As a little off-topic trivia, slavery (as in the ownership of one human by another) only became illegal in the UK on 6th April 2010 (source).

Slavery was abolished in stages throughout the British Empire in the 19th Century but the status of slave was never acknowledged in the UK so it was never illegal to own one since they didn't exist!

Maybe I'm being a bit old fashioned about this but surely the best solution is to use pen and paper!

This is almost exactly what Jonathan Shorr of the University of Baltimore was quoted as saying by BBC news. The students think they are having an easy course but in fact are "tricked" into learning something. I don't have a problem with this per se but surely not for adults. This is the kind of technique you use with young children who don't want to learn. If people at university don't want to learn (or can't learn without being hoodwinked) then they shouldn't be there.

Typist losing synchronicity?

Indeed. With any flammable fuel there is always the potential for problems to arise leading to fire or other danger. We think we've got petroleum products fairly well sussed but every now and then something goes wrong. The key is to learn from mistakes and make future use of any given fuel or technology better and more idiot-proof.

No we don't... Geek squad car. It is basically the same, isn't it?

I don't know if you've seen TFA or just making a quick joke but a comparison between the main picture and a google image search for "demolition man car" shows that you're basically spot on!

As a corollary to the parent, many proteins require chaperones to help fold correctly. The chaperones interact with the protein as it is being translated from the mRNA and help guide it to a folded state. Of course, we don't fully understand any of it.

There's always someone saying things should or shouldn't be in idle but surely this is one of the cases where it shouldn't be?

There's been nothing but positive reviews of this guy's work here so far (and one Soviet Russia joke)

Even if this event is spread over only 1/100 of the surface of a sphere, this energy output is equivalent to the entire output of the milky way, assuming high estimates for number of stars in this galaxy (400 billion or so).It's a truly staggering amount of energy that I don't think humans can appreciate. We all like to bandy about numbers like 10^{nn} without having a clue.

Space is big.

Even the full paper isn't much help. They don't go into details on the fights themselves. An excerpt from the methods says:

"[T]he female was removed from the home cage; an opaque divider was inserted into the cage and isolated the focal mouse on one side; an opponent was placed in the cage's opposite side; the mice were given 2 min to acclimate; the divider was removed and the mice were given 10 min to freely interact."

They then go on to talk about "winning experiences" without detail. Presumably they judged winning from the body language of the mice concerned. A winner would presumably dominate a loser with the loser often on their back or trying to stay out the way in a corner or similar.

Thank you. That makes a lot of sense. It rarely gets much more than half a dozen degrees below freezing here except in the worst winters which explains the building habits here.

Just a quick question: what has a basement got to do with water and other service hookups? I ask out of genuine curiosity. I'm sure basements are convenient places but the vast majority of houses here (the UK) don't have them. My electric and gas come straight up out of the ground into my hall way by the front door (there's a little 20cm squared cupboard up the wall) and my water comes into my kitchen under the sink.

Slightly off topic I know but I've always liked that particular quote. For interest it's on the edge of the British £2 coin with a design on the reverse in concentric circles showing progression from the iron age to the modern time (Picture)

I often wondered whether people have become smarter "recently" but have come to the conclusion that people have probably been of similar intelligence for many thousands of years but that the prior knowledge wasn't present meaning that progress was slow. If you imagine living in a society based on stones, the development of iron is a truly remarkable thing.

Playing devil's advocate: why not? I'm not advocating paedophilia but the reason that it is illegal in a given jurisdiction is because the inhabitants of that jurisdiction have decided so. If enough people disagree and the society is truly democratic then laws can (and will) be changed. I'm sure that's among the ultimate goals of the Pirate Party here.