Since olive oil is similar to the lipid molecules that make up nerve cells, Jackson and Heimburg started questioning the generally accepted belief that anesthetics block electrical pulses by fitting themselves into pain receptors on cells. That seems next to impossible, they said, because anesthetic molecules come in many shapes and sizes, and it’s difficult to imagine that they all happen to physically fit into all receptors.

People are not happy:

The theory has not been well received. Few are convinced that the inexplicability of anesthetics is reason to dismiss the Hodgkin-Huxley model. One molecular biologist and ion channel expert even refused to comment on record about the theory because he found it too preposterous.

Links to the paper, and the researchers’ websites: Andrew Jackson and Thomas Heimburg.
Thomas Kuhn wrote that our understanding of science changes according to the new and unexplained facts that challenge our world view, generating a crisis, and debunking old theories. This might be happening here: anomalies that generate new knowledge, and bring the old owners of a theory into a crisis: that’s how science advances.

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There’s a consistent visual vocabulary to the construct, as well. If it ain’t Impact or Arial Black or some other nondescript sans serif font, it ain’t lolcat. White letters with a black outline are a must. But codifying a design guide for lolcats is well beyond my abilities.

The lolcats have generated a general article in Slate, a wikipedia article, and of course, the all winning and amazing ICanHasCheezburger.

Why the importance of Yet Another Blog Meme?

It matters because it is one significant example of rules emergence through social interaction. That the internets are the best medium for this, well, it is for now. But the explosion of the image macros, the consensus on rules and appropriateness and the widespread use of freely available content makes this both an indicator of community, early technology adopters and curious innovators. The language that is defined through these image macros and the referent cultural assumptions, shortcuts into our moods and ideas (Jesuschrist is a lion! Get in the car! comes to mind) creates another redefinition of reality, without already modifying it too much: it is a nice exercise in socialization, without the encumbering responsibility of other more activist ideas.

Our real, immediate benefit comes in the form of new rules, the community identification and the discovery process that we undertake when first confronted with these pictures. We like the lolcats because they are humorous, yes, and as Kathy Sierra used to say, our brain is geared towards recognizing that which causes us to think – thus, this meme appeals to us because it depends on some fluid set of rules, which both defines the group as keeps it together.

And u haz a flavor!111!

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The point here is: is this plague emergent behavior based on a set of rules (which would act as the DNA of our common bugs), and if so, what else can happen there?
We have to remember that in any environment like these MMORPGs, the rules are also the computation, and the result, the interaction that we see is very much a computation process.
I am waiting for the emergent complex behavior that becomes aware.

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Traffic experts had previously been puzzled as to how Bogotá, with 7 million inhabitants and more than a million private cars, is so jam-free. The answer now seems that Bogotáns are simply more aggressive than their counterparts in London, New York and other huge metropolises.

And here is the link to the preprint.

Of course, now it makes sense! If you read Salon article about second generation traffic calming, mentioned by Jason Kottke, the emphasis is not on speed, nut on the limitation of the drivers’ behavior, as everyone learns to accept the presence of the others.
In Bogotá, the study, that aggressiveness yields one of the highest fatality rates in the world, being in fact one of every six violent deaths caused by traffic accidents. Mind you, we are talking Colombia here.
They could use some traffic calming there.
I leave you with the famous Les Rues de Bogotá, par Rocca:

Bogota Me amenaza, donde todo te pasa
Ville ou ruisselle le sang, la flaca pasa por mi casa
Ou à chaque faux mouvements
Tout tombe si subitement
Les balles sifflent comme le vent
“Si da papaya”, reste sur le firmament étendu
Personne n’a rien vu, encore moins entendu
Ici la rue, c’est presque une cause perdue
Les avenues silencieuses, “paila” trop douteuses
Fixent comme une mitrailleuse les passants
La misère creuse, on règle ses comptes en plein jour
Rien à foutre, il n’y a plus d’amour
Il n’y a qu’un seul dieu, qu’un seul parcours
Si la mort vient vers toi, cours
On vit l’instant présent, on le vit à 100%
Dehors on blague, on rit de tout, on défie même le temps
Quand vient le soir, les rues s’éteignent, les vampires sortent
On danse avec la mort, jusqu’à ce que l’aube l’emporte
Les chargeurs vident se remplissent à nouveau
Encore un jour qui commence un peu tôt

via dutch hopto

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There was a discussion in Freedom to Thinker about the Elsevier Editorial Board quitting, over the incredible prices Elsevier charges. Come on! Limited run, color in two pages, limited advertising, total cost per issue is $10. Ten dollars! Economies of scale if you publish more, and your subject matter gains in exposure, thus giving the scientists a higher profile and more opportunities, specially when it is grant time. Is that so bad? Open access news has an article about Elsevier revenues going up, and the backlash it is promoting. Hey, with collective blogs, we all are publishers, you know?

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