Clipmarks | ArthurDwayne's clips

Did we cure cancer, but no one cares?

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 06:38:12 GMT

clipped by: B Rosen
clipper's remarks: While this may not be the miracle drug this article seems to make it out to be, it seems the this is something that deserves a lot more research.

Clip Source: media.www.studentprintz.com

Scientists cure cancer, but no one takes notice

Scientists cured cancer last week.

Here's the deal. Researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada found a cheap and easy to produce drug that kills almost all cancers. The drug is dichloroacetate, and since it is already used to treat metabolic disorders, we know it should be no problem to use it for other purposes.

The drug also has no patent, which means it could be produced for bargain basement prices in comparison to what drug companies research and develop.

Scientists tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body where it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but left healthy cells alone. Rats plump with tumors shrank when they were fed water supplemented with DCA.

The side effect of this is it also reactivates a process called apoptosis. You see, mitochondria contain an all-too-important self-destruct button that can't be pressed in cancer cells. Without it, tumors grow larger as cells refuse to be extinguished. Fully functioning mitochondria, thanks to DCA, can once again die.

Here's the big catch. Pharmaceutical companies probably won't invest in research into DCA because they won't profit from it. It's easy to make, unpatented and could be added to drinking water. Imagine, Gatorade with cancer control.

Cancer cells don't use the little power stations found in most human cells - the mitochondria. Instead, they use glycolysis, which is less effective and more wasteful.

Tags: cancer cure, cancer, science, drug

unexpected photography

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:35:37 GMT

clipped by: mona
clipper's remarks: many more at source.... i like how some of these take a somewhat unconventional look at day-to-day situations.

Clip Source: www.filemagazine.com

Tags: photography, photographs, photo, photos, unusual, unconventional, interesting

Atheist quotes

Sun, 28 Jan 2007 11:39:11 GMT

clipped by: Chookiepuss

Clip Source: www.delawareonline.com

I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.

-Friedrich Nietzsche

I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

-Stephen Roberts

I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence.

-Doug McLeod

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

-Epicurus

Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends! Well I say there are some things we don't want to know! Important things!

-Ned Flanders

Men never commit evil so fully and joyfuly as when they do it for religious convictions.

-Blaise Pascal

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.

-Bertrand Russell

Praying is like a rocking chair-- it'll give you something to do, but it won't get you anywhere.

-Gypsy Rose Lee

We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes.

-Gene Roddenberry

If a church sign says it, then it must be so:

http://shortthorts.blogspot.com/2006/10/fun-with-church-signs.html

Tags: atheist

What Bush Should Have Said

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 01:53:50 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: www.beliefnet.com

I have a vision for the United States of America this evening. It is an America safe and secure, at peace with our neighbors in the world community. An America where every person able to work is productively working and able to support a family while building assets for their future. An America where every person has access to affordable healthcare, a secure roof over their heads, adequate food to eat, and a quality education. An America where immigrants from other countries are welcomed in an orderly way that allows them to become productive members of our society. I also have a vision for our world. It is a world where no child dies for lack of food and medicine. A world where strong multinational institutions protect human rights and economic justice.

It's a vision first proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah:

While keeping that vision as our goal, this session of Congress has the opportunity to take a number of real and concrete steps toward its accomplishment.

Making work work

Insure all our kids

Comprehensive immigration reform

In our world, major crises also demand our attention.

The war in Iraq

Genocide in Darfur

Iran

Foreign aid.

In all of these areas, we need a new politics inspired by our most deeply held values. We must summon the best in the American people, and unite to solve some of the moral issues of our time. Americans are not essentially concerned about what is liberal or conservative; what is Democrat or Republican. Rather, we care about what is right and what works. The path of partisan division is well worn, but the road of compassionate priorities and social justice will lead us to a new America. Building that new America will require greater moral leadership from both Democrats and Republicans, and also from each and every one of us.

Thank you, and God bless you.

Tags: politics, state, of, the, union

How Mirrors Can Light Up The World

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 22:57:01 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

Clip Source: environment.guardian.co.uk

How mirrors can light up the world

Scientists say the global energy crisis can be solved by using the desert sun

We are not talking about the vast oil and gas deposits underneath Algeria and Libya, or uranium for nuclear plants, but something far simpler - the sun. And in vast quantities: every year it pours down the equivalent of 1.5m barrels of oil of energy for every square kilometre.

Two German scientists, Dr Gerhard Knies and Dr Franz Trieb, calculate that covering just 0.5% of the world's hot deserts with a technology called concentrated solar power (CSP) would provide the world's entire electricity needs, with the technology also providing desalinated water to desert regions as a valuable byproduct, as well as air conditioning for nearby cities.

Focusing on Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, they say, Europe should build a new high-voltage direct current electricity grid to allow the easy, efficient transport of electricity from a variety of alternative sources. Britain could put in wind power, Norway hydro, and central Europe biomass and geo-thermal. Together the region could provide all its electricity needs by 2050 with barely any fossil fuels and no nuclear power. This would allow a 70% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from electricity production over the period.

Tags: solar, power, heat, energy

6 Key Social Skills

Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:33:33 GMT

clipped by: firebird
clipper's remarks: Obvious? Perhaps not - judging by how people often respond in social situations - where 'me' is the most important subject

Clip Source: www.self-confidence.co.uk

6 Key Social Skills

Social skills are arguably the most important set of abilities a person can have. Human beings are social animals and a lack of good social skills can lead to a lonely life, contributing to anxiety and depression. Great social skills help you meet interesting people, get that job you want, progress further in your career and relationships.

Happily, like any skill, social strategies and techniques can be learned…

The main social skills are as follows:

1) The ability to remain relaxed, or at a tolerable level of anxiety while in social situations

Regardless of how skillful you are in social situations, if you are too anxious, your brain is functioning in way unsuited to speaking and listening. In addition, if your body and face give the unconscious message that you are nervous, it will be more difficult to build rapport with others.

2) Listening skills, including letting others know you are listening

3) Empathy with and interest in others' situations

A major part of social anxiety is self consciousness, which is greatly alleviated by focusing strongly on someone else. A fascination (even if forced at first) with another's conversation not only increases your comfort levels, it makes them feel interesting.

4) The ability to build rapport, whether natural or learned

Rapport is a state of understanding or connection that occurs in a good social interaction. It says basically "I am like you, we understand each other". Rapport occurs on an unconscious level, and when it happens, the language, speech patterns, body movement and posture and other aspects of communication can synchronise down to incredibly fine levels.

Rapport is an unconscious process, but it can be encouraged by conscious efforts.

5) Knowing how, when and how much to talk about yourself - 'self disclosure'

6) Appropriate eye contact

Tags: social skills, psychology, self-development

The Most Passionate Poem On Love (by Alexander Pushkin)

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 15:09:43 GMT

clipped by: HoneySweetie
clipper's remarks: These are verses of ardent passion and bitterness of disappointed love. The author, Alexander Pushkin ( (1799-1837) is considered the greatest Russian poet of romanticism.

Clip Source: mycoldaugust.spaces.live.com

A CONFESSION

--To Alexandra Ivanovna Osipova

I love you - love you, even as I

Rage at myself for this obsession,

And as I make my shamed confession,

Despairing at your feet I lie.

I know, I know - it ill becomes me,

I am too old, time to be wise...

But how?.. This love - it overcomes me,

A sickness this in passion's guise.

When you are near I'm filled with sadness,

When far, I yawn, for life's a bore.

I must pour out this love, this madness,

There's nothing that I long for more!

When your skirts rustle, when, my angel,

Your girlish voice I hear, when your

Light step sounds in the parlor - strangely,

I turn confused, perturbed, unsure.

You frown - and I'm in pain, I languish;

You smile - and joy defeats distress;

My one reward for a day's anguish

Comes when your pale hand, love, I kiss.

When you sit bent over your sewing,

Your eyes cast down and fine curls blowing

About your face, with tenderness

I childlike watch, my heart o'erflowing

With love, in my gaze a caress.

Shall I my jealousy and yearning

Describe, my bitterness and woe

When by yourself on some bleak morning

Off on a distant walk you go,

Or with another spend the evening

And, with him near, the piano play,

Or for Opochka leave, or, grieving,

Weep and in silence pass the day?..

Alina! Pray relent, have mercy!

I dare not ask for love - with all

My many sins, both great and small,

I am perhaps of love unworthy!..

But if you feigned love, if you would

Pretend, you'd easily deceive me,

For happily would I, believe me,

Deceive myself if but I could!

1826

Tags: love, poem, confession, desperate love, lover, romantic

The 10 ClipMandments

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 07:03:36 GMT

clipped by: skwirlinator
clipper's remarks: A revival

Clip Source: rhf3.com

Tags: clipmandments

Proposed law to ban spanking

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 18:58:42 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: Hooray for more government control. We can't be trusted to make any decisions anymore. I welcome the big inclusive handbook for Government Sanctioned Childrearing. Do you think NY and CA will get together and propose criminalizing feeding transfats to a child? Wouldn't it be safer and smarter to just take our kids away at birth and put them in a Government Controlled Childcare Facility? Why take a risk that parents might screw something up?

Clip Source: cbs5.com

In California, it's currently against the law for anyone but parents to spank a child. A proposed new law would make it illegal for them, too, if the child is 3 years old or younger.

Assemblywoman Sally Lieber (D-Mountain View) wants the practice of swatting a child on the behind outlawed and is in the process of drafting a bill to do so.

The proposed law would make spanking a child under 3 misdemeanor child abuse, an extenstion of current corporal punishment laws.

Violators could spend a year in jail, and pay up to $1000 in fines. Enforcement is unclear.

San Francisco assistant district attorney Paul Henderson prosecutes child abuse cases, and he welcomes a no spanking law.

Critics maintain a spanking ban is an intrusion on the family, while supporters call it protecting a defenseless child.

Tags: children, parenting, spanking, california, childrearing

The 130 World's Healthiest Foods

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 05:32:22 GMT

clipped by: coecoe321

Clip Source: www.whfoods.com

130 foods that can serve as the basis of your Healthiest Way of Eating. Links to the articles about these foods can be found below.

Vegetables Fish & Seafood

Fruits

Low Fat Dairy

Beans & Legumes

Poultry & Lean Meats

Nuts & Seeds

Grains

Spices & Herbs

Natural Sweeteners

Other

Tags: food, health

The Forbidden Library

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:41:14 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

Clip Source: www-personal.umd.umich.edu

Books Listed by Title

The details listed below are excerpts taken from the Banned Books Resource Guide by the American Library Association, and Ready Reference Censorship, Copyright 1997, Salem Press (ed. Lawrence Amey et al.). In some cases, my own pithy comments have been added.

Title: 1984 ~ A ~ B ~ C ~ D ~ E ~ F ~ G ~ H ~ I ~ J ~ K ~ L ~ M ~ O ~ P ~ R ~ S ~ T ~ U ~ V ~ W ~ Z

Welcome

Books Listed by Title

Books Listed by Author

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
--Oscar Wilde

Tags: banned books, literature, censorship

The 7 hidden pages within your Firefox browser

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 20:02:08 GMT

clipped by: Scattered_Fusion

Clip Source: www.our-picks.com

about: A simple prompt without any parameter will display the Mozilla “about” information. Since it’s accessible from the top menus as well, it’s not quite a hidden feature.

about:buildconfig Obviously, it will show the build platform configuration and parameters

about:cache Will display info and statistics regarding your disk’s cache, including the name of your cache’s directory and a list of the entries you can find there. By default, Firefox doesn’t allow you to view the cached webpages, so this can be an useful option.

about:config Oh look, many many info. Indeed, it’s the most complex and meaningful of them all. Careful on what you plan to change here, your browser won’t run properly after if you play with the wrong things.

about:plugins Of course, what is Firefox without it’s powerful extensions? This option will display detailed information about all the plugins installed for Mozilla Firefox.

about:credits It’s time to give the credit to whoever deserves it. There’s an alphabetically sorted list of all the people that gave their contribution to the development of Firefox.

about:Mozilla This is a weird thing. It will display the so-called “Book of Mozilla”. Something similar was present in Netscape too. There’s actually no real book although the quotations might give you that impression.

Have fun browsing through your browser’s internal features.

Tags: firefox, internet, web, technology

Lay or Lie?

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 08:39:19 GMT

clipped by: wurdzgurl

Clip Source: englishplus.com

Lay means "to place something down." It is something you do to something else. It is a transitive verb.

Lie means "to recline" or "be placed." It does not act on anything or anyone else. It is an intransitive verb.

The reason lay and lie are confusing is their past tenses.

The past tense of lay is laid.

The past tense of lie is lay.

Incorrect: I lay it down here yesterday.
Correct: I laid it down here yesterday.
(It is being done to something else.)
Incorrect: Last night I laid awake in bed.
Correct: Last night I lay awake in bed.
(It is not being done to anything else.)

The past participle of lie is lain. The past participle of lay is like the past tense, laid.

Layed is a misspelling and does not exist. Use laid.

Tags: grammar, writing, transitive verb, intransitive verb

What You Should Know About Copyright Law

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 03:59:42 GMT

clipped by: coecoe321

Clip Source: www.templetons.com

These days, almost all things are copyrighted the moment they are written, and no copyright notice is required.

Postings to the net are not granted to the public domain, and don't grant you any permission to do further copying except perhaps the sort of copying the poster might have expected in the ordinary flow of the net.

Fair use is a complex doctrine meant to allow certain valuable social purposes. Ask yourself why you are republishing what you are posting and why you couldn't have just rewritten it in your own words.

Copyright is not lost because you don't defend it; that's a concept from trademark law. The ownership of names is also from trademark law, so don't say somebody has a name copyrighted.

Copyright law is mostly civil law where the special rights of criminal defendants you hear so much about don't apply. Watch out, however, as new laws are moving copyright violation into the criminal realm.

Fan fiction and other work derived from copyrighted works is a copyright violation.

Don't rationalize that you are helping the copyright holder; often it's not that hard to ask permission.

Posting E-mail is technically a violation, but revealing facts from E-mail you got isn't, and for almost all typical E-mail, nobody could wring any damages from you for posting it. The law doesn't do much to protect works with no commercial value.

Tags: copyright, law, internet

Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 03:03:31 GMT

clipped by: Scattered_Fusion

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their “immortality”. The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and so is known to be relatively safe.

It also has no patent, meaning it could be manufactured for a fraction of the cost of newly developed drugs.

Evangelos Michelakis of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and his colleagues tested DCA on human cells cultured outside the body and found that it killed lung, breast and brain cancer cells, but not healthy cells. Tumours in rats deliberately infected with human cancer also shrank drastically when they were fed DCA-laced water for several weeks.

DCA attacks a unique feature of cancer cells: the fact that they make their energy throughout the main body of the cell, rather than in distinct organelles called mitochondria. This process, called glycolysis, is inefficient and uses up vast amounts of sugar.

Until now it had been assumed that cancer cells used glycolysis because their mitochondria were irreparably damaged. However, Michelakis’s experiments prove this is not the case, because DCA reawakened the mitochondria in cancer cells. The cells then withered and died (Cancer Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.ccr.2006.10.020).

Michelakis suggests that the switch to glycolysis as an energy source occurs when cells in the middle of an abnormal but benign lump don’t get enough oxygen for their mitochondria to work properly (see diagram). In order to survive, they switch off their mitochondria and start producing energy through glycolysis.

Crucially, though, mitochondria do another job in cells: they activate apoptosis, the process by which abnormal cells self-destruct. When cells switch mitochondria off, they become “immortal”, outliving other cells in the tumour and so becoming dominant. Once reawakened by DCA, mitochondria reactivate apoptosis and order the abnormal cells to die.

Tags: science, health, cancer, drugs, safe