Hi,
I want you to take a look at: What is Hinduism?
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
WHAT A STRANGE CREATURE YOU ARE
We belong to a remarkably quirky species. Despite our best efforts, some of our strangest foibles still defy explanation. But as science probes deeper into these eccentricities, it is becoming clear that behaviours and attributes that seem frivolous at first glance often go to the heart of what it means to be human.
Most of us have our own superstitions, even though we know rationally that they cannot work. Yet superstition is not entirely nonsensical.
Our brains are designed to detect structure and order in our environment, says Bruce Hood at the University of Bristol, UK. We are also causal determinists - we assume that outcomes are caused by preceding events. This combination of sensing patterns and inferring causes leaves us wide open to superstitious beliefs. "But there are very good reasons why we have evolved these capabilities," Hood adds. Spotting and responding to some uncertain cause-and-effect relationships can be crucial for survival.
Our ancestors would not have lasted long if they had assumed that a rustle in the grass was caused by wind when there was even a small chance it was a lion. And it is worth making false-positive mistakes to get these relationships right. Kevin Foster of Harvard University and Hanna Kokko from the University of Helsinki, Finland, used mathematical modelling to show that whenever the cost of believing a superstition is less than the cost of missing a real life-or-death association, superstitious beliefs will be favoured by evolution (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, vol 276, p 31).
Religion offers another possible evolutionary benefit of superstition. "[Religious faith] involves a susceptibility to believe in a spirit world and its efficacy - even if it doesn't actually work," says Dunbar, who is a leading proponent of the idea that religion is adaptive. He thinks religion's main function is to persuade a community to toe the line, so promoting cohesion. This is achieved in part by tapping into our natural propensity to believe in supernatural beings that can influence our fate.
Although it is in our nature to be superstitious, cultural and environmental factors clearly influence how superstitious an individual actually is. For example, when we feel we are losing control over our lives, we tend to become more superstitious. One study found that people living in high-risk areas of the Middle East, such as Tel Aviv, are much more likely to carry a lucky charm than other people. Another showed that the growth rate of evangelical churches in the US jumps 50 per cent with the downturn of each economic cycle. Nobody is immune. "We can all shift ur supernatural inclination depending on the circumstances," says Hood. "There are few atheists in a plane that is plummeting from 30,000 feet." More at:Ten mysteries of you
Most of us have our own superstitions, even though we know rationally that they cannot work. Yet superstition is not entirely nonsensical.
Our brains are designed to detect structure and order in our environment, says Bruce Hood at the University of Bristol, UK. We are also causal determinists - we assume that outcomes are caused by preceding events. This combination of sensing patterns and inferring causes leaves us wide open to superstitious beliefs. "But there are very good reasons why we have evolved these capabilities," Hood adds. Spotting and responding to some uncertain cause-and-effect relationships can be crucial for survival.
Our ancestors would not have lasted long if they had assumed that a rustle in the grass was caused by wind when there was even a small chance it was a lion. And it is worth making false-positive mistakes to get these relationships right. Kevin Foster of Harvard University and Hanna Kokko from the University of Helsinki, Finland, used mathematical modelling to show that whenever the cost of believing a superstition is less than the cost of missing a real life-or-death association, superstitious beliefs will be favoured by evolution (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, vol 276, p 31).
Religion offers another possible evolutionary benefit of superstition. "[Religious faith] involves a susceptibility to believe in a spirit world and its efficacy - even if it doesn't actually work," says Dunbar, who is a leading proponent of the idea that religion is adaptive. He thinks religion's main function is to persuade a community to toe the line, so promoting cohesion. This is achieved in part by tapping into our natural propensity to believe in supernatural beings that can influence our fate.
Although it is in our nature to be superstitious, cultural and environmental factors clearly influence how superstitious an individual actually is. For example, when we feel we are losing control over our lives, we tend to become more superstitious. One study found that people living in high-risk areas of the Middle East, such as Tel Aviv, are much more likely to carry a lucky charm than other people. Another showed that the growth rate of evangelical churches in the US jumps 50 per cent with the downturn of each economic cycle. Nobody is immune. "We can all shift ur supernatural inclination depending on the circumstances," says Hood. "There are few atheists in a plane that is plummeting from 30,000 feet." More at:Ten mysteries of you
Friday, July 24, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Swapping facial features protects online privacy
` NOBODY IS EVER SATISFIED WITH THEIR FACE; EVEN CLEOPATRA WAS WORRIED THAT HER NOSE WAS A LITTLE LONGER THAN IT SHOULD BE.
MARILYN MONROE COMMITTED SUICIDE -- A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN, BUT NOT SATISFIED, NOT CONTENTED. THERE IS SOMETHING IN IT. ALL ` FACES ARE FUNNY BECAUSE ALL FACES ARE FALSE. -- OSHO
DEEP DOWN, YOUR BEING IS FACELESS That's what Zen people call the original face.
After finding itself in hot water with privacy advocates, Google has begun obscuring the faces of people in its Street View service, which lets users of Google Maps zoom in to view street level images. But the images look decidedly odd, with whole streets peopled by blurred faces.
It needn't be this way, says Neeraj Kumar of Columbia University, New York. Kumar and his colleagues have developed software that gives everyone a face - just not their own. The software randomly selects 33,000 photos of faces from picture-sharing sites like Flickr.com, then picks the most suitable faces for each person in shot. Only the eyes, nose and mouth are used, resulting in a composite image of the two people. "It matches subject pose, lighting conditions and image resolution," says Kumar. "The selected faces are aligned to common 3D coordinates, corrected for colour and lighting, and blended into the target image."
The end result is a convincing face rather than a blur, although the team's images (tinyurl.com/6ehog5) can be spooky, especially when people get features from the opposite sex. What's more, the software works automatically. "Previous face replacement software required manual assistance, much like editing an image in Photoshop," says Kumar.
Aside from Street View, the system could be used to obscure the faces of military personnel or eyewitnesses to crime. It could also allow amateur photographers to improve group shots, by replacing frowning faces with better photos of the same people. Swapping facial features protects online privacy
MARILYN MONROE COMMITTED SUICIDE -- A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN, BUT NOT SATISFIED, NOT CONTENTED. THERE IS SOMETHING IN IT. ALL ` FACES ARE FUNNY BECAUSE ALL FACES ARE FALSE. -- OSHO
DEEP DOWN, YOUR BEING IS FACELESS That's what Zen people call the original face.
After finding itself in hot water with privacy advocates, Google has begun obscuring the faces of people in its Street View service, which lets users of Google Maps zoom in to view street level images. But the images look decidedly odd, with whole streets peopled by blurred faces.
It needn't be this way, says Neeraj Kumar of Columbia University, New York. Kumar and his colleagues have developed software that gives everyone a face - just not their own. The software randomly selects 33,000 photos of faces from picture-sharing sites like Flickr.com, then picks the most suitable faces for each person in shot. Only the eyes, nose and mouth are used, resulting in a composite image of the two people. "It matches subject pose, lighting conditions and image resolution," says Kumar. "The selected faces are aligned to common 3D coordinates, corrected for colour and lighting, and blended into the target image."
The end result is a convincing face rather than a blur, although the team's images (tinyurl.com/6ehog5) can be spooky, especially when people get features from the opposite sex. What's more, the software works automatically. "Previous face replacement software required manual assistance, much like editing an image in Photoshop," says Kumar.
Aside from Street View, the system could be used to obscure the faces of military personnel or eyewitnesses to crime. It could also allow amateur photographers to improve group shots, by replacing frowning faces with better photos of the same people. Swapping facial features protects online privacy
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Companionate Marriage
After the free-love ardor of the 1960s sexual revolution cooled down, a brave new vision of marriage emerged from its ashes. This has come to be known as "companionate marriage." In such a partnership, spouses have a mutual interest in career and home, and share in raising children. They talk over dinner, take turns doing dishes, fret together over the children's schooling, and arrange the occasional date night. To many Americans, the Obamas' recent studiously scheduled outing together would represent the apogee of a successful equitable marriage. To Cristina Nehring, author of the ambitious polemic A Vindication of Love: Reclaiming Romance for the Twenty-First Century, one suspects, it would represent all that is wrong with marriage today...More at…Crazy in Love
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
What’s so “Hon’ble” about MPs, ask voters
The mood is so threatening that the Archbishop of Canterbury has called for everyone to calm down a bit saying that the “systematic humiliation” of MPs threatened to “undermine” democracy itself. Acknowledging the gravity of the issue, he said: “But many will now be wondering whether the point has not been adequately made. The continuing systematic humiliation of politicians itself threatens to carry a heavy price in terms of our ability to salvage some confidence in our democracy.”
Acknowledging the gravity of the issue, he said: “But many will now be wondering whether the point has not been adequately made. The continuing systematic humiliation of politicians itself threatens to carry a heavy price in terms of our ability to salvage some confidence in our democracy.”
Yes I agree with the Archbishop. This may lead to anti social elements with muscle power may rule the political arena. Such scenario may spell disaster to the democracy....More Info...
Tory MP’ claimed extra after building £ 50,000 extension:
A CONSERVATIVE MP was fighting for higher political life last night after it was reported that she used taxpayers’ money to fund a £ 50,000 extension to her constituency home. More info...
Friday, April 24, 2009
fear
The fear is just a preferred attitude to a problem and not the problem itself….I embrace a peace beyond words… let the fears that have found roots in my waking mind dissolve and disappear.
Breathe deeply again, and say it loud, releasing the vowels slowly.
The Human Spirit is a great thing. It makes people move on as the link below shows. Can be used to pep up people who get dejected with small setbacks
Breathe deeply again, and say it loud, releasing the vowels slowly.
The Human Spirit is a great thing. It makes people move on as the link below shows. Can be used to pep up people who get dejected with small setbacks
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