clock | June 16, 2006Next Teaching Carnival (higher ed) will be on or after June 16th, 2006 on Raining Cats and Dogma.
First Mendel's Garden (genetics) will be on June 18th, 2006 on The force that through....
Next Pediatric Grand Rounds will be on June 18th, 2006, on Unintelligent Design.
Next Carnival of the Green (sustainability, environment, conservation) will be on June 19th, 2006 on Savvy Vegetarian.
Next Carnival of Bad History (misuse and abuse of history) will be on June 20, 2006 on Frog In A Well[thanks to Jonathan Dresner for updating me on this]
Next Grand Rounds (medicine) will be on June 20th on…
clock | June 16, 2006 Want this badge?
Message from the proprietors of the Carnival of the Liberals:
Dear Liberal Carnivalers,
Did you think we'd disappeared? Don't worry (or celebrate), you're not getting rid of us that easily!
Some logistical issues caused a bit of a delay and resulted in The Uncredible Hallq swapping hosting slots with Varkam at Neural Gourmet. Varkam will be hosting Carnival of the Liberals #15 on Wednesday, June 21st and and the deadline is Tuesday, June 20th by 7PM EDT. So, what are you waiting for? Get to sending in those submissions!
Note: Anyone who sent in something prior to this…
clock | June 16, 2006Greensmile of The Executioners Thong blog has a question. He (sorry for gender confusion - edited) is offering to set up an automated webpage which people can use to send letters to the advertisers and sponsors of TV shows that allow right-wing talking points (e.g., having Coulter a as a guest) to be aired unchallenged. Woudl you be interested? If so (or if not and have a good reason to explain why not), go over there and chime in in the comments.
What kind of people on what kind of shows? Here is a short sampler.
clock | June 16, 2006Interesting:
Melatonin may be found in grapes
MILAN, Italy, June 16 (UPI) -- Scientists in Italy say they have discovered that the grapes used in popular red wines may contain high levels of the sleep hormone melatonin.
Melatonin is naturally secreted by the pineal gland in the brain, especially at night, and it tells the body when it is time to sleep, according to researcher Iriti Marcello at the University of Milan.
Hey, hey, what do you say:
Until recently, melatonin was thought to be exclusively produced by mammals, but has recently been discovered in plants.
Excuse me, but we've known…
clock | June 16, 2006Animalcules 1.9, the carnival of microscopic life, is up on Aetiology. This is the first time I don't have anything there - just too swamped with everything. I promise I'll be good next time.
clock | June 16, 2006It is impossible to cover all organ systems in detail over the course of just two lectures. Thus, we will stick only to the basics. Still, I want to emphasize how much organ systems work together, in concert, to maintain the homeostasis (and rheostasis) of the body. I'd also like to emphasize how fuzzy are the boundaries between organ systems - many organs are, both anatomically and functionally, simultaneously parts of two or more organ systems. So, I will use an example you are familiar with from our study of animal behavior - stress response - to illustrate the unity of the well-…
clock | June 16, 2006There are some excellent news from Seed overlords. They will add to our DonorsChoose educational action for science and math programs for underfunded schools. You can see the donation thermometer on the sidebar of about 20 blogs here, including mine. We are doing excellent - my readers have already donated $342.26 and other bloggers are also doing fine - we have two weeks to go.
Now Seed bosses have announced that they will match our donations, up to $10,000. So, if all the bloggers combined raise $10, 000 or more, SEED will donate an additional ten grand! You will be able to see regular…
clock | June 16, 2006
This was first posted on http://www.jregrassroots.org/ forums on July 10, 2004, then republished on Science And Politics on August 18, 2004. That was to be just the first, and most raw, post on this topic on my blog. It was followed by about a 100 more posts building on this idea, modifying it, and changing my mind in the process. You can see some of the better follow-ups here. Also, I have since then read Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage by Stephanie Coontz, which is a much better and more scholarly work than E.J.Graff's book. Below the…
clock | June 15, 2006It is something like homeschooling, except there is no learning involved. People are performing their own private church services at home instead of going to the local megachurch. Why do you think this is catching on? Is it good or bad?
clock | June 15, 2006Al Gore's movie is opening locally tomorrow (though not in the theater up the street) and I am really looking forward to seeing it. I have just read what is, in my opinion, the best review of the movie: Brokeback Earth by Godfrey Cheshire. It is long but well worth your time.
The first page or so is actually about the movie, about the science behind the movie and about Al Gore himself. The latter part, where it starts delving into politics is perhaps the best. Here is just a tiny little excerpt to whet your appetites:
.........snip............
By my not entirely scientific calculations…
clock | June 15, 2006A lot of interesting posts appeared over the past day or two concerning evolutionary theory, what evolution is and how it works.
It all started with Jonah Lehrer's article in SEED Magazine on the ideas of Joan Roughgarden:The Gay Animal Kingdom to which PZ Myers responded with Evolution and homosexuality and Jonah responded with agreement: PZ vs. Roughgarden.
I responded with a post in which I linked to my old review, Books: 'Evolution's Rainbow' by Joan Roughgarden, and ended with a minor quip that switched the discussion from homosexuality to the question of units of selection: Sexual…
clock | June 15, 2006The new question-of-the-week was just beemed down from the mothership:
How is it that all the PIs (Tara, PZ, Orac et al.), various grad students, post-docs, etc. find time to fulfill their primary objectives (day jobs) and blog so prolifically?
I do not have a day job! I am a stay-at-home dad.
I occasionally teach - but that is either on Saturday mornings (lab) or evenings (once a week), so that does not take too much time. Preparation also does not take much time.
I am supposed to be writing my Dissertation, but I've been very, very lazy for far too long. Most of the writing and…
clock | June 15, 2006Bush to Create World's Largest Marine Protected Area Near Hawaii
".....A turning point came in April, when Bush sat through a 65-minute private White House screening of a PBS documentary that unveiled the beauty of -- and perils facing -- the archipelago's aquamarine waters and its nesting seabirds, sea turtles and sleepy-eyed monk seals, all threatened by extinction.
The film seemed to catch Bush's imagination, according to senior officials and others in attendance. The president popped up from his front-row seat after the screening; congratulated filmmaker Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of the…
clock | June 15, 2006Janet has the update on our educational fundraiser. People are pitching in, a little bit of money at a time. But....but, where are my readers?! Only $10 so far?! Come on - I know you can do better than that! Click here:
Help public school kids through my DonorsChoose challenge!
clock | June 15, 2006
Can it get any better than this! The Five Fists of Science, starring Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla in a race to save the world from Thomas Edison and J.P Morgan! I immediatelly pre-ordered the book and can't wait to read it.
Update: I just got an e-mail from Amazon that the book is finally out and that my copy has been shipped. I'll be able to read it just in time for the celebration of Tesla's 150th birthday on July 10th.
(Hat-tip: Science Librarian, via Boing Boing)
clock | June 15, 2006The Aquatic Ape theory is bunk, but Aquatic Sparrow theory just got a huge boost. There is no way I can explain the Big Evolution News Of The Day as well as Grrrlscientist did, so please go here and enjoy the amazing news of the wading/aquatic ancestors of all modern birds, with the beuatiful pictures of excuisitely well-preserved fossils from China.
clock | June 15, 2006When I first uploaded the banner it was kinda mrky and muted. Look at it now! Clear and gorgeous!
Thanks for the banner go (again) to Carel Pieter Brest Van Kempen. You may want to visit his website to check his artwork (and perhaps buy some, or comission your own banner). You can see some of his art also on this webpage.
He has also recently published a gorgeous book, which you can buy either here or here.
Finally, you are surely going to enjoy his beautiful blog. I hope he gets invited to be in the next wave of new SEED sciencebloggers.