I researched all facts (research papers and reviews, web, folklor, personal experience, associations). I made summaries (sometimes in form of abrupt conclusions) of interesting things I read, thought and dreamt about. Supporting information, definitions and variations of the stories are in the internet and libraries for you to check. Simple down to Earth conclusions were drawn from complex data. Some of them inevitably corny and/or horny. Most of the articles are about animals.

I made the following articles as concise as humanly possible (on the verge of being "skeletonal") although I tried to have fun of commenting here and there.

There are four types of articles:

• documented amusing and/or silly thing, absurdities
• documented amusing research that was not widely circulated
• my interdisciplinary and intradisciplinary research efforts leading to "novel" conclusions
• mix of all the above

If you are interested in references, please, click "View", "Source" in your browser's menu bar. I will try to include references there (commented out).

Incoming stuff

11/14/08

Freeze, Flight, Fight, Fright, Faint

• "Freeze, Flight, Fight, Fright, Faint" is one of popular descriptions of the sequence of states experienced by frightened or stressed organisms: even amoeba rectracts its pseudopodia ("freezes") when bothered. Many organisms, from ants to possums, take this initial reaction to the next level: they "play dead" when faced with inescapable life-threatening danger. While playing dead, these organisms are alert and aware of the situation, ready to take an adequate action at the earliest opportunity. This behavior is not inherent to humans but is often copied by trained individuals to the great advantage in combat, etc. "Normal" people, however, do not play dead as the animals and action heroes do, they loose their consciousness (faint), fall down on the ground where they lie in "blissful unawareness". In literature it is also often called a "welcome relief". It seems that in animal world only humans can blackout like that in a face of danger. Why? One theory is that the fainting is a protective reaction against possible PTSD (postraumatic stress disorder). What makes us so vulnerable to the PTSD that it became epidemic? Is it the complexity of our brains and psyches? Was the PTSD so deleterious to the fitness of our ancestors that the apparent disadvantage of being helpless in the critical survival moment was favored by evolution? These questions face us today, in times when it became obvious how many of us suffer from PTSDs.
  To add to the mix: can our addictiveness to drugs or our impulse to drink ourselves to stupor under stress be akin the fainting reaction? The former usually occurs under chronic stress, the latter is caused by acute fear. Maybe it is just a matter of available time?
   
  

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11/07/08

Why they hook us up?

• Plants have to interact with outside world by producing wide range of chemicals to attract organisms to their fruits and flowers (to assist in seed dispesal or pollination) or to punish bulk eaters of vegetative parts (smell, poisons). The question is why in the vast arsenal of available weapons plants use neurotoxins so often? Why not choose something simpler, which, in many cases, can be even more effective and universal? Why neurotoxins which mess up our psyches are spread so widely? There is a lively discussion among behaviorists, psychatrists, and plant researchers about how chemically-loaded plants shaped animals in general and humans in particular. Humans react strongly and predictably to a variety of herbal drugs. The mechanism of the reaction is most likely an evolutional legacy from our herbivor ancestors. Most first-time drug users have a strong aversion reaction to most of the drugs. In majority of cases this reaction is enough to cause other animals never eat this plant again. Humans are paradoxal in a way that they will try it again and again until they finally find a method to extract a favorable mental stimulation, go on a "trip", or loose consciousness completely. The question remains whether this drive to mess up our minds by self-administration of chemicals gave us a slightest advantage in grand scheme of "survival of the fittest" theory. This enhanced "addictiveness" of humans is an intriguing question that researches still did not clarify with any certainty.

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11/05/08 [last edited 0n 11/06/08]

What's type of your thirst?

• Researchers who study addictive behavior and struggle to find a cure respect, test and criticize so-called Cloninger's neurogenetic, tridimensional personality model (Higley & Bennett 1999; Howard MO et al. J Stud Alcohol. 1997 Jan) where Type 1 alcoholics have the following traits: low novelty seeking, high harm avoidance, high reward dependence, and Type 2 alcoholics express high novelty seeking, low harm avoidance, low reward dependence personalities. Without even browsing the available literature I suggest that aversion therapy is less effective for type 2; however, relapses are more common for type 1.

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11/01/08

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Lobotomy

• • In 1935, Portuguese physician and neurologist António Egas Moniz pioneered a surgery he called prefrontal leucotomy which involved drilling holes in the patient's head and destroying tissue in the frontal lobes by injecting alcohol.
  • In 1939, Dr. Egas Moniz received several gunshots from a psychiatric patient, one of his lobotomy victims.
  • In 1949 Moniz was given the Nobel Prize for medicine for this work.
  • In 1955 Moniz died from hematemesis.
     
    
  The above description of Dr. Moniz's career is an intersection of stories that can be readily found in the internet. One of the reasons why it is recounted here is that some time ago I read in textbook on psychiatry that the purpose of the operation was specifically to free patients (murderers and such) from their predisposition to violence. I found it amusing that the very patient, who was supposed to be cured of his aggressiveness, attempted to murder his "savior". And Dr. Moniz, despite the apparent proof that his procedure is fundamentally flawed, accepted the Nobel Prize.
   
  It is also amusing that despite of the simplicity of the sequence of the events it is very difficult to find the real truth. You can make stark discoveries by reading numerous articles about victims of lobotomy performed by Dr. Moniz's followers, in paticular, by an American psychiatrist, Walter Freeman. One tragic story is about Rosemary Kennedy, the sister of President John F. Kennedy, who was lobotomized when her father complained to doctors about the 23-year-old's mood swings. Dr. Walter Freeman personally performed the procedure. The operation wiped out Rosemary's personality and intelligence. She was declared mentally handicapped and hidden from the public, her conditions were kept secret for decades. She died from natural causes on January 7, 2005, at the Atkinson Memorial Hospital.

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10/26/08 [last edited 11/06/08]

Alcoholic Anonymous for flies

• Fruit flies (Drosophila species) feed on overripe or rotting fruit and are frequently exposed to quite high ethanol concentrations. Despite of this, they display a range of alcohol-induced behaviors which are very similar to humans. At the beginning of the ethanol exposure flies become hyperactive, then, they lose their locomotor control and balance, and finally, they keel over and lie on their back (sleeping?). This was all well known. Most recent studies found that after daily administration of ethanol drunk males express a novel type of sexual disinhibition: they exhibited active intermale courtship (wild fruit flies are highly heterosexual). I observed that homosexual sex drive is increased in drunk females of human species. Unfortunately, because female flies never flirt, they do not parallel with the above observation. However, chronic ethanol exposure also affected males' behavior toward females: it dramatically enhanced sexual arousal expressed in increased courtship activity but drastically diminished sexual performance: in the absence of ethanol, approximately 35% of males copulated with females, whereas only a small percentage of males managed to copulate under the influence of ethanol. This sounds about right. (Lee HG et al. PLoS ONE. 2008 Jan 2; PMID: 18167550).

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10/26/08

Coping with rejection

• Male fruit flies (Drosophila species) are passionate suitors. Male fly performs beautiful courtship rites in order to engage an attractive female: (1) he aligns himself so that to have a good look at her abdomen; (2) he reaches out and taps the female's abdoment with his foreleg; (3) he extends one of his wings perpendicularly out from his body and vibrate it to produce a "song", an alternating series of hums and bumping sounds; (4) he moves even closer and extends his proboscis to lick the female's genitals; (5) finally, he mounts the female and copulates with her. The scenario occurs when normal adult male courts a virgin female. If the female has already mated, she will reject the male outright by extruding her ovipositor in his face. After such rejection male experiences "depression" - when placed with virgin and receptive female he will attempt to court her only about 25% as much as a naive male would. This depression can last for several hours. Mutant with learning disabilities may not have this depression at all - after the scornful rejection by mated fly he will court another fly (either mated or virgin) immediately. Sounds familiar?

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10/26/08

Reward/punishment on learning

• Fruit flies (Drosophila species) can be taught to associate an odor with either a punitive shock or a sugar reward. After the training flies show a preferential avoidance of, or an attraction to, the odor without the reinforcement. Learning speed is about the same for both types of training, however, memory based on reward training persists much longer than memory based on punishement - for days rather than for several hours.
  Researchers created a lot of mutants that behave differently, for example, there are flies that learn normally but forget quickly and flies that learn slowly but remember normally. Which combination is better?
  

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10/26/08

I do you even when you eat me

• Praying mantises or praying mantids are well known for sexual cannibalism - female eats her suitor or lover. However, male mantis is famous for his ability to successfully copulate with female after being partially eaten by her even before he mounted and started the intercourse. Moreover, his passion expressed in vigor of his mounting attempts and subsequent prolonged copulation seems to be prominently increased. In the wild, the male mantises are able to have sex with a number of females if they are skillful in taking their grip and agile in fleeing propmtly after the copulation. They actively avoid being eaten by being cautious in their stalking, sudden in their attacks, ever watchful of the female's dangerous moves while copulating, and quick in leaving the love scene. There are many explanations of why they become better lovers after beheading, like, for example, cerebral nerve ganglions suppress excitation of abdoment ganglions, and upon their destruction (by eating, for example) the abdomen ganglions which are responsible for the abdomen aligning and contractions are getting a boost. Interestingly, I asked several people (males and females) and they said that they also would be much better lovers with their heads removed. So, one antropomorphic interpretation comes to mind immediately: male with his head intact spends a lot of energy on fearing and calculating escape routes. Beheaded male, on the other hand, firstly, looses all his fears and anxieties together with his head: he can devote himself fully to the process of reproduction, and, of course, secondly, without his head he literally has nothing to loose anymore - his current sex act will be his last and at the end of it he will become a nutritious meal for the future mom.

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10/21/08

How to hurt a naked mole-rat?

• Naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber) are small (30-45 g) rodents native to eastern Africa. They live in undergound colonies (30-300 individuals) eating tubers, digging endless passages and making chambers for various needs. The following oddities set these animals apart from all other creatures:
  • they are eusosial, i.e. the naked mole-rats keep a hierarchical organization in their society that resembles some well known insect societies (bees and ants): only one female in the colony is sexualy active and makes virtually all other members of the colony
  • the naked mole-rats show a remarkable lack of pain-related behaviour in response to two potent pain inducers: acid and capsaicin: when other creatures (all mammals) would be over their heads licking acid or capsaicin inflicted pains and inlammations, the naked mole-rats remain emotionally withdrawn and visibly unaffected despite of apparent damage to the tissue
  • the naked mole-rats have a maximum lifespan of 28+ years which gives this particular animal a status of longest living mammal among all other mammals (except human) according to body-weight and metabolism rates calculations; on top of that, there are no apparent differences in lifespan between the queen and her subordinates: the queen devotes most of her life to bearing children (as much as 900 offsprings per life), and keeping her colony members under severe stress (to suppress reproductive behavior); both continuous reproduction and stress are known factors of shortening the lifespan
  • the African naked mole-rat is considered to be a truly cold-blooded animal (lack of ability for thermoregulation) which is exceptional for mammals
  • in addition, no cancer-like diseases were recorded for the naked mole-rats

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10/22/08

Chicago competes with Warsaw

• Poles (Slavic ethnic group of Central Europe) in Chicago (the largest city by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States) constitute the largest Polish population outside of the capital of Republic of Poland, Warsaw.

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10/22/08

Survival of the fittest 101

• Muricide means "mouse-killing" regardless of nature of the killer. The term is usually applied in connection with behavior of laboratory rats that were altered (surgically, genetically, etc.) and were given opportunity to kill a mouse. When rat intends to kill the mouse he/she does it very efficiently and quickly. Muricide is stimulated by hunger, some drugs, previous killing experience, brain damage, and other factors. It was found that wild mice are killed almost in 100% cases whereas lab mice are killed rarely. Lots of experiments were done. Lots of data... N' digest: the sacrifice mouse is safer with muricidal rat when it is docile and apathetic in nature (for example, albino mouse). Self-assertive, hard-working mouse (regardless wild or a lab strain) is much more likely to be killed.

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10/17/08

Atlas's is da man

• In Greek mythology, Atlas was very busy supporting the world on his shoulders which incidentally involved standing in fixed and uncomfortable position all the time. For this he became a symbol of strength and endurance. He only left his duties once to fetch some apples for Heracles. Yet, according to "sources" he managed to have numerous children by many different goddesses including but not limited to the Hesperides (3) and the Pleiades (7).

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10/16/08

Dracula's OB/GYN

• Vampires cannot procreate naturally. Vampires maintain their population by converting selected individuals by kiss-biting them. It was a great breakthrough in vampire world when Dracula devised a method of "in vitro" fertilization and growing vampire embryos in mucus-dripping bags wired to Velkan character ("Van Hielsing" (2004) movie). The Velkan was supposed to generate necessary electricity for successful completion of the embryogenesis and synchronized release of thousands of very hungry vampire-like creatures. The experiment failed.

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10/16/08

One- and two-humped camels

• Dromedary - Camelus dromedarius, the single-humped camel.
  Bactrian - Camelus bactrianus, the two-humped camel.

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