Happy New Year – from Rumi and ASIS

For our drunkenness
And being a lover
For our youthfulness
And our companionship
The New Year
The early Spring
And the Aries
Are sending us an invitation!

The eyes of the world
Have never seen
A Spring like this:
The Alchemy is growing
On the mountain base and from the Earth.

Peeking behind a tree
A happy Nymph
Is surreptitiously glancing around!

The Blossom is drinking
The wine of the Soul
Cup after cup!

Look at the Blossom
It’s sending you an invitation
If you didn’t see its wine drinking
Watch its full blossoming!

Be happy O Blossom!
Welcome O Spring wind!

The Lily is telling its Bud:
Wake up! Why are you still asleep?!
There is the candle
And the handsome youth
There is the wine
And the seductive lover!
The Sweet Basil and
The Tulips are also raising glasses!

Who’s gift is all of this
If not bestowed by the Almighty God?

The Hyacinth flower
Discretely but sweetly whispered
To the ear of a hidden flower:

May the protective Shadow of God
Never be separated from us!

New Year Invitation
By Rumi
Persian/Farsi to English translation by Sologak

مستی و عاشقی وجوانی و یار ما
نوروز و نوبهار و حمل می زند صلا
هرگز ندیده چشم جهان این چنین بهار
می روید از زمین و ز کهسار کیمیا
پهلوی هر درخت یکی حور نیکبخت
دزدیده می نماید اگر محرمی لقا
اشکوفه می خورد زمی روح طاس طاس
بنگر سوی او که صلا می زند ترا
کی خوردنش ندیدی اشکوفه اش ببین
شاد باش ای شکوفه و ای باده مرحبا
سوسن به غنچه گوید: برجه چه خفته ای
شمعست و شاهدست و شرابست و فتنها
ریحان و لاله ها بگرفته پیاله ها
از کیست این عطا ز کی باشد جز از خدا
سنبل به گوش گل پنهان شکر کرد و گفت
هرگز مباد سایه یزدان ز ما جدا

Drawing your emotions? A graphical survey of feelings.

By Paul Cariad

Just what do our emotions look like? It’s a simple question with extremely complex answers. Emotionally Vague, an interesting and extensive project to graphically display how our emotions look and feel in our body, surveyed 35 different countries to get to the bottom of the question. Using a simple survey of 250 participants between the ages of 6 & 75 years of age, the team researched how people experienced the feelings of anger, joy, fear, sadness and love. Given a piece of paper with human silhouettes, each participant was asked to graphically represent each of these emotions in 3 ways – as a point, as directional arrows and with complete expressive freedom. The drawings were then compiled in Photoshop to create a visual “DNA-like frequency pattern,” or in other words, a scribbly average of what people drew. It’s interesting to see how similar each person represented their feelings, as well as how people chose to draw around their silhouette.

See the results of these 5 core human feelings!

Visit ASIS on Facebook for more articles and studies like this!

Autonomic Nervous System

Autonomic Nervous System:

Part of the nervous system that was once thought to be functionally independent of the brain.

The autonomic nervous system regulates key functions of the body including the activity of the heart muscle, the smooth muscles (e.g., the muscles of the intestinal tract), and the glands.

The motor branch of the PNS, the efferent nervous system, is divided into somatic and autonomic branches.

The Autonomic Nervous System, or visceral efferent nervous system, regulates visceral activities, that is, activities of smooth muscle, cardiac muscle, and glands.

The Somatic Nervous System carries information from the CNS to the skeletal muscles and is generally associated with initiation of voluntary action.

The Autonomic Nervous System carries information from the CNS to smooth muscles and glands and is generally associated with involuntary action.   It usually operates without conscious control.

The autonomic nervous system has two divisions,

and is entirely motor, (efferent):

1)  The Sympathetic nervous system is largely concerned with the diversion of energy to the skeletal muscles and is generally associated with so called “fight or flight” mechanisms. It accelerates the heart rate, constricts blood vessels, and raises blood pressure.

2) The Parasympathetic nervous system is largely concerned with the diversion of energy to the viscera and is generally associated with “rest and repose” activities. It slows the heart rate, increases intestinal and gland activity, and relaxes sphincter muscles.

Sympathetic responses are widespread and, in general, concerned with energy expenditure.

Parasympathetic responses are typically restricted and are concerned with energy restoration and conservation.

Neurology and the connective Tissue Wrappings

Meningies:

The meninges is the system of connective tissue membranes which envelopes the Central Nervous System.

The meninges consist of three layers:

The Dura Mater, The Arachnoid Mater and The Pia Mater.

The primary function of the meninges is to protect the Central Nervous System, and to develop and maintain the Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF).

The Dura Mater (Tough Mother) is a thick, durable membrane, which keeps the brain attached and suspended to the skull. It consists of two layers, the periosteal layer which lies closest to the calvaria, and the inner meningeal layer which lies closer to the brain.

The Arachnoid Mater  is a thin, transparent membrane, composed of fibrous tissue. The arachnoid does not follow the convolutions of the surface of the brain and so looks like a loosely fitting sac. It is the space where cerebral spinal fluid flows.

The Pia Mater ( Gentle Mother) is a delicate membrane (meningeal envelope), which firmly adheres to the surface of the brain & spinal cord and follows all the minor contours of the brain (gyri and sulci).

Its blood vessels travel to the brain & spinal cord, and its capillaries are responsible for nourishing the brain.

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) A clear, colorless fluid, which occupies the subarachnoid space (between arachnoid & pia).  Essentially, the brain “floats” in it.

It fills the content of all intra-cerebral (inside the brain) ventricles, cisterns, and sulci, & the central canal of the spinal cord.

It acts as protection for the brain, providing a mechanical and immunological barrier.

The Nervous System – The Brain

The CNS consists of the brain and the spinal cord and contains the centers for reaction to environmental stimuli.

The Brain is comprised of 4 regions:

1) Cerebrum:

The cerebrum or cortex is the largest part of the human brain, and is associated with higher brain function such as thought and action.

The cerebral cortex is divided into four sections, called “lobes”: the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and temporal lobe.

It is referred to as the mammalian brain.

Frontal Lobe- associated with reasoning, planning, parts of speech, movement, emotions, and problem solving.

Parietal Lobe- associated with movement, orientation, recognition, perception of stimuli.

Occipital Lobe- associated with visual processing.

Temporal Lobe- associated with perception and recognition of auditory stimuli, memory, and speech.

A deep furrow divides the cerebrum into two halves, known as the left and right hemispheres.
The two hemispheres look mostly symmetrical yet it has been shown that each side functions slightly different than the other. Sometimes the right hemisphere is associated with creativity and the left hemispheres is associated with logic abilities.

The corpus callosum is a bundle of axons which connects these two hemispheres.

2)  Cerebellum:

The cerebellum, or “little brain”, also has two hemispheres and has a folded surface or cortex.

This structure is associated with regulation and coordination of movement, posture, and balance.

The cerebellum is older than the cerebrum, evolutionarily. Animals which evolved prior to humans, have highly developed cerebellums.

3) Diencephalon:

Diencephalon, also called the limbic system, is referred to as the “emotional brain”, and is found buried within the cerebrum.

This region contains the thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, pituitary, and hippocampus.

4) Brain Stem:

Just inferior to the limbic system is the Brain Stem.

It is responsible for basic vital life functions such as breathing, heartbeat, and blood pressure.
The Brain Stem is the “simplest” and oldest part of human brains.

The Brain Stem is made of the midbrain, pons, and medulla.

Midbrain / Mesencephalon
Involved in function and maintenance  of vision, hearing, eye movement, and head and face movement.

Pons / Metencephalon
Involved in motor control and sensory analysis from the ear which enters the brain in the pons. It has parts that are important for the level of consciousness and for sleep.
Some structures within the pons are linked to the cerebellum, thus are involved in movement and posture.

Medulla Oblongata
Lower most part of the brain stem, between the pons and spinal cord. It is responsible for maintaining vital body functions, such as breathing, blood pressure and heart rate.

The Nervous System – CNS & PNS

Central Nervous System:

The central nervous system consists of the brain and spinal cord.

The central nervous system (CNS) is one of the two major divisions of the nervous system.

The other is the peripheral nervous system (PNS) which is outside the brain and spinal cord.

The average adult human brain weighs approximately 3 pounds, and contains about 100 billion nerve cells (neurons) and trillons of “support cells” (glial)
The spinal cord of an adult is about 45 cm long and weighs about 35-40 grams.

The nervous system is the electro-chemical control system for the body.

It senses changes in the environment (external or internal), transduces that information to neural code, interprets the code, and reacts by transducing neural code into action.

Transduce: To convert energy from one form to another.

Neural impulses are generated at receptor sites that react to specific stimuli and are transmitted to a center in the central nervous system along the axons of sensory neurons.

The PNS is divided into sensory and motor branches. The sensory branch is known as the afferent nervous system and consists of all the neurons that bring information from receptor sites to the CNS.

More on Neurology

Neurons are specialized for the electro-chemical transmission

of information in the form of nerve impulses. 

They consist of a Cell Body, which maintains the cell, and an Axon, which transmits impulses.
They can vary in size from microscopic to 1 meter in length.

Cell Body, (Perikaryon) resembles a typical nucleated cell in structure except that it may be surrounded by tree-like projections of the plasma membrane called dendrites.

Dendrites are specialized to increase surface area and receive impulses from other neurons. The ends of the dendrites are covered with receptors.

Receptors are the areas on the dendrites which receive information from either other neurons, the central nervous system, the inside environment, or the outside environment.
The structure of the cell is maintained by a system of microtubules called neurofibrils.

Neurofibrils help give the cell body form, and may play a transport role in the processing of incoming signals.

Axons are long, slender projection of the plasma membrane attached to the perikaryon at the axon hillock. In most cases the axon transmits impulses away from the cell body.

Some axons are surrounded by specialized cells called Schwann Cells (neuroglia).

Telodendria are the ends of axons that split into a system of short branches and connect with other neurons, muscles, or glands (effector organs).