clock | March 14, 2008Of course, I got this video on Facebook as someone put it on my FunWall (and yes, I ignore 99% of invitations to do stuff, get new apps, etc.):
clock | March 13, 2008It's not that I'm afraid to die, I just don't want to be there when it happens.
- Woody Allen
clock | March 13, 2008Snakes Vault Past Toxic Newts In Evolutionary Arms Race:
Snakes don't eat fugu, the seafood delicacy prepared from blowfish meat and famed for its poisonous potential. However, should a common garter snake wander into a sushi restaurant, it could fearlessly order a fugu dinner.
Bipolar Disorder: Manic Mouse Made With One Gene Missing:
Bipolar Disorder (BPD or manic-depressive illness) is one of the most serious of all mental disorders, affecting millions of individuals worldwide. Affected individuals alternate between states of deep depression and mania. While depression is characterized by…
clock | March 13, 2008He was here last Tuesday for filming of a scientific documentary for PBS:
He was doing important work on an upcoming PBS special "The Human Spark", a three-part documentary about what makes us human, due to air next year.
Alda, who also met with researchers at Duke University on Monday, started filming last week and said he will tape additional segments in France, England and South Africa, as well as in the Pacific Northwest. Duke primatologist Brian Hare suggested the NC Zoo as a shooting location, zoo spokesman Rod Hackney said.
clock | March 13, 2008It was bound to happen sooner or later. People seem to really like my series of interviews with the participants of the Science Blogging Conference. So, as he promised, John Dupuis turned the tables and interviewed me, even using some of the same questions that I tend to ask. Read the interview here.
clock | March 13, 2008My Scifoo friend and prize-winning science photographer Felice Frankel just gave a great interview to Ginny on Page 3.14.
clock | March 13, 2008A new deal: Wiley-Blackwell and JoVE Unveil Groundbreaking Online Video Publications
Moshe on TV:
clock | March 13, 2008The new Carnival of Space is up on Observations from Missy's Window
The 82nd Skeptics' Circle is up on Happy Jihad's House of Pancakes
clock | March 13, 2008Rose Reis interviewed me in person on the Sunday morning right after the second Science Blogging Conference in January. Then, I got scooped for the interview. But I will not be deterred - so here is, finally, the exclusive interview with Rose for A Blog Around The Clock:
Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Who are you? What is your scientific background? What is your Real World job?
Hi, Bora! I am your biggest fan! Apart from that, I am a program specialist at the INFO Project, at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of…
clock | March 13, 2008On this day in 1884 the International Prime Meridian Conference established a system of standard time zones:
In 1884 an International Prime Meridian Conference was held in Washington D.C. to standardize time and select the Prime Meridian. The conference selected the longitude of Greenwich, England as zero degrees longitude and established the 24 time zones based on the Prime Meridian. Although the time zones had been established, not all countries switched immediately. Though most U.S. states began to adhere to the Pacific, Mountain, Central, and Eastern time zones by 1895, Congress didn't…
clock | March 13, 2008Yesterday we had our first blogger meetup since the Conference, the Triangle bloggers jointly with the NC science communicators. Who was there? Anton Zuiker, Russ Campbell, Brian Russell, Ernie Hood, Chris Brodie, Abel Pharmboy and Lenore Ramm who took the pictures. We talked about plans for foodblogging, wineblogging and blogging101 events, about local jobs in academia, about the next Conference, about Sigma Xi, about Eve Carson (the helicopters were in the sky above, helping catch the second suspect), and about Carrboro Coworking. Fun was had by all (the weather was gorgeous as well - 65…
clock | March 13, 2008David Neiwert:
But I also noticed this line:
"Unlike traditional, mainstream media, blogs often adopt a specific point of view. Critics complain they can contain unchecked facts, are poorly edited and use unreliable sources."
And this distinguishes them from the mainstream press exactly ... how?
Athenae:
What critics? We do not know. The reporter doesn't tell us. Apparently it's one of those things, like "the sky is blue" and "Democrats are weak on national security" that is so obvious we don't need to cite a source of any kind to just blurt it out there and attribute it to "critics." And…
clock | March 13, 2008Lindsay Beyerstein: Spitzer linked to prostitution ring
Spitzer's Nixonian hubris
Sex and taxes: How Spitzer allegedly got caught
Spitzer and Suspicious Activity Reports and sex stings
Enough is enough: Feds probe Spitzer's records back to 1999
Amanda Marcotte: Cut out the stand by your man routine
Ask for facts, get the facts
Elizabeth Pisani: Spitzer's true folly
Spitzer: cementing a cross-party tradition of hypocrisy
Spitzer: some better ideas for the lapsed abolitionist
Calling "These women": tell us about your disorders...
Scott Swenson: RealTime: Prostitution Pledge for Politicians
Ed…
clock | March 12, 2008Insect's Sensory Data Tells A New Story About Neural Networks:
A group of researchers has developed a novel way to view the world through the eyes of a common fly and partially decode the insect's reactions to changes in the world around it. The research fundamentally alters earlier beliefs about how neural networks function and could provide the basis for intelligent computers that mimic biological processes.
One In Four Teenage Girls In U.S. Has Sexually Transmitted Disease, CDC Study Shows:
A new CDC study estimates that one in four (26 percent) young women between the ages of 14 and 19 in…
clock | March 12, 2008Four Stone Hearth: Volume 36 is up on Afarensis
Carnival of the Liberals is up on Tangled Up in Blue Guy
The 162nd edition of the Carnival of Education is up on Learn Me Good
clock | March 12, 2008Karen Ventii is one of my SciBlings - her blog is Science To Life. At the second Science Blogging Conference in January she co-moderated a panel on Gender and Race in Science: online and offline, relevant to the discussion of racial diversity that is ongoing here on Scienceblogs right now.
Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Who are you?
My name is Karen Ventii & I come from Ghana.
What is your scientific background?
I have a B.S and an M.S in Biology and I'm currently getting my Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Emory…
clock | March 12, 2008Check the website and download the PDFs:
An unprecedented five consecutive years of stagnant funding for the National Institutes of Health is putting America at risk--slowing the pace of medical advances, risking the future health of Americans, discouraging our best and brightest researchers, and threatening America's global leadership in biomedical research. Unfortunately, President Bush's budget proposal recommends a sixth year of flat funding for the NIH in 2009.
On March 11, 2008, a group of seven concerned academic research institutions, released a new report--A Broken Pipeline? Flat…
clock | March 12, 2008POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITY in SLEEP MEDICINE
Charles A. Czeisler, Steven W. Lockley, Christopher P. Landrigan, Laura K. Barger
Harvard Work Hours, Health and Safety Group
Division of Sleep Medicine, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School
The Harvard Work Hours Health and Safety Group focuses on understanding the consequences of extended work hours and disordered sleep schedules on health and safety across a range of professions and populations. We also develop and test countermeasures to prevent the increased risk of accidents and injury for both worker health and…
clock | March 11, 2008It is quite hard at times to distinguish a genius from a lunatic.
- Dorothy Thompson