Random links

Liberals held more secret meetings than Tories: analysis
"an analysis of Library of Parliament data for the last decade shows the championship title for secretive committee work actually belongs to former prime minister Paul Martin's Liberals. Harper's Tories aren't even the runners up; that honour goes to another Liberal regime, under Jean Chretien." Here's the Liberal defense: "But Liberal House leader Marc Garneau called it misleading to simply tally up time spent in camera. He said the Tories are using their majority to move committee business that used to be public behind closed doors."
How to nap
Take a look at the Boston Globe's instructions on optimal napping. When? How long? etc.
Late night urge to pee linked to a protein: Study
"Researchers in Japan have pinpointed a protein, known at Cx43, which allows the body to increase the bladder's holding capacity during sleep." - apparently this goes haywire if you don't sleep regular hours.
Have Poor Eyesight? Maybe You Should Have Played Outside More
"Studies in places like Singapore of people of a variety of backgrounds—Chinese, Malay, India, in this case—show that genetic heritage doesn’t impact rates of near-sightedness. ... One comparative study that the authors cite found that “time spent outdoors” was the only factor that distinguished kids of Chinese heritage in Singapore, who had high rates of myopia, from kids of Chinese heritage in Sydney, who didn’t. "
Are Individual or Institutional Investors the Agents of ?Bubbles??
"Behavioral bubble models typically assume that uninformed\irrational trend-?chasers, presumably individual investors, cause bubbles, while informed\rational ?contrarian investors such as institutions trade against bubbles." However their "findings suggest that ?institutional investors rather than individuals are agents of bubbles."
The first ever vending machine stopped people from stealing holy water
"Heron created the first vending machine not out of curiosity, but to stop temple thievery. Patrons of temples commonly took more holy water with them than they paid for — an early failure of the honor system."

The "glass cellar"

From The Guardian:

"It's true that in the developed world the majority of economic and political roles are occupied by males. But if you look at the bottom – for example, the prison population, the homeless population, or the number of people dropping out of school – that is overwhelmingly male. You tend to find more men at the very top but also at the very bottom."

The American men's rights author Warren Farrell calls it "the glass cellar". There might be a glass ceiling for women, Farrell once told the Observer, but "of the 25 professions ranked lowest [in the US], 24 of them are 85-100% male. That's things like roofer, welder, garbage collector, sewer maintenance – jobs with very little security, little pay and few people want them."

... Benatar believes ... that our ignorance of the "second sexism" stems from what he terms "partisan feminists", who are interested only in the advancement of women's rights, rather than true equality and co-operation between the sexes. "It is true that women occupy fewer of the highest and most powerful positions," he writes, "but this also does not show that women are in general worse off. To make the claim that women are worse off, one must compare all women with all men, rather than only the most successful women with the most successful men. Otherwise, one could as easily compare the least successful men with the least successful women and one would then find that men are worse off."

Random links

Dutch Double Take
I was amused by the picture.
Against Chairs
A history of chairs and why they all suck.
The Secret Of The Temple: The discovery of treasure worth billions of dollars shakes southern India.
Quote: "Deities can actually own property in India, though the law treats them as minors and they must be represented by an official guardian."
The frequent fliers who flew too much
"Many years after selling lifetime passes for unlimited first-class travel, American Airlines began scrutinizing the costs — and the customers."
A pet duck ... I must be quackers
"Boris the duck hates water. But he does enjoy holidays in Spain, sipping beer in bars and taking a ride in his owner’s car."
Can you make yourself smarter?
The answer seems to be "yes"

Spiders that hunt in packs...

Apparently they can "lay waste to prey hundreds of times their own size"

HT: io9

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