Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More Dissident Voice It’s no big deal that they strap people onto boards, then pour water onto their faces, drowning them, more or less, in our name, but we don’t make a big fuss until they nudge our nuts. It’s OK that they incinerate countless alien bodies, call it shock and awe (some), but we don’t go berserk until they palm our inner thighs. Go ahead and commit countless crimes, profit and murder with our tax money, destroy nations, including this one, be imperial, kick ass without mercy, kill into eternity with regular troops, part-timers or mercenaries, but don’t mess with our junks! Don’t tinker with our jewels. Big Brother must probe our crotches because Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had 80 grams of PETN explosive in his underwear. Umar lost his bloody trousers. Agence France Press quotes Dr. On the other hand, the successor to Chertoff, Janet Napolitano, reassures us, “IT machines are safe, efficient, and protect passenger privacy. But why this constant emphasis on airports?
Freakonomics Radio: Could a Lottery Be the Answer to America's Poor Savings Rate? - NYTimes.com Stephen J. DUBNER: There’s something Peter Tufano wants to know about you: If you had to, could you come up with $2,000 in 30 days? That’s the question he asked a whole bunch of people in 13 countries, including the U.S. Peter TUFANO: Why $2,000? Cause an auto transmission is about $1,500. DUBNER: Tufano is all about the motivation. ANNOUNCER: From American Public Media and WNYC, this is Freakonomics Radio. DUBNER: Americans are generally terrible at saving money. We are, however, excellent at spending money. The other day, I went to a store in Penn Station in New York called Carlton Cards. Kirit PRAJAPADI: It’s about $8 to $9 million a year. DUBNER: Holy crap! PRAJAPADI: Yes. DUBNER: OK, you see people buying tickets all day. PRAJAPADI: When they win, they forget about all their losses. DUBNER: They give you a hug? PRAJAPADI: Not really. DUBNER: You probably don’t want the hug or the kiss. PRAJAPADI: No, not really. DUBNER: This is Melissa Kearny. KEARNEY: Yes, by far. KEIP: Yes.
COMPLETE COLLECTION OF POEMS BY RUDYARD KIPLING Kipling gained renown throughout the world as a poet and storyteller. He was also known as a leading supporter of the British Empire. As apparent from his stories and poems, Kipling interested himself in the romance and adventure which he found in Great Britain's colonial expansion. Kipling was born on Dec.30, 1865, in Bombay, where his father directed an art school. In 1889, Kipling return to England. Kipling composed many of his poems while living for several years in the United States in the mid-1890s. In 1896, Kipling returned to England from the United States. In 1900, Kipling went to South Africa to report the Boer War for an English newspaper. Before World War I, Kipling became active in politics. he widely lectured and wrote for the British cause both before and during the war.
7 Lessons From 7 Great Minds Have you ever wished you could go back in time and have a conversation with one of the greatest minds in history? Well, you can’t sorry, they’re dead. Unless of course you’re clairaudient, be my guest. But for the rest of us, we can still refer to the words they left behind. Even though these great teachers have passed on, their words still live, and in them their wisdom. I’ve made a list of seven what I believe are some of the greatest teachings by the world’s greatest minds. 1. “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” - Lawrence J. In order for us to achieve our dreams, we must have a vision of our goals. Action: Visualize a life of your wildest dreams. 2. “It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, “Always do what you are afraid to do.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson The best way to learn something is to dive right in to it. Action: You must define your fears in order to conquer them. 3. “All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
MAJOR PERSONALITY STUDY FINDS THAT TRAITS ARE MOSTLY INHERITED THE genetic makeup of a child is a stronger influence on personality than child rearing, according to the first study to examine identical twins reared in different families. The findings shatter a widespread belief among experts and laymen alike in the primacy of family influence and are sure to engender fierce debate. The findings are the first major results to emerge from a longterm project at the University of Minnesota in which, since 1979, more than 350 pairs of twins have gone through six days of extensive testing that has included analysis of blood, brain waves, intelligence and allergies. The results on personality are being reviewed for publication by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Although there has been wide press coverage of pairs of twins reared apart who met for the first time in the course of the study, the personality results are the first significant scientific data to be announced. The 350 pairs of twins studied included some who were raised apart.
A letter to Charles Dickens on his 200th birthday My dear Mr Dickens, Happy 200th birthday! You yourself were not much given to celebrating anniversaries, but you did go to Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1864, with Robert Browning, Wilkie Collins and John Forster, to celebrate Shakespeare's 300th, "in peace and quiet". And on 30 January 1849, you celebrated the bicentenary of the execution of Charles I with your friend Walter Savage Landor. In so doing, you gave a clear message of how greatly you honoured Shakespeare's writing – "was there ever such a fellow!" Just now, we are all reading and rereading your novels, your journalism, and your story A Christmas Carol, with its pointed message that a decent society depends on the rich learning to be generous and the poor being saved from ignorance and want. We are enjoying the way you bring London to life before our eyes: streets, river, bridges, shops, dust heaps, markets, prisons. Novels and letters give us a panoramic view of 19th-century England.
Light switches on the brain | Moheb Costandi | Science Leading lights in optogenetics presented the latest developments in their field during a mini-symposium at the 40th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego at the weekend. Optogenetics has emerged in the past decade as a high-precision tool for monitoring and controlling the activity of nerve cells. It is based on light-sensitive proteins called rhodopsins, which are isolated from algae and bacteria and are related to the proteins found in the human retina. When rhodopsins in the human eye's photoreceptors are struck by light, they initiate a cascade of biochemical reactions, causing the cells to send signals to the brain via the optic nerve. When introduced into neurons, they insert themselves into the membrane, making the cells sensitive to light. From the beginning, this technique proved to be extremely powerful. More recently, the technique has been used to control increasingly complex behaviours in mammals. Mo Costandi writes the Neurophilosophy blog
Dickens At 200: A Birthday You Can't 'Bah Humbug' hide captionBorn in 1812, English writer Charles Dickens was born 200 years ago on Feb. 7. Rischgitz/Getty Images Born in 1812, English writer Charles Dickens was born 200 years ago on Feb. 7. Tuesday marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens — the great 19th century English novelist who gave us stories of pathos and comedy, and colorful portraits of the people of London, from the poor in the back streets, to the rich in the parks and avenues. Lots of Dickens' phrases — like "Bah humbug" and "God bless us, every one!" — have slipped into our minds and our memories. "After Shakespeare, Dickens is the great creator of characters, multiple characters," says Claire Tomalin, author of the new biography Charles Dickens: A Life. Dickens liked to walk, as he said, "far and fast," gathering his thoughts and his strength to pour into his novels. "He would write these quite rapidly," Tomalin explains. Hulton Archive/Getty Images Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Getty Images
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