j7uy5
Posts by this author
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…