Friday March 19, 2010
Why everything you've been told about evolution is wrong
Oliver Burkeman
The Guardian
What if Darwin's theory of natural selection is inaccurate? What if the way you live now affects the life expectancy of your descendants? Evolutionary thinking is having a revolution . . .
The story, still sometimes repeated in creationist circles, goes like this: it is the 1960s, at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, and a team of astronomers is using cutting-edge computers to recreate the orbits of the planets, thousands of years in the past. Suddenly, an error message flashes up. There's a problem: way back in history, one whole day appears to be missing.
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 10:48 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
Shocking Graphic Reveals Why a Big Mac Costs Less Than a Salad
Tara Lohan
AlterNet
We’ve got a lot of problems when it comes to our food system, but one of them was clearly articulated with a simple graphic. How do food subsidies affect what we’re eating? Check this out:.
This graphic was recently published by the Consumerist, with the few words, “This is why you’re fat.”
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 10:15 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
The Pope, the Prophet, and the religious support for evil
Johann Hari
Independent
This enforced 'respect' is a creeping vine: it soon extends from ideas to institutions
What can make tens of millions of people – who are in their daily lives peaceful and compassionate and caring – suddenly want to physically dismember a man for drawing a cartoon, or make excuses for an international criminal conspiracy to protect child-rapists?
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 10:06 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
Facebook, Google and eBay slam Digital Economy Bill
Carrie-Ann Skinner
PC Advisor
Online giants say Internet piracy bill 'threatens freedom of speech'
Google, Facebook and eBay are among the tech giants that have slammed the government's plans to tackle internet piracy, claiming it will "threaten freedom of speech".
In a letter to the Financial Times, the group, which also includes UK ISPs such as BT and TalkTalk, said the amendment to the Digital Economy Bill has "obvious shortcomings" and will lead to an "increase in internet service providers blocking websites accused of illegally hosting copyrighted material without cases even reaching a judge".
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 08:44 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
Air pollution 'may cause 35,000 premature deaths a year in Britain'
John Vidal
The Guardian
Air pollution may be leading to the premature deaths of 35,000 people in Britain a year, nearly 50% more than has been previously admitted by government, a committee of MPs has heard.
The figure was used for the first time by environment minister Jim Fitzpatrick when giving evidence to the Commons environment audit committee.
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 08:31 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
Perception of effort, not muscle fatigue, limits endurance performance
PhysOrg.com
The physiological theory that underpins all endurance training and coaching for the last 100 years has just been disproved.
As recently as 2008, scientific research papers were citing the theory that endurance performance is limited by the capacity of the skeletal muscles, heart and lungs and that exhaustion occurs when the active muscles are unable to produce the force or power required by prolonged exercise.
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 02:09 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
Final victory for banks as OFT fails to impose limit on charges
David Prosser
Independent
Green light to carry on levying exorbitant fees for unauthorised overdrafts
Britain's biggest banks were yesterday given the green light to continue charging hugely controversial penalty fees after agreeing a deal with regulators that was branded "flaccid" and "weak" by consumer groups.
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 01:57 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
NASA space shuttle prepares to complete space station
Michael Cooney
Network World US
ISS components to be lifted into orbit
While politicians banter about NASA’s budget and the future of manned space flight, the space agency is prepping the critical technology its remaining four space shuttle missions will deliver to complete the International Space Station.
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 01:54 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
Billionaires and Mega-Corporations Behind Immense Land Grab in Africa
John Vidal
Mail & Guardian
20+ African countries are selling or leasing land for intensive agriculture on a shocking scale in what may be the greatest change of ownership since the colonial era.
We turned off the main road to Awassa, talked our way past security guards and drove a mile across empty land before we found what will soon be Ethiopia's largest greenhouse. Nestling below an escarpment of the Rift Valley, the development is far from finished, but the plastic and steel structure already stretches over 50 acres* -- the size of 20 soccer fields.
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Posted in: by bubblejam at 01:49 PM | Comments (0) | Email This Entry
Viacom courted YouTube before launching $1bn piracy lawsuit
Bobbie Johnson
The Guardian
Faced with claims that it encourages piracy, YouTube accuses its rival of sour grapes - as well as claiming it ran covert operations to upload thousands of videos to the site.
American media conglomerate Viacom considered buying YouTube just months before it launched a $1bn (£655m) piracy lawsuit against the video sharing site, according to court documents.
Files released today by a US court suggest that the television giant - which owns channels including MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central - had considered purchasing YouTube in 2006 in what executives said could prove a "transformative acquisition".
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