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Geek Speak / Can you recommend a YouTube video downloader?

« on: 05/07/2018 12:10:28 »

Can anyone recommend a YouTube video downloader. The free one I used before worked great, was fast, easy, but then they put  restrictions on any video longer than 3 minutes.
Thanks

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Technology / Re: Are there indoor solar Christmas tree lights?

« on: 21/11/2017 14:41:58 »

Thanks, for the responses. I'm going to play around with the lights. There are places near a window sill I could set the little panel, but the amount of light it would get in Canada in the winter is pretty limited.

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: How do we determine if an emotion is authentic?

« on: 21/11/2017 14:34:59 »

Ok, I think I see what you mean now. Based on the way people behave, it would be fair to say that drugs like alcohol and opiates hijack the system, since people who develop an addiction spend more and more time time seeking and taking that drug, and less and less time on activities and personal interactions that previously gave them happiness or satisfaction.

I'm not sure you can lump all drugs in that category, since depressed people who take antidepressants often return to those activities, or even seek out new ones. You seem to be taking the position that if nature has decreed someone be miserable, than miserable they should be, because that is authentic.

 CBT, meditation, exercise, even a major change in environment and routine can also alter brain states and neurochemistry, but some people may need a "priming of the pump" with a medication to initiate those things.

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: How do we determine if an emotion is authentic?

« on: 18/11/2017 04:36:17 »

I think your definition of "authentic" is ambiguous and problematic here. At first I thought you were referring to emotions genuinely experienced as opposed to someone pretending to mimic an emotional state (ie smiling when you are not really happy, laughing at a joke that you don't actually find funny etc.) But you seem to be referring to emotional states induced or suppressed by drugs. I'm not sure, however, there is any real difference, though, subjectively, between emotional states that occur from normal brain chemistry or other chemicals. For example, the experience of panic, or the reactions displayed, might be identical, whether it is induced by some perceived threat, or an injection of adrenaline.

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Technology / Are there indoor solar Christmas tree lights?

« on: 18/11/2017 04:17:49 »

Last spring I bought a string of solar "fairy lights" to hang on my deck for the summer, and  this morning I took them down and piled them on the kitchen counter. When I turned off the light tonight to go to bed, I noticed they lit up.  I thought solar lights would only charge in sunlight,  not incandescent, that they needed UV or something. 

Then I started to wonder why they don't make indoor solar Christmas tree lights. The only problem with my particular string of lights is that they only turn on in the dark, so I couldn't actually use them for Christmas tree lights unless the room was almost totally dark. But is it possibly to make solar lights that that will light up even in when it is not dark? This seems like a really good idea, because you would not have to mess with extension cords and plugs and things. In a sense, the energy would be free, so to speak, because you'd be using daylight and room light to power the lights on your tree. The tiny panel for my fairy lights is about the size of 2 by two inches, which you could easily place near any room light or window.  Why isn't this a thing? I tried to google it but didn't find anything for indoor solar lights. It also seems like a good way to capture and re-use light for other purposes (night lights, closet lights, etc. )

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: How genetically similar are we to our family?

« on: 29/10/2017 08:32:00 »

I thought this was a nice article about the topic. http://genetics.thetech.org/ask-a-geneticist/siblings-are-around-fifty-percent-related
As the article points out, 50% related for siblings is a mean value, and because of the way your parent's chromosomes can be sorted during meiosis, it is possible to be much less, or much more, genetically similar to a brother and sister.

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: How do we mentalize?

« on: 29/10/2017 08:11:25 »

Interestingly, it does seem to be a specific kind of brain function, not just a general cognitive ability. My mother has dementia, and I suspect it might be frontotemporal dementia. She doesn't exhibit  a lot of the behaviors that are  characteristic of Alzheimer patients. Her short term memory is pretty good, and she's oriented to time and place, doesn't get lost, knows the names of common every day objects, etc. She has a lot of trouble with abstract thinking and language comprehension, especially grammatically complex sentences.

But one really strange symptom she has had, is loss of empathy, as well as a strange inability to see the world from someone else's point of view. She has a really hard time imagining or knowing what others know and don't know. For example, she would explain to me how to use the garden hose, or operate the washing machine, or which way to turn on the street I grew up on. These things almost present like memory problems, but they are oddly specific to this "point of view" problem.  When ordering in a restaurant, she will read the entire description of what she wants to the waitress despite the fact the waitress obviously works there and knows what is on the menu. I don't think she is intentionally mean, but doesn't seem to understand why something she says might be rude or hurtful, and it can be embarrassing in public.

It would be interesting to research what part of the brain is responsible for interpreting other people's thoughts or feelings or intentions. I know with babies, studies show they develop "theory of mind" at specific point in their development. I think it is around 7 months.

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: Does the brain have more than one centre of consciousness?

« on: 13/09/2017 15:35:01 »

Science does not believe in things like soul and spirit as the basis for human consciousness. Instead science believes that human consciousness is generated by the brain, using physical and chemical processes. The mechanism may be subject to debate, but the brain as the source is accepted as science.

Since human consciousness is generated by the brain, can the brain generate more than one center of consciousness?  Traditional thinking, based on the concepts of soul and spirit, suggest only one center of consciousness per brain, since two souls in one person is rarely mentioned, except as due to invasion by demons. Although the concept of the Holy Spirit acts like a secondary center.

On the other hand, since a large enough computer should be able to support many AI, at the same time, especially if the programming was efficient, could the brain do the same thing? 

As Alancalverd points out, consciousness is not a clearly defined concept. And setting aside your more mystical references for the moment, I think you need to be a bit more clear whether you mean  awareness, a sense of volition, or just any mental process that results in a person doing something or selecting one option over other possible ones.  There are a lot of studies that demonstrate that behaviors originate from mental processes that happen below the level of conscious awareness.

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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: Do animals know they will die?

« on: 13/09/2017 15:15:04 »

I've often wondered about this. There has been some research with apes and chimps and what appears to be mourning like activities after the loss of a member of the group or off spring. I read one anecdotal account of a researcher herself who lost a child and was away on leave. When she returned explained she was away because her baby died, Washoe signed "cry". Maybe too much is being read into this account, I don't know. http://www.lifebuzz.com/chimpanzee-communicates/

On a personal note, I was struck by how oddly my two cats reacted when my border collie died. It was mid winter, and the ground was too frozen to bury him  right away, so we placed him the basement for a day or two, and then later transferred him to the barn. But while he was in the basement, the cats would go down there, and sit and just look at him. They didn't poke or try to play with him, they just sat looking. After we moved him, one cat would wake us up at 2 in the morning howling like it was in distress. That was the only time she ever did that - maybe a coincidence, but it was quite weird.

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Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution / Re: What is the definition of a species and are there different species of human?

« on: 13/09/2017 14:51:55 »

I often see this question pop up on political forums, where someone claims the different "races" are different, or almost different species. The fact that they can interbreed would seem to discount this. Another thing to consider, as well, is that while you see these maps showing the migration of humans across the globe, those maps often do not show back tracking, reconnecting,  or intermingling with nearby groups. And unlike groups of migrating humans, genes them selves can essentially travel independently, so to speak, in different directions, depending on whether they are more adventitious in one environment or another. People often categorize anyone with dark skin, whose ancestors lived near the equator,  as belonging to a particular "race", even if they are no more genetically related to one other,  than to  other groups. 

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: Why does sunlight make me sneeze? Am I allergic to the sun?

« on: 13/09/2017 14:31:30 »

Whenever I step outside into bright light I sneeze. Is there a reason for this? Am I just weird?

Or is it just a series of coincidences and I'm being silly?

Am I dead? Am I alive? I'm both!

It's not an allergy. Sometimes the brain  misinterprets a stimulus  or irritation coming though cranial nerves from one area of the body, as coming from another area, and respond accordingly. Some people also sneeze when they pluck their eyebrows.

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: Where is consciousness in the brain?

« on: 22/02/2017 11:20:04 »

Why do discussions about consciousness always go off the rails?

The hard to grasp and the unexplained always seem to attract a raft of pseudoscientific debris...

I guess what irks me is that there actually is a fair amount of information about the neuroscience behind things like perception, memory,  language, learning or emotion etc. - a lot of it a click away on Wikipedia. But there's this odd assumption that "Well, I have a brain, so I must know how it works,  and if I can't explain how the brain performs some task, it must be mysterious." There's no other area of science I can think of where so many people do this. I'm not criticizing anyone for asking questions, or not knowing something , just the tendency to make sh1t up willy nilly. 

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: Does the Brain Habituate to Antidepressants?

« on: 21/02/2017 18:51:30 »

I've always wondered that as well, whether increasing the amount of a neurotransmitter might cause the number or receptors to decrease, or something along those lines. I've never been able to to find a definitive answer to whether the brain builds a kind of tolerance. Some people claim they stop working after a while, but perhaps it is just fluctuations because of situational ups and downs (they won't after all, prevent you from experiencing any grief or disappointment.) 

There is this article about it though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidepressant_treatment_tachyphylaxis

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: Is obesity a sin of gluttony or sloth?

« on: 21/02/2017 18:34:44 »

Although I realize there is an evolutionary advantage to storing fat for times of famine, I've also wondered if the modern struggle with obesity is connected to a misdirected hunting or gathering drive. I just noticed that when I worked in an office with other women, they spent an inordinate amount of time talking about food - what they made last night for dinner, what they brought for lunch, where they went out to eat last Saturday, what's on sale at the grocery store this week, foods that are good for you, foods that are bad for you, a recipe they saw of Facebook - it was almost constant chatter about food. And quite often this discussion would be followed by having a little snack.  I wonder if they talked about food because they were hungry, or if they ate because they were thinking about food.

Years and years ago it took a lot of thought and planning and effort to get enough calories to survive. Today it doesn't - at least not directly - 20 minutes in the grocery store, a half hour prep, and you're good. But maybe our brains are still wired to think about food, whether we need to or not, and this is part of compulsive eating.

The other reason I have this theory, is that whenever I was successful at weightloss, some form of mental distraction was involved -  I went places and did things that were incompatible with eating (like say a museum, or canoeing) and stayed out of grocery stores and didn't watch cooking shows, or maybe I was distracted by some big project, or had fallen in love. I've never been able to lose weight through careful meal planning or dieting.

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Physiology & Medicine / Re: Where is consciousness in the brain?

« on: 21/02/2017 18:08:55 »

Why do discussions about consciousness always go off the rails?

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General Science / Re: Is Capitalism for the greater good?

« on: 18/02/2017 10:12:23 »

I've often thought that economics has a great deal in common with biology, and I am not the only person to think so - mathematicians have applied the same equations to both sciences. Game theory has been applied to both. In both nature and economics, it is clear that competition and natural selection has resulted in the rich diversity and creativity that we witness around us. Competition is responsible for the innovation and change on previous designs. It is the very engine of life and evolution.

But in both nature and economics there is no guarantee of a positive out come for either individuals or even larger groups. In biology, you can have epidemics that wipe out populations  of species, or environmental changes that happen so rapidly that they cause mass extinctions, wiping out all almost all of the creative innovations of life up to that point, and nature starts from scratch, so to speak.  In economics, you can also have crashes that destroy wealth and productivity, or reactions that result in extremely inequitable distributions of income.

In addition to such cataclysmic events there are is also harm to individuals who can't compete in any natural selection process. Morality or personal interest dictates that people intervene. You will give your kid antibiotics when he has strep throat. You give old people social security and unemployed people benefits  until  they find a new job. You intervene in these natural processes to some degree - the question is just how much.

Conservatives who argue that the magic hand of capitalism will solve everything, and always produce a positive outcome,  are no different than hippies who say nature is always good - vaccines and big Pharma  are bad and if we just drink spinach smoothies, we will all live to be 90, because nature is perfect, and things only get f*cked up when we interfere with what nature wants. It's the same idea - a blind faith that a natural process will produce a psostive outcome every time.

If you are truly willing to live by the sword and die by the sword, and play the hand that nature or economics deals you - fine. But most people seem to prefer to distribute that risk, to help their fellow man, and intervene or mitigate the negative aspects of natural selection, whether it;s biological or economic.


Whether you think it is ultimately wrong or right, don't kid yourself about what you are actually doing and why.

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Geek Speak / Re: How to remove browser hijacker?

« on: 12/02/2017 21:52:06 »

Thanks for the replies. I got rid of it for about a week after repeatedly clearing data and caches and cookies, or disabling cooking. But it eventually  came back. One thing I find so frustrating is that when I google instructions for how to do things specifically for Samasung S4, the selections on menus on my phone never match the selections in their instructions and I end up randomly clicking on things trying to find what they tell me should be there.

I don't know if it matters, but I can't seem to erase my Google search history.

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Geek Speak / How to remove browser hijacker?

« on: 22/01/2017 06:49:45 »

My Samsung s4 my Chrome browser got hijacked and I finally ended up uninstalling it. I switched to regular Google but  then  it too became hijacked. They direct me sites saying I've won some lottery prize or my battery has been damaged.
One is a site called "clickdothypermobileworld" It won't let you do anything without clicking on some box or just closing everything down. I've googled this and can't find a solution. Tried clearing cache and history and cookies. Any advice?

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Technology / Re: Why didn't fusion pan out as an alternate energy source?

« on: 30/11/2016 07:14:21 »

okay. So I gather the sun can do it but we can't.

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Technology / Why didn't fusion pan out as an alternate energy source?

« on: 30/11/2016 01:26:47 »

My brother and were recently arguing about politics and global warming (he's a skeptic; I'm not) and he claimed that fusion is what we should really pursuing. To be honest, I don't know much about it. Is  it or is it not a potential alternative source of energy?