j7uy5
Posts by this author
November 17, 2007
The term "Freudian Slip" has been the subject of innumerable
puns.
This one is new to me:
It's the perfect holiday gift for shrinks in cold climates.
HT: Mental
Floss
November 17, 2007
According to Google, we are heading into a bad season for
Science:
This is from Google
Trends. Every December, there is a steep drop in
the number of searches conducted for "science." Plus, there
has been a year-to-year decline. What could it possibly mean?
November 16, 2007
The environmental consequences of shopping catalogs have
been well
documented. For example, over eight million tons of trees are
consumed each year in the production of paper catalogs.
Now there is a website where you can go to opt out of them:
href="http://www.catalogchoice.org/#welcome">…
November 16, 2007
The San Antonio Express-News
href="http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read/114296">reports
that "Reviewers have found 109,263 errors in sample copies of math
textbooks to be used next fall in Texas."
One second-grade math book, for example,
has 4 plus 7 equaling 10.
OK, anybody can…
November 16, 2007
In 1984, the Hatch-Waxman Drug Price Competition and
Patent Restoration Act was passed. This was an
important development that changed forever the economics of the
pharmaceutical industry.
NEJM has a nice, short, open-access
href="http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/20/1993">…
November 16, 2007
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/carlzimmer/sets/72157601351535771/">
class="inset" alt="click" title="click for photoset"
src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1435/1173226117_faab61f1eb_t.jpg"
align="left" border="0" height="75" width="100">Carl
Zimmer has been
href="http://…
November 16, 2007
Currently, both the
href="http://rawstory.com/news/2007/House_passes_FISA_update_without_telecom_1115.html">House
and the
href="http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/11/in-twist-senate.html">Senate
are leaning away from granting immunity to telecommunications companies
that were involved…
November 15, 2007
I haven't gotten to the actual research paper yet, but this
is sufficiently interesting that I wanted to put up a quick post about
it. Live Science has an article about some research, showing
that persons who think of themselves as righteous are, in some
circumstances, the most likely to cheat…
November 15, 2007
This is strange. A person with a Ph.D. in
molecular genetics,
href="http://www.answersingenesis.org/events/bio.aspx?Speaker_ID=52"
rel="tag">Georgia Purdom, wrote a post in which
she claims to have shown that the development of antibiotic resistance
in bacteria is not an example of evolution…
November 14, 2007
The all-new, completely free LOLCats calendar for 2008 is here. It is a 2MB PDF download.
November 14, 2007
The Department of Defense appears to be making a real effort
to
determine the scope of the problem. They now have published
the results of a second screening of 88,235 returning soldiers.
In their most recent study, they acknowledge that the prior
study missed a lot. Moreover, they now worry…
November 14, 2007
href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/images/dilbert2033334071113.gif">
Click for full-sized version
From:
href="http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20071113.html"
rel="tag">Dilbert Internet Archive
There is elitism, and anti-elitism. In pure form,
both are…
November 13, 2007
In his article about
href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2209837,00.asp">what
is wrong with Windows Vista, PC Mag's John Dvorak
unintentionally disrespects northern Michigan:
Until now, Microsoft could sell code
better than anyone, but it seems the company would rather sell
services:…
November 13, 2007
Remember, this guy ran for office claiming that he was going
to "
href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E3DC153FF931A2575BC0A9669C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all">restore
dignity" to the office. Now, 64% of persons
surveyed think "has abused his powers as…
November 13, 2007
Tilly is an eagle that has been trained to fly with a pair
of video
cameras. The cameras weigh less than 30 grams and can
transmit video signals more than a mile.
I gather this was shown on Aminal Planet, but you can see it on the
Internet
href="http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/…
November 13, 2007
The Norman
Lear Center recently commissioned a Zogby poll regarding the
relative media preferences of liberals, moderates, and conservatives:
href="http://www.learcenter.org/html/projects/?cm=zogby">The
Zogby/Lear Center Survey On Politics And Entertainment.
The typology revealed three…
November 13, 2007
The Chinese pistache,
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistacia_chinensis">Pistacia
chinenesis, is the most frost-tolerant of the Pistacia,
and is relatively drought-tolerant as well. It is prized for
the vivid autumn color of the leaves.
November 11, 2007
href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/"
title="Click this link to find out details of the Creative Commons license associated with this image.">
src="http://creativecommons.org/images/public/somerights20.gif"
alt="There is a Creative Commons license attached to this image…
November 11, 2007
This is a neat project; I hope more people participate.
The
map below shows the USA divided into regions, based upon their
emotional ties to particular areas. Thus it is not based upon
borders or any other typical geographic boundary.
I had to shrink it to fit, so it is hard to read.
The…
November 10, 2007
Is it just me, or do others find this article to be
offensive?
href="http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1681838,00.html?xid=feed-yahoo-healthsci">When
the Patient Is a Googler
By SCOTT HAIG
Thursday, Nov. 08, 2007
We had never met, but as we talked on the phone I knew she…
November 10, 2007
People who advocate alternative energy (i.e. not oil or
natural gas)
often fail to appreciate the true cost of developing the necessary
technology. Courtesy of
href="http://cryptogon.com/?p=1597">Cryptogon, I
now present a chart that
illustrates these true costs, in proper perspective.
As…
November 10, 2007
A Nobel-winning economist has some comments about our
current fiscal situation:
href="http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/12/bush200712?currentPage=1">The
Economic Consequences of Mr. Bush
The next president will have to deal with yet another
crippling legacy of George W. Bush…
November 9, 2007
O excellent! I love corpus callosum better than figs.
Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?
Get your own quotes:
November 9, 2007
href="http://quirkynomads.com/wp/2007/11/05/podcast-genetink/">This
is a highly amusing podcast, for nerds anyway. Tweaking a few
genes here and there will not alter our fundamental humanness.
But is this what we really want?
Go to the page and click on the Listen: MP3 format
link.
November 9, 2007
rel="tag">Fife Symington III, former governor of
Arizona, is planning a press conference to discuss UFOs. He
plans to discuss the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Lights">Phoenix
Lights incident. Symington is a former Air Force
pilot, which he feels lends him some credibility…
November 9, 2007
I was thrilled to note that the
href="http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/prometheus/archives/climate_change/001258sokal_revisited_i_.html">Journal
of Geoclimatic Studies offered open access to their
papers. But as of today, the
href="http://www.geoclimaticstudies.info/">website
is down,…
November 8, 2007
Athletic regulatory bodies have a new headache.
This time, the pain is being caused by placebos (an
unexpected side effect!)
As
href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19626285.400-placebo-boost-is-a-conundrum-for-sports-regulators.html">reported
in New Scientist, athletes have found…
November 8, 2007
This story
href="http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00F16FD3A5E147B93CAA9178AD95F438685F9">originally
ran in the New York Times, 40 years ago.
It is behind a pay wall now, but it is
href="http://harpers.org/archive/2007/11/hbc-90001600">reprinted
in Harper's; I found it…
November 8, 2007
Neil Bush's "COW" is probably the
closest the
Bush family ever has come
to real ranching. Now the COW may be going the way of the
href="http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/expeditions/treasure_fossil/Treasures/Dodo/dodo.html?dinos"
rel="tag">Dodo This may turn out to be one of the
best things…