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Erotica Entices Even When Invisible

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 01:57:11 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Erotica Entices Even When Invisible

By Ker Than
LiveScience Staff Writer

The use of scantily clad models in ads for everything from underwear to ice cream attest to the persuasive power of sex, but a surprising new study finds that our actions can be swayed by erotic images even when they don't consciously register in our awareness.

In an experiment, 40 men and women were shown erotic images that had been manipulated to bypass conscious detection. The participants consisted of both heterosexual and homosexual individuals.

Subjects were then shown a small "probe" pattern and asked to determine its orientation—clockwise or counterclockwise. The researchers found that subjects identified the probe pattern more accurately when it appeared where the erotic images had been, suggesting that the invisible images exerted an effect on their spatial attentions.

In general, the erotic images attracted or repelled attention depending on the gender of the nude model and also the sexual orientation of the subject. For example, heterosexual males tended to perform better on the pattern task when it followed the presentation of an invisible female nude than a male nude. Gay males, in contrast, showed more enhanced performance when exposed to invisible male nudes compared to female nudes.

Tags: erotica, sex, science, research, attention

The Advocacy of Torture

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 01:25:51 GMT

clipped by: Thothanon
clipper's remarks: Another great passage from http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com, one of the most moving blogs around.

Clip Source: powerofnarrative.blogspot.com

Make no mistake: the advocacy of torture, no matter how "limited" or how narrowly drawn, is the advocacy of evil. That torture's advocates must utilize lies to make their case is only one of the numerous ways in which that evil reveals itself. The deliberate and pointless infliction of unbearable pain on another human being -- the infliction of agony for its own sake -- cannot be other than evil. Advocacy of behavior of this kind must always disguise itself; it must always offer rationalizations in presenting its arguments. When evil's masks are removed, most people will shun it. When it covers itself with tendentious arguments that most people cannot untangle, it increases its chances for success. Today, in our country, evil is succeeding to a terrifying degree.

Tags: arthur silber

Bloggers Stop Aircraft Sale to Chavez

Wed, 18 Oct 2006 22:14:24 GMT

clipped by: brazilnut72
clipper's remarks: Hooray for bloggers!!!

Clip Source: www.earthtimes.org

Bloggers Stop Military Aircraft Sale to Chavez

After Spain brokered the deal with Chavez last year, bloggers targeted the state-owned aircraft company, EADS-CASA, for violating the U.S. arms embargo against Venezuela. This week, online activists generated hundreds of letters and calls into key congressional offices to demand that EADS-CASA be disqualified from U.S. contracts. The effort followed questions that were raised about the deal by U.S. Senators in a letter to President Bush. Today, Spain announced that the sale was off.

"Nobody in Washington wants to do business with Chavez," Waller said. "Now there's little sentiment for doing business with those who are modernizing his military. Lawmakers didn't have to say a thing to the company. The fact that they were alerted was enough," he said. "The guys who did the website that sent letters into Congress really made the difference."

Tags: chavez, latin america, venezuela, blogging

Letter From Kevin Tillman on Iraq War

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 18:24:26 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: "Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground. "

SPOT ON!

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

After Pat’s Birthday

Editor’s note: Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has written a powerful, must-read document.

Pat Tillman (left) and his brother Kevin stand in front of a Chinook helicopter in Saudi Arabia before their tour of duty as Army Rangers in Iraq in 2003.

It is Pat’s birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we got out.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice:

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

Tags: kevin tillman, pat tillman, iraq, war, bush, government

Watch First 4 Minutes of My Movie Film on Youtubes!

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 18:31:38 GMT

clipped by: Borat
clipper's remarks: Will you make a nice time and see my movefilm which comes to U S and A soon? I like you!

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

Borat -The first 4 minutes of his Movie

to BoratMovie

Added October 19, 2006
From BoratMovie

Enjoy the first 4 minutes of Borat's New Enjoy the first 4 minutes of Borat's New Movie.
Nice! ... (more) (less)

Category Comedy

Tags: movie, film, moviefilm, borat, sexy, nice, youtube, video, youtubes, you like, very much

Another Saddam? A coup may be brewing in Iraq

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 18:27:32 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: The Asia Times Online on the possiblity that a tacitly US-backed coup d'etat may be the next step in a devastated Iraq, and that control of the country may be returned to a Saddam-like Sunni strongman -- though this is unlikely to provide much stability either.

Clip Source: www.atimes.com

A coup in the air

As the carnage in Iraq reaches new heights of barbarism, what's clear is the utter uselessness of Maliki's government. It is simply incapable of staunching the bloodletting. Despite weeks of blunt warnings from US officials that time was running out for him, on Sunday the prime minister announced yet again that efforts to disarm Iraq's militias would be postponed. "The initial date we've set for disbanding the militias is the end of this year or the beginning of next year," he said, according to USA Today.

Iraq's fragile democracy, weakened by mounting chaos and a rapidly rising death toll, is being challenged by calls for the formation of a hardline 'government of national salvation'. The proposal, which is being widely discussed in political and intelligence circles in Baghdad, is to replace the Shi'ite-led government of Nuri al-Maliki, the prime minister, with a regime capable of imposing order and confronting the sectarian militias leading the country to the brink of civil war. Dr Saleh al-Mutlaq, a prominent Sunni politician, traveled to Arab capitals last week seeking support for the replacement of the present government with a group of five strongmen who would impose martial law and either dissolve parliament or halt its participation in day-to-day government.

Iraq is utterly anarchic, a Mad Max world of clashing paramilitaries, gangs, warlords, sectarian fighters, death squads, criminal enterprises, government-backed mafias, and several hundred thousand army men, police, Interior Ministry commandos and special units like the Facilities Protection Service that are only loosely under the control of the central government. So how would a prospective coup-maker, even with Washington's fervent backing, impose his will on all that?

Tags: iraq, war, military, news, international, bad_news

School 2.0

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 12:41:55 GMT

clipped by: rhymonde

Clip Source: www.school2-0.org

What is School 2.0?

School 2.0 is a brainstorming tool designed to help schools, districts and communities develop a common education vision for the future and to explore how that vision can be supported by technology. School 2.0 provides a "big picture" perspective that allows for a common point of entry so that all community stakeholders can participate in this important conversation. While School 2.0 depicts a variety of educational and management scenarios that utilize technology, the examples, information and ideas included are designed to serve as prompts for discussion and should not be construed as a recommendation of any particular technology or scenario. Rather, School 2.0 is purposely a sketch and a work in progress. It is designed to facilitate community discussions and preparations for short and long term educational and management goals.

Tags: school, innovation, school2.0, education

How many megapixels equivalent does the eye have?

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 21:48:34 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes
clipper's remarks: 576 megapixels.

Clip Source: www.clarkvision.com

Notes on the Resolution and Other Details of the Human Eye

Contents

Notes on the Resolution of the Human Eye
How many megapixels equivalent does the eye have?
The Sensitivity of the Human Eye (ISO Equivalent)
The Dynamic Range of the Eye
The Focal Length of the Eye

How many megapixels equivalent does the eye have?

The eye is not a single frame snapshot camera. It is more like a video stream. The eye moves rapidly in small angular amounts and continually updates the image in one's brain to "paint" the detail. We also have two eyes, and our brains combine the signals to increase the resolution further. We also typically move our eyes around the scene to gather more information. Because of these factors, the eye plus brain assembles a higher resolution image than possible with the number of photoreceptors in the retina. So the megapixel equivalent numbers below refer to the spatial detail in an image that would be required to show what the human eye could see when you view a scene.

Based on the above data for the resolution of the human eye, let's try a "small" example first. Consider a view in front of you that is 90 degrees by 90 degrees, like looking through an open window at a scene. The number of pixels would be
90 degrees * 60 arc-minutes/degree * 1/0.3 * 90 * 60 * 1/0.3 = 324,000,000 pixels (324 megapixels).
At any one moment, you actually do not perceive that many pixels, but your eye moves around the scene to see all the detail you want. But the human eye really sees a larger field of view, close to 180 degrees. Let's be conservative and use 120 degrees for the field of view. Then we would see
120 * 120 * 60 * 60 / (0.3 * 0.3) = 576 megapixels.
The full angle of human vision would require even more megapixels. This kind of image detail requires A large format camera to record.

So I would estimate the dark adapted eye to be about ISO 800.

Object focal length of the eye = 16.7 mm
Image focal length of the eye = 22.3 mm

Tags: eye, human eye, camera, digital camera, pixel, megapixel

Ahh the memories

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 13:33:39 GMT

clipped by: travislaborde

Clip Source: www.commodore.ca

Tags: misc

Causes of Poverty

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 18:03:32 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Articles on the nature and causes of poverty by Anup Shah.

Clip Source: www.globalissues.org

Causes of Poverty

Poverty is the state for the majority of the world’s people and nations. Why is this? Is it enough to blame poor people for their own predicament? Have they been lazy, made poor decisions, and been solely responsible for their plight? What about their government? Have they pursued policies that actually harm successful development? Such causes of poverty and inequality are no doubt real. But often less discussed are deeper and more global causes of poverty.

Behind the increasing interconnectedness promised by globalization, are global decisions, policies, and practices. These are typically influenced, driven, or formulated by the rich and powerful. These can be leaders of rich countries or other global actors such as multinational corporations, institutions, and influential people.

In the face of such enormous external influence, the governments of poor nations and their people are often powerless. As a result, in the global context, a few get wealthy while the majority struggle.

These next few articles and sections explore various poverty issues in more depth:

Tags: poverty, world, inequality, capitalism, globalization

Poverty Facts and Stats

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 18:01:01 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Some stats from Global Issues.

Clip Source: www.globalissues.org

Poverty Facts and Stats

Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day. ^{source 1}

The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined. ^{source 2}

Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. ^{source 3}

Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn't happen. ^{source 4}

51 percent of the world’s 100 hundred wealthiest bodies are corporations. ^{source 5}

The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation. ^{source 6}

The poorer the country, the more likely it is that debt repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money. ^{source 7}

20% of the population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the world’s goods. ^{source 8}

The top fifth of the world’s people in the richest countries enjoy 82% of the expanding export trade and 68% of foreign direct investment — the bottom fifth, barely more than 1%. ^{source 9}

In 1960, the 20% of the world’s people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% — in 1997, 74 times as much. ^{source 10}

Tags: poverty, world, inequality

Obama considers running for president in 2008

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 22:01:35 GMT

clipped by: BitDrifter
clipper's remarks: Great news! I really hope he does decide to run.

Clip Source: apnews.myway.com

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Barack Obama acknowledged Sunday he was considering a run for president in 2008, backing off previous statements that he would not do so.

The Illinois Democrat said he could no longer stand by the statements he made after his 2004 election and earlier this year that he would serve a full six-year term in Congress. He said he would not make a decision until after the Nov. 7 elections.

"Given the response I've been getting the last several months, I have thought about the possibility" although not with any seriousness or depth, he said. "My focus is on '06. ... After November 7, I'll sit down and consider it."

Tags: obama, barak obama, president, elections, election, 2008, senate, senator

Standing by the president

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 16:24:04 GMT

clipped by: tpq62
clipper's remarks: One of the great mysteries of US political life revealed

Clip Source: static.flickr.com

Tags: humor, politics

Wikipedia founder: what copyrights should we buy with $100MM?

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 14:03:42 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: interesting

Clip Source: www.boingboing.net

Wikipedia founder: what copyrights should we buy with $100MM?

I would like to gather from the community some examples of works you would like to see made free, works that we are not doing a good job of generating free replacements for, works that could in theory be purchased and freed.
Dream big. Imagine there existed a budget of $100 million to purchase copyrights to be made available under a free license. What would you like to see purchased and released under a free license?
Photos libraries? textbooks? newspaper archives? Be bold, be specific, be general, brainstorm, have fun with it.
I was recently asked this question by someone who is potentially in a position to make this happen, and he wanted to know what we need, what we dream of, that we can't accomplish on our own, or that we would expect to take a long time to accomplish on our own.

Tags: wikipedia, copyrights, community

Memorable Epitaph

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 18:54:50 GMT

clipped by: bunnicula

Clip Source: www.savagechickens.com

Tags: funny, humour, humor, comics, savage chicken, zombies

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