undead astronauts

more results from gallup. asians are more moderate and liberal than most americans. they are also less religous, but that mostly just goes along w/ being more liberal. we can’t tell from this information what age groups and generation the respondents are from unfortunately, but overall asians are definitely more lefty than righty.

link was first seen at 8asians.

DNA testing is mandated by the state for several genetic diseases. what may not be well-known is that some states keep ur kid’s DNA information indefinitely and may even share that information along with the baby’s name. Here are state-by-state differences on DNA data retention.

Surprise surprise.

according to gallup. saw this first at inductivist.

i hate to sound like rush limbaugh, but there is certainly a part of me that is callous to the suffering going on in haiti. haiti has been a basketcase for it’s entire history after independence, except for the times it has been occupied/controlled by outside powers. it’s people eat dirt cookies on a regular basis.

if our purpose is to take over the country, we’d be supporting people like this:

“The Haitian government has been here for a while, and they give us nothing. The United States should take over the country,” said Andrelita Laguerre, shepherding four children and a grandchild at the camp. “Most of my friends expect the United States to take over. I wish!” [bold emphasis is mine]

(more…)

http://www.denverpost.com/husted/ci_14313203

Yeah, this is epic. Pretty awesome of fighters Bravo, Torres, and Trigg to help the kid out.

in the past couple of weeks, i’ve had a greatly increased desire to understand football strategy and tactics. my alma mater has had a banner recruiting year, and a particular formation that our offensive coordinator gus malzhan has brought back into fashion is generating buzz in the NFL and even the dollhouse. the task of learning and understanding was problematic however as football is one of the more complex sports games ever devised.

i had taken to watching youtube vids, reading wiki entries, and even watching eyeshield 21 to get a better feel for strategy. i figured, however, the best way to learn would be playing something like madden on the 360. i just hadn’t gotten around to buying it.

and lo and behold, i read this article today which basically says even pro athletes use madden to learn the game. not only that, apparently playing the game has changed on field tactics. (more…)

Actually called GNILLEY, here is a game where you scream to solve puzzles and kill enemies.

http://www.globalgamejam.org/2010/gnilley

http://www.zonaeuropa.com/201001c.brief.htm#019

http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/31/in-the-limelight-an-american-entrepreneur-in-china-talks-about-startup-culture/

a study has come out that asked college freshmen how many AP courses they took in high school. this is not a measure of iq. it is only a measure of how hard a student is willing to push himself in high school. obviously asians answered that they took more AP courses than other groups. this is in spite of the fact that more white and hispanic kids went to schools that offered AP courses. from previous studies u might then expect the following group order: asians, whites, hispanics, blacks. but in fact it doesn’t go that way.

hispanics actually take more AP courses than whites. looking further into the numbers, u see that a higher percentage of hispanics go to schools where AP classes are offered. but even so, the numbers show that hispanic kids are willing to work harder in the classroom.

unfortunately even though they take the class at higher rates, their rate of scoring 3’s or above is lower than whites. so while it may be that they work harder than whites, hispanics aren’t seeing all the fruits that might be expected from that hard work.

hat tip to 8asians for the story link.

Through my daily trolling of the WoW forums I found an epic thread.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=4665323890&sid=1&pageNo=1

past studies have shown that women prefer symmetrical men’s dancing style to non-symmetrical men. a new study shows that testosterone levels affect who the opposite sex is attracted to.

The results showed that women gave the highest attractiveness ratings to men with the highest levels of prenatal testosterone. The men with the lowest testosterone in turn got the lowest attractiveness ratings. “Men can communicate their testosterone levels through the way they dance,” Lovatt told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “And women understand it — without noticing it.”

In women, the link between dancing style and testosterone levels were similar — but the reaction of men was just the opposite. Dancers with high levels of testosterone moved more parts of their body, with their movements being somewhat uncoordinated, while those with lower testosterone made more subtle movements, especially with their hips. The male students found the latter style most appealing…

The men who got the female students hot under the collar danced with large movements which were “complexly coordinated.” But it’s a fine line between hot and not, however: Those men who made big moves but who were less coordinated came across as dominant alpha males — and were unlikely to win women’s hearts. The researchers also found that the size and complexity of the dance moves decreased in parallel with testosterone levels.

i’m not sure it should be surprising to anyone that females are more impressed by males who can perform “complexly coordinated” moves. guys who do those moves are probably bboys and poppers. what guys want may be slightly less clear, but still shouldn’t be too surprising. guys want girls who have a subtle dance and shake their hips. rrrumpshaker anyone? okay, i suppose that’s not exactly subtle. but the hips are sure there. how about nobody?

http://www.youtube.com/html5

pretty cool, may be the beginning of the end for flash video.