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How organisms evolve new functions: Evolution is as complicated as 1-2-3.
The more people rely on their intuitions, the more cooperative they become.
Genetic mutation may have allowed early humans to migrate throughout Africa.
Emotional neglect in children linked to increased stroke risk later in life | Science Codex.
Russia Diamond-Rich Crater Has Trillions Of Carats – Science News – redOrbit.
Is your brain wired for facebook? | The Brain Bank.
War causes mental illness in soldiers | ScienceBlog.com.
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When Did Bare Breasts Become Taboo?
Prince William and Kate Middleton in Marau, Guadacanal Province, Solomon Islands, on Monday
Photo by Mark Large/Getty Images.
A French judge ordered the magazine Closer to turn over topless photos of Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, on Tuesday. Attorneys for the magazine argued unsuccessfully that the photographs were not an invasion of privacy because bare breasts are no longer taboo in Europe. When did bare breasts become taboo in Western civilization?
Probably around 3,000 years ago. Women are displayed with exposed breasts in Minoan artwork from 1500 B.C. Some historians believe that these ancient women went topless only during religious rituals—bare-breasted, buxom goddesses have been worshipped since the dawn of civilization—but some of the artworks depict everyday activities, suggesting that bare breasts may have been commonplace. Just across the Mediterranean, ancient Egyptian women sported elaborate dresses that could either cover the breasts or leave them exposed, depending on the whim of the designer. Over the next few centuries, however, breasts become strictly private parts. Ancient Athenian women were wearing flowing, multilayered robes that concealed the shape of the bosom by the middle of the first millennium B.C. Spartan attire was more risqué, exposing the female thigh, but breasts were always covered.
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(Reuters) – The pitch from the pyramid scheme sweeping Russia has undeniable appeal: make money and make the world a better place, it says. Like thousands of others, Roman Vorobyev believed the scheme would deliver big returns for him and cascading wealth for others.
So in April Vorobyev ploughed 400,000 roubles ($12,500) of savings into a self-styled ‘mutual aid fund,’ known as MMM-2011, promoted by Sergei Mavrodi, a guru-like financier, former lawmaker and convicted fraudster.
“I definitely believed that everything was possible,” said Vorobyev, a newspaper designer in Irkutsk who invested in the fund despite a remarkable disclosure by Mavrodi – that it was indeed a pyramid scheme. “If we all help each other, more and more people will come and there will be an endless inflow of money,” he said.
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Not All Mass Deaths Are Created Equal
Each life matters. But each life’s end, as anyone of competent mind knows, is not memorialized in the same way – sometimes for worthwhile reasons, sometimes because that’s just the sad way it is. At least 289 people were killed yesterday in a garment factory fire in Karachi, Pakistan. The most famous garment factory fire ever – at least in America – is the one at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City, just over a century ago, in which 146 people died. That fire has great historical importance because it led to changes in safety conditions and labor law. Will history remember at least as well, if not twice as well, the fire in Karachi that took nearly twice as many people as the one in New York? Time will tell. I’m guessing no.
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Revolutionary ultrathin, flat lens: Smartphones as thin as a credit card? | e! Science News.
Ancient tooth may provide evidence of early human dentistry | e! Science News.
Blind people develop accurate mental map by playing ‘video’ game | e! Science News.
Johns Hopkins astrophysicist spies ultra-distant galaxy amidst cosmic ‘dark ages’ | e! Science News.
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How Much of The Master Is Based on Scientology?
In the many months leading up to the release of The Master, much of the talk surrounding the film was about its relationship to Scientology and Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard. The New York Times reported that director Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Newest Work Is About … Something,” while we at Brow Beat followed how each trailer seemed to “Inch Closer to Scientology.”
So it may be surprising to some that discussion of the movie since its limited release in New York and Los Angeles has focused less on its relationship to Thetans and Xenu and Tom Cruise and more on its relationship to the Oscars, Anderson’s other work, and the human condition. This is the correct reaction, of course. As Slate’s Dana Stevens noted in her review, “it’s clear Anderson is mostly interested in using Hubbard’s life as a springboard for thinking through larger issues of faith, power, free will, and belief.”
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Climate change threatens permafrost in soil.
Climate change to fuel northern spread of avian malaria, study finds | e! Science News.
Misinformation: Why It Sticks and How to Fix It | ScienceBlog.com.
Why women speak less when they’re outnumbered | ScienceBlog.com.
A real fMRI high: My ecstasy brain scan – life – 18 September 2012 – New Scientist.
Addiction center treats ‘nomophobia’ – UPI.com.
How many scientists does it take to make a discovery? – Telegraph.
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Originally posted 2012-09-20 15:35:23. Republished by Blog Post Promoter