PeggyJudyTime News – “Hare’s” March!

Another month of tech frrrrrrrrrrustrrrrrrrration . . . Here’s the PJTNewsletter you were going to get in your e-mail . . . our expectations are firm, it’s our time-line that is flexible!*

March 2023 Down the rabbit hole with the March Hare (not to mention Peggy ‘n Judy). *Note: All RED copy denotes our personal opinions & commentary, based on decades of real world experience and/or delusions. “The March Hare will be much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won’t be raving mad – at least not so mad as it was in March.” Alice, hypothesizes, Through the Looking Glass

What’s Up? We get mail (er . . . e-mail)! Here’s a pithy commentary on our February PJTNewsletter (if you were a hare late and missed it click HERE Tom Thomas’ Takeaways and Cautionary Tail (hey! remember , , , we’ve got a rabbit theme going . . . .) and we quote . . . “Thanks for the newest, grandest, bestest animal and baking edition of PJT News. Maybe if everyone moved to the prairie with the moles there would be more love and long-term commitments due to the oxytocin grass that grows there! Something is really wrong about considering a 4 inch, hissing, crunchy roach for a Valentine gift. The recipe for the flourless chocolate cake was in the Phoenix “newspaper” recently, so I made one. Caution– don’t let the water flow over into the cake pan or you will have a very chocolatey pudding. Gracie Allen is lookin’ great! By the way, are you gals on the mailing list for info about Camelback High 60th reunion this fall? Thanks for the Loverly letter,” TT (Thanks Tom for the Loverly e-mail! . . . and referring to us as “gals”, You Betcha!)

“Like the character’s friend, the Hatter, the March Hare feels compelled to always behave as though it is tea-time because the Hatter supposedly “murdered the time” whilst singing for the Queen of Hearts. Sir John Tenniel‘s illustration also shows him with straw on his head, a common way to depict madness in Victorian times.” What do YOU think? Although the information we present in our PJTnewletters and site are often punctuated with a wink and a smile, we hope you will think about much of what we offer on a deeper level. We believe that we are all connected in this world – “As above, so below; as below, so above”– in ways often unseen, unappreciated and unknown. The March Hare’s perception of “tea-time” is perhaps a reflection of eternity and his “madness” a reminder we are both rational and irrational beings.

(Hare-Brained Idea? We think not) How to strengthen your muscle just by thinking about exercising it! “For 12 weeks (five minutes a day, five days per week) a team of 30 healthy young adults imagined either using the muscle of their little finger or of their elbow flexor. Dr. Vinoth Ranganathan and his team asked the participants to think as strongly as they could about moving the muscle being tested, to make the imaginary movement as real as they could.” Compared to a control group – that did no imaginary exercises and showed no strength gains: – The little-finger group increased their pinky muscle strength by 35%. – The other group increased elbow strength by 13.4%. – What’s more, brain scans taken after the study showed greater and more focused activity in the prefrontal cortex than before.” The researchers said strength gains were due to improvements in the brain’s ability to signal muscle. (Cancel that gym membership, donate your running shoes and flex your buff pinky finger!)

Hare-raising Thoughts About Our World

Trees Communicate and Cooperate through a FUNGAL Web, (Is this a hare-brained idea . . .? not everyone is convinced) “The tips of tree roots are intertwined with filaments of fungus, forming a hidden underground network that seems to benefit both organisms: the filaments, known as hyphae, break down minerals from the soil that trees can then take into their roots, while the fungus gets a steady source of sugar from the trees.” “More poetically, research has hinted that these connections—known as mycorrhizal networks—can extend between trees, enabling one tree to transfer resources below ground to another.” “Some researchers even argue that trees are cooperating, with older trees passing resources to seedlings and nurturing them as a parent might.” There is even a punny popular name for the phenomenon: the “wood-wide web.” “Analysis published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, however, argues that the evidence for mycorrhizal networks facilitating tree cooperation is not as strong as the popular story would suggest.” “It’s not that relationships between trees and fungi don’t exist, says co-author Justine Karst, an ecologist who studies mycorrhizal networks at the University of Alberta. Rather, in many cases, suggestive evidence or studies with many caveats have been taken as more definitive than they really are.” “The problem with researching mycorrhizal networks is that they’re very delicate: dig up a root, and you’ve destroyed the very web of fungi and wood you wanted to study. That makes it hard to tell if a particular fungus is really connecting any two trees.” “The best way to get around the problem is to sample fungi from different locations, sequence their genetic information, and make a map of where genetically identical fungi are growing. This is a tremendous amount of work, Karst says, . . . Making these studies even more challenging is the ephemeral nature of fungal networks.”

“Fungi can grow as individuals after being split, says Melanie Jones, a plant biologist at the University of British Columbia and a co-author of the new analysis. Even genetic samples provide only a snapshot and can’t reveal whether the bits of fungi collected at two different trees are still actually connected. They may have been severed by part of the fungus dying or by something taking a bite out of it. “It’s a very thorny issue,” Jones says. These limitations raise questions about how widespread mycorrhizal networks are, and how long they last. It is clear that substances from one tree can end up being taken up by a neighboring tree in the forest. “The main message is that this hasn’t been tested in a forest,” Karst says. “When you see those pictures of ancient forests, big trees and they’re passing signals to each other, it just hasn’t been tested.” “For decades, a compartmentalized approach has hindered us from better understanding why forests help regulate global climate and harbor such rich biodiversity. Applying reductionist science to complex systems accelerates the exploitation and degradation of forests worldwide.” “. . . Karst believes there may still be truth to the idea that mycorrhizal networks are involved in at least some tree-to-tree networking, and better-designed experiments could get at that truth.” article by Stephanie Pappas Decide for yourself. Is this a HARE-Brained hypothosis? Click below to read entire article: https://www.peggyjudytime.com/post/do-trees-really-support-each-other-through-a-network-of-fungi

( . . . HUMAN Mycorrhizal Networks?) Your (hare) brain synchronizes with others during cooperative tasks “Overview of the experimental setup used to study brain synchronization during cooperative tasks*: Each pair of participants (39 pairs in total) engaged in a natural, cooperative, and creative task: the design and furnishing of a digital room in a computer game. They were allowed to communicate freely to create a room that satisfied both.” Participants had to design the interior of a digital room together, and a computer vision system kept track of their gaze to pinpoint the social behavior of looking at the other participant’s face. The participants also completed the same task individually. While they completed the experiment, their brain activity was recorded. Statistical analysis was then used to assess between-brain and within-brain synchronization of various cerebral regions. “This emerging research field is referred to as “second-person neuroscience” and employs hyperscanning (the simultaneous recording of the activity of multiple brains) as the signature technique.” “The participants also completed the same task alone as the researchers sought to compare between-brain synchronizations (BBSs) and within-brain synchronizations (WBSs) during the individual and cooperative tasks. The social behavior that the team focused on during the tasks was eye gaze, i.e., whether the participants directed their gaze at the other’s face.”

‘We-mode’ One of the most intriguing findings of the study was: During cooperative play, there was a strong between-brain synchronizations (BBS) among the superior and middle temporal regions and specific parts of the prefrontal cortex in the right hemisphere, but little within-brain synchronizations (WBSs) in comparison. The BBS synchronization was strongest when one of the participants raised their gaze to look at the other. Interestingly, the situation reversed during individual play, showing increased WBS within the same regions. “According to Minagawa, these results agree with the idea that our brains work as a “two-in-one system” during certain social interactions. “Neuron populations within one brain were activated simultaneously with similar neuron populations in the other brain when the participants cooperated to complete the task, as if the two brains functioned together as a single system for creative problem-solving,” she explains. “These phenomena are consistent with the notion of a ‘we-mode,’ in which interacting agents share their minds in a collective fashion and facilitate interaction by accelerating access to the other’s cognition.” “Overall, this study provides evidence hinting at the remarkable capability of the human brain to understand and synchronize with others’ when the situation calls for it.” *Research team led by Yasuyo Minagawa of Keio University, Japan, published in Neurophotonics, Provided by SPIE https://www.peggyjudytime.com/post/march-when-eyes-meet-neurons-start-to-fire

(For your March Hare tea party) Easy DIY slime recipe Ingredients: 1 cup of clear glue 1/4 cup of water 1/2 tsp bicarb soda 4 drops of eye contact solution Food colouring (optional) Glitter or other decorations (optional) Method: In a large mixing bowl, combine the bicarb soda and water. Mix well. Add glue. If desired, add a few drops of food colouring to the mixture and stir until you achieve the desired colour. Add half the eye contact solution. Mix well. Add the other half of the eye contact solution and mix. Knead the slime until it’s sticky but doesn’t stick to your hands.

“Laughter is Spiritual Relaxation” Baha’i World Faith God has a smile on His face. – Psalm 42:5 As soap is to the body, so laughter is to the soul. – A Jewish Proverb Humor is a prelude to faith and laughter is the beginning of prayer. – Reinhold Niebuhr Did you know? . . . Laughter and smiling release neurochemicals that elevate immune responses. How can you be stressed when you laugh? When we laugh, we can’t help but be in the moment, and in that moment troubles are forgotten. Laughter is a wonderful antidote to anxiety. (Sliming others works too)

(In the event you want a cute culinary accompaniment to your slime . . . ) Pancake Bunny Center the large round pancake on a plate. Place the ovals on top for the ears. Add two banana slices to the large round pancake for the eyes. Top each with a blueberry and place the third blueberry in the center for the nose. Place the 2 remaining small pancakes just below the nose to create the cheeks. Position a long piece of marshmallow in the center of each ear. Place the marshmallow teeth at the bottom of the large pancake so they hang over slightly. Position 3 whiskers on the outside of each cheek with the points facing outward. Or for a cheesey culinary accoutrement Rarebit Formerly Known as Welsh Rabbit Welsh rarebit, also called Welsh rabbit, a traditional British dish consisting of toasted bread topped with a savory cheddar cheese sauce that typically includes such ingredients as beer or ale, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne, mustard, and paprika. If an egg is served atop the dish, it is called buck rarebit. “The origins of the name are uncertain. The earliest cited use of the term Welsh rabbit was in 1725, with the alternative form rarebit (a word that has no meaning aside from this dish) appearing in 1785. A popular legend suggests that the meat-based name for this meatless dish stems from Welsh peasants for whom cheese was a substitute for the meat they could not afford. (We think PCR – Prevention to Cruelty to Rabbits – petitioned to change the name or threatened to get PETA to sue). Whatever its origins, the dish is today a staple of British fare and a common pub food, often paired with a pint of beer or ale.” https://www.britannica.com/topic/Welsh-rarebit Yield: 4 or more servings 2. tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons flour 1 tablespoon mustard powder, or to taste ½ teaspoon cayenne, or to taste ¾ cup strong dark beer, like Guinness 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, or to taste 1 pound Cheddar, Double Gloucester or other English cheese (or other good semi-hard cheese, like Comté or Gruyère, or a mixture), grated 4 to 8 pieces lightly toasted bread Add to Your Put butter in a saucepan over medium heat and, as it melts, stir in flour. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and very fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in mustard and cayenne, then whisk in beer and Worcestershire sauce. When mixture is uniform, turn heat to low and stir in cheese, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and pour into a broad container to set (you can refrigerate for up to a day at this point). Spread mixture thickly on toast and put under broiler until bubbly and edges of toast are crisp. Serve immediately. https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1908-welsh-rarebit “What’s Up Doc?”

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