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UPDATE: I have a new blog home! The Questionable Authority can now be found at Scientopia. When Pepsigate first erupted, I was extremely unhappy both with that situation and with how Seed had been treating its bloggers. I did not join the large (and still growing) group of departing…

...before someone used Pepsigate as the inspiration for some painfully good satire. Well done, Bob.

Since I've obviously started blogging again (at least for the moment) I thought this might be a good time to bring you up to date on the latest excuses reasons I haven't been blogging much over the last few months. I've been working a real, live jobby job. It's one that has extremely limited…

This is not the post I though I'd be putting up today. This morning, I fully expected to come home from work, post my already-written "I quit" post, and point you all to a WordPress blog I set up yesterday. As of this moment, I'm not leaving Sb. As of this time next week, who knows? As some of…

A few of you might have noticed that there's a new blog here at ScienceBlogs - one that does not exactly seem to be receiving a warm welcome. Pepsico - the makers of much of the sugary caffeinated goodness that gets me through the day - seems to have managed to purchase a blog here. (Contrary to…

It's been a while since I've posted, because I've been busy goofing off and having fun - I took a long European vacation (pictures and posts to follow). I'm back, mostly recovered, and almost back to my normal routine.

As of this morning, at least 20% of your genes were patented by someone other than you. The holders of the patents could quite literally forbid you to investigate large portions of your own personal genome. This afternoon, a federal judge in New York handed down a broad ruling that calls into…

Next week, I'm going to be in the UK. My plans for the trip are centered on two things: the room I've booked in London for the week, and the 8-day rail pass I purchased a couple of months ago. This morning I hit the National Rail website to start figuring out exactly which trains I need to take to…

If it takes a village to raise a child, I was particularly lucky to grow up in the middle of a wonderful little village in the middle of the Bronx. All things considered, the village did a pretty good job with a whole bunch of kids, who have since spread out all over the place. Some have gone on…

One of my many distractions lately is travel planning. After spending several months living in the wilds of Lower Alabama, I'm getting to take a bit of a vacation. Right now, face a 60-minute round-trip commute to get to the nearest bookstore (a marginally acceptable Barnes and Noble). If I'm…

Via GeekDad, I just discovered the blog of the Illinois Poison Control Center. More specifically, I discovered the "Day in the Life of a Poison Center" feature they did last month. As medical blogging goes, this was brilliant. They posted very brief descriptions of each of the calls that came into…

In what seems to be a bit of a continuation on his earlier post (which I talked about yesterday), Larry Moran has another post up on the whole "is science ever compatible with religion" thing. At the end of the post, he asks a very good question - one that gets right at something that's very…

As you might have noticed, ScienceBlogs picked up a couple of new bloggers recently. Peter Janiszewski and Travis Saunders moved their blog, Obesity Panacea, over to these parts last week. Their move gives me an opportunity that's way too good to pass up - an excuse to present my latest excuse for…

While reading Peter Ackroyd's London: The Biography, I came across something I hadn't heard of before - the "city hermits" that lived in medieval London. The concept struck me as odd - hermits (at least the non-crab variety) were something that I had always thought of as a purely wilderness…

The Sandwalk Down House, Kent, England 31 August 2008 1/45 sec @ f/4; 18mm focal length Technorati Tags: blogpix, darwin, Raw, sandwalk

The title on this one pretty much says it all - after less than an hour of deliberation, the jury in the trial of Anne Mitchell came back with a not guilty verdict. The civil suit against the doctor, hospital, sheriff, district attorney, and county will presumably now come out of the holding…

The more I look at the circumstances that lead up to the criminal prosecution of a nurse in Texas for informing the State Medical Board of her concerns with a local physician, the more I wind up wondering just how things wound up where they are. It's easy - and far from inaccurate - to view this…

Remains of street sign embedded in pahoehoe lava flow. Chain of Craters Road, Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii 4 November 2006 1/60 sec @ f/5.6; 55mm focal length Technorati Tags: blogpix, lava, volcanoes national park

As some of you might know, there is a very scary criminal case currently underway out in West Texas. A registered nurse named Anne Mitchell is currently standing trial. She's been charged with misuse of official information, which is a felony carrying a 10-year maximum sentence. She allegedly…

View of St. Thibaud de Brageac - a 12th century village church in France Brageac, Auvergne, France 2 January 2007 1/30 sec @ f/8; 55mm focal length Technorati Tags: blogpix, brageac, France, Raw

Misty morning. NAS Pensacola, Florida 31 July 2008 1/350 sec @ f/5.6; 148 mm focal length Technorati Tags: blogpix, Raw

Rainbow over Kalihi valley Oahu, Hawaii 28 May 2005 HP Camera Technorati Tags: aloha, blogpix, kalihi

The things Zuska has to say often make me uncomfortable, and the way she says them often irritates the hell out of me. But I still read her blog, because she almost always makes me think about things in ways I hadn't before. Her post about the recent Lindsey Vonn Sports Illustrated cover is a…

Sometimes "No Swimming" is a really good idea. Warning sign, highway rest area, I-10, Louisiana 8 May 2008 1/250 sec @ f/11; 18mm focal length Technorati Tags: blogpix, dawn, hudson, Raw, sign

This one's a quiz. What's special about the airplane that has the NK on the tail? 1/750 sec @ f/9.8; 180mm focal length Technorati Tags: blogpix, Raw

A little late today. Royal Observatory Greenwich, England 12 January 2007 1/180 sec @ f/8; 55mm focal length Technorati Tags: blogpix, Greenwich, Raw, world heritage

There's no such thing as an ugly ecosystem. Salt marsh. Near Big Lagoon, NAS Pensacola, Pensacola, FL 1 May 2009 1/160 sec @ f/8.0; Canon EOS Xsi; 20mm focal length Technorati Tags: big lagoon, blogpix, Raw, swamp

I don't know why, but this just feels like a Monday picture. A cold gargoyle Basillique du Sacre Coeur, Montmartre, Paris, France 27 December 2010 1/45 sec @ f/5.6; Pentax *ist DS; 300 mm focal length Technorati Tags: Basillique du Sacre Coeur, blogpix, gargoyle, Raw

CH-47D Chinook in flight. Oahu, Hawaii 24 February 2007 1/750 sec @ f/8.0; Pentax *ist DS; 300mm focal length Technorati Tags: blogpix, CH-47D, helicopter

Dragon Boat Race Waikiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii Unknown Date, ~2002 HP Camera Technorati Tags: blogpix, dragon boat races