Genetic Mutants? 5 Strange Science Facts About Moms

By Stephanie Pappas
Many people will spend Mother's Day, celebrating the love, warmth and emotional support they get from their mothers.

But did you know that many moms are also genetic mutants whose very brains altered in the process of motherhood? Yes, this makes good old mom sound a little bit like an X-man, but there's science behind it, we promise.

So this Mother's Day, we've rounded up some of the stranger scientific facts about motherhood. Read on, and then go give that sweet mutant mom a hug

1. Mom's a genetic patchwork

Pregnancy changes the body, but stretch marks get all the glory. A much cooler side-effect of gestation is that moms may carry little pieces of their children with them for years to come.

It's called microchimerism. The placenta separates the blood flow of mom and baby, but a handful of fetal cells cross this barrier and lodge in mom's body. Scientists have found that these cells can persist for years or even decades. The role of these cells, if any, remains mysterious. But a 2012 study found that DNA from a child's cells could even end up in mom's brain.

2. You changed her brain

Research in rodents has found that having offspring changes the brain. When pregnant mom-to-be rats gain new smell-related neurons — perhaps the better to recognize her babies' scent with. These changes persist throughout the mom's life, according to a 2011 study.

The human brain is not immune from pregnancy-related change, either. A yet-unpublished study presented on May 7 at the annual conference of the British Psychological Society found that pregnant women use the right side of their brain more than new moms when looking at images of adult and baby faces sporting different emotions. The effect was strongest when pregnant women were processing happy faces, the researchers reported. The changes may be part of promoting the mother-baby bond after birth, they suggested.

Previous studies have found that pregnant women and new moms get a boost in their ability to read facial emotions, and these brain changes may be related.

3. She might help your love life

The pushy mother-in-law is a time-honored stereotype, but cut mom a break. She may have done more for your love life than you think.

A close and warm relationship with mom during childhood predicts better relationships later in life, according to research presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science. Maternal help in the romance department may even cross species lines: Another 2010 study, this one published in the journal Nature Communications, found that low-ranking male bonobos get more chances to mate when mom is around. Moms play matchmaker by allowing their sons into their social circles, and even chase away rival males.

Not feeling lovey-dovey? Good news: A strong bond with mom can help kids make friends, too.

4. You might have made her a little OCD

If your mom seems to worry a lot, you may not be imagining things. Having a baby makes people a bit obsessive, it turns out.

Northwestern University researchers studied new moms when their babies were 2 weeks and 6 months old, and found that 11 percent had significant symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder, such as fear of germs or compulsions to check and recheck the baby monitor. In comparison, only about 2 percent to 3 percent of the general population has these symptoms, the researchers reported in 2013 in The Journal of Reproductive Medicine.

When taken to an extreme, these symptoms can be harmful, the researchers wrote. But some worries are probably normal and adaptive — taking care of a newborn is tough work, after all. The increase in obsessive symptoms may be a result of stress or postpartum hormones.

5. Her voice is powerful

You knew your mother's voice before you were even born. A 2003 study out of Queen's University in Canada published in the journal Psychological Science found that the fetal heart races faster when hearing a recorded poem read by its own mother compared to when the poem is read by a stranger's voice. The study was conducted in the third trimester, when babies were nearly ready to be born. [That's Incredible! 9 Brainy Baby Abilities]

Another study from the University of Montreal found that the newborn brain is as responsive as the fetal heart. When moms made a short "A" sound, the left hemisphere of brand-new babies' brains became active, while the right hemisphere became active when a stranger spoke, the researchers reported in 2010 in the journal Cerebral Cortex. The right hemisphere of the brain is linked to voice recognition, while the left processes language and motor skills, so mom's voice may lay the groundwork for a baby's first words.

This vocal maternal superpower continues long past the baby stage. Hearing a mother's voice eases older children's stress just as much as a real-life hug, according to a 2010 study. The sound of mom's voice lowers a child's stress hormone, cortisol, and raises his or her level of oxytocin, a hormone linked with love and bonding. So give your mom a call this Mother's Day. It'll do you both good.

h/t www.livescience.com/45475-strange-science-moms.html/

Happy Mother's Day, We Love Moms!

There Was A Time When The U.S. Government Understood That Guns Protect Against Tyranny

By Bruce Canfield
Early 1942 was a time of crisis for the Allies. The Japanese had dealt America’s Pacific fleet a crippling blow on Dec. 7, 1941, and just a few months later would force the surrender of the Philippines. On the other side of the world, most of Western Europe was under the heel of the Nazi jackboot, and the seemingly invincible Wehrmacht was sweeping across the steppes of the Soviet Union. Against that bleak backdrop, Allied planners were tirelessly exploring ways to stem the Axis aggression and take the fight to the enemy.

In March 1942, a Polish military attaché requested that the Allies provide arms to the populations of German-occupied countries. The U.S. Army’s Joint Psychological Warfare Committee was tasked with devising a plan to develop such arms. Any firearm destined for the purpose of arming civilians in occupied countries must be able to be manufactured quickly and cheaply so as not to take away from the resources needed for the production of conventional military small arms that were still in short supply. To this end, it was proposed that a pistol be developed from stamped steel with a rudimentary unrifled (smoothbore) barrel of common steel tubing. Large numbers of the inexpensive guns could be air-dropped in occupied territories to partisans or other civilians with a desire to fight their oppressors, but who otherwise may have only been armed with only a knife or club. While obviously not an optimum military arm, the crude handguns could be used to dispatch enemy soldiers and take their more effective rifles or submachine guns. Also, it was believed that morale problems would arise when the enemy military command realized that thousands of firearms were ending up in the hands of previously unarmed civilians.


The Army contacted the Inland Manufacturing Division of General Motors to develop the new pistol, and Inland’s chief designer, George Hyde, was assigned the project. The gun was given the purposely misleading name of “Flare Projector” to disguise its true purpose and designated as the “FP-45” (Flare Projector-.45 caliber). To further conceal the nature of the project, the engineering drawings referred to the barrel as the “tube” and the trigger and related parts as the “yoke.” Hyde and his team hand-fabricated several samples to evaluate the suitability of their design. The work was carried on in a very small room (about 25 square-feet) at the Inland facility and only those personnel with direct involvement with the project were permitted entry. Five prototypes were submitted to Ordnance, and the design was approved in early May 1942.

By this time, Inland was heavily involved in the manufacture of the M1 Carbine, so further development and eventual production of the FP-45 were transferred to GM’s Guide Lamp Division in Anderson, Ind. Guide Lamp had extensive experience in the fabrication of stamped metal automotive components, thus had the machinery and expertise required to manufacture a firearm constructed primarily of stamped sheet metal.

On May 15, 1942, Guide Lamp was granted a contract for the manufacture of 1 million guns. While officially designated as the FP-45, the single-shot was known by other monikers including the “Woolworth Gun” and, more commonly, the “Liberator.” Some 300 workers, sworn to secrecy, were assigned to the project. Guide Lamp began production during the second week of June 1942. The work force labored 24 hours a day, seven days a week and the million pistols were completed on Aug. 21, 1942, just more than 10 weeks later. It has been calculated that the average assembly time per pistol was 6.6 seconds. This gives the Liberator the somewhat dubious distinction that it is likely the only gun manufactured in less time than it took to load. There was at least one experimental double-barrel version fabricated, but that variant was never put into production.

Each Liberator had to be fired at least once after manufacture to satisfy inspection requirements with a few random samples being fired as many as 50 times for more extensive testing. That resulted in more than 1.5 million rounds of .45 ACP ammunition being expended during the course of manufacture. Obviously, it didn’t take long for the workers to conclude that they weren’t really making flare projectors. A foreman was killed when he accidently shot himself in the abdomen with a FP-45 although the “official” story was that he was injured due to a malfunctioning piece of equipment.

As the guns were test-fired, the relative fragility of the design became apparent. Some examples revealed that damage, primarily splitting of the welded seams, could occur after as few as 10 or 15 rounds. Reportedly none could continue being safely fired after 50 rounds. Accuracy from the 4-inch, smooth-bore barrel was, predictably, quite problematic at anything but close distances. The 230-grain bullets would typically begin to tumble or keyhole soon after leaving the muzzle. This obviously was detrimental to accuracy but could produce rather gruesome wounds. None of those seemingly negative aspects were viewed as troublesome for a gun that was only intended to be fired one or two times at very close range before being discarded.

As would be expected given their clandestine nature, the pistols were not stamped with serial numbers or manufacturer’s markings. Most were completely unmarked, but some had a very inconspicuous single letter stamped inside the grip while a few others had a small one- or two-digit-mold number embossed on the cocking-knob. The Liberator pistol weighed about 1 pound (unloaded) with an overall length of 6 inches. The guns were not blued or Parkerized in the traditional manner but were “bonderized,” a procedure commonly applied to galvanized steel and similar metals prior to painting. Since the gun was intended to be more or less a disposable and not designed for long-term survivability, a durable finish was not necessary. Indeed, that was viewed as an advantage.

As stated in a late 1942 government report: “This weapon recommended itself … as a way of arming friendly subjugated peoples of the Far East. Here it has a value because it could be useful only for a short period before the humidity of the tropics would rust it away. In this way, it would be safe to arm people for the purpose of fighting the Japs, while at the same time not giving them weapons which would later be an embarrassment for the allies.”

Each pistol was packed in a cardboard box along with 10 rounds of .45 ACP ammunition (manufactured in 1942 by Frankford Arsenal), a wooden dowel (necessary to punch out the fired cartridge case from the chamber) and a sheet of cartoon-like illustrations showing how to operate the pistol. The wordless instructions could be used in spite of language barriers or even illiteracy. A crude drawing of the gun with smoke billowing from the muzzle was stamped on top of the packing box. After packing, the boxes were dipped in hot paraffin to provide some measure of protection from moisture until the guns were to be used. The hollow butt of the pistol—designed to store the 10 rounds of .45 ACP ammunition—could be accessed by a sliding sheet metal cover. The cost of the gun and packaging was $2.10 which, adjusted for inflation, equates to about $32 today.






It is nothing short of amazing that the time period from the conception of the idea through the production of 1 million guns was less than six months. Today, it would likely take longer than that to file the necessary federal government environmental impact study paperwork. Nevertheless, the Army had its 1 million “Liberator” pistols and plans to distribute them were implemented. As is often the case with hastily conceived ideas, however, things did not go quite as planned.

The initial focus of the Joint Psychological Warfare Committee was to air-drop large numbers of the pistols to partisans and members of the Resistance in occupied Europe. To this end, 500,000 FP-45s were shipped to Great Britain for subsequent distribution to the French Maquis and other Resistance groups. However, Gen. Eisenhower’s command was not particularly enamored with the whole idea and stated that only about 25,000 might be acceptable for “possible emergency use” and that the remainder of production should be released for use elsewhere. It was also recommended that no more guns of the type be manufactured. With the rebuff by Eisenhower, the Army sought to send the balance to the Pacific for possible use in China or the Philippines. As was the case in Europe, Gen. Stillwell was not interested in them and Gen. MacArthur was, at best, lukewarm to the idea. Clearly, the Liberator wasn’t going to be the “game changer” that the Army had hoped for.

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20 Classical Paintings Reproduced As Photographs

The creative at Booooom.com recently started a project with the title “Remake” in which they invited creative art lovers to reproduce iconic paintings with photography without the use of any image editing software including Adobe Photoshop. In this remake project Boooooom partnered up with Adobe inviting students from U.K. to participate and send their remakes without digital manipulations.

Below is our pick of the best remakes capturing the basic visual theme and original atmosphere of the masterpieces they imitated.













































































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50 THINGS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW

50 THINGS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW (or 50 Completely Useless Facts!)
The word "queue" is the only word in the English language that is still pronounced the same way when the last four letters are removed.Beetles taste like apples, wasps like pine nuts, and worms  like fried bacon. Of all the words in the English language, the word 'set' has the most definitions! What is called a "French kiss" in the English speaking world is known as an "English kiss" in France. "Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order. "Rhythm" is the longest English word without a vowel. In 1386, a pig in France was executed by public hanging for the murder of a child A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off! Human thigh bones are stronger than concrete. You can't kill yourself by holding your breath There is a city called Rome on every continent. Your heart beats over 100,000 times a day! Horatio Nelson, one of England's most illustrious admirals was throughout his life, never able to find a cure for his sea-sickness. The skeleton of Jeremy Bentham is present at all important meetings of the University of London Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people Your ribs move about 5 million times a year, everytime you breathe! The elephant is the only mammal  that can't jump! One quarter of the bones in your body, are in your feet! Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different! The first known transfusion of blood was performed as early as 1667, when Jean-Baptiste, transfused two pints of blood from a sheep to a young man A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue! The average person laughs 10 times a day! An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain The present population of 5 billion plus people of the world is predicted to become 15 billion by 2080. Women blink nearly twice as much as men. Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails! Most dust particles in your house are made from dead skin! More Facts: Interesting Facts...		Honey is the only food that does not spoil. Honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible. Months that begin on a Sunday will always have a "Friday the 13th."Coca-Cola would be green if colouring weren’t added to it. On average a hedgehog's  heart beats 300 times a minute. More people are killed each year from bees than from snakes. The average lead pencil will draw a line 35 miles long or write approximately 50,000 English words. More people are allergic to cow's milk than any other food. Camels have three eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand. The placement of a donkey's eyes in its' heads enables it to see all four feet at all times! The six official languages of the United Nations are: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. Earth is the only planet not named after a god. It's against the law to burp, or sneeze in a church in Nebraska, USA. You're born with 300 bones, but by the time you become an adult, you only have 206. Some worms will eat themselves if they can't find any food! Dolphins sleep with one eye open! It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is 9000 years old! The longest recorded flight  of a chicken is 13 seconds Queen Elizabeth I regarded herself as a paragon of cleanliness. She declared that she bathed once every three months, whether she needed it or not Slugs have 4 noses. Owls are the only birds who can see the colour blue. A man named Charles Osborne had the hiccups for 69 years! Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian, and had only ONE testicle.