The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. How many times had we heard that in geometry class over our school years. But the true beauty of lines is when Mother Nature lets them loose, to meander, and find their own ways.
Picture taken at Moss Landing Harbor, the camera was a Kodak EasyShare Z612.
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Hard to believe some of these university studies were given the go ahead. Our tax dollars at work, and our friends' pounds/euros across the pond used in the same way. Goes to prove governments where ever waste the taxpayers' money.
I think we need to band together, find an obviouis conclusion, then look for grants to fund our research to come to that conclusion. I for one want to know how one volunteered for the orgasm study?? Sorry Cavey, the beer research is completed already.
UNIVERSITY OF THE BLEEDIN' OBVIOUS
Hold the front page! Images of bikini-clad women make men more sexist. Steve Connor reports on a new study by Princeton scientists, while Jeremy Laurance recalls the other academic work that told us what we already know. . .
The Independent UK OnLine, Science Section
Scientists have demonstrated something that many women suspect and most 
men would admit only to themselves: pictures of scantily-clad females turn women into sexual objects in the minds of men. Feminists would no doubt see the discovery as the science of the bloody obvious, but the researchers claim the results demonstrate just how pictures of bikini-clad women affect the inner workings of the male brain.
The study found that the part of the brain that keeps in check a man's sexual hostility towards women is deactivated when he is shown images of women in bikinis. The findings also support the idea that pornographic images turn women into commodified objects in the minds of men, the researchers said.
"It is as if they are reacting to these women as if they are not fully human," said Susan Fiske, professor of psychology at Princeton University, who made the study on 21 male undergraduates using a medical scanner to analyse their brain activity. She told the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago: "I wouldn't argue for censorship, but I would argue that it is important to know about the impact of the images you are showing."
The study focused on a region of the brain called the medial pre-frontal cortex, 
just above the eyes, which, when activated seems to damp a man's tendency to express hostile sexist thoughts about women, Professor Fiske said. Men who express the strongest sexist tendencies tend to have a less active medial cortex. It becomes decactivated in men who are the most hostile to women, but only for women in bikinis, she said.
"So basically they are particularly likely to treat these women as objects, at least that is the interpretation of the data we have so far. It is a preliminary study but it is consistent with the idea that they are responding to these photographs as if they were responding to objects rather than people."
It was "shocking" to find that the pictures of scantily clad women deactivates the medial pre-frontal cortex, Professor Fiske went on. "The only other time we've observed the deactivation of this region is when people look at pictures of homeless people and drug addicts who they really don't want to think about what's in their minds because they are put off by them."
The panel of 21 heterosexual male students were first rated in terms of their sexist attitudes to women, using answers to interview questions. Then they were placed in a brain scanner while viewing a set of images of women in bikinis, women in clothes and men in clothes. The scientists also used "sexualised" images, where the head of each semi-naked photograph was cut off so that only the torso was visible. The men were then given memory tests on what they had remembered about each image, with and without the heads.
"Heterosexual men had the best memory for the sexualised bodies of women – 
this is cutting-off the heads – even though they had seen the bodies for only 200 milliseconds," Professor Fiske said. The findings have wider implications for society because they show how sexualised images in the media and in advertising can dehumanise women by encouraging men to think of them in terms of objects to be acted upon, she said. "There is an avoidance-related dehumanisation or dementalising kind of response. This one is an approach-orientated response. These women are attractive, they are seen as sexually inviting.
"When you have sexualised pictures of women in the workplace, it's hard not to think of female colleague in those terms. It has a spill-over effect in how you perceive plausible women in the workplace and not treating them as agents but as independent people, and not seeing them as a means to an end."
... and other groundbreaking studies from the archive
Fake orgasms differ from real ones
Professor Gert Holstege of the University of Groningen asked women to place their head in a scanner while having an orgasm with their partner. They were then asked to fake an orgasm and the scans were compared. The result? Different parts of the brain experience real orgasms and create fake ones.
The rhythm method of contraception is unreliable
A study in the British Medical Journal concluded women can get pregnant at any time of their monthly cycle. If you want to get pregnant, there is no substitute for frequent bonking (not a conclusion the researchers reached).
Men are attracted to women who wear red
Students at the University of Rochester, New York rated a woman's attractiveness in attire of varying hues. Most women opted for red. The researchers said this suggested they associated red with sex. Surprise! Red light district, scarlet woman, lipstick, painted nails; no clues there, then.
(Wouldn't you think this kind of research would mainly depend on what kind of pictures you use??!!)
The more fit you are the longer you will live
Researchers from Washington, US, who studied 15,000 former servicemen concluded the highly fit had half the risk of death of the least fit.
Living near a busy road increases the risk of asthma
A study of 5,000 children by the University of Southern California found air 
quality affected health. They said: "Living in residential areas with high traffic-related pollution significantly increases the risk of childhood asthma."
Hurrying makes people less attentive
US researchers assessed the walking speeds of randomly selected pedestrians in 31 countries using stopwatches and a complicated measures. They concluded that "the more people rush around the less time they have to devote to factors that are peripheral to their main goals".
Giving up smoking is good for your lungs
Scientists at the University of Glasgow assessed smokers six weeks after they had quit. They found that they had improved their lung function by 15 per cent. What is even more remarkable is that editors at the American Journal of Respiratory and critical Care Medicine thought this a study worth publishing.
Binge drinkers are more likely to fall over
Scientists at Wake Forest School of medicine in the US who questioned 2,000 students concluded getting drunk made them prone to lose their balance.
I can identify with this one, but not only do I misplace my keys, I tend to lose my eye glasses, my check book, the remote, etc.. And what is this, life is so unfair, not only do women look better than us, they smell better, they are softer to touch, they have more and nicer curves than we do, and now I find out they use both sides of their brain and we only use one!!!! That being said, I have to say the person with the most uncanny sense of direction that I know is my sister.
WOMEN'S DIFFICULTY IN READING MAPS, AND MEN'S USELESSNESS IN FINDING THINGS RIGHT UNDER THEIR NOSES COULD BE EXPLAINED BY NEW RESEARCH
by Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent -- The Telegraph UK on Line edition
Scientists believe the reason the sexes differ is due to their different roles in evolution.Men had to hunt and stalk their prey, so became skilled at navigation, while women foraged for food and so became good at spotting fruits and nuts close by.
The theory emerged from a study which looked at the different ways in which men and women appreciate art.
Researchers discovered that a brain region called the parietal lobe, which governs spatial awareness, is active in both men and women when they admire a "beautiful" picture or photograph.
But while neurons on both sides of the brain were stimulated in women, only those in the right hemisphere were activated in men.
The left side deals with closer range objects while the right is better at co-ordinates.
The scientists, led by Dr Francisco Ayala from the University of California, and reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, believe differences in the way men and women appreciate beauty probably arose early in the evolution of early modern humans, say the researchers.
Hunting, traditionally done by men, required a "co-ordinating" ability to track animals accurately while on the move. Closer spatial awareness was better suited to foraging for fruit, roots or berries, a job mainly carried out by women.
"Women tend to be more aware than men of objects around them, including 
those that seem irrelevant to the current task, whereas men out-perform women in navigation tasks," the scientists wrote. "Men tend to solve navigation tasks by using orientation-based strategies involving distance concepts and cardinal directions, whereas women tend to base their activities on remembering the location of landmarks and relative directions, such as "left from", or "to the right of"."
And what, I ask, if you have a phobia about writing poetry?
WRITING POEMS HELPS THE BRAIN COPE WITH EMOTIONAL TURMOIL
Writing poems or songs - no matter how bad they are - could be good for mental and physical health
by Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent in Chicago -- The Telegraph UK On Line
Putting pen to paper is said to help the brain "regulate emotion" and reduces feelings of anxiety, fear and sadness.
Researchers claim the act of writing about personal experiences has a cathartic effect because it inhibits parts of the brain linked to emotional turmoil, and increases activity in the region to do with self-control.
The quality of the verse or prose written has no bearing on the effect on the author. In fact, scientists suggest that the less vivid and descriptive the piece, the better.
Now they hope to develop therapies based on their findings that could be used to ease social fears and phobias.
Dr Matthew Lieberman, a neuroscientist at the University of
California, outlined his findings at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in a lecture called Putting Feelings Into Words. He said that expressing yourself in print was "a sort of unintentional emotion regulation". "It seems to regulate our distress," he added. "I don't think that people sit down in order to regulate their emotions but there is a benefit. "I think it could play a role in why many people write diaries or write bad lyrics to songs - the kind that should never be played on the radio."
Dr Lieberman proved the therapeutic power of writing by scanning the brains of 30 individuals while they described distressing pictures. He found that the act tended to reduce activity in the amygala, a part of the brain connected with emotion and fear and increased activity in the pre-frontal cortex, the mind's regulator. This suggests that the mere action of writing about an emotion was a way of calming down the brain and re-establishing mental balance.
Often the author is unaware of the therapeutic effect of the task, it was claimed."If you ask people then they don't think that it serves an emotion regulation but when you look at the brain that looks like what is going on," he added. "The more frontal activity we see, the less amydala response. There seems to be a see-saw affect."
In another trial, writing was used in conjunction with exposure therapy for people who had a phobia of spiders. It was discovered that writing about their fears actually boosted the effect of the therapy compared with people who did not put pen to paper.
"We do think that it has clinical applications," Dr Lieberman said. "People expressing negative emotional responses in words while being exposed gave them greater attenuation (reduction) of fear."
Dr Lieberman said that the effect was negated if the writing was too vivid or 
descriptive because it led to people reliving their trauma. Also, typing was not as good as writing long-hand.
"You have to write about it in a detached way," he said.
Asked why writers were often troubled souls, he said that the writing itself may be a reaction to severe emotional problems.
"I am sure that it is one of their motivators to write," he said. "You have to ask yourself what they would be like without the writing."
One excited CNBC Money Reporter, we could certainly use some of this 'straight talk' from the floors of Congress. . .
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!! Well on the bright side I can purchase a jar of the magical mystical spread for each day I was late for WORLD NUTELLA DAY!!!!!!!!!!
NUTTY FOR NUTELLA: SPREADABLE JOY
by Amy Scattergood; Los Angeles Times
Do a Google search for "Nutella," the Italian hazelnut-chocolate spread that comes in a squat jar like peanut butter and is often found right next to it in grocery aisles, and you'll get about 5 million results. Which is about twice what you get when you Google "chocolate chip cookies"
Because Nutella isn't just junk food with a European pedigree. It can be an obsession, a habit, even a cult. If you think this is foodie hyperbole, you're just not among the initiated.
If, however, you're the sort of person who keeps a jar of Nutella hidden under 
the sink or the mattress; if you've ever carefully spooned all the Nutella out of the center of the jar so that it still looked full to outside observers; if you've asked friends to smuggle Nutella back from Europe (devotees swear European-made Nutella tastes different); if, for heaven's sake, you've ever bought 10 pounds of raw hazelnuts to try to make it at home, then welcome.
As members of Nutella's secret handshake society will tell you, it's a blend of hazelnuts and chocolate -- or rather, nuts, cocoa, sugar, skim milk, oil and a few other flavorings and emulsifiers -- that's been ground to a blissfully smooth, creamy spread. Knifed onto a slice of bread, or smeared over crepes or waffles, it's a simple snack that (as my children and the Ferrero Co., which makes the product, like to point out) is even vaguely wholesome.
Maybe it's the idea of spreadable chocolate, or maybe it's the deeply satisfying combination of chocolate and hazelnuts, but there's something about Nutella that inspires the kind of devotion usually reserved for federally banned substances.
Two years ago, bloggers Sara Rosso and Michelle Fabio even designated Feb. 5 as World Nutella Day, which has a growing following.
I think I know how Rodent lost that eye!!!
"I thought it would be great to have a day where we could eat and cook with 
Nutella without shame . . . a bit like a meeting of the Nutella minds, or an NAA: Nutella Addicts Anonymous meeting," e-mailed Rosso, an American living in Italy.
Famous-fan recipes
All Nutella addicts are not underground -- or online. French pastry chef Pierre Hermé, English cookbook author Nigella Lawson and Berkeley pastry chef and cookbook author Alice Medrich have all created recipes that feature the spread.
In Southern California, Anisette Brasserie chef-owner Alain Giraud (who once confessed that his favorite way to eat Nutella was out of the jar) serves waffles 
with Nutella on his restaurant's weekend breakfast menu. Spago pastry chef Sherry Yard serves rolled tuilles stuffed with Nutella at Spago events.
Not bad for a children's snack that originated in postwar Italy as a thrifty answer to food rationing.
Nutella History
This was neither a unique combination nor a unique situation. Chocolate and hazelnuts have been mixed together (gianduja, the term given to chocolate-hazelnut paste, is named after a Turin commedia dell'arte character) in the region since the 1800s, often to stretch an imported product with a local one.
But Ferrero took things one step further, blending the heady mixture into a spreadable confection that was even more economical and easy to use.
In 1964, the spread was officially renamed Nutella. World domination soon followed.
(The rest of the article, be sure and read page two containing, receipes, how to make your own, and links is at: http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-nutella11-2009feb11,0,5739608.story
The ‘Porky’ Trillion-Dollar Stimulus You Don’t Care About
Friday, February 13, 2009
By Michelle Malkin
N.Y. Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer took to the floor on Tuesday to sneer at public outrage over the trillion-dollar porkulus. “The American people really don’t care,” he said, about those “little tiny, yes, porky amendments.” He punctuated his derision by pinching his pointer finger and thumb together. Only the “chattering classes” worry about such trivial matters, Schumer scoffed.
Well, we are all “chattering classes” now. Congressional phones and fax lines have been ringing off the hooks all week with complaints from angry constituents across the country. And just two days after Schumer declared that no one cares, the taxpayer group Americans for Prosperity delivered 400,000 petitions to the Senate protesting the behemoth bill. Those petitions were signed before the latest details of the House-Senate conference report negotiations had been disclosed—and before any final legislative text had been made available to the general public. 
If the stimulus plan were a Thanksgiving dinner entree, it would be a Turbaconducken—the heart attack-inducing dish of roasted chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey, all wrapped in endless slabs of bacon. But according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s fantasyland “fact sheet” released early Thursday afternoon, “there are no earmarks or pet projects” in the final package.
Trust her no further than you could throw a pot-bellied pig. Despite the self-delusional declarations of Pelosi and President Obama that no pet projects exist, Hill staffers spilled the beans on several new set-asides tacked onto the bill.
Thanks to Michigan’s Democratic Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin, General Motors will receive a special tax break worth an estimated $7 billion to cover liabilities incurred when it accepted its $13.4 billion bailout from the Bush administration. The failing automaker has lined up for an addition $4 billion in bailout funds—at which time they’ll no doubt ask for another mega-tax liability waiver. The moochers’ cycle never ends.
Then there’s Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s Railway to Sin City. Appointing yourself a Senate conferee has its perks. Roughly $8 billion in perks.
Reid, you see, needs to stimulate his re-election bid, so he haggled with President Obama to tuck in a teeny, tiny, yes, porky amendment for high-speed rail lines. Reid has his eyes—and paws—on a proposed Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas magnetic levitation train. He has already sunk $45 million in previous earmarks into his, yes, pet project. Wasn’t it earlier this week that Obama was lecturing companies not to travel to Las Vegas on the taxpayers’ dime? 
But I digress. Along with these not-earmarks, not-pet projects, there’s $2 billion for impeached Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s pet FutureGen near-zero emissions power plant project, $300 million for souped-up “green” golf carts for government workers, $30 million for “smart appliances” and $65 million for digital TV coupons. According to Hill Republicans, money for basic highways and bridges was cut by $1 billion from the House-passed level, but:
-- $9 billion for school construction was added back in (originally cut by the Nelson-Collins “compromise”);
-- $5 billion was added to the state fiscal stabilization fund (originally cut by Nelson-Collins), making it a grand total of $53.6 billion;
-- $1 billion was added back for Prevention & Wellness Programs, including STD education; and
-- $2 billion for neighborhood stabilization programs.
As I’ve reported previously, that “neighborhood stabilization” slush fund money will end up in the pockets of left-wing shakedown artists such as ACORN and the Massachusetts-based Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA), led by self-proclaimed “bank terrorist” Bruce Marks. There’s an additional $3.25 billion in HUD grants and Community Development Block Grants in the bill that will also inevitably find its way into the coffers of these housing-entitlement lobbying groups.
Another egregious not-earmark earmark that survived untouched: $2 billion for the National Parks Service championed by House Democratic conferee and Appropriations Chairman Rep. David Obey. A report by the GOP minority on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee revealed that Obey’s son, Craig, lobbied the panel and advocated for the stimulus plan on behalf of the National Parks Conservation Association.
All told—and safely assuming the major spending provisions become permanently enshrined—the final price tag of this government hogzilla of all hogzillas over the next 10 years will be a whopping $3.27 trillion with a capital “T.”
Not, ahem, that you care.
Maybe we can find one without a Nancy Pelosi?
There could be one hundred billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy, a US conference has heard.
BBC News -- Science
Dr Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Science said many of these worlds could be inhabited by simple lifeforms.
He was speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago.
So far, telescopes have been able to detect just over 300 planets outside our Solar System.
Very few of these would be capable of supporting life, however. Most are gas giants like our Jupiter; and many orbit so close to their parent stars that any microbes would have to survive roasting temperatures.
But, based on the limited numbers of planets found so far, Dr Boss has estimated that each Sun-like star has on average one "Earth-like" planet.
This simple calculation means there would be huge numbers capable of supporting life.
"Not only are they probably habitable but they probably are also going to be inhabited," Dr Boss told BBC News. "But I think that most likely the nearby 'Earths' are going to be inhabited with things which are perhaps more common to what Earth was like three or four billion years ago." That means bacterial lifeforms.
Dr Boss estimates that Nasa's Kepler mission, due for launch in March, should begin finding some of these Earth-like planets within the next few years.
Recent work at Edinburgh University tried to quantify how many intelligent civilisations might be out there. The research suggested there could be thousands of them.
Photo Credit to Sue
Through broken crystal
Spring Sky beckons the Sleeper
Dancing Wings emerge.
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We should all take a moment of quiet reflection for thoughts and prayers for The Australian people and their firefighters. They are in the midst of a horrible outbreak of wild fires, some of which where deliberately set. The death and injury toll continues to rise.
A link to an Australian News site with up to date information on the fires:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/08/2485609.htm?section=justin
And a link to a NASA updated Satellite image:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/fires/main/world/australiafire_20090209.html
I dug into my file to find the following Australian news article from 2008, I hope and pray this is not the case.
ISLAM GROUP URGES FOREST FIRE JIHAD
by Josh Gordon THE AGE On Line, Theage.com.au, Sept. 7th, 2008
http://www.theage.com.au/national/islam-group-urges-forest-fire-jihad-20080906-4b53.html?page=-1
AUSTRALIA has been singled out as a target for "forest jihad" by a group of Islamic extremists urging Muslims to deliberately light bushfires as a weapon of terror.
US intelligence channels earlier this year (I did not find information like this in US outlets, only in the Australian paper and a short report from MEMRI-Middle East Media Research Institute) identified a website calling on Muslims in Australia, the US, Europe and Russia to "start forest fires", claiming "scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels' forests when they do the same to our lands
The website, posted by a group called the Al-Ikhlas Islamic Network, argues in Arabic that lighting fires is an effective form of terrorism justified in Islamic law under the "eye for an eye" doctrine.
The posting — which instructs jihadis to remember "forest jihad" in summer months — says fires cause economic damage and pollution, tie up security agencies and can take months to extinguish so that "this terror will haunt them for an extended period of time".
"Imagine if, after all the losses caused by such an event, a jihadist organisation were to claim responsibility for the forest fires," the website says. "You can hardly begin to imagine the level of fear that would take hold of people in the United States, in Europe, in Russia and in Australia."
With the nation heading into another hot, dry summer, Australian intelligence agencies are treating the possibility that bushfires could be used as a weapon of terrorism as a serious concern.
Attorney-General Robert McClelland said the Federal Government remained "vigilant against such threats", warning that anyone caught lighting a fire as a weapon of terror would feel the wrath of anti-terror laws.
"Any information that suggests a threat to Australia's interests is investigated by relevant agencies as appropriate," Mr McClelland said.
Adam Dolnik, director of research at the University of Wollongong's Centre for Transnational Crime Prevention, said that bushfires (unlike suicide bombing) were generally not considered a glorious type of attack by jihadis, in keeping with a recent decline in the sophistication of terrorist operations.
"With attacks like bushfires, yes, it would be easy. It would be very damaging and we do see a decreasing sophistication as a part of terrorist attacks," Dr Dolnik said.
"In recent years, there have been quite a few attacks averted and it has become more and more difficult for groups to do something effective."
Dr Dolnik said he had observed an increase in traffic on jihadi websites calling for a simplification of terrorist attacks because the more complex operations had been failing. But starting bushfires was still often regarded as less effective than other operations because governments could easily deny terrorism as the cause.
The internet posting by the little-known group claimed the idea of forest fires had been attributed to imprisoned Al Qaeda leader Abu Musab Al-Suri. It said Al-Suri had urged terrorists to use sulphuric acid and petrol to start forest fires.
