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POPSChandelier Cells Unveil Human Cognition "By triggering specific chandelier cells, the authors were able to elicit a precisely timed chain of electrical events in the neocortex. Additionally, the authors found that the synaptic pathways between chandeliers and pyramid cells are incredibly strong – much stronger than has been recorded previously in other mammals. This suggests that humans do possess different types of cells, and that our higher cognition isn't due to having larger cells. Although chandelier cells have been found in other species, they are more complex in humans. This raises the possibility that there are many things which attribute to higher cognition – different types of cells, and a complex circuitry, perhaps. This study by Tamas, et al, furthers the search for the answers to higher cognition, and more fully opens the door to questions of how our brains compare to those of other species."
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POPSPassive-Aggression, Lies, Hypocrisy
In their very denials, they blatantly show their bias. Watching MSNBC, I think it is possible that often they really don't think it is showing. Panel members, after multiple exchanges where 5 or 6 (against 1) make snide references in their "analysis", show disdain contrasting wildly with the fawning speech reserved for the DNC & Obama, unashamedly lashing out at speakers they felt personally offended by,...they end up putting together a pair of collective presentations that, to a bipartisan observer, are like night and day. THEN have the balls (incldng. Rachel Maddow)to come off angrily defending their smear-style "journalism" dripping with partisan unevenness of tone, and nastiness, while framing the accusation as - (get this) - a tired Republican tactic. Oh my God! I think they may actually even believe it. How are humans so removed from their own behaviors, I wonder, whether in personal or private. Denial of this nature is to the level of a serious addiction or mental disorder. I
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POPSAnd the Beast Shall Eat Itself A hot microphone, a revelation of dishonesty, and the violation of a long-held gentleman's agreement destroyed the credibility of the Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan today, and may have changed the complexion of the American news media forever. Noonan revealed herself a hypocrite, and MSNBC, a network that has abandoned all illusions of objective journalism in favor of naked advocacy for Barack Obama and an exclusive allegiance to partisan politics of the far left wing of the Democratic Party, shattered a common courtesy between journalists, in order to tear another journalist down for a minor temporary gain. All bets are off now, all gentleman's agreements dead.
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POPSSt Kilda Visit website for lots more - including how to visit, and working holidays with the National trust for Scotland.
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POPSBe the Voice for a Child Kelsey Briggs one child with many videos about how she lived and how she died. Lance Briggs is Kelsey's father, he was in Iraq when his baby girl was killed. Child abuse is out there still for many children who like Kelsey may die, if they are not found.
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POPSSarah Palin's Punch lines full of hot air and lies Quote: "That qualifies her to have her hand on the tiller of American foreign policy in the event that, God forbid, something happens to John McCain? To suggest that is frightening. Really – what if something happens to John McCain. What relevant experience does Sarah Palin have, to be able to sit across the conference table, with negotiators, with the prime ministers and presidents of this world?" the congresswoman said. "As the McCain campaign constantly reminds us, this is a dangerous world."
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POPSBiden Lied over Crash that Killed Wife and Daughter "The rumor about alcohol being involved by either party, especially the truck driver, is incorrect," said Jerome O. Herlihy, a Delaware Superior Court judge who was chief deputy attorney general and worked with crash investigators. The New York Times reported the 2007 crowd at the University of Iowa grew silent as Biden gave his version of what happened that day. "Let me tell you a little story," The newspaper quoted Biden as saying. "I got elected when I was 29, and I got elected November the 7th. And on Dec. 18 of that year, my wife and three kids were Christmas shopping for a Christmas tree. A tractor-trailer, a guy who allegedly -- and I never pursued it -- drank his lunch instead of eating his lunch, broadsided my family and killed my wife instantly, and killed my daughter instantly, and hospitalized my two sons, with what were thought to be at the time permanent, fundamental injuries."
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POPSBig step in tiny technology Dr Manfred Buck, of the University¿s School of Chemistry, explained, "One of the central issues in nanotechnology is the development of simple and reliable methods to precisely arrange molecules and other nanoscopic objects. One promising route intensively investigated by scientists around the world involves the ability of molecules to spontaneously assemble onto a surface. What we have done is successfully combined two strategies which are complementary but, so far, have been explored independently, and it is this combination which opens up unprecedented opportunities for accessing the ultrasmall length scale." "The potential of this approach lies in its flexibility on a scale, about 1/10000 of the diameter of a human hair. Using molecules as building units, the features of our structures are less than 5 nanometres in size, which enables us to control structures and materials at dimensions where new properties emerge."
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POPSOff Limits? I Think Not Ordinarily a situiation such as the pregnancy of Sarah Palin's daughter would be off-limits but the Republican party has been the first to put it front and center as a political tool. The Holier than Anyone Right has used this to showcase how "special" their darling VP hopeful really is and the point has driven home at the RNC yesterday. That and the supposed non-political issue of McCain's POW status. Have the voters become so inured to the Republican machine that they are incapable of seeing through their deceptions and lies?
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POPSSex, lies and some existential questions.. :-) So many orchids treat their pollinators so nastily, with false promises of food and sex or the occasional dunking of insect visitors into bucket-shaped petals full of liquid, that naturalists have puzzled over the relationship for more than a century. Darwin was so consumed by the odd interactions that after “The Origin of Species,” his next book was an entire volume on the subject, “The Various Contrivances by Which Orchids Are Fertilized by Insects.”
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POPSCosmic crash unmasks dark matter It looks as if it is being seen through lots of little lenses. And each of these lenses represents a piece of dark matter. Astronomers used the Chandra X-ray telescope to map ordinary matter in the merging clusters, mostly in the form of hot gas, which glows brightly in X-rays. As the two clusters that formed MACSJ0025 merged at speeds of millions of kilometres per hour, hot gas in the two clusters collided and slowed down. However, the dark matter kept on going, passing right through the smash-up. The latest astronomical observations suggest that dark matter makes up some 23% of the Universe. Ordinary matter - such as the galaxies, gas, stars and planets - makes up just 4%. The remaining 73% is made up of another mysterious quantity; dark energy, which is responsible for speeding up the expansion of the cosmos.
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POPSFuture for clean energy lies in 'big bang' of evolution For humans now there is the tantalising possibility of tweaking the photosynthetic reactions of cyanobacteria to produce fuels we want such as hydrogen, alcohols or even hydrocarbons, rather than carbohydrates. Progress at the research level has been rapid, boosting prospects of harnessing photosynthesis not just for energy but also for manufacturing valuable compounds for the chemical and biotechnology industries. Such research is running on two tracks, one aimed at genetically engineering real plants and cyanobacteria to yield the products we want, and the other to mimic their processes in artificial photosynthetic systems built with human-made components. Both approaches hold great promise and will be pursued in parallel, as was discussed at a recent workshop focusing on the photosynthetic reaction centres of cyanobacteria, organised by the European Science Foundation (ESF).
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POPSThe Keating Five "Keating asked the five Senators to tell the feds to bug off, and the five Senators, later known as the Keating Five, obliged, meeting with federal investigators twice and pressuring them to stop investigating Keating’s crimes." "Keating blew $3.4 billion through illegal personal loans and bad investments, and the FDIC eventually had to reimburse Keating’s customers who had been ripped off. (The FDIC is a part of the federal government funded by taxpayers dollars, so when Keating stole from his customers you and I were the ones who paid for it.)" "Ever since the scandal, when McCain lies today, it’s never questioned, because he’s a “straight talker”. The man has more skeletons in his closet than any politician in history. The Keating Five is just one bone."
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POPSSons of Liberty~Patriots, Anarchists, or Terrorists? One thing is certain about the Sons of Liberty organization: it gave American colonists a voice and vital chance to actively participate in the independence movement. Finally, the decision on the Sons of Liberty comes down to a variation on an old saying, "one man's terrorist is another man's patriot." The ultimate conclusion must be left to the individual.
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POPSObama On Rosenberg’s WGN Talk Radio: Ayers is Off-Limits! Callers demanded to know why Rosenberg was “giving air time” to Kurtz to “slander” the Democrats’ presidential nominee. Rosenberg stood firm on his decision to have Kurtz on his show and insisted his staff tried getting someone from the Obama campaign to come on to refute Kurtz to no avail. Obama callers were not satisfied with Rosenberg’s explanation and continued demanding answers from the host while excoriating Kurtz . Obama Campaign HQ are .25 mile from WGN radio station.
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POPSRocket Scientists Say We'll Never Reach the Stars Even the most theoretically efficient type of propulsion, an imaginary engine powered by antimatter, would still require decades to reach Alpha Centauri, according to Robert Frisbee, group leader in the Advanced Propulsion Technology Group within NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. And then there's the issue of fuel. It would take at least the current energy output of the entire world to send a probe to the nearest star
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POPSIs Palin's Youngest Son Really Her Grandson? The public vetting has begun. Much more analysis at the source. If you can get past a desire to believe in the woman, there's a pretty good case made that the boy is her daughters. When co-workers can't see at seven months, and questions surrounding the birth are many, it really does demand consideration.