Fish Punish Fish For Bad Manners
Fish may dine underwater, but they still need to remember their manners at mealtime.
Males of a certain fish species will punish females when they misbehave while eating, a new study finds.
And the chastisement occurs even though the males are not directly affected by the female’s trouble-making, indicating that these fish may exhibit a form of human social behavior known as third-party punishment, the researchers say.
Live Science (thanks, Tammy)
‘Lifeless’ Prion Proteins Are ‘Capable Of Evolution’
“Scientists have shown for the first time that “lifeless” prion proteins, devoid of all genetic material, can evolve just like higher forms of life.
The Scripps Research Institute in the US says the prions can change to suit their environment and go on to develop drug resistance.
Prions are associated with 20 different brain diseases in humans and animals.
The scientists say their work suggests new approaches might be necessary to develop therapies for these diseases. ”
BBC (thanks, SarahWoo)
Court Dismisses Atheist’s Lawsuit Regarding Fort Riley
“A federal judge in Kansas dismissed a lawsuit Thursday by an atheist soldier who claimed his rights were violated because he had to attend events where prayers were said while stationed at Fort Riley.
U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil ruled Army Spc. Dustin Chalker failed to exhaust all other alternatives before he and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation sued the Department of Defense in 2008.
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation said Chalker’s case reflected a pattern of religious intolerance and proselytizing by members of the armed forces. Mikey Weinstein, president of the Albuquerque, N.M., foundation, said an appeal of the ruling would be filed with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.”
Kansas City (thanks, Tammy)
This Week’s Derren Tweets
We will be doing a blog post each week showing Derren’s tweets for all those who aren’t on twitter. So here’s the first!
4th Jan – Lovely day in Brizzle. Museum cafe and other haunts. Fell flat on arse in icy Victoria Square Clifton. Saw Pete Clifford’s excellent Christmas magic show. Bit tipsy, off to sleepy Bedforshire. Ner-night. X
4th Jan – Off for brunch at Peter’s and then must watch first cut of latest documentary to send notes thereupon. Docs will air in Spring. Crisp chill.
4th Jan – Still in Bristol: ‘Peter’ is P. Clifford, dear friend and actor/magician. Played our ‘scientist’ in Milgram experiment in Heist.
4th Jan – Sunset on deep frost viewed through train window. Glorious.
4th Jan – Listening to music through the flat on my Xmas-gift-to-self Sonos system. Amazing, can even control from iPhone. http://www.piurl.com/20Ci
6th Jan – Cooked lunch with Coops and his lady and are now listening to Christmas carols and watching snow. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah
9th Jan – Sat in Starbucks. If any of you are passing, come in and say hello and I’ll buy you a coffee.
9th Jan – Not one of you? Feck it, I’m going home.
Rare Self-Rolling Giant Snowballs Found In UK
They may look like winter’s answer to crop circles, but these mysterious snow rolls are in fact a rare natural phenomenon usually found only in the world’s most remote and frozen regions.
Also known as snowrollers, snow bales and snow doughnuts, they form mostly in unusual conditions created by a precise combination of snow, ice, wind, temperature and moisture on the prairies of North America.
But this week’s frozen weather has allowed the snow cylinders to make a freak appearance in the UK.
Telegraph (thanks, Tammy)
What actually gets taught on a homeopathy course
“The purpose of this post is to reveal a few samples of things that are taught on a homeopathy ‘degree’ course. The course in question was the “BSc Hons homeopathy course at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN). Entry to this course was closed in 2008 and, after an internal review, UCLAN closed almost all of the rest of its courses in alternative medicine too. The university is to be commended for this .
The purpose of making public some of what used to be taught is not to embarrass UCLAN, which has already done the sensible thing, but to make it clear that the sort of thing taught on such courses is both absurd and dangerous, in the hope of discouraging other courses.
There was a lecture on HP3002 called “A Homeopathic Approach to Cancer (Ramakrishnan methodology [sic])”.. Click the link below to see the 10 slides from that lecture. It is illegal to claim to be able to cure cancer under the Cancer Act 1939. If a homeopath were to make claims like these in public they’d be open to prosecution, not to mention in breach of the SoH’s code of ethics. If cancer is not a “named disease”, what is?
This lecture alone strikes me as a cruel (and possibly illegal) hoax perpetrated on desperate patients. Of course a true believer might get some solace from taking the sugar pills, but that is not sufficient justification.
Read the full article with more slides over at DCScience
Our brains are confused about time
“A recent study published in the journal Psychological Science has found our concept of time is distorted, and we consistently underestimate how much time has passed since events in the past, condensing the time.
The researchers, led by Dr. Gal Zauberman, Associate Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, wondered why events that occurred at about the same time can feel more or less distant. Previous research had suggested that characteristics pertaining to the event itself could influence the time estimate, so Zauberman and his team decided to focus on the characteristics of the time interval following the event to see how they influenced the perception of time.
They tested university students to find out how accurately they could estimate when news events had occurred. Events included the appointment of US Federal Reserve chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Britney Spears shaving her head. They found the students underestimated the time passed since the events by, on average, three months, and that the estimate depended on the extent of memories of related events that have occurred since. The more details students had of related events in the interval, the longer ago the event seemed to have occurred. Dr Zauberman said it seems that people have trouble understanding the passage of time, and we need to “latch onto something we do understand” in order to comprehend it.
This may explain, for example, why children we rarely see seem to grow up faster than those we see every day — because there are fewer intervening memories — and so the time seems condensed. It may also explain why goals that are not acted upon seem to have been made a short time ago, while those that were acted upon seem to have been made in the more distant past.”
Read more at Physorg
Tim Minchin – STORM Movie 2010
Excuse me whilst I wee myself over how good this looks now and it’s just a trailer. Can’t wait until this is released.
Bookie refuses to pay out £7 million on snow bet
Bookmaker Ladbrokes is refusing to pay out more than 7 million pounds to a man who gambled on a white Christmas across the UK, as the bet was accepted by mistake. Cliff Bryant, 52, had placed two 5-pound accumulator bets that snow would fall on 24 towns and cities across the north of England on Christmas Day.
“We have apologised to the customer for any confusion and for mistakenly accepting an accumulator bet when our own rules state that only single bets are available on a market of this nature,” said a Ladbrokes spokesman. “We are happy to void the bets and to pay the customer his winnings on the relevant singles.” They however amount to just 31.78 pounds, rather than the 7.1 million Bryant was expecting.
The graphic designer from Southampton, who told the local Southern Daily Echo newspaper he was “gutted” and would seek legal advice, claims the first accumulator would have won him 4.9 million pounds, with the second adding 2.2 million. “If I make a mistake in my work like that it costs me dearly and I think the offer should be a lot more generous than they have made,” he told the paper.
Read more at Yahoo News
Two girls aged 12 and 14 pull bank heist
Police in Ohio are searching for two brazen girls, believed to be as young as 12 and 14, who robbed a bank in a Cincinnati suburb and escaped a police dragnet that included a helicopter and dogs.
The baby faced bank robbers, one believed to be 12 years old and the other 14 or 15, entered the 1st National Bank in Symmes Township, “walked up to the bank teller, and gave the teller a note demanding money,” Steve Barnett, spokesman for the Hamilton County Sherriff’s Office, said in a statement.
Neither of the girls carried a weapon, but “the teller gave the suspects an undetermined amount of U.S. currency,” according to Barnett.
The bank was robbed at 3:19 p.m. There was one teller, but no customers in the bank at time. No one was injured.
The girls were last seen fleeing in a easterly direction from the bank.
ABC (with video)
