Fodder for thought

[mckitterick]

First up, new research suggests that 2.7% Of Drivers Are Stupid Jerks, Will Go Out of Their Way to Kill Turtles. This is a follow-up to another study, 2.7% of Drivers Are Stupid Jerks. Both studies find that about 2.7% of drivers intentionally swerve in an attempt to kill box turtles or other reptiles.

Click the image to see the article.
Let's say we have 300,000,000 people in the US. If 2.7% of them are animal-murderers (a short step from full-blown psychopaths), that suggests we have 8,100,000 psychos-in-waiting. Whoah. I wonder what keeps most of them from emerging like murderous butterflies from their cocoons?

How about some GOOD news? Here, have some hope for curing Alzheimer's.

Click the image to see the Kurzweil.com article.
Some more cool science: Quantum gas goes below absolute zero. This is fascinating. Things behave very strangely at the quantum level, so I'm strangely unsurprised! They also suggest this might be the explanation for dark energy....

Ever wondered how to pick a lock? This is a great graphic demonstration:

Click the image to see the Tumblr post.

My New Year's gift from the universe was a lovely cold. Thankfully, my fever broke last night (in a puddle in my bed - seriously, my sleeping-hat was DRIPPING), and the cough has become, ahem, productive. I've also become a snot factory. On the plus side, my brain is working again.

Hope you're doing well!

Best,
Chris

Comments

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

"I can't understand the idea why you would swerve to hit something so helpless as a turtle."

Because people suck.

Glad you're feeling better, though.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Well, 2.7% of them do, anyway.

About that feeling-better thing... time for a nap. I think I'll curl up with Scalzi's Redshirts; I made it about 60 pages in last night. A blast!

OT

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

Does the name Peter David (author, his wife Kathleen has an LJ, but I don't know her LJ name) ring a bell with you? He suffered a stroke over the holidays:

http://www.peterdavid.net/

I'm going to come back and read all of these articles over the weekend, but in order-boo/hiss, yay, fascinating, even more fascinating, and get well!

Re: OT

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

That's sad news.

Thanks for the well wishes. Going to bed early tonight.

[siro-gravity.livejournal.com]

oh, i'm sorry you're a little snot factory. :( glad to hear your brain's working, though.

I do not know or know OF a single person who would intentionally swerve to kill an animal. They certainly exist, but . . .maybe it's more like .05%. or maybe it's that they all live in some weird place.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I doubt I know anyone like that either. I suspect that most psychopaths in waiting end up in prison.

[tully01.livejournal.com]

It's actually a lot higher than 2.7%, that's just the subset of stupid jerks who hate turtles.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think chernobylred would say that MOST people are assholes.

[tully01.livejournal.com]

Other than the occasional saint, she's right. Almost all of us are assholes occasionally -- bug me in the morning before I've had my coffee and...

But most of us aren't stupid jerks who swerve to hit animals.

On the road, I'd put the percentage of stupid jerks about an order of magnitude higher than those stupid jerks who swerve to hit turtles. But I freely admit I am combining the simply stupid with the simply jerks. :)

And yeah, I'm one of those softies that will if traffic permits stop and move the turtle across the road. I'm a sucker for the underdog.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's a big difference between a turtle-killer and a poor driver, and we can all be occasional jerks.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

People who kill turtles belong in the innermost circle of hell. On a certain discussion board I belonged to, a Marine Colonel started a movement, and every person on that board who saw a turtle and could do it without getting killed went into the road and moved said turtle to safety. He was outraged to watch a truck kill one with malice -- as were we all.

I like turtles a lot better than most people.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

I totally get that kind of thing.

Hmm, I wonder if 2.7% of ALL animals are psychopaths....