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Obama's Use of Complete Sentences Stirs Controversy

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:39:47 GMT

clipped by: dulios

In the first two weeks since the election, President-elect Barack Obama has broken with a tradition established over the past eight years through his controversial use of complete sentences, political observers say.

According to presidential historian Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota, some Americans might find it "alienating" to have a president who speaks English as if it were his first language.

"Every time Obama opens his mouth, his subjects and verbs are in agreement," says Mr. Logsdon. "If he keeps it up, he is running the risk of sounding like an elitist."

The president-elect's stubborn insistence on using complete sentences has already attracted a rebuke from one of his harshest critics, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska.

"Talking with complete sentences there and also too talking in a way that ordinary Americans like Joe the Plumber and Tito the Builder can't really do there, I think needing to do that isn't tapping into what Americans are needing also," she said.

Tags: obama, satire

Sun + Water = Fuel

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:23:46 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Michael Grätzel, however, may have a clever way to turn Nocera's discovery to practical use. A professor of chemistry and chemical engineering at the École Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, Switzerland, he was one of the first people Nocera told about his new catalyst. "He was so excited," Grätzel says. "He took me to a restaurant and bought a tremendously expensive bottle of wine."

In 1991, Grätzel invented a promising new type of solar cell. It uses a dye containing ruthenium, which acts much like the chlorophyll in a plant, absorbing light and releasing electrons. In Grätzel's solar cell, however, the electrons don't set off a water-splitting reaction. Instead, they're collected by a film of titanium dioxide and directed through an external circuit, generating electricity. Grätzel now thinks that he can integrate his solar cell and Nocera's catalyst into a single device that captures the energy from sunlight and uses it to split water.

Clip Source: www.technologyreview.com

With catalysts created by an MIT chemist, sunlight can turn water into hydrogen. If the process can scale up, it could make solar power a dominant source of energy.

"I'm going to show you something I haven't showed anybody yet," said Daniel Nocera, a professor of chemistry at MIT, speaking this May to an auditorium filled with scientists and U.S. government energy officials. He asked the house manager to lower the lights. Then he started a video. "Can you see that?" he asked excitedly, pointing to the bubbles rising from a strip of material immersed in water. "Oxygen is pouring off of this electrode." Then he added, somewhat cryptically, "This is the future. We've got the leaf."

Storing energy from the sun by mimicking photosynthesis is something scientists have been trying to do since the early 1970s. In particular, they have tried to replicate the way green plants break down water.

Clip Source: www.technologyreview.com

Tags: energy, clean energy, photosynthesis, hydrogen

A Diamond Bigger than Earth Discovered

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:37:09 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: The diamond is actually the crystallized interior of a white dwarf – or the hot core of a star that is left over after the star uses up its nuclear fuel and dies. It is made mostly of carbon and is coated by a thin layer of hydrogen and helium gases.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

A little over one year ago, like an episode out of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced the discovery of a mass of crystallized carbon formerly known as star BPM 37093, now known as the biggest diamond in the galaxy, fifty light years away from Earth in the constellation Centaurus.

The star, named "Lucy" after the Beatles song, "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," is estimated to be 2,500 miles across and weighs approximately 10 billion-trillion-trillion-carats – a one, followed by 34 zeros. Travis Metcalfe, an astronomer from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and leader of the team who discovered the gem, says “You would need a jeweler’s loupe the size of the sun to grade this diamond. Bill Gates and Donald Trump together couldn’t begin to afford it.”

Tags: astronomy, diamonds

God Trumps

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:40:32 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: newhumanist.org.uk

Struggling to choose the top religion? Can't decide between Bible-thumping evangelism or benign, gentle Buddhism? Make the process fun and easy with God Trumps, our cut-out-and-keep metaphysical card game for all the family. Cartoons by Martin Rowson.

What Makes People Racist?

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:20:59 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: The researchers say that negative associations likely have such power in most people's minds because evolution prepared us to notice bad things more than good things. “If there’s a lion hiding in a bush, you’d better see it,” . “Whereas if there’s a tree of mangoes, it’s unfortunate if you don’t notice it, but it’s not as critical to your survival.
” Since each negative association has more weight in the brain, one must overcompensate with many positive links just to get back to neutral. The psychologists aren’t clear on why some people don’t make negative associations, but they are looking for genetic and social factors that predict it.

Unfortunately, other research shows that simply wanting to be less negative -- or less racist -- won't actually work. You have to do something about it. The best way to become less racist, say psychologists, is to spend time with the very people you're prejudiced against.

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

Uncovering What Makes People Racist -- and How to Cure It

Racists are more likely to form negative associations -- with people, or even with meaningless symbols -- than non-racists, say psychologists.

University of Wisconsin's Brian Drwecki showed people a neutral figure

They assumed that people would form positive or negative associations with the figures depending on the character of the images that proceeded them.

That's exactly what happened. There was, however, a subset of people who formed positive associations like everyone else, but didn't form negative associations -- and these turned out to be the same people who scored low on another test of racism

What could explain this?

The researchers say that negative associations likely have such power in most people's minds because evolution prepared us to notice bad things more than good things. “If there’s a lion hiding in a bush, you’d better see i

Five Centuries of Board Games

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:19:17 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: bibliodyssey.blogspot.com

Filosofia cortesana de Alonso de Barros

Etching/engraving made by Mario Cartaro in Venice in 1588. The game squares, numbering up to 63, lead to the ships sailing in the centre of the board on the 'sea of suffering'.

The new beautiful and enjoyable game of apes

1588

game of the goose

Etching published by Giovanni Giacomo de' Rossi between 1640 and 1690. The game board has numbered pictorial compartments of animals, objects and characters, repeated in smaller equivalent squares below the rules of the game.

The game of the eagle

1680s. The Imperial Eagle, surrounded by medallions depicting commanders, holds chains in its talons attached to defeated Turks.

1699

Simplistic spiral arrangement of game squares in an anonymous board produced in the 1700s.

18th century

Hand-coloured etching from the 1790s

Great game of the New Testament with 120 figures

1800

Musical Toy

1811

The steamboat game

between 1810 and 1825

The Noble Game of the Swan

1821

The Working of Mines)

1872

1895

First World War

1929

1930s

German

1940

Child killed for body parts

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:02:03 GMT

clipped by: cakebelly

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

A six-year-old albino girl in Burundi has been found dead with her head and limbs removed, in the latest killing linked to ritual medicine.

Albinos in the region have been targeted because of a belief peddled by witchdoctors that their body parts can be used for magic potions.

Many people with albinism are living in fear in Tanzania

The girl, who was attacked on Sunday, was the sixth person with albinism to be killed in Burundi since September.

There have also been a number of attacks in neighbouring Tanzania.

The latest attack took place in Burundi's eastern province of Ruyigi.

The BBC's Prime Ndikumagenge in Burundi said the child and her family had only just returned to their family home.

Armed attackers broke into the family home and tied up the girl's parents before shooting her in the head, local officials say.

They had been among a group of about 50 people with albinism to have fled to a provincial centre because they feared for her safety.

"Perhaps our moral reasoning is not as reasonable as it seems".

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:20:50 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: Presented with this option, said Banaji , most people refuse. In our guts, something seems different about tossing someone in front of the train rather than sending the train at someone -- and neither social psychologists nor neuroscientists nor philosophers know why.

Interestingly, if the characters in the dilemma are replaced with chimpanzees, people are unhesitatingly willing to throw the monkey on the track.

"When something is different from us, we become utilitarian. But for ourselves, we observe Kantian principles," said Banaji.

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

The Cloudy Ethics of Utilitarianism

In one context, it seems perfectly justifiable to save many lives by sacrificing one; in another, that exchange feels unconscionable, even though the equation has not changed. Perhaps our moral reasoning is not as reasonable as it seems.

The interesting thing

is the lack of consistency. Suddenly we become Kantians

Nowhere is this clearer than the trolley dilemma, a classic thought experiment designed to expose this paradox. Imagine a trolley is headed towards five people bound to a track; you can choose to save their lives by throwing a switch and diverting the train to another track, where it will only run over one person

Most people would do this,

it's better for one person to die than five. But change the situation slightly: you're now standing on a bridge beside a stranger, watching the trolley roll towards five people. The only way to stop the train is by pushing the stranger off the bridge and into its path

Clippers, get over it

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:19:03 GMT

clipped by: lifecyce1898
clipper's remarks: I see clips that forecast everything from Socialism to return of Hitlers third Reich. Go outside look up and see that the sky is not falling, your family is not in chains. Time to return to life or get one.

Clip Source: shine.yahoo.com

How to avoid post-election depression when your candidate doesn't win

It's OK to be angry, but not for long.

Take the time to acknowledge your anger or resentment," she says. "Then let go of it. It will not help you in the long run and can actually damage you emotionally and physically.

Reach "across the aisle."

The best way to let go of anger when your candidate doesn't win is to reach across the aisle," she says. "Nothing is solved by holding onto grudges,

Choose to be at peace.

...It isn't the event that defines who we are, but how we respond to it. You can make the choice to be angry and resentful, or you can make a choice to be positive and make a difference despite your personal feelings."

Atheism, a positive pillar

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:54:46 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: Some clips from an article about a group of atheists attempting to wise up the bigots about their humanity. Wouldn't be hard to show, but a lot of ignorance woven into the culture of religion, to overcome.

Clip Source: blogs.usatoday.com

Anti-atheism might have found its ugliest public expression during an episode in the Illinois Legislature this spring. As atheist activist Rob Sherman attempted to testify against a $1 million state grant to a church, Rep. Monique Davis railed, "This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God, where people believe in protecting their children. … It's dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! … You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying!"

Lest we dismiss the legislator's harangue as an anomaly, consider the organizations that bar atheists from membership — the Boy Scouts of America and American Legion, to name two, as well as some local posts of the Veterans of Foreign Wars — and the conspicuous absence of openly atheist politicians on the national stage.

A new face

But if Margaret Downey keeps making progress with her campaign to show a different face of atheism

The spirit of positive atheism infused this fall's

The Other Side of Big Brother

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:31:03 GMT

clipped by: dulios
clipper's remarks: Accused murderer released on bond after surveillance cameras and his MetroCard support his alibi.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

When Jason Jones was arrested in a fatal shooting in the Bronx in May, he told the police that he had been nowhere near the scene. He said he had left work, ridden the bus with some co-workers and cashed his paycheck, and later had taken a subway to see his girlfriend.

Federal prosecutors charged Mr. Jones and his older brother, Corey, in the shooting, saying they had killed the victim

But in recent weeks, the case has taken an extraordinary turn — because of Jason Jones’s MetroCard.

Mr. Jones’s lawyers then asked New York City Transit to use the card to trace his movements the night of the shooting. The results supported his account, showing that the card had been used on a bus, and later on a subway roughly five miles from the shooting, just as he had described.

With that, and a photograph snapped of Mr. Jones, 26, as he cashed his paycheck, his lawyers argued that it was impossible for him to have committed the crime.

Tags: surveillance, crime

The dance of consciousness

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 05:02:15 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: "Experience is something that is temporarily extended and active. Perceptual consciousness is a style of access to the world around us. I can touch something, and when I touch something I make use of an understanding of the way in which my own movements help me secure access to that which is before me. The point is not that merely that I learn about or achieve access to the world by touching. The point is that the thing shows up for me as something in a space of movement-oriented possibilities".

Clip Source: www.mindhacks.com

The dance of consciousness:

Edge has a fascinating video interview with philosopher Alva Noë

Consciousness is not something that happens in us. It is something we do.

A much better image is that of the dancer. A dancer is locked into an environment, responsive to music, responsive to a partner. The idea that the dance is a state of us, inside of us, or something that happens in us is crazy. Our ability to dance depends on all sorts of things going on inside of us, but that we are dancing is fundamentally an attunement to the world around us.

And this idea that human consciousness is something we enact or achieve, in motion, as a way of being part of a larger process, is the focus of my work.

Noë goes on to talk about how perception represents meaning, how we can be led astray in neuroscience if we artificially separate action and perception, and how our definition of 'life' can help us understand consciousness.

Woman To Replace Lost Eyeball with Webcam

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:45:06 GMT

clipped by: sahara

Clip Source: www.nowpublic.com

An artist living in San Francisco has issued an invitation to developers to design a webcam eyeball for her. The woman hopes to document her life with the invention, or perhaps shoot a reality TV show from her first hand perspective.

“I’d always given thought to using cameras to restore sight to the blind,” said William Danz, whose patient, Tanya Vlach, wants the groundbreaking device. “This is a little different, more like James Bond stuff.”

Vlach, who lost her eye in a 2005 car accident, wears a realistic acrylic prosthesis, but she’s issued a challenge to engineers on her blog: build an “eyecam” for her prosthesis that can dilate with changes of light and allow her to blink to control its zoom, focus, and on/off switch, reports the NY Daily News.

“There have been all sorts of cyborgs in science fiction for a long time, and I’m sort of a sci-fi geek,” Vlach, 35, was quoted by the daily as saying. “With the advancement of technology, I thought, ‘Why not?’”

McClellan Publicly Claims George W. Bush Exposed Valerie Plame

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:59:31 GMT

clipped by: BartendingBear
clipper's remarks: Sounds like treason on Bush's part to me. Let the day in court begin!

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Cheney charged over jail 'abuses'

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:49:12 GMT

clipped by: boniface

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

A Texas grand jury has charged US Vice-President Dick Cheney for "organised criminal activity" related to alleged abuse of private prison inmates.

The indictment says Mr Cheney - who has invested $85m (£56m) in a company that holds shares in for-profit prisons - conspired to block an investigation.

The indictment has not been seen by a judge, who could dismiss it.

One Texas lawyer said the charges were politically motivated.

He cites the case of Gregorio De La Rosa, who died on 26 April 26, 2001 inside a private prison in Willacy County, Texas.

The grand jury in Willacy County, near the US-Mexico border, accuses Mr Cheney of committing "at least misdemeanour assaults" of inmates by allowing other inmates to assault them.

It said there was a "direct conflict of interest" because Mr Cheney had influence over federal contracts awarded to prison companies.