I’m quite unsure what to write my mind has gone blank and i just feel awkwardly sad. So here is the article from Vanity Fair for which he worked for for quite a while.

By Gasper Tringale.

Christopher Hitchens—the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant—died today at the age of 62. Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the spring of 2010, just after the publication of his memoir, Hitch-22, and began chemotherapy soon after. His matchless prose has appeared in Vanity Fair since 1992, when he was named contributing editor.

“Cancer victimhood contains a permanent temptation to be self-centered and even solipsistic,” Hitchens wrote nearly a year ago in Vanity Fair, but his own final labors were anything but: in the last 12 months, he produced for this magazine a piece on U.S.-Pakistani relations in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death, a portrait of Joan Didion, an essay on the Private Eye retrospective at the Victoria and Albert Museum, a prediction about the future of democracy in Egypt, a meditation on the legacy of progressivism in Wisconsin, and a series of frank, graceful, and exquisitely written essays in which he chronicled the physical and spiritual effects of his disease. At the end, Hitchens was more engaged, relentless, hilarious, observant, and intelligent than just about everyone else—just as he had been for the last four decades.

“My chief consolation in this year of living dyingly has been the presence of friends,” he wrote in the June 2011 issue. He died in their presence, too, at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. May his 62 years of living, well, so livingly console the many of us who will miss him dearly.

This article is from http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/12/In-Memoriam-Christopher-Hitchens-19492011

The show tonight is only £4, so to miss this would be just foolish and it is at the Canalhouse. More people should come to this one, i’m looking forward to this. Its less than five minutes from a train station too.

I may be pretty late at seeing this but i apologise i have been at work.

It seems there may have been certain doom tommorow (Monday) as there has been a giant asteroid spotted heading our way.
The space rock is going to just miss us but will reach within 11,000 miles of the surface. Apparently the telegraph states it as coming ’23 times closer than the moon’ to me that doesn’t make sense, but anyway the asteroid will reach within 11,000 miles of the surface which is close enough to be spotted by some telescopes.

Even if it did enter the atmospere an asteroid expert has said ‘We are certain that it will miss us, but if it did enter the atmosphere, an asteroid this size would mostly burn up in a brilliant fireball, possibly scattering a few meteorites.’ Which is good by me. This asteroid was only spotted wednesday in New Mexico and is only between 10 and 50 yards wide.

Another asteroid has been spotted to come by on November 8th and from what experts say it is 400 metres wide weighing 50 million tons and is expected to fly within the moons orbit, this will pass by at a distance of 201,000 miles thankfully. This one is the largest object to approach us so close that folks know about.

Phew…

Article read from Here!

To be honest though this original artice does make with the fear-mongering.

Anyway…

Scientists have designed a brain implant that restored lost memory function and strengthened recall of new information in laboratory rats — a crucial first step in the development of so-called neuroprosthetic devices to repair deficits from dementia, stroke and other brain injuries in humans.

I hope this gets developed for Humans as i believe there is a really high probability i will get dementia as most of my grandparents/great-grandparents etc have had it.

The Link to the whole article is here. That is if you want it from the source.

Though still a long way from being tested in humans, the implant demonstrates for the first time that a cognitive function can be improved with a device that mimics the firing patterns of neurons. In recent years neuroscientists have developed implants that allow paralyzed people to move prosthetic limbs or a computer cursor, using their thoughts to activate the machines. In the new work, being published Friday, researchers at Wake Forest University and the University of Southern California used some of the same techniques to read neural activity. But they translated those signals internally, to improve brain function rather than to activate outside appendages.

“It’s technically very impressive to pull something like this off, given our current level of technology,” said Daryl Kipke, a professor of bioengineering at the University of Michigan who was not involved in the experiment. “We are just scratching the surface when it comes to interacting with the brain, but this experiment shows what’s possible and the great potential of interacting with the brain in this way.”

In a series of experiments, scientists at Wake Forest led by Sam A. Deadwyler trained rats to remember which of two identical levers to press to receive water; the animals first saw one of the two levers appear and then (after being distracted) had to remember to press the other lever to be rewarded. Repeated training on this task teaches rats the general rule, but in each trial the animal has to remember which lever appeared first, to inform the later choice.

The rats were implanted with a tiny array of electrodes, which threaded from the top of the head down into two neighboring pieces of the hippocampus, a structure that is crucial for forming these new memories, in rats as in humans. The two slivers of tissue, called CA1 and CA3, communicate with each other as the brain learns and stores new information. The device transmits these exchanges to a computer.

To test the effect of the implant, the researchers used a drug to shut down the activity of CA1. Without CA1 online, the rats could not remember which lever to push to get water. They remembered the rule — push the opposite lever of the one that first appeared — but not which they had seen first.

The researchers, having recorded the appropriate signal from CA1, simply replayed it, like a melody on a player piano — and the animals remembered. The implant acted as if it were CA1, at least for this one task.

“Turn the switch on, the animal has the memory; turn it off and they don’t: that’s exactly how it worked,” said Theodore W. Berger, a professor of engineering at U.S.C. and the lead author of the study, being published in The Journal of Neural Engineering. His co-authors were Robert E. Hampson and Anushka Goonawardena, along with Dr. Deadwyler, of Wake Forest, and Dong Song and Vasilis Z. Marmarelis of U.S.C.

In rats that did not receive the drug, new memories faded by about 40 percent after a long distraction period. But if the researchers amplified the corresponding CA1 signals using the implant, the memories eroded only about 10 percent in that time.

The authors said that with wireless technology and computer chips, the system could be easily fitted for human use. But there are a number of technical and theoretical obstacles. For one, the implant must first record a memory trace before playing it back or amplifying it; in patients with significant memory problems, those signals may be too weak. In addition, human memory is a rich, diverse neural process that involves many other brain areas, not just CA3 and CA1; implants in this area will be limited.

Still, some restored memories — Where is the bathroom? Where are the pots and pans stored? — could make a big difference in the lives of someone with dementia. “If you’re caring for someone in the house, for example,” Dr. Berger said, “it might be enough to keep the person out of the nursing home.”

On a more personal note, my Nanna has really bad dementia and has suffered many strokes and is only about 80. She keeps suffering mini strokes and is in a really bad state and cannot do anything for herself anymore. She can hardly hold her arms up and cannot eat or drink on her own. I know this is partially due to age but i feel she would just have a more enjoyable life if it wasn’t for Dementia. My family aren’t even recognisable to her anymore and this to me is just heartbreaking. To me it would seem in her mind she would think no-one visits or cares about her, as she is in a dementia nursing home. Its not a fair thing, i guess life isn’t fair. I want her last moments knowing we are there for her and love her. But at times it seems futile because she doesn’t know anything anymore. Pity nothing can be done but have her without dignity and alone. I know its more fathers day then Grandma’s day but i would like her to know i’m there and miss and love her. I don’t like dementia or the idea that i or anyone else could get it, regardless of whether i know them or not. Its just a bad thing.

Sorry about the personalness i just felt i had to get it down and out of myself.

Thanks.

I believe this book is that right buy for me. Firstly its by Penn Jillette. Secondly its about Atheism and religion.
Thirdly its by Penn Jillette. There is also an audio version.
Apparently it features Penn commandments which should be hilarious i’m sure.

For anyone interested in stuff like this go and follow Penn’s vblog thing on youtube. Penn Point

Also go and buy Sock which is also written by Penn.

Thatisjuststrange.wordpress.com

I want help though with this, such as folks posting posts so that the blog has more of a community blog feel and then there will be more content. If anyone wants to help me just give me a shout through any thing you can get to me.

I also could do with some help with making a banner for the top of the blog.

i would really appreciate the help.

Also if anyone wants anything advertising on there give me a link and/or pic and it shall be done.

Cheers

So basically the rapture is when all the good christians leave their atheist friends and families to perish upon a dying earth. What nice people?!

But Christians never fear for your pets because of a lovely group of Athiests with good intentions have made a service called Eternal Earthbound Pets so that your pets won’t be left alone.
Also there is a service for delivering mail post rapture to any Athiest friends you may have. Post Rapture Post

This from the start seems highly unllikey due to the guy has already predicted this and obviously was WRONG before, me being an Athiest and the whole idea of this being absolutely hilarious. But i am no cynic so we shall see i guess and then he will be proved wrong once more.

I might now go watch “The Knowing” if anyone has seen this it is filled with that Raptur-ific goodness. Although before that i have to pay more towards my Vegas holiday which is in September good job if there was such a thing as a rapture i wouldn’t be taken because its already booked now.

Dirty Beard

Send an email to competitions@slamdunkmusic.com
Put DIRTY BEARD as the subject
And put this Myspace link in the e mail ( www.myspace.com/dirtybeardrocks )

That’s it so get voting people! x Only one vote per email address.

Hey if anyone enjoys the Dirty Beard songs i have put up on here or the ones i have used on youtube please vote.
This would be a great opportunity for the Beard if all goes well.

Do me a favour

Cheers.

So hopefully i can get blogging more frequently. I know i said that last time but now i mean it.

Gonna get compiling a list of websites that i need to look at for my Las Vegas holiday now.

Just thought i’d say i win.

Expect some kind of post tomorrow…

I can’t seem to stick to what i set out for myself to do. Am i bored of the blogging, am i slowing down due to brain function, have i no time on my hands or is it all of the above. Hmmm.

Anyway just typing to ask what any of you reckon to me fashioning some sort of website out of the spare internets lying around.
I was thinking some kind of weird things style website, based around people beliefs of strange animals or goings on, phoney magic tricks done with cameras which may be physically impossible and cryptozoology.

If i did this new site what should i call it has anyone any ideas. I could make it into a sort of blogging community website too which would be nice and that way maybe there will be a stream of content instead of bits and bobs.

So one name i was thinking was ‘Aint no such thing’ because it sounds funny and kind of says what most of the content may be.

Oooh and if anyone could give me a hand with stuff i’d be very appreciative. Let me know…

Cheers.