The Fount of Useless Information
Your place for useless information that just might possibly be interesting.
Humans didn’t breed with Neanderthals
http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/65398-humans-didnt-breed-with-neanderthals
It seems I may have spoken too soon. It seems there is a perfectly plausible explanation for the Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA in our genome: we share common ancestors.
This is how science …
The Five Fatal Flaws of Romney’s Ryan Veep Pick
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/the-five-fatal-flaws-of-romneys-ryan-veep-pick-20120812
I didn’t feel motivated to comment on this before, but figured I would slide this one in here for any of my reader(s) who might still be considering Romney as …
Is Your Car Being Tracked by a License-Plate Scanner?
The government can now track your movements when you drive and, over time, put together a profile of how you lead your life
http://ideas.time.com/2012/08/13/is-your-car-being-tracked-by-a-license-plate-scanner/?hpt=hp_t2
To a certain extent this is much …
Over the weekend I read this interesting post from Scott Adams:
My Crackpot Theory of Intelligence
http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/my_crackpot_theory_of_intelligence/
In his post Scott basically says that intelligence is the same as pattern recognition. At first it sounds rather idiotic (I think Scott …
Tangled Roots
Mingling among Stone Age peoples muddies humans’ evolutionary story
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/342924/title/Tangled_Roots
Of course, defining what a ‘species’ is is challenging to begin with. I am quite interested in human evolution and have read quite a bit on the subject …
Camera hack can spot cleaned-up crimes
Technology can help police find painted-over bloodstains
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/343007/title/Camera_hack_can_spot_cleaned-up_crimes
Fortunately, criminals, as a species, are too knuckle-headed to read things like this, so there is little worry that it will be used to hinder any …
Obama Administration Needs to Tap, Not Stiff-Arm, Wall Street Whistleblowers
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/the-obama-administration-needs-to-tap-not-stiff-arm-wall-street-whistleblowers-20120809
I am not sure why I felt the need to post this. The article is so depressing that I actually suggest my reader(s) not read it. It is all …
Could lasers solve the military’s friendly-fire problem?
http://whatsnext.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/09/could-lasers-solve-the-militarys-friendly-fire-problem/?hpt=hp_bn5
There is a similar sort of thing for aircraft and allow for identification of friend/foe (well, you be a foe if you don’t identify as friend). My biggest concern is that it …
(This title was taken from one of the comments on the article, I felt it was quite apropos.)
Did Romney enable company’s abusive tax shelter?
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/08/opinion/canellos-kleinbard-romney-taxes/index.html
In the unlikely even that I have any Romney supporters amongst my reader(s), here …
A new global warming offender: Dam drawdowns
http://www.petridishnews.com/news/a-new-global-warming-offender-dam-drawdowns/
I wonder how this changes the proportion of CO2 to methane that otherwise would have happened without the dam. The vast majority of biological material is recycled, most of it on an …