Some highlights for this week:  Earliest “out of Africa” frontierists didn’t resemble Africans… Israelis attempt a bad version of my idea... Israelis prepare to use nukes… Virulent drug-resistant staph turns out to be sexually transmissible… 2000 year old blond mummy found with mythological pictures and tools in the Altai mountains… Hormone mimicking chemicals in food changing child sexual development… Photos of offshore windfarm construction… Massachusetts community prints its own money with local backing from banks… Cheap desktop rapid prototyping machine…

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DNA Ancestry Project and a Dienekes blog on DNA mass market DNA testing and National Geographic’s $100 DNA fingerprint service.

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“Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have found a way to give computers encyclopedic knowledge of the world to help them “think smarter,” making common sense and broad-based connections between topics just as the human mind does.”

“The new method will help computers filter e-mail spam, perform Web searches and even conduct electronic intelligence gathering at a much more sophisticated level than current programs, according to researchers Evgeniy Gabrilovich and Shaul Markovitch of the Technion Faculty of Computer Science. The findings will be presented next week in Hyderabad, India during the Twentieth International Joint Conference for Artificial Intelligence.”

“The program devised by the Technion researchers helps computers map single words and larger fragments of text to a database of concepts built from the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which has over one million articles in its English-language version. The Wikipedia-based concepts act as “background knowledge” to help computers figure out the meaning of the text entered into a Web search, for instance.”

Anyone who looks critically at Wikipedia knows it is biased.  One of my primary motives for suggesting the lossless compression ratio of Wikipedia be associated with prize awards is that maximizing parsimony requires critical thinking—indeed lossless compression ratio is the key to measuring the quality of one’s model of the phenomena one is observing and such is now widely accepted as proven in the information sciences.  What the Israelis are doing is attempting to promote the uncritical integration of Wikipedia into the world’s desktop “truth speakers”.

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“In many countries, higher oil prices have hurt pocketbooks and led to worries about economic slowdowns. But here in Japan, Kiminobu Kimura, an architect, says he has not felt the pinch. In fact, his monthly energy bill is lower than a year ago.”

“A reason is his new home fuel cell, a machine as large and quiet as a filing cabinet that sits in front of his house and turns hydrogen [from natural gas] into electricity and cold water into hot — at a fraction of regular utility costs. But even with the futuristic device, which is available for now only in Japan, Mr. Kimura has not let up on the other shortcuts that leave him unscathed by last year’s oil squeeze.”

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“Toys “R” Us Inc. has come under fire for denying a Chinese-American infant a $25,000 savings bond prize in a contest for the New Year’s first baby because the company said the girl’s mother is not a legal U.S. resident.”
[...]
“Although promotional materials called for “all expectant New Year’s mothers” to apply for the contest, [Toys “R” Us spokeswoman Kathleen] Waugh said eligibility rules required babies’ mothers to be legal residents. Many sweepstakes have such requirements, Waugh said.”

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“After coming under fire for denying a Chinese-American infant a $25,000 prize in a New Year’s baby contest because her mother was not a legal U.S. resident, the Toys “R” Us company said that it had reversed its decision.”

“The company said Saturday evening it would award each of the three babies in the grand prize pool of the “First Baby of the Year Sweepstakes” a $25,000 savings bond. Toys “R” Us is the parent company of Babies “R” Us, which sponsored the contest.”

Does anyone at the INS read the papers?

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“In the hours before his death on the evening of December 30, the first black mayor of this overwhelmingly white town started learning his new job.”
[...]
“But by 10 p.m. Gerald “Wash” Washington was dead in the deserted parking lot of a former high school, a bullet wound in his chest. His gun was found by the body.”

“The coroner and the sheriff have pronounced Washington’s death a suicide—a finding that has embroiled this oil-refinery town in conspiracy theories, with Washington’s kin and friends insisting he had no reason to end his life.”

The above story is from Westlake, Louisiana.

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“The Army said Friday it would apologize to the families of about 275 officers killed or wounded in action who were mistakenly sent letters urging them to return to active duty.”

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Ramakrishnan writes:
“The Wall Street Journal is carrying a report on immigrant innovators and entrepreneurs. According to the piece, nearly a quarter of all California startups which went into business between 1995 and 2005 had an immigrant as a founding member. These businesses, together, employ almost half a million workers and generated about $50 billion in sales in the year 2005. The study seems quite topical, given recent discussions in the U.S. capital. From the article: ‘Supporters of an immigration bill are likely to use the study to argue the importance of foreign-born workers to the U.S. economy. An immigration bill passed by the last Congress and heavily lobbied by business groups would have greatly increased the number of green cards available to skilled workers. Business has long argued that the U.S. schools aren’t turning out enough scientists, mathematicians and engineers, and that the economy will lose its competitive edge without more skilled foreign workers.’”

And my response.

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“Capitalism That Crosses Cultures: Will U.S. firms embrace Islamic investment rules?”

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“Spain’s bishops are alarmed by ambitious plans to recreate the city of Cordoba - once the heart of the ancient Islamic kingdom of al-Andalus - as a pilgrimage site for Muslims throughout Europe.”

“Plans include the construction of a half-size replica of Cordoba’s eighth century great mosque, according to the head of Cordoba’s Muslim Association.”

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“Culture Clash in Denmark: The close-knit Danes find their liberal ideals tested by a growing, alienated Muslim population”

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Power Washing 188 Suffolk St., Manhattan

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“Why blurring sensitive [numerical and textual] information is a bad idea”

Obfuscating numbers and text through pixelation can leave enough information to reconstruct the original message.

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“The most damaging earthquake in Australia’s history was caused by humans, new research says.”
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“That quake was triggered by changes in tectonic forces caused by 200 years of underground coal mining”
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“the monetary damage done by the earthquake exceeded the total value of the coal extracted in the area”

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“A bipartisan group of senators on Thursday introduced a bill calling for the death of the stealth tax that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have criticized.”

“Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), ranking Republican and former committee chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and three other committee members introduced legislation to fully repeal the alternative minimum tax (AMT) as of 2007.”

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“[The AMT] was originally intended to target 155 high-income households that were taking advantage of so many tax benefits that they wound up paying little or no income tax under the tax code of the time.”
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“In 2010, if nothing is changed, one in five taxpayers will have AMT liability and nearly every married taxpayer with income between $100,000 and $500,000 will owe the alternative tax. Rather than affecting only high-income taxpayers who would otherwise pay no tax, the AMT has extended its reach to many upper-middle-income households.”

And the rest of us can slide into the lower class to slug it out with the third world hoards.

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“MASSACHUSETTS COMMUNITY PRINTS ITS OWN MONEY”

“Just ten weeks after Berk Shares made their debut on the streets and in the cash registers of southern Berkshire County, Massachusetts, trade in this model local currency has been brisk. Berk Shares Inc., the organization sponsoring the project, estimates that 333,000 Berk Shares have already been purchased from the four participating banks. Much of that has already gone into the hands of the 188 participating local merchants and service providers, who, in turn, have spent the currency at other participating local businesses.”

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“Satellite photo of Iran’s uranium enrichment facility.

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“Israel has drawn up plans to destroy Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear weapons, according to a report in the London-based Sunday Times on Sunday morning.”

“The British newspaper paper said that two IAF squadrons had been training to blow up an enrichment plant in Natanz using low-yield nuclear “bunker busters.”“

“A heavy water plant at Arak and a uranium conversion plant at Isfahan would also be targeted, using conventional bombs, according to the Sunday Times.”

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“In a stark statement published on Saturday [Israeli] Brigadier General Oded Tira observed, “President Bush lacks the political power to attack Iran. As an American strike in Iran is essential for our existence, we must help him pave the way by lobbying the Democratic Party (which is conducting itself foolishly) and US newspaper editors. We need to do this in order to turn the Iranian issue to a bipartisan one and unrelated to the Iraq failure.”“

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Michael Ledeen shows the goys how the Big Lie is done.

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“The return of Democratic manliness was no accident; it was a carefully planned strategy. But now that the Macho Dems are walking the halls of Congress, it remains to be seen whether they will create as many problems for Democrats as they solved. After all, these new Democrats have heterodox political views that could complicate Democratic caucus politics, and their success may raise uncomfortable questions for those Democrats who don’t pass the new macho test.”

“The architects of this strategy, Representative Rahm Emanuel, Mr. Lapp’s boss, as well as Senator Charles Schumer, are well-known political pit bulls. Mr. Emanuel won his Congressional seat by navigating the ward politics of Chicago’s old-fashioned political machine.”

“He is missing half of one finger — his aides refer to him as “nine point five” — and swears enough to make a Soprano blush. Senator Schumer is so aggressive and demanding that he has a reputation as one of the most difficult people in the Senate to work for. Both men, who have been elevated to leadership positions in the new Congress, are throwbacks to the era when tough-guy Democrats were urban ethnic politicians, like Dan Rostenkowski and Tip O’Neill.”

The author thinks that Charles Schumer and Rahm Emanuel belong in the “Alpha Male Democrat” category. Check out the graphic that accompanies the article; I think the artist disagrees with the author.

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“[Chief Globalization Officer at Cisco, Wim] Elfrink, who reports directly to Cisco CEO John Chambers, is the vanguard of one of the tech industry’s most ambitious globalization campaigns.”

“The 50,000-person company wants 20 percent of senior managers working at the proposed Globalization Center in Bangalore by 2010. The executives will be a mixture of rising stars from San Jose and Bangalore and talent plucked from acquisitions and competitors worldwide.”

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“Zeev Avni, who was involved in one of Israel’s most secret espionage affairs, died last week at age 86, Haaretz newspaper reported today. Avni, a Mossad agent, was arrested in April 1956 on suspicion of being a KGB agent. It emerged that while he was cultivating former Nazis employed as military advisers by Egypt’s army for the Mossad, he was also serving as a long-term Soviet mole.”

I didn’t realize that Mossad agents who provided information to the Soviets were considered double agents. I thought they were just multi-tasking.

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“Where is Europe?”

A look at attempts to define Europe’s borders.

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Modern “White Man’s Burden” advocate Tom Barnett mistakenly mentions that many Jews are related by blood, posts rambling, long-winded explanation.

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“Starting Monday, patrons of the Dallas-based Pizza Patrón chain, which caters heavily to Latinos, will be able to purchase American pizzas with Mexican pesos.”

“Restaurant experts and economists said they knew of no other food chain with locations so far from the Mexican border offering such a service.”

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46% of UC Berkeley students are Asian. There is not one black engineering student at the school.

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Photos of offshore wind farm construction

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“Families earning more than $1 million a year saw their federal tax rates drop more sharply than any group in the country as a result of President Bush’s tax cuts, according to a new Congressional study.”

“The study, by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, also shows that tax rates for middle-income earners edged up in 2004, the most recent year for which data was available, while rates for people at the very top continued to decline.”

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“We have been working on a system that combines some existing indirect solar technologies to build a location independent, renewable, reliable and economically feasible indirect solar electrical power generation system. The idea is to ‘roll-your-own’ geothermal source by capturing heat from the ambient air with a solar powered absorption heat pump, store it underground and generate electricity from the air cooling convection. When the air is cooler the stored heat is then used in a reverse process to generate electricity by transferring the heat back to the air when it is cooler (at night or seasonal). There are many additional benefits including clean water capture from the “dehumidifier” effect of the air cooling, construction from common materials and thermal storage that may be incorporated into dwelling heat systems.”

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“Hormone-mimicking chemicals found in food, water, and many consumer goods may well be the cause of why children as young as eight are showing signs of sexual development.”

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“Russian crude oil stopped flowing to Western Europe through a major pipeline across Belarus, officials here and in Europe said.”

“It was not immediately clear who turned off the tap. The head of Russia’s oil pipeline monopoly today accused Belarus of illegally siphoning off oil beginning on Saturday, escalating a dispute between Russia and Belarus over customs duties and transit fees for energy shipments.”

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“MARINETTE, Wisconsin (AP)—In a case that could further expose racial tensions between white residents and Asian immigrants here, a local sheriff said a Hmong man found dead in the woods Saturday was murdered.”

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“A cheap self-assembly device capable of fabricating 3D objects has been developed by US researchers. They hope the machine could kick start a revolution in home fabrication – or “rapid prototyping” – just as early computer kits sparked an explosion in home computing.”

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“It could be the plot of a horror film, but in two towns on opposite sides of the world the mysterious phenomenon of thousands of dead birds dropping out of the sky is all too real.”

“Officials are baffled by the unexplained deaths which have affected Australia and the U.S.”

“Three weeks ago thousands of crows, pigeons, wattles and honeyeaters fell out of the sky in Esperance, Western Australia.”

“Then last week dozens of grackles, sparrows and pigeons dropped dead on two streets in Austin, Texas.”

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“Canadian coins containing tiny transmitters have mysteriously turned up in the pockets of at least three American contractors who visited Canada, says a branch of the U.S. Department of Defence.”

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“RUSSIAN archaeologists have uncovered the 2000-year-old remains of a warrior preserved intact in permafrost in the Altai mountains region, the official Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily says.”

“The warrior was blond had tattoos on his body. He was wearing a felt coat with sable fur trimmings and was buried in a wooden frame containing drawings of mythological creatures with an icepick beside him, the paper said.”

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“A virulent, drug-resistant form of staph bacteria that has spread across the USA since it was identified in 2000 can be spread by sexual activity, a mode of transmission that is “important and previously unrecognized,” a new study says.”

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“The dissimilarity to recent Africans of the Hofmeyr skull can be easily explained if it is understood that recent Africans are not only descended from the “Afrasians” that I have spoken of, but also from the older “Paleofricans” whose existence can be inferred both by genetics (human mtDNA and Y-chromosomes are older than the ~40kya mark) and paleoanthropology (modern humans such as Omo and Herto are 100-200kya old).”

“It also stresses the idea that contrary to popular treatments such as Spencer Wells’ Journey of Man, the appearance of African hunter-gatherers such as the Khoi-San should not be used as a model of what mankind’s earliest African ancestors looked like.”

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“Alarmed by Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s record-setting $53M bonus, Charles Wheelan (aka The Naked Economist) argues that income inequality matters. Wheelan notes that the Gini Coefficient (a measure of income inequality) for the U.S. has been moving away from countries like Japan and Sweden and closer to that of Brazil, where the murder rate is 5X that of NYC and crime is materially impacting GDP.”

And my response.

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