Right Brain Stimulation Reduces Stress, Enhances Creativity

Keywords: Dance Therapy, Music Therapy, Pain Management, Stress Reduction, Creativity Enhancement, Education, Language, Conceptual Skills

Researchers analyzed scores from the International Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) test, which is given in 65 countries.

In 2009, about 32 percent of American students scored what the researchers termed “proficient” on the PISA, which placed it 32 out of 65 countries. Fifty percent or more of students in Korea, Finland, Switzerland, Japan, Canada and the Netherlands scored proficient.

The 2009 PISA scores, released last December, delivered the depressing news that even though American students live in the richest country in the world, they trail, on average, significantly behind their neighbors in math skills. Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the scores a “wake up call for America” and a reason to continue the Obama administration reforms linking teacher evaluations to students’ test scores.

Math is considered a “logical” skill, and thus usually associated with the left brain hemisphere functions.  In my opinion, we have become a “left brain” society, reinforcing the development of linear/logic skills in our schools and workplace (consider that the first thing to go in any public school faced with a budget crunch are “right brain” topics, like art and music).   So why the low math scores?   Are we developing new generations of Americans that are deficient in conceptual and cognitive skills?  What does this mean for America’s future as an “innovator”?

Consider a study called Hemispheric and Autonomic Laterality: Effects of Unilateral Repetitive Activation.  The study was conducted at the Nova University Biofeedback Laboratories, under the guidance of noted neuro-feedback pioneer Dr. Joe Kamiya.   The study involved 47 volunteer subjects, split between the group watching the Kintron, (see picture and description below) and a experimental control group.  The experimental group also listened to soothing music (mostly light classical), and the control group listened to spoken text.  Several biofeedback measures were recorded one each subject during the sessions:

1. Bilateral skin conductance level (SCL), and

2.   Heart rate (HR)

Each subject came to the laboratory three times a week for two weeks for a total of six sessions. SCL and HR were monitored for the entire 45 minutes of each session with time samples recorded every minute for each variable. The first 15 minutes of each session was a stabilization period. During sessions two, four, and six, three disruptions were randomly presented to elicit a startle response, allowing at least five minutes for recovery from each of nine disruptions. Visual startle consisted of turning on an overhead light; auditory startle was elicited by hitting a metal file cabinet with a hammer; and touch startle consisted of two taps on the right forearm by the experimenter. Time for recovery to baseline was noted  in seconds.

The Kintron stands about 4 ft. high, by 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep. The rotating cylinder was controlled using a variable speed electric motor and voltage attenuator, capable of varying the rotation speed from 0 to up to 12 rotations per minute. The viewer sees a slow moving arc that rises and falls with the user-specified rotation speed.  The slower the movement while still maintaining the viewer’s concentration, the more powerful the effect.  The speed is set to correlate with the music being played in the background.

The resulting statistical evidence was conclusive:  the subjects watching the Kintron recovered from startle significantly faster than those in the control group.   In other words, after exposure to the Kintron, the subjects in the Kintron group were able to “relax” significantly more quickly than the other group.

It is hypothesized that utilizing KMT (Kinetic Motion Therapy), the right hemisphere is activated and thus strengthened (much like exercising a group of muscles at the gym), and the “jobs” that are typically handled by the right hemisphere of our brain are thus made easier.  Some of the “jobs” allocated to the right side of the brain include reasoning language functions, the transduction of visual and musical stimuli (such as spatial manipulation).  Other studies suggest that facial perception and artistic ability are also functions of the right hemisphere.  It is considered the “creative” side of the brain.

Utilizing this and similar right brain exercise techniques might help develop cognitive thinking ability which would thus increase a student’s ability to digest topic matter, such as math, in a more conceptual manner.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
James Wilson is a freelance composer and author.  He is a member of Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), and publishes his works through FreePLay Music Inc.  His works often appear on various cable networks, and broadcast internationally.

Further information can be obtained by emailing the author at: jrw@extremeco.net

The full study, Hemispheric and Autonomic Laterality: Effects of Unilateral Repetitive Activation, can be downloaded at:

http://soundtracks.9xnet.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/unilateral-repetitive-activation-

Technology we DON’T Need: a HyperSonic Jet

Just as we try to highlight technologies that might “save our butts”, Techimoto also feels an obligation to expose technologies that are just not appropriate, especially when they are mega-expensive, and when the country can use every spare dime to do things like create jobs for 20+% of our unemployed Americans.

With the HTV-2, DARPA and its partners, including the Air Force and Lockheed Martin, were attempting to advance a technology that has captured the imagination of aerospace engineers since the 1960s. Hypersonic flight, that is flight powered by air-breathing engines at greater than five times the speed of sound, could enable airplanes to cross the United States in minutes rather than hours, to jet from one side of the globe to the other and back on the same day.

The Hypersonic Test Vehicle-2 (pictured above), is supposed to (eventually) fly at MACH 20, 20 times faster than most current jets.  The rational for needing such a thing?  So we deliver bombs to anywhere in the world within 1 hour.  Now their’s a noble and necessary cause.

So far the HTV-2  has had two real unmanned test flights, both ending in crashes and costing us tax payers about $320 million.   That could feed a lot of starving families.

5 Reasons You Should Use Google Apps

Google Apps poster

This week Google has launched a new advertising campaign using billboards in four cities, San Francisco, New York, Boston, and Chicago, each day the billboards will display a different message promoting Google Apps. I have been using many of Google’s products for the past few years, I also have helped many others setup and use Gmail as an alternative for traditional email hosting with great success.

Here is my five reasons to use Google Apps.

1. Google Apps, Free For 100 Users

If you are a small business and looking for ways to cut costs, Google Apps allows for up to 100 users on their free ad supported version. The biggest difference is the 25GB vs 7GB of email storage, as well as being able to force SSL on the premium account but not the standard account. You also get access to Google Docs, but with a shared account of 10GB, on the premium account you get 10GB plus 500MB of shared space per user.

2. Hosted E-Mail, Powered by Gmail.

Here at techimoto our email is powered by Gmail using Google Apps, we easily transfered our email DNS records and within a few hours we where reaping all the benefits of Gmail. One of the key features that drew us to use Gmail was the great spam filtering and the fact that you don’t need to delete anything, being able to go back and search for a receipt or other important message from many years back. … Continue Reading

BFG Technologies, Liquid Cooled GTX 285, GTX 295 Graphics Cards

Lake Forest, IL – (August 4, 2009) – BFG Technologies®, Inc., the leading North American and European supplier of advanced NVIDIA-based 3D graphics cards, power supplies, and the Phobos™ High-Performance Gaming/Home Theater System, announced today the BFG GeForce® GTX 285 H2O+™ and GeForce® GTX 295 H2OC™ graphics cards with ThermoIntelligence® Advanced Cooling Solutions—saving customers time and money by providing a high performance graphics card plus a fully assembled, self-contained liquid cooling solution right out of the box.

The BFG GeForce® GTX 285 H2O+™ and GeForce® GTX 295 H2OC™ ThermoIntelligence® Advanced Cooling Solutions are maintenance-free, self-contained liquid cooling units attached to enthusiast-grade BFG Tech graphics cards that easily install into most systems right out of the box and never need refilling or additional components. These unique solutions feature a top of the line BFG Tech graphics card plus a high-performance cooling loop designed by CoolIT Systems™ that pushes coolant across the GPU and exhausts heat directly outside of the system chassis. Three different system speed settings—Auto, Quiet, and Maximum—give total control over acoustics and performance. … Continue Reading

Build your own home network, Part 2.

Netgear Gigabit Switch

In part two of this article I am going to be talking about each piece of networking equipment and how it interacts with the network and its importance.

The basic goal for any network is to create a reliable, fast and easy to maintain infrastructure. Our network had the following criteria:

All Television, Telephone, and Internet is to be powered by Time Warner Cable (TW).

• Telephone via TW VOIP, Using the 66 block all house phone jacks work.
• Television via TW Digital Cable, our house has two High Definition, and two Standard Definition TV’s.
• Internet via TW High Speed Internet, by setting up a simple network we can share this with our 6 computers and have network enabled backups.

In the last article we talked about our goals for the network and outlined the network map. … Continue Reading

Apple to Release iPhone SMS Vulnerability Fix on Saturday

Security experts at the Black Hat conference said Thursday that hackers can break into an iPhone to intercept text messages, deliver spam and deliver malware.

Charlie Miller, Independent Security Evaluators researcher, and Collin Mulliner, a Ph.D. student at the University of Berlin, demonstrated during a Black Hat presentation that hackers can break into an iPhone via the SMS protocol to launch a denial-of-service (DOS) attack or take control of a victim’s phone.

“Its lots of fun to kick friends off the network, but it’s even more fun to own their phone,” Miller said, who demonstrated the exploits on both the iPhone and Android.

Google has already patched the vulnerability that Miller identified in Android and Apple has been working on a patch for the iPhone OS. An O2 spokesperson told BBC News that a patch would be available via iTunes on Saturday, though Apple has not confirmed that information. Miller told Ars that Apple has asked him to help test a patch, though that test hasn’t yet happened. Miller did confirm that the problem affects iPhone OS up to 3.0, and he suspects it also affects current 3.1 betas. Other phone operating systems would also need patched to the fix the problem.

… Continue Reading

Next-gen Android phone has no physical keyboard

The next-gen T-Mobile USA G1 Android smartphone goes on sale Aug. 5, but unlike the previous G1 that had a swivel-out physical keyboard the next-gen version does not, but it still has the 3.2 inch touch screen.

When T-Mobile describes the myTouch 3G, it emphasizes its design focus on personalization, and how users can customize menus, wallpapers and icons and choose among more than 6,000 Android Market applications.

G1 delivers an extraordinary browsing experience. The G1’s browser comes with a clever multi-page window pane; it lets you surf multiple websites at the same time. Drag the page around with your finger to pan, or move from one link or textbox to another with the handy trackball positioned perfectly for your thumb. And don’t worry about waiting for pages to load. The G1 is equipped with 3.5G and Wi-Fi technology… seamlessly switching to always offer you the best connection.

Instant notification bar discretely alerts you of emails, text messages or IM sent your way. Whether you’re getting mail from Gmail™, another POP or IMAP account or receiving IMs from any of the most popular services, you’ll be alerted as soon as a new message comes in.

… Continue Reading

Build your own home network, Part 1

In todays day in age almost everything we use is a small computer, and while devices are getting smallerand smaller every day they are also getting more complex and require all sorts of connections.

In this article i will talk about setting up a home network and centralizing the entire home telecommunications into one central location out of the way of normal life.

This article is based on my house and a few years ago I had spent 2 weeks completely rewiring all the telecommunications of the house and relocating it from outside the house to the utility room in our garage, this required installing over 1000 ft of Cat5e ethernet cable used for both Ethernet and Telephones and 500 ft of RG6 television cable. Each room received three Cat5e cables and two RG6 cables, this provided for 2 Ethernet, 2 Telephone and two Cable Television ports.

The reason I choose the utility closet to use for the telecommunications room was done after careful research and planning, the garage is on the lower level of the house and stays cool year round allowing the equipment to stay cool and not worry about overheating. The second reason for this was the ease of running wires to the attic, In this setup I have a 2.5“ bundle of wires running into the attic where it then is split to each room. Another advantage of having the networking equipment located out of the normal day to day area is the network becomes seamless and you don’t see networking cables and tv cables running all over the house, It gives the house a much nicer feel. … Continue Reading

Google Introduces Iphone Competitor

COMPUTERWORLD: T-Mobile Inc., Google Inc. and HTC Corp. unveiled the long-awaited G1 Android phone at an event in New York today, revealing pricing, availability and some of the initial applications available for it. They emphasized that the software is open source.

The phone will first become available in the U.S., and a U.K. launch will follow shortly afterward. Starting Oct. 22, U.S. consumers will be able to buy the G1 for $179. Users can subscribe to a limited data plan for $25 a month or $35 for unlimited data access.

The G1 will go on sale in the U.K. in early November and in other T-Mobile European markets in the first quarter of next year.

“We believe open will drive the future of the mobile Internet,” said Cole Brodman, chief technology and innovation officer at T-Mobile USA. “From garages to graduate schools, from small towns to big cities, we believe third parties will drive the innovation and future of the mobile Net, along with partnerships with carriers and key manufacturers.”

A demonstration of the phone showed a user flicking the screen to scroll through items, in much the same way people can use gestures to navigate the iPhone. The G1, however, also supports the “long press,” where a user holds a finger to the screen to open up a menu. For example, holding a finger on a photograph opens a menu offering options such as the ability to send the photo to someone else.

The phone includes a browser built on Webkit, the same technology that drives Apple’s Safari browser, said Andy Rubin, senior director of mobile platforms at Google, who is credited with leading the Android development. He called it “Chrome-light,” comparing it to the Chrome browser that Google recently introduced.

The T-Mobile G1

In a browser window, a user can drag a small box around the Web site and the content behind the box is magnified for easier viewing on the small screen.

The phone, which the executives referred to as “G1 with Google”, features many Google applications, including Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Flickr and GTalk. It is also integrated with the Amazon MP3 store, allowing users to easily buy digital music, and it features the Android store where users can browse and buy new applications.

The phone also includes a dedicated search button. When users press it, a Google search bar pops up on the screen.

G1 users will be able to read Word, PDF and Excel documents but, initially at least, they won’t be able to sync Microsoft Exchange mail with the phone. “Currently there’s no Exchange compatibility, but that’s a perfect opportunity for a third-party developer,” Rubin said.

iLuv Dual Dock Alarm Clock Compatible with iPhone 3G

Luv iMM173 Features Advanced User Interface, Dual Dock Capabilities, jAura Sound Technology and Full Apple “Works With iPhone” Certification

PORT WASHINGTON, NY – (August 26, 2008) - iLuv, the leader in innovative audio solutions, announces the iMM173, Hi-Fi Dual Dock Alarm Clock for your iPhone / iPod. The iMM173 will be available Worldwide in early September 2008 for an MSRP of $129.99 at J&R, Micro Center and Amazon.com and www.i-luv.com.

This Apple certified Dual Dock Alarm Clock for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 2G includes a multitude of features and functions. … Continue Reading