Eel hunting is called eeling and is a popular sport practiced by eelers - people trained in catching eels and surviving the shock.

Although an electric eel can be mistaken for a snake, its more accurately classified as a fish, an aquatic vertebrate animal with scales that has a capacity to produce an electric field using specialized cells distributed throughout its body. The larger the eel, the greater the charge, serving as a major defense against predators and incapacitating prey up to 15 feet away.

Now, engineers from Yale University have designed a man made tool adapting the principles of the electric eel cell by not only replicating them but improving on their design. They claim that artificial versions of the eel’s electricity generating cells could be developed as a power source for medical implants and other tiny devices.

Other engineers of the new field of systems biology question if we really understand enough about how a cell produces electricity to do a better job of designing them than nature has.  In an experiment at the Kakamigahara institute, Japanese scientists wondered if it were possible to harness the eel’s power for economic use. They attached a conductive copper wire from a fish tank to a Christmas tree fully ornamented with lights. Every time the eel scraped against the wire, the tree lit up. Despite all this science, a more common place to find an eel is marinated and served on a sushi plate.

According to Japanese myth “good fortune follows a child conceived under the fiery plasma emanating from the Earth’s magnetosphere.” On the other hand western scientists and theologians might argue that it is not possible to know the precise correlation between “expelling billions of electrons funnelling to and from a pole,” and mitosis, immersed in a field of magnetically charged particles under the Aurora Borealis.

A peaceful place, calm and harmonious, where the energy of the planet is as vibrant and subtle as the stars flickering  through the  aqua red  sky of the northern lights, an ideal place to think about philosophy, religion or contemplate the breath of Japanese myth and the Ho Ho Ho of Old St. Nick.

Unfortunately, busy professionals are often unable to travel to the Arctic regions to find the northern lights to breed a child of good fortune. For them, a unique solution has been devised to bring the lights to their location by thinkgeek.com called the Aurora Projector. “This unique object uses three colored LED’s and a frosted lenses to simulate the ice of the northern region that is now melting due to global warming from the products of the industrial revolution,  to project twisting swirling misty lights on your wall or ceiling. Four triple-a batteries power it for up to 20 hours to avoid any interruptions in a thoughtful conception. The controls are simple to master - On, Off, and  a Timer  which  shuts it off after 30, 60, 90 and  120 minutes, especially thoughtful  for those who are in the geriatric age range. Plus, the lamp is hinged, so if you are concerned about straining your neck muscles or pinching the wrong nerve to stare at the light show on the ceiling, you can tilt it vertically, and project the pretty colorful lights on the wall instead. The size of the contraption: H13 x W18.5 x D11 cm. The 4 AA batteries it takes to run this thing are not included and it doesn’t appear to have any plug in components.”

Now for the right yen and $39.00 you too can conceive a child of good fortune that will make parenting as easy as baking a souffle.

During the Roman Empire, a group of large carp like fish known as genus Barbus were domesticated in marble tanks under the bed of guests invited to lavish Roman Orgies  signifying their fascination with underwater life that led to aquariums. But, it wasn’t known until much later that goldfish like others in the Carp family are social animals who frequently become bored with their environment when left alone without other fish to interact. For them, a stark, un-embellished bowl of water just wont do because their inclination when happy is to be curious. In fact this quality is believed to have encouraged the development of elaborate fish tank rock formations, miniature sunken ships and the R2 Fish Training Kit. which made Albert the goldfish pictured above a member of the Guinness Book Of Records as the fish with the largest repertoire of tricks of any aquatic vertebrate with scales.

According to historical records, The concept of fish school, not to be confused with a school of fish was first founded by Dean and Kyle Pomerleau in 2004. Kyle who was seven years old at the time won two common goldfish at a school fair spending hours watching them for several weeks. He suspected that there was more going on in their brains then most people were willing to give them credit for. On a whim, he and his father decided to see if it was possible to train fish to do tricks using techniques frequently associated with  training dogs, cats, and circus animals.

In an attempt to give fish their just due as responsive pets rather than some kind of decoration at risk for being flushed down the toilet or eaten by a house cat, their scientific investigation led to the Fish School Training Manual, initially written in French. The basic principles set forth in the pamphlet are positive reinforcement and shaping which uses the fish’s innate curiosity to encourage behavior modification. After all, Kyle  claimed,  “Fish have often been served in various cultures as religious symbols, deities and the subject of art, books and films such as The Incredible Mr. Limpit,” a 1964 live action/animated film by Warner Brothers about a human who mysteriously turns into a talking fish and helps the US Navy defeat the Nazis using his “thrum,” an intense  noise that disrupts underwater  instruments and weapons long before Finding Nemo won the Oscar as best animated feature in 2005.

The notion that humans only use approximately 10% of their brain has been perpetuated without any evidence. No one really knows its origin, perhaps a misunderstanding of the words of William James (1842-1910), an American psychologist and philosopher who wrote in his 1908 essay, The Energies Of Men, “We are making use of only a small part of our potential mental and physical resources.” Among his other notable works is, The Subjective Effects Of Nitrous Oxide.

Myths are notoriously difficult to trace, partially because they have multiple sources and are often culturally defined, adding and synthesizing the moral implications at its core, but, assuming it was true, it would mean we could still function if 90% of the brain were removed. A difficult statement for any credible scientist to agree with, and yet so many people still believe we only use a fraction of our brain.

Ask any neurologist and they would probably say, “Neural pathways are difficult to map although removing part of the brain can have devastating effects on behavior,” a meaningless statement to co-notate that science still knows very little about the brain, suggesting we probably have not tapped its true capability assuming that it could be measured scientifically. When was the last time you heard anyone say, “I’ve lived up to my full potential.”

On the other hand, it is difficult to disagree that education affords the opportunity to increase latent ability, it’s still unclear whether that means more brain utilization is involved. Perhaps motivation or some unknown force is at play, although intelligence is known to be more than what is measured by the IQ test. Parents however still proudly beam when their children achieve a high mark. Many still associate increased brain capacity with smartness and imagine super human abilities of memory, telepathy or telekinesis. Whether this is delusion, the work of science fiction or fact yet to be revealed, there is always hope that brain function can be enhanced as evolution proceeds.

One way to increase and train brain skills in the privacy of your own home, aside from reading, is known as The Brain Fitness Kit, a wonderful gift idea for Christmas found on latestbuy.com. “It contains 108 fully illustrated giant puzzle cards designed to test both logical and lateral thinking! Plus it comes complete with a set of instructions and a timer. Play it on your own and beat the clock or compete with a friend and beat them senseless by showing off your grey matter at an affordable $14.95.”

Read more about brain myths at neuroscience for kids (http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/tenper.html)

It was Friday afternoon, preparing for the big prom night dance, driven there by a black chauffeur, chilled orchard in hand for my honey. I was feeling pumped, looking sharp, grabbing my lucky shirt from the closet, the one with the scent of musk, only to discover it’s covered in enough dog hair and funky lint to make it look like another dog and perhaps attract the wrong bitch.

No time to clean the lucky shirt a ritualistic artifact of conquest, a blight for this night until, surfing the net, a page is encountered about “Le Glove.” Ah,  triumph invades my thought, for Le Glove is well known to pet owners and dandruff sufferers as “your very own lint removal system. An invention, created by some unnamed Australian company ‘is engineered from polypropylene effectively turning your grooming regime into a dream. Simply slip on Le Glove, peel off the paper surface, dab the offending foreign bodies and put it in the garbage,’” and the claim is also made that Le Glove is biodegradable!

The unnamed company adds, “Le Glove” is disposable, recyclable, affordable. It will remove lint, dandruff, dust, hair, fur and fibres from clothing, upholstery, carpets even bathroom floors. Every hotel worth its room rate should have them! Every exec worth their golden handshake should keep a pack in their briefcase. In fact, you should be able to open every handbag and see a pack of Le Glove ready to use.

Product Specifications clearly state, “Le Glove is made of polypropylene material featuring an adhesive (sticky) surface designed to easily remove lint, hair, dandruff and any other foreign particles from clothing, upholstery and carpets.”

When you purchase your pack of Le Gloves, also consider buying your very own For Real Spider Catcher. The price for each is cheap, so why worry about it?

This amazing product, “allows you to quickly and gently trap the spider from a safe distance (65 cm) - it also means you can reach under furniture and up to ceilings without balancing precariously. You simply press the trigger on the easy grip handle to spread the bristles, place it over the insect, release, and you’ve got him! Even if it’s making a break for it, you can still catch the little sucker and release him back into the wild where he should be.” Or you can regress to your early childhood and recite that old nursery rhyme,

The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.
Down came the rain, and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain
And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.

The eyes - often referred to as “the mirror of the soul” - can get quite puffy or sag with lines from clogged pours, perhaps overlaid with eyeliner and mascara (see “Which came first: mascara or the eye?”), tired from watching too much tv or glaring at computer display, driving or perhaps reading in poorly lit areas.

It’s easy to forget that the eyes are also an erogenous zone according to the advertisers of the Eyesseuse Eye Spa, found on Eparty Unlimited and Gadgets and Gizmos blog. “How would you like it if you lose a chance with that special someone because you have wrinkles, bags or rings?  Even though you know you look tired, that’s what those expensive eye firming creams are supposed to do. but don’t. That’s why you need the Eyesseuse. It nourishes the skin and promotes blood circulation by gently massaging the optic area.”

The product provides four options: air pressure, heat, vibration or magnetic therapy, “Eyesseuse lets you either manually control the session or enable the use of a scientifically preset option to work its magic. You’ll feel more relaxed, more alert and more attractive.” However, will it make you look any more appealing, instill confidence or just be a harsh reminder of time, space, gravity and form, borne upon the wings of the Fourth dimension?

Perhaps simply eating a balanced diet, a good night sleep and appropriate exercise over a gradual period of time will allow the body to find its own optimally packaged homeostatic beauty or else force the acceptance that one will be doomed to live out a bizarre image worthy of a circus freak, obsessively stalked when anything but celery is eaten.

Bulimia and anorexia are as extreme as eating everything in sight, and reasonable caution must be emphasized for any symptoms of eating disorders to seek medical advice, however some scientists have been conducting studies of people on restricted diets over a long period of time. There does seem to be a correlation of increased life span and reduction of disease with decreased caloric intake. Whether that translates into younger looking eyes depends on how you feel about what you see reflected back from the surface of a mirror.

The Eyeseusse measures 3.4 x 5.5 x 1.5 inches, weighs 1lb comes with an adaptor or 4AA batteries and sells for $69.95.

links:
- Eat less, live longer?
- Which came first, Mascara or the eye?

The Hat Of Duns Scotus is an invention attributed to John Duns Scotus, a noted christian theologian and philosopher during the middle ages as well as the single largest influence on christian thought for decades. He wrote the book Treaties On Grammar, Logic, Metaphysics, postulating “univocity of being“, “the formal distinction” and the idea of “haecceity.”

These three concepts were meant to clarify that “things” do in fact exist, that it is possible to examine different aspects of the same “thing” and identify unique qualities that illustrate individual distinctiveness. Sound logic for a period of history known as the dark ages. Although historians generally disagree when this period began, some argue that the burning of the Alexandrian Library in the Fourth Century AD is one of its landmarks.

The cap often made of paper and used for public humiliation, expressed dim wittiness or stupidity, marked with a capital D. Somewhere along the line, its metaphysical meaning was lost. Perhaps it is a tool to funnel the cosmic energy to make one smart, much as the capstone of the pyramid serves as the point of manifestation from the invisible dimension to the seen world.

Although the geometrical model for a four sided pyramid is well known, its true meaning has been revealed only to a few, suggesting an esoteric significance associated with its function. Some mystical orders performed testing rituals and initiations in special chambers energized by the forces entering through the capstone, the power fracturing and enveloping all four corners at the foundation, opening portals into alternate dimensions. Whether that is true, not or just a crock remains to seen or experienced as one approaches the cosmic stream.

Those who understand the nature of the cap have also used the idea to invent interesting and new ways to adorn and care for the head such as this product called the Head Bath Cap advertised on Techeblog. Here is a chapeau that gives your head and your hair a good cleaning: “just place it over your skull and let water run within the boundaries of the cap onto your head, keeping the scalp water logged helping your hair grow faster and fuller by penetrating the pores in your scalp submerged beneath the trapped water.” Another variation of “go soak your head.”

Then there is The Shat (see below), a unique cap advertised by William Shatner (the Shat). It comes in different colors to reflect mood, Andorean Green, Romulan Red and Klingon Yellow. Now you too “can wear your feelings on your head.” Perhaps Mr. Shatner will don the red one after he finally sees the new Star Trek film and realizes that if Captain Kirk had not been killed off in Star Trek VII-Generations, he could have been in the current film. Now, the Shat will become just another variation of the cap of Duns Scotus, which is not latin for Scotty.

Assuming that it is possible to alter the effects of time, what use would a mirror have if not for seeing one’s personal reflection, a way to count the wrinkles and folds that spread across the face. Now, a new product called Safetox has been developed to effect the muscles that are the culprits of aging, “an electronic device that acts on the causes of lines at a cellular level, beneath the skin, the visible covering that conceals the structural dynamics, educating the cells at the rear of the head to open up and lift.”

Originally designed as a treatment for migraines, it fits on the skull, the main unit lying in the middle of the forehead. Studies were initially focused on measuring changes in the frequency and severity of headaches until an increasing number of subjects were reporting that wrinkles were disappearing. Scientists speculated “only high frequency electrical intensity has proven successful to act on the motor nerves that diminishes wrinkles.” Impulses produced by this device, they claim, favors an ionic change in the muscle fibers (an accumulation of extracellular K+ potassium) which eliminates any relaxation (sag) potential, rendering the muscle fibers “inexcitable.” The promotional website has a number of paragraphs in French and lists the cost in Eurodollars, 350, so it’s safe to assume Safetox comes from somewhere in France, Quebec or Haiti. It is sold in blue with no apparent wires batteries or moving parts. It can be used in conjunction with botox, face lifts and electrolysis. Although why would one need these invasive procedures if Safetox worked?

Perhaps not the fountain of youth long rumored to be in Florida, although people have claimed for centuries that magnetic fields could improve the cellular matrix of the body securing small flat magnets placed over the seven main centers of the body opted by those with a New Age background, along with crystals and pyramid power which comprise three of the primary energies of the great OM. The only mystery here is the formula determining the appropriate intensity of the magnetic fields needed to produce a substantial effect on aging.

The whirling dervishes practiced dancing around for centuries and in some instances claimed that this motion could rejuvenate the body and perhaps be  a way to alter the effects of gravity not only on the appearance, but also the internal organs and subatomic particles, extending life span. However it is still unclear which direction one has to whirl or the speed and control of the spin needed to get the desired effect, otherwise one may change their vibratory signature and accidentally move into an alternate quantum reality and not even know it, or simply get very dizzy and pass out.

My Percepto rating: F
A - Used by Spock Prime in the new Star Trek film
B - A tiara worthy of the prom queen or king
C - An Artifact from Kandor, the lost city of krypton
D - Something Olivia would wear on Fringe
D - A sure way to attract the Magneto
E - A decorative refrigerator magnet tied to the forehead with string

Tangled wires have always been the bane of my existence, a dresser drawer filled with an assortment of colored extension cords enough to give any self-respecting ‘appliance’ a headache. A plague lay-ed upon humanity and those with limited vision trying to figure out a new combination of outlets to use that twitters about an abode filled with junk. One circuit breaker plugged into another creating a mess of entangled cords, the inescapable reality of a modern technological society that has gifted our mortal soul chaos instead of order and a place for layers of dust.

One of the most frustrating wire thing’s has been earphones, assuming a confused form if looked at the wrong way, seeming to have a mind of their own, as if they intentionally mesh to irritate their owner. It’s a chore to remove all the knots before attaching them perhaps to a beloved iPod to listen to legally downloaded music, movies or TV programs for those fortunate to have purchased the collectors model, the 160 GB device, before it was discontinued by Apple. A proud addition to a diverse collection of artifacts also accumulating dust.

A solution has now been offered as an alternative to being all wired up. It’s the Zip It: YI Zipper Earphones, an intriguing Yanko design via Oh Gizmo and reviewed by Dvice: “The earphones were created by Ji Woong and features a zipper that lets you zip them up to eliminate cable knots with a convenient volume and hold feature in the zipper pull. The volume control is a small, rotating structure that enables you to adjust the volume, while the volume hold prevents unwanted controls in active conditions.”

According to Whacko, “the zipper teeth are made of plastic and the chord appears sealed in a fabric sleeve to which the zipper attaches.” Although most comments are favorable, it’s still in the developmental stage and no price has been mentioned, however manufacturers should take notice of this one since just about everyone has complained about a morass of wires, strongly suggesting the market exists with some minor modifications in design and function as long as the sound is good and it’s reasonably priced. The only remaining question is whether the Zip It:YI Zipper Earphones is a durable product or just a conversation piece.

My Percepto Rating: “No more wire Zippers!”

A: Zip it up
B: Down with metal zippers
C: Zip it sideways
D: Things can still get stuck with plastic teeth

Perhaps it will be known as the invention of the millennium, a fierce competition for a position in the pantheon of creations, one that rivals the claims documented in the literary classic Life From Death, My Scientific Journal by an obscure Bavarian scientist who’s very name evokes horror ⁽¹⁾. Developed at The University For Aerospace in Bremen Germany, it’s called The Human Regenerator , “a Quantum-Pulse-Device that imitates and generates the cellular body’s natural frequencies. The machine helps regenerate unsound cells, strengthens the immune system and enhances skin structure  by making use of the theories of quantum physics. The advanced magnetic rays from the life machine recharge the cells in the body with positive energy, using high end technology as a new and original solution to eliminating anxiety and promote well being.”

A hefty claim that costs $553,400.00, with an original design: a tube-like structure is entered by a person in need of the life energizing forces when it’s in a vertical position. Once the touch screen is activated, the machine moves horizontally, actually perpendicular to its original position before it begins the regeneration process.

This all sounds so familiar, as if it was written as part of a Star Trek episode, reminiscent of the amazing creation by the Vidiian civilization introduced in episode 14 (Faces) of Star Trek Voyager, with the federation ship lost in space, stranded in the delta quadrant for seven years until it found a stable wormhole that led directly to the alpha quadrant.

In a moving character driven episode, The Genetron - a medical device - essentially extracts all the Klingon DNA from chief engineer B’lanna Torres and reconstitutes them as pure Klingon and Human, separated at the cellular level, kind of like a transporter, but not. In a sensitive and well acted study, the emotional struggles of the hybrid Human/Klingon mix is sharply explored in painful detail, as each side, now independent, confronts the other, a case where one could literally argue with oneself, an allegory for the paradoxes of personality.

Technically, The Human Regenerator is careful not to make any claims to cure diseases or rejuvenate aging cells, neglecting to mention exactly how it makes use of the laws of Quantum Physics to this remarkable effect. In fact, neither does the Genetron. However, an advanced degree in particle physics should not be necessary to comprehend the basic principle of how The Human Regenerator regenerates, nor is it clear if any unusual Star Trek type sounds or colors are associated with the regeneration process.

For now, The Human Regenerator is available to the public only at the Talsie Spa of Jumeirah in Dubai’s famed Burj al Arab, but soon it will be available, perhaps by internet, sold by www.bornrich.org, a website that caters to the rich with disposable money.

My Percepto rating: Oh, for the financially obscure, there will always be, masks, eye firming creams and botox!

⁽¹⁾ Dr. Victor Frankenstein