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A-Rod wants to pay less child support now that he’s not a Yankee https://nyp.st/2D2V5un

The future is uncertain but the end is always near.
― Jim Morrison

#lego #toy_photographers #secretworldofmagnusonpark #xxsjc

Neuroscientist Sara Lazar of Mass General and Harvard Medical School, started studying meditation by accident. She sustained running injuries training for the Boston Marathon, and her physical therapist told her to stretch. So Lazar took up yoga.
The yoga teacher made all sorts of claims, that yoga would increase your compassion and open your heart said Lazar. And I'd think, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm here to stretch.' But I started noticing that I was calmer. I was better able to handle more difficult situations. I was more compassionate and open hearted, and able to see things from others' points of view.
Eventually, she looked up the scientific literature on mindfulness meditation (a category into which yoga can fall). She found the ever-increasing body of evidence that shows that meditation decreases stress, depression, and anxiety, reduces pain and insomnia, and increases quality of life.

So she started doing some neuroscience research of her own.
In her first study, she looked at long-term meditators (those with 7-9 years of experience) versus a control group. The results showed that those with a strong meditation background had increased gray matter in several areas of the brain, including the auditory and sensory cortex, as well as insula and sensory regions.
This makes sense, since mindfulness meditation has you slow down and become aware of the present moment, including physical sensations such as your breathing and the sounds around you.
However, the neuroscientists also found that the mediators had more gray matter in another brain region, this time linked to decision-making and working memory: the frontal cortex. In fact, while most people see their cortexes shrink as they age, 50-year-old meditators in the study had the same amount of gray matter as those half their age (25-year-olds).
That's remarkable.

Lazar and her team wanted to make sure this wasn't because the long-term meditators had more gray matter to begin with, so they conducted a second study. In it, they put people with no experience with meditation into an 8-week mindfulness program.
The results? Even just eight weeks of meditation changed people's brains for the better. There was thickening in several regions of the brain, including the left hippocampus (involved in learning, memory, and emotional regulation); the TPJ (involved in empathy and the ability to take multiple perspectives); and a part of the brainstem called the pons (where regulatory neurotransmitters are generated).
Plus, the brains of the new meditators saw shrinkage of the amygdala, a region of the brain associated with fear, anxiety, and aggression. This reduction in size of the amygdala correlated to reduced stress levels in those participants.
How long do you have to meditate to see such results? Well, in the study, participants were told to meditate for 40 minutes a day, but the average ended up being 27 minutes a day. Several other studies suggest that you can see significant positive changes in just 15-20 minutes a day.
As for Lazar's own meditation practice, she says it's highly variable. Some days 40 minutes. Some days five minutes. Some days, not at all. It's a lot like exercise. Exercising three times a week is great. But if all you can do is just a little bit every day, that's a good thing, too.
Turns out meditating can give you the brain of a 25-year-old. Too bad it can't also give you the body of one.

autumnal colors

"Marvel's Daredevil" Season 3 showrunner Erik Oleson gets real about Fisk and Dex and what comes next for them (spoilers ahead!): http://bit.ly/2OG9hzE

Stop looking at the walls, look out the window.

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For more black&white images from around the world please check my website: https://www.bjornkleemann.com/cityscapes-in-black-and-white

Facebook is rolling out a revamped version of its Messenger app that simplifies its user interface #Facebook #Messenger

The No. 6 team will be in good hands next year.

It's Team Store Tuesday!

Today's featured item is the Jack Roush Hall of Fame Class 2019 1:64 Hauler. Get ready for next year's Hall of Fame Ceremony with this treasure.

Shop now! 👇
https://rfrshop.com/collections/diecasts/products/jack-roush-hall-of-fame-class-2019-1-64-hauler

OPEC expect to increase the global demand that oils will be from 97.2 million barrels per day in 2017 to 111.7 mb/day in 2040. And they expect the coals demand increase 20% in developing countries by 2040! Can't make the target 1.5C by OPEC! Badman Nishioka/HUTAN Group/ https://woo.opec.org/chapter.html?chapterNr=3 write
year 2017 2020 2025 2030 2040
OECD 47.3 48.3 46.8 44.2 38.7mibarrels/day
Developing countries 44.4 47.9 53.1 58.1 66.6
Eurasia 5.4 5.8 6.1 6.3 6.4
World 97.2 101.9 106.0 108.6 111.7
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/sep/23/opec-predicts-massive-rise-in-oil-production-over-next-five-years write,,

Opec expects global oil demand to reach nearly 112m barrels per day by 2040, driven by transportation and petrochemicals. That is up from almost 100m today and higher than last year’s projection.

Coal will continue to be be burned in record amounts, despite concerns about its impact on climate change. Opec estimates that coal usage in the OECD countries will plummet by a third by 2040, but it will increase by 20% in developing countries to reach five times the volumes burned in the west.

The world’s airlines will be the single fastest growing user of oil, increasing consumption by 2.2% a year on average, to 2040. However, the largest absolute growth is expected to come from road transport.

Institute in the News
October 11 - October 17, 2018

* Paul G. Allen 1953-2018
* Who is Dr. Pascal Lee?
* NASA Frontier Development Lab and Google Cloud Searching for Life on Other Planets
* Will NASA Join the Search for Alien Life?
* Off-the-Shelf AI for SETI?

All these stories and more: https://buff.ly/2SaFKfq

China’s search for sand is destroying Mozambique’s pristine beaches https://qz.com/africa/1430196/sand-mining-in-mozambique-by-chinese-firm-destroys-lives/ -via Flynx

Police probe hotel beef between Cowboys receiver, model https://nyp.st/2D242E9

Hunter's Moon Coming Up
The Full Moon on October 24 is named after the Northern Hemisphere hunting season. https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/moon/hunters.html

LeBron James’s New Game Is Rebooting Friday the 13th http://vntyfr.com/u1cCgbi

Do you tend to breathe more through your nose or through your mouth? Your answer may affect your ability to consolidate new memories. #NeurologyNeuroscience

OpenChain has made two big announcements today! First, Toshiba has become a Platinum member, and SUSE has joined the OpenChain Community of Conformance. Read more about Toshiba at https://bit.ly/2PRH7xR and SUSE at https://bit.ly/2Aoetzm!

About 29 million people around the world are affected by the disease "Alzheimer". In an international collaboration, scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) in Mainz together with teams from Italy, Great Britain, Belgium and the USA are now working together on an approach for a therapy.
https://nano-magazine.com/news/2018/10/10/researchers-fight-alzheimers-disease-using-nanoparticles/?email=milana@macrosorb.org

US to revoke visas of Saudis implicated in Jamal Khashoggi killing https://nyp.st/2CYnxgV

Rupee closes flat at 73.57 on easing oil prices