March 4, 2008
Edition number 24, is HERE at BayBlab Blog.
March 3, 2008
ESP is a new organization formed for the purpose of putting an end to the madness. The madness, of course, is the new corporate business model of patenting something utterly absurd, such as "click on something and something happens" or "computers can store data" or "tell the user there has been an…
March 3, 2008
This is not new, but i is so good that I like to remind everyone of it once every eight months or so.
This is the Minnesota Citizens for Science Education Real Science Search Engine.
This engine searches the whole web, including commercial sites, but omits several hundred carefully chosen…
March 3, 2008
A colleague and grad student of mine, Rob, just sent me the following question, slightly edited here:
A student in my intro class asked me a good question the other day to which I had no answer. When did smiling cease to be a threat gesture? I have a couple of ideas. One is that with reduced…
March 3, 2008
The developers of Firefox ran into an interesting situation with Firefox 3.0 (in production). There are reasons for it to have run faster than Firefox 2.0 on a Mac, but in some ways it ran more slowly.
After a great deal of research, they figured out why. Essentially, there is a thing that…
March 3, 2008
Joseph Lekuton, a member of Kenya's parliament, tells the story of his own extraordinary education, and then a parable of how Africa itself can grow. His message of hope for Kenya in particular has never been more relevant.
March 3, 2008
On one hand, we have the Huckabee factor ... Huckabee's draw on hard right voters in tomorrows primary may lead anti-evolutionists to victory. On the other hand, we have the Obama factor ... Obama's draw on moderate republicans may lead to a cleansing of pernicious liberal elements from the…
March 3, 2008
My colleague Christian Reinboth (Frischer Wind) sent me this amazing video. Christian says it has been circulating on the European YouTube circuit (which, from our American perspective could be known as "TheirTube"). It has been very windy in Europe lately, as you know from the amazing Wind…
March 3, 2008
The Asus Eee Laptops being sold by Best Buy come featured with an Intel Celeron M Processor, 512 MB of DDR2 memory, 7" widescreen display, 4GB solid state drive, built-in webcam, and the Linux operating system. Weighing in at only 2lbs, the laptop is great for day-to-day traveling. The hardware…
March 2, 2008
What is your favorite scripting language?
(I don't think I can do polls on this site ... but if you click on this picture of a poll, you can go to that site and take the poll)
March 2, 2008
Normally, I keep my blog away from Squid and other cephalopods because I know that if PZ myers feels threatened, he may charge, and the squiggly molluscs are his bailiwick.
But, this evening at the Laden household analog of the dinner table, the question came up: "How many species of cephalopods…
March 2, 2008
Right, I know, he just died so we have to pretend we did not loath him for a least two weeks. But I have the sense that William Buckley would not give me that courtesy, so forget that.
I am reminded that Buckley is often quoted as having said words to these effect:
I would rather be governed by…
March 2, 2008
Common Sense Tells us to try this drug:
Thank You British NHS. We needed th is.
March 2, 2008
Holy crap, where did this come from?
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is sending thousands of troops and tanks to the border with Colombia, marking a sharp escalation in regional tensions.
Speaking on his weekly television show, President Chavez also said Venezuela's embassy in Colombia would…
March 2, 2008
... according to mainstream Christian leaders.
This is about Larry King, who was fatally shot in the head on February 12 in a classroom. Larry was murdered by his classmate, Brandon McInerney. It appears that Brandon shot Larry because Larry was openly gay and a transvestite.
TUIBG notes on…
March 1, 2008
... at Further Thoughts.
Berry Go Round is a carnival for Plants. But you don't have to be a plant to submit a post. Just be interested in plants, generally from a biological and evolutionary perspective, not just, "I like plants, plants are cool."
The next edition will be hosted HERE, here....…
March 1, 2008
Interesting editorial in PLoS Genetics:
Reports that the Bush administration has expressed an interest in closing the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility in Cuba [1], colloquially known in the US as "Gitmo," could stimulate a new chapter in US foreign policy. By converting Gitmo into a biomedical…
March 1, 2008
Investor Steve Jurvetson talks about his awesome hobby -- shooting off model rockets. With gorgeous photos, infectious glee and just a whiff of danger.
March 1, 2008
The flu is caused by the influenza virus, of which there are several types. H1N1 is known as the "Spanish Flu," H2N2 as the "Asian Flu" and so on. These funny letters and numbers refer to specific genotypes. The H1N1 is the version of the flu that caused the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and…
March 1, 2008
Americans revel in violence. We have an excuse for almost any kind of violent or oppressive act. When a young boy poking around, on a dare, in what he thought was an abandoned house was shot dead by my neighbor last year, the boy was vilified as a threat and the trigger happy crazy guy lauded…
February 29, 2008
According to a poll this week, approximately 31 percent of surveyed Americans believe Roger Clemens is telling the truth about never taking performance-enhancing drugs.
This is about the same percentage of Americans who believe in creationism, and still insist George Bush is doing a good job. And…
February 29, 2008
That is the title of the First Place science fair project from a baptist science fair.
The description of the project:
Cassidy Turnbull (grade five) presented her uncle, Steve. She also showed photographs of monkeys and invited fairgoers to note the differences between her uncle and the monkeys.…
February 29, 2008
Photograph of a chicken. Click to see larger version. From PLOS article cited in blog post.
Where and when were chickens domesticated?
From whence the humble chicken? Gallus gallus is a domesticated chicken-like bird (thus, the name "chicken") that originates in southeast Asia. Ever since…
February 29, 2008
are here:
HIV infection at Wissen schafft Kommunikatioin
Other cellular stuff (an oldie but a goodie) at WeiterGen!
February 29, 2008
At this moment, there is a guy laid up in the hospital in Vegas with ricin poisoning. A stash of ricin has been found in his hotel room/apartment. His dog is dead (not sure why but probably due to lack of water and food) and a couple of other pets are either dead or not doing well (details are…
February 29, 2008
... it was time to skip town.
I'm going to Mayaland in a few weeks. I know nothing about Mayan archaeology, even though I attended graduate school at one of the world's premier locals for the study of Mesoamerican archaeology. Since I was working towards a double PhD (in Biological Anthropology…
February 28, 2008
Historical records indicate that 130 years ago, the white-tailed jack rabbit was abundant in the Yellowstone vicinity. The last confirmed sighting was in 1991. What happened? This apparently remains a mystery, according to Rabbit Expert Joel Berger.
"It could be disease, extreme weather,…
February 28, 2008
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) is caused by a coronavirus that is now believed to have originated in bats. In 2004, thousands of palm civets (a cat like carnivore) were killed off in China because it was believed that they were the main reservoir of this disease. Ooops.
It appears now…
February 28, 2008
Or is it just that they are more often recognized. Or more sensationally reported. A recent study suggests that "emerging" diseases such as HIV, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), West Nile virus and Ebola are more common.
By analyzing 335 incidents of previous disease emergence…
February 28, 2008
Thousands of sick and dying bats are being found in caves in New York, Vermont and Massachusetts. These are mostly Myotis lucifungus (the fairly common little brown bat) but at least three other species, including the endangered Myotis sodalis (Indiana bat) are affected as well.
But why?
So far,…
