Official "Science News" Thread

[kladner]

Those are beautiful little birds, too. To me, the Great Tits are similar to the North American Titmouse or Chickadee, but much more colorful.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by kladner

Those are beautiful little birds, too. To me, the Great Tits are similar to the North American Titmouse or Chickadee, but much more colorful.

In England a close relative, the chaffinch, is ubiquitous and they get along well with people. Not quite a tame as the robin but not at all afraid of anybody or anything other than cats and hawks.

Some years ago SWMBO and I were eating lunch outside a pub in Cornwall. A chaffinch joined us at the table where we fed it pieces of chips (fries in the US) and bread crumbs. Eventually it pushed its luck too far and stood on the side of my plate to take some food, so I shooed it away. It left only to scrounge off another diner.

[Xyzzy]

As a youngster, who longed to see tits, our only avenue was National Geographic magazine.

[kracker]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

As a youngster, who longed to see tits, our only avenue was National Geographic magazine.

Plural=titties?

[kladner]

Originally Posted by kracker

Plural=titties?

ROFLMAO! (I don't know why, but it really tickled me.)

[philmoore]

Good Geminid meteors tonight, with rates around 35-40 an hour. Tomorrow night could be three times that rate, with a nice proportion of bright ones, so let's hope for clear skies. It wouldn't be a bad time to be in Florida...

[Dubslow]

Higgs suffering an "identity crisis"

Specifically, the measured mass from different decay modes is off by 3 GeV, and more decays aren't making this anomaly disappear. Additionally, the diphoton channel is larger than predicted by the standard model.

Edit: More detailed discussion:

http://blog.vixra.org/2012/10/12/evi...d-higgs-boson/

http://blog.vixra.org/2012/11/14/higgs-at-hcp2011/

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by only_human

In mainstream media science [sic] news, even with a several caveats in the article, take a gander at this new low bar of reporting:
Meet your Uncle Bigfoot: DNA report claims beast part human

I think I saw that video at a college party, way back when. Or perhaps Ms. "Ketchum while you can" is finding an unusual way of indulging her lifelong fetish for hirsute men?

Originally Posted by kracker

Plural=titties?

We learnt to pluralize it as "boobies", but that may be introducing an entirely distinct species of bird.

Come to think of it, we also were taught that the plural of "owl" is "hooters", so we are starting to wonder whether our grammar tutor was perhaps pursuing an agenda of his own which had little to do with language per se.

[only_human]

Paralysed woman's thoughts control robotic arm

A hundred tiny needles on each sensor pick up the electrical activity from about 200 individual brain cells.

"The way that neurons communicate with each other is by how fast they fire pulses, it's a little bit akin to listening to a Geiger counter click, and it's that property that we lock onto," said Professor Andrew Schwartz from the University of Pittsburgh.

The pulses of electricity in the brain are then translated into commands to move the arm, which bends at the elbow, wrist and could grab an object.

Jan was able to control the arm after the second day of training and over a period of 14 weeks became increasing skilful.

The report said she gained "co-ordination, skill and speed almost similar to that of an able-bodied person" by the end of the study.

[RichD]

Prof. Richard E. Crandall passed away.

http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/sa...ead-at-64.html

[rogue]

Originally Posted by RichD

Prof. Richard E. Crandall passed away.

http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/sa...ead-at-64.html

Already posted in the RIP thread.