j7uy5

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July 28, 2006
This is an archived post from October 2005. It is one of my more whimsical entries, but it does have aserious intent. The recent National Geographic film, title="Official movie website" href="http://wip.warnerbros.com/marchofthepenguins/">March of the Penguins, has generated a tremendous…
July 28, 2006
At La Cueva.  I'd appreciate it if someone could identify this lizard. It is about 5 inches (12cm) long. UPDATE: thanks to a tip from Kevin, I think I have ID'ed the little guy... It appears to be a greater earless lizard: Cophosaurus texanus.
July 27, 2006
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/62864816@N00/199733007/" title="Photo Sharing"> src="http://static.flickr.com/64/199733007_049cdd3911.jpg" alt="IMG_1332" height="375" width="500"> This is the approach to Aguirre Springs, on the east slope of the Organ mountains.
July 27, 2006
This is an archived article from 2004, scheduled to be posted today to fill a vacation-induced gap. A recent article in the LA Times reports on hazards associated with herbal sex aids.  This brings to mind a couple of reasons to be concerned about herbal products and dietary supplements. …
July 26, 2006
This post on Black Triangle reminds me that it is a good idea to spread this warning, at this time of year. He notes several medications that increase the risk of heatstroke, or otherwise pose risks in heat and bright sun. Many of these are psychiatric medications. href="http://en.wikipedia.org/…
July 25, 2006
Being on vacation over the following two weeks, I've scheduled publication of some old posts. The formatting might be a little funny, but I can't really check that ahead of time. The preview function in MT is not perfect. This one is from June, 2004.... From the newsletter, Psychiatric Times,…
July 24, 2006
Mike, at The Questionable Authority, has a href="http://scienceblogs.com/authority/2006/07/nation_building_versus_nation.php">valuable perspective on what I wrote earlier, in  href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2006/07/first_do_no_harm_part_ii.php">First, Do No Harm, Part II.  He…
July 24, 2006
This week's Ask-a-ScienceBlogger question is: If you could have practiced science in any time and any place throughout history, which would it be, and why?... Hmmm.  I am not going to answer that question, exactly.  Instead, I will rephrase it, and answer the question that I would like to be…
July 23, 2006
American Scientist has href="http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/50767?fulltext=true&print=yes">an article about the potential for controlling mosquito-borne diseases, by genetically modifying the insects to make then inhospitable to malaria and dengue.  (Most of…
July 22, 2006
Long-time readers have noticed that I tend to hype free software and resources from time to time.   After SB redesigned the skin for our blogs, I decided that I should redo the banner.  The old one was done in brown, specifically to match the old page style.  It looked dorky after the redesign.…
July 22, 2006
Coturnix href="http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2006/07/the_perils_of_polls.php">picked up on an href="http://www.newsobserver.com/662/story/462624.html">interesting study, which shows that "Simply asking college students who are inclined to take drugs about their illegal-drug use in a…
July 22, 2006
I haven't done much frank political blogging since moving to ScienceBlogs.  But this is just too provocative to pass up. href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1826479,00.html"> href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1826479,00.html">Afghanistan close to…
July 21, 2006
href="http://www.twinkies.com/recipe_view.asp?recipetype=Twinkies&rID=86"> Hostess Twinkies Sushi Japanese animation, Hello Kitty, samurais, ninjas, and Sushi are really popular right now! Here"s a wild recipe that"s super easy to make and super fun to eat as a light and fruity snack…
July 20, 2006
This is from a study published in the latest NEJM: The "Gender Gap" in Authorship of Academic Medical Literature — A 35-Year Perspective [ href="http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/355/3/281">abstract/ rev="review" href="http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/355/3/281">full…
July 20, 2006
This is cool. This is not. Reading the Undercover Activist Blog, published by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), I learned of the development of a new type of solitude assault vehicle: the href="http://www.gibbstech.co.uk/mediacentre/quadski.php" rel="tag">Quadski,…
July 20, 2006
A lot of people are writing about this, and I do not really have anything new to contribute.  But I will say it anyway.  Researchers whom I trust, people of fine moral character, think the restriction on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research is bad.  Despite opinions from a majority of…
July 19, 2006
Ok, the ScienceBlogs new skin is up.  It looks nice.  I was afraid that would happen.  Now my banner looks out of place.  I will need to design a new one that uses #f5ffe6 and/or #ebffcd.  Maybe something with #ebffcd, #ccffe0, #e0ccff, and #ffcceb.  Life is nutty sometimes.
July 19, 2006
This is a follow-up to href="http://scienceblogs.com/corpuscallosum/2006/07/transgenic_drug_controversy.php">the post from a couple of days ago.  It might not make a lot of sense unless you have read that post, or are otherwise familiar with the issues regarding genetically-modified crops. In…
July 17, 2006
Some unexpected demands have impeded my progress on the "transgenic drug" series.  I've written part of what I planned to post today.  But I want to work on it some more.   In the meantime, here is a picture of noctilucent clouds, from href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060718.html">…
July 16, 2006
There is controversy in Peru, of all places, about the experimental use of a treatment for diarrhea in children.  Diarrhea is a major cause of mortality in underdeveloped nations, especially in children.  From the Wikipedia page on href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_mortality" rel="tag"…
July 15, 2006
The UM Center for Organogenesis will have a booth at the href="http://www.arborweb.com/annual_events_index.html">Art Fairs in Ann Arbor, featuring their Bio-Artography. They'll be at booth 155, on East University St. href="http://bioartography.com/index2.html"> src="http://…
July 15, 2006
The Wellcome Trust Biomedical Image Awards for 2006 have been announced.  The winners can be seen href="http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/bia/gallery.html">here. This photograph shows nerve cells growing along synthetic silk fibers.  The tiny blue dots are href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/…
July 14, 2006
A friend and colleague of mine drives around in a cute little VW bug powered by biodiesel.  There's a peace sign on the front of it, which helps it get better mileage.  But peace sign or not, there has been an ongoing controversy about whether biofuels are worth anything. In this post, I provide a…
July 14, 2006
This subject is not really news anymore, but I am writing about it to call attention to a review article, href="http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v31/n7/abs/1301082a.html">VNS Therapy in Treatment-Resistant Depression: Clinical Evidence and Putative Neurobiological Mechanisms.  In this post, I…
July 12, 2006
Even though electronic music is all the rage these days, people are still figuring out new ways to make music without digital intervention. Samuel Gaudet and Claude Gauthier, mathematicians at the University of Moncton in New Brunswick, have developed the href="http://www.sciencenews.org/…
July 11, 2006
Medical interventions alway carry risks.  So do other types of interventions, such as those carried out in the name of national security.  Just as physicians must not let their enthusiasm for healing carry them into the realm of medical misadventure, we, as a country, must exercise prudence and…
July 9, 2006
I wonder how long it will be, before Blue Cross starts requiring people to fly to the other side of the planet for liver transplants. href="http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/004054B8-F475-4C40-872D-5E0D91D25B12.htm">Indian medical care goes global By Jagpreet Luthra in Delhi Sunday…
July 9, 2006
Foreign Policy magazine has an article ( href="http://web1.foreignpolicy.com/issue_julyaug_2006/TI-index/index.html">The Terrorism Index) about the Global and Perpetual War on Terrorism.  It is a compilation and analysis of the results of a survey of 117 experts on foregin policy and terrorism…
July 9, 2006
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Toda_Hut.JPG"> The href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toda_people" title="Toda people">Toda people are a small pastoral tribe of less than 1,000 people who reside in the href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nilgiris" title="The Nilgiris"…
July 9, 2006
There are a two poems written by veterans, on the site for Yes! magazine. The magazine is a written by progressives, with the intention of trying to keep their messages positive. When it comes to war, it is hard to put it in a positive light. But if you consider that the men who wrote those…