Meme Therapy

Showing posts with label miss topics. Show all posts

In front of one of the works exhibited at the Hamburger Bahnhof, one of the venues for the Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, a visitor caught the public's attention today by commenting with enormous anguish that she had always believed that those born in her generation, the of World War II, they would be happy all their lives, because they would live without more wars; that she was convinced that her existence would be peaceful, calm, and without reason to be ashamed until the arrival of her death. But it does not seem that things are going to be like this, he affirmed, because it is not clear how the events of these dramatic days represented by the war with Ukraine will unfold.

The madness of one man and his devoted minions determines the fate of the country, he pointed out. We can only guess what will be written about this in the history books fifty years from now. Pain, fear and shame: these are the feelings of today, he stated. Pain, because war affects us all. Fear, because our biological instinct is to preserve our life and that of those around us. Shame because we are responsible for this situation that can have serious consequences for everyone. Because the responsibility for what is happening today also lies with all of us who witnessed these dramatic events, because we did not know how to foresee and prevent them.

Faced with these reflections, and in an environment such as the one we find ourselves in, it is inevitable to consider what role art should play in our daily lives, bearing in mind that it should also focus on the conflicts that surround us. This is one of the central questions addressed by Still Present!, the twelfth edition of the Berlin Art Biennale.

The works he shows can be judged for the way they push us to the limits, exposing pain, accepting physical extremes, causing emotions to rise to the surface of our skin with the aim of reclaiming the field of emotion through art. In extreme situations there is often the painful feeling that everything has changed, that we cannot understand why or understand what is happening. It is therefore the works that we observe here that present us with a position that does not leave us free, that does not offer escape routes, because its message crosses all walls. Failure to grasp it would be cynical. Because reality cannot be turned off.

Although he ordered the killing of thousands of homosexuals in the concentration camps, Adolf Hitler was sadomasochistic and bisexual and had a relationship that "embroidered the sexual" with his secretary, the powerful Rudolf Hess, affirms a profile of the Nazi leader elaborated during the Second World War. World by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the predecessor of the CIA.

The recently declassified report was prepared by anthropologist Henry Field, who collaborated in the Special Intelligence Unit of the White House in the time of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The document, about 70 pages, analyzes several aspects of the Nazi boss's life, from his daily routine, his diet to his musical tastes and his sexuality.

On page 28 of the report, Field says that when Hitler was imprisoned in Landsberg after his failed coup attempt, he maintained a "sexual-embracing" relationship with his right-hand man, Hess.

"After the murder of Roehm (the minister in Hitler's cabinet) I knew that Hess's nickname among the homosexual community was" Fraeulein Ana ", since it was known that she attended dances dressed as a woman (...) It was then that my suspicions about certain discrete characteristics in Hitler's personality began to get my attention, "Field wrote.

"After the murder of Rohem, small pieces of information were arriving until they forced me to consider Hitler as a sadomasochistic man with the possibility of a certain homosexual trait in him," Field wrote.

According to the investigation, when he was a young artist in Vienna, Hitler visited a men's residence, the "Mannerheim Brigittenau", known as a meeting point between older men who were looking for "young men for homosexual pleasures".

The report also assures that the Nazi leader sought as a loving ideal a couple that is "half mother and half girlfriend" and that "he obtained aesthetic satisfaction by seeing adolescents, boys or girls".

"His sexual life is as dual as his political vision, he is at the same time homosexual and heterosexual, socialist and a fervent nationalist, man and woman, although it is true that Adolf Hitler avoids being diagnosed, there are certain facts that prove that her sexual situation is unsustainable and, even, desperate, "concluded Field.

It is said that the cardinal Gascon Jean Bilhères de Villiers (1435-1499), the ambassador of the French monarch in the Holy See, commissioned the artist Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) La Pietà, one of the most important works of Renaissance sculpture.

The Pietà represents a very young Virgin Mary holding the dead Christ. According to the contract signed by both parties, the sculptor would charge four hundred and fifty gold ducats as long as he delivered the work within one year. The Florentine genius completed his sculpture when two days were left to complete the year.

The sculpture is well known by everyone and does not need presentations. Perhaps what is not so popular is that the mouth of Christ has three incisors in the upper arch, instead of two, which is usual. In other words, it has a supernumerary tooth.

The connection with evil

It is known as supernumerary teeth those that exceed the usual dental formula: 20 "milk" or deciduous and 32 permanent teeth. The causes that motivate its appearance are unknown, although the existence of a hereditary pattern has been discovered.

Although supernumerary teeth can appear in any location, the most frequent is in the central area of the maxillary arch, they are called mesiodens.

The depth of the Tuscan's thought can be intuited through his prolific artistic creation, in which theological, philosophical and anatomical conceptions can be guessed. It is known that he had vast knowledge of the human body, not in vain appears on the cover of some treatises of the Belgian physician Andreas Vesalio (1514-1564) participating in a dissection.

If it was not an anatomical error, what did the mesiodens symbolize? We must start from the premise that artists are often the notaries of their time and in the Renaissance the deformities of the body and anatomical anomalies were interpreted by some scholars -like Savoranola- as a figuration of evil. The fifth incisor was a metaphor for evil and sin.

Jesus and the burden of the sins of men

If we look closely at the Sistine Chapel we can discover that in hell there is more than one character with the fifth incisor. A symbolic nod that the Renaissance liked very much, as it represented for five decades, the time between La Pietà (1497-1499) and the Crucifixion of San Pedro in the Pasolina Chapel in Rome (1545-1550).

Now, how can we explain that the sculpture of Christ has a fifth incisor, according to this theological conception? The only possible explanation is that the Son of God has borne all the sins of men and with his blood has liberated Humanity from original sin.

It seems that when La Pietà by Michelangelo was exposed many critical voices questioned whether that genius could be the work of a Florentine -enemies found by the Romans- of 24 years.

The Florentine decided to settle the matter one night. In an attack of anger, of which he was quite accustomed to his contemporaries, he entered the Vatican and secretly chiselled on the ribbon of the Virgin's breast the following message: "Michel Agelus Bonarotus Florent Facieba" (Michelangelo Buonarroti, Florentine, did). In this way, La Pietà became the only work signed by the famous sculptor.

By the way, Miguel Ángel was not the only one to represent these dental malformations, we can also find them in La Pietà by Lorenzo Salimbeni (1568-1613) and in the Illustrations by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) for the Divine Comedy.

Pornography remains a controversial issue. Previous experiments have confirmed the impact that the stimulation of the pleasure center causes in the brain through the excess of explicit sexual contents. Now, several studies go deeper into this topic: what exactly does it do in our brain?

The high consumption of pornography can alter the structure and functioning of our brain causing addiction or addictive behavior to arise. Both having sex and watching them leads to the release in the brain of a substance called dopamine (a brain neurotransmitter related to motor functions, emotions and feelings of pleasure).

The difference with regard to practicing sex is that porn produces a kind of "flood" of dopamine. The excessive discharge of this hormone can produce cardiovascular, renal, stomach or endocrine disorders, among others. But also, when this discharge occurs, the body needs to re-produce them again, so they promote the repetition of this behavior and can lead to a vicious circle that leads the individual to lose the ability to govern their own body.

The brain, meanwhile, reduces its activity in the reward centers. The more pornography you see, the less activity, according to a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. This causes the brain to need more dopamine to feel the same effect. It offers us a compelling reason to see more pornography again.

"Brains respond to chemical change. When dopamine is released and there is a sense of pleasure, the primitive brain sends the message of repeating the behavior of the desired sensation, "explains Joe Schrank, specialist in addictions.

Thus the mind of a person with dependence on pornography is presented with a constant need to feel a strong stimulation. That is why the brain of a high consumer of explicit sexual content is compared with that of a person with alcohol dependence or a drug dependent person. Without going any further, a study published in the journal PloS One and carried out by the University of Cambridge (England) revealed that the striatum or striatum - which plays an important role in the reward center of the brain - was also illuminated when it was about people with alcohol dependence as well as pornography when showing them images of their object of desire.

The scientists discovered that three specific regions of the brain were much more active in people addicted to these sexual contents: the striatum, the anterior cingulate cortex (executive control, emotional control) and the amygdala (sentinel of emotions). In addition, seeing too much pornography also modifies the size of our brain. In another study carried out by the Max Planck Institute (Germany) in 2014, the researchers discovered that the volume of the striatum of the brain decreased the more they saw pornography.

"We found an important negative link between the act of viewing pornography several hours a week and the volume of gray matter in the right lobe of the brain, as well as the activity of the prefrontal cortex," explained the authors of the study.

In a world that is increasingly accelerated, with long working hours, intense traffic, growing urbanization and prolonged sedentary lifestyle, health is put a little aside. Thus, not only exercise is forgotten, but even basic issues such as walking or drinking water are played down.

Digitization and gadgets have had a controversial existence, receiving accusations of reducing social dynamics or chaining the user to a screen, but we must not forget its positive side. Since digitalization, electronic devices have been developed that seek to combat major urban problems, such as stress, sedentary lifestyle, poor diet and lack of sleep.

According to WHO, physical inactivity is a global public health problem. Among its statistics we find that at least 60% of the world's population does not perform the physical activity necessary to obtain health benefits. In addition to the prevention of diseases such as cardiovascular diseases or diabetes, physical movement helps combat the disease, one of the main ailments of today; Last year the WHO revealed that work stress causes 25% of heart attacks.

Do not confuse lack of exercise with physical inactivity. The latter is defined as having made less than 150 minutes accumulated in the week of moderate or vigorous physical activity. Also, sedentary lifestyle is considered when more than 28 hours per week are spent sitting, and more than 20% of the population is in This status.

Improving the quality of life is the goal of this type of gadgets, such as those developed by Fitbit. Faced with health problems that spread across the globe, the Californian brand developed portable technology focused on health and the fitness industry. This one opened its doors in 2007 and it was with a fast growth, since in the period between 2010 and 2015 the profits of Fitbit increased of 5 million dollars more than 1,800 million dollars (Statista). For 2014, 14 million devices were sold and in 2016 almost 40 million were sold. This shows that gadgets created to improve health is one of the most promising segments in the technology industry.

How does it work?

There are several types, from basic physical activity bracelets to smartwatches. But one of the most complete, without falling into the smart watch, is the Fitbit Alta HR. It is a thin bracelet that also has a watch on its digital screen. This is communicated through an application with the Smartphone in order to have more accurate statistics and achieve the objectives with greater efficiency.

When using the bracelet during the day it measures the steps, the heart rate, the distance traveled in kilometers, the calories burned and the time of physical exercise. In the application, the objectives are defined, for example, 8,000 steps per day, which is recommended to get out of a sedentary lifestyle, and in this way the device calculates the necessary steps per hour to reach the goal. With this, every so often it measures how many steps are missing and vibrates gently to invite the user to take a short walk or to complete a certain number of steps. This type of silent notification allows people to be more aware of their level of activity and motivates them to make a small effort.

Heart rate monitoring is very useful to achieve goals of increasing physical condition and calculate calorie burn both at rest and during an activity. This is very efficient when carrying out a weight loss plan. To complement, in the application there is a section in which you can manually enter what foods are consumed and count the calories consumed. Likewise, there is another section to record the number of glasses of water that are drunk and to become aware of the importance of consuming this vital liquid.

Sleep monitoring is one of its new functions. To measure it, it is necessary to sleep with the device on the wrist so that it can perceive the duration and constancy of sleep. In addition, thanks to the fact that it measures the heart rate, it manages to record the time spent in each of the sleep phases and then graphs them in the App, from which it is possible to compare with the phases of the standard sleep according to gender and age. This not only measures the sleeping time, but also the quality of it. As an additional help, from the phone you define the time in which you want to go to bed so that a vibration notifies you that it is time to rest and when it is time you wake up in the same way.

Something that is important is that this type of devices do not force you to follow a certain pre-established pattern of health, but are created to customize habits according to the type of life and personal goals. Although it has suggestions, such as the number of recommended steps, for example, everything goes according to an organic and comfortable improvement for the user. At the end of the day it is up to everyone to improve their quality of life and this type of gadgets make their lives easier.

Tell us how you use Facebook and we will tell you how old you are, or at least, we can make an estimate, thanks to a new study published by researchers at the University of North Dakota.

Older adults are attracted to Facebook to see photos and updates from family and friends, but tend to resist using this social network because they are concerned about who can see its content, according to new research.

"The biggest concern of seniors is privacy and not to reveal too much, but because they believe that there are too many people out there who could use your information at will," says the co-director of Penn's Media Research Lab State, S. Shyam Sundar. "Privacy has to do with the degree of control you feel you have about how your information is shared or distributed."

The researchers interviewed 46 participants who were between 65 and 95 years old. The group included 17 male participants and 29 female participants, all of them with a university degree. All claimed to use a computer daily.

The participants argued to keep in touch, to be aware of the updates of their contacts and to share photos as main reasons to use Facebook. However, the older adults in the study mentioned privacy, as well as the triviality of some posts, as reasons why they stayed away from the site.

According to this, Facebook would need to implement clearer privacy control tools to promote its use in older adults. What indicates, on the other hand, that young people are increasingly concerned about their privacy and, in general, do not consider it a factor to take into account when using a social network.

However, this does not mean that older adults do not enjoy the Facebook experience. While senior users are concerned about who is looking at their publications, at the same time they enjoy using the site to look at photos and read messages from friends and family, according to the researchers.

The study revealed that young people post more; instead, older people prefer to watch what their contacts do.

"I have not posted anything in years, I do not need to say: 'I'm eating!' I do not understand that type of communication", said one participant to the researchers.

The researchers, who report their findings in the journal Telematics and Informatics, warned Facebook developers that they should focus on setting up privacy to take advantage of the market for older people.

The researchers suggest that Facebook is helping to serve as a communication bridge between generations and that young people are encouraging older family members to join the site. In particular, unlike young people, most older adults were encouraged by younger family members to join Facebook so they can communicate.

Maintaining older users could be a significant resource to help drive the growth of Facebook and other social networks.

An exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum recreates from the middle of last month the experience of visiting the palace of Versailles at its best, since Louis XIV moved the court there in 1682 until the monarchy was expelled with the French Revolution of 1789. Paintings , sculptures, tapestries, lamps and porcelain bring back the lavish atmosphere of the palace, which is visited by New Yorkers and tourists today.

Versallesque passion, however, does not reach the great pockets of New York. Or, at least, not to put a stack of millions for a mansion inspired by the pompous style of the French Bourbon. The number 163 East 64th Street, which has been described as the "Versailles in Manhattan," has been 15 years without finding a buyer.

Its exterior appearance is elegant, in red brick and limestone, neo-Georgian style. Inside, it evolves to a more overloaded and baroque character. It has an original English pine wood bookcase, a Louis XIV style drawing room with ten large canvases inspired by one of the most famous rooms of the Frick Collection - a New York museum in which it was the mansion of one of the richest families of the city- and bedrooms with grandiose headboards and drapes.

It is very possible that the style of the house does not convince everyone. The big drawback, however, seems its price. Its owner, Kenneth Laub, took it out for sale in 2003. In December 2007, he asked for 35 million dollars for it. It was a time of skyrocketing real estate prices, there were still months to go before the toxic mortgage crisis erupted. But that seemed too much for a house that has other shortcomings: it's not as close to Central Park as the billionaires on the Upper East Side like and it does not have much outside space (instead of the usual garden for these mansions, it has a terrace in the rooftop).

Since then, the mansion has passed from hand to hand from luxury real estate agencies. None of his most seasoned agents was able to find a buyer. And that its price has fallen off: in July 2011, it dropped to 29.95 million; in June 2013, at 27.5; in 2015 it had two falls: they asked for 25 and 23.9 million.

Laub, a 79-year-old commercial real estate millionaire, is perhaps aware that he is asking too much for the mansion. He bought it for $ 4 million in 1986 and at one point it seemed he did not mind keeping it if he did not do a big business. Did your emotional connection make you believe that its price is greater than what the market can afford? "If I put it too expensive, I do not care. If someone thinks it is worth what I believe, they will buy it. If not, they will not. And it is not the end of the world in any of the cases, "he said in an interview with" Observer "in 2009, when the label still said" 35 million. " Now, it seems that Laub changes his mind, and for the first time is in the market for less than 20 million: 19.75 million dollars.

Perhaps this last reduction will change the fate of a mansion that, in the New York real estate circle, is considered cursed.

Meme Therapy

The connection with evil

Jesus and the burden of the sins of men

Popular Posts

Labels Cloud