Color is a silent language that affects our behavioral response in our daily lives. It can also be a learned response that can cause us to respond in a certain way based on our cultural background. For example, what would you think of a man in a pink outfit, underwear or shoes? A learned response is also responsible for the color preferences that we have through our experience of past events in our daily social life. A behavioral response on the other hand happens naturally without us being aware of it. For example, the color red can heighten our perception of danger just by seeing it - the color of blood. It can also cause sensations of excitement and warmth - which is a color used to express love such as valentines day and the red heart to represent love. Nevertheless, with regards to the traffic light, we all know that from our everyday experience - a learned response - that a red light means “STOP“ (and I really have to assume this since some people always fly across this red light at traffic intersection to the detriment of others), a yellow ( or amber) light means “ SLOW DOWN” - approach with caution and prepare to stop while green light means “GO” - if it is safe to do so. This weeks article will answer the question above and don’t go feeling that you know or have the answer (idea) to this question based on what you just read!

How It All Started

The colors used by automobile traffic light system was originally adopted from the color code system used by railroad engineers as a traffic signal devised to control the trains on the railroad. This color system was used on railroads to prevent fatal train collisions and thus this traffic signal device was implemented to reduce train collisions by providing trains with advance warning of danger.

The first choice of color that was selected to be used by the rail road engineers to represent a stop signal was the color red. This color - the color of blood - was selected because it symbolizes danger or warning thus, it was logically the most likely choice to get the attention of anyone. It sends the message that if ignored, there could be very serious consequences such as serious injuries or death. Therefore this color was selected to symbolize the signal stop.

For the other two colors, railway traffic light being a new system at the time, railroad engineers experimented with the colors green which was the color for "caution" and white (clear) which was the color for "go". However, in the 1830s, these traffic signals lights were colored by using red, green and clear filters. Due to the use of these filters some very serious train collisions would occur. This problem would stem from the fact that the street lights, distant stars, glare of the sunlight and other lights could easily be mistaken for the “go” light. In addition to this, sometimes the red filter of a "stop" traffic signal would fall out leaving the bulb emitting white light which in a sense would be signaling the message “go”. To correct this problem engineers made modifications where red light would be the signal “stop”, yellow light “caution” and green “go”. This move solved the problem of filters falling out. Whenever a white light signal is seen this indicates that something is wrong with its signal lamp and it needs to be corrected right away.

Traffic officials during the horse and buggy days, were facing heavy traffic in big cities which put great pressure on police officers who had to be stationed full time directing traffic at busy intersections. In addition to this, the situation was about to become worse with the coming of automobiles. Due to the fact that the railroad traffic color system worked so well with the railroad system, it was readily adopted for automobile traffic light system. This adoption came through a police officer name William Potts of Detroit, of Michigan. He came up with an idea to rectify this problem by using the railroad traffic signal system. This he achieved by using the same scheme of colors of the railroad traffic and using wires and electrical controls to make the world’s first 4-way three color traffic light. This was installed in Detroit (on the corner of Woodward and Michigan Avenues) in 1920.

During this time, African American Garrett Augustus Morgan (1877-1963), seeing the need of a control traffic flow invented the electric automatic traffic light. This was installed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914 and had only two lights: red and green. However, the yellow light was added after the need for a "caution" light became crucial for the traffic signal to serve its purpose effectively. This set the foundation on which modern four-way traffic lights are built.

Garrett Augustus Morgan also invented the gas mask, in the early 1900s which was used by firemen and also by soldiers in World War I.

Did you know?

Color blindness
In order to help support people with red-green color blindness, red light contains some amount of orange in its hue, and the green light contains some amount of blue. This helps to identify the red and green light.

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For you to be here reading this article we all of have some one to thank for the invention of this communication platform called the internet. Some of us are avid users of the internet who might be a fellow blogger, a surfer, an online business owner, a student, teacher, a stay at home mom and the list goes on but, have you ever wonder who invented the web? If you do know, then congrats but I hope you did not say Bill Gates. William "Bill" Henry Gates III is the cofounder, chairman and Chief Software Architect of Microsoft Corporation. He controls the largest software company in the world and is also the worlds richest individual. Well, if that was your answer or you cannot answer the question above then, that’s where this article comes in.

How it all began - a quick synopsis of the internet history

The pavement for the internet was sparked by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) launching of the first earth satellite called Sputnik in 1957. The United States was shocked by the USSR advancement in technology and out of fear, they envisioned the danger of the Soviet creating weapons in space that could strike them anytime and place in the US. Seeing the danger that they would be helpless and susceptible to such a potential attack they quickly responded by forming an organization called Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in 1959. This organization came under the umbrella of the Department of Defense (DoD) and was given the responsibility to establish the United States as a military leader in the advancement of science and technology. This set off the space race between both countries.

[Note: The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was commonly called Soviet Union or Russia. Abbr. USSR.]

By the year 1965 due to the theories of computer networking development, ARPA sponsored a study on 'co-operative network of time-sharing computers'. In 1968 Pentagon (the United States military head quarters) put forward a proposal for the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) - a pioneering wide area computer network- to unite America's military and scientific establishments. In 1972 The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was renamed The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The genesis of the Internet

By the late 1980’s researchers (from around the world) contributing at the European Particle Research Laboratory (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland were having problems organizing and formatting documents that they wanted to share since their different computers and software system had to be compatible with the main CERN computing system. This caused frustration which lead to an unwillingness to comply to the CERN computing system. In addition, CERN being the premier Internet site in Europe were having serious problems locating all their data information. There system was quickly becoming overwhelmed by daily data information and urgently need a system that could readily correct this problem. There problem was however answered by a young computer researcher named Tim Berners-Lee.

The inventor of the web

Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist invented the World Wide Web in 1990. He graduated from the Queen's College at Oxford University, England, 1976. In 1980 he spent six months at CERN as a consultant software engineer. While there, he wrote his own personal software program as a memory substitute for storing data information called "Enquire". Even though this was not published it set the foundation on which the internet concept was built for the future. In 1984 however, he took up a fellowship at this same organization and in 1989 in response to the problems that was facing CERN he submitted a proposal called the global hypertext project. The purpose of this project was for the development of a data information system that would create a network (web) of information. This information system is now known as the World Wide Web.

In 1990, he wrote the first World Wide Web (WWW) server called the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). This “WWW” system that he would design was the method in which computers would communicate over the internet using hypertext documents. This system worked by assigning a universal system of written documents with addresses and hypertext links to all information. He called the system of written addresses a Universal Resource Identifier (URI). This is now known as Uniform Resource Locator (URL).
A hypertext link is a computer-based text retrieval system that enables a user to access particular locations in webpages documents by clicking on links within specific webpages or documents. By October 1990 Tim Berners-Lee started working on his proposal and wrote a program - hypertext browser/editor -that would allow hypertext documents to be retrieved and viewed. In the summer of 1991 his WorldWideWeb browser/editor and web server software, that was originated within CERN, became available on the Internet. Researchers and computer enthusiasts from around the world began setting up their own web system by downloading the browser and the web server software using File Transfer Protocol (FTP). His goal became a reality that would now solve the problem that the scientist at CERN where facing. Scientists were now able to send and post information documents on the web that could easily be assessed by anyone around the world that needed that specific information. This therefore means that they didn’t have to worry or get frustrated of whether the operating system used by other scientists were compatible or not due to the difference in the different operating systems used.

During the next three years as users of the internet spread, Berners-Lee worked on refining the internet through feedback from its users. In 1994 he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he worked in the Laboratory department for Computer Science (LCS). He wanted the World Wide Web to be free and not to be controled by any company or institution manipulated by destructive competition and so, he envisioned a consortium that would enhance the full potential of the Web development thus ensuring stability and evolutionary transformation of the web in a standardize democratic process. Thus, through the help of MIT he head the new consortium as Director, known as the World Wide Web consortium (W3C) and coordinates all three centers world wide MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) in the US, European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) in France, and Keio University in Japan. The goal and mission of W3C is to ensure the web stability by standardizing the technical specifications of the WWW and laying down guidelines by which to follow by a democratic process. These standards and guidelines are not enforced but are recommended by W3C . This they achieved by bringing together all its members and other internet/software companies such as Microsoft, Sun, IBM, Apple and Netscape just to name a few.

Discussion

The internet might have just started 15 years ago but it is now one of the most important universal communication platforms. In spite of all this, Tim Berners-Lee development of the web has not brought him wealth and fame. However, it can be concluded that the purpose of his invention of the Web was not for monetary gains. We all owe the “father of the web” for this great invention that has improved our way of life in so many different ways.


Extra - did you know?


The first e-mail program was created in 1972 by Ray Tomlinson of Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN).

Hic! Almost everyone has heard and also involuntary given out this unique yet unmistakable sound sometime in our lives. This uncomfortable experience sometimes causes us or others around us to become annoyed. It may sometimes also cause us to giggle or to be slightly embarrassed depending on where we might be at the time. But have you ever wonder what causes hiccup? I am sure this has crossed your mind sometime in your life. So, lets take a closer look at this usually short-lived uncomfortable experience called hiccup.


In order to fully understand hiccup you will need to have a basic knowledge and understanding of the human diaphragm. So lets take a quick look at what is the diaphragm and its function. The diaphragm is a dome-shaped respiratory muscle, located just below the lungs, separating the chest cavity from the abdomen. Its function is to aid in breathing. When the diaphragm contracts (moving down) the lungs expand causing air to enter. This process is called inhale. Conversely, when the diaphragm relaxes (moving up) the lungs contracts sending air out of the lungs. This process is called exhale.

CLICK IMAGE TO SEE MOVEMENT

So what does this have to do with us having hiccups? Well, hiccup is an uncontrolled spasm in the diaphragm or in other words, a sudden involuntary jerks (contractions) in diaphragm muscle which causes your lungs to quickly draw (suck) in air. As a result of this sudden gush of air flow into the lungs, this causes the glottis (the flap that is located at the top of your windpipe) to abruptly snap shut. Consequently, then comes the characteristic sound: Hic!
Now, to answer the question “what causes hiccup?”. Hiccups are usually triggered by the stimulation of special nerves found in the upper part of our stomach and/or lower part of our esophagus. The vagus nerve which runs from the brain to the abdomen and/or the phrenic nerves that supply the diaphragm usually become irritated. This irritation usually comes from the stomach and digestive system. When this happens the brain sends a response (message) to the diaphragm muscles (effectors) that causes the uncontrolled spasm - hiccup. While there may be many conditions that are associated with the causes of hiccup, experts are still unable or find it difficult to explain hiccups that happen for no obvious reason. Nevertheless, lets look at a few of the different conditions that are associated with the cause of hiccups.

• Eating your food too fast can cause you to swallow too much air (a stimuli) along with your food. This is due to the erratic breathing. Even though some of the gas usually escape through burping this is usually not the enough since air particles are trapped between pieces of the food.

• Eating and drinking too much - the stomach resting right below the diaphragm becomes distended and irritates it.

• Eating a lot of hot and spicy foods.

• Drinking too fast.

Drinking too much alcohol.

Drinking too much carbonated beverages such as sodas.

Drinking carbonated beverages while eating.

• Eating too much fatty foods.

• Any disease or disorder that irritates the nerves that control the diaphragm (such as pleurisy or pneumonia) Stroke or tumor affecting the "hiccup center" in the brain and abdominal surgery

• Sudden changes in stomach temperature cause by drinking hot beverage followed by a cold one. This is due to the vagus nerve pathways from the brain to the muscles.

• Emotional situations e.g. stress, excitement or being nervous - due to vagus nerve pathways from the brain to the muscles.

• Smoking

• Indigestion

• Laughing too much

• Skull fracture

• Tuberculosis

• Pneumonia - irritates the nerves that control the diaphragm

• kidney failure - building up of harmful substances in the blood.

• Tumor - affects the centre in the brain that is responsible for hiccup.

• Certain disorders of the stomach or esophagus such as: alcoholism, pancreatitis and hepatitis.

• Abdominal surgery

• Any irritation in the stomach and/or throat.

Common Cures for the Hiccups

There are many common remedies that claim to cure hiccups. A few of them are listed below. Some of them might seem quite weird but, I guess they must have worked for some people. If you should have an hiccup you may try any of the following given below, it might just work.

• Pull your tongue

• Eating granulated sugar - stimulate digestion.

• Eating a teaspoon of honey

• Drink water (slowly)- probable clear the throat of any irritant or dilute its effect in the digestive system or wash food particle that may rest on a specific nerve.

• Drinking water while covering your ears.

• Swallowing crushed ice

• Swallowing piece of dry bread.

• Induced sneezing.

• pressing on the eyeballs.

• Tickling the upper roof of the mouth a cotton swab.

• Sudden fright - probably moves the brain attention away from the reflex action of the diaphragm and instead concentrating on preparing the body for fight or flight.

• Prescribed drugs e.g. chlorpromazine.

• Holding your breath after breathing in deeply.

• Exhaling and inhaling into a brown paper bag. This increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the blood. A logical explanation for this could be that the brain receives messages from the vagus nerve about the carbon dioxide build up. This could then cause the brain to shifts its attention from diaphragm jerky contraction to a more serious problem of trying to get the body to get rid of the poisonous carbon dioxide gas thus, stopping the hiccup. a sudden shock can also have a similar effect.

And many more.

Discussion:
Hiccups usually go away within minutes but in some rare cases they can persist for hours, days weeks, months and even years!! If it not going away then there is need to see a doctor. A hiccup for more than two days are called persistent or protracted hiccups while if it is more than a month it is called intractable hiccups. There is a case where someone by the name Charles Osborne had it for 69years!! Hiccups over a long time span usually have to do with complication of the brain, spinal cord, diaphragm and its surrounding structures. Prolong (intractable) hiccup can induce depression, sleep deprivation and weight loss .

The causes and purpose of hiccup is not fully known however, the body is always protecting itself from injury or harm so the reflex action that causes hiccup is the body ways of dealing with signals that say something is not quite right. Also, the cause of most hiccups remains a puzzle. Nevertheless, it seems that any condition that causes the irritation of the throat and diaphragm including anything that place pressure on its nerve or around the diaphragm structure can cause hiccups.
Similar Articles of Interest:
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Pain is something that every human being can come to one understanding that we all hate and would do anything to avoid it at all cost but yet, it is inevitable just as death itself. We have all experienced some form of pain and also have seen others in this suffering state. Some of us who believe in God have also questioned the reason for such necessity in our daily life. What if we could live a life without pain? Wouldn’t this make life more enjoyable and all of us happy? Thus, this leads us to ask the question: Does Pain Serve a Purpose? This article hopefully, will answer this question so that one can understand why we have to endure this condition as part of our daily life.


Each individual responds to pain differently. Some of us when we are engulfed in pain we get different reactions towards it based on how severe it is and the type of individuals we are. Based on this, here are some examples of different reactions that may manifest itself: anger, resentment, self pity, hate, bitterness, annoyance, sadness, shock, anxiety, suicide, frustration, irritability, hopelessness, fretfulness, uneasiness, frustration, distress, groaning, weeping, weariness, screaming, cursing and revenge (when inflicted by others). Treatment of pain is also the same. A treatment that may work for one person of similar pain may not necessarily work for another person.




let us take a quick look at what is pain to understand it a little better. Pain can be defined as an unpleasant sensation occurring in varying degrees of severity as a consequence of injury, disease, or emotional disorder. From this definition we can see that pain itself can come in many forms which, as a result, leads to different types of pain. Thus, there are two basic types of pain, acute and chronic ( for others click here) . Acute pain is one that comes on quickly but lasts a relatively short period of time. It also has the potential of becoming severe. If not properly taken care of and treated, it can become chronic pain. It can usually be diagnosed and treated. Chronic pain on the other hand, is one that persists or progresses over a long period of time. This can range from mild to severe. This pain is usually magnified by environmental and psychological factors. It is more resistant to most medical treatment and therefore patients need the care of an expert. It can affect one physically, emotionally, socially, occupationally and psychologically.

In order to answer the question above, it is important to have some basic understanding of the way Nervous System works before pain and its purpose is explained. The nervous system is divided into the central nervous system (CNS) and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). The Central Nervous System is made up of the brain and spinal cord. It works along together with the peripheral nervous system which is composed of all nerves that are attached to the spinal cord which, then branches out forming a network throughout the entire body. The PNS nerve stems from and leads into the CNS. The PNS consists of:

• sensory neurons running from stimulus receptors that inform the CNS of the stimuli. For example, sending signals back from the legs to the brain.

• motor neurons running from the CNS to the muscles and glands (effectors) that take necessary action. For example, carries signals from the brain to the hand.

When one is hurt, it is usually accompanied by a feeling that is called pain. When we touch a hot object for example with our hand, we feel a sharp burning sensation and we pull away our hand from that hot object. What causes this to happen? There are nerves cells all around our body that are sensitive to following stimuli: temperature (hot and cold), pressure (e.g. hitting, pressing, squeezing, caressing etc.) and chemical changes. When someone hand touches a hot object a message is transmitted from our hand to the CNS (through the spinal cord and then the brain) by special PNS nerve cells called nociceptors (sensory nerve endings receptor). The message signal (electrical signals) that leaves our hand (where the stimuli is) is carried by the sensory neurons (conducting nerve cells) to the CNS. The sensory neurons transmits this signal to nerve cells within the spinal cord which, then conveys this message to a specific region in the brain called the thalamus. When the brain receives this information it then processes it (interprets the message) and then distributes it to different parts of the brain that have their specific functions. In this case a part of the brain would determine its location - the hand - while, a different part of the brain would be responsible to determine what sensation is being felt (heat in this case).other parts of the brain responsible for memory, motivation, attention, and emotion would also chip in. This would triggers our memory of pain and anxiety about the pain to come shortly. The brain would detect where the damage is occurring to the body , locate it and coordinate an appropriate response by telling the body how to respond. This it does by sending a signal to the part of the brain that controls movement. This signal (a response) is then sent to the spinal cord which then travels through conducting cells called motor neurons to the location where the effectors (muscles) are located telling it to contract by pulling away from the hot object. This movement of communication to and from the brain through a specific pathway is called a reflex arc. All of these different process that takes place in the brain as well as, the journey the message and the response take to travel to and fro happen very quickly in a fraction of a second. This process also takes place for other such situations whether it as to do with our skin or organs inside our body.

This scenario demonstrates how important pain is and its purpose in life. Here we see how pain serves as an alarm system where it alerts us to potentially or actualy damage to the human body. This cause us to jump into action, telling us something is wrong and we need to do some about it right away - not later. Humans have a tendency to procrastinate, putting off things at a later time. So apart from warning us that something is wrong it also gives you the driving force to get it done before serious harm is done. we are able to not only feel pain, but also know what sort of pain it is. If it was possible to refuse it’s warning then this would cause one’s quality of life to change. This can lead to serious physical and physiologically problems, impair our thoughts and our daily life and worst death. Thus, protecting you the individual is of uttermost importance - and for survival. Many of us no doubt, would prefer to go through life without feeling a pain. However, if you could go through life not feeling pain anything could go wrong inside our body. So, whether it is a headache, tummy ache, back ache, pain caused from a disease, injury, childbirth etc. etc. they all keep our body in check. Hence, pain does serve a purpose that can help us: recover from a temporary injury before it becomes permanent or life threatening, alert us that something is wrong with our body internally or externally and that it needs immediate attention, prevents additional health complications and finally but not least, taking all that is said, it improves an individual's quality of life by helping us to keep healthy by checking to see that everything is working properly and in harmony. It is a self protective mechanism.

Discussion

It is important to note that as much as pain serves it’s purpose it does have a disadvantage where it continually warns a person about a serious threat to his/her health or life. This is usually a chronic pain that can be a disease or disorder that cannot be treated or cured beyond the individual or by any doctor capability. One such disease is cancer, a very persistent and degenerative condition. The pain alone can be just as dreadful and seriously harmful to the person’s quality of life - totally changing a person out look on life. This individual will be affected: physically (persistent agony), occupationally ( difficulty to perform task), spiritually (bring one closer or further away from their God - if they believe in one), psychologically (low self esteem, self-pity and depression), emotionally (disheartened and hopelessness) and socially ( go into isolation). Here pain don't really serve any more purpose since its purpose as protective alert system is over while the pain continues. Hence, since there is nothing to avoid or prevent from getting worst, pain has lost its value as a warning system. Nevertheless, it lets you continually know that all is still not well.

Quotes on pain

Pain is a necessity for a quality healthy life yet no man would wish this on himself or would it ever excite envy if own by another. Pain a necessary evil, the only evil that I would not wish away even if I could.
R. Edmondson

Even though pain is my friend, it is also my enemy.
R. Edmondson


Did you know? Extras

• There is a disorder that some individual suffers from that causes them to unable to feel pain. This condition affects nerve endings and is called congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA). Because of the nature of this disease the individual has no ability to feel pain. This makes that individual vulnerable to all form of injury including minor injury that can manifest itseft as a threat to ones health and life such burns, cuts, fractures and tumors.

• A tools that can help a doctor to diagnose or measure a patient’s pain intensity is known as a Pain scales. This helps to overcome the difficulty one might have of putting the feeling of pain into words. Hence, this describe the pain the best way to give the doctor a better understanding of the state you are in.The most widely used scales are:

Visual

Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale — use facial expressions that help the patient’s doctor to see how the pain makes one feel.
Designed for children aged 3 years and older as well as, cognitively impaired elderly patients.
Face 0 is very happy because he or she doesn't hurt at all.

Face 0 is very happy because he or she doesn't hurt at all.
Face 1 hurts just a little bit.
Face 2 hurts a little more.
Face 3 hurts even more.
Face 4 hurts a whole lot.
Face 5 hurts as much as you can imagine, although you don't have to be crying to feel this bad.

Verbal

Use to describe the intensity or severity of one’s degree of discomfort.
Numerical

Allows the individual to describe the intensity of discomfort in numbers ranging from 0 to 10.