurochemicals work in the synapse, passing specific messages from release sites to collection sites, called receptors. Others also spread their influence more widely, like a radio signal, making whole brain regions more or less sensitive.

These neurochemicals are so important that deficiencies in them are linked to certain diseases. For example, a loss of dopamine in the basal ganglia, which control movements, leads to Parkinson’s disease. It can also increase susceptibility to addiction because it mediates our sensations of reward and pleasure.

Similarly, a deficiency in serotonin, used by regions involved in emotion, can be linked to depression or mood disorders, and the loss of acetylcholine in the cerebral cortex is characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease.

Brain scanning
Within individual neurons, signals are formed by electrochemical pulses. Collectively, this electrical activity can be detected outside the scalp by an electroencephalogram (EEG).

These signals have wave-like patterns, which scientists classify from alpha (common while we are relaxing or sleeping), through to gamma (active thought). When this activity goes awry, it is called a seizure. Some researchers think that synchronising the activity in different brain regions is important in perception.

Other ways of imaging brain activity are indirect. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or positron emission tomography (PET) monitor blood flow. MRI scans, computed tomography (CT) scans and diffusion tensor images (DTI) use the magnetic signatures of different tissues, X-ray absorption, or the movement of water molecules in those tissues, to image the brain.

These scanning techniques have revealed which parts of the brain are associated with which functions. Examples include activity related to sensations, movement, libido, choices, regrets, motivations and even racism. However, some experts argue that we put too much trust in these results and that they raise privacy issues.

Before scanning techniques were common, researchers relied on patients with brain damage caused by strokes, head injuries or illnesses, to determine which brain areas are required for certain functions. This approach exposed the regions connected to emotions, dreams, memory, language and perception and to even more enigmatic events, such as religious or “paranormal” experiences.

One famous example was the case of Phineas Gage, a 19th century railroad worker who lost part of the front of his brain when a 1-metre-long iron pole was blasted through his head during an explosion. He recovered physically, but was left with permanent changes to his personality, showing for the first time that specific brain regions are linked to different processes.

Structure in mind
The most obvious anatomical feature of our brains is the undulating surfac of the cerebrum – the deep clefts are known as sulci and its folds are gyri. The cerebrum is the largest part of our brain and is largely made up of the two cerebral hemispheres. It is the most evolutionarily recent brain structure, dealing with more complex cognitive brain activities.

It is often said that the right hemisphere is more creative and emotional and the left deals with logic, but the reality is more complex. Nonetheless, the sides do have some specialisations, with the left dealing with speech and language, the right with spatial and body awareness.

Further anatomical divisions of the cerebral hemispheres are the occipital lobe at the back, devoted to vision, and the parietal lobe above that, dealing with movement, position, orientation and calculation.

Behind the ears and temples lie the temporal lobes, dealing with sound and speech comprehension and some aspects of memory. And to the fore are the frontal and prefrontal lobes, often considered the most highly developed and most “human” of regions, dealing with the most complex thought, decision making, planning, conceptualising, attention control and working memory. They also deal with complex social emotions such as regret, morality and empathy.

Another way to classify the regions is as sensory cortex and motor cortex, controlling incoming information, and outgoing behaviour respectively.

Below the cerebral hemispheres, but still referred to as part of the forebrain, is the cingulate cortex, which deals with directing behaviour and pain. And beneath this lies the corpus callosum, which connects the two sides of the brain. Other important areas of the forebrain are the basal ganglia, responsible for movement, motivation and reward.

Urges and appetites
Beneath the forebrain lie more primitive brain regions. The limbic system, common to all mammals, deals with urges and appetites. Emotions are most closely linked with structures called the amygdala, caudate nucleus and putamen. Also in the limbic brain are the hippocampus – vital for forming new memories; the thalamus – a kind of sensory relay station; and the hypothalamus, which regulates bodily functions via hormone release from the pituitary gland.

The back of the brain has a highly convoluted and folded swelling called the cerebellum, which stores patterns of movement, habits and repeated tasks – things we can do without thinking about them.

The most primitive parts, the midbrain and brain stem, control the bodily functions we have no conscious control of, such as breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, sleep patterns, and so on. They also control signals that pass between the brain and the rest of the body, through the spinal cord.

Though we have discovered an enormous amount about the brain, huge and crucial mysteries remain. One of the most important is how does the brain produces our conscious experiences?

The vast majority of the brain’s activity is subconscious. But our conscious thoughts, sensations and perceptions – what define us as humans – cannot yet be explained in terms of brain activity.

After a discussion about study methods on one of the Afrikaans blogs, I’ve decided to add this info here as it relates to your brain too. This is a study method I taught 12 year old children. This is only one method of many others. A popular method is mind-maps too. All depends on the individual and the style he prefers.

P Q R S T

(I originally found this method in Atkinson, R. L., Atkinson, R. C., Smith, E. E., & Bem, D. J. (1993). Introduction to Psychology. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace, although that may not be the original source.)
PREVIEW
Skim the headings of the entire chapter. Your most important goal is to find out how the chapter is organized.
If the major terms in the headings are unfamiliar – look them up
The same material could be organized more than one way. If the way it is organized helps you to remember the main topics, then use that organization. If you notice some other way it could have been organized that makes more sense to you, then use that method.
QUESTION
Turn the subheadings under the major headings into questions that you expect to be answered in that part of the text.
READ
Try to see if the questions you anticipated are answered. Reflect on what you read; put it in your own words. Try to connect what you are reading to things you already know. Don’t mark or highlight words or passages as you come to them the first time. Wait until you have reached the end of a small section, maybe a paragraph or two and look back to decide if there is anything there that you probably wouldn’t remember without highlighting it. Try to learn through trial and error how much marking is the minimum you need to do to remember all the material.
SELF-RECITATION
This is the most critical part.
After reading a small section, perhaps a page or two CLOSE THE BOOK and try to write down the main ideas and as many details as you can, and then check yourself.
Put the main ideas and details in your own words; don’t just memorize the exact words in the text.
When you check, look for important things you omitted or got wrong.
Do it again. Do it as many times as you need to until you can close the book and reproduce the material accurately, but meaningfully, not just by rote.
Once you can do that immediately after closing the book, then start trying to do it after being away from the book for a while. First short gaps, like an hour, then longer gaps, like a day or two.
This is hard work. You might start by first trying to be able to make just a skeletal outline and build up the ability to fill in details.
Develop your own mnemonics for memorizing major points, or any details that you find confusing.
TEST
After some time has passed, try to reproduce the material as you did above. The key here is that you must give yourself enough time to forget some of the material so that you are forced to really re-generate the material. Re-generate means that you use your mnemonics and connections from the easier-to-remember main ideas to pull up the details.
Research has shown that reflection, spacing your study, and organizing all improve learning significantly.

Source:  http://faculty.kutztown.edu/rryan/CLASSES/Genpsyc/pqrst.html

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A Very English Day

 

 

23 April = St George’s Day…and…we want to believe …as this is unknown… Shakespeare’s birthday. Not only his birthday…but also the day he died!

Read HERE more about St George’s Day.
Who was St George?

St. George is the patron saint of England. His emblem, a red cross on a white background, is the flag of England, and part of the British flag. St George’s emblem was adopted by Richard The Lion Heart and brought to England in the 12th century. The king’s soldiers wore it on their tunics to avoid confusion in battle.Like England, every country in the UK has its own patron saint who in times of great peril is called upon to help save the country from its enemies.
Who was the real St George and what did he do to become England’s patron saint?

St George was a brave Roman soldier who protested against the Romans’ torture of Christians and died for his beliefs. The popularity of St George in England stems from the time of the early Crusades when it is said that the Normans saw him in a vision and were victorious.

Dragon-Slaying Patron Saint of England

One of the best-known stories about Saint George is his fight with a dragon. But it is highly unlikely that he ever fought a dragon, and even more unlikely that he ever actually visited England. Despite this, St George is known throughout the world as the dragon-slaying patron saint of England.

 

       Image and info from this link…. http:// www. woodlands-junior. kent. sch.uk /customs /stgeorge . html

When I was at Secondary School, we studied  Hamlet… and for our exams we also had to learn many quotes..I can remember I had a list of about 50 or more…and… we had to know exactly in which Act/Scene…etc that quote could be found!! A nightmare! ..to study all those quotes, because you never knew which quotes you would get asked! Quotes that I remember well……. “To be…or not to be….” and a few more……”A little more than kin, and less than kind, Frailty, thy name is woman! Give thy thoughts no tongue. Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice…Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”… Shakespeare was also a chess player!

 

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616)[a] was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist.[1] He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon” (or simply “The Bard”). His surviving works consist of 38 plays,[b] 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.[2]

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later known as the King’s Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare’s private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.[3]

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare’s.

Continue reading HERE about Shakespeare and…on THIS LINK

you will find all his works. Please click HERE for more quotes.

Comedies
 All’s Well That Ends Well
As You Like It
The Comedy of Errors
Cymbeline
Love’s Labours Lost
Measure for Measure
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merchant of Venice
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Much Ado About Nothing
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Taming of the Shrew
The Tempest
Troilus and Cressida
Twelfth Night
Two Gentlemen of Verona
Winter’s Tale

History
Henry IV, part 1
Henry IV, part 2
Henry V
Henry VI, part 1
Henry VI, part 2
Henry VI, part 3
Henry VIII
King John
Richard II
Richard III

Tragedies
Antony and Cleopatra
Coriolanus
Hamlet
Julius Caesar
King Lear
Macbeth
Othello
Romeo and Juliet
Timon of Athens
Titus Andronicus

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Kasparov and Deep Blue

Enjoy the video of the “history” behind Kasparov and Deep Blue  of IBM.
 

I like the idea of the music supporting this game of Kasparov!

Please Click HERE for a game between Kasparov and Kramnik 1994, Munich.

Please click HERE to play through a game of Karpov and Kasparov played in 1985 at the World Chess Championships.

Chess players’ quotes:

Even a poor plan is better than no plan at all. – Mikhail ChigorinUnknown:

If chess is a science, it’s a most inexact one. If chess is an art, it’s too exacting to be seen as one. If chess is a sport, it’s too esoteric. If chess is a game, it’s too demanding to be “just” a game. If chess is a mistress, she’s a demanding one. If chess is a passion, it’s a rewarding one. If chess is life, it’s a sad one. Vladimir Kramnik- Interview- 22/12/2005– “For us chess players the language of artist is something natural,” in his interview with German artist Ugo Dossi. “For me art and chess are closely related, both are forms in which the self finds beauty and expression …” Kramnik: “The development of beauty in chess never depends on you alone. No matter how much imagination and creativity you invest, you still do not create beauty. Your opponent must react at the same …. To a certain extent it is like a dance. Both dancers must be creative, in order to keep the creativity flowing. Tartakower:1.Chess game is divided into three stages: the first, when you hope you have the advantage, the second when you believe you have an advantage, and the third… when you know you’re going to lose! – Tarrasch .. 2. Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy. – Alexander Alekhine: 3. ..”Chess is a beautiful mistress.”-Garry Kasparov… 4. ..”Chess is mental torture”…. Wilhelm Steinitz… 5. ….”Chess is not for timid souls. “…Kasparov.. 6. …”Chess is an art.”

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