Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacks Octopus Paul

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian leader, says Paul the Octopus, the sea creature that correctly predicted the outcome of World Cup games, is a symbol of all that is wrong with the western world.

He claims that the octopus is a symbol of decadence and decay among “his enemies”.

Paul, who lives at the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre, in Germany, won the hearts of the Spanish by predicting their World Cup victory.

He became an international star after predicting the outcome of all seven German World Cup matches accurately.

However, the Iranian president accused the octopus of spreading “western propaganda and superstition.” Paul was mentioned by Mr Ahmadinejad on various occasions during a speech in Tehran at the weekend.

“Those who believe in this type of thing cannot be the leaders of the global nations that aspire, like Iran, to human perfection, basing themselves in the love of all sacred values,” he said.

via Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attacks Octopus Paul – Telegraph.

I suspect something is getting lost in translation.

Popular people live longer

Healthy ‘social connections’ – with relatives, friends, neighbours or workmates – can improve our odds of survival by 50 per cent, the study found.

But being a hermit can be as unhealthy as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, being an alcoholic, doing no exercise – and can even be twice as bad for us as being obese.

Professor Julianne Holt-Lunstad, from the Department of Psychology at Brigham Young University, said: “The idea that a lack of social relationships is a risk factor for death is still not widely recognized by health organisations and the public.

“When someone is connected to a group and feels responsibility for other people, that sense of purpose and meaning translates to taking better care of themselves and taking fewer risks.”

The researchers looked at data from 148 previous studies that measured human interaction and tracked health outcomes for a period of seven and a half years on average.

Because information on relationship quality was unavailable, the 50 per cent increased odds of survival may underestimate the benefit of healthy relationships.

Professor Holt-Lunstad said: “The data simply show whether they were integrated in a social network.

“That means the effects of negative relationships are lumped in there with the positive ones. They are all averaged together.”

Study co-author Professor Timothy Smith, who works alongside Professor Holt-Lunstad, said the results did not just stem from elderly people living longer – with men and women of all ages benefitting from close relationships.

The Professor also said that modern conveniences and technology have lead some to think that good friendships aren’t necessary – but that this was not the case.

He said: “This effect is not isolated to older adults. Relationships provide a level of protection across all ages.

“We take relationships for granted as humans we’re like fish that don’t notice the water.

“That constant interaction is not only beneficial psychologically but directly to our physical health.”

via Popular people live longer – Telegraph.

Caught on video: Girl climbs into arcade claw machine, survives.

After 10,000 years, ice-age skeleton gets back human form

Scientists claim to have reconstructed the image of Las Palmas Woman, one of the oldest sets of human remains in the Americas, discovered in a flooded cave in southeastern Mexico.

A joint team from Mexico and France reconstructed the face and appearance of the woman, who was in her late 40s, 152 centimetres tall and weighed around 60 kgs, Spanish news agency the EFE quoted a communique of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History as saying.

The institute said that the reconstructed features of the woman, found in a cave in Quintana Roo state, “are similar to those of populations in Southeast Asia which indicates that the migrations that populated Americas did not come only from northern Asia but also from the central and southern regions”.

The Las Palmas Woman lived during the ice age some 10,000 years ago in what is today the Yucatan Peninsula, and was discovered in 2002. The skeleton “was found nearly complete and in a good state of preservation, so that the most advanced studies of forensic anthropology could be performed on it,” according to the institute.

The sculpture of the entire body, done in France, can be seen in the exposition in the city of Guanajuato. To date the oldest human remains in the Americas are those belonging to the so-called Naharon Woman, who lived some 11,600 years ago, which were found in Quintana Roo.Alejandro Terrazas of the National Autonomous University of Mexico said the reconstruction of the Las Palmas Woman was done according to criteria of forensic anthropology.

via After 10,000 years, ice-age skeleton gets back human form.

Bloody Protesters Wrap Themselves in Plastic for PETA Demonstration

Animal rights activists say meat is murder — bloody, bloody murder.

Demonstrators from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) recently stripped down in New York City’s Times Square, wrapped themselves up in cellophane and doused themselves with fake blood so they looked like meat on sale at a supermarket.

They say they put on the July 27 stunt to help meat eaters realize that buying a steak from a grocery store is no different from buying a corpse.

“We are challenging people to really think about what ‘meat’ is,” said PETA spokeswoman Ashley Byrne in a statement. “When you eat flesh, you’re eating the corpse of an abused animal who did not want to die. We’re encouraging kind consumers to try going vegan.”

via Bloody Protesters Wrap Themselves in Plastic for PETA Demonstration.

Trekkers offered cave tours in Klingon

The Jenolan Caves near the Blue Mountains west of Sydney is about to become possibly the first tourist attraction in the world to launch tours in the fictional Star Trek language of Klingon.

The link between the world’s oldest dated limestone cave system and the fictional Star Trek language is through a spaceship, the USS Jenolan, which featured in an episode of the Next Generation series.

Earlier this month two Klingon scholars from the United States flew to Australia to tour the caves and finalise the translation of a self-guided tour.

They have recorded it at a Sydney studio and the commentary will be available late next month on a digital audio device.

Jenolan Caves tours will also be available in 10 other more commonly-spoken languages.

via Trekkers offered cave tours in Klingon – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

The Fermi Paradox, Phase Changes and Intergalactic Colonisation

In 1950, the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi raised the question that now bears his name. If there are intelligent civilisations elsewhere in the Universe with technologies that far surpass our own, why do we see no sign of them?

Since then, the so-called Fermi Paradox has puzzled astronomers and science fiction writers alike. And although there are no shortage of ways to approach the problem (this blog has covered them here and here for example), nobody has come up with a convincing explanation. .

Now there is another take on the problem thanks to a new approach by Igor Bezsudnov and Andrey Snarskii at the National Technical University of Ukraine.

Their approach is to imagine that civilisations form at a certain rate, grow to fill a certain volume of space and then collapse and die. They even go as far as to suggest that civilisations have a characteristic life time, which limits how big they can become.

In certain circumstances, however, when civilisations are close enough together in time and space, they can come into contact and when this happens the cross-fertilisation of ideas and cultures allows them both to flourish in a way that increases their combined lifespan.

Bezsudnov and Snarskii point out that this process of spreading into space can be easily modelled using a cellular automaton. And they’ve gone ahead and created their own universe using a 10,000 x 10,000 cell automaton running over 320,000 steps.

The parameters that govern the evolution of this universe are simple: the probability of a civilisation forming, the usual lifespan of such a civilisation and the extra bonus time civilisations get when they meet.

The result gives a new insight into the Fermi Paradox. Bezsudnov and Snarskii say that for certain values of these parameters, the universe undergoes a phase change from one in which civilisations tend not to meet and spread into one in which the entire universe tends to become civilised as different groups meet and spread. …

via Technology Review: Blogs: arXiv blog: The Fermi Paradox, Phase Changes and Intergalactic Colonisation.

Assyrian Tomb discovered in Iraq

German and Iraqi archaeologists have completed the excavations of an Assyrian tomb which dates back to the 7th century BC. The grave chamber was discovered last year in Arbil, in the country’s Kurdistan region.According to the German Archaeological Institute, the vaulted tomb was built by baked bricks and contained at least three sarcophagoi with up to five individuals. In accordance with the ancient burial rites, there was a number of grave goods, such as glazed and un-glazed pottery vessels, lamps and a bronze bowl.Architectural layout and the furnishing of the grave chamber are well known from other Assyrian capitals with Neo-Assyrian occupation, such as Ashur and Nimrud. Next to this tomb, an archaeological sounding was made, aimed at investigating the context of the tomb. A number of graves have been found, belonging to a cemetery, most probably occupied after the end of the Assyrian empire for several centuries. Below this cemetery, there are remains of mud-brick architecture with the same orientation as of the grave chamber. These walls belong to a building either connected directly to the grave chamber or to a subsequent building with the same orientation.More tests were done in the area around the grave chamber using ground penetrating radar, in order to detect archaeological sub-surface structures by a non-destructive method. As a result, remains of substantial ancient architecture have been identified. Its orientation and depth are similar to the grave chamber and, therefore, indicate a possible Neo- or Post-Assyrian date. Thus, the hypothesis on the area to be interpreted as an ancient mound with remains of occupation could be confirmed. Although this mound was subject to modern building activities, it is still visible today. Therefore, the area investigated shows a substantial potential for further archaeological research.

via Assyrian Tomb discovered in Iraq.

Ancient skull suggests head reshaping practice

image: Unusual Paracas skull supposedly deformed by binding the growing  head of an infant. The resulting domed head was considered beautiful.  Photographed in the Museo Regional de Ica. – world-mysteries

ELEVEN thousand years ago a tall and solidly built Aboriginal man lived a hard life. His bones reveal he had multiple breaks in both forearms, a fractured ankle so severe his shin bones fused together and arthritis in his jaw.

”Death might have been something to look forward to for him,” palaeoanthropologist Peter Brown said.

But since his skeleton, known as Nacurrie, was discovered in 1948, near Swan Hill on the Murray River, it has been the changes to his skull that have been of most interest to Professor Brown. …

The skeleton of Nacurrie, which has been repatriated, suggests his skull shape was modified by subtle means, probably by massage from his mother’s hands. Several other skulls found in the Murray-Darling area also had modified skulls.

”It is clear from the archaeological record that a group of people living on the Murray River used to do this … between 10,000 and 13, 000 years ago.”

Professor Brown said massaging the skull doesn’t cause brain damage because the brain is a flexible organ. The practice was probably done for aesthetic reasons, but it wasn’t known why it had stopped in Aborigines.

Nacurrie man’s skeleton also shows Aborigines living 10,000 years ago were much bigger than those first encountered during European settlement. ”The average height for [Aboriginal] men when Europeans arrived was about 1.6 metres or less whereas 9000 years ago they were closer to 1.8 metres tall.”

Cranium manipulation was common throughout history in different cultures. By some reports, it was the most popular type of body modification after circumcision, said Professor Brown, whose findings are published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

In Papua New Guinea some mothers would bind their babies’ heads with a tight bandage, which created a cone shape, while in South America babies were sometimes bound to create a flat-shaped head, he said.

”In the Netherlands and Denmark they used to put little caps on babies which used to change the shape of their heads. That was done until fairly recently.” …

via Ancient skull suggests head reshaping practice.

Higgs boson still eludes capture – but now we know where it isn’t

Scientists are a step closer to discovering an elusive particle that is thought to give mass to the basic building blocks of nature.

Physicists hunting the Higgs boson at the Tevatron particle collider near Chicago said their latest results will help researchers close in on the long-sought prize.

The Tevatron, which is the main rival to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern, near Geneva, has ruled out a quarter of the energy range where the Higgs particle is expected to be lurking, scientists told the International Conference on High Energy Physics in Paris today.

The announcement follows weeks of speculation that physicists had seen glimpses of the Higgs particle at the US collider. The rumours were denied by staff at Fermilab, where the Tevatron is based.

“We’ve updated and upgraded all of our analyses and right now, we just need the Tevatron to keep running the way it is,” said Robert Roser, co-spokesman for a collaboration of 550 physicists who work on the Tevatron’s CDF detector.

The Tevatron collides beams of protons with beams of antiprotons (their antimatter counterparts) at close to the speed of light inside a four-mile underground ring. The machine is less powerful than the LHC, but has been running for longer and has a head start in the hunt for the Higgs particle.

Previous experiments suggest the Higgs particle has a mass somewhere between 114 and 185 GeV (gigaelectronvolts), where one GeV is roughly equivalent to the mass of a proton, a subatomic particle found in atomic nuclei.

The latest results from the Tevatron, which combine the efforts to find the Higgs particle from its two detectors, CDF and DZero, rule out the possibility that its mass is between 158 and 175 GeV.

“Our goal first of all is to find the particle if we can, not to exclude where it might be, but we’ll take what we can get,” said Roser. …

via Higgs boson still eludes capture – but now we know where it isn’t | Science | guardian.co.uk.