The Practice of Chinese Philosophy...

Intelligent Life

It is suggested that one strand of pencil thick spider silk can stop a Boeing 747 in flight.- Improbable Research.

You were right- Dogs are intelligent- Discovery

Dogs possess a two-year-old child's capacity to understand human pointing gestures, with dogs requiring next to zero learning time to figure out the visual communication, according to two recent studies.
The comparison with kids doesn't end there. Due to domestication, dogs appear to be predisposed to read other human visual signals, including head-turning and gazing.
Pet owners often use baby talk, scientifically known as "motherese," with both children and dogs, allowing canines and kids to receive similar social stimulation.
Since chimpanzees and other non-human primates often flunk pointing gesture tests, the studies suggest dogs may understand humans better than even our closest living animal relatives do.

And Elephants are flexible: Science Now

In elephant society, nothing is more important than family. From traveling packs of mothers and calves to larger groups that contain aunts and cousins, all segments of the creature's complex social structure are typically composed of relatives. But what happens when these populations are decimated by humans? New research reveals that elephants sometimes bring in non-kin to keep their social groups viable.

What happens then?

Wittemyer, whose team reports its findings today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, says the elephants may be willing to accept nonrelatives into their group to ensure they have the critical mass needed to gather food and protect themselves.

Dumb People:

Not Always Right | Funny & Stupid Customer Quotes offers an unending stream of insight into the matrix of our intelligence- here's a sampler:

Me: “Thank you for calling tech support. How can I help you?”

Customer: “Hello?”

Me: “Hello?”

Customer: “Hello?”

Me: “Hello?”

Customer: “Hey Jon, check this out! The machine says hello back when I say hello!”

Me: “I’m not a machine, sir.”

Customer: “OH MY GOD, IT’S ADDRESSING ME!”

Me: “No, sir, I’m not a machine!”

Customer: “Oh… so you’re one of them human peoples?”

Me: “Yes, sir, I am a human peoples.”

As if Earth has not room enough, Man dreams of an inhabitable Mars: "Tough Microbe Has The Right Stuff for Mars"- Live Science

Biologists have found microbes that live in the hottest, coldest, driest and most unpleasant places on Earth. Many of these bugs don't adapt well to new surroundings, but one microbe is remarkable for withstanding a wide range of conditions. This quality might make this unique organism suitable for adapting to life on Mars.
This ultimate survivor is called Methanosarcina barkeri. It is found in freshwater and marine sediments, and other places where oxygen is scarce. Because it breathes out methane, researchers are interested to see if it — or some other "methanogen" — could be responsible for the methane that was detected in the martian atmosphere in 2003.

Or, should it read Man dreams of uninhabitable Earth: "In Search for Intelligence, a Silicon Brain Twitches" - WSJ.com

For the last four years, Henry Markram has been building a biologically accurate artificial brain. Powered by a supercomputer, his software model closely mimics the activity of a vital section of a rat's gray matter.
Dubbed Blue Brain, the simulation shows some strange behavior. The artificial "cells" respond to stimuli and suddenly pulse and flash in spooky unison, a pattern that isn't programmed but emerges spontaneously.
"It's the neuronal equivalent of a Mexican wave," says Dr. Markram, referring to what happens when successive clusters of stadium spectators briefly stand and raise their arms, creating a ripple effect. Such synchronized behavior is common in flesh-and-blood brains, where it's believed to be a basic step necessary for decision making.

They have set on date on which The Blue Brain will come alive- conscious and wickedly grinning to get at you.

At least The Blue Brain will inherit the Earth, they and our lovely ladies- Phthalates are everywhere- in plastic bottles, cosmetics, some toys, hair conditioners, and fragrances- Nicholas D. Kristof sounds a warning in New York Times.

The problem is that phthalates suppress male hormones and sometimes mimic female hormones. As I’ve written before, chemicals called endocrine disruptors are believed to explain the proliferation of “intersex fish” — male fish that produce eggs — as well as sexual deformities in animals and humans. Phthalates (pronounced THAL-ates) are among the most common endocrine disruptors, and among the most difficult to avoid. They’re even in tap water, and levels soar in certain plastic water bottles.
They probably are not harmful to us adults, but it is another story for children. In girls, some research suggests that phthalates may cause early onset puberty. Most vulnerable of all, it seems, are male fetuses in the first trimester of pregnancy, just as they are differentiating their sex. At that stage, scholars believe, phthalates may “feminize” these boys.

(via Mindblog)

But even The Blue Brain, with our lovely ladies for company, will find life of earth a tough going- Last Days of History alert at New York Times noted by Joel Rosenberg's Weblog

“Throughout the marshes, the reed gatherers, standing on land they once floated over, cry out to visitors in a passing boat. ‘Maaku mai!’ they shout, holding up their rusty sickles. ‘There is no water!’ The Euphrates is drying up. Strangled by the water policies of Iraq’s neighbors, Turkey and Syria; a two-year drought; and years of misuse by Iraq and its farmers, the river is significantly smaller than it was just a few years ago. Some officials worry that it could soon be half of what it is now. The shrinking of the Euphrates, a river so crucial to the birth of civilization that the Book of Revelation prophesied its drying up as a sign of the end times, has decimated farms along its banks, has left fishermen impoverished and has depleted riverside towns as farmers flee to the cities looking for work.”
Please note that I did not add in the link above to the “Bible Gateway” website for Revelation 16:12. The Times’ online edition includes that link themselves. Apparently the newspaper of record now believes that the future of Iraq in light of Bible prophecy is part of “all the news that’s fit to print.”

May be, extinction is not the real danger- but Alien Abduction? A school is Britain is running exercises for exactly that eventuality- Red Orbit

Parents of children at a British school said young students were traumatized when school staff staged an alien abduction of a teacher. The parents said teachers at Southway Junior School in Burgess Hill, England, terrified students, some as young as 7, by faking a spaceship crash near classrooms and having costumed aliens kidnap a teacher, the Daily Mail reported Thursday. .

If Aliens don't get you, Robots will: "Upcoming Military Robot Could Feed on Dead Bodies"- Xenophilia

A Maryland company under contract to the Pentagon is working on a steam-powered robot that would fuel itself by gobbling up whatever organic material it can find — grass, wood, old furniture, even dead bodies.

The USP of having such a robot killing for you is, yes, you guessed it- no rotting bodies.

The advantages to the military are that the robot would be extremely flexible in fuel sources and could roam on its own for months, even years, without having to be refueled or serviced.

Clever Stuff:

Heard of placebo- but nocebo?- Brain blogger.

There are many anecdotal examples of the nocebo effect at work. For example, a nocebo response may explain the phenomenon of the voodoo curse in which a victim dies only because a belief in the power of the witch doctor has been so ingrained that, after he has been hexed, the target simply cannot believe that he will live. Other cases have been reported in which a patient has died after having been given a terminal prognosis; only for a post-mortem to reveal no such fatal disease was present. A few scientific studies have also looked at the phenomenon, including one in which volunteers were told that the researchers were looking for a link between mobile phone usage and the incidence of headaches. Throughout the trial a number of users reported headaches, even when (unbeknown to them), the phone they were using was actually an empty shell.

Twitter is the soul-force of 21st century: you need to know what it can do for you- here are some handy shortcuts at Econsultancy.com

I love a shortcut, and regularly make use of a range of keyboard shortcuts on Twitter. There are more of them than you might imagine. As such I have aggregated a bunch of commands to provide you with one handy cut-out-and-keep / ‘bookmark on Delicious’ guide.
Let's skip the basics. I assume you already know how to reply (@username), direct message (D username), retweet (RT @username) and so on.

This could save your life.

But, We are what We are, so this Duhism might help change your life:

The practice of Chinese philosophy can lead you to self-realization. But then, an hour later, you'll want to find yourself again.

Be Happy.