clock | February 21, 2007I'm back and ready to go to bed. After a couple of days of being sick as a dog (hence hit-and-run blogging) I managed to get myself up for tonight's event which was great fun, but now I am drained, so instead of trying to write a long-winded account of the evening myself, I'll ask you to go and get all the information - what it was all about, who was there, how good the food was (yummy!) on BlogTogether.
clock | February 21, 2007...Amanda Marcotte still supports John Edwards. Puts to lie the media framing of "bloggers vs. Edwards". It was all along "bloggers AND Edwards AND many more ordinary people vs. the Establishment (of both parties) AND the Right Wing smear machine.
clock | February 21, 2007Professor identifies mystery creature:
The odd-looking animal spotted in several Piedmont counties last year evidently was a hairless gray fox.
That's the conclusion of Jaap Hillenius. He examined the carcass of a similar animal that had been hit by a car in the Charleston, S.C., area.
So it wasn't an exotic cross-species, though some central North Carolina residents who spotted the animals had reported it having the head of a cat and the body of a canine.
Just a fox sans hair because of a mutant gene, said Hillenius, associate professor in the biology department at College of Charleston.…
clock | February 21, 2007An olde but fun (February 16, 2006):
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When I went to pick up Coturnix Junior from school today (he is in 7th grade), we bumped into his English teacher who informed me that he did not turn in his book review. He started coming up with excuses, that he lost the book, or it was stolen, etc. She said something like "Well, you better read something really fast, so you can turn in the review tomorrow. And it has to be something at middle-school level, not Dr.Seuss".
I doubt Dr.Seuss ever crossed hs mind up till that moment, but he was quick to see an…
clock | February 21, 2007OK, they call it a 'forum' on economic issues only. In Nevada today at noon (local time - 2pm Eastern), streaming here (It will also be on C-SPAN live). Obama is the only announced contender who will be missing.
Not to be confused with the August 2007 debate in Nevada, which, believe it or not, will be hosted by FOX News as if it was a legitimate news channel! Why are the Democrats agreeing to this? Don't they remember the last time they endured a debate on Fox? Why are they legitimizing a Republican PR agency?
clock | February 21, 2007Are you coming to the Triangle Bloggers Happy Hour tonight? Sponsored by DukeEngage. There will be free food, free drinks and free wifi, courtesy of Duke University.
clock | February 21, 2007The 107th Carnival of Education is up on History Is Elementary.
Carnival of Homeschooling #60: Presidential Trivia, now up on Homeschool Hacks.
clock | February 21, 2007New Research Finds People And Pigeons See Eye To Eye:
Pigeons and humans use similar visual cues to identify objects, a finding that could have promising implications in the development of novel technologies, according to new research conducted by a University of New Hampshire professor. Brett Gibson, an assistant professor of psychology who studies animal behavior, details his latest research in the journal article, "Non-accidental properties underlie shape recognition in mammalian and non-mammalian vision," published in Current Biology. Gibson and his colleagues found that humans and…
clock | February 20, 2007Back in May 21, 2006, Montenegro seceded from Serbia. Here is what I wrote:
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Right now, there are five countries in the place of Yugoslavia: Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia & Montenegro. Considering the very high turnout at today's referendum in Montenegro, there soon may be another split, as Serbia and Montenegro go their separate ways.
Of course, the whole thing is misguided. Just like a division into Red States and Blue States (and you remember some of those "Jesusland" maps right after the…
clock | February 20, 2007They are the last ones who should be playing with this fire:
Croatia probes Hitler likeness, jokes on sugar packets:
Small packets of sugar bearing the likeness of Adolf Hitler and carrying Holocaust jokes have been found in some cafes in Croatia, prompting an investigation, the office of the state prosecutor said on Monday. "The local district attorney in (the eastern town of) Pozega has opened an investigation and is currently looking at the matter," said Martina Mihordin. The Novi List daily newspaper reported that officials at a small factory in Pozega have confirmed the sugar packs were…
clock | February 20, 2007You know that I think that Wimp Factor is one of the most important yet least appreciated books about ideology and politics in recent years. So, I was really glad to see an excellent review of it by Amanda:
Regardless of you feelings about whether or not he's got the right reasons for why anxious masculinity exists, his examination of the effects of it is right on the money.
clock | February 20, 2007Archy gives a detailed explanation of the way Creationists explain away all the problems of the Noah's Ark story.
clock | February 20, 2007Animal Migration: New Technologies, Global Warming Add Impetus To Research:
The February 2007 issue of BioScience, the monthly journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS), includes a special section on animal migration that features six articles exploring biologists' understanding of this pervasive and vital syndrome. Animal migration fascinated the ancients and continues to fascinate researchers today. An often highly complex, synchronized suite of changes in behavior, morphology, and physiology enables journeys that may be epic in scale. These feats of endurance and…
clock | February 20, 2007Storing Digital Data In Living Organisms:
DNA, perhaps the oldest data storage medium, could become the newest as scientists report progress toward using DNA to store text, images, music and other digital data inside the genomes of living organisms. In a report scheduled for the April 9 issue of ACS' Biotechnology Progress, a bi-monthly journal, Masaru Tomita and colleagues in Japan point out that DNA has been attracting attention as perhaps the ultimate in permanent data storage.
More.....
Epigenetics To Shape Stem Cell Future:
Everyone hopes that one day stem cell-based regenerative…
clock | February 20, 2007Grand Rounds, vol. 3 no. 22, is now up on Pure Pedantry.
Carnival of the Green #65 is up on Jen's Green Journal
Brain Fitness Blog Carnival #2 is up on Sharp Brains.
Ron has issued a call for submissions for the next International Carnival of Pozitivities to be hosted by Creampuff Revolution on March 10th.
clock | February 19, 2007More badges have been added. Number #48 has written ME all over:
Before coming to the States and getting into grad school in Zoology, I was in vet school and I spent endless hours with my arm up to the shoulder inside horses' recta (and sometimes cows') both treating sick ones and doing some experiments in excercise physiology (that's horses, not cows). Later, I probed the quail rectally (really, cloacally) on a number of occasions. I am a sicko!