I read in a recent issue of Smithsonian Magazine that, outside of the Primate Order, the animal whose DNA most closely resembles our own is the domestic house cat.

I have to research this a bit...

[via Pax Nortona]

Update: Here you go...

But perhaps the most unexpected genome sweepstakes so far is the probe of the house cat. The impetus for the work is an underappreciated genetic similarity between people and cats. Not that it's in our nature to chase mice or purr when scratched behind the ears, but scientists have found that when it comes to the arrangement of genes on our chromosomes, we're closer to cats than to any other animal group studied so far except primates.

[From the Smithsonian Magazine]

11:33:52 PM    please comment []

I tend to have more respect for people with whom I have to be on the defensive, the Ks, for example. They attack me on my own ground. One problem about that kind of relationship, it's hard for me to let down my defenses and let the person really know how much I like them (if I do). I appreciate it when people put me in my place. I have to be shocked, reminded of what I'm doing, or not doing, or should be doing. It hurts sometimes for a little while. But when someone's right they're right.

The mix of the healthy and the neurotic in that little paragraph makes my head spin.
11:19:40 PM    please comment []

Enjoy!

[via Yahoo's Picks of the Week]
3:35:04 PM    please comment []

Thinking about thinking. That's the difference between outliner users and everyone else. They think about thinking. They're aware of their own process. Only people who think about thinking get to a place where they can invest in being more efficient in their thinking. Maybe "only" is too strong a word. Some people say they don't think in outlines. Yeah yeah. But hanging information on a hierarchy makes it easy to forget it and focus on new ideas and relationships. It's a good way to relax intellectually. ";->"

The problem is that Dave Winer thinks he knows the best way to think, and the best way to think about thinking. And so he makes software for that. Which is fine. Except if, in fact, most people don't care to do their thinking this way he'll either not sell enough software, or people will buy software that sort of does what they want. Or the interface will be perfect for people like Dave who've been working with this way for 25 years, but not so great for everyone else.

Dave Winer is his own best user. That's lovely for him. But it's a dubious proposition on which to develop consumer software. (And let's all just enjoy the breathtaking arrogance behind the notion that outline users are the only ones who think about thinking. Note the token back-pedal on "only." Everyone raise a hand who thinks that the wink means "just kidding, other people do just as good as a job of thinking about thinking as I do.")
2:08:10 PM    please comment []

1) This is the work of a divorced man in his mid-to-late thirties or early forties.

2) He has weekend custody of children, which is why he takes Saturday and Sunday off.

3) His ex-wife has some connection with Michaels Craft Stores.

4) The man may or may not have a military history. It's irrelevant, because his marksmanship is not so extraordinary that it could not be achieved by a patient person with basic coordination, sufficient motivation, and decent equipment (a properly callibrated scope, easy to obtain). It's irrelevant whether or not he's a gun fanatic/enthusiast. It's important to note that there is NOTHING PARTICULARLY SPECIAL about his skills or equipment. These days, it is easy to come by and master the tools needed to kill at a distance. Easy. (See this Washington Post article.)

5) His job allows him to travel reasonably freely without accounting for his exact whereabouts. I'm thinking along the lines of skilled technician, construction, repair, something like that.

6) The Tarot card is either a prank by some citizen-jerk or a deliberate red herring left by the sniper.

7) And here I go out on the longest limb: I suspect this man is a racist, probably of the White supremacist stripe. To-date, as far as I know from information released, he has shot 4 "Anglos" out of 10 victims. The first, James D. Martin, worked at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as a diversity coordinator (might the sniper have actually known his first victim?). Another, "Sonny" Buchanan, could ~ from his photograph at least ~ easily be taken for being of mixed race. The third, Lori Ann Lewis-Rivera, is a blonde woman. BUT she was married to a Hispanic man. I think it's entirely possible that the sniper saw her in the company of her husband or other friends or relatives of color. The dyed-in-the-wool White supremacist considers "Whites" who marry people of color to be "race traitors" ~ more than sufficient "justification" in their twisted ideology for murder. The fourth, Dean Harold Meyers, a civil engineer and Vietnam Vet, was a 53 year old cat-collecting bachelor. On the face of it, he doesn't fit my theory... unless he was gay, and his killer had some way of knowing it. I think law enforcement have deliberately chosen not to speculate about the White supremacist angle, as feelings are already running very high and airing this theory publicly would certainly serve only to raise tensions further.

8) Everyone is looking for a white truck and/or van. There are about a billion of these vehicles on the road. If the sniper was using a white vehicle like those we've heard of, I guarantee he is no longer doing so.

9) I don't think we'll see more gas station shootings. Three of a kind seems to be this guy's max, which is smart.

10) Unless we have a heroic family tipster like David Koszinsky, this could go on for a very long time.

Hardly the most cheerful line of thought. But you can't live around here and not have these conversations three times a day. So I thought I'd get this off my chest.

[Update: My bad. Apparently there have been 4 gas station shootings. I still think we've seen the last of that. I'd look at the first or last of each of the different "venues" to possibly be of someone the sniper has been stalking, rather than someone random.]

[Another update (10/14): A woman is dead outside a Home Depot in Falls Church. There is a Michael's store in this Seven Corner's complex (on the opposite end of the shopping strip from the Home Depot). One shot. Here we go again. Massive road blocks. I hope to God they catch this man, but I'm not optimistic.]

[Updating again (10/15): The woman (Anglo) is an FBI employee. Are people going to actually buy the "random" theory here? Sounds like a stalked victim to me.]
12:12:23 AM    please comment []