Wednesday, August 14, 2002

Danger Device Reviewed  [Slashdot]  sounds cool... 10:47:06 PM

Language Gene Is Traced to Emergence of Humans  [New York Times: Science] I'm always skeptical about theories of language evolution -- they mostly seem contrived.  Here, at last, we seem to have something that's got some hard science behind it.  It doesn't explain the emergence of language, necessarily, but it does begin to tie our facility for language in with our recent success.  It's probably overblown in the media.  Still,  the interesting thing is that the gene has clear affects on motor control in the mouth and throat, but the article also says that affected folks also have trouble with written communication.   The article says this suggests a "conceptual" component -- but it sounds like it's premature to draw that conclusion.  it seems over generalizing. 10:43:28 PM

David Davies.  I missed this earlier.  A script that uses Radio's support for Web services to filter RSS feeds for keywords.  Very cool. [John Robb's Radio Weblog] 1:51:08 PM

Berkeley Rental Market Softens Slow economy creates shift to renters' market in UC-Berkeley area. U-Wire.com Aug 13 2002 9:16PM ET [Moreover - Bay Area news] Sounds like the rental market in Berkeley has softened quite a bit. >>>"There's much more available than there are people looking," said Dana Goodell, president of the Homefinders Bulletin. "Normally there are three or four people looking for every place available. Now it's the opposite. The available spaces have quadrupled." <<< 1:47:06 PM

voyagers 1 and 2. Voyagers Reap a Bounty of Discovery and Beauty [New York Times: Science] An nice little article about the Voyager missions, what made them great, and what's next for them -- they're still out there, buzzing along at ~10 miles a second, looking for the edge of the solar system. 9:20:41 AM

foreclosures down statewide Statewide, foreclosures are the lowest point in a decade.  Interesting that they didn't mention this in the other article today that talked about foreclosures rising in the Bay Area.   The prior story was specifically about foreclosure notices, which they point out don't always lead to foreclosure. 7:16:48 AM

is it seasonal or is the bay area housing market softening? prices are traditionally down during this time of year...  prices are softening again this year...  hard to tell what it means. 7:12:07 AM

Number of Bay Area foreclosure notices climbs 13% from year ago. BayArea.com Aug 14 2002 3:03AM ET [Moreover - Bay Area news] 7:09:23 AM