July 3, 2008
Christina Comer is suing the Texas Education agency. Here is a copy of the law suit. From the Dallas News:
AUSTIN - A former state science curriculum director filed suit against the Texas Education Agency and Education Commissioner Robert Scott on Wednesday, alleging she was illegally fired for…
July 2, 2008
Heavyweight science journalist Sir Delcan Butler has published an update, of sorts, on the status of the Public Library of Science (PLoS), published today in the journal Nature.* In it, he presents a study carried out by Nature on the financial status of PLoS, and describes the ups and downs of…
July 2, 2008
Adam Grosser talks about a project to build a refrigerator that works without electricity -- to bring the vital tool to villages and clinics worldwide. Tweaking some old technology, he's come up with a system that works.
July 2, 2008
In a surprising result, most Young Earth Creationists would prefer that Creationism not be taught along side Evolution.
Source
July 2, 2008
...Until recently, "waterboarding" was something that Americans did to other Americans. It was inflicted, and endured, by those members of the Special Forces who underwent the advanced form of training known as sere (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape). In these harsh exercises, brave men and…
July 2, 2008
... In the privacy of your own home or office, via the Intertubes!
Here is how the Lindau meetings describes itself:
The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings provide a globally recognised forum for the exchange of knowledge between Nobel Laureates and young researchers. The original idea of the meetings…
July 2, 2008
On this day in 1964....
The Civil Rights Bill - one of the most important piece of legislation in American history - has become law.
US President Lyndon B Johnson signed the bill creating equal rights in voting, education, public accommodations, union membership and in federally assisted programmes…
July 1, 2008
.... died on this day in 1971.
They were Soviet cosmonauts. A breech in the capsule they were riding in occurred as it was separated from another part of the rocket during the initial phases of re-entry. The capsule depressurized and they were killed. Apparently, no one knew this had happened…
July 1, 2008
Steven Levitt shares data that shows car seats are no more effective than seatbelts in protecting kids from dying in cars. However, during the Q&A, he makes one crucial caveat.
July 1, 2008
First, let me please remind you to send me any submission you may have for the Four Stone Hearth Anthropology Blog Carnival!
Berry Go Rounder 6th edition is at Seeds Aside.
Medical Grand Rounds, Vol 4, No. 41 is at the Covert Rationing Blog
July 1, 2008
Carnival of the Elitist Bastards #2.
Contact PZ Myers if you have an entry!
July 1, 2008
A trip overseas, especially with today's fuel prices and other changes in the airline industry, is different now than it was even a few years ago. This is especially true in regards to the topic of this post: How to deal with the problem of vicarious travelers and their need for trinkets, as well…
July 1, 2008
Among the top five hundred super computing sites, the vast majority are running Linux. For the desktop environment, there are many opportunities for Linux. For audio, have a look at 42 of the Best Free Linux Audio Software. More broadly, consider these Seven Reasons to Move to Linux. The…
July 1, 2008
Natural Selection was proposed jointly by Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin on this day 150 years ago.
Darwin discovered the principle of Natural Selection, and worked it out, over several decades prior. Meanwhile A.R. Wallace also came up with Natural Selection as the mechanism for what…
June 30, 2008
I am not entirely sure that the FDA has actually identified a tomato with Salmonella on it. The tomato hypothesis was based on recall data, which is notoriously iffy. Not totally useless, but iffy.
The FDA, gutted by years of uncaring neglect by evil Republicans, today finds itself incapable of…
June 30, 2008
A study just out in PLoS Medicine suggests that an increasing trend of delaying childbirth is associated wiht a rising rate of the use of cesarean delivery. The explanation appears to be impared uterine function.
From the editor's summary:
Though it was not studied here, the researchers…
June 30, 2008
I find it hard to believe that the government has ignored the need for solar energy to the extent that it seems surprised that anyone wants to build new solar plants. From the New York Times:
Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a…
June 30, 2008
Do you drink bottled water or tap water? Water from a cooler (which is a big giant bottle) or from a filter built into a refrigerator or sink? Or do you Britta?
(Yes, let me be the first to verb that noun .... )
Increasingly we see resistance to bottled water. The Britta ads (one hour in a…
June 29, 2008
Proto Stephen Jay Gould OMFSM you are not going to believe this. Over at the University of Chicago, someone is making a terrible fool of themselves. It is hard to say if this is Shankar Vedantam, the Washing Post Staff Writer, or Patterson Clark of the Washington Post or someone else.
The…
June 29, 2008
On this day in 1895, T. H. Huxley died at the age of 70. Huxley was known as "Darwin's Bulldog" because of his defense of Darwin's important work in evolution. He debated Samuel Wilberforce in 1860, and people have been debating creationists since.
Huxley invented the term "agnostic" and…
June 28, 2008
Our local paper, the Star Tribune is re-printing a New York Times story on the Philidelphia "Year of Evolution" .... Which is just fine. But the story has a comment section and it would sure be nice to have a few more pro-evolution comments on it. Please consider contributing to it, here.
Hope…
June 28, 2008
Nicholas Negroponte talks about how One Laptop per Child is doing, two years in. Speaking at the EG conference while the first XO laptops roll off the production line, he recaps the controversies and recommits to the goals of this far-reaching project.
June 28, 2008
There is new information from an older idea (from about 2000) by Paul Sherman and colleagues. The idea underlying this research is simple: Symptoms of illnesses may be adaptive. Indeed, this may be true to the extent that we should not call certain things illnesses. Like "morning sickness."…
June 27, 2008
Perhaps judging a man by his cologne isn't as superficial as it seems.
Duke University researchers, using sophisticated machinery to analyze hundreds of chemical components in a ringtailed lemur's distinctive scent, have found that individual males are not only advertising their fitness for…
