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The Science of Sarcasm (Not That You Care)

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:55:32 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

There was nothing very interesting in Katherine P. Rankin’s study of sarcasm — at least, nothing worth your important time. All she did was use an M.R.I. to find the place in the brain where the ability to detect sarcasm resides. But then, you probably already knew it was in the right parahippocampal gyrus.

What you may not have realized is that perceiving sarcasm, the smirking put-down that buries its barb by stating the opposite, requires a nifty mental trick that lies at the heart of social relations: figuring out what others are thinking. Those who lose the ability, whether through a head injury or the frontotemporal dementias afflicting the patients in Dr. Rankin’s study, just do not get it when someone says during a hurricane, “Nice weather we’re having.”

Tags: science, sarcasm

Photo Tampering Throughout History

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:58:48 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: see rest of photos in original page,
linked to my previous post:
Digital Forensics: 5 Ways to Spot a Fake Photo
http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/D516F80D-C71B-4B53-BB9C-77EA80B8C919/

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Photography lost its innocence not long after it was born. As early as the 1860s photos were already being manipulated—only a few decades after Joseph Nicéphore Niépce created the first photograph in 1826. With the advent of high-resolution digital cameras, powerful personal computers and sophisticated photo-editing software, the manipulation of digital images has proliferated. Here, I have collected some examples of tampering throughout photography's over 180-year history.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Circa 1860:
This nearly iconic portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is a composite of Lincoln's head and the body of Southern politician, John Calhoun. Putting the date of this photo into context, note that the first permanent photographic image was created in 1826 and the Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company (later to become Eastman Kodak) was created in 1884.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Circa 1865:

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Soviet premier, Joseph Stalin, routinely airbrushed his enemies out of images.

Tags: photography, fake, history

Drugs to Grow Your Brain

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:08:57 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clip Source: www.technologyreview.com

Drugs to Grow Your Brain

Compounds that trigger the growth of new brain cells might help treat depression.

Newborn neurons: This image shows a section of the hippocampus, the part of the brain important for learning and memory. Mature neurons are shown in green, while newborn neurons are orange, and neural stem cells are red.
Credit: BrainCells Inc.

Drugs that encourage the growth of new neurons in the brain are now headed for clinical trials. The drugs, which have already shown success in alleviating symptoms of depression and boosting memory in animal models, are being developed by BrainCells, a San Diego-based start-up that screens drugs for their brain-growing power. The company hopes the compounds will provide an alternative to existing antidepressants and says they may also prove effective in treating cognitive disorders, such as Alzheimer's.

The fact that you might be able to take small molecules to stimulate specific cells to regenerate in the brain is paradigm-shifting,"

Simply the best way to learn languages.

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:11:12 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad
clipper's remarks: I just listened to an interview with the founder of this site/software on the radio. and was quite impressed.

To me it sounded like a superior way to learn other languages, something I've always wished to do. I am able to semi-converse in a limited number of languages, especially after a couple of glasses of backbone.

Clip Source: www.lingq.com

Native language

Simply the best way to learn languages.

Clip Source: www.lingq.com

Dramatically increase your vocabulary so you're comfortable & confident in any situation. Get help from a personal tutor. Study online 24/7 and meet people from around the world.

Learn English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Italian, German, Russian, Chinese, Portuguese and Swedish with more languages coming soon.

The social web - power to the people!!!

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 23:45:13 GMT

clipped by: egoldstein
clipper's remarks: Oh yes, a truly revolutionary web we are weaving. My hat is off to people in places such as Egypt who brave the potentially dire consequences in order to spread the truth. Their words will hopefully lead to more democratic, free societies in places that have for so long kept their people bottled up.

Clip Source: www.breitbart.com

Nevertheless, Egypt's bloggers, who rarely conceal their real identity, have taken on the role of bridging the gap between civil society's desire for democracy and workers' demands for better pay and working conditions.

In a country where there is little access to live and independent Egyptian reporting, blogs and "real time" social networking sites like Twitter provide regular but unverified updates on events, such as elections and protests.

Tags: social web, internet, power, egypt, democracy

It's Okay To Keep Those Feelings Inside, New Study Suggests

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:19:39 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Contrary to popular notions about what is normal or healthy, new research has found that it is okay not to express one's thoughts and feelings after experiencing a collective trauma, such as a school shooting or terrorist attack.

In fact, people who choose not to express their feelings after such an event may be better off than those who do talk about their feelings, according to University at Buffalo psychologist Mark Seery, Ph.D., lead author of a study to appear in the June issue of Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

The findings have important implications for expectations of how people should respond in the face of a collective trauma affecting a whole community or even an entire nation, says Seery, an assistant professor of psychology.

Tags: psychology

1000 year old Viking DNA recovered

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:36:24 GMT

clipped by: syncopath

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

Researchers Recover Thousand-Year-Old Viking DNA

The Vikings buried on the Danish island of Funen may very well have sailed all the way to Constantinople or Baghdad or Moscow, looting and pillaging with lusty ferocity. And now we've got their DNA.

In a study published today in Public Library of Science ONE, Danish scientists describe the retrieval of genetic material from ten Viking skeletons found in an ancient burial site near the city of Odense. The remains date to 1000 AD, the twilight of Viking civilization.

The discovery of the DNA is not in itself extraordinary (though it certainly is cool to have Viking DNA samples). The significance instead lies in the steps the researchers took to keep the DNA free from contamination.

Recall some famous advice, coincidentally also set in Denmark: There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, then are dreamt of in your PubMed abstracts....

People With Joint Pain Can Really Forecast Thunderstorms

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:27:19 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: Weather-related joint pain is typically seen in patients with osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and other arthritic conditions. It can affect any load-bearing joint, but is most common in hips, knees, elbows, shoulders and hands. The joints contain sensory nerves called baro-receptors which respond to changes in atmospheric pressure. These receptors especially react when there is low barometric pressure, meaning the atmosphere has gone from dry to moist, like when it is going to rain.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

The summer brings many thunderstorms to the east coast of the United States, and one of the nation’s leading joint specialists, Javad Parvizi, M.D., Ph.D., of the Rothman Institute at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, says you should believe your grandmother, friend or co-worker when they tell you it’s going to rain—even if it’s simply because their aching knees, hips, hands or shoulders “say so.”

Dr. Parvizi,

explains that even though individuals can experience pain fluctuations with the slightest change in barometric pressure, most patients report significant increases in pain before and during severe changes in weather, like summer downpours and thunderstorms.

“The phenomenon of people being able to forecast precipitation, especially rain, due to the level of their joint pain is real,” says Dr. Parvizi. “It is not in the patient’s head. There is science to back it up.”

Tags: pain, thunderstorm

CHINA: Nuder Than Nude

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:59:03 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.ipsnews.net

In a society that dictates how a woman should look -- hourglass figure and shiny, long hair -- Chinese artist Xiang Jing dares to turn stereotypes on their head and disturb those who view her fibreglass sculptures.

In the Shanghai-based artist’s exhibit, ‘Naked Beyond Skin’, visitors may well find themselves fidgeting and taking a second look as they make their way around lifelike, life-size or larger-than-life sculptures, of nude women in various everyday moods and moments.

Unlike the usual art pieces though, these polished and painted sculptures do not embody the ideal female proportions. Many in fact reflect the opposite -- the real, the imperfect.

Instead of svelte women and glamorised supermodel-like bodies, there is plenty of flabby skin, droopy breasts, and bulging stomachs in the works of the 40-year-old Xiang Jing

Tags: china, art, nude

Conquering Your Fears, One Synapse at a Time

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:09:53 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

Conquering Your Fears, One Synapse at a Time

Proteins in the brain may be the key to un-learning fear—or retaining memory.

Unlearning a fear may sound simple, but for years neuroscientists believed such emotion was entrenched, set in stone by fixed neuronal networks in the brain, and thus unaffected by new information. Now a study led by Bong-Kiun Kaang at Seoul National University has altered that view: Every time a long-term memory or an associated emotion, like fear, is retrieved, proteins found in the synapses between neurons are degraded, allowing that memory to be updated by incoming information.

To demonstrate how the fear-altering process works, Kaang and his colleagues put mice into a box with a wire mesh bottom and shocked them for one second, teaching them to fear the box.

Digital Forensics: 5 Ways to Spot a Fake Photo

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:05:10 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: the 4 other ways in the website

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Composite images made of pieces from different photographs can display subtle differences in the lighting conditions under which each person or object was originally photographed. Such discrepancies will often go unnoticed by the naked eye.

For an image such as the one at the right, my group can estimate the direction of the light source for each person or object (arrows). Our method relies on the simple fact that the amount of light striking a surface depends on the relative orientation of the surface to the light source. A sphere, for example, is lit the most on the side facing the light and the least on the opposite side, with gradations of shading across its surface according to the angle between the surface and the direction to the light at each point.

For the image above, the light-source direction for the police does not match that for the ducks (arrows). We would have to analyze other items to be sure it was the ducks that were added.

Tags: photography, fake, forensics

Want to be rich? Don't get too happy

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:49:45 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clip Source: money.cnn.com

New research shows income rises with happiness, but bliss can be bad for the bank account.

University of Illinois psychology professor Ed Diener and others have established that while money won't buy happiness, happy people tend to earn more than sad people. A few years ago, however, investing legend John Templeton wrote Diener a letter that had the professor scratching his head. "Is life satisfaction always great?" Templeton asked. "Maybe a little bit of dissatisfaction is okay."

I started wondering," Diener recalls, "do you have to be happier and happier? How happy is happy enough?"

The extreme optimists overspent. They accumulated debt. They didn't save. They were more likely to be day-traders. On the other hand, moderate optimists, recognizing the possibility of a run of bad luck, saved more than extreme optimists did.

Toilet of the future

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:33:19 GMT

clipped by: hitchhiker08
clipper's remarks: Already infamous for spending a lot of time in the loo...with one like this, its goodbye cruel world?!

Clip Source: conceptrends.com

The toilet of the future

It is the toilet of the future. It has a TV, a TiVo, a DVD player, Xbox, laptop, fridge

a megaphone (to let the whole world hear how happy you are), and iPod dock.

I has even some exercise pedals just in case all that sitting on the toilet, eating, playing video games and watching TV makes your ’system’ a bit jammed up .

I am certainly disappointed that the designer didn’t included in a robotic arm to do the dirty work for me!

Tags: toilet, futuristic, invention, hi-tech

The Future Is Now? Pretty Soon, at Least

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:34:49 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Before we get to Ray Kurzweil’s plan for upgrading the “suboptimal software” in your brain, let me pass on some of the cheery news he brought to the World Science Festival last week in New York.

Do you have trouble sticking to a diet? Have patience. Within 10 years, Dr. Kurzweil explained, there will be a drug that lets you eat whatever you want without gaining weight

Worried about greenhouse gas emissions? Have faith. Solar power may look terribly uneconomical at the moment, but with the exponential progress being made in nanoengineering, Dr. Kurzweil calculates that it’ll be cost-competitive with fossil fuels in just five years, and that within 20 years all our energy will come from clean sources.

Are you depressed by the prospect of dying? Well, if you can hang on another 15 years, your life expectancy will keep rising every year faster than you’re aging

t may sound too good to be true, but even his critics acknowledge he’s not your ordinary sci-fi fantasist

Tags: ray kurzweil, singularity, future

Earth's poles long overdue for reversal

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:56:27 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.cosmosmagazine.com

SYDNEY: A reversal of the Earth's magnetic poles could happen sooner than we think, according to Dutch scientists who report that the planet's magnetic field is becoming gradually less stable.

A reversal could affect everything from navigation and communications equipment to the composition of the atmosphere, say experts.

The story of the Earth's magnetic field is written in rocks over time. Because these rocks become 'magnetised' at the time of their formation, scientists can discover which direction the poles were facing and how strong the Earth's magnetic field was at that time.

Current records suggest that we are long overdue for our next reversal, he said. "On average, there is a reversal around every 400,000 years, but this varies a lot." The geological record suggests that the last reversal was around 800,000 years ago.

Tags: earth, geology, polar shift, reversal, magnetism, physics, science

Clipmarks |

The Science of Sarcasm (Not That You Care)

Photo Tampering Throughout History

Drugs to Grow Your Brain

Drugs to Grow Your Brain

Simply the best way to learn languages.

Simply the best way to learn languages.

Login

The social web - power to the people!!!

It's Okay To Keep Those Feelings Inside, New Study Suggests

1000 year old Viking DNA recovered

Researchers Recover Thousand-Year-Old Viking DNA

People With Joint Pain Can Really Forecast Thunderstorms

CHINA: Nuder Than Nude

Conquering Your Fears, One Synapse at a Time

Conquering Your Fears, One Synapse at a Time

Proteins in the brain may be the key to un-learning fear—or retaining memory.

Digital Forensics: 5 Ways to Spot a Fake Photo

Want to be rich? Don't get too happy

New research shows income rises with happiness, but bliss can be bad for the bank account.

Toilet of the future

The toilet of the future

The Future Is Now? Pretty Soon, at Least

Earth's poles long overdue for reversal