So, does this mean it’s ok to just use “more” or "mine" as a number?
Aboriginal Kids Can Count Without Numbers
ScienceDaily (Aug. 19, 2008) — Knowing the words for numbers is not necessary to be able to count, according to a new study of aboriginal children by UCL (University College London) and the University of Melbourne. The study of the aboriginal children – from two communities which do not have words or gestures for numbers – found that they were able to copy and perform number-related tasks.
The findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that we possess an innate mechanism for counting, which may develop differently in children with dyscalculia.
Professor Brian Butterworth, lead author from the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, says: “Recently, an extreme form of linguistic determinism has been revived which claims that counting words are needed for children to develop concepts of numbers above three. That is, to possess the concept of ‘five’ you need a word for five. Evidence from children in numerate societies, but also from Amazonian adults whose language does not contain counting words, has been used to support this claim.
“However, our study of aboriginal children suggests that we have an innate system for recognizing and representing numerosities – the number of objects in a set – and that the lack of a number vocabulary should not prevent us from doing numerical tasks that do not require number words.”
We shouldn’t be surprised. We know some entrepreneurs in Brooklyn who use a very similar approach—especially if you’re late with the payments.
This just in—good-looking people are pleasing to the eye. Also, guys like to look at women who don’t look like guys. Film at 11.
Why Symmetry Predicts Bodily Attractiveness
ScienceDaily (Aug. 19, 2008) — A study by Dr William Brown and colleagues in Brunel University’s School of Social Sciences and School of Engineering and Design, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), has revealed an explanation for the correlation between attractiveness and bodily characteristics like height, breast size, long legs, broad shoulders or a curvy figure.
The study also explored the degree of asymmetries between the left and right sides of the body, which is widely believed to be an indirect measure of developmental quality in many species including humans.
Through their research at Brunel’s Centre for Cognition and Neuroimaging, Dr Brown and a team of scientists identified a property dubbed ‘body masculinity’, a mathematical fusion of traits including greater height, wider shoulders, smaller breasts and shorter legs.
Key findings of the study included:
* When asked to assess the attractiveness of female 3D body images, men rated those with less body masculinity most attractive, and vice versa
* High masculinity correlated with fewer departures from perfect bodily symmetry in males but with more asymmetry in females, suggesting that those with good development and health may have bodies that exaggerate sex-typical bodily features.
Commenting on the research, Dr Brown explains: “It is widely believed that human beings are attracted to one another as a result of genotypic and phenotypic quality – in other words, their prospect as a mate who will yield higher quality offspring for the chooser.”
He concludes: “It seems that because bodily asymmetries are too subtle to be seen with the naked eye, evolution has instead engineered more conspicuous signals and displays, such as broad shoulders, curvy waist lines or smooth dance moves to indicate mate quality.”
Oh yeah, gettin' busy as an engineering problem. That’s a worthwhile endeavor.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Making Science More Better For You on 08/13/08
A geopolitical interlude...
It's said there are only two stories:
"A stranger called the Russian army comes to town, a Georgian army leaves on a trip."
Given that Putin still calls the shots even though he now has the title of Prime Minister, maybe the Russians should take a tip from the movie "Casino." His next title could be Food and Beverage Chairman.
It's said there are only two stories:
"A stranger called the Russian army comes to town, a Georgian army leaves on a trip."
Given that Putin still calls the shots even though he now has the title of Prime Minister, maybe the Russians should take a tip from the movie "Casino." His next title could be Food and Beverage Chairman.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Making Science More Better For You on 08/12/08
Headline of the day
Lab makes diesel fuel from E. coli poop (CNN)
Sounds bio-disgusting...
We warned 'em about the cigarettes and trans fats, but you can’t tell them giant critters anything when they're on a bender. Ever seen a giant kangaroo on a bender?
Prehistoric giant animals killed by man, not climate: study
(AFP)
The chance discovery of the remains of a prehistoric giant kangaroo has cast doubts on the long-held view that climate change drove it and other mega-fauna to extinction, a new study reveals.
The research, published this week in the US-based journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, argues that man likely hunted to death the giant kangaroo and other very large animals on the southern island of Tasmania.
The debate centers on the skull of a giant kangaroo found in a cave in the thick rainforest of the rugged northwest of Tasmania in 2000. Scientists dated the find at 41,000 years old, some 2,000 years after humans first began to live in the area.
"Up until now, people thought that the Tasmanian mega-fauna had actually gone extinct before people arrived on the island," a member of the British and Australian study, Professor Richard Roberts, told AFP Tuesday.
He said that it was likely that hunting killed off Tasmania's mega-fauna -- including the long-muzzled, 120 kilogram (264 pound) giant kangaroo, a rhinoceros-sized wombat and marsupial 'lions' which resembled leopards.
Roberts, from the University of Wollongong south of Sydney, said the idea that climate change could account for the death of the animals was disputed by the fact the area had a very stable climate in the critical time period.
"Things were very climatically stable in that part of Australia and yet the mega-fauna still managed to go extinct," he said. "So it's down to humans of one sort or another."
Roberts said because the large animals were slow breeders, it would not have required an aggressive campaign to see them quickly die out.
"It was basically just one joey (baby kangaroo) in the pot for Christmas. And that's all you've got to go to do to drive slow-breeding species to extinction."
Slow breeders, mouth breathers, what’s the difference?
Lab makes diesel fuel from E. coli poop (CNN)
Sounds bio-disgusting...
We warned 'em about the cigarettes and trans fats, but you can’t tell them giant critters anything when they're on a bender. Ever seen a giant kangaroo on a bender?
Prehistoric giant animals killed by man, not climate: study
(AFP)
The chance discovery of the remains of a prehistoric giant kangaroo has cast doubts on the long-held view that climate change drove it and other mega-fauna to extinction, a new study reveals.
The research, published this week in the US-based journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, argues that man likely hunted to death the giant kangaroo and other very large animals on the southern island of Tasmania.
The debate centers on the skull of a giant kangaroo found in a cave in the thick rainforest of the rugged northwest of Tasmania in 2000. Scientists dated the find at 41,000 years old, some 2,000 years after humans first began to live in the area.
"Up until now, people thought that the Tasmanian mega-fauna had actually gone extinct before people arrived on the island," a member of the British and Australian study, Professor Richard Roberts, told AFP Tuesday.
He said that it was likely that hunting killed off Tasmania's mega-fauna -- including the long-muzzled, 120 kilogram (264 pound) giant kangaroo, a rhinoceros-sized wombat and marsupial 'lions' which resembled leopards.
Roberts, from the University of Wollongong south of Sydney, said the idea that climate change could account for the death of the animals was disputed by the fact the area had a very stable climate in the critical time period.
"Things were very climatically stable in that part of Australia and yet the mega-fauna still managed to go extinct," he said. "So it's down to humans of one sort or another."
Roberts said because the large animals were slow breeders, it would not have required an aggressive campaign to see them quickly die out.
"It was basically just one joey (baby kangaroo) in the pot for Christmas. And that's all you've got to go to do to drive slow-breeding species to extinction."
Slow breeders, mouth breathers, what’s the difference?
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Making Science More Better For You on 08/07/08
Damn it Jim, I’m a huckster, not an intergalactic undertaker.
Scotty's ashes fail to reach final frontier
Star Trek star's ashes lost in failed space mission
( From Ian Sample’s Science Blog at the Guardian.co.uk)
The ashes of actor James Doohan, who played Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in Star Trek, were lost on the way to space on Sunday morning, when the rocket carrying them malfunctioned minutes after take-off.
The actor's ashes were among those of 208 people, including Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper, who had paid to have their remains fired into space. Engineers later said that the two stages of the rocket had failed to separate.
The accident is the third in a row for SpaceX, which was set up in 2002 by the internet entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Scotty's ashes fail to reach final frontier
Star Trek star's ashes lost in failed space mission
( From Ian Sample’s Science Blog at the Guardian.co.uk)
The ashes of actor James Doohan, who played Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in Star Trek, were lost on the way to space on Sunday morning, when the rocket carrying them malfunctioned minutes after take-off.
The actor's ashes were among those of 208 people, including Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper, who had paid to have their remains fired into space. Engineers later said that the two stages of the rocket had failed to separate.
The accident is the third in a row for SpaceX, which was set up in 2002 by the internet entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Making Science More Better For You on 08/05/08
Fat chance
All U.S. adults could be overweight in 40 years
By Amy Norton
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - If the trends of the past three decades continue, it's possible that every American adult could be overweight 40 years from now, a government-funded study projects.
The figure might sound alarming, or impossible, but researchers say that even if the actual rate never reaches the 100-percent mark, any upward movement is worrying; two-thirds of the population is already overweight.
"Genetically and physiologically, it should be impossible" for all U.S. adults to become overweight, said Dr. Lan Liang of the federal government's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, one of the researchers on the study.
However, she told Reuters Health, the data suggest that if the trends of the past 30 years persist, "that is the direction we're going."
Yep, everyone last one of us—even the super models are going to look like the Michelin Man. Unless we don't.
All U.S. adults could be overweight in 40 years
By Amy Norton
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - If the trends of the past three decades continue, it's possible that every American adult could be overweight 40 years from now, a government-funded study projects.
The figure might sound alarming, or impossible, but researchers say that even if the actual rate never reaches the 100-percent mark, any upward movement is worrying; two-thirds of the population is already overweight.
"Genetically and physiologically, it should be impossible" for all U.S. adults to become overweight, said Dr. Lan Liang of the federal government's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, one of the researchers on the study.
However, she told Reuters Health, the data suggest that if the trends of the past 30 years persist, "that is the direction we're going."
Yep, everyone last one of us—even the super models are going to look like the Michelin Man. Unless we don't.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Making Science More Better For You on 08/05/08
Headlines of the day
Beheading victim 'saw good in everyone' (CNN)
It would appear this worldview is not always adaptive.
Cow falls on slaughterhouse butcher (Milwaukee Journal Sentinal)
They must have had a beef.
Brewers' Fielder attacks teammate (SI)
So much for vegans being pacifists. Although, the word fist is in there.
Knights Templar heirs in legal battle with the Pope. (TDG)
Guess there’s a lot a stake.
German policewomen get 'bullet-proof bras'...(Drudge)
Truth or dare, Jean-Paul Gaultier?
Beheading victim 'saw good in everyone' (CNN)
It would appear this worldview is not always adaptive.
Cow falls on slaughterhouse butcher (Milwaukee Journal Sentinal)
They must have had a beef.
Brewers' Fielder attacks teammate (SI)
So much for vegans being pacifists. Although, the word fist is in there.
Knights Templar heirs in legal battle with the Pope. (TDG)
Guess there’s a lot a stake.
German policewomen get 'bullet-proof bras'...(Drudge)
Truth or dare, Jean-Paul Gaultier?
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