Clipmarks | arifsali's clips

Fish which looks like a glass sculpture

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:22:08 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

A fish that would rather crawl into crevices than swim, and that may be able to see in the same way that humans do, could represent an entirely unknown family of fishes, says a University of Washington fish expert.

The leglike pectoral fin for walking is the clue that this newly found fish is an anglerfish, even though it does not have a lure on its head for attracting prey. Its flat face and forward-looking eyes are just two of a host of reasons why University of Washington professor Ted Pietsch thinks the fish found in January probably represents a new family of vertebrate animals.

The fish, sighted in Indonesian waters off Ambon Island, has tan- and peach-colored zebra-striping, and rippling folds of skin that obscure its fins, making it look like a glass sculpture

Tags: fish, discovery

Women cannot afford to get angry

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:25:59 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.eurekalert.org

Whether you are running for president or looking for a clerical job, you cannot afford to get angry if you are a woman, Yale University psychologist Victoria Brescoll has found.

Brescoll and Eric Uhlmann at Northwestern University recently completed three separate studies to explore a phenomenon that may be all-too-familiar to women like New York Senator Hillary Clinton: People accept and even reward men who get angry but view women who lose their temper as less competent

The studies, published in the March issue of Psychological Science, provide women with recommendations for navigating emotional hazards of the workplace. Brescoll says it pays to stay emotionally neutral and, if you can't, at least explain what ticked you off in the first place.

"An angry woman loses status, no matter what her position,'' said Brescoll, who worked in Clinton's office as a Congressional Fellow in 2004 while she was preparing her doctoral thesis on gender bias.

Tags: women, anger

The single worst idea ever promulgated

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:56:25 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: that God needs defending.

Clip Source: newsweek.washingtonpost.com

I've always felt that our rabid Christian preachers and their rabid mullahs are explicit enemies but implicit allies. Both support a misbegotten idea of what God demands -- total faith and unquestioning obedience. Both sides also skew and cheat about what the other actually believes. If you want to fuel prejudice, any religion can be made to look rigid, hide-bound, intolerant, and inhumane. Does it really matter when a bomb explodes in a busy night club whether it was thrown by a member of the IRA or al-Sadr's militia? When Christians fight Muslims to prove the supremacy of one religion over another, both have defiled their faiths.

What makes implicit allies out of explicit enemies boils down to one idea, the single worst idea ever promulgated: that God needs defending.

Tags: god, deepak

What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:45:52 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

Finland's teens score extraordinarily high on an international test. American educators are trying to figure out why.

High-school students here rarely get more than a half-hour of homework a night. They have no school uniforms, no honor societies, no valedictorians, no tardy bells and no classes for the gifted. There is little standardized testing, few parents agonize over college and kids don't start school until age 7

Yet by one international measure, Finnish teenagers are among the smartest in the world. They earned some of the top scores by 15-year-old students who were tested in 57 countries. American teens finished among the world's C students even as U.S. educators piled on more homework, standards and rules. Finnish youth, like their U.S. counterparts, also waste hours online. They dye their hair, love sarcasm and listen to rap and heavy metal. But by ninth grade they're way ahead in math, science and reading -- on track to keeping Finns among the world's most productive workers

Tags: finland, children, education

New study shows children benefit from drinking chocolate/flavored milk

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:38:42 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.eurekalert.org

Milk drinkers consume more nutrients; milk has no adverse effects on BMI

Rosemont, Ill. – April 1, 2008– A new study released today in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that children who drink flavored or plain milk consume more nutrients and have a lower or comparable body mass index (BMI – a measure of body fatness) than children who don’t drink milk.¹

“Milk contains many nutrients that are important for children. We learned in our research that children who drink milk, including plain and flavored milk, have higher intakes of many nutrients that are low in children’s diets, and comparable or lower BMIs compared to children who don’t drink milk,” said Mary Murphy, MS, RD, co-author of the study. “Limiting access to flavored milks in schools and elsewhere may have the undesirable effect of further reducing intakes of many essential nutrients provided by milk.”

Tags: children, health, nutrition

Whaling scene found in 3,000-year-old picture

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:29:13 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.nature.com

Northern hunters may have been killing whales 3,000 years ago and commemorating their bravery with pictures carved in ivory.

Archaeologists working in the Russian Arctic have unearthed a remarkably detailed carving of groups of hunters engaged in whaling — sticking harpoons into the great mammals. The same site also yielded heavy stone blades that had been broken as if by some mighty impact, and remains from a number of dead whales.

Tags: whales, discovery, archaeology

Muslim nations raise status of science

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:21:40 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.nature.com

Science is being taken more seriously in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a group of 57 states.

The OIC's standing committee on science and technology (COMSTECH) is set to announce this week that only countries committed to donating funds will be allowed to join the committee. Payment will be in proportion to gross domestic product, at a rate set by the OIC.

COMSTECH will use the money to launch programmes for its members in areas such as biotechnology, development of pharmaceuticals from indigenous raw materials, and science policy.

Until now, COMSTECH has been open to all OIC members, but few gave any money. Last year, only US$2.59 million was taken from 13 states — most of it from Pakistan — which was used to support library services.

Atta-ur-Rahman, who heads both COMSTECH and Pakistan's Higher Education Commission, expects up to 15 countries to join this yea

Tags: muslims, science

How do we decide whether to walk or run? -Cognitive Daily

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 19:15:29 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

Imagine yourself walking on a treadmill that starts at a reasonable pace: say, two and a half miles per hour. Every two minutes, the treadmill increases its speed by 0.2 mph: 2.7 mph, 2.9 mph, 3.1 mph, and so on. If you're in good physical condition, at some point -- usually between about 3.0 and 4.5 mph -- you'll find it more comfortable to start running instead of walking. Different individuals have different thresholds based on their fitness level and other factors, but even taking these things into account, it's difficult to explain exactly why people start running when they do. Do different people have different thresholds for pain?

Gregory Daniels and Karl Newell paid 12 physically fit college students to walk on a treadmill as it gradually increased in speed. To disguise the real purpose of the study, the students were fitted with fake oxygen consumption meters and cardiographs. They were told to walk, but to begin running as soon as it felt more comfortable.

Tags: exercise, walking, running

Muslim true/false

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:54:00 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: What you think you know about them is likely wrong -- and that's dangerous.
By John L. Esposito and Dalia Mogahed

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

Winning hearts and minds -- the Bush administration, foreign policy wonks, even the U.S. military agree that this is the key to any victory over global terrorism. Yet our public diplomacy program has made little progress on improving America's image. Few seem to recognize that American ignorance of Islam and Muslims has been the fatal flaw.

How much do Americans know about the views and beliefs of Muslims around the world? According to polls, not much. Perhaps not surprising, the majority of Americans (66%) admit to having at least some prejudice against Muslims; one in five say they have "a great deal" of prejudice. Almost half do not believe American Muslims are "loyal" to this country, and one in four do not want a Muslim as a neighbor.

Why should such anti-Muslim bias concern us? First, it undermines the war on terrorism: Situations are misdiagnosed, root causes are misidentified and bad prescriptions do more harm than good

Second, it makes our public diplomacy sound like double-talk.

Tags: muslims

It's not easy being a billionaire

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:06:24 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks:

I suspect there is no such thing as having enough money. In fact, many of the super-rich agree that the more you have the more you worry about it. Their stories emerge in a great book, "Richistan," by Robert Frank.

Clip Source: www.iht.com

ASeattle billionaire I once worked for ran into money trouble a couple of years ago when his business went sour.

He had to sell his private island and get rid of his yacht (one of the world's largest) as he slid into relative poverty.

My former employer, a cell phone magnate, has now dropped off the bottom of the most recent Forbes magazine list of billionaires as he struggles to get by. He has only a few hundreds of millions left and he is not a happy man.

Despite the extraordinary wealth of this entrepreneur and others in his league, it never seems to bring them serenity. They know how fast it can be lost, and that makes them ask, "Why isn't enough really enough?"

Even custodians of old fortunes are plagued by this question. A consultant friend of mine who once advised Nelson Rockefeller remembers hearing him complain of his recurring bouts of insecurity.

Tags: money, life, happiness