Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Give up keys Gma
This guy is very funny. Read carefully. Notice nuanced remarks. Laugh. Repeat.
human nature
Cough Up the Keys, Grandma
How to get old people off the road.
By William Saletan
Cities are inviting old people to trade in their cars for rides. The car buys you an account, from which you draw each time you call in for a ride. Rationales: 1) Old drivers are even more accident-prone than teenagers. 2) They don't use their cars much anyway. 3) Friends and family can add to their accounts by donating rides or money. 4) Old folks like to spend from their accounts instead of begging friends or family. (For additional ways to limit accidents among older drivers, click here; for Human Nature's take on raising the retirement age, click here.)
A California school district canceled its philosophy course on creationism. The course was widely seen as an end run around last month's court ruling that intelligent design couldn't be taught as science. Civil libertarians sued anyway, and the district folded. Plaintiffs' spin: Separation of church and state is vindicated. District's spin: We couldn't afford a legal fight. Discovery Institute's spin: The district screwed up by teaching old-fashioned creationism, not intelligent design. Course designer's obtuse non-spin: "This is the class that the Lord wanted me to teach." (For Human Nature's previous update on the case, click here.)
Having a TV in your bedroom means you get only half as much sex. A study of 523 Italian couples found that those with a TV had sex four times a month; those without a TV had sex eight times a month. Among people older than 50, TV reduced the average frequency of sex from seven times a month to 1.5. The study did not make clear whether 1) putting a TV in your bedroom makes you have less sex or 2) having less sex makes you put a TV in your bedroom.
A clinic says it has trained dogs to smell lung cancer on your breath with 99 percent accuracy—and to smell breast cancer with 88 percent accuracy. That's more accurate than high-tech tests. Explanation: 1) Tumors release tiny amounts of telltale chemicals. 2) Dogs can smell such tiny amounts. 3) Dogs have previously been trained to smell cancer on people's skin or bladder cancer in their urine. Scientists say the results are too good to be true, so they're waiting for an independent study to replicate them. (For Slate's take on bomb-sniffing dogs, click here. For an update on bomb-sniffing wasps, click here.)
Scientists claim to have cleared the Donner Party of cannibalism. Using CSI methods, they examined bone remains and found that 1) the Donner family camp was at a different site from the camp where cannibalism demonstrably occurred, and 2) there's no evidence of cannibalism at the Donner site. Skeptics' replies: 1) Maybe they ate the meat but didn't get to the bones. 2) The evidence shows they were desperate enough to eat shoelaces, rodents, and their dog. 3) Even if they didn't eat each other, the other families did. (For confirmed cases of cannibalism last year, click here and here.)
DNA testing vindicated the death-penalty system. Virginia's governor ordered the test because critics thought it would expose the nation's first execution of a provably innocent man. Instead, the test confirmed the murderer's guilt. Reactions from death-penalty opponents: 1) Keep testing, and eventually we'll prove an innocent man has been executed. 2) It's wrong to kill even if you've got the right man. 3) We can't believe this murderer conned us into using him as our test case by swearing his innocence to the end.
A survey suggests we're losing our aversion to fatness. Two decades ago, most Americans said overweight people were less attractive than other people. Now only 24 percent say so. Theories: 1) More of us are fat, so we don't want to judge others or feel bad about ourselves. 2) More of us are fat, so our perception of what counts as fat has shifted. 3) More of us are politically correct, so we've learned not to tell pollsters how ugly we think fat people are. 4) Our views about the aesthetics of plumpness have changed in past centuries and will change again.
A judge ruled that fetuses don't count toward carpool lane quotas. An Arizona woman, having been ticketed for driving alone in an HOV lane, pointed out to the judge that Arizona law counts the fetus as a person when calculating the number of victims in violent crimes against pregnant women. As evidence, she brought photos of her son, who was born two weeks after the incident. The director of Arizona Right to Life supported her claim. The ticketing officer says it's not the first time he's heard this argument. The judge rejected it, explaining that the purpose of HOV laws is "to fill empty space in a vehicle," and the womb doesn't count. (For Slate's take on counting fetuses as victims in violent crimes, click here.)
Lions are hunting humans in southern Africa. In Tanzania, annual attacks are up from 40 a decade ago to 100 today; 70 percent are lethal. One lion purportedly ate 40 people. Reasons: 1) People are sleeping outdoors to guard their crops against bush pigs. 2) Lions following the bush pigs find the humans and discover they're tasty. 3) "Once they discover that they can eat people they get quite bold. They are even breaking into people's houses and pulling them out." Experts' advice to locals: Build your outhouses closer to your homes. Lesson to Americans and Australians: Stop whining about shark attacks. (For Slate's take on shark lovers, click here.)
Latest Human Nature columns: 1) Teachers who have sex with boys. 2) Coercing women to experiment on their eggs. 3) The future of creationism. 4) Our creepy genetic experiment on dogs. 5) The pope's anti-gay tendencies. 6) Does Alito treat women like girls? 7) Bill Bennett's racial determinism. 8) The mainstreaming of anal sex.
William Saletan is Slate's national correspondent and author of Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War.
Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2134380/
Copyright 2006 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC
human nature
Cough Up the Keys, Grandma
How to get old people off the road.
By William Saletan
Cities are inviting old people to trade in their cars for rides. The car buys you an account, from which you draw each time you call in for a ride. Rationales: 1) Old drivers are even more accident-prone than teenagers. 2) They don't use their cars much anyway. 3) Friends and family can add to their accounts by donating rides or money. 4) Old folks like to spend from their accounts instead of begging friends or family. (For additional ways to limit accidents among older drivers, click here; for Human Nature's take on raising the retirement age, click here.)
A California school district canceled its philosophy course on creationism. The course was widely seen as an end run around last month's court ruling that intelligent design couldn't be taught as science. Civil libertarians sued anyway, and the district folded. Plaintiffs' spin: Separation of church and state is vindicated. District's spin: We couldn't afford a legal fight. Discovery Institute's spin: The district screwed up by teaching old-fashioned creationism, not intelligent design. Course designer's obtuse non-spin: "This is the class that the Lord wanted me to teach." (For Human Nature's previous update on the case, click here.)
Having a TV in your bedroom means you get only half as much sex. A study of 523 Italian couples found that those with a TV had sex four times a month; those without a TV had sex eight times a month. Among people older than 50, TV reduced the average frequency of sex from seven times a month to 1.5. The study did not make clear whether 1) putting a TV in your bedroom makes you have less sex or 2) having less sex makes you put a TV in your bedroom.
A clinic says it has trained dogs to smell lung cancer on your breath with 99 percent accuracy—and to smell breast cancer with 88 percent accuracy. That's more accurate than high-tech tests. Explanation: 1) Tumors release tiny amounts of telltale chemicals. 2) Dogs can smell such tiny amounts. 3) Dogs have previously been trained to smell cancer on people's skin or bladder cancer in their urine. Scientists say the results are too good to be true, so they're waiting for an independent study to replicate them. (For Slate's take on bomb-sniffing dogs, click here. For an update on bomb-sniffing wasps, click here.)
Scientists claim to have cleared the Donner Party of cannibalism. Using CSI methods, they examined bone remains and found that 1) the Donner family camp was at a different site from the camp where cannibalism demonstrably occurred, and 2) there's no evidence of cannibalism at the Donner site. Skeptics' replies: 1) Maybe they ate the meat but didn't get to the bones. 2) The evidence shows they were desperate enough to eat shoelaces, rodents, and their dog. 3) Even if they didn't eat each other, the other families did. (For confirmed cases of cannibalism last year, click here and here.)
DNA testing vindicated the death-penalty system. Virginia's governor ordered the test because critics thought it would expose the nation's first execution of a provably innocent man. Instead, the test confirmed the murderer's guilt. Reactions from death-penalty opponents: 1) Keep testing, and eventually we'll prove an innocent man has been executed. 2) It's wrong to kill even if you've got the right man. 3) We can't believe this murderer conned us into using him as our test case by swearing his innocence to the end.
A survey suggests we're losing our aversion to fatness. Two decades ago, most Americans said overweight people were less attractive than other people. Now only 24 percent say so. Theories: 1) More of us are fat, so we don't want to judge others or feel bad about ourselves. 2) More of us are fat, so our perception of what counts as fat has shifted. 3) More of us are politically correct, so we've learned not to tell pollsters how ugly we think fat people are. 4) Our views about the aesthetics of plumpness have changed in past centuries and will change again.
A judge ruled that fetuses don't count toward carpool lane quotas. An Arizona woman, having been ticketed for driving alone in an HOV lane, pointed out to the judge that Arizona law counts the fetus as a person when calculating the number of victims in violent crimes against pregnant women. As evidence, she brought photos of her son, who was born two weeks after the incident. The director of Arizona Right to Life supported her claim. The ticketing officer says it's not the first time he's heard this argument. The judge rejected it, explaining that the purpose of HOV laws is "to fill empty space in a vehicle," and the womb doesn't count. (For Slate's take on counting fetuses as victims in violent crimes, click here.)
Lions are hunting humans in southern Africa. In Tanzania, annual attacks are up from 40 a decade ago to 100 today; 70 percent are lethal. One lion purportedly ate 40 people. Reasons: 1) People are sleeping outdoors to guard their crops against bush pigs. 2) Lions following the bush pigs find the humans and discover they're tasty. 3) "Once they discover that they can eat people they get quite bold. They are even breaking into people's houses and pulling them out." Experts' advice to locals: Build your outhouses closer to your homes. Lesson to Americans and Australians: Stop whining about shark attacks. (For Slate's take on shark lovers, click here.)
Latest Human Nature columns: 1) Teachers who have sex with boys. 2) Coercing women to experiment on their eggs. 3) The future of creationism. 4) Our creepy genetic experiment on dogs. 5) The pope's anti-gay tendencies. 6) Does Alito treat women like girls? 7) Bill Bennett's racial determinism. 8) The mainstreaming of anal sex.
William Saletan is Slate's national correspondent and author of Bearing Right: How Conservatives Won the Abortion War.
Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2134380/
Copyright 2006 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC
