Rotundus.com

Scientist Finds PageRank-Type Algorithm from the 1940s

"Google’s PageRank algorithm was developed in 1998. But a project to trace the history of such algorithms reveals an example from the 1940s."

Boy, you've done well! A level gender divide is getting WIDER as girls fall further behind their male rivals in race for A* grades

"Overall, girls still managed to outperform boys in all subjects except maths, chemistry, Spanish, French and German." Generally intelligence testing tests to show higher variance amongst men as I previously noted, though it's unclear that such differences will persist. Interesting that while boys on average seem to be doing poorly in school that the percentage of boys achieving the highest scores (on British exams) is increasing and surpassing the percentage of girls achieving the same.

The Fluctuating Female Vote: Politics, Religion, and the Ovulatory Cycle

From the abstract: "In two studies with large and diverse samples, ovulation had drastically different effects on single women and women in committed relationships. Ovulation led single women to become more liberal, less religious, and more likely to vote for Barack Obama. In contrast, ovulation led women in committed relationships to become more conservative, more religious, and more likely to vote for Mitt Romney. In addition, ovulation-induced changes in political orientation mediated women’s voting behavior."

Widow who lost $280k home over $6 gets hearing

"A western Pennsylvania woman whose $280,000 home was sold at auction over $6.30 in unpaid interest won a court decision Monday allowing her a fresh opportunity to argue she should not lose her home."

In her words:

One of the reasons for the failure of feminism to dislodge deeply held perceptions of male and female behavior was its insistence that women were victims, and men powerful patriarchs, which made a travesty of ordinary people's experience of the mutual interdependence of men and women.

Meeting online leads to happier, more enduring marriages

"More than a third of marriages between 2005 and 2012 began online, according to new research at the University of Chicago, which also found that online couples have happier, longer marriages." I wonder if such relationships might be comparatively successful for the same reason that arranged marriages seem to have reasonable success rates. i.e. the relationship doesn't start with '_____ is hot' as much as a filtering process reducing certain incompatibilities. Could be a search performed by those involved or an online service's matching algorithm.

Police Pretty Sure Man Tied Himself Inside Sack and Shot Himself Before Jumping Into River

Err ... sure ...

I hate Strong Female Characters

"As someone spends a fair amount of time complaining on the internet that there aren’t enough female heroes out there, this may seem a strange and out of character thing to say" ... but with things feminist there's often just no way to win.

UK Authorities Destroy Guardian's Hard Drives, Force Journalists to Report NSA Stories In Exile

More on the Snowden front over the past few days.