30 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Means of Quantifying Violence
Now let’s turn to the present. According to the most recent edition of the Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2,448,017 Americans died in 2005. It was one of the country’s worst years for war deaths in decades, with the armed forces embroiled in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Together the two wars killed 945 Americans, amounting to 0.0004 (four-hundredths of a percent) of American deaths that year.57 Even if we throw in the 18,124 domestic homicides, the total rate of violent ...Folksonomies: violence quantification
Folksonomies: violence quantification
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notes08 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
Professors Come from a Select Few Universities
The evidence is not only anecdotal. A recent study by Aaron Clauset, Samuel Arbesman, and Daniel B. Larremore shows that “a quarter of all universities account for 71 to 86 percent of all tenure-track faculty in the U.S. and Canada in these three fields. Just 18 elite universities produce half of all computer science professors, 16 schools produce half of all business professors, and eight schools account for half of all history professors.” This study follows the discovery by political s...
1 24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Profiting on Asteroids
Some of the first questions which come up in any practical discussion of space colonization are questions of economics. Suppose we go out and settle on a convenient asteroid with our little spaceship, what do we do when we get there? How do we make a living? What can we expect to export in order to pay for necessary imports? If space colonization makes any sense at all, these questions must have sensible answers. Unfortunately, we cannot hope to answer questions of economics until the asteroi...Folksonomies: space colonization
Folksonomies: space colonization
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notes21 APR 2014 by ideonexus
Why Black Bears Sleep in Trees
The ancestors of modern North American bears evolved in Asia during the Pleistocene, wandering over to Alaska during several appearances of the Bering land bridge, between the Bering and Kamchatka Peninsulas. Advancing and receding glaciers, fueled by evaporating sea water, caused ocean levels to alternately drop and rise, exposing and resubmerging the Bering Strait. The ancestors of black bears came across half a million years ago, and it is suspected that black bears adapted to climbing tr...Folksonomies: evolution black bears
Folksonomies: evolution black bears
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notesIt's an evolutionary adaptation to survive short-faced bears and sabertooth tigers.
16 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Evolutionary Theory Prediction Comes True in Walking Fish
This is where the prediction comes in. If there were lobe-finned fishes
but no terrestrial vertebrates 390 million years ago, and clearly terrestrial vertebrates 360 million years ago, where would you expect to find the
transitional forms? Somewhere in between. Following this logic, Shubin
predicted that if transitional forms existed, their fossils would be found
in strata around 375 million years old. Moreover, the rocks would have
to be from freshwater rather than marine sediments, because ...Folksonomies: evolution prediction
Folksonomies: evolution prediction
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notesTiktaalik was discovered right where evolution predicted it should exist, with traits that brought it closer to land without making it onto land, creating another fossil prediction for the future.
03 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Studies Showing the Benefits of Exercise
Scientists are also encouraged by studies on mice with a certain genetic mutation that makes them age prematurely — complete with graying and thinning fur, cataracts, hearing loss, smaller brains, enlarged hearts, anemia and thin and weak muscles — hallmark symptoms of growing older. To test whether it was possible to slow or reverse the process in these mice, a team led by Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, a professor of pediatrics and medicine at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, had the ro...In reversing the effects of ageing.
09 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Geese Flying in Vee Formation
One, two, three ragged files of Canada geese skim the treetops, preceded and followed by their honking chorus. I freeze in my tracks to watch them pass, heading south, feathers ruffled by the last warm breezes of the season. When their honks have faded into silence, I notice a chill in the air. The spinning planet has leaned into its winter curve, away from the Sun. And then, just when I think the racket has passed, I hear another barely audible chorus of honks, high in the air. I look up to ... 1 notes
notesEvolutionay benefits explain the pattern, which is an example of order forged out of an even greater disordering process occurring in our sun.
09 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Invasive Species Between the Old and New World
Many plants new to North America first sprouted up alongside wharves and shipyards. From there they made their way inland along new roads hacked out of the wilderness, and later along canals and railroad embankments, taking up residence in any sort of disturbed soil. Native plants adapted to quiet precolonial forests and meadows gave little competition to the aggressive intruders. As Pilgrims and Puritans leveled the ancient New England forests, their floral co-colonists thrived in a landscap... 1 notes
notesHow plants came across the sea in both directions to colonize North American and, to a lesser degree, Europe.
08 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
How Photosynthesis Builds Energy Against Entropy
No law of physics is more basic than the law of entropy, the tendency of the universe to move toward disorder and death. But life bucks the tide. using available free energy wherever it can get it, and hereabouts the most abundant source of energy is sunlight. The mayflower constructs its tiny oasis of order by drawing upon a corresponding increase of disorder at the center of the Sun, where hydrogen is fused into helium. There, deep at the heart of our planet's star, is the source of the ene...Folksonomies: entropy photosynthesis
Folksonomies: entropy photosynthesis
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notesStoring sugars, reflecting green light, and being consumed to power predators.
08 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Tracking the Trails of Ancient Glaciers
On an outcrop of volcanic bedrock near the paath sit half a dozen erratic boulders, some weighining as much as twenty tons, of a coarse-grainned pink granite. Once, I chipped off a sample of)f the rock and followed the bedrock scratches northth, looking for the source. Like an Indian trail of bent twigs. le scratches led me several miles out of Easton into the town of Stoughton, where I found what I was looking for, a south-facing ledge of bedrock that under the hand magnifier was identical t... 1 notes
notesBy tracing the scratches on boulders, it is possible to trace the direction a glacier carried them from, and find their source.
