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Science Etcetera, Venusday 20080627

June 27th, 2008
  • Fossil of the most primitive four-legged animal yet found (HT Carolyn).

    • Ventastega

    Ventastega
    Credit: Philip Renne and Per Ahlberg
  • Yesterday I linked to a Wired article declaring the death of the scientific method, arguing we no longer need to know why things work so long as our algorithms do the job, this rebuttal calls out the article for ignoring the fact that, without the why, we would not have the algorithms in the first place, and who doesn’t want to know the why anyway?
  • A portable device that delivers magnetic pulses has been found effective at zapping away migraines before they start.
  • The Carl Sagan Center perpetually quests for signs of life in the Universe.
  • On average for people age 62 one in 10 has had a stroke but does not know it.
  • Take a crowd of people and have them guess how many jelly beans are in a jar, and the average of their answers will be remarkably accurate, and the same goes for asking one person to make a guess about the same thing several times over several weeks.
  • Bits of an early Earth are possibly waiting to be found as meteorites on the Moon.

    • Ventastega

    Hypothesis that Moon Formed from Earth Debris
    after Impact with Mars-Sized Object
  • We must turn on the LCH as soon as possible and leave it on; otherwise, visiting aliens will laugh at how few Higgs Bosons we’ve produced.
  • Uncombable Hair Syndrome is a genuine disorder (Full Disclosure: My nickname in Elementary School was “No-Comb” for my rat’s nest of hair).
  • Even vegetarians are at risk from ‘Mad Cow’ Prions in waste water.
  • Grasses are outrunning trees as the climate changes.
  • Hooray! The Brazilian Government has seized 3,100 cattle grazing on illegally deforested rainforest, which will be barbecued and fed to the poor. Hooray! Hooray!
  • The Robotic Baby Seal, Paro, is coming to America:



    • 3 comments to “Science Etcetera, Venusday 20080627”

    1. Whoa, I saw that you submitted the crowd-wisdom article and it got on slashdot!:
      http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/27/1338259&from=rss

      I was *just* talking about the crowd wisdom yesterday to Carolyn & Greg Z! I didn’t know there was a new story in the news about it, though!

           by ClintJCL June 27th, 2008 at 10:20 am

    2. I thought it was awesome that they found the principle works for individuals too… in a way. : )

      I just started working on submitting articles to /. every other day. I’ve always admired the community as one of the more intellectual on the web. Their discussions are the best.

           by ideonexus June 28th, 2008 at 12:43 am

    3. I concur.

           by ClintJCL June 28th, 2008 at 11:54 am

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