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News Briefs 02-12-2013

By Katon

Black Friday video mash-up. The good news: nobody died this year.

  • Sexual frustration decreases lifespan. Yep, sucks the will to live right outta ya.
  • If people can take hard drugs and still go on being paid to run running a national bank or Canada’s biggest city, how dangerous can such substances be?
  • For 20 years, the nuclear launch code at US Minuteman silos was 00000000.
  • A gigantic ‘communal latrine’, created at the dawn of the dinosaurs, has been unearthed in Argentina.
  • Your brain continually eats itself – apparently.
  • Distant memories: Mice can ‘warn’ sons, grandsons of dangers via sperm.
  • No, humans are not chimp-pig hybrids. Could’ve fooled me.
  • Crocodiles and alligators use tools.
  • From Turing to Snowden: Revelations show transatlantic intelligence pact started in second world war is expanding beyond states’ ability to control it.
  • New report compiles extensive evidence showing how some of the world’s largest corporations have conspired partnered with private intelligence firms and government intelligence agencies to spy on activist and nonprofit groups.
  • Why things are going wrong in biomedical research.
  • Hey, ya’ll — this video of people taking the American dialect survey is fascinating.
  • Why are there so many tunnels under London?
  • How to store all those bits and bytes cheaply and reliably? Magnetic tape.
  • Inside the high-tech fortresses of the super-rich. Anybody know what kind of gas knocks you out for 24 hours?
  • Google has its employees using Macs, not Windows or its own Chromebooks.

Quote of the Day:

A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.

Bertrand Russell

Kat
Related

17 Comments

      1. either or
        Sorry — there weren’t any news stories on octopuses this week.

        But here at Daily Grail, there’s always that ‘Contact Us’ link, where you can email us links to all the news articles that you think are worthy of Daily Grail’s news briefs.

        For next Monday, I’d really appreciate it if you two would send me all the latest on the subjects you find most interesting.

        1. i don’t have a problem
          with anyone’s new stories. I don’t care what you post. I was making fun of Pov a little, since he seems to always have a problem with the news or anything about saving the world, climate change, or whatever.

          Sorry if my statement came off as offensive to you.

          1. Yes you do have a problem
            Your attempts at “making fun” of me are failing. Yes I come here expecting News and posts that are at least remotely about the “fringes of science and history” And yes . . .I’m loud and proud about it.

          2. Apocalyptic News is always News
            c’mon now, let’s look at that story again: the world’s arguably most powerful company is basing it’s day to day operations on an O/S with known links to the NSA, on hardware with a long reputation of doing things like spontaneously combusting, and that’s not news?!

            omg, if that item isn’t one of the Four Horsemen, I don’t know what is!!

            (teledyn ducks and runs for cover)

          3. spontaneously combusting
            Only if you buy the cheaply made, knock-off versions or “refurbished” of the batteries and hardware do you have that risk. Granted, their old chargers for their laptops got really really hot (which is why I upgraded). Never buy the electronic replacements from Amazon, eBay, or other non-Apple sites. I’m not saying they all are knock-offs, but a large amount of them are. And when they do burst it’s a scary mess, seen it many times when I was in college.

    2. TDG worthy?
      >> Google’s choice in ‘putes is TDG worthy?

      Not that I think the essence of your comment has anything to do with the Google/Mac article, but…

      I had Greg partly in mind when I picked that article. He’s been after me for at least 10 years (or so it seems) to switch to Apple products.

      He’s pointed out to me many times that the higher cost is well-justified by the higher reliability of the products and the higher productivity of the user.

      So I thought he might find it interesting that his high opinion of Apple is shared by the likes of Google.

      1. re: TDG worthy?
        Are you kidding me? You and someone have your own little “thing” about ‘putes and you post a News brief based on that? Right .. .because you don’t have their email.

        1. Weary
          [quote=pov]Are you kidding me? You and someone have your own little “thing” about ‘putes and you post a News brief based on that? Right .. .because you don’t have their email.[/quote]

          Please feel free to visit another website rather than TDG if our news is not to your liking. Your ongoing snarky and antagonistic comments are making me weary, though at least the irony that your comments commit the sins that you accuse others of (“Umm . . . yeah . . .real cutting-edge and thought-provoking stuff that.”) keeps me slightly amused.

          1. Don’t put it on me
            Don’t attack me for coming to your site expecting and seeking News that meets what you state it’s about – the fringes of science and history. Or for pointing out when articles don’t meet that criteria.

            Snark? Yes, sometimes. Sarc? Yes, sometimes. Antagonism? No. Not at all.

            And I don’t see how using my comments solely about the quality of an article as a point of comparison to that quality makes much sense.

            Criticize me if/when I’m claiming an article isn’t fringe when to you or others it clearly is.

      2. re: to Kat
        I work on both PC and Mac for my job. I guess it depends on what the employees of Google are doing. If they are doing more design and web based projects, yeah Mac is better and it’s not like Google can’t afford them. Chromebook is too young (and frankly just terrible) to be compatible with certain programs, and PC’s are usually slow to store all the memory said programs store on the hard drive.

        After working with both for the past 10+ years, I’m more of a Apple lover than Microsoft. It depends what you are doing on it Kat. If you are a graphic designer or learning to be, Mac is great and the programs work a hell of a lot better. If you are more for statistics and accounting, then PC. I find positives and negatives of both.

    1. I notice the debunker himself has zero credentials
      I’m surprised the Grail would even bother with that io9 piece; McCarthy may be wrong, true, but he should be shown wrong on the basis of science, and not on the basis of testosterone charged is-not-is-too-is-not pseudoscience wanking. Of course, it’s not surprising the high level of intellect shown by the commenters to that site, considering the source.

      As for his “it can’t be because” rules, they aren’t, and Eugene’s macroevolution.net is really quite thorough in explaining, from a geneticists point of view, why these are the way they are, and also explains about a new project underway to look specifically for genetic markers — genes aren’t like telephone books, all orderly and you’d know if someone put a page of Hamlet in there (pardon the metaphor) but if you suspect it may have a smattering of Shakespearian pork, you can hone your search, which is what they are currently doing, and which is what no one else has, as yet, done.

      It saddens me to see people so ready to call a lynch mob or fry a witch even now in the twenty first century without even the decency to hear their own side of the story. But then, what do you expect from a herd of pigs? 😉

      For those interested in not only this shocker of a headline story, but those interested in why evolution, which is so slow, could possibly produce not only the diversity we observe, but also all the unfathomably obtuse ‘adaptations’ we find on wtfevolution.tumblr.com, do take the time to read Eugene’s side of the story on macroevolution.net, if it is a yarn, it’s a damn good one.

      1. I suppose this was probably quite apropos ..
        LOL … yes, well said Bert:

        A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says can never be accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.

        Bertrand Russell

        I should have caught that the first time 😉

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