Advancements in Science 2012: Mouse Training

As part of our 2012 yearly wrap-up here at GF we would like to draw your attention to the breakthroughs in getting mice to perform chores before being fed. This demonstrates that mice are more capable of being trained than my children.

Instant Snow! (and Why to Start with Very Hot Water Instead of Room Temperature or Cold Water)

There's a persistent myth that cold water will boil faster than hot water (I guarantee it doesn't) and that hot water freezes fast than cold water (under some limited conditions it can). But in this video we see hot water instantly converted to snow in very frigid air. Cold water would not do this. Why? I'll let the tumblr Fuck Yeah Fluid Dynamics -- which is where I go this -- fully explain after the break, with a short amendment, but here's the short answer: the thrown hot water forms into small ice crystals as it freezes; cold water would stay more clumped together and become ice balls and hail.

The Best New York Times Graphics of 2012

I am going to be publishing some 2012 wrap-ups today and tomorrow -- there are too many to post them all in one night, and I've refused to start wrapping up 2012 before the end of the year. 

A great place to start is The New York Times's wrap up of its best interactive graphics of 2012. Every single one of these is an incredible piece of work and eclipses the most of the work I seeing elsewhere. They're so informative, so well designed, so beautiful that they deserve a separate post ... I'll be revisiting a few of these in subsequent posts related to some of their substance (I've published on a few in the past).

Firewall -- a Cool Video Installation

Firewall, by Aaron Sherwood and Mike Allison, uses a Microsoft Xbox Kinect sensor to measure the depth and location people push on a stretched sheet of spandex and then, via the magic of computer processing, displays certain visuals and the music. Via Colossal.

A Bacterium on a Diatom on an Amphipod ...

Note: this should be an animated GIF. If it is not zooming in, try opening the post and see if that works.

Turns out it's not turtles all the way down.

Via Infinity Imagined.

Words in Their Twitter-light

Ludibrious jollux as I may or may not be, though more likely am I to deliciate in kench and revel in bannigan than freck about in quagswagging busyness, this blog's scriptitation and perrisology aside as they bespeak the yameles widendream indicative of a hoddypeak, an illecebrous bibesy to words, though in truth I rarely drink, I still inform that the Matador Network has corraded and jargogle archaic words, ones apt to misuse and disputes over brabble and the malagrugrous trolling of the sanguinolent.

In Focus's Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendar

Every year Alan Taylor, formerly the editor of the Boston Globe's The Big Picture and now the editor of The Atlantic's In Focus, posts pictures from The Hubble Space Telescope leading up to Christmas.  Well, I got busy, what with sleigh repairs and everything, so, here you go a little late (click through for the full set of images, which are great) and here are some links to his prior advent calendars. The shots he selects are always beautiful and incredible.

Galileo Feynman's New Sponsor: Tho-Radia, for the Best in Radium Based Beauty Products

Just kidding. Galileo Feynman remains as always 100% income free. We are brushing our remaining teeth, though, with Doramad Radioactive Toothpaste. I don't know why I keep loosing teeth.

A full set of images of Tho-Radia's ads can be found at Retronaut. Oh, ehem, yes, also, "Doctuer Alfred Curie" of Tho-Radia was apparently no relation to Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie. 

Crafts with Amy Sedaris

What with the holiday season many of us (not me) get a little craft-y, and fortunately we you have Amy Sedaris here to help you.

Silicone Droplets on a Vibrating Sheet and Wave-Particle Duality

This video from Through the Wormhole, a series narrated by Morgan Freeman that used to air on the Science Channel in the U.S. offers an interesting analogy at the visible level to the quantum property of wave-particle duality. (N.B. The video's commentary is a bit over blown, and it is important to understand that, no matter how much we wish to be able to compare phenomena we know exist, due to repeated experiment, with ones we can easily see and grasp in everyday life, that is something of a fool's errand.  The forces that operate at the level of the very small are not ones anyone intuitively understands. You cannot intuitively understand it because, strictly speaking, there is no macro scale paradigm. That doesn't mean metaphors are useless -- they can be very valuable -- but we need to keep in mind they're metaphors.) Link via the tumblr Fuck Yeah Fluid Dynamics.

This is Normal in Some Universe (Maybe)

According to the multiverse interpretation of the Universe in physics (particularly astronomy and quantum dynamics) there is likely some parallel universe out there where this is normal:

It is also my theory that this entire video cannot be listened to in one continuous sitting without causing at least temporary insanity.  (Clip via John Walkenbach on Google+.)

Today's Study Subject: Math (or "Maths" if You're English or Under the Age of Five)

Just because it is a holiday does not mean we can let our studies slip. As a token of our recently acquired cultural breadth, today we will learn mathematics from Donald Duck! Are those snowflakes? Yes! This is perfect for Christmas! So, go get some eggnog to stay warm, um, kids, and let's get going!

The Moonlight Sonata

This is the hauntingly beautiful first movement and the light second movement:

And this is the fiery third movement:

Christmastime for the Jews

'Twas The Night Before Christmas

Continuing our extraordinarily successful educational series, and crossing it with our gone but not forgotten Herzog series, this mornings a reading for the little childrens: 

It's Christmas Eve! (So naturally it's time for Donald Duck's Christmas)

By the way, the subtitles are in Norwegian. "Jeg skal utslette dere!" means "I will destroy you!" This is just darn good family entertainment (with the nephews firing flaming snowballs at their uncle and so on and so on).

Why Donald Duck on Christmas Eve? That's a good question. 

(And, N.B., you can watch From All of Us to All of You on YouTube but it's broken into too many parts to post.)

The Great Swindle: A Provocative Essay on "Fake Ideas" and "Fake Emotions"

Balloon Dog by Jeff Koons, one of the artists Scruton believes
engages in fake art. 

Roger Scruton, writing at Aeon Magazine, has a lengthy essay on the prevalence, in his view, on how "fake ideas" and "fake emotions" have "elbowed out truth and beauty" in modern societies. It's an old argument, though he expresses it well, if provocatively:

... There are fake beliefs, fake opinions, fake kinds of expertise. There is also fake emotion, which comes about when people debase the forms and the language in which true feeling can take root, so that they are no longer fully aware of the difference between the true and the false. ...

... To fake things you have to take people in, yourself included. ... The fake really is shocked when he is exposed, since he had created around himself a community of trust, of which he himself was a member. ...

        ***
The most important way of clearing intellectual space for fake scholarship and culture is to marginalise the concept of truth. ...

Scruton makes several errors. For one -- and most importantly -- he conflates truth and beauty. They fundamentally differ. "Truth" can be spoken of in at least a quasi-objective way since there is a measure for truth: the world we inhabit. "Beauty" is always a matter of debate, and people can quite justifiably bring different measures to the conversation.

The Goddamn Apoalypse

The Goddamn Apoalypse tells you how many predicted apocalypses you've survived, giving you the details of the prediction of each. Darn you're lucky.

Slight of Hand

Today's School Break Assistance: Germs

We cover the entire subject of biology today:

School Break Study Assistance: The Markets of Britain

Grade schools are now on break for "the holidays" -- which is really one holiday -- here in the U.S. of A., and, as a public service, I will be posting educational material each morning so that the students don't fall behind. Today we cover economics with educational film The Markets of Britain:

Chuck Berry and John Lennon peform Memphis Tennessee while Yoko Ono Receives Space Messages

Rehnquist, Scalia, and Bork

There have been a number of damning articles about conservative Supreme Court Justices lately, topped by a scathing obit at Gawker of failed conservative Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork (who died on December 19, 2012). I've been hesitant to comment on them given the specifics of my work, but I think I am clear, and so I'll briefly touch on each of the articles.

First, on Bork, John Cook, the editor at Gawker wrote an obit entitled Robert Bork Was a Terrible Human Being and No One Should Grieve His Passing. The title is about the most restrained thing in the obit. Cook's ire is not directed so much at Bork's legacy as a judge (he was a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit) but at his role in the  the "Saturday Night Massacre", where he illegally fired Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox at the behest of President Richard Nixon, whom Cox was investigating. There's no question the firing was illegal (it was subsequently ruled to be illegal), and both U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his chief deputy William Ruckelshaus refused to carry out the deed and resigned before Bork did it. FBI agents then had Cox's office sealed (effectively allowing it to be sanitized of evidence against Nixon) -- FBI agents typically act at the direction of the US Attorney in such situations (who was then Bork), but I do not know if that was the case here.

Preparing for the End of the World at In Focus

From The Atlantic's In Focus, a few excerpts from a series of photos on "preppers" -- people preparing for the end of the world, though not particularly the supposed Mayan apocalypse.

Why, Yes, General Petraeus Does Look Natty in this Photo (Which Must Be Why the Washington Post Buried this Significant News Story in the Style Section)

On December 3 legendary reporter Bob Woodward disclosed that Rupert Murdoch (who, of course, owns a huge media empire and has come under suspicion for his organizations' illegal use of wiretaps, among other things) and Roger Ailes (president of Fox News and chair of Fox Television Stations), via their subordinate K.T. McFarland, asked David Petraeus (former US 4 star general and then head of operations in Afghanistan) to run for US President. Murdoch would finance the campaign, and Ailes would serve as the media adviser or chief of staff of the campaign. Petraeus refused. (N.B. I'd like to say "to his credit Petraeus refused," but he didn't refuse due to Murdoch's and Ailes's obvious conflicts of interest -- instead he said were he to ever run he'd take them up on their offers.)

A tape of the full recording is here; a transcript of the tape is here.

All I Want For Christmas Is You Played on Grade School Instruments (with Jimmy Fallon, Roots, Mariah Carey ...)

School is now out for the holidays, apparently, and so this seems apt:

I Can Personally Attest That This is True

I've got proof, too: this comes from the QR code on a card on the ketchup stand. This is true, too.

Eagle Attempting to Take a Child

Update: The video is now asserted on some good authority -- well, Gawker, so that has its own problems -- to be a fake. (We stand by our original "if legit" comment, below.)
______________________

This, if legit, is a bit scary. If that kid weren't so chubby ...

Wait, not scary? Well, then, there's this article from National Geographic.

And, yes, the choice of music over the slo-mo is a bizarre and inscrutable. Video via MetaFilter.

From Slate: The Clean Water Act is One of the Greatest Successes in Environmental Law

From an article in Slate worth reading in full:

A river catches fire, so polluted that its waters have “no visible life, not even low forms such as leeches and sludge worms.” This could describe the mythological River Styx from Hades. Residents of Cleveland, though, may recognize the government’s assessment of their own Cuyahoga River in 1969. While hard to imagine today, discharging raw sewage and pollution into our harbors and rivers has been common practice for most of the nation’s history, with devastating results. By the late 1960s, Lake Erie had become so polluted that Time magazine described it as dead. Bacteria levels in the Hudson River were 170 times above the safe limit.

             * * *
In 1972, a landmark law reversed the course of this filthy tide. Today, four decades later, the Clean Water Act stands as one of the great success stories of environmental law. Supported by Republicans and Democrats alike, the act took a completely new approach to environmental protection. The law flatly stated there would be no discharge of pollutants from a point source (a pipe or ditch) into navigable waters without a permit. ...

Protecting our nation’s waters may seem like common sense today, but the idea of nationally uniform, tough standards against polluters was both original and radical. ...

             * * *
By many measures, the Clean Water Act has fulfilled the ambition of its drafters. The sewage discharges that were commonplace in the 1960s are rare. The number of waters meeting quality goals has roughly doubled. Once a convenient dumping ground for all manner of filth, rivers now represent an urban gem. Hartford, Conn.; Kansas City, Kan.; Cleveland; and other cities have based much of their redevelopment around their now clean and inviting waters, with waterfront parks and the lure of fishing and trails along the water’s edge.

             * * *
But the glass is only half full, for major challenges remain. The EPA estimates that about half of our rivers and streams, one-third of lakes and ponds, and two-thirds of bays and estuaries are “impaired waters,” in many cases not clean enough for fishing and swimming. ...

From Slate: Sweden's Bizarre Tradition of Watching Donald Duck Cartoons on Christmas Eve

Via John Walkenbach on Google+, an article from Slate from a couple of years ago about the fact that on Christmas Eve in Sweden at 3:00 pm about 1/2 the total population watches a Disney special: Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul (literally "Donald Duck and his friends wish you a Merry Christmas" though the English version is known as From All of Us to All of You").

Kalle Anka, for short, has been airing without commercial interruption at the same time on Sweden's main public-television channel, TV1, on Christmas Eve (when Swedes traditionally celebrate the holiday) since 1959. The show consists of Jiminy Cricket presenting about a dozen Disney cartoons from the '30s, '40s, '50s, and '60s, only a couple of which have anything to do with Christmas. There are "Silly Symphonies" shorts and clips from films like Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and The Jungle Book. The special is pretty much the same every year, except for the live introduction by a host (who plays the role of Walt Disney from the original Walt Disney Presents series) and the annual addition of one new snippet from the latest Disney-produced movie, which TV1's parent network, SVT, is contractually obligated by Disney to air.

It's actually not just a Swedish tradition. From All of Us to All of You is also popular in Norway, Finland, and Denmark; indeed, Donald Duck is sort of to nordic countries as Jerry Lewis is to France or David Hasselhoff is to Germany.

Here's the introduction (1 minute long):

Paul Krugman on The GOP's Existential Crisis

Nobel Prize winner and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman had an excellent column a few days ago make several significant points about the "fiscal cliff" and the GOP's strategy over the last thirty years and its future.  His whole write-up is worth reading (it's short), but here's his key points:

1. The "fiscal cliff" is not a debt crisis but a crisis of political will. In fact, "borrowing costs are near historic lows." In other words, if the fed wants to borrow it does not have a problem doing so. [That's a little simplistic since it doesn't the amount of accumulated cost and debt service already existing nor credit rating issues.]

Now This is a Tree

Took this shot in the backyard yesterday -- I'm the guy in the red coat at the bottom. (Really, it's from National Geographic.)

Nice Tat, Dude

I, admittedly, am not much of a tattoo fan, but this is a great set of tattoos:

Paul Waldman on the Arguments Against Gun Control

Paul Waldman writing at The American Prospect takes on ten arguments that gun advocates frequently make to oppose regulation. Because I'd like to briefly extend on what he's missing from his comments, I repeat them in full with brief additional comments in blue bracketed italics [a bit of overkill].

1. Now isn't the time to talk about guns.
We're going to hear this over and over, and not just from gun advocates; Jay Carney said it to White House reporters today. [That is not what Jay Carney said. He said that the day of the Newtown murders -- "today" -- was not the day to comment on the gun debate but to focus on the dead, he in no way suggested that a debate should not go on driven in part by the horror of them.] But if we're not going to talk about it now, when are we going to talk about it? After Sandy hit the East Coast, no one said, "Now isn't the time to talk about disaster preparedness; best leave that until it doesn't seem so urgent." When there's a terrorist attack, no one says, "Now isn't the time to talk about terrorism." Now is exactly the time. [Of course the Newtown murders have to weigh heavily in the debate but the gun proponents -- and I'm not one -- are right to the extent they would point out that policy should not be rarely on a single incident and an emotional response can lead to bad policy. Exaggerated security fears led to bad security policy in light of 9-11. That said, there is a history of incidents every day, albeit not this extreme, that show guns of all kinds should be heavily regulated.]

John Quijada, Ithkuil, and Clarity in Language

At The New Yorker an article by Joshua Foer describes the development of Ithkuil, a language invented by John Quijada that is highly concise while seeking to be precise, explicit, and logical. In doing so Foer's article tells some of the interesting story of Quijada's "outsider" life while describing the invented language community (which is extensive and in which I have an interest), the limitations of "natural" languages, and historical efforts to overcome them. To let the article speak for itself:

Languages are something of a mess. They evolve over centuries through an unplanned, democratic process that leaves them teeming with irregularities, quirks, and words like “knight.” No one who set out to design a form of communication would ever end up with anything like English, Mandarin, or any of the more than six thousand languages spoken today.

“Natural languages are adequate, but that doesn’t mean they’re optimal,” John Quijada, a fifty-four-year-old former employee of the California State Department of Motor Vehicles, told me. In 2004, he published a monograph on the Internet that was titled “Ithkuil: A Philosophical Design for a Hypothetical Language.” Written like a linguistics textbook, the fourteen-page Web site ran to almost a hundred and sixty thousand words. It documented the grammar, syntax, and lexicon of a language that Quijada had spent three decades inventing in his spare time. Ithkuil had never been spoken by anyone other than Quijada, and he assumed that it never would be.

The FBI Files of Richard Feynman

Earlier this year Michael Morisy, one of the founders of the group MuckRock which specializes in Freedom of Information Act requests, obtained files from the FBI  for Richard Feynman. Given the brevity of the response (365 pages) and the importance of Feynman to so many substantial federal projects, it seems to me this is likely incomplete, but that is but a guess.

Regardless, some apparently thought Feynman was a communist and a spy. One tipster (whose name the FBI redacted in its response) stated:

I do not know—but I believe that Richard Feynman is either a Communist or very strongly pro-Communist—and as such is a very definite security risk. This man is, in my opinion, an extremely complex and dangerous person, and a very dangerous person to have in a position of public trust, particularly a position that so vitally affects the safety and welfare of this nation-both present and future as that of Science Advisor [sic] for President Eisenhower.

Pizza Order

The Humane and Beautiful Photography of Lee Jeffries

Lee Jeffries is (was?) an accountant and amateur photographer who began taking close-up images of the homeless after an encounter with a homeless girl. His work expresses not only the extraordinary humanity and depth of his subjects but radiates integrity. He's been around the web a bit (two posts on Colossal, for instance, and the source for some of the literalist graphite portraits by Franco Clun); but this hardly gives range to his works. There are extensive collections of his work at Flickr and 500px -- better sources than the few below since they're viewable larger size -- and his work is for sale at Yellow Korner.

Major 2012 Films, in Seven Minutes

Via Neatorama, this is a superlatively edited mash-up by YouTube user genrocks of more than 300 movies released in 2012.  Hpw do you cover 300+ films in seven minutes? Well, you'll have watch -- it really is excellent. The films used are listed here.

Genrocks also made great mash-ups of 2011 and 2010 movies.

Steven Pinker on the Brain, the Mind, and Evolution

While researching The Spectator article I linked to earlier tonight (well, this morning), I noticed this provocative quote from Steven Pinker's facebook page:

Why do people believe that there are dangerous implications of the idea that the mind is a product of the brain, that the brain is organized in part by the genome, and that the genome is a product of evolution?

2012 -- The Greatest Year Ever?

An article in The Spectator (attributed to Harvard experimental psychologist and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker in a post in MetaFilter, though I don't see a byline) argues that 2013 was the greatest year in the history of the world:

It may not feel like it, but 2012 has been the greatest year in the history of the world. That sounds like an extravagant claim, but it is borne out by evidence. Never has there been less hunger, less disease or more prosperity. The West remains in the economic doldrums, but most developing countries are charging ahead, and people are being lifted out of poverty at the fastest rate ever recorded. The death toll inflicted by war and natural disasters is also mercifully low. We are living in a golden age.

Time Lapse Video of a Spider Building It's Web

Short and beautiful. Via Neatorama.

Timelapse: une araignée tisse sa toile from Jean-Michel on Vimeo.

Our Editing Policy

I make typos -- lots and lots of typos -- I sometimes correct tme. Um, them. Taat is all.

21 Pictures that will Restore Your Faith in Humanity

At Buzzfeed there's a great set of photos with captions entitled 21 Pictures that will Restore Your Faith in Humanity. It's worth seeing.

The Connecticut School Shootings (I Hesitate to Post)

Yesterday saw the horror of the murder of some 28 people in first grade classrooms in a grade school in Connecticut. I hesitate to post because people try to make such tragedies into political gains; I've made my own support for stricter gun control laws clear before (and commented on the constitutional scope of this), and I do not need to reemphasize it here. The tragedy simply leaves me bereft and at tears.

I have seen a number of interesting and provoking posts and comments about it, though, and I thought I'd round a few of them up.

• Professor Glenn Reynolds of the influential blog Instapundit quotes William S. Burroughs for the statement “After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn’t do it.” That's both a little true and a lot idiotic. This was a temporary step up for Professor Reynolds, though. His usual claim, which he's since reiterated in an editorial in editorial in USA Today, is that regulating firearms (which he always calls "banning" them) leads to shooting sprees. You see, if people are armed to the teeth, then the killers will be easily gunned down and criminals will be afraid to shoot anybody, or something like that. That is so stupid it buggers belief. Anyway, its patent dumbness becomes evident in a case like this as little first graders and their teachers can't go around carrying guns. It is an outrage that Professor Reynolds would try to politicize this situation given his prominent role in advocating for the type of weapon used in this situation, but he has.

There's Only One Week to Go!

I noticed that The Hobbit is being released today only one week before the world is supposed to end on December 21 according to anyone who never had a clue about anything. Coincidence? I don't think so. Other evidence that the world will end soon:

• FACT: Dick Clark is dead preventing there from being a Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve for the first time in recorded human history; 
• FACT: 6arack 6ussien o6ama will take over as DICTATOR OF THE UNITED STATES when 2012 occurs;
• FACT: 2012 is the only year to date evenly divisible by 1006, the last time the world ended;
• FACT: Twinkies, the only food stuff that could survive a nuclear war, will no longer be manufactured due to the Hostess bankruptcy;
• FACT: My calendar stops having pictures of cats after December 2012;
• FACT: Everybody always talks about global warming but what about global cooling? Nobody ever talks about global cooling according to Newt Gingrich. We are doomed.
• FACT: 12-21-12 only has 1s and 2s preventing humans from being able to count after that date;
• FACT: the most popular band in the world is One Direction, showing that the only direction possible to us is doom.

Well, I could go on and on, but here's a helpful video from John Hodgman:

National Geographic Contest Photos, Final Post of the 2012 Entries

Bringing us up to date, here are links to the prior posts (in reverse chronological order): here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. That, again, is about .5% of the total contest entries, most of which were pretty good photos (that is I've posted about 1 photo for every 200 that were entered in the contest).

So, I Saw the Premiere of the Hobbit this morning (well, at midnight)

I understand it would probably be illegal to have video tapped the movie and downloaded it here, being a lawyer and all, but in lieu of that I give you this exciting trailer for The Lord of the Rings:

By the way, for an excellent review of The Hobbit, see Anthony Lake's write up at The New Yorker.

More Great Photos from the National Geographic Photo Contest

I am So Tired of People Who Mispronounce "Christmas"

"Christmas" is mispronounced by people who hate "Christmas." The correct pronunciation is here. Say it with me, "Christmas" ... "Christmas" ... "Christmas." See? It's easy. And that's the way the baby Jesus intended it.

Banned In Leviticus

The Bible's Book of Leviticus famously states "[t]hou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination," which is where the Bible prohibits homosexuality. (A parallel statement in Leviticus is here. The Bible, including the New Testament, mentions homosexuality or sodomy 5 other places and in Deuteronomy, 1 Kings, and 2 Kings refers to cult prostitution which could involve homosexuality -- it makes no explicit references at all to lesbian sex). But even a cursory reading of Leviticus would revel to anyone with a clue that it consists of the ancient ramblings of a primitive tribe. The verse immediately before that prohibiting men laying with men prohibits "let[ting] any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech." Here's a list of some other things Leviticus prohibits that may be applicable to the modern man or woman:

The Joy in Civil Liberty (Some Photos)

The State of Washington, as well, as Maine and Maryland, recently approved same sex marriages. That brings to nine the number of States where same sex marriages can be performed (they are also legal in D.C. and in two Indian territories); there are another nine states that recognize same sex civil unions, and California and Rhode Island recognize some sex marriages although they cannot be performed in the State. (There are thirty states whose constitutions ban same sex marriages, and of those twenty ban both same sex marriage and civil unions; seven states attempt to ban same sex marriage only by statute [one of those, Minnesota, recently rejected a constitutional ban on same sex marriage]. The total is well over 50 because of the mix of approaches.) Here's a good map that straightens it all out at Wikipedia.

Over a Buzzfeed thatere's a great and uplifting set of photos of people celebrating marriage in Washington, and I thought I'd share a few of those (slightly cropped in some cases).

For You MORE National Geographic Photo Contest Photos

I slept in this morning. So shoot me. Well, instead, here's some shots to inspire you:

National Geo Photo Contest, But More ...

I'm Creeped Out (But Fascinated)

Image and caption from New York Times: When infected by
thorny-headed worms (the orange spot), gammarids swim
toward light. At the water's surface they become easy prey
for birds, the next creature the worm needs to infect to
complete its life cycle.

From The New York Times on Wednesday (to my attention via MetaFilter):

In the rain forests of Costa Rica lives Anelosimus octavius, a species of spider that sometimes displays a strange and ghoulish habit.

From time to time these spiders abandon their own web and build a radically different one, a home not for the spider but for a parasitic wasp that has been living inside it. Then the spider dies — a zombie architect, its brain hijacked by its parasitic invader — and out of its body crawls the wasp’s larva, which has been growing inside it all this time.

        * * *
[T]he new web is splendidly suited to its wasp invader. Unlike the spider’s normal web, mostly a tangle of threads, this one has a platform topped by a thick sheet that protects it from the rain. The wasp larva crawls to the edge of the platform and spins a cocoon that hangs down through an opening that the spider has kindly provided for the parasite.

To manipulate the spiders, the wasp must have genes that produce proteins that alter spider behavior, and in some species, scientists are now pinpointing this type of gene. ...

The New York Times article is written to draw attention to a new issue of The Journal of Experimental Biology which is dedicated to the subject of neural parasitology. The 18 or so articles at the issue are free. And, as the New York Times note, the issue of parasites (including viruses) taking over their hosts and substnatially altering their behavior is neither new nor rare -- it is a widespread phenomena.

It is also fact that makes arguments about whether "free will" exists or not silly (it's a nonsensical concept).

Why Our Homemade Christmas Cards Suck

Because they are not made by the Bale family. This is the homemade Christmas card of the Bale family from 2007. An exception? Go look at a collection of their homemade cards over the past decade. Yeah we suck. Via John Walkenback at Google+.

By the way, yeah this is fake. Look at the bottom edge of the guy's shirt and pants -- definite cut and paste. Also, where's his reflection on the floor?

Winding Down the National Geographic Photo Sets

I've posted a lot of photos from the contest, but keep in mind that there were over 22,000 entries -- I've been through them all (and, trust me, that took some time) and am posting less then 1/2 of 1% of all entries -- the ones that I liked the best (and, sometimes, could find a large image of if that felt important). For credits, as always please look to the contest website (there are too many to repeat here, though the amateur photographers who made these shots deserve great credit).

This is Karate (World Team Kata and Bunkai Final): Very Beautiful

Incredible fluidity speed, and pacing:

Awesome X: Beautiful Moments

Seen on numerous sites. Worth seeing.

This is by Edis Productions, which has a cool Facebook page.

It's Hanukkah! (Here's What Not to Get Me)

The Hebrew characters for Hanukkah/Chanukah 

So, on Hanukkah (or Chanukah, you pick) we celebrate the fact that after the Syrians and Greeks under evil king Seleucus, who was the son of not quite as evil king Antiochus III who had captured Israel from the Egyptian Pharaoh Ptolemy but then lost to the Romans and had to pay tribute, were rebuffed when Seleucus sent his minister Helyodros to steal the gold from the Temple but then Helyodros had a vision of God and so would not go into the Temple, so then Seleucus died, though he's the namesake of the Seleucid empire, and his super evil brother Antiochus IV took over and he got rid of the High Priest of the Temple and replaced him with one stooge after another in an attempt to make the Jews be like Greeks, but then the Jews thought Antiochus IV was dead even though he was in Egypt and so the Jews rebelled, and when Antiochus IV got back and he was really p.o.'d so he had tons of Jews murdered and burned the Torah and tried to make the remaining Jews worship false idols (and Hannah's seven sons were murdered in front of Hannah by Antiochus IV after they refused to renounce God and then she killed herself), but the Jews resisted, and then in the village of Modin the Jew Mattityahu and his sons and friends murdered Seleucid soldiers who tried to get them to convert to pagan beliefs, leading Mattityahu and co. to flee to the hills of Judea where they began a rebellion, but then Mattityahu died so the rebelling Jews were led by Mattityahu's sons Judah Macabees in warfare and Shimon the Wise for other stuff, and then over two years they wiped out three separate attacks by Antiochus IV, ultimately beating over 40,000 Seleucid soldiers, so then the Maccabees, which is what they called themselves then, went to Jerusalem and they kicked Seleucid butt there, too, but their golden menorah had been stolen so they made another not so fancy one yet they only had one day of sacred olive oil available but MIRACULOUSLY the menorah stayed lit for eight days until they got some more sacred olive oil, which is why we now eat delicious foods cooked in olive oil like latkes.^* Also there's the candle thing.

More Awesome National Geo Photo Contest Photos

"Simpson-Bowles is Magic"

Via Brad Delong and Paul Krugman, I've come to this excellent article at Salon by Alex Pareene on how the Simpson-Bowles economic plan works. It's so simple, I wish I had known this sooner. I must quote at length:

Not many people know this but “The Simpson-Bowles Plan” is magic. It is whatever you want it to be. It will fix the deficit and grow the economy and it does it without raising taxes on anyone, unless you want to raise taxes on some people, and then it does that. It cuts all government spending but in a way that doesn’t hurt Medicare or The Troops. If you stand in front of a mirror and say “Simpson-Bowles” three times David Gergen and Gloria Borger appear out of nowhere and praise your wisdom and seriousness. “The Simpson-Bowles Plan” gives you Your Country Back and makes it the ’90s again, or the ’50s, or whatever past decade you wish it was, when things were better. Simpson and Bowles were two kindly wizards and they granted America three wishes but dumb Washington, D.C., is too Partisan to make the wishes. Obama and the Republicans need to Grow Up and Get Serious and Pass “The Simpson-Bowles Plan,” everyone in America agrees.

That is basically the way the press and most of Washington talk about the deficit, the “fiscal cliff” and the deficit reduction “framework” endorsed by two old white guys named Simpson and Bowles. No one actually knows or cares what’s in the actual Simpson-Bowles plan, but at this point it doesn’t actually matter. Here’s Fred Barnes counseling Republicans to endorse Simpson-Bowles despite the fact that it includes the expiration of all Bush tax cuts, a thing he does not support. Here’s reasonable old David Gergen warning that Democrats are overreaching by asking for more than $1 trillion in new revenue, and invoking Simpson-Bowles yet again as an example of the Proper Way to do a Grand Bargain. Simpson-Bowles includes more than $2 trillion in new revenue.

The smarter Republicans have long since figured out that the entire deficit “debate” is an elaborate farce, which is why John Boehner just pretended to be offering something called “The Bowles Plan,” though it was not actually a plan authored or endorsed by Mr. Bowles. Mitt Romney kept saying he loved the Simpson-Bowles Plan, though of course he would never have actually signed it into law had be been elected. (Not that it ever would’ve passed Congress!) He “had his own plan,” which was probably going to be tax cuts and more defense spending. ...

Pareene goes on and on. It's excellent.  I wished I had realized that Simpson-Bowles is magic, like Christianity. Dang. It works so well now.

Translation: "We're Firing 11,000 People"

Inspired by a translation by Derek Thompson of The Atlantic, I offer what I think is a more concise and accurate translation of Citigroup's press release, below: "We are firing 11,000 people."

Citigroup Announces Repositioning Actions to Further Reduce Expenses and Improve Efficiency

 *** [three (3) subheadings]

New York – Citigroup today announced a series of repositioning actions that will further reduce expenses and improve efficiency across the company while maintaining Citi's unique capabilities to serve clients, especially in the emerging markets. These actions will result in increased business efficiency, streamlined operations and an optimized consumer footprint across geographies.

 *** [three (3) BS paragraphs on savings]

[intro blah] ... The repositioning actions are expected to result in a reduction of approximately 1,900 positions, of which more than half are in the Operations & Technology functions that support the business. ... [blah blah]

Global Consumer Banking (GCB): Approximately 35 percent of the fourth quarter repositioning charges are expected to be incurred in Global Consumer Banking, resulting in a reduction of approximately 6,200 positions, of which approximately 40 percent are in the Operations & Technology functions that support the business. ... [blah de blah]

 *** [Discussion of all the exciting places worldwide Citi will have branches]

Citi Holdings: Citi Holdings is expected to eliminate approximately 350 positions and incur approximately 5 percent of the repositioning charges. . Most of the repositioning charges are related to branch rationalization in Greece and Spain.

Corporate/Other: About 25 percent of the announced repositioning charges are expected to be incurred in Corporate/Other. [The fact that Citi even has a division called "Corporate/Other" is awesome.]

[Unnumbered footnote] Operations & Technology: Citi's Operations & Technology function is expected to achieve greater efficiency through increasing standardization and the use of automated processes; streamlining the organizational structure; and consolidating functions and moving certain positions to lower-cost locations. In addition, there will be a consolidation of certain locations in Citi's real estate portfolio. In addition to the reductions in Operations & Technology positions that support the ICG and GCB businesses, these actions will result in the reduction of approximately 2,300 positions that support corporate services, real estate, and Citi Holdings.

[Unnumbered footnote] Global Functions: Roughly 300 Global Functions positions will be eliminated as a result of efficiency savings.

[Footnote]"[blah]" concluded Mr. Corbat.

Good News About Women!

We're thinking about getting us some women here at Galileo Feynman. Many people have told Us We need to find a woman. What a relief, then, it is to find out they are teachable, cooperative, and patient! Apparently We may need to get a "trained woman counselor," though, "to interpret woman's attitudes and actions." That has always been a shortcoming for Us.

These images are from an RCA training manual and found at the National Archives at Atlanta (or Southeaster Region, I can't tell which it wants to be called), and they come to us from John Walkenbach (formerly of the J-Walk blog, now on Google+) who found then at Retronaut.

What happened to the good old days when women dressed like appliances?

Selected Photos, Continued, from the National Geographic Photo Contest

For my prior posts see here, here, here, here, and here:

A Further Explanation of Driving in Russia

I seem to have been deeply scarred by the video I posted yesterday of the Russian dashboard cam videos of accidents on the roadways of Russia. I first saw the video on Kottke, and he followed up with a link to an explanation of the Russian dashboard cam phenomena which I feel duty bound to add as well. Frankly, I don't know why dashboard cams are not ubiquitous in the United States and Europe, among other places. The author of the explanation, Marina Galperina, tells us:

The conditions of Russian roads are perilous, with insane gridlock in cities and gigantic ditches,endless swamps and severe wintry emptiness on the backroads and highways. Then there are large, lawless areas you don’t just ride into, the police with a penchant for extortion and deeply frustrated drivers who want to smash your face.

Psychopaths are abundant on Russian roads. You best not cut anyone off or undertake some other type of maneuver that might inconvenience the 200-pound, six-foot-five brawling children you see on YouTube hopping out of their SUVs with their dukes up. They will go ballistic in a snap, drive in front of you, brake suddenly, block you off, jump out and run towards your vehicle. Next thing you start getting punches in your face because your didn’t roll up your windows, or getting pulled out of the car and beaten because you didn’t lock the doors.

A General Public Service Message from the Management

It has come to our attention that many of our readers may not be exercising sufficient safety precautions (explaining, perhaps, their readership of this blog), and so we bring you this important announcement:

Galileo Feynman's Safety Series Continues

Little known fact: Russia carefully regulates dog driving:

Some Degeneracy Results for Compact, Associative, Analytically Arithmetic Homeomorphisms

Using Mathgen, I've just prepared a paper entitled Some Degeneracy Results for Compact, Associative, Analytically Arithmetic Homeomorphisms. Paul Erdős, Kevin Bacon, and Eratosthenes join me as authors (giving me, not incidentally, both an Erdős number and a Bacon number of 1 (and, of course, an Erdős–Bacon number of 2)).

The full paper is here. You may also be interested in reading this news article.

Below the break, an image of the part of the page with the equations at the heart of our results.
____________________________

Photos from the National Geographic Photo Contest (continued)

I'm continuing to post some of the best photos (in my view) from the National Geographic photo contest. There were over 22,000 submissions, so posting here will continue for a few more days.

So, I am Wondering What the Tort Laws are in Russia

And my kids complain about my driving. Look, I gave doing the crossword while I drive (really, they made me do that), and very few of these incidents look familiar. (I'm actually embarrassed to be posting this video, but, this is just so incredible ... anyway, via Kottke.)

The Fiscal Cliff Explained

"Think of the economy as a car, and the rich man as the driver. If you don’t give the driver all the money, he’ll drive you over a cliff. It's just common sense."

By the way, the Wikipedia article on the "fiscal cliff" is superlative. If you're looking for an excellent summary of the laws affected, the various pros and cons, the long and short term effects, and so forth, it's a great resource.

Photorealistic Paintings by David Stooke

Via Sweet Station, below are some of the images David Stooke has posted on Deviant Art of his beautiful photorealistic acrylic paintings.

Today's Dose of Photos from the National Geographic Photo Contest

Continuing my series of posts of photos from the National Geographic photo contest:

Who is Galileo Feynman?

It was Acorn, Yes, That's What it Was

The polling company Public Policy Polling (PPP), which had accurate predictions for the November national elections, reports that "Republicans not handling election results well." They nailed it again! To quote PPP:

PPP's first post election national poll finds that Republicans are taking the results pretty hard...and also declining in numbers.

49% of GOP voters nationally say they think that ACORN stole the election for President Obama. We found that 52% of Republicans thought that ACORN stole the 2008 election for Obama, so this is a modest decline, but perhaps smaller than might have been expected given that ACORN doesn't exist anymore.

Some GOP voters are so unhappy with the outcome that they no longer care to be a part of the United States. 25% of Republicans say they would like their state to secede from the union compared to 56% who want to stay and 19% who aren't sure.

I think this is some evidence it is unfair to say that all Republicans are idiots. Afterall, apparently many Republicans did not agree that the nonexistent ACORN stole the election, and also many do not wish to secede from the U.S. You go, smart Republicans!

More about Slavery and Jefferson

I posted last night about a blithely inane paragraph by law professor David Post, who was trying to criticize an editorial written by Thomas Jefferson scholar Paul Finkelman, and, in turn, Post was taken to the woodshed by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brad DeLong. Coincidentally, I posted about a letter written by former slave Jermain Wesley Loguen only a week ago. I think it's fitting, then, to quote Coates's post, who quotes a letter from former husband of Laura Spicer to her; both were former slaves:

[Coates's introduction: This is a letter that I often turn to. It was written to Laura Spicer by her husband, who was sold away, much as Jefferson sold people away. After emancipation she repeatedly tried to rekindle their love, despite the fact that the husband had now remarried and formed another family. In this letter the husband tells us what it means to be among the refuse of history:]

I would much rather you would get married to some good man, for every time I gits a letter from you it tears me all to pieces. The reason why I have not written you before, in a long time, is because your letters disturbed me so very much.

You know I love my children. I treats them good as a Father can treat his children; and I do a good deal of it for you. I am sorry to hear that Lewellyn, my poor little son, have had such bad health. I would come and see you but I know you could not bear it. I want to see and I don't want to see you. I love you just as well as I did the last day I saw you, and it will not do for you and I to meet.

I am married, and my wife have two children, and if you and I meets it would make a very dissatisfied family. Send me some of the children's hair in a separate paper with their names on the paper. Will you please git married, as long as I am married. My dear, you know the Lord knows both of our hearts. You know it never was our wishes to be separated from each other, and it never was our fault.

Oh, I can see you so plain, at any-time, I had rather anything to had happened to me most than ever to have been parted from you and the children. As I am, I do not know which I love best, you or Anna. If I was to die, today or tomorrow, I do not think I would die satisfied till you tell me you will try and marry some good, smart man that will take care of you and the children; and do it because you love me; and not because I think more of the wife I have got then I do of you. The woman is not born that feels as near to me as you do.

You feel this day like myself. Tell them they must remember they have a good father and one that cares for them and one that thinks about them every day-My very heart did ache when reading your very kind and interesting letter.

Laura I do not think I have change any at all since I saw you last.-I think of you and my children every day of my life. Laura I do love you the same. My love to you never have failed. Laura, truly, I have got another wife, and I am very sorry, that I am. You feels and seems to me as much like my dear loving wife, as you ever did Laura. You know my treatment to a wife and you know how I am about my children. You know I am one man that do love my children....

Should one feel inclined towards Jeffersonian hagiography, as Post does, one might keep in mind that Jefferson intentionally sold slaves to separate families as punishment.