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Nature's Conception-The Gates Of Hell

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:45:58 GMT

clipped by: carrerinyes

Clip Source: officeofstrategicinfluence.com

Nature's conception - the gates of hell
Image collection

The first person to say "these are photoshopped, I can tell because of the pixels" wins the "Doesn't know what compression artifacts are" award. But if you have comments the go here

Mouth microbes helping the chef make magic?

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:32:21 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clip Source: www.world-science.net

Mouth microbes helping the chef make magic?

Bacteria in the mouth play a role in creating the distinctive flavors of certain foods, scientists in Switzerland report.

The experimenters found that these bacteria actually produce food odors from odorless components of food, allowing people to fully savor fruits and vegetables.

“The mouth acts as a reactor, adding another dimension to odor perceptions,” the researchers wrote in the stud

In the study, Christian Starkenmann of Geneva-based fragrance-and-flavor producer Firmenich SA and colleagues note that some fruits and vegetables release characteristic odors only after being swallowed.

Scientists had previously reported that this so-called retroaromatic effect arises from chemicals produced from precursors found in these foods. But the details of this how this occurs weren’t understood.

Are female orgasms essential to continuing the human species?

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:09:57 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "Pleasure for Pleasure

The big talk in the scientific community right now surrounds the theory that women have orgasms for no reason at all. It's not an adaptation. It's a wonderful accident "

Clip Source: health.howstuffworks.com

Are female orgasms essential to continuing the human species?

The question of whether female orgasms are essential to the survival of humanity might seem a lot like asking whether puppies really need to be that cute. Who cares? Life is better for having them around.

For a long time, that was pretty much the response to the question of why women can have orgasms during intercourse -- why not? It's tough to even begin to explore the topic from an evolutionary standpoint. We can't ask a female gorilla whether she experiences a period of physical ecstasy at some point during intercourse. Most biologists do believe that male nonhuman primates experience something akin to orgasm, often judging from a marked change in their body language at the time of ejaculation

why is the orgasm part of the female sexual experience?

Clip Source: health.howstuffworks.com

Orgasms encourage women to have sex

Orgasms help women choose the best mate

The orgasm hormone oxytocin causes suction

Orgasms encourage pair-bonding

Do Dolphins Have a Sense of the Future?

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:49:27 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: I had a wonderful experience with a mated pair of Hawaiian Bottlenose dolphins...When I was on a longliner Tuna boat we would stop for lunch at the end of the flagline and one day a male dolphin stuck his nose on the gunwale edge and squawked loudly and then swam a sort distance back down the line...then back and repeated the message...we ran down the line until we found his mate, who had tried to steal our bait (Look, honey, free breakfast!) and got hooked on her lip! rather than tear her lip she sent Hubby to us for the rescue! I swear she sat her cute little nose on the gunwale and patiently waited while I removed the hook...thanked us with a flip and some clicxkin, squeeling and swam off! Amazing! This was my first falling in love with Dolphins and Whales came later.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Partly because their brains are roughly the same size as humans, and are similarly or superiorly complex (although differently evolved in structure), some marine biologists have speculated that dolphins, and other Cetaceans, are at least as intelligent as humans, and could have several unknown communicative abilities, that surpass human understanding.

All the dolphins at the center are trained to retrieve trash that has mistakenly fallen in to their pools. Upon seeing a nearby trainer, they are to take said trash to the trainer. In return, they receive a fish for their cleanliness.

Dolphins have long been observed to take great care and exhibit much intelligence in their day to day lives. Scientists have observed a dolphin using the spiny body of a dead scorpion fish to extricate a moray eel out of a crevice.

But it isn’t just these behaviors that seem to prove their intelligence, but also the commonalities with humans in the way that they play and learn.

'It's wrong to try and convert tribal societies'

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:48:58 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: The vanishing tribes...very sad, but very interesting.

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

When Daniel Everett first went to live with the Amazonian Pirahã tribe in the late 70s, his intention was to convert them to Christianity. Instead, he learned to speak their unique language - and ended up rejecting his faith, losing his family and picking a fight with Noam Chomsky. Patrick Barkham meets him

• Listen to the Pirahã singing here
• Daniel Everett reading from the bible in Pirahã

'It's wrong to try and convert tribal societies' ... Everett with a member of the Piraha. Photograph: Martin Schoeller

Just 350 Pirahã (pronounced Pee-da-HAN) hunt and gather from their simple homes in the Brazilian rainforest. Linguists believe their language is unrelated to any other; racist Brazilian traders say the Pirahã talk like chickens. This obscure Amazonian people speak using only three vowels and eight consonants (including the glottal stop) but their language is far from simple. Like Chinese, for example, Pirahã is tonal and speaking in a different pitch transforms the meaning of a word.

Exoplanets: First ever pictures - sensational!

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:58:29 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

This is incredible: For the first time, ever, astronomers have captured an optical image of a planet orbiting a star like our own.

And that’s not all: we also have a second picture showing TWO planets orbiting a second star!

(Calm down. Breathe, breathe.)

The first picture is from Hubble. Ready? Here it is:

Do you see it? That tiny spark, that wee blip of light? It may not look like much, but it is in fact a normal planet orbiting a normal star, 250 trillion kilometers from Earth.

The planet itself is just that small dot, almost lost in the noise from the star and the light from the ring.

But it’s there, and it’s real. Images taken almost two years apart show that the planet is moving with the star, and is consistent with it orbiting Fomalhaut at a distance of about 18 billion km (11 billion miles)

The planet is unnamed, and is simply called Fomalhaut b.

This is huge news.

And it gets even huger. Because there’s more:

That image is the first to directly show two planets orbiting another star

Artists stage street scenes to lurk in Google maps

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:10:26 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: Like many first-time Street View users, Kinsley and Hewlett, then roommates, typed in their address and found their house. Kinsley and Hewlett soon found themselves discussing surveillance and virtual reality, and began considering how they might explore those issues and Street View through art.

"But instead of dwelling on the darker undertones of these issues, we began to think about ways of playing with the system," Kinsley said in an e-mail interview from Iceland, where he is participating in an artist residency. The "Street With a View" project was his master of fine arts thesis project at Carnegie Mellon University.

"We were interested in interjecting something staged, something fictional, into Street View and playing with - and subtly questioning - the notion of reality in something that we perceive as a factual representation of our world," said Kinsley, 26.

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

Two 17th century swordsmen doing battle? An escape from a building using knotted sheets? A laser zapping a Steelers fan and a Cleveland Browns fan, rendering them love-struck and about to embrace?

That can't be real.

But it is. And it isn't.

Google really did capture those scenes when it sent a car equipped with cameras down Pittsburgh's Sampsonia Way in May to take photographs for its online maps. But these images and most of the other scenes caught on Sampsonia were staged by artists Ben Kinsley and Robin Hewlett. The two set out to explore the boundaries of the real and virtual worlds after Pittsburgh became included in Street View.

The Google feature provides panoramic street-level photographs online so users can get a feel for wherever they might be heading - a virtual reconnaissance mission of sorts. Is there metered parking? A place to eat? What's the neighborhood like?

Tags: technology, art, artists, google, internet

Parallel Universes: Are They More than a Figment of Our Imagination?

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:49:23 GMT

clipped by: spherepet

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Parallel Universes: Are They More than a Figment of Our Imagination?

"The multiverse is no longer a model, it is a consequence of our models.”

many highly respected and credible scientists are now saying there’s reason to believe that parallel dimensions could very well be more than figments of our imaginations.

"The idea of multiple universes is more than a fantastic invention—it appears naturally within several scientific theories, and deserves to be taken seriously," stated Aurelien Barrau, a French particle physicist at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

There are a variety of competing theories based on the idea of parallel universes, but the most basic idea is that if the universe is infinite, then everything that could possibly occur has happened, is happening, or will happen.

According to quantum mechanics, nothing at the subatomic scale can really be said to exist until it is observed

Scientists don’t yet have a perfect explanation

the multiple universe theory

Tags: parallel universes, dimensions

Harvard Business Review discoverd the Ethical Economy

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:48:33 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: blog.actics.com

‘How should boardrooms respond to the macro crisis? Is it just a case of recession-as-usual: budget-paring, personnel-slashing, and portfolio-trimming?
Not a chance. The tactics of recession-as-usual are neither necessary nor sufficient for firms to weather the global economic superstorm - because it’s no ordinary squall, but a once-in-a-lifetime gale ripping up the very foundations of the global economic order. Rather, the macro crisis requires decision makers to confront fundamental transformation on three levels.
The first and simplest level is a change in global patterns of savings, investment, and consumption. For too long, the poor have financed the rich. China and other emerging markets have lent to the US so Americans could buy Hummers, McMansions, and Frappuccinos. But this never made sense — it was deeply unsustainable; the macroeconomic equivalent of a giant planetary fossil fuel engine. The days of export-led growth — and it’s flipside, force-fed consumption — are numbered.

Tags: economy, ethics

The Secrets Of Talk Radio

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:59:40 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Former News Director of one of America's largest and most successful news/talk stations spills the beans of how they spin their conservative success. Much more worthwhile reading at the clipped source.

Clip Source: www.milwaukeemagazine.com

To begin with, talk show hosts

are popular and powerful because they appeal to a segment of the population that feels disenfranchised and even victimized by the media. These people believe the media are predominantly staffed by and consistently reflect the views of social liberals. This view is by now so long-held and deep-rooted, it has evolved into part of virtually every conservative’s DNA.

To succeed, a talk show host must perpetuate the notion that his or her listeners are victims, and the host is the vehicle by which they can become empowered. The host frames virtually every issue in us-versus-them terms. There has to be a bad guy against whom the host will emphatically defend those loyal listeners.

This enemy can be a politician – either a Democratic officeholder or,

it can be a “RINO” (a “Republican In Name Only,” who is deemed not conservative enough). It can be the cold, cruel government bureaucracy. More often than not

the enemy is the “mainstream media”

Hyperion mini nuclear reactors to supply enough cheap power for a small town

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:37:14 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver

Clip Source: dvice.com

We've been hearing talk of mini-sized nuclear reactors for a year or longer, but now it looks like Hyperion is actually starting to build them. The hot tub-sized fission nukes, each capable of cranking out 25 megawatts of clean power (enough to run 20,000 homes), will use what's called "low-enriched" uranium fuel.

The $25 million mini-nukes, also called "nuclear batteries," will have no moving parts, and will be sealed up in a cask that's buried deep underground, operating without the need for human intervention for five years at a time. They're going to be cost-effective, too — in a 10,000-home community it would cost about $2,500 per home served. Many homeowners spend that much on energy in a year. If this happens, that'll be some cheap power.

The company says it's already begun construction of the first 4,000 units in three factories, with the initial 100 destined for industrial use in remote locations.

Tags: energy, nuclear energy, clean energy

Free Speech and Christianity

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:46:37 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: With all the Religious Right whining about the militant atheists (all 3-4 of them) it seems just a tad incongruous for them to react so uncivilly at a book signing. And for the bookstore to cave to their over the top threats suggests that they may need an infusion of moxie themselves.

Clip Source: www.walesonline.co.uk

Author angry as Christian group forces reading to be scrapped

A POETRY reading at a Cardiff bookshop was abruptly cancelled last night after a religious pressure group vowed to disrupt the event if it went ahead.

Patrick Jones, brother of Manic Street Preachers’ bassist Nicky Wire, was due to give a reading of his new poetry book, Darkness is Where The Stars Are, at Waterstones on the Hayes at 7pm last night.

“I’m a bit shaken and shocked,” said Mr Jones, who is credited as being one of the earliest influences on the Manic Street Preachers.

“Are we living in Iran?

Stephen Green, Christian Voice’s director, said his organisation had not finalised plans for what they would have done had last night’s reading gone ahead but said it would have been prepared to enter Waterstones and disrupt the event.

“We might have leafleted those going in, or stuck some leaflets in books and engaged people in conversation. We may have stood up at an appropriate point to explain how harassed we were

Too Poor For Bankruptcy

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:20:13 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: "Are we one nation? Or are we just interest groups? Can we rescue Wall Street and ignore Main Street?" "The new President promises change and I wish him well and I hope for the best. But I won’t hold my breath because no one hates Americans more than other Americans."

Clip Source: www.informationclearinghouse.info

We, as a country, seem to have little problem saving the wealthy from the clutches of poverty. We’ll bail out banks and insurance companies, mortgage funds. The formerly big three automakers will meet with the new administration this week to arrange a further multi-billion-dollar bailout.

Most all of our problems seem to evolve from a falling standard of living in America’s working class, and yet when we call for help for America’s working poor we are told that it can’t be helped. Here in Atlanta a local food pantry advertises that 40% of all its recipients are employed.

We let the minimum wage flounder for almost a decade and despite the results still argue about its impact. We worry instead about welfare queens

Here in Georgia the maximum welfare payment is $574 per month

food stamps is only available to families without children for three months and only if they make less than 130% of the poverty level. Why do we call it the poverty level if you must make less than that to qualify?