clock | September 18, 2007Blog about it, contact your Senators, and contact the Presidential candidates. Let's put some pressure on!
See what Mark Hoofnagle (and again) says.
Mike Dunford, PZ Myers (and again) and John Wilkins and their commenters have more (including all the contact information you'll ever need).
clock | September 18, 2007Grand Rounds 3.52 are up on Six Until Me.
Carnival of the Green #95 is up on Green Style Mag.
The latest Carnival of the Godless is up on Ain't Christian.
clock | September 18, 2007The program of the Microsoft/RENCI conference is now up. They would not let me give a talk, but I'll have to make a poster (using the darned MS Power Point, I guess #$%^&*) which makes me pretty mad. Heck, there is some unknown talking about science blogs instead of me. Who made this decision?
Compared to the organizers of every other meeting this year, from SciFoo, to ConvergeSouth, to ASIS&T, to the panel at Harvard (and yes, our own Science Blogging Conference), these guys are positively Palaeolitic in their attitude - from the haughtily-official looking site, to the very idea…
clock | September 17, 2007Cyprian Honeybees Kill Their Enemy By Smothering Them:
For the first time, researchers have discovered that when Cyprian honeybees mob and kill their arch enemy, the Oriental hornet, the cause of death is asphyxiation. They reported their findings in Current Biology.
More...
Cell Death In Sparrow Brains May Provide Clues In Age-related Human Diseases:
A remarkable change takes place in the brains of tiny songbirds every year, and some day the mechanism controlling that change may help researchers develop treatments for age-related degenerative diseases of the brain such as Parkinson's and…
clock | September 17, 2007A dear reader checked out my amazon wish-list and sent me Dr.Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation, a book I wanted for a long time. Thank you!
clock | September 17, 2007There have been a couple of recent posts about textbooks lately. Jim Fiore started it all with a look at the textbook business from the perspective of the authors and students, looking primarily at the problem of money. One sentence really hit me, though:
The problem with a large, institutionalized used book market is that it completely cuts out the publisher and the author.
In a larger economy, it is called 'stock market'. When you buy stocks, most often you will be buying them from a broker, not directly from the company. In other words, you are entering the used-stocks market. You…
clock | September 17, 2007Seed Media Group, publisher of the Seed Magazine and the Seed Scienceblogs (the site you are on right now), made an announcement last week (PDF) about its new international partnership with Hubert Burda Media conglomerate:
The partnership will initially lead to the European development of ScienceBlogs, the largest online science community (www.scienceblogs.com). Since its launch in January 2006 by Seed Media Group, ScienceBlogs has grown to include 65 blogs across all areas of science, and attracted more than 1.7 million visits in August (Google Analytics), its twentieth straight month of…
clock | September 17, 2007Dave alerts us that the number of entries has ben winnowed to the top three finalists. Check them out and suggest modifications at the BPR3 blog. And vote:
clock | September 17, 2007There is a new online survey up, designed by some of my SciBlings, about the background and online habits of science bloggers and science blog readers (not just scienceblogs.com, but all science blogs). Please take a minute to respond:
This survey attempts to access the opinions of bloggers, blog-readers, and non-blog folk in regards to the impact of blogs on the outside world. The authors of the survey are completing an academic manuscript on the impact of science blogging and this survey will provide invaluable data to answer the following questions:
Who reads or writes blogs?
What are the…
clock | September 17, 2007My SciBling Craig McClain is one of the people considered by a major cable channel to host a show about the deep sea. You can help him get this cool job by showing your support in the comments on this post. Please do.
clock | September 16, 2007It is a commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
- C. Northcote Parkinson, Parkinson's Law, 1958
clock | September 16, 2007Mathematics Might Save You A Trip To The ER:
Since the days of Hippocrates, people have known that certain illnesses come and go with the seasons. More recently, researchers have learned that these cyclic recurrences of disease, known as seasonality, are often related to the weather. In order to accurately predict when outbreaks of disease will occur, and how many people will be effected, Elena Naumova, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Public Heath and Family Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, and colleagues, are studying seasonality by creating…
clock | September 16, 2007Too busy with the pseudo-moving right now, so just a quick set of links to other people's good stuff:
An amazing, fantastic post on Laelaps about horse evolution (also noted by Larry Moran). While at first glance, this post on Pondering Pikaia on naturally occurring hybrids in fish is not related, I beg to differ - she does mention other instances of hybridism in nature, including those in Equids - the well-known mules and hinnies, and not so well-known zebroids and others. And I just finished reading a book Hemi: A Mule, which, IMHO, compares quite favorably to Black Beauty - after all, it…
clock | September 15, 2007God Himself chasteneth not with a rod but with time.
- Baltasar Gracian, 1601 - 1656
clock | September 15, 2007Who Went There? Matching Fossil Tracks With Their Makers:
Fossilized footprints are relatively common, but figuring out exactly which ancient creature made particular tracks has been a mystery that has long stumped paleontologists. In the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, a team of researchers overcome this dilemma for the first time, and link a fossil trackway to a well-known fossil animal.
Bird Completes Epic Flight Across The Pacific:
A female bar-tailed godwit, a large, streamlined shorebird, has touched down in New Zealand following an epic, 18,000-mile-long (29,000…
clock | September 15, 2007It will be on October 9-11, 2007 in Indianapolis:
The Open Minds Conference is the first national K-12 gathering for teachers, technicians and educational leaders to share and explore the benefits of open source in education. Virtual Learning Environments that provide 24X7 access to teaching and learning resources, cutting-edge and easy-to-use desktop applications, coupled with powerful management tools and low-cost computer strategies make the classroom of tomorrow available today!
(Via via)
clock | September 15, 2007Oekologie #9 is up on Fish Feet
Boneyard #5 is up on The Ethical Palaeontologist
clock | September 15, 2007Mrs. Coturnix and I (amidst all of the packing and cleaning), are also celebrating our anniversary today. I just put some champaign to chill and, just in time for this, the mailman brought us something to drink out of:
Brought to you from the same folks who make serotonin earrings. Well, geeks like us need to know exactly what we're drinking....