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Mirrors Don’t Lie.. : -)

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 07:34:05 GMT

clipped by: einbar
clipper's remarks: “When people are made to be self-aware, they are likelier to stop and think about what they are doing,” Dr. Bodenhausen said. “A byproduct of that awareness may be a shift away from acting on autopilot toward more desirable ways of behaving.” Physical self-reflection, in other words, encourages philosophical self-reflection, a crash course in the Socratic notion that you cannot know or appreciate others until you know yourself. "

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

For the aging narcissist of Shakespeare’s 62nd sonnet, the mirror delivered a much-needed whack to his vanity, the sight of a face “beated and chopp’d with tann’d antiquity” underscoring the limits of self-love.

To scientists, the simultaneous simplicity and complexity of mirrors make them powerful tools for exploring questions about perception and cognition in humans and other neuronally gifted species, and how the brain interprets and acts upon the great tides of sensory information from the external world.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

How can we be so self-delusional when the truth stares back at us? “Although we do indeed see ourselves in the mirror every day, we don’t look exactly the same every time,”

“Which image is you?”

“Our research shows that people, on average, resolve that ambiguity in their favor, forming a representation of their image that is more attractive than they actually are.”

Multimedia

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Mirror Images

Is a 'Dark Force' Pushing the Universe Apart?

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 02:33:28 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Astronomers now recognize that the eventual fate of the universe is inextricably tied to the presence of dark energy and dark matter.The current standard model for cosmology describes a universe that is 70 percent dark energy, 25 percent dark matter, and only 5 percent normal matter.

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

"Reality is nothing but a collective hunch." Lily Tomlin -Comedian and philosopher.

No observation in recent history of science has been more disturbing than the discovery of dark energy in 1998.

Dark energy seems to differ from all forms of energy and matter previously known, in that its not associated with any particles or waves. It is just there.

What happened in 1998 was that observations of supernovas in distant galaxies indicated that the universe was accelerating in that could best be explained by the existence of a dark energy.

Recent measurements with telescopes and space probes of the distribution of mass in M31 -the largest galaxy in the neighborhood of the Milky Way

have shown that a mysterious force—a dark energy—fills the vacuum of empty space, accelerating the universe's expansion.

We don't know what dark energy is, or why it exists.

A new theory of particle physics is required to explain this physical process.

Tags: astronomy, cosmology, dark energy

In Vitro We Trust

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:16:02 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: Happy Birthday

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Louise Brown turns 30 on Friday. These days, her name elicits little more than a mystified head shake. Who was she again? Let me refresh your memory: Little Louise was the world’s first “test-tube baby,” what we now refer to as an I.V.F. kid, or simply “the twins down the block.”

Brown’s life today is as unremarkable as the circumstances of her conception have become: she’s worked as an administrative assistant in Bristol, England, and is married with a naturally conceived toddler of her own. It’s hard to imagine that she begat one of the major revolutions of the 20th century: since her debut, more than three million babies have been born worldwide using I.V.F. or other reproductive technologies.

No one knows what the next 30 years will bring. What I can envision, in a way that no one who gets pregnant easily possibly could, is what would make a couple take that initial, terrifying leap into the unknown. And I can also guess why the Browns chose their baby daughter’s middle name: Joy.

Tags: ivf, history

Bodypaint

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:11:38 GMT

clipped by: n2sooners

Clip Source: abduzeedo.com

Tags: painting, photography, art, bodypaint

Optimism is good for heart health, at least among men.

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 18:50:06 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: Its known for long that ignorance is bliss, now we know it also improves one's health.

Clip Source: www.zmelifetips.com

Clip Source: www.brainmysteries.com

University of Rochester Medical Center researcher Robert Gramling, M.D., D.Sc., found that men who believed they were at lower-than-average risk for cardiovascular disease actually experienced a three times lower incidence of death from heart attacks and strokes.

Researchers were interested in measuring whether optimistic perceptions of risk might protect people from the fear-related coping behaviors (overeating comfort foods, too much alcohol, or avoiding the doctor) or the stress that can be associated with heart disease.

Men's views were more discordant. Almost half of the men who self-rated their risk to be "low" would have been classified by objective medical tests as having "high" or "very high" risk. Most women who rated their risk to be "low" were far more accurate than the men.

"Clearly, holding optimistic perceptions of risk has its advantages for men," said Gramling, an assistant professor of Family Medicine and Community and Preventive Medicine.

Tags: health, positive thinking, behavior, psychology