clock | September 28, 2008We are busy preparing for The Open Laboratory 2008. The submissions have been trickling in all year, and a little bit more frequently recently, but it is time now to dig through your Archives for your best posts since December 20th 2007 and submit them. Submit one, or two, or several - no problem. Or ask your readers to submit for you.
Then take a look at your favourite bloggers and pick some of their best posts - don't worry, we can deal with duplicate entries. Do not forget new and up-coming blogs - they may not know about the anthology - and submit their stuff as well.
As we did last…
clock | September 27, 2008Children will watch anything, and when a broadcaster uses crime and violence and other shoddy devices to monopolize a child's attention, it's worse than taking candy from a baby. It is taking precious time from the process of growing up.
- Newton N. Minow
clock | September 27, 2008So, let's see what was new in PLoS Genetics, PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Pathogens, PLoS ONE and PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases last week. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Sex-Specific Genetic Structure and Social Organization in Central Asia: Insights from a Multi-Locus Study:
Human evolutionary history has been investigated mainly through the prism of genetic variation of the Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA. These two…
clock | September 27, 2008
Q: why does my daughter gets inspired to shoot movies exactly on those days when the house is a total mess?
clock | September 27, 2008The PLoS ONE paper about the way shimmering wave behavior in honeybees repels hornets, as discussed by high-school students here, has an aaccompanying video of the behavior on YouTube:
clock | September 27, 2008I should have gone. Greensboro is barely an hour from here. If I did, I would have heard this:
clock | September 27, 2008Watch this informative video (sorry, could not find a way to embed it here).
Oh, should have known it existed also on YouTube (thanks Greg):
clock | September 27, 2008Earth's Magnetic Field Reversals Illuminated By Lava Flows Study:
Earth's north magnetic pole is shifting and weakening. Ancient lava flows are guiding a better understanding of what generates and controls the Earth's magnetic field - and what may drive it to occasionally reverse direction.
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Current evidence suggests we are now approaching one of these transitional states because the main magnetic field is relatively weak and rapidly decreasing, he says. While the last polarity reversal occurred several hundred thousand years ago, the next might come within only a few…
clock | September 26, 2008If you really want to do something, you'll find a way; if you don't, you'll find an excuse.In times when the passions are beginning to take charge of the conduct of human affairs, one should pay less attention to what men of experience and common sense are thinking than to what is preoccupying the imagination of dreamers.
- Alexis de Tocqueville
clock | September 26, 2008C-Span's Debate Hub is better than twitter, or so they say.
I'll watch it on TV at a neighbor's house, then come back and see what the folks on FriendFeed and around the blogs say as well.
clock | September 26, 2008Remember this?
Well, apparently that blog post (not mine, but the source) raised quite a lot of hackles, so much that the PBS Obmudsman had to step in and try to explain:
But, I have serious problems with the episode that unfolded recently in which a journalism student at New York University, Alana Taylor, authored a Sept. 5 posting as an "embedded" blogger on MediaShift, writing critically about her class content and professor at NYU without informing either the teacher or her classmates about what she was doing. The headline read: "Old Thinking Permeates Major Journalism School." This…
clock | September 26, 2008Jay Rosen. Makes you think. Watch the video here (no idea why there is no embed code#$%%^&*) and read the accompanying blog post here.
The number one reason why journalists should blog is that it tutors you in how the Web works. You learn about open systems, and getting picked up; you become more interactive and have to master the horizontal part-- or your blog fails. Fails to stick.
As I like to say often - "blog is software". But there is more - watch the video.
clock | September 26, 2008This morning, the 100th person registered for ScienceOnline'09. That is about half the capacity of Sigma Xi. We got there fast! Don't waver and wait too long - this may fill up sooner than expected!
clock | September 25, 2008Bankers sometimes look on politicians as people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, order more tunnel.
- John Quinton
clock | September 25, 2008It was inevitable - took just a few hours (you need to listen, not just watch):
clock | September 25, 2008Rabies themselves!
We are a proud group of rabies. We are not a rabid group. And we
rarely engage in rabid rabble rousing. As a commonly misunderstood
virus which supports the Barack Obama candidacy, we've formed an
alliance of rabies to pledge our support for Senator Obama. Our group
is comprised of all different kinds of rabies, including rabies from a
raccoon, bat and non-domesticated canines.
Wow! If this won't get wingnuts frothing at their mouths, I don't know what will!
clock | September 25, 2008Bats Pick Up Rustling Sounds Against Highway Background Noise:
When bats go hunting by listening for faint rustling sounds made by their quarry on a quiet night they don't have any problems. But what happens when a bat goes foraging next to a noisy highway? Can they still hear the faint sounds?
America's Smallest Dinosaur Uncovered:
An unusual breed of dinosaur that was the size of a chicken, ran on two legs and scoured the ancient forest floor for termites is the smallest dinosaur species found in North America, according to a University of Calgary researcher who analyzed bones found during…