Old Friends

I have always wondered why small children are so delighted with dinosaurs. Its seems instinctive, like a race memory. They seem to want to work and co-operate with them. Books and games like Dinotopia are popular. I have come up with only one idea why so far.
As we all know, human beings and dinosaurs did not walk the earth at the same time. Dinosaurs were around long before homosapiens. However, our probably quite crafty ancestors were around in the age of the dinosaur. When the dinosaurs were in their heyday, our ancestors were small furry rodent like creatures, yet to evolve into lemurs, monkeys and apes. I suspect we might have stayed close to large predatory dinos for protection. Smaller creatures would hunt us, and the big dinos would hunt our predators. We would have been too small for the large dinosaurs to bother eating. We may have even deliberately lead the small predators to the large dinosaurs to get rid of them and to work in a symbiotic relationship.
Or maybe it isn't some old instinct, it's just that kids like big monsters that roar.

Does the Living God Look Like a Double Helix?

This is just speculation. Here is the concept. All living things have one thing in common: the blue print DNA. Could it be that the "Living" God mentioned in various religious texts looks like a DNA strand. Maybe that is the likeness to God we are all supposed to have. I have difficulty imagining something as reportedly great as God as a human figure, but God as a spiralling cooperative mass of basic information on how to build life makes a lot more sense. Especially for a "living God". Of course, if all of these premises are correct it implies that anything with DNA is made in the image of God. Animals, plants, even people we don't like. I think something as multidimensional as God is capable of that. Of course, we all know that the Eternal Life of the Living God is (or maybe produces) pure light/energy, and is a thing of the spirit. However, as is common with a spiritual things, it could be true in both the spirit and the physical. They could even be affecting each other. I'm not presuming that any of this is true, but it is a rather a pleasant neat concept.

Chaff Paper

We have all seen rice paper. Here is another idea. How about using chaff from wheat to make paper? That way we reduce the amount of trees that need to be logged for paper. If the cleared land becomes chaff producing farmland, it will reduce further logging. I googled chaff paper and it does not seem to have been done. I was wondering why.

Solar Powered Kettles

I had this idea for a solar powered kettle that works like a sun oven. However, when I googled it I found that not only has it already been done, but there are some very advanced ones on the market. Google it yourself. I was thinking it would be great for camping. So this is more of an ad. I would like to get one myself.

Painting the Desert Posts

In many places in the world there are long, straight and featureless roads passing through grasslands, farmlands, and deserts. These stretches are notorious for people nodding off at the wheel, and for vehicle breakdowns where the person does not see another vehicle for days. Both have proven deadly. My idea is to put shady sculptures beside the roads every 20km with a water spout, especially for desert roads. It would help people give their eyes and minds a rest from the road. It would also help people survive if their car breaks down. Also, many people have difficulty explaining where they are on a featureless landscape if they call for help on a mobile. Putting features in is a great way to explain eg. "I'm at the mermaid between the giant .T.v. and the flamingos".
It could be a money earner too! Imagine the tourists taking happy snaps. It would good for the tourist industry in the towns and cities that these roads lead to. To install them, the government can make it a project for arts students, technical college students and even high school students. People have told me they would love to do that for free, just to have their name on it. If the initiative payed for the materials only, there would still be plenty of volunteers.

Rebellious Brain Stem

The emotions that are in the hard-wiring of the brain causes one to think of what survival instincts are active in a fit of rebellion and how that evolve to effect the brain structure.

When you have a "hissy fit" of rebellion it is your hypothalamus and amygdala that are most active. Logically, rebellion is a way of getting to resources (essential to survival, in your primal hard-wiring) that are threatened if co-operation isn't going to satisfy your resource needs. Lets walk through the necessary stages for rebellion to occur instinctively, with and without gaining the loot.

Firstly, through your senses (very animal part of the brain), you must perceive a lack or restricted resources, usually that someone has sway over, but not necessarily. If you are cold, hungry, unsheltered, under fire, or in some way not getting your basic needs met (including sex), and being compliant is unlikely to change that, a set of defiance-for-survival primal triggers in your hypothalamus. You are more likely to "tell someone where to get off" if you are cold, wet, lost and hungry (needs not being met) then if you are warm, dry safe and eating. This includes getting enough social stroking. If a teenager with cold parents gets grounded on a socially important weekend, they are very likely to sneak out for social strokes and sex as a survival instinct.

So basically modern humans take on a "fair" and co-operative based interaction to get needs met, but if basic resources is perceived to be ungainable through the softer (and less energetic) method, at a certain point rebellion kicks in in the fight or flight department, (social, actually resource based"Its unfair"etc) as an alternative way to get needs met.

So the hypothalamus sends a signal to the amydala that homeostasis is inadequate because of the current situation. If we get a hit from the adrenal glands as well (the boss yells at you), it will kick in the defiance-for-survival instinct in rebellion. The irritability when hungry is similar to the feeling of rebellion on a low level. It is the amygdala that causes us to be disgusted with (eg. status quo), and become angry enough to rebel. People are more likely to mob for food then fiber optics. Not only does the amygdala provide us the uncomfortable "red alerts" of disgust and anger as a motivating force, but it controls the fight or flight responses as well. So it works with its close neighbour the hypothalamus to set off the whole fight or slight of hand (passive aggressive) instinct range.

If you look where then hypothalamus, pituarity gland and amygdala are placed in the physical brain, one sees them gather at the top of the brain stem, under the bulk of the brain. It seems to me as a group they are bit of a gate between more conscious thought and brain stem instincts. Where they are is like the frontal lobes if the brain stem were a whole brain. To the brain bulk, the hypothalamus and amygdala are in the more primal hard wired instinct part of the brain. If there was no brain stem, the hypothalamus is at the most instinctive area, and the amygdala is part of the limbic brain, more evolved then the brain stem but still very hard-wired. The limbic system and the stuff at the top of the brain-stem are comparatively like the brain stem. If the brain was a hologram, the limbic/hypothalamus system is the small to the bulk brains big, and big to the brain stem's small.

The hypothalamus is triggered by smell quite profoundly and it could be mentioned here that we smell more then we consciously acknowledge. When we smell a lack in resources it effects us. If we smell others have been eating better then us, or what stage a person is at sexually (resource orientated), it affects our instinctive mood. We may not be conscious of it, it is like the smell of fear, strongly affecting the primal driving force.

Drug addiction is an interesting double link with the rebellious instinct. The hypothalamus is tricked into thinking the drug is an essential to homeostasis, causing the lack of said intoxicant to trigger the rebellious instinct like a positive feedback loop.

Compulsive kleptomania is very much a resource instinct (therefore primal) gone awry. Can't get what you need? Justify it to yourself that "they" are being unfair and then even righteously steal it. The need is met and guilt can washed away with gain and righteousness of fighting the unfairness.

One Liners

I admire old people because they made it to old, and a lot don't.