inkbluesky

Beatles’ online debut beckons

LONDON, April 2 (UPI) — The much-anticipated online debut of the Beatles’ song catalog remains an alluring but unrealized dream for fans of the iconic British rock band.

While they move this along like a herd of turtles you can go down to your used CD shop. Buy the entire Beatles library, rip it MP3, sell the CDs back and have all the Beatles songs for around 50 cents a piece.

modest simple and pretty  

Animals are smarter than we thought 

Many animals exhibit smart behaviors. But do any of them show what humans would call “intelligence?” Some recently reported lines of research cautiously suggest that the answer is “yes.”

Chimpanzees have surprised a research team by making wooden spears for hunting. It’s the first known example of weapon making by a nonhuman.

Western scrub jays have shown future planning – rather than instinctive actions – in their food-caching behavior. Ravens have demonstrated logical thinking in solving a food-retrieval puzzle.

Such revelations are beginning to enable scientists to make the crucial distinction between genetically hard-wired behavior or trial-and-error learning and “intelligent” thinking.

The scrub jays show more intelligence then the current occupants of the Whitehouse and probably more compassion too.

The war on poverty is winnable 

 An author of the study, Harry Holzer, an economist at Georgetown University in Washington, and other experts, list some antipoverty measures that should help: higher tax credits for the poor, health insurance coverage for all, more subsidized child care, more prekindergarten schooling, extra adjustment help for those leaving prison, and improved unemployment compensation.

Properly designed measures won’t discourage people from working, adds Timothy Smeeding, a poverty expert at Syracuse (N.Y.) University.

This means some up front expenditures, but as the complete article points out there is an even higher price to pay for not being proactive about poverty - poverty produces higher crime and higher health care costs. Poverty is not a good excuse for crime (neither is wealth for that matter), but poverty is the reason - if you don’t feel that you’re invested in and a apart of society with hopes for the future you tend to care less about the well being of others.