Mirror Neurons

Curious Phenomena:

frhttp://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/m/mirror_neuron.htm

A mirror neuron is a neuron which fires both when an animal performs an action and when the animal observes the same action performed by another (especially conspecific) animal.

Thus the neuron “mirrors” the behavior of another animal, as though the observer were itself performing the action.

These neurons have been observed in primates, including humans, and in some birds.

In humans, they have been found in Broca’s area and the inferior parietal cortex of the brain.

Some scientists consider mirror neurons one of the most important findings of neuroscience in the last decade.

 

Mexican Volcano Spewing Ash

Volcano blasts tower of ash near Mexico City

No report of threat to populated areas from Popocatepetl eruption

Image: Popocatepetl volcano emits smoke column

Ulises Ruiz Basurto  /  EPA

Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano emits a plume of smoke and ash on Friday.
Ulises Ruiz Basurto  /  EPA 

MEXICO CITY — The Popocatepetl volcano that towers over Mexico City is rumbling again.

The 17,886-foot mountain shot a blast of ash about 2 miles above its crater at dawn Friday.

Mexico’s national disaster prevention agency says the cloud drifted first to the west and then turned back east toward the city of Puebla.

It says the mountain shook for several minutes before the ash burst out.

The agency urges people to stay at least 7 miles from the crater, which is about 40 miles southeast of Mexico’s capital.

There were no reports of threat to populated areas.

Fr/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43268083/ns/world_news-americas/

 

Latest Gravity Map

Best Gravity Map Yet Shows a Lumpy, Bumpy Earth

Nola Taylor Redd, SPACE.com Contributor
Date: 02 June 2011 Time: 07:00 AM ET
ESA
ESA’s GOCE mission has delivered the most accurate model of the ‘geoid’ ever produced. Red corresponds to points with higher gravity, and blue to points with lower gravity.
CREDIT: ESA/HPF/DLR

Take a clay model of Earth and squish it with your fingers, and the result may look similar to the geoid — the latest and best-ever map of our planet’s gravitational field.

to read more go to:    http://www.space.com/11849-earth-gravity-map-geoid.html

UFO’s in California?

UFOs Spotted Over California?

Benjamin Radford, Life’s Little Mysteries Contributor
Date: 01 June 2011 Time: 04:40 PM ET

A short night-vision video posted on YouTube depicting three lights in the night sky over California has been getting attention on the Web. The video was allegedly recorded in Oakland a few days ago by someone using the handle “KevinMC360.”

Was it a UFO?

Almost certainly, since KevinMC360 was unable to identify the flying objects.

Was it an alien spacecraft?

Probably not. [See the video here]

to read more go to:   http://www.space.com/11850-ufo-oakland-california.html

 

European Food Fears

European food outbreak soars; mystery deepens

AP
    • by DAVID RISING and MARIA CHENG, Associated Press – 9 mins ago

BERLIN – The number of people hit by a massive European outbreak of foodborne bacterial infections is a third bigger than previously known and a stunningly high number of patients suffer from a potentially deadly complication than can shut down their kidneys, officials said Wednesday.

The death toll rose to 17, with German authorities reporting that an 84-year-old woman with the complication had died on Sunday.

Medical authorities appeared no closer to discovering either the source of the infection or the mystery at the heart of the outbreak: why the unusual strain of the E. coli bacteria appears to be causing so many cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome, which attacks the kidneys and can cause seizures, strokes and comas.

Germany’s national health agency said 1534 people in the country had been infected by enterohaemorrhagic E.coli, or EHEC, a particularly deadly strain of the common bacteria found in the digestive systems of cows, humans and other mammals. The Robert Koch Institute had reported 1169 a day earlier.

to read more go to:   http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110601/ap_on_he_me/eu_contaminated_vegetables_europe