retrospectacle

I'm sure you've all heard of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM), right? Sure, its the cute flying pasta plate that's trying to stick it to organized religion. FSM is a farcical "religion" created by a 24 year old guy named Bobby Henderson in 2005, based on the idea that a flying....…

One more reason NOT to go to Kentucky (as if I needed another one?)..... A 25 million dollar "creationist" museum, which depicts people walking around with dinos. Mark Looy, a vice president at Answers in Genesis, said the museum has received at least $21 million in private donations. He said two…

Over at The Examining Room of Dr. Charles, he's got a fun little link you should try! You upload a picture of yourself, and a program analyzes your facial structure and then compares it to a database of celebrities. So, after uploading a picture of myself, here's who the program said I resembled.…

Almost as inevitable as evolution is the law that states, where there are stupid naive people, there will be someone to hustle them. People were persuaded to buy a powder which they could allegedly turn into "Magic Cheese", said to make skin look younger and to be highly valuable. The powder,…

The residents of this community should be happy that this wasn't a flock of chattering African Greys! :) Although I bet their cars were covered in "surprises" the next day.

Professor Donald Broom, of the University of Cambridge's School of Veterinary Medicine, said: "The more we look at the cognitive abilities of animals, the more advanced they appear, and the biggest leap of all has been with parrots." Meet N'kisi, a captive bred, hand raised Congo African Gray…

Apparantly, the residents of Denmark are the happiest in the world, and the resident of Burundi Africa are the unhappiest. America's #23 in the world, Britian is in the 40s. UPDATE: Check out how this correlates with the recent rankings of evolution acceptance here.

A comment I got today. Warning! The below ranting is extremely assinine and/or stupifying!!!!! I dare you to post this 'truth' and exposure of your criminal intentions: You, like Adolph Hitler, and like Bin-Laden's suicide pilots, have been implanted with foreign thought forms by psychiatrists, and…

Its been a long time coming, but I have finally updated my blogroll with some interesting new sites that I have noticed lately. The main way I find new blogs is through my commenters, so if you want a link, leave a comment and your blog url! I read every comment and go to every url. If I like it,…

Adventures in Science and Ethics raised an interesting question today: How are graduate student getting their education funded? When I was first interviewing at graduate programs, I was astounded at the variability in their offered "recruitment package." It often had very little to do with prestige…

The 18-year-old French woman was hospitalized with scaly skin on her legs and hands, appearing unsteady and mentally sluggish, doctors said. They found the condition puzzling, especially since the woman's twin sister displayed similar, but less severe, symptoms and there was no family history of…

I saw this link over at The Island of Doubt, and it certainly deserves a repost due to my Captain Kirk obsession.

As a fair skinned person, I'm totally into this idea! This new bikini has a UV monitor built right into its belt, so you can safely swim and play in the sun. Made by Solestrom Swimwear, its already a big hit in South Africa and Australia where skin cancer rates are extremely high. Now this may…

Its no secret that you can go overseas, notably to Asia, to receive embryonic stem cell treatments for a variety of neurological disorders. Well, I just found an interesting website which reports on the progress of China's stem cell therapies (mostly for wealthy Westerners) as well as patient…

Someone call Sam Raimi! Although not bound in human flesh and signed in blood, I'm pretty sure this recent "miraculous find" is the Necronomicon. Irish archaeologists Tuesday heralded the discovery of an ancient book of psalms by a construction worker while driving the shovel of his backhoe into a…

Saw this on YouTube, just TOO cute!

Over at the Intersection, Chris Mooney brought to light a recent interviewby Morgan Spurlock in which he was quoted thusly: We've started to make science and empirical evidence not nearly as important as punditry--people using p.r.-speak to push a corporate or political agenda. I think we need to…

Technorati, an online blog rating system, has rated ScienceBlogs in the top 50 most popular blogs in the world! Woohoo! We're currently #33, and yes, we've even beaten out Cute Overload. Now, please could you make ScienceBlogs a "favorite" blog? Or, if you're feeling mighty generous, you could…

Last night I went to go see "A Scanner Darkly," the dis-topia flick starring Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder based on the 1977 sci-fi novel by Philip Dick. Now, before you shout "Keanu Reeves!" and pan the movie, believe me, the acting issue was more than made up for by a phenomenal performance by…

It wouldn't be funny, really, unless it was in the Onion. My favorite: "Maybe Bush would pass the bill if, instead of research, the stem cells would be used for torture." Ah the Onion. Irreverent to the last. (Thanks to Kendra!)

Apparently, China now really believes that Americans landed on the moon. More anti-Ipod alarmist garbage. Just listen to it at a reasonable level and you'll be fine. Our ability to spot snakes helped humans evolve? Tina Fey is leaving SNL. (Too bad, she was like the only funny one left.) Best to…

Interesting. Many in the medical community are outraged that a doctor and two nurses are being charge in the mercy killings during Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Ben deBoisblanc, director of critical care at Charity Hospital, said he and others are angry at the accusations against a doctor and nurses who…

If I say its safe to surf this beach, its safe to surf this beach.

This is a repost from my old blog, about a famous scientist, Dr. George Augustine, who came to UM to give a talk about LTP and LTD. Tho occasion was "NeuroDay," a seminar series where us Neurokids get to invite our favorite scientists to come talk to us about brain stuff. :) The third and last…

Alex is a 28-year-old African Grey parrot who lives in the lab of Irene Pepperberg, in Brandeis University, and is the eqivalent of a superstar in the bird world. Long ago, Dr. Pepperberg chose Alex at a pet store as neither an exceptional nor sub-par bird. Through the years, Dr. Pepperberg has…

This little app shows you, in graphical form, the time periods when your name was the most popular. If your name is Poindexter, prepare to be disappointed. (Hat tip to darkman).

When Pepper (my African Grey parrot) was just a wee bird, I talked to him constantly. I was told by the bird breeder that not all Greys talked; even though their mimicry is famed, there's no guarantee that the bird will ever mutter a word. But, to my delight, at about one year old, Pepper began…

When Money Magazine releases its "Best Places to Live" issue, it usually makes for interesting reading. Ann Arbor made the top 25 (it was 25), although I'm feeling less than happy to be in Ann Arbor during this godforsaken Art Fair. But really, Tree Town is a great place to live and work. The Top…

"These boys and girls are not spare parts," he said of the children in the audience. "They remind us of what is lost when embryos are destroyed in the name of research. They remind us that we all begin our lives as a small collection of cells." Yeah, so what? So does a tumor. Bush said, "If this…

One veto, as promised. I'm too disgusted to write anything else right now.