Clipmarks | Deep thought Clips

Telescope spots monster galactic cluster

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 05:08:22 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: They theorize that the fact that it's 7.7 billion light years away (as far as they know) meant that it was before the acceleration due to dark energy made it impossible for galactic clusters that large to hold together.
It reminded me of a poem by Hughes Mearns.
'Antigonish'
As I was going up the stair,
I saw a star that wasn’t there.
It wasn’t there again today,
I wish, that star would stay away.
(I thought I'd adjust it to cover Light years, and dark matter.)

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

A massive cluster of galaxies in deep space imaged spotted by an orbiting observatory can only be explained by the exotic phenomenon known as dark energy, say astronomers.

The huge galactic cluster, which appears as a blue cloud in this image, may help confirm the existence of dark energy

The observation was made by a team led by Georg Lamer of the Potsdam Astrophysics Institute, Germany, using the European Space Agency's (ESA) orbiting x-ray telescope XMM-Newton.

Their findings will appear in

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Intrigued by the indicators of scorching gases spewed out by x-ray sources, the team followed up by obtaining a deep exposure image of the region from a large binocular telescope in the Arizona desert.

Known by its catalogue number of 2XMM J083026+524133, the cluster's mass is about 1000 times that of our own galaxy and lies 7.7 billion light years from earth

in more recent times, massive galaxy clusters have lacked the gravitational glue to be able to form

Naturalism's Hot Water

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:10:12 GMT

clipped by: willhelm
clipper's remarks: The problem, as several thinkers (C. S. Lewis, for example) have seen, is that naturalism, or evolutionary naturalism, seems to lead to a deep and pervasive skepticism. It leads to the conclusion that our cognitive or belief-producing faculties—memory, perception, logical insight, etc.—are unreliable and cannot be trusted to produce a preponderance of true beliefs over false....

Clip Source: str.typepad.com

Alvin Plantinga, philosophy professor emeritus from Notre Dame, shows why the basic presuppositions and worldview of the new atheists undermine their claim to hold the rationally superior beliefs about religion:

I believe it's extremely important to see that naturalism itself, despite the smug and arrogant tone of the so-called New Atheists, is in very serious philosophical hot water: one can't sensibly believe it....

[T]his is true on several counts, but here I want to concentrate on just one—one connected with the thought that evolution supports or endorses or is in some way evidence for naturalism. As I see it, this is a whopping error: evolution and naturalism are not merely uneasy bedfellows; they are more like belligerent combatants. One can't rationally accept both evolution and naturalism; one can't rationally be an evolutionary naturalist.

Tags: naturalism, evolution, science, religion

russians in giorgia

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:27:43 GMT

clipped by: silvanaraihane

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

In pictures: Russians in Georgia

Russian tanks remain deep inside Georgian territory despite a ceasefire deal. Russian forces are thought to control much of Georgia's main east-west highway.

Back

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z

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 22:45:12 GMT

clipped by: hjc123

Clip Source: esl-lab.com

Girl: Dad, will you read to me?

Dad: Uh, let me finish the newspaper first?

Girl: You've been saying that forever!

Dad: Well, how about reading the business section of the newspaper together?

Girl: That's boring. Let's read this book. It's about a bear and cat that becomes friends. [Okay] And these books too.

Dad: Whoa. I thought you said one book. There must be ten here.

Girl: My teacher, Mrs. Green, says you have to read to me every night, and the newspaper doesn't count. And let's eat some popcorn and cookies while we're reading

Dad: Well, it's bedtime right now. So, okay, here we go. Once upon a time in a deep, dark forest, lived a brown bear . . .

AND YOU THOUGHT MY SHIT BURNED YOU UP !

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:38:49 GMT

clipped by: jt3600
clipper's remarks: So deep fried twinke's wasn't enough !

Clip Source: gizmodo.com

Save Water by Barbecuing Your Poop

Robot controlled by own biological brain

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 04:06:18 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: They used rat neurones. Maybe we'll discover what rats have been thinking, or how the nature of thinking varies from species to species, if and what significant 'character' differences there are. We may even find rats have the potential to be much smarter than we thought they were.
The neurons act in response to stimuli. Maybe the best way to describe them is 'curious'
It can be fairly certain there will be no official testing with human neurones, but there will be testing. I also wonder if the instinct for self preservation goes that deep - Sounds like the kind of thing that would interest the military.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

A robot that controls itself with its own biological brain of cultured neurones, has been designed by UK researchers.

The neurone-powered robot, called Gordon, was unveiled

at the University of Reading

"The purpose is to figure out how memories are actually stored in a biological brain," says Professor Kevin Warwick, head of cybernetics

Gordon has a brain composed of 50,000 to 100,000 active neurones.

Once removed from rat foetuses and disentangled from each other in an enzyme bath, the specialised nerve cells are laid out in a nutrient-rich medium across an eight-by-eight centimetre array of 60 electrodes.

This "multi-electrode array" (MEA) serves as the interface between living tissue and machine

the brain sending electrical impulses to drive the wheels of the robots, and receiving impulses delivered by sensors reacting to the environment

Because the brain is living tissue, it must be housed in a special temperature-controlled unit and communicates with its "body" via a Bluetooth radio link.

Pelosi Wants to Save the Planet?

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 07:36:07 GMT

clipped by: bmeuppls
clipper's remarks: Democrats want no oil from the American OCS or ANWR. But of course they do want more oil. From OPEC. From where Americans don't vote. From places Democratic legislators can't see. On May 13 Sen. Chuck Schumer -- deeply committed to saving just those pieces of the planet that might have huge reserves of American oil -- demanded that the Saudis increase production by a million barrels a day. It doesn't occur to him that by eschewing the slightest disturbance of the mating habits of the Arctic caribou, he is calling for the further exploitation of the pristine deserts of Arabia. In the name of the planet, mind you.

The desire to swing a cluebat at these twits is strong....

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

A lovely sentiment. But has Pelosi actually thought through the moratorium's effects on the planet?

Places such as Nigeria, where chronic corruption, environmental neglect and the resulting unrest and instability lead to pipeline explosions, oil spills and illegal siphoning by the poverty-stricken population -- which leads to more spills and explosions. Just this week, two Royal Dutch Shell pipelines had to be shut down because bombings by local militants were causing leaks into the ground.

Compare the Niger Delta to the Gulf of Mexico, where deep-sea U.S. oil rigs withstood Hurricanes Katrina and Rita without a single undersea well suffering a significant spill.

The United States has the highest technology to ensure the safest drilling. Today, directional drilling -- essentially drilling down, then sideways -- allows access to oil that in 1970 would have required a surface footprint more than three times as large.

Tags: politics, energy

3 Aces Hope and love on the American road

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 06:33:05 GMT

clipped by: 3acesthenovel
clipper's remarks: When I brought this subject to the fore a few posts ago, its appearance was occasioned by several local readers of my novel, 3ACES, who professed puzzlement over the terms they were crashing into in their dash through the book.

Clip Source: 3acesthenovel.com

When I brought this subject to the fore a few posts ago, its appearance was occasioned by several local readers of my novel, 3ACES, who professed puzzlement over the terms they were crashing into in their dash through the book. Of course, after nine years on the road as a long haul trucker, the terms were second nature to me…I had thought they would be largely self-explanatory, as most of them applied directly to the ongoing actions of the scenes in question…but to my readers, they remained a deep, dark mystery begging explanation. Read the rest of this entry »

I'm Missing You

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:33:02 GMT

clipped by: yma24

Clip Source: opmlyrics.grabeh.com

I’m Missing You Lyrics
By Bea Alonzo

I miss your love, since you’ve been gone
I find it hard to go on
The summer sky don’t mean a thing
I thought I’d always be strong
I got a feeling inside
and it’s making my heart cry, cause

I’m missing you
and it’s making me blue, yeah
I’m missing you
but what can I do
Thousand miles away, from you

So here I am, and everything’s new
I should be happy in love
but all I know, I look deep in my eyes
I’ve never felt so alone
and this feeling inside
it’s making my heart cry, cause

I’m missing you
and it’s making me blue, yeah
I’m missing you
but what can I do
Thousand miles away, from you

So what’s the meaning of this
to be living like this
it ain’t no fun at all
I wonder where are you now
(I wonder where are you now)

I miss your love since you been gone
I find it hard to go on
and this feeling inside
I just break down and cry

Quotes

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:57:39 GMT

clipped by: topdawg713

Clip Source: www.quotegarden.com

We are more often treacherous through weakness than through calculation. ~Francois De La Rochefoucauld

Only that in you which is me can hear what I'm saying. ~Baba Ram Dass

Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth. ~Ludwig Börne

Wars and elections are both too big and too small to matter in the long run. The daily work - that goes on, it adds up. ~Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. ~Henri Louis Bergson

If you think you're free, there's no escape possible. ~Ram Dass

Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet. ~Roger Miller

What deep wounds ever closed without a scar? ~George Gordon, Lord Byron, Child Harold's Pilgrimage

We waste a lot of time running after people we could have caught by just standing still. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

The scars you can't see are the hardest to heal. ~Astrid Alauda

No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place. ~Zen

You can't fall off the floor. ~Author Unknown

Encephalon #50 Edition: Brain & Mind Research

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:38:10 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: and much more....

Clip Source: www.sharpbrains.com

Welcome to Encephalon´s 50th edition, where you will find another superb collection of blog posts on all things Brain and Mind.

Clip Source: www.sharpbrains.com

Enjoy these contributions:

Science & Technology

Mind Hacks reports that Facebook ate my psychiatrist. We can learn about the benefits of social networking sites like Facebook,

Dungeons And Dragons - Or Mazes And Monsters?: PodBlack Cat offers a thought-provoking review of the therapy (including self-therapy) applications of role-playing games

Uses of Deep Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS): Brain Stimulant explores emerging and potential future applications of this non-invasive intervention. Weight loss? Alzheimer´s? Schizophrenia? Depression?. Check it out to read respective developments.

Research

The function of a Fearful Expression

Clip Source: www.sharpbrains.com

Oh Happiness.

Improve Memory with Sleep, Practice, and Testing:

Tags: brain, mind, research, science, technology

We Almost Forgot To Pump Oil

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:55:05 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "Whooee, what a crazy story this will make when I tell my environmentally committed board of directors. If I can get them to stop planting trees long enough to hear me, that is. Ha! Not likely! Who wants to take time away from helping preserve the world around us to listen to me rattle on about petroleum profits? Certainly not anyone at BP, that's for sure!
Oh, look! I'm waist-deep in cash right now! I didn't even see all this money piling up around my desk. I guess I've just been so focused on developing cost-efficient, clean-burning hydrogen cells that I wasn't even paying attention."

Clip Source: mobile.theonion.com

Ever since we changed our name from British Petroleum to BP (Beyond Petroleum) in 2000, we've led the way in developing progressive, environmentally friendly alternatives to gasoline. These last few years of pouring money into biofuels and renewable energy sources have been so great that I can't for the life of me remember why we used to drill for dirty old oil in the first place!

Wait—the price of oil is what? Over $4 a gallon? No way! Say, we must be making a fortune, huh? How the heck did that happen? Holy cow: Now that I'm looking over these annual revenue figures for the first time, I see that while I was doing all those other things, we made a couple hundred billion bucks!

Geez, we're really raking it in! Who would've thought? I had no idea oil was still this profitable.

Say what now? War? In Iraq? Over oil? Man oh man, international geopolitics sure is mired in the past.

Tags: laughing, is, better, than, crying, i, guess

Three Servicemen sculpture in Apalachicola honors Vietnam Vets

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:26:05 GMT

clipped by: floridapublisher
clipper's remarks: "And beyond that, he wanted the sculpture to be a heartfelt and simple thank you from the citizens of this nation to the service and sacrifice of the veterans and their families."

She quoted from her husband's last public speech in May 1999, a few months before his death.

"By the expressions on the faces of the intensity of the strain and the anguish that was part of the Vietnam veterans experience on the battlefield and at homecoming, and by their endurance and youthful dedication to duty, they reveal themselves as true heroes," she said.

She told of how the sculptor had learned from his talks with Vietnam vets that "all treasured their deep bonds of loyalty, comradeship and interdependence," or as one veteran put it, "At first we thought we were fighting for our country but soon we came to realize we were fighting for each other."

Clip Source: tallahassee.com

Apalachicola sculpture a 'sobering symbol' of Vietnam War

Punctuated by the roar of fighter jets, the rumble of helicopters and the wail of bagpipes, Apalachicola christened its Veterans Memorial Plaza Saturday morning before a large flag-waving assembly.

Just as Jan Scruggs, founder of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C., completed his keynote address, Jimmy Mosconis, his former staff sergeant in Vietnam, and Lindy Hart, widow of sculptor Frederick Hart, lifted the cloth covering off the plaza's centerpiece: a detail from "The Three Servicemen" statue that stands adjacent to the Vietnam Memorial wall in Washington.

"My husband, 'Rick,' as he was known, worked very hard to create a sculpture that would portray the veterans in every detail, the dog tags laced in the boots, the bug spray in the boonie hat. He wanted every fold of the fatigue uniform to be a tribute," she said

I wanted coming generations to understand the profound importance of the bonds of men in combat,

Tags: vietnam veterans, soldiers, sculpture, frederick hart, apalachicola

The Urge To End It All

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 15:24:27 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "Quite inadvertently, the British gas conversion proved that the incidence of suicide across an entire society could be radically reduced, upending the conventional wisdom about suicide in the process.
At least a partial answer is that many of those Britons who asphyxiated themselves did so impulsively. In a moment of deep despair or rage or sadness, they turned to what was easy and quick and deadly — “the execution chamber in everyone’s kitchen,” as one psychologist described it — and that instrument allowed little time for second thoughts. Remove it, and the process slowed down; it allowed time for the dark passion to pass."

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

There is but one truly serious philosophical problem,” Albert Camus wrote, “and that is suicide.” How to explain why, among the only species capable of pondering its own demise, whose desperate attempts to forestall mortality have spawned both armies and branches of medicine in a perpetual search for the Fountain of Youth, there are those who, by their own hand, would choose death over life? Our contradictory reactions to the act speak to the conflicted hold it has on our imaginations: revulsion mixed with fascination, scorn leavened with pity.

Then there is the most disheartening aspect of the riddle. The National Institute of Mental Health says that 90 percent of all suicide “completers” display some form of diagnosable mental disorder. But if so, why have advances in the treatment of mental illness had so little effect?

But if we want to unravel posthumously the thought processes of the lost with an eye to saving lives in the future, the “how” may be the best place to look.

Yeah, these philosophy professors will give it some thought

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:41:29 GMT

clipped by: Kelika
clipper's remarks: "the program that questions everything . . . except your intelligence."

Taylor: "Thank you for listening."

Perry: "And thank you for thinking."

Clip Source: www.latimes.com

On their weekly Bay Area radio show, Ken Taylor and John Perry go deep with their listeners. Among the duo's musings: 'If Truth is so valuable, why is there so much B.S.?'

It was just another Sunday morning for Ken Taylor and John Perry, who dissect life's big mysteries on "Philosophy Talk," believed to be America's only live weekly call-in radio show dedicated to the philosophical.

They've prodded political correctness, postmodernism and prostitution. They've wondered aloud: "Can science explain consciousness?" "If Truth is so valuable, why is there so much B.S.?" "What are numbers?" "What is a child?"

The show began airing weekly in January 2004 and has since been picked up by Oregon Public Radio, which airs Taylor and Perry statewide. They can be heard on stations in New York, Louisiana, Colorado and British Columbia, and on KUCR in Riverside. Listeners everywhere can tune in online at www.philosophytalk.org.