August 29, 2009 at 2:14 pm (History, Images, Science, Travel)
Active or deep interpretation of maps is a subject that isn’t taught nearly enough in schools, which is a bit of a pity as recognizing maps as clues to a country’s character can give students an interest in geography they’ve never had before. Simply taking a good look at a map of a country compared to the other areas nearby is often enough to give one a good idea of what sort of geopolitical situation it happens to be in, and in many cases a good enough understanding of this can aid in even predicting the future between two or more countries.
link: Page F30: Understanding countries through maps
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August 31, 2007 at 1:01 pm (Science, Websites)
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September 14, 2006 at 11:04 am (Christianity, Personal, Politics, Science)
A memo to our elected officials…
•We’re sick of political parties and their bickering. They stop progress, steal time and money from us and generally waste our time.
•We’d like to really be free to vote for who we want in every stage of the election process, but that requires fixing the primary system. Right now you guys are missing out on potential support because of this.
•We wish you were all trustworthy, but have basically given up on this and now consider most of you to be crooks. Yup, we really don’t trust you guys (and gals) anymore. There are a very few exceptions to this. Very, very few.
•The fact that important legislation gets killed because some clown tacked on something irrelevant and possibly insane to it, makes all of us angry. It does not make us respect our legislators.
•It also makes us angry to know that you no longer work for us, your constituents, but for lobbyists and their overlords.
•We are not impressed when you choose a token concern with which to make your name when you really could care less about the cause and those who really do support it.
•It would be outstanding to see someone in office with a backbone who is willing to do the right thing instead of simply pushing everyone around.
•You might find it easier to sleep at night knowing you did the right thing instead of the same old thing as all the other people who have managed to get themselves elected to office.
•Being a complete weasel will always cost you more than you think. It will cost you more than votes, but then respect probably doesn’t matter to you anyway. We are not numbers, we are human beings. We have feelings, needs, desires and rights, just like our elected officials.
•A lot of us practice some sort of faith and believe in a higher power.
•We also believe in science and think it is a wonderful thing.
•We realize there are radicals on each side of every issue including religion and science. We are not these people, they are a minority and do not speak for most of us.
•We are not as stupid as you like to think we are.
•We pay attention more than you think we do.
•Try to occasionally think about what the American people actually care about. It could lead to periodic epiphany and more success in your political career.
•If you do the right thing we WILL support you, no matter what the media have to say about it.
AOL/XM Radio XM Cafe is playing: I Don’t Need No Doctor from “That’s What I Say: John Scofield Plays the Music of Ray Charles” by John Scofield (with John Mayer)
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August 25, 2006 at 1:50 pm (Images, Science, Websites)
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August 23, 2006 at 3:59 pm (Christianity, Science, Tech, Websites)
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Organ music ‘instils religious feelings’:
Last Updated: Monday, 8 September, 2003, 08:31 GMT 09:31 UK
Organ music ‘instils religious feelings’
By Jonathan Amos
BBC News Online science staff, in Salford
People who experience a sense of spirituality in church may be reacting to the extreme bass sound produced by some organ pipes. Many churches and cathedrals have organ pipes that are so long they emit infrasound which at a frequency lower than 20 Hertz is largely inaudible to the human ear. But in a controlled experiment in which infrasound was pumped into a concert hall, UK scientists found they could instil strange feelings in the audience at will. These included an extreme sense of sorrow, coldness, anxiety and even shivers down the spine.
More at the link above…
AOL/XM Radio is playing: Fairweather from the album “Getting Somewhere” by Allison Moorer
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August 23, 2006 at 6:58 am (Music, Science, Tech, Websites)
Wired News: Music Makes Your Brain Happy:
By Randy Dotinga| Also by this reporter
02:00 AM Aug, 23, 2006
As a rock producer, Daniel Levitin worked with Stevie Wonder, the Grateful Dead and Chris Isaak. But the music business began to change, and a disillusioned Levitin turned to academia, where a career in neuroscience beckoned. Sixteen years after he made the switch, Levitin is an associate professor at McGill University in Montreal and one of the world’s leading experts in cognitive music perception. In his new book, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, Levitin explores research into how our brains process the works of artists as varied as Beethoven, the Beatles and Britney Spears, and why they make us feel so good. Wired News picks his brain about how it all works.
More by following the link…
iTunes is playing: Woman’s World from the album “East Side Story” by Squeeze
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August 17, 2006 at 12:28 pm (Science, Tech, Websites)
Back around 1980 I heard about a guy developing a car that ran on compressed air. He was having a tough time getting anyone to notice and had received threats to himself and his family over his invention. Now it looks like his idea is back.
How would you like a car that runs on compressed air instead of petroleum? Bypass all the gas stations and help Exxon become a smaller company.
Check out the The Air Car
AOL/XM Radio is playing: I Got The News from the album Citizen Steely Dan, by Steely Dan
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August 8, 2006 at 8:55 am (News, Science, Tech, Websites)
Heard this morning that Exxon Mobile just posted their second highest profit quarter ever and it seems like their highest was last quarter. How was your drive in this morning? Feels like we’re pumping poison into our tanks sometimes.
iTunes is playing: Strong Enough from the album “Tuesday Night Music Club” by Sheryl Crow
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August 7, 2006 at 1:09 pm (Science, Websites)
Interesting news from the world of science…
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BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Evolution reversed in mice:
Last Updated: Monday, 7 August 2006, 16:28 GMT 17:28 UK
US researchers have taken a mouse back in time some 500 million years by reversing the process of evolution. By engineering its genetic blueprint, they have rebuilt a gene that was present in primitive animals. The ancient gene later mutated and split, giving rise to a pair of genes that play a key role in brain development in modern mammals. The scientists say the experiments shed light on how evolution works and could lead to new gene therapy techniques. “We are first to reconstruct an ancient gene,” said co-researcher Petr Tvrdik of the University of Utah. “We have proven that from two specialised modern genes, we can reconstruct the ancient gene they split off from. “It illuminates the mechanisms and processes that evolution uses, and tells us more about how Mother Nature engineers life.”
Brain development
The study, published in the academic journal Developmental Cell, involved a suite of genes involved in embryonic development. Until about 500 million years ago, early animals had 13 such Hox genes. Then each gene split into four, making 52 genes. Over the course of evolution, further mutations occurred, and some genes became redundant and disappeared, leading to today’s tally in mammals of 39 Hox genes. The Utah team looked at two of these genes; Hoxa1, which controls embryonic brain development, and Hoxb1, which plays a key role in the development of nerve cells that control facial expressions in animals.
Hybrid gene
The Utah pair combined critical sections of each gene, reconstructing a gene similar to its equivalent some 530 million years ago. The hybrid gene is not completely identical to the ancient one, but the scientists say it performs essentially the same functions. “What we have done is essentially go back in time to when Hox1 did what Hoxa1 and Hoxb1 do today,” said Mario Capecchi, professor of human genetics at the University of Utah School of Medicine. “It gives a real example of how evolution works because we can reverse it.”
iTunes is playing: Hey Manhattan! from the album “The Best of Prefab Sprout: A Life of Surprises” by Prefab Sprout
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