Jason Goldman
jgoldman
Posts by this author
May 13, 2010
This might be in my top 5 favorite songs, ever, in the history of songs. Long, but totally worth it.
30,000 Pounds of Bananas, by Harry Chapin.
May 13, 2010
Yesterday, I wrote about this paper on chimpanzees learning (or not) to spit water into a tube to retrieve a peanut.
I was so very sad to see that there were no supplementary materials included with the paper. No awesome videos of chimps spitting water into a tube to share with you.
So I sent an…
May 12, 2010
I found a terrific blog called Fake Science.
Here's a little bit of timely information for you, straight from the Fake Science vaults.
May 12, 2010
What is culture? One simple definition might be: a distinctive behavior shared by two or more individuals, which persists over time, and that ignorant individuals acquire through socially-aided learning.
There are at least four different ways to learn a particular behavior or problem-solving…
May 12, 2010
Scienceblogs is bringing back the popular Ask A Scienceblogger program.
Sayeth the overlordz:
Whatever you've wondered, now is your chance to ask. ScienceBlogs is reinstating our former Ask a ScienceBlogger series, in which (you guessed it), you get to ask ScienceBloggers questions, and they answer…
May 11, 2010
Add to the list of expensive toys with lasers that I want.
Figure 1: Micro Temp Digital Infrared Thermometer, Pro Model. $59.99 at Cabelas.com
Imagine never having to clean a cooking thermometer, ever again!
May 11, 2010
Though they are routinely found in the waters off of California, large marine mammals like killer whales don't usually come so close to shore - it seems they prefer to stick to the farther side of the channel islands.
But yesterday, a small pod of killer whales was found in the waters between…
May 11, 2010
Here are my ResearchBlogging Editor's Selections for this week.
This week, Psychology and Neuroscience blogging brings us some fantastic science, as always.
First and second, the fearless leader of ResearchBlogging, Dave Munger, provides us with two awesome visual illusions, and explains them: the…
May 10, 2010
Deborah Blum has plugged herself into the Borg, and brought her blog Speakeasy Science along with her for the ride.
She says:
Although my most recent book, The Poisoner's Handbook, is about murder and the invention of forensic toxicology in the early 20th century, my earlier works have focused on…
May 10, 2010
...and what can word-learning in dogs teach us about the evolution of language in humans?
What is involved in the learning of a single new word? Consider the word "tiger", being learned by a child with already a modest vocabulary, at least for animal words. First the child must make a new entry in…
May 8, 2010
Figure 1: Reggie the Alligator, in 2007. (source)
Reggie is getting a girlfriend.
Reggie the Alligator has quite a long history. He was illegally raised in captivity near Long Beach, CA by two men (who were later arrested) who were involved in the illegal trade of exotic animals, but then was…
May 7, 2010
[Data collection fortnight ends today. And then we shall return to our regularly scheduled programming. Until then, here's Rule #1, from the archives.]
If you are giving a talk, or teaching a class, or are otherwise responsible for transmitting content from your brain to other peoples' brains, you…
May 6, 2010
[It's a really busy week over here at blog headquarters, because it is data collection week. Data collection week is awesome, but it means less time for blogging. So here's a piece from the archives. I picked this one especially for Drugmonkey, because he liked it so much.]
The Harpy Eagle (Harpia…
May 5, 2010
Lately, my lovely nerdy scibling Christie has been collecting examples of genius and almost-genius inventions, contraptions, and ideas.
I humbly offer the following, to be included under "absolutely freaking genius".
May 5, 2010
I just read this article from the LA Times. Emphasis added:
For months, the rafts that ferry Disneyland guests across the waterway to Tom Sawyer Island have been idle. No children have explored the island's caves, scaled its climbing rocks or run across its bridges.
But the island won't be lonely…
May 5, 2010
Each month, Bora Zivkovic, in his day-time role as PLoS ONE Community Manager, picks one post that covered a PLoS ONE paper that was published that month for recognition.
There were 34 blog posts covering PLoS ONE articles aggregated on ResearchBlogging.org in April.
This month, he chose my post,…
May 4, 2010
Carnival of the Blue 36 is up at Observations of a Nerd!
Carnival of the Blue includes all things wet and salty, and there are some interesting offerings this month, so go check it out!
Two pieces of my own are included:
Of course, nothing is bigger than the biggest mammals on Earth: the whales.…
May 4, 2010
Here's are my ResearchBlogging Editor's Selections for this week.
Topics covered this week are: chocolate, sex, the female touch, and cigarettes. Good times.
First, Bill Yates of the Brain Posts blog examines the relationship between eating chocolate and depression. I like his prescription: "If you…
May 3, 2010
Let me tell you a little story. When I was born my parents had two cats. One was named Garfield. The other...well, I don't remember what the other one was called. Not long after I was born, and little Jason was coughing up furballs, the doctors informed the parents that their little bundle of skin…
May 2, 2010
I've got some pretty talented sciblings. Sure, they're all talented scientists or writers, or both. But, did you know there are some additional talents around here?
One of my lovely sciblings used to be a circus performer. In a traveling circus. He or she can juggle - but not just balls - try…
May 1, 2010
The 2010 May edition of our beloved Carnival of Evolution is up today on the official blog for Springer Verlag's journal, Evolution: Education and Outreach. And with that, surely getting your post accepted in CoE is now akin to peer-reviews on some level. Thanks to Adam M. Goldstein for hosting.…
April 30, 2010
A few Israeli selections for tonight.
×ר×× ×ª×©× × ×ת ××××× × - Haruach Teshaneh et Kivunah
Lyricist: Astar Shamir
Composer: Uri Zach
Singer: Harel Skaat
×¨×¦× ××××ª× - Ratzah Habayta - She Ran Home
Singer: Keren Peles
סקס ×¢× ××קס - Sex Im Ha-ex - Sex with the Ex
Also Keren Peles.
How…
April 30, 2010
h/t to Dr. Isis for this awesome video.
Did you miss my Psychology and Neuroscience Editor's Selections at ResearchBlogging.org? Here you go again.
Hilarious Things:
Doctor Monkey, Doctor Becca, and (Micro) Doctor O and I (and some others) have been amusing ourselves on twitter.
Ambivalent…
April 29, 2010
Yesterday, at our department's end-of-the-year party, I was informed that I was one of two winners this year of the Outstanding Research Poster Award.
Figure 1: And I have a nifty little certificate to prove it!
Figure 2: Here it is.
April 29, 2010
What information is contained in the call of a mammal? Some calls might reflect the internal emotional state of the animal, like fear or anxiety, or they can refer to an external object, agent, or event, like the presence of a predator. Rhesus monkeys, lemurs, baboons, and guinea pigs, for example…
April 28, 2010
Say you're visiting Los Angeles and you have a sudden craving for Chinese food. Since you are only visiting, you might not be aware that nothing is open past, like, 10pm (not even coffee houses), but you get in your rental car and go driving around in search of your Chinese feast anyway. You try…
April 27, 2010
Lots of great Psychology and Neuroscience blogging this week! Here's are my ResearchBlogging Editor's Selections for this week, covering some complex psychological and neurological disorders.
"Faces are special," says Kevin Mitchell, who writes at Wiring the Brain. Read about the acquired and…
April 26, 2010
Editor's note: If you are offended by cholesterol, or are a health and nutrition blogger, or an obesity blogger, avert your eyes. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Earlier today, dear friend of the blog AV Flox conducted an experiment. It went something like this:
Observation: Everyone says the KFC…
April 26, 2010
"Cooking is like love, it should be entered into with abandon or not at all"
--Harriet van Horne
Science, too, I think.