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cortex | December 11, 2007The answer is a tenuous yes, although it depends on where you live. If your local utility burns lots of coal, then perhaps you should stick with a fuel efficient compact car. If you don't know how your local utility generates electricity, then check out this nifty website from the EPA.
cortex | December 11, 2007I'm honored/flattered/thrilled/etc. to have Proust Was A Neuroscientist listed as one of the 25 best non-fiction books of the year by the LA Times. Other science-themed* books included on the list are The Atomic Bazaar, by William Langewiesche and Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America by Eric Jay Dolin.
*I know these aren't straight science books, but Langewiesche's frightening text taught me an awful lot about the practical physics of nuclear weapons and I really want to read Leviathan, if only to better understand Moby Dick.
cortex | December 11, 2007Shakespeare bent language in peculiar ways. He had a habit of violating our conventional grammatical categories, so that nouns became verbs and adjectives were turned into nouns. (This is known as a functional shift.) Here's Phillip Davis:
Thus in "Lear" for example, Edgar comparing himself to the king: "He childed as I fathered" (nouns shifted to verbs); in "Troilus and Cressida", "Kingdomed Achilles in commotion rages" (noun converted to adjective); "Othello", "To lip a wanton in a secure couch/And to suppose her chaste!"' (noun "lip" to verb; adjective "wanton" to noun).
The effect is…
cortex | December 11, 2007Jason Kottke, a consistent fount of great links, finds a revealing interview with David Foster Wallace about Infinite Jest. Here is DFW answering a question about whether or not his novel actually follows a fractal form*:
David Foster Wallace: That's one of the things, structurally, that's going on [in the novel]. It's actually structured like something called a Sierpinski Gasket, which is a very primitive kind of pyramidical fractal, although what was structured as a Sierpinski Gasket was the first- was the draft that I delivered to Michael in '94, and it went through some I think 'mercy…
cmcclain | December 11, 2007"Song of the Dredge", presented by Edward Forbes to the British Association at its annual meeting in 1839. Sung in the tune of Cream by Prince (kidding).
"Hurrah for the dredge, with its iron edge,
And its mystical triangle.
And its hided net with meshes set
Odd fishes to entangle!
The ship may move thro' the waves above,
'Mid scenes exciting wonder,
But braver sights the dredge delights
As it roves the waters under.
Chorus:
Then a-dredging we will go wise boys
A-dredging we will go!
A-dredging we will go, a-dredging we will go,
A-dredging we will go, wise boys,
A-dredging we will go!
Down in…
cmcclain | December 11, 2007I am currently reading Descent, the story of the Bathysphere, Beebe, and Barton. Conversing with Christina Kellogg during a recent trip and the book forced my thoughts to the technological, and often psychological feats, already accomplished and those that will continue to challenge us in order to explore the deep seafloor. Because of safety, finances, logistics, and a variety of other practical reasons many institutes have justifiably turned to ROV's (remote operated vehicles) instead of manned exploration. Perhaps this makes sense as much as turning the space programmed to unmanned…
katie glasrud | December 10, 2007WARNING. What follows is a a bit of a rant. Worse, it's an undergraduate rant. If awkward phrases, fallacious arguments and poor grammar offends you, I would suggest skipping this post.
It could be that I'm seeing the world through cobalt-colored glasses-- it is winter in MN and very cold and dark-- and it is highly probable that the onslaught of medical school rejection letters biases me, but I think today was the most depressing day of school I've had in recent history.
It started with neurobiology (Ok...this one's a bit of a stretch) when we learned about the development of nervous tissue…
grrlscientist | December 10, 2007tags: carnival of family life, blog carnivals
What do you think of when you hear the word "family"? Relatives, right? Well, the 3rd edition of the Carnival of Family Life covers that aspect of family, as well as including my own peculiar definition of family life! So of course, you have to go there and do some reading.
grrlscientist | December 10, 2007tags: cats, blog carnivals
Zed Monster and his human are presenting the 194th edition of the Carnival of Cats for you to enjoy. Also available for all you cat lovers is the 22nd edition of the Bad Kitty Cat Festival. Both are are packed full of furry purry goodness! Oh, the bad kitty cat festival includes a sound track of cats "meowing" a christmas carol, so if you are in the library, as I am, beware! The bad kitties will embarrass you.
gregladen | December 10, 2007CAFE SCIENTIFIQUE:
Tough Ceramics at the Seashore
Tuesday, December 11, 2007; 6 p.m.
Kitty Cat Klub, Dinkytown
What secrets to seashells hold? For University of Minnesota Civil Engineering Professor Roberto Ballarini, the natural strength of materials found in seashells may be the key to improving the design of bridges and other human structures. Join Ballarini for a discussion of science, seashells and the potential of bio-inspired design.
Re-Greening Cities
Tuesday, December 18, 2007; 7 p.m.
Bryant-Lake Bowl, Uptown
City parks characteristically define urban nature - an oasis of…
pharyngula | December 10, 2007We can all breathe a sigh of relief. The gunman who killed four people at evangelical churces in Colorado was not a buddhist atheist Jew evilutionist. He was a deranged disgruntled former member.
The gunman believed to have killed four people at a megachurch and a missionary training school had been thrown out of the school about three years ago and had been sending hate mail to the program, police said in court papers Monday.
The gunman was identified as Matthew Murray, 24, who was home-schooled by his family and raised in what a friend said was a deeply religious Christian household. Murray…
grrlscientist | December 10, 2007tags: happiness carnival, blog carnivals
This is going to shock some people who know how cranky I have been recently due to my professional situation, but a contribution from me was included in the December issue of the Happiness Carnival. Yes, I know, I am the last one who you would suspect is walking around trying to conjure up reasons to be happy, but there ya go; I like to keep you all on your toes! So go there, read and be happy.
cmcclain | December 10, 2007In case you've been living in a hole that doesn't have internet access, something is brewing on the internet.
A CALL FOR A PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Given the many urgent scientific and technological challenges facing America and the rest of the world, the increasing need for accurate scientific information in political decision making, and the vital role scientific innovation plays in spurring economic growth and competitiveness, we, the undersigned, call for a public debate in which the U.S. presidential candidates share their views on the issues of The Environment,…
gregladen | December 10, 2007Yes, of course there should. And a large number of prominent scientists have put their shoulders to this idea and are pushing hard.
This is embodied in the "Call for a Presidential Debate on Science and Technology"
You should seriously consider going to this site and adding your name to those supporting this initiative. Seriously. You may have come to this blog for the gravy recipe, or to get the latest news on the War on Christmas, but most likely you are here on account of your interest in science. So you are the kind of person they are looking for.
Is it adequate to have science and…
grrlscientist | December 10, 2007tags: Observations of Daily Life, blog carnivals
The 9 December edition of the Observations of Daily Life blog carnival is now available. There are lots of interesting stories there to be read, some with a holiday theme, so sit down with a cup of coffee or egg nog and treat yourself!
cortex | December 10, 2007No, it's not an oxymoron: philosophers have discovered the virtue of experimentation.
Now a restive contingent of our tribe is convinced that it can shed light on traditional philosophical problems by going out and gathering information about what people actually think and say about our thought experiments. The newborn movement ("x-phi" to its younger practitioners) has come trailing blogs of glory, not to mention Web sites, special journal issues and panels at the annual meeting of the American Philosophical Association. At the University of California at San Diego and the University of…
cmcclain | December 9, 2007NEPTUNE is more than just a planet...a clever acronym for the North-East Pacific Time-Series Undersea Networked Experiments. The U.S. Canadian venture is series of cable-linked seafloor observatories, purported to be the world's largest. The project will lay 3,000 km of powered fibre optic cable over a 200,000 sq km region in the northeast Pacific. The network will contain several scientific nodes that can be controlled and monitored from land. There are four major research themes including: the structure and seismic behaviour of the ocean crust, seabed chemistry and geology, ocean climate…