chiphart - Slashdot User

Submission + - Aussie scientists find coconut-carrying octopus (myway.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @09:40AM

An anonymous reader writes: Australian scientists have discovered an octopus in Indonesia that collects coconut shells for shelter — unusually sophisticated behavior that the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an invertebrate animal. The scientists filmed the veined octopus, Amphioctopus marginatus, selecting halved coconut shells from the sea floor, emptying them out, carrying them under their bodies up to 65 feet (20 meters), and assembling two shells together to make a spherical hiding spot. "I was gobsmacked," said Finn, a research biologist at the museum who specializes in cephalopods. "I mean, I've seen a lot of octopuses hiding in shells, but I've never seen one that grabs it up and jogs across the sea floor. I was trying hard not to laugh."

Submission + - The perfect way to slice a pizza (newscientist.com)

Submitted by iamapizza on Tuesday December 15, 2009 @06:53AM

iamapizza writes: New Scientist reports on the quest of two math boffins for the perfect way to slice a pizza. It's an interesting and in-depth article;

"The problem that bothered them was this. Suppose the harried waiter cuts the pizza off-centre, but with all the edge-to-edge cuts crossing at a single point, and with the same angle between adjacent cuts. The off-centre cuts mean the slices will not all be the same size, so if two people take turns to take neighbouring slices, will they get equal shares by the time they have gone right round the pizza — and if not, who will get more?"

This is useful, of course, if you're familiar with the concept of "sharing" a pizza.

Comment Re:Yes, but (Score 1) 553

by chiphart on Wednesday October 04, 2006 @12:35PM (#16307373) Attached to: Illumninatus! Author Needs Our Help

I'm curious to learn how/why you think "the treatment of Western children with life-threatening illnesses is arguably the single most overfunded branch of the medical profession."

As a matter of dollars-spent (total or per-patient), I'd suggest that the money spent on Western adults is far greater and to no surprise. Last I read, children represent 50% of the lives on Medicaid, for example, yet make up only 5% of the inpatient dollars spent. Not proof, I realize, but telling.

Further, I'd consider money spent on children a potential investment while the money spent on dying adults to be potentially wasteful.

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