DNA transfer: informed judgment or mere guesswork?

DNA transfer: informed judgment or mere guesswork?

With the advances of analytical sensitivity, it is now possible to detect a DNA profile from minute quantity of DNA. It opens new investigative avenues (in cold cases for example), but also new interpretative challenges. Here, forensic scientists deal with items bearing DNA cellular material from areas showing no visible stain and have limited means to identify the nature of the body fluid invo...

Mere Generation: Essential Barometer or Dated Concept?

The computational creativity community (rightfully) takes a dim view of supposedly creative systems that operate by mere generation. However, what exactly this means has never been adequately defined, and therefore the idea of requiring systems to exceed this standard is problematic. Here, we revisit the question of mere generation and attempt to qualitatively identify what constitutes exceedin...

Subitizing: magical numbers or mere superstition?

It is widely believed that humans are endowed with a specialized numerical process, called subitizing, which enables them to apprehend rapidly and accurately the numerosity of small sets of objects. A major part of the evidence for this process is a purported discontinuity in the mean response time (RT) versus numerosity curves at about 4 elements, when subjects enumerate up to 7 or more elemen...

Social dominance orientation: Cause or ‘mere effect’?

Anonymous: serious threat or mere annoyance?

Anonymous originates from the 4chan. org message board, an ‘anything goes’ website that allows users to post images and comments without registering. They can use names (any names) or they can post without identifying themselves, in which case the posting is labelled ‘Anonymous’. The site became a rallying point for a series of (mostly juvenile) pranks and campaigns. Before the Wikileaks-relate...