# s-phyto-behav: Pea (Pisum sativum), a gambler plant

<< pea plants can demonstrate sensitivity to risk - namely, that they can make adaptive choices that take into account environmental variance, an ability previously unknown outside the animal kingdom >>

<< Alex Kacelnik (..) said: "To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of an adaptive response to risk in an organism without a nervous system. We do not conclude that plants are intelligent in the sense used for humans or other animals, but rather that complex and interesting behaviours can theoretically be predicted as biological adaptations - and executed by organisms - on the basis of processes evolved to exploit natural opportunities efficiently >>

Pea  plants  demonstrate  ability  to  'gamble'—a  first in  plants. June  30,  2016

http://m.phys.org/news/2016-06-pea-ability-gamblea.html

Efrat Dener, Alex Kacelnik, Hagai Shemesh. Pea Plants Show Risk Sensitivity. In Press. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.008

http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(16)30459-6

# p-trade: JPMorgan & Deutsche Bank: sweet imagine with assets of $1 ...

<< Two banks, JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank, account for about 20 per cent of total global derivatives exposure. Each has more than $50bn ... Imagine promising to buy a house for $2,000 with assets of $1 >>

Don't always believe a balance sheet. February 16, 2016 5:21 pm

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/95895178-d49c-11e5-829b-8564e7528e54.html

<< "Immaginate  di  acquistare  una  casa  per duemila  dollari  con  garanzie  per  un  dollaro",  chiosò  il  'Financial  Times'  in  un  articolo  dello  scorso  febbraio >>

Fondo  Monetario  Internazionale:  Deutsche  Bank  è  maggior fonte  di  rischi  sistemici  al  mondo. L'Huffington  Post.  30/06/2016  16:47  CEST

http://m.huffpost.com/it/entry/10754644

more:

GERMANY. FINANCIAL SECTOR ASSESSMENT PROGRAM. FINANCIAL SYSTEM STABILITY ASSESSMENT. This report on Financial System Stability Assessment on Germany was prepared by a staff team of the International Monetary Fund. It is based on the information available at the time it was completed in June 2016. 

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2016/cr16189.pdf

# s-phys: if you take a large collection of chaotic balls ...

<< If  you  take  a  large  collection  of  balls  in  contact  and  force  some  of  them  to  spin,  they  can  behave  like a  set  of  gears,  with  each  ball  rotating  without  slipping.  Experiments  and  theory  show  that  this synchronized  motion  can  be predicted  even  when the initial  motion  involves  seemingly  random slipping  between  the  spheres  (like  the  skipping  of  gears).  The  researchers  say  that  the  ability  to predict  this  collective  motion  could  lead  to  three-dimensional  gear  systems  in  which  manipulations of  one or two spheres allows complete control  of  the  rotational  motion  of  the  others >>

Michael  Schirber. Focus:  Balls  as  3D  Gears. June 24,  2016.

https://physics.aps.org/articles/v9/71

D. V. Stager, N. A. M. Araujo, and H. J. Herrmann. Prediction and Control of Slip-Free Rotation States in Sphere Assemblies. Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 254301. Publ. 24 June 2016

http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.254301

# s-behav: the intriguing behavior of the elderly Barbary macaques.

<< With  increasing  age,  the  monkeys [Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus)] became  more  selective  in  their  social  interactions,"  Almeling  says. "They  had  fewer  'friends'  and  invested  less  in  social  interactions.  Interestingly,  however,  they  were  still interested  in  what  was  going  on  in  their  social  world." >>

Monkeys get more selective with age. 23-Jun-2016

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/cp-mgm061616.php

Laura Almeling,  Kurt Hammerschmidt, et al. Motivational Shifts in Aging Monkeys and the Origins of Social Selectivity. Current Biology, 2016 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.04.066

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.04.066

# n-socsci: power seekers vs the awareness of discrimination

<< People  who  are  interested  in  gaining  power  for  themselves  are  less  aware  than others  of  discrimination  and  injustice  in  the  workplace >>

Elisabeth  Enoksen. Power  seekers  do  not  see  discrimination. Doctoral thesis. Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Stavanger, 2016. Published  09.06.2016

http://www.uis.no/research-phd-education/research-news/power-seekers-do-not-see-discrimination-article105975-10738.html

Power seekers do not see discrimination. ScienceDaily. 17 June 2016.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160617083931.htm

# s-brain: the question is: Humans vs Woodstock, who is the smarter?

Are  you  smarter than a  macaw? Ounce  for  ounce,  bird brains  have  significantly  more  neurons  than  mammal  or  primate  brains. June  13,  2016

http://kurzweilai.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=aad1a7eea269839c7d10845e8&id=315d9eb294&e=47d5831a91

Seweryn  Olkowicz, Martin  Kocourek, et al. Birds  have  primate-like  numbers  of  neurons  in  the  forebrain. PNAS (Proceedings  of  the  National Academy  of  Sciences)  June  13, 2016.

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/06/07/1517131113

# s-bot: JARexit: the ironic probabilistic upshot of the itinerant, escaping IR77, Promobot

Ben  Guarino. After escaping its  creators a  second  time,  Russian robot’s  final  destination may be scrap heap. June 23, 2016

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/06/23/after-escaping-its-creators-a-second-time-russian-robots-final-destination-may-be-scrap-heap/

Melissa Etehad. Russian  robot  gets  a  few hours  of  freedom  after escaping  a  lab. June 16, 2016.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/06/16/russian-robot-gets-a-few-hours-of-freedom-after-escaping-a-lab/

FonT: "JARexit": a final  destination may be a Russian scrap heap ...