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Blue-eyed Humans Have a Single, Common Ancestor

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:02:40 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Blue-eyed humans have a single, common ancestor

New research shows that people with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor. A team at the University of Copenhagen have tracked down a genetic mutation which took place 6-10,000 years ago and is the cause of the eye colour of all blue-eyed humans alive on the planet today.

“Originally, we all had brown eyes”, said Professor Eiberg from the Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology. “But a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a “switch”, which literally “turned off” the ability to produce brown eyes”. The OCA2 gene codes for the so-called P protein, which is involved in the production of melanin, the pigment that gives colour to our hair, eyes and skin.

The mutation of brown eyes to blue represents neither a positive nor a negative mutation. It is one of several mutations such as hair colour, baldness, freckles and beauty spots

Tags: genetics, eye, color

Learning the Art of Critical Thinking

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:44:12 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: A few good advices, worth reading

Clip Source: www.criticalthinking.org

There is nothing more practical than sound thinking.

No matter what your circumstance or goals, no matter where you are, or what problems you face, you are better off if your thinking is skilled.

Critical thinking is the disciplined art of ensuring that you use the best thinking you are capable of in any set of circumstances.

1. Clarify Your Thinking

2. Stick to the Point

3. Question Questions

4. Be Reasonable

Thinking Gets Us Into Trouble Because We Often:

jump to conclusions

fail to think-through implications

focus on the trivial

fail to notice contradictions

ask vague questions

make inferences not justified by our experience

distort data and state it inaccurately

fail to notice the inferences we make

fail to notice our assumptions

form superficial concepts

have little insight into our own ignorance

A How-To List for Dysfunctional Living

Most people have no notion of what it means to take charge of their lives. They don’t realize that the quality of their lives depends on the quality of their thinking.

Tags: critical thinking, reason

GOD HATES SIGNS sign spotted at anti-gay rally

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:19:09 GMT

clipped by: pcmkrfn
clipper's remarks: LOL

Clip Source: www.boingboing.net

The ladies and gentleman at Westboro Baptist Church -- who enjoy disrupting memorial services for soldiers killed in battle with their hateful homophobic tantrums -- seem unhappy about this dada-style "God Hates Signs" counter protest campaign. (Photo by Burstein)

God Hates Signs Protest of The Westboro Baptist Church

19 Creative Halloween Advertisements

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:29:27 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: www.smashingapps.com

Heineken Halloween

Halloween Download

Guinness: Halloween

Comic Club

Guinness

San Fransisco Zoo: Owl

San Fransisco Zoo: Giraffe

San Fransisco Zoo: Koala

Burger King: Veg City, Halloween

Heineken Halloween Night

Tags: halloween, fun

Condom Ads You Never Saw Coming

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:34:49 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Funny....

Clip Source: www.divinecaroline.com

Tags: humor

Do Conservatives Know What Socialism Is?

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:59:35 GMT

clipped by: lifecyce1898
clipper's remarks: Is there a bigger socialist on the planet right now than George W. Bush?

Also, the mind-numbing historical ignorance of these people never ceases to astonish.

Clip Source: firedoglake.com

As we get closer to election day, wingnuts are increasingly obsessed with the idea that an Obama administration will turn the US into Denmark.

Some loon screamed "socialist!" at Obama over the weekend, Sarah Palin called Obama's tax proposals "socialist" and the Anchor Baby just compared progressive taxation with brutal African juntas.

In a normal year, this would merely be annoying -- an expected barb to be tossed at any Democratic candidate from the right. But the Bush administration just nationalized our financial system. Is there a bigger socialist on the planet right now than George W. Bush?

Also, the mind-numbing historical ignorance of these people never ceases to astonish.

McSame, their nominee, says he's a Teddy Roosevelt Republican. Does he mean the Teddy Roosevelt who was a big believer in spreading the wealth around?

The Mysterious Cough, Caught on Film

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 01:17:19 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

In Roald Dahl’s novel “The B.F.G.,” the title character, a big friendly giant, captures dreams in glass jars. At Pennsylvania State University, a professor of engineering has captured something less whimsical but no less ephemeral — a cough — on film.

The image, published online Oct. 9 by The New England Journal of Medicine, was created by schlieren photography, which “takes an invisible phenomenon and turns it into a visible picture

Schlieren is German for “streaks”; in this case it refers to regions of different densities in a gas or a liquid, which can be photographed as shadows using a special technique.

Though coughs spread tuberculosis, SARS, influenza and other diseases, surprisingly little is known about them. “We don’t have a good understanding of the air flow,” Dr. Settles said.

The expelled air, traveling at 18 miles per hour, mixed with cooler surrounding air and produced “temperature differences that bend light rays by different amounts

Tags: imaging, health, cough, photography

Andrew Sullivan: The Top Ten Reasons Conservatives Should Vote For Obama

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:08:15 GMT

clipped by: Lexica

Clip Source: andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com

10. A body blow to racial identity politics

9. Less debt

8. A return to realism and prudence in foreign policy

7. An ability to understand the difference between listening to generals and delegating foreign policy to them.

6. Temperament. Obama has the coolest, calmest demeanor of any president since Eisenhower

5. Faith. Obama's fusion of Christianity and reason, his non-fundamentalist faith, is a critical bridge between the new atheism and the new Christianism.

4. A truce in the culture war

3. Two words: President Palin.

2. Conservative reform. Until conservatism can get a distance from the big-spending, privacy-busting, debt-ridden, crony-laden, fundamentalist, intolerant, incompetent and arrogant faux conservatism of the Bush-Cheney years, it will never regain a coherent message to actually govern this country again

1. The War Against Islamist terror. The strategy deployed by Bush and Cheney has failed

If you are serious about the war on terror

the only serious candidate is Barack Obama

Tags: politics, obama

Is there a way to block this type of hateful trash on clipmarks?

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:25:25 GMT

clipped by: lifecyce1898
clipper's remarks: I know every popular site is going to have it's share of disturbed users but this is over the top. If it's not possible to have him removed, is there a way to block all his posts.
Thank you

Clip Source: clipmarks.com

10-28-2008 10:09 PM

pkronfield

Actually, Obama is not "black". He is a mongrel breed of trash. The slave traders would have called him an "octaroon". His mother slept around with every trashy minority she could find.

Tags: disturbed, ill, hateful, racist

The Mason's Apprentice

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:23:09 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Very interesting read

Clip Source: www.seedmagazine.com

No one wants to be an architect because they're interested in the physics of nails and screws and glue and mortar.

no architect will ever realize a vision without an understanding of how to join a structure's materials.

Biology has a similar problem. Much of modern developmental biology has a bias for grand visions of form and structure. Our major model organisms are creatures like fruit flies and mice and zebrafish, but these are the elaborate edifices of evolution, far out on the extreme edge of multicellular complexity.

While it is both interesting and productive to study the grand patterns of development in producing such wonderful phenomena as the outline of the body plan in the expression of Hox genes,

these processes all hinge on the most fundamental pieces of ontogeny: the mechanisms by which cells can adhere, interact, and cooperate. These are the nails and glue of the development and evolution of multicellular organisms.

So where did they come from?

Tags: architecture, biology, patterns

Baghdad Condemns Illegal US Raid on Syria

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 08:28:25 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Iraq has denounced a raid into Syria at the weekend, saying it does not want its territory to be used as a launch-pad for US attacks on its neighbours.

"The Iraqi government rejects the US helicopter strike on Syrian territory, considering that Iraq's constitution does not allow its land to be a base for launching attacks on neighbouring countries,"

Clip Source: www.atimes.com

The unconfirmed details and unquestionable tragedy of the raid have left once-promising US-Syria ties in tatters. Top officials in Damascus have blasted the "cowboy" tactics of US forces, and Syrian public opinion has become vociferously anti-American

It is extremely unlikely - as well as illegal - for a nation to invade the airspace of a sovereign nation, dispatch ground troops, and shoot innocent civilians

Tags: syria, iraq

Most Colorful Country in the World - Sweden

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:26:08 GMT

clipped by: nimanm

Clip Source: travelintospain.blogspot.com

Tags: pictures, sweden, colorful

Please do not ejaculate in the middle of the road

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:39:54 GMT

clipped by: pcmkrfn

Clip Source: www.englishfailblog.com