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Churchill a Myth?

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 03:38:53 GMT

clipped by: Kelika

Quarter of Brits think Churchill was myth: poll

LONDON (AFP) - Britons are losing their grip on reality, according to a poll out Monday which showed that nearly a quarter think Winston Churchill was a myth while the majority reckon Sherlock Holmes was real.

The survey found that 47 percent thought the 12th century English king Richard the Lionheart was a myth.

And 23 percent thought World War II prime minister Churchill was made up. The same percentage thought Crimean War nurse Florence Nightingale did not actually exist.

Three percent thought Charles Dickens, one of Britain's most famous writers, is a work of fiction himself.

Indian political leader Mahatma Gandhi and Battle of Waterloo victor the Duke of Wellington also appeared in the top 10 of people thought to be myths.

Meanwhile, 58 percent thought Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Holmes actually existed; 33 percent thought the same of W. E. Johns' fictional pilot and adventurer Biggles.

Rhapsody of Iron

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 03:21:09 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.wroughtironart.net

The Power of Books

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 23:45:46 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.mladenpenev.net

What's Destroying Fragile Coral Reefs: Tourists' Sunscreen

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 11:27:28 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Scientists Discover What's Destroying Fragile Coral Reefs: Tourists' Sunscreen

A new study has identified an elusive culprit behind the lethal bleaching of coral reefs worldwide. The popular sunscreens that tourists slather on before a dip in the ocean contains chemicals that quickly kill off fragile reefs.

Specifically, what researchers found was that four commonly found sunscreen ingredients have the ability to awaken dormant viruses in the symbiotic algae called zooxanthellae that live inside reef-building coral species. The chemicals then cause the viruses to replicate until their algae hosts explode, spilling viruses into the surrounding seawater, where they can spread out to infect neighboring coral communities.

How could sunscreen make any difference in such a vast ocean? The amount of sunscreen involved is probably larger than most of us would guess. An estimated 4,000 to 6,000 metric tons of sunscreen wash off swimmers bodies annually

Tags: coral reefs, sunscreen

Some interesting pics

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 15:05:24 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

Clip Source: www.novaksblog.com

Tags: fun

The Technology of Mind and a New Social Contract

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 14:04:56 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: jetpress.org

The Technology of Mind and a New Social Contract

Bill Hibbard

Abstract

The progress of biology, neuroscience and computer science makes it clear that some time during the twenty- first century we will master the technologies of mind and life. We will build machines more intelligent than ourselves, and modify our own brains and bodies to increase our intelligence, live indefinitely and make other changes. We live together according to a social contract, consisting of laws, morals and conventions governing our interactions. This social contract is based on assumptions we rarely question: that all humans have roughly the same intelligence, that we have limited life spans and that we share a set of motives as part of our human nature. The technologies of mind and life will invalidate these assumptions and inevitably change our social contract in fundamental ways. We need to prepare for these new technologies so that they change the world in ways we want

Tags: journal, technology, mind, biology, future, scifi, article, literature, morality, ethics

Better Than Free

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 11:58:38 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.kk.org

The internet is a copy machine. At its most foundational level, it copies every action, every character, every thought we make while we ride upon it. In order to send a message from one corner of the internet to another, the protocols of communication demand that the whole message be copied along the way several times. IT companies make a lot of money selling equipment that facilitates this ceaseless copying. Every bit of data ever produced on any computer is copied somewhere. The digital economy is thus run on a river of copies. Unlike the mass-produced reproductions of the machine age, these copies are not just cheap, they are free.

When copies are super abundant, they become worthless.
When copies are super abundant, stuff which can't be copied becomes scarce and valuable.

When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied.

Well, what can't be copied?

Experience your Soul

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:25:25 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: read at the source.

Clip Source: www.intentblog.com

Most people, one imagines, would be fascinated to set out in search of their souls. But they would be held back by two immediate obstacles. First, we use the word "soul" very loosely, with no specific ways to validate what we mean. Second, the tools for exploring the spiritual domain are limited. Most people only know about faith and prayer, with the recent addition of meditation that still applies to a relative few. Both of these obstacles need to be overcome before one can intelligently experience the soul.

Instead of speaking vaguely about the soul, applying the word to soul music and soul food as easily as to the Holy Spirit, we can bypass semantics. In most traditions east and west, there are three categories of experiences -- or levels if you will -- that demarcate the spiritual domain:

Tags: spirituality, deepak

Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 14:16:15 GMT

clipped by: Djiezes

Clip Source: www.molecularassembler.com

Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines

2004 Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle.

Chapter 1. The Concept of Self-Replicating Machines ..... Local Copy (HTML)

Chapter 2. Classical Theory of Machine Replication ..... Local Copy (HTML)

Chapter 3. Macroscale Kinematic Machine Replicators ..... Local Copy (HTML)

Chapter 4. Microscale and Molecular Kinematic Machine Replicators ..... Local Copy (HTML)

Chapter 5. Issues in Kinematic Machine Replication Engineering ..... Local Copy (HTML)

Chapter 6. Motivations for Molecular-Scale Machine Replicator Design ..... Local Copy (HTML)

Clip Source: www.rfreitas.com

A Self-Reproducing Interstellar Probe

Robert A. Freitas Jr.

1980.

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Robert Freitas

Tags: freitas, scifi, ebook, literature, science, nasa, space, resource, replication

Reading Poetry - Dylan Thomas

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 11:37:51 GMT

clipped by: syncopath
clipper's remarks: "do not believe everything you hear ..
it says i wrote it in the night ..
but i wrote it in the afternoon,
like everyone else .... "

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

Dylan Thomas

[Video]

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

In my craft or sullen art
Exercised in the still night
When only the moon rages
And the lovers lie abed
With all their griefs in their arms,
I labour by singing light
Not for ambition or bread
Or the strut and trade of charms
On the ivory stages
But for the common wages

Of their most secret heart.

Not for the proud man apart
From the raging moon I write
On these spindrift pages
Nor for the towering dead
With their nightingales and psalms
But for the lovers, their arms
Round the griefs of the ages,
Who pay no praise or wages
Nor heed my craft or art.

[Video]