There is lots of great news.
The last Beta was released in March, quite a while ago. We were really busy with preparing the relaunch of SciPlore MindMapping as Docear. However, we also had time to finish Beta 16 with two really nice new features and lots of improvements and bug fixes. This will be the last version of SciPlore MindMapping. The next release will be a Beta version of the all-new Docear. Before releasing Beta 16, we would like to ask you – our Blog readers – to test it. If you should find bugs during the next two days, we will fix them before releasing Beta 16 officially. All bugs discovered after that deadline will be fixed in the first Docear Beta scheduled for September.
This weekend, the entire Docear team went to Munich to meet Dimitry Polivaev and Volker Börchers from the Freeplane team. As announced earlier, it was clear that Docear and Freeplane wanted to cooperate but it wasn't sure in which way. This weekend we met to figure out the details and I have to say that I really enjoyed the meeting. Dimitry and Volker are two amazing software developers who created a really great piece of software that is just perfect for our purposes. In addition, it was a real pleasure to meet with them and discuss our ideas for the future of Freeplane and Docear.
The outcome in short: Docear will be developed as a independent Add-On for Freeplane. That means you will be able to download the complete package (Freeplane+Docear) from our website but you can also install Freeplane updates whenever you like (until now, you had to wait for us, integrating a new version of FreeMind to our own code). Also, the Docear team will closely work together with the Freeplane team to assure that developments of Freeplane will not contradict the interests of our users. And, the Docear team will also engage in the development of basic Freeplane features such as an enhanced search function. We also will use a common repository for our code.
During the last years only a few hours a month could be spend on the development of SciPlore MindMapping because we had lots of other work to do. This has changed since July 1, 2011. We (that is Stefan Langer, Marcel Genzmehr, and I – Joeran Beel) got a scholarship from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology for one year, worth 100,000€ (~143,000 US$), to work full-time on the development of Docear. Our goal is, to develop Docear into an academic literature suite helping you in all aspects of literature management, i.e. literature search, literature organization and literature creation. I would like to stress, that we are extremely happy to have this scholarship as there are no strings attached. It's not a loan we would have to pay back, and it's not an investment from some investors expecting a huge return on investment. It's almost like winning in a lottery because we can just focus on developing a great product during the next year and we will have enough money to pay our rent and food. After the year, we hope we will be able to continue the development of Docear in a similar way as Zotero is doing it, with research grants and funding from non-commercial organizations.
We plan to release Docear's first public Beta and new website in September 2011. However, feel free to use already now our new forum for bug reports, general questions and submit your ideas to our idea tracker. More information will come soon :-).
Still wondering why German government is so keen on having a German made idea/research tool.
Could it be that the German user base should be drawn away from USA based webservices for researchers who thus may already being monitored by [fill in] ?
Can you provide a preview of Beta 16 for Mac OS X or should I just wait for the official release?
1. free (floating) nodes – Xmind does them well. Unconnected ideas floating around.
2. copy and paste of attributes with node copy and paste, especially from map to map.
4. there are two versions of 'Long Node'. One includes extended word processing functionality (e.g. tables), but does not allow copy and pasting. The other doesn't have extended functionality but does allow copy and paste.
Finally, I'm getting old and integrating IT/software etc is not my area of work. Personally, I would have been much happier to pay for someone to guide me through the various install procedures, integration and set-up processes that are necessary to get a fully functioning document and idea management and citation system working. This would have saved me months of frustration and would have allowed me to concentrate on what I wanted to be doing instead – writing my DBA (Business Ph.D) thesis. There are lots of people like me who would really benefit from this system, but are too incompetent (age/time/lazy/dumb) to make it work. In essence, we just want the working tool and would pay to have it set up how we needed – $50 and an hour on Skype would have done it.
thank you for your feedback. the "idea informer" seems to be a little bit buggy. I just created an account at uservoice. If you like submit your ideas here http://docear.uservoice.com/forums/124375-general/ and it would be great to have ideas 2,4,5,6,7 explained in more detail.
i am very confident that Docear will be much easier to install and use than SciPlore MindMapping. However, I like your idea of some kind of premium live support and will discuss it with our team members. We probably won't offer this kind of support because we really want to focus on the software development. But maybe we can find some experienced users who are interested in earning a little bit of extra money.
Many thanks for the excellent software; looking forward to something even better.
Awesome news! I wish u all the best. Freeplane+docear/sciplore is what I always wanted.


You know what? I love this being the view from my room. Except when the birds decide to wake me up with their singing at 5:30. Long story short, I lost about an hour of sleep because of that, then slept till 9:30, before falling asleep again and only waking up at 10:30.
And I had planned a productive day.
Oh well. Now I'm actually functioning and out of bed, ready to put on a touch of makeup and make some breakfast!


© 2009 Khodorova et al.
Injection of endothelin-1 (ET-1) into the plantar rat hindpaw causes acute pain at high concentrations and tactile sensitization at low concentrations. The pro-nociceptive actions are driven through ETA receptors for both levels of [ET-1], but the ETB receptors are only pro-nociceptive for allodynia from low [ET-1] and anti-nociceptive for pain from high [ET-1]. The goal of the present work was to discriminate the roles of the ET receptors in the acute hyperalgesia from inflammation by complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA, 20 mg/paw) into the rat hindpaw. Selective antagonists were injected l0 min before and then together with CFA. An ETA receptor antagonist, BQ-123, reduced CFA-induced thermal hyperalgesia (by up to 50%), as did an ETB receptor antagonist, BQ-788 (by up to 66%). BQ-123 and BQ-788 also delayed the onset (by 1.5 – 2 h) but insignificantly reduced the maximum degree of CFA-induced allodynia (~10%). Surprisingly, an ETB receptor agonist, IRL-1620, also reduced maximum thermal hyperalgesia induced by CFA, suppressed peak allodynia and delayed its occurrence by ~ 3 h. The latter actions of IRL-1620 were reversed by coadministration of BQ-788, naloxone hydrochloride and the peripherally restricted opiate receptor antagonist naloxone methiodide, and by antiserum against β-endorphin. These findings demonstrate an important role for endogenous ET-1 in acute inflammatory pain and a dual action of ETB receptors, including a pro-algesic action along with the important activation of a local analgesic pathway, implying that at least two different ETB receptors contribute to modulation of inflammatory pain.
Keywords: Inflammatory Hyperalgesia, Endothelin-1, Pro-nociception, Anti-nociception, Allodynia, Pain.


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American Masters: Ted Williams DVD - AV Item
A complex and entertaining portrait of Ted Williams who was as obsessive as he was talented, the documentary reveals his complicated relationships with family and friends and explores the impact he has had on the current generation of MLB stars. Features Bob Costas, Wade Boggs, Roger Angell and Joey Votto. Narrated by Jon Hamm.
American Masters: Ted Williams AMERICAN MASTERS presents a new biography of the Boston Red Sox baseball player whose only goal in life was to be known as the greatest hitter who ever lived. A complex and entertaining portrait of a man who was as obsessive as he was talented, the documentary reveals Williams' complicated relationships with family and friends and explores the impact he has had on the current generation of MLB stars. Features Bob Costas, Wade Boggs, Roger Angell and Joey Votto. Narrated by Jon Hamm.
Producer: Meredith Coleman
Executive Producer: Al Tapper, Michael Kantor, Nicholas Trotta, David Ortiz
Production Company: Nick Davis Productions
Rating: TV-14
Narrator: Jon Hamm
Actors: Bob Costas, Wade Boggs, Joey Votto, Roger Angell
Writers: Nick Davis
DVI: Y
Content Warning: THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE. VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Literate. Visceral. Affecting. Theatre that is experienced—not simply seen.
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Note: some dates, times and locations may vary. Please check specific production page for details.
SKYLIGHT lobby lecture will take place on Saturday, October 15th at 6 pm
Mental Health Care in America: Past, Present and Future
Lecture by Marci White
Lecture begins at 6:00, Q&A at 6:30
Prior to
Executive Director of Mental Health America of the Triangle Marci White will give a lecture on the history of the public mental health system in America, the kinds of infrastructural challenges it has faced, and what we can do to support individuals living with mental illness in our own communities. The lecture will begin at 6:00pm with a question and answer session beginning at 6:30. Any ticket holders for ASYLUM are invited to attend the lecture free of charge.
Marci White, MSW has more than 30 years' experience working on behalf of children, adolescents and young adults with serious emotional and behavioral problems in North Carolina's mental health service systems. She has worked for mental health providers, state agencies, and the federal courts in North Carolina; and she has provided consultation and advocacy to develop community and family-based mental health services in other states.
In addition to developing and managing family-based mental health services, Marci has held several roles related to mental health training: developing, supervising, providing and coordinating initial and ongoing training for staff and managers and for therapeutic foster parents about the direct practice and supervision skills needed for the range of community-based mental health/developmental disability services provided through a comprehensive behavioral health agency.
Ms. White was responsible for ensuring that the children identified as the result of North Carolina's Willie M. lawsuit received the services to which they were entitled under the court agreement (1981 – 1998). The lawsuit was a right-to-treatment action for children and adolescents who had severe emotional, neurological, or mental conditions; were violent and aggressive; were or would be in need of residential or other community and family-based treatment and educational/vocational services; and for whom the State had not provided appropriate services. As part of her role, Ms. White supervised and established best practices for services, and monitored service outcomes for residential and community-based programs for youth in foster care, juvenile justice, and mental health systems. After 17 years as a class action lawsuit, the federal court ruled in January 1998, that the State had complied with the consent decree and that federal court jurisdiction was no longer required.
Ms. White has been a Clinical Instructor with the UNC-School of Social Work, serving as Field Faculty for MSW students in their field placements in community human service agencies. She was the Field Seminar leader for Foundation students, addressing topics related to students' experiences in field placement and professional development as social workers. Marci has demonstrated her commitment to individuals and their families living with mental health and substance abuse problems through her expertise, advocacy, education and support. She has worked to instill that same commitment and expertise in students, professionals and volunteers with whom she has worked and brings that to join us at MHAT. Marci received her Bachelor of Arts in English and her Master of Social Work, specializing in direct mental health practice from the University of North Carolina.
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The sale of Evansville's Red Spot Paint & Varnish Company to a Japanese subsidiary shows that our local economy has ties world wide. Red Spot is not the only company in Evansville doing business around the world. There are several others and each contributes to Evansville's steady economy which translates into steady jobs and appreciation in housing.
To learn more about Red Spot in the news, read the Evansville Courier Press article by clicking here.


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Religious Movements in India
Religious movements in India have mainly been anti-orthodox Hindu ideology, anti-Brahmin, pro-Muslim, pro-Christian, or pro-Sikh movements. These movements were either protest movements or movements focusing on separate identity or for justifying changes in the existing order of social relationship.
Some movements protested against the orthodox ideology of leaders of their faith, some against Brahminical Hinduism and the caste system, some were attacks on the notions of purity and pollution and the corrupt practices of the Brahmins, and so on.
Oommen has classified religious movements in three groups:
(1) Movements which started essentially as protest against Hinduism and came to be established as independent religions, such as Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism;
(2) Bhakti movements which attempted to purify Hinduism of its evils and fought against the tyranny of the caste system but subsequently crystalised as sects, such as Arya Samaj; and
(3) Movements oriented to opting out of the Hindu fold, conversion to other religions.
The first religious protest movements in India were Jainism and Buddhism. Jainism denied the authority of the Vedas and revolted against sacrifices. Buddhism also denounced Vedic sacrifices and Brahminic supremacy. Vaishnavism and Shaivaism movements, and those initiated by Kabir, Chaitanya and Nanak sought to abolish the intermediary between man and God, i.e., Brahmin.
Veerasaivism movement in Karnataka was against the practices of rigid caste system, idol worship, untouchability, etc., but it ended in religious bureaucracy and hierarchical organisation and emerged as a sect. The Arya Samaj movement originated in Punjab mainly to counter the proselytisation attempts of Christians and Muslims. It also focused on Vedic philosophy, besides emphasising shuddhi (purification). Today (1999) this reconversion aspect has been taken up by RSS and Bajrang Dal.
Conversion movements lay stress on the following points:
(1) Conversions, particularly to Islam and Christianity at particular historical periods, were motivated by economic and political gains.
(2) Conversions were group phenomena.
(3) Individual or family conversions, as against mass conversions, were usually confined to upper or intermediate castes.
(4) If in a region, the lower castes got converted first and experienced distinct socio-economic improvement and gained definite political advantage, this demonstrative effect, often prompted non-Brahmin castes also to get converted.
(5) Conversion of a section of a caste generated tensions among the converts and the non-converts.
(6) The strategy of conversions followed by different religious groups, differed. Muslims converted the elite first while Christian missionaries first converted the low caste people.
(7) The converted people were not treated on absolute social equality basis.
(8) Over a period of time, the intensity of conversion movements declined. Today, the emphasis is on reconversion to Hindu faith.
Classification of Religious Groups in India: Indigenous and Extra-Indic
Negative Aspects of Religious Reform Movements in India
Essay on Westernisation in India (1600 Words)
Relationship between Urbanisation and Industrialisation


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Dreams of Progress
Praying Palm and Pavlovian Plants
dreamsofprogress.substack.com
How experiments conducted 100 years apart are challenging the way we look at intelligence in plants
Niloy Gupta
Starch will have starch
In 1914 a journalist working at the progressive magazine The Nation was invited to witness a series of bizarre experiments conducted by a physicist from India. The demonstrations were held in a small private lab in Maida Vale, an affluent district in West London. What the journalist described was nothing short of a scene from Frankenstein.
"An unfortunate creature is strapped to the table of an unlicensed vivisector. When the subject is pinched with a pair of forceps, it winces. It is so strapped that its electric shudder of pain pulls the long arm of a very delicate lever that actuates a tiny mirror. This casts a beam of light on the frieze at the other end of the room, and thus enormously exaggerates the tremor of the creature. A pinch near the right-hand tube sends the beam 7 or 8 feet to the right, and a stab near the other wire sends it as far to the left."
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One might wonder whether the scientist succeeded in demonstrating life in a cadaver but it turns out the "unfortunate creature" was but a humble carrot.
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose's novel experiments in plant physiology conducted more than a century ago proved that plants respond to physiological stimuli. He invented clever apparatuses such as the crescograph, to accurately measure minuscule movements in plants when subjected to stimulation.
One of his famous papers talked about the curious case of a date palm tree in Faridpur, Bengal. In the evening, when the temple bells would ring, calling the villagers to pray, the tree would prostrate itself. It would then straighten its head in the morning. The tree attracted pilgrims given the miracle. Bose set up his experimental tent at the location and found a strong correlation between temperature and tree movement. Later experiments revealed a causal link: "Rise of temperature was attended by a fall of the tree and vice versâ".
The Faridpur 'Praying' Palm: the upper photograph shows the position in the morning; the lower position in the afternoon. The two fixed stakes are one meter in height. In front is seen the erect trunk of a different Palm.
There is a revival of such plant physiology experiments with Monica Gagliano of the University of Western Australia and her research team. There are two experimental results that challenge the way we look at memory and stimuli in plants.
The first experiment was to explore the idea of whether plants have long-term memory. The team subjected various specimens of mimosa pudica (touch-me-not plant) to a small external shock. They dropped the plant from a small height onto a foam bed numerous times. After a few attempts, the leaves did not close, suggesting that the plant got accustomed to the stimuli. To verify that it was not a case of "fall fatigue" they administered a greater and different shock and the leaves closed. This is where things got interesting; when the team repeated the small shock treatment after a month, they found that the leaves did not close. In fact, they opened even more widely indicating that the plant had learned that the fall was harmless.
Mimosa Pudica leaves show sensitivity to touch by folding their leaflets. (Photograph by Alamy Blickwinkel) Illustrations of Gagliano's experimental setup (Krulwich, 2015)
The second experiment is even more curious, where Gagliano extended the Pavlov experiment to plants. In the classic experiment, food was the reward for the dog, and a bell was a cue. The dog learned the association between the ringing of the bell and the presence of food. Gagliano's team used light as the reward and airflow as the cue. The research team found that when the airflow from a fan conditioned the plants, they would move towards the fan even when there was no light. Just like Pavlov's dog would salivate when the bell would ring even when there was no food. Plants just like animals can learn from association. The results of this experiment were published in Nature in 2016, indicating a huge win for the field of plant physiology.
Pavlov's classical conditioning in pea plants, experiment by Monica Gagliano (Gagliano, 2019)
This brings up an interesting question: How do plants without having any brains or neural tissue are able to learn and remember? There are two theories.
The first one is based on calcium-based cellular signaling. Calcium ion is an important messenger molecule involved in many signaling pathways in plants. Changes in calcium concentration have been found to increase in response to many physiological stimuli such as light, touch, plant hormones, and physical stresses such as high salinity, cold, and drought.
The other involves processing information by cells via ion flows. Pioneers in bioelectricity discovered that most plant and animal cells are excitable and electrically active. Neurons in the brain are typically more active and communicate via action potentials - rise and fall in voltage in the cell membrane. It appears plants generate such action potentials as well. The sensitivity is determined by the distribution of ions at the cell periphery, which generates electric potential at the plasma membrane. The carnivorous plant, Venus flytrap needs two repetitive action potentials of its hairs to close the trap and three action potentials to stimulate the digestive gland. It also uses electrical memory to control the behavior of the trap.
Are plants like us? Also, do they like us?
The question of whether plants are conscious has a contentious history. Most scientists considered it a frivolous thought experiment of Orientalists and hippie culture. As a result, J.C. Bose intentionally stayed away from that question. After all, he wanted to be recognized as a serious scientist. He had gained fame for his work as a physicist. He is considered one of the fathers of radio science alongside Tesla, Marconi, and Popov. He was the first Indian to be elected to the Royal Society and the first Indian to receive a US patent. The patent was for a 'coherer' (a device that detects radio waves), which Guglielmo Marconi used to build an operational two-way radio. Despite his achievements, Bose was careful not to present himself as an orientalist. The colonial government at the time believed that the East excelled in metaphysical speculations but had no aptitude for science. The idea was rooted in the quack science of phrenology. "The Indian make-up lacked a "bump" and a towering dome-like shape of the Western skull." This prejudice manifested in his compensation as a professor, which was one-third of what a European received. That is not to say that there were friends, colleagues, and spectators who ignored the question of consciousness in plants.
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, (1858 -1937), polymath and one of the pioneers of radio science Source
In one of Bose's demonstrations at Maida Vale, George Bernard Shaw was brought to tears when he saw how a piece of cabbage in boiling water convulsed violently, based on the readings on Bose's apparatus. Shaw had been famously vegetarian since the age of 25. He expressed that the line "Never again may blood of bird and beast stain with its venomous stream a human feast" in Shelly's The Revolt of Islam "opened my eyes to the savagery of my diet."
Gagliano on the other hand is very vocal in her belief that plants are intelligent having proven that they have the capacity to learn and remember. Critics of Gagliano, very similar to the critics of J.C. Bose, reject the proposition that plants are self-aware. Danny Chamovitz, director of the Manna Center for Plant Biosciences at Tel Aviv University in Israel, argues that plants are neither conscious nor intelligent. All organisms from bacteria to plants to humans are aware of the environment in order to survive. Plants integrate signals from roots, leaves, and flowers and adapt to their surroundings without having a nervous system or a brain. One should not anthropomorphize plants to appreciate their complexity. The crux of the argument lies in the assumption that consciousness is directly connected with the brain, therefore any organism which does not have a brain is not conscious.
Monica Gagliano is an evolutionary ecologist and public science communicator. Her book Thus Spoke the Plant talks about her research on plant intelligence. Image Source
The French philosopher Henri Bergson (famous for causing the first traffic jam on Broadway while on his lecture circuit in New York) gave a cogent rebuttal in his book Mind and Brain. Bergson points out the fallacy in the brain-consciousness argument. In humans, digestion is connected to the stomach, does that imply that no other living being can digest? As the complexity of the organism increases, there is a division of labor where special organs get assigned to specific activities. In humans, the brain is indispensable for consciousness. As we go down in the complexity of living things, the nervous systems are simplified and distributed, ultimately merging into the general mass of the organism. "Consciousness is still there, diffused, confused, but not reduced to nothing? Theoretically, then, everything living must be conscious. In principle, consciousness is coextensive with life".
Bergson argues that the brain is a filtering apparatus for consciousness. Take the example of the famous selective attention test "Gorilla experiment". Two groups of players pass a basketball to each other and the viewer is asked to keep count. Most viewers completely fail to see a person in a gorilla costume walk past the set. Perception, therefore, is constrained by our motivations. The dominant motivation is the need to survive and the brain is designed to meet that purpose. Therefore Bergson believes that the idea of identifying the brain as the sole source of consciousness is questionable.
Modern-day philosophers such as Michael Marder the author of "Plant Thinking", subscribe to the same view that the prerequisite for intelligence is having a brain is a very human-centric view. There is evidence of plants communicating between each other (and sometimes with Prince Charles), defending themselves, and making decisions.
The debate boils down to defining intelligence and consciousness. It is interesting to observe how this debate contrasts with the one around Artificial Intelligence. Proponents actively employ human-centric definitions of intelligence to prove sophisticated that data-driven pattern recognition machines, which can generate novel artwork or mimic human conversation, are closer to being sentient. The debate around plant consciousness is more evolved, to say the least.
Hungry for a salad?
What does this mean for humanity? Is eating a salad an act of murder? Is your wooden coffee table a result of genocide? Will plant life exact revenge, just like in M. Night Shyamalan's movie The Happening? Philosophy has a few hints on how to deal with this conundrum.
On one end of the spectrum is Jainism's core tenant of non-violence. The act of eating can be considered an act of violence. There is a practice called Sallekhana where one fasts to death so as to free oneself of bondage and desire.
On the other end is Herbert Spencer's (who coined "survival of the fittest") philosophy of Social Darwinism; where the strong must devour the weak to survive, which is the truth of nature that one must accept. Robin Kimmerer in her book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants takes a more humanistic take to this. The Native American Potawatomi tribe acknowledges the interdependent relationship between humans and plants. Humans are more than just predators or consumers. The tribe inculcates the culture of a gift economy where an individual gives back to the environment by fostering the growth of the next generation of plants. Each one sacrifices so that the other one survives. It is then not the survival of the fittest but survival by cooperation.
There might be a middle path in this parable from the Indian epic The Mahabharata. During a severe famine, a learned scholar breaks into a dog keeper's house to steal a dog to save himself from starvation. The dog keeper is appalled and argues that it is against the scholar's code of conduct to eat meat from a forbidden animal such as a dog. The scholar replies that his first duty is to remain alive. It is only when he is alive that he can perform his duties as required by society. In his belief, body and consciousness are different just like skin and sight. While the body is eating the meat, he is self-aware under what circumstances he is eating and can disassociate himself from the moral compunction. Suppose a wise person confronts a calamity and desires to remain alive, as long as they are not miserable in heart, they must cheerfully use every method to save themselves and accept the consequences gracefully. If mankind remains alive, it will obtain what is sacred and is fortunate. In other words, one must be in the world but not of it.
We must allow humanity some exceptions and leeway. Just as we have innovations in vegan meat, one can possibly see a future where there are alternatives to plant and meat-based diets such as nutrition pills and powders. Human civilization should be offered these options and be allowed to adapt their dietary preference as their individual beliefs change slowly.
The Life and Work of Sir Jagadis C Bose: An Indian Pioneer of Science, Patrick Geddes, 1920
Life Movements in Plants Vol 1/The "Praying" Palm Tree, J.C Bose, 1918
Can plants really think? Shutterstock Pavlov's plants: new study shows plants can learn from experience Prudence Gibson, December 2016
Memory in plants: A new study suggests that plants can remember training, even weeks later, The Economist, Jan 2014
J.C. Bose: Why the great scientist's legacy remains astonishing a century later Ecologize, Nov 2018
Why JC Bose is feted in India although he was mostly a marginal scientific figure in his lifetime: The polymath encouraged and sometimes even indulged in spiritualist interpretations of his work. Kapil Subramanian, Scroll.in , Nov 2017
J C Bose: The Little Known Story of How India's First Biophysicist Proved Plants Have Life, Sanchari Pal, BetterIndia, Nov 2016
Are Plants Conscious?, Daniel Kolitz, Gizmodo, May 2018
A debate over plant consciousness is forcing us to confront the limitations of the human mind, Ephrat Livni, Quartz, June 2018
Plant intelligence and the Turing Test, Eugene Wei, Dec 2013
Famous Eaters - George Bernard Shaw, Morning Advertiser, Graham Ridout, Oct 2005
The Intelligent Plant: Scientists debate a new way of understanding flora, Michael Pollan, New Yorker, Dec 2013
Plants and the Memories We Never Knew They Could Have, Alex Conde, INSH, Oct 2017
Whispering of Plants, Shubhankar Kundu, The Qrius Rhino, July 2019
Consciousness, the brain and mystical experience, Zoe Falcone, The Quad, March 2018
Defining Consciousness in Non-neuronal Organisms: Limitations and Possibilities, Dakshitaa Babu, Feb 2021
© 2023 Niloy Gupta


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Ralph Lauren's infatuation with cars
The fashion designer Ralph Lauren - who has created funky and memorable stylish apparel - also has a reported love of cars. According to Wall Street Cheat Sheet, Lauren has assembled a prominent collection of cars over the years, displaying the famous fashion designers ease at shifting between the world of fashion and automobiles.
The source noted the many arcane and rare cars Lauren has been able to track down for his collection. These include a 1929 Bentley Blower, Jaguar Roadsters and a Bugatti Type 37 Atlantic, among others. Fans of classic cars may be pondering how Lauren can track down a garage that will undertake auto repair on the classic Bentley, but then again, a car like this is probably designed to be treasured, rather than driven to international fashion shows.
I've always seen cars as art - moving art," said Lauren, according to Architectural Digest, "My Lamborghini Reventón reminds me of an incredibly sleek sculpture, or the explosive architecture of a modern master like Frank Gehry. Others collect art, but for me owning a rare and magnificently designed car offers a different kind of experience."
Many fashion fans may not be surprised at Lauren's love of cars, given the beautiful symmetry he constructs in his fashion designs, as craftsmanship and skill is necessary in both the fields of fashion and automobiles.