One main system-level finding is that a surprisingly large proportion of the genome is expressed in brain -- around 80 percent of all identified genes. Most of these are expressed in only a relatively small subset of genes ("70.5% of genes are expressed in less than 20% of total cells", not together in the same 20%). In other words, the distribution of gene expression is very broad, with a long tail.

Läs mer: John Hawks Anthropology Weblog : 2007 01

The RCMP is taking "very seriously'' a recent threatening letter signed by a group claiming to be a new cell of the FLQ, a Quebec terrorist group active in the 1960s and 1970s.

...
The letter adds that "a combination of vehicles, letter bombs, remote-control explosive devices will be used and most of these devices are already in place.''

Läs mer: CTV.ca | CSIS investigating letter threatening FLQ attacks

Parents who install the monitoring software on their home computers would be able to find out what name, age and location their children are using to represent themselves on MySpace. The software doesn't enable parents to read their child's e-mail or see the child's profile page and children would be alerted that their information was being shared. The program would continue to send updates about changes in the child's name, age and location, even when the child logs on from other computers.

Läs mer: MySpace Moves to Give Parents More Information - WSJ.com

En del menar att det vi lever i och kallar verklighet är en simulation. Störningar i simulationen skulle då kunna innebära att rumtiden störs, och att saker inte dyker upp var och när de ska. Filmen Matrix bygger på denna idé. I denna film går en katt förbi två gånger, och detta är ett tecken på att simulationen inte riktigt fungerar som den skall.

När jag tog tunnelbanan ikväll så låg det två gratistidningar där jag satte mig. Jag började slöläsa i City, fast jag hade ett vagt minne av att jag läst den tidigare på dagen.

Men innehållet kändes fräscht, och jag läste med stor behållning, tills jag såg datumet på tidningen - 9 november 2006. Den andra tidningen som låg bredvid, ".se", var från idag.



Hur kan det då komma sig att en över två månader gammal tidning låg där vid sätet? Hade den skräpat omkring i vagnen i över 9 veckor, och på något sätt undgått alla städningar? Hade någon som mycket sällan åker tunnelbana och läser gratistidningar lika sällan, satt sig ner och tagit upp dagens City, och passat på att lämna ett tummat exemplar från 9 november?

Nja, det är väl inte orimligt att en så gammal tidning låg där. Mer skumt hade det varit om den hade varit daterad 9 november 2007. Då hade jag inte skrivit den här posten utan utan lusläst tidningen och sedan loggat in på Ladbrokes och Avanza, för lite transaktioner...

Magnus Orerar har hittat en serie reportage med gömd kamera i moskéer i Storbritannien.

Det finns massor av muslimer som kämpar för demokrati och frihet. Skilj fundamentalism och verkligt moderat religionstolkning samt mer sekulära muslimer och se människan. Inte så få i Storbritannien (~41 procent) och Holland (~34 procent) vill dock ha någon form av sharialagar, vilket ju inte är kompatibelt med våra samhällen. Enligt Channel 4 förekom det otrevliga budskap även bland muslimer som är kända som moderata.

Länk till filmerna (serien dyker upp i högerspalt efter första filmen)

Läs mer: Magnus Orerar

Här är bilder på en hemmabio som är gjord att se ut som kommandobryggan på Starship Enterprise.



Hittat via Fark.

En del där verkar uttrycka ringaktning mot idén att göra sin hemmabio så att den ser ut som kommandobryggan på Starship Enterprise. Det har jag svårt att förstå. Vem vill inte ha en hemmabio som ser ut som kommandobryggan på Starship Enterprise?

Nu har jag skrivit "kommandobryggan på Starship Enterpise" många gånger. Borde använt klipp-och klistra.

En stor (1,8 MB, 286 sidor) och ambitiös rapport om Open Source har nu släppts av Europeiska kommissionen. Den kan laddas ned här (PDF).

Citat ur rapporten, tagna från Slashdot:

"Europe is the leading region in terms of globally collaborating FLOSS software developers, and leads in terms of global project leaders, followed closely by North America (interestingly, more in the East Coast than the West), Asia and Latin America face disadvantages at least partially due to language barriers, but may have an increasing share of developers active in local communities."

"Weighted by regional PC penetration, central Europe and Scandinavia provide disproportionally high numbers of developers; weighted by average income, India is the leading provider of FLOSS developers by far, followed by China."

 "The existing base of quality FLOSS applications with reasonable quality control and distribution would cost firms almost Euro 12 billion to reproduce internally. This code base has been doubling every 18-24 months over the past eight years, and this growth is projected to continue for several more years."

 "The existing base of FLOSS software represents a lower bound of about 131.000 real person-years of effort that has been devoted exclusively by programmers. As this is mostly by individuals not directly paid for development, it represents a significant gap in national accounts of productivity. [...]"

"Defined broadly, FLOSS-related services could reach a 32% share of all IT services by 2010, and the FLOSS-related share of the economy could reach 4% of European GDP by 2010. [...]" "[...] FLOSS and proprietary software show a ration of 30:70 (overlapping) in recent job postings indicating significant demand for FLOSS-related skills."

Läs mer: Slashdot | Large FLOSS Study Gets the Real Facts

"Russia thus serves as a model for authoritarian-minded leaders in the region" and is a "pervasive influence" Mr Puddington added, with Freedom House pointing out that Russia-oriented states Belarus, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan "are among the world's worst" in human rights terms.

Rapporten skall publiceras på deras sajt idag, men jag ser inget än så länge.

Läs mer: EUobserver.com

Man kan se Ahmadinejads resa som ett tecken på att sanktionerna från USA och Europa börjar verka:

Iran's geo-strategic interests in the region are easy to see: It desperately needs political allies and new markets for its goods as it comes under increasing pressure from Europe and the United States over its nuclear program. With some money to burn, Ahmadinejad is looking to buy some friends and support among leaders in a region that is turning increasingly hostile to the United States, free trade and drug erradication programs.

Läs mer: Counterterrorism Blog: Ahmadinejad's Excellent Latin American Adventure

An "alternatively spliced" intron is one which can be spliced in two or more different ways, resulting in different protein sequences. It is one of the chief ways that our 25,000 or so genes can end up making 100,000 or so proteins.

Läs mer: John Hawks Anthropology Weblog : 2007 01

Romanian skull dated to plus 35,000 years could be the product of Human-Neanderthal intercave love. I'm guessing this kid got beat up a lot. By humans and Neanderthals. Because cave children can be cruel.

Hittat via John Hawks blogg.

Läs mer: jules crittenden: You Say Ug, I say Ugh ... Let's Call The Whole Thing Off

The authors reviewed the effects of each antiviral on infectiousness and pathogenicity – the ability of the influenza virus to cause overt disease. Pathogenicity in controls ranged from 44 percent to 66 percent. Efficacy in reducing pathogenicity for zanamivir was 52 percent and 56 percent in the two zanamivir studies; for oseltamivir, it was 56 percent and 79 percent. The researchers found that both drugs were highly preventive against influenza illness, with oseltamivir at 81 percent efficacy and zanamivir at 75 percent. Thus, the preventive use of either product reduced by 75 percent to 81 percent the chance that an exposed person would become ill with influenza.

Läs mer: Antivirals effectively curb influenza virus | Science Blog

During the study period, there were three clinical relapses of MS in the infected group and 56 relapses in the uninfected group.

Läs mer: Parasite infection may benefit MS patients | Science Blog

Britain and France talked about a 'union' in the 1950s and even discussed the possibility of Elizabeth II becoming the French head of state.

Läs mer: Britain and France planned 'merger in 1950s' | the Mail on Sunday

Men de tycker om bokstaven...

Nej, det här är inte den leken faktiskt, utan man har bara uttryckt en önskan att bokstaven "X" inte ska användas i Saudi, då den liknar ett kors. Kommissionen brukar annars ägna sig åt att förfölja kvinnor och deklarera att jorden är platt. Extremismen som finns i Saudi, är på grund av de ekonomiska resurser som ligger bakom den, ett globalt problem.

The letter "X" soon may be banned in Saudi Arabia because it resembles the mother of all banned religious symbols in the oil kingdom: the cross. The new development came with the issuing of another mind-bending fatwa, or religious edict, by the infamous Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice — the group of senior Islamic clergy that reigns supreme on all legal, civil, and governance matters in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Läs mer: Will Saudis Ban the Letter ‘X'? - January 15, 2007 - The New York Sun

Storbritannien avbröt en mututredning som omfattade Saudiarabien, för att kunna sälja vapen (alternativt behålla underrättelsesamarbete). Detta är ju i sig mycket graverande. Nu håller inte underrättelsetjänstens chef  med om att detta ens var nödvändigt.

The attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, told parliament before Christmas that the intelligence agencies "agreed with the assessment" of Tony Blair that national security was in jeopardy because the Saudis intended to pull out of intelligence cooperation with Britain. But John Scarlett, the head of MI6, has now refused to sign up to a government dossier which says MI6 endorses this view.

Läs mer: MI6 and Blair at odds over Saudi deals | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

Läs mer: Tomato-broccoli combo effective on prostate cancer | Science Blog

Human embryonic stem cells have been used to create beating cardiac tissue with associative blood vessels in research coming from the Technion in Israel. The hope is, of course, to transplant one day such tissue into the hearts of patients with depressed cardiac function.

Läs mer: Beating Heart Tissue and Blood Vessels Grown from Stem Cells - Medgadget - www.medgadget.com

The suspects had allegedly chosen to detonate their bombs on the London transport system at lunchtime, avoiding the extra rush-hour security measures put in place since the July 7 bombings. In simultaneous attacks, they touched the wires of their home-made bombs to battery connectors in their rucksacks at around 12.30pm, the jury was told. But the devices failed.

Läs mer: Failure of devices foiled tube attacks, court told | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

John Hawks har nu satt tänderna i TV-serien House, vilket ger honom tillfälle att reflektera över hur kunskap ser ut i läkarvärlden, och hur kinesisk och tysk medicin skiljer sig åt.

When a physician makes a diagnosis, she has found a set of these signs that point to an underlying disease or condition with some fidelity. Sometimes it helps to know how a disease progresses, but this is not strictly necessary. It almost never requires knowing why the disease exists. The evolutionary origins of many human diseases are mostly or entirely unknown, and physicians do quite well recognizing and treating them without any such knowledge.

Läs mer: John Hawks Anthropology Weblog : 2007 01