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December 08, 2006

Mars

There's water in them thar hills!

A gully on the wall of an unnamed crater in Terra Sirenum, at 36.6 degrees south, 161.8 degrees west, was initially imaged by the camera on Dec. 22, 2001 (Figure A, left). It showed nothing noteworthy at the location where a change would later be observed, but a group of nearby gullies exhibited an unusual patch of light-toned material. As part of our routine campaign to re-image gully sites using the camera, another image of this location was acquired on April 24, 2005. A new light-toned deposit had appeared in what was otherwise a nondescript gully (Figure A, right). This deposit was imaged again by the camera on Aug. 26, 2005, at a time when the sun angle and season were the same as in the original December 2001 image, to confirm that indeed the light-toned feature was something new, not just a trick of differing lighting conditions. In August 2005, the feature was still present.

Very, very cool, if true.

October 05, 2006

Genetic engineering comes to the home

Folks, it's not the supersoldiers you have to worry about. It's the hypoallergenic cats:

A small California biotech company says it has successfully found the Holy Grail of the $35 billion pet industry: a hypoallergenic cat.
At the start of next year, the first kittens -- which the company calls ``lifestyle pets" -- will be delivered to eager owners who have been carefully screened and on a waiting list for more than two years. Since it announced the project in October 2004, Allerca of San Diego, says it has received inquiries from people in 85 countries seeking to buy a cat bred so that its glands do not produce the protein responsible for most human cat allergies.

I wonder if the cats that they sell are going to come pre-neutered? Seems like an obvious way to protect their intellectual property.

September 24, 2006

The myth of sexual superiority

Mark Liberman has a nice takedown of a popular myth in today's Globe:

Over the last 15 years, a series of books and articles have told us that women talk a lot more than men do. According to Dr. Scott Halzman in Psychology Today, women use about 7,000 words a day, and men use about 2,000. On the other hand, Ruth E. Masters, in her book ``Counseling Criminal Justice Offenders," tells us that ``Females use an estimated 25,000 words per day and males use an estimated 12,000 words per day." And according to James Dobson's book ``Love for a Lifetime," ``research tells us" that God gives a woman 50,000 words a day, while her husband only gets 25,000.
A bit of Googling easily turns up at least nine different versions of this claim, ranging from 50,000 vs. 25,000 down to 5,000 vs. 2,500. But a bit of deeper research reveals that none of the authors of these claims actually seems to have counted, and none cites anyone who seems to have counted either.
The most recent to join the chorus is Dr. Louann Brizendine, clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. In her current best-seller, ``The Female Brain" (Morgan Road), Brizendine tells us that ``A woman uses about 20,000 words per day while a man uses about 7,000."

So far, so good, right? Nothing we haven't been hearing day in, day out. But which one of thse authors is right? It turns out, none of them:
The findings? According to a 1993 review of the scientific literature by researchers Deborah James and Janice Drakich, ``Most studies reported either that men talked more than women, either overall or in some circumstances, or that there was no difference between the genders in amount of talk." The research since that review, including counts from my own research, follows the same pattern.
I haven't been able to find any scientific studies that reliably count the entire daily word usage of a reasonable sample of men and women. But based on the research I've read and conducted, I'm willing to make a bet about what such a study would show. Whatever the average female vs. male difference turns out to be, it will be small compared to the variation among women and among men; and there will also be big differences, for any given individual, from one social setting to another.

So the next time someone whips out some odd statistic like this, feel free to point out that the authors might just be making them up. (Of course, it's funny, because if they made up the statistic in the other direction - that men were more communicative than women - they'd be denounced as sexist in no time. Gotta love that double standard.)

August 22, 2006

Astronomical Mnemonics

Twelve Planets, huh? Well, I guess My Very Excellent Mother Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas is out.

It is unclear if the last latter should be X or U. I decided using eX is also reasonable. Here's a small selection of Mnemonics for us adults!

Buffy: Many Vampires Eat Mischievous Children Just So Undertakers Need Puny Coffins eXcavated.

Solipsist: Many Verbose Eccentrics Mnemonicize Collections Jingoistically So Unaligned Natives Ponder Choosing eXpeditiously

UNIFIL: Many Violent Evil Men Can Just Shoot. United Nations Peacekeepers Could eXacerbate.

Kofi: Many Vicious Extremist Muslims Choose "Justified" Slaughter. United Nations Politicians Claim Xenophobia.

Adnan Hajj: Many Violent Evildoers Martyr Children Just So "Unbiased" Nationalist Photographers Commit Xerography.

August 21, 2006

Misquoting Snopes

We went over to a friend's house for Shabbat dinner, and, as conversations will, we covered some strange and eclectic topics. At one point, one of the attendees asserted, "Did you know it's Disney policy that no one ever dies on Disney property?" Having been a Disney employee a long time ago, I'll admit I showed skepticism, until the attendee said, "It's true! I looked it up on Snopes!" And that was that. Because Snopes is, of course, the authority on urban legend.

This morning, I looked it up on Snopes:

Claims: Disney can legitimately claim that no one has ever died at one of their theme parks, because they always ensure that accident victims are removed from park property before being declared dead.
Status: False.

I'm sure this has happened to others out there, but I'll admit it was a first for me.

August 15, 2006

Unhappy millionaires

Craig Newmark uses the word of the week (schadenfreude) to point us to coverage of failed lottery winners:

Juan Rodriguez wanted nothing more than to be one of the guys in rural South Texas where he was raised, and he was until six years ago, when he had the misfortune to acquire almost $9 million from the state lottery.

Today, he's lost his anonymity, his buddies, whatever girlfriends he once had, and most of his family, whom he no longer trusts. He rarely ventures outside the trailer here where he lives alone.
. . .
"The rule of thumb we use is sudden wealth will ruin people in three to five years," said Thompson, president of Sage Financial Design, a Connecticut-based company whose clients include instant millionaires.

"At the end of five years, the money's going to be gone or the human being is going to be gone. They either lose their money or themselves or both."

Two observations. First one is for Sage Financial: if your business is to handle instant millionaires, maybe you could help them not be ruined, rather than just observing them, no?

Second: it has always struck me, especially when looking at so-called "happiness" research, that extreme poverty and extreme wealth amplify a person's nature. It might be a part of their nature that they had not indulged before, but there it is. Instant millionaires are people whose daily struggle to make a living restrained their inner demons, and those demons are unleashed in a moment.

August 08, 2006

UNICEF does care...

UNICEF responded very quickly to my last note. First off, I want to commend the Program Services staff for putting up with my heckling and badgering them, and taking the time to educate me. Here's the response, followed by my reply:

(short version: we made up)

Continue reading "UNICEF does care..." »

August 06, 2006

Who's that girl?

A strange case of mistaken identity:

Cerak, 19, of Gaylord, was among nine people from Taylor University in Indiana riding in a school van that collided with a tractor-trailer on April 26.

Five people died in the crash, including Laura VanRyn, a 22-year-old Taylor senior. But VanRyn's mother and father were mistakenly told that she was alive while Cerak's parents were told that their daughter, whose injuries initially left her in a near-comatose state, was dead.

VanRyn's family and boyfriend kept vigil at Cerak's bedside for five weeks before realizing the error.

I'd really like to know how they got the identification that wrong (not the people on vigil; I'm assuming a lot of bandages; the doctors, morgue, et al).

August 01, 2006

More on Qana

Via Solomonia, we learn that Libanoscopie has a scoop on Hizb'allah's Qana activities (translation):

"The Hezbollah, pinned down by the seven point plan proposed by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, which proposes a plan for deployment of the Lebanese army over all of the territory and especially in South Lebanon, and then the disarmament of the militia of the Party of God, wanted to cause the negotiations to fail. It put into operation a Machievellian plan by creating an event that would allow it to cancel this project. Knowing full well that Israel will not hesitate to bombard civilian targets, Hizbullah militants placed a rocket launcher on the roof of a building in Qana and brought disabled children inside, in a bid to provoke a response by the Israeli Air Force, to create a new situation, using the massacre of innocents to regain the initiative in the negotiations."

Maybe this wasn't so farfetched after all.

Poor Mel

Ha'aretz covers a WSJ report that ABC has pulled a miniseries Mel Gibson was "working on":

The incident has raised questions about the future of projects Gibson and his Icon Productions company are working on, like the ABC television miniseries based on a memoir about a Dutch Jew during World War II, the newspaper said.

An ABC representative told the paper, without elaborating, it has been two years and the network still has not seen a script, so the project is being pulled.

Is this part of the penance that the Hollywood Reporter talks about?

There will be the obligatory People magazine cover piece ("I'm Sorry!"), the equally obligatory Diane Sawyer forgiveness-begging interview ("I'm just another recovering alcoholic..."), possibly even a face-to-face primetime browbeat from America's favorite cloying finger-wagger, Dr. Phil McGraw ("What in living hell were you thinking, Mel Gibson?"). The Mea Culpa Express will soon be chugging down the tracks through your very neighborhood!

What a penance! Cancelling a show you hadn't yet figured out how to twist into denouncing the evil Jews!

July 30, 2006

Caught on tape

Apparently, the building in Qana did not collapse immediately following an IDF airstrike:

"The attack on the structure in the Qana village took place between midnight and one in the morning. The gap between the timing of the collapse of the building and the time of the strike on it is unclear," Brigadier General Amir Eshel, Head of the Air Force Headquarters told journalists at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, following the incidents at Qana.
Eshel and the head of the IDF's Operational Branch, Major General Gadi Eisnkot said the structure was not being attacked when it collapsed, at around 8:00 in the morning.
The IDF believes that Hizbullah explosives in the building were behind the explosion that caused the collapse.

I will admit, this one left me stunned. Elder of Ziyon has a little more.

Sadly, this has accomplished a little of the Anti-Zionist Alliance's goal: IAF operations over Southern Lebanon are suspended for 48 hours:

Israel has agreed to suspend its aerial bombardment of southern Lebanon for 48 hours, effective immediately, to allow for an investigation into Sunday's bombing that killed 56 civilians, a U.S. State Department official said early Monday.

If I believed there would be a useful investigation, I'd almost support this, but who is going to investigate? The UN, already known to cover up any evidence that isn't "balanced."? The Lebanese government, whose army has taken sides, and has fired upon Israelis?

And some excuses for irrationality: The Palestinians are too distracted to release Gilad Shalit, Iran now must "reevaluate" it's response to the incentives plan around its nuclear capability.

Wow, this is starting to sound like a plot from a science fiction novel.

(bonus hat tip: Dave at IsraellyCool.)

July 29, 2006

Mel Gibson shows ... something

First, he gets arrested for drunk driving:

Gibson told the deputy, "You mother f****r. I'm going to f*** you." The report also says "Gibson almost continually [sic] threatened me saying he 'owns Malibu' and will spend all of his money to 'get even' with me."

The report says Gibson then launched into a barrage of anti-Semitic statements: "F*****g Jews... The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Gibson then asked the deputy, "Are you a Jew?"

Then he apologizes:

After drinking alcohol on Thursday night, I did a number of things that were very wrong and for which I am ashamed. I drove a car when I should not have, and was stopped by the LA County Sheriffs. The arresting officer was just doing his job and I feel fortunate that I was apprehended before I caused injury to any other person. I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested, and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable. I am deeply ashamed of everything I said, and I apologize to anyone who I have offended. Also, I take this opportunity to apologize to the deputies involved for my belligerent behavior. They have always been there for me in my community and indeed probably saved me from myself. I disgraced myself and my family with my behavior and for that I am truly sorry. I have battled with the disease of alcoholism for all of my adult life and profoundly regret my horrific relapse. I apologize for any behavior unbecoming of me in my inebriated state and have already taken necessary steps to ensure my return to health.

Hmmm, anyone notice what he didn't apologize for?

***
Updates here and here.

July 17, 2006

If smallpox didn't do it, then what did?

To distract us from the violence in the Middle East, Craig Newmark points us to an interesting article in Discover:

After 12 years of research, Acuña-Soto has come to agree with the Aztecs: The cocolitzli plagues of the mid-16th century probably had nothing to do with smallpox. In fact, they probably had little to do with the Spanish invasion. But they probably did have an origin that is worth knowing about in 2006.

Darn those revisionist epidemiologists! Is everything we learned in public school wrong?

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