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Africa is big. Really big.

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:30:53 GMT

clipped by: amgumen

The African continent is apparently big enough to fit the United States, India, Argentina, Western Europe, and most of China in it’s space! In fact, all together, these 5 countries still do not make up the total square kilometers of Africa.

World Prison Population per 100,000 population

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:40:20 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: great, clear graphic

Clip Source: www.libertyforlife.com

7 Bizarre Unsolved Mysteries

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:45:22 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08
clipper's remarks: Interesting list...

Clip Source: ty.rannosaur.us

1 ) The Lead Masks Case

crazy shit happens in Brazil, there are parts of Rio de Janeiro where pilots refuse to fly over out of fears that slum lords will shoot them down

On August 20, 1966, in Niteroi, the bodies of two healthy men in their 30s were found on a hilltop. Both men were wearing half-masks made of lead

2 ) The Max Headroom Signal Piracy Incident

on November 22, 1987, someone wearing a Max Headroom mask managed to hijack a broadcast signal twice - once CBS and once PBS.

3 ) The May Day Mystery

Every May 1st since 1981, a cryptic ad has been placed in the Arizona Daily Wildcat.

4 ) The Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305 Hijacking

November 24, 1971, a man that resembled Michael Douglas’ character in Falling Down sat down and requested a bourbon with soda.

D.B. Cooper

passed

a note saying that he’ll detonate a bomb

5 ) The Dyatlov Pass Accident

6 ) The Dancing Mania of Aachen

craze that swept across Europe

people started dancing

7 ) The Kelly-Hopkinsville Encounter

August 21, 1955

Tags: mysteries, suspense, crime, aliens, bizarre

Top 10 mind mapping tools

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:08:35 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: en.onsoftware.com

Mind maps - also known as concept maps - are visual diagrams used to represent ideas and tasks relating to a given topic. They come in especially handy when you need to generate and manage ideas for a work project, because having a visual representation of all available concepts helps you organize the necessary workflow in a more optimized way.

Check out this list with the best mind mapping software apps out there.

MindManager - capture ideas from several sources and create mind maps with them

MindGenius - easy, intuitive mindmapping tool for everyone

FreeMind - a mind map tool based on Java

MindPad - create colorful, complete mind maps

Visual Mind - mind map tool with a flexible graphic interface

NovaMind - conduct brainstorming sessions and create mindmaps with their outcome

CMapTools - free mindmapping tool with exporting capabilities

Cayra - an open-source mind map program with basic functionalities

ConceptDrawMindmap - professional tool to create concept maps

Mindomo

Tags: software, mind, mind maos

Becoming immortal

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 01:12:30 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: A very interesting read! Of course, what are we going to do with eternity is not a medical question but rather philosophical and emotional. At least we will have time enough for love... For the quasi immortal humans of the future, nothing in this existence will look even remotely similar to the way we see things today.

Clip Source: www.cosmosmagazine.com

Within a few decades, we might reasonably expect to have extended life to 150 years or more – the first human to live to 1,000 may have already been born. But, does death give meaning to our lives? Where do we go from here?

Developments in a number of scientific disciplines suggest that we may soon be able to increase life expectancies from the 70- to 80-year range already seen in the richest countries to well over 100 and, perhaps, to over 1,000. We shall, in one sense, have made ourselves immortal.

We shall not be immortal in the sense that we cannot die; plainly we could still be killed in a car accident or by a cosmic event such as an asteroid striking the Earth. But we could not be killed by disease or age, our bodies would be immune to infection, dysfunction or the ravages of time. We would be medically immortal.

Some say this will happen quickly within, perhaps, 30 years with the first clear signs that we are on the right track appearing within the next decade.

Tags: aging, life extension, immortality

Anatomy of a false memory

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 13:48:45 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

We believe that memory provides us with a faithful record of past events. But in fact, it is well established that memory is reconstructive, and not reproductive, in nature. In retrieval, a memory is pieced together from fragments, but during the reconstruction errors creep in due to our own biases and expectations.

Generally, these errors are small, so despite not being completely accurate, our memories are usually reliable. Occasionally, there are too many errors, and the memory becomes unreliable. In extreme cases, memories can be completely false.

False memory, or confabulation, is completely unintentional, and can occur spontaneously due, for example, to the suggestive power of a leading question or a doctored photograph. It can also following frontal lobe damage due to tumours, head injuries, or ruptured arteries.

Tags: memory, brain

UK study reveals: religion is for stupid people!

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:49:02 GMT

clipped by: enbar
clipper's remarks: For the record, I think this is absolutely effing ridiculous. The last paragraph of the clip pretty much sums it up. How can this kind of garbage be treated as real research?

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Intelligent people 'less likely to believe in God'

People with higher IQs are less likely to believe in God, according to a new study.

Professor Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, said many more members of the "intellectual elite" considered themselves atheists than the national average.

A decline in religious observance over the last century was directly linked to a rise in average intelligence, he claimed.

But the conclusions - in a paper for the academic journal Intelligence - have been branded "simplistic" by critics.

Dr David Hardman, principal lecturer in learning development at London Metropolitan University, said: "It is very difficult to conduct true experiments that would explicate a causal relationship between IQ and religious belief. Nonetheless, there is evidence from other domains that higher levels of intelligence are associated with a greater ability - or perhaps willingness - to question and overturn strongly felt institutions."

Tags: psychology, religion, intelligence, ridiculousness, research, uk

The Tyranny of Niceness

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 10:27:14 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Related to passive-aggression as a cultural descriptor rather than an individual pathology. Fear of authority, chronic anger, bitterness, and the masochistic self-disempowerment of submission (see Fromm).

Clip Source: www.psychotherapy.net

niceness is the accepted way of being and interacting. In this article I express the view that rather than facilitating psychological and relational health, niceness stands in the way of personal satisfaction and healthy relating.

Through self-reflection and observations of others I made the connection between silencing/suppressing my authenticity and being nice. Later, I saw that the connection applied to many of my clients. I saw the same patterns: suppression of thoughts and feelings, deep wishes for acceptance with a concomitant fear of rejection or judgment, anxiety, depression, and erupting frustration. These features were bound together by guilt, shame and fear.

Niceness is a language of apology and politeness, ubiquitous and therefore familiar, as is any social norm, and it is a powerful deterrent to authentic relating, a mechanism of distancing rather than connection.

False altruism:

Rationalizations

Submissiveness:

Over- or under-acceptance of responsibility

Self-disempowerment

Tags: niceness

12 Monuments Dedicated to Amazing Women

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:55:02 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08

Clip Source: weburbanist.com

12 Monuments Dedicated to Amazing Women: From Joan of Arc to the Working Women of Amsterdam

In Zalongo, northwestern part of Greece, lies a grandiose monument dedicated to the Women of Kassope

on the Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, The Famous Five or The Valiant Five statues

n the memory of

the women’s rights movement in Canada in 1920s, because at that time women weren’t allowed to vote.

Queen Victoria

monument was sculpted 40 years later by Louis-Philippe Hébert, from Quebec

Unknown Woman Worker monument is located in Belfast, UK,

emblematic figure in French history

Joan of Arc (Jeanne d’Arc)

National Women’s Monument or the Vrouemonument from Bloemfontein, South Africa

dedicated to

27,000 martyr women who died during the Boer War

Rosenstrasse monument

old Jewish quarter of Berlin

Dulcinea,

Located in Madrid, Spain

Sybil Ludington,

in Carmel, New York,

Molly Pitcher

in Carlisle, Pennsylvania

New York State Women Veterans Memorial

Madison Avenue

Red Light District Statue in Amsterdam

Tags: monuments, women, memorials, joan of arc, heroines, womens lib, womanhood

Stephen Hawking: UK science under threat.

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 10:52:05 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Britain's most famous scientist, Stephen Hawking, has accused the government of making “disastrous” cuts to research funding that threaten the country’s international standing.

Hawking has released correspondence accusing ministers of putting science at risk through basic “bookkeeping errors” that have led to an £80m budget shortfall and warning that several university physics departments may be forced to close.

threatened the jobs of 600 physicists and the closure of facilities such as the Jodrell Bank radio telescope. It could also force Britain to pull out of global projects such as the Gemini telescopes in Hawaii

Brian Cox, professor of particle physics at Manchester University

supported Hawking’s comments

“The notion that scientists will make a more valuable contribution to the economic and social wellbeing of the world if their research is closely directed by politicians is the most astonishing piece of nonsense I have had the misfortune to come across in a long time,” Cox said.