Stunning Photo of Saturn Backlit By the Sun

clipped from www.edge.org SATURN BACKLIT BY THE SUN Steven Pinker One of these days, Edge may want to run this photo, which planetary scientist Carolyn Porco, leader of the Imaging Team for the Cassini mission to Saturn, showed us at the TED Conference: Saturn backlit by the sun, with the Earth appearing as a tiny dot in upper left (shown in the inset blowup). It is not only perhaps the most stunning photograph ever taken, but the fact that it has not appeared on the cover of Time, New York Times, etc., is a sign of our culture's indifference to science. This is truly awe-inspiring — not just visually beautiful, but a mind-boggling technical achievement, and a way to depict the finiteness and fragility of the planet in a way that we haven’t experienced since the famous "Earthrise" photo from the Apollo program in the late 1960s. — Steve Pinker

Criminal Animal-Rights Activists: Terrorists?

If the action of the person was driven by the desire to intimidate others with the threat of physical harm, is that not terrorism?

Yet, not one of these actions have resulted in the physical harm of anybody.

Yet.

clipped from www.nature.com Equating animal-rights activism with terrorism increases the penalties for offenders and will please many of their victims. But it is not in the interests of science. Terrorist is not a word you throw around lightly. And it is certainly not a word you apply to anyone with whom you would like to have a civil conversation. They are criminals, to be sure. Their arson cost millions of dollars and destroyed scientific work in progress. But although some of their more knuckleheaded actions could easily have accidentally hurt someone, their ethos was to damage property, never to hurt or kill. many people have personally felt terrified by the actions of the most extreme. But 'terrorist' is a word so debased and loaded by political use that, if it has any meaning at all, it is counterproductive. We should avoid building an unbreachable wall between criminal activists and their victims We must all speak more objectively and calmly.

Darwin Sceptic: 'views cost tenure'

clipped from www.nature.com He's a young astronomer with dozens of articles in top journals; he has made an important discovery in the field of extrasolar planets; and he is a proponent of intelligent design, the idea that an intelligent force has shaped the Universe. It's that last fact that Guillermo Gonzalez thinks has cost him his tenure at Iowa State University. But other researchers think that the department's decision was entirely justified. "I would have voted to deny him tenure," says Robert Park, a physicist at the University of Maryland in College Park. "He has established that he does not understand the scientific process." The 43-year-old astronomer is also a deeply religious evangelical Christian, and his faith has shaped his views on science. "The Universe is designed for scientific discovery." But Park says that a researcher's views on intelligent design cannot be divorced from the tenure decision. But not all scientists agree. "intelligent design was not a major or even a big factor in this decision."

If I Had My Life to Live Over

by Erma Bombeck

clipped from www.ookingdom.com I would have talked less and listened more. I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth. I would have sat on the lawn with my children and not worried about grass stains. I would have cried and laughed less while watching television, and more while watching life. There would have been more “I love you’s.” More “I’m sorry’s.” But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute… look at it and really see it… live it… and never give it back. Stop sweating the small stuff. Don’t worry about who doesn’t like you, who has more, or who’s doing what. And what we are doing each day to promote ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally, as well as spiritually. Life is too short to let it pass you by. We only have one shot at this and then it’s gone.

'Childhood Origins of Adult Resistance to Science'

clipped from www.sciencemag.org Resistance to certain scientific ideas derives in large part from assumptions and biases that can be demonstrated experimentally in young children and that may persist into adulthood. In particular, both adults and children resist acquiring scientific information that clashes with common-sense intuitions about the physical and psychological domains. Additionally, when learning information from other people, both adults and children are sensitive to the trustworthiness of the source of that information. Resistance to science, then, is particularly exaggerated in societies where nonscientific ideologies have the advantages of being both grounded in common sense and transmitted by trustworthy sources.

'The New Synthesis in Moral Psychology'

...

clipped from www.sciencemag.org People are selfish, yet morally motivated. Morality is universal, yet culturally variable. Such apparent contradictions are dissolving as research from many disciplines converges on a few shared principles, including the importance of moral intuitions, the socially functional (rather than truth-seeking) nature of moral thinking, and the coevolution of moral minds with cultural practices and institutions that create diverse moral communities. I propose a fourth principle to guide future research: Morality is about more than harm and fairness. More research is needed on the collective and religious parts of the moral domain, such as loyalty, authority, and spiritual purity.

Marijuana: Where there is no smoke...

clipped from www.nature.com Vaporizing cannabis leaves instead of burning them can release the drug's active ingredient just as effectively — while avoiding the harmful toxins inhaled through smoking the drug, according to a pilot study. The active ingredient in cannabis leaves is in oils on the surface of leaf 'hairs'. The potential benefits of marijuana include pain relief for multiple-sclerosis sufferers, a treatment for glaucoma, as an appetite stimulant for AIDS patients and an anti-nausea agent for people on chemotherapy. Rather than smoking, some use the leaves to make tea or cakes for consumption. But this means that the active agents are metabolized by the liver rather than entering the bloodstream unaltered. the pace of research has been slow, partly because there is only one source of research-approved marijuana in the United States the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) which critics accuse of dictating research along a political agenda.

MS Font maker

clipped from www.metacafe.com Hidden Program In Windows XP Go to Start > Run > and type in eudcedit - this will open up a font editor - allowing you to design your own custom fonts and characters to be used in things like MS Word. MS Microsoft Word Font Character Hidden Secret Program Windows XP Tags:

The World without America

I found this paragraph of particular interest:

The United States created an environment in which inventive minds had access to easy credit, a willing market and the freedom to dream and create without fear of prosecution or recrimination.

Is this still true? And what s missing form this description? The openness to outsiders that also made America attractive. This, we know has changed.

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk I am happy to report to you that the Oxford Union, in its infinite wisdom, has allowed America to continue existing. After a raucous debate in front of a packed house, the motion - "this House regrets the Founding of America" - was overwhelmingly squashed. But what music would we be listening to on our iPods? Would it be German marching songs or Russian ballads? Would we even have an iPod? So much for iPods... what about ideas? How different would the world be without the Bill of Rights? What about Thomas Jefferson? The list goes on and on (and I apologise for any omissions): Thomas Edison, who had 1,093 patents for inventions in his name; Henry Ford; the Wright brothers; Bill Gates; the Boeing corporation; Desperate Housewives; The Sopranos and, of course, SpongeBob SquarePants. The United States created an environment in which inventive minds had access to easy credit, a willing market and the freedom to dream and create without fear of prosecution or recrimination.

Life in the fast lane 'speeds up'

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk The pace of life for city dwellers is literally getting faster, a new British-led study suggests. People are walking 10% more quickly than a decade ago, according to research in 32 cities across the globe. Thousands of pedestrians were secretly timed in city centres with Singapore's residents found to be the most swift, followed by Copenhagen and Madrid. FASTEST CITIES 1. Singapore; 10.55s 2. Copenhagen (Denmark); 10.82s 3. Madrid (Spain); 10.89s 4. Guangzhou (China): 10.94s 5. Dublin (Ireland); 11.03s 6. Curitiba (Brazil); 11.13s 7. Berlin (Germany); 11.16s 8. New York (USA); 12.00s 9. Utrecht (Holland); 12.04s 10. Vienna (Austria); 12.06s Time in seconds to cover 60ft (0.02km) Source: British Council New York was ranked 8th, while London was outside the top 10. The Middle East tended to have the slowest pace of life.