Clipmarks | wildcat's Comments

Why the World Still Needs Philosophy

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:35:21 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

This new century has the potential to be either the worst or the best of times for humanity. The worst of times because there is no end in sight to the struggle between a dehumanizing global economy and the irrational forces (sexism, racism, and superstition) threatened by its hegemony. Unlike any other time in history, ours has sufficient stupidity, power and hatred to destroy the conditions for the possibility of life on this planet before they may be preserved anywhere else; the destructive powers at our disposal far exceed our present capacity to express love or altruism. Yet, it could very easily be the best of times because we finally have technological resources sufficient to provide a good life for the entire
population of the earth.

While the desires of human beings are at least potentially finite, most of us, with varying degrees of comprehension, allow our lives to run by insatiable institutions

artificial entities have no motive other than profit and unlimited accumulation

Tags: perspectives

The Role of Meaning in Human Thinking

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:50:56 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: jetpress.org

The creation of meaning to interpret and communicate perceived phenomena is a fundamental trait of human intelligence. This article explains some major ways in which this is achieved, focusing on language and the perception of embodiment. It examines the representational aspects of natural language, which account for the ambiguity of linguistic signs, and describes how these manifest in metaphor, connotation and emotive expression. The article argues that the human propensity to create meaning lies largely in this representational ambiguity, which underlies all forms of symbolism. However, the ambiguity of natural language has a paradoxical side, since it is also at fault in many shortcomings of human communication, such as misunderstanding and prejudicial stereotyping. This article argues that any attempt to emulate human ways of thinking, for example in Artificial Intelligence research, should take this paradoxical factor into account.

Tags: ai, ambiguity, language

Extinguishing the Fear at the Roots of Anxiety

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:52:12 GMT

clipped by: Bluewhale

Clip Source: health.nytimes.com

The study of anxiety is fast merging with the science of memory. No longer focused just on symptoms like social isolation and depressed mood, scientists are turning to the disorder’s neural roots, to how the brain records and consolidates in memory the frightening events that set off long-term anxiety. And they are finding that it may be possible to blunt the emotional impact of even the worst memories and fears.

Genetics and the environment play roles in the development of anxiety disorders, but the point where these influences intersect is clearly the brain. The biology of anxiety has been very difficult to untangle in part because it is so familiar, so integral to our survival.

The brain’s anticipation of threats is an invaluable survival tool. The question for scientists is: Why can’t some people turn down the voltage?

Tags: anxiety, memory

Freedom Award Winner: Friends of Orphans

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:27:38 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: Friends of Orphans, founded by Ricky Richards, received the Harriet Tubman Community and Reintegration Award. The Freedom Awards are underwritten by the John Templeton Foundation.

Clip Source: www.freetheslaves.net

Anywar Ricky Richards calls himself a child born of trouble. He has survived his share. Ricky and his brother were just 2 of 25,000 Ugandan children abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army and forced into slavery as child soldiers. The 22 year old war is all that most of these children have ever known. The boys are forced to kill or be killed. Most of the girls are sex slaves. All of the children see and do what no child should ever experience.

He returned to the war zone. He turned his freedom into a lifeline for other child slaves. In 1999, Ricky and his friends started Friends of Orphans (FRO), an organization dedicated to empower and reintegrate former child soldiers into a society torn apart by atrocities the children were forced to commit.

Ricky believes FRO is successful at rehabilitating these children because so many of the staff were child soldiers.

Tags: slavery, freedom, award

Is There a Laziness Gene?

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:59:57 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.time.com

Have you ever wondered why you can't get off the couch and exercise — despite paying for an expensive gym membership, despite your New Year's resolutions, even despite the doctor's scolding at your last check-up? Turns out that your inertia may be coded right into your genes.

Based on some intriguing, preliminary studies in animals, J. Timothy Lightfoot, a kinesiologist, and his team at University of North Carolina, Charlotte, suggest that genetics may indeed predispose some of us for sloth. Using mice specially bred and selected according to their activity levels, Lightfoot identified 20 different genomic locations that work in tandem to influence activity levels in mice — specifically, how far the animals will run

genes may affect either the way muscles work — perhaps causing them to use energy more efficiently and preventing fatigue — or some higher-order biochemical circuit in the brain, such as levels of the neurotransmitters dopamine or serotonin

Tags: laziness, genetics

Please Help Scientists By Participating In National Orgasm Day July 31st

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:05:04 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: So, Britain, privatize your National Health Services and cut the welfare - tell those people in Manchester the steel industry is never coming back so they should get other jobs. Then you could put money toward science studies that really count, like this.

After all, this is not a gender-specific issue. Having British women famous for lack of orgasms really doesn't make the men there look all that great either.

Clip Source: www.scientificblogging.com

I'm taking a moment away from crafting "Journey To The Center Of The Uterus", my opus on reproduction and culture, to discuss something of equal import - namely, orgasms.

It will shock you to know this, but nearly 50% of British women don't have orgasms. Are they frigid? No, not at all, as my 1999 layover at Heathrow can attest. Science funding is the issue, as we shall see.

As we have discussed in articles like The Science of Orgasms and Would Female Orgasms Kill Men?, (1) orgasms are tricky business but scientists know what they are doing. Fewer scientists means fewer orgasms. Britain is in the throes of a science funding meltdown so the problem for British women will only get worse. With fewer scientists there can be fewer studies on important stuff like this.

What are we talking about?

To celebrate National Orgasm Day on July 31, concerned groups in the UK have been conducting a survey on female orgasms - and the results are not good

Tags: humor, britain

Deadly blasts hit Istanbul street

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:26:28 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

At least 15 people have been killed and 154 wounded in two explosions in the Turkish city of Istanbul, in what officials say was a terrorist attack.

The first blast occurred in a rubbish bin in the busy Gungoren residential area. The second, larger explosion occurred as crowds gathered.

So far there has been no indication of who was responsible for the blasts.

Tags: turkey, terrorism

The Coming Death Shortage

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:33:49 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "Why the longevity boom will make us sorry to be alive" a must read.
Though I fail to agree with many of the premises of this article, the critical views it presents are important and the issues need be taken into consideration seriously

Clip Source: www.theatlantic.com

Stem-cell banks, telomerase amplifiers, somatic gene therapy—the list of potential longevity treatments incubating in laboratories is startling. Three years ago a multi-institutional scientific team led by Aubrey de Grey, a theoretical geneticist at Cambridge University, argued in a widely noted paper that the first steps toward "engineered negligible senescence"—a rough-and-ready version of immortality—would have "a good chance of success in mice within ten years." The same techniques, De Grey says, should be ready for human beings a decade or so later. "In ten years we'll have a pill that will give you twenty years," says Leonard Guarente, a professor of biology at MIT. "And then there'll be another pill after that. The first hundred-and-fifty-year-old may have already been born."

The critical issue, in Goldman's view, will be not the costs per se but determining who will pay them. "We're going to have a very public debate about whether this will be covered by insurance," he says

Tags: longevity, death, economy, future, public debate

Creative Steampunk Art and Fashion Designs

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:11:19 GMT

clipped by: William Hung
clipper's remarks: 15 (More) Creative Works of Steampunk Art and Fashion: From Steam Tanks to Cufflinks

Clip Source: weburbanist.com

Steampunk art, fashion and culture has far outgrown its roots in retro science fiction, blossoming into an altered image of the distant past, filtered through a dream future world that might have been. Though firmly anchored in a gilded age when technology offered unlimited hope and promise, steampunk has transcended the limits of time and space by melding the modern with the moldering â€“ brass with class, one might say.

(images via: Geek Alerts)

Star Wars remains one of the most popular inspirations for Steampunk art

(image via: Tribe)

Just the concept of a Steampunk Spacesuit presents a plethora of logistical problems

(image via: Alex Holden)

Doctor Who was Steampunk

(image via: Wetanz)

Sticking with the Steampunk shoot-em-up theme just a little longer, we have the Steampunk Raygun

(image via: Tehnobob)

The USB flash drive is another popular peripheral.

(images via: Planet Damage)

High-end coffee machines

(image via: Etsy)

Steampunks and Pirates

Steampunk Telectroscopes

Tags: art, design

Bisexual Species: Unorthodox Sex in the Animal Kingdom

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:13:03 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Having seen drakes in action with chooks, this seems a much more amicable way.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Two penguins native to Antarctica met one spring day in 1998 in a tank at the Central Park Zoo in midtown Manhattan. They perched atop stones and took turns diving in and out of the clear water below. They entwined necks, called to each other and mated. They then built a nest together to prepare for an egg. But no egg was forthcoming: Roy and Silo were both male.

Robert Gramzay, a keeper at the zoo, watched the chinstrap penguin pair roll a rock into their nest and sit on it, according to newspaper reports. Gramzay found an egg from another pair of penguins that was having difficulty hatching it and slipped it into Roy and Silo’s nest. Roy and Silo took turns warming the egg with their blubbery underbellies until, after 34 days, a female chick pecked her way into the world. Roy and Silo kept the gray, fuzzy chick warm and regurgitated food into her tiny black beak.

Tags: the, penguin, who, waves, may, also, be, gay

Intel: Human and computer intelligence will merge in 40 years

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 10:52:56 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: On the company's anniversary, a future of sensors, robots and new thinking

Clip Source: www.computerworld.com

At Intel Corp., just passing its 40th anniversary and with myriad chips in its historical roster, a top company exec looks 40 years into the future to a time when human intelligence and machine intelligence have begun to merge.

Justin Rattner,

CTO and a senior fellow at Intel, told Computerworld that perhaps as early as 2012 we'll see the lines between human and machine intelligence begin to blur. Nanoscale chips or machines will move through our bodies, fixing deteriorating organs or unclogging arteries. Sensors will float around our internal systems monitoring our blood sugar levels and heart rates, and alerting doctors to potential health problems.

Virtual worlds will become increasingly realistic, while robots will develop enough intelligence and human-like characteristics that they'll become companions, not merely vacuum cleaners and toys.

Most aspects of our lives, in fact, will be very different as we close in on the year 2050

Tags: intel, future, sensors, robots

Do Not Read This !

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:08:56 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: At the current state of our planet, and mounting evidence to human induced climate change, these rich resources of fossil fuels are nothing short of a Faustian proposition.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

The area north of the Arctic Circle has an estimated 90 billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil, 1,670 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable natural gas, and 44 billion barrels of technically recoverable natural gas liquids in 25 geologically defined areas thought to have potential for petroleum.

The U.S. Geological Survey assessment released July 24 is the first publicly available petroleum resource estimate of the entire area north of the Arctic Circle.

These resources account for about 22 percent of the undiscovered, technically recoverable resources in the world.

The Arctic accounts for about 13 percent of the undiscovered oil, 30 percent of the undiscovered natural gas, and 20 percent of the undiscovered natural gas liquids in the world. About 84 percent of the estimated resources are expected to occur offshore.

we're providing the same information to everyone in the world so that the global community can make those difficult decisions.

Tags: fossil fuels, environment

The Reconfigurable House, how to remain smarter than your house.

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:23:14 GMT

clipped by: XsarA
clipper's remarks: So with the amazing developments in our future lifestyles will users always remain smarter than technology and more importantly will they remain smarter than their own homes?
My answer....... YES!

Clip Source: www.neural.it

Have you ever dreamt of going home after a long day at work and being able to change the colour of your walls according to your mood? Well, this is what the Reconfigurable House 2.0 will allow you to do. The interactive installation by Adam Somlai-Fischer, Ai Hasegawa, Barbara Jasinowicz, Bengt Sjà¶lén, Gabor Papp, Tamà¡s Szakà¡l and Usman Haque, is an environment constructed from thousands of low tech components that can be "rewired" by users. It is not the traditional 'smart house' that acts on your behalf, cooking the meal while you are having a hot bath. Devices constructed from hacked low tech toys and gadgets are everywhere. There is a wall made of Cat bricks that meow when you stroke them. And if you raise your eyes up you'll see a ceiling with small penguins flashing their eyes. There is no need to water plants here because the flowers are LED lilies that change colour when touched.

Tags: art, software

Reading Daily Predicts Reduced Mortality

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:08:20 GMT

clipped by: shunyax

Clip Source: www.haaretz.com

What can you do to live longer? Until recently, experts mainly recommended proper nutrition and exercise. But a new study conducted at Hadassah University Hospital, Mt. Scopus adds another activity: reading daily.

"We found that people who read every day live longer," said geriatrician Dr. Jeremy Jacobs of Hadassah, the lead author of an article recently published in The Journals of Gerontology.

The researchers have been monitoring 1,000 elderly Jerusalem residents for the past 18 years.

Jacobs says people who read often have a higher level of education and a higher income, which contribute to their overall health. Nonetheless, the research statistically isolated these variables in order to focus on the impact of reading alone. Even when all other factors were neutralized, reading was found to increase life span.

How can this be explained? "The more you use your brain, the more you improve the blood circulation there and the better you preserve it," said Jacobs.

Tags: longevity

New Memory Technologies

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 13:41:54 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Considering the recent advances in Brain-Machine interface, and the development of new neural implants, it is quite clear that Memory management is only the tip of the iceberg, I definitely agree with D.Peletier that the main effect of these new technologies will be to vastly improve our wellbeing

Clip Source: www.positivefuturist.com

By Dick Pelletier

If there was a pill that could immediately improve your memory, enabling you to recall any selected event in your past with sharp detail, would you take it? How about a pill that would erase an unwanted memory, like a traumatic childhood event that still bothers you in adult life?

And even more radical, would you like to download knowledge directly into your brain enabling you to immediately speak and understand a new language, or instantly learn any new subject matter, without suffering through the lengthy process of learning from scratch?

Memory-managing drugs hold promise to change the boundaries of freedom of thought similar to how the Internet is changing freedom of speech

As we enter into what positive futurists refer to as a “magical future” time, we realize that science and technologies can do more than just repair sick people; they can raise our standard of living, add to our happiness, and greatly improve how we interact with the world around us

Tags: memory, technologies, mind upgrade