s-soc: they never turn down a chance to have coffee and cake ...

<< There's a word in Swedish,  lagom, that can be roughly translated as: “Not too much, not too little, just right”. It's “moderate” or “just enough” >>

<<  Swedish culture has taken a step further lately, by making moves towards a six-hour working day >>

<< Burned-out people cost companies and society time and money >>

<< It's a win-win situation >>

BJ Epstein. How Swedish literature reflects the benefits of a shorter working day. Nov. 16, 2016

http://theconversation.com/how-swedish-literature-reflects-the-benefits-of-a-shorter-working-day-68114

also:

La foresta di Masuda. Feb.  06, 2005

http://inkpi.blogspot.it/2005/02/1726-la-foresta-di-masuda.html

FonT: da quello che si vede ma specialmente "che si sente" ho idea che non sia completamente campata in aria l'ipotesi (terrificante) secondo la quale il 99.9% degli umani, anche "di alto rango" sociale- professionale sembrano impotenti nella gestione non autolesiva delle "alte velocita" delle dinamiche sociali- culturali (sempre caotiche, sempre relative) ...; percio' l'ipotesi (intrigante) di re-indirizzo verso "tempi lenti" sociali.

# s-gst: together, in complex flock configurations

<< Moving particles  with no memory can  group  together in complex flock configurations using only instantaneous cues >>

Flocks Without Memory. Dec. 8, 2016

https://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.248001

Lucas Barberis, Fernando Peruani. Large-Scale Patterns in a Minimal Cognitive Flocking Model: Incidental Leaders, Nematic Patterns, and Aggregates Patterns. Phys. Rev. Lett. 117 , 248001. Publ. 6 Dec. 2016

http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.248001

# s-dance: actually, they don't write ...

<< “If people in the literary world groan,” Mr. Engdahl (Horace Engdahl) added, “one must remind them that the gods don’t write, they dance and they sing.” >>

Joe Coscarelli. Bob Dylan Sends Warm Words but Skips Nobel Prize Ceremonies. Dec. 10, 2016.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/10/arts/bob-dylan-skips-nobel-prize-ceremonies.html

# e-sec: byzantine fault in-tolerance

<< Byzantine failures are considered the most general and most difficult class of failures among the failure modes >>

<< The objective of Byzantine fault tolerance is to be able to defend against Byzantine failures, in which components of a system fail with symptoms that prevent some components of the system from reaching agreement among themselves, where such agreement is needed for the correct operation of the system >>

<< Byzantine failures imply no restrictions, which means that failed node can generate arbitrary data, pretending to be a correct one, which makes fault tolerance utterly difficult. >> Nov. 19, 2016.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_fault_tolerance

# s-gene-behav: short horns for large results (in giant hissing cockroaches)

<< males from two species of giant hissing cockroaches from Madagascar may have evolved different physical characteristics based on their strategies for winning a female >>

<<  "These cockroaches are acting like red deer in the rut, competing for females by combat, but if they don't have the size and strength to win fights outright, they can try and sneak mates. A male cockroach seems to be adapted to be either a lover or a fighter, and what's interesting is that they do this before they become fully adult, at the final moult."  >>  Kate Durrant.

<< Animals that must compete for a mate can do so in various ways: some males will defend a female from rival males by force, while others will sneak past larger males and mate with females behind their backs >>

<< These two strategies, 'fighters' and 'lovers', are associated with different behaviours and characteristics >>

AA << found that the Flat-horned cockroach, which is small with short horns (as its name suggests), was non-aggressive and had large testes, which indicates that it is more likely to avoid fighting by mating with females behind the backs of larger males, while the Wide-horned cockroach, which is large and heavily armoured with large horns, was highly aggressive in combat between males and was not well-endowed in terms of testes size >>

Species of giant cockroaches employ different strategies in the mating game. Nov. 8, 2016

http://m.phys.org/news/2016-11-species-giant-cockroaches-strategies-game.html

Kate  L.  Durrant, Ian  M.  Skicko, et al.  Comparative  morphological  trade-offs between  pre-  and  post- copulatory sexual selection  in  Giant  hissing cockroaches  (Tribe:  Gromphadorhini). Nature. Scientific Reports 6, Article  number:  36755. Publ online Nov. 07, 2016. doi: 10.1038/srep36755

http://www.nature.com/articles/srep36755

# n-ethno: it felt distinctly European, by James, Mike & Neil (NYTimes) ...

<< 3. ‘GOMORRAH’ Italy (SundanceTV) The first season of this series, a traditional Mafia saga set in present-day Naples, was an addictive blend of speed, tension, desolate atmosphere and stark violence. While it raided the histories of both Italian and American film and gangster mythology for its look and style, it felt distinctly European, with an operatic realism unlike anything on American TV. >>

James Poniewozik, Mike Hale, Neil Genzlinger. The Best TV Shows of 2016. Dec 5, 2016

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/arts/television/best-tv-shows.html

# s-ecol: even if they aren't part of the diet ...

AA << report snake species throughout the globe possess a mutation that protects them from a class of cardiotonic steroids known as bufadienolides, contained in the skin of some toads, even if the toads aren't part of the snakes' diet. >>

Feast without fear: Scientist says more snake species resist toxin. Nov. 22, 2016

http://m.phys.org/news/2016-11-feast-scientist-snake-species-resist.html

Shabnam Mohammadi, Zachariah Gompert, et al. Toxin-resistant isoforms of Na+/K+ -ATPase in snakes do not closely track dietary specialization on toads. Proc. of the Royal Soc. B: Biol. Sci. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2016.2111. Publ. 16 Nov. 2016.

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/283/1842/20162111