November 19, 2007
The "statins" make up a class of cholesterol lowering drugs. Fish oil (oil derived from fish) is rich in certain fatty acids.
Both types of compounds can have powerful positive and protective effects in the brain.
A study just now coming out (to be published in Brain Research Reviews) looks at…
November 19, 2007
As has been reported in various places, the death toll from Sidr has slowly and steadily climbed, topping 3,000 according to a fairly recent report from the BBC.
The Bangladesh Red Crescent is estimating that the death toll may reach 10,000.
A half million homes have been destroyed, and a couple/…
November 19, 2007
Intelligent design. Creationism. Evolution. Fossils. Controversy. Charles Darwin. The Controversy, and Teaching the Controversy. The Dover Trial reconstructed with Oscar Winning Performances.
Thank you VERY much NOVA and PBS for making "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial" available…
November 18, 2007
[hat tip: John Lynch Stranger Fruit]
November 18, 2007
Wiley has a cool web page with "interactive concepts in biochemistry" animations. Check it out.
November 18, 2007
The latest target for demonizing by right-wing talk radio is an 18-year-old Yup'ik Eskimo woman who traveled to Washington, D.C., this month to tell what global warming is doing to her remote home village of St. Michael, Alaska.
Charlee Lockwood spoke of how moose have moved north, berry patches…
November 18, 2007
For the record...
November 18, 2007
We don't see this particular creationist argument being made too often these days. I think this may be because it is boring and difficult to frame nicely.
As a result, this video is a little boring, but if you are a true foot soldier in the war against irrationality, you'll sit through it as a…
November 18, 2007
This is the third in a series of reposts from gregladen.com on global warming.
Why It Matters What you Burn and When you Burn It
Carbon Dioxide is a deadly poison. It is about 50% heavier than air, so where it occurs in density, in mines or certain natural vents associated with volcanics, it can…
November 18, 2007
An 18-foot minke whale ran aground on a sandbar in the Amazon jungle some 1,000 miles from the ocean, Brazilian media reported Friday. Globo television broadcast images of dozens of people gathered along the Tapajos River splashing water on the animal, whose back and dorsal fin were exposed to the…
November 18, 2007
Its got a place to put your rings and everything. Again, an historical visual trope ... the pinkish, plasticy side of the 1960s.
November 18, 2007
This is an example of a fun, edgy, sexy, cool video that promotes evolution, but unfortunately also promotes some misconceptions. Like using religious metaphor and terminology in otherwise useful kid-friendly contexts, we learn here that it is all about "survival of the fittest" and that apes are…
November 18, 2007
Move over Abbot and Costello!
November 18, 2007
Or, to be less crude, did modern humans, having already evolved in Africa, interbreed with the local Europeans who were Neanderthals, and if so, did they produce fertile offspring ... and, did this happen in sufficient degree to have mattered at all to the genetics of later (but not necessarily…
November 18, 2007
There is an ongoing effort to change the standards for teaching science in Orlando Florida so that the students are taught actual science (as opposed to creationism, apparently) in an effort to bring the next generation's work force into the 21st century. And the public meetings are apparently…
November 17, 2007
There is a poll on the home page of "The Lariat", Baylor's on line newspaper. It asks if Baylor should encourage, discourage, prohibit, or support Intelligent Design. The Creationists are winning by a landslide.
The poll is here just in case you are interested in voting.
[hat tip Pharyngula]…
November 17, 2007
This is the kind of story that makes it difficult to remain culturally relativistic. it also makes it hard to look at women who are in purdah walking around in a "free" country like the US and not, in part blame them for compliance.
A woman was gang raped in Saudi Arabia. Fourteen times.…
November 17, 2007
Today, deCODE genetics announced the launch of their consumer genotyping service, deCODEme. deCODEme is the first personal genomics company to launch, and will provide sequencing information about 1 million SNPs for the introductory price of $985. The service has two components:[source]
From…
November 17, 2007
A few tidbits -- just to give a flavor -- from the Summary for Policymakers, which is available here. (Good luck downloading this file! You may want to wait until everyone is asleep...)
1. Observed changes in climate and their effects
Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now…
November 17, 2007
You all know about the honey bee waggle dance. A bee finds some nectar, returns to the hive, does a dance that communicates information about where the nectar can be found to other bees, and off the workers go to get the nectar.
Techies at Georgia Tech have applied this method to developing a…
November 17, 2007
According to research just out from the University of Nottingham, lowering the differential between high and low incomes can have a more positive effect on child wellbeing than simply growing the economy in countries that are already wealthy.
From the press release:
Poorer children fare less well…
November 17, 2007
[hat tip: Joe]
November 17, 2007
This report covers six topics:
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission trends
Mitigation in the short and medium term, across different economic sectors (until 2030)
Mitigation in the long-term (beyond 2030)
Policies, measures and instruments to mitigate climate change
Sustainable development and climate…
November 17, 2007
A report accepted by Working Group II of the Intergovernmental on Climate Change but not approved in detail
Summary of main findings
Observational evidence from all continents and most oceans shows that many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature…
November 17, 2007
The following is quoted from the Working Group I report
In the six years since the IPCC's Third Assessment Report (TAR), signifi cant progress has been made in understanding past and recent climate change and in projecting future changes. These advances have arisen from large amounts of new data,…
November 17, 2007
Last August, Dan Egerstad, of Sweden, hacked his way into secret email accounts of government embassies, various NGOs and corporations. It was easy, partly because it was not a secure network. He then posted a very large number of email user names and passwords.
The way he did it was simple.…
November 17, 2007
Corpus Collosum shows us this graph of search frequency on Google for the word "Science."
And asks "What could it possibly mean?"
What it means is this: The following is a graph of search frequency on Google for the word "Santa."
The graphs are from Google Trends. Just in case it is not…
