Rotundus.com

Out of Prison? For Some, That Might Mean Out of Luck

They now have DNA evidence linking another man to the crime and that man also confessed to committing the crime alone. As the others convicted with him were still in jail they were pardoned, but as this guy was no longer in jail due to having been convicted of a lesser crime he was not pardoned and thus, e.g., can't adopt his stepson, attend his children's school events, get work, or travel internationally. "Surely federal habeas law should not be understood to establish a Kafkaesque regime in which a wrongfully convicted and actually innocent person may challenge continuing burdensome registration requirements only by committing a new crime that will return him to prison"

The Secret World of 'Garbagemen'

"Sanitation workers, it turns out, have twice the fatality rates of police offers, and nearly seven times the fatality rates of firefighters."

Google Glass Early Adopters Want To Build Learning, Healthcare, Accessibility & Safety Apps

A list of some of the ideas as to what people want to do with Google Glass.

Autonomous robot jellyfish being developed for military surveillance

"The task is to figure out how a jellyfish functions, and then apply it to a robotic version that could be launched and left to function in the ocean for anything from a few weeks to months and even years. ... There’s still a lot of work to do on the design, though. Allowing the jellyfish to remain autonomous means the 4 hours it currently gets from an on-board nickel metal hydride battery needs to be improved drastically."

That's the title of a post on the Dutch medical society's website formally responding to American Association of Pediatriatric's report which approved of non-therapeutic circumcision. To quote the abstract of the corresponding journal publication:

Seen from the outside, cultural bias reflecting the normality of nontherapeutic male circumcision in the United States seems obvious, and the report’s conclusions are different from those reached by physicians in other parts of the Western world, including Europe, Canada, and Australia. In this commentary, a different view is presented by non–US-based physicians and representatives of general medical associations and societies for pediatrics, pediatric surgery, and pediatric urology in Northern Europe. To these authors, only 1 of the arguments put forward by the American Academy of Pediatrics has some theoretical relevance in relation to infant male circumcision; namely, the possible protection against urinary tract infections in infant boys, which can easily be treated with antibiotics without tissue loss. The other claimed health benefits, including protection against HIV/AIDS, genital herpes, genital warts, and penile cancer, are questionable, weak, and likely to have little public health relevance in a Western context, and they do not represent compelling reasons for surgery before boys are old enough to decide for themselves.

In other words, the US stands alone on this one.

The concluding paragraph of a recent piece in Slate:

Some will read these generalizations and cry, “Sexism!” or “Essentialism!” So let’s be clear about what these group comparisons mean. I am talking about statistical averages, not absolutes. Clearly, not all men and women embody the stereotypes of their sex. Though they are not typical, there are women who dislike homemaking and would far prefer reading Popular Mechanics over Traditional Home; and there are men who enjoy many aspects of homemaking. No doubt, there are women for whom nothing is sexier than the sight of their husbands doing the dishes. But, as the new article in the American Sociological Review reminds us, they are a distinct minority. In our search for a solution to the work/life balance conundrum, it is best to begin by telling the truth about who we are.

Given Dunbar's Number - essentially the brain's limit on the number of people one can treat as individuals - some degree of stereotyping seems more or less inevitable. Of course, only certain stereotypes seem likely to be acceptable in this day and age.

What Major World Cities Look Like at Night, Minus the Light Pollution

"The photographer crisscrossed the globe photographing cityscapes from Shanghai to Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro, by day—when cars’ head and taillights and lights shining from the windows of buildings were not a distraction. At each location, Cohen diligently recorded the time, angle, latitude and longitude of the shot. Then, he journeyed to remote deserts and plains at corresponding latitudes, where he pointed his lens to the night sky. ... Through his own digital photography wizardry, Cohen created seamless composites of his city and skyscapes."

'Batman' Charged With Obstructing Michigan Police

"State troopers arrested 33-year-old Mark Wayne Williams because they say he refused to leave them alone after he showed up Saturday night wearing a Batman outfit."

The True Cost of Commuting

The article's basic claim: "a logical person should be willing to pay about $15,900 more for a house that is one mile closer to work, and $477,000 more for a house that is 30 miles closer to work. For a double-commuting couple, these numbers are $31,800 and $954,000." (and that's for the US - for Canada, as the article notes, you probably should increase those figure a bit).

12 Fruits and Vegetables That Last for Months

"According to a recent report from the Natural Resources Defense Council, 40 percent of the food that’s grown and sold in the United States is wasted ... The biggest loss category? Fresh produce. Just 48 percent of what’s produced is eaten" A list of what lasts longest and storage tips for each ... a few of those tips I'll have to try.