Uncategorized
jlynch | January 27, 2006On January 28th 1986, the shuttle Challenger broke up 73 seconds into its tenth mission. Here James Oberg demolishes seven myths about the Challenger tragedy - including the idea that millions of people saw the "explosion" (and the reason for quotes will become obvious if you read the article) live on television. I was a freshman in college at the time. The flight started at 11:08 EST - just after four in the afternoon in Ireland and I remember watching the launch on CNN which, as Oberg notes, was the only channel that was showing the event live.
While some of Oberg's points were not news to…
grrlscientist | January 27, 2006
According to the Movies.com Which Movie Star Are You Like? quiz, you're ..
.. most like George Clooney
Everyone loves you, and you're only getting better (and better-looking!) with age. You're a generous, loyal and fun-loving friend, and you also seem to really care about your politics, consistently putting yourself on the line for your beliefs. We wish there were more of you out there.
Take this quiz at Movies.com
I thought this quiz was trying to match me to the movie star whom I most resemble, instead of whom I'd be most likely to allow to drop potato chips in my bed.
Thanks, Dawn…
grrlscientist | January 26, 2006
I found an interesting commentary in Nature about a new genre of literature, LabLit [text or PDF]. Even though I read widely, I was surprised to learn that I had never heard of this genre, and the titles mentioned in the article were also new to me. The author of the article, Jennifer Rohn, was trained as a molecular biologist and is now the editor for LabLit magazine so she obviously knows what she is talking about.
LabLit is not science fiction. According to the LabLit website, "'lab lit' depicts realistic scientists as central characters and portrays fairly realistic scientific practice…
grrlscientist | January 25, 2006I am pleased to see some people visiting this site because Scientific Life was listed as a finalist in the Koufax Awards' "Most Deserving of Wider Recognition" category. Even though I put a notification on my original site regarding my relocation, it is gratifying to see that a few of you are actually trickling in here to see part 2 of this particular story.
There are almost 300 nominees listed in this one Koufax Award category, and since the nominees are listed alphabetically, this baby blog is found nearly at the bottom of the sixth screen out of twelve total -- smack-dab in the middle of…
grrlscientist | January 24, 2006
I posted my first message here on the 12th of this month and after only 12 days, 10,000 people have visited my site (thanks for the links, PZ)! I am excited! I can hardly wait for 100,000! Thanks for reading, everyone!
grrlscientist | January 23, 2006 Scientific Life was nominated for several "Bloggie" Award categories, but it is not a finalist for any of them. In fact, none of the blogs listed as finalists have primarily scientific content, unfortunately! But nonetheless, there are some excellent examples of weblogs represented there, including several blogs that I regularly read and nominated. The best thing about all the weblog awards is they provide a one-stop opportunity for you, the public, to access blogs that are widely perceived as being high quality without you having to spend months or even years poking around the web searching…
stcynic | January 23, 2006We have happy birthdays to hand out for two of the good folks at the National Center for Science Education. Yesterday was the birthday of the NCSE's associate director Glenn Branch. And today is the birthday of information project director Wesley Elsberry. They are both really nice guys and Wesley in particular has, over the last few years, become a really good friend. After the very serious health problems he went through the last 2 years that nearly took him from us, today really is a day to celebrate. Happy Birthday, gentlemen. Next time I'm out your way, which I hope will be soon, the…
grrlscientist | January 22, 2006
Rainbow Bee-eater, Merops ornatus.
(click on image for a slightly larger version in its own window).
This visit is the best gift I've ever received.
Heartfelt thanks to John and MA for the providing these broken wings with the gift of flight, Hernan (the bullfighter) for caring for the parrots, Tom for a terrific meal, and especially PZ and his wonderful family for providing a nest and companionship to this wandering spirit.
Starlings in Winter
Chunky and noisy,
but with stars in their black feathers,
they spring from the telephone wire
and instantly
they are acrobats
in the freezing…
grrlscientist | January 21, 2006 I have finally accomplished something of value; using the the infallible methods of Gematria developed by Mr. Ivan Panin to determine how good or evil a web site or a text passage is, I discovered that the gematriculator has declared Scientific Life to be 99% evil.
.
tags: online quiz, silliness
grrlscientist | January 21, 2006Even though today is Saturday, my site meter tells me that Scientific Life is getting hundreds more hits than usual, even if this was a weekday (Scientific Life received more than 1,100 hits by noon, NYC time). So, worried that last night's party with PZ and pals was more entertaining than I recalled, I had to check Scientific Life to make sure that no one had posted a picture of me without my shirt on, or something equally er, horrifying exciting.
But instead, I found that besides the NYTimes mention of Living the Scientific Life (hey, that's ME!!), the whole lot of us at ScienceBlogs were…
stcynic | January 20, 2006I have to confess to being really surprised that my posting of some of my favorite past essays didn't provoke a single comment other than to correct a bad link. That means one of three things: A) everyone had already read them; B) those who hadn't read them didn't bother to follow the links; or C) they weren't nearly as thought-provoking and/or interesting and good as I thought they were. Perhaps my "greatest hits" provoked a similar response to the greatest hits album of a one-hit wonder.
stcynic | January 20, 2006Our little project has hit the big time with an article in today's New York Times. The article focuses mostly on business aspects like attracting advertisers, but it should certainly help generate some interest for us all.
stcynic | January 19, 2006Many of the other ScienceBlogs authors are posting "greatest hits" links so that new readers can get acquainted with some of their previous writings. I figured I'd do the same, since I know I've picked up a lot of new readers in the last few weeks. These links will open up the original post from the archives of my old blog, but I ask you not to leave comments there because the main page of that blog is no longer accessible and no one will notice. If you want to leave comments, please do so here. Here are some of my favorite posts on various subjects.
On Intelligent Design
Dembski's Designed…
stcynic | January 18, 2006I was reminded of this in a conversation with my dad yesterday and it still cracks me up. Many years ago, one of the Kennedy clan died when the family was skiing in Aspen and played a football game - on skis - on the mountainside. I don't remember which Kennedy it was. It's hard to keep them straight. It wasn't the one who left the hooker to drown, or the one who raped the woman at their compound in Florida, it was the one who was diddling his 15 year old babysitter (such a dignified family, don't you think?). Whatever his name was, he crashed into a tree and died.
A couple days later on the…
stcynic | January 18, 2006I just found another great blog through a link from somewhere, Opinionistas. This is the blog of a 27 year old associate at a Manhattan law firm. Well, former associate because she just quit her job to write full time after her blog became a huge hit (a million hits in 9 months) and got a ton of media attention. This is really good writing and the stories she tells will look recognizable to anyone who has worked in a law firm (I haven't, but have enough friends who have to know the archetypes by heart).
Most of the writing revolves around the absurdities of life at the law firm, sprinkled in…
stcynic | January 18, 2006Wes Elsberry has already posted about this on his blog, but our friend and fellow Panda's Thumb contributor Mark Perakh has suffered a terrible tragedy: his house has burned down, taking with it virtually everything. The good news is that he and his wife are safe, but he has lost what is in essence the work of a lifetime that has now lasted 81 years. Mark is an extraordinary man who has lived a life few of us could imagine. He grew up in the Soviet Union, where he was imprisoned in the gulag under Kruschev. He managed to escape and make his way to America, where he became a physics professor…
grrlscientist | January 18, 2006
.
Even though I try not to obsess about the polls, I do check them several times per day and I am sad to report that, after yesterday afternoon's peak support level of 16%, I have fallen to a mere 13% of the popular support in the "Biggest Blog Whore" poll. Out of 651 votes cast, I have received only 87 votes! HORRORS!
I hope you know this is practice for the REAL polls that will be initiated at the end of the month .. if I can't convince you to vote for Scientific Life in this poll, how can I convince you to vote for me (or for Birds in the News) in those other polls??
.
tags: blog awards…
grrlscientist | January 16, 2006
PZ posted a lovely picture of a giant Hyacinth Macaw, Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus, eating the Washington Monument. I had to share the silliness by posting a picture of a giant Bald Eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, nesting atop the space needle, especially for my Seattle pals. (Also be sure to notice Seattle's sleeping volcano in the distance, Mt. Rainier). If you click on the image, you will be directed to the pages that are crammed with yet more images of giant monsters.
.
tags: silly images
stcynic | January 16, 2006Our old friend and favorite state senator, Chris Buttars, is back in the news again. This time he's appearing before the Eagle Forum to be praised by a group that is right about at the same intellectual level (which is to say, vacuous and ignorant):
Singing to the choir, Sen. Chris Buttars sought support at the Eagle Forum annual convention for his proposed legislation on teaching intelligent design and banning high school gay/straight support clubs.
And support he received, with Utah Eagle Forum president Gayle Ruzicka saying, "I love Chris Buttars," and national Eagle Forum found Phyllis…
stcynic | January 16, 2006There's a new blog that should be interesting to watch. It's called The Secular Outpost and it's the blog of the Internet Infidels. Contributors include several old online acquaintances of mine - James Still, Jeff Lowder, Jim Lippard and Taner Edis. Very smart guys, all of them, and well worth reading.