Humdinged

Some Hummer lovers ignore rising fuel costs: "Maybe mega-SUVs are going the way of dinosaurs. Hummer sales have dropped 40% this year. But these beasts and the men and women who love them certainly don't behave like endangered species." (USA Today)

Oh, evolve

Where Is Human Evolution Heading?
The race's DNA is changing faster than ever; what it means for our descendants

"Until recently, anthropologists thought that human evolution had slowed down. But last December, Hawks reported that it has actually accelerated 100-fold in the past 5,000 to 10,000 years. He figured that out by comparing chunks of DNA among 269 people from around the world." (U.S. News & World Report)

Another distraction for you

Stoooopid .... why the Google generation isn’t as smart as it thinks: The digital age is destroying us by ruining our ability to concentrate.

"We’re all distracted, we’re all interrupted. How foolish we are! But, listen carefully, it’s killing me and it’s killing you." (timesonline)

(I tried to read the whole thing, but got distracted before I could finish.)

GraphJam...

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There's lots more at GraphJam...

The End of Theory

The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete:

Interesting article about how computing is changing science. Example:

"Enabled by high-speed sequencers and supercomputers that statistically analyze the data they produce, [J. Craig] Venter went from sequencing individual organisms to sequencing entire ecosystems. In 2003, he started sequencing much of the ocean, retracing the voyage of Captain Cook. And in 2005 he started sequencing the air. In the process, he discovered thousands of previously unknown species of bacteria and other life-forms."

"If the words 'discover a new species' call to mind Darwin and drawings of finches, you may be stuck in the old way of doing science. Venter can tell you almost nothing about the species he found. He doesn't know what they look like, how they live, or much of anything else about their morphology. He doesn't even have their entire genome. All he has is a statistical blip -- a unique sequence that, being unlike any other sequence in the database, must represent a new species." (wired.com)

So take THAT.

Writing Section Is SAT's Most Predictive, Researchers at U. of Georgia Find

http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/07/3707n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Great apes will have some rights in Spain

A resolution in support of the Great Ape Project has been passed by the Spanish parliament's environmental committee and is expected to become law. The law would give some basic rights, such as life and liberty, to great apes (chimps, orangs, gorillas).

This may be mostly a symbolic gesture, since Spain doesn't have a natural great ape population and isn't known to conduct any research on great apes. But it would be the first time a major government has given these rights to nonhuman animals.

The Great Flood (of denial)

I've been having a good time reading a Powerpoint presentation on How Creationists Explain Evolution. Por ejemplo, did you know that the earth used to be surrounded by a giant water canopy? And fossilization can happen instantly! (Navigation buttons for slides are in right-hand corner just above the first slide.)

The Dangers of Auto-Replace

Or, How "The Gay Nineties" can turn into "The Homosexual Nineties."

And hilarity ensues:

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2008/06/the_dangers_of_1.html

Link roundup

• Want to know if waterboarding is torture? Ask Christopher Hitchens (Guardian.co.uk)


• Meteors Rock (pics, Time.com)


• Are You Suffering from Hidden Talents? (Popular Science, March 1950)

Link roundup

Back from vacation, and the fun continues:

• Gene Editing Could Make Anyone Immune to AIDS: "The strategy is much akin to cutting your hair before a wrestling match: It gives your opponent one less thing to grab onto." (wired)


• Designer Baby Free From Breast Cancer Gene (truemors)


• "F Off" Scores Two Points on English Exam (truemors)