Sea-slugs that photosynthesize have stolen DNA

New Scientist - Solar Powered Sea Slug harnesses stolen plan genes

Few creatures use the sun to provide energy, but the elysia chlorotica sea slug is one of them. The slug can survive on the energy from photosynthesis for a whole year by eating algae for two weeks. It takes the chloroplasts from the algae, but chloroplasts don't have enough DNA inside them to keep themselves alive, e.g. create the proteins to replenish themselves. The rest of the needed DNA was found when the slug's DNA was sequenced-- evidence that the slug 'stole' plant DNA.

Meat, not turkey, should make you just as tired

NPR - A Myth Examined: Can Turkey Make You Tired?

The conventional wisdom on turkey is that the tryptophan in it makes you sleepy. It does, but just about the same levels of tryptophan (an amino-acid) are in almost all meats and other proteins like nuts, tofu and dairy. The alternate theory for sleepiness on thanksgiving is over-eating, which also makes people sluggish. Interestingly, higher doses of tryptophan are also associated with higher willingness to cooperate rather than compete. One last note: tryptophan is probably LESS likely to affect your sleepiness if you've eaten a lot, since it is competing with a host of other chemicals also entering your blood-stream.

Smart kids more likely to drink

Reuters - Childhood IQ possibly linked to adult alcohol use

In what they call a surprising study, there was a correlation between scoring higher on IQ tests at age 10 and abusing alcohol by age 30. Even after economic and class factors were taken into account, with a 15-point increase there was at least a 1.17x chance for drinking problems. The correlation for women was stronger than for men, 1.17 times for men, 1.38 times for women, a significant finding. Women with higher IQs at age 10 predict higher degrees of alcohol abuse. More study is needed.

The rise of local shoe-string internet journalism

New York Times - Web Sites That Dig For News Rise as Watchdogs

An article highlighting the various news websites that have sprung up in San Diego, the twin cities, New Haven. They are mostly non-profit, and mostly relying on grants, wealthy contributors, reader gifts, and some ads. The goal is to shine a light on local government and local issues, a service which has dwindled from the mainstream press' pages. So far it isn't comfortably sustainable (financially), but is providing important services and interest in it is growing.

Heartless Girl Lives

http://www.procprblog.com/teenager-lives-118-days-without-a-heart

or

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE4AI7I120081119

A South Carolina teenager survived almost 4 months without a heart! Usually they leave the heart in the body when an artificial heart is used, but this young woman had only two pumps circulating her blood as she awaited transplant.

Fix healthcare administration by looking at quality control from other industries

Business Week - Donald Berwirk: Curing the Healthcare System

A short article that talks about an organization that took some of the quality control ideas from other industries (manufacturing, software, etc.) to modify the way of health care is administered. Hospitals can often pose serious health risks to those being treated, from infections to mistakes, complications, etc.-- it's estimated that 100,000 people die because of the poor quality controls and techniques that health care providers use to manage their operations. The article contains a few examples of the systems that IHI, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, has used and how their programs work.

Pygmy Tarsiers Live!

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/458712269/pygmy-tarsiers-redis.html
and
http://tamunews.tamu.edu/archives/article.php?articleid=6991&month=11&year=2008

Long believed extinct, Pygmy Tarsiers have been found in Indonesia! Mice with Claws!

Neurotics prefer negativity to uncertainty

ScienceDaily.com - Uncertainty can be more Stressful than clear negative feedback

Confirming what I thought was probably common sense, neurotic individuals became more stressed when they didn't know the outcome of a skill performance rather than when the outcome was negative. This wasn't the uncertainty in waiting for the outcome, but when the outcome itself was ambiguous or not disclosed. If you can generalize to non-neurotic people, we may be less stressed by bad news than by uncertainty.

How subprime borrowers shouldn't be blamed

Slate - The Subprime Good Guys

An article highlighting a niche industry of small for-profit and some not-for-profit sub-prime lenders that have been successful for years, and continue to be successful, lending to 'minorities and the poor' the very people the conservative analysis has blamed on the housing crisis. The housing crisis has been blamed on the Community Reinvestment Act forcing banks to lend to those not traditionally considered good risks, and then these loans (or, rather, the defaults on these loans) poisoning the system. A sterling refutation are the various successful lending institutions that are making loans to sub-prime borrowers but have very low delinquency and foreclosure rates. The trick? Being disciplined, not relying on securitization, not selling loans you know the borrower doesn't qualify for, not trying to maximize short-term profits.

Music taste and personality can be linked

BBC News - Music tastes link to personality

A study done of over 36,000 people from around the world asked questions about music tastes and also questions about personality and character traits. Some correlations were found, and, notably in this article, a similarity between at-ease heavy-metal listeners and classical music listeners. Included is a chart of music styles and personality traits.

Video games make kids more violent

Reuters - Violent video games tied to teen aggression

A new study (mostly using self-reporting) shows teen aggression increasing when playing violent video games over a long period of time (at least 6 months). Scientists also tried to take one's previous inclination for aggression into account in their calculations. This was reported from a study of both Japanese and US teens. Those who played violent video games were more likely to get involved in physical fights. The theory is that games show violence as an acceptable solution to mundane conflicts. Yup.

The human tendency to fly off the handle

Slate - Why are humans so quick to take offense

A long article with many references, most of which is a romp through a bunch of sociology, psychology and evolutionary psychology thinkers. Taking offense at small slights is an age-old human behavior. First, rationality is often co-opted by one's sense of fairness, and even one's sense of vengance: in an 'ultimatum game', actors will only settle for a roughly even split-- any less and the actor will punish both sides (spite rather than self-interest). Different scientists postulate the evolved ability to calculate fairness and punish cheaters which has, paradoxically, given us both the ability to build relationships and cooperate, but also to treat small infractions harshly. Some posit the need to keep up with all the different social moties, moves, and relationships was a sufficient cause for developing language. Those who speak out and take a hard line against open infractions actually reduce the level of aggression in groups, some studies show.

Warfare in humans is part of our evolutionary history

New Scientist - How Warfare Shaped Human Evolution

An article reviewing different theories about how human warfare might have evolved, and perhaps how it influences our in-group/out-group behavior. Warfare has been with us for tens of thousands of years; it is estimated that 10% of all male deaths in hunter-gatherer societies was from warfare. It was probably similar to chimpanzee warfare, which involves making well-planned raids on neighboring out-groups with overwhelming force. Greater in-group bonding and out-group competition has shown in psychological studies of men, who become more motivated to compete with out-groups than within a group. On a hormonal level, men react to a greater degree when talking to a woman who is paired with an out-group member than when she is paired with an in-group member. Aggression from women, the studies claim, tends to be more one-on-one, rather than men being more in-group bonding and out-group aggression.

Images of beautiful women cause men to be more body-conscious of themselves

Physorg.com - Surprisingly, Female Models have Negative Effect on Men

We all know that images of culturally idealized women in magazines have a negative effect on body-image for women. The analogous theory was that culturally idealized images of men might have the a similar negative effect on men. Yet it was the same images of women from 'lad' magazines like Maxim, Stuff, FHM that were associated with greater concern with self-appearance for men. Men who viewed these female models alone reported the highest concern with self-appearance, more than the control group. The group of men that viewed the male models reported LESS self-appearance concern than the control group. The theory is that looking at culturally idealized women reminds men about what kind of person these women are attracted to, so they are concerned with being attractive to them. This is reinforced by the experiment that reduced this effect by showing average-looking men in the same image with these attractive women.

Can we evolve a virus to get rid of it?

Science Daily - Forced Evolution: Can we Mutate Viruses to Death?

An article that describes the modeling and formulaic advances made recently with the evolution of viruses. The scientist from this study hopes they can get models for viral evolution so precise that by knowing just a few features of a given system they can predict the fitness of a viral population. This could be useful because it could help to establish a point where a virus goes through a 'phase transition' (e.g. water goes from liquid to gas) and therefore 'de-localizes' and stops being dangerous to its host.

Corporations treat their shareholders the worst of all

BusinessWeek - How to Fix Financial Reporting
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/stories/2008-11-10/how-to-fix-financial-reportingbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice

An article long on principles, short on specifics. In general, there is a need for greater transparency in companies when it comes to their dealings with the capital markets. Companies have generally benefited from opening up to 3 of their 4 constituencies: customers, suppliers, employees, yet they tend to keep the 4th, the capital markets, in the dark. Derivatives should become more transparent, as should companies balance-sheets themselves. Suggestions include capitalizing off-balance-sheet assets, and standardizing financial reporting documents.

US History can be broken into different stages, or 'Republics'

Salon.com - Obama and the dawn of the Fourth Republic

The article argues that US history is a series of republics since 1788, three so far, with the fourth actually starting in 2004. Each lasted about 72 years, each had two parts: an expansion of governmental powers (Hamiltonian) and then a reforming and moderating (but not eliminating) tendency (Jeffersonian). These 'republics' coincided [but weren't related?] to changes in the economy in the US, major transitions from old kinds of labor and production to new kinds. The article argues that Obama will be hailed as the first of the new republic.

Depressed people cope with physical pain worse

Reuters - Brains of depressed people handle pain differently

A short update on how people who suffer from depression react to the expectation of physical pain, and the actual experience of physical pain. In MRI studies, when expecting physical pain the brain showed more activity (than normally shown in healthy people) in some of the pain centers, and during the physical pain administered, less activity in the areas associated with coping or mitigating the pain. Depression and chronic pain are often found together in people.

This election followed a historical pattern; will it be 'soft' or 'hard'?

The New Republic - America The Liberal

A long (but very worthwhile) article about how the political landscape in America has 'hard' and 'soft' realignments, America's versions of revolutions. The ground shifts under the bodies of government and new electorates emerge. Here, the emergence of urban and suburban professionals (along with minorities, including women) are seen to be the deciding factor in favor of the Democrats, as opposed to non-college-educated industrial workers. What punctuated the win here (and did so in 1932 and 1896) was an economic crash. The article ends with the prediction that to build a hard realignment for enduring Democratic governance is to take bold new steps instead of incremental ones.

Is the e-reader going to make it?

Reuters - E-readers wow at fair, but face tough competition

This article touches only mildly on the issue of technology becoming unused not because of obsolescence or a better product but instead because something else that is more established can do something similar almost as well. The e-reader is an example, a tablet that isn't backlit (therefore consumes very little energy) that you can read books from. It reduces what you have to carry if you want to read multiple things (efficient), and also can reduce use of printing presses and paper mills (green). Technological competition is coming from the blackberry/iphone/mobile phone market, which is already established and is making it easier and easier for people to read on them. Since people already have phones, they don't need to spend $300 on a new gadget. Also, some people still like enjoying (analog) books.

TV Made Me "Do It"

NYTIMES: Can TV Make Your Teen Pregnant?
and
The report from the pediatrics academy publication

The American Academy of Pediatrics is publishing a study linking teens and pre-teens watching of sexually suggestive television shows with an increased likelihood of teenaged pregnancy. The teenagers polled were twice as likely to become pregnant (all other factors, surprisingly, such as income, family structure, education, environment, etc. didn't change the percentages much) as teens who weren't watching shows quite so racy.

Are American voters stupid or just irrational?

LA Times - How smart is the American voter?

Studies done on how well informed the American voter is have shown a fairly ignorant lot. This hasn't changed since the first studies done in the 1950s-60s. Voters don't make decisions based on rational assessment of the issues. A new approach developed in the 90s that took all this for granted but tried to assert that voters instead make rational 'informational shortcuts' about how to vote, which, while irrational, might be predictable in certain ways. Also, you might think that 'better off now' might reward the incumbent, yet people are pretty bad at assessing what was due to politics, and also, even whether they were better off during the early stages of an elected term.