[Warning: full article contains spoilers. -egg]

Something I came to love about Pratchett was his inability to go on disliking either a character or a race. In his early novels vampires are disgusting and nasty. But then he gets interested in them, he lets them cautiously in as Captain Vimes lets them reluctantly into the Ankh-Morpork Watch, he allows them a black ribbon of temperance (eschewing human blood) and we come to love them – or some of them. Goblins in early stories are conveniently unpleasant creatures, but then Pratchett and his characters start to like them, and the hidden music they turn out to have, and they become, despite their persisting stink, part of Ankh-Morpork society.

The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett review – the much-loved author’s last Discworld novel

According to Hinde, when a baby suckles at its mother’s breast, a vacuum is created. Within that vacuum, the infant’s saliva is sucked back into the mother’s nipple, where receptors in her mammary gland read its signals. This “baby spit backwash,” as she delightfully describes it, contains information about the baby’s immune status. Everything scientists know about physiology indicates that baby spit backwash is one of the ways that breast milk adjusts its immunological composition. If the mammary gland receptors detect the presence of pathogens, they compel the mother’s body to produce antibodies to fight it, and those antibodies travel through breast milk back into the baby’s body, where they target the infection.

At the same time that it is medicine, breast milk is a private conversation between mother and child. While my daughter lacks words, breast-feeding makes it possible for her to tell me exactly what she needs. The messages we are sending each other are literally made of ourselves, and they tell us about what is going on in our lives at that very moment.

Great article from The Stranger

Dr. Adams, who was also drawn to themes of repetition, painted one upright rectangular figure for each bar of “Bolero.” The figures are arranged in an orderly manner like the music, countered by a zigzag winding scheme, Dr. Miller said. The transformation of sound to visual form is clear and structured. Height corresponds to volume, shape to note quality and color to pitch. The colors remain unified until the surprise key change in bar 326 that is marked with a run of orange and pink figures that herald the conclusion.

Ravel and Dr. Adams were in the early stages of a rare disease called FTD, or frontotemporal dementia, when they were working, Ravel on “Bolero” and Dr. Adams on her painting of “Bolero,” Dr. Miller said. The disease apparently altered circuits in their brains, changing the connections between the front and back parts and resulting in a torrent of creativity.

“We used to think dementias hit the brain diffusely,” Dr. Miller said. “Nothing was anatomically specific. That is wrong. We now realize that when specific, dominant circuits are injured or disintegrate, they may release or disinhibit activity in other areas. In other words, if one part of the brain is compromised, another part can remodel and become stronger.”

New York Times

“We present a hypothetical process of mind coalescence, where artificial connections are
created between two or more brains. This might simply allow for an improved form of
communication. At the other extreme, it might merge the minds into one in a process
that can be thought of as a reverse split-brain operation. We propose that one way mind
coalescence might happen is via an exocortex, a prosthetic extension of the biological
brain which integrates with the brain as seamlessly as parts of the biological brain
integrate with each other. An exocortex may also prove to be the easiest route for mind
uploading, as a person’s personality gradually moves away from the aging biological brain
and onto the exocortex. Memories might also be copied and shared even without minds
being permanently merged.  Over time, the borders of personal identity may become
loose or even unnecessary.”

Published in the International Journal of Machine Consciousness, 2012

Full text (PDF) here.

For anyone I’m friends with on Facebook, be aware that I’m no longer on it — my account was suspended because my name (a name I’ve used publicly for fifteen years) is considered unacceptable, with no meaningful recourse, despite repeated claims from Facebook’s highest executives that “real name” is not the same as “legal name.”

Here’s a useful reminder that technologists’ ideas about names are hopelessly naive.

Mark Zuckerberg, July 1, 2015:

‘“There is some confusion about what our policy actually is,” the CEO wrote during a Facebook Q&A. “Real name does not mean your legal name. Your real name is whatever you go by and what your friends call you. If your friends all call you by a nickname and you want to use that name on Facebook, you should be able to do that.”’

Facebook’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, October 1, 2014:

“Our policy has never been to require everyone on Facebook to use their legal name. The spirit of our policy is that everyone on Facebook uses the authentic name they use in real life. For Sister Roma, that’s Sister Roma. For Lil Miss Hot Mess, that’s Lil Miss Hot Mess. Part of what’s been so difficult about this conversation is that we support both of these individuals, and so many others affected by this, completely and utterly in how they use Facebook.”

Portia spiders have amazingly sophisticated hunting behaviors for an invertebrate.

Portia uses aggressive mimicry against, and catches, just about every kind of web-building spider imaginable, as long as it is in a size range of from about 1/l0th to twice Portia’s size (Jackson & Hallas 1986). Being able to make so many different kinds of signals is important, because how Portia’s prey, another spider, interprets web signals may vary considerably depending on the species to which it belongs, its sex, age, previous experience and feeding state.

An ability to make so many different signals, however, raises the next question. How does Portia derive the appropriate signals for each of its many victims from its enormous repertoire? Two basic methods appear to be critical (Wilcox & Jackson 1998): 1) using specific genetically pre-programmed signals when cues from some of its more common prey species are detected; and 2) flexible adjustment of signals in response to feedback from the prey (i.e., trial-and-error derivation of appropriate signals). The first, using pre-programmed signals, is consistent with the popular portrayal of spiders as animals governed by instinct, but trial and error is an example of problem-solving behaviour and less expected in a spider.

‘Eight-legged cats’ and how they see – A review of recent research on jumping spiders (Araneae: Salticidae)

do spiders have a mind?

[Lately I’m low-income, but with good cash reserves and good credit, which makes all the difference in the world. -e]

Life is expensive for America’s poor, with financial services the primary culprit, something that also afflicts migrants sending money home (see article). Mr Martin at least has a bank account. Some 8% of American households—and nearly one in three whose income is less than $15,000 a year—do not (see chart). More than half of this group say banking is too expensive for them. Many cannot maintain the minimum balance necessary to avoid monthly fees; for others, the risk of being walloped with unexpected fees looms too large.

Doing without banks makes life costlier, but in a routine way. Cashing a pay cheque at a credit union or similar outlet typically costs 2-5% of the cheque’s value. The unbanked often end up paying two sets of fees—one to turn their pay cheque into cash, another to turn their cash into a money order—says Joe Valenti of the Centre for American Progress, a left-leaning think-tank. In 2008 the Brookings Institution, another think-tank, estimated that such fees can accumulate to $40,000 over the career of a full-time worker.

The Economist

Hans Rosling, who’s done some very cool stuff for the world, is just not going to put up with the statistical illiteracy of the media. -e

Source: Focusing on the full picture with data | FlowingData

On the return and domestication of the formerly extinct human subspecies commonly referred to as “vampires.” A presentation from FizerPharm.

(Courtesy of Peter Watts)

I’ve apparently become a Nils Frahm completist while I wasn’t looking.

Victoria