clock | September 12, 2006Kevin has only 5 more days in China so, apart from rain, various farewell dinners are keeping him too busy to do much collecting. Except, this time, it is a different kind of herping altogether, watching the alligators at a farm and diving for turtles.
Anhui
4 September
My last complete day in Muyu; as this day had been approaching I have been thinking about all my experiences. The most beautiful hikes would have to be the hike on the 31st in Xiagu, when we followed the river back down to the trail. We saw many sights that we know no one else ever went to, due to the remote access and danger…
clock | September 12, 2006
A short personal post, first written here on August 13, 2005, then reposted here on January 16, 2006...
When I was in elementary school back in Belgrade (grades 1 through 8) I had the most horrible history teacher. She was an example that stereotype of "dumb blonde" is sometimes correct. She was hired, I assume, because she was the Barbie-doll trophy-wife of the then mayor of Belgrade.
For four years I did not learn anything about history. I managed to get all 5s (equivalent of As) until the very end of eighth grade - almost everybody in class did. And nobody learned anything.
In middle…
clock | September 12, 2006The newest edition of the medical carnival is up on Diabetes Mine. The theme is Celebrating Education.
clock | September 11, 2006You may remember back in June when ScienceBloggers successfully raised over $30,000 for various science & math teaching projects in schools around the country. Now that the school year has started, the materials this effort helped fund are in use in classroom and we are all receiving e-mails of gratitude from teachers who often work with disadvantaged children in poor school districts.
If you wish, you can always continue adding to the funds for the science projects - just click on this button:
Alternatively, you may want to pick your own from around the country, or from a particular…
clock | September 11, 2006Destructive insects on rise in Alaska:
Destructive insects in unprecedented numbers are finding Alaska forests to be a congenial home, said University of Alaska forestry professor Glenn Juday, and climate change could be the welcome mat.
Warmer winters kill fewer insects. Longer, warmer summers let insects complete a life cycle and reproduce in one year instead of two, the forest ecologist said.
Warm winters also can damage trees and make them less able to fend off insect attacks by changing the nature of snow. Instead of light, fluffy snow formed at extreme cold temperatures, warm winters…
clock | September 11, 2006The fourth part of a four-part series on the topic, this one from April 02, 2006....
This being the National Sleep Awareness Week and on the heels of the recent study on sleep of adolescents, it is not surprising that this issue is all over the media, including blogs, these days.
I have written about it recently several times. I present some science and some opinion here and add a little more science and much more opinion here.
You can look at media coverage here and listen to an excellent podcast linked here. Some basic underlying science is covered here.
All of this targets highschoolers…
clock | September 11, 2006This is the third part of the series on the topic, from April 01, 2006...
This being the National Sleep Awareness Week and in the heels of the recent study on sleep of adolescents, it is not surprising that this issue is all over the media, including blogs, these days.
I have covered this issue a couple of times last week, e.g., here, here and here. Recently, Lance Mannion wrote an interesting post on the topic, which reminded me also of an older post by Ezra Klein in which the commenters voiced all the usual arguments heard in this debate.
There are a couple of more details that I have not…
clock | September 11, 2006
Here is the second post on the topic, from March 28, 2006. A couple of links are broken due to medieval understanding of permalinks by newspapers, but you will not miss too much, I hope....
Health Journal: Doctors probe why it's hard for many kids to get up (also Night Owls: Disorder may cause teens to sleep less):
"The parents get stigmatized as not having control over their kids when they can't get them to school in time," says James Wyatt, co-director of the sleep-disorders center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago who is conducting research looking for ways to better diagnose…
clock | September 11, 2006
Earlier this year, during the National Sleep Awareness Week, I wrote a series of posts about the changes in sleep schedules in adolescents. Over the next 3-4 hours, I will repost them all, starting with this one from March 26, 2006. Also check my more recent posts on the subject here and here...
I am glad to see that there is more and more interest in and awareness of sleep research. Just watch Sanjay Gupta on CNN or listen to the recent segment on Weekend America on NPR.
At the same time, I am often alarmed at the levels of ignorance still rampant in the general population, and even more…
clock | September 10, 2006Lance Mannion: It takes talent to make good schlock TV
Andrew Sullivan: The Rove Campaign
Paul Craig Roberts: Bush the Pitiful
The Nation: Bush Aims to Kill War Crimes Act
Publus: THE TWO 9/11s
clock | September 10, 2006Nice review of a new biography of I.F.Stone:
Stone gives journalists a hero to honor:
Heroes are dangerous. We all know that.
Choose the wrong one and people can die. If a lot of people choose the wrong one, a lot of people can die.
But then every now and then, you can see a hero so perfect for a particular time, place and milieu that hero worship seems almost ordained.
I.F. Stone's time, it seems, has come around again 17 years after his death. In an "information era" of corporate journalism, startling wartime press conformity and acquiescence, a pack press with a summer camp mentality and…
clock | September 10, 2006Starting today, the NCBlogs.com blog aggregator has a brand new look and much greater functionality. Go check it out.
clock | September 10, 2006ConvergeSouth is not a blogging conference - it is about the stuff that goes beyond blogging, both in terms of technology (podcasting, vlogging) and in terms of use - building online communities, for instance.
I am really happy to see that there will be a session on Facebook this year and I hope that students from NC A&T and UNC-G show up and tell us old geezers exactly what Facebook is to them, how they use it, how they think about it, and what else they need.
So far, we keep guessing as to what the next generation needs and wants, but they grew up online while we learned later in…
clock | September 10, 2006This kind of ignorant bleating makes me froth at the mouth every time - I guess it is because this is my own blogging "turf".
One of the recurring themes of my blog is the disdain I have for people who equate sleep with laziness out of their Puritan core of understanding of the world, their "work ethic" which is a smokescreen for power-play, their vicious disrespect for everyone who is not like them, and the nasty feeling of superiority they have towards the teenagers just because they are older, bigger, stronger and more powerful than the kids. Not to forget the idiotic notions that kids…
clock | September 10, 2006Do pilots get enough rest?:
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The federal rules on pilot duty hours and rest periods aren't the most comprehensible of reads.
One rule allows airlines to schedule pilots to fly for eight hours or less during a 24-hour period without a "rest period during those eight hours." Another gives pilots who fly for more than eight hours in a 24-hour stretch a break of at least twice the number of hours flown, either "at or before the end of" the eight hours. Pilots who fly more than eight hours during a 24-hour period must receive 18 hours of rest…
clock | September 10, 2006'Empty Nester' Parent Birds Use Recruitment Calls To Extend Offspring Care:
By studying a habituated population of pied babblers (Turdoides bicolor) in the Kalahari Desert, researchers have discovered a surprising new way in which parent birds can extend the period of their care of offspring.
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It is well known that birds feed their young directly, but it is usually assumed that care ends when the young leave the nest and begin to forage for themselves. In many species, however, parents and young continue to associate with one another beyond this point of…