dangerousmeta!, the original new mexican miscellany, offering eclectic linkage since 1999.

Daily Beast: The Fireplace Delusion - A Metaphor for Religious Belief.

“Among adults, wood burning is associated with more-frequent emergency room visits and hospital admissions for respiratory illness, along with increased mortality from heart attacks. The inhalation of wood smoke, even at relatively low levels, alters pulmonary immune function, leading to a greater susceptibility to colds, flus, and other respiratory infections.”

SF New Mexican: Sandia Labs engineers create ‘self-guided’ bullet.

“According to Sandia Labs engineers, the bullet twists and turns to guide itself toward a laser-directed point. It can make up to thirty corrections per second while in the air, officials said.” I would assume that, at 2400fps, the amount of maneuverability isn’t high. They talk about accuracy at distance.

WaPo: Scientists close to entering Vostok, Antarctica’s biggest subglacial lake.

“… although the lake has not ‘felt the wind’ in 20 million to 30 million years, the water in it is not as ancient — in the 100,000s to low millions of years old. The only ancient water present, she said, is probably in the sediment at the bottom.” The lake’s apparently quite gassy - if we hear a roar sometime next week, it’ll be Vostok spewing like a champagne bottle into the atmosphere.

New Scientist: Self-portraits of a declining brain.

“’It sounds awful,’ Gentleman told me, ‘but in cases like these, you really hope that the patient themself loses understanding as quickly as possible, because to be in a body whose brain is failing and still have insight into what is going on must be simply horrendous.’ The works on display indicate that Utermohlen did not have even this small mercy.” God.

WSJ: What’s Wrong With the Teenage Mind?

“The crucial new idea is that there are two different neural and psychological systems that interact to turn children into adults.” I remember, as a kid, not being able to correlate my logical brain to my physical actions. I’ll have to keep track of this ... fascinating.

CSM: Volcanic eruptions emerge as lead cause for Little Ice Age.

“Globally, temperatures averaged a modest 0.6 degrees Celsius, or about 1 degree Fahrenheit cooler than usual. But regionally, cooling could be profound. Glaciers in the Alps grew, bulldozing mountain villages. In Europe, the growing season became shorter, with spring and summers often cold and wet, triggering famines.” Averages never tell the story.

YouTube: Laminar Flow, courtesy UNM.

How’d they do that?

benhammer.de: Twins by Martin Schoeller.

The same, yet different.

NY Times: Children’s A.D.D. Drugs Don’t Work Long-Term.

“Attention-deficit drugs increase concentration in the short term, which is why they work so well for college students cramming for exams. But when given to children over long periods of time, they neither improve school achievement nor reduce behavior problems. The drugs can also have serious side effects, including stunting growth. Sadly, few physicians and parents seem to be aware of what we have been learning about the lack of effectiveness of these drugs.”

New Scientist: US voters are less partisan than they think.

“The actual degree of polarisation according to party affiliation was fairly modest, but people thought it was much wider – especially those who described themselves as ‘strong’ Republicans or Democrats. These patterns have been consistent since 1970.” Suspicious of this. What was the baseline? Culture and politics have moved significantly rightward since 1980.

LiveScience: Mysterious ‘Winged’ Structure from Ancient Rome Discovered.

I’d love to work on solving this mystery.

CINEMETRICS — film data visualization.

Better than your average infographic, certainly.

New Scientist: Vultures skeletonise corpse for the sake of forensics

I don’t think our New Mexican vultures would be so slow on the draw. They’re always on the lookout.

Rob Galbraith DPI: NASA releases stunning high-resolution photo of Earth from space.

You can see the Rio Grande quite clearly. It surely *is* a stunning photo.

CR4: Grounding the Body for Health.

The image on the first comment is beyond perfect. Loosely filed under ‘science.’

SciAm: The Power of Introverts - A Manifesto for Quiet Brilliance.

“An interesting line of research by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist suggests that the most creative people in many fields are usually introverts. This is probably because introverts are comfortable spending time alone, and solitude is a crucial (and underrated) ingredient for creativity.” Thank you.

NY Times: Istanbul Yields a Treasure Trove in Ancient Bathonea.

Exciting find, with a very sad side-note: “No shipwrecks have been found at Bathonea; nor are they likely to be anytime soon, said Mr. Oniz, the underwater archaeologist. The lake is so polluted by industrial runoff that diving in it is dangerous, he said. A new water-treatment facility may make exploration possible within a few years.”

Spaceweather.com Northern Lights photo gallery: January 2012.

WOW.

ArtDaily: Oldest nest site yet found provides look into complex dino reproduction behaviour.

“A new study led by U of T Mississauga paleontologist Robert Reisz, with co-author David Evans of the Royal Ontario Museum and a group of international researchers, describes clutches of eggs, many with embryos, as well as tiny dinosaur footprints, providing the oldest known evidence that the hatchlings remained at the nesting site long enough to at least double in size.” Fantastic find.

WaPo: Biggest solar storm since 2005 underway, will peak Tuesday.

“A strong aurora over much of North America is possible Tuesday night.”

Keep your eyes on the skies, Tuesday night then. Camera handy.

Discovery News: Belief in Evolution Boils Down to a Gut Feeling.

“Gut feelings may trump good old-fashioned facts, and even religious beliefs, when it comes to accepting the theory of evolution, new research suggests.” So, belief in evolution does not necessarily predict the believers’ faith in the scientific method ...

New Scientist: Why deep-sea anglerfish have such extraordinary jaws.

“Kenaley says the results suggest the fangs may not just impale prey as previously thought but help keep it in the best orientation to reduce drag on the jaw when it shuts.” Still don’t want one noshing on my kneecap.

S+R Today: Why Would Americans Be More Willing Now to Say They Have No Spiritual Interest?

“One-third of Americans have always been pretty indifferent to religion, but those people are now less likely to describe themselves as belonging to a particular faith tradition and more likely to say that they don’t belong to one—and don’t care much.”

Big Think: Evolution Is Still Happening - Beneficial Mutations in Humans.

Pull this one out for your doubting friends ...

Discover: How the Amhara breathe differently.

“But the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, is nearly 8,000 feet above sea level!” *ahem* So are we, in Santa Fe (7,500 feet). Big deal.