Explaining that consciousness can emerge from a grey, jelly-like lump of tissue in the head is arguably the greatest scientific challenge of our time. The brain is an extraordinarily complex organ, consisting of almost 100 billion cells (neurons) each connected to 10,000 others, yielding some ten trillion nerve connections. It is astounding. We have made a great deal of progress in understanding brain activity, and how it contributes to human behavior. But what no one has so far managed to explain is how all of this results in feelings, emotions and experiences. How does the passing around of electrical and chemical signals between neurons result in a feeling of pain or an experience of red? There is growing suspicion, though,...

Flat earth. One of the great lies told to schoolchildren is that the whole round-earth thing was first proposed by Christopher Columbus, sailing toward the edge of the Earth in hopes of encountering India. The truth is Columbus knew exactly what he was doing because people have been aware of the shape of the Earth for centuries. The ancient Greeks knew the Earth was round all the way back to Aristotle in 350 B.C. And Aristotle wasn't exactly the lone outlier, either. Certain (mostly educated people) for some reason have convinced themselves, in present times, that the idea of a round Earth is merely some ginormous conspiracy to, um ... ??? To do something. However, here are few pointers of...

Dangerous railways. Nobody is actually really scared of trains, are they? Air travel, sure, and you wouldn't be too surprised to meet someone who gets a bit nervous crossing oceans or driving on tight roads or even getting on a bicycle. But did you ever heard of somebody freaking out before climbing on board a train? Unless you know someone with a very specific phobia, the answer is probably "never." There's a chance, though, that we've all just been riding the wrong railways. However, there are routes are the highest, most precarious, most weathered on the planet! We reckon a quick journey on any of them, in just the wrong conditions, would be enough to drive the fear of rail...

Have you ever wished for a fairy tale world to escape to? Well, if you're furiously nodding at your screen right now then you'll be glad to hear that it is in fact entirely possible to do so. We have just the thing for you!  These villages might look like something out of a storybook but we promise you that each and every one of them are real. So next time you're looking to escape it all, don't hide in your bedroom. Just search for your nearest fantasy village and hide out there instead! click on images for slideshow [gallery gt3_gallery="yes" link="lightbox" ids="58801,58802,58803,58804,58805,58806,58807,58808,58809,58810,58811,58812,58813,58814,58815,58816,58817,58818,58819,58820,58821,58822,58823,58824,58825,58826,58827,58828,58829,58830,58831,58832,58833,58834"] boredpanda  

  Appleseed 2004: 1.45 hours   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elaSjcWNruU   channel Appleseed 2004. Deunan Knute, a young soldier and one of the Global War's last survivors, is rescued by Hitomi, a Second Generation Bioroid. Knute's escape attempt is stopped by her former lover Briareos Hecatonchires, now a cyborg. She realizes that the war had ended and she is in a Utopian city called Olympus. Its population is half-human and half-clone, a genetically-engineered species called Bioroids. Olympus is governed by three factions: Prime Minister Athena Areios; General Edward Uranus III, head of the Olympus Army; and a Council of Elders. Everything in the city is observed by an artificial intelligence named Gaia from a building called Tartaros. While there, Deunan joins the counter-terrorism...

Future technology. Resuscitation is one of those topics that is regularly discussed in the world of science. Resuscitation is highly unlikely at present due to the lack of the needed technology for success. However, it might be possible in the future as science and medical technology progress at a steady pace. Bringing the dead back to life Everything seems possible with the bright future that science has and it can rely on efficient outcomes, such as possible resuscitation, with its super and vast area of knowledge. However, bringing-people-back-to-life is clearly a difficult topic to discuss as it touches the bare essence of life. Many people believe, for their own reasons, that the dead must stay dead. Science, on the other...

Artificial Intelligence, defined as intelligence exhibited by machines, is on everybody's lips nowadays. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made many changes in our day to day life and has touched every industry, business, consumer and household in a meaningful way. Let's take a look at the technological advancements where AI will be able to assist us in the future. The Automobile Industry The impact that AI has on the automobile industry is massive! New vehicles were already featuring AI by eight percent in 2015! As seen in numerous movies, like driverless cars, has AI technology became a reality as the base for future cars. Machine Learning The difference between machine learning and AI is that AI intelligently completes tasks. Machine learning...

(recommend audio) The Black Death, also known as the Pestilence (Pest for short), the Great Plague or the Plague, or less commonly the Black Plague, was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 75 to 200 million people in Eurasia, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351. The bacterium Yersinia pestis, which results in several forms of plague (septicemic, pneumonic and, the most common, bubonic) is believed to have been the cause. The Black Death was the first major European outbreak of plague and the second plague pandemic. The plague created a number of religious, social and economic upheavals, with profound effects on the course of European history. The Black Death...

The Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black Death in the 1340s, the high taxes resulting from the conflict with France during the Hundred Years' War and instability within the local leadership of London. Unpaid poll taxes The final trigger for the revolt was the intervention of a royal official, John Bampton, in Essex on 30 May 1381. His attempts to collect unpaid poll taxes in Brentwood ended in a violent confrontation, which rapidly spread across the south-east of the country. A wide spectrum of rural society, including many local artisans and village officials, rose up in protest, burning court records and opening the local gaols....

There are thousands of articles describing natural splendour of Kashmir and how it is the true symbol of ‘heaven on earth’. But how many of us are aware of the stories that haunt people who live there, of the haunted tales of Kashmir? The deep stunning valleys of Kashmir hold more, something that we can’t see, understand, or describe in words but can only feel crawling on our skin and seeking home in the darks of our mind. There are several haunted places in Kashmir that might give you sleepless nights. Here are the stories of four of  these ghosts that haunt the gorgeous valleys of Kashmir: Gawkadal Bridge To know what happened at Gawkadal Bridge, you’ll have to go...