Clipmarks |

Male Masturbation Reduces Cancer Risk

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:39:41 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Handy to know.

Men could reduce their risk of developing prostate cancer through regular masturbation, researchers suggest.

They say cancer-causing chemicals could build up in the prostate if men do not ejaculate regularly.

And they say sexual intercourse may not have the same protective effect because of the possibility of contracting a sexually transmitted infection, which could increase men's cancer risk.

They found those who had ejaculated the most between the ages of 20 and 50 were the least likely to develop the cancer.

The protective effect was greatest while the men were in their 20s.

The researchers suggest that ejaculating may prevent carcinogens accumulating in the prostate gland.

Anthony Smith, deputy director of the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society at La Trobe University in Melbourne, said

"Masturbation is part of people's sexual repertoire.

"If these findings hold up, then it's perfectly reasonable that men should be encouraged to masturbate,"

Tags: masturbation

The Fury of the Poor

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 15:54:24 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: go read all of it

Clip Source: www.spiegel.de

Around the world, rising food prices have made basic staples like rice and corn unaffordable for many people, pushing the poor to the barricades because they can no longer get enough to eat. But the worst is yet to come.

PHOTO GALLERY: FOOD RIOTS AROUND THE WORLD

Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (10 Photos)

On the roof of the former prison, enterprising women prepare something that looks like biscuits and is even called by that name. The key ingredient, yellow clay, is trucked in from the nearby mountains. The clay is combined with salt and vegetable fat to make dough, which is then dried in the sun.

For many Haitians, the mud biscuits are their only food. They taste of fat, suck the moisture out of the mouth and leave behind an aftertaste of dirt. They often cause diarrhea, but they help to numb the pangs of hunger

The clay to make 100 of the biscuits costs $5 (€3.15) and has risen by $1.50 (€0.95), or about 40 percent, within one year. The same is true of staple foods.

Tags: food, riots, poor, problem, big problem

Names Of Things You Never Knew Had Names

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:57:08 GMT

clipped by: thefoxalmighty

Clip Source: www.thelandsalmon.com

1. Aglet: The plain or ornamental covering on the end of a shoelace.

Bibcock:

Brassard:

A cloth band worn around the upper arm

Bretelles:

Duff:

The decaying organic matter

6. Harp: The small metal hoop that supports a lampshade.

Hemidemisemiquaver:

A 64th note

Kick or Punt:

The indentation at the bottom of some wine bottles

Phosphenes:

lights you see when you close your eyes hard

Piggin:

Quarrel:

A small, diamond-shaped pane of glass

Sam Browne Belt:

Solidus:

Tang:

Tobies:

Zarf:

A holder for a handleless coffee cup

Tags: language

Is Conscious Choice an Illusion?

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:08:27 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

How much of the decision making process do we actually have a say in? That’s the question being raised thanks to new research coming out of the Max Planck Institute. Using brain scanners, researchers were able to predict people’s decisions seven seconds before the test subjects were even aware of making them.

The decision is not necessarily one that involves a lot of mental preparation – whether to hit a button with your left or right hand – so whether this study is representative of our own self-direction is up for debate. Nevertheless, questions are naturally going to be raised over whether we have free will at all, or whether conscious choice is just an illusion.

"Your decisions are strongly prepared by brain activity. By the time consciousness kicks in, most of the work has already been done," said study co-author John-Dylan Haynes, a Max Planck Institute neuroscientist.

Tags: consciousness?, choice, free will?, illusion

2063 A.D.

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:43:57 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.paleofuture.com

Due to popular demand, I have uploaded a free PDF of the book 2063 A.D. in its entirety. To purchase a print copy of the book you can find it at my Lulu storefront.

For those just joining us, 2063 A.D. was a book published in 1963 by General Dynamics Astronautics. The book asked politicians, military commanders and scientists to speculate as to where humanity would be, a hundred years hence, in the great push towards space.

A copy of the limited print book (only 200 are believed to have been produced) was included in the time capsule at General Dynamics Astronautics headquarters in San Diego. The building was torn down in the late 1990s and the time capsule is believed to have perished. The book gives some great insight into the general sense of optimism that so typifies 1960s futurism. Space colonies? Sure! Martian life? Why not! Teleportation? Easier than commercial space flight!

Education and Thinking May Protect against Dementia

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 07:58:50 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Having a large hippocampus - a part of the brain involved with memory - seems to provide protection against the symptoms of dementia, a study suggests.

The hippocampus is the magenta area at the base of this brain

The hippocampus is located close to the junction with the spinal cord and is believed to "encode" experiences so they can be stored as long-term memories in another part of the brain.

This work is consistent with increasing research that has shown that people with higher levels of education or cognitive reserve may be protected from some of the effects of dementia

Professor Clive Ballard
Alzheimer's Society

Tags: hippocampus, dementia

Superhumans Possible Via Designer Cloning

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:58:13 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "The genetic makeup of such a child would be a mix of mother, father and Albert (or Uncle Al or any other skin cell donor)."

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

A recently developed technique that might eventually produce facsimiles of human embryonic stem cells from skin cells was lauded by President Bush and the Catholic Church as an ethical alternative to using human embryos for research. But it “opens a whole new can of worms” — the possibility of creating chimera humans — one researcher says.

The idea is that you could borrow skin cells from a living or dead person (Albert Einstein jumped to the mind of the concerned scientist) to give your child a genetic leg up.

Overlooked, according to Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology in this article in the Independent, is the potential for making baby Einsteins.

“If we had a few skin cells from Albert Einstein, or anyone else in the world, you could have a child that is say 10 per cent or 70 per cent Albert Einstein by just injecting a few of their cells into an embryo,” Lanza said. “It’s unethical and unsafe, but someone may be doing it today.”

Tags: cloning, chimeras, stem cells, superhuman

Pictures of the Universe

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:44:17 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: geology.com

Spiral Galaxy: The magnificent M81 spiral galaxy takes center stage in this ultraviolet image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer. Young stars appear as wisps of bluish-white swirling around a central golden glow, which comes from a group of much older stars.

The large fluffy bluish-white material to the left of M81 is a neighboring galaxy called Homberg IX. This galaxy is practically invisible to the naked human eye. However, when viewed in ultraviolet light, a region that is actively forming young stars is revealed.

Stellar Babies: Infant stars are glowing gloriously in this infrared image of the Serpens star-forming region, located approximately 848 light-years away in the Serpens constellation.

The reddish-pink dots are baby stars deeply embedded in the cosmic cloud of gas and dust that collapsed to create the stars. Dusty disks of cosmic debris that may eventually form planets surround the infant stars. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope took this image.

Eagle Nebula

Cartwheel galaxy:

Tags: space

Water Policy in Israel and Palestine - There's Enough Water for Both

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 05:02:36 GMT

clipped by: Johanna_G
clipper's remarks:

The increasing difficulties with water availability, concludes the hydrogeologist, result from Israel using the majority of water resources for agricultural purposes, although this sector today represents a very small portion of the Israeli economy.
Despite this, the Israeli state remains unswervingly committed to the Zionist foundation myth, which regards the promotion of agriculture as a central tenet in the Jewish settlement of Palestine.

Messerschmid, in turn, sees the priorities of Israeli water policies as fundamentally flawed, leading to a wasteful use of the precious resource. Large areas of land, for instance, are still intensively watered even during conditions of very high temperatures, although most of the water immediately evaporates.
The Palestinians, by contrast, do not even have the amount of water at their disposal that was promised in the Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty.

Deutsche Fassung

Clip Source: www.qantara.de

Water, a resource essential for life, is becoming increasingly scarce in many areas of the world. In terms of the Middle East conflict, it is well known that the diversion of a river or even the additional pumping out of water can quickly turn into grounds for war.

The distribution of existing water reserves between Israel and its Arab neighbors is not only a result of the Middle East wars, but also due to various points of view on how water can be obtained in the region. The German hydro-geologist Clemens Messerschmid, who has lived and worked in Ramallah for a number of years, regards these viewpoints as out-dated and biased.

It's not true that there's a shortage

Messerschmid's critique, which has recently caused quite a stir in Israel, is directed primarily against the Israelis. They remain in control of most of the water resources in a region that the German hydro-geologist regards – contrary to prevailing opinions – as not being all that arid.

Clip Source: www.qantara.de

Tags: palestine, israel, water policy

German schoolboy, 13, corrects NASA's asteroid figures: paper

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:21:06 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: I hope this is NASA's only mistake in calculating asteroid impact probabilities. ...and respect to the the bright child.

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

A 13-year-old German schoolboy corrected NASA's estimates on the chances of an asteroid colliding with Earth, a German newspaper reported Tuesday, after spotting the boffins had miscalculated.

Nico Marquardt used telescopic findings from the Institute of Astrophysics in Potsdam (AIP) to calculate that there was a 1 in 450 chance that the Apophis asteroid will collide with Earth, the Potsdamer Neuerster Nachrichten reported.

NASA had previously estimated the chances at only 1 in 45,000 but told its sister organisation, the European Space Agency (ESA), that the young whizzkid had got it right.

Both NASA and Marquardt agree that if the asteroid does collide with earth, it will create a ball of iron and iridium 320 metres (1049 feet) wide and weighing 200 billion tonnes, which will crash into the Atlantic Ocean.

The shockwaves from that would create huge tsunami waves, destroying both coastlines and inland areas, whilst creating a thick cloud of dust that would darken the skies indefinitely.

Tags: astroid impact, nasa, astronomy

Tiger temple - where the big cats roam free

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 03:49:54 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08
clipper's remarks: A place of worship should calm anyone ...

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

Tiger Temple

Monk walking tiger on a leash

Monk and tigers during walk in the quarry

Tourists observing the tigers

Tiger Temple, or Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua, is a Buddhist temple in Western Thailand which keeps numerous animals, among them several tame tigers that walk around freely once a day and can be petted by tourists.

The Theravada Buddhist temple is located in the Saiyok district of Thailand's Kanchanaburi province, not far from the border with Myanmar, some 38 km north-west of Kanchanaburi along the 323 highway. It was founded in 1994 as a forest temple and sanctuary for numerous wild animals. In 1995 it received the Golden Jubilee Buddha Image, made of 80 kilograms of gold.

They are washed and handled by Thai staff and the younger tigers by the volunteers. Once a day they are led on leashes to a nearby quarry. Originally they would roam around freely in this area but now, with the increase in tourists and the amount of tigers who sit in the canyon, will always be chained.

Tags: tiger temple, wat pha luang ta bua, thailand, kanchanaburi. buddhist monks, buddhism, tigers

Steal This Idea

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:18:23 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: LOL.

"Microsoft, for example, is alarmed that Vista isn't being pirated very much."

Clip Source: www.fastcompany.com

Steal This Idea

The Fast Interview: Author Matt Mason on how the pirating of intellectual property can be a good thing.

We live in an age of piracy. Intellectual property can no longer be locked up in the corporate castle. Instead, it flows as freely as trade winds--and can be plundered in the form of illegal downloads or cheap knockoffs produced offshore. Businesses face a new dilemma: are pirates a threat to be battled or innovators to be emulated? Should you compete with pirates at their own game? In the book The Pirate's Dilemma, Matt Mason shows how piracy has become a new business model and argues that youth culture is pushing the world towards a more democratic model of capitalism. Mason, who is 29, tells us what we can learn from pirate radio, video game hackers, and why being pirated is a whole lot better than being ignored.

Tags: pirate, steal idea, mattison, vista, marketing

Physicists model how we form opinions

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:48:38 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: physorg.com

In large part, a society’s image stems from its overall opinions – its political, religious, and ethical beliefs – and how much diversity it tolerates. For example, how do some areas develop images of being either liberal or conservative, and, in others, liberals and conservatives live side by side?

As a team of researchers explains, our individual opinions both influence and are influenced by our surroundings. By following a set of rules, the researchers have modeled the opinion formation process in societies where individuals’ opinions are strongly influenced by others they interact with. The scientists found that, depending on two criteria – how strongly individuals are influenced by each other and how many connections individuals have – a society’s overall state can exhibit either large segregated patches of consensus, or areas with closely intermingled opinions.

Tags: society, opinions, influence, individual