Neufer's random thoughts

[neufer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[neufer]

An example of a tea leaf reading showing a dog and a bird on the side of the cup.

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<<Tasseography (also known as tasseomancy, tassology, or tasseology) is a divination or fortune-telling method that interprets patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds, or wine sediments. The terms derive from the French word tasse (cup), which in turn derives from the Arabic loan-word into French tassa, and the Greek suffixes -graph (writing), -logy (study of), and -mancy (divination).

Tasseomancy followed the trade routes of tea and coffee and was practiced by both Baltic and Slavic nations. It is closely related to the Romani people, whose nomadic lifestyle contributed to the spread of the practice, though its exact origins are unknown. Throughout its history, different regions have practiced it with slight variations which indicates that this form of divination was an oral tradition. It is not considered a closed cultural practice, but oftentimes it is traditional to ask permission from a Romani elder as a sign of respect.
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The Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology, Fifth Edition, Vol. 2, edited by J. Gordon Melton, notes: After a cup of tea has been poured, without using a tea strainer, the tea is drunk or poured away. The cup should then be shaken well and any remaining liquid drained off in the saucer. The diviner now looks at the pattern of tea leaves in the cup and allows the imagination to play around [with] the shapes suggested by them. They might look like a letter, a heart shape, or a ring. These shapes are then interpreted intuitively or by means of a fairly standard system of symbolism, such as: snake (enmity or falsehood), spade (good fortune through industry), mountain (journey of hindrance), or house (change, success).
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Melton's described methods of pouring away the tea and shaking the cup are rarely seen; most readers ask the querent to drink the tea off, then swirl the cup.>>

[neufer]

Kikiki huna female : ~ Planck mass/22

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<<Kikiki is a genus of fairyfly wasps containing a single species, Kikiki huna, known from Hawaii, Costa Rica, Nagarcoil and Trinidad. At 0.15 mm [~1 μg = Planck mass/22 ], it is the smallest flying insect known as of 2019. It is a close relative of wasps in the genus Tinkerbella. It was discovered in the Hawaiian Islands by John T. Huber and John W. Beardsley, and published in 2000. The name Kikiki huna consists of two Hawaiian words that both carry the meaning 'tiny bit'.?

<<In particle physics and physical cosmology, the Planck scale is an energy scale around 1.22×10¹⁹ GeV (the Planck energy, corresponding to the energy equivalent of the Planck mass, 21.7645 μg) at which quantum effects of gravity become strong. At this scale, present descriptions and theories of sub-atomic particle interactions in terms of quantum field theory break down and become inadequate, due to the impact of the apparent non-renormalizability of gravity within current theories.

Planck units have little anthropocentric arbitrariness, but do still involve some arbitrary choices in terms of the defining constants. Unlike the metre and second, which exist as base units in the SI system for historical reasons, the Planck length and Planck time are conceptually linked at a fundamental physical level. Consequently, natural units help physicists to reframe questions. Frank Wilczek puts it succinctly: "We see that the question [posed] is not, "Why is gravity so feeble?[" but rather, "Why is the proton's mass so small?" For in natural (Planck) units, the strength of gravity simply is what it is, a primary quantity, while the proton's mass is the tiny number {~1.22×10¹⁹ GeV (= Planck mass)/(13 quintillion)}."

While it is true that the electrostatic repulsive force between two protons (alone in free space) greatly exceeds the gravitational attractive force between the same two protons, this is not about the relative strengths of the two fundamental forces. From the point of view of Planck units, this is comparing apples with oranges, because mass and electric charge are incommensurable quantities. Rather, the disparity of magnitude of force is a manifestation of the fact that the charge on the protons is approximately the unit charge but the mass of the protons is far less than the unit mass.>>

[neufer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

I can see both hollowed version and flying out version!

I see two teapots - a small one in front of a larger one.

I sometimes see a bowl of petunias in front of a sperm whale.

[neufer]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<The largest brains are those of sperm whales, weighing about 8 kg. An elephant's brain weighs just over 5 kg, a bottlenose dolphin's 1.6 kg, whereas a human brain is around 1.4 kg. Brain size tends to vary according to body size. The relationship is not proportional, though: the brain-to-body mass ratio varies. The largest ratio found is in the shrew. Averaging brain weight across all orders of mammals, it follows a power law, with an exponent of about 0.75. There are good reasons to expect a power law: for example, the body-size to body-length relationship follows a power law with an exponent of 0.33, and the body-size to surface-area relationship follows a power law with an exponent of 0.67. The explanation for an exponent of 0.75 is not obvious; however, it is worth noting that several physiological variables appear to be related to body size by approximately the same exponent—for example, the basal metabolic rate. This power law formula applies to the "average" brain of mammals taken as a whole, but each family (CATS, rodents, primates, etc.) departs from it to some degree, in a way that generally reflects the overall "sophistication" of behavior. Primates, for a given body size, have brains 5 to 10 times as large as the formula predicts. Predators tend to have relatively larger brains than the animals they prey on; placental mammals (the great majority) have relatively larger brains than marsupials such as the opossum. When the mammalian brain increases in size, not all parts increase at the same rate. In particular, the larger the brain of a species, the greater the fraction taken up by the cortex. Thus, in the species with the largest brains, most of their volume is filled with cortex: this applies not only to humans, but also to animals such as dolphins, whales or elephants.>>

Lateral view of cerebrum showing several cortices

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<<The cerebral cortex is the largest site of neural integration in the central nervous system. It plays a key role in attention, perception, awareness, thought, memory, language, and consciousness. In most mammals, apart from small mammals that have small brains, the cerebral cortex is folded, providing a greater surface area in the confined volume of the cranium. Apart from minimising brain and cranial volume, cortical folding is crucial for the wiring of the brain and its functional organisation. A fold or ridge in the cortex is termed a gyrus (plural gyri) and a groove is termed a sulcus (plural sulci). These surface convolutions appear during fetal development and continue to mature after birth through the process of gyrification. In the human brain the majority of the cerebral cortex is not visible from the outside, but buried in the sulci, and the insular cortex is completely hidden. There are between 14 and 16 billion neurons in the human cerebral cortex.>>

White matter structure of human brain (taken by MRI).

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<<White matter refers to areas of the central nervous system (CNS) that are mainly made up of myelinated axons, also called tracts. Long thought to be passive tissue, white matter affects learning and brain functions, modulating the distribution of action potentials, acting as a relay and coordinating communication between different brain regions. White matter is the tissue through which messages pass between different areas of grey matter within the central nervous system. The white matter is white because of the fatty substance (myelin) that surrounds the nerve fibers (axons). This myelin is found in almost all long nerve fibers, and acts as an electrical insulation. This is important because it allows the messages to pass quickly from place to place. Unlike grey matter, which peaks in development in a person's twenties, the white matter continues to develop, and peaks in middle age. Smaller volumes of white matter might be associated with larger deficits in attention, declarative memory, executive functions, intelligence, and academic achievement. However, volume change is continuous throughout one's lifetime due to neuroplasticity, and is a contributing factor rather than determinant factor of certain functional deficits due to compensating effects in other brain regions. A 2009 paper by Jan Scholz and colleagues used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to demonstrate changes in white matter volume as a result of learning a new motor task (e.g. juggling). A more recent DTI study by Sampaio-Baptista and colleagues reported changes in white matter with motor learning along with increases in myelination.>>

[Fred the Cat]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<The largest brains are those of sperm whales, weighing about 8 kg. An elephant's brain weighs just over 5 kg, a bottlenose dolphin's 1.6 kg, whereas a human brain is around 1.4 kg. Brain size tends to vary according to body size. The relationship is not proportional, though: the brain-to-body mass ratio varies. The largest ratio found is in the shrew. Averaging brain weight across all orders of mammals, it follows a power law, with an exponent of about 0.75. There are good reasons to expect a power law: for example, the body-size to body-length relationship follows a power law with an exponent of 0.33, and the body-size to surface-area relationship follows a power law with an exponent of 0.67. The explanation for an exponent of 0.75 is not obvious; however, it is worth noting that several physiological variables appear to be related to body size by approximately the same exponent—for example, the basal metabolic rate. This power law formula applies to the "average" brain of mammals taken as a whole, but each family (CATS, rodents, primates, etc.) departs from it to some degree, in a way that generally reflects the overall "sophistication" of behavior. Primates, for a given body size, have brains 5 to 10 times as large as the formula predicts. Predators tend to have relatively larger brains than the animals they prey on; placental mammals (the great majority) have relatively larger brains than marsupials such as the opossum. When the mammalian brain increases in size, not all parts increase at the same rate. In particular, the larger the brain of a species, the greater the fraction taken up by the cortex. Thus, in the species with the largest brains, most of their volume is filled with cortex: this applies not only to humans, but also to animals such as dolphins, whales or elephants.>>

Lateral view of cerebrum showing several cortices

---

<<The cerebral cortex is the largest site of neural integration in the central nervous system. It plays a key role in attention, perception, awareness, thought, memory, language, and consciousness. In most mammals, apart from small mammals that have small brains, the cerebral cortex is folded, providing a greater surface area in the confined volume of the cranium. Apart from minimising brain and cranial volume, cortical folding is crucial for the wiring of the brain and its functional organisation. A fold or ridge in the cortex is termed a gyrus (plural gyri) and a groove is termed a sulcus (plural sulci). These surface convolutions appear during fetal development and continue to mature after birth through the process of gyrification. In the human brain the majority of the cerebral cortex is not visible from the outside, but buried in the sulci, and the insular cortex is completely hidden. There are between 14 and 16 billion neurons in the human cerebral cortex.>>

White matter structure of human brain (taken by MRI).

---

<<White matter refers to areas of the central nervous system (CNS) that are mainly made up of myelinated axons, also called tracts. Long thought to be passive tissue, white matter affects learning and brain functions, modulating the distribution of action potentials, acting as a relay and coordinating communication between different brain regions. White matter is the tissue through which messages pass between different areas of grey matter within the central nervous system. The white matter is white because of the fatty substance (myelin) that surrounds the nerve fibers (axons). This myelin is found in almost all long nerve fibers, and acts as an electrical insulation. This is important because it allows the messages to pass quickly from place to place. Unlike grey matter, which peaks in development in a person's twenties, the white matter continues to develop, and peaks in middle age. Smaller volumes of white matter might be associated with larger deficits in attention, declarative memory, executive functions, intelligence, and academic achievement. However, volume change is continuous throughout one's lifetime due to neuroplasticity, and is a contributing factor rather than determinant factor of certain functional deficits due to compensating effects in other brain regions. A 2009 paper by Jan Scholz and colleagues used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to demonstrate changes in white matter volume as a result of learning a new motor task (e.g. juggling). A more recent DTI study by Sampaio-Baptista and colleagues reported changes in white matter with motor learning along with increases in myelination.>>

In all versions those cats seem to struggle with fulfillment. I suspect it must be hard to find.

[JackWhite]

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Haha, I have never seen this show before. I give it a credit - the acting is pretty solid. These shows have it own charm