clock | April 18, 2007Its' early in the process, and many are reluctant so far....but, one person said he'd consider it (you can still recommend that Diary if you wish) - Rep.Brad Miller (D - NC13). I hope he does. If he does, I'll knock doors for him. Why?
He's a blogger. And he chairs the new House Committee on Science and Technology, with subpoena power.
He came to the Science Blogging Conference in January and is the person that every Democrat, every North Carolinian, every blogger and every scientist should want to see move from the House to the Senate and, in the process, oust Sen.Dole from politics.…
clock | April 18, 2007Carnival of Education #115 is up on dy/dan.
Carnival of Homeschooling: #68 is up on Why Homeschool.
clock | April 18, 2007Scientists Unravel Intricate Animal Behaviour Patterns:
There is a scene in the animated blockbuster "Finding Nemo" when a school of fish makes a rapid string of complicated patterns--an arrow, a portrait of young Nemo and other intricate designs. While the detailed shapes might be a bit outlandish for fish to form, the premise isn't far off. But how does a school of fish or a flock of birds know how to move from one configuration to another and then reorganize as a unit, without knowing what the entire group is doing?
New research by University of Alberta scientists shows that one movement…
clock | April 18, 2007Clarence Seward Darrow was born at Kinsman, Ohio on this day in 1857, the son of the town's undertaker. He joined the Ohio bar in 1878, moving on to Chicago in 1887 where he became counsel for the city and later for the Chicago and Northwest Railroad. He left the railroad to defend Eugene V. Debs, the head of the striking union, and from then on was a defense attorney, often for hopeless causes and extremely unsympathetic clients. He defended at least 100 clients on trial for murder, and though many were found guilty, none was put to death. He defended John Scopes in the infamous "Scopes…
clock | April 17, 2007If you love life, do not waste time, because time is what life is made of.
- Bruce Lee.
clock | April 17, 2007I guess nobody reads me, and everyone reads PZ, but I am astonished how many people, after my eight lengthy posts on the topic, dozens of posts by others who 'get it' and literally hundreds of comments by people who 'get it', still equate framing with spin.
For instance, in his latest post criticizing Michael Ruse - and I agree with every word of the criticism which Ruse totally deserves - Larry sinks low in the last paragraph, conflates what Ruse does with Mooney/Nisbet stuff (I guess equating all your enemies-du-jour is a 'cool' rhetorical technique these days) and ends the otherwise…
clock | April 17, 2007Neurotic Men Die Sooner Than Their More Mellow Counterparts:
While mellowing with age has often been thought to have positive effects, a Purdue University researcher has shown that doing so could also help you live longer.
Strong Marriage Helps Couples Deal With Tempermental Baby:
Couples with infants who are particularly fussy or difficult typically do just fine as parents - as long as they have a strong marital relationship. A new study found that a couple's relationship with each other was key in determining how they reacted as parents when faced with a temperamental baby. "When couples…
clock | April 16, 2007Practical people would be more practical if they would take a little more time for dreaming.
- J. P. McEvoy
clock | April 16, 2007Chapel Hill/Carrboro blogger meetup will be on Wednesday, April 18 at 6:30pm at Milltown Restaurant and Bar in Carrboro.
clock | April 16, 2007My son (13) is in his physics phase. As a biologist, I don't know much about physics beyond college classes, but our home library is huge, so he managed to dig out a bunch of physics-related books. Some he read, others he skimmed, and now he wants more. He is interested in everything - gravity, cosmology, etc. He is not afraid of simple math so a book with some easy formulas are fine. Help me pick a couple of good choices to get him later this week. What he checked/read so far is a smorgasbord of books of different ages, qualities, levels and topics:
Atom by Isaac Asimov
Mr.Tompkins…
clock | April 16, 2007NASA Engineer Helps Train Puppy For Future Leadership Role:
One of NASA's newest workers is a top dog ... literally. A golden retriever puppy named Aries goes to work every day at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. as part of the "Leader Dogs for the Blind" program. Her mentor is structural engineer Evan J. Horowitz.
Snake Venom As Therapeutic Treatment Of Cancer?:
This certainly sounds unusual, but Dr. Son and colleagues report on the effectiveness of the snake venom toxin (SVT) Vipera lebetina turanica in the inhibition of androgen-independent prostate cancer (AICAP) in the…
clock | April 16, 2007Pimm thinks that
scientists were out of the first inhabitants of the word wide web, and most academic web pages were made by scientist-turned web geeks in the 1.0 era.
He shows some examples of good webpages. I added the Reffinetti lab as an example of a good one.
How's yours? Last updated in 2004? On a corporate template?
If you have an example of a really good one, send the link to Pimm.
clock | April 15, 2007Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.
- Henri-Frédéric Amiel, 1821 - 1881
clock | April 15, 2007Sex And Prenatal Hormone Exposure Affect Cognitive Performance:
Yerkes researchers are using their findings to better understand sex differences in cognitive performance, which may lead to increased understanding of the difference in neuropsychological disorders men and women experience.
In one of the first research studies to assess sex differences in cognitive performance in nonhuman primates, researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center have found the tendency to use landmarks for navigation is typical only of females.
This finding, which corroborates findings in rodents and…
clock | April 15, 2007On Neurophilosopher's blog, I saw this, one of the winning cartoons from the 2006 Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest, drawn by Reva Sharp from Warren, PA (btw, you have only about a month to send in your entries for the 2007 contest):
The image obviously mocks the relationship between the published peer-reviewed papers and the data they are based on, putting a negative spin on the way we all frame our scientific communication for the audience of peers, something that both Orac and I addressed previously.
But the cartoon also depicts how many participants in the debate,…
clock | April 15, 2007Carnival of the Godless #64, brilliantly hosted and edited by TNG is up on Neural Gourmet. Enjoy.