covid 19 wash state emergency update

[Senior Tactician]

Do you two want to get a room?   SMH

I do enjoy writing   And thinking about this kind of stuff is what I do instead of work ;(

[Strongwill]

Do you two want to get a room?   SMH

I do enjoy writing   And thinking about this kind of stuff is what I do instead of work ;(

I was playing   You go write what you want big boy....   lol

[Senior Tactician]

My graduate mentor literally wrote a book on memory, unfortunately, I never read it.  However, memory is really not all that difficult to comprehend either.

First, you have to get that your memories are nothing more than your brains interpretation of sensory events.  Light hits your eye, travels down the retina into your optical cortex and is coded into a series of complex patterns of neural activity.  These patterns merely persist in various parts of the brain, sometimes forever depending on the saliency of the event, often changing and being added to and subtracted from by subsequent sensory events.

People think of the brain as "storage" because thats how a computer works.  But that's not how a brain works.  When you throw a rock into a pond, it causes ripples that eventually spread out and dissipate.  Its similar in the brain, except that it can takes years, or never, until the ripples are completely gone.  Other rocks thrown into the pond at other angles and other locations can alter the ripples, making memory plastic, ever changing and ultimately, unreliable.

The terms "long term memory, short term memory, recall, recognition", and all the others are merely cognitive models to help us study memory, but the actual physical embodiment of memory is nothing more than a persisting neural pattern caused by a sensory event.  (similar to "string theory" theorists don't actually believe the universe is made of tiny strings, its just a mathematical model to help them understand the universe) The patterns which constitute memories do physically change your neurons, so, there are technically physical manifestations of memory, but that it is not the primary way memories are preserved.

As far as consciousness goes, there have been many good books on the subject, so I have been told.  Personally, I have never read any of them.  With my limited knowledge of the subject, but vast understanding of how the brain works, I'm convinced consciousness is nothing more than an illusion.  However, I may one day pick up one of those books and perhaps entertain the notion of a consciousness.

[DuPont]

Midnight, not a sound from the pavement.
Has the moon lost her memory? She is smiling alone.
In the lamp light the withered leaves collect at my feet,
And the wind begins to moan.
Memory, all alone in the moonlight.
I can dream of the old days, life was beautiful then.
I remember, the time I knew what happiness was.
Let the memory live again.

[Wookie Panz]

I finished watching The Expanse yesterday.  Miller's turning on switches is similar to this conversation about the brain.  Watch for doors and corners folks.  I do agree with Painted Man, Bobbie Draper Rocks!  If you have not watched it yet and are looking for something to do it's a nice trip of 43 episodes.

[AlatarTBW]

I may check out the expanse, If the wife agrees, I saw the next season of Ozark dropped and she loves that. I notice much deep philosophical discussion on the brain and consciousness. Very interesting. Here is my attempt at a poem, I will not be offended with any bashing.
As the Necromancer pondered the situation
A world with Covid-19 and social isolation
He gathered his wizards to conjure and plan
We must benefit from this chaos, if we can
They developed a way to spread the contagion
Even with reduced contact and separation
As the virus was spread through the community
The Necromancer recruited those with low immunity
The world was cleansed and renewed, by majority opinion
And Alamaze was brought under the Necromancers dominion

[Senior Tactician]

Very nice poems, I wish I was creative.  BUT, I figured out a good analogy for how stuff gets into a cell:

Imagine that your shirt is a cell membrane.  The cell membrane is, for practical purposes, impenetrable.  Its basically a double layer of fat molecules locked tightly together.  Now, there are doorways.  Proteins provide these doorways, they are very long thin molecules.  Your buttons are sewn onto your shirt with thread, which is "threaded" in and out of your shirt, the cell membrane.  Break off the button, leave the thread.  Now all you have is the thread and the shirt.  The thread is the protein, it penetrates the cell membrane perhaps half a dozen times, in and out, in and out.

This protein is called a "receptor".  Like a door with a lock.  Instead of a lock, imagine the protein is a bunch of tiny magnets, all pushing and pulling in different ways.  The "key", usually another protein, is also a bunch tiny magnets that must match up perfectly with the receptor.  When they match up, the receptor protein "folds" in such a way as to create a small opening that only the "key" can travel through.  Some doors don't actually let anything in, but rather just relay a signal that something has activated the door lock.  These are called G-coupled proteins.

The virus mimics the intended door key.  Some door proteins are like Carls ex wife, and allow a more wide variety of keys inside.  While only the ACE receptor allows this particular corona virus inside.  So far as we now know.

Almost all drugs work on receptors, some open them, some block them, some destroy them.  A drug only generally has any effect on your body if it can mimic a key that is naturally already there: ecstasy, meth, nicotine, cocaine, morphine, etc, etc, all do various things to your door locks. Some do more than one thing.  For instance ecstasy strongly stimulates a g-coupled protein to send a signal into the cell over and over again until the door is destroyed.

By they way, if you want me to stop writing…. just keep hitting ready   I'm in like 7 games.

[DuPont]

Suppose C-A-T really spelled 'Dog'?

[Senior Tactician]

Suppose C-A-T really spelled 'Dog'?

Then would "ATTACK" be "OGGOD(something)?"

[Strylian]

I'm lucky, I have a job that allows me to work from home.  No 90 minute commute, each way.  A new grandson born 2 days ago, our first.  The world welcomes gkmetty the fifth.

Is Vball required to change his name to cheerswatcher now that vball is not available?

Congrats on the Grandson. That's awesome.