neurotopia

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February 27, 2007
Looking for The Bank? It will appear here this afternoon EST. I have a couple questions for the host and I have some fun fun monkey lab business to attend to in the morning, so once I get the final word from PZ after that I'll put it up. Have a great day!!!
February 12, 2007
It's official! In honor of Darwin Day celebrations everywhere, the Alliance for Science is having their first annual Evolution Essay contest! This year's question: Why would you want your doctor to have studied evolution? Pop on over for contest details, if you're a high school student. First…
February 8, 2007
Darwin Day is fast approaching! In honor of Charles Darwin's birthday and his intellectual achievements, the Alliance for Science is starting an annual Darwin Day essay contest geared at high school students. We will be accepting essays from the 50 states, submissions sent by email. There will…
January 19, 2007
Welcome to the latest edition of Mendel's Garden (in late bloom). To kick off, we have a number of posts relating to parthenogenesis in Komodo dragons. Evolgen, Discovering Biology in a Digital World, and and PZ give us the miracle of virgin births! Phil B. presents How to Divide by Zero posted…
January 4, 2007
The blog carnival Mendel's Garden got bumped because of the holiday. I've decided to post it this coming Monday, so I'm giving everyone until Sunday at 6pm EST to get their posts in!
January 2, 2007
Check out the blog carnival Mendel's Garden and then send me your submissions. Due to the holiday, we're going to try and set up the carnival for later in the week when everybody is done traveling and back to their routine. I'm going to shoot for the morning of Friday the 5th to get everybody…
January 1, 2007
Check out the blog carnival Mendel's Garden and then send me your submissions. Due to the holiday, we're going to try and set up the carnival for later in the week when everybody is done traveling and back to their routine. I'm going to shoot for the morning of Friday the 5th to get everybody…
December 20, 2006
Welcome to Encephalon # 13!!!! Unlucky though it may be, we're up and running (and better late than never). I have to apologize to Encephalon readers, I've been trying to deal with my position being on the chopping block out of the blue. Yes, Virginia, the government doesn't offer job security…
December 20, 2006
I was going to comment on the whole Women/Scifi/Brown people argument going on in other areas of this blog, but since the culprit said it better than I ever could have, I'll just let his words speak for me. (Emphasis mine). Now, does this surprise many of the readers of this weblog??? Ed was…
December 18, 2006
Got a bunch of work to finish up and I'll get to posting it this afternoon. Keep your eyes peeled. Next one won't be for almost a month so there's no rush!
December 1, 2006
Looks like, once again, when somebody bothers to crunch the numbers those flimsy justifications for abstinence-only programs are found lacking. "It is remarkable that teens are becoming better contraceptors even as there are efforts afoot to reduce the information and skill-building that they…
November 20, 2006
A Thanksgiving Treat!!! Even people who don't like sweet potatoes will like these!!! Apologies for not having exact quantities worked out, I generally eyeball these things and taste them at the end to determine what I need to add. You will need: 4 good sized sweet potatoes or yams or both (the fat…
November 20, 2006
UFC 65 was a night of surprises. Who knew that Tim Sylvia had a ground game, almost choking out a guy (who looked like the love child of Danny DeVito, that guy from The Shield, and a neckless Uncle Fester on steroids) to defend the heavyweight title? Who knew James Irvin would do a better job of…
November 19, 2006
Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) refers to a condition where recurrent seizures arise in the temporal lobe of the brain. This condition is seen in humans and animals. Often, TLE arises following a neural insult such as head trauma or tumor, but can also be triggered by infection. These febrile…
November 7, 2006
As it stands now, Webb is down 0.5% of the vote to George Felix "Macaca" Allen Jr. with 95% of precincts reporting in. Unfortunately for Macaca, I just checked the VA election results site and the precincts left are all in Webb territory-- Prince William's, Loudon, Richmond City, Newport counties…
November 7, 2006
Looks like the infamous abortion ban in South Dakota ain't gonna fly with the state's residents. Opponents of South Dakota's abortion ban are maintaining their lead over those who favor the law. With 194 of 818 precincts reporting results, 60 percent of voters cast "no" votes, according to results…
November 2, 2006
Looks like creationist paragon of moral fortitude Kent Hovind might be headed to the slammer. Kent Hovind is charged with 58 federal counts, including failure to pay $845,000 in employee-related taxes and withholdings. If found guilty, he faces a maximum of 288 years in prison. His wife, Jo Hovind…
October 18, 2006
I had grand plans in mind for blogging this conference. Then I got a virus and spent the last 2.5 days or so in bed. Lovely. Barely got to even meet Shelley and Jake. Forced to eat room service for meal after meal. Barf! I'll put some stuff together for next week. In the meantime, I gotta…
October 15, 2006
Almost too cute for words. Poor SFN conference virgin Jake just got his cherry popped. I tried to warn him that this conference is nuts, but does anybody ever listen to me? NOOOOO. This afternoon had a good run of posters relating to transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer's Disease. Got me…
October 15, 2006
Greetings and salutations from the 36th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience!!!! I'm gonna try and get back in the bloggin' business after some major life changes by writing about exciting news from the forefront. Unfortunately, the only thing I have to report so far is that Jake and…
October 6, 2006
This SchadenFriday goes out to.... me, and my massive life changes. Take it away, Glen. Someone's in the backyard banging on the door Daddy's gone away, he's coming back no more His baby's curled up on a stranger's floor Momma's thinking family dinners weren't too much to ask for Everybody here's…
October 6, 2006
The Alliance for Science, in an effort to further dialogue between the science, religious,and business communities, is committed to bringing in a diverse network of speakers to its public meetings in the DC Metro area. Last year we had Dr. Peter Folger from the American Geophysical Union, Reverend…
August 26, 2006
On the heels of an earlier paper review comes another journal submission. This one was substantially worse than the other paper; the last was overall pretty good but came with some obvious inadequacies of choice. Not so with this one, and I was forced to reject it outright. Hopefully I can help…
August 26, 2006
The takedown intro has been posted at The Panda's Thumb. If the server's down, keep checking in. Over the next week or two, various bloggers will pick apart the different chapters and expose this trash for what it is; a coffee table book for the sycophantic zombies among us. While I predict it…
August 25, 2006
Without a doubt, Senator George Allen's gift that keeps on giving. Looking over Mr. Sidarth's numbers in the article, I see further proof that we monkeys are destined to reclaim the planet from you lowly H. sapiens.
August 23, 2006
Peer-reviewing a submitted article can be an interesting process. On one hand, you get a chance to glimpse the latest findings in the field before they even become public (outside of the data appearing in an abstract or on a conference poster). There is also the challenge of putting your mind to…
August 21, 2006
As I posted Saturday, I'm on a quest to get myself back into tip-top physical condition for my upcoming Thai boxing test. To do this I need to set goals for myself. I'm going to enlist the help of my readers on this one! Warning: half-nekkid monkeys ahead I made a deal with myself-- I can get…
August 21, 2006
Looks like yet another interesting toxin was found, this time in a venomous snail. This discovery comes from the lab of an old player in the field, who apparently discovered the conotoxin that is used in Prialt. McIntosh says the OmIA toxin will be useful in designing new medicines because it fits…
August 19, 2006
Another interesting twist in my life is at the gym. It turns out that Kru Scott is sufficiently satisfied with my progress and prior exposure that he's going to let me skip the Level I test and go straight to Level II. This means I get to cut at least a full year off my training time! Likely I…
August 18, 2006
Today is the One Year Anniversary of my Ph.D. The last couple weeks I've had what I thought might be Frodo-like anxiety aftereffects, and was briefly concerned that I might also have been pierced by a Morgul blade, bitten by a giant spider, and have Phantom Limb from where my finger was bitten off…