“To my eternal shame, I have no idea, but I found the following in the Guardian, in some sort of ‘Ask scientists!’ article:

Q: Do insects sleep?

A: Not in the way we think of it, no. We need lots of sleep to ‘recharge’ our brains (although no one yet knows how exactly this work). Most insects will rest to conserve energy rather then ‘recharge’ and so have ‘periods of inactivity’ (either at night or during the day depending on whether they are nocturnal or diurnal).
During that time, some of them may go into a kind of short-term hibernation where all their bodily functions are massively reduced. This is more like suspended animation than sleep as we understand it, though.”

The answer to the question ‘do insects feel tired’, however, is almost certainly no, because I can say with a fair amount of confidence that insects don’t have the capacity to truly “feel” anything, which probably requires some sort of proto-self, at least. But really, who knows?”

“Since atoms are made up mostly of empty space, with electrons ‘orbiting’ the nucleus at distances typically many hundreds of times its diameter, it seemed reasonable to ask whether the electrons would be dragged away from the nucleus by the stretching of space. Price decided to examine the simplest system, that of a hydrogen atom, with one negative electron orbiting a positive proton. He found if the force involved – electromagnetic in the case of atoms – binding the system together is strong than a certain critical value, the system will be entirely unaffected by the cosmological expansion.”

Back on those treadmills folks, that growing belly of yours is not inevitable.

Augmented spaces are differentiated from virtual space in that a user interacts with a physical space enhanced by information. Augmented spaces raise new questions regarding ideas of body and location. Blast Theory’s game, Can you see me now?, has players interacting in virtual space and physical space simultaneously. Virtual players use satellites to track players in physical space, therefore virtual players can chase icons representing their image in physical space on an online map. Players in physical space have to chase down their virtual opponents and take a picture of them in physical space in order to “capture” them. They do this by tracking them with a handheld scanner while moving through physical space. GPS has created a new way to define the body in space as well as track it. Artists are using GPS to access dataspace and create new types of images. GPS receivers allow artists to record digital lines of their movements through space. As Jeremy Wood explained in a RES magazine interview, “It is digital geograffiti by using the landscape to scrawl and scribble over with a GPS receiver.” Wood has created images such as a dollar sign over Vegas, a spirograph from a circular stroll, as well as mapped his travels with GPS. Artists have also been created works to help people contest the surveillance culture that has arisen along with technologies like GPS. The Institute for Applied Autonomy’s iSee has placed maps of surveillance spaces online so that a person can use the very technologies that track them (like a PDA) in order to avoid these spaces. The Bureau of Inverse Technology (BIT) uses augmented spaces to contest and critique Surveillance Culture. BIT uses wireless GPS based infrastructure on taxicabs’ display units to present the public with location-based information, such as toxic residue level. The taxicab example demonstrates how presenting geospecific information in real-time in public spaces can be used to raise awareness. The unusual presentation of such information on a cab draws the viewer’s attention to not only relevant public information, but also the untapped possibilities of using technology for new forms of communication other than corporate advertisement.

Although no trend has been found between global warming and hurricane frequency, a link with increasing hurricane intensity has been seen. An article on this correlation, produced by MIT professor Kerry Emanuel, was recently published in the scientific journal Nature. Also, work over the years by NOAA scientists at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory has produced increasing robust studies predicting that as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rise, so too will hurricane intensity rise. (A GFDL webpage on global warming and hurricanes has a readable overview with excellent graphical content that summarizes their work.) Thus, we’ll be seeing more storms classified as category-5 (the most intense rating) but not more storms in general.

“There was a news report about a religious activity held in a Taiwanese city. The picture went along with the article showed a stage with a couple of female pole dancers. The caption writes, ‘One of the most popular activities in Ghost Month, strip dancing, was held in ( ) County. With the police presence, there was no extreme exposure and the audience was somewhat disappointed. However, one of the crowed was quoted as saying, ‘The girls are still as hot as the ones last year.”

“Ghost Month is huge in Taiwan, probably as significant as Lunar New Year or Moon Festival, in my opinion. During this period of time, people have 3 major rituals; on the first, fifteenth, and thirtieth day of the month in the lunar calendar. However, people do not seem strictly to stick to these calendric order and yet hold rituals sporadically, in both time and location. So there was this strip dancing for ghosts yesterday, Aug. 28th.

“Just like in any other ordinary religious rituals, Ghost Month rituals accompany food. If there is one uniqueness to this Taiwanese religious activity, it is the strip dancing. I have asked many of my friends and students here but actually nobody knows exactly why there is this peculiar show so I decided to make sense of it myself.

“I consider holding a strip show for ghosts just as much the same as offering victuals to the deceased good-ol brothers and sisters since it is a way to alleviate hunger in a manner: food for stomach and sexual/sensual pleasure for the reproductive organs. One thing that boggles my mind a little is, there is no strip dancing for female ghosts. Apparently, the female dancers in scanty outfit dancing on the stage are for males, no matter whether they are the living or the dead.

“In South Korea, there are some fisherman-towns in coastal areas. One unique tourist attraction in those towns is the gigantic phallus. It is said that the phalluses are for alleviating sexual frustration of the widows who lost their husbands to the sea. In other areas of South Korea, tourists can participate in activities carving wooden phallus which were allegedly placed on altars for the spirits of young females who died earlier than marital age.

“I do not think South Koreans in earlier days were aware of equal rights between men and women but the phallus stories, at least, sound fair enough for women as well. My opinion might make sense when there are not many stories such as carving out a female statue for a male ghost. In comparison with this information from South Korea, Taiwanese people have a rather sexist religious activity, if sexist mean not giving some goodies to certain type of sex.”

Another troublesome failing occurs in the writer’s choice of support for an argument. Liberties are too-often taken with the evidence. Cherry-picking– taking a statement out of context– can frustratingly give the appearance of thorough reasoning if the reader is not familiar with the source from which the statement was lifted. This case and other instances of writers utilizing flimsy evidence are symptomatic of “conventional wisdom” usage. I use “conventional wisdom” along the lines of how the originator of the phrase, John Kenneth Galbraith, used it. Consider this statement (which I’m borrowing from the recent book Freakonomics) from Galbraith:

We associate truth with convenience with what mostly closely accords with self-interest and personal well-being or promises best to avoid awkward effort or unwelcome dislocation of life. We also find highly acceptable what contributes most to self-esteem.

Thus, a writer may seek validation through the act of posting his views on webpage for the world to see, not in the strength of his argument.

Moreover, readers supporting the writer’s point of view may provide weight for the writer regardless of whether or not an argument holds. The volume– be it in terms of number of people or degree of loudness– behind a claim does not strengthen or validate the claim. The purpose of online discussion should be to tease out why we believe something (to actually debate). It is not meant to be a megaphone for our individual beliefs like the one the jerk on the street corner yelling at us all to “REPENT!” uses. No one wants to listen to that. What, if anything, do we gain if we’re all screaming and failing to engage those of differing opinions? Whose mind are we going to change that way?

I praise Slate‘s ‘dialogues’ because they’ve forgone the megaphones. Debate actually occurs, allowing both the writers and the readers to gain something more from the exercise than a headache.