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What planet is this?

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:19:51 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth

Waterworld

What planet is this?

It’s Earth, of course, viewed from around 9900 miles above a small island called Tetiaora, one of the few bits of land on this half of the planet.

It’s weird that there’s a view of earth that’s almost entirely water.

Tags: photo, image, french polynesia, atoll, science

Libraries this beautiful..Oh God!

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 10:32:32 GMT

clipped by: mugofcoffee
clipper's remarks: I love books and even browsing books in such an exotic atmosphere must be a real blessing! sigh...

Clip Source: www.boredstop.com

Strahov Theological Hall - Original Baroque Cabinets

Strahov Theological Hall; Statue of John the Evangelist Holding a Book

Strahov Philosophical Hall

Abbey Library St. Gallen, Switzerland

Biblioteca Angelica, Rome, Italy

Biblioteca do Palacio e Convento de Mafra I, Lisbon Coast, Portugal

Biblioteca Palafoxiana, Puebla, Mexico

Bibliotecha de la Real Academia De La Lengua, Madrid, Spain

Bibliotheque Alencon, Normandy, France

Bibliothéque Nationale de France, Paris, France

Bodlein Library, Oxford University, England

Boston Copley Public Library, Boston, USA

British Reading Room, British Museum, London, England

Casanatense Library, Rome, Italy

Cathedral Library, Kalocsa, Hungary

Dutch Royal Archives Library, Netherlands

El Escorial Library, San Lorenzo, Spain

Frederick Ferris Thompson Memorial Library, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, USA

Handelingenkamer Tweede Kamer Der Staten-Generaal Den Haag, the Hague, Netherlands

Tags: books, pictures, library, beautiful.

Looking around you pays off

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 05:28:49 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Clip Source: digital-photography-school.com

I live in the county of Devon in the UK and love being on Dartmoor and even though I can only get around using a wheelchair I am restricted to the lanes and roads.

I am also a photographer and as you will see I can still, with a lot of patience, find a pleasing picture.

Often I see the possibility of a really good photo but it would mean being able to get out of the car, over a gate, cross a stream, stoop, squat, bend to take it. But the frustration disappears when I see at my eye-level such a warm picture as the lock on the gate at Widecombe church, or in the churchyard the snowdrops.

Thanks must go to my companion who accompanies me on my Dartmoor trips, who heaves the wheelchair in and out of the boot and puts up with my grumpiness when a cow looks the wrong way or a sheep runs off into the mist.

All my photos are taken from my car window or wheelchair and I will be 70 this year. If I can do it so can you. So, get out there, be bold and “snap” away.

Tags: photography, disability, inspiration, wisdom

Secluded beaches around the globe

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 06:43:37 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth

Clip Source: www.thetravelerszone.com

Just about everyone loves the beach. If you don’t, then you just haven’t truly experienced an amazing beach yet.

The bright sun, endless blue skies, the sand beneath your feet, a cool breeze and the most crystal clear water you’ve ever seen will be sure to win over your heart.

Here are some of the secret sands; to those who are looking for secluded beaches around the globe, where quiet coasts invite in-the-know sunbathers to savor their relative solitude.

Wildcat Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore, California

Cayo Costa, Florida

Pink Beach, Barbuda, Antigua and Barbuda

one huge sandbar

Los Frailes, Ecuador

Majahuitas Cove, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Store Beach, Sydney, Australia

Polihua Beach, Lanai, Hawaii

If you are in an open vehicle, you’ll arrive looking like a sun-dried tomato.

Plage Blanche, Morocco

Porat Beach, Bisevo, Croatia

Playa Medina, Venezuela

Poles Bay, Kea, Greece

The island of Kea, with terraced hillsides and ancient, stone-paved walking paths, is a day trip from Athens.

Tags: travel, holidays, summer, photos, islands

I Can Haz LOLZ ??!1!!?

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 05:36:57 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead
clipper's remarks: Dumb, but I love them!

Clip Source: icanhascheezburger.com

Tags: funny, humor, cats, lolcats, idiots

Does Stress Cause Weight Gain?

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 03:39:38 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: www.intelihealth.com

Q: Can stress cause weight gain?

The short answer is yes, though not in every person. Some people lose their appetite and lose weight when they're stressed. But if you already tend to be overweight, stress usually leads to weight gain. It also can make it harder to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight.

How likely are you to respond to negative emotions and stress by eating? It's hard to know. But in a large British study, researchers found that people with the lowest body mass index (BMI) tended to lose weight when stressed, while people with the highest BMI usually gained weight.

Since food is essential for survival — and for most of human history food was relatively scarce — the brain has evolved to protect us against times of scarcity. Sadly, the brain does a poorer job of protecting us against abundance! In fact, it may actively undermine many of us. Some experts say that chronic stress leads to a preference for foods that are high in sugar and fat.

Cancer Therapy Without Side Effects Nearing Trials

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:17:47 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Without side effects!

Clip Source: www.wired.com

A promising new cancer treatment that may one day replace radiation and chemotherapy is edging closer to human trials.

Kanzius RF therapy attaches microscopic nanoparticles to cancer cells and then "cooks" tumors inside the body with harmless radio waves.

Based on technology developed by Pennsylvania inventor John Kanzius, a retired radio and TV engineer, the treatment has proven 100 percent effective at killing cancer cells while leaving neighboring healthy cells unharmed. It is currently being tested at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

“I don’t want to give people false hope,” said Dr. Steve Curley, the professor leading the tests, “but this has the potential to treat a wide variety of cancers.”

In trials with animal and human cells, the RF treatment destroyed 100 percent of malignant cells injected with nanoparticles, without harming surrounding healthy tissue.

"The best-case scenario is that we would be able to [start] clinical trials within three years,” he said.

Tags: medicine, cancer, cancer therapy

Thomas Jefferson turns 265 years old

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:14:38 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: This is an interesting piece about Jefferson. It's from a speech given recently at the White House honoring Jefferson. For those interested, i suggest visiting the source and reading the rest.

Clip Source: www.powerlineblog.com

His belief in the dignity and unrealized potential in the minds and hearts of ordinary people is at the core of what is greatest in the American experiment. It is in this sense that James Parton, his early biographer, was right in making the following proclamation: "If Jefferson is wrong, America is wrong. If America is right, Jefferson was right.” But the cause of Jefferson was always more than just that of America. It is the cause of all humankind.

Only the free mind, he believed, can freely discover the truth, and freely choose to embrace it.

So let it be for his ideas that we honor Jefferson, above all else. And for the cause of human freedom and human dignity that he so eloquently championed. His failings may weigh against the man, but not against the cause for which he labored so heroically.

Tags: thomas jefferson, history, america, politics

Did an Ancient Language of Universal Symbols Exist?

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:24:43 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Over the last several years, similar petroglyphs have been identified on as many as five continents. They all date from roughly the same time-period. In the late 20th century, archaeologists discovered a collection of symbols carved in stone as petroglyphs in the Negev desert of Israel that appeared to be writing. Dating of these symbols showed that they were made over an extended period time, beginning around 1700 BC.

This strange collection of symbols was first examined by Dr. James Harris, a petroglyph expert and archaeologist from Brigham Young University. He identified the alphabet as being a proto-Canaanite system, which successfully translated by using old-Hebrew or Thalmudic phonetic sounds.

Earlier, William McGlone, an amateur archaeologist and retired space engineer, discovered the same collection of symbols carved in heavily patinated stones surrounding the Southeast town of La Junta, Colorado

the patina corresponded to the same era as the writing found in Harkarkom in Israel.

Tags: petroglyphs, archaeology, language, symbols

Evolution Beyond Darwin — Way Beyond

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 11:06:53 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.wired.com

Highly complex honeybee communities are one example of phenomena that some scientists think can't be explained by the mainstream theory of evolution alone, but instead by a theory of self-organization.
Courtesy AlainB/Flickr

Nearly 150 years after Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, evolution has been widely accepted by scientists -- and, except for a few religious dogmatic types, the public -- as the blueprint for the engine of life.

But not every scientist thinks that evolution as it's now understood and applied is complete. They want to scale it up to the level of populations, even whole ecosystems. Moreover, they say evolution is intertwined with other dynamics that science is just starting to understand.

"The process of evolution is fundamental to the universe. Biology is the most obvious manifestation of it," said Carl Woese, a legendary microbiologist and one of the first proponents of this newly revised evolutionary framework.

Tags: complexity, evolution, darwin

Child Abuse in Sickening Detail. Death a relief

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 11:45:13 GMT

clipped by: righthand
clipper's remarks: Having read the details of this horrific child abuse, which is beyond anything I've previously read, I'm left incapable of rational thought.

Recently there was a sex/cult event in Texas. In comparison with this it was a non-event. This has been kept hushed up. Why? Is it because of the involvement of a Haredi Orthodox Rabbi as the prime torturer? Recently another child abuser in Australia was given safe haven in Israel.

Is it opportune while the pope seeks forgiveness in the USA, that abuse of children that would put the Nazis to shame would see the light of day in the 'free and fair' USA media. Is there a word on this atrocity? What society allowed this to happen? This was no overnight phenomenon. What religion sees it as creed to torture children beyond what would be acceptable to the worst criminal or terrorist? How sick is the society?

Clip Source: www.israelenews.com

force-feeding toddlers drinks of alcohol and turpentine

Making them eat feces

Forcing them against electric heaters until their skin turned black then pouring alcohol on the wounds

Stuffing their mouths with skullcaps and taping them closed, and then zipping them into suitcases for days

Leaving stones on the Shabbat "blech"all day and then placing the stones on the tender skin of these babies

Police suspect that Chen's supporters also

doused the children in hot and cold water

and broke their bones with hammers and blows

The mother was charged with forcing the children to eat feces

beating them unconscious

and locking them up in a suitcase for three days

a four year old is in the hospital with irreversible brain damage from one of Chen's "hassidim", David Kugman

photo of hammers, knives, guns, turpentine, and heaters all of which - according to the newspaper -were used to torture small children allegedly at the behest of a so-called haredi Rabbi, Elior Chen

(see photo at http://tinyurl.com/598r78

Tags: children, abuse, rabbi, israel, court, torture, religion

How big is too big?

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:36:00 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: Mr Melling has even considered having his pride and joy airlifted out of his garden, and said he always knew he was going to face this problem."It's not as though I'm some idiot who got the measurements wrong and is now stuck with a boat he can't move," he said."I knew from the start that once the boat was finished I would face some problems getting it out of the garden."

Bemused neighbours have only just realised Mr Melling has been building the massive, lightweight yacht in his garden.Strong winds several weeks ago blew off the polytunnel cover which had previously concealed the yacht from passers by.<<

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

Enthusiast spends years building 30ft dream boat - but it is now too big to take out of garden

Trained engineer, John Melling, started building the 30-feet Trimaran yacht at the bottom of his back garden five years ago - but it has now outgrown its home and is proving a problem to move.

Mr Melling, who works as a financial adviser, has completed the sleek vessel, which is 26 feet wide, and has grown so big that it has become wedged behind the fence at his home in Tywardreath in Cornwall.

Tight fit: The trimaran may have to be airlifted out of Mr Melling's garden

Mr Melling, built the yacht so that he and wife, Sue, a primary school teacher, who got married in the same garden, can enjoy sailing.

"We will be taking this boat to Greece eventually, after I have retired, to spend some time in the sunshine," said the keen sailor.

"I may even race it - but right now the challenge is getting it out of the garden."

Tags: funny

Morning Glory Clouds

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 01:46:50 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: www.flickr.com

Tags: photography

Shyness Gene Teased Out

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:30:35 GMT

clipped by: Aribeth
clipper's remarks: If further research links RGS2 variations to anxiety disorders, the gene may make a good treatment target, Smoller's team writes in the Archives of General Psychiatry.<<

Clip Source: www.webmd.com

Shyness Gene Teased Out

Variations in RGS2 Gene Linked to Shyness in Kids, Introversion in Adults

March 3, 2008 -- Scientists have spotted a gene linked to shyness in children and introversion in adults.

Variations in that gene may also make social anxiety disorder and other anxiety disorders more likely, but more work is needed to confirm that possibility.

The gene is called RGS2. Certain variations in that gene stood out in a new study of kids' shyness and adult introversion.

The researchers conducted three experiments.

The study doesn't mean that the RGS2 gene makes people shy or introverted. And the study wasn't about diagnosing anxiety disorders. Shyness and introversion aren't anxiety disorders.

But shyness and introversion are risk factors for anxiety disorders, especially social anxiety disorder, note the researchers, who included Jordan Smoller, MD, ScD, of Massachusetts General Hospital's psychiatry department.

Mysterious striped currents revealed in the oceans

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:43:49 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

Clip Source: environment.newscientist.com

IT'S amazing that nobody has spotted it before. Superimposed on every ocean on the planet there is a striped pattern of currents. Yet what causes them is a mystery.

Between 1992 and 2003, Peter Niiler of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, and colleagues collected data from more than 10,000 drifting ocean buoys, which they tracked with satellites. As expected, the buoys' movements were influenced mainly by known global currents, which are driven by wind and by differences in the temperature and salinity of seawater.

But when the team analysed the data, it emerged that something else had been subtly influencing the buoys' paths. It turned out that there were alternating strips of water running eastward or westward, a bit like parallel moving sidewalks. Niiler recalls his reaction: "My God, we've never seen these before."

Tags: ocean