Blog Heap of Links for the day 14 April 2009

Social networks such as Twitter may blunt people's sense of morality, claim brain scientists. ... A study suggests rapid-fire news updates and instant social interaction are too fast for the 'moral compass' of the brain to process. [Oh, my!]

A 13-year-old boy who police say was caught red-handed a block away was accused on Tuesday of robbing a bank in Peoria. The unidentified boy was charged with felony armed robbery in juvenile court, accused of threatening a teller with a gun and demanding cash.

Officers recovered a vast cache of weapons including an anti-aircraft gun capable of firing 800 shots per minute, five rifles, a grenade and part of a grenade launcher. They believe the haul belongs to a group allegedly linked to the powerful Beltan Leyva drug cartel.

Dogs and small children who share similar social environments appear to understand human gestures in comparable ways.... 3-year-olds rely on the direction of the index finger to locate a hidden object, whereas 2-year-olds and dogs respond instead to the protruding body part, even if the index finger is pointing in the opposite direction....

A pod of dolphins has saved a Chinese ship from being hijacked by Somali pirates, it has been claimed. ... China Radio International said thousands of dolphins blocked suspected pirate ships as they raced towards a Chinese ship in the Gulf of Aden. As the dolphins leapt out of the water, the pirates turned back.

The legend is that the great rulers of Canaan, the ancient land of Israel, were all men. But a recent dig by Tel Aviv University archaeologists at Tel Beth-Shemesh uncovered possible evidence of a mysterious female ruler.... an unusual ceramic plaque of a goddess in female dress, suggesting that a mighty female "king" may have ruled the city.... may be an artistic representation of the "Mistress of the Lionesses," a female Canaanite ruler who was known to have sent distress letters to the Pharaoh in Egypt reporting unrest and destruction in her kingdom.

new microscopy technique to watch the growth of individual neurons in the microscopic roundworm.... They asked, "How long should a worm's neurons be?" And the worms fired back, "Long enough to reach their targets..." Rather than growing like the branches of a tree — extending outward — certain neurons work backward from their destination, dropping anchor and stretching their dendrites behind them as they crawl away.

new instrument that is able to track the transition between the relatively gentle winds of Earth's atmosphere and the more violent flows of charged particles in space... help pinpoint the so-called edge of space... space begins 118 km above Earth...

could be used to build carbon-neutral homes of the future to help combat climate change and boost the rural economy... a unique housing project to develop the use of hemp-lime construction materials in the UK. Hemp-lime is a lightweight composite building material made of fibres from the fast growing plant, bound together using a lime-based adhesive.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has thrown his support behind a growing movement to rein in the federal government by resurrecting the 10th Amendment, which reserves to states "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution." "I believe that our federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state," Perry said. "That is why I am here today to express my unwavering support for efforts all across our country to reaffirm the states' rights affirmed by the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution...."