Life - Digest

Psychology

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:01:36 GMT

Life : Psychology

I plan to keep this thread active for as long as possible.

I am reading up alot in the subject of psychology and emotions...

And the latest to spark some interest is colour evoking emotion.

Do you think this is true... Blue for formal, Green for wealth, Black for trust...

What are your thoughts?

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One dinosaur extinction theory eliminated...

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:21:51 GMT

Life : One dinosaur extinction theory eliminated...

So, I was looking at this graph:

And noticed that there is an ice age every few hundred thousand years...

Then, I remembered that one of the theories for dinosaur extinction was failure to adapt to a changing climate...

Wait a minute... Dinosaurs did just fine for

millions

of years... which means they must have survived through quite a few ice ages without going extinct...
I guess that's one theory that is eliminated... I wonder if that particular theory is still taken seriously, besides in school textbooks, that is.

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if ape evolve to human, then why ape still exist?

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:20:43 GMT

Life : if ape evolve to human, then why ape still exist?

Sorry for being stupid, i jst want to ask

if ape evolve to human, then why ape still exist?

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swine flue is there any options left?

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:54:56 GMT

Life : swine flue is there any options left?

this year so many people troubling because of swine flue how long it will take to find its antidote?

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Do you think humans will become extinct ever?

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:47:45 GMT

Life : Do you think humans will become extinct ever?

Do you think humans will become extinct sometime? This question is debatable, since humans are different from other species in that they can improve the life expectancies and survival rates of individuals.

Taking this into account do you believe humans could potentially not become extinct if they can control the factors that lead to their extinction?

If you do think that humans will become extinct sometime, when do you extimate this would happen? Thousands, millions of years?

Thanks for you input!

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Human is great.

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:51:44 GMT

Life : Human is great.

Human have thoughts,can talk,talk and listen , but life is so short .

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Dinosaurs evolution

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:12:07 GMT

Life : Dinosaurs evolution

I'm thinking, if the human race evolves in six millions years, to have technology, philosophy and civilization (or a good aproximation), why the dinosaurs can't achieve this in 160 millions of years?.

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Gardening?

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:39:28 GMT

Life : Gardening?

Is this the right forum for questions on gardening?

I started a garden and have some questions. First, I hear it takes forever to make an avocado tree flower. While I was at Home Depot the expert was saying:

- you need another tree within 2 blocks to help cross polination
- bees help a lot
- the old leaves falling at the base of the tree are essential to keep the soil moist and out of direct sunlight

Anyone have other tips for a gardener new to avocados?

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facial scars increase attractiveness (in the short term)

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:02:14 GMT

Life : facial scars increase attractiveness (in the short term)

Quote:

Men with facial scars are more attractive to women seeking short-term relationships, scientists at the University of Liverpool have found.

It was previously assumed that in Western cultures scarring was an unattractive facial feature and in non-Western cultures they were perceived as a sign of maturity and strength. Scientists at Liverpool and Stirling University, however, have found that Western women find scarring on men attractive and may associate it with health and bravery.

Researchers investigated how scarring might impact on mate choice for men and women seeking both long-term and short-term relationships. They found that women preferred men with facial scars for short-term relationships and equally preferred scarred and un-scarred faces for long-term relationships. Men, however, regarded women with and without facial scars as equally attractive for both types of relationship.

Dr Rob Burriss, from the University's School of Biological Sciences, explains: "Male and female participants were shown images of faces that displayed scarring from injury or illness, and were asked to rate how attractive they found the person for long-term and short-term relationships.

"Women may have rated scarring as an attractive quality for short-term relationships because they found it be a symbol of masculinity, a feature that is linked to high testosterone levels and an indicator of good genetic qualities that can be passed on to offspring. Men without scars, however, could be seen as more caring and therefore more suitable for long-term relationships.

"The results demonstrate that we may have more in common with non-Western cultures than previously thought. The perception that scarring is a sign of strength is a view shared by the Yanomamö tribe of Venezuela for example, who use face-paint to accentuate scars that result from ritualised club fights designed to test a man's endurance against repeated strikes to the head.

"The assumption that scarring is a sign of bravery is also consistent with the historical tradition of academic fencing in Western culture, whereby scarring on a man was often evidence of his courage and ability to withstand an opponent's blow."

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/scientists-find-facial-scars-increase-attractiveness-17825.html

[MOD - Quote tags added -

Bikerman

]

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Why trees live longer?

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:13:52 GMT

Life : Why trees live longer?

Can you give an explanation to why trees live longer?

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Metallomics the new science

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:20:03 GMT

Life : Metallomics the new science

Dear All
I have published a review in the journal called " Metallomics" published by the "Royal Society of Chemistry"
It is about Chromium and plants I have proposed some new strategies on how to tackle the course of knowledge generation in this area
I would like you all to just have a look at the paper here
in fact it is already # 2 on the top 10 list for the journal
your comments are welcome
here is the link
http://www.rsc.org/delivery/_ArticleLinking/DisplayHTMLArticleforfree.cfm?JournalCode=MT&Year=2009&ManuscriptID=b904571f&Iss=5

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Humans are by nature optimistic.....

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:23:38 GMT

Life : Humans are by nature optimistic.....

People are by nature optimistic, according to a new survey.

The study involving 150,000 adults from over 140 countries showed that despite calamities from economic recessions, wars and famine to a flu epidemic, people were able to survive due to their universally positive outlook towards life.

It showed that 89 pct of the people worldwide expected the next five years to be as good or better than their current life.

Similarly, 95 percent individuals expected their life in five years to be as good or better than their life was five years ago.

"These results provide compelling evidence that optimism is a universal phenomenon," said Matthew Gallagher, a psychology doctoral candidate at the University of Kansas and lead researcher of the study.

At the country level, optimism is highest in Ireland, Brazil, Denmark, and New Zealand and lowest in Zimbabwe, Egypt, Haiti and Bulgaria.

The United States ranks number 10 on the list of optimistic countries.

May god bless us!!!!

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Does love at first sight actually happen?

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:03:09 GMT

Life : Does love at first sight actually happen?

Does love at first sight actually happen? Well, scientists say that the answer to this ever-existing query lies in geneticists.

In a study on fruit flies, American and Australian researchers have discovered that some males and females are more compatible than others at the genetic level.

In their opinion, this compatibility plays an important role in mate selection, mating outcomes, and future reproductive behaviours.

The researchers say that the experiments conducted by them have shown that before mating, females experience something called "genetic priming", which makes them more likely to mate with certain males over others.

"Our research helps to shed light on the complex biochemistry involved in mate selection and reproduction," said Mariana Wolfner, Professor of Developmental Biology at Cornell University and the senior scientist involved in the study.

She added: "These findings may lead to ways to curb unwanted insect populations by activating or deactivating genes that play a role in female mating decisions."

For the study, scientists mated two different strains of fruit fly females to males either from their own strain or to males from the other strain.

They noted the males with which females of each strain tended to mate, and then examined whether the females showed differences in behaviour soon after mating and in reproduction-related activities, such as how many offspring were produced and how many sperm were stored.

They also analysed females' RNA to compare the genes expressed in females mated to males of different strains.

It was found that despite observed differences in mating behaviours and reproduction activities in females mated to different strains of males, there were only negligible mating-dependent differences in gene expression between the groups.

Based on their observations, the researchers came to the conclusion that genetic changes involved in mate choice and reproduction existed before mating began.

The study has been published in the latest issue of the journal Genetics.

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To clone a Neanderthal?

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:02:58 GMT

Life : To clone a Neanderthal?

http://www.slate.com/id/2205310/?GT1=38001

I'm all for this with the exception that the resulting being(s) is treated humanely and possibly given human rights if he/she is capable of exercising and understanding them.

What do you guys & gals think?

Should it be done?

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Tortoise shell

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:58:25 GMT

Life : Tortoise shell

Hi, i have a question- Does tortoise have shell from begining?
I don't know. If yes then did it has same protective characteristics? If not then which organ of their ancestors became the shell? Also what gives a tortoise long life div class="detail"? plz answer if you can.

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House Cats Know What They Want And How To Get It From You

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:48:47 GMT

Life : House Cats Know What They Want And How To Get It From You

Anyone that has a cat already knows this, but now your intuition is backed by science!

Apparetly cats can modify their purring and meowing to convince their owners to feed them:

Quote:

The rather crafty felines motivate people to fill their food dishes by sending something of a mixed signal: an urgent cry or meowing sound embedded within an otherwise pleasant purr. The result is a call that humans generally find annoyingly difficult to ignore.

The rest of the article is a hoot!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090713121348.htm

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Are the Chinese taught that they ................

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:42:11 GMT

Life : Are the Chinese taught that they ................

Are the Chinese taught (in schools) that they evolved differently from the rest of us?

There was a programme of BBC2 the other week called the incredible human journey... SEE HERE (if you live in the UK).

Quote:

There are seven billion humans on earth, spread across the whole planet. Scientific evidence suggests that most of us can trace our origins to one tiny group of people who left Africa around 70,000 years ago. In this five-part series, Dr Alice Roberts follows the archaeological and genetic footprints of our ancient ancestors to find out how their journeys transformed our species into the humans we are today, and how Homo sapiens came to dominate the planet.

In this programme, the journey continues into Asia, the world's greatest land mass, in a quest to discover how early hunter-gatherers managed to survive in one of the most inhospitable places on earth - the Arctic region of Northern Siberia. Alice meets the nomadic Evenki people, whose lives are dictated by reindeer, both wild and domesticated, and discovers that the survival techniques of this very ancient people have been passed down through generations. Alice also explores what may have occurred during human migration to produce Chinese physical characteristics, and considers a controversial claim about Chinese evolution: that the Chinese do not share the same African ancestry as other peoples.

Source: BBC

They were asking questions like why the chinese look so different to europeans and africans,and the up shot of this,and what i find hard to believe,is that the chinese are taught (apparently) that they evolved differently to everyone else,it was later proved wrong by a chinese geneticist,but are the Chinese really taught that the opposite is true?

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Warning about copy-paste

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:34:32 GMT

Life : Warning about copy-paste

I've noticed quite a few 'copy-paste' postings appearing in the science forums. This won't do at all. Simply copying a chunk of text from another site and posting it here as your own is not within the TOS. Use quote tags, acknowledge the site the material comes from, and add something of your own. Otherwise I will simply delete any such posting and issue a warning to repeat offenders.

If you don't know how to quote third-party material properly:

enclose

QUOTE

in square brackets at the start of the copied passage
enclose

/QUOTE

in square brackets at the end of the copied passage

Be sure to add your source as an http reference at the end of the posting or passage.

Here is how it should look (thanks to James007 for the visual aid).

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The clever crow

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:07:33 GMT

Life : The clever crow

Check this http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(09)01455-9
and this http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8181233.stm
My comments are
The papers in "current biology" and PLOS1 are the proverbial reinvention of the wheel. Aesop would be telling the authors "I told you so". We have known this for 2000 years! But it takes a high impact factor journal publication to validate it in the strictest scientific sense. BTW- The paper strictly speaking has not actually come out with ...
The authors of the paper say that "Although we did not
provide an independent control condition in which subjects
were presented with a tube containing water but no worm,
we found that subjects stopped adding stones once the
worm had been reached and removed from the tube, providing evidence against this argument" Now a control is essential in an experiment no matter what the judgmental may be. I would have liked to see a video where the bird does nothing but stare at the tube without the worm and same level of water!
Now how about this scenario- another control in the experiment wherein the birds are presented with the tube with the worm and the same level of water but no stones for a long time. Me thinks that the crow would have simply pushed the tube with its beek to make it fall and would have gone for the worm! and once it has learn t this technique then even when presented with stones the birds would have gone for the push method unless the tubes where made bigger and heavier to push!
Hey this paper has sparked me off - the authors say that "The results of these experiments provide the first empirical
evidence that a species of corvid is capable of the remarkable
problem-solving ability described more than two thousand
years ago by Aesop" Now the fable was about a thirsty crow this paper is about a "hungry" crow - would the crow have done the same thing in the exp had it been thirsty ie had the reward been just water and not the grub? here is where the technique of just pushing the tube comes into play! If any of you want the original paper ( its still in press! ...

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if you can live for one day

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:47:54 GMT

Life : if you can live for one day

I know many people especially youth will have many plans for their future, but life is finite。What you live for? Whats the significance of your own life?Now,if you get sick and will die in on day,what will you do? or if you regret these years you lived?

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health insurance

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:13:04 GMT

Life : health insurance

The US market-based health care system relies heavily on private and not-for-profit health insurance, which is the primary source of coverage for most Americans. According to the United States Census Bureau about 84% of Americans have health insurance; some 60% obtain it through an employer, while about 9% purchase it directly. Various government agencies provide reporting to about 27% of Americans (there is some overlap in these figures).
Public programs provide the most important source of coverage for most seniors and for low-income children and families who meet certain eligibility requirements. The primary public programs are Medicare, a federal social insurance program for seniors and certain disabled individuals, Medicaid, funded jointly by the federal government and states but administered at the state level, which covers certain very low income children and their families, and SCHIP, also a federal-state partnership that serves certain children and families who do not qualify for Medicaid but who cannot afford private reporting. Other public programs include military health benefits provided through TRICARE and the Veterans Health Administration and benefits provided through the Indian Health Service. Some states have additional programs for low-income individuals.
In 2006, there were 47 million people in the United States (16% of the population) who were without health insurance for at least part of that year.About 37% of the uninsured live in households with an income over $50,000.
In 2004, US health insurers directly employed almost 470,000 people at an average salary of $61,409. (As of the fourth quarter of 2007, the total US labor force stood at 153.6 million, of whom 146.3 million were working. Employment related to all forms of insurance totaled 2.3 million.Mean annual earnings for full-time civilian workers as of June 2006 were $41,231; median earnings were $33,634.)The insurance industry also represents a significant lobbying group in the US. For 2008 insurance was the 8th among industries in political contributions to members of Congress, giving $28,654,121, of which 51% was given to Democrats and 49% to Republicans, with the top recipient of insurance

health insurance texas

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1st Swine Flu in Philippines

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 22:38:22 GMT

Life : 1st Swine Flu in Philippines

As the title says.. We have many weeks or months protecting phil we have a scanner on airport to check if someone got fever to immediately report but yesterday we have a bad news receive a 10 yr old girl has been attack by a swine flu and carry to hospital with the family quarantine.. Good news the girl is cofine and currenty resting hihi just sharing..

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religious stupidty.

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:45:48 GMT

Life : religious stupidty.

Now this post WAS NOT made to say religious people are stupid, it is to say religious people AND athesists are stupid.

Why do people not understand, religious people consistently believe that almighty god plopped the human onto the plannet and that was that, surley our all mighty god would have using a way of logic and reason to put his beings into existance.

Why do you athesis not understand, the matter of life, or that huge ball of energy that exploded to cause the big bang had to come from somewhere, i call that source god, you might want to call it creator or whatever.

If god was to tell jesus to explain Darwins theory of eveloution to people 2009 years ago how many people would believe it? How many people would be religious today... 0, they would all say Jesus is a mad man.

People need to open thier eyes, think more, then maybe we will not waste so much energy arguing over something so pointless.

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Talking plants

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:44:51 GMT

Life : Talking plants

Well, they don't really talk, but a company has created a sensor that allows your houseplants to twitter their needs to you. Great- just what I need, a plant that sends death threats or calls Peetrap (PEople for the Ethical TReAtment of Plants) to turn me in for cruelty

I wonder if the plants will have time to twitter for help if my cat gets the nibbles?

Here is the link:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2009/0101-thirsty_plants_text_for_help.htm

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Anti-cancer gene therapy shows promise

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:35:51 GMT

Life : Anti-cancer gene therapy shows promise

South Korean medical scientists say a new lung cancer therapy employing a vaporized viral vector has shown early promise in a mouse model of lung cancer.

The researchers at South Korea's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said the vaporized viral vector is used to deliver a cancer-inhibiting molecule directly to lung tissue.

Although gene therapy is an area of great promise, the scientists said delivery mechanisms have proven problematic for effective delivery of genetic therapy to lung tissues.

"Aerosol delivery targets the lungs specifically and represents a non-invasive alternative for targeting genes to the lung," Professor Myung-Haing Cho, who led the research, said. "The delivery of genes via aerosol holds promise for the treatment of a broad spectrum of pulmonary disorders and offers numerous advantages over more invasive modes of delivery."

The results of Cho's research are to appear in the June 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

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