Evangelical Christians have higher-than-average divorce rates

The next time Rush Limbaugh pontificates about the sanctity of marriage, go ahead and remind him of his multiple marriages, then drive the point home by pointing out this little gem of research:

Evangelical Christians have higher-than-average divorce rates, new report shows

Despite their strong pro-family values, evangelical Christians have higher-than-average divorce rates -- in fact, being more likely to be divorced than Americans who claim no religion, according to a new study.

The research is part of a new report released by the Council on Contemporary Families.

The council report coincides with the 50-year anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act, which made it illegal to discriminate against individuals on the basis of race, national origin, religion or gender. The council's report, which included findings by a dozen researchers, dealt with changes in the past half century for each of the populations affected by the law: religious groups, racial and ethnic minorities and women. Baylor's portion of the report dealt with 50 years of religious change, from 1964 to 2014. Other findings included:

• The proportion of Americans who do not identify with any religious tradition has grown dramatically -- from 3 percent in the 1960s to 20 percent today -- despite the fact that 90 percent of Americans professed a belief in God or a higher power.
• Protestants have declined in their share of the American adult population, from 70 percent in the 1950s to a little less than 50 percent today.
• The protracted decline in Protestant shares of the American population is largely due to the decline of Mainline Protestant denominations (e.g., Methodists, Lutherans and Episcopalians), whose numbers have halved over the same time period
• Evangelicals rapidly increased their share of the population until the early 1990s, but that segment has experienced some decline since then.
• The percentage of Catholics has remained steady, but their ethnic makeup has changed dramatically due to steady Latino immigration.
• The proportion of people who affiliate with non-Judeo-Christian religions has doubled since the 1950s.

O hypocrisy, thy name is Rush.

Your humble scribe,

Jacomus

Handymen of the World, Rejoice. . .

We got it right!

How many projects around your home have you completed, covered in sweat and using language that would make a Marine Corps DI blush, by wrapping a wad of tape, whether duct, Scotch®, or electrical, around a repair and calling it "good"?

I personally owned a home I remodeled that ended up wrapped in various tapes, often applied by the yard and pound much to the soft, ghostly chuckling of visiting mice, termites and building inspectors.  Hey, get over it, tape works.

Now comes word ~ wait for it ~ that all us frustrated DIYers are on to something. Something really big.  Actually, make that really small.

Imagine a clot of white-coated researchers, crowding around a lab table, covered with extraneous bits of a popular every day product exclaiming "Eureka" in five-part harmony as they struggle with a vexing, seemingly unsolvable problem in electronic micro-engineering.  They used, much to my delight, common, every-day Scotch® Magic™ Tape.

Yes!! I hear you crow. Vindicated by science.

Here's the gist of the release:

Breakthrough Could Make Electronics Smaller and Better: 

Surprising Low-Tech Tool -- Scotch® Tape -- Is Key

Sep. 3, 2013 — An international group of researchers from the University of Minnesota, Argonne National Laboratory and Seoul National University have discovered a groundbreaking technique in manufacturing nanostructures that has the potential to make electrical and optical devices smaller and better than ever before. A surprising low-tech tool of Scotch® Magic™ Tape ended up being one of the keys to the discovery.

The research is published today in Nature Communications, an international online research journal.

Combining several standard nanofabrication techniques -- with the final addition of the Scotch® Magic™ Tape -- researchers at the University of Minnesota created extremely thin gaps through a layer of metal and patterned these tiny gaps over the entire surface of a four-inch silicon wafer. The smallest gaps were only one nanometer wide, much smaller than most researchers have been able to achieve. In addition, the widths of the gaps could be controlled on the atomic level. This work provides the basis for producing new and better nanostructures that are at the core of advanced electronic and optical devices.

One of the potential uses of nanometer-scale gaps in metal layers is to squeeze light into spaces much smaller than is otherwise possible. Collaborators at Seoul National University, led by Prof. Dai-Sik Kim, and Argonne National Laboratory, led by Dr. Matthew Pelton, showed that light could readily be squeezed through these gaps, even though the gaps are hundreds or even thousands of times smaller than the wavelength of the light used. Researchers are very interested in forcing light into small spaces because this is a way of boosting the intensity of the light. The collaborators found that the intensity inside the gaps is increased by as much as 600 million times.

"Our technology, called atomic layer lithography, has the potential to create ultra-small sensors with increased sensitivity and also enable new and exciting experiments at the nanoscale like we've never been able to do before," said Sang-Hyun Oh, one of the lead researchers on the study and a professor of electrical and computer engineering in the University of Minnesota's College of Science and Engineering. "This research also provides the basis for future studies to improve electronic and photonic devices."

One of the most surprising outcomes of the research is that Scotch® Magic™ Tape was one of the keys to the discovery. Etching one-nanometer-wide gaps into metals is not feasible with existing tools. Instead, the researchers in Oh's team constructed the nano-gaps by layering atomic-scale thin films on the sides of metal patterns and then capping the structure with another metal layer. No expensive patterning tools were needed to form the gaps this way, but it was challenging to remove the excess metals on top and expose the tiny gaps. During a frustrating struggle of trying to find a way to remove the metal films, University of Minnesota Ph.D. student and lead author of the study Xiaoshu Chen found that by using simple Scotch® Magic™ Tape, the excess metals could be easily removed.

"The Scotch® tape works nicely, which was unexpected," said Oh. "Our technique is so simple yet can create uniform and ultra-small gaps like we've never been able to do before. We hope that it will rapidly be taken up by many researchers."

Story Source: Xiaoshu Chen, Hyeong-Ryeol Park, Matthew Pelton, Xianji Piao, Nathan C. Lindquist, Hyungsoon Im, Yun Jung Kim, Jae Sung Ahn, Kwang Jun Ahn, Namkyoo Park, Dai-Sik Kim, Sang-Hyun Oh. Atomic layer lithography of wafer-scale nanogap arrays for extreme confinement of electromagnetic waves. Nature Communications, 2013

Do You Make Your Dog Yawn?

Again, I must say that I support basic research whether or not it appears to have a purpose.

But some studies make my brain hurt.

Take this study out of Japan.  (Yes, there is boneheaded research across the planet.)

Dogs Yawn More Often in Response to Owners' Yawns Than Strangers

"The results of this study suggest the latter, as dogs responded more to their owners' genuine yawns than those of a stranger."

Okay.

"Our study suggests that contagious yawning in dogs is emotionally connected in a way similar to humans. Although our study cannot determine the exact underlying mechanism operative in dogs, the subjects' physiological measures taken during the study allowed us to counter the alternative hypothesis of yawning as a distress response."

So what does this imply?  If your dog yawns a lot, is it because you are yawning?  Or that you are an intrinsically boring person?

Stay tuned for the answer to this intriguing question.

Jacomus

Resident Scribe

I really do understand the need to conduct basic research.  

Really, really, really, I do.

But.

Consider the results of this study:

"Suspects who choose to say little or nothing are seen as more likely to be guilty and less credible."

I assume that quantifying this is useful, say in the Police Academy.  But?

Then there is the research announced today of a scientist that trained canaries to sing in key on the eight note scale.

Why?

 Hasn't this guy heard of the twelve note scale?

But wait, there's more: 

"The knees are the body part most injured by dinghy sailors."

My Gray buddies from Moon Base Alpha will be at the bar in five hours.  I can hardly wait.

 

Jacomus

UFO's, Singing Rats and Turtle Fingerprints.

I'm torn.  Torn between two incredibly weird research projects

The first?  

Teaching lab rats to sing.

To wit:  "A female rat is placed into a cage with a male rat.  When the male expressed interest in her, the female was removed from the cage, causing the male rat to vocalize. The male was rewarded with food for singing, and after eight weeks of operant conditioning in which rewards were only given for certain responses, all of the rats in the treatment group had been trained to, well, sing."  

It turns out that singing rats sound a bit like birds.  And that as rats age, teaching them to sing make their voices last longer.

Okay, can we expect to see singing rats on Stupid Pets Tricks on David Letterman's late night show?  America's got talent?  Singing the national anthem at an upcoming Super Bowl.  The mind boggles.


The other is that sea turtles have fingerprints.  Doubtless useful in solving crimes involving miscreant sea turtles, so don't be surprised if you see teams of federal agents down by sea shore finger printing turtles.


Finally, news out of the UK:  The truth can now be revealed, as the final cache of documents and UFO reports compiled by the U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been released to the public. The British Ministry of Defense concluded that operating the UFO Desk is a "massive waste of time and money."

At last, the truth about the UFO phenom is out in the open for all to see. 

I could have told them that.

If you need me, I'll be out having a drink with two tall Grays who just beamed down from their base on the Moon. They've offered to buy, and I'm broke.

Jacomus

Our Researching the Obvious Awards to: These Guys

 

To paraphrase late physicist and television celebrity, Carl Sagan, "Billions of dollars, Pounds, and Euros" are spent on research each year, leading to amazing breakthroughs in medicine, physics, mathematics, chemistry, computer science, and sarcasm.

 
This week's research in review:
Researchers at two renowned American medical research institutes announced this week that "vitamin D levels in the U.S. population peak in August and bottom out in February." 
 
Really.  Who'd a thunk? 

I'm guessing their next project is to determine if there is a similar pattern south of the equator. Or, perhaps east of the equator.  West?
 
Their conclusions include the statement:  "The essential vitamin -- necessary for healthy bones -- is produced in the skin upon exposure to ultraviolet B rays from the sun."  I am, personally, shocked at this revelation. 
 

Admittedly about 30% of the world's population of adults are complete dolts (see illustration above), based on earlier research by scientists at one of the very same institutions in the vitamin D study.  Now I wonder if the study on the proportion of dolts in society used the research community as the population they examined.
 
And in this vane, consider this research:

Emergency Helicopter Airlifts Help the Seriously Injured

Patients transferred to hospital via helicopter ambulance tend to have a higher survival rate than those who take the more traditional road route, despite having more severe injuries, suggesting that air ambulances are both effective and worthy of investment.  Notice their conclusion stated:  "Suggesting."  As in, "We're not sure, but maybe.  More costly research is needed to back this up."
 

Really?  I thought we worked this one out during the Korean War some sixty years ago. 
We might add, using over the road ambulances to transport the injured has a higher survival rate than making patients walk to the nearest care facility.

Wow, what will they think of to research next?  Well, how about:
 
Does Your Salad Know What Time It Is? 
Can you imagine a group of white-coated researchers peering diligently into a salad to see if the broccoli is wearing appropriate timepieces?  In fact, it appears they did, concluding that salad greens don't expire immediately when harvested, but rather slowly die en route to your green grocers.

Forrest Gump Mice?
Well, how about the researchers that developed "A line of genetically modified mice that scientists call "Forrest Gump" because, like the movie character, they can run far but they aren't smart."  No, in fact, they sit on little benches next to their exercise wheels holding little boxes of chocolates, advising normal mice that "life is like a box of. . . "

Why are Most Seagull Chicks Killed on Sundays?
This one made my brain hurt:  A study from Europe conducted between 1973 and 2006 researched "Why are seagull chicks murdered, especially on Sundays?" 

To quote our Latinate motto, "WTF?"

Shades of Tom Lehrer's "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park."

These are real conclusions from real, publicly funded research projects from around the world published this past week, which leads us to the conclusion that, yes, Virginia, there are dolts everywhere you look.

And I'm going to the pub across the street to have a high ball.  Or two.  Help me calm down. 

Jacomus

Resident Scribe

The International Guild of Satirists, etc.

Llandudno, Wales, UK

 

 

Finally. A Cure For Brain Freeze!

We've known of the hazards of brain freeze since the first cave person put a chunk of glacier in their mouth and damn near died, yet it remains one of the leading hazards to surviving childhood.  How can a society that successfully spent trillions of tax payer dollars to put men on the moon, built nuclear weapons so accurate they could give Krushev a hemmoriodectomy without hurting anyone else in the room and create such deeply insightful cultural commentary as Mad Men and The Simpsons not come to terms with such basic human suffering as Brain Freeze?

Anyone?

Yes, you there in the back - did you say, "Don't put cold stuff in your mouth, especially in the back of your mouth?"

Ha, sir. Such primitive thinking is what holds society back from true scientific breakthrough.

Now comes a scientific explanation as to why sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia, aka Brain Freeze, happens, including a scientifically valid, expensively-researched cure.

Here's the science behind the all-to-common phenomena of sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia for those brave enough to risk a flight into the fog of scientific terminology:

* * * * *

Sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia happens when you gulp something ice cold too quickly and is your body's way of saying, "¿¡Hey, dummy, that's freaking cold!?," claims Deano Goodwhiskey, a psychiatrist at the acclaimed PT Barnum School of Medical Deceptology at the reknowned University of Northern South Dakota at Hoople.

"Sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia is really a type of headache that is rapid in onset, but rapidly resolved as well," he said. "Our mouths are highly vascularized, including the tongue -- that's why we take our temperatures there. But drinking a cold beverage fast doesn't give the mouth time to absorb the cold very well, which is why I take my rye neat."

"Here's how it happens: When you slurp a really cold drink or eat ice cream too fast you are rapidly changing the temperature in the back of the throat at the juncture of the internal carotoid artery, which feeds blood to the brain, and the anterior cerebral artery, which is where brain tissue starts."

"One thing the brain doesn't like is for things to change, and sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia is a mechanism that does just that," Goodwhiskey said. explained "Science has known for at least thirty or forty years that the human body averages 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, 38 degrees Celsius and 431 degrees Kelvin give or take a degree or two. Ice cream is less warm than that, and we're currently designing a grant application to fund a classic experiment to determine the true temperature of ice cream in degrees Fahrenheit, Celsius and that other one."

"The brain can't actually feel pain despite its billions of neurons," Goodwhiskey said, "but the pain associated with sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia is sensed by receptors in the outer covering of the brain called the meninges, where the two arteries meet. When the cold hits, it causes a dilation and contraction of these arteries and that's the sensation that the brain interprets as excruciating and crippling pain."

"Analyzing sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia may seem like silly science to some, Dr. Goodwhiskey continued, "but "it's helpful in earning lucrative government grants and fellowships. This is far superior employment when compared to digging ditches for a living,*" he continued with a smug look of satisfaction on his face.

"We can't easily give people migraines or a cluster headache, but we can induce sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia with ease," he said. "Some people will do anything for the fifty bucks we pay for being test subjects, including repeatedly gargling ice cubes on command."

So I asked the doctor, "Is there a cure for the scourge of sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia?"

"Yes," says Goodwhiskey filled with a confidence born of years of researching this vexing problem. "Don't put cold stuff in your mouth, especially" he said with a meaningful pause, "in the back of your mouth."

* * * * *

Speaking of Goodwhiskey, I could use a tot or two.  Neat.

Jacomus

* The subject of future research at the research labs and graduate school at PTBSMD at the UNSDatH scheduled for the 2013-2014 academic year.