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	<title>Heaving Dead Cats &#187; environment</title>
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	<description>Skeptical Freethought Atheist Musings to Dispel Ignorance and Enlighten the Mind</description>
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		<title>More Groovy Science 4</title>
		<link>http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2010/07/27/more-groovy-science-4/</link>
		<comments>http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2010/07/27/more-groovy-science-4/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:37:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Neece</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Eco-friendly]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Science]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Study]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Superstition]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/?p=2981</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hello everyone! Here is more science to tantalize your synapses and neurons! Keep Your Fingers Crossed: How Superstition Improves Performance More Than Half the World&#8217;s Population Gets Insufficient Vitamin D, Says Biochemist Low Vitamin D Levels Associated With Cognitive Decline Team Develops Non-Toxic Oil Recovery Agent Smoking Mind Over Smoking Matter: Surprising New Study Shows [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/funny-cats-silly-red-shirt-ensign-cat-star-trek.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-2982" title="funny-cats-silly-red-shirt-ensign-cat-star-trek" src="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/funny-cats-silly-red-shirt-ensign-cat-star-trek-337x450.jpg" alt="" width="286" height="382" /></a>Hello everyone! Here is more science to tantalize your synapses and neurons!</p>
<ul>
<li>Keep Your Fingers Crossed: How Superstition Improves Performance</li>
<li>More Than Half the World&#8217;s Population Gets Insufficient Vitamin D, Says Biochemist</li>
<li>Low Vitamin D Levels Associated With Cognitive Decline</li>
<li>Team Develops Non-Toxic Oil Recovery Agent</li>
<li>Smoking Mind Over Smoking Matter: Surprising New Study Shows Cigarette Cravings Result from Habit, Not Addiction</li>
<li>Light and Moderate Physical Activity Reduces the Risk of Early Death</li>
<li>New Antibacterial Material for Bandages, Food Packaging, Shoes</li>
<li>A Blood Test for Depression?</li>
<li>3-D Gesture-Based Interaction System Unveiled</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100713122846.htm" target="_blank">Keep Your Fingers Crossed: How Superstition Improves Performance</a>: New research shows that having some kind of lucky token can actually improve your performance &#8212; by increasing your self-confidence. &#8230;Volunteers who had their lucky charm did better at a memory game on the computer, and other tests showed that this difference was because they felt more confident. They also set higher goals for themselves. Just wishing someone good luck &#8212; with &#8220;I press the thumbs for you,&#8221; the German version of crossing your fingers &#8212; improved volunteers&#8217; success at a task that required manual dexterity.</p>
<p>~Of course, this is still a form of delusion. Everyone tested in the study was superstitious and had a lucky charm. I&#8217;d like to see a study or two that involved people who don&#8217;t rely on superstition as well. I think if a person understands the delusion of superstition, they will therefore not need the &#8220;lucky&#8221; feather in their cap. They will have appropriate self-confidence based on their actual abilities. Still, it&#8217;s an interesting study.<span id="more-2981"></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100715172042.htm" target="_blank">More Than Half the World&#8217;s Population Gets Insufficient Vitamin D, Says Biochemist</a>: Half the people in North America and Western Europe get insufficient amounts of vitamin D. &#8220;Elsewhere, it is worse, given that two-thirds of the people are vitamin D-insufficient or deficient. It is clear that merely eating vitamin D-rich foods is not adequate to solve the problem for most adults.&#8221; Currently, the recommended daily intake of vitamin D is 200 international units (IU) for people up to 50 years old; 400 IU for people 51 to 70 years old; and 600 IU for people over 70 years old.<br />
&#8220;There is a wide consensus among scientists that the relative daily intake of vitamin D should be increased to 2,000 to 4,000 IU for most adults,&#8221; Norman says. &#8220;A 2000 IU daily intake can be achieved by a combination of sunshine, food, supplements, and possibly even limited tanning exposure.&#8221; While there is now abundant data on vitamin D and its benefits, Norman believes there is room for more study.<br />
Because vitamin D is found in very few foods naturally (e.g. fish, eggs and cod liver oil) other foods such as milk, orange juice, some yogurts and some breakfast foods are fortified with it. The fortification levels aim at about 400 IU per day.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100712162554.htm" target="_blank">Low Vitamin D Levels Associated With Cognitive Decline</a>: An estimated 40 percent to 100 percent of older adults in the United States and Europe are deficient in vitamin D, according to background information in the article. This deficiency has been linked to fractures, various chronic diseases and death. Vitamin D may help prevent the degeneration of brain tissue by having a role in formation of nervous tissue, maintaining levels of calcium in the body, or clearing of beta-amyloid, the substance that forms the brain plaques and tangles associated with Alzheimer&#8217;s disease.<br />
Editorial: &#8220;Vitamin D has been known for many years to play a critical role in skeletal health. More recently, observational studies have reported inverse associations between levels of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, the metabolite that best reflects overall vitamin D status, and the risk of a wide range of disease, including cancer, vascular disease, infectious conditions, autoimmune diseases, osteoporosis, type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity. &#8230;It is now time to test the various hypotheses generated by observational studies of vitamin D in adequately designed and conducted randomized controlled trials.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100714151749.htm" target="_blank">Team Develops Non-Toxic Oil Recovery Agent</a>: A team of chemists has developed a non-toxic, recyclable agent that can solidify oil on salt water so that it can be scooped up like the fat that forms on the top of a pot of chilled chicken soup. The agent could potentially be used to recover oil lost in the British Petroleum (BP) spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The gelling agent developed by his team is environmentally benign. It uses a sugar-based molecule that can be obtained from renewable sources and is biodegradable. In addition, only a relatively small amount of the agent &#8212; five percent of the volume of the oil being recovered &#8212; is required for the process, which handles a range of oil from crude to vegetable oil, to work.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100713144920.htm" target="_blank">Smoking Mind Over Smoking Matter: Surprising New Study Shows Cigarette Cravings Result from Habit, Not Addiction</a>: The new study found that the intensity of cravings for cigarettes had more to do with the psychosocial element of smoking than with the physiological effects of nicotine as an addictive chemical. &#8230;Dr. Dar&#8217;s studies conclude that nicotine is not addictive as physiological addictions are usually defined. While nicotine does have a physiological role in increasing cognitive abilities such as attention and memory, it&#8217;s not an addictive substance like heroin, which creates true systemic and biologically-based withdrawal symptoms in the body of the user, he says. Dr. Dar believes that people who smoke do so for short-term benefits like oral gratification, sensory pleasure and social camaraderie. Once the habit is established, people continue to smoke in response to cues and in situations that become associated with smoking. Dr. Dar believes that understanding smoking as a habit, not an addiction, will facilitate treatment. Smoking cessation techniques should emphasize the psychological and behavioral aspects of the habit and not the biological aspects, he suggests.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100723112713.htm" target="_blank">Light and Moderate Physical Activity Reduces the Risk of Early Death</a>: A new study has found that even light or moderate intensity physical activity, such as walking or cycling, can substantially reduce the risk of early death. the largest health benefits from light or moderate activity (such as walking and cycling) were in people who do hardly any physical activity at all. Although more activity is better &#8212; the benefits of even a small amount of physical activity are very large in the least physically active.<br />
The good news from this study is that you don&#8217;t have to be an exercise freak to benefit from physical activity. Just achieving the recommended levels of physical activity (equivalent to 30 minutes daily of moderate intensity activity on 5 days a week) reduces the risk of death by 19%, while 7 hours per week of moderate activity (compared with no activity) reduces the risk of death by 24%. &#8220;This research confirms that is not just exercising hard that is good for you but even moderate everyday activities, like walking and cycling, can have major health benefits. Just walking to the shops or walking the children to school can lengthen your life &#8212; as well as bringing other benefits for well-being and the environment.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100721133219.htm" target="_blank">New Antibacterial Material for Bandages, Food Packaging, Shoes</a>: A new form of paper with the built-in ability to fight disease-causing bacteria could have applications that range from anti-bacterial bandages to food packaging that keeps food fresher longer to shoes that ward off foot odor. &#8230;They made sheets of paper from graphene oxide, and then tried to grow bacteria and human cells on top. Bacteria were unable to grow on the paper, and it had little adverse effect on human cells.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100722092330.htm" target="_blank">A Blood Test for Depression?</a> Researchers evaluated blood gene expression profiles in healthy individuals and patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder, or MDD. They identified a set of seven genes in whole blood that was able to distinguish un-medicated MDD patients from healthy controls. &#8220;This is a first, but major step in providing a molecular diagnostic tool for depression.&#8221; Although psychiatry already has specific criteria for diagnosing mental health disorders, this type of diagnosis would be unbiased and particularly valuable for those with whom it is more difficult to have a conversation. It may also eventually assist in reducing the stigma associated with mental health problems.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100721085354.htm" target="_blank">3-D Gesture-Based Interaction System Unveiled</a>: Scientists have developed the next generation non-contact gesture and finger recognition system. The novel system detects hand and finger positions in real-time and translates these into appropriate interaction commands. Furthermore, the system does not require special gloves or markers and is capable of supporting multiple users. This system detects multiple fingers and hands at the same time and allows the user to interact with objects on a display. The users move their hands and fingers in the air and the system automatically recognizes and interprets the gestures accordingly.<br />
Cinemagoers will remember the science-fiction thriller Minority Report from 2002 which starred Tom Cruise. In this film Tom Cruise is in a 3-D software arena and is able to interact with numerous programs at unimaginable speed, however the system used special gloves and only three fingers from each hand.<br />
The FIT prototype provides the next generation of gesture-based interaction far in advance of the Minority Report system. The FIT prototype tracks the user&#8217;s hand in front of a 3-D camera. The 3-D camera uses the time of flight principle, in this approach each pixel is tracked and the length of time it takes light to be filmed travelling to and from the tracked object is determined. This allows for the calculation of the distance between the camera and the tracked object.<br />
&#8220;A special image analysis algorithm was developed which filters out the positions of the hands and fingers. This is achieved in real-time through the use of intelligent filtering of the incoming data. The raw data can be viewed as a kind of 3-D mountain landscape, with the peak regions representing the hands or fingers.&#8221; In addition plausibility criteria are used, these are based around: the size of a hand, finger length and the potential coordinates.<br />
A user study was conducted and found that the system both easy to use and fun. However, work remains to be done on removing elements which confuses the system, for example reflections caused by wristwatches and palms which are positioned orthogonal to the camera.<br />
&#8220;With Microsoft announcing Project Natal, it is likely that similar techniques will very soon become standard across the gaming industry. This technology also opens up the potential for new solutions in the range of other application domains, such as the exploration of complex simulation data and for new forms of learning.&#8221;</p>

	<h4>Related posts</h4>
	<ul class="st-related-posts">
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2010/05/27/more-research-and-studies-to-interest-you/" title="More Research and Studies To Interest You (May 27, 2010)">More Research and Studies To Interest You</a> (3)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2010/02/23/some-recent-scientific-studies/" title="Some Recent Scientific Studies (February 23, 2010)">Some Recent Scientific Studies</a> (0)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/03/13/random-thoughts-about-human-impact-on-evolution/" title="Random Thoughts About Human Impact On Evolution (March 13, 2009)">Random Thoughts About Human Impact On Evolution</a> (2)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2010/07/13/more-groovy-science-3/" title="More Groovy Science 3 (July 13, 2010)">More Groovy Science 3</a> (5)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2010/06/05/more-groovy-science-1/" title="More Groovy Science &#8211; 1 (June 5, 2010)">More Groovy Science &#8211; 1</a> (6)</li>
</ul>

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		<title>Jerusalem is Populating a Biblical Zoo</title>
		<link>http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2010/05/11/jerusalem-is-populating-a-biblical-zoo/</link>
		<comments>http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2010/05/11/jerusalem-is-populating-a-biblical-zoo/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 11 May 2010 17:19:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Neece</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[CRAZY]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WTF]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[believing problem]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bible]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[news story]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[religion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[belief]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[biblical zoo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[delusion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jews]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[supernatural]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Superstition]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[zion]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/?p=2787</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[And I said, WTF? Then I remembered, people in Jerusalem are there because they believe its the promised land, given by God to the Jews. They are just as nutty as the christians, the muslims and all the other religions. So these zookeepers over in Jerusalem are trying to sort of reconstruct the animals from [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/s-BIBLE-ANIMALS-large.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-2788" title="white vulture - bible animals" src="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/s-BIBLE-ANIMALS-large.jpg" alt="" width="260" height="190" /></a>And I said, WTF? Then I remembered, people in Jerusalem are there because they believe its the promised land, given by God to the Jews. They are just as nutty as the christians, the muslims and all the other religions.</p>
<p>So these zookeepers over in Jerusalem are trying to sort of reconstruct the animals from the bible (old testament, of course) in Israel. They aren&#8217;t trying to repopulate the area with the biblical predators like bears, but they are trying to bring back vultures, even though Levitucus 11:13 called them detestable. Which makes me wonder why they&#8217;d want to nurture and breed them. And why cherry-pick certain animals but not the rest from the bible? But why try to get logical now?</p>
<p>Almost 100 animals were mentioned in the bible, according to the fluffy, credulous <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/10/zookeepers-try-to-repopul_n_570661.html" target="_blank">HuffPo article</a> where I found this ridiculous story, so of course, I am quite skeptical. I guess that&#8217;s how Noah was able to get them all on the ark, then. He only had 100 or so to deal with, not the millions found in the world today.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">There are nearly 100 different types of animals mentioned in the Bible, many of them key players in well-known stories: the lions in Daniel&#8217;s den; the dove that scouted for dry land from Noah&#8217;s ark; the ram that was sacrificed by Abraham to save the life of his son, Isaac.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Today, many of them are gone, hunted to the point of extinction or driven away by ongoing conflict. Of the 10 animals that are listed as acceptable dinner fare in Deuteronomy 14 &#8212; ox, sheep, goat, deer, gazelle, roe deer, wild goat, ibex, antelope and mountain sheep &#8212; only two (the gazelle and the ibex) could still be found in the historical boundaries of Israel in 1960. &#8230;</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">&#8220;&#8230; I want to keep the vultures because they were mentioned in the Bible that it was a common animal and that&#8217;s good enough for me.&#8221;<span id="more-2787"></span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Shkedy, [a chief scientist for the Israel Nature and Parks Authority]  has spent the past 15 years trying to repopulate Israel with biblical  animals. He works with zoo keepers like Yedveb across the country,  closely monitoring and coordinating their efforts to return animals like  the Griffon vulture to the wild.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">While Shkedy would love to bring back lions and hippopotamuses, he focuses on the animals that realistically stand a chance to thrive again, like Persion fallow deer and vultures. &#8220;Israel is now too dense to reintroduce predators, large predators,&#8221; said Shkedy. &#8220;We lost the bear for example, but who would be brave enough to bring back a bear?&#8221;</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">&#8230;In the Bible, vultures are only mentioned by name in a few places; some conservationists believe translators confused them with more frequently mentioned eagles. More recently, vultures have been victims of poisoning. &#8220;Farmers want to kill wolves and jackals that hunt their chickens and cattle, so they put out bait to poison them, and because vultures eat dead animals, they get poisoned too. Then they die.&#8221;</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">&#8230;For Shkedy, the fight to save Israel&#8217;s natural wonders is personal. When his parents emigrated from Europe in 1947, they wanted to fulfill the Zionist dreams of their ancestors by working the land with their own hands. The dream has shifted in subsequent generations, he said. &#8230;. &#8220;We should keep in mind that we didn&#8217;t come to this country just because we wanted to see a sea of houses. We came to this country &#8230; because of biblical things.&#8221;</p>
<p>Now, I&#8217;m all for conservation and preservation of wildlife and the environment. In fact, I often prefer the company of animals to that of most people. <img src='http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_razz.gif' alt=':P' class='wp-smiley' />   But trying to recreate Zion in Jerusalem with biblical animals seems nutty.</p>
<p>Then again, following a 3,000 year old set of dusty books as the inerrant word of a god that doesn&#8217;t exist also qualifies as delusional and nutty, especially when, 2,500+ years later you&#8217;re still fighting and killing over a small piece of land that your supposed god gave to you.</p>
<p>So, trying to take care of some animals that once lived in an area is a good thing, but the quacky reasoning is not.</p>
<p>And if you read the article, maybe they need to stop poisoning the other animals which lead to the deaths of the vultures in the first place? Maybe it&#8217;s just me, but I would guess that would be really helpful. Raising baby vultures then sending them out into the wild just to be poisoned seems pointless. Fix the real problem first, don&#8217;t you think?</p>
<p>I thought I&#8217;d share this just to remind us that religious quackery is worldwide. I really wonder if humanity will ever give up its childish need for a sky daddy. Somehow I doubt it.</p>
<p>The other day I was talking to my fellow atheist friends about superstitions. We came to the conclusion that people seem to need their superstitions, and if you take one away from someone who feels their life is out of control, they&#8217;ll simply replace it with another one. Of course, that&#8217;s not scientific, but it would be interesting to see a study where that was done.</p>
<p>I think you can give up superstitions, even though it can be very tough. Look at all of us atheists and skeptics. Most of us were believers at some point. Most of us gave up gods, Santa and the Easter Bunny. Some of us have gone so far to give up superstitions as well. And have learned to be skeptical, critical thinkers. So it can be done.</p>
<p>But I think for the average person it&#8217;s not easy or natural or even wanted. They are happy to believe in the supernatural in a myriad of ways. And that&#8217;s just how it is.</p>

	<h4>Related posts</h4>
	<ul class="st-related-posts">
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/10/20/todays-score-atheists-2-churches-minus-100/" title="Today&#8217;s Score: Atheists 2, Churches -100 (October 20, 2009)">Today&#8217;s Score: Atheists 2, Churches -100</a> (5)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/02/12/religion-is-the-path-of-least-resistance/" title="Religion is the Path of Least Resistance (February 12, 2009)">Religion is the Path of Least Resistance</a> (2)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/07/28/how-far-ive-come/" title="How Far I&#8217;ve Come! (July 28, 2009)">How Far I&#8217;ve Come!</a> (7)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2010/03/04/dont-assume-im-a-sensitive-soul/" title="Don&#8217;t Assume I&#8217;m A Sensitive Soul (March 4, 2010)">Don&#8217;t Assume I&#8217;m A Sensitive Soul</a> (5)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/06/15/conversations-with-christians-beth-1-first-question/" title="Conversations With christians &#8211; Beth 1 &#8211; First Question (June 15, 2009)">Conversations With christians &#8211; Beth 1 &#8211; First Question</a> (24)</li>
</ul>

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		<title>Random Thoughts On The Nature Of Things</title>
		<link>http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/11/04/random-thoughts-on-the-nature-of-things/</link>
		<comments>http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/11/04/random-thoughts-on-the-nature-of-things/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:01:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Neece</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ideas]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[question]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[thought]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[zeneece]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/?p=2209</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hello everyone, First, I am now a Google Waver! Find me at zeneece@googlewave.com. I started my first public wave for atheists: Atheists Unite! Secondly, I must confess my ignorance on a certain matter that has been bouncing around my brain for some time. I have asked my genius husband Butch and he didn&#8217;t have an [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/funny-pictures-interesting-cat.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-2210" title="funny-pictures-interesting-cat" src="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/funny-pictures-interesting-cat.jpg" alt="funny-pictures-interesting-cat" width="270" height="272" /></a>Hello everyone,</p>
<p>First, I am now a Google Waver! Find me at <strong>zeneece@googlewave.com</strong>. I started my first public wave for atheists: <a href="https://wave.google.com/wave/?pli=1#restored:wave:googlewave.com!w%252BX8ZDRJiOA" target="_blank">Atheists Unite!</a></p>
<p>Secondly, I must confess my ignorance on a certain matter that has been bouncing around my brain for some time. I have asked my genius husband Butch and he didn&#8217;t have an answer, which made me feel better.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll start with an example:</p>
<p>I always thought <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirin" target="_blank">aspirin</a> was found in the bark of white willows, and then was made in the lab. But the history seems to be entirely in the laboratory, according to Wikipedia. Also there does seem to be a connection between <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_willow" target="_blank">white willow bark</a> and eventually aspirin.</p>
<p>Needless to say these days, aspirin is made strictly in the lab/factory. My question is, if things are made strictly from chemicals, where do the chemicals themselves come from? And a followup question would be, wouldn&#8217;t that make everything natural, at some point? Doesn&#8217;t everything eventually lead back to nature?</p>
<p>Another example:</p>
<p>Black Gold, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum" target="_blank">petroleum</a>, crude oil. It&#8217;s considered this unnatural thing. But didn&#8217;t it come from rotting vegetation and other natural organic matter?</p>
<p>When does something natural become something synthetic?</p>
<p>Why are natural things considered superior to synthetic things nowadays? Is there some proof that it&#8217;s true? Or is it marketing/propaganda?</p>
<p>I&#8217;m not trying to start anything, or as the Brits would say, I&#8217;m not trying to have a go at synthetics. I really just want to understand. If the red food dye and flavoring in my drink stick mix is synthetic, where did the chemicals that make it up come from?</p>
<p>I would love your feedback and thoughts on this. But please, I took chemistry in high school which was over 20 years ago (egads, that made me feel old), so keep it simple.</p>
<p>Thanks friends! <img src='http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>

	<h4>Related posts</h4>
	<ul class="st-related-posts">
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2010/04/25/what-would-it-take-to-make-me-believe-in-god/" title="What Would It Take To Make Me Believe In God? (April 25, 2010)">What Would It Take To Make Me Believe In God?</a> (10)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/03/10/lets-stop-coddling-the-ignorant/" title="Let&#8217;s Stop Coddling The Ignorant (March 10, 2009)">Let&#8217;s Stop Coddling The Ignorant</a> (3)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2008/09/09/knowledge-beliefs-stored-differently-brain/" title="Knowledge and Beliefs Are Stored Differently In The Brain (September 9, 2008)">Knowledge and Beliefs Are Stored Differently In The Brain</a> (9)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/08/03/100-questions-for-christians/" title="100 Questions for christians (August 3, 2009)">100 Questions for christians</a> (30)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/11/04/your-tax-dollars-teaching-medical-students-pseudoscience/" title="Your Tax Dollars Teaching Medical Students Pseudoscience (November 4, 2009)">Your Tax Dollars Teaching Medical Students Pseudoscience</a> (6)</li>
</ul>

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		<item>
		<title>Life Is Good. Cinnamon Life Is Better!</title>
		<link>http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/06/04/life-is-good-cinnamon-life-is-better/</link>
		<comments>http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/06/04/life-is-good-cinnamon-life-is-better/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:47:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Neece</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Important]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/?p=1525</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[You probably have to be American to get the joke in the title. Do other countries have Life cereal? I have no idea. That&#8217;s a phrase of my husband Butch&#8217;s anyway. I personally think the original Life cereal is the best, not the fancy versions that they also make, like cinnamon, chocolate oat crunch, etc. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeneecec/3590057083/"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-1527" title="Great Spangled Frittillary by ZeNeeceC" src="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/3590057083_627e8c3226_m.jpg" alt="Great Spangled Frittillary by ZeNeeceC" width="240" height="237" /></a>You probably have to be American to get the joke in the title. Do other countries have Life cereal? I have no idea. That&#8217;s a phrase of my husband Butch&#8217;s anyway. I personally think the original Life cereal is the best, not the fancy versions that they also make, like cinnamon, chocolate oat crunch, etc.</p>
<p>Anyhoo, this is a roundup post in which I cover several topics that are tenuously connected at best. Here&#8217;s what I&#8217;m rambling on about:</p>
<ul>
<li>I&#8217;m a citizen scientist now! WOOT!
<ul>
<li>Encyclopedia of Life!</li>
<li>My Flickr <img src='http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Moving the body affects how we think &#8211; a study</li>
<li>Prayer and meditation may reshape the brain &#8211; a study</li>
</ul>
<p>First, I want to talk about a ScienceDaily report: <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090601090111.htm" target="_blank">Massive Online &#8216;Macroscopic Observatory&#8217; Of Earth&#8217;s Biodiversity To Be Created</a>. &#8220;Wanted (soon): observations from environment-minded citizens that will allow science to study biodiversity at a planetary level in a massive, comprehensive virtual observatory of historic importance.&#8221;</p>
<p>This guy, Edward O. Wilson, created a website, <a href="http://www.eol.org/index" target="_blank">Encyclopedia of Life</a> (eol). His dream: <em>&#8220;Imagine an electronic page for each species of organism on Earth&#8230;&#8221;</em> and they are starting to do just that. A page for every species. If you read the ScienceDaily article, it will be amazing. You&#8217;ll be able to get information from the Deep Web from images, maps, classification, common and scientific names, links to research and papers, etc.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s already there now, and growing all the time. In the future you&#8217;ll also be able to get genome sequences and much much more. Basically anything you want to know about a species will be there, at your fingertips, all on one page, <em><strong>for free</strong></em>. My scientific geekiness is giggling with delight!<span id="more-1525"></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeneecec/3590860428/"><img class="size-full wp-image-1528 alignleft" title="Anemone coronaria?" src="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/3590860428_7853f7371e_m.jpg" alt="Anemone coronaria?" width="180" height="240" /></a>And here&#8217;s where I get to finally call myself a scientist! Uh, well, a citizen scientist, which is still cool. eol wants people to submit their pictures. I&#8217;m a photographer, and I love taking pictures of nature, but I&#8217;ve never been able to do much with them. Now I can help with this project! Can you say WOOT!? I can. Woot WOOT! (Sorry, uber-geek moment there).</p>
<p>So what you do, what I did, was to open a Flickr account. I&#8217;m <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeneecec/" target="_blank">ZeNeeceC</a> on Flickr now. I got some older pictures posted yesterday. Then here&#8217;s the tough part. You need to machine tag them with their scientific names. This is so that when you send them to the eol Flickr group, eol&#8217;s computer can get those images and put them on the right pages.</p>
<p>My friend Jeff said that eol sounded like a Wikipedia kind of thing for science. In a way, he&#8217;s right, because we get to contribute our images. But eol is serious about science, so the images will get authenticated. Until that time, they have a yellow box around them so people can see that they are contributed but might not be scientifically accurate like the rest of the info on the page.</p>
<p>Even further, though, if you just want high end science info, eol lets you set that up so that you don&#8217;t even see the citizen science stuff. It&#8217;s a very well done site.</p>
<p>Anyway, I am having trouble finding out what things are called. Flickr has a group called <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/idplease/" target="_blank">ID Please</a>, which I joined. And I joined <a href="http://bugguide.net/user/view/28711" target="_blank">BugGuide.net  as ZeNeece</a> to help me ID bugs. But the flowers and plants, I will need to find an online source to identify those more readily.</p>
<p>So that&#8217;s that. I wanted to share it with you because it&#8217;s so exciting to me, but also in case you or someone you know might be interested as well.</p>
<p>Onto some studies!</p>
<p><a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=our-bodies-our-brains-09-06-01&amp;sc=WR_20090602" target="_blank">Our Bodies, Our Brains</a>: a recent study shows that moving your body in certain ways can improve your ability to think. Published in Psychological Science.</p>
<blockquote><p>Working with 38 subjects, the scientists confirmed that either a step forward (a typically positive movement) or a step backward (usually negative) significantly changed one’s ability to perform a mental task.</p>
<p>Taking four steps back improved a subject’s accuracy and timing on the task, whereas taking four steps forward led to longer processing times and more errors.</p></blockquote>
<p>How cool is that? Now, if you follow the link, you&#8217;ll see that this was on 60 second science on Scientific American, so there are no links to studies. But they list the publication, Psychological Science, if you want to look into it further.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104310443&amp;sc=nl&amp;cc=es-20090531" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/zeneecec/3590861616/"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-1529" title="Common Eastern Bumblebee" src="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/3590861616_8369ee3477_m.jpg" alt="Common Eastern Bumblebee" width="240" height="210" /></a>Prayer May Reshape Your Brain&#8230; And Your Reality: This is interesting. I&#8217;ve told you about some studies (see below) in the past in this field, which this article calls &#8220;neurotheology&#8221;.  The article from NPR is about Andrew Newberg, a neuroscientist at University of Pennsylvania who has written several books and studies very religious people and their brains. Newberg says: &#8220;The more you focus on something — whether that&#8217;s math or auto racing or football or God — the more that becomes your reality, the more it becomes written into the neural connections of your brain.&#8221;</p>
<p>He also tested a doctor who meditates for an hour a day. He had him meditate in a brain scanner.</p>
<blockquote><p>As expected, his frontal lobes lit up on the screen: Meditation is sheer concentration, after all. But what fascinated Newberg was that Baime&#8217;s parietal lobes went dark. Newberg said, &#8220;This is an area that normally takes our sensory information, tries to create for us a sense of ourselves and orient that self in the world,&#8221; he explains. &#8220;When people lose their sense of self, feel a sense of oneness, a blurring of the boundary between self and other, we have found decreases in activity in that area.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>The article goes on to suggest that you can benefit from meditation and prayer as well, even if you don&#8217;t devote 1 or 2 hours a day to it. I find this interesting and compelling, and it goes along with the other studies listed below. I would have liked some studies referenced and linked to in the article, but I guess I&#8217;m not that lucky.</p>
<p>Here are the other posts I&#8217;ve done about other relevant brain and mind studies recently:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2008/12/24/church-no-brain-activity-required/" target="_blank">Church: No brain activity required</a>- study showed how experiencing transcendence basically shut down the right parietal lobe.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/03/06/more-differences-in-the-brains-of-believers-and-non-believers/" target="_blank">More differences in the brains of believers and non-believers</a>: A recent study that found religious people were less anxious about mistakes they made than non-believers.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2008/09/09/knowledge-beliefs-stored-differently-brain/" target="_blank">Knowledge and Beliefs are stored differently in the brain</a>: this wasn&#8217;t a specific study. Dr. Steven Novella mentioned it in passing on his podcast.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/02/12/religion-is-the-path-of-least-resistance/" target="_blank">Religion is the path of least resistance</a>: This was about an article in New Scientist where people are born believers. I strongly suspect the way they conducted the studies mentioned.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2008/11/04/superstitious-it-could-be-your-lack-of-control/" target="_blank">Superstitious? It could be your lack of control</a>: This was a neat study about people who were basically put into a situation where they felt a lack of control found patterns more readily in random information.</li>
</ul>

	<h4>Related posts</h4>
	<ul class="st-related-posts">
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2010/03/15/god-thinks-like-you-and-he-personally-cares-for-you-plus-a-video-to-cheer-you-up/" title="God Thinks Like You and He Personally Cares For You, Plus a Video To Cheer You Up (March 15, 2010)">God Thinks Like You and He Personally Cares For You, Plus a Video To Cheer You Up</a> (3)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2010/02/23/some-recent-scientific-studies/" title="Some Recent Scientific Studies (February 23, 2010)">Some Recent Scientific Studies</a> (0)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2010/07/27/more-groovy-science-4/" title="More Groovy Science 4 (July 27, 2010)">More Groovy Science 4</a> (5)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/03/06/more-differences-in-the-brains-of-believers-and-non-believers/" title="More Differences In The Brains Of Believers And Non-Believers (March 6, 2009)">More Differences In The Brains Of Believers And Non-Believers</a> (6)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/03/15/atheism-is-the-default/" title="Atheism is the Default (March 15, 2009)">Atheism is the Default</a> (46)</li>
</ul>

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		<slash:comments>9</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>What Jesus Wouldn&#8217;t Do and What I Have Done</title>
		<link>http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/06/01/what-jesus-wouldnt-do-and-what-i-have-done/</link>
		<comments>http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/06/01/what-jesus-wouldnt-do-and-what-i-have-done/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:01:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Neece</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Brilliant]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/?p=1501</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sometimes you just have to give props where they&#8217;re due. Johnny left a comment somewhere around here yesterday with a link to a youtube video. It was so brilliant I have to share it with you immediately. It&#8217;s about everyone&#8217;s favorite lord, Jesus. Apparently he had a meeting with a group of angels before he [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Sometimes you just have to give props where they&#8217;re due. Johnny left a comment somewhere around here yesterday with a link to a youtube video. It was so brilliant I have to share it with you immediately. It&#8217;s about everyone&#8217;s favorite lord, Jesus. Apparently he had a meeting with a group of angels before he had himself impregnated into poor, innocent Mary. This is the video from that meeting. It&#8217;s 8:40 minutes long, but entirely awesome. Thanks, Johnny, for letting us know about it!</p>
<p><object width="480" height="385" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/zOfjkl-3SNE&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zOfjkl-3SNE&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /></object></p>
<p>What I don&#8217;t get is that nowhere in the bible is Australia mentioned, and Jesus and the angels are <em>obviously</em> from Down Under. Checkmate, heathens! HA!</p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=103760874771&amp;ref=nf"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-1502" title="empty gestures" src="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/emptygestures.jpg" alt="empty gestures" width="261" height="261" /></a>Anyway, along the same lines, I have been pretty active on Facebook for a couple weeks or so. Every day people ask me to join causes and groups for one well-meaning reason or another. But no group really makes me feel like I&#8217;m doing something through joining. So I had to start my own! It is brand new, so go join today! Invite your friends and family, and together we can make a difference with ZERO EFFORT!</p>
<h3 style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=103760874771&amp;ref=nf" target="_blank">Six Zillion Strong For All Causes!</a></h3>
<p>We can all sleep like innocent babies in our comfy beds tonight, secure in the knowledge that <em><strong>we made a difference</strong></em> by joining 6 Zillion Strong.</p>
<p>Think of all we can do if we simply join together. We can save whales from extinction! And polar bears from starvation! And so much more! Join today and then say hi on the discussion board and tell us who or what you want to save today! Since I&#8217;m the Founder, you can leave your comments here, but<em> to truly make a difference</em>, at this time, the only way is to join 6 Zillion Strong on Facebook.</p>
<p>If you feel we need to branch out already, to help spread the love and caring, leave comments here, and maybe we can make a group on HDC that can try to match the great works done by 6 Zillion Strong on Facebook.</p>
<p>Together, we can do anything. And it literally takes <em>ZERO EFFORT</em>! Join Today!</p>
<p>EDIT: this is a test. But watch this 9 minute video anyway, because it&#8217;s funny. These are the only two I&#8217;ve seen but Johnny says <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/NonStampCollector" target="_blank">NonStampCollector</a> is awesome, and I tend to agree.</p>
<p><object width="480" height="385" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/QecUUnLNSiY&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QecUUnLNSiY&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /></object></p>

	<h4>Related posts</h4>
	<ul class="st-related-posts">
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/05/20/here-we-go-again/" title="Here We Go Again&#8230; (May 20, 2009)">Here We Go Again&#8230;</a> (125)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/06/13/youve-got-to-see-this-mr-deity/" title="You&#8217;ve Got To See This (June 13, 2009)">You&#8217;ve Got To See This</a> (5)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/12/03/why-does-god-hate-pigs/" title="Why Does God Hate Pigs? (December 3, 2009)">Why Does God Hate Pigs?</a> (13)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2010/05/15/the-good-book-is-good/" title="The Good Book is Good (May 15, 2010)">The Good Book is Good</a> (0)</li>
	<li><a href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/01/05/religulous-were-on-the-road-to-nowhere/" title="Religulous: We&#8217;re On The Road To Nowhere (January 5, 2009)">Religulous: We&#8217;re On The Road To Nowhere</a> (3)</li>
</ul>

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		</item>
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		<title>Random Thoughts About Human Impact On Evolution</title>
		<link>http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/03/13/random-thoughts-about-human-impact-on-evolution/</link>
		<comments>http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2009/03/13/random-thoughts-about-human-impact-on-evolution/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 14 Mar 2009 02:22:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Neece</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Ideas]]></category>
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		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/?p=1230</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Charles Darwin celebrated his 200th birthday February 12 of this year. So of course many of the science podcasts I listen to, as well as many of the science and skeptic sites I visit, have been talking about evolution and Darwin and all that good stuff. Evolution is often paraphrased as the term, survival of [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_darwin" target="_blank"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1231" title="Charles Darwin" src="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/l_b35beaad8cf960c209754e1b9bdef3d31-296x450.gif" alt="Charles Darwin" width="212" height="323" /></a></p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_darwin" target="_blank">Charles Darwin</a> celebrated his 200th birthday February 12 of this year. So of course many of the science podcasts I listen to, as well as many of the science and skeptic sites I visit, have been talking about evolution and Darwin and all that good stuff. Evolution is often paraphrased as the term, survival of the fittest, which is inaccurate. Here is how Dictionary.com defines it, as well as some other terms, just so we&#8217;re all on the same page:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=survival%20of%20the%20fittest&amp;db=luna" target="_blank">Survival of the Fittest</a><br />
a 19th-century concept of human society, inspired by the principle of natural selection, postulating that those who are eliminated in the struggle for existence are the unfit.</li>
<li><a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Natural+selection" target="_blank">Natural Selection</a><br />
n.   The process in nature by which, according to Darwin&#8217;s theory of evolution, only the organisms best adapted to their environment tend to survive and transmit their genetic characteristics in increasing numbers to succeeding generations while those less adapted tend to be eliminated.</li>
<li><a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/evolution" target="_blank">Evolution</a><br />
<em>Biology</em>. change in the gene pool of a population from generation to generation by such processes as mutation, natural selection, and genetic drift.</li>
</ul>
<p>I&#8217;ve been slowly forming some random thoughts regarding the human population and evolution and I thought I&#8217;d write them down. Your input would be most welcome, as usual.<span id="more-1230"></span></p>
<p>I heard on The Naked Scientists ( podcast number or which exact one, I&#8217;m not sure) recently that humans aren&#8217;t really evolving and haven&#8217;t for the last couple of thousand years or so. Chris, the Naked Scientist, was talking about something else so it was one of those explanations for something else, not the topic of conversation. So he didn&#8217;t go into detail.</p>
<p>My ears perked up though because I&#8217;ve been vaguely wondering about human evolution in the past several thousand years. Mainly because humans seem to do things backwards from the rest of nature. Or we seem to do that lately in our history.</p>
<p>For instance, we take care of the old and sick, to the point that otherwise frail and less than hearty people are able to reproduce, and to reproduce much longer into older age than ever before. This is when a woman&#8217;s eggs may have more genetic defects in them. Which is why women who are pregnant over a certain age are encouraged to get tested for genetic defects more than younger women are.</p>
<p>I have an aunt who was born with a serious birth defect &#8211; spina bifida. She needed countless surgeries over her childhood, and several in her adulthood as well. She ended up getting married and having a child, which even a hundred years ago would not have been possible.</p>
<p>There are huge differences in child mortality and survival throughout the world even today, based on availability of medical care, basic nutrition and other factors. But even 100 years ago the infant mortality rate was higher, right? What was it 2,000 years ago when medical care was rudimentary at best?</p>
<p>So what does this do to the gene pool and to human evolution?</p>
<p>I was talking to my friend Jeff about this yesterday and he made a comment that we are evolving, just with machines now. But I would suggest that&#8217;s not the same thing. It certainly doesn&#8217;t fall into the biological definition of evolution. I&#8217;m not saying that we aren&#8217;t evolving at all. But we seem to have stalled at least. Instead of natural selection within the human race, we have technology of all different sorts to compensate for whatever lack of genetic strength we may have.</p>
<p>This could be as simple as red headed people living in the Mediterranean. They don&#8217;t need to get sunburned and get skin cancer because they can wear sunblock and protective clothing and stay indoors more. Or a child can be born with asthma, something that would have shortened her life long ago, perhaps. Instead while she may take medication and change her lifestyle a bit, she can grow up to have children, who may also be prone to asthma.</p>
<p>Did you see that movie, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000K7VHOG?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=zenswor-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B000K7VHOG">Idiocracy</a><img style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=zenswor-20&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=B000K7VHOG" border="0" alt="" width="1" height="1" />? I didn&#8217;t watch it because, well, it looked really dumb. But the concept is interesting and is something I see in my life nowadays, to a small degree. The premise of the movie, from what I gathered, is that smart people stop having children so only stupid people have kids, giving birth to dumber and dumber people, until everyone is idiotic. I don&#8217;t know about that idea. Because both my husband and I are way smarter than our parents. But I do see people who can barely function in society having kids while smart people make the decision to refrain from reproducing.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s another point. Let&#8217;s talk about fishing. I&#8217;ve been hearing about how we fish and hunt. Humans take the biggest and strongest animals and fish from the population in huge numbers. Now, when it comes to cattle and poultry, we raise what we want to eat. But for fish we still get them from the wild in a lot of cases. The impact on those populations has actually caused the fish to evolve, but in a reverse sort of way.</p>
<p>There was this study published recently which I heard about. Basically they took this population of fish and treated them as if they were being fished as is common practice today &#8211; taking the biggest, leaving the smallest. After 12 years they found that the fish had to adapt and start reproducing earlier than they used to. This has a negative impact on the population, which then affects what is available for us to harvest.</p>
<p>In the wild a lion will target the weak and the young, which makes sense. But we don&#8217;t do that. We go for the biggest and strongest, leaving the young and weak. We seem to do it backwards. Which seems like it&#8217;s bad for the rest of the environment.</p>
<p>The good news is that this reverse evolution can be reversed. I found the fishing study. Here&#8217;s a link: <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090303193950.htm" target="_blank">&#8216;Undesirable&#8217; Evolution Can Be Reversed In Fish, By Letting The Big Ones Go</a></p>
<p>Those are just some ideas I&#8217;ve been knocking around in my head. Your thoughts are welcome, as usual.</p>

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		<title>Dead Cats Into Diesel</title>
		<link>http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2008/10/27/dead-cats-diesel/</link>
		<comments>http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2008/10/27/dead-cats-diesel/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:59:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Neece</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Ok, for some reason this struck me as a bit&#8230;. odd. Diesel from dead cats? I just had to share it with you, since we&#8217;re Heaving Dead Cats around here on a regular basis. Now we can save money, heave dead cats and make fuel! Woot! Dr Christian Koch, 55, from Kleinhartmannsdorf, has a special [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a rel="attachment wp-att-568" href="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/2008/10/27/dead-cats-diesel/1168702253-11674885811774361/"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-568" title="blargh i am ded" src="http://www.heavingdeadcats.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/1168702253-11674885811774361-300x221.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="221" /></a>Ok, for some reason this struck me as a bit&#8230;. odd. Diesel from dead cats? I just had to share it with you, since we&#8217;re Heaving Dead Cats around here on a regular basis. Now we can save money, heave dead cats and make fuel! Woot!</p>
<p>Dr Christian Koch, 55, from Kleinhartmannsdorf, has a special method for turning household garbage into biodiesel. This leads me to believe you can make biodiesel out of just about anything.</p>
<p>So, his method involves heating stuff like old tires, paper, motor oil, plastic, dead cats, just about anything, to 300 degrees Celsius. Then the hydrocarbons go through a catalytic converter.</p>
<p>Now I&#8217;ll know what to do with all those dead cats in my freezer! (JUST KIDDING)</p>
<p>Found <a href="http://smartmoves.questacon.edu.au/teachers/topics/energy.asp#AlternativeFuels" target="_blank">Here</a> and <a href="http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1534821.html" target="_blank">Here</a>.</p>

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