LarsonsWorld -- just another persons waste of time

Current social networks may have been present in the earliest modern humans -- Ars Technica

If you ever sit back and wonder what it might have been like to live in the late Pleistocene, you’re not alone. That's right about when humans emerged from a severe population bottleneck and began to expand globally. But, apparently, life back then might not have been too different than how we live today (that is, without the cars, the written language, and of course, the smartphone). In this week’s Nature, a group of researchers suggest that we share many social characteristics with humans that lived in the late Pleistocene, and that these ancient humans may have paved the way for us to cooperate with each other.

Modern human social networks share several features, whether they operate within a group of schoolchildren in San Francisco or a community of millworkers in Bulgaria. The number of social ties a person has, the probability that two of a person’s friends are also friends, and the inclination for similar people to be connected are all very regular across groups of people living very different lives in far-flung places.

So, the researchers asked, are these traits universal to all groups of humans, or are they merely byproducts of our modern world? They also wanted to understand the social network traits that allowed cooperation to develop in ancient communities

Read on ...

Jim Morin -- 25 January 2012

... but then I really laughed out loud.

I have to agree, when it comes to pretty much any candidate these days, I to am all in favor of self-deportation.

Well, it's been about 5 years since I first installed Ubuntu and, although I no longer use Ubuntu, I am still using Linux. Thanks Linus and Clem of Linux Mint.

How it all began.

How 2012's full moons got their strange names -- MSNBC

The start of 2012 brings with it a new year of skywatching, and lunar enthusiasts are gearing up for a stunning lineup of full moons. But, where does the tradition of full moon names come from?

Full moon names date back to Native Americans of a few hundred years ago, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. To keep track of the changing seasons, these tribes gave distinctive names to each recurring full moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred.

There were some variations in the moon names, but outin general, the same ones were used throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England, continuing west to Lake Superior.

Read about the names here ...

A little moon info for you:

Source Space.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

One of my 2012 resolutions is to read more books. Thus, I have started a list of my recent reads to keep track of what I read throughout the year.

SOPA Getting a Face-Lift: How Evil Will It Be? -- Wired

The House version of the Stop Online Piracy Act, the proposed anti-piracy legislation that drew a planned and widespread internet revolt Wednesday, is likely to undergo a radical overhaul to muster passage.

The measure, along with the Senate’s proposed Protect IP Act, faces an uncertain future given newfound widespread legislative opposition to the proposals in their current form. On Wednesday, as thousands of websites blacked themselves out or altered their appearance in protest, Republican and Democratic lawmakers in both the Senate and House began distancing themselves from the non-partisan bills they had once supported.

Read on ...

by Ed Stein -- 19 January 2012

Dear Friend,

The Senate is poised to vote on a bill that would end the internet as we know it.

If it passes, the "Protect IP Act" (and its companion bill in the House, "SOPA") could put people in jail for uploading a video to YouTube and would severely limit our right to free speech.

This bill has been rushed through Congress because big corporate interests like Comcast, Pfizer, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have spent millions of dollars lobbying for this censoring legislation.

I told my senators to protect our free and open internet and oppose the Protect IP Act. You should do the same. You can sign the petition at the link below.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/internet_censorship/?r_by=-3423635-fq6n8hx&rc=confemail

Science education group decides it's time to tackle climate change -- Ars Technica

The National Center for Science Education has been defending the teaching of evolution since before Edwards vs. Aguillard, the 1987 Supreme Court decision that declared the teaching of creationism an unconstitutional promotion of religion. Although its primary focus is on supporting teachers and students by helping them handle public controversies caused by science education, the organization played a critical role in the Dover case, which blocked the teaching of creationism's descendent, intelligent design.

Read on ...