January 2012
1 post
“Every reader, as he reads, is actually the reader of himself. The writer’s work...”
– Marcel Proust (via fleim)
May 2010
1 post
Obama biggest recipient of BP cash →
soupsoup:
While the BP oil geyser pumps millions of gallons of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama and members of Congress may have to answer for the millions in campaign contributions they’ve taken from the oil and gas giant over the years.
During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant and is the top...
December 2009
7 posts
the most random thing ive read all week - former... →
i completely agree - usually physics is way more... →
using zombie pigs to win the war →
A new type of supernova discovered →
What happens when a really gargantuan star – one hundreds of times bigger than our sun – blows up? Although a theory developed years ago describes what the explosion of such an enormous star should look like, no one had actually observed one – until now. An international team, led by scientists in Israel, and including researchers from Germany, the US, UK and China, tracked a supernova – an...
'The pill' for him: Scientists find a hormonal... →
November 2009
39 posts
left as rain - awesome music blog →
“Why is there no dust in elliptical galaxies?
Firstly, the universe is rational...”
– The Origin of Galaxies | Science Blog
On The Difference Between Science And Philosophy →
“In Buddhism, we distinguish between spiritual experiences and spiritual...”
The Useless Tree: Obama in China: So, what did you... →
agreed.
And that is my main point here. Those who see Obama’s performance in China as weak - i.e not pressing the PRC on any of a number of sensitive issues - are missing the larger structural reality. The US is not so powerful that it can simply make demands of China without regard to its own vulnerabilities or weaknesses.
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The Blank Slate of Sexual Education in the Chinese... →
As Chinese youth are exposed to more and more sex via the Internet in China’s rapidly expanding economy, the education system still has to catch up to their newfound curiosity. Even many schools in Beijing have only recently started true sex education classes, and these only usually begin in high school. There is an inconsistency in the way that China is becoming increasingly liberalized in some...
a head-shrinker studies the zombie brain →
Psychiatrist Steven Schlozman recently expanded his practice from humans to the inhuman. Poring over his library of classic zombie films, he came up with neurobiological explanations for the behavior of the undead, such as lack of a frontal lobe and an overactive amygdala.
“Researchers at Northwestern University say they’ve found evidence that the...”
– Do Collectivist Cultures Evolve as Buffers to Psychopathology? (Dr. X’s Free Associations)
Full text of the original article is also online.
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i love 兩 人 出 品 's photostream →
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neuroscientist explains his quest to understand... →
In the case of reading, the shapes of our writing systems have evolved towards a progressive simplification while remaining compatible with the visual coding scheme that is present in all primate brains. A fascinating discovery, made by the American researcher Marc Changizi, is that all of the world’s writing systems use the same set of basic shapes, and that these shapes are already a part...
“This study provides further support to the theory that our communication...”
– The Roots of Language: Scientific American Podcast
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the 100 most beautiful words in the english...
my favorite (in sound and substance): syzygy - the direct opposition of two heavenly bodies (from dr. goodword)
the list:
Ailurophile: A cat-lover.
Assemblage: A gathering.
Becoming: Attractive.
Beleaguer: To exhaust with attacks.
Brood: To think alone.
Bucolic: In a lovely rural setting.
Bungalow: A small, cozy cottage.
Chatoyant: Like a cat’s eye.
Comely: Attractive.
Conflate:...
are too many students going to college? - the... →
quotes:
From a moral point of view, far too many students are going to college—just as far too many people stand up at concerts.
- bryan caplan, associate professor of economics at george mason university
We have a moral obligation to destroy the current role of the B.A. in American life. It has become an emblem of first-class citizenship for no good reason.
- charles murray, political...
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i had no idea jim carrey's website would be so... →
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the billion dollar gram →
it really is just allocation of resources - especially like the “bribes received by russian officials”
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don't let your vocabulary go extinct - chinese... →
gallery of blade runner - inspired by do androids... →
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amazing birds →
China bans ObaMao shirt during Obama's visit →