13. mai 2007

Study confirms the obvious Study confirms the obvious: Researchers from Germany found that four years into a relationship, less than half of 30-year-old women wanted regular sex. Conversely, the team found a man's libido remained the same regardless of how long he had been in a relationship. Writing in the journal Human Nature, the scientists said the differences resulted from how humans had evolved. Men gets into a relationship to have sex. Women have sex so they can get into a relationship. 6:17:10 PM    comment []  trackback []

Online encyclopedia plans to include all 1.8 million species An online encyclopedia targets to include entries of all named species on this planet, 1.8 million and growing. The 10-year scheme, launched with initial grants of $12.5 million from two U.S.-based foundations, could aid everyone from children with biology homework to governments planning how to protect endangered species. "The Encyclopedia of Life plans to create an entry for every named species," James Edwards, executive director of the project which is backed by many leading research institutions, told Reuters. "At the moment that's 1.8 million." The free Encyclopedia would focus mainly on animals, plants and fungi with microbes to follow, blending text, photographs, maps and videos in a common format for each. Expansion of the Internet in recent years made the multi-media project possible. Demonstration pages at http://www.eol.org include entries about polar bears, rice, death cap mushrooms and a "yeti crab" with hairy claws recently found in the South Pacific. I have no idea how far Wikipedia is along these lines, but it has an impressive list of species. The Encyclopedia of Life, obviously, will be a more authoritative source, and it also plans to contain a huge collection of video, audio and images. In fact, eminent biologist E. O. Wilson, who had a big role in initiating the EOL, says that Wikipedia was the inspiration for the project. According to Wikipedia, anyway. 6:08:16 PM    comment []  trackback []

Mullah Dadullah killed in southern Afghanistan There are rumours, and then there are facts. There have been many premature declarations of the death or capture of top Taliban and al-Qaeda commanders, but now Taliban's supreme military commander Mullah Dadullah has finally been killed. The Taliban's most prominent military commander, a one-legged fighter who orchestrated an ethnic massacre and a rash of beheadings, was killed in a U.S.-led military operation in southern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday. Mullah Dadullah, a top lieutenant of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was killed Saturday in the southern province of Helmand, said Said Ansari, the spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence service. NATO confirmed his death, calling it "a serious blow" to the insurgency. Dadullah is one of the highest-ranking Taliban leaders killed since the fall of the hard-line regime following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. His death represents a major victory for the Afghan government and the international coalition that has struggled to contain a Taliban-led insurgency wracking the south and east of the country. "Mullah Dadullah was the backbone of the Taliban," said Asadullah Khalid, governor of the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. "He was a brutal and cruel commander who killed and beheaded Afghan civilians." This is really a major success. Time will tell whether the Taliban can replace him. 3:11:00 PM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2007 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.06.2007; 11:46:27.