August 13, 2008
From Sex, Genes and Evolution, a story of publishing in PLoS Open Access Journal:
My lab has taken its initial journey on the PLoS ONE train.
Yesterday, our paper entitled "An Expanded Inventory of Conserved Meiotic Genes Provides Evidence for Sex in Trichomonas vaginalis" was published in PLoS ONE…
August 13, 2008
A giant inflatable dog turd brought down a power line after being blown away from a Swiss museum.
The artwork, entitled Complex Shit, was carried 200 metres on the night of 31 July, reportedly breaking a greenhouse window before it landed again.
The sculpture, by American artist Paul McCarthy, was…
August 13, 2008
Unspoilt Amazonian rainforests covering an area almost as large as Texas have been provisionally earmarked for oil and gas exploration.
A new report reveals that the area has been divided into 180 "blocks" designated for exploration by governments of countries that own the land on the western…
August 12, 2008
There is a constant battle between conservatives (aka Republicans, or stoopid people) and liberals (aka Democrats, or smart people) as to how to regulate industry. Republicans say "don't regulate industry at all." Why? because they are paid by industry to say this. If you think there is…
August 12, 2008
I remember standing at a somewhat fancy reception, for a rather hifalutin program at the University, speaking with the director of the program, when the University Mascot (the largest Spermophilus specimen I've ever seen) came over to us and stood there waiting for us to .... to what exactly? I…
August 12, 2008
This from JPL:
"Shorty after 9:03 p.m. Pacific Time, the Cassini spacecraft began sending data to Earth following a close flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus. During closest approach, Cassini successfully passed only 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the surface of the tiny moon.
Cassini's signal…
August 11, 2008
You will recall a review I wrote some time ago of a book called "Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments" by Robert Bruce Thompson, and published by O'Reilly. I liked the book a lot and strongly recommended it for homeschoolers and hobbyists who were serious about chemistry.
Now, we have…
August 11, 2008
... declaring them to be wimps, prudes, and possibly chicken-poop racists.
If you're moderately literate, you've probably heard of The Jewel of Medina, the scandalous book about Aisha, the child bride of Muhammad, which Random House pulled from their publication schedule ... The book had reached…
August 11, 2008
I find it interesting that people are suggesting that the Georgian move on South Ossetia a few days ago occurred when it did because the Olympics are on and no one would notice because they would all be watching the sports. Meanwhile, at this particular moment, the highest ranking story regarding…
August 11, 2008
Cyberattacks on Georgian Internet and continued fighting within the country. News below the fold. Meantime, here's a map:
Hackers, perhaps affiliated with a well-known Russian criminal network, have attacked and hijacked Web sites belonging to Georgia, the former Soviet republic now in the fourth…
August 10, 2008
Myungwan Kim was beaten by the MoGo computer system by 1.5 points in a nine stone game.
"It played really well," said Kim, who estimated MoGo's current strength at "two or maybe three dan," though he noted that the program - which used 800 processors, at 4.7 Ghz, 15 Teraflops on borrowed…
August 10, 2008
I am hearing things from within Georgia that are best not repeated until a day or so has passed, but genrally my understanding is that the situation is primarily one of confusion. The Georgians have declared a cease fire (some 24 hours or so ago) and claim to have stopped fighting. The Russians…
August 10, 2008
This is kinda cool. It is a flash (I presume) doohickey that presents a detailed interactive timeline of internet memes.
Click here. Pass it on. To everyone you know.
August 10, 2008
With all the talk about the theory regarding animal rights, AR activism, animal research and terroristic attacks on scientists, this bit of news in the aftermath of the recent California firebombing may have been missed:
Law enforcement officers Thursday raided the same Riverside Avenue house that…
August 9, 2008
It is not so funny that the Georgian Army is accused of attempting ethnic genocide in southern Ossetia, that the Russians have been bombing cities in Georgia, that the Georgians or somebody have shot down two Russian fighter planes, and that things seem to be escalating. Dozens, maybe hundreds, by…
August 9, 2008
Click my blue frame.
[More Captions Needed]
August 9, 2008
Two security researchers have developed a new technique that essentially bypasses all of the memory protection safeguards in the Windows Vista operating system, an advance that many in the security community say will have far-reaching implications not only for Microsoft, but also on how the entire…
August 9, 2008
Four Stone Hearth #45 - Caves, Graves and Audio-files Edition is at Remote Central.
I and the Bird #81 is at The Marvelous in Nature.
The glorious 46th ed of 4SH is at Testimony of the Spade.
Aggregator of news about infectious diseases
The Carnival of Cinema: Episode 86 - Blogger of the…
August 9, 2008
Technically, Nisbet did not say that. He simply showed a picture of PZ Myers ... a rather funny picture of PZ that is not what I would call a glamor shot ... and made the statement paraphrased as the title of this post in reference to all atheists who have strong views and who are, well, not…
August 8, 2008
Check out this podcast from the Institute for Humanist Studies.
In this month's audio podcast we are dedicating the entire program to one story. During the 1970s, P. Thomas Carroll read and transcribed hundreds of Charles Darwin's personal correspondences for research purposes. Carroll shares his…
August 8, 2008
On this day in 1974. It was Richard Nixon. I remember it like it was yesterday.
Richard Nixon has announced he is stepping down as president of the United States - the first man ever to do so.
He has announced his departure in the face of an imminent impeachment trial - and possible removal…
August 8, 2008
Health Wonk Review at Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review
New and Exciting in PLoS ONE at A Blog Around the Clock
The NBTS edition of carnival of homeschooling at The Homeschool Cafe
Change of Shift: Volume 3, Number 3 at Emergiblog
Carnival of Education at Pass the Torch
Tangled Bank #111 at…
August 7, 2008
Linux has powerful graphics tools For the average user or the professional image manipulator, there is a range of OpenSource software that will run on Linux as well as (in some cases) other platforms such as Windows. As discussed earlier, there are two basic kinds of image: Bit mapped and…
August 7, 2008
OK, let's say it all together.
Minnesota is the state.
Minneapolis is a city in Minnesota.
Saint Paul is the Capitol of Minnesota.
The Republican National Convention will be in Saint Paul. Saint Paul Minnesota. Not Minneapolis.
Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who is from a suburb of Saint Paul…
August 7, 2008
Common spelling mistakes should be accepted into everyday use, not corrected, a lecturer has said.
Ken Smith of Bucks New University says the most common mistakes should be accepted as "variant spellings".
He lists the 10 most commonly misspelt words, which include "arguement" for "argument" and "…
August 7, 2008
From NASA:
Fractures, or "tiger stripes," where icy jets erupt on Saturn's moon Enceladus will be the target of a close flyby by the Cassini spacecraft on Monday, Aug. 11.
Cassini will zoom past the tiny moon a mere 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the surface. Just after closest approach, all of…
August 7, 2008
Remember the earlier discussion of the DNS bug? If the internet is the post office, the DNS is the collection of all of the addresses on all of the envelopes traveling around the system. It is secure, inherently. But caching is used as part of the system to make it more efficient, and the…
August 7, 2008
Thank you, Ana, for sending this:
It gets a bit old by the time it is over, but it is funny. At the event we went to, the bidding started at 50, got to 60 or something, and someone shouted out "500?!?!?" and that was the end.
