Brains, NEED BRAINS!

This, this goes a long way toward explaining the idiocies of my teens and early 20s.

The development and maturation of the prefrontal cortex occurs primarily during adolescence and is fully accomplished at the age of 25 years. (source)

Maturation happens (for some of us) but not until 25...hmmmph.

What’s the big deal with the prefrontal cortex though?

It's the part of the brain responsible for executive function. (executive function—NOT to be confused with a certain former guy’s executive time AKA teevee, toilet and tweeting time)

Executive function and self-regulation skills are the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully. (source)

While other parts of the brain are involved in all this mega important crapoli, the prefrontal cortex acts, essentially, as a supervisor, coordinator and general sheepdog.

Why’s this come up this morning? Bast only knows. I clearly went down some rabbit hole and ended up in Oz or Bugtussle or some other weird-ass place.

Southern Live Oak

And as long as I’m rabbit holing, why is a certain class of tree called a ‘live’ oak? What—as opposed to a dead oak?

Live oaks possibly get their name because, unlike most other deciduous oaks which drop their leaves in the winter and might look dead, live oaks lose and replace their leaves gradually throughout the year and so look “live” (source)

European Beech on the Longwood Mall

The incredible giant squid-ness of them just blows me away. Reminds me of a small public park, Longwood Mall, in Brookline just off Beacon Street. ('cept these are beech trees not oak) Back in my early 20s I lived nearby. On nice days, I’d head over with a good book, lay under the trees, beside the heavy, gravity bound branches trailing the ground and read or just imagine that I was on another green world, far, far away.

The park is surrounded by ultra posh, old money mansions. I always figured that, on one of my visits, some poor servant would be sent out to shoo me away.

Word for the day
Yakka
   noun, Australian slang
work, especially hard work

I overdid the rehab yakka yesterday and now have a truckload of goddamned aches and ouchies.

Derivation?

While the ultimate source of yakka is obscure, the most popular hypothesis is a derivation from yaga “to work,” a word from the Yagara language. Yagara, also known as Turrbal, is a language native to Queensland, the northeasternmost state of Australia, and belongs to the Pama–Nyungan language family, as do three-quarters of all aboriginal languages of Australia. (source)

Below are a couple of coyotes passing by us on the seawall. Rude things didn't bother to stop in to say hello.