The BeardnWeird Blog

  If you have a stable internet connection, you might have come across at least one internet meme today. Notice how I used the term internet meme and not just meme. It is because they are just an example of the broader context of memes. It is fun to create and share a meme but, why do they always look a certain way? Creating memes is synonymous with the idea of creating bits of culture, and in this context, religion might be the most infectious or “viral” meme ever. Meme The word meme was coined by biologist Richard Dawkins in his book - The Selfish Gene (1976) as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. To understand the concept of memes, one must understand the concept of a replicator. A replicator is the theoretical basic unit of evolution in the gene-centered view of evolution. It copies information with variation and selection. Genes are a replicator. When animals mate or seeds grow, information is ...

  The "fifth taste" — after salty, sweet, bitter, and sour—has been known for more than a century. Monosodium glutamate (or AJI-NO-MOTO), the cheap and easy way to get that umami hit, was once criticized as the cause of an allergic reaction known as Chinese restaurant syndrome. Although that's been debunked by scientists, is it still safe to include MSG in our diet?   Monosodium glutamate (MSG) Monosodium glutamate( C ₅ H ₈ NO ₄ Na ), is the sodium salt of glutamic acid. It is designated as non-essential because the human body, as well as a large number of other plants and animals is able to produce it on its own. In the body, glutamic acid is often found as glutamate. Glutamate is one of the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitters in brain, playing a crucial role in memory and learning. The average adult consumes 13 grams of it a day from the protein in food. Non-meat food sources like tomatoes and Parmesan cheese have high levels of glutamic acid. MSG is used i...

“Our parents had decided to put an end to their calamitous marriage, and Father shipped us home to his mother. A porter had been charged with our welfare — he got off the train the next day in Arizona — and our tickets were pinned to my brother’s inside coat pocket. I don’t remember much of the trip, but after we reached the segregated southern part of the journey, things must have looked up. Negro passengers, who always traveled with loaded lunch boxes, felt sorry for “the poor little motherless darlings" and plied us with cold fried chicken and potato salad." -           Maya Angelou(I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings) Yard Bird Every chicken on Earth is the descendant of the red jungle fowl found in South Asia. The chicken is not just a bird that provides us with meat and eggs. It has played more roles across human history than any other animal. In ancient Babylon (now Iraq), seals were used by people to identify themselves. Some of t...

  Introduction In the 1950s, Robert Monroe, a radio broadcasting executive, was studying the effects of sound on human consciousness producing evidence that specific sound patterns have identifiable effects on human capabilities including alertness, sleepiness, expanded states of consciousness, and sensations of paralysis and vibration culminating in an out-of-body experience (OBE). He even published the “Journeys Out of the Body”, a book that is credited with popularizing the term “out-of-body experience”. In 1975 Monroe registered the first patent concerning audio techniques designed to stimulate brain functions until the left and right hemispheres become synchronized – the "Hemi-Sync" (hemispheric synchronization), and claimed that it could be used to promote mental well-being or to trigger an altered state of consciousness. Around the same time, individual governments were conducting and investing in psychic research and experiments for their respective armies, like t...