Let’s hope this restores the delicate lazy-dog ecology of the Dakotas. From South Dakota Park to Bring Back Swift Fox:
Thirty swift foxes will be reintroduced to Badlands National Park over a three-day period beginning Saturday.
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The swift fox, which typically weighs less than 5 pounds, was common throughout the Plains states until the late 1800s to early 1900s, according to the park service.
Studies have found that women with low levels of lactobacilli (naturally occuring bacteria) are more likely to contract AIDS. As Bacteria Could Fight Off AIDS Virus in Women explains, scientists are considering engineering bacteria with an AIDS-fighting boost:
Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers said they gave the bacteria an extra boost by adding the gene for CD4 — one of the molecular doorways that HIV uses to get into cells.If HIV latched onto CD4 on a lactobacillus before it reached a human cell, it might remain harmless, Lee said. Then the bacteria might destroy the virus with naturally produced lactic acid and hydrogen peroxide.
Tests on lab dishes full of cells showed the genetically engineered bacteria reduced the rate of HIV infection in cells by at least half. Preliminary studies using monkeys showed the engineered bacteria grew well and were safe, the researchers said.
According to Soundless Music Shown to Produce Weird Sensations, inaudible, low-frequency sounds could be responsible for “supernatural” phenomena:
Mysteriously snuffed out candles, weird sensations and shivers down the spine may not be due to the presence of ghosts in haunted houses but to very low frequency sound that is inaudible to humans.
British scientists have shown in a controlled experiment that the extreme bass sound known as infrasound produces a range of bizarre effects in people including anxiety, extreme sorrow and chills — supporting popular suggestions of a link between infrasound and strange sensations.
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In the first controlled experiment of infrasound, Lord and Wiseman played four contemporary pieces of live music, including some laced with infrasound, at a London concert hall and asked the audience to describe their reactions to the music.
The audience did not know which pieces included infrasound but 22 percent reported more unusual experiences when it was present in the music.
Their unusual experiences included feeling uneasy or sorrowful, getting chills down the spine or nervous feelings of revulsion or fear.
“These results suggest that low frequency sound can cause people to have unusual experiences even though they cannot consciously detect infrasound,” said Wiseman, who presented his findings to the British Association science conference.
Infrasound is also produced by storms, seasonal winds and weather patterns and some types of earthquakes. Animals such as elephants also use infrasound to communicate over long distances or as weapons to repel foes.
Tethered by a High-Tech Leash explains how “knowledge workers” have become “day extenders”:
For virtually all “knowledge workers,” the days of leaving the office at the office are gone. Blackberry pagers, cell phones and “always on” Internet access mean workers, too, must always be on.
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Even though laptop computers — and the requisite technical support — can be expensive, companies quickly learned they recouped the investment when workers started logging in from home. A Gartner Group study in 1998 showed that employees who work an extra three hours a week from home make up the added costs.
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Maskell, who is trying to recover from workaholism, now works about 60 hours per week, down from 80 three years ago. Her company’s management prides itself on promoting a healthy work-life balance, she said, but it’s only a mirage. While employees usually leave work before 6 p.m. every day, suggesting a healthy lifestyle, many log in and work at night from home, allowing management to live in “ignorant bliss” of the real work conditions.
I’ve been away from the software game a while, but I’m still fascinated by “eXtreme programming” — The New X-Men explains:
‘Thou Shalt Work In Pairs’
The 12 commandments of extreme programming:I The Planning Game
Meet with coders, managers, and the customer each week to schedule tasks for the next phase. Update the plan regularly.II Small Releases
Put a simple system into production quickly, then release new versions on a short cycle.III Metaphor
Create an analogy that expresses how the parts of the new system work.IV Simple design
Design simply, and remove complexity at every stage.V Testing
Write test programs that assure every portion of the code runs flawlessly before attempting a new task.VI Refactoring
Edit the code to simplify, add flexibility, or remove redundancy.VII Pair Programming
Write all code with two programmers at one machine.VIII Collective Ownership
Permit anyone on the team to change code anywhere in the system at any time.IX Continuous Integration
Bring components of the program together several times throughout each day to make sure they work in concert.X 40-Hour Week
Strive to work no more than 40 hours a week. Never work overtime a second week in a row.XI Onsite Customer
Include a real, live user on the team, available full-time to answer questions.XII Coding Standards
Use agreed-upon styles and nomenclature to promote easy understanding of what the code does.
Virginia Postrel’s Why Buffy Kicked Ass explains American values:
When Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on the WB Network in 1996, American culture was in trouble. Americans were bowling alone, pursuing individual interests to the detriment of the communal good. Business leaders were celebrating creativity and neglecting discipline. Nike’s “Just do it” ads were teaching young people to break the rules. Hollywood was turning out “nightmares of depravity.”Americans had forgotten bourgeois virtue. Freedom and affluence had made us soft. We were self-indulgent moral nihilists — materialistic, selfish, and impulsive. We might have been having fun, but we’d created a culture no one would fight for.
At least that’s what the wise men said.
On September 11, 2001, they shut up. Ordinary Americans, it turned out, were not only brave but resilient and creative, even lethal, when it mattered.
Buffy was right all along.
Nice use of “reification”:
The show, which ended its seven-season run in May, began as a reification of the horrors of high school. What if that ambitious cheerleader wannabe really was a witch? What if the girl no one paid attention to really turned invisible? What if the swim coach really would do anything to win? What if sleeping with your boyfriend made him act like a different person, turned your Angel into a cruel and vicious monster?
The show’s precepts (in a bulleted list):
Indonesian School Has Chilling Roster Of Terrorist Alumni describes a Muslim school in that largely Muslim country:
The 15-year-old students rose one-by-one to practice their preaching. Speaking in a mixture of Arabic and Indonesian, they spoke about the importance of upholding strict Islamic law and defending their faith from attacks by infidels. Their classmates responded with exclamations — ‘God is great,’ ‘Hang the Jews!’ and ‘America — terrorist!’ — and pounded their wooden desks in delight.This was Thursday-afternoon preaching hour at the Pesantren al Mukmin, an Islamic boarding school in this poor suburb of Solo, a city on Indonesia’s crowded main island of Java. Al Mukmin features core subjects such as biology and history, an intolerant brand of Islam and an extraordinary group of ex-teachers and alumni.
The school has produced almost all of Indonesia’s top terrorist suspects, including alleged participants in last month’s attack on Jakarta’s J.W. Marriott Hotel and last October’s deadly nightclub bombing on the island of Bali.
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Pictures of automatic rifles and tanks adorn the walls of the school. A slogan above the door to the main classroom building reads, “Death in the way of Allah is our highest aspiration.” Radical pamphlets printed nearby are widely available. One titled “Marriott Conspiracy Theory” blames Israeli and U.S. intelligence agents for the recent hotel bombing.
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Teachers say they don’t encourage students to attack Christians or people of other religions. “It’s not hatred, but it’s what God says,” explains Widi bin Hasbi, a 27-year-old teacher. “The Koran says that we don’t want Jews and Christians to live with Muslims.”Sudarti Maryani, who is visiting her 14-year-old son at the school, says she isn’t troubled by the possibility that he may one day become a suicide bomber. “If my son thinks it is a good thing to do, I must say it is OK. I am just an illiterate mother,” she says.
As you might imagine, it’s a strict school:
A strict disciplinary code keeps students busy and on a short leash. The school day starts with predawn prayers at 3:30 and ends at 10 p.m. Permission to leave the school grounds is granted just once a month, and students can’t keep more than 10,000 rupiah (a bit more than $1) at any one time. Those who miss any scheduled prayers throughout the day can get 10 strokes of a rattan cane.
Why doesn’t the government do anything?
Government officials say that moving too aggressively against al Mukmin could inflame the country’s Muslims, who make up about 90% of the population of 220 million. But the school also reflects a broader dilemma facing the secular government of the world’s most-populous Muslim nation. While terrorist acts have put increasing pressure on Indonesia to move against groups that openly espouse hatred and violence, Jakarta is trying to protect the nascent democratic freedoms won just five years ago after the collapse of the 32-year Suharto dictatorship, which suppressed Islamic militants.
Note Indonesia’s population: 220 million. It’s almost as populous as the United States.
Avon managed to turn market research into free advertising with this “news” story. Brazilian Women Vainest in World:
Brazilian women care more about their appearance than any other women in the world, with half prepared to undergo plastic surgery to keep their looks, a recent study shows.In Brazil, where being called “vain” is often a compliment suggesting self-respect, 86 percent of women said they tried extremely hard to improve their looks compared with an average of 67 percent worldwide, according to the 2003 global women’s survey by cosmetics company Avon.
Ninety percent of Brazilian women classified beauty products as an essential rather than a luxury, compared with an average of 77 percent worldwide, Avon said, citing its survey of 21,000 women in 24 countries.
I enjoyed Avon’s politically correct take:
Avon’s official explanation for Brazilian womens’ beauty conciousness was their struggle to enter a job market where they are still well under-represented in many fields.“It’s important to look good, and feel good if you want to confront the male-dominated executive world,” said Marcia Gonsales, planning and marketing director at Avon Brazil.