Counting monkeys

And No, it is not what you think ...
Monkeys can count! Researchers report a study on macaques that suggests humans may not be the only animal that can do math. From New Scientist:

(Utah State University psychologist Kerry) Jordan and colleague Elizabeth Brannon, of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, US, trained two eight-year-old female macaques to equate beeps to dots on a computer screen. So if a monkey heard seven beeps, it knew to tap a square on the screen displaying seven dots.

Next, the researchers tested the monkeys’ training in adding dots and beeps together.

The animals were presented dots of different sizes flash onto a screen. At the same time they heard a series of short tones.

To determine if the monkeys could combine the two, Jordan and Brannon showed the animals a screen with two numerical choices, represented as dots – one the correct sum, one incorrect.

Both monkeys did better than 50:50 – one added the sights and sounds correctly 72% of the time, the other 66% of the time.

Monkeys can count

Psychedelic-inspired "well being" lasts

Maybe that's why ... far out!

Researchers from Johns Hopkins report that most of the subjects in a 2006 study of psychedelic drugs still rate their trips "as the most, or one of the five most, personally meaningful and spiritually significant (experiences) of their lives." Related research in the Journal of Psychopharmacology lays out guidelines for running experiments involving hallucinogens. From Physorg.com:

The two reports follow a 2006 study published in another journal, Psychopharmacology, in which 60 percent of a group of 36 healthy, well-educated volunteers with active spiritual lives reported having a "full mystical experience" after taking psilocybin...

Fourteen months later, (Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Roland) Griffiths re-administered the questionnaires used in the first study -- along with a specially designed set of follow up questions -- to all 36 subjects. Results showed that about the same proportion of the volunteers ranked their experience in the study as the single most, or one of the five most, personally meaningful or spiritually significant events of their lives and regarded it as having increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction.

"This is a truly remarkable finding," Griffiths says. "Rarely in psychological research do we see such persistently positive reports from a single event in the laboratory. This gives credence to the claims that the mystical-type experiences some people have during hallucinogen sessions may help patients suffering from cancer-related anxiety or depression and may serve as a potential treatment for drug dependence. We're eager to move ahead with that research."

Spiritual effects of hallucinogens persist

Lost Beatles tape will air on BBC radio

The British Broadcasting Corp. will air a long lost Beatles interview featuring John Lennon and Paul McCartney talking about the day they met and their songwriting partnership.

The precious film sat forgotten for 44 years in a garage in south London until film fan Richard Jeffs realized a piece of pop history was contained inside.

Experts were surprised to find the audio portion still usable for radio broadcast.

The nine-minute interview was recorded at the Scottish Television studios in April 1964 during the early days of Beatlemania. It will be broadcast for the first time on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday and repeated later this week.

On the tape, Lennon tells how he was playing with a skiffle band outside Liverpool when McCartney introduced himself.

Just A Fact:

Some of us may be follicular-challenged, but most humans have an average of 120,000 to 150,000 hairs on their scalp.

In males, all surfaces of the body, except for the palms of their hands and the soles of their feet, are covered in a very fine hair.

Daily Funny

There's a book that tells your where you should go on your vacation.

It's called a checkbook!

Thought for the Day

An angry person is seldom reasonable; a reasonable person is seldom angry.

Police in Washington state say woman's baby was cut from her womb

Police said a pregnant woman was fatally stabbed multiple times in the chest and her nearly full-term baby was cut from her womb. A 23-year-old woman has been arrested.

The baby boy was hospitalized at Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane in critical condition.

Court documents said 27-year-old Araceli Camacho Gomez, of Pasco, had her hands and feet bound with yarn and suffered "massive trauma to her stomach area" late Friday night. An autopsy showed she died of the chest wounds, but had other wounds "consistent with the cutting of the body to remove an unborn child."

Her body was found early Saturday in Kennewick's Columbia Park.

A Kennewick woman, Phiengchai Sisouvanh Synhavong, has been arrested for investigation of first-degree murder and is accused of trying to pass the infant boy off as her own in calls made late Friday night to emergency dispatchers. She was being held without bail Monday, with another court appearance scheduled Wednesday.

Court documents say gloves soaked in blood, a boxcutter, bloody paper towels, yarn, baby bottle and baby socks were among some of the items found in Sisouvanh Synhavong's purse.

Promise Yourself

Promise Yourself



Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can
disturb your peace of mind.



To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to
every person you meet.




To make all your friends feel like there is
something in them.




To look at the sunny side of everything and make your
optimism come true.




To think only of the best, to work only for the best,
and expect only the best.




To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own.




To forget the mistakes of the past and press on the
greater achievements of the future.




To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give
every living person you meet a smile.




To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.




To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, and too
strong for fear, and to happy to permit the

presence of trouble.



author unknown......