Saturday 31 January 2015

Purple Galaxy Cluster iPad Folio Case

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!


tagged with: blue, purple, nasa, hubble, space, images, galaxy, cluster, macs, j0717, stars, pretty, galaxies, macsj0717

Galaxy Cluster MACS J0717 thanks to NASA and Hubble program.

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Scientists ‘bend’ elastic waves with new metamaterials that could have commercial applications

original post »

Sound waves passing through the air, objects that break a body of water and cause ripples, or shockwaves

The post Scientists ‘bend’ elastic waves with new metamaterials that could have commercial applications has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Gravitational waves from early universe remain elusive

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A joint analysis of data from the Planck space mission and the ground-based experiment BICEP2 has found no conclusive evidence of gravitational waves from the birth of our universe, despite earlier reports of a possible detection. The collaboration between the teams has resulted in the most precise knowledge yet of what signals from the ancient gravitational waves should look like, aiding future searches.

via Science Daily

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Black Hole Poster

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: black, hole, nasa, holes, blackhole, blackholes, space, astronomy, universe, galaxy, image, photography, exotic, color

Three hot blobs of matter orbiting a black hole. If placed in our Solar System, this black hole would appear like a dark abyss spread out nearly as wide as Mercury's orbit. And the three blobs (each as large as the Sun) would be as far out as Jupiter. They orbit the black hole in a lightning-quick 20,000 miles per second, over a tenth of the speed of light. Credit: NASA/Dana Berry, SkyWorks Digital

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Relax, your sexual fantasies aren't that strange

Science Focus

original post »

Do you ever wonder about your sexual fantasies, and what they say about you? If so, one of two worries likely comes to mind: "Am I really this conventional and boring?" or "Does the fact I'm having these thoughts mean I'm abnormal?"

Newly published research suggests you can relax. It finds humans indulge in a wide range of erotic fantasies, only a handful of which fall on either extreme (that is, almost everyone has experienced them, or almost no one has).

"There are very few statistically unusual sexual fantasies," reports a research team led by Canadian psychologist Christian Joyal. Its paper is published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Joyal and his colleagues conducted a detailed online survey of 1,516 adults. (While that's a large sample, the researchers concede that people willing to share their sexual fantasies aren't necessarily representative of the general population.)

Participants were presented with a list of 55 sexual fantasies. They were asked to rate each on a one-to-seven scale, one being it doesn't excite them at all, and seven representing a very strong response.

They were also asked to write down their favorite sexual fantasy if it was not included among the 55. Three hundred and seventy-two people did so.

Of the 55 fantasies, only two were found to be "statistically rare" (that is, endorsed by 2.3 percent or less of participants): Having sex with a child under age 12, and having sex with an animal. Another nine were "statistically unusual" (endorsed by 15.9 percent or less of participants); "urinating on partner" fell into this category.

At the other end of the spectrum, only three sexual fantasies were statistically typical for both men and women (endorsed by more than 84.1 percent of participants): feeling romantic emotions during a sexual relationship, fantasies in which atmosphere and location are important, and fantasies involving a romantic location.

Two additional fantasies were typical for males only: "Receiving oral sex, and having sexual intercourse with two women."

"The proportion of women acknowledging submissive fantasies is not negligible," the researchers write. "Being sexually dominated (64.6 percent), being tied up for sexual pleasure (52.1 percent), being spanked or whipped (36.3 percent), and being forced to have sex (28.9 percent) were all reported by significant proportions of women."

"Interestingly, the same sexual fantasies were also reported by significant proportions of men (53.2, 46.2, and 3.7 percent respectively)," they add. "The fantasy of being dominated was significantly greater for women than for men, on average, whereas the fantasy of dominating was statistically stronger for men than for women, on average."

Overall, "reports of submission fantasies were significantly associated with reports of domination fantasies," they add, "indicating that these fantasy themes are not separate or in opposition."

While these results explain the popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey, it doesn't mean men should assume prospective partners are looking to get spanked.

"Approximately half of women with descriptions of submissive fantasies specified that they would not want their fantasy to materialize in real life," the researchers write. "This result confirms the important distinction between sexual fantasies and sexual wishes, which is usually stronger among women than among men."

One additional intriguing finding: "The percentages of women and men fantasizing about homosexual activities significantly exceeded the percentages of declared bisexuality or homosexuality."

Hmm. Even in this era of gay marriage, could it be that a stigma still surrounds homosexuality, leading some to fantasize about such activity, but refrain from defining themselves as gay?

Pacific Standard grapples with the nation's biggest issues by illuminating why we do what we do. For more on the science of society, sign up for its weekly email update or subscribe to its bimonthly print magazine.

More from Pacific Standard...

 
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 » see original post http://theweek.com/articles/442451/relax-sexual-fantasies-arent-that-strange
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Live chat today: Ars in China

Science Focus

original post »
View Liveblog
2015-01-23T12:00:00-06:00

With Lee Hutchinson about to grab the mic and tell us about visiting Munich, we're wrapping up my time in the spotlight by doing a live Q&A. At 1pm Eastern tomorrow, I'll set up a live chat and field questions about anything that interests you, from sichuan peppers to real-time control software. I'd also be happy to talk a bit about the differences between academic and commercial research, as well as the challenges of making sure that the results of your research can be mass produced.

If people have questions about science, or the challenges of writing about it, I'd be happy to field those, too. So stop by tomorrow and say hi.

Read on Ars Technica | Comments

 
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 » see original post http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/50iRFLUGLsw/
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Self-destructive effects of magnetically-doped ferromagnetic topological insulators

Science Focus

original post »

The discovery of “topologically protected” electrical conductivity on the surface of some materials whose bulk interior acts as

The post Self-destructive effects of magnetically-doped ferromagnetic topological insulators has been published on Technology Org.

 
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 » see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/V3lN_bOkxuY/
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Monogram Carina Nebula - Breathtaking Universe Stickers

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: stlrnrsry, star clusters, galaxies, stars, starfields, awesome astronomy pictures, constellation puppis, the stern, monogram, monograms, star nurseries, nebulae, european southern observatory, eso, vista, initials, initialled, monogrammed

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series

A gorgeous set of oval stickers showing the area surrounding the stellar cluster NGC 2467, located in the southern constellation of Puppis ("The Stern"). With an age of a few million years at most, it is a very active stellar nursery, where new stars are born continuously from large clouds of dust and gas.

The image, looking like a colourful cosmic ghost or a gigantic celestial Mandrill, contains the open clusters Haffner 18 (centre) and Haffner 19 (middle right: it is located inside the smaller pink region - the lower eye of the Mandrill), as well as vast areas of ionised gas.

The bright star at the centre of the largest pink region on the bottom of the image is HD 64315, a massive young star that is helping shaping the structure of the whole nebular region.

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Image code: stlrnrsry

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

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Yellow Balls in W33

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Infrared wavelengths of 3.6, 8.0, and 24.0 microns observed by the Spitzer Space Telescope are mapped into visible colors red, green, and blue in this striking image. The cosmic cloud of gas and dust is W33, a massive starforming complex some 13,000 light-years distant, near the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. So what are all those yellow balls? Citizen scientists of the web-based Milky Way Project found the features they called yellow balls as they scanned many Spitzer images and persistently asked that question of researchers. Now there is an answer. The yellow balls in Spitzer images are identified as an early stage of massive star formation. They appear yellow because they are overlapping regions of red and green, the assigned colors that correspond to dust and organic molecules known as PAHs at Spitzer wavelengths. Yellow balls represent the stage before newborn massive stars clear out cavities in their surrounding gas and dust and appear as green-rimmed bubbles with red centers in the Spitzer image. Of course, the astronomical crowdsourcing success story is only part of the Zooniverse. The Spitzer image spans 0.5 degrees or about 100 light-years at the estimated distance of W33.
Tomorrow's picture: of mice and galaxies
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Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old

Christmas Tree Star Cluster Room Graphics

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: christmas tree cluster, cone nebula, red nebula, nebula, astronomy, space, star formation, nebulae, nebula photo, red sky, star cluster, nebula photograph, stars, eso, universe, outer space, cosmos, cosmic, astronomical, astrophotography, cosmology, space photograph, space picture, space image, deep space, nature, natural, science, abstract, space photo, milky way, ngc 2264, glowing, soft, cloudy, dust, misty, gas, gas clouds, fuzzy

This deep red image shows NCG 2264, a region of the Milky Way galaxy in which new stars are being formed. Included in this area are the Christmas Tree Star Cluster & the Cone Nebula. This image was taken by Chile's La Silla Observatory in 2008.

Image credit: ESO | Released by ESO.org under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license

You can personalise the design further if you'd prefer, such as by adding your name or other text, or adjusting the image - just click 'Customize it' to see all the options. IMPORTANT: If you choose a different sized version of the product, it's important to click Customize and check the image in the Design view to ensure it fills the area to the edge of the product, otherwise white edges may be visible.

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Orion Nebula Caseable Case iPad Cases

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!


tagged with: orion, nebula, space, image, nasa, hubble, astronomy

A lovely detail of an image of the Orion Nebula thanks to NASA/Hubble.

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A self-centering beam to better withstand earthquakes

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Economic losses from earthquakes are often devastating. The financial damages from the earthquakes in Chile in 2010, Kobe,

The post A self-centering beam to better withstand earthquakes has been published on Technology Org.

 
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In the Shadow of Saturn Poster

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: shadow, saturn, nasa, outer, space, universe, galaxy, astronomy, solar, system, eclipse, sun, cassini, ring, new, rings, earth, color

In the shadow of Saturn, unexpected wonders appear. The robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn recently drifted in giant planet's shadow for about 12 hours and looked back toward the eclipsed Sun. Cassini saw a view unlike any other. First, the night side of Saturn is seen to be partly lit by light reflected from its own majestic ring system. Next, the rings themselves appear dark when silhouetted against Saturn, but quite bright when viewed away from Saturn and slightly scattering sunlight, in the above exaggerated color image. Saturn's rings light up so much that new rings were discovered, although they are hard to see in the above image. Visible in spectacular detail, however, is Saturn's E ring, the ring created by the newly discovered ice-fountains of the moon Enceladus, and the outermost ring visible above. Far in the distance, visible on the image left just above the bright main rings, is the almost ignorable pale blue dot of Earth. Credit: CICLOPS, JPL, ESA, NASA

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A Speck of Interstellar Dust Rebuts a Big Bang Theory

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A team of astronomers, after saying last spring that they had found long-sought evidence for what kicked off the big bang, now concede that more work is needed.















via New York Times

Radar Images of Near-Earth Asteroid

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A team of astronomers has made the most detailed radar images yet of asteroid 2004 BL86. The images, which were taken early in the morning on Jan. 27, 2014, reveal the asteroid's surface features in unprecedented clarity.

via Science Daily

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Monogrammed Helix Nebula, Galaxies and Stars Stickers

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: star nurseries, star clusters, galaxies, stars, astronomy, nebulae, helixneb, helix nebula, initialled, monogrammed, starfields, heavens, eso, european southern observatory, vista, monogram, initials, monograms

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A fantastic colour-composite image of the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293). It was created from images obtained using the Wide Field Imager (WFI), an astronomical camera attached to the 2.2-metre Max-Planck Society/ESO telescope at the La Silla observatory in Chile.

The blue-green glow in the centre of the Helix comes from oxygen atoms shining under effects of the intense ultraviolet radiation of the 120 000 degree Celsius central star and the hot gas.

Further out from the star and beyond the ring of knots, the red colour from hydrogen and nitrogen is more prominent. A careful look at the central part of this object reveals not only the knots, but also many remote galaxies seen right through the thinly spread glowing gas.
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ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
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Eta Carinae Nebula Wall Skin

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: eta carinae nebula, eta carinae, carinae, nebula, carinae nebula, space, astronomy, stars, outer space, wr 22

This spectacular panoramic view combines a new image of the field around the Wolf–Rayet star WR 22 in the Carina Nebula (right) with an earlier picture of the region around the unique star Eta Carinae in the heart of the nebula (left).

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Friday 30 January 2015

Galaxy M82 Hubble NASA iPad Folio Cover

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!


tagged with: hubble, galaxy, nasa, universe, astronomy, outer space, glowing, spitzer telescope, cosmos, nature, galaxy m82, hubble telescope, chandra observatory, hubble space telescope, hubble photograph, hubble photo, messier 82, cosmic, astronomical, astrophotography, cosmology, space photograph, space picture, space image, deep space, space, natural, science, abstract, space photo, galaxy picture, galaxy photograph, galaxy photo, galaxy image, astronomy gifts, astronomy products, space gifts, space products

This red, turquoise, purple and blue image of the galaxy M82 – also known as NGC 3034 – is a colourful composite created from data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CXC, and JPL-Caltech

You can personalise the design further if you'd prefer, such as by adding your name or other text, or adjusting the image - just click 'Customize it' to see all the options. IMPORTANT: If you choose a different sized version of the product, it's important to click Customize and check the image in the Design view to ensure it fills the area to the edge of the product, otherwise white edges may be visible.

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Novel mechanism of superconductivity clarified by K computer

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Since the discovery of the iron-based superconductors in 2008 by Professor Hideo Hosono’s group at Tokyo Institute of

The post Novel mechanism of superconductivity clarified by K computer has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Meteorite may represent 'bulk background' of Mars' battered crust

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NWA 7034, a meteorite found a few years ago in the Moroccan desert, is like no other rock ever found on Earth. It's been shown to be a 4.4 billion-year-old chunk of the Martian crust, and according to a new analysis, rocks just like it may cover vast swaths of Mars.

via Science Daily

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The search continues

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Planck and Bicep2 join forces but gravitational waves remain elusive

via ESA Space Science

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Planck/Planck_gravitational_waves_remain_elusive

DNA Galaxy Print

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: galaxy, milky way, milky way galaxy, space art, astronomical illustration, lynette cook, astronomy, astronomy magazine, dna, dna galaxy, double helix, chromosomes, life in space

A spiral galaxy metamorphoses into the DNA double helix. Chemical structures and chromosomes are visible, symbolic of life in space. From a mixed media illustration created for Astronomy magazine. The original art is in a private collection.

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Initialled Spiral Galaxy - NGC 253 Stickers

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: spgxy253, breathtaking astronomy images, galaxies, stars, horsehead nebula, spiral galaxy, initials, initialled, monogrammed, monogram, european southern observatory, eso, vista, monograms

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous image that reveals a little of the wonder that is our universe.

Measuring 70 000 light-years across and laying 13 million light-years away, the nearly edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 253 is revealed here in an image from the Wide Field Imager (WFI) of the MPG/ESO 2.2 m telescope at the La Silla Observatory.

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image code: spgxy253

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
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A Night at Poker Flat

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Four NASA suborbital sounding rockets leapt into the night on January 26, from the University of Alaska's Poker Flat Research Range. This time lapse composite image follows all four launches of the small, multi-stage rockets to explore winter's mesmerizing, aurora-filled skies. During the exposures, stars trailed around the North Celestial Pole, high above the horizon at the site 30 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska. Lidar, beams of pulsed green lasers, also left traces through the scene. Operating successfully, the payloads lofted were two Mesosphere-Lower Thermosphere Turbulence Experiments (M-TeX) and two Mesospheric Inversion-layer Stratified Turbulence (MIST) experiments, creating vapor trails at high altitudes to be tracked by ground-based observations.
Tomorrow's picture: citizen science
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Zazzle Space Gifts for young and old

Using a single molecule to create a new magnetic field sensor

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Researchers at the University of Liverpool and University College London (UCL) have shown a new way to use a single molecule as a magnetic field sensor.



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Eagle Nebula, Messier 16 - Pillars of Creation Wall Skins

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: breathtaking astronomy images, european southern observatory, eglneb, young stars clusters, star forming nebulae, messier 16 ngc 6611, pillars of creation, eagle nebula, galaxies, outer space picture, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A breathtaking outer space picture showing a spectacular three-colour composite mosaic image of the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16, or NGC 6611). It's based on images obtained with the Wide-Field Imager camera on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory.

At the centre, the so-called “Pillars of Creation” can be seen and this wide-field image shows not only the central pillars, but also several others in the same star-forming region, as well as a huge number of stars in front of, in, or behind the Eagle Nebula.

The cluster of bright stars to the upper right is NGC 6611, home to the massive and hot stars that illuminate the pillars. The “Spire” - another large pillar - is in the middle left of the image.

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Galaxy M82 Hubble NASA iPad Case

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!


tagged with: hubble, galaxy, nasa, universe, astronomy, outer space, glowing, spitzer telescope, cosmos, nature, galaxy m82, hubble telescope, chandra observatory, hubble space telescope, hubble photograph, hubble photo, messier 82, cosmic, astronomical, astrophotography, cosmology, space photograph, space picture, space image, deep space, space, natural, science, abstract, space photo, galaxy picture, galaxy photograph, galaxy photo, galaxy image, astronomy gifts, astronomy products, space gifts, space products

This red, turquoise, purple and blue image of the galaxy M82 – also known as NGC 3034 – is a colourful composite created from data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CXC, and JPL-Caltech

You can personalise the design further if you'd prefer, such as by adding your name or other text, or adjusting the image - just click 'Customize it' to see all the options. IMPORTANT: If you choose a different sized version of the product, it's important to click Customize and check the image in the Design view to ensure it fills the area to the edge of the product, otherwise white edges may be visible.

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Laser-generated surface structures create extremely water-repellent metals

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Super-hydrophobic properties could lead to applications in solar panels, sanitation and as rust-free metals Scientists at the University

The post Laser-generated surface structures create extremely water-repellent metals has been published on Technology Org.

 
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Our Milky Way Poster

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: solar system, milky way, space, universe, astronomy, galaxies

Like early explorers mapping the continents of our globe, astronomers are busy charting the spiral structure of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Using infrared images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have discovered that the Milky Way's elegant spiral structure is dominated by just two arms wrapping off the ends of a central bar of stars. Previously, our galaxy was thought to possess four major arms. <p> The artist's concept also includes a new spiral arm, called the "Far-3 kiloparsec arm," discovered via a radio-telescope survey of gas in the Milky Way. This arm is shorter than the two major arms and lies along the bar of the galaxy.

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Monogram Fires of the Flame Nebula - in Orion Oval Sticker

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: breathtaking astronomy images, hfflmnb, star forming, orion constellation, young stars clusters, orion the hunter, flame nebula, awesome space picture, monogram, initialled, heavens, orions belt, european southern observatory, eso, vista, initials, monogrammed, monograms

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous outer space picture featuring the spectacular star-forming region known as the Flame Nebula, or NGC 2024, in the constellation of Orion (the Hunter) and its surroundings.

In views of this evocative object in visible light the core of the nebula is completely hidden behind obscuring dust, but in this VISTA view, taken in infrared light, the cluster of very young stars at the object’s heart is revealed. The wide-field VISTA view also includes the glow of the reflection nebula NGC 2023, just below centre, and the ghostly outline of the Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) towards the lower right.

The bright bluish star towards the right is one of the three bright stars forming the Belt of Orion. The image was created from VISTA images taken through J, H and Ks filters in the near-infrared part of the spectrum.

The image shows about half the area of the full VISTA field and is about 40 x 50 arcminutes in extent. The total exposure time was 14 minutes and was the first to be released publicly from VISTA, the world’s largest survey telescope.

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ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
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Star Birth in Constellation Cygnus, The Swan Wall Decor

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: star clusters, nebulae, gstlnrsr, rcw120, breathtaking astronomy images, star nurseries, inspirational stars, ionised gas clouds, galaxies, european southern observatory, eso, vista

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous star forming region in Constellation Cygnus (The Swan). This Hubble image shows a dust-rich, interstellar gas cloud with a new-born star in the centre of the hour-glass shape. The glowing blue of the hydrogen in this nebula is due to the jets being emitted from the forming star as dust falls into into it and this causes the heating and turbulence of the hydrogen. The star, known as S106 IR, is reaching the end of its birth and will soon enter the much quieter period of adulthood known as the main stage.

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Image code: cygsb

Image credit: NASA, the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI) and ESA

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Thursday 29 January 2015

Hubble's Sharpest View of .. DODO iPad Folio Case

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!


tagged with: hubble's, sharpest, view, orion, nebula., dodo, ipad, folio, case

Hubble's Sharpest View of the Orion Nebula. Thousands of stars are forming in the cloud of gas and dust known as the Orion nebula. More than 3,000 stars of various sizes appear in this image. Some of them have never been seen in visible light. Credit: NASA,ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

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Wrangling over pesticide ingredients comes to a head in 2015

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Consumer advocates are fighting a new rule proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency that aims to address concerns

The post Wrangling over pesticide ingredients comes to a head in 2015 has been published on Technology Org.

 
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CAT scan of nearby supernova remnant reveals frothy interior

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Cassiopeia A, or Cas A for short, is one of the most well studied supernova remnants in our galaxy. But it still holds major surprises. Astronomers have now generated a new 3-D map of its interior using the astronomical equivalent of a CAT scan. They found that the Cas A supernova remnant is composed of a collection of about a half dozen massive cavities -- or 'bubbles.'

via Science Daily

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The tell-tale signs of a galactic merger

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Astronomers have captured a striking view of spiral galaxy NGC 7714. This galaxy has drifted too close to another nearby galaxy and the dramatic interaction has twisted its spiral arms out of shape, dragged streams of material out into space, and triggered bright bursts of star formation.

via Science Daily

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Hubble spies a loopy galaxy

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This Hubble Space Telescope photograph of an oddball arc of stars in galaxy NGC 7714 tells of a 100-million-year-old close encounter.

via Science Daily

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Astronomers gain a new view of galaxy M 82

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Astronomers have used the giant radio telescope Lofar to create the sharpest astronomical image ever taken at very long radio wavelengths. A new image shows the glowing center of the galaxy Messier 82 -- and many bright remnants of supernova explosions. A supernova remnant is a shining shell of shock waves from an exploded star, ploughing into its surroundings.

via Science Daily

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Could a new proposed particle help to detect Dark Matter?

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Researchers have proposed a new fundamental particle which could explain why no one has managed to detect 'Dark Matter', the elusive missing 85 per cent of the Universe's mass. Dark Matter is thought to exist because of its gravitational effects on stars and galaxies, gravitational lensing (the bending of light rays) around these, and through its imprint on the Cosmic Microwave Background (the afterglow of the Big Bang). Despite compelling indirect evidence and considerable experimental effort, no one has managed to detect Dark Matter directly.

via Science Daily

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Turbulent Star-Birth Region Selection Print

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space


tagged with: hubble, nasa, stars, star, galaxy, galaxies, space, astronomy, telescope, beautiful, postcard, postcards, photos, photograph, gift, gifts, nebula, nature, landscapes

In commemoration of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope completing its 100,000th orbit in its 18th year of exploration and discovery, scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., have aimed Hubble to take a snapshot of a dazzling region of celestial birth and renewal. Hubble peered into a small portion of the nebula near the star cluster NGC 2074 (upper, left). The region is a firestorm of raw stellar creation, perhaps triggered by a nearby supernova explosion. It lies about 170,000 light-years away near the Tarantula nebula, one of the most active star-forming regions in our Local Group of galaxies. The three-dimensional-looking image reveals dramatic ridges and valleys of dust, serpent-head "pillars of creation," and gaseous filaments glowing fiercely under torrential ultraviolet radiation. The region is on the edge of a dark molecular cloud that is an incubator for the birth of new stars. The high-energy radiation blazing out from clusters of hot young stars already born in NGC 2074 is sculpting the wall of the nebula by slowly eroding it away. Another young cluster may be hidden beneath a circle of brilliant blue gas at center, bottom. In this approximately 100-light-year-wide fantasy-like landscape, dark towers of dust rise above a glowing wall of gases on the surface of the molecular cloud. The seahorse-shaped pillar at lower, right is approximately 20 light-years long, roughly four times the distance between our Sun and the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. The region is in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite of our Milky Way galaxy. It is a fascinating laboratory for observing star-formation regions and their evolution. Dwarf galaxies like the LMC are considered to be the primitive building blocks of larger galaxies. This representative color image was taken on August 10, 2008, with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Red shows emission from sulfur atoms, green from glowing hydrogen, and blue from glowing oxygen. Source: NASA

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Magnificent merger

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Tell-tale signs of a dramatic encounter between galaxies are evident in this striking view captured by the Hubble Space Telescope

via ESA Space Science

http://sci.esa.int/hubble/55344-the-tell-tale-signs-of-a-galactic-merger-heic1503

Hubble Spies a Loopy Galaxy



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At first glance, galaxy NGC 7714 resembles a partial golden ring from an amusement park ride. This unusual structure is a river of Sun-like stars that has been pulled deep into space by the gravitational tug of a bypassing galaxy (not seen in this Hubble Space Telescope photo). Though the universe is full of such colliding galaxies that are distorted in a gravitational taffy-pull, NGC 7714 is particularly striking for the seeming fluidity of the stars along a vast arc. The near-collision between the galaxies happened at least 100 million years ago.




via HubbleSite NewsCenter -- Latest News Releases

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2015/04/

What it's like to survive a lightning strike

Science Focus

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MICHAEL UTLEY DOES not remember much about his death.

Over the years, he has woven together a narrative of what happened using threads collected from witnesses, friends, and family. On May 8, 2000, Utley, a 48-year-old stockbroker, was golfing with his co-workers Dick Gill and Bill Todd, along with their friend Jim Sullivan, in the village of Pocasset, Massachusetts, about three miles south of the Cape Cod Canal. Shortly after lunch, the dark clouds that had been mushrooming in the distance all morning were hovering close enough to merit the bleating of the course's storm horn — time to clear the green.

Gill, Todd, and Sullivan immediately headed toward the clubhouse. Utley walked back to the hole and returned the flagstick. Seconds later, the guys in front heard a thunderous crack and turned to see Utley stumbling to the ground, tendrils of smoke curling off his body. Their friend had collapsed in a single perplexing instant. His shoes were several feet away from his body; his fingers looked as if they had been flambéed; his eyebrows and wavy chestnut hair were wiry and crisped. Gill, an ex-Marine who had recently taken a refresher course in CPR, ran to Utley's side, began blowing air into his lungs, and instructed Todd to perform chest compressions. As Sullivan rushed off to get help, the clouds unleashed a deluge of rain and hail.

Utley cannot recall any of this. Not the arrival of the paramedics, nor having his heart restarted in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. His first memory after leaving the golf course is of waking up in a different ambulance, tubes down his throat, monitors everywhere, and a paramedic in a blue smock at his feet.

"Where am I?" Utley rasped.

"You're on your way to rehab," the paramedic said.

"What the f--- happened?"

"You were struck by lightning 38 days ago."

(Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

IN POPULAR CULTURE, to be hit by a bolt of lightning is to suffer extremely bad luck. Rain, snow, and hail are largely indiscriminate: Within a certain radius, everything is drenched, blanketed, or pelted. A cloud-to-ground lightning bolt is different. It blazes a discrete path through the sky. It appears to have choice. When lightning hits a human being, a survivor must reconcile not only what happened but why it happened. Why me?

For most victims, it is not the unforgettable horror of an agonizing ordeal that haunts them — many can't even recall the incident itself; it's the mysterious physical and psychological symptoms that emerge, often long after their immediate wounds have healed and doctors have cleared them to return to their normal routines. But nothing is normal anymore. Chronic pain, memory trouble, personality changes, and mood swings can all follow an encounter with lightning, leaving friends and family members confused, while survivors, grappling with a fundamental shift in identity, feel increasingly alienated by the incomprehensible nature of their condition.

Even more confounding is that almost no one in the mainstream medical community can explain what's happening to them. Although many scientists have spent their careers examining the physics of lightning, only a handful of doctors have devoted themselves to the study of how lightning damages the human body. The incident rates are simply not high enough to warrant an entire subfield of science.

True entry and exit wounds are uncommon, but lightning typically leaves some kind of mark on the skin. One afternoon in 2009, a hiker named Becky Garriss awoke on the Appalachian Trail in Vermont, sitting on a bed of pine needles, her back against a tree, as though she'd fallen asleep in its shade. Her right arm was paralyzed, pinned against her chest in a pledge of allegiance. Here and there, her pants were charred. Although she was disoriented and scared, she managed to hike more than 10 muddy miles down Glastenbury Mountain to call for help. When she got to a hospital, doctors recognized lightning's smoldering touch on Garriss's right arm and leg. A bolt probably hit her directly, they told her.

Other survivors awaken into temporary blindness or deafness; sometimes the concussive force of the strike — or the electricity itself — ruptures eardrums. Some victims report the taste of metal on their tongues. Now and then, survivors develop strangely beautiful pink and brown bruises known as Lichtenburg figures, which look like intricate henna tattoos of branching fronds. These bruises likely trace the path of electricity that forced blood cells out of capillaries into more superficial layers of skin.

In rare instances, the surge of electricity is enough to stop a victim's heart and lungs. That's what happened to Utley. But cardiac arrest is something any paramedic knows how to handle. Twenty minutes after Utley was struck, EMTs had arrived on the scene, strapped him to a gurney, and loaded him into an ambulance. They used a defibrillator to keep his heart going.

After leaving the hospital for rehab five weeks later, Utley spent months relearning to swallow, move his fingers, and walk. Rehab was just the first chapter of his ordeal, however. In his previous life, Utley was a successful stockbroker who often went skiing and windsurfing. Today, at 62, he lives on disability insurance in Cape Cod. "I don't work," he says. "I can't work. My memory's fried, and I don't have energy like I used to. I aged 30 years in a second. I walk and talk and play golf — but I still fall down. I'm in pain most of the time. I can't walk 100 yards without stopping. I look like a drunk."

Lightning also dramatically altered his personality. "It made me a mean, ornery son of a bitch. I'm short-tempered. Nothing is fun anymore. I am just not the same person my wife married," says Utley, who is now divorced. Like many survivors, Utley sees his fateful union with lightning as more than just a close call he was lucky to survive. It marks a moment in which he was split from himself.

(Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

ON A TYPICAL summer afternoon, thunderclouds above the continental United States generate an average of 50,000 lightning flashes per hour. Two-thirds of these stay near the heavens. They pierce the sky with branching networks of blue and white fire, or strike out a short distance in thin tongues of electricity, or illuminate clouds from within like muffled firecrackers. The remaining minority of lightning bolts, however, find earthbound targets — a church steeple, a telephone pole, a tree.

Even rarer are bolts that directly strike and kill humans. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of these fatalities in the U.S. happen in June, July, and August, the months when thunderstorms are more prevalent and the greatest number of Americans are recreating outside. According to a recent National Weather Service analysis, fishing, boating, swimming, and camping put the most people at risk each year. Last July, two visitors in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park were killed by separate strikes on the same weekend.

When people and lightning meet, however, death is an unlikely outcome. Roy Cleveland, a ranger at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, survived a record seven strikes from 1942 to 1977. This fact appears to defy logic. An average lightning bolt carries 500 megajoules of energy — enough to instantly boil 250 gallons of water. It heats the air it zips through to five times the surface temperature of the sun. Still, around 90 percent of lightning-strike victims survive. Over the past three decades, lightning has killed an average of 51 people per year in the U.S. but left more than 500 injured and alive.

One explanation is that lightning strikes are fundamentally different from the more common high-voltage electrical accidents. When an electrician inadvertently grabs a live wire, far less current typically seizes him than is contained in a lightning bolt, but it does so for a longer duration. The surge of current causes victims to lose control, rendering them unable to let go. After a few seconds, the electricity coursing through the body has enough time to sear internal organs and interrupt the heart. Lightning strikes, lasting less than a half-millionth of a second, often scorch the skin but don't cause internal burns.

Just as crucial, most of the electricity in a lightning bolt does not pass through the body. Rather, it dissipates over the skin in what's known as a flashover. Vernon Cooray, a lightning scientist at Uppsala University in Sweden, explains the phenomenon by contrasting the ways a human body and a tree react when struck. Both trees and people are filled with a soup of water and minerals that conduct electricity pretty well. But because trees are covered in dry, inelastic bark, lightning traveling through the trunk has no escape route. It must stay its course. In the process, it superheats the water and sap inside the tree into explosive steam, which can rip apart the trunk and branches.

Compared with tree bark, human skin is much more pliant and moist. Sweat and rainwater make it extra conductive, providing an alternate external path for voltage. Most of the electricity can pass over strike victims rather than coursing through them. "The path through the body has much greater resistance than the path around the body," says Vladimir Rakov, a University of Florida researcher and a leading authority on lightning physics. "Current always chooses the path of least resistance."

A flashover can still do damage indirectly. The electricity crackling over the surface of the human body singes clothing, vaporizes sweat and moisture into scalding steam, and renders metal objects like belt buckles, keys, and jewelry so hot that they burn the skin. Occasionally, all that steam even blows victims' shoes and socks off.

(Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

FOR UTLEY, GETTING adequate treatment after he recovered was a struggle. He was eventually fortunate enough to find a few doctors who helped him cope with the long-term symptoms, but along the way he met many medical experts who understood little or nothing about his injuries.

"Finding a doctor who knows anything about a lightning strike is next to impossible," says Tamara Pandolph-Peary, 46, who was struck by lightning in August 2010, in the parking lot of the Springfield, Illinois, Men's Wearhouse where she worked.

Following her accident, Pandolph-Peary forgot how to use everyday objects, like a potato peeler; she could no longer get from Point A to Point B in her hometown; she suffered migraines and fatigue; she tripped over her sentences; she was often dizzy and off balance; and every now and then, when her nerves were on fire, even the slightest touch was painfully intense.

"I struggled with the 'Why me?' initially," she says. "There was a time I was angry. I think I got past that part. You can be angry and hold on to that, and it can ruin everything you have left."

Utley, too, has trained his mind on the future. Despite the personality change and relentless pain — despite the hunger for an explanation that would make sense of it all — he no longer fixates on a "why" that probably doesn't exist. "Yeah, I was pissed at first," Utley says. "Why did I get struck and not the three guys 15 feet away from me? There's no rhyme or reason. You can ask questions all you want, but it's like yelling at the ocean. It does not answer back."

Excerpted from an article that originally appeared in the October 2014 issue of Outside. Reprinted with permission.

 
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 » see original post http://theweek.com/articles/442603/like-survive-lightning-strike
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How science can help you survive scary movies

Science Focus

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My mother's favorite story to tell in October features me as a 3-year-old, sitting down to breakfast at a local diner. The restaurant's walls and windows were bedecked with Halloween cutouts — think cartoonish ghosts, goblins, and, of course, vampires. I took one look at Dracula and went into a full-blown meltdown, so my mom's friend hurried over and covered him up with a napkin.

Upon her return, I leaned over and whispered, "I can still see his toes."

I wish I could say I've outgrown these anxieties about all things that go bump in the night. Alas, my Halloween nerves are as fragile now as they were then. So I set out to finally confront my fears, with a little help from science.

Dr. Kevin LaBar, a professor at Duke University's Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, was kind enough to introduce me to Fear 101. "Fear occurs when there is an imminent threat. You have a specific cue, and the cue is in front of you prompting that fight-or-flight response," he said. "Fear is a good thing, when it's warranted."

It's why some of my friends love scary movies, haunted houses, and other thrill-inducing activities so much. A fear stimulus — like an image of a deranged clown — triggers our brains to pump out a huge rush of neurotransmitters and hormones such as dopamine, seratonin, endorphins, and adrenaline, effectively putting us into a heightened state of readiness. If the next realization our brain makes is that we're not actually in danger ("I am in a haunted house and this ax murderer is not really going to kill me."), then it alerts us that we're safe, while simultaneously allowing us to enjoy the "high." Ta-da: Getting scared is fun!

Except not everyone reaches the end feeling courageous. When I watch a scary movie, it's nearly impossible to convince myself that it's all canny camera work and fake blood. Instead, hours later, I'll be lying in bed, gripped by the thought that at any moment, something is going to crawl out from my closet. If this sounds like it falls more on the anxiety end of the scare spectrum, you're right.

LaBar explains, "Anxiety lives more in the future [than fear]. You have a worry about something that might happen. The key is it's an uncertain or unpredictable future."

There are still a lot of questions, though, about what makes some people more susceptible to developing phobias or anxieties. Researchers think our seratonin levels could be genetically determined, and that those whose brains release less of the chemical don't receive enough of the "high" feeling to override the initial terror. Likewise, a small child who experiences a trauma can subsequently associate all scary experiences with a negative feeling.

"That's your basic fear conditioning," Dr. Margee Kerr, a sociologist who studies fear, says in an email. "I hate to see parents dragging their young children crying into haunted houses or scary movies, because they are basically setting up the child to hate (experiences like) haunted houses for life."

Women are far more likely to suffer from anxiety disorders, although that may be in part because men have been conditioned to hide what is perceived as a weakness. Still, LaBar says the gender discrepancy in anxiety responses is likely evolutionarily based.

"Why do more men like horror movies, and why are more men into extreme sports? Because men were hunter-gatherers," LaBar says. "Their risk-seeking or novelty-seeking is evolutionarily ingrained; they go out, and explore, and this behavior is reinforced by the release of dopamine, and testosterone facilitates the release of dopamine."

**

So, are those of us whose hate being scared destined to a life of tiptoeing away from high dives and determinedly steering clear of any film with "exorcism" in the name? Maybe not, says Kerr.

A new area of research on "distress tolerance" suggests that people can enhance their ability to withstand emotional states, including the stressful or anxiety-inducing ones. Exposure research basically forces a patient to come to grips with a fear through repeated — you guessed it — exposure to the stimulus. So someone with a spider phobia is asked to sit three feet away from an arachnid, then two feet away, then one foot away, and so on, with the hope that repetition will dilute the negative impact of the spider. But Kerr and her colleagues are turning that practice on its head, introducing individuals repeatedly not to the stimulus, but to the high-arousal state itself.

"They learn that they can survive (in that state), that they will be OK," Kerr explains. "And hopefully they will come away with a feeling of confidence and resilience."

Then there's that old standby: Pavlov and his dogs. A promising practice involves playing tones throughout therapy sessions, then linking those same sounds to a patient's cellphone. The tones play at different times throughout the day, allowing people to "bring a piece of the therapy session with them into their lives," LaBar says. For those who would rather not have random notes humming from pockets or bags over the course of a day, anything tangible that is connected to the "safe space" can do the trick — even a scrap of paper.

As for people like me, who function just fine in everyday settings and are not likely to hit up therapy to make watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre more tolerable, LaBar's recommendation is behavioral therapy at its most basic: Work harder at overcoming those feelings.

"You can change the way you construe (an anxiety-inducing) event," LaBar says. "With an extreme sports enthusiast, that might be, 'I had a bad fall, but it was a learning experience,' instead of, 'I had a bad fall, and this was scary and dangerous.' If you already feel like you're having a stress response, try deep breathing, or even meditation. The key is to break the cycle of rumination or worry."

In the name of journalism, I decide to try to "practice courage," in Kerr's words. Despite a month's worth of scary-movie-themed streaming recommendations from our entertainment editor, I stick with a formula I know will freak me out. Annabelle's previews promised classic door-slamming frights, along with that tried but nevertheless true cliché — a demented doll — and, it's showing at a theater near my apartment. Done.

LaBar had told me even implementing those basic anxiety-lowering practices effectively could take weeks. So while I'm not surprised that an hour-and-a-half of cheap frights still does me in, it's nevertheless frustrating. I ate Junior Mints to distract myself. I brought my own Pavlovian cue — a beer cap, which probably is not the kind of "tangible reminder" that therapists had in mind — and rub it furiously throughout the movie. I try deep breathing and make sarcastic comments about the dialog to my very-patient friend who agreed to accompany me on this journey.

And then I go home and have one of the worst nightmares of my adult life.

So, as promising as the research is on how to better control anxiety, I think I'll keep my Halloween aversions. Training to better cope with a debilitating phobia or post-traumatic stress disorder could significantly better many people's lives, and the future looks bright for those kinds of tailored therapy sessions. But teaching myself to enjoy — or at least tolerate — scary movies just seems like a lot of freak-outs for a fright that only really shows up one month out of the year anyway.

As long as Dracula's toes don't grace too many diner windows, this 'fraidy cat will be just fine.

 
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 » see original post http://theweek.com/articles/442650/science-help-survive-scary-movies
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