Stikkord: <span>Wired</span>

En ny studie som nettopp ble publisert i Nature tyder på at evolusjonær tilpasning ikke går tregere jo mer komplisert organismen blir. Dette har vært et av kreasjonistenes kronargumenter, nemlig at tilfeldige mutasjoner ikke kan føre til utvikling av komplekse organismer. Men studien viser at dette argumentet ikke holder mål fordi evolusjon alltid skjer innenfor et så snevert område av organismen at den totale kompleksitet ikke er relevant.

Led by Yale University evolutionary biologist Gunter Wagner, researchers measured the cumulative effects of genetic mutations in mice. Would tweaking a gene affect many different unrelated traits, thus imposing a «cost of complexity»? Or would the genetic ripple be constrained?

The latter, found the researchers: the effects of mutations were indeed multiple, but largely limited to related characteristics. The researchers also found no relationship between effect strength and the number of affected traits. Some scientists have wondered whether these would vary inversely, further slowing the pace of adaptation in complex organisms.

Blogger Religion/overtro Vitenskap

OK, dette er både fascinerende og sykt:

Internet griefers descended on an epilepsy support message board last weekend and used JavaScript code and flashing computer animation to trigger migraine headaches and seizures in some users.

The nonprofit Epilepsy Foundation, which runs the forum, briefly closed the site Sunday to purge the offending messages and to boost security.

[…]

The incident, possibly the first computer attack to inflict physical harm on the victims, began Saturday, March 22, when attackers used a script to post hundreds of messages embedded with flashing animated gifs. The attackers turned to a more effective tactic on Sunday, injecting JavaScript into some posts that redirected users’ browsers to a page with a more complex image designed to trigger seizures in both photosensitive and pattern-sensitive epileptics.

Omkring 50 millioner mennesker har epilepsi, og av disse er ca 3% fotosensitive, noe som gjør at blinkende lys og farger kan trigge anfall med hodepine, migrene eller fullblåst epilepsianfall.

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Diverse IT/Internett Religion/overtro Samfunn og verden

Beyond fear - Bruce SchneierSkribenten Bruce Schneier skrev for en tid tilbake et flott forsvar for privatlivets rett i magasinet Wired. Artikkelen er så pass viktig at jeg vil referere noen utdrag her. Noe er direkte sitert. Noe er oversatt og noe er mine egne tanker.

The most common retort against privacy advocates — by those in favor of ID checks, cameras, databases, data mining and other wholesale surveillance measures — is this line: «If you aren’t doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?«

Some clever answers:

  • «If I’m not doing anything wrong, then you have no cause to watch me.«,
  • «Because the government gets to define what’s wrong, and they keep changing the definition.«
  • «Because you might do something wrong with my information.«

My problem with quips like these — as right as they are — is that they accept the premise that privacy is about hiding a wrong. It’s not. Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.

Two proverbs say it best: Quis custodiet custodes ipsos? («Who watches the watchers?«) and «Absolute power corrupts absolutely.«

Han fortsetter med å sitere kardinal Richelieu som sa: «If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged.» Overvåk et gjennomsnittsmenneske lenge nok og du vil finne en grunn til å arrestere, eller bruke informasjonen til utpressing.

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