Emara | Island News

Music and lyrics: How the brain splits songs

§ 22:00 09 March 2010
§ by Jessica Hamzelou
§

(newscientist.com)

Your favourite song comes on the radio. You hum the tune; the lyrics remind you of someone you know. Is your brain processing the words and music separately or as one? It's a hotly debated question that may finally have an answer.
People with aphasia, who can't speak, can still hum a tune, suggesting music and lyrics are processed separately. Yet brain scans show that music and language activate the same areas, which might mean the brain treats them as one signal.

11 rare tigers die in zoo

Saturday, March 13, 2010

CHINESE state media said 11 Siberian tigers died at a zoo in the country’s frigid northeast and animal protection officials suspect that the majority died because they weren’t given enough to eat.

Did 'midwife molecule' assemble first life on Earth?

10:59 09 March 2010 by
Bob Holmes
(newscientist.com)

The primordial soup that gave birth to life on Earth may have had an extra, previously unrecognised ingredient: a "molecular midwife" that played a crucial role in allowing the first large biomolecules to assemble from their building blocks.
The earliest life forms are thought by many to have been based not on DNA but on the closely related molecule RNA, because long strands of RNA can act as rudimentary enzymes. This would have allowed a primitive metabolism to develop before life forms made proteins for this purpose.

DEMOCRACY IRISH STYLE: WE HAVE A DIVINE RIGHT TO RULE

What a shocking story from Tallaght Hospital. Over 58,000 X Rays which were never reviewed by a consultant radiologist and at least two life threatening illnesses were misdiagnosed.

MAJOR CONFERENCE EXAMINES POTENTIAL TO BURY CARBON

MAJOR CONFERENCE EXAMINES POTENTIAL TO BURY CARBON EMMISIONS
Dublin 11th March 2010
Some of Ireland’s carbon emissions could be buried off the coast of Kinsale or in Strangford Lough a major conference was told in Dublin Castle today.
Organised by the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI), the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) and the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland (GSNI), the two-day Carbon Capture and Storage Conference called on more than 100 international experts to assess the technology’s potential to bridge Ireland’s transition from fossil fuels to renewables.

Public Meeting: �Babes. Barbies and Sexism: Whatever Happened To Women�s Libera

16th March 7pm Brannigan’s Pub, Cathedral St, off O Connell St. Dublin

After International Women's Day, the SWP is holding a discussion on the history of the struggle for women's liberation and what challenges we face today.

A Girl at the Gun Show

(altdaily.com)

Words Carly Fuller Monahan
Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 10:34 am
“Who wants tickets to the gun show?”

The writer, right. Some see her and think "machine gun."
This question was presented to me by my 5’2” friend who recently started to work out with the fervor of a Kardashian on speed. I was expecting her to ask me to feel her newly-formed biceps, but, no, she literally meant the gun show at the Scope on Feb 20-21.
This ultra-liberal, Obama-loving lady announced that she needed to get a gun, “before Obama took them away from us.” She added that since I was a, “republican and a red neck,” that I would be all for it. Indeed, I was all for it. Growing up in Western PA meant that I knew more people who owned guns than who did not, and I am not afraid of guns. On the flip side,

Relax On Our Tax! No John, No!

A weekend’ relaxation for John Ronan of Treasury Holding while the Irish taxpayers pay for his debts through NAMA. Let’s hit back.
Multi-Millionaire John Ronan of Treasury Holding went to Marrakesh for a weekend junket that cost €80,000.
Protest Outside Bewley’s Cafe, Grafton St, Thursday 18th at 6pm

U.S. National Poetry Month

Academy of American Poets Announces An App, Maps, and More for National Poetry Month 2010
Poem on the Range: Mapping Places with Iconic Poems

March 5, 2010—This April, the Academy of American Poets is seeking submissions to an ongoing multimedia-mapping project, Poem on the Range. Poetry-lovers can contribute to the map by sharing videos or photos from a poetic pilgrimage, of literary landmarks, or by capturing the poetry in place on camera while reading a poem on location. Footage can be geotagged and posted to the Academy's Poem on the Range Flickr Group, the Poem on the Range Google Map, or emailed to OntheRange@poets.org. Submissions received by April 21 will be considered for a feature on Poets.org and will be entered to receive a selection of poetry books. For complete information, visit www.poets.org/ontherange.
Poem in Your Pocket Day Set for April 29, 2010

A measure for the multiverse

§ 03 March 2010 by Amanda Gefter
§ Magazine issue 2750.
§ (newscientist.com)
WHEN cosmologist George Ellis turned 70 last year, his friends held a party to celebrate. There were speeches and drinks and canapés aplenty to honour the theorist from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, who is regarded as one of the world's leading experts on general relativity. But there the similarity to most parties ends.
For a start, Ellis's celebration at the University of Oxford lasted for three days and the guest list was made up entirely of physicists, astronomers and philosophers of science. They had gathered to debate what Ellis considers the most dangerous idea in science: the suggestion that our universe is but a tiny part of an unimaginably large and diverse multiverse.