5 Intriguing Things
"Doctors did a CAT scan and immediately identified the source of the problem – her entire cerebellum was missing. The space where it should be was empty of tissue. Instead it was filled with cerebrospinal fluid, which cushions the brain and provides defence against disease. The cerebellum – sometimes known as the 'little brain' – is located underneath the two hemispheres. It looks different from the rest of the brain because it consists of much smaller and more compact folds of tissue. It represents about 10 per cent of the brain's total volume but contains 50 per cent of its neurons." (newscientist.com)
2. A nerd map of the United States made by tallying county-level Wikipedia edits.
"Although in some places our findings track with population and population density estimates, despite adjusting for population, other areas diverge from those metrics. For example, the non-coastal western states exhibit an edit rate that far exceeds what would be expected based on population metrics alone, as do northern counties in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Some well-documented technology hubs, like the San Francisco Bay Area, the Pacific Northwest, and the Washington, D.C.-to-Boston corridor, share a high edit rate with regions with less high-tech reputations, such as Florida and southern Arizona. Particularly prolific individual editors can come from anywhere, which introduces some noise into areas with generally few edits, but the barren vertical strip extending from west Texas up through western Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas still appears stark. These areas have a relatively low population density and high median age, which may contribute to the low per capita edit rates." (datainnovation.org)
3. Great legal journal article about liability and self-driving cars.
"This Article suggests that the autonomous technology manufacturer should be liable for accidents caused in autonomous mode because the autonomous vehicle probably caused the accident. Liability should shift back to the 'driver”' depending on the nature of the driver and the ability of that person to prevent the accident. Thus, this Article argues that an autonomous vehicle manufacturer should be liable for accidents caused in autonomous mode for the Disabled Driver and partially for the Diminished Capabilities Driver and the Distracted Driver. This Article argues the Attentive Driver should be liable for most accidents caused in autonomous vehicle. Currently, products liability does not currently allocate the financial responsibility of an accident to the party that is responsible the accident, and this Article suggests that courts and legislatures need to address tort liability for accidents caused in autonomous mode to ensure that the responsible party bears responsibility for accidents." (ssrn.com)
4. The bust as response to Victorian Age growth.
"The Victorian Age, by most accounts, was dirty and crowded and busy. It was an age in which nobility and refinement were greatly valued because they were so fragile. Ideal busts like those in the Corcoran Atrium were not made for museums or galleries. They were made for private homes, to be installed in the parlor. Sculptors like Hiram Powers could hardly keep up with the demand for ideal busts. Still, even as Powers churned them out, his ambitions for the busts were high. Powers called his sculptures 'unveiled souls.' The ideal bust shed the body to reveal what was within." (thesmartset.com)
(ssbkyh.com)
Today's 1957 American English Language Tip
cock's-comb, cockscomb, cox-comb. The first for the comb of a cock, the second for the fool's cap & the plants, & the third for the fop.
Sorry I'm late. Busy day. But I brought you cats computers thought were humans. I see this as a fair trade.
Because They Were So Fragile