Social Sciences
thescian | March 20, 2008Was a poet ever kept in house arrest?
Taslima Nasreen
Was a poet ever kept in house arrest?
May be she has been a subject of politicking
True she caused clashes once in a while
May be an arson, too.
But no, a poet was never taken to safe custody.
This India, this civilization, this 21st century
They all had welcomed the poet
Ignoring its childish religionism, its merciless politics.
But today, the poet languishes in house arrest.
She has done no offense.
Having been deprived of the view of the sky
No longer she can tell how does the sky look like;
Deprived of the sight of men, no longer can…
clock | March 19, 2008
Loss Of Egg Yolk Genes In Mammals And The Origin Of Lactation And Placentation:
If you are reading this, you did not start your life by hatching from an egg. This is one of the many traits that you share with our mammalian relatives. A new article explores the genetic changes that led mammals to feed their young via the placenta and with milk, rather then via the egg, and finds that these changes occurred fairly gradually in our evolutionary history. The paper shows that milk-protein genes arose in a common ancestor of all existing mammalian lineages and preceded the loss of the genes that…
grrlscientist | March 15, 2008tags: John James Audubon, Bird Art, ornithology, birds, avian, New York Historical Society, endangered species
Carolina Parakeet (Carolina Parrot), Conuropsis carolinensis,
by John James Audubon (American, born Santo Domingo [now Haiti], 1785-1851).
Havell plate no. 26.
Watercolor, graphite, pastel, gouache, and black ink with scratching out and selective glazing on paper, laid on thin board.
The Carolina parakeet, Conuropsis carolinensis, now extinct,
was the only native species of parrot in the United States. The last
known wild Carolina parakeet was killed in Florida in 1904 [larger size…
pharyngula | March 15, 2008Well, I'm facing the consequences of my little fall yesterday — all day and night yesterday I could feel every little muscle in my back slowly knotting up in protest at the unkind treatment they have received. On top of that, I really have to finish my Seed column today (And I will! I am determined! It Shall Be Done!), and I have to spend some time working with the humane society this afternoon, which means I am tired, cranky, and under pressure … so go read these carnivals for a while, or talk about something else. I'm either going to stew for a while and explode in an ornery rant about…
revere | March 15, 2008You may not know Joe Weizenbaum's name, but many people are familiar with the computer program he wrote more than 40 years ago, Eliza. Eliza mimics a Rogerian psychotherapist, picking up key words you type in and spitting them back in the form of questions:
You: "I feel anxious today." Eliza: "That's interesting. What are you anxious about?" Etc.
In some ways it was very simple minded and Joe himself considered it a parody of psychotherapy. But in other ways it struck a deep chord. It was one of the first computer programs to simulate a human conversation and to give the impression of a…
aardvarchaeology | March 14, 2008
Locksmith Patrick Stübing and Susan Karolewski are a German couple with four children. They are also full biological siblings. "Eeeeewww", I hear you say. And I agree. Eeeeewww. But why do we feel that way?
The incest taboo is as close to a cultural universal as you can get, and is most likely genetically determined. It is counteradaptive to want to bonk your siblings, as this may lead to the accumulation of harmful recessive alleles in the offspring. But how is this implemented from a practical evolutionary perspective? Humans have no physical way of identifying their biological siblings,…
oracknows | March 13, 2008I happen to be in Chicago right now attending the annual meeting of the Society of Surgical Oncology. It's a meeting that I try to make it to almost every year, and usually it's a necessary update to my knowledge base. Consequently, I only just this morning noticed my fellow ScienceBloggers Mark Hoofnagle, Mark Chu-Carroll, and P.Z. Myers piling on the latest example of the sexist misogyny that is Vox Day, this time in (where else) WorldNetDaily, in an article entitled The real assault on science. Vox's article, in essence, views the application of Title IX to science education to increase…
josh donlan | March 13, 2008We all would love to see a moose and its calf along the roadside, right? I woke up to one on my front deck last week. Well in Yellowstone National Park, your chances are better than ever. Moose may be smarter than you think though: they are using you and your car as a shield. Human shields.
University of Montana and Wildlife Conservation Society Biologist Joel Berger has been studying Yellowstone moose for decades, and he started noticing that moose were hanging out along roads a bit more than in the past. Why? To hide from grizzly bears. "We think they are doing it because they've figured…
skookumchick | March 13, 2008On Monday, I posted two parts to my ethnic story as a white person in the US, and they prompted a variety of comments. Rather than respond in the comments, I thought I'd write another post.
First, I want to thank the people who took up the challenge to write their own stories. DH, grad student, Eric Lund added their stories to the comments, Academic wrote about hers on her blog, as did Ginger Peach, and Makita. Sciencebloggers took up talking about race/ethnicity/diversity and science too including ScienceWoman, razib, Janet, Greg, DrugMonkey, and Maria, and anyone else I missed. If you'…
jstemwedel | March 12, 2008A bunch of other bloggers are discussing the recent statement A Broken Pipeline? Flat Funding of the NIH Puts a Generation of Science at Risk (PDF). I thought I'd say something about the complexities of the situation, and about why non-scientists (whose tax dollars support scientific research funded by the NIH and other government agencies) should care.
The general idea behind funding scientific research with public monies is that such research is expected to produce knowledge that will benefit society. There are problems that non-scientists cannot solve on their own, so we pony up the…
thescian | March 12, 2008Religion and Reason are sitting on a bench facing an ocean. What a pretty sight! They both acknowledge human fallibility, acknowledge each other and share a laugh. After a bit of chat about the weather, affairs of mutual interest, culture, ethics, society, daughter's marriage, etc, they fall silent. In a short while, one of them turns to look at the vast ocean in front, then bends down and picks up a pebble to examine it. The other turns back to look at the world, jumps up and picks a fight with a passing stranger.
Of course, not all people of faith pick fights with strangers and not all…
gregladen | March 12, 2008Last week, a secret recording emerged of a disturbing speech by Oklahoma Representative Sally Kern stating that homosexuality is a bigger threat to our nation than "terrorism or Islam." Rep. Kern has refused to apologize for her remarks.
She also said:
"They're going after two year olds...."
"Eureka Springs is now controlled by gays ... and a lot of places in Florida"
Hard to believe. But hearing is believing:
The Human Rights campaign has a petition for you to sign.
Hat tip: Emily
thescian | March 12, 2008Writer Shoba Narayan was born in India and came to the U.S. as a student. She settled down in the U.S., became a citizen, wrote for publications such as Time, Newsweek, Gourmet, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and authored a book, while her husband Ram had a successful career on Wall Street. After 20 years in the U.S., the family moved back to India in 2005. This is their story.
A honest account of every immigrant's dream. It is an illuminating read. I was mildly surprised when I read that she took her daughter to a Temple although she herself is an agnostic.
I wasn't…
drorzel | March 12, 2008
Bad Baby Names - A Boy Named Sue, and a Theory of Names - John Tierney - New York Times
"During his 1969 concert at San Quentin prison, Johnny Cash proposed a paradigm shift in the field of developmental psychology. "
(tags: kid-stuff psychology science society culture music)
Gen Ed Reform -- Supersized :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, and Views and Jobs
'"What we're trying to do is present the material in a more coherent way," Beise said. "Students should be able to pick a theme and find courses in the sciences and humanities that are related."'
(tags: academia…
gregladen | March 9, 2008Loons are the fish eating canaries of secluded northern lakes. Actually, over the last several decades, loons seem to have gotten more used to people then they used to be, but are still not really big on development.
My personal belief (based on anecdotal observation) is that loons can identify, to at least some degree, individuals. When I am alone with the loons, at the lake, strange things happen that don't happen to others or when others are around.
For instance, when I'm at the end of the dock fishing, the loons will commonly forage underneath the dock and all around me. The first…
grrlscientist | March 7, 2008tags: Finding Your Wings, bird watching, birding, outdoors, Burton Guttman, book review
As a long-time professor of biology, Burton Guttman has learned two major concepts from his students about learning: first, people learn best by actively participating in the learning process and second; people often try to learn at the wrong time. To address these two challenges, Guttman used his teaching experiences to design a workbook that teaches beginners how to watch birds in the field -- the first such book that I've ever seen published on this topic (I've since learned that there are two other…
clock | March 6, 2008...the intertubes. Busy week. Here are some good links:
Leaving your literary estate to the public domain:
This page has been circulating around the Web in recent days (apparently since February 26 or later). It depicts a sticker which an individual can apply to her ID card, in the manner of an organ donor sticker, indicating the individual wishes her copyrights to be released to the public domain upon her death.
The cloning of the bulls:
The story adds to last year's discussion about horse cloning (horserace horse cloning?). But here the main theme is the affection that owners have for…
edyong | March 6, 2008
Humans have an extraordinary capacity for selflessness. We often help complete strangers who are unrelated to us, who we may never meet again and who are unlikely to be able to return the favour. More and more, we are being asked to behave in selfless ways to further the common good, not least in the race to tackle climate change.
Given these challenges, it's more important than ever to understand the roots of cooperative behaviour. From an evolutionary point of view, it can be a bit puzzling because any utopic society finds itself vulnerable to slackers, who can prosper at the expense of…
thusspakezuska | March 6, 2008I don't think this is what Dave Munger had in mind when he recommended using graphics in your blog posts, at the NC Science Blogging Conference.
For the last two weeks, this post has been one of the top 3 posts on Scienceblogs - the number one post last week.
This is the kind of post I would expect to find on an adolescent male's science blog. But hey, why not use objectification of women to boost your science blog? Apparently it works.
Afarensis, I puke upon your pseudonymous shoes.
For whose benefit, we might ask, has Afarensis posted this bit of cheesecake? Why, for the benefit of…
tqa | March 6, 2008
Henry Gee and I have been talking, on our blogs, about how the public views science, and what can be done to change that. That's hardly a new topic for scientists. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen or heard the topic discussed. It's a water cooler conversation topic at universities and government labs. It gets raised on email lists, discussion boards, and blogs. It's featured in journal editorials, at seminars, and at conferences. There's a widespread consensus that we could, should, and must do a better job of talking to the general public. On this issue, the consensus is…