The Link Spam of a Math Pirate

It's been so long. Much catch up to be done... I'll start with the post with the stories that I had started editing in July but never completed.

First something close to my heart. Courtesy of Hamish it turns out that a law was been passed in New Zealand that makes software unpatentable. Also in politics, from the Chard, South Carolina proposed a law allowing anyone wishing to overthrow the US government to register and pay a $5 fee.

From episode 258 of the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe's 'Science or Fiction' segment it turns out of the arguments for free range, that free range eggs contain more toxins than regular ones. At least according to the this study from Taiwan. Although I've never heard the argument made myself I don't find it all that surprising that someone might be making it.

A number of links from Sequoia, of course. First the Wildlife Conservation Society and Federal University of the Amazonas have found a wild cat species mimicing the call of its prey (in this case a monkey). An article about how language influences the way we think (incidentally the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is my favourite lingustics hypothesis, and not only because it reminds me of Worf).

An paper that asks if your part time jobs women out earn men. They seemed not to control for the types of jobs but if put together with arguments like Warren Farrell's on the Wage Gap it's a promising sign that society may be more equal than is easily recognisable.

Researchers inplanted false symptoms. Worth reading. Finally, in what will hopefully be an IgNobel nominee growing clothing using bacteria.

From Lynsey it seems that after Hussein's draining of the Mesopotamiam marshes they are starting to recover and finaly from Nick a study that violent videogames reduce hostility.

extrasolar planets, boozy babies, filesharing helps society, genetic Jew ties, climate skeptics historical parallels, oil spill tracker, [...]

2010-07-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a while but I'm out of Palmerston North, through Christchurch, in Hobart and have internet again, so some of these stories are probably a little out of date. Although I have internet and have tried to post the original papers I'm currently unable to read and verify them.

First from slashdot is the news that the Kepler mission has found 752 Extrasolar planet candidates.

It turns out there is a study that apparently finds Booze breeds better babies. I think this is the orginal paper.

From ars technica is a story that argues file sharing has weakened copyright and helped society. Naturally the music industry, by which I mean the RIAA equivalents, are not convinced.

From nature are two interesting links. The first is that it seems Jews share worldwide genetic ties. The original paper may be found here. Also there is an article about defeating the merchants of doubt which discusses parallels between climate change skeptics and other groups in the past. Unfortunately you'll need to find someone with a subscription in order to be able to read it.

I've made a few posts on the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in the gulf of mexico. The New York Times have published an applet that tracks the oil spill in the gulf. It's kinda cool... and depressing.

I think from Sequoia comes an article talking about how the pentagon is one step closer to reanimation. I remember once upon a time hearing that a dog was reanimated... I wonder whatever happened with that... anyway this study was on rats and hasn't yet been applied to people. Also a study that finds botox may impair empathy with the original study here. She also sent me a link about a neuroscientist who has found "people with low activity [in a particular area of the brain] are either free-wheeling types or sociopaths".

From Tim is an article about the mineral wealth in Afghanistan and from Gillian a link to the Daily Shows response to this information.

From Marcel comes a link about a group in the Andies who are painting the rocks white in an effort to cool the area and allow glaciers to recover. I have to say I'm skeptical as surely when the glaciers were there the area was white and that seemed not to have helped overly...

From... someone (Edit: Sequoia)... is a story that suggests ravens show consolation and from... someone else... comes an article talking about the genetic secrets of living to 100.

Hayabushi Reentry, 5 Higgs Bosons, The Angry Tea Party, God Hates Statues, Chocolate Milk for Postexercise Recovery, ADHD and Single Mothers, Li[...]

2010-06-16T00:24:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Finch we have a video of Hayabushi breaking up in the atmosphere.

An article explaining more can be found here.

So after all the build up on the search of the God particle I find out from Lesley we may actually be looking for five. The in the proposed model the Higgs Bosons would have similar masses but different electrical charges.

From Hamish comes an opinion piece on the very angry tea party. I have to admit I'd only peripherally heard of them before now and still am not quite sure what the agenda is. But based in the description in the article I'm not surprised such a group exists.

From Marcel is an article about a statue of Jesus that was struck by lightening and burnt to the ground. I can only assume God really hated that statue considering some of the people that actually deserve such smiting.

From episode 255 of the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe come two interesting articles. Firstly it turns out that chocolate milk may be better for post exercise recovery than the drinks actually made for it. Second is a somewhat controversial link between ADHD and Low Maternal Education, Lone Parents and Welfare Benefits.

It seems there is possibly signs of life on Titan. I'll believe it when I see it though. So many of these stories just peter out or never go anywhere.
In more space news NASA is warning of a potential space storm in 2013, maybe the 2012 predictions have an off by 1 error.

From Erik comes an aritcle talking about the competitive nature of mothers.

From Sequoia come a report about a study that finds superstitious people do better. Or at least those with positive and uplifting superstitions.

From Episode 16 of skepicpod comes a story talking about how ginger may help pain after excessive exercise. The positive is that experiment was blinded and a placebo was included, the negatives include that the result was small, as was the sample size. A link to the article in the Journal of Pain is here.

Why are pop songs popular, low IQ - suicide risk link, NZ police to be permitted to work in local government

2010-06-13T23:37:00.001-07:00

Sequoia sends me a link about a study (I think this is the one the article talks about, although googling the authors names yields a number of other possibilities) that asked under what conditions do pop songs become pop song? It seems that although there are a few songs that everybody hates, or a few that everybody likes that if a song is mediocre it will become popular as a self-fulling prophecy.

From Scientific American: 60 Second Psych comes a report on a study that seems to link lower IQ and suicide rates. Although it comes with a few caveats and a number of possible explanations.

On a political bend a bill has been introduced by ~~the fascist~~Police Minister Judith Collins that would allow police to serve on local government, which is currently not permitted under present NZ law. At present to take up a governmental position a policeman cannot be a member of the force at the same time, there are no restrictions to doing one after the other.

Mentorships, Climate Change, Lumpectomies, Finding Liars with Drawings, Solar Sail, Equality in Sweden, PNG environmental legislature, oiled birds, BP

2010-06-10T02:18:00.001-07:00

A paper published this week explores the role of mentorship in future success. Using the mathematics genealogy project they compared a person's success and who their PhD supervisor(s) were. Basically the results suggest that having a successful supervisor is good for the student, provided it's in the first third of the supervisor's career, if it's in the last third the student will actually do much worse.

From Greg Laden's blog It seems the National Academy of Sciences has published a book titled Advancing the Science of Climate Change (purchasing through Greg's blog entry will get you a discount).

From the New York Times is an article that finds lumpectomies do not actually affect survival rate. The premise is that one removes underarm lymph nodes next to a cancerous breast. Interestingly Micheal Baum, the person who conducted the study in the New York Times, seems to be the person who originally pioneered the stratedy.

From Sequoia I got an article about how drawing can reveal you as a liar. The were able to be detected based upon which view they drew from and what was omitted with about an 80% success rate.

A Japanese spacecraft has successfully unfurled the first ever space sail. A cool hypothetical idea for propulsion in space but has yet to be actually tested.

From Gynn and again the New York Times is an article talking about how gender-equal Sweden in. In addition to other things in place of 'maternity leave' is 'parental leave'.

From Lynsey Papua New Guinea has passed laws to protect industy from indigenous law suits. In particula

The Papua New Guinea legislature on May 28 amended sections of the country's Environment and Conservation Act to shield corporations from any responsibility for environmental damage caused by their operations, whether intentional or accidental.

. Under the new legislation industry would pay once, prior to the project, based on how much damage they estimate they'd do and then basically get free reign.
From Tania BP has been accused of lack of integrity, reports at BP over years find a history of problems and news on efforts to limit the flow of the spill. In particular it seems the current leak estimates is that a quatity equivalent to the Exxon Valdez oil spill was being leaked every 8-10 days! From Sequoia comes an article asking the depressing question is it worth rescuing the oil coated birds in the spill?. According to a German researcher Sylvia Gaus the survival rate of cleaned birds is lower than 1%. Thus in a position such as this when a certain level of triage is needed the cleaning shouldn't be engaged in.

Power from rat hearts, modern art, internet makes you smarter, wine tasting, lots of links related to the deep horizon oil spill

2010-06-06T17:02:00.001-07:00

So it's been a while. But I've been dutifully taking note of interesting links I find. First, another economy based youtube video from Simon. If nothing else the animation is cool.

From Sequoia comes an article on how to use rat heart beats to generate electricity and a cool piece of art which is a recreation of the sun. She also sent an article that argues the internet makes you smarter and draws parallels to other things in history. It also turn out yet another study has been done on whether pros can tell different wines apart. The results not looking so good.

Finally you can't seem to go anywhere and not hear about the Deep Horizon oil spill at the moment. Sophie posted a collection of photos from the spill. Simon posted a link that suggests BP made some bad decisions leading up to the disaster. Richard posted a link that points out Nigeria has similarly sized oil spills relatively often. A story from slashdot that BP bought the oil spill oil search term suggesting they may be trying to improve public relations. Someone else posted about someone who created a cloth that successfully separates water from Gulf water. Finally on a more amusing note an Auckland store has launched a BP flavour gelato, with $1 from each one sold going to charity, thanks Sarah.

Science Impotence, Archaeo-Alcohology, Acupuncture, Bird Feathers, Ball Lightning

2010-05-28T17:59:00.001-07:00

From slashdot comes an article about "scientific impotence". It's an idea I've been exposed to, it seems that

regardless of whether the information presented confirmed or contradicted [the subjects'] existing beliefs, all of them came away from the reading with their beliefs strengthened.

.

Sequoia posted a link that talks about a group that resurrected an old alcohol recipe. Amongst other ingredients are cacao and chili. I feel I must try this.

From Scientific American's 60 second science comes a stort that details a possible mechanism behind acupuncture. I won't lie, this sent my skeptic sense a-tingling. Largely because after the discovery of a way of blinding acupunture trials it is increasingly to be found to be adequatly described by the placebo affect. Luckily for me a blog gives it a much less credulous coverage.

Finally from one of the more recent episodes of the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe come two interesting stories. The first was that early bird feather's were not made for flight.
and the second is a possible explanation for ball lightning. Although as Steven Novella points out in the podcast the conditions are so exacting that, if it is an explanation at all, it's not likely to be the only one.

Patenting synthetic life, smallpox vaccine helps fight HIV, organic Food (is bullshit), wine tasting.

2010-05-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

I shall apologise in advance. This weeks post is likely to be ranty.

After the awesometastic synthetic life creation I blogged about previously the guy in charge has done something lame: tried to patent it. I won't lie. I think the whole idea behind patents and IP is bullshit. On one level because there is a implicit assumption that whosoever is granted a patent is a genius and noone could possibly ever have come up with such a great idea without seeing his first, but also because it seems to be used to quash competition rather than the much touted benefit of encouraging innovation. In my opinion the latter doesn't even make much sense since the options are to (watch as I make a false dichotomy) a) sit on your patents collecting money b) be forced to innovate cos everybody's always stealing your stuff. Anyway another factoid was revealed to me that makes me feel somewhat better about what, as far as I can tell, is just an opinion: the fashion industry lacks copyright.

Moving right along. From 60 second science comes a paper that suggests the smallpox vaccine may have offered partial protection against HIV. It tickles my irony bone to think that a vaccine was so successful at wiping out an illness that it stopped being used, despite conferring other benefits people were unaware of.

Finally Steven Novella wrote an article on whether organic food is more healthful. It basically breaks down a systematic review and in general the scientific results have found that organic food is not more nutritious, doesn't taste better, isn't better for the environment and isn't better for people. (The article and posts in comments will fill in any links I can't be bothered finding). However further from this I discovered that expensive wine tastes better. I didn't realise this had actually been studied. Having been to a few wine tastings at various conferences as far as I'm concerned wine tastes like wine. I was also often puzzled by a room of scientists being happy to have someone stand up, tell them what the wine is supposed to taste like, and then taste it!

Actually that wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. Carry on.

Schedule 4 Submission

2010-05-24T19:19:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 26 May 2010 is the last opportunity to make a submission regarding the review of Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals act. You can make a submission online from here. My submission was as follows

Q1 On the areas proposed for removal from Schedule 4:
Section 7 of the discussion paper sets out the areas proposed for removal from Schedule 4. Do you think these areas should be removed from Schedule 4 so that applications for exploration and mining activity can be considered on a case-by-case basis? Yes or No? And why? (Your response may be in relation to any one or more of the areas discussed. Please clearly identify the area(s) to which your response relates.)

No. If you are considering a case-by-case basis then it would seem more sensible to have Schedule 4 protection also removed on a case-by-case basis. A tragic outcome would be for some company to pick up the land for cheap should no other company want it.

Q2 On the areas proposed for addition to Schedule 4:
Section 8 of the discussion paper sets out the areas proposed for addition to Schedule 4. Do you agree with the proposal to add these areas to Schedule 4? Yes or No? And why? (Your response may be in relation to any one or more of the areas discussed. Please clearly identify the area(s) to which your response relates.)

I'm indifferent to this. On the one hand if the proposed land has notable conservation status then it should be added to Schedule 4, regardless of what happens to any other land. On the other hand if it is being proposed, as I suspect, to make people feel good about giving up pre-existing Schedule 4 then I don't think it should be. In one sense if it isn't worth putting in schedule 4 it shouldn't be put there, and secondly that it sets a precedent that Schedule 4 land could be taken out later if the powers that be change their mind about the worth of the land.

Q3 On the assessment of areas:
The assessment of areas covered by Schedule 4 and those proposed for addition is outlined in sections 7 and 8 of this document and Appendices 1 and 2.
(a) What are your views on the assessment of the various values (conservation, cultural, tourism and recreation, mineral, other) of the land areas discussed?

In general fine. I do note that seemingly when the mineral wealth is potentially high usually removal is proposed only if there are no cultural values attached, conservation values seem to be ignored in terms of making the final decision.

(b) Do you have any additional information that may be important for Ministers to make their decisions?

The maps seem a bit vague conservation wise. It seems to me that it would have been sensible to look within schedule 4 at where important populations of native flora and fauna are centered and then overlay the proposed areas for mining. Afterall conservationally not all land is equal.

(Your response may be in relation to any one or more of the areas or values discussed. Please clearly identify the area(s) to which your response relates.)
Q4 On the proposal to further investigate the mineral potential of some areas:
The Government is carrying out a research and investigation programme on the mineral potential of areas with significant mineral potential over the next nine months.
Areas include the Coromandel, parts of Paparoa National Park and Rakiura National Park, and a number of non-Schedule 4 areas.
(a) Do you have any comments on the type of information that would be the most useful to mineral investors?

No.

(b) Are there any particular areas that the Government should consider including in its investigation programme?

I'm probably going to get myself into trouble for saying this but I don't think anywhere should not be considered for investigation (note I say this not being fully aware of how destructive, if at all, investigation is). Even if it's not pursued in the immediate future it seems sensible to know approximately what mineral worth is located where.

Q5 On a new contestable conservation fund:
Section 9 describes a proposed contestable conservation fund the Government proposes to establish, which would be made up of a percentage of the money the Crown receives from minerals (except petroleum) from public conservation areas.
(a) A broad objective, to enhance conservation outcomes for New Zealand, is proposed for the fund. Do you agree with the proposed objective?

I would have to say I'm against this. Firstly "The fund would not be used to mitigate the effects of modern mine sites or to provide compensation as appropriate for mining activities. Mining companies would be responsible for that themselves (it would continue to form a part of their resource consent and access conditions)." although mining companies should indeed make sure the impacts are minimal there is no mention here of how it would be monitored. Having the companies themselves also monitor it seems a recipe for disaster.

I'm not clear why DOC has been ruled out of receiving it.

Additionally "It would not be restricted to public conservation areas." seems rediculous. So land is taken out of schedule 4 for mining, generates revenue, and that money potentially doesn't go back into public land?! Really?

(b) What do you think the fund should be used for? What should its priorities be?

Dammit Jim, I'm a mathematician not an ecologist.

(c) An independent panel appointed by the Minister of Energy and Resources and the Minister of Conservation is proposed to run the fund. Do you think this is a good idea?

Potentially, although it seems to be lacking people concerned with tourism and/or cultural values.

(d) It is proposed that half of royalties from public conservation areas are contributed to the fund, with a minimum of $2 million per year for the first four years, and a maximum of $10 million per year. Do you think the amounts proposed for the fund are appropriate?

I don't know enough to answer that question.

(e) Do you have any other comments that might help the Government to make decisions on a new conservation fund?

How could DOC and other related organisations fit into the scheme? Presumably there shall be similar aims and requirements for expertise that DOC, et al. probably already have.

Q6 On approval of access arrangements:
In section 6 it is proposed that the joint approval of the land-holding Minister and the Minister of Energy and Resources be required for an access arrangement on Crown land for mineral exploration or development. Do you think this is appropriate? Why or why not?

Not completely. Surely the Minister of Conservation should be in there as well since it seems likely a lot of the mining will be happening within or next to conserved land.

Q7 On any other issues:
Do you have any further suggestions or comments on what has been said in this document?

No.

Facebook WWII, The Unincorporated Man, Boltzmann Equation, Cellphone Inventor Taunting, Top Species for 2010, Synthetic Genome

2010-05-19T17:53:00.000-07:00

From Hamish comes a description of WWII for the FB generation.

From James, my favourite economist, comes a link that talks about a book titled The Unincorporated Man. It explores the idea that a person's income stream can be bought and sold. The link includes the following quote:

"What if," answered Hektor, without missing a beat, "instead of giving two, three, four dollars a month for a charity's sake, you gave ten dollars a month for a 5 percent share of that kid's future earnings? And you, of course, get nothing if the kid dies. Now you have a real interest in making sure that kid got that pair of shoes you sent. Now it's in your interest to find out if he's going to school and learning to read and write. Now maybe you'll send him that box of old clothes you were thinking of throwing away. Under your system you write a check and forget about the kid, who'll probably starve anyway. Under our system, you're locked into him.

In maths news a pair of Penn State University mathematicians have found solutions to the Boltzmann Equations. I don't know that I'd heard of them before but via the article I discovered fractional derivatives. They break my mind a bit. It involves finding fractional, or even complex, powers of the differential operator.

From Sequoia comes an amusing tale that the inventor of the cellphone used the first call to taunt his rival. Marty Cooper's phone call was

Joel! This is Marty Cooper. I'm calling you from a cellular phone. But a real cellular phone. A handheld portable cellular phone.

From Gillian the International Institute for Species Exploration has released a Top 10 new species.

Dan posted a link detailing the first functional glucose biofuel cell in a living animal.

Finally a post about a scientist that appears to have completely synthesised a genome and implanted it in another cell. Gillian was good enough to find the original paper for me.

LED data transfer, cognitive biases, staring at boobs, German stabbing bot arms

2010-05-15T18:09:00.001-07:00

From Sequoia I received two links the first is a claim from researches at the Chinese Academy of Sciences that that can successfully transmit data using LEDs. I tried to find the original paper without success seemingly they achieved 2Mbs^-1 and the flickering was so inperceptible that it could be used for room lighting.

The second was a visiual study guide for cognitive biases. There are a lot. Some I suspected existed, some I had no idea about. But you should totally look at the article---it has pictures!

From The CUSP episode 4 is an article that staring at boobs daily prolongs a man's life by 5 years. Much to my chagrin it turns out not to be true.

Finally from the Amateur Scientist podcast comes information of a study from German Researchers that were trying to teach a knife welding robot arm to tell when it was stabbing was soft tissue. I tried to find the original study but the PDF results from google scholar seemed to all be dead. At any rate switched on has a good deal of detail and video, including one of a researcher allowing the robot to stab him.

Getting a Tattoo, Eugenie Scott, Meditiation helps Visual Perception, The Ship of Theseus, Life Expetency and Marriage, Watching TV makes you smarter!

2010-05-13T12:23:00.001-07:00

First on a light note we have a flow chart on how to decide whether or not to get a tattoo.

Then an hour long lecture given at SkeptiCal by the awesome Dr Eugenie Scott talking about how science and scepticism are related.

From UC Davis comes a study suggesting visual perception is heightened by meditation training. Unfortunately they don't seem to include a control group in the study which seems shouldn't have been too difficult, just send the control on a holiday for the same amount of time, so I don't know that I'm particularly confident in the results.
Edit: There was a control group, mea culpa.

When reading a paper this week I came across an idea from philosophy that discusses the ship of Theseus. It asks about at what point Theseus ship stops to be Theseus' ship whilst you are replacing parts of it (the paper was comparing this to when a genome is made up of a significant amount of LGT). While reading a bit more about it I found an article that suggests the average age of the cells in your body is ten years. It's a somewhat disconcerting thought that there may be a time before which I was made up of completely different set of cells.

From Barbara comes a link about a study from the Max Planck Institute that finds the greater the age difference between a wife and her partner the shorter her life expectancy.. Interestingly the result doesn't also hold for men.

There was an article published by the New York Times that argues watching TV makes you smarter. Although I will say that at the time of writing this post I haven't read the entire thing yet.

Edit: I seem to have omitted an article. The Russians have suggested a solution for the major oil slick in the gulf of mexico: nuke the bastard!

Night Owls have higher IQ, light based computers, green not green,...

2010-05-12T02:48:00.000-07:00

From James comes an article about a study that seemingly links IQ of children with their sleep time This comes as a bit of a burn to me being a morning person It'd be interesting to read the original study if anyone knows the link.

From Sequoia comes an article that could see the origin of biological and light based computers

From Hamish is an article about how the color green isn't actually green. I file this under the way hippes tend to be satisfied with the appearance of ecologically friendly without paying attention to the underlying facts.

Finally from episode 251 of The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe has three interesting stories. The first talks about how people listening to charismatic individuals tend to suspend critical thinking abilities. The second has found there is a 6-fold increase of getting dementia if you are the spouse of a dementia sufferer. And the last talks about a thin coating modeled after moth eyes that can make any glass non-reflective.

First Post!

2010-05-11T16:01:00.001-07:00

Before my first attempt at a blog post proper we have a youtube video "Fear the Boom and Bust" by Hayek and Kaynes. Rap about economics: whatever will be next.

From economics to space we have a few articles. The first from Zane about how one of Jupiter's stripes is gone. Tbe big read spot is still there though. The second from Jason where a Hole has been formed in the birth of stars. The associated picture looks almost like an artist's interpretation of the situation.

From Finch come two stories with a Russian theme. the first details how nukes could be used to help the oil slick that currently plagues the coast of the southeast states. The second is about a woman that seems to be treating cats like magic crystals

Finally from episode 101 from the amateur scientist podcast there is an article about how Prince Phillip is the object of a cargo cult of the Yaohnanan tribe in Vanuatu. Wikipedia has a write up and if you would like to know more about cargo cults Skeptoid has a good episode on it.

No dating, thanks, just sex

2010-05-11T12:58:00.001-07:00

(via Whitt)
No dating, thanks, just sex

Dating culture is dead - instead, young New Zealand women are regularly getting drunk and cruising around in packs looking for men to have sex with.

I also like

The Sunday Star-Times' Being a Bloke survey last year found that 29% of the 5000 men surveyed felt they had been pressured into having sex or had had sex unwillingly.

This seems to me to be another case of the following examples that I have come across

Once upon a time adults used to criticise teens for spreading STD's. Viagra hits the market and STD rates in the older population skyrocket, and

Older women going to, say Africa, to hook up with younger guys

In the sense that one group criticises another group for doing something, then it becomes accepted or available for the criticising party and they start doing it. More evidence that people are people.

Inbreeding Is Bad for Ant Immunity

2010-05-10T22:27:00.000-07:00

Inbreeding Is Bad for Ant Immunity

When it comes to ant immunity, the colony is the body. Much like the billions of immune cells that protect us from disease, the horde of ants in a colony coat their nest in antibacterial resin to ward off pathogens. Now, scientists have found more intriguing parallels. For the first time, they have observed ant colonies removing infected larvae to prevent the spread of sickness, a behavior analogous to white blood cells ridding the body of dangerous pathogens and previously seen only in bees. And just like inbred humans and purebred pets, inbred ant colonies have weaker "immune systems": they're slow to detect disease and remove infected larvae, putting the entire population at risk.

Wash Away Your Doubts When You Wash Your Hands

2010-05-10T22:26:00.000-07:00

Wash Away Your Doubts When You Wash Your Hands

Washing your hands "wipes the slate clean," removing doubts about recent choices.

'Lord Jesus Christ' Run Down In Crosswalk

2010-05-10T22:25:00.000-07:00

'Lord Jesus Christ' Run Down In Crosswalk

The 50-year-old man is from Belchertown. Officers checked his ID and discovered that, indeed, his legal name is Lord Jesus Christ. He was taken to the hospital for treatment of minor facial injuries.

Labour: Private prisons a 'failed experiment'

2010-05-10T22:24:00.001-07:00

Labour: Private prisons a 'failed experiment'

Labour says the government is going to repeat a "failed and costly experiment" when it puts Mt Eden-Auckland Central Remand Prison under private management.

New Bionic Arms Are Strong, Sensitive, Human-Friendly

2010-05-10T22:22:00.000-07:00

New Bionic Arms Are Strong, Sensitive, Human-Friendly

Robotics and prosthetics designers have been making great advances in the power, sensitivity and humanity of their creations.

Mice Show Pain on Their Faces Just Like Humans

2010-05-10T22:15:00.000-07:00

Mice Show Pain on Their Faces Just Like Humans

Mice in pain have facial expressions that are very similar to human facial expressions, according to scientists who have developed the “mouse grimace scale.” The pain expressions of mice could help researchers gauge the effectiveness of new drugs.