clock | September 12, 2008Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made; Our times are in his hand who saith, A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust God: See all, nor be afraid!
- Robert Browning
clock | September 12, 2008Under the fold....
Alaska is right next to Russia:
She was referring to the Diomede Islands which straddle the International Date Line in the Bering Straits. Big Diomede is on the Russian side of the line and Little Domede is on the Alaskan side. There is a village of about 150 Eskimos on Little Diomede who live mostly by fishing and walrus hunting. The islands are only two and a half miles apart, so it's easy to see one from the other on a clear day. In the winter when the ice is frozen you can walk across in about an hour.
Obama Racism/Muslim/Unpatriotic/Scary Black Dude Watch, #82:
That,…
clock | September 12, 2008There are 10 new articles in PLoS ONE today. 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:
Circadian Control of the Daily Plasma Glucose Rhythm: An Interplay of GABA and Glutamate:
The mammalian biological clock, located in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), imposes its temporal structure on the organism via neural and endocrine outputs. To further investigate SCN control of the autonomic nervous system we focused in the present…
clock | September 12, 2008Ezra explains in words, but a Picture is Worth a Thousand of those:
BTW, the whole 'drill, baby, drill' chant at the RNC Convention, like pretty much everything in the scenography and theatrics there, was deeply sexual, designed to appeal to sexually anxious males. What do you think their reptilian brains were thinking of drilling in Alaska? Google "femiphobia".
clock | September 12, 2008Or, in this case, "I am not a liar".
Remember, don't think of an elephant?
Saying that Palin is not a liar elicits the 'liar' frame together with her name. Mentioning her name and the word "lying" in the same sentence reminds people she is lying.
When Nixon said he was not a crook, everyone thought of him as a crook. Inserting the word "not" means nothing - that is not how a human mind works.
So, did they lose their framing magic?
Which is the same reason that Obama's ad "Not maverick" has the unintended opposite effect - reminds people that McCain is supposed to be a maverick:
Come on,…
clock | September 12, 2008From SCONC:
Thursday, Sept. 25
11:30 a.m - 1 p.m
(Free lunch if you're early)
Lecture: "Shaking Up Computer History: Finding the Women of ENIAC"
Historian, computer programmer, telecommunications lawyer, and film producer Kathy Kleiman will speak about the women who programmed the first all-electronic programmable computer, ENIAC, over sixty years ago. Sponsored by Duke University's Office of the Provost, Office of Information Technology, Women in Science and Engineering, and RENCI.
Bryan Center, Von Canon A/B/C, Duke
clock | September 12, 2008Female Spiders Eat Small Males When They Mate:
Female spiders are voracious predators and consume a wide range of prey, which sometimes includes their mates. A number of hypotheses have been proposed for why females eat males before or after mating. Researchers Shawn Wilder and Ann Rypstra from Miami University in Ohio found that the answer may be simpler than previously thought. Males are more likely to be eaten if they are much smaller than females, which likely affects how easy they are to catch.
Cryopreservation Techniques Bring Hopes For Women Cancer Victims And Endangered Species:…
clock | September 11, 2008In order to preserve your self-respect, it is sometimes necessary to lie and cheat.
- Robert Byrne
clock | September 11, 2008Don't Think of a Maverick! Could the Obama Campaign Be Improved?:
In 1980, Richard Wirthlin -- Ronald Reagan's chief strategist -- made a fateful discovery. In his first poll he discovered that most people didn't like Reagan's positions on the issues, but nevertheless wanted to vote for Reagan. The reason, he figured out, is that voters vote for president not primarily on the issues, but on five other factors -- "character" factors: Values; Authenticity; Communication and connection; Trust; and Identity. In the Reagan-Carter and Reagan-Mondale debates, Mondale and Carter were ahead on the…
clock | September 11, 2008For those who object I only bash McCain and never say anything nice about Obama:
- I bash conservatism and GOP. It is irrelevant who is their candidate. This time they are serving up a real doozy, but all the others they had in the primaries are just as bad.
- I want to stop them, and since the Democratic Party is the only credible opposition, I will support Mickey Mouse as a Democratic Candidate. It is not that I am Obamamaniac, or that I agree with most of his proposals. But his proposals are at least decent and in the right direction. And he is a smart, decent man who would make me…
clock | September 11, 2008So, let's see what's new in PLoS Genetics, PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS Pathogens and PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases this 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:
Is Mate Choice in Humans MHC-Dependent?:
There has been a longstanding hypothesis that selection may have led to mating patterns that encourage heterozygosity at Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) loci because of improved immune response to pathogens in the…
clock | September 11, 2008There are 11 new articles in PLoS ONE today. 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:
Practice Makes Imperfect: Restorative Effects of Sleep on Motor Learning:
Emerging evidence suggests that sleep plays a key role in procedural learning, particularly in the continued development of motor skill learning following initial acquisition. We argue that a detailed examination of the time course of performance across sleep on the finger-tapping…
clock | September 11, 2008Sure, she would attack Russia, but at least she is not aware that she can do it pre-emptively.
But that's OK. She'll learn at the foot of the master.
Ooops!
clock | September 11, 2008Four Stone Hearth #49 is up on A Hot Cup of Joe
The 95th Skeptics' Circle is up on Skeptimedia
clock | September 11, 2008....is to read how Grrrl visited the Harry Potter spots in London:
My Quest: To Visit all the Harry Potter Film Sites in London, Part 1:
The Leaky Cauldron, Gringott's Wizarding Bank.
My Quest: To Visit all the Harry Potter Film Sites in London, Part 2:
Platform 9 3/4, Diagon Alley, Lambeth Bridge, The Houses of Parliament.
My Quest: To Visit all the Harry Potter Film Sites in London, Part 3:
Little Whinging Zoo, Train Station, The Ministry of Magic, 12 Grimmauld Place (Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix), View Out the Windows of Harry's Room at the Leaky Cauldron.
clock | September 11, 2008....is to read how Tiana and Kate had fun doing it:
Afternoon Delight With The Discovery Institute
In which it should have become clear that we were both drunk and lying
Dawkins and Myers, Websites and Pride, and Still More Lies
Dover and Dropping All Pretense
Good Manners
clock | September 11, 2008From SCONC:
Wednesday, Sept. 24
Noon, with free lunch
Sigma Xi pizza lunch with Anne Yoder, director of the Duke University Lemur Center: "Historical biogeography of Madagascar: using genes to study the evolution of an island."
3106 E. Hwy 54, RTP
clock | September 10, 2008There is a time to be timid. There is a time to be conciliatory. There is a time, even, to fly and there is a time to fight. And I'm going to fight like hell. (On Congressional moves toward impeachment)
- Richard M. Nixon
clock | September 10, 2008Under the fold, as we do here every day....
The Wars of John McCain:
John McCain believes the Vietnam War was winnable. Now he argues that an Obama administration would accept defeat in Iraq, with grave costs to American honor and national security. Is McCain's quest for victory a reflection of an antiquated pre-Vietnam mind-set? Or of a commitment to principles we abandon at our peril? Is there any war McCain thinks can't be won?
Numbers are Fun: McCain/Palin Bankrupts America edition:
To understand what that means in the context of a national campaign, all it takes is a little arithmetic.…