tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1993826437200606822024-03-14T04:14:28.337-04:00justanecho.blogspot.comwhere ignorance meets a little less ignoranceUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1971125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-60370126293136645902009-04-29T23:47:00.002-04:002009-04-30T00:22:07.860-04:00Radical Muslims do not attend mosque more than general populationFrom the book, <span style="font-style: italic;">Who Speaks for Islam?:<br /></span><blockquote>When asked why they supported the [9/11] attacks, the radicals [7% of Muslims surveyed] gave political rather than religious reasons. They have a sense of political frustration and feel humiliated and threatened by the West. Those who opposed the attacks often gave religious reasons for doing so.</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-59534778963342572722009-04-29T22:35:00.002-04:002009-04-29T22:39:06.317-04:00Build and customize your own PBX with AsteriskYou know, like at the office where one can switch a call to many phones.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-18591279712929488572009-04-29T22:31:00.001-04:002009-04-29T22:33:44.142-04:00Some fruit juices block absorption of some drugs<blockquote></blockquote><blockquote></blockquote><p></p><blockquote><p>Blocking the transporter reduced drug absorption and neutralized its potential benefits, the researchers said.</p> <p>So far, grapefruit, orange and apple juices have been shown to lower the absorption of medications including:</p> <ul><li>Etoposide, an anticancer agent.</li><li>Certain beta blockers (atenolol, celiprolol, talinolol) used to treat high blood pressure and prevent heart attacks.</li><li>Cyclosporine, a drug taken to prevent rejection of transplanted organs.</li><li>Certain antibiotics (ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, itraconazole).</li></ul></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-50294284126919870692009-04-13T11:23:00.001-04:002009-04-13T11:25:53.886-04:00Weird Easter traditions from around the world<blockquote></blockquote><blockquote>Surely the strangest Easter custom takes places in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, where there is a tradition of spanking or whipping women on Easter Monday. Males throw water at females and spank them with handmade whips made of willow and decorated with ribbons at the end. The spanking is supposed to be symbolic and according to legend, females should be spanked in order to keep their health and beauty during the next year.</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-14980924627470979212009-01-02T01:37:00.001-05:002009-01-02T01:40:35.641-05:00ACM-R5 amphibious snake robot<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ct5xe2Vnp6c&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Ct5xe2Vnp6c&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-76560642927342713442009-01-01T17:21:00.001-05:002009-01-01T17:23:04.723-05:00People in some countries can't form neat, orderly lines<blockquote>Though seemingly chaotic and unnecessary to those of us in the "West", the truth might be that these "mobs" actually work. Their structure-- or lack of it-- rewards those who want the ticket or item the most, and only displeases those who weren't industrious (or ruthless) enough to work their way up to the front. This is a form of price discrimination in which those who were willing to "pay" the most, in this case with time and effort, are rewarded, while those who weren't, aren't.</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-32517267299085308952009-01-01T17:17:00.000-05:002009-01-01T17:19:01.904-05:00Barack Obama on evil<blockquote>Because a lot of evil has been perpetrated based on the claim that we were trying to confront evil, in the name of good. And I think one thing that’s very important is having some humility in recognizing that just because we think our intentions are good doesn’t mean we are going to be doing good.</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-6990891395775074062009-01-01T17:11:00.002-05:002009-01-01T17:14:57.311-05:00Lifesaver water bottle purifies in secondsIn 20 seconds, actually, and reduces heavy metals too.<br /><span name="intelliTxt" id="intelliTXT"></span><blockquote><span name="intelliTxt" id="intelliTXT">... but the Lifesaver uses microscopic pores a mere 15 nanometers across — about one-hundredth the width of a spider’s silk — narrow enough to stop the tiniest threats. That means virtually nothing — not even bacteria and viruses — can get through.</span></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-6724721285489941252009-01-01T17:06:00.003-05:002009-01-01T17:10:55.095-05:00Believing we have no free will leads to less moral behaviorWell, facilitated cheating on some arithmetic problems for a psych test, but just extrapolate...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-45250585749045296642009-01-01T16:57:00.002-05:002009-01-01T17:03:50.248-05:00Getmooh -- receive a ring and a message on your phoneNeed to get a phone prompt to possibly get out of a situation?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-62436016955666514262009-01-01T16:24:00.002-05:002009-01-01T16:30:18.277-05:00Being on the Pill could make women choose the wrong mateSmelling genetic similarity when difference called for while courting:<br /><blockquote>"Not only could MHC[major histocompatibility complex]-similarity in couples lead to fertility problems," said lead researcher Stewart Craig Roberts, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Newcastle in England, "but it could ultimately lead to the breakdown of relationships when women stop using the contraceptive pill, as odor perception plays a significant role in maintaining attraction to partners."</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-48132231650701312812008-12-31T22:46:00.003-05:002008-12-31T22:57:51.016-05:00The "website" is down: moronic sales guy vs. tech support<object width="464" height="376"><param name="movie" value="http://embed.break.com/529693"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://embed.break.com/529693" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" width="464" height="376"></embed></object><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><a href="http://www.break.com/index/it-guy-vs-dumb-employees.html">IT Guy Vs Dumb Employees</a> - Watch more <a href="http://www.break.com/">Entertainment</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-35118538853712653732008-12-31T22:42:00.001-05:002008-12-31T22:44:22.211-05:00Beef tongue flavor seems to have done well at Yokohama ice cream festival<blockquote>More than 125 varieties of ice cream have been available in the two week festival, including cheese, octopus, prawn and a garlic variety called Dracula Premium Ice.</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-79289293801219354682008-12-31T22:39:00.002-05:002009-01-01T16:56:24.281-05:00Preventing drug-associated memory reconsolidationBy blocking NMDA receptors. The mice did not frantically search for drugs upon a stimulus light.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-84719001367814451692008-12-31T22:32:00.002-05:002008-12-31T22:34:04.920-05:00Some wisdom from Maya Angelou<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" ><blockquote>I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. </blockquote></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-31424338107639161352008-12-31T22:20:00.002-05:002008-12-31T22:31:37.543-05:00PC Magazine's top 100 undiscovered websitesThirteen categories.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-24877319246044867302008-12-31T22:09:00.003-05:002008-12-31T22:17:51.750-05:00A son's diary of Mieneke Weide-Boelkes' final days to euthanasia<p></p><blockquote><p>Mum's sisters and their husbands are there for a last family dinner, together with Dad, Maarten and me - wearing my expensive new pair of shoes. Mum, even more energetic than the week before, decorates the table lavishly.</p><p>My uncles shake their heads with incomprehension. As Mum shows off her china plates, my aunts have distracted looks on their faces. </p><p>Whispering to Dad and me in the hallway, they struggle to understand why Mum is choosing to die the next day when she is bouncing around like a 40-year-old instead of a terminally ill 65-year-old. But there is also shock at her fixation on material objects and the little interest she shows in how the people around her actually feel.</p></blockquote><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-91656501591404048422008-12-31T21:53:00.003-05:002008-12-31T22:02:15.581-05:00For some kids, genes ruling behavior<blockquote>After years of ignoring those children [environmentally resistant outliers], a few scientists now realize that they are telling us something that promises to revolutionize our understanding of child development. In an echo of "personalized medicine" (matching drugs to people's DNA), scientists are finding that how parents treat their children is filtered through the prism of DNA. Parents may intuit that, as they notice that what worked with one child is failing abysmally with another, but now science is pinpointing exactly what combinations of nature and nurture spell gridlock. It is finally dawning on experts that "individual genetic differences are the 800-pound gorilla of child development," says Jack Shonkoff, director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. "The promise of genomics is that you will be able to tailor experiences as we tailor drugs."</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-8864665472948380532008-12-31T14:24:00.004-05:002008-12-31T14:53:15.777-05:00Greatest black superheroes<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.bamkapow.com/15-of-the-greatest-black-superheroes-of-all-time-1484-p.html"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 170px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzuygRiXr9IuQTywKDda_m2EriuT4DUD1B-OcZxYlSgms8jh16uILHisZF89L-sceRBOArm8yb1b9afNgN3r436sM8xICwC90vEgLaKM0_ysXcKtkJrfOtPRhsnnUJRkTiDmaoehHH2ZY/s200/black+superhero+bishop.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286037952689419090" border="0" /></a>The comic universe sure is much larger than just the movies that come out. This is Bishop from the X-men storyline.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-30930588216386349322008-12-31T14:11:00.003-05:002008-12-31T14:21:05.651-05:00Differently mapped brains<p>Post-stroke in this case; once language began being reacquired, a different accent emerged:</p><blockquote><p>'Slowly I started to talk more. It felt different physically in my mouth to the way it did before the stroke and my accent turned from Italian to French. When I bumped into old friends and started speaking, they thought I was taking the mickey.<br /><br />'When I went back to work six months later, I visited each client face to face as they wouldn't have believed it was me on the phone.<br /></p><p>'Now I can hold a steady, fluent conversation, but I still sound French. The doctors aren't sure if my English accent will ever return. But I really don't mind - having thought I would never speak again, I am grateful just to be able to talk.'</p></blockquote><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-79458721419109337512008-12-31T13:58:00.002-05:002008-12-31T14:07:07.874-05:00Child labor in Africa's gold minesOne-fifth of the world's gold from such labor.<blockquote>Many are girls who begin as apprentice panners as young as 4 and become full-time workers by age 10. Teenage boys work the shafts, descending with flashlights tied around their necks to hack ore from the rock. Lancei Conde, the regional administrator of Kankan, said children work at all the bush mines in Guinea.</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-15266221546184886142008-12-31T13:38:00.002-05:002008-12-31T13:45:04.431-05:00The matriarchal Mosuo of southwestern ChinaWomen own property and determine family relationships. But this so-called free-love society is under threat from modernization.<br />Short National Geographic video shows a guy who is permitted to see his son.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-54749700424736874322008-12-31T13:30:00.003-05:002008-12-31T13:36:52.726-05:00Marks of a con willing to overlook inconsistenciesOnce trust has been established:<br /><blockquote>Indeed, what's notable from the facts that have emerged about Gerhartsreiter [in implying a Rockefeller lineage] is how much he was able to get away with despite playing his roles, in certain ways, rather poorly. People who knew him in his various incarnations have remarked on how his perpetually unwashed clothes and junky cars didn't match up with the story he told about himself. He struck others as plainly ignorant about mores and business matters that someone of his background would know, and he seemed at times to go out of his way to antagonize co-workers and neighbors.</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-70176288087529808622008-12-31T11:14:00.003-05:002008-12-31T11:23:55.156-05:00Stopping the overproduction of white blood cells in leukaemia<p>Work on a drug to attach to the protein has begun:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>The GM-CSF hormone - which controls the production of blood cells in the body - works by attaching itself to the receptor proteins, which then send a message into white blood cells telling them to multiply.</p><p>When damaged, the protein's messages cause an over-production of cells or cells which persist too long, resulting in diseases such as leukaemia as well as some inflammatory conditions. </p> <p>The major breakthrough came when the researchers realised the proteins linked together to form networks on the surface of white blood cells after being activated by the hormone, and that by stopping the networks forming they could also stop the growth. </p></blockquote><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-199382643720060682.post-37482722940795210802008-12-31T11:10:00.002-05:002008-12-31T11:24:57.596-05:00Degree of of disease diversity varies with religious diversitySo, xenophobia generally a healthy response?<br /><blockquote>Their hypothesis is that in places where disease is rampant, it behoves groups not to mix with one another more than is strictly necessary, in order to reduce the risk of contagion. They therefore predict that patterns of behaviour which promote group exclusivity will be stronger in disease-ridden areas. Since religious differences are certainly in that category, they specifically predict that the number of different religions in a place will vary with the disease load. Which is, as they report in the <em>Proceedings of the Royal Society</em>, the case.</blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5