Clipmarks | Travels Clips

The Boy With The Incredible Brain

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 03:54:40 GMT

clipped by: taksmaster

[Video]

This is the breathtaking story of Daniel Tammet. A twenty-something with extraordinary mental abilities, Daniel is one of the world’s few ... all » savants. He can do calculations to 100 decimal places in his head, and learn a language in a week. This documentary follows Daniel as he travels to America to meet the scientists who are convinced he may hold the key to unlocking similar abilities in everyone. He also meets the world’s most famous savant, the man who inspired Dustin Hoffman’s character in the Oscar winning film ‘Rain Man’. (2005) «

Tags: pi, savant, autism, neuroscience

Murphy's Lesser Known Laws

Wed, 15 Nov 2006 20:36:09 GMT

clipped by: chela13

Clip Source: www.jumbojoke.com

Murphy's Lesser Known Laws

1. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

2. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

3. Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.

4. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.

5. The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

6. If you lined up all the cars in the world end to end, someone would be stupid enough to try to pass them, five or six at a time, on a hill, in the fog.

7. The things that come to those who wait will be the scraggly junk left by those who got there first.

8. The shin bone is a device for finding furniture in a dark room.

9. A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

10. When you go into court, you are putting yourself into the hands of 12 people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.

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Tags: humor

Worlds 2nd richest man

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 16:24:15 GMT

clipped by: flyingsoulo

Clip Source: kajasmail.blogspot.com

Warren Buffet, The Second Richest Man In World

There was a one hour interview on CNBC with Warren Buffet, the second richest man who has donated $31 billion to charity. Here are some very interesting aspects of his life:
He bought his first share at age 11 and he now regrets that he started too late!
He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.
He still lives in the same small 3 bedroom house in mid-town Omaha, that he bought after he got married 50 years ago. He says that he has everything he needs in that house. His house does not have a wall or a fence.
He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or security people around him.
He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's largest private jet company.
His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies. He writes only one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies, giving them goals for the year. He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis.
He has given his CEO's only two rules.

Rule number 1: do not lose any of your shareholder's money.
Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1.

He does not socialize with the high society crowd. His past time after he gets home is to make himself some pop corn and watch television.
Bill Gates, the world's richest man met him for the first time only 5 years ago. Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with Warren Buffet. So he had scheduled his meeting only for half hour. But when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet.
Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor has a computer on his desk.
His advice to young people: Stay away from credit cards and invest in yourself.

Amazing individual indeed.

Tags: rich, wealth, advice, success, warren buffet

I think you're the father of one of my kids

Wed, 01 Nov 2006 16:13:06 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: members2.boardhost.com

A guy goes to the supermarket and notices a beautiful blond woman wave at him and say hello. He's rather taken aback, because he can't place where he knows her from. So he says, "Do you Know me?"

She replies, "I think you're the father of one of my kids."

Now his mind travels back to the only time he has ever been unfaithful to his wife and says, "My God":

Are you the stripper from my bachelor party that tied me to the the pool table, gagged me with your sequined bra, shaved my pubes, while your partner whipped my butt with wet celery? My buddies still laugh themselves senseless over that night!

She looks into his eyes and calmly says, "No, I'm your son's math teacher."

Tags: joke

Murphy's Other Laws

Sat, 17 Feb 2007 21:15:50 GMT

clipped by: fgviva

Clip Source: mail.google.com

Murphy's Other Laws

1. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

2. A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

3. He who laughs last, thinks slowest.

4. A day without sunshine is like, well, night.

5. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

6. Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.

7. Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.

8. The 50-50-90 rule: Anytime you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, there's a 90% probability you'll get it wrong.

9. It is said that if you line up all the cars in the world end-to-end, someone would be stupid enough to try to pass them.

10. If the shoe fits, get another one just like it.

11. The things that come to those that wait may be the things left by those who got there first.

12. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

13. Flashlight: A case for holding dead batteries.

14. The shin bone is a device for finding furniture.

15. When you go into court, you are putting yourself in the hands of 12 people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty.

Tags: humor

Aborted "Fetus" Speaks Out

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:26:48 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead

Clip Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

• Thirty years ago, Gianna Jessen's mother had an abortion when seven-and-a-half months pregnant.

The abortion failed and, 18 hours later, Gianna (pictured) was born alive.

She suffered cerebral palsy as a result of the botched abortion, yet has defied doctors' predictions that she would never walk.

In fact she has run a marathon, is an accomplished singer and writer and travels the world to campaign against abortion.

Her mother was 17 when she decided to have the abortion. Weighing 2lbs when she was born, she spent several months in hospital fighting for her life, before being placed in a foster home.

Her cerebral palsy, which was caused by her brain being starved of oxygen during the abortion, was diagnosed at 17 months old. Doctors said she would never be able to crawl or even sit-up unaided, much less stand or walk.

She said: "If abortion is about women's rights, then what were my rights?

Tags: science, health, abortion, pregnancy, women

Wizardry at Harvard: Physicists Move Light

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 10:59:31 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Wizardry at Harvard: Physicists Move Light

It’s like three-card monte. Now you see it. Now you don’t. Then you see it — over there.

In a quantum mechanical sleight of hand, Harvard physicists have shown that they can not only bring a pulse of light, the fleetest of nature’s particles, to a complete halt, but also resuscitate the light at a different location and let it continue on its way.

That ability to catch, store, move and release light could be used in future computers to process information encoded in the light pulses.

“It’s been a wonderful problem to try to wrap your brain around,” said Lene Vestergaard Hau, a professor of physics at Harvard and senior author of a paper describing the experiment that appears today in the journal Nature. “There are so many doors that open up.”

In 1999, Dr. Hau headed a team of scientists that slowed light, which travels a brisk 186,282 miles a second when unimpeded, to a leisurely 38 miles an hour by shining it into an exotic, ultracooled cloud of sodium atoms. At temperatures a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, the atoms coalesce into a single quantum mechanical entity known as a Bose-Einstein condensate. Shining a laser on the cloud tunes its optical properties so that it becomes molasses when a second light pulse enters it.

The latest results add an additional twist: transporting the pulse to a second Bose-Einstein cloud and regenerating the light there. “That’s the sort of stuff we find really sexy in this business,” said Eric A. Cornell, a senior scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

In the new Harvard experiment, when the initial pulse slammed into the first Bose-Einstein cloud, the collision caused 50,000 to 100,000 of the sodium atoms to start spinning, almost like small tops, and pushed this small clump forward at less than a mile an hour.

Tags: science, research, light, harvard, physics, breakthrough, computers

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

Encyclopedia Of Spices

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 04:08:14 GMT

clipped by: Socratoad

Clip Source: www.theepicentre.com

Ajowan

Chervil

Chile - Chili- Chilli
(general info)

Melegueta Pepper
(Grains of Paradise)

Nigella

Parsley

Rosemary

Sage

Tarragon

Thyme

Turmeric

Vanilla

Zedoary

African and Middle Eastern Spice Blends: Baharat, Berbere, Chermoula, Dukkah, Harissa, La Kama, Ras el Hanout, Tsire, Za'atar (Zahtar)

American Spice Blends: Apple Pie Spice, Cajun Blackening Spice, Chili Powder, Old Bay Seasoning, Pumpkin Pie Spice

Asian Blends: Chinese 5-spice, Chinese Seasoned Salt, Shichimi-togarashi

British Blends: Mixed Spice (Pudding Spice), Pickling Spice

Classic French Herb and Spice Blends: Bouquet Garni, Fines Herbes, Herbes de Provence, Quatre Epice

Indian Masalas: Chaat Masala, Garam Masala, Green Masala, Madrasi Masala, Panch Phoron, Sambar

The Spice Trade, A Taste of Adventure from the Economist is a fascinating accounting of how the history of the spice trade is the history of commerce and modern civilization.

Spices, or the Dawn of the Modern Age from Tastes of Paradise, a social history of spices, stimulants and intoxicants.

Pepper: King of Spices tells how pepper virtually changed the course of history by playing a key role in the development of trade and conquest.

Books on the Spice Trade and Food History reviews some excellent books on the subject. Included: Spice: The History of a Temptation, Dangerous Tastes: The Story of Spices, Nathaniel's Nutmeg, True History of Chocolate, Vanilla: Travels In Search of the Ice Cream Orchid, Salt: A World History, Bittersweet: The Story of Sugar, and History of the World in Six Glasses .

Tags: spices, food, cooking

Brain Cells are volume knobs, not wiring

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:32:43 GMT

clipped by: kmakice

Clip Source: www.physorg.com

Scientists know that information travels between brain cells along hairlike extensions called axons. For the first time, researchers have found that axons don’t just transmit information – they can turn the signal up or down with the right stimulation.

This finding may help scientists develop treatments for psychiatric disorders such as depression and schizophrenia in which it is thought that different parts of the brain do not communicate correctly with each other.

“Axons, we thought, were like wires in a radio conveying signals, but we found that if you stimulate the axon, the signal can be altered, like turning the volume knob on the radio,” Metherate said.

“We looked for more conventional reasons why the response was enhanced, but the evidence just kept pointing to the axon. Nicotine activated the proteins that we think are on the axon,” Metherate said. “This is a completely new idea about how the brain works.”

Tags: brain, cognitive function, axons

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!

There is Magic in Reading Books

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 21:38:19 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 silky touch of the new book covers, the amazing trials and turbulences of the lives of the people within the colorful covers, the sheer volume of the books, the photos and the pictures, the life-long journey of the characters! There is magic in reading the books!

Radio burst from space mystifies astronomers

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 01:08:42 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Astronomers who stumbled upon a powerful burst of radio waves said on Thursday they had never seen anything like it before, and it could offer a new way to search for colliding stars or dying black holes.

They were searching for pulsars -- a type of rotating compacted neutron star that sends out rhythmic pulses of radiation -- when they spotted the giant radio signal.

It was extremely brief but very strong, and appears to have come from about 3 billion light-years away -- a light-year being the distance light travels in a year, or about 6 trillion miles.

"This burst appears to have originated from the distant universe and may have been produced by an exotic event such as the collision of two neutron stars or the death throes of an evaporating black hole," said Duncan Lorimer of West Virginia University and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Tags: astronomy, pulsars, radio signals, science

My stroke of Insight

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:38:57 GMT

clipped by: Fast T friend
clipper's remarks: "How many brain scientists have been able to study the brain from the inside out? I've gotten as much out of this experience of losing my left mind as I have in my entire academic career."
Jill Bolte Taylor (TED talk video at source)

Clip Source: www.ted.com

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.

Clip Source: www.ted.com

Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right. From her home base in Indiana, she now travels the country on behalf of the Harvard Brain Bank as the "Singin' Scientist."

Tags: brain, stroke, jill, bolte, taylor, insight