My thoughts and whatever about random topics.
Anything I find that I’d like to comment on
That smoking isn’t the best thing you can do to take care of your health is no secret. Smoking do cost, both money and health – but who should pay for it? Not Weyco, at least:
Weyco founder Howard Weyers said previously that he instituted the tough anti-smoking rule to shield his company from high health care costs.
“I don’t want to pay for the results of smoking,” he said.
The result of this policy? Four employees were fired for smoking.
The question now is: Will more companies follow suit?
Not many days ago, the world was shook up by the news that not only did mammals coexist with dinosaurs – they were large enough to go dinosaur hunting, too. Now we learn that birds may have evolved earlier than previously believed, too: They existed – like mammals – at the same time as dinosaurs, and didn’t wait to evolve until the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Fascinating to read. What will be next? Will fossils be found that explains old cave paintings and other depictions of men hunting animals that looks like dinosaurs? (Whatever the explaination might be, it would be interesting to see.)
Some fossils of a couple of mammals in China provides the world with a surprise: The last meal of the smallest of them was a dinosaur. A small dinosaur, and not fully grown, but still a dinosaur.
This means that the view currently being held, that mammals at the time of dinosaurs were small creatures the size of mice, must be reviewed. Obviously. The smaller of the mammals – Repenomamus robustus – was the size of a cat, while the larger one – Repenomamus giganticus – was the size of a dog. Read more of the details around this in Wired, The New York Times article and opinion.
The fascinating thing is when you start thinking about what this means: Unless we ditch evolution in favour of creationism, these mammals must have evolved from smaller creatures – and I don’t think it’s very probable that the result of this produced only these two species. What more can be found? Also, it doesn’t take a very bright brain to realise mammals of at least this size coexisted with dinosaurs. I say ‘at least this size’, because up until this it was “well known” that the largest mammals coexisting with dinosaurs were the size of mice – who is to say we won’t find proof even lager mammals lived at that time, too?
Then I wonder – since we now know large mammals lived in the time of dinosaurs – can we be sure that the dating we have of fossils of mammals that size and smaller really are correct? Are all mammals previously believed to be from the time after the dinosaurs really are from such a late period? I may be going out on a limb here with wild speculations, but I would find it stranger if these two mammals were the only one found living in this period – and the dating game isn’t an exact science, that much I’ve read earlier.
In any case, it will be interesting to read more of this – if anyone have further links or more to ponder, please let me know.
With the amount of phishing attempts in the mailbox every day, trying to get to you – how aware are you of how the phishers try to hook you and reel in your sensitive data?
One way to find out, is to take the MailFrontier Phishing IQ Test
As Norway got its smoking ban in places where people work – like restaurants, pubs and so on – there were an outcry from unhappy smokers, who had to go outside to smoke. Claims were heard that in no other country such strict laws were found. Well – at least not nationwide.
That claim can now definitely not be made anymore. The kingdom of Bhutan now has a ban on sale of tobacco products – with severe penalties for those who don’t comply.
Who’s next? Maybe smokers should be happy they’re allowed to smoke at all?