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pharyngula | December 9, 2007Two serious shooting incidents this weekend — one at Ted Haggard's old church in Colorado Springs, another in Arvada, Colorado — is awfully troubling. No word on motives yet, but I hope the crazies aren't erupting into random violence against each other.
(I'm getting a lot of email about this, but really, I don't know anything more than anyone else right now.)
nisbetmc | December 9, 2007Dear readers,
I have spent the weekend battling a major case of the flu and unfortunately tomorrow's Framing Science talk at Princeton University has been postponed. I am hoping it can be rescheduled for the spring and will let everyone know a date when available.
grrlscientist | December 9, 2007tags: Walmart, Walmart Cake
Would you like to work for a place that does something like this?
I wonder if the conversation that led to this cake went something like this?
Walmart Employee: Hello dis Walmarts, how can I help you?
Customer: I would like to order a cake for a going away party this week.
Walmart Employee: What you want on dat cake?
Customer: "Best Wishes Suzanne" and underneath that "We will miss you"
pharyngula | December 9, 2007Arthur C. Clarke turns 90 next week — so go leave him a birthday greeting.
katie glasrud | December 8, 2007My fish have (theoretically) been sleep deprived for three days. I can't tell much of a difference. If anything they seem more active than the other fish, but they do have to constantly outswim a rotating ruler and their tank is pretty small. There is also a bright lamp on a timer that turns on and off every 30 minutes, so even if I can't prevent sleep I know they're regularly disturbed.
This is what the set up looks like:
I'm testing the sleepless group against control fish in a behavioral assay. I wanted to use a T-maze adopted from Mark Antimony's experiment but the initial results were…
gregladen | December 8, 2007The question is, which street? I mean, that is quite a difficult question.
Which ... street ... should ... be ... named ... for ... Douglas ... Adams.
(That was me thinking very carefully.)
What is the ANSWER to this most difficult and intriguing question....
Well, as you know, I have a real nice Linux supercomputer so I fed the question to the computer ... some time ago ... and it has come up with an answer. Click on the computer to find out the answer...
sciencewoman | December 8, 2007doing just about anything than writing multiple choice questions and grading a last set of assignments. Especially, because there's been a number of intriguing articles that have come across my virtual desk in the past week or so, and I'd really like to blog about some of them.
So I just will. But which one to blog about? I'll ask you.
cortex | December 8, 2007The Times takes the FCX for a spin. The good news is that it drives like an ordinary car, even though it runs on hydrogen:
Normalcy is a recurring, and intentional, theme of the FCX Clarity. It is refueled using a high-pressure connector tucked behind a typical gas-cap door on the rear fender. It has a handsome exterior, a nice audio system and plenty of knee room in the back. (A design analysis is at nytimes.com/autos) Anyone who has driven a Toyota Prius will feel at home with the dash-mounted gear selector and the park button.
And yet, this car manages to get 68 miles to the gallon and…
cortex | December 8, 2007So I was out to dinner recently with some friends and the conversation eventually degenerated into a dork competition. The rules of the game are simple (and extremely dorky). Each person confesses the single dorkiest thing about them. The winner gets a beer. Competing entries ranged from a friend who had pictures of western blots on her cell phone (second place) to someone who kept the Sigma molecular biology catalog next to his toilet (honorable mention). Needless to say, I won the competition. My winning entry was my iPod, which had playlists named for various neurotransmitters. For example…
grrlscientist | December 7, 2007tags: meme, 7 Random Things, Seven Random Things blog meme
One of the very first people who ever read or linked to my blog, Tabor, tagged me to participate in a blog meme. Since I am a veteran blog whore who always is looking to increase my traffic, I will play, although grudgingly, because I hate letting you all know how boring I truly am.
The Rules are as follows:
Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.
Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
Let each person know that…
cmcclain | December 7, 2007
Image credit: Image: (c) 2002 MBARI / NOAA. Red octopus (Benthoctopus sp.) hunting on Davidson Seamount. Deep-water octopus often hunt snails, crabs, and other small animals on the seafloor.
cmcclain | December 6, 2007
An underwater restroom built into the side of an aquarium located at a cafe in Akashi, Japa
gregladen | December 6, 2007One of the things about doing archaeology in South Africa is that you dig these things up all the time:
(Scorpians, not meerkats)
gregladen | December 6, 2007Also known as Linnaeus' Legacy (but it occurs to me that one should avoid "'" in the title of a web blog post) is now at Laelaps, here. This is a new blog carnival, and a really good one. Enjoy!
And, if you are thinking of submitting something to this web carnival for next month, please do so, by submitting them to moi
Damn you, Laelaps, you used the Darwin Graphic I was gonna use!!!!
cortex | December 6, 2007So the new Seed is now on the newstands. I've got a longish essay sketching out possible future interactions between science and art:
The current constraints of science make it clear that the breach between our two cultures is not merely an academic problem that stifles conversation at cocktail parties. Rather, it is a practical problem, and it holds back science's theories. If we want answers to our most essential questions, then we will need to bridge our cultural divide. By heeding the wisdom of the arts, science can gain the kinds of new insights that are the seeds of scientific progress…
sciencewoman | December 6, 2007I'm all about tricking myself into productivity and rewarding myself when things get done. One way I've done that in the past was to reward myself with $10 guilt-free on iTunes when I got a paper submitted.
I haven't gotten any papers submitted (or resubmitted) yet this fall, but I did write two grant proposals (and received one) and I'm making lots of progress on the revisions (though you wouldn't know it from my counter at left). So I decided that it was time to reward myself a bit. Here's what I got:
Winter Wonderland sung by James Taylor
Masters in this hall sung by Bach Choir (a real…
cortex | December 6, 2007The data is hard to believe:
It has long been known that dyslexics are drawn to running their own businesses, where they can get around their weaknesses in reading and writing and play on their strengths. But a new study of entrepreneurs in the United States suggests that dyslexia is much more common among small-business owners than even the experts had thought.
The report, compiled by Julie Logan, a professor of entrepreneurship at the Cass Business School in London, found that more than a third of the entrepreneurs she had surveyed -- 35 percent -- identified themselves as dyslexic. The…