Interesting Stuff Thread

Dave! · 01-02-2011 1:16pm

FYI - Dr Paul Offit was on the Colbert Report yesterday, plugging his new book about the anti-vaccine movement. It's not on YouTube yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. For those in the know, it's available in the usual places

He did very well I thought, got his points across well and in good humour.

Galvasean · 03-02-2011 12:53pm

Bat uses carnivorous plant as toilet:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/110202-bats-feces-carnivorous-plants-toilets-animals-science/

Dave! · 07-02-2011 12:31pm

Bill Gates: Vaccine-autism link 'an absolute lie'

recedite · 07-02-2011 5:20pm

Dave! wrote: »

Bill Gates: Vaccine-autism link 'an absolute lie'

Bill Gates wrote:

get the coverage up for the vaccines we have; and then invent the vaccines -- and we only need about six or seven more -- and then you would have all the tools to reduce childhood death, reduce population growth, and everything -- the stability, the environment -- benefits from that.

????? Free condoms with every vaccine, or is he slipping a sterilising drug into the vaccine?

Bill Gates wrote:

There was a survey recently that showed half the kids in Africa, because of infectious disease, have IQs of 80 or lower. That's cerebral malaria, that's malnutrition because their brain doesn't fully develop.

!!!!! WTF

Mark Hamill · 07-02-2011 6:03pm

recedite wrote: »

????? Free condoms with every vaccine, or is he slipping a sterilising drug into the vaccine?

He could be talking about how large families are common in Africa because kids are seen as security for parents when they reach old age (more to take care of them), but I'm not sure how vaccines would necessarily lead to that. Maybe he thinks that increased vaccine uptake would result in steadier economies and better education (two things needed to reduce population growth) but I'm not sure how.

recedite wrote: »

!!!!! WTF

Probably talking about studies by Richard Lynn, which puts African average IQ around 80. Dont know how reliable the IQ testing was, though. Apparently aboriginies average IQ is in the 60s.

mikhail · 08-02-2011 11:13am

recedite wrote: »

????? Free condoms with every vaccine, or is he slipping a sterilising drug into the vaccine?

There's a strong link between life expectancy and birth rates, for the reason mentioned above by Mark.

recedite · 09-02-2011 11:31am

Correlation is not causation.

mikhail · 09-02-2011 11:48am

recedite wrote: »

Correlation is not causation.

Which would be why Mark explained the causal mechanism. :rolleyes:

recedite · 09-02-2011 9:32pm

Increased vaccine uptake leads to increasing population. If not, the vaccines don't work.

There is a correlation between high vaccine uptake and steady population/economies in first world countries, but the vaccine programs result from their being developed, not the other way round.

Having less children, but devoting more resources/education to each one will result in a steady population/economy. The way to achieve this is to break the poverty cycle initially with strict birth control, as has been proved over the last few decades in China.

I'd also like to point out that I fully agree with and respect Bill Gates for his efforts to vaccinate third world kids. Just pointing out that birth control not vaccinations is what will stabilize the world's human population.

strobe · 10-02-2011 7:03pm

Just thought I'd give a heads up for this new Hi-Def BBC wildlife(?) documentary. Shot in the same style as the superb Blue Planet and Planet Earth. Episode one, focusing on jungles, was on last week and was brilliant {up on BBC iplayer but is only available in UK. Ways around that though as I'm sure you are all aware

} Episode two on tonight (Thursday) at 20:00 on BBC1.

Human Planet:
Human Planet is an awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, heart-stopping landmark series that marvels at mankind's incredible relationship with nature in the world today.
Uniquely in the animal kingdom, humans have managed to adapt and thrive in every environment on Earth. Each episode takes you to the extremes of our planet: the arctic, mountains, oceans, jungles, grasslands, deserts, rivers and even the urban jungle. Here you will meet people who survive by building complex, exciting and often mutually beneficial relationships with their animal neighbours and the hostile elements of the natural world.
Human Planet crews have filmed in around 80 locations, bringing you many stories that have never been told on television before. The team has trekked with HD cameras and state of the art gear to film from the air, from the ground and underwater. The result: a “cinematic experience” created by world-class natural history and documentary camera crews and programme makers.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00llpvp

recedite · 11-02-2011 10:10am

strobe wrote: »

Just thought I'd give a heads up for this new Hi-Def BBC wildlife(?) documentary.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00llpvp

Anyone see the Himalayan "sky funeral" on that? They carried the body to the top of a mountain where the vultures were circling. The local headcase described as "not a buddhist", equipped with an axe and a bottle of whiskey, then hacked the corpse into pieces and threw chunks of flesh to the vultures :eek:
Whats wrong with beaks and talons, the birds are well able to do that job by themselves

robindch · 11-02-2011 12:06pm

recedite wrote: »

an axe and a bottle of whiskey

My kid and I were watching and we switched over just as the dead man's sons headed down the hill and the "undertaker" started to sharpen his knives

Great photography too.

CerebralCortex · 15-02-2011 12:54pm

http://lesswrong.com/ - concerns the art of rationality.
http://commonsenseatheism.com/

jobee · 15-02-2011 6:17pm

And laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH8otGR8jto&feature=fvw

magicbastarder · 15-02-2011 10:02pm

http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/02/14/unquote-22/

Dave! · 15-02-2011 10:35pm

Pretty cool blog post by Phil Plait (Bad Astronomer) about it being the 10th anniversary of the Fox show questioning the moon landing. He's a bit conflicted, because it helped start his career really, but it did some damage too.

I liked the ending.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/02/15/moon-hoax-10

Dave! · 16-02-2011 11:38am

This is brilliant... Steven Pinker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-son3EJTrU

Turtwig · 16-02-2011 11:52am

Dave! wrote: »

Pretty cool blog post by Phil Plait (Bad Astronomer) about it being the 10th anniversary of the Fox show questioning the moon landing. He's a bit conflicted, because it helped start his career really, but it did some damage too.

I liked the ending.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/02/15/moon-hoax-10

I remember hearing about that documentary in school all those years ago and folks were on about how they might not have actually landed on the moon. How so many things didn't make sense, the photographs, the flag blowing etc. Shocking how easy it is to convince people of stuff with fluffy pseudoscience dressed up in technical BS. I hate to say it, but for quite some time I didn't even cross examine the conspiracy claims either. :mad:

Pygmalion · 21-02-2011 4:38am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6NPq_kPSUM

Interesting Star Trek clip.
I haven't really watched it apart from one or two of the films, so I don't know if this is a common occurrence or anything.

Link to the above video (for no reason other than justifying my belief that people other than me might not have the Flash player installed and use HTML5 video)

Dades · 21-02-2011 11:23am

Pygmalion wrote: »

Interesting Star Trek clip.
I haven't really watched it apart from one or two of the films, so I don't know if this is a common occurrence or anything.

More obvious I'd say is the conspicuous lack of any form of faith within the show, except when found in more "primitive" species.

The creator Gene Roddenberry was fairly specific on how he envisaged his world:

Wikipedia wrote:

Roddenberry made it known to the writers of Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation that religion and mystical thinking were not to be included, and that in Roddenberry's vision of Earth's future, everyone was an atheist and better for it.