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What Does It Mean to Be Human?

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:14:59 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: and your answer?

A star-studded panel of scientists gathered to discuss those heady themes last night at the World Science Festival in New York City. Here are their answers in convenient nutshell form:

Marvin Minsky, artificial intelligence pioneer: We do something other species can't: We remember. We have cultures, ways of transmitting information.

Daniel Dennett, cognitive scientist: We are the first species that represents our reasons, and can reason with each other. "The planet has grown a nervous system," he said.

Antonio Damasio, neuroscientist: The critical unique factor is language. Creativity. The religious and scientific impulse. And our social organization, which has developed to a prodigious degree. We have a record of history, moral behavior, economics, political and social institutions. We're probably unique in our ability to investigate the future, imagine outcomes, and display images in our minds

Tags: question, deep question, human, meaning

Ancient Greece Pictures

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:39:30 GMT

clipped by: tabsey

Clip Source: history.howstuffworks.com

Tags: old, bald, and, falling, down-sound, familiar?

The real cost of bottled water

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:50:41 GMT

clipped by: boniface

Clip Source: www.sfgate.com

Maybe it's because we think bottled water is cleaner and somehow better, but that's not true. The federal standards for tap water are higher than those for bottled water.

The Environmental Law Foundation has sued eight bottlers for using words such as "pure" to market water that contains bacteria, arsenic and chlorine. Bottled water is no bargain either: It costs 240 to 10,000 times more than tap water. For the price of one bottle of Evian, a San Franciscan can receive 1,000 gallons of tap water. Forty percent of bottled water should be labeled bottled tap water because that is exactly what it is. But even that doesn't dampen the demand.

Most of the price of a bottle of water goes for its bottling, packaging, shipping, marketing, retailing and profit. Transporting bottled water by boat, truck and train involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels.

More than 1 billion plastic water bottles end up in the California's trash each year

Tags: the, real, cost, of, bottled, water

Creative Egg-xample

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:29:32 GMT

clipped by: CarnivalBorn

Clip Source: funlobby.com

Grandfather builds Web browser for autistic boy

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:34:46 GMT

clipped by: boozich
clipper's remarks: the Zac browser

Clip Source: www.boston.com

boy has autism, and the whirlwind of options presented by PCs so confounded him

Zac Browser For Autistic Children in honor of his grandson, and is making it available to anyone for free

The Zac Browser greatly simplifies the experience of using a computer. It seals off most Web sites from view, to block violent, sexual or otherwise adult-themed material. Instead it presents a hand-picked slate of choices from free, public Web sites, with an emphasis on educational games

reduces the controls available for children like

Zackary, who finds too many choices overwhelming

"We're trying to avoid aggressive or very dark or complicated Web sites, because it's all about self-esteem,"

"If they're not under control, they will get easily frustrated."

Perhaps most tellingly, while he still acts out aggressively against the TV, she said, he doesn't try to harm the computer.

Clip Source: www.boston.com

approach of limiting distractions and using the software as a confidence-boosting tool "is a very good idea

http://www.zacbrowser.com

Mars and the Human Psyche

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:52:41 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

Scientists Ask: How Will a Manned Mars Mission Effect the Human Psyche?

Not surprisingly, coverage of the Mars lander that successfully touched down on Mars’ surface last week, and its apparent discovery of ice underneath its landing site, has sent the media in to a Mars craze. Not to be left out, we’ve decided to follow CNN’s lead and take a look at another aspect of humanities journey to Mars; the brain.

Long before we ever set foot on Mars, there will be a veritable backlog of psychological and scientific tests conducted on the human capacity to survive such a journey. Mars isn’t next door, like our Moon is, and so journeys are not going to be taking place several times a year. A journey of more like 2 years, and that’s just to get there, is expected, and not exactly in living conditions you’d care to experience.

"Nobody in the history of mankind has ever experienced the Earth as a pale, insignificant blue dot in the sky," he said. "What that might do to a crew member, nobody knows."

Tags: mars, human psyche, effects, long voyag

Giant Pandas being fed at a zoo! pic

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:14:37 GMT

clipped by: mugofcoffee

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

A group of giant pandas is fed at a zoo in Beijing, after the animals were moved from the Wolong breeding centre because of food shortages and damage after the 12 May earthquake in the region.

Antidepressant may hold key to long life

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:41:41 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

Antidepressant may hold key to long life

An antidepressant drug has been found to boost lifespan by around 30 per cent by tricking the brain to thinking it is starving.

A wide range of studies on creatures as diverse as fruit flies and mice have shown that restricting calories, while still obtaining all key nutrients, can extend life span by up to half.

Now it seems that one kind of antidepressant drug may be able to achieve a similar effect by triggering the same circuits in the brain as starvation.

Although the study was done in the nematode worms Caenorhabditis elegans it will give a boost to research to find new ways for people to hold back the ravages of time.

The study in the journal Nature reports how Prof Linda Buck and her colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, Seattle, screened 88,000 chemicals to see whether they had lifespan-enhancing effects on C. elegans.

"in 15 years, your life expectancy will keep rising every year faster than you’re aging."

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:26:00 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: 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.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The Future Is Now? Pretty Soon, at Least

some of the cheery news

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. And then, before the century is even half over, you can be around for the Singularity, that revolutionary transition when humans and/or machines start evolving into immortal beings with ever-improving software.

The sad face of Anorexia

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:35:27 GMT

clipped by: CarnivalBorn
clipper's remarks: Although these images come from funlobby, these are truly some sad photos. I love my curves even more now

Clip Source: funlobby.com

Hunger, water scarcity displaces thousands of Afghans

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:08:03 GMT

clipped by: Deepti
clipper's remarks: Faced by violence in the past two years, the bloodiest since the Taliban's ouster in 2001, and frustration from many Afghans about perceived lack of development, the government has been seeking ways to import flour or wheat to curb rising food prices

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

Many parts of Afghanistan did not receive enough rain and snow this year, increasing concern the country may face drought again, amid global soaring food prices that have already hit the mountainous and war-torn country

Thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes due to food and water shortages in northern Afghanistan

The exodus of nearly 2,000 families this week from Chemtal district of Balkh province comes despite the government sending 37 tons of food and some water for distribution for the people under a food for work project days earlier, the government said

An average Afghan family usually has at least four members

Water and food shortages have forced several families to eat grass, resulting in some deaths in recent weeks in different parts of northern Afghanistan

In some areas water-fed crops have died due to lack of rain and in some others an unprecedented infestation of locusts has destroyed cultivated fields in recent weeks

Tags: afghanistan, hunger, water, government, scarcity, drought

German Advice on Avoiding Brits

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:55:28 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Germany's tabloid newspaper, Bild, has printed a list of holiday resorts to avoid - those dominated by the British.

This comes after a British man was awarded £750 (953 euros) after suing his travel company over a holiday at a resort filled with Germans.

Just in case the Germans have a problem identifying British tourists abroad, Bild has a guide on its online version, illustrated with an unappealing photo of two sunburnt women on sun chairs.

It also ridicules British cuisine, binge-drinking, fashion and sport, says that "athletically they are not up to much, they can't even take penalties" and points out that Austria and Switzerland - the hosts of this summer's Euro 2008 football championships - will be largely British-free zones this year as no British teams have qualified.

Tags: euro2008

The growing stones of Romania

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 10:06:48 GMT

clipped by: valann 47

Clip Source: frostfirezoo.com

You’re looking at something that is quite strange: these are rocks found in Romania called "trovants." The locals call them "growing stones," and for a good reason: after the rain, small round protrusions appear as the rocks grow!

Tags: romania, trovants, growing rocks

Bacterial species is found trapped in 120,000-year-old ice

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:51:33 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.eurekalert.org

A team of Penn State scientists has discovered a new ultra-small species of bacteria that has survived for more than 120,000 years within the ice of a Greenland glacier at a depth of nearly two miles.

The microorganism's ability to persist in this low-temperature, high-pressure, reduced-oxygen, and nutrient-poor habitat makes it particularly useful for studying how life, in general, can survive in a variety of extreme environments on Earth and possibly elsewhere in the solar system.

This new species is among the ubiquitous, yet mysterious, ultra-small bacteria, which are so tiny that the cells are able to pass through microbiological filters.

n fact, some species have been found living in the ultra-purified water used for dialysis.

Tags: bacteria, species

The immense journey

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:39:19 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

"The Immense Journey" -Is the Human Species on Evolution's Fast Track?

“It was the failures who had always won, but by the time they won they had come to be called successes. This is the final paradox, which men call evolution.”

Loren Eiseley was born on the bleak plains of Nebraska in 1907, a haunted man who grew up in a haunted house, dominated by the stony silence of a deaf, mentally unstable mother- a cosmic outcast whose etched sense ''aloneness in the universe'' infused his brilliant essays on science and man's place in the universe with a stark, terrifying beauty.

In his journals he wrote of our immense journey as a species that "eventually man would learn, to his humiliation, that his road was the road of other creatures, that it was marked with all the cryptic ambiguities which constantly beset the evolutionary pathway - that through these same rents and fissures, biological failures, or seeming failures, might tumble through the life-withholding mesh into paradoxical success."

Tags: evolution, journey