Clipmarks | wildcat's 'life' clips

Are We Living in a Giant Void?

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:54:55 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Their theory posits that if in fact Earth and our surrounding neighbors are in fact in an unusual or special region of space, ie, a void, then our perspective on the universe would be severely challenged

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

As a science fiction fan, I have come across something that annoys me. There seem to be a limited number of things that can happen in a series, and episodes start repeating themselves from series to series. One such occurrence is the idea of a ship being trapped in a void of stars; being literally nowhere near another star, and thus, all in black.

This void, as most episodes are entitled, is similar to the descriptions that filter out of Antarctica. When explorers are traversing miles and miles of white, they begin to lose the ability to determine where they are, and if they are moving.

The idea of an astronomical void is not just science fiction fodder however, and rather, according to Timothy Clifton and colleagues Pedro G. Ferreira and Kate Land at the University of Oxford, a possible explanation for why it looks as if our universe is expanding at an accelerated pace.

It is no surprise that Clifton’s theories are speculative, but the best science always starts out that way

Tags: life, giant void, astronomy

11 Ways to Build an Extraordinary Life

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:16:30 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Have a vision for your future...

Clip Source: www.steve-olson.com

How can you build the life you want? The answer to that question is different for each of us. But it’s critical that you answer it, because in the answer you will find purpose and meaning. Many of us look for happiness in things, but happiness doesn’t come from things, it comes from how we relate to ourselves and our world.

Be True to Yourself

Have a Vision for Your Future

Avoid Debt

Save

Continue Your Education

Take Responsibility for Change

Learn from Mistakes -

Build Quality Relationships/Discard Destructive Ones

Love: Look for a partner who is on a similar journey as yours, who has similar goals and values, and build on your relationship by giving your love and encouragement

Friendship: Look for people with similar values, who give as much as they take, with which you can share interests and hobbies.

Do the Right Thing Even When it is Unpopular

Honor Your Commitments - Do not make commitments lightly

Be Charitable

Tags: life, extraordinary

“What is Life?” Evolution of Robots is Causing Scientists to Question

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:04:36 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: “Robots are not human, but humans aren’t the only things that have emotions,” she said. “The question for robots is not, Will they ever have human emotions? Dogs don’t have human emotions, either, but we all agree they have genuine emotions. The question is, what are the emotions that are genuine for the robot?”

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

There is ongoing debate about what constitutes life. Synthetic bacteria for example, are created by man and yet also alive. Some go so far as to say that robot “emotions” may already have occurred—that current robots have not only displayed emotions, but in some ways have experienced them.

“We’re all machines,” says Rodney Brooks author of “Flesh and Machines,” and former director of M.I.T.’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, “Robots are made of different sorts of components than we are — we are made of biomaterials; they are silicon and steel — but in principle, even human emotions are mechanistic.” A robot’s level of a feeling like sadness could be set as a number in computer code, he said. But isn’t a human’s level of sadness basically a number, too, just a number of the amounts of various neurochemicals circulating in the brain? Why should a robot’s numbers be any less authentic than a human’s?

Tags: robotics, intelligence, life

Life on Mars: What's The Truth?

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:48:31 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.efluxmedia.com

A Tufts University chemist who heads the team interpreting data gathered by the Phoenix lander's wet-chemistry lab alleges that the Martian soil in the area where NASA's contraption landed "seems very friendly" to simple forms of life.

Scientists are almost sure there is ice underneath the Red Planet's surface, and they say they found a lot of minerals which are the building blocks of organic life. However, the high concentration of minerals is not good news.

Back in February, NASA announced that it is very less likely that life on the fourth planet of the Sun was ever possible. Scientists said at the time that the high concentration of minerals constitutes a harsh environment even for the toughest microbes. The conclusion regarding the possibility of life on Mars in an extremely salty environment came after scientists conducted a series of experiments by simulating the Martian conditions.

Tags: mars, life, colony

The Galactic Internet

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:24:32 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: superconcepts.blogspot.com

We all know how the internet has changed our lives. It's not souly because of the information it can fill our minds with, but because of the applications that it brings us. We can go shopping, check flights, make money, network with people, form movements, archive entertainment, connect businesses, and lots more.

There's no knowing where the internet will take us in the next 10-20 years. What if, we were to look far further into the future?

This century we are closer than we have ever been to discovering alien life. If it exists, we may well discover it in the next few decades. Far more significant however, will be the discovery of intelligent life. The implications of discovering an extra terrestrial concious life form are immense. It will shake the entire foundations of our society. It will give us new perspectives on both the problems and pleasures of human life.

Tags: internet, alien, life, intelligent

Sun's properties not 'fine-tuned' for life

Fri, 23 May 2008 21:26:46 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

There's nothing special about the Sun that makes it more likely than other stars to host life, a new study shows. The finding adds weight to the idea that alien life should be common throughout the universe.

"The Sun's properties are consistent with it being pulled out at random from the bag of all stars," says Charles Lineweaver from the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. "Life does not seem to require anything special in its host star, other than it be close."

Some previous studies of the Sun's vital statistics have concluded that it is unusual among stars, for instance, by having a higher mass than average. Such atypical properties might somehow help explain why the Sun seems to be unique, as far as we know, in having an inhabited planet.

Mistaken conclusion

"You can mistakenly come to the conclusion that the Sun is 'special'," Lineweaver told New Scientist.

Tags: sun, life, aliens

FLOW: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF OPTIMAL EXPERIENCE

Mon, 26 May 2008 21:16:10 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Steps Toward Enhancing the Quality of Life)

Mihaly Csiksczentmihalyi

Clip Source: web.ionsys.com

One must particularly achieve control over instinctive drives to achieve a healthy independence of society, for as long as we respond predictably to what feels good and what feels bad, it is easy for others to exploit our preferences for their own ends.

The knowledge - or wisdom - one needs for emancipating consciousness is not cumulative. It is not a cognitive skill and as well as intelligence requires commitment of emotions and will. It is not enough to know how to do it, one must do it consistently and it is a painfully slow process to modify our own habits and desires.

Eight Components of Enjoyment

Confronting tasks that we have a chance of completing.

2. Concentration.

Concentration is possible because the task has clear goals.

4. Task provides immediate feedback.

A deep, effortless involvement removes from awareness the worries and frustrations of everyday life.

Enjoyable experiences allow one to exercise a sense of control over one’s actions.

Tags: life, quality, steps

What Happens When the art IS life?

Sat, 10 May 2008 10:53:04 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: quite incredible

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Bio Art: Life Imitates Art. But What Happens When the art IS life?

Well, then the bio-art starts growing out of control and has to be killed by a lone hero. Obviously. That might sound like the script of "Little Shop Of Horrors: The Revenge", but it actually happened in New York this month.

The organic art in question was the piece "Victimless Leather", a tiny jacket grown from mice embryonic stem cells and kept alive by an external life-support system. Yes, you read that right. Artists, working with the SymbioticA research laboratory in the University of Western Australia, grew living tissue into the shape of a tiny leather jacket and cyborged it up with electrical parts. Presumably to give Tom Thumb either a stylish biodegradable look or nightmares for life.

The mini-flesh-threads were designed to raise questions about human use of animals, and it certainly did - even if only by adding the questions "What the hell are they doing with that jacket?"

Is that terrible or awesome?"

Tags: life, art, biotech

Are Humans Meant to be Monogamous?

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:48:47 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: She added, "Monogamy is invented for order and investment – but not necessarily because it's 'natural.'"

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

News of politicians' extramarital affairs seems to be in no short supply lately, but if humans were cut from exactly the same cloth as other mammals, a faithful spouse would be an unusual phenomenon.

Only 3 percent to 5 percent of the roughly 5,000 species of mammals (including humans) are known to form lifelong, monogamous bonds, with the loyal superstars including beavers, wolves and some bats.

Social monogamy is a term referring to creatures that pair up to mate and raise offspring but still have flings. Sexually monogamous pairs mate with only with one partner. So a cheating husband who detours for a romantic romp yet returns home in time to tuck in the kids at night would be considered socially monogamous.

Beyond that, scientists' definitions for monogamy vary.

I don't think we are a monogamous animal," said Pepper Schwartz, a professor of sociology at the University of Washington in Seattle. "A really monogamous animal is a goose – which never mates again even if its mate is killed

Tags: life, nature, monogamy

life is destined to become more complex

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 09:09:51 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "We must not forget that bacteria – very simple organisms – are among the most successful living things. Therefore, the trend towards complexity is compelling but does not describe the history of all life.”

Clip Source: physorg.com

Scientists have revealed what may well be the first pervasive ‘rule’ of evolution. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences researchers have found evidence which suggests that evolution drives animals to become increasingly more complex.

Looking back through the last 550 million years of the fossil catalogue to the present day, the team investigated the different evolutionary branches of the crustacean family tree.

They were seeking examples along the tree where animals evolved that were simpler than their ancestors.

Instead they found organisms with increasingly more complex structures and features, suggesting that there is some mechanism driving change in this direction.

“If you start with the simplest possible animal body, then there’s only one direction to evolve in – you have to become more complex,”

“This is the nearest thing to a pervasive evolutionary rule that’s been found.

Tags: evolution, complexity, life, structures

"The Ilulissat Manifesto" -Creating Artifical Life

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:41:14 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "So is the new technology dangerous? Yes. Could this technology end up saving countless lives and clean up many of the environmental messes we’ve created? Yes. Is it worth the risk? Probably."

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

In a recent post, “Playing God” -Scientists in Final Stage of Creating Man-made Life, we covered some of the benefits and concerns associated with synthesizing life forms from raw genetic material.

The thought that man now has the capacity to create life is staggering. Its many implications are barely understood.

Yet seventeen leading scientists from a variety of fields met in Ilulissat, Greenland to announce their support of the new technology as revolutionary as the discovery of DNA and creation of the transistor.

The field, 'synthetic biology,' is the science of constructing or redesigning components of biological systems that do not naturally exist. By combining engineering applications, nanoscience and molecular biology, man is able to create a new life form.

They believe it carries enormous healing potential in terms of human life and the environment, and they’re not taking it lightly.

"As with any powerful technology, the promise comes with risk,"

Tags: artifical, life, synthetic, biology

BiIL is..Beauty. Inspiration. Life.

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:07:07 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: bilconference.com

Benefficient. Ingenuous. Lounge.

BIL is...

an open, self-organizing, emergent, and anarchic science and technology conference.

Nobody is in charge.

If you want to come, just show up.

If you have an idea to spread, start talking.

If someone is saying something interesting, stop and listen.

BIL Conference » Help us figure out what BIL stands for

Booze. Intellectuals. Learning.

That’s what we first thought of. But we want it to mean more than that. We’re trying to think up words that start with B, I, and L, and then we’ll have them randomly come together on the homepage. Every time you visit this site, BIL will stand for something else, or at least that’s the plan.

Help us out. Add your thoughts to the wiki or as a comment here.

Brilliance Illuminating Logic.

bilateral intelligence lunge

BIL isn’t lexical

Brilliant. Illogic. Level.

Building Inspiration Liquidity

Biologic. Illogic. Logic.

Breeding Idea Lemmings

Beneficient instability lounge

Beauty. Inspiration. Life.

Better In Life

Tags: bil, beauty, inspiration, life

"Encyclopedia of Life" -Online 'Macroscope' Launched

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:36:24 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

“The launch of the Encyclopedia of Life will have a profound and creative effect in science. It aims not only to summarize all that we know of Earth’s life forms, but also to accelerate the discovery of the vast array that remain unknown. This great effort promises to lay out new directions for research in every branch of biology.” EOL Video

Edward O. Wilson, Harvard evolutionary biologist and naturalist.

Like a modern-day Aristotle, Harvard's famed biologist, E.O. Wilson, unveiled the first 30,000 pages of the massive online Encyclopedia of Life yesterday at the prestigious Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) Conference in Monterey, California.

Intended as a tool for scientists and policymakers and a fascinating resource for anyone interested in the living world, the EOL is being developed by a unique collaboration between scientists and the general public

EOL hopes to accelerate our understanding of the world’s remaining biodiversity

Tags: biodiversity, life, encyclopedia

immaculate heart college art department rules

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:44:22 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: mike.teczno.com

Find a place you trust and then try trusting it for a while.

General duties of a student: pull everything out of your teacher, pull everything out of your fellow students.

General duties of a teacher: pull everything out of your students.

Consider everything an experiment.

Be self-disciplined. This means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.

Nothing is a mistake. There is no win and no fail. There is only make.

The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things.

Don’t try to create and analyse at the same time. They’re different processes.

Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.

“We’re breaking all of the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.” - John Cage.

Tags: life, studies, discipline, teacher, student

Life from Scratch

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 11:37:34 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.sciencenews.org

Learning to make synthetic cells

Maggots don't arise spontaneously out of dead, rotting meat. Aphids never materialize within drops of morning dew. Aristotle and others who believed in the spontaneous generation of life were dead wrong.

The only time life arose from nonlife, biologists believe, was almost 4 billion years ago, when simple living cells first appeared on Earth. But now, with the help of a microscopic parasite that infects people's genitals, researchers may rehabilitate the core of Aristotle's idea.

Scientists are on the verge of creating living cells by piecing together small molecules that are themselves not alive. The result would be the world's first human-made life forms, synthetic cells made more or less from scratch.

The goal is to make cells that are as simple as possible, yet still able to grow, reproduce, and evolve—some of the defining traits of life.

"Simplicity has always been where we try to gain understanding,"

Tags: life