clock | September 19, 2008 You probably know that I am quite interested in the history, current state, evolution and future of the institution of marriage, mainly because it is an important indicator of societal attitudes towards sex and towards gender-relations, which is the key to understanding political ideology. Between May 29, 2005 and February 23, 2006 I frequently mentioned Stephanie Coontz and particularly her latest book - Marriage, A History, e.g., in New History Of Marriage, Stephanie Coontz On Marriage, Op-Ed on the 'End of Marriage', Don't Know Much About History.... and What 'traditional' marriage?.…
clock | September 19, 2008Political Views Affect Firms' Corporate Social Responsibility, Study Finds:
A new study in The Financial Review establishes a relationship between political beliefs of corporate stakeholders and the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of their firms. Companies with a high CSR rating tend to be located in Democratic states, while companies with a low CSR rating tend to be located in Republican states.
Finger Lengths Linked To Voluntary Exercise:
If you find yourself lacking in motivation to go for a run or hit the gym, you may want to check your fingers. According to a joint University of…
clock | September 19, 2008Corpus callosum: 1st edition of open science round-up is up on I was lost but now I live here
Change of Shift Vol. 3 No. 6 is up on crzegrl, flight nurse
Friday Ark #209 is up on Modulator
clock | September 19, 2008You probably remember the wonderful new NIH law that passed last year:
On Dec 26th, 2007, President Bush signed the Bill that requires all NIH-funded research to be made available to the public.
The bill mandates all NIH-funded research to be made freely available to public within 12 months of publication.
You probably also remember that the big publishers opposed the law, using some very unsavoury tactics. Well, guess what? They are at it again. They are trying to sneak through Congress a new bill that is, in essence, the repeal of the NIH open access law. The bill, dubbed in a typical…
clock | September 18, 2008This is not a real review - I never got to writing it - but it is about a book I mention quite often in my blog posts and think is one of the most insightful about the conservative mindset. Written originally on October 21, 2004:
Whenever a big black SUV with a "W" bumper sticker passes me on I-40 going 90mph in the work zone, my first thought is: "What is this guy compensating for?"
While I argued strongly before that Nurturant Parent model is not feminine, and is only seens as such by people adhering to the Strict Father model to begin with, I have always felt that the childrearing process…
clock | September 18, 2008Most people work the greater part of their time for a mere living; and the little freedom which remains to them so troubles them that they use every means of getting rid of it.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
clock | September 18, 2008The North Carolina part of the Millionth Comment party is this Saturday at the Zoo! If you intend to come, please sign up here so we can have a head-count and provide you with free zoo tickets, then show up at 1pm at the North America entrance at the left-most cashier and tell them who you are.
clock | September 18, 2008The story about Creationist school board in Brunswick Co, NC is now getting some legs:
Brunswick school board to consider creationism teaching:
The board allowed Fanti to speak longer than he was allowed, and at the end of his speech he volunteered to teach creationism and received applause from the audience. When he walked away, school board Chairwoman Shirley Babson took the podium and said another state had tried to teach evolution and creationism together and failed, and that the school system must teach by the law.
Editorial: Teach science in science class:
If you wonder why American…
clock | September 18, 2008From today's Carrboro Citizen:
Next week, Sep 24-30, is "Take a Child Outside Week," and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences has planned some specific activities to promote awareness (www.naturalsciences.org).
A visit to the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh begins with awareness on the outside. Along the half-block-long north side of the museum facing Jones Street, there is a wild garden in dramatic contrast to the strictly regimented lawn and shrub monoculture of the North Carolina Legislature across the street.
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Every week should be "Take a Child…
clock | September 18, 2008
I wrote this on September 21, 2004, as a reaction to the misunderstanding of Lakoff's term "Nurturant Parent". Slightly edited (eliminated bad links and such).
Discussions of Lakoff's theory are going on in several places in the blogosphere, including on DailyKos and many other places...just Google it and you'll be floored. Spend some times reading the comments - there is some good thinking there.
There is something happening in these discussions that really bothers me. There is a number of people, including some who claim to have read "Moral Politics", who object to the use of family-based…
clock | September 18, 2008Hmmm, they did not actually see the blog - if they did they would notice it has been abandoned more than two years ago and that the top post says, in large bold letters: "This Blogs Is Dead!".
And they probably did not see when I hosted Skeptic's Circle (three times). Bwahahahahaha! Anyway, too busy now, but if you want to debunk and make fun of this piece of quackery, go ahead, it's all yours:
fromF B
reply-tofb200883@yahoo.com
tocoturnix@gmail.com
dateThu, Sep 18, 2008 at 3:47 PM
subjectInterested in a review on http://sciencepolitics.blogspot.com ?
Hello,
I'm the webmaster of http://www…
clock | September 18, 2008I tend not to delete comments (except for obvious spam) or ban commenters. If you post more than one link, I will rescue your comment out of the Junk Folder once I discover it there, no matter how much I may personally dislike what you say.
I let Creationists' comments stay - nice fodder for my regular commenters to debunk.
I let Serbian and/or Albanian nationalists' comments stay as long as they do not cross the line of proper behavior (e.g., physical threats).
It is the last few weeks of the election season so I am posting a lot of posts on politics. The emotions are high, I understand…
clock | September 18, 2008So says WIRED:
Barack Obama has established a small but well-regarded inner circle of science advisors that includes a vocal critic of creationism, a Nobel laureate who has championed open-access research, and another laureate who used his prize money to defend academic freedom against the war on terror. Though their influence on the policies of a prospective Obama administration are unknown, they've played a prominent role in establishing his science platform to date.
Obama announced his science platform earlier this month in response to questions posed by ScienceDebate2008, a nonpartisan…
clock | September 18, 2008Write a cool, fun, funny scienc-ey post and send it to SCQ and you can get a kids science book:
The SCQ is pleased to announce that the winner of the last book was Alex Roger's "Astro I Reference Notes." To keep things rolling a little bit, we would like to present the next book up for grabs. This one is called "Follow the Line Around the World" by Laura Ljungkvist.
We think every reader should submit just for the possibility of owning a book who has an author with such a marvelous last name.
Anyway, like before any kind of submission will do, and please send on your good material to tscq@…
clock | September 18, 2008A nice article in The Economist today, about science blogging, Science 2.0 and publishing:
User-generated science:
By itself this is unlikely to bring an overhaul of scientific publishing. Dr Bly points to a paradox: the internet was created for and by scientists, yet they have been slow to embrace its more useful features. Nevertheless, serious science-blogging is on the rise. The Seed state of science report, to be published later this autumn, found that 35% of researchers surveyed say they use blogs. This figure may seem underwhelming, but it was almost nought just a few years ago. Once…
clock | September 18, 2008Now that PLoS ONE is publishing daily (OK, not really, only on work-days, i.e., 5 times a week), I have been pointing to my picks every day. Let's look at what has been published there last night and tonight as well as what's new in other PLoS journals. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers.
Courtship Initiation Is Stimulated by Acoustic Signals in Drosophila melanogaster:
Finding a mating partner is a critical task for many organisms. It is in the interest of males to employ multiple sensory modalities to search…
clock | September 18, 2008It's All In The Hips: Early Whales Used Well Developed Back Legs For Swimming, Fossils Show:
The crashing of the enormous fluked tail on the surface of the ocean is a "calling card" of modern whales. Living whales have no back legs, and their front legs take the form of flippers that allow them to steer. Their special tails provide the powerful thrust necessary to move their huge bulk. Yet this has not always been the case.
Researchers Suppress 'Hunger Hormone' In Pigs: New Minimally Invasive Method Yields Result As Good As Bariatric Surgery:
Johns Hopkins scientists report success in…
clock | September 17, 2008Here's another topic seen through the Lakoffian looking glass (July 23, 2005):
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Why is there a widespread belief that the difference between patriotism and nationalism is one of degree: loving one's country versus loving it even more? I think that the difference is not quantitative but qualitative - the phrase "love for one's country" used by the two kinds of people (patriots and nationalists) is based on very different meanings of the words "love", "for", "one" and "country".
I am assuming that this confusion arises from the fact that…