Bears have been killed for their gall bladders, which have a large amount bile (ursodeoxycholic acid or ursodiol). The acid is useful in some medical treatments:
1. Ursodiol decreases the amount of cholesterol in bile and bile stones by reducing the amount of cholesterol the liver produces.
2. Ursodiol is used to treat small, noncalcified gallbladder stones.
Although the bile has the useful applications, it is sad to see that the bears are killed or farmed in a non-humane way for their bladders.
Monday, January 30, 2006
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Words of Wisdom
Free will is exercised unconsciously
By observing another person’s brain activity, one can predict what someone is going to do before to do before he is aware that he has made the decision to do it.
This finding has caused – philosophers to ask: if the choice is determined in the brain unconsciously before we decide to act, where is free will?
Are these choices predetermined? Is our experience of freely willing our actions an illusion, a rationalization after the fact? Is one to be held responsible for decisions that made without conscious awareness?
By Eric Kandel, Columbia University
By observing another person’s brain activity, one can predict what someone is going to do before to do before he is aware that he has made the decision to do it.
This finding has caused – philosophers to ask: if the choice is determined in the brain unconsciously before we decide to act, where is free will?
Are these choices predetermined? Is our experience of freely willing our actions an illusion, a rationalization after the fact? Is one to be held responsible for decisions that made without conscious awareness?
By Eric Kandel, Columbia University
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Disappearing Profession

Monday, January 23, 2006
Deer Park


Sunday, January 22, 2006
Words of Wisdom
When most people think of stalkers, rapists, and murderers, they imagine crazed, drooling monsters with maniacal Charles Manson-like eyes. The calm, normal-looking staring back at you from the bathroom mirror reflects a truer representation.
The danger comes from people who refuse to recognize that there are dark sides of human nature that cannot be wished away by attributing them to the modern ills of culture, poverty, pathology or exposure to media violence.
The danger comes from falling to gaze into the mirror and come to grips with the capacity for evil in all of us.
By David Buss, Psychologyist, University of Texas.
Source: Daily Telegraph, Jan 3, 2006
The danger comes from people who refuse to recognize that there are dark sides of human nature that cannot be wished away by attributing them to the modern ills of culture, poverty, pathology or exposure to media violence.
The danger comes from falling to gaze into the mirror and come to grips with the capacity for evil in all of us.
By David Buss, Psychologyist, University of Texas.
Source: Daily Telegraph, Jan 3, 2006
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Monday, January 16, 2006
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Memoirs of a Geisha

Wednesday, January 11, 2006
法隆寺寶物館

Tuesday, January 10, 2006
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