The idea that we are living in a simulation is just another religious trap.

or maybe art crime…

“Swiss artist and comedian Ursus Wehrli likes his artwork meticulously neat. For his popular book series, Tidying Up Art, Wehrli rearranges famous art pieces by the likes of Chagall and Picasso, extracting the work’s basic components and repositioning them in a perfectly organized way.

Wehrli’s latest book, The Art of Clean Up, skips famous artwork in favor of everyday life. A bowl of alphabet soup or a fallen pine tree branch get a well ordered revamp in the hands of Wehrli.” Full Slice

Sorry, couldn’t help myself:

And could be a bad advertisement for pot.

Watch starting from 3:30 to 5:25 minutes.

Lesson:  “Spend less on the whacky tobaccy and more on the super pac-y” - Stephen Colbert.

“…”We were initially surprised to learn how much the pancreatic beta cell contributes to the onset and severity of diabetes,”…”The observation that beta cell malfunction significantly contributes to multiple disease signs, including insulin resistance, was unexpected. We noted, however, that studies from other laboratories published over the past few decades had alluded to this possibility.”

In healthy people, pancreatic beta cells monitor the bloodstream for glucose
using glucose transporters anchored in their cellular membranes. When blood
glucose is high, such as after a meal, beta cells take in this additional glucose and respond by secreting insulin in a timed and measured response. In turn, insulin stimulates other cells in the body to take up glucose, a nutrient they need to produce energy. In this newly discovered pathway, high levels of fat were found to interfere with two key transcription factors—proteins that switch genes on and off.

These transcription factors, FOXA2 and HNF1A, are normally required for the production of an enzyme called GnT-4a glycosyltransferase that modifies proteins with a particular glycan (polysaccharide or sugar) structure….” Full Slice

Wad, Secure Care, Dean C, and Mr. Guyll were hanging out using Google +. If you can score an invite, it is pretty cool. However, it would be much cooler if Wave were included. Google Docs suck for collaboration.

Space 2.0 and true next generation education.

Just a thought.

There were some tense moments before the crew got their revised flight plan approved, to briefly image Pluto’s shadow as it occulted a star. The only observatory in human space capable of doing so.

As with any invention that sounds too good to be true, one keeps hoping for some public demonstrations. Still, it will be nifty if this clever looking engine design works out as claimed.

The following is for entertainment purposes only.  The graphic is based on assuming that 2011 will match 2010 melt rates through July, the projects a worst case scenario using the 2007 melt rate.    Graphics provided by the IJIS Sea Ice Extent project.

“We report new functions of the cell-adhesion molecule E-cadherin in murine pluripotent cells. E-cadherin is highly expressed in mouse embryonic stem cells, and interference with E-cadherin causes differentiation. During cellular reprogramming of mouse fibroblasts by OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and c-MYC, fully reprogrammed cells were exclusively observed in the E-cadherin-positive cell population and could not be obtained in the absence of E-cadherin. Moreover, reprogrammed cells could be established by viral E-cadherin in the absence of exogenous OCT4. Thus, reprogramming requires spatial cues that cross-talk with essential transcription factors. The cell-adhesion molecule E-cadherin has important functions in pluripotency and reprogramming.” Full Slice

“…An international collaboration of scientists…may have discovered humanity’s beneficiary – a tiny variation within a single gene that determines the formation of brain convolutions…”The demonstration of the fundamental role of this gene in human brain development affords us a step closer to solve the mystery of the crown jewel of creation, the cerebral cortex,”…The folding of the brain is seen only in mammals with larger brains, such as dolphins and apes, and is most pronounced in humans….” Full Slice

Has anyone made a connection between the recovery of a body from Air France Flight 447 two years after the plane crashed and the possibility of recovering Osama Bin Laden’s body.  I would suspect there is a clear trail to follow and a good estimate of where the body was dumped.  There must be a billionaire out there right now, using a personal submarine to search for the body…

I like to hit the random page link of the tree of life.

According to this report, The International Energy Agency thinks that 27% of transport fuels can come from biomass by 2050.