A Dutch Life

What else to say? I want one

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‘Allah meat’ astounds Nigerians

"When the writings were discovered there were some Islamic scholars who come and eat here and they all commented that it was a sign to show that Islam is the only true religion for mankind," he said.
…
"Supposing only one piece of meat was found then it would be suspicious, but given the circumstances there is no explanation," Dr Yakubu Dominic said.

Very cool.

Italian wall lizards introduced to a tiny island off the coast of Croatia are evolving in ways that would normally take millions of years to play out, new research shows.

Those skeptical about evolution often struggle with how random mutation could possibly lead to adaptation in a species at a rate that could have delivered us the incredible diversity we enjoy on this planet.

In the past I have always reflected on the wonderful Peppered Moths or those little bacteria that evolved a capacity for eating Nylon. These offered good examples of evolution happening before our very eyes, but it’s nice to have another study.

Along with the ability to digest plants came the ability to bite harder, powered by a head that had grown longer and wider.

The rapid physical evolution also sparked changes in the lizard’s social and behavioral structure, he said. For one, the plentiful food sources allowed for easier reproduction and a denser population.

The lizard also dropped some of its territorial defenses, the authors concluded.

Such physical transformation in just 30 lizard generations takes evolution to a whole new level, Irschick said.

Where is your prostate? A little anecdote of a embarrassing situation

Any questions, I direct you to Wikipedia.

I can’t wait for this to hit the web, when it does, it will give people everywhere access to information that was previously seen by only a lucky select few.

Take a look at the video, as it says it all, the universe like you have never seen it before.

TED | Talks | Roy Gould, Curtis Wong: WorldWide Telescope (video)

Interesting article of the use of drugs to enhance your brain function.

“Whatever company comes out with the first memory pill is going to put Viagra to shame,” said University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Paul Root Wolpe.

Makes me want to make a joke about those that already think with their Viagra, but this is a family blog.

While I suspect that the effect of these drugs today on a healthy brain is pretty minimal, this area will most certainly develop, and will throw up a huge range of ethical dilemmas.

Two ways of development strike me instantly. The first being the way of the sporting world, where those who take performance enhancing drugs are considered cheats, and when found punished by their sporting bodies.

The second would be the path followed by cosmetic surgery, where at first, those that had any “enhancement” went out of their way to hide the fact, but which has now become so socially acceptable as to be almost mundane.

I suspect drugs that enhance the brain will follow the second path.

However, what holds just as much interest for me, is just want impact the drugs these turn into in 10 or 20 years will have on the advancement of science.

This is a great example of what makes predicting the future so incredibly difficult.

If, and this is not to say it is even possible, we were to discover a drug that improved our ability to do X with our brain by X percent, and its use penetrated broadly enough, then it would follow that it would result in accelerated scientific progress.

It has just reminded me how much more potential lies in the human body, and that the ever more rapid advancement of technology is not only achieved through new technologies, but by using some of the old ones better!

Drugs to build up that mental muscle – Los Angeles Times

I’m completely blown away by the awesomeness that is the wingsuit.

This footage is just incredible.

I’d always just thought “Yes”, but I just read an interesting article that raises some good points which are certainly worth considering:

Zaitsev has already sent several powerful messages to nearby, sun-like stars—a practice called “Active SETI.” But some scientists feel that he’s not only acting out of turn, but also independently speaking for everyone on the entire planet. Moreover, they believe there are possible dangers we may unleash by announcing ourselves to the unknown darkness, and if anyone plans to transmit messages from Earth, they want the rest of the world to be involved. For years the debate over Active SETI versus passive “listening” has mostly been confined to SETI insiders. But late last year the controversy boiled over into public view after the journal Nature published an editorial scolding the SETI community for failing to conduct an open discussion on the remote, but real, risks of unregulated signals to the stars. And in September, two major figures resigned from an elite SETI study group in protest. All this despite the fact that SETI’s ongoing quest has so far been largely fruitless. For Active SETI’s critics, the potential for alerting dangerous or malevolent entities to our presence is enough to justify their concern.

Now that is a good point, I guess my naive “Hello Mr. Alien, will you be my friend?” viewpoint failed to take into account the possibility that those hearing us might actually be something resembling the Vogons.

This is especially important given that, if other life forms out there do exist, then the chances are they will be far more advanced than us. Paul Davies, the chair of SETI: Post-Detection Science and Technology, explored this in detail in his book “Are we alone?”.

In summary, when in a dark room it might just pay to listen first, and yell out loud second, lest you wake the Vogon in the corner.