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POPSThe Wonders of Blood Blood is the one tissue that comes into contact with every other tissue of the body, and it is through blood that our disparate parts communicate, through blood that our organs cooperate. Without a circulatory system, there would be no internal civilization, no means of ensuring orderly devotion to the common cause that is us. “It’s an enormous communications network,” Dr. Schafer said — the original cellphone system, if you will, 100 trillion users strong. Blood can also be thought of as a private ocean, a recapitulation of what life was like for all the years we spent drifting as microscopic, single-celled organisms, “taking up nutrients from sea water and then eliminating waste products back into sea water,” Dr. Schafer said. Not only is blood mostly water, but the watery portion of blood, the plasma, has a concentration of salt and other ions that is remarkably similar to sea water. Keep reading.
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POPSThe Statistical Universe - On the Vastness of the universe But inflation does not really make the universe more uniform — just huge. If inflation is correct, then the billions of light-years that our telescopes probe are a mere dot on a far vaster canvas. The multiverse comprises a large number of distinct patches, each far bigger than our night sky. What observers see, therefore, also depends on where they find themselves. Most of the regions in the multiverse are inhospitable to life, and their properties will not be observed. But what exactly is life? In order to extract predictions from the multiverse, my colleagues and I have developed a statistical tool to find regions with observers: We look not for life itself but for the disorder left behind by the complex processes that its formation depends on. To understand the physical signatures of life in this way may help us finally to comprehend our own little corner of the multiverse. Interesting Read.
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POPS'Filament' Of Dark Matter Strings 14 Galaxies The odds of this occurrence are very rare, leading the researchers to believe that the galaxies might somehow be forming on this elusive filament, made entirely from dark matter, which attracts regular matter that then turns into new stars. "There has long been a theoretical belief that this was the case," says Dr. Brosch, "but this new finding represents experimental results that such a filament really exists, and that possibly it is an entity made from dark matter which is aligning these galaxies." Dr. Brosch compares the work of an astronomer to "looking for hairs of the beard of the Creator."
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POPSMy complaint about Clipmarks Just type in a person or company into this web page and it generates random complaint letters. I tried Clipmarks,Sarah Palin and myself. funny.
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POPSTexas will Execute 10 Men in 30 days This is the worst place of the free world for execution, this is not just the worst place for America," he said of Texas. Before the state revised such laws in 2001, a defendant could be represented by a divorce lawyer with no experience in criminal prosecutions, and judges were not required to instruct juries of alternative punishments such as life in prison without parole, he said. Nine of the 10 to die this month were sentenced before 2001. Mr Halperin claimed "judges are very happy to get rid of these people as quickly as possible." He described a sort of year-end catch-up
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POPSUnderstanding the nervous system by walking in a neuron's shoes “The problem is that the relationship between inputs and outputs is very complicated, even for a single neuron,” Fiorillo told PhysOrg.com. “By contrast, I have tried to figure out what a neuron knows about the world. This is possible because we already know a great deal about the biophysical properties of neurons. I think that if we can figure out what information a neuron has, then we will be able to make better sense of its inputs and outputs. I think that this approach to information will prove to be very useful, regardless of the success of the rest of the theory.” Interesting to read.
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POPSPalin whiffs on "preconditions" question Brian Williams asks her what her diplomatic preconditions would be for meeting foreign leaders. Guess what? She doesn't even know what a precondition is! Yet she's been hacking at Obama for weeks on the subject - while not knowing what the parroted words coming out of her mouth even meant. Ee. Yow.
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POPSNotice quiet on ACORN? There's a reason ... Two McCain-paid voter registration firms are embroiled in real voter registration scams - including the destruction of Democratic registrations. One was arrested Saturday. Not Mickey Mouse, this is the real thing.
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