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The films do have one unexpected feature, at least for Western viewers: Traditionally, Pakistan's movie heroines haven't had to be thin to be considered attractive. More is better, particularly in the Pashtu-language films in the north. And so, in a refreshing change from the anorexic-looking stars of the West, many po... |
Indian directors say that there is a lot of beauty and talent in Pakistan, but its film industry lacks the technical skills and funding to produce good movies. That's where Bollywood comes in. In today's atmosphere of Pakistan-India reconciliation, the time is ripe for the two nations' film industries to collaborate. |
Film critic Omar Khan agrees that Lollywood's current situation is dismal. "Production has virtually ground to a halt. Most film studios have been converted from those furnishing film sets to those who provide for advertising or TV. It's all coming to its logical conclusion, sadly. Cinemas shut down with regularity, de... |
But with digital video being so affordable, the time is ripe for an explosion of film of all kinds. It's just a matter of time. Journalist Mohsin Sayeed wrote online in Gulf News, "Today, the digital revolution has seen a surge of new filmmakers picking up handy cams and using editing software... In Pakistan, cinema ha... |
I agree with Sayeed. A host of new talent is emerging in Pakistan, so things are looking up. Recovering from years of repression under Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq (1977-1988), art is slowly reasserting itself in Pakistan. Independent film productions are gaining momentum. Sabiha Sumar's 2003 film, Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters),... |
With signs of Pakistan's economy improving, industry insiders are hopeful that more funding will help Lollywood gain momentum. There is also talk of lifting the ban on Bollywood movies, allowing Lollywood to face more direct competition. That might serve as a stronger incentive to produce better quality—and less conven... |
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5 Insane Myths Your Grandma Told You (Science Says Are True) |
Eating a spoonful of sugar will cure your hiccups. Picking up a toad will give you warts. These little dubious tips are commonly called old wives' tales -- you usually hear them from your superstitious grandparents, and they're usually bullshit. |
Usually, but not always. Some of these folk cures and bizarre warnings have stuck around for a reason, and it just took science a while to catch up ... |
#5. Yes, Peanut Butter Gets Gum Out of Hair |
FtLaudGirl/iStock/Getty Images |
The Myth: |
So you were chewing gum and for whatever reason decided to store it for later by sticking it onto your scalp. We have no idea why techniques for getting gum out of hair became necessary, let alone popular, seeing as there are very few reasons why gum should ever come into the vicinity of the top of your head (maybe you... |
Gabe Palmer/Hemera/Getty Images |
For those who doubted that good grooming and kinky food fetish play could go together, there's your proof. |
Honestly, it sounds like a prank. Wasn't there a whole Simpsons subplot about this going disastrously wrong? |
The Science: |
It seems like such a nonsense answer because, well, gum is sticky, and peanut butter is sticky, so how would this not just create a bigger, stickier mess? And one that makes it look like somebody took a shit on your head? The secret, though, is the oil. |
Michael Saechang, via Wikipedia |
Meaning if there's no PB&J around, you could probably improvise. |
Basically, the reason gum doesn't come out with a quick shower is that it's a hydrophobic substance -- it doesn't dissolve in water. Try to wash that shit out and it will only stick harder, like an alien facehugger poked with a scalpel. But it does dissolve in oil, and peanut butter is full of it. |
"Wait, doesn't that mean I could use cooking oil or some shit instead?" Sure, and you can browse YouTube and watch thousands of videos of people using olive oil -- it seems to work fine. People always cite peanut butter either because it's easier to work with (as opposed to leaning over the sink and dumping half a bott... |
#4. Old People Can in Fact Predict the Weather |
Polka Dot Images/Polka Dot/Getty Images |
The Myth: |
You've probably heard an old person say they know it's going to rain because they "feel it in their bones." You probably also dismissed that codger because you know that old people don't have some kind of magical divining rod lodged in their skeleton that can predict the future better than the folks on the Weather Chan... |
Keith Brofsky/Stockbyte/Getty Images |
"Grab your coats, kids; Grandma's got that distant, rueful look again." |
The Science: |
You should have a little more respect for your elders, because science has discovered that old people really do have magic weather-predicting powers. And by that we mean arthritis. When a storm begins to form, it's preceded by a drop in air pressure. The leading theory about how elderly people are able to detect this d... |
Creatas Images/Creatas/Getty Images |
"This isn't the 'swell up and throb' you promised me, Pfizer." |
One way of thinking about it is that your body is like a balloon, and it keeps its shape because the pressure on the inside is the same as that on the outside. When the outside pressure drops, the balloon expands -- and so does your body. If you have arthritic joints, like the decrepit skeletons of many septuagenarians... |
And it's not just your joints -- science has also figured out that headaches can be brought on by the electromagnetic disturbance caused by an approaching storm. Researchers found that headache and migraine sufferers had a 31 percent increase in brain pain whenever lightning struck within 25 miles. They probably don't ... |
#3. If You Have a Problem, It Really Does Help to "Sleep on It" |
Jupiterimages/Pixland/Getty Images |
The Myth: |
Whenever you're freaking out about one of life's bigger decisions, one of the first pieces of generic advice your disinterested relatives and friends will give you is that you should "sleep on it" (as though the answer will come to you in your dreams, as opposed to the much more likely scenario that you'll have the sam... |
Creatas Images/Creatas/Getty Images |
It's especially unhelpful if your problem is "unclear driving directions." |
The Science: |
Researchers at Lancaster University tested this by presenting verbal insight problems to three groups of participants. One group was allowed to sleep on the problem, another was made to stay awake and think about it, and the third was forced to solve the problem immediately, presumably while being whipped by some taskm... |
John Foxx/Stockbyte/Getty Images |
"Finally, this internship starts getting interesting." |
And what they found was that for the most difficult problems, those who slept on it performed far better than either of the other two groups. We imagine that those who weren't allowed any time to think were probably too busy crying to put in the effort, but why does sleeping achieve more than, you know, actually rumina... |
According to the researchers, sleep allows you to "access information that is remote to the initial problem." In other words, when you're awake and focused, you're so dedicated to observing the shit out of those trees that you have no chance of seeing the forest. Sleep time is when your brain chills out, puts its feet ... |
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An Alzheimer’s disease protein seems to spread via synapses |
There are several variant forms of tau (“isoforms“) produced by alternative splicing of a single gene, MAPT (microtubule-associated protein tau). As the name implies, the various isoforms have functions related to microtubles, which make up the framework (“cytoskeleton“) of cells. In general, the different isoforms hel... |
The root cause of NFT formation isn’t known, although Aβ is strongly suspected of having something to do with it, since plaques consisting of Aβ build up around the neurons in brains of Alzheimer’s victims. However, it is known that the proximal cause of NFT formation is the hyperphosphorylation of normal tau by the at... |
Autopsied AD brains show that NFT formation proceeds in stages (“Braak stages”) according to regions of the brain that are affected. In the early stages NFTs are found primarily around the entorhinal cortex (EC), a small region on the underside of the brain. The EC is the main interface between the hippocampus, which i... |
This regularity of the spread of NFTs through neurons in AD seems like an important clue to an understanding of how the disease progresses. In particular, the EC is one of the first areas affected in AD, and it is connected by single synapses to neurons of several areas of the hippocampus: the dentate gyrus (DG), the s... |
This predictable pattern of NFT spreading suggests that a signal of some sort may pass directly through synapses. The main alternative hypothesis would be that NFTs show up in other areas that are initially not as susceptible to whatever factors cause NFTs to appear in the EC to begin with (presumably involving Aβ). |
In order to test the synaptic transmission hypothesis, the new research used genetically engineered mice (“NT mice”) that were equipped with genes to encode a pathological form of human tau specifically in the EC. In order to provide experimental controls, production of human tau required an inducing agent in order to ... |
In brain tissue from young (10-11 months) NT mice with human tau switched on, antibodies showed presence of this tau in cells of the EC and in cells of the hippocampus at the end of the perforant pathway, connected by a single synapse to cells of the EC. Control NT mice in which human tau genes were present but not exp... |
The situation was very different in brain tissue from old (22 months) NT mice. At that point antibodies showed the abnormal tau had reached cells deeper inside the hippocampus and in cells in parts of the neocortex. Such cells are all more than one synapse away from neurons in which the human tau was initially expresse... |
A variety of other tests were performed to check the results and rule out other possible explanations for what was observed. For example, examination of specific cells outside the EC but connected to it by a single synapse showed higher levels of human tau in older mice compared to younger ones. In addition, there was ... |
Another sort of test showed that heavily phosphorylated tau was especially more likely to have spread in older mice than in younger ones. In advanced stages of human AD, abnormal tau that is insoluble, malformed, hyperphosphorylated, and incorporated in neurofibrillary tangles is a characteristic sign. It’s associated ... |
A specific type of stain that indicates presence of tangles revealed some evidence for tangles in neurons of older NT mice, but not in younger ones, or in any of the control mice. Another stain that was sensitive to malformed tau gave similar results. |
What still is not clear is how tau might be transmitted across neural synapses. Such transmission is perfectly normal for neurotransmitters, because that’s the basic mechanism by which neurons communicate with each other. However, neurotransmitters are small peptides (short chains of amino acids connected by peptide bo... |
All this will surely be an area for much more research. Another study similar to the one described here is known to be in the publication pipeline. |
The research paper sums up its conclusions nicely: |
In general, our NT mouse model replicates the spatial and temporal aspects of the earliest stages (I–III) of Braak staging of tauopathy in Alzheimer’s disease. We have demonstrated that tau pathology initiating in the EC can spread to other synaptically connected brain areas as the mice age, supporting the idea that AD... |
Liu, L., Drouet, V., Wu, J., Witter, M., Small, S., Clelland, C., & Duff, K. (2012). Trans-Synaptic Spread of Tau Pathology In Vivo PLoS ONE, 7 (2) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031302 |
Further reading: |
Path Is Found for the Spread of Alzheimer’s |
Alzheimer’s Disease Protein Spreads Through Neurons in Mice |
Study gives new clues on how Alzheimer’s spreads |
Mouse Study Suggests Alzheimer’s Spreads Through Brain Like an Infection |
Alzheimer’s Spreads Like a Virus From Neuron to Neuron, Studies Show |
US study finds Alzheimer’s spreads like infection |
Alzheimer’s disease “jumps” across brain cells to spread |
Alzheimer’s protein – no, not amyloid and of course no prion – may spread through brain like infection |
Trans-Synaptic Spread of Tau Pathology In Vivo |
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