Misled

To my invisible readers,Two posts, one day!

In my last post Empathy I used a quote supposedly spoken by Martin Luther King, Jr.

 ‎I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Certainly it seems like something one of the greatest pacifists the world has known would say. Love and light against hate and darkness. But guess what?

It’s fake.

Martin Luther King, Jr. never said it. I admit, I was duped, and only mere chance made me aware that I had made a mistake. This was the link I found on facebook. For the count, I did look up some quote websites after reading the article, but who knows?

In our philosophy class we studied if it is that we can really know whether or not history is right. Theoretically, it is. You can’t change the past. But consider: others can certainly change how you view the past.

 

Fly, Time, Fly!

Salutations my invisible readers,

April fools! Did you get pranked today?

Today’s topic is time. I’m sure that there are times in which you feel as if time has suddenly pranked you. Where did it all go? You could have sworn there was more time to do this and that and this and that. There’s also a strange phenomenon in which time seems to go by faster as you get older. I have a theory about this.

When you’re younger, you’ve experienced less life. You don’t have much time to compare the span of one year to. When you’re older, you’ve experienced more life. You have more time to compare the span of year to.

For example, say you’re five. The span of year – for you – is equal to something like 1/5. However, say you’re thirty. The span of a year – for you – is equal to something like 1/30. If we take this mathematically then 1/5 > 1/30.

Of course, the span of the year objectively remains the same. But for someone younger it feels longer because they don’t have as many years to measure the span of one year against.

Mind blown?

 

The Checker Shadow Illusion

Hello my invisible readers,

Since I’ve been doing a lot of philosophical and moralistic posts, I thought I would break things up a little bit. So today I’m going to introduce to you an illusion! The illusion below is known as the checker shadow illusion, or the same color illusion. It is an illusion developed by Edward H. Adelson, Professor of Vision Science at MIT. The image shows a checker board with a cylinder standing on it. The cylinder casts a shadow on a portion of the board. Square “A” falls outside of the shadow, and square “B” falls within it. The viewer compares two squares “A” and “B.” The squares appear to be different colors. Take a look!

 

Different colors, right? But look again.

 

In reality square A and square B are the same exact shade. This can be proved by removing the rest of the image but leaving both squares on a white background, or by connecting both squares with a patch of color. Since you’re seeing this on the computer, you can also save the image and use an image editing program such as paint or photoshop. If you use the eye dropper tool, the hexadecimal code for the color is the same. If you see the squares as slightly different in the above picture it’s because some of the illusion’s effects are still taking place.

There are several “tricks” that the illusion relies on to create its effect. The first is contrast. Because the squares surrounding square “B” are darker, the contrast makes square “B” appear lighter than average and vice versa for square “A.” Therefore the brain perceives the two squares as different colors.

The second trick depends upon the shadow. The brain perceives a shadow – even though the image is two dimensional – because of two reasons. The first is that the object casting the shadow, the cylinder, is present and is shaded as if there is a light source. The second is that the darkened area of the board has a fuzzy edge. The brain tends to ignore gradual changes in lighting. In nature, this is a mechanism that is used to determine color without being “misled” by shadows. The effect of sensing the shadow but ignoring the darkening effect makes it so that square “B” is interpreted as following the same pattern as the rest of the board, instead of appearing substantially darker.

The third trick is the formation of “X-Junctions” by the 4 squares on the board. When the mind sees this sort of pattern, it takes it as a signal that the edges should be interpreted as color changes instead of lighting or shadow. This also misleads the viewer in the interpretation of square “B” because the viewer perceives square “B” as it is expected to change in accordance with the x-junctions.

So we perceive square “A” and square “B” as different colors, when they’re really the same! Is this not absolutely insane? Every day I find myself more and more amazed by the world around me.

 

Jealousy: The Burning of a World

Hello my invisible readers,

Just a brief bit of promotion here for The Burning of a World a novel in progress by Karx. Roleplaying is addictive and may lead to noveling symptoms. Curious phenomenom, isn’t it?

However, I didn’t randomly piece together the two things I am going to talk about. Love and hate are the two most powerful emotions that a human can experience, each on the opposite spectrum. Somewhere along the line there is also the green monster. Jealousy. If you’ve never experienced jealousy before, it’s difficult to tell why the emotion is so difficult to wrestle with. But if you have, then you understand how difficult it is to swallow it and not let it overcome you. For those who let jealousy take over all rational thought, it is an emotion that destroys any shred of the possiblity of reconciliation with the person. But especially in romantic relationships, it tears apart the trust between two indivduals. And because when in love, the significant other is the world, things completely fall apart. Hence the burning of a world.

The bridge of connection a little too shakey?

Regardless of if you, my invisible reader, have experienced jealousy before, there are patterns to why people feel jealous. The greatest cause of jealousy tends not to be with the other person, but rather with the one who is feeling jealous. The other person can certainly contribute to the jealousy, but typically there is little cause to be truly jealous. The reason people feel jealous often lies within themselves. And the problem is almost aways lack of self confidence. Call it low self-esteem, low self-image, or insecurity it all boils down to one thing. A lack of belief in oneself. If the person feels as if he/she is lacking, there is room for jealousy to grow and become a menance.

Jealousy is extrodinarily difficult to deal with once it takes root, but the solution is there. Build self-confidence, boost self-image, stop being insecure. If you feel good about yourself, then there is no place for you to feel jealous about another. Of course, it is a process that takes time, much more time than it takes for the emotional to grab a chokehold. In a relationship, it’s also a good idea to talk to our significant other and smooth things out. But be careful that these talks don’t lead you to imposing restraints on your partner for the sake of jealousy, whether in social life or personal bubbles or whatever it is.

And why, might you ask, am I writing this post on jealousy? I thought it was obvious. Because I can. Because I am jealous, of course.

Jealous of me?

 

Oppressed and Loved

Hello my invisible readers. I believe there was a topic that I was going to write about that was significantly less depressing than the one I’ve decided to write instead. I have just finished watching Ip Man. Yes, you’ve heard me right. Ip man. It’s a Chinese movie, and why, yes! I did watch it in Chinese. It comes with english subtitles though. And it’s really sad. But awesome. If you like martial arts, this is a great movie for you to watch.

It’s about this man who lives in an area of China called Fo Shan, which is known for its martial arts clubs. This man’s name is Ip Man. Have an “aha!” moment about the movie’s title yet? The alternative spelling of his name is Yip Man. Anyways, the movie centers entirely around Ip Man’s life. He’s an expert in Wing Chun, which is a style of martial arts created in China. It a self-defense form and translate roughing to “spring chant” or “eternal spring.”

The movie takes place during the second Sino-Japanese war in which China is occupied by China. Although there had been skirmishes beforehand, the Second Sino-Japanese War “officially” started with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. A Japanese advanced was repulsed, but the Japanese would go on to capture Beijing and Tianjing. As World War II started, this war would be absorbed into the greater conflict.

And this is the real reason I’m writing this post. Sure the martial arts was amazing, but the stark portrayal of the misery of Japanese oppression really struck me, even though the movie wasn’t entirely factual upon Ip Man’s life. I’ve never really been into history, much less the history of the East since schools in America don’t tend to teach it. But this…this was really sad. People were living off scraps, doing anything to support themselves. Heaven help them if they had a family to feed as well. And then you watch as the Japanese treat Chinese as inferior, throwing their weight around. One of the characters in the movie serves as a translator for the Japanese, and he watches as his fellow men are beaten senselessly to death. It’s very sad.

Of course, the phobia of anything Japanese is long over by now. If you like manga and anime, you’re considered really fresh-off-the-boat if you’re Chinese, as Korean is the new “in.” Japan is cool now.

But it was just a little life-changing, seeing that movie and seeing a portrayal of how the Japanese treated the Chinese. Of course, it is a movie, but what reason is there to really believe that it was otherwise?

I like to write war stories, and this was eye-opening to how occupation really worked.

But hey, this post is titled Oppressed and Loved. The reason is that there was a second thing that struck me in the movie. It was the relationship portrayed between Ip Man and his wife. I can’t tell if it was factual or not, but it seemed really…sincere. Maybe they weren’t all over each other and smooching and whatnot, but I felt as if the portrayal of the relationship was…beautiful. Ip Man wasn’t the sweetest man, but he did listen to his wife. Later on, when they fall into hard times, he does his best to provide for her and comfort her and protect her. And she offers him comfort and support with equal love.

I feel like this sort of relationship, not one based off of physicality or passion but rather deep, mutual, sincere love, seems to be missing. In American movies romance is so…cheap, it seems. I’m not saying Chinese relationship are better. But the love that was portrayed was very striking. That’s the kind of love that I want to have, because that love is really what it means when someone pledges “till death do us part.”

So those are my thoughts. Go get your own.

 

The Cake is a Lie

My dearest invisible readers, I was doing my favorite activity yesterday! That’s right! I was procrastinating. On a studying for a very important test. Naturally, Nuyaeh popped into my head, and so did a phrase that he often writes everywhere. “The Cake is a Lie.” I knew he was referencing something, I just never figured out what, and I suppose it never occured to me to simply ask him. Because of this, I got to do things the hard way. Can anyone say google? That’s right. I googled the phrase, and an explaination of the meme popped up. And I was so intriuged.

“The Cake is a Lie” is an idiomatic phrase, a meme, that has evolved to signify that someone is chasing a false goal. For example, Student 1: Mr. Smith said that she would give us all As if we cleaned the school bathrooms. Student 2: Give me a break! The cake is a lie.

So where does this phrase originate from? “The Cake is a Lie” is a reference to a game called Portal, released by Valve Corporations in 2007 for various platforms including Xbox and PC. It is a single player puzzle game that puts the player in the first person perspective of a character named Chell. The game starts when Chell wakes up and is greeted by GLaDOS, an AI. The setting is in the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center. The game progresses as the player controls Chell and solves the puzzles presented by GLaDOS by using a portal gun. The game grows progressively more ominous as it becomes clear that GLaDOS’s intents seem to be more sinister than her helpful personality belays.

“The Cake is a Lie” comes from GLaDOS’s constant mention of a cake that will be rewarded at the end of the challenge. However, this cake never comes. Later on, when the player ventures out of the test center to the rest of the facility,  the walls are scrawled with graffiti that reads “The cake is a lie” as well fragments of poetry.

I won’t reveal any more about the plot line; if you’re interesting, you may look it up on wikipeda. It is a very dark idea and I found it extremely interesting. It’s on my bucket list to play it one day, and although short, it is a game that has been rated very well.

In addition, the end credits of Portal include a song called Still Alive that also references the mysterious cake. It’s a strange song that applies directly to the plot line, so if you haven’t read the plot or played the game, the song seems like nonsense. But regardless, it is an excellent song, and I’ll leave you with a video and your thoughts. Why?

The cake is a lie.

 

Reflections

Hello my invisibe readers, I am most delighted to announce to you that this is, in fact, not a ramble post. It is an informative one! Is that not exciting? I’m sure you all are wonderfully tired of reading about my mundane life and my depressive problem. People rarely write about how happy they are, anyways. It’s boring!

Anyways, so the topic of today is…you guessed it! Reflections. They’re facinating phenomena, are they not? The reason that I decided to pick this topic is because I noticed somthing very interesting several weeks ago that sparked the idea for this post. I was pumping gas into my car at a gas station, and waiting not-so-patiently for the gas tank to fill up. To pass time, I looked at just about everything but the price of the gas. The sky, the trees, the grass. Interesting stuff. Then I looked at my car window. And I had this facinating thought. In movies, there always seems to be that moment when either the good guy or the bad guy uses a mirror or a window to locate the enemy. So I had a James Bond moment. I know, nerdy. Thanks. I watched everyone that passed my car through the window.

That’s when I noticed something else. I’m near sighted, so I need to wear glasses while I drive too see all the road signs and what not. I had my glasses on, and was looking at the reflection. For some reason, I looked over the top of them, and looked at the reflection. There shouldn’t have been a difference, right? But there was. And this is why I wanted to write this post. With my glasses, the reflection was as sharp and clear as it would’ve been if I had looked at the original objects with my glasses on. Objects close to the car, and far away. Equally sharp as they would have been if I had been looking directly at them. Without my glasses, the far-away objects in the reflection was blurry, just as it would have been if I had looked at the far-away original objects with my glasses off. But the window was not more than a foot or two away from my face. So why is it that without my glasses, the reflections were blurry?

Reflections are caused by light bouncing off a smooth surface. The reason that reflections don’t form on rough surfaces, say, fabric, is becaue the light scatters in all directions when it bounces off rough surfaces. Therefore, no coherent image is formed. With reflections, the surface is smooth, so the light bounces back almost exactly parallel to the original light beam. You can see my reference here, but it’s pretty scientific stuff. I stopped reading after my head began to think, “What? What??? WHAT? WHAT???”

But my question remains the same. If the light is reflection of the smooth surface of my car window, then theoretically the light is all reaching my eyes from the same distance, a distance that I can normally see quite clearly at. After all, I can see the actual window clearly, just as clearly as the car around the window. So why not the reflection? Isn’t it the same light that’s bouncing off? Does the light get weaker some how? Lose energy or photons or something?

Sadly, before I could answer that question, the handle popped and my gas tank was full, leaving me to stare at the reflection of the obnoxiously high price of the gas I had purchased.

 

The Second Prostitute

I’m sure that you took a double take when you saw that title. Just thought I would give you a shock. I am writing this in the morning since it’s Saturday~! So I was hoping to wake you up some. Anyways, the title is relevant to what I have to rant in your face today.

Today’s topic is a story in the bible. Specifically the one about King Solomon and the baby. Because we live in America, a country based on Christianity, I’m sure that most of you know the story. If not, here’s the text directly from the bible. 1 Kings 3: 16-28 New International Version, courtesy of Biblegateway.

¹⁶ Now two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. ¹⁷ One of them said, “My lord, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby while she was there with me. ¹⁸ The third day after my child was born, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one in the house but the two of us.

 ¹⁹ “During the night this woman’s son died because she lay on him. ²⁰ So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I your servant was asleep. She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast. ²¹ The next morning, I got up to nurse my son—and he was dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t the son I had borne.”

 ²² The other woman said, “No! The living one is my son; the dead one is yours.”
      But the first one insisted, “No! The dead one is yours; the living one is mine.” And so they argued before the king.

 ²³ The king said, “This one says, ‘My son is alive and your son is dead,’ while that one says, ‘No! Your son is dead and mine is alive.’ “

 ²⁴ Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword for the king. ²⁵ He then gave an order: “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”

 ²⁶ The woman whose son was alive was filled with compassion for her son and said to the king, “Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!”
      But the other said, “Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!”

 ²⁷ Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother.”

 ²⁸ When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice.

So the point of this “story” is to show Solomon’s wisdom. However, many people often take this story and twist it just a little bit to their needs. The first prostitute, the real mother is the one who gives up the baby. The second refuses to do so. So in certain situations in life, those who give up something to another contender, claim to love that something more. For example, Eclispe. Jacob tells Bella that he is the first prostitute. Not in those exact words, of course, but in essence he tells her that because he is giving her up, he is the one who loves her more.

But typically, I like to consider the other side. What about the second prostitute? Disregarding the fact that she stole the baby and wanted it cleaved in half, let’s assume that she really, for some reason, thought the baby was hers and couldn’t bear to give it up. What if she really was the one to love the baby more? That she would become physically sick if she were ever seperated from the baby. What if she wouldn’t not give the baby up because she loved it that much? What if?

And what about the baby? What if it wasn’t a baby, but a child instead. Or even a teenager. What if it was his choice to choose? What if he loved both women equally, and they both loved him? Then what? Wouldn’t he be stuck in a terrible situation? Either way he goes, he’s going to hurt someone he loves. And if he decides not to choose, then what? It’s like being cleaved in two.

Consider it. Every story in the world has an alternative ending, whether it is a work of fiction or simply a recording of the truth. It takes a different perspective to see the story in a new way, and often that new perspective comes from placing yourself inside the shoes of a minor character. Take the story of Narcissus. It’s a pretty well known greek myth. But the Roman version is more well known, and that goes a little something like this.

Narcissus was a very handsome young man, but he was also very proud and vain. One day he comes across a pond, from which he drinks. When the water clears, he finds himself looking at his own reflection. He falls madly and wildly in love with his reflection, and he eventually attempts to join it, drowning himself. At the spot in which he fell, a flower called the Narcissus grew there.

But you see, in The Alchemist  by Paul Coelho, there’s a prologue that tells a different side of the story. If you flip through a few pages here, you can see the actual text. It should be the eighth page. The story of Narcissus is continued when a goddess of the forest comes to visit the pond, and finds that although it was once fresh, it has turned to salt from weeping. The goddesses guesses correctly that the lake is weeping for Narcissus, because all the creatures of the forest were in love with Narcissus. Yet the pond replies that she did not even consider the beauty of Narcissus. She didn’t even see it. Instead, she mourned because every time that Narcissus knelt by her banks, she could see her own beauty reflected in his eyes, and now she would not be able to.

What an interesting take, isn’t it? So think about all the stories that you’ve read. Try putting yourself into another characters position. How do you think the story would shift and change?

Imagine that.

Thank those of you who understand why today’s post was about the second prostitute.

 

HTML and BBC

If you’re wondering why this post looks so familiar, it’s because it is. It used to be a page until I decided that there was no way I was going to keep updating it with more info. So this is what I have. Hopefully it does help. If not, well, there’s a lot of internet out there.~
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So I’d though I’d be cool (XD) and put up a sort of guide up for HTML (web pages) and BBC (usually online forums). Since I’m taking web design in school right now. BBC will be limited to my roleplaying experience, though I’ll provide you a link to a pretty awesome guide I’ve used. HTML will be updated as the class procedes. I might just move this page as a post when I’ve finished, but for convieniance I’m going to put it as a page.

So expect some guidance soon!

Alright, let’s start with BBCode. Here’s a website that will explain everything so much better than me, so why do I bother? Eh…dunno.

So, the basics. In BBC you use [ and ] not < and > like you would in HTML. Otherwise it’s the same idea. You have to close your tags, and the tags go around the text you want it to apply to. So something like [b]This is bold[/b] this is not bold. Or [color=red]This is red[/red] This is not red.

Font Size: Here’s the code for font size [size=PLACE NUMBER HERE][/size]

So far as I know, it works with any number. Depending on the forum, the size scale may differ.

Font Color: [color=HEXIDECIMAL VALUE or COLOR][/color]

A hexidecimal value is a bunch of numbers of letters that tells the computer what color it is. You can put in the actual names, but some systems might not recognize them. So if it doesn’t work, check your spellings and spaces. If that doesn’t work, try the hexidecimal. Here’s a link that will help you find more colors. Some colors don’t work on certain forums.

 

Bold: [b][/b] Like in html.

Italics: [i][/i]

Underline: [u][/u]

Now here’s the thing about underline. It usually will come out the same color as your font color, but you can also change it to a different color if you want to. So here would be the tags…

[color=COLORofUNDERLINE][u][color=COLORofTEXT]Text-text-text[/color][/u][/color]

Now you might also want more underline than you have words, or an extended underline. in order to do that, you want to use [color=white]Symbol of your choice.[/color] This way your underline is extended. No one will be able to see it unless they highlight the text. So the entire code would be

[color=Underline color][u][color=Color of text][color=white]Random symbols[/color]Text text text[/color][/u][/color]

The [color=white]symbols[/color] can go anywhere inside your text so you can add “blank underline” where-ever you like. However, you must keep in mind that it must go after the [color=color of text] and before the first [/color] close tag. And don’t forget to close the tag for the white too! Otherwise ALL of your text will be white, and it’ll seem like it was dissappeared. Also, this only works if the background of the webpage is white! Use the color according to what background color you have. This is mostly trial and error.

Align

There are three align codes, Center, Right, and Left. So..

[align=Aligment of your choice][/align]

Other sites may just have a simpler code that goes like this [alignment of choice][/alignment of choice]

Images

[img]Place url of image here. Don’t forget your http://][/img]

You may also align your images by using the align tags. If you want the text to go around the image however, you will have to use

[imgleft][/img] or [imgright][/img]

When you use [imgleft][/img] and [imgright][/img] at the same time, your text will be sandwiched between the two images. In some forums, imgright and imgleft don’t work. If you want wrap-around text then, I suggest trying

[align=left][img]image url here[/img]Text here[/align]

Code: If you want to show someone a code without putting spaces in, you use the code tag.

In between the brackets you should put any BBC you want to show up. For example…

[color=red][size=11]Hello, this is BBC[/size][/color]

The color and size tags will actually show up instead of being applied/shown. This is because the code tags tell the computer that the tags within the code are to be shown, not applied. You may also try

[nocode][color=red][size=11]Hello, this is BBC[/size[/color][/nocode]

Spoilers: Some sites have a thing called spoilers. It’s basically where a section of your text is hidden and not shown unless the person clicks on the spoiler. The most common tag would be

[spoiler]Text here[/spoil]

If you wanted to add a tite to your spoiler your tag would be this

[spoiler=title]Text here[/spoiler]

Some spoilers won’t work unless they have a title. An alternative way some sites do spoilers is

[hide=title][/hide]

It should work the same way the spoilers tags do.

Ok, so while I try to remember more BBC…let’s move onto HTML, which is a little trickier for me since this blog uses html. Alright, so the basics again. But if you think I explain everything horribly, I found an amazing website that explains everything pretty well. Here’s the link.

The Basics

In order to start html, it’s commonly accepted for you to start with the tag

<html>

Notice how the brackets for html are different. Make sure you close the tag the same way you would close a BBC tag. Other tags that are needed include

<html>

<head>

<title>The title of your web page</title>

</head>

<body>

This is where all of your text goes

</body>

</html>

Your closing tag for html should always be at the very very end, although you should do it when you start your web page so you don’t forget.

Tags and attributes

There are two types of..thingies in html. A tag, and an attribute. For example, <body> is a tag. Then we have <body bgcolor=”red”> bg color is your attribute because it changes whatever the tag applies to. In this case it is all of the background. Changes the color to red.

Onesided vs. Two-sided tags

HTML tags always come as either one sided or two sided. Two sided being <p></p> and one sided being <br>. It’s alright to write one sided tags as <br >, although it is prefered to write one sided tags as this </ br>

Underline

<u>Underline text here</u>

Bold

<b>Bolded text here</b>

OR

<strong>Strong, same as bold here</strong>

Italics

<i>Italics here</i>

OR

<em> Emphesis, same as italics here</em>

Strikethrough

<s>strike here</s>

OR <strike>strike here</strike >

Breaks

Use <br> WITHOUT a close tag to break lines apart. Usually the tag parapgraph is used instead.

Paragraph

<p>Breaks lines for you an allow attributes</p>

Headings

<h1>Text will be large and bolded. </h1>

1 Is the largest value and 6 is the least

Links

<a href=”url, don’t forget http://”>Link text goes here</a>

a means the tag anchor and href is hyper reference. I think.

 

Drug ‘em

Hello, my invisible readers. I was going to say something decidedly pessimistic yesterday and make a new post, but it was late and I wanted to go to sleep. So, typically, I cannot remember for the life of me what I was going to say. It must’ve been something angry…yeah…it must’ve been how I was really angry with him because I feel like he’s toying with my emotions. Anyways, I am still in a pretty good mood right now, and I’ll take advantage of it, even though I basically didn’t talk to him today. Which sucks.

So! I have made the decision to actively update you, my invisble readers, on the topics that are coming up in my life that I’m interested in. An attempt at a different style of blogging, if you will.

~

So today’s topic is drugs! Well, specifically Curare. Curare is a drug that acts at the lowest level in the hierarchy of movements: directly in between the synapse of the motor neuron and the muscle cell. Now, because I know most of you, my invisible readers, will not have understood that last sentence, let’s back up.

Courtesy of the National Institute on Drug Abuse

The nervous system in just about every living organism is made up of neurons. Each neuron has four main parts. A cell body, dendrites, an axon, and an axon terminal. Certain neurons have myelin sheaths, but not all do. We’re going to ignore them, for the sake of my sanity.

So. The cell body contains the nucleus of the cell, and controls and regulates the entire cell. For the purposes of this little tutorial, it’s not very relevant. If you would like to learn more, google. Dendrites are attatched directly to the cell body in most cases. These are the things that accept electrical impulses (signals) from other neurons. An axon is a long cord-like structure. The electrical impulse, also called an action potential, travels down the axon. This impulse ends up at the axon terminal, the end of a neuron. One neuron’s axon terminal “connects” with another neuron’s dendrites. However, axon terminals and dendrites don’t really touch. They just come very close together. The gap in between them is called the synapse.

Now, let’s go back to the action potential that I mentioned before. This is the electrical impulse that runs through a neuron. It starts when triggered by another neuron. The cell body responds to the signal recieved and starts a chemical reaction down the axon. The movements of the chemicals keeps the electric pulse moving down the axon. When this electric pulse reaches the axon terminal, it triggers the release of neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters go into the synapse – the gap between neurons. They will float around there until they find a binding spot on the recieving neuron. Once they bind, they triggers another electrical impulse and the cycle starts all over again. This is how all neurons transfer their information.

There are three types of neurons. Sensory, which are triggered by sensory organs (eyes, skin, etc. etc.) rather than other neurons. These connect to interneurons. Interneurons analyze and integrate information from sensory neurons, as well as transfer it up to the brain through the spinal cord. From the brain, there are more interneurons that go all the way back down the spinal cord to the “outer body.” Interneurons connect with motor neurons. Motor neurons don’t send their signals to other neurons. Instead, they connect directly with muscle cells.

So say, for example, that someone slaps you. Your skin (the sensory organ) sends signals that trigger the sensory neurons. This signal then goes to the interneurons, up the spine to the brain, from the brain down the spine. The chain of interneurons will eventually connect to motor neurons. These motorneurons affect the muscle cells, which causes you to punch whoever slapped you. Or jump up and down and howl in pain. Whichever is your style.

Now with that information in mind, come back to Curare. Remember, curare is a drug that works at the lowest level, the last step. It affects the synapse between the motor neuron and the muscle cells. Remember how neurotransmitters are released by one neuron and bond to another? Well, what Curare does is it blocks the binding site on the muscle cells, therefore the motor neuron can send as many messages (neurotransmitters) as it likes. But these won’t bond with the muscle cells, so no  movement occurs.

Any guesses on what curare is? That’s…wrong! It’s a paralyzing drug long used by South American Indians for hunting. They used to tip their arrows with this drug when they went hunting.

I though it was very interesting, and so you get to read it. I’m starving now…I think I shall go find myself some curare and hunt. Until later, my invisible readers!