Linked List: December 30, 2013

Monday, 30 December 2013

The Political Polarization of Evolution 

Another interesting survey from Pew Research:

According to a new Pew Research Center analysis, six-in-ten Americans (60%) say that “humans and other living things have evolved over time,” while a third (33%) reject the idea of evolution, saying that “humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.” […]

There also are sizable differences by party affiliation in beliefs about evolution, and the gap between Republicans and Democrats has grown. In 2009, 54% of Republicans and 64% of Democrats said humans have evolved over time, a difference of 10 percentage points. Today, 43% of Republicans and 67% of Democrats say humans have evolved, a 24-point gap.

Not a new topic, but four years is a short time for change like this. And think about the consequences of this — we have a two-party system in which the majority of one party believes “humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time”.

Correction: It’s not quite a majority of Republicans — 48 percent — who believe that. But only 43 percent believe in evolution, so it is a plurality, outside the margin of error for the poll. And the trend is clear — just four years ago, 54 percent of Republicans believed in evolution and only 39 percent believed this “existed in their present form since the beginning of time” nonsense.

Why Charlie Stross Wants Bitcoin to Die in a Fire 

Charlie Stross:

To editorialize briefly, BitCoin looks like it was designed as a weapon intended to damage central banking and money issuing banks, with a Libertarian political agenda in mind — to damage states ability to collect tax and monitor their citizens financial transactions. Which is fine if you’re a Libertarian, but I tend to take the stance that Libertarianism is like Leninism: a fascinating, internally consistent political theory with some good underlying points that, regrettably, makes prescriptions about how to run human society that can only work if we replace real messy human beings with frictionless spherical humanoids of uniform density (because it relies on simplifying assumptions about human behaviour which are unfortunately wrong).

HP Reported to Be Working on Big-Ass Android Phones 

Matt Swanner, writing for Android Community:

If the prospect of an HP smartphone excites you, there might be good news. Sources tell The Information that HP is indeed working on two larger devices — 6-inch and 7-inch offerings. Unlike their other forays into Android, these are alleged to be actual smartphones, replete with cellular radios and all the fun stuff that makes mobile devices mobile.

Pairs well with the previous item, about LG bringing WebOS back to life.

WSJ: LG to Unveil WebOS-Powered TV 

Min-Jeong Lee, reporting for the WSJ:

LG now plans to showcase an Internet-connected television model powered by webOS in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

He didn’t elaborate on the features of the operating system, but said it would retain the “cards” system, or a stack of pop-ups that allows users to navigate multiple applications, originally used in the webOS mobile devices launched by H-P.

The person didn’t comment on the company’s plans to market the webOS-powered TVs but said the operating system may be developed and later adopted for LG’s other consumer electronics, including smartphones.

Totally rooting for this to work. WebOS was so nice.

Paul Graham: ‘What I Didn’t Say’ 

Thoughtful response from Paul Graham to last week’s hysterical brouhaha:

“We” doesn’t refer to society; it refers to Y Combinator. And the women I’m talking about are not women in general, but would-be founders who are not hackers.

I didn’t say women can’t be taught to be hackers. I said YC can’t do it in 3 months.

I didn’t say women haven’t been programming for 10 years. I said women who aren’t programmers haven’t been programming for 10 years.

I didn’t say people can’t learn to be hackers later in life. I said people cannot at any age learn to be hackers simultaneously with starting a startup whose thesis derives from insights they have as hackers.

I’m sure this will get just as much attention as Valleywag’s misguided hatchet job that started the whole thing, and that everyone on Twitter who excoriated Graham will apologize.

The Information doesn’t come out of this looking good, either. For one thing, the missing “these” in his quote severely changes the meaning of his sentence. For another, Graham says he was providing background information for a profile of his wife and business partner Jessica Livingston, and was not aware The Information would be running his remarks as a standalone interview.

Pew Survey on Social Media Usage 

Pew Research Center:

Some 73% of online adults now use a social networking site of some kind. Facebook is the dominant social networking platform in the number of users, but a striking number of users are now diversifying onto other platforms. Some 42% of online adults now use multiple social networking sites. In addition, Instagram users are nearly as likely as Facebook users to check in to the site on a daily basis.

Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram is looking smarter and smarter.