Cognitive Labs

I recently found out what ludology means. Thereupon, I found the website of Jesper Juul. It seems ludology comes from the Latin - either vb. ludo, ludare (to play) or n. ludum (game).

The history of the field goes back to the flea circus or even, all the way back to the Egyptians, or Sumerians - with the board game 'jackals' or semiotic game-like clay tokens, a precursor of cuneiform. The theory is that the edges of the these tokens were impressed into clay tablets - to record their presence, without having to lug around the tokens in order to communicate.

There is an emerging social science of game development that describes context outside of pure coding, understanding "systems thinking" in the subtext of a routine.

This blog looks, well, like the Economist.

Labels: ludology

Have you ever been watching a cat when suddenly something gets its attention, and it looks intently off into blank space? What do they see?

Labels: cat vision, cats

I've received a couple of emails on integrating iBrain with Google Adsense, or other ad services that fit into the margin. My answer was that you can (1) easily add iBrain to your blog's margin, blogroll - or list of links, or the footer, or in the post.

Here's an example:


from recoveryissexy.com - also you can see it at the tripover.com

This is a particularly good fit for authors, which I'll explain in a future post.

(2) With regard to the technology, well I'm giving an invited talk at SRI International next week, a place where they developed the computer mouse and licensed it to xerox parc. Pick up ibrain at Brain.com or cognitivelabs/widgets

Labels: brain, iBrain widget, tripover, widgets

carrie-ann moss and val kilmer in 'red planet'


'Drunken Astronauts' became one of the top searches on Google today, leading us into perhaps, a Consumer Space Status Report. Who are the players? Who has an interesting take on the field, who has the bet hedged to lessen the risk? Who (if any) are the wildcard players?

- Branson: successful trial (despite today's accident)
- Musk: progress towards successful launch vehicle
- Bezos: launch vehicle with alternate design
- Diamandis: zero G corp, giving a feeling zerograv to the masses
- Bigelow: successful trial of 'hotel in space' model, hedged approach

red planet capital:
venture capital firm focused on low-budget space, funded partially by nasa, with a wild card strategy

in contrast, NASA itself has had 3 scandals this year, all relating to people:
- astronaut love triangle/attempted assault
- drunken astronaut story
- sabotage on the Shuttle?

Now, look at the budget for the aggregate 6 ventures/projects above (modest) compared to Nasa's annual manned spaceflight budget - the difference is an exponential multiple, with less achieved.

Labels: allen, bezos, branson, diamandis, drunken astronauts, musk, nasa, vallee, x prize

Scaled Composites is in the news today because of an explosion of its rocket booster intended for Virgin Galactic at Mojave airport. SC also sold its remaining outstanding equity to Northrop Grumman on July 20, 2007 for an undisclosed sum.

Labels: Cognitive Labs, mojave airport, northrop grumman, rutan, scaled composites, virgin galactic

Rocks move without human or mechanical intervention. In fact, they are blown by the wind across the rain soaked Playa - only under certain conditions.

Labels: death valley, the racetack, usgs

The area around Monterey Bay is intensely rich, due to the collision of differential ocean currents. Monterey was noted early on by the Spanish as an ideal resting spot to take on provisions for the so-called Manila Galleons making return voyages across the Pacific before they sailed south along the coast of Baja California to New Spain.

Now, due perhaps to climatic changes, a species of giant squid first observed in the area in 1997 has been growing in population and threatens the central coast's rebounding anchovie and hake population. The California Anchovie industry, centered at Monterey - was made famous by the book Cannery Row, peaked in the 1920s and 30's and then declined for more than 60 years before starting to rebound in the 1990's, while hake is a white fish often made into fish sticks.

The new aggressive predator threatens the revival of the environmental balance in the area.

Labels: anchovie, giant squid, manila galleon, monterey, new spain

Aerial image of SRI (wikipedia)

Cognitive Labs' has just concluded an outstanding meeting with SRI International. They've been party to some amazing innovations including the computer mouse, which they licensed to Xerox Parc for a small sum, as well as a variety of highly interesting, speculative projects. You can read more about the scope of SRI here. The 2.1 million people who have signed up at Cognitive Labs - seems to have been somewhat impressive, and speaks to the future of extended cognitive health management.

Labels: brain, Cognitive Labs, patents, sri international, stanford

Workers in a few cases have been 'tagged' with implants to follow their movements. The same technology could be used to monitor Alzheimer's patients and perhaps, young children.

A couple of years ago I jokingly told a friend about kidtrack - a sim-card powered GPS service you could get for your mobile phone - this was a product idea, nothing more; today an analagous service offering from one of the major carriers has been rolled out.

Certainly there are ethical and legal issues surrounding such technologies meant to keep us 'safe' but with a perhaps, 1984-style surveillance component.

Labels: alzheimers, implants, surveillance

Low Insulin Levels in the Brain, best obained through regular exercise and diet, has been linked to longer life. Now scientists have replicated this observation by genetically engineering mice to have have increased insulin receptivity. The mice lived on average, 18% longer than others in a control group, despite putting on extra weight as a result of the introduced genetic condition.

Centenagarians often are observed to have lower than normal insulin levels in the brain, often a result of regular exercise of long duration...

Labels: insulin in the brain, long life, longevity

Cognitive Labs blows the doors off the 2nd Quarter. While stocks continue to move higher, some tech companies are feeling the pressure of their past success.

At Cognitive Labs' Traffic Volume (pages viewed) soared 853% vs. the same period last year; Visitors accelerated 696% vs. the 2nd Q 2006.

Listen to our report.

Average visitor time (one of the new metrics being emphasized by Neilsen and others) passed 20 minutes per session, up 70% from last year.


Highlights:

2 new brain gyms and the Cognitive Labs widget. The widget is a nano-sized piece of code that lets anyone test their brain and runs on any site or blog.

You can also get the widget (iBrain) at brain.com.

Labels: 2nd Quarter, 853% growth, bloomberg, Cognitive Labs, MP3, widget

Exactly as above. Works on any web page. (Need to test myspace/facebook though I suspect it works there as well)

here's the code...embed style="width: 160px; height: 155px;"src="http://cognitivelabs.com/test1160x155sun.swf"type="application/x-shockwave-flash" scale="exactfit"> then type "<" /embed> at the end

Add the "<" bracket right in front of the "e" in embed and you are set.

or just go here to get the blogger widget - functional on all platforms

Labels: blogger widgets, brain widget, iBrain widget

ReZoom is a site for boomers to revitalize their bodies, finances, relationships, and more. Here's their piece on the brain and memory with Dr. Gary Small; we're mentioned at the end.

Labels: brain, Cognitive Labs, finance, gary small, rezoom

Should there be a Bratz Brain test? That might be simply too commercial. Take a test

Labels: brain, bratz, htt shallow, ridiculous, test

Researchers such as Greg Cole (UCLA/VA) previously have studied the antioxidant properties of curry - attributing it to curcumin. But new research reveals the exact compound...

bisdemethoxycurcumin, an ingredient in curcumin that may help the immune system clear the amyloid beta that forms the plaques found in Alzheimer's disease. Curcumin is a natural substance found in tumeric root, frequently used in Indian curries. Using blood samples of Alzheimer's patients, researchers found that bisdemethoxycurcumin boosted immune cells called macrophages to clear amyloid beta.

Labels: alzheimers, bisdemethoxycurcumin, cole, curcumin, curry, ucla

Accrording to a study led by Dr. Kristina Yaffe (UCSF), older women with memory problems are more likely to have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep than those without memory loss, the study reports.

The study included almost 2,500 women, average age 69, with no signs of memory problems at the start of the study. They underwent cognitive tests over a period of 15 years and, at the end of the study, were assessed for sleep problems.

Women who showed signs of mental decline on the tests "were nearly twice as likely to have difficulty staying asleep and one-and-a-half times as likely to have problems falling asleep and being awake for more than 90 minutes during their sleep cycle," study author Dr. Yaffe.

"Women who declined on one of the tests were also nearly twice as likely to nap more than two hours a day," Yaffe said.

Labels: aging, insomnia, memory loss

Take a Free Brain Power Test here or on brain.com

Labels: brain, brain.com, free brain power test

Governor Schwarzenegger, in the day

Scientists have long stressed cardiovascular exercise as far more important than physical strength or mass, however that opinion may be changing - as weight-training has been shown in a new study to be good for the heart.

Another benefit of weight training in connection to aging is its ability to reduce the pace of bone mass decline. Little known to some people, loss of bone mass is a key culprit in actually looking old, particularly in the case of men.

First the skin begins to age and through loss of naturally occurring collagen, becomes wrinkled and less resistant - exacerbated by not drinking enough water. The loss of bone mass means less pressure on the skin and subcutaneous tissue from active bone tissue. As a result, the angularity of the face can become less prominent - which happens with aging. However, maintaining bone mass is something you can control to an extent by the amount of stress you place on the bones, fueled by a proper diet and sufficient calcium. This is why drinking milk regularly is a good idea, coupled with weight training.

This is why many people in their 60's and 70's or older, look sometimes 15-25 years younger than their calendar age, plus are also healthier and less likely to suffer from loss of balance and falls as they age.

Labels: bone mass, face, milk and bone mass, seniors, weight training and bones, weight training for men, women

Call it an archaeological faux pas.

Where's Indiana Jones when you need him?

The Egyptian Supreme Head of Antiquities Zahi Hawass has the field in turmoil today with his announcement (via CNN) that at least one, and possibly all, Egyptian mummies have an inaccurate provenance. The controversy stems from the fact that the body of pharaoh Tuthmosis, rather than being as expected, in his mid 60's at the time of death - was revealed by technology to be around 20 and killed by an arrow.

The CT and MRI scanning being carried out by the Antiquities department - combined with DNA analysis, might have the result of proverbially toppling the pyramids.

How much, indeed, of the science of Egyptology is established on Victorian era theorizing - from the former circus strongman turned archaeologist Giovanni Belzoni, who excavated with gusto (and little documentation), to the neat, compartmentalized reductionism of Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie?

How can this be answered?

One possibility is to find an intermediate source...writing between the time of the New Kingdom, when Egypt was perhaps its height - and the present. The one source that most classicists recall is Herodotus; others, the mostly lost work of the geographer Strabo; a third source is a "digression" from the work of the historian Ammianus - who touches on the links between technology, law and medicine of Classical times and links them all back to Egypt, including philosophy. Therefore I am attaching this recent translation and arangement c. 2007 (in the public domain)which is quite instructive. (Ammianus, Book 22, section 15. Note: Ammianus History started with the emperor Nerva and continued through Valens, who lost the Battle of Adrianople, along with his life, to the Goths. All books up to the reign of Constantius in 337 are lost, so the history is an eyewitness account of the author, who served as an officer in the Imperial guard, ending in about 378 A.D.)

1. Let us then, since the occasion seems to require it, touch briefly on the affairs of Egypt, of which we have already made some mention in our account of the emperors Hadrian and Severus, where we related several things which we had seen.

2. The Egyptian is the most ancient of all nations, except indeed that its superior antiquity is contested by the Scythians: their country is bounded on the south by the greater Syrtes, Cape Eas, and Cape Borion, the Garamantes, and other nations; on the east, by Elephantine, and Meroe, cities of the Ethiopians, the Catadupi, the Red Sea, and the Scenite Arabs, whom we now call Saracens. On the north it joins a vast track of land, where Asia and the Syrian provinces begin; on the west it is bounded by the Sea of Issus, which some call the Parthenian Sea.

3. We will also say a few words concerning that most useful of all rivers, the Nile, which Homer calls the Aegyptus; and after that we will enumerate other things worthy of admiration in these regions.

4. The sources of the Nile, in my opinion, will be as unknown to posterity as they are now. But since poets, who relate fully, and geographers who differ from one another, give various accounts of this hidden matter, I will in a few words set forth such of their opinions as seem to me to border on the truth.

5. Some natural philosophers affirm that in the districts beneath the North Pole, when the severe winters bind up everything, the vast masses of snow congeal; and afterwards, melted by the warmth of the summer, they make the clouds heavy with liquid moisture, which, being driven to the south by the Etesian winds, and dissolved into rain |308 by the heat of the sun, furnish abundant increase to the Nile.

6. Some, again, assert that the inundations of the river at fixed times are caused by the rains in Ethiopia, which fall in great abundance in that country during the hot season; but both these theories seem inconsistent with the truth - for rain never falls in Ethiopia, or at least only at rare intervals. (In fact this is correct, but the source of the Nile, like the mythological Northwest passage, was unknown by Europeans until midway through the Victorian period)

7. A more common opinion is, that during the continuance of the wind from the north, called the Precursor, and of the Etesian gales, which last forty-five days without interruption, they drive back the stream and check its speed, so that it becomes swollen with its waves thus dammed back; then, when the wind changes, the force of the breeze drives the waters to and fro, and the river growing rapidly greater, its perennial sources driving it forward, it, rises as it advances, and covers everything, spreading over the level plains till it resembles the sea.

8. But King Juba, relying on the text of the Carthaginian books, affirms that the river rises in a mountain situated in Mauritania, which looks on the Atlantic Ocean, and he says, too, that this is proved by the fact that fishes, and herbs, and animals resembling those of the Nile are found in the marshes where the river rises.

9. But the Nile, passing through the districts of Ethiopia, and many different countries which give it their own names, swells its fertilizing stream till it comes to the cataracts. These are abrupt rocks, from which in its precipitous course it falls with such a crash, that the Ati, who used to live in that district, having lost their hearing from the incessant roar, were compelled to migrate to a more quiet region.

10. Then proceeding more gently, and receiving no accession of waters in Egypt, it falls into the sea through seven mouths, each of which is as serviceable as, and resembles, a separate river. And besides the several streams which are derived from its channel, and which fall with others like themselves, there are seven navigable with large waves; named by the ancients the Heracleotic, the Sebennitic, the Bolbitic, the Phatnitic, the Mendesian, the Tanitic, and the Pelusian mouths.

11. This river, rising as I have said, is driven on from |309 the marshes to the cataracts, and forms several islands; some of which are said to be of such extent that the stream is three days in passing them.

12. Among these are two of especial celebrity, Meroe and Delta. The latter derives its name from its triangular form like the Greek letter; but when the sun begins to pass through the sign of Cancer, the river keeps increasing till it passes into Libra; and then, after flowing at a great height for one hundred days, it falls again, and its waters being diminished it exhibits, in a state fit for riding on, fields which just before could only be passed over in boats.

13. If the inundation be too abundant it is mischievous, just as it is unproductive if it be too sparing; for if the flood be excessive, it keeps the ground wet too long, and so delays cultivation; while if it be deficient, it threatens the land with barrenness. No landowner wishes it to rise more than sixteen cubits. If the flood be moderate, then the seed sown in favourable ground sometimes returns seventy fold. The Nile, too, is the only river which does not cause a breeze.

14. Egypt also produces many animals both terrestrial and aquatic, and some which live both on the earth and in the water, and are therefore called amphibious. In the dry districts antelopes and buffaloes are found, and sphinxes, animals of an absurd-looking deformity, and other monsters which it is not worth while to enumerate.

15. Of the terrestrial animals, the crocodile is abundant in every part of the country. This is a most destructive quadruped, accustomed to both elements, having no tongue, and moving only the upper jaw, with teeth like a comb, which obstinately fasten into everything he can reach. He propagates his species by eggs like those of a goose.

16. And as he is armed with claws, if he had only thumbs his enormous strength would suffice to upset large vessels, for he is sometimes ten cubits long. At night he sleeps under water; in the day he feeds in the fields, trusting to the stoutness of his skin, which is so thick that missiles from military engines will scarcely pierce the mail of his back.

17. Savage as these monsters are at all other times, yet as if they had concluded an armistice, they are always quiet laying aside all their ferocity, during the seven days |310 of festival on which the priests at Memphis celebrate the birthday of Apis.

18. Besides those which die accidentally, some are killed by wounds which they receive in thoir bellies from the dorsal fins of some fish resembling dolphins, which this river also produces.

19. Some also are killed by means of a little bird called the trochilus, which, while seeking for some picking of small food, and flying gently about the beast while asleep, tickles its cheeks till it comes to the neighbourhood of its throat. And when the hydrus, which is a kind of ichneumon, perceives this, it penetrates into its mouth, which the bird has caused to open, and descends into its stomach, where it devours its entrails, and then comes forth again.

20. But the crocodile, though a bold beast towards those who flee, is very timid when it finds a brave enemy. It has a most acute sight, and for the four months of winter is said to do without food.

21. The hippopotamus, also, is produced in this country; the most sagacious of all animals destitute of reason. He is like a horse, with cloven hoofs, and a short tail. Of his sagacity it will be sufficient to produce two instances.

22. The animal makes his lair among dense beds of reeds of great height, and while keeping quiet watches vigilantly for every opportunity of sallying out to feed on the crops. And when he has gorged himself, and is ready to return, he walks backwards, and makes many tracks, to prevent any enemies from following the straight road and so finding and easily killing him.

23. Again, when he feels lazy from having his stomach swollen by excessive eating, it rolls its thighs and legs on freshly-cut reeds, in order that the blood, which is discharged through the wounds thus made may relieve his fat. And then he smears his wounded flesh with clay till the wounds get scarred over.

24. This monster was very rare till it was first exhibited to the Roman people in the aedileship of Scaurus, the father of that Scaurus whom Cicero defended, when he charged the Sardinians to cherish the same opinion as the rest of the world of the authority of that noble family. Since that time, at different periods, many specimens have |311 been brought to Rome, and now they are not to be found in Egypt, having been driven, according to the conjecture of the inhabitants, up to the Blemmyae by being incessantly pursued by the people.

25. Among the birds of Egypt, the variety of which is countless, is the ibis, a sacred and amiable bird, also valuable, because by heaping up the eggs of serpents in its nest for food it causes these fatal pests to diminish.

26. They also sometimes encounter flocks of winged snakes, which come laden with poison from the marshes of Arabia. These, before they can quit their own region, they overcome in the air, and then devour them. This bird, we are told, produces its young through its mouth.

27. Egypt also produces innumerable quantities of serpents, destructive beyond all other creatures. Basilisks, amphisbaenas, scytalae, acontiae, dipsades, vipers, and many others. The asp is the largest and most beautiful of all; but that never, of its own accord, quits the Nile.

28. There are also in this country many things exceedingly worthy of observation, of which it is a good time now to mention a few. Everywhere there are temples of great size. There are seven marvellous pyramids, the difficulty of building which, and the length of time consumed in the work, are recorded by Herodotus. They exceed in height anything ever constructed by human labour, being towers of vast width at the bottom and ending in sharp points.

29. And their shape received this name from the geometricians because they rise in a cone like fire (πῦρ). And huge as they are, as they taper off gradually, they throw no shadow, in accordance with a principle of mechanics.

30. There are also subterranean passages, and winding retreats, which, it is said, men skilful, in the ancient mysteries, by means of which they divined the coming of a flood, constructed in different places lest the memory of all their sacred ceremonies should be lost. On the walls, as they cut them out, they have sculptured several kinds |312 of birds and beasts, and countless other figures of animals, which they call hieroglyphics.

31. There is also Syene, where at the time of the summer solstice the rays surrounding upright objects do not allow the shadows to extend beyond the bodies. And if any one fixes a post upright in the ground, or sees a man or a tree standing erect, he will perceive that their shadow is consumed at the extremities of their outlines. This also happens at Meroe, which is the spot in Ethiopia nearest to the equinoctial circle, and where for ninety days the shadows fall in a way just opposite to ours, on account of which the natives of that district are called Antiscii.

32. But as there are many other wonders which would go beyond the plan of our little work, we must leave these to men of lofty genius, and content ourselves with relating a few things about the provinces.

1. In former times Egypt is said to have been divided into three provinces: Egypt proper, the Thebais, and Libya, to which in later times two more have been added, Augustamnica, which has been cut off from Egypt proper, and Pentapolis, which has been detached from Libya.

2. Thebais, among many other cities, can boast especially of Hermopolis, Coptos, and Antinous, which Hadrian built in honour of his friend Antinous. As to Thebes, with its hundred gates, there is no one ignorant of its renown.

3. In Augustamnica, among others, there is the noble city of Pelusium, which is said to have been founded by Peleus, the father of Achilles, who by command of the gods was ordered to purify himself in the lake adjacent to the walls of the city, when, after having slain his brother Phocus, he was driven about by horrid images of the Furies; and Cassium, where the tomb of the great Pompey is, and Ostracine, and Rhinocolura.

4. In Libya Pentapolis is Cyrene, a city of great antiquity, but now deserted, founded by Battus the Spartan, and Ptolemais, and Arsinoe, known also as Teuchira, and Darnis, and Berenice, called also Hesperides. |313

5. And in the dry Libya, besides a few other insignificant towns, there are Paraetonium, Chaerecla, and Neapolis.

6. Egypt proper, which ever since it has been united to the Roman empire has been under the government of a prefect, besides some other towns of smaller importance, is distinguished by Athribis, and Oxyrynchus, and Thmuis, and Memphis.

7. But the greatest of all the cities is Alexandria, ennobled by many circumstances, and especially by the grandeur of its great founder, and the skill of its architect Dinocrates, who, when he was laying the foundation of its extensive and beautiful walls, for want of mortar, which could not be procured at the moment, is said to have marked out its outline with flour; an incident which foreshowed that the city should hereafter abound in supplies of provisions.

8. At Inibis the air is wholesome, the sky pure and undisturbed; and, as the experience of a long series of ages proves, there is scarcely ever a day on which the inhabitants of this city do not see the sun.

9. The shore is shifty and dangerous; and as in former times it exposed sailors to many dangers, Cleopatra erected a lofty tower in the harbour, which was named Pharos, from the spot on which it was built, and which afforded light to vessels by night when coming from the Levant or the Libyan sea along the plain and level coast, without any signs of mountains or towns or eminences to direct them, they were previously often wrecked by striking into the soft and adhesive sand.

10. The same queen, for a well-known and necessary reason, made a causeway seven furlongs in extent, admirable for its size and for the almost incredible rapidity with which it was made. The island of Pharos, where Homer in sublime language relates that Proteus used to amuse himself with his herds of seals, is almost a thousand yards from the shore on which the city stands, and was liable to pay tribute to the Rhodians.

11. And when on one occasion the farmers of this revenue came to make exorbitant demands, she, being a wily woman, on a pretext of it being the season of solemn holidays, led them into the suburbs, and ordered the work to be carried on without ceasing. And so seven furlongs were |314 completed in seven days, being raised with the soil of the adjacent shore. Then the queen, driving over it in her chariot, said that the Rhodians were making a blunder in demanding port dues for what was not an island but part of the mainland.

12. Besides this there are many lofty temples, and especially one to Serapis, which, although no words can adequately describe it, we may yet say, from its splendid halls supported by pillars, and its beautiful statues and other embellishments, is so superbly decorated, that next to the Capitol, of which the ever-venerable Rome boasts, the whole world has nothing worthier of admiration.

13. In it were libraries of inestimable value; and the concurrent testimony of ancient records affirm that 70,000 volumes, which had been collected by the anxious care of the Ptolemies, were burnt in the Alexandrian war when the city was sacked in the time of Caesar the Dictator.

14. Twelve miles from this city is Canopus, which, according to ancient tradition, received its name from the prophet of Menelaus, who was buried there. It is a place exceedingly well supplied with good inns, of a most wholesome climate, with refreshing breezes; so that any one who resides in that district might think himself out of our world while he hears the breezes murmuring through the sunny atmosphere.

15. Alexandria itself was not, like other cities, gradually embellished, but at its very outset it was adorned with spacious roads. But after having been long torn by violent seditions, at last, when Aurelian was emperor, and when the intestine quarrels of its citizens had proceeded to deadly strife, its walls were destroyed, and it lost the largest half of its territory, which was called Bruchion, and had long been the abode of eminent men.

16. There had lived Aristarchus, that illustrious grammarian; and Herodianus, that accurate inquirer into the fine arts; and Saccas Ammonius, the master of Plotinus, and many other writers in various useful branches of literature, among whom Didymus, surnamed Chalcenterus, a man celebrated for his writings on many subjects of science, deserves especial mention; who, in the six books in which he, sometimes incorrectly, attacks Cicero, imitating those malignant farce writers, is justly blamed by |315 the learned as a puppy barking from a distance with puny voice against the mighty roar of the lion.

17. And although, besides those I have mentioned, there were many other men of eminence in ancient times, yet even now there is much learning in the same city; for teachers of various sects flourish, and many kinds of secret knowledge are explained by geometrical science. Nor is music dead among them, nor harmony. And by a few, observations of the motion of the world and of the stars are still cultivated; while of learned arithmeticians the number is considerable; and besides them there are many skilled in divination.

18. Again, of medicine, the aid of which in our present extravagant and luxurious way of life is incessantly required, the study is carried on with daily increasing eagerness; so that while the employment be of itself creditable, it is sufficient as a recommendation for any medical man to be able to say that he was educated at Alexandria. And this is enough to say on this subject.

19. But if any one in the earnestness of his intellect wishes to apply himself to the various branches of divine knowledge, or to the examination of metaphysics, he will find that the whole world owes this kind of learning to Egypt.

20. Here first, far earlier than in any other country, men arrived at the various cradles (if I may so say) of different religions. Here they still carefully preserve the elements of sacred rites as handed down in their secret volumes.

21. It was in learning derived from Egypt that Pythagoras was educated, which taught him to worship the gods in secret, to establish the principle that in whatever he said or ordered his authority was final, to exhibit his golden thigh at Olympia, and to be continually seen in conversation with an eagle.

22. Here it was that Anaxagoras derived the knowledge which enabled him to predict that stones would fall from heaven, and from the feeling of the mud in a well to foretell impending earthquakes. Solon too derived aid from the apophthegms of the priests of Egypt in the enactment of his just and moderate laws, by which he gave great confirmation to the Roman jurisprudence. From this source too Plato, soaring amid sublime ideas, rivalling Jupiter |316 himself in the magnificence of his voice, acquired his glorious wisdom by a visit to Egypt.

23. The inhabitants of Egypt are generally swarthy and dark complexioned, and of a rather melancholy cast of countenance, thin and dry looking, quick in every motion, fond of controversy, and bitter exactors of their rights. Among them a man is ashamed who has not resisted the payment of tribute, and who does not carry about him wheals which he has received before he could be compelled to pay it. Nor have any tortures been found sufficiently powerful to make the hardened robbers of this country disclose their names unless they do so voluntarily.

24. It is well known, as the ancient annals prove, that all Egypt was formerly under kings who were friendly to us. But after Antony and Cleopatra were defeated in the naval battle at Actium, it became a province under the dominion of Octavianus Augustus. We became masters of the dry Libya by the last will of king Apion. Cyrene and the other cities of Libya Pentapolis we owe to the liberality of Ptolemy. After this long digression, I will now return to my original subject.

Labels: ammianus, archaeology, cnn, dna, eagle, egypt, mri, PT scan, tuthmosis, Zahi Hawass

This year, treat yourself to an all natural special effects display: the Perseid meteor shower. The Perseids, a remnant of an Earth encounter with a comet in ancient times, appear to originate from the shoulder area of the constellation Perseus. The expectation is for a heavier than usual shower coupled with a new moon. Perfect conditions.

Our Cognitive Labs recommendation is to get out into the dark, rural, desert, or mountain skies on August 12th to see this wonder. Around midnight, camp out under the stars with a sleeping bag or canvas chair and wait for the light show to begin, resting your gaze at the zenith. You should easily be able to see the double-cluster of stars which lies between Perseus and Cassiopeia under dark skies.

A couple of years ago we took in this spectacle from the Mammoth area in Yellowstone National Park, which is on the Eastern slope of the caldera and relatively treeless ( in fact sagebrush is more common) due to the rain shadow created by the Continental Divide a few miles west.

Sometimes the meteors are bright enough to leave a ray or afterimage.

Labels: double-cluster, mammoth, Perseids, Perseus, Yellowstone

Revitalize your mind with a little ActionScript. Verily, this is an odd little scripting language. You can serialize objects, but must become accustomed to the sometimes obscure syntax therein.

With its recent open-sourcing by Adobe, count on a river of innovations. For those accutomed to working in a text editor, white screen environment there is an acculturation process because many times you end up working in a small, framed space that accidentally gets minimized - so there is a constant fear of losing that last code snippet. But quickly becomes second nature as you realize how much ActionScript code is rehashed (for example by creative agencies doing ads) so really the level of creativity should be much better

Labels: actionscript, actionscript.org, adobe, breathe, code rehash, objects, serialized objects, turing, whew

2012: Will it happen? Mayan Legend has it that the year 2012 is the end of the Calendar. Some have forseen an apocalpyse. Is it related to global waming? A planetary convergence of some kind? A comet impact? Or a supernova? The Aquarian Age? Fact, or Fiction? Maybe it is the onset of cosmic senescence. Time will tell. Maybe it's time to enter yourself into the record book - of human eternity.

Labels: 2012, apocalypse, apocalypto, aquarian, global_warming, senility, the mayans

Transformers Brain Gym from Cognitive Labs. Train your brain with pics from the Dreamworks/Paramount film. Bumbleebee, Optimus Prime, and more. Using the stock photos of the film from Yahoo! Movies. Could it happen with more movies? We'll see.

Labels: brain, brainage, optimus, prime, reaction time, spielberg, transformers

Ronald Reagan did a lot to raise awareness of Alzheimer's. Fortunately for him, he lived a long full life when it began to rob him of his mental faculties.

The art of oratory has been in free fall since his presidency; while Bill Clinton was a skilled, if somewhat mechanical speaker - Reagan was able to exude sincerity and authenticity - whether he was talking about the sacrifice of thousands on D-Day, World Peace to the United Nations, what kind of threat it might take to draw all nations together, or the economy. Whatever side of the political spectrum you were on, his skill and self-effacing concern for others was apparent.

He developed these skills in part by promoting soap...Borax, the sponsor of Death Valley Days, the longest running Western series (prior to 'Gunsmoke') and others.



By the way, the Presidential brain gym, taking longer to complete than the Transcontinental railroad (it seems) is done, all the way from Washington through Lincoln, FDR, JFK, Reagan, Carter, Clinton, and Bush.

Labels: Presidents Brain Gym, Ronald Reagan, soap

Cognitive Labs got a nice mention in Yahoo! Answers today as a (the) topdog serious brain game site. All of a sudden traffic started flowing in from that URL, like the digg effect. In particular our extremely simple registration process was highlighted. Our goal is to make registration at least 50% easier than it is right now. Think of Jakob Nielsen-like simplicity. So simple, it's counterintuitive.
How many times are you confronted with "you must join our site, create a user name, password, SSN, favorite pet, etc. in order to user our wonderful web site." Until the portable identity is 100% adopted which is probably not going to happen, our ascetic "lean" form of registration is hopefully closer to satori.


Haiku:

registration sucks
i really don't like passwords
just let me play now

That said, our new goal is to reach 500 million users as an informational service.

Next Up: Can Hollywood Fight Cognitive Impairment? Find out Here.

Labels: Cognitive Labs, Yahoo Answers

A new treatment for Alzheimer's was approved - Exelon delivered via patch instead of a pill. The rationale is less nausea and more direct access to the bloodstream.

Labels: alzheimers, novartis exelon

A conscientious Cognitive Labs user in Switzerland noticed a few issues in the Einstein Brain Gym related to multiple trials on a few of the games. Thanks to this attentiveness, we have improved our service. And we will be making a few more changes. Only a thorough user would have noticed this. Thankfully such people exist.

Labels: Switzerland, users

Predictive Medicine is becoming more popular. In predictive medicine, therapeutics developers attempt to match treatments with individual genotype variations.

You receive a treatment that is individualized. Here is some information on the drug developer Myriad Genetics, which has a product called Flourizan in development. Cognitive Impairment is the intended field of use for this novel treatment.

Recently, some of our technology at Cognitive Labs was featured in a major Neurology exhibition, as it let attendees (who were physicians) assess and track their mental state.

Labels: myriad genetics

Nice mention of Cognitive Labs in Louis Gray's Silicon Valley blog, we're favorably compared to Yahoo Games, Pogo (Electronic Arts) and Addicting Games (now part of Viacom).

While bigger, none of those sites has a golden bullet to take on a real large scale problem.

Lots of really interesting scientific developments are on the way, starting with our recent Stanford-researched paper on the APOE e4 genetic marker and Online cognitive testing.

Our newest feature, the Gladiator brain gym, is contributing about 10% of our traffic. Tomorrow, this will segue to the presidential brain gym.

Labels: addicting games, APOE Electronic Arts, golden bullet, Yahoo games

Maybe part of the solution is more exercise, less sedentarism. In the article below, antidepressant prescriptions exceed those for high blood pressure by a slim margin. Interestingly, eating healthy and exercising impact both of these two conditions. In the first case, exercise can help you modulate levels of seritonin and release endorphins, if there is a deficit - rather than relying on a pill to chemically achieve the result. An antidepressant will also offer no cardiovascular benefits. Regular exercise and proper diet can also help control high blood pressure..


Hospital and doctor visits in the United States have surged by 20 percent in the past five years and the most commonly prescribed medications are antidepressants, according to statistics published on Friday.

The survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also found most people who visited emergency rooms had private health insurance, although the uninsured were twice as likely to use emergency services as people with insurance.

The report estimates that 1.2 billion visits were made to hospitals, emergency rooms and physicians' offices in 2005.

"It was only a few years ago that we released that the total number of visits had reached 1 billion. And now we are up to 1.2 billion," Catharine Burt of the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics said in a telephone interview.

"That's a 20 percent increase in the just the last five years -- a huge number," said Burt. "I can tell you that the number of hospitals and physicians has not increased 20 percent."

The reason is clear -- Americans are getting older. "When you reach 50 things start going wrong, just little by little, and you keep going back to the doctors," Burt said.

The baby boom generation -- born between 1946 and 1964 -- are now prime users of the medical system.

Burt's team surveyed 352 hospitals and about 1,200 physicians throughout 2005 for the study.

OLDER AND DEPRESSED

Of 2.4 billion drugs mentioned in patients' medical records in 2005, 118 million were antidepressants, Burt found. High blood pressure drugs followed, with 113 million and arthritis or headache drugs were mentioned in 110 million.

"These are visits. These aren't people," she said. People taking antidepressants may need more frequent doctor visits.

The report also shed light on the controversial issue of emergency room visits. Many health care experts are worried that the 43 million people who lack health insurance in the United States must rely on emergency rooms for care -- not the best way to prevent serious conditions.

The survey suggests this is true. "People with no insurance are twice as likely to use the emergency department as the privately insured," Burt said.

Nearly 28 percent of all doctors visits by uninsured people are to emergency rooms, compared to 6.6 percent of visits made by people with insurance.

The report found that 46 million of the visits made to ERs in 2005 were by people with insurance, compared to 19 million by people without insurance.

"With 315,000 people visiting emergency departments every day, the alarm bells are sounding and policymakers should heed the alert and respond," said Dr. Brian Keaton, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, which is pressing for a national commission on access to emergency medical services.