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There are many types of water snakes found in the world. The type of snake you encounter depends on the region in which you are traveling. You should know that a snake could strike you from a distance of half of their body length. Hence it is safe to stay at a distance more than half of their body length. This striking distance is only when you encounter the snake in land.

In water their striking distance is very limited. Better avoid the areas in which the snakes sun. Usually they will be sunning in the branches that protrude over the waterfront so that if they find any encounter they will drop themselves into water and escape. That is why when you are canoeing you have to be careful when you move into the low-lying areas where branches of trees protrude over the waterfront. Some of the common water snakes that you might come across are the northern water snakes, red belly water snakes, banded water snakes, cottonmouth snakes, and the brown water snakes. The northern water snake is usually 22 to 59 inches in length and is found in the lakes, streams, rivers, marshes, swamps, ditches, and ponds. It is thick bodied and has a dark band around its neck. You can find half moon spots in its belly. It is found in the central and eastern US. Usually they come out in the night.

The cottonmouth water moccasin is a poisonous snake, which is also aggressive in the sense that it will approach the intruder in the area. It is semi aquatic in nature. Usually they lie on the water logs with part of their body in water waiting for their prey to come within their reach. This kind of water snake could be having a dark body color and a light belly color. It might also have body cross-bands. When this snake bites you it would latch on to the area with its bite rather than the bite and release pattern found in the other snakes. It has a powerful jaw. Some of the subspecies of this water snake include the eastern, western, and the Florida cottonmouth.

The brown water snake is usually active during the day and rarely hunts during the night. Fishes and frogs constitute its main dish. It also climbs the branches to sleep on the overhanging branches over the water. It usually escapes when you frighten it and if you need a bite you can catch it! It is usually found in the southeastern U.S. The Diamondback water snakes have a chain like pattern in its body and have a yellow belly. It is found in the marshes, swamps, and the lakes of south central and southwestern U.S. they have long teeth and hence the bite from these snakes would be more painful.

Fast thinking, or 'racing thoughts,' is most commonly known as a symptom of the clinical psychiatric disorder of mania (and of the manic part of bipolar disorder or 'manic-depression'). But, according to Princeton University psychologist Emily Pronin, most healthy people also have experienced racing thoughts at some point in time--perhaps when they are excited about a new idea they have just learned, or when they are brainstorming with a group of people, or even when they lie in bed unable to fall asleep. Pronin and her Harvard colleague Daniel Wegner decided to explore whether inducing people to think fast might lead them to feel some of the other experiences also associated with the manic experience.

To examine this question, they experimentally manipulated the pace at which participants read a series of statements. Half of participants read the statements at a fast pace (about twice as fast as normal reading speed) and the other half read the statements at a slow pace (about twice as slow as normal reading speed). They then completed a questionnaire assessing their mood, energy level, self-esteem, etc., using standard psychological measures. As an added twist, some of the participants read statements that were very depressing in content (e.g., I want to go to sleep and never wake up) while others read statements that were very elating in content (e.g., Wow! I feel great!). The researchers found that regardless of the content of the statements, people felt happier, more energetic, more creative, more powerful, and more grandiose when they read the statements at a fast rather than a slow pace. In fact, the effect of thought speed was just as powerful as the effect of the content of the thoughts. In other words, the speed of people's cognitive processing was just as important as what they processed in determining their mood. Even thinking sad thoughts at a fast pace made people relatively happy.

The article, titled 'Manic Thinking: Independent Effects of Thought Speed and Thought Content on Mood' appears in the September issue of Psychological Science, and was co-authored by Emily Pronin of Princeton University and Daniel Wegner of Harvard University.

The reported effect of fast thinking on mood could have important applications in both clinical (psychiatric) and normal populations. The authors note that simple manipulations of thought speed could perhaps be used to improve individuals' mood, self-esteem, feelings of creativity, feelings of power, and energy level. Such manipulations could be useful in everyday situations, where people would like a quick mood, energy, or self-esteem boost on a day they are feeling tired or downcast. Manipulations of thought speed might also prove useful as part of treating depression, which is characterized by slow thinking, and also by the absence of things like positive mood, energy, feelings of power, and self-esteem.

The authors note that: 'The results of our experiment suggest the intriguing possibility that even during moments when people feel stuck having depressed thoughts, interventions that accelerate the speed of such thoughts may serve to boost feelings of positive affect and energy.' Subjects receives a prototype and then asked them to categorize different degrees of variations around that same prototype and rate their appeal. ###

Coauthors are Jamin Halberstadt, Tedra Fazendeiro and Steve Catty. The research was supported by a National Science Foundation grant to Winkielman and an Otago Research Grant to Halberstadt

Psychological Science Volume 17 Page 807 - September 2006 doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01786.xVolume 17 Issue 9 Research ArticleManic Thinking: Independent Effects of Thought Speed and Thought Content on Mood Emily Pronin1 and Daniel M. Wegner2

ABSTRACT?This experiment found that the speed of thought affects mood. Thought speed was manipulated via participants' paced reading of statements designed to induce either an elated or a depressed mood. Participants not only experienced more positive mood in response to elation than in response to depression statements, but also experienced an independent increase in positive mood when they had been thinking fast rather than slow?for both elation and depression statements. This effect of thought speed extended beyond mood to other experiences often associated with mania (i.e., feelings of power, feelings of creativity, a heightened sense of energy, and inflated self-esteem or grandiosity).

Astronomy has to be one the most humbling of all subjects to study. Just the thought of our universe, being like a grain of sand in a sandy shore of universes, is enough to make me want to crawl back under the sheets. Everything just seems so immense, andbeyond comprehension. Where does it end? Is it possible to get to the end of space? Astronomy tries to come up those answers. Like any science, Astronomy asks far more questions then it can answer. But, that's part of what makes it so fascinating. Ever since the first adventurer wondered what was beyond the nexthorizon, humans have been trying to expand their boundaries. Astronomy is carrying on that fine tradition. It's a pretty big horizon, and maybe one that doesn't end? Who knows, only astronomers of the future will be able to answer that question.

Astronomy Begins At Home

We don't have to go that far with astronomy, to be truly fascinated. Our own friendly sun has some pretty interesting things going on. Did you know, that the sun moves at a rate of 12 miles per second. That's 720 miles per minute, or 43,200 miles per hour. Good thing it's got a big gas tank huh? And it's moving towards the constellation Hercules. Better get out of the way Herc! Another interesting astronomy tidbit here. I bet you thought the sun was about the hottest thing around. Well, not even close. The surface of the sun is hot, at about 10,000 degreesfarenheit . But, there is something here on earth that is 3 times hotter. Care to guess? Some people have even been touched by it, and lived to tell the story. Lightening is 30,000 degreesfarenheit . Cool huh? One more startling sun fact. There are 92 natural elements on earth. You remember that periodic table of elements from high school science, those elements. Well, two thirds of those elements have been identified in the sun. Not sure who checked, but they are there. And, scientists believe that the other third are most likely in the sun as well. Hard to believe our home planet full of water could be so closely related to that big fiery ball of gas. Astronomy spins a pretty fascinating tale.

Future Worlds

Like those adventurers who came before us and were drawn to venture beyond their horizon. I believe that star gazers of today will be our future boundary busters. It may have been a while since people have walked on the moon. But it's just a question of time. Human nature justdoesn't allow us to settle for what we have. We're always looking beyond. And astronomy is building that map, and trying to help break down those boundaries of today. It's not only fascinating to imagine where we will go next, but essential to our survival. We are spending the resources of this planet at an alarming rate, and sooner before later things will run out. The planet will survive of course, but we may not. It is time to venture out, and find another planet like earth. Not just for the sake of discovery, but because we need to. Soon. Hopefully, we will arrive there smarter, and a little more careful. In the mean time, astronomy is paving the path for ours and future generations to follow.

Transfer Technologies and Advances in Future Combat

The human visual ability is unique and superb as Earth Species go. But we cannot see everything. For instance heat, sound waves, electricity, 85% of the spectrums of light, gravity waves, etc., but what if we could? We have man-made devices, which allow us to see these things already; Sonar, Night vision goggles, radar, thermo imaging, etc. What if we put all these components into a night vision head set and linked it up to the brain directly with all this information?

By visually observing waves of all types, disruption of all types we could sense events just prior to happening as the waves approach. For instance bullets approaching pushing on sound waves, people approaching by electro-magnetic signatures and brain waves, cars approaching by the airflow movement, etc. Even thought waves of danger being projected by another would be relatively easy to sense. Sending thoughts would also come natural and also knowing when to recognize them, interpret them and sense them. An enemy cannot hide if you can see his heat, see his heart beat, feel and sense his brain waves, not to mention the anomalies created by things like PDA devices, embedded RFID tracking devices for his armies command and control ?Blue force-Red force? component and imitation of our own technologies. All of this could be done on a smaller scale than the sophisticated Net-Centric; Satellite, AWACs, PDA, UAV, SmartBomb interconnected systems.

Now then with this lofty goal in mind and knowing that we are well on our way, we need to simplify the equation and ask ourselves some crucial questions. One of the first questions is in the wartime battle space, why have human solders? After all as we approach the world of human-computer interfaces for such things, we are also approaching and entering the world of Artificial Intelligence. So then why do you need the organic, often fallible human component for the last mile, or the one who fires the weapon? The actual answer may be a reason to enroll your college offspring at MIT?s Artificial Intelligence Lab, Georgia Tech?s UAV program, Stanford University?s Mathematics program or Carnegie Mellon?s, Berkeley?s or Caltech?s robotics research programs now.

We ought to fund such research and move it along as quickly as possible because the offshoots of such projects will rapidly spill into the private sector for the benefit of all. All of these tools can be used to help humans with disabilities, space travel, robotic first responders and safety our roadways and airlines. Think about it.

Lance Winslow

Nikola Tesla was born on July 9, 1856, in a very small village called Smiljan, in the province of Lika, Croatia. You may not know who this man is, but he invented the theories of electricity we use today.

Tesla finished his basic schooling in Croatia. He continued his education in the Polytechnic School in Graz and finished at University of Prague. He worked as an Electrical engineer in Germany, Hungary and France before coming to the United States in 1884 as an immigrant. When Tesla arrived in New York, he quickly obtained a job with Thomas Edison. Tesla worked for Edison for many years until finally there differences in methods separated the two men in 1885. There two main differences were that Edison believed that DC (Direct Current) was the power of the future. Tesla had been working on the AC (Alternating Current) power we have today. After the Tesla left Edison's lab, George Westinghouse, founder of the Westinghouse Electric Company, bought patent rights to Tesla's system of alternating-current.

There were many advantages to Tesla's alternating current vs. Edison's direct current. The advantages became prevalent when Westinghouse used Tesla's Alternating current to light the World Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893. It was after this that people started to realize this type of electricity's amazing abilities.

Tesla established a laboratory in New York City in 1887. His electrical experiments ranged from an exploration of electrical resonance and many studies of various lighting systems. In order to calm the public about the safety of Tesla's power system, he would hold exhibitions of his power in his laboratory. He would light a light bulb without wires allowing the electricity to flow through his body in a spectacular flurry of lighting and sparks.

Tesla became a United States citizen in 1891. His creative powers were at its peak. He worked on and developed many things including the induction motor, new types of generators and transformers. He also developed a system that transmitted his AC current. There are so many things that you use today that Tesla created. It is little know but the lamp we use to conserve energy, the fluorescent light was also one of his inventions. Tesla had many interests in electrical power. Tesla best known for his method of a wireless power transmission. The Tesla Coil. He envisioned that he would transmit power straight through the air to the user for free. Amazing and truly a ground breaking idea. He started construction on a wireless power transmission tower in 1900. The project was abandoned due to his lack of financial support. Tesla soon turned his genius to other inventions, such as power generating turbines. He continued to have many problems with his financial support and many of his ideas were shelved.

Nikola Tesla is one of my favorite inventors. He had electricity flowing through his blood. The man invented so many things we take for granted today and received very little credit. He was well ahead of his time. We may thing that Edison was a great inventor and he was, but Edison and many others took Tesla's ideas and exploited them to the things we have today for there own profit and took the credit themselves. We know now know this man was exploited and was not given credit where credit is due. Many Electrical Engineers still study Tesla's notes in order to find an idea that can be exploited and elaborated today.

Tesla is most credited with His Tesla Coil. This coil will deliver power through the air with a great deal of voltage, like a lighting bolt. The wireless age is upon us, is Wireless power next?

'Before I put a sketch on paper, the whole idea is worked out mentally. In my mind I change the construction, make improvements, and even operate the device. Without ever having drawn a sketch I can give the measurements of all parts to workmen, and when completed all these parts will fit, just as certainly as though I had made the actual drawings. It is immaterial to me whether I run my machine in my mind or test it in my shop. The inventions I have conceived in this way have always worked. In thirty years there has not been a single exception. My first electric motor, the vacuum wireless light, my turbine engine and many other devices have all been developed in exactly this way.' Nikola Tesla

'Science is but a perversion of itself unless it has as its ultimate goal the betterment of humanity.' Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla died in New York on January 7, 1943. There is a lot of information on Nikola Tesla available. I have only touched on the tip of this mans genius. Take some time and look him up. You will be amazed!

Wally Jukes is an Electrical Design Engineer that likes to think 'out of the box'. For more articles on electricity and there inventors. Visit http://www.articles.roocon.com

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