Haven't we already decided that's bad? How discussion around that widely-reported Chinese study of genetic variation underlying intelligence is getting worryingly eugenical.
Last Thursday the state House passed a bill allowing the state to recognize same-sex couples in all the same ways it recognizes straight couples; today the Senate passed it, too; and tomorrow Governor Dayton will sign it into law. It's almost exactly two years since another bunch of state legislators passed bills to amend the state constitution with a ban on same-sex marriage—which makes this some kind of record turn-around.
But still not the original human language! Linguists identify 23 words in European, Asian, and Inuit languages that have shared roots in a common ice-age-era language.
The better to evade bats with, my dear. Drab little moth sets record for sensitive hearing.
See also Ecclisiastes. Scientific fraud: all of this has happened before.
Via Slate's Brow Beat blog, and just in time for graduation season, David Foster Wallace's perennially apt commencement address has been adapted into a video.1
And, lest you think that this only applies to all those bright-eyed twenty-year-olds in the silly hats, see also.◼
1 There are actual, onscreen footnotes, even though I'm pretty sure the original didn't have any, but I guess they're there because, DFW.
I've known Scicurious as an Internet friend for years now, even met her at ScienceOnline, and gone running with her, and I never knew "real" name. She was totally cool about the use of the pseudonym, politely but firmly protective of her other identity. But it's still very nice to meet Bethany Brookshire. It feels, just a little bit, like she's come out of ... well, maybe not the closet. Some sort of smaller-than-necessary, confining space with opaque walls. Er.
Anyway: Congratulations, Bethany! It turns out that I love your work.◼
I'm pleased and excited to announce that a project I've been working on for the last few months is finally ready to launch: A new, nationwide survey of queer folks working in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.