Links for you. Science:
The Genetics of Staying in School: A huge study found 74 gene variants that are associated with years of formal schooling—but that doesn’t mean there are “education genes.” (excellent)
The Loneliest Plant In The World
Reminder to deposit DNA sequences
An Update From the Astronomers Who Proposed the Alien Megastructures
Why Public Health Concerns for Global Spread of Zika Virus Means That Rio de Janeiro’s 2016 Olympic Games Must Not Proceed
Other:
Discrimination against conservatives in academia? (absolute must-read)
Wood Skyscrapers Are the Gorgeous, World-Saving Future of Urban Skylines
Donald Trump Is Right: Deficits Don’t Matter (I would phrase it as deficits per se don’t matter; why you incur them and their consequences do)
The middle class is shrinking just about everywhere in America
Bernie Sanders Has Been the Most Influential Insurgent Candidate Since the 70s
Here’s Proof That Men Are Threatened by Women Who Earn More Than Them
Mind Readers and Bad Math at the Washington Post on Trump and Ryan
Clinton Policies Have Hurt Women
Washington Post Squeezes Four Anti-Sanders Stories Out of One Tax Study Over Seven Hours
If Mother’s Day is about doing something for all moms, then I think it’s time to focus on the things that would make a real difference
Denied Breaks, U.S. Poultry Workers Wear Diapers on the Job (but unions are evil something something…)
Bernie Sanders’s Legacy? The Left May No Longer Need the Rich
Why Women Can’t Break Free from the Parent Trap
Above the Law
The White Knight Vigilantes: Exposing the founders of Tulsa’s KKK
mikethemadbiologist
“SETI astronomers suggest[ing] that advanced alien civilizations might construct planet-sized “megastructures” to harvest massive amounts of starlight.”
But wouldn’t it be much less efficient to harvest energy very close to the sun and from there transport it to an endpoint, rather than let it transport itself at lightspeed and harvest it at the endpoint? Am I missing something here or are these hypothetical aliens extremely stupid but qualified?
Depends on how big a structure you want and why you want it. Check out Dyson Spheres or read some of Larry Niven’s Ringworld novels as extreme examples.
In fact if you want enough power perhaps “megastructures” are a small structure.
Re “Parent Trap”
Is there any country in the OECD other than the USA that does not have reasonably generous paid parental leave?
My own country, Canada, has roughly one year paid leave (not 100%) but fairly good and with job protection in most if not all cases. Not as good as some countries—I think France and Switzerland are both better—but still not too bad.
I, sometimes, think I reading Dickens when I read about the USA today.