Science Etcetera Venusday, 20080425

Posted in Science Etcetera on April 25th, 2008

Joyous Arbor Day!!! Go plant a tree this weekend!

The Pod Mrcaru lizard has evolved quickly over 30 generations after being moved to a new island.

Pod Mrcaru lizard, Podarcis sicula
Image by Anthony Herrel (University of Antwerp)

NASA explains what they meant by asking people to develop their educational MMORP for free. The money allocated for the project will go elsewhere, but the developer will have the right to collect profits on the software.

Evidence that schizophrenia is caused by a virus (HT Clint).

Congress is approaching a deal on the bill to prohibit discrimination on the basis of genetics tests.

Eating two CocoaVia dark chocolate bars a day lowers cholesterol and also lowers systolic blood pressure, according to a study funded by the candy bar company Mars, Inc (explanation for how this BS result was manufactured in the article).

In a debate between science and religion, certainty comes out as the true enemy.

Richard Dawkins responds to a letter equating Darwin with Hitler from someone who saw Ben Stein’s awful film.

It didn’t take me long to figure this puzzle out (HINT: It’s not something you figure out), but I did enjoy the attractors flash game more than the commenters.

Attractors Flash Game

Adam Sternberg says we are wrecking 4 million years of evolutionary perfection by wearing shoes.

Thanks to smoking, obesity, and high blood pressure the lifespans of southern women has gone down, while most of the rest of ours has gone up.

Mountain Pine Beetles in Canada are turning forests into CO₂.

Subterranean insects use plants like telephones, injecting chemical warning signals in the roots to warn leaf-eating insects away.

Video game addiction shares traits with Asperger’s syndrom.

In honor of four-wheeling it on the Moon, check out n-wheeling it with NASA’s Lunar Chariot:

3 comments to “Science Etcetera Venusday, 20080425”

The attractors game has elements very similar to a game I recently installed called “Enigmo 2″, an addictive Mac-only puzzle game:

http://pangeasoft.net/enigmo2/info.html

“Enigmo 2 is a 3D puzzle game where you construct mechanisms to direct lasers, plasma, and water to toggle switches, deactivate force-fields, and eventually get them to their final destination.”
by Dave April 25th, 2008 at 6:36 am
What was up with that woman’s accent for the video?
by sour Swinger April 25th, 2008 at 9:40 am
Dave,

Ohhhh… Sweet preview. They gotta make a pc version of that. Not that I’d ever have the time to play it.

Sour Swinger,

Wow. I didn’t notice that. She does have a bit of a Barbara Walters thing going on there. “Hewwo, I’m Baba Wawa. Tonight I’ww be intevewing…”
by ideonexus April 29th, 2008 at 10:21 pm