Scientific American - Is Religion Good for Society?

I know this is one of our favourite subjects here, so I thought I'd post this article from Scientific American.
Given the subject matter, it's surprisingly brief, mostly (I suspect)
because the research points in all different directions at once:

"independent scholar Gregory S. Paul found an inverse correlation
between religiosity (measured by belief in God, biblical literalism,
and frequency of prayer and service attendance) and societal health
(measured by rates of homicide, childhood mortality, life expectancy,
sexually transmitted diseases, and teen abortions and pregnancies)"

...and then again... "In general, religious people are more than three times more generous
than secularists to all charities, 14 percent more munificent to
nonreligious charities and 57 percent more likely than a secularist to
help a homeless person."

So there you have it: a definite maybe.

Scientific American - Is Religion Good for Society?

I know this is one of our favourite subjects here, so I thought I'd post this article from Scientific American. Given the subject matter, it's surprisingly brief, mostly (I suspect) because the research points in all different directions at once:

"independent scholar Gregory S. Paul found an inverse correlation
between religiosity (measured by belief in God, biblical literalism,
and frequency of prayer and service attendance) and societal health
(measured by rates of homicide, childhood mortality, life expectancy,
sexually transmitted diseases, and teen abortions and pregnancies)"

...and then again... "In general, religious people are more than three times more generous
than secularists to all charities, 14 percent more munificent to
nonreligious charities and 57 percent more likely than a secularist to
help a homeless person."

So there you have it: a definite maybe.

Engineering and Autism - or, why I should be going out with someone superficial

The inhouse journal of the IEEE, Spectrum, had this article in recently, which puts forward the idea that what we describe as autism is really only one extreme of a spectrum of behaviour, and could be brought on by selective breeding. As a possible reason for the increasing numbers of autistic children, it suggests that your modern engineer (or anyone with an analytical turn of mind) is more likely now to end up married to another engineer (or anyone with an analytical mind, etc., etc.), rather than the girl down the hall studying History of Music - and that two borderline autistic people are more likely to have an autistic child. " Among the children of engineers, autism and related
conditions are found twice as often as in the general
population, according to British
studies, and are unusually common even in the
grandchildren of engineers. Anecdotally, hot spots of
autism have been reported in major centers of
engineering, including Silicon Valley; Austin, Texas;
and Boston’s Route 128 technology ring."

This has the ring of truth to me. I can think of several people who I'd describe as borderline autistic, and they're all engineers. And as the gender gap in scientific and engineering disciplines slowly (oh so slowly) narrows, more people will marry those of similar persuasions - and I find it believable that this results in a kind of mental inbreeding.

But blimey, how boring to have to live with someone who just emotes and empathizes, and never creates anything.

Engineering and Autism - or, why I should be going out with someone superficial

The inhouse journal of the IEEE, Spectrum, had <a href="http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/oct06/4665"> this article </a>in recently, which puts forward the idea that what we describe as autism is really only one extreme of a spectrum of behaviour, and could be brought on by selective breeding. As a possible reason for the increasing numbers of autistic children, it suggests that your modern engineer (or anyone with an analytical turn of mind) is more likely now to end up married to another engineer (or anyone with an analytical mind, etc., etc.), rather than the girl down the hall studying History of Music - and that two borderline autistic people are more likely to have an autistic child.

This has the ring of truth to me. I can think of several people who I'd describe as borderline autistic, and they're all engineers. And as the gender gap in scientific and engineering disciplines slowly (oh so slowly) narrows, more people will marry those of similar persuasions - and I find it believable that this results in a kind of mental inbreeding.

But blimey, how boring to have to live with someone who just emotes and empathizes, and never creates anything.

Intelligent Design Sorting Algorithm

http://www.dangermouse.net/esoteric/intelligentdesignsort.html
via my little brother, this little gem of logic.

Recipe for one sort algorithm based on the theory of intelligent design.
Ingredients:
One very large fish.
One very small barrel.
Some sort of area-effect weapon.

As the great Tom Lehrer said, not so much preaching to the converted as titillating the converted. Made me giggle, though.

Sodaplay!!!!

http://www.sodaplay.com/
Years ago, when I was a student, we had hours of fun with this, and Andrew's amazing watch post reminded me of it. Basically, you build things out of... oh, no, forget it, just go find out for yourself. If you're into that sort of thing, it's a lot of fun, trust me.

Simon Norfolk, postwar photographer

(via BLDGBLOG)

BLDGBLOG's Geoff Manaugh interviews Simon Norfolk, a photographer, apparently.

Which is nice.

And would be the end of the story, but the photos themselves are incredibly compelling, and the stories they tell fascinating. Maybe as a result of his former career as a photojournalist, Simon concentrates on war - not the 'guy on a ridge in a turban watching a very, very far away explosion', but the air-conditioned supercomputers which design and simulate nuclear warheads, and the vast and silent arrays of surveillance aerials (check out the photos of Ascension Island, fantastic!) - and at the other end of the scale, the buildings that have been chipped and scarred by generations of bullets and shells. Not to mention the worn staircases of Auschwitz. It's an incredibly interesting interview, too. Highly recommended.

'Tis the season for Christmas wish lists

http://www.core77.com/ultimategiftguide/
...and core77's combines the deeply weird and the deeply wonderful in about equal measure. Not sure how many of these I'd really want to own, but there are one or two things I can drool over in that list.

My personal favourite:

The ubercustard you can hit with a baseball bat.

Gotta love d3o,
every designer's material du moment. Not only does it come in funky skiing
hats ( I soooooooooooooooo want one), but here's a little
demonstration of just how violent you can get with it: