# s-astro: old, very old water

<< As much as half of all the water on Earth may have come from that interstellar  gas  according  to astrophysicists ’ calculations. That means the same liquid we drink and that fills  the  oceans  may be millions  of  years  older  than the  solar  system  itself. >>

Nicholas St. Fleur. The Water in Your Glass Might Be OlderThan the Sun.  April 15, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/science/the-water-in-your-glass-might-be-older-than-the-sun.html

L.  Ilsedore  Cleeves ,  Edwin  A.  Bergin ,  et al. The  ancient  heritage  of  water  ice  in  the  solar  system. Science    26 Sep 2014: Vol.  345,  Issue  6204,  pp.  1590-1593 DOI:  10.1126/science.1258055

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/345/6204/1590

# rmx-s-gst-behav: biting, policing and dueling in H. saltator

<< The  researchers  identified  three  behaviors  related  to  establishing  a  hierarchy  in H.  saltator [Indian jumping ant  "Harpegnathos saltator"] : biting,  in  which  one  ant  bites  another’s  head,  has  a  clear  winner  and  loser,  with  the  winner establishing  dominance;  policing,  in  which  subordinate  workers  restrain  challengers  to  a dominant  individual;  and  dueling,  in  which  two  individuals  engage  in  a  martial  display  with  their antennae,  but  which  has  no  clear  loser. >>

<< The  researchers  created  a  computer  model  that  allowed  them  to manipulate  all  three  behaviors  in  order  to  see  how  the  behaviors  affected  the  social  structure  of a  colony. When  biting  was  present,  but  policing  and  dueling  were  absent,  the  model  resulted  in  a  linear hierarchy.  When  biting  and  strong  policing  were  present,  the  model  resulted  in  a  despotic hierarchy  with  a  single  dominant  individual.  It  was  only  when  biting,  policing  and  winner-winner dueling  were  all  present  that  the  model  resulted  in  a  shared  dominance  hierarchy.>>

<< shared  dominance  hierarchies  can  be found  in  animal  societies  from  lions  to  dolphins. (..) Higher  cognition  certainly  plays  a role  in  shaping  the  societies  of  many  vertebrates,  but  we  think  the  presence  or  absence  of winner-winner  behaviors  may  be  an  important  factor  in  determining  the  nature  of  dominance hierarchies  for  a  wide  variety  of  species >>

'Winner-winner' behavior may shape animal hierarchies, study argues. April 14, 2016

https://news.ncsu.edu/2016/04/penick-win-2016/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160414145221.htm

Takao  Sasaki, Clint  A.  Penick, et al. A Simple  Behavioral  Model  Predicts  the Emergence  of  Complex  Animal  Hierarchies. The  American  Naturalist, 2016; DOI: 10.1086/686259

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/686259

F.on.T:  un paper a risvolto poetico, questo ... sono 'aSSi, non e' vero?

# s-ai: MICrONS is working in reverse

<<  MICrONS  (Machine Intelligence  from  Cortical  Networks)  project  seeks  to  revolutionize  machine learning  by  reverse  engineering  algorithms  of  the  mammalian  cortex. >>

<< MICrONS  is  fundamentally  different,  both  technically  and  logistically. Rather  than  building  a  simulation  of  the  human  brain,  which  the  HBP  [Human  Brain  Project] set  out to  do,  MICrONS  is  working  in  reverse.  By  mapping  out  the  intricate connections  that  neurons  form  during  visual  learning  and  observing  how  they change  with  time,  the  project  hopes  to  distill  sensory  computation  into mathematical  “neural  codes”  that  can  be  fed  into  machines,  giving  them  the power  to  identify,  discriminate,  and  generalize  visual  stimulation. The  end  goal:  smarter  machines  that  can  process  images  and  video  at human-level  proficiency. >>

Shelly  Fan. US  Bets  $100  Million  on  Machines That  Think  More  Like  Humans. Mar 13,  2016.

http://singularityhub.com/2016/03/13/us-bets-100-million-on-machines-that-think-more-like-humans/

# p-trade: a completely counter-cyclical institution

<<  Knowledge@Wharton:  Of  all  the  things  that  you  do  here,  what  are  you  most passionate  about?  What  would  you  really  like  to  make  sure  happens?  It  could  be a  small  thing,  it  could  be  a  large  thing.  What  is  it  that  really  has  your  heart?

Lagarde:  That’s  complicated.  I  think  it’s  this  issue  of  relevance  …  that  is  of  real concern  to  me.  You  see,  this  is  a  very  fascinating  institution  because  it’s completely  counter-cyclical.  When  the  world  around  the  IMF  goes  downhill,  we thrive.  We  become  extremely  active  because  we  lend  money,  we  earn  interest and  charges  and  all  the  rest  of  it,  and  the  institution  does  well.  When  the  world goes  well  and  we’ve  had  years  of  growth,  as  was  the  case  back  in  2006  and 2007, the IMF doesn’t do so well both financially and otherwise. >>

Knowledge@Wharton. Christine Lagarde: Emerging Market Nations Will Get More Power in the IMF. Apr 03,  2012

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/christine-lagarde-emerging-market-nations-will-get-more-power-in-the-imf/

Tyler Durden. IMF’s Christine Lagarde: “When The World Goes Downhill, We Thrive”. Global Research, April 03, 2016

http://www.globalresearch.ca/imfs-christine-lagarde-when-the-world-goes-downhill-we-thrive/5518214

more:

http://flashontrack.blogspot.it/2016/04/p-eu-trade-ipotesi-e-vaticinio-di-chaos.html

# zen: silence revolutions

<< Every  person  on  earth  has  a  field  of  silence  within.  Innate  to  the  ability  to  run  is  the  ability  to walk,  and  the  ability  to  walk  contains  the  ability  to  stand  still.  It  is  the  same  with  the  mind. Inherent  in  the  ability  to  talk  is  the  ability  to  think;  the  ability  to  think  contains  the  ability  to  think quietly--to  feel  or  intuit.  The  ability  to  think  quietly  holds  the  possibility  for  the  mind  to  be completely  still.>>

Ann  Purcell. The  Silence  Revolution 04/05/2016  04:18  pm  ET

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/the-silence-revolution_b_9612766.html

also: Inchingolo GM. 2123 - le dislocazioni pausali di Theo. Monday, February 26, 2007

http://inkpi.blogspot.it/2007/02/2123-le-dislocazioni-pausali-di-theo.html

# n-evol: the rise of human complex (stratified) social structures

<< (..) the prevalence of (human) sacrifice increased with the degree of social stratification: it occurred in 25% of cultures with little or no stratification, 37% of those with moderately stratified societies, and 67% of those that had a pronounced hierarchy. And by mapping the evolutionary relationships between cultures, the team suggests that human sacrifice and social hierarchy co-evolved. >>

<< Human sacrifice seems to have been largely the privilege of priests or others who claimed religious authority. Watts and colleagues say that their results therefore disclose a “dark side” to the social role of religion. >>

Philip Ball. How human sacrifice propped up the social order. April 4, 2016

http://www.nature.com/news/how-human-sacrifice-propped-up-the-social-order-1.19681

Joseph  Watts, Oliver  Sheehan, et al.  Ritual  human  sacrifice  promoted  and  sustained  the evolution  of  stratified  societies. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature17159 (2016).

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature17159.html

<< The scientists (..) found that ritual sacrifice may have spurred the transition of smal,  egalitarian  societies  to large,  stratified  ones.  The  study  examined  93  traditional  Austronesian  cultures  (speakers  of  a  family of  languages  in parts  of  Africa,  Asia  and  Oceania). >>

Tatiana Schlossberg. Why Some Societies Practiced Ritual Human Sacrifice. April 4, 2016.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/science/ritual-human-sacrifice.html

more (an hypothesis of a funny approach inside modern societies):  Elio Petri. La decima vittima (movie, 1965)

https://it.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_decima_vittima

# e-tech: all kind of info storable in DNA

AA have << (..) detailed one of the first complete systems to encode, store and retrieve digital data using DNA molecules, which can store information millions of times more compactly than current archival technologies. >>

<< “Life has produced this fantastic molecule called DNA that efficiently stores all kinds of information about your genes and how a living system works — it’s very, very compact and very durable,” said co-author Luis Ceze, UW associate professor of computer science and engineering.“We’re essentially repurposing it to store digital data — pictures, videos, documents— in a manageable way for hundreds or thousands of years.” >>

Jennifer Langston. UW team stores digital images in DNA and retrieves them perfectly. April 7, 2016.

http://www.washington.edu/news/2016/04/07/uw-team-stores-digital-images-in-dna-and-retrieves-them-perfectly/