Clipmarks | Survival Clips

Why We're All Moral Hypocrites

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:59:09 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: The researchers then "constrained cognition" by asking subjects to memorize long strings of numbers. In this greatly distracted state, subjects became impartial. They thought their own transgressions were just as terrible as those of others.

This suggests that we are intuitively moral beings, but "when we are given time to think about it, we construct arguments about why what we did wasn’t that bad,"

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Most of us, whether we admit it or not, are moral hypocrites. We judge others more severely than we judge ourselves.

Mounting evidence suggests moral decisions result from the jousting between our knee-jerk responses (think "survival instinct") and our slower, but more collected evaluations. Which is more responsible for our self-leniency?

a recent study presented people with two tasks.

One was described as tedious and time-consuming

the other, easy and brief.

The subjects were asked to assign each task to either themselves or the next participant.

They could do this independently or defer to a computer, which would assign the tasks randomly.

Eighty-five percent of 42 subjects passed up the computer’s objectivity and assigned themselves the short task – leaving the laborious one to someone else.

Furthermore, they thought their decision was fair

However, when 43 other subjects watched strangers make the same decision, they thought it unjust.

Tags: behavior, morality, psychology

New vaccine sneaks into body, then self-destructs

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:12:41 GMT

clipped by: A53GG4

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

New vaccine sneaks into body, then self-destructs

Mon Jul 7, 2008 8:37pm EDT

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new type of vaccine that sneaks into the body and then self-destructs -- all without needles -- may offer a new way to protect against a range of diseases, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

The researchers genetically engineered a type of Salmonella bacteria to carry a little piece of Streptococcus and dripped it into the mouths of mice.

Reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they said the vaccine protected the mice, and the Salmonella carrier blew itself up.

"We have developed a technique of biological containment where the microorganism self-destructs," Roy Curtiss of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

"Not only does the bacteria lyse (break open) and die and have no survival, but it can be used with an antigen," Curtiss added.

Tags: health

Can Recycling Be Used To Treat Cancer?

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:56:53 GMT

clipped by: Mohir
clipper's remarks: The researchers discovered a compound, STF-62247, that was selectively toxic to RCCs deficient in VHL whereas cells with normal VHL were not affected. Treatment of RCC cells lacking functional VHL induced autophagy, a cellular recycling process that cells normally use to conserve resources during times of stress. "Increasing evidence implicates a role for autophagy in cancer, but it is not well understood how cellular and environmental cues drive autophagic cells down survival or death pathways," explains Dr. Giaccia.
The researchers demonstrated that STF-62247 enhanced autophagy in VHL-deficient cells while inhibition of the autophagy pathway significantly increased the survival of VHL-deficient cells treated with STF-62247. "We have found a small molecule that selectively induces cell death in VHL-deficient cells, such as those that are found in kidney cancer. This represents a paradigm shift for targeted therapy," concludes Dr. Giaccia.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

We already know that recycling benefits our planet; and now new research suggests that the cellular version might be useful for battling cancer. Scientists at Stanford University have identified a molecule that uses this unexpected pathway to selectively kill cancer cells.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the most common form of kidney cancer, is nearly always caused by mutation of the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) tumor suppressor gene and often does not respond well to treatment.

"Since RCCs have a poor prognosis and are refractory to standard chemotherapies, there is a need to develop new therapies for kidney cancer," says senior author Dr. Amato J. Giaccia. Dr. Giaccia and colleagues used a sophisticated screening procedure to search for molecules that could selectively destroy VHL-deficient kidney cancer.

Tags: cancer, health, recycle

lists

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:07:32 GMT

clipped by: dionsorrell
clipper's remarks: survival

Clip Source: listorganizer.com

ITEMS TO BUY FOR EMERGENCY 72 HOUR KIT

Container for Kit--Backpack, Suitcase, Plastic bucket, Duffle bag

Water--Bottled, Plastic container, Canteen

Water purification tablets or portable filter

Food--Dried fruit or fruit leather

Clip Source: clipmarks.com

8
POPS What Happens if you Reject Jesus

by abailart Today 1:23 PM 4

The God of love, eh?

2
POPS The Day in Pictures 7 July 2008

by pokkets Today 5:39 PM

Just seemed like your average day. After a while you realize there's no such thing. I like the way the Russians celebrate the summer solstice Every day has more than one story. Every story has more than one writer, with more than one thing to say.

Tags: psychgroups

A radical new idea could save the world’s ecosystems.

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:23:47 GMT

clipped by: egsnyder
clipper's remarks: Tickell proposes setting a global limit for carbon pollution then selling permits to pollute to companies extracting or refining fossil fuels. This has the advantage of regulating a few thousand corporations - running oil refineries, coal washeries, gas pipelines and cement and fertiliser works for example - rather than a few billion citizens.

Clip Source: www.monbiot.com

Monbiot.com

Tell people something they know already and they will thank you for it.
Tell them something new and they will hate you for it.

A radical new idea could save the world’s ecosystems. But what will it do to the economy?

By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 1st July 2008

Do we want to save it, even if we can? It is hard to see how the current global growth rate of 3.7% a year (which means the global economy doubles every 19 years) could be sustained(11), even if the whole thing were powered by the wind and the sun. But that is a question for another column and perhaps another time, when the current economic panic has abated. For now we have to find a means of saving us from ourselves.

Tags: carbon, co2, survival

Thousands Expect Apocalypse in 2012

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:52:07 GMT

clipped by: A53GG4

Clip Source: news.aol.com

Thousands Expect Apocalypse in 2012

AOL

Filed Under: Weird News

(July 6) - Survival groups around the world are gearing up and counting down to a mysterious date that has been anticipated for thousands of years: Dec. 21, 2012.

Across the United States, Canada and throughout Europe, apocalyptic sects and individuals say that is the day that the world as we know it will end, ABCnews.com reports.

Why Dec. 21, 2012?

Gregory Bull, AP

Those who claim the apocalypse will occur on Dec. 21, 2012, base their beliefs on an understanding of the Mayans, an ancient civilization in Central America known for their prowess in mathematics and astronomy. Ruins of the Mayans in Mexico are shown above.

1 of 7PHOTOS

Tags: weird

Survival of the Spitefullest

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 21:41:33 GMT

clipped by: keyofreason

Clip Source: marriedtothesea.com

Tags: human, animal, survival

Poor at higher risk of death after intensive care: study

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 10:41:48 GMT

clipped by: tabsey
clipper's remarks: The study reached it's conclusions and they should be used as a basis of improving survival rates. Whilst I acknowledge that the poor use drugs to escape the boredom, or whatever, all other "classes" use drugs. The rich will not need pain killers, they have purer stuff at home.

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

New research shows that lower socioeconomic status is a major factor in the long-term survival of people who have spent time in hospital with a critical illness.

The study, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, analysed 15,000 patients who had been admitted to intensive care units in Western Australia.

Doctor Kwok Ho from Royal Perth Hospital says the report found being poor was the single biggest factor in determining whether patients would survive after their release from hospital.

He says lower socioeconomic status was more of a detrimental influence on the outcome than many other factors, including age.

He said one explanation could be because that group could not afford to get specialist medical care.

But he says other lifestyle factors such as smoking or possible drug use might also be to blame, and more should be done to improve the long-term outcomes of patients.

Tags: drugs, don't, effect, the, rich

Biologically Inspired Ocean Power Systems

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:49:15 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.biopowersystems.com

BioPower Systems is commercialising ocean power conversion technologies. Through application of biomimicry, we have adopted nature's mechanisms for survival and energy conversion in the marine environment and have applied these in the development of our proprietary wave and tidal power systems.

Our technologies inherit benefits developed during 3.8 Billion years of evolutionary optimization in nature’s ocean laboratory.The resulting systems move and sway in tune with the forces of the ocean, and naturally streamline when extreme conditions prevail. This leads to lightweight designs and associated low costs.

The inherently simple bioWAVE™ and bioSTREAM™ devices are designed to supply utility-scale grid-connected renewable energy using efficient modular systems. These systems will reside beneath the ocean surface, out of view, and in harmony with the living creatures that inspired their design.

Tags: biology, ocean, energy, biomimicry, wave, tidal, power

The NYT On Avastin

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 00:38:37 GMT

clipped by: Matthew Herper
clipper's remarks: The New York Times has a long takeout in the Sunday paper on the conundrum raised by Genentech's Avastin: How much can society afford to pay for a treatment that, while beneficial, only extends median survival by a little bit?

An interesting bit of new information comes out in between the analysis and stirring narrative. Genentech and Roche have spent more than $2.25 billion to develop Avastin.

That's an interesting figure -- about as much as the drug made in sales last year. It does serve as a reminder that it is drug companies, not the government, that really pay for developing new medicines.

What makes the Avastin conundrum difficult is that it is one of the biggest sellers introduced in recent memory. If Avastin's not worth the money, there are some hard questions that need to be asked about the incentives currently at work in drug development.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Genentech, which has never before revealed what it spent to develop Avastin, now says that it and its partner Roche have spent more than $2.25 billion starting with Dr. Ferrara’s original work. The figure includes research, clinical trials and filing for regulatory approval and is well beyond what was spent by the federal government, which conducted important clinical trials of Avastin. Through May 2006, the government had spent $44.6 million on Avastin trials and related laboratory work, according to figures obtained from the National Cancer Institute by Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group.

How realistic are your chances of surviving a nightmare movie scenario?

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 07:22:30 GMT

clipped by: einbar

Clipmarks | Survival Clips

Why We're All Moral Hypocrites

New vaccine sneaks into body, then self-destructs

New vaccine sneaks into body, then self-destructs

Can Recycling Be Used To Treat Cancer?

lists

A radical new idea could save the world’s ecosystems.

Monbiot.com

Thousands Expect Apocalypse in 2012

Thousands Expect Apocalypse in 2012

Why Dec. 21, 2012?

Survival of the Spitefullest

Poor at higher risk of death after intensive care: study

Biologically Inspired Ocean Power Systems

The NYT On Avastin

How realistic are your chances of surviving a nightmare movie scenario?

The week in wildlife (16 pics) to July 04

survival kit

Turkish party fights for survival after foiled coup attempt

Turkish party fights for survival after foiled coup attempt

Extinction risk 'underestimated'