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POPSMichael Phelps: ‘Naturally’ transhuman
* He has proportionately short legs relative to his long, powerful trunk; this large upper body is the engine that powers his long arms. Moreover, his unique physique reduces drag through the water and allows for maximum propulsion. * Phelps has a greater-than-average lung capacity allowing him to execute his underwater dolphin kicks longer than the competition. * He has a genetic advantage that cause his muscles to produce 50% less lactic acid than other athletes. This means he can work at higher work loads for longer periods. * With a low body fat of 4%, he is better able to convert his effort into speed. Looking at this list it’s as if Phelps was designed to swim. Which leads to an interesting question: Given the potential for genetic modification and gene doping, should it be acceptable for other athletes to acquire the same physiological endowments through artificial means? If not, what makes it so acceptable to come by these traits ‘naturally?’ And how
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POPSAngola Miss Landmine Beauty Pageant The joint winners of the Angolan contest, Augusta Urica, 31, and Maria Restino Manuel, 26, were the embodiment of Traavik's ideal at the finale in the capital, Luanda, swathed in designer gowns, sashes and silver tiaras that crowned them Miss Landmine 2008. With 10 women representing their provinces, she hobbled up the platform on crutches to collect her prize - a golden, state-of-the-art prosthetic limb to replace the leg blown off 10 years ago. In Cambodia there should be no shortage of contenders for the 2009 title. There are 25,000 amputees among the country's 63,000 victims of landmines and blasts from unexploded ordinance left after 30 years of civil war. Up to 1m landmines remain buried, out of the estimated million mines planted along the border with Thailand after the invading Vietnamese left in 1989
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POPSGirls Make History At Science Contest More: Dr. Hopkins helped start a national discussion about girls and science two years ago when she walked out of a talk by Harvard University’s president, Lawrence H. Summers, after he suggested that innate differences between men and women might be one reason that fewer women than men succeed in math and science careers. Dr. Summers apologized during the ensuing furor; he announced his resignation as Harvard’s president 13 months later James Whaley, president of the Siemens Foundation, which oversees the competition for Siemens AG, a global electronics and engineering company, said the competition results send a great message to young women Alicia Darnell, 17, a senior at Pelham Memorial High School in Pelham, N.Y., won second place and a $50,000 scholarship in the individual category for research that identified genetic defects that could play a role in the development of Lou Gehrig’s disease Pretty good for 16 and 17 year olds don't ya think?
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POPSSimple reason helps males evolve more quickly “There’s a health aspect in figuring out differences in gene expression between the sexes,” said Wayne. “To make a male or a female, even in a fly, it’s all about turning things on -- either in different places or different amounts or at different times -- because we all basically have the same starting set of genes.”
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POPSRadical Life Extension and Religious Evolution "Technology will inject competition into religion and force religious authorities to clarify what they mean by immortality." This is important, according to Cole-Turner because "there is currently a lot of evasiveness about what immortality means."
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POPSCheck out these cans! Architect and engineers compete to see whose team can build the most spectacular structure using little more than cans of food at Canstruction, the 13th annual NYC Design and Build competition in New York . All these cans will go to the food bank afterwards…
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POPSThe Power of a Handshake: How Touch Sustains Personal and Business Relationships Recent research from Zak's neuroeconomics lab has shown that the human brain uses oxytocin to unconsciously assess if a person is trustworthy using our memory of past encounters and all of our senses, including touch. If the stranger is a good match for other trustworthy people, the brain releases oxytocin, telling us it is safe to trust. Interesting read.
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POPSHuman Wins in "Man vs. Machine" Scrabble Competition! Fighting the evil robot uprising, one Scrabble tile at a time. Kramer had the choice of spelling a five-letter word and picking up all the remaining tiles. Rather, he used four tiles to complete the word "meeter" on the board, leaving one available tile and confounding the computer. Kramer explained that if he had picked up all the remaining tiles, the computer would have known exactly what he had in his rack. But by leaving one behind, he stymied it. "That's just something hard for the program to solve. There are too many possibilities," Kramer said. Who's the Genius now?
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POPSCooperation over Competition Think about what you need to feel good about yourself right now or what you would want someone to do for you. Provide those "wish list" items for another as well as for yourself.
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POPSBoobs on the Street Images! STICK 'EM UP! These gravity defying ads for DTACK - Adhesive tape, use extreme examples for the tapes use in hilarious ways. As funny as it may seem, the humour is also very relevant in today's age defying conscious society. We think perhaps the male version of the ad may have been a little extreme! by Andy G
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POPSCompare your blog/site with the top 10 sites for a given keyword You've been working real hard, on your blog/site, for the past few months. You have been optimizing your blog for a particular keyword. Now you want to see some results. You want to know where you stand with respect to the competing sites. Well you are in luck because such a tool is available. Its free and its online (nothing to download and install).
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