Full Moon!! New Moon! Does Moon effect the Human Minds! or the Human Hearts!!

Across the centuries, many a person has uttered the phrase “There must be a full moon out there” in an attempt to explain weird happenings at night.

 Indeed, the Roman goddess of the moon bore a name that remains familiar to us today: Luna, prefix of the word “lunatic.” Greek philosopher Aristotle and Roman historian Pliny the Elder suggested that the brain was the “moistest” organ in the body and thereby most susceptible to the pernicious influences of the moon, which triggers the tides. Belief in the “lunar lunacy effect,” or “Transylvania effect,” as it is sometimes called, persisted in Europe through the Middle Ages, when humans were widely reputed to transmogrify into werewolves or vampires during a full moon.

Following Aristotle and Pliny the Elder, some contemporary authors, such as Miami psychiatrist Arnold Lieber, have conjectured that the full moon’s ­supposed effects on behavior arise from its influence on water. The human body, after all, is about 80 percent water, so perhaps the moon works its mischievous magic by somehow disrupting the alignment of water molecules in the nervous system.
 

But there are at least three reasons why this explanation doesn’t “hold water,” pardon the pun. First, the gravitational effects of the moon are far too minuscule to generate any meaningful effects on brain activity, let alone behavior. As the late astronomer George Abell of the University of California, Los Angeles, noted, a mosquito sitting on our arm exerts a more powerful gravitational pull on us than the moon does. Yet to the best of our knowledge, there have been no reports of a “mosquito lunacy effect.” Second, the moon’s gravitational force affects only open bodies of water, such as oceans and lakes, but not contained sources of water, such as the human brain. Third, the gravitational effect of the moon is just as potent during new moons—when the moon is invisible to us—as it is during full moons.

Persistent critics have disagreed with this conclusion, pointing to a few positive findings that emerge in scattered studies. Still, even the handful of research claims that seem to support full-moon effects have collapsed on closer investigation. In one study published in 1982 an author team reported that traffic accidents were more frequent on full-moon nights than on other nights. Yet a fatal flaw marred these findings: in the period under consideration, full moons were more common on weekends, when more people drive. When the authors reanalyzed their data to eliminate this confounding factor, the lunar effect vanished.

Perhaps full moon would be a wonderful romantic time with your loved one for sure.

Sex!! Orgasm! Relationship & Monogamy: Science of Orgasm

For men it is quick, easy and ESSENTIAL FOR REPRODUCTION.
For women, it is slow, difficult and PURELY FOR PLEASURE.
Yet despite such differences, it brings the sexes together and is the basis of the monogamy that distinguishes us from other animals

By virtue of a series of devilishly clever evolutionary tricks, or perhaps due to sheer happenstance shaped by cultural factors, women and men have quite different sexual desires, different sexual experiences and different sexual aims. They do not actually need one another to enjoy orgasm. Yet since prehistory, these two very different tribes have continued to seek out one another's company and spend their lives broadly together, centring a large part of their shared existence on an activity - sexual intercourse - of which they have a very different experience.



It is axiomatic that women fall in love first and discover lust later, while men fall in lust and only subsequently learn to love.
Indeed, it is a close-run thing whether the most striking disparity between the male and female yearning for orgasm is emotional or physical.

The orgasmic spasm lasts a few seconds to a minute at the most, but is accompanied by intense physiological activity. Genitals swell with blood, the pulse races, muscles contract involuntarily. Some people's mouths open. Others' faces contort. Many women's toes curl. In men, big toes often stiffen as their little toes twist. Both partners' feet may arch and shake. Sweat typically surfaces on both participants' brows, the heart pumps frantically, and breathing becomes fast and shallow. Both partners' nostrils may flare and seem to heat the air as it surges through them. With climax, each partner is clenched by contractions at consistent 0.8 second intervals. The human sexual summit is a paroxysm of pleasure. A warm glow envelops the waist and chest. The toes relax.

The emotions, too, generally go into a seismic convulsion. A mist of goodwill, wellbeing and lazy relaxation temporarily obscures reality. Both men and women may laugh or cry, or become uncommonly ticklish, although all these reactions are less common for men on the basis that they tend to show their feelings less anyway. Both sexes may experience a burst of creative thought since orgasm produces a near lightning storm in the right, creative-thinking side of the brain. Biological duty fulfilled, there normally follows a lengthy period of exhaustion, rest, and - frequently - sleep. 
  

All of this has a good deal to do with oxytocin, the "hormone of love" as it has been called. Oxytocin is a neurotransmitter synthesised by the hypothalamus at the base of the brain and stored in the posterior pituitary, from where it pulses out when required, which is during sexual activity and in childbirth, after which it prompts the desire to nuzzle and protect infants. Oxytocin induces feelings of love and altruism, warmth, calm, bonding, tenderness and togetherness, of satisfaction during bodily contact, sexual arousal and sexual fulfilment. It is during orgasm in both men and women that oxytocin floods through our bloodstream. Oxytocin released by female orgasm helps women lie still for a while afterwards. This increases the likelihood of conception, as well as making it probable that women will seek further coitus because they enjoyed it so much

Oxytocin is nature's sugar-coating to disguise the bitter pill of reproduction, the chemical basis for our capacity and longing for romantic attachment. It is the molecule that for 100,000 years or more has made us want to have sex face-to-face, adoring one another, and to live in permanent, monogamous couples 

 

Are Girls Attracted to Smarter Boys: Evolution of Brain by Sexual Selection

Humans have evolved as the most dominant and intelligent species on this planet earth. Once upon a time few million years ago they lived in caves & forests. Gradually they evolved to communicate by verbal tones & gestures. The human population was on the horizon to distinguish themselves from the rest of the species that exists on this planet.

They started living in community, built small huts. They had get together, they sung, they danced and even they played music and now the humans have built the sky scrapers touching the sky, the machines to dig the earth down beyond the sea bed and flying machines to orbit around the earth.

All these fine skills & analytics require advanced brain function of insight & cognition. The brain has evolved drastically from other species. Now the question...why did it evolve so drastically and distinctively.

HANDICAP THEORY

Before I explain why, lets see the physiological aspects of the Brain.
Weight: 1400 G Approx.

Oxygen: 20% utilization

Glucose: 40% utilization
Physiologically brain is a very expensive organ utilizing more glucose and oxygen.

ITS A COSTLY WASTE FOR AN ORGAN TO SURVIVE.

An Example: The peacock's tail. 

The peacock's tail is bright and colorful. The brightest and colorful peacock will be chosen by the peahen for mating (Bright and colorful feathers reflect the good health of the peacock) with an intention to have a healthy progeny.

But the long tail hinders the flight ability of the peacock and more prone to be hunted easily by predators.

 ITS A COSTLY WASTE FOR AN ORGAN TO SURVIVE. 

The bottom line SURVIVAL OF THE SEXIEST IN SEXUAL SELECTION among peacocks.

Evolution of brain is implied as evolution of intelligence. The higher motor functions, thought process, insight, soft skills contribute to be a good musician, a good writer, a scientist, a knowledge worker.

Man developed these qualities basically to interact and to impress his partner during the primitive age by playing music, dancing, verbal conversation ultimately converging to selection of a smart mate for a smarter progeny: 

The bottom line SURVIVAL OF THE SMARTEST IN SEXUAL SELECTION among humans.

So guys get smarter to attract girls.

The Origin of HIV

The origin of AIDS and HIV has puzzled scientists ever since the illness first came to light in the early 1980s. For over twenty years it has been the subject of fierce debate and the cause of countless arguments, with everything from a promiscuous flight attendant to a suspect vaccine programme being blamed. So what is the truth? Just where did AIDS come from?
The first recognised cases of AIDS occurred in the USA in the early 1980s (more about this period can be found on our History of AIDS page). A number of gay men in New York and California suddenly began to develop rare opportunistic infections and cancers that seemed stubbornly resistant to any treatment. At this time, AIDS did not yet have a name, but it quickly became obvious that all the men were suffering from a common syndrome.
The discovery of HIV, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, was made soon after. While some were initially resistant to acknowledge the connection (and indeed some remain so today), there is now clear evidence to prove that HIV causes AIDS. So, in order to find the source of AIDS, it is necessary to look for the origin of HIV, and find out how, when and where HIV first began to cause disease in humans.

The 'hunter' theory

 The most commonly accepted theory is that of the 'hunter'. In this scenario, SIVcpz was transferred to humans as a result of chimps being killed and eaten or their blood getting into cuts or wounds on the hunter. Normally the hunter's body would have fought off SIV, but on a few occasions it adapted itself within its new human host and became HIV-1. The fact that there were several different early strains of HIV, each with a slightly different genetic make-up (the most common of which was HIV-1 group M), would support this theory: every time it passed from a chimpanzee to a man, it would have developed in a slightly different way within his body, and thus produced a slightly different strain.

An article published in The Lancet in 2004, also shows how retroviral transfer from primates to hunters is still occurring even today. In a sample of 1099 individuals in Cameroon , they discovered ten (1%) were infected with SFV (Simian Foamy Virus), an illness which, like SIV, was previously thought only to infect primates. All these infections were believed to have been acquired through the butchering and consumption of monkey and ape meat. Discoveries such as this have led to calls for an outright ban on bushmeat hunting to prevent simian viruses being passed to humans.

The oral polio vaccine (OPV) theory

 Some other rather controversial theories have contended that HIV was transferred iatrogenically (i.e. via medical interventions). One particularly well-publicised idea is that polio vaccines played a role in the transfer.

In his book, The River, the journalist Edward Hooper suggests that HIV can be traced to the testing of an oral polio vaccine called Chat, given to about a million people in the Belgian Congo, Ruanda and Urundi in the late 1950s. To be reproduced, live polio vaccine needs to be cultivated in living tissue, and Hooper's belief is that Chat was grown in kidney cells taken from local chimps infected with SIVcmz. This, he claims, would have resulted in the contamination of the vaccine with chimp SIV, and a large number of people subsequently becoming infected with HIV-1.

Many people have contested Hooper's theories and insist that local chimps were not infected with a strain of SIVcmz that is closely linked to HIV. Furthermore, the oral administration of the vaccine would seem insufficient to cause infection in most people (SIV/HIV needs to get directly into the bloodstream to cause infection - the lining of the mouth and throat generally act as good barriers to the virus).⁶ 

In February 2000 the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia (one of the original manufacturers of the Chat vaccine) announced that it had discovered in its stores a phial of polio vaccine that had been used as part of the program. The vaccine was subsequently analysed and in April 2001 it was announced that no trace had been found of either HIV or chimpanzee SIV.A second analysis confirmed that only macaque monkey kidney cells, which cannot be infected with SIV or HIV, were used to make Chat. While this is just one phial of many, it means that the OPV theory remains unproven.The fact that the OPV theory accounts for just one (group M) of several different groups of HIV also suggests that transferral must have happened in other ways too, as does the fact that HIV seems to have existed in humans before the vaccine trials were ever carried out.

The contaminated needle theory 

The colonialism or 'Heart of Darkness' theory, is one of the more recent theories to have entered into the debate. It is again based on the basic 'hunter' premise, but more thoroughly explains how this original infection could have led to an epidemic. It was first proposed in 2000 by Jim Moore, an American specialist in primate behaviour, who published his findings in the journal AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses.

During the late 19th and early 20th century, much of Africa was ruled by colonial forces. In areas such as French Equatorial Africa and the Belgian Congo, colonial rule was particularly harsh and many Africans were forced into labour camps where sanitation was poor, food was scarce and physical demands were extreme. These factors alone would have been sufficient to create poor health in anyone, so SIV could easily have infiltrated the labour force and taken advantage of their weakened immune systems to become HIV. A stray and perhaps sick chimpanzee with SIV would have made a welcome extra source of food for the workers. 

“SIV could easily have infiltrated the labour force and taken advantage of their weakened immune systems”

Moore also believes that many of the labourers would have been inoculated with unsterile needles against diseases such as smallpox (to keep them alive and working), and that many of the camps actively employed prostitutes to keep the workers happy, creating numerous possibilities for onward transmission. A large number of labourers would have died before they even developed the first symptoms of AIDS, and those that did get sick would not have stood out as any different in an already disease-ridden population. Even if they had been identified, all evidence (including medical records) that the camps existed was destroyed to cover up the fact that a staggering 50% of the local population were wiped out there.

One final factor Moore uses to support his theory, is the fact that the labour camps were set up around the time that HIV was first believed to have passed into humans - the early part of the 20th century.

The conspiracy theory 

Some say that HIV is a 'conspiracy theory' or that it is 'man-made'. A recent survey carried out in the US for example, identified a significant number of African Americans who believe HIV was manufactured as part of a biological warfare programme, designed to wipe out large numbers of black and homosexual people. Many say this was done under the auspices of the US federal 'Special Cancer Virus Program' (SCVP), possibly with the help of the CIA. Linked in to this theory is the belief that the virus was spread (either deliberately or inadvertently) to thousands of people all over the world through the smallpox inoculation programme, or to gay men through Hepatitis B vaccine trials. While none of these theories can be definitively disproved, the evidence given to back them up is usually based upon supposition and speculation, and ignores the clear link between SIV and HIV or the fact that the virus has been identified in people as far back as 1959.

Why do we Dream?

Many people believe their dreams simply do not have any meaning. They think their dreams are only a reflection of the problems, worries and desires they have when they are awake, and that they should not be taken seriously - just like the fantasies they have sometimes - and are only a product of their imagination.

From ancient times, the human being has been interested in the meanings of dreams, and in each civilization this interest has had a different result. Today, at least some people understand that unlike fantasies, our dreams are not produced by our own conscience, and that they have an important meaning that we have to learn to interpret. Their meaning is intrinsically related to our internal psychic world.

In the years before Christ, people believed that they could predict the future through the message contained in their dreams, and many of them actually made true predictions by interpreting their dreams. This power is inexplicable, something that is only possessed by those who are privileged with the talent of dream interpretation. Hence, nothing precise was understood concerning this, and so, their knowledge was not transmitted to the next generations. With time and the loss of the civilizations with rich cultures that were ruined by the stronger ones (through their violence and dominance), this knowledge disappeared completely among the different concepts of reality, as the human being was developing his world

Scientists then started to examine the reactions of their patients during the period when they were sleeping and dreaming. They discovered that there are times, in deeper sleep, that we have more dreams, and that our eyes move even when we are sleeping, because they follow the dream’s images.

However, nothing has yet been clearly explained or proven regarding dreams, and people still do not give them any importance, even if they believe that their dreams may bear some kind of meaning.

The first scientific explanation of dream content was given by Sigmund Freud, who considered them to be wish fulfilment. His psychology is based on the human desire for constant pleasure and sexual satisfaction. He was right about many points, but there were many others he did not consider.

Further, Alfred Adler appeared and showed to the world that the human being is not only moved by the constant desire for pleasure, but in fact his main desire is that of power, since the basic purpose of his life is to elevate his Ego. He was also right in many ways, but he did not consider many other factors either.
  
Carl Jung was the third great mind in the psychological world. He started his career as a student of Freud, but later abandoned his mentor and created his own method. He tried to understand the human psyche as a whole, capturing the hidden meaning that exists in the prediction of dreams, as well as translating the dream’s symbols so that he could have an image of what was happening in a patient’s mind.

Many other psychologists after Jung developed their own theories about dream interpretation, most of them also correct in many ways (because dreams do show us many things), but only Carl Jung understood the complete meaning that dreams possess. They contain not only very important information about each person’s psychic sphere, but are also a source that gives us important information about the external world.