Making Science More Better For You on 10/11/07

How to be in two places at once and not be anywhere at all

Two headlines from this morning. Both stories are based on the same set of figures from RealtyTrac, an online marketer of foreclosure properties.


AP
Foreclosure Filings Nearly Double
Thursday October 11, 8:07 am ET
By Alex Veiga, AP Business Writer
U.S. Foreclosure Filings Nearly Double in September Over Same Month a Year Ago

September foreclosures fall
Mortgage delinquencies slip 8% nationwide; Sun Belt, Rust Belt states continue to dominate top foreclosure rates, according to a monthly survey.
By Keisha Lamothe, CNNMoney.com staff writer
October 11 2007: 8:29 AM EDT

Well Alice, from here it looks like a violin, but from over there it looks like a cheese danish.

Brooklyn Better Science Club Rule #1: There’s up and down and left and right. Everything else is spin.


These unintended consequences are enough to give you gas
Increase In Ethanol Production From Corn Could Significantly Harm Water Quality

Science Daily — If projected increases in the use of corn for ethanol production occur, the harm to water quality could be considerable, and water supply problems at the regional and local levels could also arise, says a new report from the National Research Council. The committee that wrote the report examined policy options and identified opportunities for new agricultural techniques and technologies to help minimize effects of biofuel production on water resources.
Recent increases in oil prices in conjunction with subsidy policies have led to a dramatic expansion in corn ethanol production and high interest in further expansion over the next decade, says the report. Indeed, because of strong national interest in greater energy independence, in this year's State of the Union address, President Bush called for the production of 35 billion gallons of ethanol by 2017, which would equal about 15 percent of the U.S. liquid transportation fuels.

A National Research Council committee was convened to look at how shifts in the nation's agriculture to include more energy crops, and potentially more crops overall, could affect water management and long-term sustainability of biofuel production. Based on findings presented at a July colloquium, the committee came to several conclusions about biofuel production and identified options for addressing them.

In terms of water quantity, the committee found that agricultural shifts to growing corn and expanding biofuel crops into regions with little agriculture, especially dry areas, could change current irrigation practices and greatly increase pressure on water resources in many parts of the United States. The amount of rainfall and other hydroclimate conditions from region to region causes significant variations in the water requirement for the same crop, the report says.

For example, in the Northern and Southern Plains, corn generally uses more water than soybeans and cotton, while the reverse is true in the Pacific and mountain regions of the country. Water demands for drinking, industry, and such uses as hydropower, fish habitat, and recreation could compete with, and in some cases, constrain the use of water for biofuel crops in some regions. Consequently, growing biofuel crops requiring additional irrigation in areas with limited water supplies is a major concern, the report says.

Even though a large body of information exists for the nation's agricultural water requirements, fundamental knowledge gaps prevent making reliable assessments about the water impacts of future large scale production of feedstocks other than corn, such as switchgrass and native grasses. In addition, other aspects of crop production for biofuel may not be fully anticipated using the frameworks that exist for food crops. For example, biofuel crops could be irrigated with wastewater that is biologically and chemically unsuitable for use with food crops, or genetically modified crops that are more water efficient could be developed.

The quality of groundwater, rivers, and coastal and offshore waters could be impacted by increased fertilizer and pesticide use for biofuels, the report says. High levels of nitrogen in stream flows are a major cause of low-oxygen or "hypoxic" regions, commonly known as "dead zones," which are lethal for most living creatures and cover broad areas of the Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay, and other regions. The report notes that there are a number of agricultural practices and technologies that could be employed to reduce nutrient pollution, such as injecting fertilizer below the soil surface, using controlled-release fertilizers that have water-insoluble coatings, and optimizing the amount of fertilizer applied to the land.


Does any of this involve sports betting?

Ritual Threats Of Violence In Small Newfoundland Communities Are Method Of Creating Trust

Science Daily — Residents of small isolated fishing villages on the northern peninsula of Newfoundland have participated in the ritual of "mumming" for centuries. According to the tradition, small groups of villagers, or mummers, disguise their identities and go to other houses to threaten violence, whereupon the people of the houses try to guess the intruders' identities.


A study by researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia argues that this tradition is a manner of communicating trust and trustworthiness. The mummers who threaten violence must prove themselves trustworthy by not committing a real act of violence, and the hosts of the invaded home must demonstrate trust by not responding to threats with fear or violence, said Christina Nicole Pomianek, an MU doctoral student.

"In this ritual, participants are making themselves vulnerable at the hands of the other," said Craig T. Palmer, assistant professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Science. "It's a way for community members to prove their trust and commitment to each other."

Mumming traditionally took place in these villages during the 12 days after Christmas. A small group of mummers disguised themselves in costumes and went to a house at night. They rapped on the door with sticks and then entered, regardless of response from the hosts inside. Inside, they threatened the hosts with physical and sexual violence, while the hosts were expected to respond calmly and try to guess the identities of the mummers. If their identities were correctly identified within 10 to 15 minutes, the mummers removed their disguises and often sat down to a friendly drink with the hosts. If their identities were not guessed, the mummers left without disrobing.

The timing of this mumming ritual was just before the long winter months, during which villagers often had to rely on the generosity of neighbors to avoid starvation, Palmer said. He believes that this timing makes sense, since trust during the difficult winter would be particularly important to survival.

Today, mumming in Newfoundland continues only on a small scale, mostly as a tourist attraction. Palmer said that mumming severely declined in the late 1950s and '60s, when roads were built to connect the formerly isolated communities to the outside world in the winter. Members of the communities began to fear mumming because "in the back of their minds, they worried some outsider might have come on the road and couldn't be trusted," Palmer said.

Pomianek said that similar rituals are practiced today in many communities, including trust-building exercises such as the "trust fall." She added that many in the corporate world have become interested in exercises that build trust. Palmer pointed to "friendly insults" exchanged between close friends as an everyday ritual of testing and proving trust.

"Trust is very important in all communities," he said. "Most people don't live in small-scale communities anymore, so we are often uncertain about whether or not we can trust the people with whom we interact. We're constantly calculating how much we can trust other people."

Palmer and Pomianek's study, "Applying Signaling Theory to Traditional Cultural Rituals: The Example of Newfoundland Mumming," was published in the journal Human Nature.

If these mooks ever want to do their field work in Brooklyn, we could introduce them to a guy who knows a guy who employs similar rituals in the building of trust—particularly when the payments are late. Hey, how you doin’?


No it’s not your imagination, it is kind of sticky in here.
Warmth makes the world more humid

Humidity increases could affect weather around the world
The atmosphere is becoming more humid in a pattern consistent with man-made climate change, researchers have found.

Their study, reported in the journal Nature, confirms the global increase in humidity found in previous studies.

They say that the pattern of humidity increases in various parts of the world resembles that projected by computer models of man-made global warming.

Water vapour is a greenhouse gas, and it is thought that having more of it in the air could amplify temperature rise.

The major report released earlier this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that this amplification was the largest "positive feedback" mechanism they had identified.

Previous research has shown that humidity increases in Europe, a response to higher temperatures, were amplifying the temperature rise by about a factor of two.

Stormy waters

In the new study, researchers from the University of East Anglia and the UK Met Office's Hadley Centre analysed a dataset of humidity measurements made across the world.


The scientists compared the global and regional trends with the projections of a computer model developed by the Hadley Centre, which estimates the relative influences of natural cycles and increased concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

Human-induced changes, they calculate, have been the bigger factor behind the global humidity increase seen since 1975.

"This confirmation that humidity and temperature are increasing as expected has important implications for future human health and comfort," observed the Hadley Centre's Peter Thorne, one of the research team.

It could also have important implications for extreme weather events such as tropical cyclones and rainstorms.

Some of the scientific team were involved in another study, reported in July, which showed that human-induced climate change was behind trends of increasing and decreasing rainfall noted in various parts of the world.

“Benjamin, I know you’re taking some time to find yourself. Forget plastics. Think air conditioners.”

Don’t be upset, it’s just a little word thingy. Besides, we know what we meant.

Misplaced 'not' in Arkansas law allows babies to marry
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- An error in a new law that allows Arkansans of any age -- even toddlers -- to marry with parental consent must be fixed by lawmakers, not an independent commission authorized to correct typos, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Arkansas lawmakers accidentally put an extra "not" in a law about who can get married.

The law, which took effect July 31, was intended to establish 18 as the minimum age to marry, while also allowing pregnant minors to marry with parental consent.

An extraneous "not" in the bill, however, allows anyone who is not pregnant to marry at any age if the parents allow it.

Gov. Mike Beebe declined to call lawmakers into special session to clear up the error, saying there was no imminent crisis. Instead, he said the Arkansas Code Revision Commission, which is authorized to correct typos and technical errors, could make the change, which it did.

A woman who gave her 17-year-old daughter permission to marry based on the old law, which set the minimum marriage age at 17 for boys and 16 for girls, sued in Benton County after officials there denied her a marriage license.

In a decision Wednesday, Circuit Judge Tom J. Keith ruled the commission overstepped its authority because its correction changed the meaning of the law. He said the marriage license should be issued.

Attorney Timothy Hutchinson, a former Republican state representative who filed the lawsuit on behalf of the 17-year-old's family, had said it was appropriate for a judge to step in after Beebe decided a special session wasn't necessary to fix the law.

"I think this recognized the appropriate role of the code revision commission and preserved the integrity of the legislative process and thus public involvement of the changing of our laws," Hutchinson said.

Beebe's office said the governor was reviewing the order but did not have any plans to call a special session to correct the error.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said he was not surprised by the ruling and suggested that clerks follow the court's order. McDaniel did not say whether he believed lawmakers should correct the error before the 2009 legislative session.

Sen. Sue Madison, chairwoman of the code revision commission, said the panel does not have any plans to meet to undo the correction. Madison said she was disappointed that the commission did not have an opportunity to defend its revision of the law.

"I think this issue needs resolving once and for all. I felt like the commission had done its job and had acted responsibly to fix an error, but the judge has thrown the issue open again," said Madison, D-Fayetteville. "I think it's deplorable and it's embarrassing."

Bet this is going to siphon off a lot of the tourist trade headed for Thailand.


So that's why they call it artificial intelligence.
"Your eyes are like two blinking diodes..."

Researcher: Humans will wed robots
Oct 11 12:41 PM US/Eastern

MAASTRICHT, Netherlands, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- The University of Maastricht in the Netherlands is awarding a doctorate to a researcher who wrote a paper on marriages between humans and robots.

David Levy, a British artificial intelligence researcher at the college, wrote in his thesis, "Intimate Relationships with Artificial Partners," that trends in robotics and shifting attitudes on marriage are likely to result in sophisticated robots that will eventually be seen as suitable marriage partners.

Levy's conclusion was based on about 450 publications in the fields of psychology, sexology, sociology, robotics, materials science, artificial intelligence, gender studies and computer-human interaction.

The thesis examines human attitudes toward affection, love and sexuality and concluded that the findings are just as applicable to human interaction with robots of the future as they are to the relationships between humans of today.


So he came to his conclusion by reading 450 articles. Doesn't get out much , does he? Maybe there's a special little bot in his life already and that's why he never leaves his mom's basement.