Lit

Live from National Mall, Washington, DC - Lit

:) - Lit

Your are missed Hannah :-) - Sepi ⌘ سپی

"Weaving spiders, come not here; Hence, you long-legg’d spinners, hence! Beetles black, approach not near; Worm nor snail, do no offence. – William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream" - Lit

:) - Lit

"Behold the chariot of the Fairy Queen! Celestial coursers paw the unyielding air; Their filmy pennons at her word they furl And stop obedient to the reins of light; These the Queen of Spells drew in; She spread a charm around the spot, And, leaning graceful from the ethereal car, Long did she gaze, and silently, Upon the slumbering maid. – Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab; A Philosophical Poem; With Notes" - Lit

:) - Lit

"(CNN) -- People say they know happiness as an emotion, a state of mind and as something to aim for, but when it comes to defining happiness, they are often uncertain how to articulate their feelings. Experts say people are poor judges at knowing what makes them happy, when they have been happy, or when they will be happy. Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert explored the broad, often-tongue-tying nature of happiness in his book, "Stumbling on Happiness." He sat down with CNN to discuss the elusive emotion." - Lit

"CNN: If you were going to try to improve what will make you happy, how would you go about doing that? Gilbert: I would abandon imagination entirely. If I wanted to know what a certain future would feel like to me, I would find someone who is already living that future. If I wonder what it's like to become a lawyer or marry a busy executive or eat at a particular restaurant, my best bet is to find people who have actually done these things and see how happy they are. What we know from studies is not only will this increase the accuracy of your prediction, but nobody wants to do it. The reason is, we believe we're unique. We don't believe other people's experiences can tell us all that much about our own. I think this is an illusion of uniqueness. I think people are by and large -- when it comes to happiness at least -- generally the same. The kinds of things that make one person happy are by and large what make other people happy." - Lit

"If you're dieting, for instance, you may easily resist the blueberry muffin at that impossibly aromatic bakeshop you pass by in the morning. You may then have lunch with your friends but just order a small salad (sans creamy dressing, of course). But at some point later in the day, your defenses get weaker. You find yourself declaring after dinner that, yes, you will take a look at the dessert menu. I will have a slice of that creamy cheesecake, you say. After all, what's a little indulgence after a strenuous day of healthful living? Psychologists have long observed this pattern with self-regulation. They liken a person's self-control to a muscle's diminishing power; that is, the more people use their limited supply of self-control to stop one behavior, the more likely they will succumb to the next temptation. New research, however, suggests that not all acts of self-control need to be tiring. Some can be vitalizing — it may all depend on your perception of the task at hand. "We can change people's cognitions," says Juliano Laran, the lead author of the study slated to be published in the April 2011 edition of the Journal of Consumer Research. "If people's thoughts about what they're doing can be changed, then people are not going to be tired. They're not going to lack energy." So how can people's view of chores that require willpower be altered? It's simpler than you might think. It all boils down to one word — fun." - Lit

"A PARADOX of education is that presenting information in a way that looks easy to learn often has the opposite effect. Numerous studies have demonstrated that when people are forced to think hard about what they are shown they remember it better, so it is worth looking at ways this can be done. And a piece of research about to be published in Cognition, by Daniel Oppenheimer, a psychologist at Princeton University, and his colleagues, suggests a simple one: make the text conveying the information harder to read." - Lit

Obfuscation of learning material is the eLearning mantra of the future? I guess I should get on board this gravy train. - Brian Sullivan

"When you run into a glass door, keep running...The way you deal with fear and uncertainty is to put things out in the open and do them regardless of anything else that comes your way. Do one thing a day that scares you. Get excited and change things.This is your reminder today." - Lit

"The hunt for a universal flu vaccine, a single shot that would provide lifelong immunity, has been going on for decades, and many teams of researchers have been on the case. The effort is complicated because there are some 16 types of key surface proteins (hemagglutinin) that help the virus bind to host cells, in addition to the several varieties of viral neuraminidase proteins. (These proteins are what the "H" and "N" stand for in viral designations such as H1N1.) Flu vaccines work by introducing a killed version of circulating virus strains, which trains the body's immune system to recognize and attack similar invaders in the future. Changes in the viruses' proteins help it evade identification by the immune system. A series of discoveries by different groups of researchers have zeroed in on a highly conserved (nonmutated) region of the virus. And a new study, published online October 18 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has piggybacked on these findings to develop synthetic vaccine that has been effective in warding off several different types of influenza in mice. How does it work—and could it work in humans?" - Lit

"'Mental tenacity — and the ability to manage and even thrive on and push through pain — is a key segregator between the mortals and immortals in running,' Ms. Wittenberg said." - Lit

Good article, thanks Hannah... - JB

:) - Lit

"Moscow, Russia (CNN) -- Three suicide bombers launched an attack on the Chechen parliament Tuesday, killing at least three people, officials told CNN. Vladimir Markin of the Russian Prosecutor's Office said two police officers and a civilian died in the attack. Six other officers and 11 civilians were wounded, he said." - Lit

"London, England (CNN) -- A Saudi prince was found guilty Tuesday of murdering an aide at a London hotel in February, in a case which prosecutors said had a sexual element. Prince Saud Abdulaziz Bin Nasser Al Saud was found guilty of both murder and grievous bodily harm in the killing of Bandar Abdulaziz. Abdulaziz died after a severe beating left him with swelling and bruising of the brain and fractured ribs and neck. He also had bite marks on his face, ears and arm. The prince had not denied killing the aide, but said he had not intended to do so. He is due to be sentenced Wednesday. He did not take the stand in his own defense....Kelsey-Fry also challenged the prosecution's assertion that the defendant and the victim had a master-servant relationship, telling the jury that the two men had "enjoyed a genuine friendship." He also disputed suggestions from the prosecutor and several witnesses that the prince and his aide had a gay relationship. During their visit to London, the two men shared a hotel room, went shopping together and stayed out late in bars and nightclubs. Earlier in the day, prosecutor Laidlaw presented his closing argument. He told the jury they might consider drawing an "adverse inference" from the prince's refusal to face questions. The case "cries out for an explanation," he said, adding that the jury might care to reflect on how the prince might have answered questions about the nature of his relationship with Abdulaziz, why it was that he attacked him on more than one occasion, his account of what happened the night his aide died and why it was that he waited hours before informing anyone of his death. When he did contact authorities, Al Saud said that Abdulaziz had been assaulted by robbers three weeks earlier. He is a man, said Laidlaw, "incapable of telling the truth." - Lit

I saw the video to this, it's quite disturbing. They are saying, but I don't see a reference to it in the article, he will get life imprisonment. - Halil

Yes, deserving - Lit

"STORY HIGHLIGHTS Three historic sites in the Middle East are "on the verge of vanishing," says report Global Heritage Fund has identified 12 sites at risk of irreparable loss Well-preserved sites can pay for themselves by attracting tourists, says GHF UNESCO warns that badly managed tourism can be just as much of a threat" - Lit

"Twelve historic sites around the world are "on the verge of vanishing" because of mismanagement and neglect, according to a new report. The report, by San Francisco-based Global Heritage Fund (GHF), identifies nearly 200 heritage sites in developing nations as being at risk, highlighting 12 as being on the verge of irreparable loss and destruction. Three sites in the Middle East, Iraq's Nineveh, Palestine's Hisham's Palace, and Turkey's Ani, are among those most in danger." - Lit

"OSAKA, Japan — Like many members of Japan’s middle class, Masato Y. enjoyed a level of affluence two decades ago that was the envy of the world. Masato, a small-business owner, bought a $500,000 condominium, vacationed in Hawaii and drove a late-model Mercedes. But his living standards slowly crumbled along with Japan’s overall economy..." - Lit

"ScienceDaily (Oct. 7, 2010) — New neuroscience research by life scientists from UCLA and Australia may potentially help people who have lost their ability to remember due to brain injury or disease." - Lit

"When a memory is first formed, a small protein involved in synaptic transmission -- the NMDA receptor -- is indispensable to the process, said study co-author Bryce Vissel, a group leader of the neuroscience research program at Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research. Activation of the NMDA receptor allows calcium to enter a neuron, and calcium permeability enables a chain of molecular reactions that help encode experience and consolidate memory, Fanselow and Vissel said. Learning theorists have assumed that learning cannot occur without NMDA receptors. But the new findings show that NMDA receptors are not essential in "second-learning," when the rules of "first-learning" are applied to new yet similar scenarios. Instead, another class of receptors known as AMPA receptors, also calcium permeable, appears to take up the task." - Lit

"In each of these optical illusions you see things that are--literally-- all in your mind. In the first illusion, called the subjective contour effect, your brain "fills in" the gaps in the rectangle between four corners, creating completed lines where there are no lines at all. Your brain engages in this bit of creative fiction to help you make sense of what you're seeing. For example, if you were out in the woods hunting deer, you might first catch a partial glimpse of your prey through dense vegetation that blocked you from seeing the whole animal. But you'd know what you were seeing was a deer, and not a collection of disconnected shapes, because your brain synthesized the fragmented parts of the image into an integrated whole The second illusion, sometimes called the neon effect, also is an example of your brain filling in gaps, but this time with colors. You perceive solid (albeit faint) color in the white spaces between the green lines because your brain, in attempt to help you see a whole vs. a collection of parts, compels you to see a solid whole where there actually are only disparate parts. In the final illusion, your brain guesses-erroneously as it turns out-that spots wink in and out of existence. This scintillating grid illusion arises from neural artifacts in the way your brain estimates the brightness in between sharply contrasting shapes. So why should we care about optical illusions? Neuroscientists have discovered that optical illusions tell us a lot about the way the human brain perceives the business world: the brain doesn't passively-- and faithfully-- report what it sees. Rather our brains create reality on the fly, based upon educated guesses about what is probably out there. The reason is that it takes much less processing power, and burns many fewer calories, for the brain to crudely sketch out what it sees based on a few simple rules such as "shapes that appear fragmented usually aren't, so fill in the gaps", than it does for the brain to rigorously process and compute complete and accurate pictures. Such shortcuts not only conserve energy (our brains consume 20% of our daily calorie usage), but speed up decision making...." - Lit

I like optical illusions. What kinds of illusions do we have that are non-optical? - Sue - Friendfeed is best

The mind perceives many things inaccurately/imperfectly actually... you should read up on perception... - Lit

"Apple Crumble: By MARTHA ROSE SHULMAN Apple crumbles can be tricky, because the apples tend to dry out in the oven. The way to avoid this problem is to bake them until thoroughly softened before you finish them with the crumble. 2 quarts thinly sliced apples (about 2 1/2 pounds) 2 tablespoons raw brown (turbinado) sugar, preferably organic 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 batch quinoa-oat crumble topping 1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter a two-quart baking dish. Slice the apples thin. (I don’t peel them, but if you’d rather, go ahead.) Toss them in a large bowl with the sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. Transfer to the baking dish, and place in the oven. Bake 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes until the apples are tender. Remove from the heat. 2. Top the apples with the crumble topping, and return to the oven. Bake 15 to 20 minutes until bubbling and the top is nicely browned. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. Yield: Serves eight. Advance preparation: The crumble topping keeps for several months in the freezer. The recipe can be made through Step 1 several hours before the final baking. Nutritional information per serving: 265 calories; 10 grams fat; 6 grams saturated fat; 23 milligrams cholesterol; 42 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 104 milligrams sodium; 3 grams protein Martha Rose Shulman can be reached at martha-rose-shulman.com. Her latest book, "The Very Best of Recipes for Health," was published in August by Rodale Books." - Lit

Yummy and oh so healthful for you fitness/nutrition gurus :D (me included) - Lit

Apple crumble and got to have a splash of custard too, yum yum! :) - Halil

That sounds very good... :) - Lit

"On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history... but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications. From director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin comes The Social Network, a film that proves you don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies." - Lit

The way "a few" is typically used [(i.e. with irony) at least within the US], I doubt they meant that literally :P - Lit

"NOVA exposes the hidden world of high-tech, 21st-century eavesdropping carried out by the National Security Agency (NSA)." - Lit

"Enemy of the State" -- minus the Hollywoodization. - Prosey BUTTONS!

Sure - Lit

"Security in a Lawless Congo...In late July, hundreds of armed men gang-raped at least 200 women in Luvungi -- an embarrassment for United Nations peacekeepers who seem to be failing at their most basic task: protecting civilians..." - Lit

Some of the blame should be placed on the rapists, I would think. Were the hundreds of men organized, working together as a team? If so, was raping the primary purpose of the organization, or was there another purpose the organizaton was supposedly created to serve? Or was it just an extremely high number of independently acting raptists? - Sue - Friendfeed is best

"CNN's Mary Snow explains why a provision on Congo 'conflict minerals' is contained in the finance reform bill." - Lit

"Democratic Republic of Congo (CNN) -- Our friend Kika is a long-term resident of Panzi Clinic, a remarkable facility in eastern Congo that manages, under extraordinarily difficult circumstances, to accommodate a small number of women who have survived excruciating acts of gender violence. For the sufferers who have heard of Panzi, post-rape, they will do anything to get there. Kika did. She crawled. It took her one month. Kika was fetching water one early morning, as she always did. On this day, something that is becoming almost inevitable for girls and women happened to her. Armed militia appeared and began to sexually assault her. She screamed, attracting her older brother Patrice's attention. He came running. The militia welcomed their next victim by demanding he rape his sister. He refused. They insisted again. He said, "Kika is like my mother. I will not." They stabbed him to death with their bayonets, then repeatedly raped Kika. Patrice's now deceased and Kika's now broken body were carried back to their small home. After a week, Kika smelled very bad. She had had no medical attention. Her own family insisted she leave. That was when she began to crawl. What links Kika's anguish and any one of us reading this? What connects us to her catastrophic suffering and that of so many other women and girls like her from Congo?" - Lit

"Editor's note: Ashley Judd traveled to eastern Congo, her second time to the region, with John Prendergast of the Enough Project at the Center for American Progress. Since 2003, Judd has traveled the world visiting vulnerable populations, especially girls and women, focusing on grass roots solutions that transform and save lives. Among other affiliations, she serves on the board of Population Services International. For more information on the campaign against conflict minerals, visit raisehopeforcongo.org." - Lit

"Are you tired of the extremes dominating the debate? Angry about hyperpartisans hijacking American politics? Well, Jon Stewart has a rally for you and me. The Rally to Restore Sanity is slated for October 30, the weekend before Election Day, on the Washington Mall. This isn't a concealed campaign rally for either party. It's a counterprotest against the rising tide of conformity that causes hyperpartisans to demonize people with whom they disagree. It's the anti-demagogue Saturday on the mall; people taking to the streets and yelling, "Be reasonable!"" - Lit

"You may know them as the people who believe that Obama is a secret Muslim planning a socialist takeover of America ... or that George Bush let 9/11 happen to help pad Dick Cheney's Halliburton stock portfolio. You've seen their signs: 'Obama is Hitler'; 'Bush is Hitler'... But why don't we hear from the 70 to 80 percenters? Well, most likely because you have sh*t to do." Among the signs suggested for the rally: -- "I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler" -- "9/11 was an outside job" -- "Got Competence?" -- "I'm not afraid of Muslims, Tea Partiers, Socialists, Immigrants, Gun Owners or Gays ... but I am scared of spiders." -- "Take it Down a Notch For America" - Lit

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT... - Lit

me too :) - Lit

"[W]hat is the location of your "self" as you read this sentence? Like most people, you probably have a strong sense that your conscious self is housed within your physical body, regardless of your surroundings. But sometimes this spatial self-location goes awry. During a so-called out-of-body experience, for example, one's self seems to be transported outside the physical body into a surreal perspective—some people even believe they are viewing their bodies from above, as though their true selves were floating. In a related experience, people with a delusion known as somatoparaphrenia disown one of their limbs or confuse another person's limb for their own. Such warped perceptions help researchers understand the neuroscience of selfhood. A new paper offers examples of rare bodily illusions that are not confined to a single limb, nor are they complete out-of-body experiences—they are somewhere in between. These illusory body perceptions...could offer novel clues about how the brain maintains a link between the physical and conscious selves, or what the researchers call "bodily self-consciousness."" - Lit

mmm...interesting aspect of neuroscience. - JB

...all in the complexity of brain function - Lit

"You know that rush of confidence that comes when you decide you are absolutely, totally going to make a change? The burst of optimism, the bliss of hope, the vision of your goals achieved? Turns out they can backfire on you. Especially that optimism bit. Scientists who study change and success know that intentions are an important part of accomplishing any goal. You have to want to change; you have to plan to act. But a new study from the University of Waterloo shows how positive intentions can actually interfere with long-term success. The study followed college students who had all set the goal to save money they were making at their jobs to help pay for school (on average, the savings goal for the term was $5000). They tended to be highly motivated and highly confident: they estimated, on average, an 85% chance that they would succeed." - Lit

"When they set their goals, the students also had the chance to enroll in a program designed to help them meet their goals by carefully tracking their savings. Most students did not believe they needed this help. When asked how much they were willing to pay for the support program, the most frequent response was "nothing." Even those who enrolled predicted it wouldn't do much for them. As it turns out, the program was quite helpful for those who participated, and would have been worth paying for. In the end, only 65% of participants met their goals, and this includes those who had the extra support of the savings tracking program. The researchers speculated that the students' initial optimism actually put them at a disadvantage over the quarter. Students put too much weight on their good intentions. They failed to recognize that they needed to carefully monitor their actual behavior, and might need some external help." - Lit

"Does a good massage do more than just relax your muscles? To find out, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles recruited 53 healthy adults and randomly assigned 29 of them to a 45-minute session of deep-tissue Swedish massage and the other 24 to a session of light massage.All of the subjects were fitted with intravenous catheters so blood samples could be taken immediately before the massage and up to an hour afterward. To their surprise, the researchers, sponsored by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, a division of the National Institutes of Health, found that a single session of massage caused biological changes. Volunteers who received Swedish massage experienced significant decreases in levels of the stress hormone cortisol in blood and saliva, and in arginine vasopressin, a hormone that can lead to increases in cortisol. They also had increases in the number of lymphocytes, white blood cells that are part of the immune system. Volunteers who had the light massage experienced greater increases in oxytocin, a hormone associated with contentment, than the Swedish massage group, and bigger decreases in adrenal corticotropin hormone, which stimulates the adrenal glands to release cortisol. The study was published online in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. The lead author, Dr. Mark Hyman Rapaport, chairman of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Cedars-Sinai, said the findings were 'very, very intriguing and very, very exciting — and I’m a skeptic.'" - Lit

"A group of international and Kenyan scientists believe they may have discovered a new mammal species in a Kenyan forest near the Somali border. The scientists were using camera traps to photograph elusive elephant shrews in the Boni-Dodori forest. They were thrilled to photograph what they believe is an entirely new species of giant sengi, or elephant shrew...There are 17 known species of elephant shrew, all native to Africa. They got their name because of their bizarre flexible nose which resembles an elephant's trunk, and because of their superficial resemblance to true shrews. The Zoological Society of London and Kenya Wildlife Service captured the images. Researchers hope DNA samples will definitely prove whether it is a distinct species. The discovery could help in understanding this coastal forest region, which has been difficult to study at times because of its proximity to Somalia." - Lit

"The husk of a dead volcano protruding from the East China Sea has become the battleground between the two mightiest economies in Asia. At stake are potentially lucrative gas drilling rights in waters claimed by China and Japan. But the outcome of the territorial dispute may hinge on the medicinal herbs of a Chinese empress, the collection of bird excrement by the Japanese and the definition of what really makes an "island."...The dispute boils down to where lines can be drawn in the ocean for commercial use. International law allows for a nation to claim exclusive economic rights to fish, oil and mineral reserves up to 200 nautical miles from the shore. " - Lit

"Simpson's survival is widely regarded by mountaineers as amongst the most amazing pieces of mountaineering lore in history. An amazing story of the will to survive. The true story of two climbers and their perilous journey up the west face of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985." - Lit

Well done documentary with a extraordinary person's account ; http://www.youtube.com/watch... ; http://www.youtube.com/watch... - Lit

I thought I recognized the first few :) - Eivind

long, huh?! :P - Lit

"Stephen Hawking is charmingly evasive about his IQ. In 2004, he told the New York Times, 'I hope I’m near the upper end of the range.' Chances are he is. His IQ is almost certainly high enough to qualify him for Mensa, the biggest high-IQ society on Earth—1 in 50 people will meet its membership criteria. But would he qualify for the ultra-exclusive Pi Society, which takes only those with IQ’s in the top 99.999999 percentile? Many geniuses haven’t. Had they been given the chance, the top minds behind the founding of Mensa, or even the creation of IQ testing itself, might not have made the cut. " - Lit

"The idea of measuring brainpower began in the late 1800’s with Sir Francis Galton, a privileged Victorian-era Englishman who had more than enough brains of his own to measure. He invented, among other things, fingerprint analysis, weather maps, the concept of mathematical correlation, the phrase “nature versus nurture,” and psychometry—the measuring of intellect. The idea came to him after reading his half-cousin Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species. Determined to quantify the (to him) obvious differences between upper- and the lower-class brains, he threw himself into the study of genetic superiority. He even gave it a name, “eugenics,” and psychometry grew out of it in the late 1800’s. The “science” of eugenics was eventually dismissed as racist baloney, but the notion of intelligence testing persisted. Psychologists and statisticians devised many ways to test smarts over the ensuing years. In the first years of the twentieth century, Frenchmen Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon created the first version of today’s stereotypical brainpower test: it measured one’s “mental age,” divided it by actual age, and multiplied the quotient by 100—giving an intelligence quotient, or IQ. Their system had problems. For example, the only limit to IQ was one’s age: a 20-year-old found to have the mental age of a 40-year-old (whatever that means) would have an IQ of 200. In theory, a 10-year-old found to have the mental age of an 80-year-old could have an IQ of 800. Such a system only works in a world where older is always smarter. To address this flaw, in 1939 American psychologist David Wechsler refined the method. He compared an individual’s performance to those of the general population, rather than to his or her own mental age. The deviation from average becomes the IQ. This system is the basis for most IQ tests today. “Average” is 100. It splits the population right down the middle: the odds a person will have an IQ of 100 or higher are 1 in 2." - Lit

"...Critics of IQ testing also point out that there are many ways to be intelligent. Artists, chess champions, philosophers, Olympic medalists, authors, physicists, trivia masters, and linguists are all intelligent in different ways, many of which appear nowhere on an IQ test. And according to Hawking, 'People who boast about their IQ’s are losers.'" - Lit

"Many people today either are too young to have ever seen some early pc’s or have forgotten what they looked like and how much they cost. Today we complain about the cost of a laptop....Here are 30 Old PC ads that will make you laugh and possibly appreciate what you have today." - Lit