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RIP George Carlin

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:29:40 GMT

clipped by: ericw
clipper's remarks: Very sad, he was a true legend of comedy.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs and dirty words, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday, a spokesman said. He was 71.

Dalai Lama’s 18 rules for living

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:14:05 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: # Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

# Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

# Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

Clip Source: www.owenkelly.net

Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

Follow the three Rs:

Respect for self
Respect for others
Responsibility for all your actions.

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

Spend some time alone every day.

Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.

Be gentle with the earth.

Zebra's Stripes, Butterfly's Wings: How Do Biological Patterns Emerge?

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:08:30 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Previous work identified a specific signal necessary for getting these fly egg cells to move; the problem is that this signal is “graded.” Like drops of ink spreading out on wet paper, this signal travels in between surrounding cells, gradually fading away as it moves outwards. But clear lines are required for pattern formation — there is no grey area between a zebra’s black and white stripes, between heart and liver cells and, in this case, between migrating cells and those that stay put.

How are graded signals converted to a clear move or stay signal? By examining flies containing mutations in different genes, the researchers discovered that one gene in particular, called apontic, is important for converting a graded signal.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

A zebra’s stripes, a seashell’s spirals, a butterfly’s wings: these are all examples of patterns in nature.

The formation of patterns is a puzzle for mathematicians and biologists alike.

How does the delicate design of a butterfly’s wings come from a single fertilized egg?

How does pattern emerge out of no pattern?

“Pattern formation is a classic problem in embryology,” says Denise Montell, Ph.D., a professor of biological chemistry at Hopkins. “At some point, cells in an embryo must separate into those that will become heart cells, liver cells, blood cells and so on. Although this has been studied for years, there is still a lot we don’t understand.”

As an example of pattern formation, the researchers studied the process of how about six cells in the fruit fly distinguish themselves from neighboring cells and move from one location in the ovary to another during egg development.

Tags: biology, development, embryology, biological patterns

George Carlin - We Like War

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:55:17 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.youtube.com

[Video]

Comedian George Carlin is Gone

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:55:13 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: A sharp courageous comedian, a guardian of our sanity. Though we do not have king courts anymore, we still very much need the jesters.

Clip Source: news.google.com

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs, dirty words and the demise of humanity, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday.

[Video]

Tags: news

There is Magic in Reading Books

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:55:28 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

Clip Source: www.bookstove.com

There is Magic in Reading Books

No other footprints are louder than those of the footprints of the characters in your book.

The book-lovers belong to a wonderful world of their own! Their affinity to the books takes them to places where an ordinary person does not dare to go! The reading makes the mind wander into the wonderlands of magnanimous mountains and the cool splashing oceans; into the highest offices of the land and into the different terrains and weathers of the nations. The reader travels through all these fantasies and some more, when he becomes one with his characters, while his body sits relaxed, happy and content, forgetting about the worries and troubles of the real life and living, at least temporarily!

The sheer joy of reading a book under amiable circumstances shall probably be the best exorcist of one's own demons of problems and prejudices!

George Carlin Has Died

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:06:43 GMT

clipped by: skwirlinator

Clip Source: www.etonline.com

George Carlin Has Died

ET breaks the news that comedian George Carlin has died from heart failure. The man who made famous the "seven words you can never say on television" passed away at 5:55 p.m. Sunday at Saint John's Hospital in Santa Monica, his longtime publicist said. He was 71.

Carlin has more than 20 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, numerous TV and movie roles, and three best-selling books to his credit. Last year, he celebrated his 50th year in show business, and he had just finished his last HBO special in March, "It's Bad for Ya."

Carlin, who has had several heart attacks and a history of cardiac issues, went into the hospital this afternoon after complaining of heart problems.

Tags: george carlin, died, comedy

'Shake-up' for internet proposed

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:15:13 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The net could see its biggest transformation in decades if plans to open up the address system are passed.

The net's regulators will vote on Thursday to decide if the strict rules on so-called top level domain names, such as .com or .uk, can be relaxed.

If approved, it could allow companies to turn their brands into domain names while individuals could also carve out their own corner of the net.

The move could also see the launch of .xxx, after years of wrangling.

Top level domains are currently limited to individual countries, such as .uk (UK) or .it (Italy), as well as to commerce, .com, and to institutional organisations, such as .net, or .org.

To get around the restrictions, some companies have used the current system to their own ends.

For example, the Polynesia island nation Tuvalu, has leased the use of the .tv address to many television firms.

It's a massive increase in the geography of the real estate of the internet

Tags: net, web, addresses, domain names

The Duplicates Paradox

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:38:52 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: Personal identity is perceived as continuous through time. Yet this perception cannot be instantaneous, and must be based on memory. Given the fact that memories can be forgotten, altered or even fabricated, the question arises as to whether memories are essential for personal identity. Certainly no specific memory seems necessary for identity, but a perception of a continuity of the memory process is often believed to be. Subjective experience involves not just memory, but thoughts, desires, feelings and personality. Even when subjectivity is focused on the "outside world", this focus necessarily has a point of view. Any attempt to describe personal identity impersonally will lose an essential element. A self has both sensation and will.

Clip Source: www.benbest.com

The idea that personal identity (mind, self, will) is entirely contained in the molecular and biological structure of the brain (ie, is entirely material) implies that a duplicate identity could be created that is identical in every way except physical location

It is said that most molecules in the body are replaced every few years, presumably also including the molecules of the brain. This implies that the exact atoms and molecules of which our identity is constituted are not essential to that identity. Thus, lives and minds are much like a candle flame -- life, consciousness and selfhood continues with a material basis despite the fact that the exact material (atoms and molecules) change.

Personal identity is perceived as continuous through time. Yet this perception cannot be instantaneous, and must be based on memory

Tags: mind, philosophy, duplicates, paradox

China

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:38:46 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.linkinn.com

Tags: photography, china

George Carlin Dead at Age 71

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:23:19 GMT

clipped by: agraner

Clip Source: tv.msn.com

George Carlin Dead at Age 71

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) -- George Carlin, the dean of counterculture comedians whose biting insights on life and language were immortalized in his "Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV" routine, died of heart failure Sunday. He was 71.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John's Medical Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.

Carlin constantly pushed the envelope with his jokes, particularly with the "Seven Words" routine. When he uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested for disturbing the peace.

When the words were played on a New York radio station, they resulted in a Supreme Court ruling in 1978 upholding the government's authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language.

Tags: george carlin, obituary, comedy

New discovery proves 'selfish gene' exists

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:45:47 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.eurekalert.org

A new discovery by a scientist from The University of Western Ontario provides conclusive evidence which supports decades-old evolutionary doctrines long accepted as fact.

Since renowned British biologist Richard Dawkins ("The God Delusion") introduced the concept of the 'selfish gene' in 1976, scientists the world over have hailed the theory as a natural extension to the work of Charles Darwin.

In studying genomes, the word 'selfish' does not refer to the human-describing adjective of self-centered behavior but rather to the blind tendency of genes wanting to continue their existence into the next generation. Ironically, this 'selfish' tendency can appear anything but selfish when the gene does move ahead for selfless and even self-sacrificing reasons.

"This basically provides a validation for a huge body of socio-biology," says Thompson, who adds the completion of Honey Bee Genome Project in 2006 was crucial to this discovery.

Tags: selfish gene, genetics, bees, genomes

UN Bows to Muslims

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:18:07 GMT

clipped by: AtlLiberal
clipper's remarks: So, the UN has determined that without "religious scholars" present they are FORBIDDEN to discuss matters of faith. How strange that the concept of free speech stops at religion's door.

Will non-Muslims next be held accountable to Muslim law.

So, religion is off limits to criticism. How long before we resurrect blasphemy laws? Get your stones ready.

Clip Source: www.dailytimes.com.pk

Muslim countries win concession regarding religious debates

* UN body says only religious scholars should be allowed to discuss
matters of faith

GENEVA: Muslim countries have won a battle to prevent Islam from being criticised during debates by the UN Human Rights Council. Religions deserve special protection because any debate about faith is bound to be “very complex, very sensitive and very intense”, council President Doru-Romulus Costea said Wednesday.

“This council is not prepared to discuss religious matters in depth, consequently we should not do it,” Costea ruled after an emergency break to calm the situation. ap

Tags: religion, islam, un, tolerence