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Meet Thomas Beatie. He's Pregnant.

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:21:05 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Kudos!

Meet Thomas Beatie. He was born biologically female, had sex reassignment surgery, and is now legally male. When his wife, Nancy, was unable to have children, Thomas, who still has female genitalia, decided he’d carry their baby himself. And thus became the world’s first pregnant man. A process which, unsurprisingly, hasn’t been too easy:

Our situation sparks legal, political, and social unknowns. We have only begun experiencing opposition from people who are upset by our situation. Doctors have discriminated against us, turning us away due to their religious beliefs. Health care professionals have refused to call me by a male pronoun or recognize Nancy as my wife.

How does it feel to be a pregnant man? Incredible. Despite the fact that my belly is growing with a new life inside me, I am stable and confident being the man that I am.

In any case! …What are your thoughts on Thomas and his pregnancy?

Tags: pregnacy, gender, babies, male pregnancy

The Extinct Human Species That Was Smarter Than Us

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 19:49:28 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

The superintelligent Boskops had small, childlike faces and huge melon heads.

“Sometimes I think my head is so big because it is so full of dreams,” says John Merrick in the play The Elephant Man. He might have been speaking for the Boskops, an almost forgotten group of early humans who lived in southern Africa between 30,000 and 10,000 years ago. Judging from fossil remains, scientists say the Boskops were similar to modern humans but had small, childlike faces and huge melon heads that held brains about 30 percent larger than our own.

ust as we’re smarter than apes, they were probably smarter than us,” they speculate. More insightful and self-reflective than modern humans, with fantastic memories and a penchant for dreaming, the Boskops may have had “an internal mental life literally beyond anything we can imagine.”

They also explore what the Boskops’ big brains tell us about evolution (why didn’t they survive?) and about the future of human intelligence (can we engineer bigger brains?

Tags: boskops, brains, intelligence

The Science, History and How to of Contagious Laughter

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:32:48 GMT

clipped by: alanocu
clipper's remarks: Laughter can be a perfectly symmetrical meme in that the mere sound of laughter is capable of infecting and inducing others to laugh themselves, creating the snowball effect of the most successful viral ideas.

Clip Source: www.flickriver.com

Clip Source: danzarrella.com

A small observational study done by Robert Provine in 2000 showed that humor has little to do with laughter, rather it is our social setting that influences our giggles:

Only 10% to 20% of the laughter episodes we witnessed followed anything joke-like. Even the most humorous of the 1,200 comments that preceded laughter weren’t necessarily howlers: “You don’t have to drink, just buy us drinks!” and “Was that before or after I took my clothes off?.” being two of my favorites. This suggests that the critical stimulus for laughter is another person, not a joke…

Clip Source: www.flickriver.com

Clip Source: danzarrella.com

However happy we may feel, laughter is a signal we send to others and it virtually disappears when we lack an audience.

Clip Source: www.flickriver.com

Clip Source: danzarrella.com

Another curious feature of the social nature of laughter is its contagiousness.

In 1962 a small town in what is now Tanzania fell victim to

the “Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic“.

Clip Source: www.flickriver.com

Clip Source: danzarrella.com

10,000 adult men and women and teens of both sexes caught the “disease” after coming in contact with an infected person.

1963 report,

Clip Source: www.flickriver.com

Tags: lol

Does the Human Brain Possess Potential “Super Powers”?

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:17:43 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Mind expert Allan Snyder of the University of Sydney and director of Centre for the Mind, is certain that all people have these latent super abilities, but only some are able to express them through “malfunctions” of overriding brain functions.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

A Daily Galaxy post last year, The Importance of Being Forgetful, featured the built-in neural process of forgetting, which discussed why the average human brain is equipped with the ability to filter through seemingly irrelevant details. While the average person may not have vast memory resources, it appears to be an evolutionary trade-off that allows the majority of us to focus on the most relevant facts.

However, some of the most incredible minds on Earth lack this ability to filter irrelevant facts, or perhaps it is more accurate to say that to a savant, the irrelevant IS relevant, and incredibly so. Somehow their brains are able to store and access incredible loads of information, even perceiving and relating to this information in an entirely different way

He has an ability which can certainly be described as a “super power”. Sometimes referred to as the “human camera”

Wilshire has the unnerving ability to draw exact replicas of intricate structures, buildings and landscapes

Tags: brain, superpower, memory

Darvaz, Uzbekistan: The Door to Hell

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:15:22 GMT

clipped by: alanocu
clipper's remarks: I couldn't find much more on this. One blog entry I read from someone who'd been to Darvaz: "Used to be a mining town, then there was an ENORMOUS gas explosion (the crater is more than 30 metres across and almost twice as deep) so the Soviets pulled out. Now there are just people living in houses in the shadow of rusting industrial equipment and Soviet vehicles with no tyres. And the wind blows....." The blog entry: http://www.h4ppy.com/blog/archives/2002_09_01_h4ppy.html

Clip Source: englishrussia.com

This place in Uzbekistan is called by locals “The Door to Hell”. It is situated near the small town of Darvaz.

The story of this place lasts already for 35 years. Once the geologists were drilling for gas.

Then suddenly during the drilling they have found an underground cavern, it was so big that all the drilling site with all the equipment and camps got deep deep under the ground.

None dared to go down there because the cavern was filled with gas.

So they ignited it so that no poisonous gas could come out of the hole, and since then, it’s burning, already for 35 years without any pause.

Nobody knows how many tons of excellent gas has been burned for all those years but it just seems to be infinite there.

Tags: geology, russia

Scientists discover secret sex nerve

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 10:56:16 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: Couples who have high levels of chemicals in common are more likely to encounter fertility issues, miscarriage and infidelity. The more dissimilar you and your partner’s chemical makeup, the better chance you will have at successfully procreating and staying together.

So how can you create the scent which will keep you and your partner in the land of happily ever after? Unfortunately, you can’t. Perfumes and colognes can’t fool Nerve “O” — the scents which humans and animals are attracted to are intangible and instinctive. Even the most expensive designer perfume can’t fool Mother Nature. When it comes to sexual attraction, it seems you really have to leave things in the air!

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Scientists discover secret sex nerve

Looking for a perfect match? Research says to follow your nose

What makes us fall in love? Is it lust, mutual interests, shared life goals, or something much more intangible?

Researchers have only recently discovered an olfactory nerve which they believe is the route through which pheromones are processed.

Nerve “O” has endings in the nasal cavity, but the fibers go directly to the sexual regions of the brain. Indeed, these endings entirely bypass the olfactory cortex! Hence we know the role of Nerve “O” is not to consciously smell, but to identify sexual cues from our potential partners.

we are more likely to be attracted to people whose scent is dissimilar to our own. Family members often share similar chemicals, so our attraction to differing chemical makeup suggest that sexual cues evolved to protect close family members from procreating together.

Research has

shown that these unconscious cues processed in Nerve “O” can make or break a relationship.

The Underclass

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:47:07 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: Here I come!

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

The contemporary concept of the underclass is a sanitized term for what was known in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as the undeserving poor

The usage came into wide circulation in the early 1980s

as a group who do not "assimilate

he passive poor, usually long term welfare recipients;

the hostile street criminal, drop-outs, low class prostitutes, and drug addicts;

the hustlers, dependent on the underground economy, but rarely involved in violent crime;

the traumatised drunks, drifters, homeless bag ladies, and released mental patients.

Karl Marx referred to a group he called the lumpenproletariat. He described this group as

decayed roués, vagabonds, discharged soldiers, discharged jailbirds, escaped galley slaves, swindlers, mountebanks, lazzaroni, pickpockets, tricksters, gamblers, brothel keepers, tinkers, beggars, the dangerous class, the social scum, that passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of the old society.

Very Cool: Elephant Cam!

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:43:18 GMT

clipped by: DizzyDezzi
clipper's remarks: What do you get when you send an elephant out into the jungle with some electronic junk on his trunk?

Some Awesome Friggin' Pictures!

Check out the young warthog (my personal favorite)!

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Smile you're on ele-vision: How a camera attached to an elephant's trunk captured amazing jungle views

Tags: nature, history, wildlife

Pictures of Cute Bears

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:53:51 GMT

clipped by: sweetsfoods

Clip Source: geniusbeauty.com

Pictures of Cute Bears

Tags: animals, pictures, pics, photos, photography, photo

Dreams of Flying

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:51:51 GMT

clipped by: tanyamm
clipper's remarks: Years ago I was half-owner of an ultra light aircraft. Due to circumstances I never got my pilots license but I did get 100% on my ground test which meant I needed to be a weather person of sorts and know all sorts of flight regulations. I could take off and land with a co-pilot. Flying was the most wonderful experience I ever had. Sitting in what was basically a lawn chair seat with aluminum struts and cables surrounding me supporting the wings and a noisy engine hanging over my head and a beautiful propeller in the front. . Nothing sleek like in the picture. Engine stall while you're up there , not a problem, you just glided back to earth, being careful to stay away from water, and tall trees. I miss those days.

Clip Source: www.copanational.org

There are many ultralight pilots who could afford to fly bigger aircraft but who fly ultralights because they find them just more fun. Instead of the “car-like” comfort of most certified aircraft, many ultralights provide the adventure of flying open cockpit, flying from short, unprepared fields and flying “low and slow” over the countryside