I found this XKCD cartoon whlie clearing out my mailbox – I found it via PZ quite a while ago now (so it’s probably circumnavigated the world net 3.5 times by now!), but thought it was worth sharing. (Keep an eye out for cuttlefish, Marcus!) (Many of the XKCD cartoons are hilarious; some I just […]
Continue readingMonth: February 2010
the 8-glasses-a-day myth
I was at the gym yesterday when I read something in a women’s mag that quite put me off my stride on the cross-trainer. (In my defence, I’d forgotten to take a book & the only other reading material on offer was car magazines.) The offending article contained the following factoids: you need to drink at […]
Continue readingwhat’s your ‘risk intelligence quotient’?
‘Risk intelligence quotient’ (RQ) – something I’d heard about but never really thought about until I read one of PZ’s posts today. (Where on earth does he find the time to write so much???) Turns out that RQ is the subject of a private research project that hopes to assess levels of risk intelligence in the general population. Risk […]
Continue readingwhy dogs live shorter lives
Those of you who’ve followed my blog for a while (thanks, guys!) will know that in mid-2009 I farewelled my lovely old labrador Bella – & that after 9 weeks I’d had enough of being dogless & Ben joined our family. Having Ben hasn’t made me forget Bella, of course (I’m as soppy as the […]
Continue readinggrumpiness is best?
Today’s Herald carried a story from the UK’s Telegraph, which looked at some research into the social behaviour of chimpanzees & bonobos (‘pigmy’ chimanzees). And – as usual – extrapolated from this to people… Grumpiness, it told is, was a sign of a more ‘advanced’ nature, whereas the happier, more peaceable bonobos were ‘less evolved’.
Continue reading