Lithopanspermia, Microorganisms From Distant Planets May Have Seeded Life On Earth, Study Says

Lithopanspermia, Microorganisms From Distant Planets May Have Seeded Life On Earth, Study Says (via Planetsave)

Life on this planet may have been seeded by microorganisms embedded in the fragments of distant planets that have crashed to Earth, according to new research from Princeton University, the University of Arizona and the Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) in Spain. The new research, just published in the…

What is this thing called love? Mere chemical trickery

In the past two decades social neuroscientists have been diligently working to unravel the mysteries of love - including the phenomena of attraction, monogamy and the parent-child bond - using techniques such as brain imaging, genome-wide association studies and transgenic animal models. In The Chemistry Between Us, Larry Young, the director of Emory University's Center for Translational Social Neuroscience, and journalist Brian Alexander offer a novel take on many of those findings. More..
CultureLab: What is this thing called love? Mere chemical trickery

New Zealand Grants Rights of Personhood to Whanganui River

New Zealand made history only days ago by giving the rights of a person to the Whanganui River. Under the preliminary agreement, that means the river will be considered a legal entity and have a legal voice. While the river can’t exactly celebrate the win, we’re sure the Whanganui River iwi, an indigenous community who fought for the rights of the river and who will now have a legal say on its behalf, are ecstatic. More..
New Zealand Grants Rights of Personhood to Whanganui River

'Video Painting Europe': Breathtaking Projection-Mapped Video Graffiti Transforms European Cities

Part interactive installation, part urban performance art, Video Painting Europe documents a kind of glow-in-the-dark graffiti that leaves no trace. Art collective Sweatshoppe uses ingenious infrared tracking to smear digital video over concrete surfaces with paint rollers. In this Vimeo Award-winning video, they travel to European cities like Paris, Belgrade, London, and more to paste their "video collages" on different architectural structures including the Berlin Wall. The duo behind the collective are Blake Shaw and Bruno Levy.

Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Subversive Message Within South Korea's Music Video Sensation

(Source: The Atlantic)
Park Jaesang is an unlikely poster boy for South Korea's youth-obsessed, highly lucrative, and famously vacuous pop music. Park, who performs as Psy (short for psycho), is a relatively ancient 34, has been busted for marijuana and for avoiding the country's mandatory military service, and is not particularly good-looking. His first album got him fined for "inappropriate content" and the second was banned. He's mainstream in the way that South Korea's monolithically corporate media demands of its stars, who typically appear regularly on TV variety and even game shows, but as a harlequin, a performer known for his parodies, outrageous costumes, and jokey concerts. Still, there's a long history of fools and court jesters as society's most cutting social critics, and he might be one of them. More..
Gangnam Style, Dissected: The Subversive Message Within South Korea's Music Video Sensation - The Atlantic

SLICE : A Freaky Visual Journey Through a Human Body

After a series of medical tests, Christopher Powers, a software engineer and filmmaker, decided to transform the resulting series of 2-D and 3-D scans of his body into an experimental film -- an eerie anatomical self-portrait.

Slice II from Christopher Powers on Vimeo.

Belarus Teddybear Airdrop - Video

Belarus has finally confirmed that an airplane "invaded" its territory earlier in July to drop a payload of teddy bears holding signs promoting free speech, infuriating a regime often known as "Europe's last dictatorship".
Chartered by Studio Total, which bills itself as "northern Scandinavia's most notorious ad agency", the single-engine aircraft - piloted by a co-founder of Studio Total - crossed over the Lithuanian border on July 4, dropping 876 teddy bears on the capital Minsk and the small town of Ivyanets.

Kanaksi Khimji : The only Hindu Sheikh of Arab World

The world’s only Hindu sheikh happens to be an uncompromising vegetarian, his devotion is anchored to Lord Shreenathji, and though his admired entrepreneurship branches out across the globe, his roots lie in Gujarat. If that isn't enough, the Sultan of Oman offered his yacht Lo'Lo' to this NRI for developing tourism business in the Sultanate.

Kanaksi Khimji, the head of Khimji Ramdas Group of Companies, was conferred the title of sheikh by the Sultan of Oman. Khimji Ramdas and M/s V. Ships Leisure have also been appointed the ship managers of the yacht. Khimji, a practising Gujarati Vaishnav, was born in 1936 in Muscat; and he completed his matriculation in Mumbai. Later, he became one of the very few Indians to be offered Omani citizenship.

Generations ago, Khimji's grandfather, Ramdas Thackersey, had set sail for Oman from Mandvi, in Kutch. Today, dressed in a flowing full-length robe and wearing the kaffiyeh, the cloth that covers the head, Khimji easily passes off as an Omani. When he married in 1960, Khimji was presented with a silver jug by Sultan Said Taimur Bin Faisal. The queen mother, Bibi Mahezun, had given him two of her photographs, a privilege accorded to only a few.

The former president of India, Shankar Dayal Sharma, had called Khimji 'the real ambassador of India to the Gulf countries'. Chandrakant Chothani, one of the founding members of the Muscat Gujarati Samaj said, "Kanaksibhai has not only earned the respect of the Indian community but also of the citizens of Oman." Khimji was one of the NRIs to receive the Centre's Bhartiya Pravasi Award, in 2003.

Indeed, Khimji's 'Bhartiya' persona is reflected in his spiritual practices. He has an idol of Lord Shreenathji installed in a temple at his home. He does not touch non-vegetarian food; his office kitchen serves delicacies like rotla and chaas that keep everybody's palate satisfied with wholesome, and vegetarian, Gujarati delicacies. Khimji has contributed considerably to the public sphere in Oman as well as in India. In 1975, under Khimji's leadership, the Indian merchants’ body in Oman established the first-ever English medium school in Muscat.

Source: http://sawaibhatia.blogspot.in/2010/08/kanaksinh-khimji-only-hindu-sheikh-of.html