Justin Bieber's 'As Long As You Love Me' Video: Growing Up Is Hard To Do

Bieber dives headlong into adulthood — and takes a beating from Michael Madsen — in his brand-new video.
By James Montgomery


Justin Bieber in his "As Long As You Love Me" music video
Photo: Island/ Def Jam

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1690963/justin-bieber-as-long-as-you-love-me-music-video-premiere.jhtml

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Choose The Roof Slope

If you would like to see roof slope, it is not as tough as you will suppose. In fact, it?s quite easy and may be drained a really short quantity of your time with minimal inconvenience. this can be not a project that ought to be intimidating, even supposing home improvement work will generally be stressful. The slope of a roof is measured because the length that a roof rises vertically over a 12? horizontal distance. you?ll try this job yourself, raise an addict to assist or decision a roofing skilled if you?re not snug doing the work yourself.
Determine Roof Slope, however Maintain Ladder Safety

To determine roof slope, place a ladder at the aspect of your house in order that you will simply access the down slope fringe of the roof. At now, you ought to be in line with the roof?s peak, which suggests the roof ought to slope up from left to right or from right to left, however not off from you. Before you start, check that that your ladder is secured. you?ll got to use each hands to see roof slope and can not need to be distracted by a shaky ladder. this may be bothersome, however additionally terribly dangerous. When engaged on a ladder, check that that it?s perfectly safe. If you have got bother with heights and don?t would like to climb the ladder yourself, raise an addict to assist or decision a roofing skilled.

How To confirm Roof Slope Accurately

Now that you are able to start, it is important to grasp that you simply won?t got to be on the roof to try to to this, that is good as a result of walking directly on the roof are often dangerous. Begin by holding a framing sq. onto the roofline whereas ensuring that the long finish of the ?L? is pointing toward the roof?s center and also the short finish is pointing down toward the bottom. The long finish of the framing sq. ought to meet the sting of the roof at the 12? line. Level the sq. horizontally and browse the measurement on the short finish.

To determine roof slope, bear in mind that rise is that the measurement on the vertical leg whereas run is that the 12? measurement on the horizontal line. If you?re employing a framing sq., keep in mind that some have measurements on each edges. If that?s the case together with your framing sq., consult the measurements on the within edges for an correct variety. bear in mind that, if your roof rises eight inches vertically for each twelve inches horizontally, then you?ll confirm roof slope to be at 8/12.

A Few choices

If you are doing not have a framing sq. to live roof slope, a ruler or tape live also will work as a result of the slope is measured based mostly on a 12? horizontal distance. If you?re employing a tape live, search for one that incorporates a push lock. this may facilitate avoid unnecessary issues with constantly having to drag the tape live back out to double check the slope measurements.

Source: http://thandesign.com/choose-the-roof-slope.html

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Miami ? Serious Fun | KOAPS

Located in Florida, Miami an island city is a hot tourist destination. Beaches and party go together when visitors hit Miami. Mostly visitors come here with one agenda ? to have some serious fun. This vibe is reflected everywhere in the city.

After numerous gentrification?s this swampland emerged as a world-class holiday spot. There are many international and renowned resorts that house some of the most prosperous celebrities from around the world. Miami is a modern city with a thriving and dynamic theme.

For many visitors night is the beginning. Lined with many bars and world-class nightclubs people enjoy till wee hours of the day. Music is great and lively. The city offers glorious unending fun for the nocturnal. There are many dual restaurants that turn into clubs at night and serve food during daytime.

Miami has many green areas. Beaches are exotic and offer myriad of activities for water sports lovers. Kayaking, scuba diving, swimming, jet skiing, snorkeling, surfing or simply getting tanned is some of the activities visitors indulge in.

The city has a fabulous landscape. Denizens are friendly and polite, mostly Spanish. Apart from great outdoors Miami also has magnificent museums, gardens and recreational parks. There are many cultural events and carnivals that add to the charm of Miami.

Shopping is also a favorite pass time for the visitors. There are many street side shops which sell clothes, hats, beads, bags and other accessories. The city has its share of upscale malls too.

Miami has many creative chefs who blend different flavors and create unique dishes. You can find dishes of Cuban, Italian, Spanish, Asian and other international origins. For sea food lovers Miami is a paradise. CJ?s Crab Shack offers exotic crabs and oysters dipped in local ingredients. Balans offers awesome lambs and sea food delicacies.

Visitors can down great tapas and fritters at Xixon. This place also serves great sandwiches which are ideal for picnickers. El Carajo also serves local delights dipped in olive oil. The dishes are simple but taste awesome.

Table 8 has celebrity chefs that offer dishes that are amazingly delicious. It offers delicacies which are popular and much appreciated. Tap Tap offers fusion cuisine. The d?cor is Haitian and food is a smashing hit. There are many places to indulge in other exotic flavors like Japanese, Caribbean and Italian.

Cultural events also attract visitors. The Miami Fashion week, Carnivals, music festivals, wine and food festival and fabulous cruises all make this a wow place to be in. Enjoy the gorgeous white sand beaches and cool cobalt blue waters.? Miami is a dream city yet so real.

Getting cheap tickets to Miami is no longer a hassle as all airlines carry great discounted packages to promote tourism in this city. International airlines like Jet Airways, British Airways, Air France, US Airways offered flights to Miami International Airport regularly. One can book cheap airline tickets online after comparing the fares and get the best deals.

Source: http://www.koaps.org/miami-serious-fun/

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Slow cooker apricot oatmeal while-you-sleep

Healthy, hearty and good!

Steel cut oats are a great source of protein, fiber and vitamins and minerals, and let's not forget that they taste terrific! Cooking steel cut oats on the stovetop takes some time, so why not make them while you sleep?

Check out the 10 power foods you should have in your kitchen >>

A slow cooker is the perfect appliance to assist you with breakfast. Mix all the ingredients for this recipe together, head to bed and in the morning you'll have a healthy, hearty breakfast awaiting you.

Slow cooker apricot oatmeal while-you-sleep

Serves 4

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup steel cut oats
  • 1/2 cup dried apricots, diced
  • 3-1/2 cups water
  • 1 cup half-and-half
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • Nonstick cooking spray

Directions:

  1. Lightly spray the inside of the slow cooker with the nonstick cooking spray.
  2. In a medium-sized bowl, combine all the ingredients and mix well. Add the mixture to your slow cooker.
  3. Cook on low seven hours.
  4. Stir and serve in individual bowls.

Start your day off right with a tasty, healthy and filling breakfast!

More slow cooker recipes to try

Low-carb slow cooker recipes
Slow cooker curry pork roast with cherry orange sauce
Slow cooker game day recipes

Source: http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/966675/slow-cooker-apricot-oatmeal-while-you-sleep

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Speak, so they want to listen! - Kiwi Families

Almost every day parents write to FamilyLab and say: ?My children never listen to what I say!? What they sometimes mean is that the children do not obey them or do not follow their instructions. Perhaps they might also be saying that they feel they are not being heard or listened to. Experience tells us that the reason for this always is the same: What parents say is hardly worth listening to.

Don?t feel insulted! There is nothing wrong with what we actually say. Most of the time it is both reasonable and worthwhile. The problems are something different.

One problem is: Contact. Many of us assume that we connect with our children just because they are within earshot. This, of course, is not always the case. Their minds are full of things and their attention might be somewhere completely different or they are deeply focused on what they are doing right there and then. Children learn more in a day than most university students do in a week ? yet we expect to get their full attention whenever we want it. It might be a good idea to knock on the door before delivering the message. A friendly: ?Hello, Peter? Hello?? Get eye contact and notice when he is present. As a rule of thumb, this will take between four and seven seconds. When they are ready we might say: ?Hi, I would like to tell you something. Are you ready to listen to me?? More often than not they will say: ?Yes!? If they are not ready, it is a good idea to show patience and say: ?Alright, I?ll wait.?

There are parents who do not agree with this. It is definitely confronting and might challenge a perceived belief that we as parents have some kind of ownership over our children?s minds and therefore have a given right to instant access. Nevertheless, we do not expect to have that kind of access to other adults? minds. It is worthwhile treating children with the same dignity. It enables them to model exemplary behavior which will, without doubt, benefit everyone in the long run.

The other problem is: Voice. Ironically, this problem occurs when we use ?child friendly language? and overstate the very sweet tone. Grandparents used to be the only ones to increase their pitch a few notches but now it has become widespread. It is as if we speak two languages; one for adults and one for children. All we need to do is use is a warm, trustworthy and respectful voice. Friendliness simply requires that our voice and body language communicate: ?I have positive expectations of our relationship and co-operation, and I shall make sure that there is room for both of us.

?I would like you to play with something, which isn?t so noisy.?

?I don?t want you to bite me, but I would like to know what made you angry??

?I would like you to go to bed soon.?

Listen, so they want to speak

Even when we make contact and use the right tone of voice our children might not do what we want them to. That is when negotiations begin. Through this genuine style of conversation they will learn how to challenge us and discuss things with us ? and any other adults for that matter.

But is it necessary to negotiate everything? No, not at all. As parents we hold the power ? the power to take the child seriously as well as the power to make the right decisions ? even though the child might not be able to recognise it. Not surprisingly, our children might become frustrated but that is all right. We need to keep the negotiation brief, make up our minds and carry the decisions through. This will cause frustration as well as comfort. There is nothing wrong with that. We will fail our leadership responsibilities when we become too flexible and incapable of making a decision. We will let our children down if we only act when there is consensus or alternatively criticise them for being dissatisfied and ungrateful with what happens.

Some battles are worth fighting, others are not. It might be the case that the desires and wishes of both are equally important and valid. Then parenting becomes really difficult. Fortunately, help is near because there is nothing our children would rather do than make us happy and from this they learn that they are valued. Ask for their help: ?I don?t know what to do. I understand that you would like a day off from child care but I have to go to work. Can you help me??

This is not the same as leaving the decision up to the child. It is, however, a way of including them in the decision making process. They might not come up with a solution but one thing is certain, the conflict will be scaled down simply because they know they are listened to and taken seriously.

A healthy family is one where everyone has a right to express their wishes, their dreams and their needs ? and is free to do so. Slowly but surely they will learn that this right does not necessarily mean they get everything they want.

As parents we must not fear conflicts or frustrations. Instead we ought to worry about apathy and silence.

Source: http://www.kiwifamilies.co.nz/2012/08/speak-so-they-want-to-listen/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=speak-so-they-want-to-listen

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Carly Rae Jepsen Expects Justin Bieber Tour To Be A 'Whoa Moment'

'I don't know what to expect,' she tells MTV News about the world tour kicking off in September.
By Jocelyn Vena

<P>With only a couple short months until Carly Rae Jepsen hits the road with her pal Justin Bieber, the singer is warming up with some summer tour dates. But, the scope of these shows is miniscule compared to playing to an arena filled with Beliebers.</P><P>"I don't know what to expect," she told MTV News earlier this month before she took the stage in Chicago for the Pop-Tarts Crazy Good Summer Concert. While it gave pop-music lovers a taste of what the "Call Me Maybe" singer can do in concert, it didn't look anything like the highly anticipated, sure-to-be-massive <i>Believe</i> tour kicking off in September.</P><P></p><div class="player-placeholder right" title="Is Carly Rae Jepsen Prepared To Hit The Road With Justin Bieber?" id="vid:820624" width="415" height="255"></div><p></P><P>However, Jepsen isn't going into the experience completely blind. She did get an idea of what the tour will feel like when she played with Bieber abroad earlier this year. She added, "I did one or two shows with Justin. One in London and one in Mexico City, and all I can say is, like, 'Wow.' They were huge &#8212 300,000 people in Mexico City. I was speechless."</P><P>Given just how overwhelming it can be to play in front of that many people, it's just one of the many things about 2012 that has left the singer floored.</P><P>"[How do you] take it in? I don't know that I totally do," she said. "I think that like in 10 years' time I'm gonna sit back and look at everything that's happening to me this year and actually have a 'whoa' kind of a moment. Right now everything's so fast and the pace of it so quick that I'm just kind of keeping my head to the ground and trying to do the best at getting through it."</P><P>In addition to hitting the road with Bieber, the singers will both appear on her debut album, also dropping in September. So, what should fans expect from that collaboration? "The Justin song, I'm kind of sworn to secrecy on because I think we want to release it together at one moment," Jepsen said. "But the rest of the album, I'm really excited for."</P><P><i>Are you going to see Carly Rae Jepsen and Justin Bieber on tour? Leave your comment below!</i></P><P></p><div class="player-placeholder right" title="Wardrobe Tips From Carly Rae Jepsen (2012)" id="vid:817128" width="415" height="255"></div><p></p>

Related Artists

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1690792/carly-rae-jepsen-justin-bieber-tour.jhtml

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Has an iPhone 5 been smuggled out of the factory?

Is this the iPhone 5?

Chinese case manufacturer Cool Zone PDA has reportedly taken photos of an iPhone 5 smuggled out of the Foxconn factory in China.

It's hard to tell much from the grainy, heavily watermarked images, but it's instantly obvious that if this is the real iPhone 5, rumours of it getting a newer, smaller dock connector have proved to be true.

The headphone jack appears to have gone south and is now on the bottom, while the rumoured 4in screen also appears to be present and accounted for, although it's hard to gauge the exact size from the photos.

So then, is this another iPhone 5 fake? After all, this could just be a case manufacturers interpretive mockup of what it thinks the iPhone 5 will look like in preparation fro its arrival.

Either way, you won't need us to give you our usual trusty 'pinch of salt' advice. You'll be well aware of that rule already we're sure.

Check out our iPhone 5 rumour roundup for the latest speculation and news and stay tuned for more info, as and when we get it.

[CoolZonePDA via Gizmodo]

Source: http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/310194,has-an-iphone-5-been-smuggled-out-of-the-factory.aspx?utm_source=feed&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=PC+&+Tech+Authority++-+Latest+Articles

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Flaring black holes may solve cosmic ray puzzle

WHERE do ultra high-energy cosmic rays come from? These charged particles zoom to Earth from outer space, but why is a mystery. Now a possible source - gamma-ray bursts, which seemed to have been ruled out - have received a new lease of life.

Gamma-ray bursts are usually created by exploding stars, which produce neutrinos. So last April, when the IceCube neutrino detector in Antarctica saw no neutrinos accompanying high-energy cosmic rays, astronomers favoured galaxies with active supermassive black holes at their cores as the source of the rays.

But a more recent study found that only one galaxy was powerful enough to have produced cosmic rays with such high energies. The rest appear to come from galaxies that seem too weak.

This posed a "perplexing problem", says Glennys Farrar of New York University, one of the study authors. Then they found a clue: gamma-ray burst GRB110328A, which happened in March 2011. Its afterglow persisted for over a week, instead of a few hours like normal ones. The culprit was most likely a star falling into a galaxy's central black hole. This would make a weak black hole flare up, producing a burst of gamma rays that in turn spits out cosmic rays, suggests Farrar (arxiv.org/abs/1207.3186v1).

The trouble is testing the hypothesis. Gamma rays travel at the speed of light, so would arrive millennia ahead of any cosmic rays. Farrar hopes to strengthen the idea by matching more cosmic ray emissions with weak active galaxies.

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

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Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/21d2116c/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Carticle0Cmg215287550B80A0A0Eflaring0Eblack0Eholes0Emay0Esolve0Ecosmic0Eray0Epuzzle0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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Plustek MobileOffice D430

The Plustek MobileOffice D430 is a portable sheetfed scanner that can simultaneously scan both sides of a two-sided document, and can scan ID and other plastic cards. Users can choose between 9 preset (and customizable) scanning destinations using simple push-button controls. As it lacks an automatic document feeder (ADF), the D430 is best for scanning loose paper, one-page (including two-sided) documents, and embossed plastic cards.

At 2.3 by 11.9 by 3.7 inches (HWD) and 2.1 pounds, the D430 is on the large and heavy side for a portable scanner, but it's still small enough (and light enough,) to be reasonably portable or to serve as a light-duty desktop scanner. It comes with a power adapter and a USB cord for connecting to a computer.

It can scan plastic cards up to 1.2mm thick, including embossed cards, credit cards, driver's licenses, ID cards, and the like. Plustek sees the D430 as primarily for vertical markets such as healthcare and banking, at admissions desks, nursing stations, bank teller stations, and other situations needing a small scanner that can scan plastic cards.

Operation
By sliding a plastic panel in back of the scanner up or down, you can set the paper path, either straight-through (as you'll need when scanning plastic cards) or vertical, so the page will exit from the top. Scanning a page is a straightforward process; you insert a document into the scanner's front slot, and the scanner grabs the paper (or card) and pulls it into position. Then you toggle to the scan function of your choosing and press the scan button.

To the right of the paper slot is a single-character numeric LED, a scan button, and two function buttons that act as up and down controls for choosing between 9 preset (yet configurable) functions. They include converting text documents into searchable PDF or PDF image files; scanning images to MS Paint; scanning and saving images to file (the default is JPEG); scanning images of text documents to editable text for OCR; scanning business cards to a card-reading program; scanning directly to print; scanning to email; scanning to the DI Capture utility; and scanning to an FTP server.

Bundled software includes Twain and WIA drivers?the Twain driver lets you scan from nearly any program with a scan command?Abbyy FineReader 9.0 Sprint OCR program, HotCard Technology's BizCard Finder 3.0, Plustek DI Capture document management program, Plustek DI Express 6, and Plustek's DocAction scan utility.

Performance
Scan speeds for manual-feed scanners are of limited use, as much depends on how fast you can feed the paper into the scanner. I timed scans using FineReader at the default 300 dpi resolution and grayscale mode. For simplex scans, it averaged 13.5 seconds to scan and process a page before it would accept and scan another page, for a clip of 4.4 pages per minute (ppm). With duplex scanning, it averaged 16 seconds per page, or 7.6 images per minute (ipm), with each side of the page counting as an image. Both times are marginally slower than the Plustek MobileOffice D412 , and considerably slower than the Editors' Choice Canon imageFormula P-215 Scan-tini Personal Document Scanner ($325 direct), which averaged 6.3 ppm and 12.6 ipm in simplex and duplex scanning, respectively.

In our OCR testing using Abby FineReader ?(the one real "keeper" software program included in the bundle), the D430 did particularly well with Times Roman, reading the text perfectly at all sizes down to 5 points. With Arial, it made a single mistake at both 10 points and 8 points, but read all text cleanly at 6 points. It did a so-so job on business-card scanning; it was mistake free on a few cards, but most had at least two mistakes.

The D430 is a worthy scanner, suitable for its intended role. It's best for scanning loose paper and one- or two-sided single-page documents in addition to ID cards, as it lacks an automatic document feeder (ADF). It is a bit pricey for its capabilities. ?The Editors' Choice Canon imageFormula P-215 Scan-tini Personal Document Scanner also scans in duplex and can handle ID cards, but adds a 20-sheet automatic document feeder (ADF) to the mix. If you don't need to scan plastic cards, the Editors' Choice Canon imageFormula P-150 Scan-tini and Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300 each provide duplex scanning and an ADF.

More Scanner Reviews:

??? Plustek MobileOffice D430
??? VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand Wi-Fi PDSWF-ST44-VP
??? VuPoint Solutions Magic Wand PDS-ST415-VPS
??? Pandigital Portable Wand Scanner with Feeder Dock (PanScn09)
??? Pandigital Handheld Wand Scanner (PanScn08)
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/jDwMtqK2VHY/0,2817,2407703,00.asp

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Making Science Public ? Metaphors in science and society

July 29, 2012, by Brigitte Nerlich

Metaphors in science and society

I recently had an interesting twitter conversation with Alex Brown (@alex_brovvn), Peter Broks (@peterbroks), Bev Gibbs (@bevgibbs), Angela Cassidy (@ange_cass) and Sophia Collins (@sophiacol) about metaphors for the spread of knowledge and for science communication. I also read two interesting blog posts related to that conversation, one by Peter Broks and one by Alex Brown.

In this blog post I want to explore another metaphor for metaphor (and science communication), but also provide some historical insights into the study of metaphor and how it structures our thinking and acting (about science and society).

Metaphors as the mind?s eyes

The German philosopher Hans Vaihinger wrote a century and a half ago in his book The Philosophy of As if: ?All cognition is the perception of one thing through another.? And one should add: All perception is the cognition of one thing through another. As James Gleick pointed out in his 1987 book Chaos: Making a New Science, echoing others before him: ?You don?t see something until you have the right metaphor to let you perceive it.?

Metaphors are based on the (mental) perception of one thing through another, of seeing something as something (else). They enable us to establish bridges between the known and the unknown, the familiar and the unfamiliar, the unimaginable and the imaginable, for example between computers and viruses; genes and computers; clocks and universes, humans and machines?. This means that metaphors enable us to see the world and think the world. Metaphors are the mind?s eyes. They are also the mind?s tools to create the world we live in. They have not only perceptual and cognitive, but also performative and political force, as they commit those who create and use them to accepting a system of standard beliefs or commonplaces associated with them, as Max Black pointed out in 1962. The visions of the world that we create through metaphors make us act on the world in the way we see it or want to see it or, indeed, may also prevent us from acting in or on the world (despite factual evidence that we should do so). What is perceived as real or not real is real in its consequences. Such metaphorical frameworks can enhance scientific discovery, can be useful in the context of science communication but can also hinder the interaction between science and policy.

Gertrude Buck on metaphor

The theory of metaphor as pervasive to cognition and social action is an old one and was not created in the 1980s by cognitive linguists like George Lakoff, as is so often assumed. One of the many thinkers to discuss the topic of metaphor from a ?modern? perspective was a 19th-century psychologist, Gertrude Buck. In her doctoral dissertation of 1897 she pointed out that a child calling a bird?s nest a house uses metaphor just as much as Newton might have done when calling the universe a clockwork. They both use metaphors to express the inexpressible. One might say, metaphorically, that they both use metaphors as ladders to access new conceptual spaces, ladders that can later be thrown away, once the child learns about birds and what is conventionally called their nests, or once physicists learn that the universe is ? perhaps a membrane (but actually, what the universe is still lies beyond our grasp and metaphors are the only thing we have to ?knock on heaven?s door?, to steal a book title from Lisa Randall).

Metaphors as ladders

Metaphors relate to learning and learning depends on metaphor. And this is a life-long process. Buck asked: ?Is it not possible that the same psychological process of growing differentiation in perception may lie at the root of both phenomena??, that is, the na?ve use of metaphor by the child and the more creative or poetic one by, say, Newton. There is however, a difference between this instinctive use of metaphor and the one hand and the more creative, poetic and, in some instances, political use of metaphor on the other. According to Buck, poetic metaphor is: ?a straightforward attempt to communicate to another person the maker?s vision of an object as it appeared to him at the moment of expression ? the writer is simply taking a snap-shot at his own process of perception in one of its intermediate stages?.

Poetic metaphor is, I propose, a ladder into a certain person?s or social group?s conceptual universe or space and makes us partake of their vision of the world (or not). Buck argues that ?the force brought by metaphor to bear upon the reader?s mind is considerably greater than that put forth by plain statement. While the latter avails only to propel the reader?s thought along an accustomed and preferred channel, metaphor forces it to fall in with that of the writer, to trace the writer?s branching idea back to its source and then to follow its ramifications beyond the point of actual expression, to traverse a road that may be wholly new, a country hitherto unseen? (ibid.). And this can have social and political consequences, as cognitive scientists have recently (re)discovered.

Metaphors, ladders and science (and scientists)

Metaphors as ladders leading into new conceptual spaces or ?countries hitherto unseen?, used by children, scientists, or indeed anybody, can help us explore now spaces but they can also fail. Some are good ladders and some are faulty ladders. One has to test out which ones work and which ones don?t. Sometimes we may be afraid to test new metaphors or abandon old ones as we may be inhibited by social norms or political circumstances. Sometimes there is just cognitive laziness involved. Some ladders can become so popular (conventional) and stable (such the genome as the ?book of life?) that nobody even sees them anymore and that can be dangerous too. And finally, some ladders may intentionally be placed to mis-lead. Being aware of and alert to the power of metaphor and how it shapes perception, cognition and action is therefore as important when doing science as it is when engaging society with science.

For many people ?science? and also ?scientists? are still a new ?country hitherto unseen?. That is why so many stereotypes of science and scientists continue to permeate people?s perception and understanding (the mad hair, the white coat, the alchemical paraphernalia, the manic German accent, etc.). Some metaphorical framings of science and scientists seem to be amongst the most stable (and faulty) metaphorical ladders there are. Whenever a new scientific breakthrough is announced, especially in the biosciences, various narratives, myths and clich?s are used to metaphorically frame them and the scientists that help to achieve them. So scientists invariable ?play God?, or ?Prometheus? or ?Frankenstein?, ?open Pandora?s box?, create a ?brave new world? and so on. These hubristic, religious and quasi-religious framings obscure the way scientists really work but are almost inevitable when reporting on scientific breakthroughs. And, of course, it is also possible to reclaim metaphors, such as playing God, for science communication as Adam Rutherford has done a few days ago.

There are many issues that need further thought. At what point are such ladders finally thrown away? What determines their stability and use? What are the social and political consequences of their use or misuse? These are all questions that social scientists and metaphor analysts try to answer, especially with relation to various scientific controversies such as GM, synthetic biology and climate change for example.

And finally: My metaphor of metaphors as ladders may not be dynamic enough to capture interactions between science and society, thinking and acting. And so, as Ludwig Wittengestein might have said: You are invited to throw away the ladder, after you have climbed up on it (Tractatus, 6.54)!

Image: Metaphor enthusiast (me) on ladder in Bandelier National Monument

Source: http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/makingsciencepublic/2012/07/29/metaphors-in-science-and-society/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=metaphors-in-science-and-society

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