clock | September 9, 2008Tune in tonight at 7pm for another live televised debate between Beverly Perdue and Pat McCrory. You can watch the debate in the Charlotte area on WMYT, in the Triangle on WRAL, and in the Triad on WFMY. In addition, you can listen live on WUNC or watch online at WRAL.com. The debate will also be replayed numerous times across the state. Check the schedule here.
clock | September 9, 2008From SCONC:
Saturday, Sept. 20
7:30 p.m.
"An Evening of Field Research and Exploration" Presentations by three National Geographic explorers discussing seals in the Juan Fernandez Islands of southern Chile; a 275-mile journey on foot through the Himalayas to the calving grounds of the Tibetan antelope; and Madagascar's endangered predator, the cat-like fossa.
Page Auditorium, Duke
clock | September 8, 2008When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.
- Otto von Bismarck, 1815 - 1898
clock | September 8, 2008Marijuana Ingredients Show Promise In Battling Superbugs:
Substances in marijuana show promise for fighting deadly drug-resistant bacterial infections, including so-called "superbugs," without causing the drug's mood-altering effects, scientists in Italy and the United Kingdom are reporting.
Can Science Improve Man's Best Friend?:
If you could design the perfect dog, what would it look like? Tall, short, fluffy, wiry, black, white, tan or brindle? While animal buyers often look closely at physical characteristics, behavioural traits can make the difference between a dog becoming a much loved…
clock | September 8, 2008Under the fold, due to length. Like the previous couple of roundups, take your time - bookmark, read, and use later.
Fisking a debunking:
Clever Wife regularly participates in a forum for craftspeople who make soap. Lately the forum has included some long digressions into politics. She is usually capable of responding to the misinformation she sees, but occasionally she asks for my help. The other day someone posted a list of "rumors" about Sarah Palin debunked by someone named Charlie Martin, a computer programmer in Colorado. Charlie's list on his blog Explorations is now up to 71 points…
clock | September 8, 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:
Nominalization and Alternations in Biomedical Language:
This paper presents data on alternations in the argument structure of common domain-specific verbs and their associated verbal nominalizations in the PennBioIE corpus. Alternation is the term in theoretical linguistics for variations in the surface syntactic form of verbs, e.g. the different forms of…
clock | September 8, 2008From http://www.ImprovEverywhere.com, 16 agents create a spontaneous musical in a food court in a Los Angeles mall. Using wireless microphones and the mall's PA system, both their voices and the music was amplified throughout the food court. All cameras were hidden behind two-way mirrors and other concealed structures.
This is one of over 70 different missions Improv Everywhere has executed over the past six years in New York City. Others include Frozen Grand Central, the Best Buy uniform prank, and the famous U2 Rooftop Hoax, to name a few. Visit the website to see tons of photos and video…
clock | September 8, 2008Guys, keep commenting! A lot. Because if you do, and you are lucky, you will be eligible for a prize:
....one lucky reader will win an all-out science adventure -- a trip for two to New York City and exclusive science adventures only ScienceBlogs could give you access to.
The trip includes airfare, four nights in a four-star hotel, behind-the-scenes tours of top museums and labs, and dinner with your favorite ScienceBlogger.
The Grand Prize is this:
Grand Prize: 2 round-trip economy class tickets on a carrier of Seed Media Group's choice from the major airport closest to winner's home, to…
clock | September 8, 2008Carnival of Space No. 69 is up on Free Space
Carnival of the Green #144 is up on Tiny Choices
clock | September 8, 2008Olivia Judson is back in action on her blog, with a very interesting new post: Braking the Virus:
However -- and this is where the opportunity to rewrite genes comes in -- there is more than one way to specify most of the amino acids. Glutamine, for example, can also be written as CAA. Arginine can be written in six different ways; proline, in four. The reason for this is that the genetic code has a great deal of redundancy. Although there are 64 possible codons (4 different nucleotides for each of three positions), there are only 20 amino acids to be assigned to them. This means that the…
clock | September 8, 2008Check out Paul Bradshaw's list (it's really 100 things, not 1000):
#1 Blogging is not 'writing a blog'. Blogging is linking and commenting. Any writing is a bonus.
...and then there are 99 more. Which ones you agree with, which ones not? After all, blog is just a software and different people use it for different purposes, so none of those lists are applicable to all.
clock | September 8, 2008The third edition of The Giant's Shoulders, blog carnival of History of Science, will be on September 15th on Entertaining Research.
The second edition of Praxis, blog carnival about the world of science and people in it, will be on September 15th on Life v.3.0.
Send your submissions soon.
clock | September 7, 2008Louis was the king of France
Before the revolution...
But then he got his head cut off
Which spoiled his constitution...
- Haul Away, Joe (Traditional/Almanac Singers - 1880s/1941)
clock | September 7, 2008Long-held Assumptions Of Flightless Bird Evolution Challenged By New Research:
Large flightless birds of the southern continents - African ostriches, Australian emus and cassowaries, South American rheas and the New Zealand kiwi - do not share a common flightless ancestor as once believed. Instead, each species individually lost its flight after diverging from ancestors that did have the ability to fly, according to new research conducted in part by University of Florida zoology professor Edward Braun.
Artificial Meadows And Robot Spiders Reveal Secret Life Of Bees:
Many animals learn to…
clock | September 7, 2008Little Light explains the strange tale about the school desk from Huckabee's speech. As we should have known by now - it is a dogwhistle:
Sound familiar yet? Please tell me it does. This is the doctrine of "Grace, Not Works" or "Grace Alone," a theological position expounded during the Reformation, cuddled by Calvin, and popular among evangelical Christians. It's not a desk, it's a place in Heaven. And it's not soldiers we're talking about, it's Jesus Christ. Don't buy the connection of this story as an allegory for the doctrine of Grace Alone? Here's a few ways to put it. And the guy…
clock | September 7, 2008Under the fold....
Senator to president: A new day:
But is it a good thing for senators to be frozen out of the process? Though governors may make better candidates, it's not clear that they're well prepared to deal with the complex mix of personalities and parliamentary procedures that will decide whether their agenda is quickly passed or quietly strangled.
Unocommon Ground:
Admittedly, the general tone of this site over the past week or so has been one of unabashed anger and outrage. While I won't apologize for this -- mostly because I feel like the more that people throw down the gauntlet…
clock | September 7, 2008Yikes! How did I miss it this year?! It's TODAY! The International Rock-Flipping Day:
International Rock-Flipping Day, September 2, 2007
It's International Rock-Flipping Day! If you haven't flipped yet, please review the guidelines. Be sure to replace all flipped rocks, and do so as carefully as possible: if rocks aren't returned to their exact footprint, some of the creatures underneath them may be crushed. We also advise wearing gloves as protection against poisonous snakes, spiders, and scorpions, if that's a concern in your area.
If you don't have a blog (and even if you do), you can…
clock | September 6, 2008Today, we need a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life and who are willing to consciously work and sacrifice for that freedom.
- John Fitzgerald Kennedy