Oct

7

DNA For Everyone

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So, 60 Minutes has broadcast a report on the tracing of DNA. Leslie made a statement, “The are just two bits of DNA which remain pure. The Y chromosome which passes directly from father to son. And something called mitochondrial DNA which passes unchanged from mother to child.” Logically speaking, if the mDNA really passes unchanged with every generation, then everyone has the exact same mDNA. However, that is not the case. A limited number of aberrations have occurred in the mDNA over time. Those changes are called markers and passed from mother to child. Identification of these markers and estimating when and which groups they occurred is the process behind identifying to whom an individual is related.

Leslie did make a really good point. As you trace back through the Y chromosome and mDNA, the further back one goes, the smaller the ratio of these markers can provide. So going back one generation, you can see info on both individuals. Going back to the second generation, you can only see 2 of 4 individuals, three see 2 of 8, eight see 2 of 256, etc.

Another fuzziness the report failed to explain is the testing really only matches individuals to currently living individuals who share similar markers. So, you don’t really see who your ancestors are. An African-American woman showcased, got back several matches to individuals belonging to tribes in Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, and Senegal. I have first and second cousins all over the place. Is it right to assume only individuals taken from Africa and brought to the Americas are the ones who have left the tribe? It seems hard to believe family members left in Africa occupy the same huts as when we left.

A good book to read on Y chromosome and mDNA tracing to determine the origins of all the world’s population to common ancestors in Africa is The Journey of Man by Spencer Wells. That is a little further back.
:D

Sep

9

A Class of Cornell University Students Take Google as Gospel

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PC World - Students Take Google as Gospel:

The experiment involved 22 undergraduate students (with various majors) from Cornell University in the U.S. It found that overall, the students had an inherent trust in Google’s ability to rank results by their true relevance to the query.

The news media has an inherent trust in studies involving a handful of college students. Can you really call a single classroom of undergraduate students representative of all students, aka including K-12 and graduate students, country or worldwide?

Aug

23

Misleading CNN Information

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Yesterday, CNN’s Erica Hill was following a story about 2 pit bulls who got loose and killed a woman in while she slept. My first complaint is citing statistics without saying from where they originated. Only because the of rebuttal guest pointing out the study was based on media reporting incidents rather than police reporting am I able to guess this CDC study (PDF may require additional software) is the one.

The numbers cited by CNN sounded outrageous. Out of 238 deaths, pit bulls were supposedly responsible for 105 (over a 20 year period). It was so outrageous because german shepards, the next highest, were responsible for only 17. Well… the actual study says pit bulls were responsible for 66 deaths and rottweilers for 39 deaths and german shepards for 17 deaths.

Interestingly the authors of the study have these points about legislation for laws restricting the ownership of violent breeds:

  1. fatal attacks have been relatively stable over time (inconsistent with Erica’s question “Why have these attacks increased lately?”, funny given the study is based in large part on media coverage).
  2. different breeds were the dangerous dogs at different points of their study.

At least the mistake got me to read and understand the issue a little better.

May

6

Reactions

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The Athens NEWS: Athens’ Only Locally Owned Newspaper:

Ohio University would be safer with concealed weapons on campus if those gaining such a permit had to be subjected to a strict screening process that included an annual mental-health checkup; criminal background check; and training in said firearms use, marksmanship and safety, including an inspection of the weapon to be carried.

Ummmm… If background checks are so effective, then how did Seung-hui Cho get one? Last night, I was watching 20/20 where they discussed myths, one of which was on whether gun control reduces violent crime obviously spun towards it not.

The example of success? The Appalachian School of Law Shooting where a gunman killed three people before other students with guns stopped him. Many more people would have been killed had these other students not stopped him. Police cannot be everywhere at once, so its better to have a gun to save yourself. They don’t mention that it was after he was done killing that the students with guns got to him and apprehended him. Its not much different than police arriving at the scene.

There are no available numbers on how many mass murders are prevented by people who are not able to acquire a gun.

Its not like either side is going to point out where their side has failed in this issue. :(

Mar

11

Is the Media Left, Right, or Does It Even Matter?

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Newspaper x is Liberal (aka favors the Democrat Party). Television show y is Conservative (aka favors the Republican Party). Neither claims to be biased. Both claim to be party neutral. You could go back 210 years and change x to the Federalist Party (y would need to be another newspaper), but the result is that the media was even then run by people who have an interest in telling the story of their side. If you wanted to run for office, then you should start your own newspaper.

Everyone has beliefs. Those beliefs filter what information gets internalized. No one who reads this and disagrees with me will remember it. So why the pretense of objectivity? I think its because we so highly value objectivity. We all feel its better to strive to bring no biases to the table. However, I question the value of lying about our objectivity.

Feb

17

Trust

Filed Under Corporations, Gov't & Politics, News, Personal / Relationships, Quotes, Science, Social | Leave a Comment

A day at NPR:

[David Weinberger:] “There is an inverse relationship between control and trust.” The more you hand over control, the more trust you earn. True of media, business, government. He also said that trust is not a goal but an enabler: if you have trust, you can do more.

Feb

3

I don’t get it

Filed Under Corporations, Gov't & Politics, Movies / Films / TV, News | Leave a Comment

Moon men == bomb threat? Well, I expected Aqua Teen Hunger Force to bomb when I first saw it. So, thanks to the Boston police this media campaign which intended to be subtle and inexpensive is getting a tsunami of free media coverage. No matter the outcome of the two guys going to prison or not, Turner Broadcasting 1 : Boston Police -4.

Jul

7

Terror Attack

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Yay! A terrorist plot was foiled. I guess the fighting over in Iraq hasn’t exactly kept the terrorists from attacking the USA?

FBI disrupts New York City tunnel plot - Yahoo! News:

Authorities have disrupted planning by foreign terrorists for an attack on New York City tunnels, two law enforcement officials said Friday.

FBI agents monitoring Internet chat rooms used by extremists learned in recent months of the plot to strike a blow at the city’s economy by destroying vital transportation networks, one official said.

Jul

4

Pirates Still Surviving

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Pirate attacks in Malacca Strait | BBC NEWS:

Pirates in the Malacca Strait have attacked two UN-chartered ships and threatened a Japanese cargo carrier, a maritime watchdog has said.

Are the UN in league with the Ninjas?

I don’t think Disney needs press coverage for the new Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man’s Chest.

Jun

15

Netscape.com 3.0

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Poor Netscape…. They work and work at achieving again the glories of their past. Through their browser (eventually outsourced), web server (eventually sold of to become iPlanet, SunOne, and now something else), and web site, this brand just has not seemed to flourish since their IPO back in the mid 1990s. Will this latest try at rebirth as a blog site change the tide?

Netscape, which started life as a Web browser company and then evolved into a media destination site, is being reinvented once again to merge news reporting and blogs with the latest Internet trends.

On Thursday, the revised Netscape.com will begin a public test of what its new general manager, dot-com news entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, said aims to reinvent the modern news service.

As a blogger and dabbler I will probably play with it. Doesn’t mean I will like it.

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