It turns out that you can use Google Earth to find whole civilisations in places that people have always thought could never be inhabited by large groups of people. The City of Z or El Dorado has been found this way, it will take archaologists decades to clear it and view it all.
Google Earth helps find El Dorado – Times Online.
But only if you lightly smack them, and you really should stop smacking them after the age of 6 – 11.
Smacked children more successful later in life, study finds – Telegraph.
A female scientist was fed up of hearing comments on the parking abilities of women and found that not only do they take 20 seconds longer on average to park, they’re 5% worse at it than men.
Men really ARE better at parking… and that’s a woman professor talking | Mail Online.
Using ECoG (electrocorticography) and overlaying electrodes directly on the surface of the brain, scientists can record reactions when letters are flashed on a screen and then play back the letters when that thought pattern is brought up. It’s around 8 letters per minute, but it’s something.
There’s also a piece where they translate thought patterns into music. An interesting article.
By Thought Alone: Mind Over Keyboard | h+ Magazine.
It turns out that there is a universal human method for doing insurgency, when it comes down to the number of casualties and the timing of events. This pattern is distinct and is based on an approximate power law.
Slashdot Science Story | Insurgent Attacks Follow Mathematical Pattern.
First this story: a guy has been sentenced to probation, where the officer gets to spend the next three years deciding if and who he’s allowed to date
Wis. teen will need legal permission to date girls – wtop.com.
And then we have this story where US soldiers are threatened with jail time if they impregnate or are impregnated.
WTF?
Prof Lajeunesse interviewed 20 heterosexual male university students who consumed pornography, and found on average, they first watched pornography when they were 10 years old.
Around 90 per cent of consumption was on the internet, while 10 per cent of material came from video stores.
Single men watched pornography for an average of 40 minutes, three times a week, while those in relationships watched it 1.7 times a week for around 20 minutes.
The study found that men watched pornography that matched their own image of sexuality, and quickly discarded material they found offensive or distasteful.
Prof Lajeunesse said pornography did not have a negative effect on men’s sexuality.
“Not one subject had a pathological sexuality,” he said. “In fact, all of their sexual practices were quite conventional.
“Pornography hasn’t changed their perception of women or their relationship, which they all want to be as harmonious and fulfilling as possible,” he added.
via All men watch porn, scientists find – Telegraph.
After many years, book deals and a ITV series, Belle de Jour reveals her identity,
Her name is Dr Brooke Magnanti. Her specialist areas are developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology. She has a PhD in informatics, epidemiology and forensic science and is now working at the Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health. She is part of a team researching the effects of exposure to the pesticide chlorpyrifos on foetuses and infants.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6917495.ece
Finally an alternative for the crutch! The freedom leg (crummy name) offloads your weight onto its’ structure allowing you to walk vaguely like a normal human whilst not having to kill off the use of an arm.
These guys put some people through some basic trust experiments and it turns out that people who are in a recently windex-ed room behave far more morally and are much less likely to exploit other people.
Clean Smells Promote Moral Behavior, Study Suggests.
The Lausanne university in Switserland has moved from the software to the reality: they’ve managed to get robots to evolve and learn behaviours, as well as the behaviour to decieve and cooperate through communication (flashing lights) and movement. It’ s a very interesting experiment, showing that robots are getting smarter every day and are now showing some very very lifelike traits.
Darwin’s Robots | h+ Magazine.
As an example, Peterson pointed to changes made along a section of Interstate 496 outside of Lansing, which accounted for 40 percent of reported incidents of aggressive driving in that area. When the speed limit was raised from 55 mph to 70 mph, incidents of aggressive driving dropped to zero.
“The low speed limit frustrated many drivers, so they drove over the speed limit. This caused problems for other drivers who were driving at the limit. The speed differential caused the tailgating, passing, and speeding that were reported as ‘aggressive’ driving,” Peterson said.
His data also showed accident rates in that area also fell when the speed limit was raised.
Surprisingly, the higher speed limit also improved traffic flow, nearly eliminating all symptoms of rush hour congestion along that stretch.
via Road rage’s causes and prevalence debatable | detnews.com | The Detroit News.
Which goes to show – it’s the Ipod / Iphone which is floating the Apple. Nope, Macs just suck and their fanboy users are a teeny tiny minority. And the rest of the I-Have-A-Mac smug bastards are hypocrites. You wouldn’t need a PC if your Mac was so perfect, now would you, mister I’m a Mac.
85% of Mac users own a PC | News | PC Pro.
NATO is looking towards the citizens of the alliance to contribute to a new understanding of NATO’s role and methodology. The new strategic concept is yet to be written and comments posted on their forum are fed to a panel of experts, who will have a hand in writing the new concept.
NATO’s Strategic Concept – Forum.
Yet another study showing how often and easily we lie, specifically to our kids.
Parents lie to kids more often than they realize – Behavior- msnbc.com.
This is an interesting article about someone who wore a North Paw (available as kit or with DIY instructions here for a while.
The North Paw is an ankle bracelet that continuously signals where North is by vibrating in that direction. Apparently this leads to some interesting results.
via My New Sense Organ | h+ Magazine.
As an organised activity: websites tell you which lines are particularly good for groping fellow passengers on.
Travellers warned of Tokyo train gropers | Travel News | News.com.au.
This one is so obvious, it’s incredible it hasn’t been done before: take the fat from a woman’s arse and insert into tits. Voila! Completely natural bigger breasts!
The Press Association: Unwanted fat for breast enlargement.
That’s nothing new, but it turns out they’re especially good a lying about affairs. And they’re having a lot of them. Especially now that they have more opportunities to have affairs.
This site has a list of all emergencies in Holland called n to police, fire department and ambulances and links the locations to Google Maps.
WWW.112MELDINGEN.NL Online 112 meldingen / P2000 alarmeringen van de hulpdiensten volgen..
Choosting a dentist is more difficult than you think – there is a huge list of things that indicate whether or not he’ll be any good and is up to snuff.
Secrets your dentist doesn’t want you to know — DailyFinance
This is the most awesome collection of paedophile, racist, anti-semitic, mysogenistic jokes ever. Basically, if you’re PC, don’t go. It’s fucking funny though.
Unbelievably, the man convicted of being responsible for the greatest disaster in Scotland, is possibly being released on ‘compassionate grounds’ of all things!
BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Lockerbie bomber ‘to be released’.