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Yesterday I ran across this short article about a beluga whale saving a diver who had become paralyzed (it was in an aquarium tank). Anyway, I didn’t think much of it until today, when I was reading The Selfish Gene

Whales and dolphins drown if they are not allowed to breathe air. Baby whales, and injured individuals who cannot swim to the surface have been seen to be rescued and held up by companions in the school. It is not known whether whales have ways of knowing who their close relatives are, but it is possible that it does not matter. It may be that the overall probability that a random member of the school is a relation is so high that the altruism is worth the cost.

Apparently there are quite a few stories of dolphins and whales saving drowning people.

Via: Whales Saves Human // NoahBrier.com

Last week I pointed to a thought experiment over at Marginal Revolution that asked “A freak solar event ‘sterilizes’ the half of the planet (people, animals, etc) facing the sun. What happens?”.

You’d never guess who picked up the ball: David Brooks in his New York Times editorial. I’m not sure I’m super keen on Brooks’ take, though: “If people knew that their nation, group and family were doomed to perish, they would build no lasting buildings. They would not strive to start new companies. They wouldn’t concern themselves with the preservation of the environment. They wouldn’t save or invest.”

As I was reading I got to thinking about something in particular: There is a lot of research on aging at the moment and I wonder if all resources wouldn’t move to that. All of a sudden The Methuselah Foundation (they’re working on extending human life) would have people knocking down it’s doors. It’s possible, even, that incentivized by the possibility of extended life indefinitely people from around the world would move and join the fight. It’s a sort of weird thought, but hey, it’s a sort of weird question.

Via: Thought Experiment: Followup // NoahBrier.com

This intrigues me: NASCAR has decided to give media credentials to 28 blogs. They’re doing it because there are less newspapers and newspaper writers around to cover the sport. “The attrition of both space and writers at newspapers around the country has meant a growing number of empty seats at Nascar media centers and press boxes, and less mainstream media coverage for the sport,” the article explains.

While they’re not paying for it (yet), this seems like a sort of subsidy, which is a very interesting possible future for the media business. There are entirely too many industries and brands that are completely reliant on coverage to drum up awareness and interest. It would cost them entirely too much to do it on their own and this must be a cheaper way. Very interesting.

Via: Consumer Subsidized Media: NASCAR Edition // NoahBrier.com

The Economist Free Exchange blog has a really interesting interview with Felix Salmon, who blogs on finance and economics fro Reuters. Amongst his answers are the following two pieces of…

What can Jay-Z teach us about Foreign Policy and International Relations? Quite a bit apparently:

As Jay-Z got older and more powerful, the marginal benefits of such battles declined and the costs increased even as the number of would-be rivals escalated. Just as the U.S. attracts resentment and rhetorical anti-Americanism simply by virtue of being on top, so did Jay-Z attract a disproportionate number of attackers. “I got beefs with like a hundred children” he bragged/complained on one track.

It’s a really interesting piece from Marc Lynch who blogs at Foreign Policy. (It’s sort of funny to me to be linking to a blog entry at Foreign Policy. Growing up it’s the only magazine I every remember seeing at my grandparent’s house and it was endlessly intimidating.)

Via: Jay-Z: A Study in International Relations // NoahBrier.com