Clipmarks | einbar's clips

With so many conflicting messages, it’s hard to know what’s “green” and what is not

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:36:59 GMT

clipped by: einbar

no matter how we disguise environmentally harmful practices and smooth them over with positive words that ease the conscience, such practices will nonetheless continue to have a negative impact on the planet and the quality of life of future generations. In other words, a rose by any other name is still a rose.

With so many conflicting messages, it’s hard to know what’s “green” and what is not these days

The majority of the general public is willing to make sacrifices to offset global warming, or at least according to polls

most of us don’t have a clear picture of what will actually end up doing the most good, and how to go about it

there is no clear consensus about what’s “good”

even when we do know, most of us prefer not to think about it or find a clever way to rationalize our decisions.

Bandura explains that rather than continually attempting to disguise our actions, society would be better off “switching on our environmental conscience” to save the world.

Is Aging an Accident of Evolution? Scientists Say "Yes"

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:06:40 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

"Everyone has assumed we age by rust. But how do you explain animals that don't age? Some tortoises lay eggs at the age of 100, there are whales that live to be 200 and clams that make it past 400 years."

Prevailing theory of aging challenged by Stanford Universit

Their discovery contradicts the prevailing theory that aging is a buildup of tissue damage similar to rust. The Stanford findings suggest specific genetic instructions drive the process. If they are right, science might one day find ways of switching the signals off and halting or even reversing aging.

“Everyone has assumed we age by rust,” Kim said. “But then how do you explain animals that don’t age?”

“A free radical doesn’t care if it’s in a human cell or a worm cell,” Kim said.

If aging is not a cost of unavoidable chemistry but is instead driven by changes in regulatory genes, the aging process may not be inevitable. It is at least theoretically possible to slow down or stop developmental drift.

Our choices go to the core of who we are - Accounting for Taste

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 05:59:26 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "We consume books, movies, music, and visual art primarily to fulfill the internal emotional needs that are fundamental to our personalities. But we also make choices about art based on a desire to carve out identities for ourselves—to articulate the stories of our lives. By the same token, we look for those stories in others"

Clip Source: beinart.org

Clip Source: www.psychologytoday.com

Our choices in books, movies, music, and art go to the core of who we are. What your tastes reveal about you.

Clip Source: www.psychologytoday.com

"Openness correlates to a great range of tastes," explains Stephen Dollinger, a psychologist at Southern Illinois University. "These individuals are more cultured and have a greater conception of what makes great and interesting art."

Less open people, meanwhile, may be stuck on the tastes of their youth, watching nostalgic movies on Nick at Night and listening to classic rock.

Clip Source: www.psychologytoday.com

If our taste preferences reflect our personalities, does this mean we can accurately judge others based on their tastes?

Personality types are not mutually exclusive—most of us are a complex combination of many traits. An open-minded taste hunter, for instance, may also have an extrovert's need to seek sensation.

perhaps we should view the differences in tastes between us and others not as grounds for disagreement, but as opportunities for interpersonal revelation

"Tnnel of Love" -beautiful !

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 03:18:22 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "My desire as an artist is to create compelling images of beauty and power that serve to promote our conscious evolution as human beings".Mark Henson

Clip Source: beinart.org

Art has the magical power to give provoke emotional as well as intellectual thinking

My desire as an artist is to create compelling images of beauty and power that serve to promote our conscious evolution as human beings.

I have discovered that the more intensely personal my vision is, the more universal its appeal

My wish is to tap into the divine source of being, to consciousness, to spirit, and to bring into visual awareness some images of the knowledge revealed

To this end I like explore themes of Awakening Consciousness, Divine Sexuality, Political Realities and Living in Harmony with Nature.

Mark Henson

Magical Thinking

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:12:45 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "Although I'm a rational man, I'm a scientist, I'm studying this phenomenon, there are some events in your life that you cannot explain rationall"

Clip Source: beinart.org

Clip Source: www.psychologytoday.com

Even hard-core skeptics can't help but find sympathy in the fabric of the universe—and occasionally try to pull its strings.

Emotional stress and events of personal significance push us strongly toward magical meaning-making.

"There are many layers of belief," psychologist Carol Nemeroff says. "And the answer for many people, especially with regard to magic, is, 'Most of me doesn't believe but some of me does.'

Clip Source: www.psychologytoday.com

What makes something sacred is not its material makeup but its unique history

Clip Source: www.psychologytoday.com

there's a key chemical involved in magical thinking. Dopamine, a neurotransmitter that the brain uses to tag experiences as meaningful, floods the brains of schizophrenics, who see significance in everything, but merely trickles in many depressives, who struggle to find value in everyday life

Clip Source: www.psychologytoday.com

Although I'm a rational man, I'm a scientist, I'm studying this phenomenon, there are some events in your life that you cannot explain rationall

Flippers, used for swimming, with heels....:-)

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:16:36 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clip Source: inventorspot.com

High Tide Heels

anything different yet stylish and stylish usually catches my eye. This is what happened when I saw these flippers with heels. You read that right...flippers, used for swimming, with heels.

If you don't believe me, have a look.

Why We Can't Imagine Death?

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:57:41 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "This position holds that our ancestors suffered the unshakable illusion that their minds were immortal, and it’s this hiccup of gross irrationality that we have unmistakably inherited from them. Individual human beings, by virtue of their evolved cognitive architecture, had trouble conceptualizing their own psychological inexistence from the start."

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Almost everyone has a tendency to imagine the mind continuing to exist after the death of the body.

Even people who believe the mind ceases to exist at death show this type of psychological-continuity reasoning in studies.

Rather than being a by-product of religion or an emotional security blanket, such beliefs stem from the very nature of our consciousness.

The common view of death as a great mystery usually is brushed aside as an emotionally fueled desire to believe that death isn’t the end of the road. And indeed, a prominent school of research in social psychology called terror management theory contends that afterlife beliefs, as well as less obvious beliefs, behaviors and attitudes, exist to assuage what would otherwise be crippling anxiety about the ego’s inexistence

a small number of researchers, including me, are increasingly arguing that the evolution of self-consciousness has posed a different kind of problem altogether.

The Science of Gossip: Why We Can't Stop Ourselves

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:54:38 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

It helped us thrive in ancient times, and in our modern world it makes us feel connected to others—as long as it is done properly

In recent years researchers have turned to the study of gossip—our predilection for talking about people who are not present. Why is news about others so irresistible?

As it turns out, gossip serves a useful social function in bonding group members together. In the distant past, when humans lived in small bands and meeting strangers was a rare occurrence, gossip helped us survive and thrive.

Our modern-day infatuation with celebrities reveals the ancient evolutionary psychology of gossip in sharp relief: anyone whom we see that often and know that well becomes socially important to us.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

it may become more productive to think of gossip as a social skill rather than as a character flaw

gossiping is about being a good team player and sharing key information with others in a way that will not be perceived as self-serving and about understanding when to keep your mouth

The mysteriousness of the universe - fascinating !!

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 14:49:59 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: With a name like Mars-1, it hardly comes as a surprise that the paintings, toys, and installations of this open-minded artist are otherworldly

Clip Source: www.formatmag.com

“The rabbit hole is deep, and there in so much out there it’s hard to keep track of it all.”

Clip Source: beinart.org

San Francisco-based artist, Mario Martinez (aka MARS-1

Clip Source: www.formatmag.com

With a name like Mars-1, it hardly comes as a surprise that the paintings, toys, and installations of this open-minded artist are otherworldly

Driven by a fascination with alternative life forms, the San Francisco-based Mars-1 layers paint and picture to create ethereal landscapes, combining light and color to form dreamlike worlds that are as inviting as they are surreal

Clip Source: beinart.org

"My style stems from a living dream. My imagination conjures an alien landscape that exists somewhere in the space of my mind

a deep interest in ufology, unexplored life, the mysteriousness of the universe, and the abstract qualities of existence"

Clip Source: www.formatmag.com

Are there aliens out there? Yes. Do they live in a more beautiful world than ours? It certainly looks that way.

Clip Source: beinart.org

Clip Source: www.formatmag.com

Can we visit?

Clip Source: www.mars-1.com

Clip Source: www.formatmag.com

until the time when we can get lost in space, we’ll just lose ourselves in the paintings of Mars-1.

Apply a skeptic’s careful eye

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:17:56 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "1. Unnatural environment for cognition
2. Scans are indirect measurements of brain activity.
3. Colors exaggerate the effects in the brain.
4. Brain images are statistical compilations.
5. Brain areas activate for various reasons."

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Colorful scans have lulled us into an oversimplified conception of the brain as a modular machine

Scientists often use metaphors such as these as aids in understanding and explaining complex processes, but this practice necessarily oversimplifies the intricate and subtle realities of the physical world

Technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging have helped science gain new insights, but overreliance on their use has also presented an oversimplified and sometimes misleading picture of brain operation.

So let me explain what such images actually can and cannot show, by giving you a closer look at the capabilities and operation of fMRI, perhaps the most commonly trumpeted imaging technique. After you have read this article, you will be able to apply a skeptic’s careful eye to better appraise any brain studies that you come across in future media headlines. Here are five flaws of brain scans:

The largest freehand drawing on a dry lake - Amazing !

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:39:57 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "The drawing was transient, as all of Jim's work is: "It was completely erased in a rainstorm the next week."

Clip Source: www.jimdenevan.com

Jim Denevan makes freehand drawings in sand.

Clip Source: www.jimdenevan.com

recently made the world's largest freehand drawing on a dry lake in Nevada. How big is it? Three mile across. Jim walked for eight days, about 100 miles to draw the pattern. The drawing was transient, as all of Jim's work is: "It was completely erased in a rainstorm the next week... It felt strange to work so hard and not see tide come in. But rains did come which is sort of the same thing."

Clip Source: www.jimdenevan.com

At low tide on wide beaches Jim searches the shore for a wave tossed stick. After finding a good stick and composing himself in the near and far environment Jim draws-- laboring up to 7 hours and walking as many as 30 miles.

Clip Source: www.jimdenevan.com

The words we choose can shape how we consider complex issues.

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:50:47 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Science tells us why: gossip is a kind of social grooming that helps our human networks hang together. We share news about friends and relatives, which solidifies our relationships with them. We dish about cheaters or people who wrong someone close to us, which helps to keep potential malefactors in line. We even learn why we are mesmerized by celebrities, whom we mistakenly feel we know intimately because they are in our living rooms on the TV every night.

As the power of gossip suggests, the words we choose can shape how we individually and collectively consider complex issues. If we speak of the “war” against terrorism, for instance, that implies battlefield solutions. But if we talk about it as a “crime” or a “disease,” that suggests approaches that are different—and perhaps ultimately more effective—for combating an intractable nonstate enemy. Each term has benefits and drawbacks, and they may be most effective when used in combination, as

in “Talking about Terrorism

How Randomness Rules Our World and Why We Cannot See It

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:34:52 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: ” Embrace the random. Find the pattern. Know the difference."...

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Although our intuitions can be useful in dealing with other people and social relationships (which evolved as common and important for a social primate species such as ours when we were struggling to survive in the harsh environs of the Paleolithic), they are misleading when it comes to such probabilistic problems as gambling.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Extraordinary events do not always require extraordinary causes. Given enough time, they can happen by chance. Knowing this, Mlodinow says, “we can improve our skill at decision making and tame some of the biases that lead us to make poor judgments and poor choices ... and we can learn to judge decisions by the spectrum of potential outcomes they might have produced rather than by the particular result that actually occurred.” Embrace the random. Find the pattern. Know the difference.

Putting Thoughts into Action: Implants Tap the Thinking Brain

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:01:32 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Researchers are decoding the brain to give a voice and a hand to the paralyzed—and to learn how it controls our movements

Surgeons have implanted a novel neural prosthesis into a paralyzed patient’s brain. The high-tech device enables the patient to communicate his thoughts to a computer, which translates them into spoken words.

The technology promises to give thousands of victims of stroke, spinal cord injury and paralyzing illnesses the ability to, say, talk with a friend, flip through television channels or transport themselves by driving their own wheelchair. One day implants may enable paralyzed people to move robotic arms or even bypass damaged parts of the nervous system to reanimate unresponsive limbs. In the meantime, the quest to develop implanted neural prostheses is bringing with it revelations about how the brain manages motion and how it can remodel itself so that only a few neurons are needed to direct action through an implant.

Do we really have any control over our emotions?

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 06:00:44 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "So, rather than a mysterious force welling up from within, Solomon views emotions as choices for which we have to take responsibility. Emotions are, in fact, strategies"
.

Clip Source: www.flickr.com

Clip Source: www.spring.org.uk

"A thought comes when it will, not when I will." - Nietzsche

Nietzsche's quote raises an important question about both thoughts and, implicitly, about emotions. Many people would say their emotions only come when they will and not when they want. So how do thoughts and emotions interact in everyday life and in therapeutic processes like cognitive behavioural therapy? Do we really have any control over our emotions or are they things that just happen to us?

Robert Solomon is the kind of philosopher who keeps his eye on psychological research but provides a birds-eye view.

emotions are not just things that happen to us. As existentialist philosophers like Sartre point out, we have a responsibility to take ownership of our emotions

emotions are in fact choices. But, not necessarily choices in the emotional moment, but patterns of choices over a period of time. Certain ways in which you tend to view the world: your appraisals.