Watch this video and find out!

~Ally

     This week I found the book "Wolf Totem" by Jiang Rong in the middle of a big home changeover mess, and remembered to research about Mao's Cultural Revolution, which took place from 1965 to 1968, and is largely quoted in the book.
     It was basically Mao’s attempt to reassert his beliefs in China, since he had been less than a dynamic leader from the late 1950’s on, and feared others in the party might be taking on a leading role that weakened his power within the party and the country. Mao wished to re-impose his authority on the party and therefore the country. The movement began in September 1965 with a speech by Lin Piao who urged pupils in schools and colleges to return to the basic principles of the revolutionary movement. Chinese youths were also encouraged to openly criticise the liberals in the Chinese Communist Party and those apparently influenced by Nikita Khruschev of the USSR. Educational establishments were considered to be too academic and, therefore, too elitist.
     Mao believed that the progress China had made since 1949 had lead to a privileged class developing – engineers, scientists, factory managers etc. He also believed that these people were acquiring too much power at his expense and was concerned that a new class of mandarins was emerging in China who had no idea about the lifestyle of the normal person in China.
     Red Guards (groups of youths who banded themselves together) encouraged all the youth in China to criticise those who Mao deemed untrustworthy with regards to the direction he wanted China to take. No-one was safe from criticism: writers, economists and anyone associated with the man Mao considered his main rival – Liu Shao-chi. Anyone who was deemed to have developed a superior attitude was considered an enemy of the party and people.
     Mao deliberately set out to create a cult for himself and to purge the Chinese Communist Party of anyone who did not fully support him. His main selling point was a desire to create a China which had peasants, workers and educated people working together – no-one was better than anyone else and all working for the good of China – a classless society.
    However, the enthusiasm of the Red Guards nearly pushed China into social turmoil. Schools and colleges were closed and the economy started to suffer. Groups of Red Guards fought one another as each separate unit believed that it knew best how China should proceed. In some areas the activities of the Red Guard got out of hand. They turned their anger on foreigners and foreign embassies got attacked.
     The looming chaos was only checked when Zhou Enlai urged for a return to normality. He had been one of the leading members of the Chinese Communist Party to encourage all party members to submit themselves to criticism but he quickly realised that the experiment that was the Cultural Revolution had got out of hand and was spiralling out of control. In October 1968, Liu Shao-chi was expelled from the party and this is generally seen by historians as the end of the Cultural Revolution. Mao had witnessed the removal of a potential rival in the party and therefore saw no need for the Cultural Revolution to continue.

~Ally

     According to a recent study using lab mice, it may be. The authors of the study suggest that a similar phenomenon could influence anxiety and addiction in humans. But some researchers are sceptical of the findings because a biological mechanism that explains the phenomenon has not been identified.    
     Epigenetic inheritance - modifications which alter the expression of genes, but not their actual nucleotide sequence - was suposedly found in laboratory mice who were trained to fear the smell of acetophenone, a chemical which scent has been compared to those of cherries and almonds. The researchers wafted the scent around a small chamber, while giving small electric shocks to male mice. The animals eventually learned to associate the scent with pain, shuddering in the presence of acetophenone even without a shock.
     That's when things get interesting: this reaction was passed on to their pups. Despite never having encountered acetophenone in their lives, the offspring exhibited increased sensitivity when introduced to its smell, shuddering more markedly in its presence compared with the descendants of mice that had been conditioned to be startled by a different smell or that had gone through no such conditioning. A third generation of mice — the 'grandchildren' — also inherited this reaction, as did mice conceived through in vitro fertilization with sperm from males sensitized to acetophenone. Similar experiments showed that the response can also be transmitted down from the mother. But how that happens has not been explained yet, and it gets scientists suspicious.
     Humans inherit epigenetic alterations that influence behaviour, too, the authors suspect. A parent’s anxiety, they speculate, could influence later generations through epigenetic modifications to receptors for stress hormones. But the researchers are not sure how to prove the case, and they plan to focus on lab animals for the time being. They now want to determine for how many generations the sensitivity to acetophenone lasts, and whether that response can be eliminated. Scepticism that the inheritance mechanism is real will likely persist “until someone can really explain it in a molecular way”, they claim. They also say that  “unfortunately, it’s probably going to be complicated and it’s probably going to take a while.”

~Ally

    Your first thought about the title of this post was probably "duh uh". But I'll explain you why that's true. Back in last november, there was a big fuzz on the internet about how the composer Jim Wilson recorded the sound of crickets and, when he slowed the recording down, the sound seemed very much like a human choir. He then allgedly combined two types of cricket sounds: one slowed down and the other in normal speed, and got the result you can hear here.
     However, for Tom Waits' great disappointment, the recordings WERE manipulated. Wilson combined the sound of crickets and the human opera singer called Bonnie Jo Hunt performing “Ballad of the Twisted Hair”, a song which is part of the album Medicine Songs by David Carson & the Little Wolf Band, recorded in 1992.
     So that's one more big farce you can say you fell for!

~Ally

     ... Kind of a bummer. That is, if you're a big fan of the book. Don't get me wrong, the movie is visually amazing and I loved it, but it got me wondering at the end if it was really worth to split Bilbo's story in three movies. If I had only seen this second part, I would say "hell no!" But the first one, "An Unexpected Journey" was so good that it's hard to make my mind about it.

                                                                                            .:.   SPOILER ALERT!!   .:.

     It just gave me the overall impression that the whole plot of this chapter was "sausage filling", as we say here in Brazil. Ok, Mirkwood and its spiders were awesome - though a little problemactic for arachnophobes like me -, and Thranduil is spectacularly... Overwhelming, to be polite. And I adored Tauriel (please don't crucify me for that!): she's a killing machine, flirty, funny and so sure of herself! It was very interesting to see how a younger and not so important - she's not from the "elvish royalty", but she IS the captain of the guard of Mirkwood! - she-elf would behave. I cheer for her and Legolas [gosh, such a fan girl!]!
     But the dwarves took too long to reach Erebor! And what about leaving 4 of the company behind? Soooooo not right, Mr. Peter Jackson! And Beorn's part was too short! And Gandalf... Well, he just felt a little lost after he leaves the dwarves (again) and finds... Well, none other than Sauron. That was too much for me. And where the hell is the Necromancer Radagast spoke so much about?! Is Sauron the Necromancer?! Dude, now I'm confused!
     And poor Bilbo... His expressions and performance with Smaug were awesome, but I thought he was so quiet during the whole movie that it made me sad! Nevertheless, I'll watch it again tomorrow and perhaps I'll change my mind about it!
     Anyway, watch the movie and tell me what you think!

~Ally

     Fountain pens are great if you're a sucker for calligraphy like me. However, if you leave your pen without use for a long time, the ink can clog the tip, and it won't work. And I did that. So here's a wuick tutorial on how to unclog your ink pen!
     First, take off the ink cartridge. Next, immerse the pen tip in water and leave it there resting for 24 hours, so the ink that is clogging the tip will wash off. You can also clean the tip in running water, but remember that it has always to be cold - hot water can damage other parts of the pen that aren't made of metal. And never, NEVER use other liquids to clean your pen!

~Ally

     I don't know about you guys, but I can get very confused when it comes to royal titles and stuff. Count of this, duchess of that, it never seems to end. And who is closest to the king in terms of family? Are they all related?
     Let's start this way: the European aristocracy created 5 lifetime and hereditary titles for people outside the royal family back when the Roman Empire ended and Middle Age began, a time when Europe was divided into small kingdoms. Every kingdom was ruled by a dinasty, who was surrounded by aggregates, which formed a social elite. These first ancestors of nobility distinguished themselves from the remaining population (peasants and slaves) by parentage with the king or services provided for him. The titles followed this hierarchical order: duke, marquis, earl, viscount and baron.
    First came the Dukes. This title has its origins in the Roman Empire, whose military commanders received the name of "dux" (meaning "he who leads" in Latin). It is the first echelon of nobility, and also referred as Grand Duke or Archduke.
     Following the dukes came the Marquises, a name originated from the medieval dialect of southern France, the Provencal. The marquis was responsible for the civil administrarion and military defense of frontier or poorly pacified regions.
    Earls or Counts also received their names in ancient Rome, derived from the Latin word "comes" ("he who follows"), referring to those who lived alongside the emperor: advisors, directors and palace officers. Among the Francs, the same name was given to judges and district governors. The ones who were connected to the Court were called Palatine Counts and had great influence. Knaves (like those from cards) are the same as Earls.
     Viscounts substitute Counts. That is: they are designated to do the Count's work when he is absent or incapable of doing it. From the tenth century on, this title became hereditary, also being granted to the sons of Counts.
     Finally, the word Baron comes from the German term "baro", which means "free man", although officers called this way were usually direct dependents of the king. This title was offered to outstanding people in the same basic functions of other noble positions such as ruling territories and commanding armies.
      So which one of these titles do you fancy most? I'll still go with Khaleesi.

~Ally

     That's something not even Hitchcock imagined! So, if you ever find a Pitohui dichrous, or a hooded pitohui - as it is commonly called -, in New Guinea, don't let it get very near you! Its skin and feathers have a toxic compound called Homobatracotoxin, a powerful neurotoxic alkaloid that can paralise several muscles, including cardiac ones! It can also cause numbness, paralisis of the affected members and even death.
     Scientists belive that the toxin comes from the Melyridae family beetles - which the birds prey upon. It is basically the same phenomenon observed in the Dendrobatidae frogs from Central and South America, in which feeding is the source of the toxins found on the animals.

~Ally

     And I got to know about this when I read about the dog above, Horus. It is deaf and was mistreated by its previous owners - a couple of heroin addicts -, which caused it to become extremely disobedient and restless. After spending more than 18 months in animal shelters, Rosie Gibs, an enthusiast of the sign language who helps the Deaf Dog Network (a network that helps deaf dogs), found it. She teached Horus how to use the sign language and nowadays it mastered more than 50 commands and won gold, silver and bronze medals from the Kennel Club Good Citizen.

~Ally

     That is, if you consider this little deer to be one. I mean, he only has one horn, so that makes him an unicorn, in the literal meaning of the word. That cutie was found near Florence, Italy, back in 2008. It is believed that creatures with anomalies such as this may have inspired the mystical creature legends, but I prefer to believe that they're real and are just hiding because you never know when Voldemort might sneak in and try to drink your blood!

~Ally