Some local scientists, using new computer dating methods (no, not that kind!), claim to have tracked links back more than 300 years between HIV, and a similar virus found in chimpanzees.
Pooh is obsessive-compulsive, Eeyore is chronically depressed, Piglet needs medication, Roo is a juvenile delinquent in-the-making, and Christopher Robin has gender issues. That's what Canadian doctors are saying anyway.
Go to bed early tonight.
Mice can feel each other’s pain. That puts animal testing under another light.
Men and women think differently. But not that differently.
The American science teachers’ association has refused free copies of the film An inconvenient truth for classroom viewing as it may conflict with some of their financial supporters. One of them being Exxon.
update : and a well-deserved worst person in the world award.
An interesting article that goes some way into explaining why people don't change even when faced with overwhelming evidence they're heading at full speed towards an unstable if not deadly future.
An interesting article that goes some way into explaining why people don’t change even when faced with overwhelming evidence they’re heading at full speed towards an unstable if not deadly future.
The formula for procrastination: E x V/ÃD
Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by an Exxon-funded lobby group to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.
Beware of female van drivers at the supermarket checkout.
Thought-provoking profile of James Lovelock and his definitely funereal outlook for the planet.
The brain appears to make up its mind 10 seconds before we become conscious of a decision.
Patternicity: finding meaningful patterns in meaningless noise
Scientific study shows that when battles are waged over values and ideologies, you can’t bribe or reason your way to peace.
In the Muslim world, creationism is on the rise.
Junk food may be addictive in the same way as heroin or cocaine. Laboratory rats will endure painful electric shocks to satisfy their craving for high-calorie snacks.
Junk food may be addictive in the same way as heroin or cocaine. Laboratory rats will endure painful electric shocks to satisfy their craving for high-calorie snacks.
The brains of shy or introverted individuals might actually process the world differently than their more extroverted counterparts.
This is a news website article about a scientific paper.
How To Live Forever! Or Why Habits Are A Curse.
Much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong.
Why don't we get cancer every day?
Ben Goldacre: Battling Bad Science.
Collaboration, rather than sparking creativity, results in group-think and mediocrity.
On the plus side: you can enjoy books over and over again.
Mainstream media continues down the clickbait-laden path of laziness.
“Cremated remains are typically bone fragments and casket ash. Remember, we’re 75 percent water”.
Taking photos of an event rather than being immersed in it has been shown to lead to poorer recall of the actual event – we get distracted in the process.
A study finds that people generally return lost wallets when found. The rate even goes up if the amount inside is higher. Curiously, not in the Vatican.
A world of knowledge without understanding becomes a world without discernible cause and effect, in which we grow dependent on our digital concierges to tell us what to do and when.
We should be cautious about our over-reliance on "AI" that solve problems without us understanding how they reached their conclusions. There's a risk of ever-increasing intellectual debt.
I recently watched a BBC interview with Extinction Rebellion's co-founder Roger Hallam where he mentions six billion people could die from starvation and war before the end of the century.
My future outlook as far as the coming climate emergency is downright bleak and even I was a bit surprised at the numbers he was throwing out. Well, it turns out there are scientists out there who believe exactly that.
Interesting study showing that the simple presence within eyesight of your phone reduces your brain's available cognitive capacity.
I've been surprised at how little the possibility of Covid-19 aerosol transmission features in official rules or discussion despite more and more published proof. I can't tell if they know something I don't, they're deliberately ignoring the data because it would mean painfully strict rules or they simply aren't aware.
Whatever the case, Kottke points to what seems to be a clear case of aerosol transmission in a spinning studio where all official hygiene and distancing rules were followed.
Great visual explanation of Covid-19 aerosol transmission pathways and the importance of protection and ventilation.
In other words, in a process that even Dr. Barrett admits “defies common sense,” you’re almost always acting on the predictions that your brain is making about what’s going to happen next, not reacting to experience as it unfolds.
It turns out our brains predict more often than they react. I just ordered the book referenced in the article to dig deeper.
A quite technical but fascinating look into how the BioNTech/Pfizer mRNA vaccine is built and works.
An interesting history of palm oil and its presence in an obnoxious amount of processed products, not just food.
Campaigners tend to be more hostile towards palm oil than towards other tropical products such as cocoa and soy which also pose threats to ecosystems. He suggests that this hostility comes down to the fact that ‘palm oil is perceived as being in things, rather than a thing in its own right.’
I always hated the taste of truffles, or so I thought. It turns out nearly everything sold out there as containing truffles or truffle oil is just some cheap petroleum-derived product. And that includes in many higher-end restaurants.
Real truffles are incredibly rare and expensive:
Winter white truffle, or noble white truffle, is the most expensive and prized truffle. It can be found only in late autumn and winter, no earlier than September 15, no later than the end of January. The world's most famous winter white truffles are found in Alba, Italy, and Croatian Istria is also known for them.
Depending on how well the season was, this truffle can go for thousands of euros. In the case of large, first-class white truffles, the price per kilo comes close to 10,000 euros.
Maybe one day I'll taste the real thing and maybe I'll like it. Until then I'll keep avoiding anything with truffle in its name.
The average IQ was increasing year over year until about 2010, when it started declining. One popular hypothesis is the simultaneous decline of print and the increase in short-form and video content that decreases deep thinking.
A really significant feature of books is that if you make a case in print, you have to make it logically add up. You can’t just assert things in the way you can on TikTok or on YouTube… print privileges a whole way of thinking and a whole way of processing the world that is logical, that is more rational, that is more dense information, that is more intellectually challenging.
