Recently I read this story from one of Rakesh's blog. Very touchy.
reflections: friends...They can sure change your life
Jun 21, 2006
Which sex is your brain?
Scientist believe that your body and brain dont share the same sex always. Find out whether your body's sex matches with your brain
Martian Life: The NASA Cover-Up?
From the article:
The dispute dates back to July 1976, when the first Viking lander settled down on the dusty-pink world with its salmon-pink skies. But there was nothing rosy about the Red Planet. It was bitterly cold, and almost airless. Drifts of fine Martian soil stretched for miles, as powdery as Antarctic snow. Rocks and boulders of all shapes and sizes littered the scene. Many were rough and volcanic in appearance, and some had small holes where gas had once bubbled through - like pumice.
...
Two of the experiments gave negative or inconclusive results. Any reactions that took place, agreed the researchers, were down to chemistry rather than biology. But the third experiment had everyone sitting up and taking a considerable amount of notice. It was the Labelled Release experiment of 'sanitary engineer' Gil Levin.
No More Cavities?
From the article:
A Florida-based company called Oragenics may have found a way to rid our mouths of these acid-excreting organisms for good. This would make cavities a thing of the past, and put no small number of dentists out of business. But despite the obvious benefits, there is potential for disaster.
On the surface it seems like an elegant solution, but clearly there is the potential to upset delicate systems in nature, resulting in possible larger-scale side effects
Read more:
Top Ten Accidental Discoveries
Most of the discoveries happen by accident. Here is a look at some of the crucial discoveries made by humans and that revolutionized our life oneway or the other.
Also if you want to try 10 Strangest computer setup, here it is.
How Flies Walk on Ceilings
From the article:
Walking upside-down requires a careful balance of adhesion and weight, and specialized trekking tools to combat the constant tug of gravity.
Each fly foot has two fat footpads that give the insect plenty of surface area with which to cling. The adhesive pads on the feet, called pulvilli, come equipped with tiny hairs that have spatula-like tips. These hairs are called setae.
Scientists once thought that the curved shape of the hairs suggested that flies used them to grip onto the ceiling. In fact, the hairs produce a glue-like substance made of sugars and oils.
Great Mistakes in Technical Leadership
Perhaps the most difficult job to do on any software development project is that of Technical Lead. The Technical Lead has overall responsibility for all technical aspects of the project - design, code, technology selection, work assignment, scheduling and architecture are all within his purview. Positioned right at the border of the technical and managerial, they are the proverbial "meat in the sandwich." This means that they have to be able to speak two languages - the high-level language of the project manager to whom they report, and the low-level technical language of their team. In effect, they're the translator between the two dialects.
How to Extend the Life of Your Car
With rising gas prices and very costly repairs, the last thing you want to worry about is if and when your car is going to break down. Here's how to protect your investment, and get from Point A to Point B as reliably as possible.
Jun 8, 2006
Display System That Knows Who You Are
New Scientistreports on an 'interactive computer display that keeps track of multiple users by differentiating between their touch'. The system consists of a touch-sensitive screen that can be operated by several users simultaneously. When a user touches the screen an electrical signal is sent through their body and picked up by a receiver located in their chair, telling a computer precisely where the screen was touched and by whom. Applications could include system access control, safer vehicle controls, and smarter videogames. The bottom line, in the words of one of the inventors: 'If the controls know who is operating them, they can behave appropriately.' The movie even has funkier than average background music
How to improve your memory?
BULD YOUR MEMORY - The site that unleashes the incredible hidden potential of YOUR memory!
By Mark S. D'Arcy
By Mark S. D'Arcy
From the web site:
Many people claim that they possess a poor memory. Indeed you may even be one of those people yourself. Well whether you are or not, the simple fact of the matter is that the vast majority of the population have perfectly good memories. The problem is that they just don’t know how to use them properly
What I have attempted to accomplish with this site, is to outline in simple terms, a variety of techniques, that with a bit of practice and just a little time, will allow the reader to express the full potential of their latent memory capabilities. Techniques I might add, that have been around in one form or another for quite a number of centuries. But that until relatively recent times had only been used extensively by a select number of magicians and showman.
I myself firmly believe that the memory improvement systems that are outlined in my site, are surprisingly straight-forward, and should not take you more than a relatively short period of time to fully master.
For more information vist http://www.buildyourmemory.com/
Jun 7, 2006
UK firm to unveil wall-socket PC
From the article:
Newcastle-based Jade Integration will launch one of the smallest thin-client computers available in the UK to date, the Jack PC, next month.
Containing all the electronics needed to run as a low- to medium-power PC, the Jack PC, as its name suggests, will fit into a standard size wall socket. The entire PC sits on two layered circuitboards. It contains an AMD RISC processor to help reduce power consumption and heat output.
Jun 6, 2006
How to build the best paper airplane in the world
Step by step process to make a good paper air plane.
GROUNDBREAKING MATERIAL: OLED illuminated surfaces
Imagine a house without a single light fixture - but instead walls, ceilings, furnishings, and accessories all sources of light. Thanks to research at Princeton University and the University of Southern California (USC), almost any surface in a building can become a light source with OLEDs.
Researchers have made a critical advancement from what was once single-color displays to highly efficient and long-lasting natural light source called OLEDs (organic light-emitting diodes). The invention was the brain child of 13-years of research in the OLED program headed up by Mark Thompson at USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and Stephan Forrest, vice president for research at the University of Michigan (formerly at Princeton).
Thompson states that the OLED process enables us to get 100 percent efficiency out of single, broad spectrum light source. Completely transparent when not in use, the devices can be used in windows and a skylight, mimicking the feel of natural light once the sun goes down. Imagine the energy saving possibilities! Or, for gadget geeks, OLEDs could make for the flattest flat-panel TV imaginable. Watch out when OLEDs hit the mass market, it could transform lighting as we know it.
Geneticist claims to have found 'God gene' in humans
LONDON SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
LONDON — An American molecular geneticist has concluded after comparing more than 2,000 DNA samples that a person's capacity to believe in God is linked to brain chemicals.
His findings have been criticized by leading clerics, who challenge the existence of a "God gene" and say the research undermines a fundamental tenet of faith — that spiritual enlightenment is achieved through divine transformation rather than the brain's electrical impulses.
Dean Hamer, the director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, asked volunteers 226 questions in order to determine how spiritually connected they felt to the universe.
The higher their score, the greater the person's ability to believe in a greater spiritual force and, Mr. Hamer found, the more likely they were to share the gene VMAT2.
Studies on twins showed that those with this gene, a vesicular monoamine transporter that regulates the flow of mood-altering chemicals in the brain, were more likely to develop a spiritual belief.
Growing up in a religious environment was said to have little effect on belief.
Mr. Hamer, who in 1993 claimed to have identified a DNA sequence linked to male homosexuality, said the existence of the "God gene" explained why some people had more aptitude for spirituality than others.
"Buddha, Muhammad and Jesus all shared a series of mystical experiences or alterations in consciousness and thus probably carried the gene," he said. "This means that the tendency to be spiritual is part of genetic makeup. This is not a thing that is strictly handed down from parents to children. It could skip a generation. It's like intelligence."
His findings, published in a book, "The God Gene: How Faith Is Hard-Wired Into Our Genes," are being greeted skeptically by many in the religious establishment.
The Rev. John Polkinghorne, a fellow of the Royal Society and a canon theologian at Liverpool Cathedral, said: "The idea of a God gene goes against all my personal theological convictions. You can't cut faith down to the lowest common denominator of genetic survival. It shows the poverty of reductionist thinking."
The Rev. Walter Houston, the chaplain of Mansfield College, Oxford, and a fellow in theology, said: "Religious belief is not just related to a person's constitution. It's related to society, tradition, character — everything's involved. Having a gene that could do all that seems pretty unlikely to me."
Mr. Hamer insisted, however, that his research was not antithetical to a belief in God.
"Religious believers can point to the existence of God genes as one more sign of the Creator's ingenuity — a clever way to help humans acknowledge and embrace a divine presence," he said.
His findings have been criticized by leading clerics, who challenge the existence of a "God gene" and say the research undermines a fundamental tenet of faith — that spiritual enlightenment is achieved through divine transformation rather than the brain's electrical impulses.
Dean Hamer, the director of the Gene Structure and Regulation Unit at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, asked volunteers 226 questions in order to determine how spiritually connected they felt to the universe.
The higher their score, the greater the person's ability to believe in a greater spiritual force and, Mr. Hamer found, the more likely they were to share the gene VMAT2.
Studies on twins showed that those with this gene, a vesicular monoamine transporter that regulates the flow of mood-altering chemicals in the brain, were more likely to develop a spiritual belief.
Growing up in a religious environment was said to have little effect on belief.
Mr. Hamer, who in 1993 claimed to have identified a DNA sequence linked to male homosexuality, said the existence of the "God gene" explained why some people had more aptitude for spirituality than others.
"Buddha, Muhammad and Jesus all shared a series of mystical experiences or alterations in consciousness and thus probably carried the gene," he said. "This means that the tendency to be spiritual is part of genetic makeup. This is not a thing that is strictly handed down from parents to children. It could skip a generation. It's like intelligence."
His findings, published in a book, "The God Gene: How Faith Is Hard-Wired Into Our Genes," are being greeted skeptically by many in the religious establishment.
The Rev. John Polkinghorne, a fellow of the Royal Society and a canon theologian at Liverpool Cathedral, said: "The idea of a God gene goes against all my personal theological convictions. You can't cut faith down to the lowest common denominator of genetic survival. It shows the poverty of reductionist thinking."
The Rev. Walter Houston, the chaplain of Mansfield College, Oxford, and a fellow in theology, said: "Religious belief is not just related to a person's constitution. It's related to society, tradition, character — everything's involved. Having a gene that could do all that seems pretty unlikely to me."
Mr. Hamer insisted, however, that his research was not antithetical to a belief in God.
"Religious believers can point to the existence of God genes as one more sign of the Creator's ingenuity — a clever way to help humans acknowledge and embrace a divine presence," he said.
Read the article here
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