What we're talking about Tuesday, August 2, 2016
#BlackLivesMatter
What It is Like to Be Me This Week
Casaubon's Book July 11, 2016
These are two of my sons, Judah and Zion. Adorable, no? Yeah, I think so too. And they are so sweet. Zion loves animals, he wants to know everything about them. And anything that begins with the letter Z ‘My yetter!” Judah is one of the sweetest natured kids on the earth – if someone…
Police unnecessarily kill a third black man this week, threaten to kill more
Greg Laden's Blog July 9, 2016
Police had cornered a murder suspect. There were negotiations and there was exchange of gunfire. Normally this stand off would have been maintained as long as possible. The way these things end, usually, is that the suspect gives up, the suspect kills themselves, there is what the police would call a “fair” exchange of gunfire*…
Addressing violence requires looking upstream at social determinants of health, including racism and economic inequality. It’s the uncomfortable task we continue to avoid.
Channel Surfing
Life Science
Perhaps we need to think more about human psychology. There’s an interesting phenomenon that goes on all the time when people read about evolution: they shoehorn the observations into some functional purpose. There’s just something so satisfying to our minds to be able to say “that thing exists for this particular reason”, and we find…
This is a pseudocolored image of nematocysts firing. In case you prefer the video…
He had several, because all the cool scientists like cephalopods, and they’re still bottled up and preserved in museums. No word on the status of Darwin’s pet cat.
Physical Science
Starts With A Bang
Mystery solved: why some galaxies appear dustier on one half than the other (Synopsis)
“He ate and drank the precious Words, his Spirit grew robust; He knew no more that he was poor, nor that his frame was Dust.” -Emily Dickinson When we look at spiral galaxies, we think of grand arms, star-forming regions and dust lanes lining our perspective. But unlike face-on galaxies, where everything looks the same,…
Starts With A Bang
Comments of the Week #120: from the Great Attractor to the highest-energy particles
“Even though the future seems far away, it is actually beginning right now.” -Mattie Stepanek It’s been a fantastic week here at Starts With A Bang, where we’ve covered even more ground than normal! First off, for those of you not following me on SoundCloud, we’ve got a new science podcast out, on the last star in the…
“The world you see, nature’s greatest and most glorious creation, and the human mind which gazes and wonders at it, and is the most splendid part of it, these are our own everlasting possessions and will remain with us as long as we ourselves remain.” -Seneca Asking where in space the Big Bang happened is…
Environment
It has been rather quiet around here recently. That’s due to a combinations of Summer, Work and Rowing. The latter has culminated in the annual festival called “Cambridge town bumps” and the answer is up three, which is a decent result in the first division. Not quite blades, because we stuffed up Thursday, but who…
Dallas and Houston have city ordinances in place to reduce the risk of violence perpetrated against convenience store clerks. NIOSH researchers found that few establishments comply with the law.
Scientists have been wondering why Asian Alycaeidae snails have a snorkel that was seemingly functionless. While other snails that live on land have a similar tube with an opening that allows them to breathe while inside the shell, the end of the breathing tube (i.e. snorkel) on the Asian snails appeared to be sealed. A new study published…
Humanities
A gene that makes bacteria resistant to last-resort antibiotic colistin, mcr-1, has been found in 32 countries, and has been in the US since at least May 2015. Researchers in Belgium and Italy have additional alarming discoveries on related genes.
Detectorist John Kvanli is the chairman of Rygene detektorklubb and one of Norway’s most prominent proponents of collaboration between amateurs and professionals in field archaeology. Of course he has a tattoo! It’s an Urnes brooch from c. AD 1100, in the final exquisite Christian style of Scandinavian animal art. John tells me he has found…
The Pump Handle
Florida reports first locally transmitted Zika cases; advocates push Congress to act on funding
This morning, the Florida Department of Health reported a “high likelihood” of the first localized transmission of Zika virus from mosquito to person in the United States.
Education
Scientists have been wondering why Asian Alycaeidae snails have a snorkel that was seemingly functionless. While other snails that live on land have a similar tube with an opening that allows them to breathe while inside the shell, the end of the breathing tube (i.e. snorkel) on the Asian snails appeared to be sealed. A new study published…
Ducklings are rather well-known for their ability to imprint on someone (usually their mother) or something shortly after hatching. Researchers at the University of Oxford were interested in understanding more about learning and memory in ducklings. Specifically, they wanted to know if a duckling simply remembered what they saw or if they were capable of more complex cognition…
Manga is the Japanese sounding but not used so much in Japan term for a form of cartooning art that has its roots from before World War II but that emerged in its common form during the post war Occupation period. Early used in political cartooning, Manga style drawing is now used for a wide…
Politics
The Pump Handle
Florida reports first locally transmitted Zika cases; advocates push Congress to act on funding
This morning, the Florida Department of Health reported a “high likelihood” of the first localized transmission of Zika virus from mosquito to person in the United States.
The Pump Handle
New survey finds many Americans are open to discussing gun safety with their doctors
Every year in the U.S., more than 32,000 people die due to gun-related violence, suicide and accidents. That number includes the deaths of seven children and teens every day. So it’s not surprising that health care providers — those who witness the tragic results of gun violence — are often vocal proponents of gun safety reform. But when it comes to the intimate patient-provider relationship, do people want to discuss gun safety with their doctors?
An in-depth look at the troubling experiences of women in the trucking industry; a group of Teamsters are stopped by police for leafleting in Georgia; new National Labor Relations Board ruling a win for temp workers; and researchers reveal a big gender wage gap among physicians in academic medicine.
Medicine
It sounds like malpractice to me. That’s what I’ve been thinking ever since learning how the injuries sustained by poultry workers are treated (and not treated) at the company nursing stations.
Many are the bizarre, dubious, and downright crappy acupuncture studies that I’ve deconstructed over the years. Just type “acupuncture” into the search box of this blog, and you’ll soon see. (If that pulls up too many results, try typing “acupuncture” and “study” or “acupuncture” and “clinical trial” in the search box.) I’m not the only…
During the political battle last year over the recently implemented California law SB 277, which eliminates nonmedical exemptions to school vaccine mandates and then later during the campaign for the Republican nomination for President, I used a term regarding antivaccine views. That term was “antivaccine dog whistle.” In politics, as you probably now, a “dog…
Brain & Behavior
“In order to save the dying heliocentric theory from the conclusive geocentric experiments performed by Michelson, Morley, Gale, Sagnac, Kantor and others, establishment master-mind Albert Einstein created his Special Theory of Relativity which in one philosophical swoop banished the absolute aether/firmament from scientific study and replaced it with a form of relativism which allowed for…
Ducklings are rather well-known for their ability to imprint on someone (usually their mother) or something shortly after hatching. Researchers at the University of Oxford were interested in understanding more about learning and memory in ducklings. Specifically, they wanted to know if a duckling simply remembered what they saw or if they were capable of more complex cognition…
Researchers at Stanford University have accomplished what was once considered impossible. They have partially restored vision in blind. Check out this Youtube video to see how they did it
Technology
Huxley and I like to make Arduino projects. If you know what that means, your geek cred is good. If not, I’ll explain briefly. Arduino is an Italian based project that produces circuit boards that are controllers. A controller is a small highly specialized computer thingie that can be programmed to have various inputs and…
Not yet. As you know, JK Rowling is the author of the famous Harry Potter series of books (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, etc.), and more recently, of a series of really excellent crime novels (if you’ve not read them, you need to: The Cuckoo’s Calling, The Silkworm, and Career of Evil, with a…
Manga is the Japanese sounding but not used so much in Japan term for a form of cartooning art that has its roots from before World War II but that emerged in its common form during the post war Occupation period. Early used in political cartooning, Manga style drawing is now used for a wide…
Information Science
Confessions of a Science Librarian
Around the Web: How climate change may be fueling Canada’s fire season and more on the science and politics of climate change
How climate change may be fueling Canada’s fire season Environmentalists, automakers applaud Ontario’s $8.3B climate change plan Views from people on the frontlines of climate change How B.C.’s Climate Plan is Being Co-opted by Big Oil Once a climate doubter, Tory leadership contender Maxime Bernier now plans to consult scientists Climate change initiatives a $7-trillion…
Our democracy is much stronger when watchdogs have access to agency records to expose mismanagement, ineptitude, and abuse of power. Kudos to advocates and lawmakers who persisted in making improvements to FOIA.
Television and movie producers currently have a good deal in Great Britain, not in small part due to stability in various markets and some funding. For example, Game of Thrones, an HBO production, is filmed in Norther Ireland with funding from the European Regional Development fund. Both the stability and some of the funding for…
Jobs
It sounds like malpractice to me. That’s what I’ve been thinking ever since learning how the injuries sustained by poultry workers are treated (and not treated) at the company nursing stations.
The Pump Handle
Fatal work injury that killed Kevin Purpura, 39, was preventable, OSHA cites Woda Construction and Sandow Development
The fatal work-related injuries that killed Kevin Purpura, 39, could have been prevented had Woda Construction Inc. and Sandow Development followed worker safety regulations.
The Pump Handle
Not an “accident”: Timothy Dubberly, 58, suffers fatal work-related injury in Fernandina Beach, FL
This week’s snapshot of just one work-related fatality in the US. This one occurred on Friday, July 16, in Fernandina Beach, FL.
