The Fount of Useless Information
Your place for useless information that just might possibly be interesting.
Longevity Traced to Grandmothers
http://www.voanews.com/content/grandmothers-longevity-24oct12/1532183.html
I talked a bit before about group evolution and that post-child-bearing adults are valuable to families. The grandmother hypothesis is a variation on the same theme. Looking over the wiki page it seems to …
A Simple Fix for Farming
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/a-simple-fix-for-food/
I read many years ago about a rancher in the mid west that decided to forgo the hugely expensive and time consuming effort of clearing shrubs and bushes, killing ‘invasive’ browsers (like antelope) and …
WHITE WHALE spent 4 years trying to tell us something, then stopped
Startled diver ‘given orders in English,’ say boffins
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/23/whale_speaks_english/
I have always felt that whales and dolphins are (at least) as smart as us and wanted to be …
Latest in mortgage fraud: Flopping
http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/23/real_estate/mortgage-fraud-flopping/index.html?source=cnn_bin
I had heard a bit about this before but didn’t realize it had been dignified with a name. The main issue I see here is that the IRS has the capability (that I believe …
Scientists aghast after colleagues convicted of manslaughter over Italy quake
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/23/world/europe/italy-quake-scientists-guilty/index.html
This is what happens when ignorant people choose ignorance yet wind up in positions of power. The parallels here in the US are impossible to miss!…
Is sitting bad for you?
On your feet! Evidence suggests that long hours in office chairs or sitting watching TV will shorten your life
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/oct/21/is-sitting-bad-for-you
See! It isn’t my fault that I am a fat ass! It is my job’s …
Amazon wipes customer’s Kindle and deletes account with no explanation
Kindle user had her account deleted because it had ties to ‘previous abuses of company policy’, but the online retailer blanked all follow-up enquiries
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/oct/22/amazon-wipes-customers-kindle-deletes-account
This really underscores my objection …
Thomas Quick: the Swedish serial killer who never was
It reads like a real-life Scandinavian crime novel. In the 1990s, Thomas Quick confessed to more than 30 murders, making him Sweden’s most notorious serial killer. Then, he changed his name …
Science News has some interesting articles today, several have a theme (to me, anyway) so I am going to discuss them together. I have long predicted that I was young enough to be able to take advantage of what I …
Elevated carbon dioxide may impair reasoning
Insufficient ventilation allows exhaled gas to build up indoors, diminishing decision-making abilities
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/345791/title/Elevated_carbon_dioxide_may_impair_reasoning
This is really quite amazing to me. It makes me want to get a CO2 monitor and check things out. Even …