Clipmarks | kmcolo's clips

anonymous phone number: free

Tue, 19 Dec 2006 23:39:09 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo
clipper's remarks: From lifehacker:
Get a free, anonymous, disposable phone number at Craigsnumber

To use Craigsnumber, you just need to fill out a form telling the site how long you want to use the number before it expires (minimum 1 hour, max 1 week) and the number to forward the calls to. This is potentially a very useful service, but there a couple of caveats: 1) Craigsnumber, despite the name, does not appear to be affiliated in any way with Craigslist. I'm assuming the idea behind the name is that you might want to use a Craigsnumber when posting on Craigslist. 2) Craigsnumber has no real terms of service explaining what they do with your number, so beware - nobody wants spam phone calls.

If you're looking for something a bit more permanent that still allows for advanced call screening, check out GrandCentral.

Clip Source: www.craigsnumber.com

craigsnumber

Listing online? Protect your privacy.

Tags: free, phone

Tips from Thomas Edison on Living Optimistically

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:26:32 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks:

Dr. Martin Seligman, the director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Positive Psychology Center, and author of Learned Optimism, has studied optimists and pessimists for 25 years. His research has found:

Optimists

* Less depression than pessimists
* Better results than pessimists in most areas of life
* Longer lifespan
* Healthier than pessimists
* Better than pessimists at work and in school
* More friends and better social lives

Pessimists

* More depression than optimists
* Inertia rather than activity in the face of setbacks
* Feels bad subjectively–blue, down worried, anxious
* Poor physical health
* Self-fulfilling; pessimists don’t persist in the face of challenges and thus fail more frequently, even when success is attainable
* Even when pessimists turn out to be right, they still feel worse than deluded optimists

Clip Source: lifedev.net

Brighten up your life: 3 Tips from Thomas Edison on Living Optimistically

Clip Source: lifedev.net

1) There is no such thing as a failure- there are only unexpected outcomes which will provide valuable guidance for future work

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. -Thomas Edison

2) Decide with full commitment to accomplish something

Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point when it looks impossible, and gets discouraged. That’s not the place to become discouraged. Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. -Thomas Edison

3) Look on the bright side of everything

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. -Napoleon Hill

Tags: thomas edison, edison, tips, list, optimism, happiness, howto

Arsenic and Paddy Rice: A Neglected Cancer Risk?

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:42:18 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo

Clip Source: www.sciencemag.org

Does the food that sustains half of humanity also increase the risk of cancer for some? That question arises from three sets of findings that report elevated arsenic levels in rice and products such as rice bran and rice crackers.

Tags: food, health, diet, cancer, rice

International law should govern release of GM mosquitoes

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:20:35 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo
clipper's remarks: This brings up an interesting point - what is the role of the nation state as the world "internationalizes"? What good are EPA regulations when we breath polluted air from China? What good are European regulations on CO2 when the U.S. wont regulate? How does the U.S. compete in stem cell research when it has restrictions on funding? The nation state is no longer the venue for prevention of things like cloning, bacterial engineering, genetic selection, GM foods, etc. We may restrict cloning in the States, but then cloning moves to Mexico or China.

Clip Source: www.nature.com

Your News story 'Sterile mosquitoes near take-off' (Nature 453, 435; 2008) discusses the likely release of genetically engineered mosquitoes to help contain dengue fever. It demonstrates just how close we are to a radically new set of strategies for managing a whole range of diseases and wildlife using genetically modified organisms (GMOs). But after assessing the risks and benefits, nations may reach different conclusions about their use. And that's quite a problem, considering that genetically modified bugs won't recognize national borders.

Nations have a right to decide the technological risks to which they expose themselves. The factors in decision-making here will not be only the simple ones of uncontested science — this is politics, and appropriately so. The potential for conflict over self-dispersing GMOs demands the attention of international law.

Tags: science, society, international, globalization

Genetic Determinants of Self Identity and Social Recognition in Bacteria

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:47:19 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo
clipper's remarks: The understanding of self and other and social recognition in ... bacteria!

Clip Source: www.sciencemag.org

The bacterium Proteus mirabilis is capable of movement on solidsurfaces by a type of motility called swarming. Boundaries formbetween swarming colonies of different P. mirabilis strainsbut not between colonies of a single strain. A fundamental requirementfor boundary formation is the ability to discriminate betweenself and nonself. We have isolated mutants that form boundarieswith their parent. The mutations map within a six-gene locusthat we term ids for identification of self. Five of the genesin the ids locus are required for recognition of the parentstrain as self. Three of the ids genes are interchangeable betweenstrains, and two encode specific molecular identifiers.

Tags: bacteria, science, genetics, identity, social

Neuroscience: Rewiring the brain after stroke

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:57:43 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo

Clip Source: www.nature.com

The brain can recover so well from a stroke that initially paralysed limbs can be moved again. Scientists have discovered how this happens at the level of individual neurons.

Timothy Murphy and Ian Winship of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver induced stroke in adult mice and used an in vivo imaging technique called two-photon microscopy to monitor the activity of individual neurons close to the site of damage.

In the first month — when paralysis is usually at its worst — they found that some neurons ditched their speciality for one particular limb and began processing information from multiple limbs. During the following month, as the affected brain region reorganized itself more permanently, those neurons re-specialized to a new single limb.

Tags: brain, health, stroke, science, neuroscience

Ecology: Competing keeps bees busy

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:59:55 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo

Clip Source: www.nature.com

Bumblebees are pollinator generalists, flying to more flower species than most other insects, but a new study suggests that this behaviour depends on competition.

Colin Fontaine and his colleagues at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris recorded the foraging behaviour of individual common bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) in an experimental garden where five flowering plant species were available. The researchers varied the number of bees present during the experiment and found that when few bees were present, they visited fewer species of plant.

Pollinator numbers are known to be falling in many regions owing to human disturbance. Worryingly, the resulting reduced competition could lead bumblebees to eschew some plant species.

Tags: science, ecology, bees, bumblebees, pollinators

Puffy? Diddy? 'It's Not a Serious Thing'

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 04:31:39 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo
clipper's remarks: An interesting interview. I bet you didn't know that P. Diddy was helping his grandmother sew clothes when he was a teen.

The story between the lines is of a mother with middle class aspirations.

Clip Source: www.npr.org

Fresh Air from WHYY, June 17, 2008 - While his nicknames may be ever-changing, Sean Combs himself is immediately recognizable as one of the richest and most influential people in hip-hop.

Combs talks to Terry Gross about his almost obsessive rehearsal process for that show, about losing his father — an associate of reputed druglord Frank Lucas — in a shooting when Combs was 3 years old, and about the influence his mother and grandmother have had on his life and career.

Tags: podcast, fresh air, music, hip hop, people

More on Iranian Missile Test - Not a new model

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:49:10 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo
clipper's remarks: Not a new missile - Iran has yet to prove that it has the technology to due much more than they could last year. In fact, they couldn't even get them all into the air.

Clip Source: www.armscontrolwonk.com

Iran did not conduct new missile tests today, despite Iranian media reports that it did, a senior U.S. military source tells CNN.

No kidding. [Oh, I see its the new test, not the new missile that is being disputed. Ed.]

Although Iran clearly wanted to show off, it should be pretty obvious that the missile tested is exactly the same old Shahab-3 with a 1,200 km range.

All of this is to say that some elements in the Iranian government are hoping for a certain response among pundits with less, uh, ballast. That may explain certain photoshopped images.

So, let’s calm down and keep the challenge from Iran in perspective.

Tags: iran, war, missile

Fox News airs altered photos of NY Times reporters

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:45:35 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo
clipper's remarks: Does this sort of childish behavior drive viewership? I mean are there people who watch this channel simply to see what their latest infantile behavior will be? Because anyone who turns to this for news is being let down.

Clip Source: mediamatters.org

Summary: During a segment in which Fox & Friends co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade labeled New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg and editor Steven Reddicliffe "attack dogs," Fox News featured photos of Steinberg and Reddicliffe that appeared to have been digitally altered -- the journalists' teeth had been yellowed, their facial features exaggerated, and portions of Reddicliffe's hair moved further back on his head.

Tags: fox, entertainment, infotainment

Good news about $4 gas? Fewer traffic deaths

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:11:00 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo

Clip Source: esciencenews.com

As unwelcome as they are, higher gasoline prices do come with a plus side – fewer deaths from car accidents, says a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). An analysis of yearly vehicle deaths compared to gas prices found death rates drop significantly as people slow down and drive less. If gas remains at $4 a gallon or higher for a year or more, traffic deaths could drop by more than 1,000 per month nationwide, said Michael Morrisey, Ph.D., director of UAB's Lister Hill Center for Health Policy and a co-author on the new findings.

The results come after earlier research by the coauthors found lower gas prices have the opposite effect by wiping away many of lifesaving outcomes from the enactment of mandatory seatbelt laws, lower blood alcohol limits and graduated drivers licenses for youth.

Tags: gasoline, health, safety, automobile

After a Stroke, a Scientist Studies Herself

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:37:46 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo
clipper's remarks: A great interview - 5 stars (out of 5)

Clip Source: www.npr.org

Fresh Air from WHYY, June 25, 2008 · Neurological researcher Jill Bolte Taylor suffered a stroke 12 years ago. While a stroke is often devastating and sometimes fatal, Taylor was able to make a complete recovery after becoming her own experimental subject.

It was 7:00 am on December 10, 1996. I sluggishly awoke to a sharp pain piercing my brain directly behind my left eye. Squinting into the early morning light, I clicked off the impending alarm with my right hand and instinctively pressed the palm of my left hand firmly against the side of my face. Rarely ill, I thought how queer it was for me to awaken to such a striking pain. As my left eye pulsed with a slow and deliberate rhythm, I felt bewildered and irritated.

Tags: podcast, fresh air, neuroscience, brain, stroke, health, religion

Word du Jour: Tamasha

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:39:10 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Tamasha is a traditional folk play form, often with singing and dancing. This was widely performed in Maharashtra, India, often by local or traveling theatre groups.

In colloquial Hindi, the term tamasha is used to refer to a commotion, or any activity or display with bustle and excitement, sometimes ironically in the sense of "a tempest in a teacup."

Tags: language, words

Money makes the heart grow less fond... but more hardworking

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 17:56:32 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo
clipper's remarks:

Specifically, those participants who were exposed to money spent less time helping a person who needed it, sat farther away from another person and preferred solitary activities. In addition, they showed preferences for working alone and asked for help less frequently. On the other hand, participants also revealed an increased desire to take on more work and showed greater persistence in difficult tasks.

Very interesting. I wonder if there is a way to disturb this relationship, or more to the point, an easy way to do so. Additionally, what would be the impact of doing so?

Clip Source: esciencenews.com

Money is a necessity: it provides us with material objects that are important for survival and for entertainment, and it is often used as a reward. But recent studies have shown that money is not only a device for gaining wealth, but a factor in personal performance, interpersonal relations and helping behavior, as well. In a recent set of experiments, psychologists Kathleen D. Vohs of the University of Minnesota, Nicole L. Mead of Florida State University and Miranda R. Goode of the University of British Columbia found that participants' personal performance improved, and interpersonal relationships and sensitivity towards others declined, when they were reminded of money.

all participants who were reminded of money demonstrated behaviors consistent with decreased interpersonal skills and increased personal performance.

Tags: science, psychology, money, society, behavior

MIT reports finer lines for microchips

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:10:41 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo
clipper's remarks: Once again, much of our (US) technological prowess is driven by immigrants.

Clip Source: esciencenews.com

MIT researchers have achieved a significant advance in nanoscale lithographic technology, used in the manufacture of computer chips and other electronic devices, to make finer patterns of lines over larger areas than have been possible with other methods. Their new technique could pave the way for next-generation computer memory and integrated-circuit chips, as well as advanced solar cells and other devices.

The team has created lines about 25 nanometers (billionths of a meter) wide separated by 25 nm spaces. For comparison, the most advanced commercially available computer chips today have a minimum feature size of 65 nm. Intel recently announced that it will start manufacturing at the 32 nm minimum line-width scale in 2009, and the industry roadmap calls for 25 nm features in the 2013-2015 time frame.

The MIT team includes Mark Schattenburg and Ralf Heilmann

and graduate students Chih-Hao Chang and Yong Zhao

Tags: computers, microchips, physics, technology, alternative energy, solar power