A few interesting links collected July 30th through July 31st:
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Here’s the truth: ‘Birther’ claims are just plain nuts | McClatchy – “Obama was not born in Mombasa. He was born in America,” the translator says after talking to the woman.
“I thought he was born in Kenya,” McRae asks again.
“He was born in America, not in Mombasa,” says the response. Another response later says, “Obama in Hawaii. Hawaii. She says he was born in Hawaii.”
Still, the charge has spread despite no evidence that Obama was born in Kenya and compelling evidence that he was born in Hawaii.
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Vestigial Organs Not So Useless After All, Studies Find – Appendix, tonsils, various redundant veins—they’re all vestigial body parts once considered expendable, if not downright useless.
But as technology has advanced, researchers have found that, more often than not, some of these “junk parts” are actually hard at work.
Case in point: the spleen, which a new study shows may be critical in healing damaged hearts -
Daring Fireball: Microsoft’s Long, Slow Decline – Microsoft is no longer ignoring Apple’s market share gains and successful “Get a Mac” ad campaign. But the crux of these ads from Apple is that Macs are better; Microsoft’s response is a message that everyone already knows — that Windows PCs are cheaper. Their marketing and retail executives publicly espouse the opinion that, now that everyone sees Apple computers as cool, Microsoft has Apple right where they want them.
They’re a software company whose primary platform no longer appeals to people who like computers the most. Their executives are either in denial of, or do not perceive, that there has emerged a consensus — not just among nerds but among a growing number of regular just-plain users — that Windows PCs are second-rate.