Delicious LiveJournal Links for 12-2-2010

[andrewducker]

• New psychology theory enables computers to mimic human creativity
  (tags: creativity computers intelligence research ai psychology)
• High stress levels can be passed on to children epigenetically
  (tags: genetics stress psychology children)
• What if Jesus was a Culture agent?
  (tags: IainBanks TheCulture)
• How YouPorn Checks What Other Porn Sites You’ve Visited (and Ad Networks Test The Quality of Their Data)
  (tags: privacy security porn)
• Why Julian "Wikileaks" Assange deserves a Nobel Peace Prize
  (tags: politics wikileaks democracy media freedom government capitalism control TransparentSociety)
• If you have Spotify you can hear a sampler of Daft Punk's Tron soundtrack. First impressions are good.
  (tags: DaftPunk Tron soundtrack music spotify)
• The Met Office answers the question I've been wondering for the last couple of days: Why is it so cold and snowy?
  (tags: weather uk scotland snow)
• Obama asks the Senate to repeal the Don't Ask Don't Tell law.
  (tags: politics lgbt usa military)
• Dear Ms. Moon (a very short science fiction story)
  (tags: scifi story short_story)
• Republicans sending 2 million people to the homeless shelters for Christmas, as they block jobless benefits extension.
  (tags: benefits welfare usa)
• We live in the age of fading technology
  (tags: nostalgia hardware change time trends)
• LG working on a quantum dot television. Lighter and more efficient than existing tvs.
  (tags: television quantum technology)
• How smart, analytical people can avoid accidentally violating the "don't be a dick" principle
  (tags: intelligence social conversation socialskills)
• IBM's nanophotonics means Exascale computing on the way
  (tags: ibm technology optical photonics)
• Raised mercury levels in wetland birds increase homosexual behaviour
  (tags: homosexuality lgbt birds mercury hormones)
• Prenatal testosterone levels correlated with prostate cancer (it's the finger-ratios again - I love that stat)
  (tags: cancer health hormones men testosterone)

Comments

[sigmonster.livejournal.com]

I read it as listing two distinct issues in a elliptic way; to paraphrase, ""BC" on an ancient coin is an absurdity. Even passing that over, Arabic numerals did not exist at the claimed date".

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Oh, hm, yes, I think you're right. Not helped by the article lifting the explanation verbatim. I think I heard this joke aloud first, so it hadn't occurred to me that someone saying "a coin marked 54 BC" meant literally "54", but rather, "the number 54, represented in words, or roman numerals, or whatever was in currency[1] at the time."

[1] pun :)