Even more random links
- In which a cat has more publications to his name than some academics
- "In 1975, Professor Jack H. Hetherington (Michigan State University) wrote a theoretical paper on his own and was about to send it to Physical Review Letters. But a colleague warned that the manuscript would be returned because of an editor’s rule that words like “we” and “our” should not be used in a publication with only one author. Dr. Hetherington did not relish revising and retyping the whole text, so, instead, he simply added a co-author: his Siamese cat Chester (sired by Willard)." You can find pointers to the cat's publications on Wikipedia.
- Photo of a weed-burning rail car in Texas
- Trains and flames...
- Army Says No To More Tanks, But Congress Insists
- "Yet in the case of the Abrams tank, there's a bipartisan push to spend an extra $436 million on a weapon the experts explicitly say is not needed. 'If we had our choice, we would use that money in a different way,' Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army's chief of staff, told The Associated Press this past week. Why are the tank dollars still flowing? Politics. Keeping the Abrams production line rolling protects businesses and good paying jobs in congressional districts where the tank's many suppliers are located."
- Cousin Marriage and Democracy
- "In the United States consanguineous marriage (marriage between close relatives, often cousins) is frowned upon and in many states banned but it is common elsewhere in the world. Approximately 0.2% of all marriages are consanguineous in the United States but in India 26.6% marriages are consanguineous, in Saudi Arabia the figure is 38.4% and in Niger, Pakistan and Sudan a majority of marriages are consanguineous." What are the health risks? "an elevated risk of birth defects but on the same order as a 40 year old woman having children as opposed to a 30 year old. In other words, the risks are small relative to other accepted risks."