Parasites and evolution; exoplanets; panspermia (or not, really); security theatre round-up …

• 1 – Can parasites influence the language we speak?
  “Fincher and Thornhill say their hypothesis explains the longstanding ecological debate about why it is that biological diversity decreases as you move away from the equator and towards the poles.”
  (tags: parasites science research language evolution biodiversity)
• 2 – Three ‘Super-Earths,’ One Star
  “What’s happening here testifies to the growing sophistication of our tools. While most of the 300+ positively identified exoplanets have been found around Sun-like stars, they have so far tended to be gas giants.”
  (tags: astronomy science exoplanets space)
• 3 – Are we aliens?
  “So this means that the some of the basic building blocks of life formed out in space, and came to Earth via meteorites and, presumably, comets. Note that “some of”. That’s important.”
  (tags: debunk science panspermia meteorite astronomy)
• 4 – Scanners that see through clothing installed in US airports
  “While it allows the security screeners — looking at the images in a separate room — to clearly see the passenger’s sexual organs as well as other details of their bodies, the passenger’s face is blurred …” Good grief.
  (tags: idiocy surveillance privacy theatre security airport DHS US)
• 5 – Cory Doctorow: Big Brother is not watching
  “Between DNA databases, mandatory fingerprinting for visa seekers, CCTV carpet-bombing, and Oyster card data, we’ve never collected more “security” information than we do today. But does this really make us secure?”
  (tags: Doctorow overload data theatre security privacy surveillance UK)