Science Phile

I’d like to see you call it an ancillary risk when your jaw is inside a shark’s mouth.

Polar bear eaten by shark: who’s top predator? | U.S. | Reuters Scientists studying the Greenland shark’s hunting habits were stunned to find part of the jaw of a young polar bear during a dissection… [A polar bear "expert"] also said: “For polar bears the greater risk is a loss of habitat. These other things will be ancillary.”

Isn’t it a lot more likely that the number is a logarithmic function of the total population? Obviously the constant wasn’t 6.2, 6, or 6.6 when humanity came out of Africa 30,000 years ago, and it probably won’t be 6.6 when the population of the Galactic Empire is 100 trillion.

Instant-Messagers Really Are About Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon - washingtonpost.com
“To me, it was pretty shocking. What we’re seeing suggests there may be a social connectivity constant for humanity,” said Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher who conducted the study with colleague Jure Leskovec. “People have had this suspicion that we are really close. But we are showing on a very large scale that this idea goes beyond folklore.”

Here’s a JPEG version of this insanely cool image, created by supercomputer.

Dinosaur supertree

What is the importance of this discovery?
Two things. We have made one of the biggest supertrees yet attempted - with 440 species. The more species you include, the more possible trees might exist - for 440, the number is huge, more than the number of atoms in the Universe. A year or two ago, this wouldn’t have been possible, but now, with ever-faster and larger computers, problems like this can be tackled. Second, we have used statistical approaches for the first time to determine the real pattern of dinosaurian evolution and to test for times of unusually high rates of diversification.

What is a supertree?
A supertree is a tree made up from many ’source’ trees, the original published trees. In this case, we tracked down 155 published trees, some of which covered only a family, others a larger group. These are then combined to produce the best fitting single solution. Of course, the source trees, published by dozens of palaeontologists around the world, include all sorts of conflicts and disagreements. So the supertree methods have to find ways to find the ‘majority’ or strongest verdict.

BillingsGazette.com :: Famous assassinations: Who could doctors save today?

Would Julius Caesar or John F. Kennedy have survived if they were attacked in Billings today?

Dr. Terry Housinger, a general surgeon at the Billings Clinic, tackled the topic of famous assassinations at a meeting of the History of Medicine Club, offering his audience of medical students and doctors a chance to reflect on the evolution of trauma care.

After describing the circumstances surrounding each famous assassination, Housinger offered his opinion on whether modern medicine could have saved those high-profile victims if the attack had occurred in Billings today.

A terrific article by Donna Healy of the Billings Gazette. Must read if you are a history buff.

Technorati Tags: medicine, history, assassinations

187921main_image_feature_900_ys_full.jpg (JPEG Image, 1536×1017 pixels)

The cool thing about this beautiful image is that it is real.

The Speaker Law Firm | Atlanta Car, Motorcycle and Trucking Accident Attorney

t is true that at times the government must act to protect the public’s welfare and balance personal liberties with public safety. Two popular quotes are that, “With great power comes great responsibility” and Edmund Burke, “The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.” The ability to put a leash on someone’s personal liberty, when granted, must be used with great discretion.

Well said, Mr. Speaker. Now feast your eyes on these words:

Georgia State Bar Rule 4-108, Conduct Constituting Threat of Harm to Clients or Public; Emergency Suspension.

(a) Upon receipt of sufficient evidence demonstrating that an attorney’s conduct poses a substantial threat of harm to his clients or the public and with the approval of the Immediate Past President of the State Bar of Georgia and the Chairperson of the Review Panel, or at the direction of the Chairperson of the Investigative Panel, the Office of General Counsel shall petition the Georgia Supreme Court for the suspension of the attorney pending disciplinary proceedings predicated upon the conduct causing such petition.

Surely flying on a crowded aircraft with drug-resistant tuberculosis meets the standard of substantial threat of harm to the public.

Technorati Tags: Andrew Speaker, CDC, TB

TB patient says he was lured into isolation - CNN.com

Andrew Speaker, a 31-year-old Atlanta, Georgia, attorney, said he would have gladly gone into isolation if health officials had asked him to. Instead, he said they asked him to swing by a New York City hospital for testing after his European vacation, then posted armed guards outside his door.

Waah. He should be disbarred.

Pew Research Center: Nations Call US Biggest Threat to Environment

In 34 of the 37 countries where data from the Pew 2007 Global Attitudes survey are available, the United States is named by a majority or a clear plurality as the country that is “hurting the world’s environment the most”–even a third of Americans rate their own country as the world’s biggest polluter, more than point to any other single country. (Respondents were asked to name a country from a list that included India, Germany, China, Brazil, Japan, United States and Russia.)

This is a striking poll result. My instinct is to say that it is a profoundly wrong-headed result … if you subtract the U.S. contribution to the world environmental situation in the last forty-five years (since, say, the publication of Silent Spring, you have a significantly dirtier world. But the perception can’t be dismissed so easily.

Technorati Tags: Pew Research

Boing Boing: Photos of cozy woodland home construction

the brilliant thing about this is that it’s fire-proof. The New York Times just had a great article about how stupid it is to build homes in fire-prone woods. (On Fringe of Forests, Homes and Fires Meet)

Technorati Tags: forest fires, hobbits

FOXNews.com - Man Survives Bobcat Attack by Choking Animal to Death - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. — A 62-year-old Florida man depended on his instincts when a bobcat attacked him, and it paid off — he survived, the bobcat didn’t.

The kicker: it attacked because it had rabies.