clock | June 14, 2008You have to act quickly, though:
We've been airing audio comments on our new national public radio
show, The Takeaway (http://www.thetakeaway.org), for the past couple
of weeks. On Monday, we want to highlight your scientificky thoughts
on "THE INCREDIBLE HULK" and "THE HAPPENING".
There's a lot of genetics and plant biology and global warming stuff
there to sink your teeth into. Here's what we're looking for: By
Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern, tell us two things about whichever movie you
saw:
1. ONE-PHRASE CAPSULE REVIEW -- IT'S QUICK AND EASY!
Say, "It was __________". Put an adjective or…
clock | June 14, 2008Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome Linked To Irregular Menstrual Cycles, Premenstrual Symptoms In Women:
Women with delayed sleep phase syndrome are more likely to report irregular menstrual cycles and premenstrual symptoms, according to a research abstract that will be presented on June 10 at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS).
All kinds of cycles affect each other in some way?
Pigeons Show Superior Self-recognition Abilities To Three Year Old Humans:
Keio University scientists have shown that pigeons are able to discriminate video images of…
clock | June 14, 2008Obligatory Reading of the Day: The crazies and Obama:
If there is a President Obama come next Jan. 20, normal folks better brace for what the right-wing crazies have in mind. Because it's becoming clear that they are winding themselves up now for a fresh spate of violence if Obama wins.
You can find the signs in the things they're saying now, both on Internet forums and in the things they say when they think no one is listening.
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In any event, a pattern is already developing, ranging from the Klan fellows who promise that Obama will be shot to the white supremacists…
clock | June 14, 2008Anne-Marie found this article:
London's Natural History Museum is to decorate the ceiling of one of its major rooms with a permanent art installation, inspired by evolutionary theory, in honour of Charles Darwin's bicentennial. The 10 shortlisted entrants have now been announced and their ideas are on display.
You can see a slideshow of the proposals, but the article does not say exactly who is doing the choosing. Some internal committee, public at large?
Which proposal do you like the best? Perhaps we can influence the choosers if we write about this all over the blogs.
clock | June 14, 2008Associated Press is going to go extinct, due to being incorrigibly idiotic. In the era of blogs, Creative Commons licences, Open Source, Open Access... they are working actively at stopping traffic to their site!!! How much more stupid can they be? And the way they try to bully everyone around about this, I say...let them have it: never, ever link to their stories again - they are stolen stories to begin with, so take a couple of minutes to find the originals that AP stole from, then link to the original. Let the AP die.
clock | June 13, 2008Humor is, I think, the subtlest and chanciest of literary forms. It is surely not accidental that there are a thousand novelists, essayists, poets or journalists for each humorist. It is a long, long time between James Thurbers.
- Leo C. Rosten
clock | June 13, 2008Mysterious Mountain Dinosaur May Be New Species:
A partial dinosaur skeleton unearthed in 1971 from a remote British Columbia site is the first ever found in Canadian mountains and may represent a new species, according to a recent examination by a University of Alberta researcher.
Memory Loss Linked To Common Sleep Disorder:
For the first time, UCLA researchers have discovered that people with sleep apnea show tissue loss in brain regions that help store memory. Reported in the June 27 edition of the journal Neuroscience Letters, the findings emphasize the importance of early detection of…
clock | June 13, 2008Carnival of Space #58 is up on Universe Today
Friday Ark #195 is up on Modulator
clock | June 12, 2008The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.
- Dante Alighieri
clock | June 12, 2008The article is here, but it is too long for me and my attention span to read through. I got a snippet, though:
But that boon comes at a price. As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of…
clock | June 12, 2008An interesting discussion on Slashdot (you may need to log in to see all the comments).
clock | June 12, 2008Check this out on the Science Commons blog:
Science Commons' mission is to speed the translation of basic research to useful discoveries, and we believe that a new approach is necessary to find more cures, faster. Today, we're opening up the Health Commons, a project aimed at bringing the same efficiencies to human health that the network brought to commerce and culture.
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The Health Commons proposes a different approach: enabling more companies, foundations, laboratories or even individuals to conduct research on disease targets efficiently, by providing better access…
clock | June 12, 2008Two of my SciBlings have recently covered papers that my readers should find interesting:
Joseph: Bright Light and Melatonin Treatment Improves Dementia:
A study published in JAMA indicates that treatment with bright light alone (1,000 lux), or bright light combined with melatonin, can improve symptoms in patients with dementia. Melatonin alone appeared to have a slight adverse effect.
Chris Chatham : Time Perception: In the Absence of "Time Sensation?":
In their newly in-press TICS article, Ivry and Schlerf review the state of the art in cognitive modeling of time perception - perhaps the…
clock | June 12, 2008There is a huge forest fire raging in Eastern North Carolina, unfortunately affecting the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. The smoke has now moved more than 100 miles to the west, which means right here. It's been stinking of smoke all day, getting worse and worse as time went on. And it appears it will not get any better soon.
clock | June 12, 2008I and the Bird #77 is up on Great Auk - or Greatest Auk?
The latest edition of Change of Shift is up on Nurse Ratched's Place
clock | June 12, 2008Woolly Mammoth Gene Study Changes Extinction Theory:
A large genetic study of the extinct woolly mammoth has revealed that the species was not one large homogenous group, as scientists previously had assumed, and that it did not have much genetic diversity.
Fossils Found In Tibet Revise History Of Elevation, Climate:
About 15,000 feet up on Tibet's desolate Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau, an international research team led by Florida State University geologist Yang Wang was surprised to find thick layers of ancient lake sediment filled with plant, fish and animal fossils typical of far lower…
clock | June 11, 2008Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.
- Jane Austen
clock | June 11, 2008PLEKTIX
R.E.S.E.A.R.C.H.E.R.S.
Skulls in the Stars
Time to Eat the Dogs
Open Access Blog
clock | June 11, 2008After two years of raising awareness about living with HIV, Ron Hudson has decided to end the International Carnival of Pozitivities. The very last edition is now up on Black Looks.