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Human DNA browser (free)

The Genome Browser and Blat software are free for academic, nonprofit, and personal use.
Link: UCSC Genome browser on Human

Volcano's and earthquakes - live updates

Web cameras with live updates from all major sites. Including visiting trips, professional pictures etc.

Link: http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/
Example: http://webcams.volcanodiscovery.com/Kilauea#VW_mCont

The likelihood of life

Interesting movie the likelihood of life.
On earth we see numerous forms of Convergent biology, how likely is it on other places in the universe.



Part 2, Part 3.
Link: Axess, Top Documentary Films

Harvard - Most popular course

Video interview: Using positive psychology
Full interview [9 minutes, 15 seconds]




Link: Most popular course at Harvard
Link: Report, YouTube uploads

View Now! NASA Live Streams Mars 'Curiosity' Landing

           

Click here for NASA Curiosity Mission Live Stream

Live Birds eye view. Nasa count down --> GMT: 05:31

Edible things in nature

Link: http://www.skogsskafferiet.se/

Academic Institutions - Free online

Academic Institutions

A number of US universities have made selected lectures or even entire courses available as part of initiatives to share the knowledge within their quality programs with the world:

• Harvard University Department of Physics
• MIT Open Courseware
• Open Yale Courses
• Office of Information Technology at Princeton University
• webcast.berkeley (UC Berkeley)

Link to this post
Link to Other universities

ConceptArt

I've wrote about Coro36ink in 2007, since some of his city pictures were just amazing (link broken now).

Here is a place (way) to find others artists with similar skills.

Business Model Generation

A book worth knowing about or reading. It's easy to read and has the potential to become a generic Business Model. Video.













Resources
Link: http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/book
Discussions forum: 1, 2, 3, ...
Tools: HowTo, WordFinder, Spreadsheet, Canvas.ppt, 2.doc, 3.pdf, 4.vsd, 5, 6, Visual recording, 2, ?, Camera (price), x
Other: Author, Wikipedia, Research

Human footprints on this Planet

http://vimeo.com/40940686

From the biggest to the smallest

Old concept but well done.
http://htwins.net/scale2/scale2.swf?bordercolor=white&fb_source=message

Mapping Popular Story Plot Lines

What makes a prize-winning novel? As Julian Barnes wins the Booker Prize, Johanna Kamradt charts the themes of this year’s longlisters. (Illustration by Christian Tate)

Link: Cool Infographics

Household spending (in US)

Does this mean that House building is a very inefficient business?

Link: Source, SCB

World of Religion

Link: World of Religion

A History of Balance of Power

Measured by GDP(ppp) from G9 countries.
Interesting to note that several countries are absent from this comparison. Was the Roman empire really that small?

Reference: Link

Music goosbump secret

Twenty years ago, the British psychologist John Sloboda conducted a simple experiment. He asked music lovers to identify passages of songs that reliably set off a physical reaction, such as tears or goose bumps. Participants identified 20 tear-triggering passages, and when Dr. Sloboda analyzed their properties, a trend emerged: 18 contained a musical device called an "appoggiatura."

Last year, Robert Zatorre and his team of neuroscientists at McGill University reported that emotionally intense music releases dopamine in the pleasure and reward centers of the brain, similar to the effects of food, sex and drugs. This makes us feel good and motivates us to repeat the behavior.

An appoggiatura is a type of ornamental note that clashes with the melody just enough to create a dissonant sound. "This generates tension in the listener," said Martin Guhn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia who co-wrote a 2007 study on the subject. "When the notes return to the anticipated melody, the tension resolves, and it feels good."

Chills often descend on listeners at these moments of resolution. When several appoggiaturas occur next to each other in a melody, it generates a cycle of tension and release. This provokes an even stronger reaction, and that is when the tears start to flow.

"Someone Like You," which Adele wrote with Dan Wilson, is sprinkled with ornamental notes similar to appoggiaturas. In addition, during the chorus, Adele slightly modulates her pitch at the end of long notes right before the accompaniment goes to a new harmony, creating mini-roller coasters of tension and resolution, said Dr. Guhn.
To learn more about the formula for a tear-jerker, a few years ago Dr. Guhn and his colleague Marcel Zentner found musical excerpts—from Mendelssohn's "Trio for Piano" and Barber's "Adagio for Strings," for example—that reliably produce the chills and then measured the physiological reactions (heart rate, sweating, goose bumps) of listeners.

Chill-provoking passages, they found, shared at least four features. They began softly and then suddenly became loud. They included an abrupt entrance of a new "voice," either a new instrument or harmony. And they often involved an expansion of the frequencies played. In one passage from Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 (K. 488), for instance, the violins jump up one octave to echo the melody. Finally, all the passages contained unexpected deviations in the melody or the harmony. Music is most likely to tingle the spine, in short, when it includes surprises in volume, timbre and harmonic pattern.

"Someone Like You" is a textbook example. "The song begins with a soft, repetitive pattern," said Dr. Guhn, while Adele keeps the notes within a narrow frequency range. The lyrics are wistful but restrained: "I heard that you're settled down, that you found a girl and you're married now." This all sets up a sentimental and melancholy mood.

When the chorus enters, Adele's voice jumps up an octave, and she belts out notes with increasing volume. The harmony shifts, and the lyrics become more dramatic: "Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead."

Adele, the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter performed "Rolling In The Deep" from her latest album "21" at WSJ Cafe

When the music suddenly breaks from its expected pattern, our sympathetic nervous system goes on high alert; our hearts race and we start to sweat. Depending on the context, we interpret this state of arousal as positive or negative, happy or sad.


If "Someone Like You" produces such intense sadness in listeners, why is it so popular? Last year, Robert Zatorre and his team of neuroscientists at McGill University reported that emotionally intense music releases dopamine in the pleasure and reward centers of the brain, similar to the effects of food, sex and drugs. This makes us feel good and motivates us to repeat the behavior.

Measuring listeners' responses, Dr. Zatorre's team found that the number of goose bumps observed correlated with the amount of dopamine released, even when the music was extremely sad. The results suggest that the more emotions a song provokes—whether depressing or uplifting—the more we crave the song.


With "Someone Like You," Adele and Mr. Wilson not only crafted a perfect tear-jerker but also stumbled upon a formula for commercial success: Unleash the tears and chills with small surprises, a smoky voice and soulful lyrics, and then sit back and let the dopamine keep us coming back for more.
—Ms. Doucleff is a scientific editor at the journal Cell.

Link: Anathomy of a Tear-jerker

Moral principles - Immanual Kant

Well put on the right moral principles by Professor Sandels at Harvard University.

Links:
Harvard: http://www.justiceharvard.org/
YouTube1: http://forum-network.org/lecture/mind-your-motive-supreme-principle-morality
YouTube2: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL06767B5721CF031B

1: http://www.axess.se/Tv/webbtv.aspx?id=2757 (Mind your motive or Moralens överläge)
2: http://axess.se/tv/player.aspx?id=2773