j7uy5 | December 22, 2007The term evolution, presented without
any
modifiers, generally is held to refer to genetic change within a
population. Of course, behaviors can change over time, too.
This includes behaviors that are quite specific and complex.
Ungulates
are mammals with hooves. The classification comprises several
orders. Thus, the term refers to a superorder.
However, the classification scheme has gotten more complex
than it was back when I first studied it. There used to be
two orders,
rel="tag">Artiodactyla and
rel="tag" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perissodactyla">Perissodactyla.…
j7uy5 | December 21, 2007The
href="http://anerroroccurredwhileprocessingthisdirective.com/moviegen/">Movie
Generator just takes a database of various actors and ideas,
and combines them at random:
Hollywood's out of ideas. I'm
just here to help out.
Vin Diesel stars in the heart-warming role of President,
Abraham
Lincoln. With Kate Winslet playing his object of affection, the story
follows his eccentric, but often humorous path to fame. With John
Travolta playing his loathed enemy and determined to undermine his work.
That sounds like something Travola would do.
j7uy5 | December 21, 2007
If you have cats, and you put laundry on the bed, and leave the room
for 15 seconds, this is what happens. They own
the place.
j7uy5 | December 21, 2007My colleagues, et alia, have been
writing (
href="http://johnrlott.blogspot.com/2007/12/steroids-for-academics.html">1
href="http://scienceblogs.com/ethicsandscience/2007/12/the_ethics_of_performance_enha.php">2
href="http://scienceblogs.com/retrospectacle/2007/12/cognitive_enhancers_in_academi.php">3
href="http://drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2007/11/14/doping-is-a-okay-according-to-nature/">4
href="http://sunaddict86.blogspot.com/2007/12/performance-enhancing-drugsfor-brain.html">5
href="http://www.mindhacks.com/blog/2007/12/altered_mates_drugs.html">6
href="http…
j7uy5 | December 20, 2007This is a brain MRI animation, showing sequential slices of
the brain,
from top to bottom. It was a featured image
at
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:User-FastFission-brain.gif">Wikipedia.
This was created by a Wikipedia user,
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fastfission"
title="User:Fastfission">Fastfission.
The explanation follows:
Made from an
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fMRI" class="extiw"
title="w:fMRI">fMRI
scan I had done. Goes from the top of my brain straight through to the
bottom. That little dot that appears for a second on the…
j7uy5 | December 20, 2007
The University of Manitoba finally decomissioned its mainframe,
Betelgeuse, after 47 years of faithful service.
The IT folks were so
touched, they held a New Orleans-style jazz funeral for the thing.
Here's the eulogy:
For forty-seven years you've
served us well, you cast us in your green spell. You processed
transactions without complaint, we've asked the Pope to make you a
saint.
The users you were always
able to please, with a little training they could enter with ease, all
the data they needed in 2 or 3 screens instead of the 57 in VIP.
And getting data was easy in
IMS, there…
j7uy5 | December 19, 2007Now, if only they would offer these online for free...
10. Collegiate Sexualities at
Occidental College.
9. Body Politics: Power, Pain, and Pleasure at
Williams College.
8. Issues Dividing America at Columbia University.
7. Whiteness and Multiculturalism at Ithaca College.
6. Truth, Lies, Politics, and Policy at Portland
State University.
5. Introduction to Labor Studies at the University
of Washington.
4. Speaking Out at Bucknell College.
3. Imperialism in American History at the
University of California, Irvine.
2. Movements in Social Justice at Occidental
College…
j7uy5 | December 19, 2007Amuse yourself for a few minutes: The Neural Correlate
Society has compiled its list of ten finalists for the
href="http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=109&MMN_position=45:45">year's
best optical illusions.
My favorite is the Bouncing Brains.
j7uy5 | December 19, 2007There is a movement afoot to develop a framework for a
href="http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2007/12/lets_get_the_presidential_cand.php">Presidential
candidate debate on science. Bora has been
proposing
href="http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2007/12/science_debate_2008_my_questio.php">questions
that would have the candidates explain..
In what way, if any, would you change the current
federal framework of implementing science-related policy?
One issue here is this: would it be best to ask broad questions,
detailed questions, or a mix of the two?
Or would it be better to…
j7uy5 | December 18, 2007In February 2005, a bunch of smart people met to eat Chinese
food and talk about a new way to make money. This included
Greg Lippman, a trader at Deutsche Bank; Rajiv Kamilla, a trader at
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. with a background in nuclear physics;
and Todd Kushman, who led a contingent from Bear
Stearns Cos. There were about 50 people at the meeting.
What did they discuss? The design of a new financial product:
securities based upon subprime mortgages. As reported at
href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601170&refer=special_report&sid=aA6YC1xKUoek"
rel="tag">…
j7uy5 | December 17, 2007This is another irresistable panda video; I got this from
href="http://www.neatorama.com/2007/12/17/baby-pandas-wrestling/">Neatorama,
who got it from
href="http://xo.typepad.com/blog/2007/12/video-baby-pand.html">A
Welsh View.
j7uy5 | December 14, 2007This is an albino squirrel, as
featured in the
href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=452760&in_page_id=1770">Daily
Mail. They have a gallery of such photos
href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/galleries/index.html?in_gallery_id=10440&in_page_id=1055">here,
including an amazing albino peacock.
Also, check out the winners of the National Geographic
href="http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/photo-contest/animals.html">photo
contest.
j7uy5 | December 14, 2007Christians have a solemn duty. The reason will become clear.
Recently, there was a strong reaction in the Blogosphere about Governor
Mitt
Romney's "
href="http://www.mittromney.com/News/Speeches/Faith_In_America"
rel="tag">Faith In America" Address.
I noticed in particular the posts on
href="http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2007/12/freethinker_sunday_sermonette_76.php">Effect
Measure,
href="http://matthewyglesias.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/12/romneys_terrible_speech.php"
rel="tag">Matthew Yglesias, and
href="http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2007/12/…
j7uy5 | December 13, 2007Yale
University is following the trend, putting entire college
courses on the Internet.
As a member of the vast left-wing conspiracy, I object.
I object, because now, conservatives will be able to see what methods
we use to brainwash college kids. They will see how we get
them to vote for Ralph Nader. They will see how we get them
to use those weird curly light bulbs. The will see how we get
them to eat tofu and tabouleh and tempeh.
They will find out about the
href="http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=7591">most
dangerous books we give them, such as Silent Spring,
Coming…
j7uy5 | December 12, 2007 I haven't gotten
back to
the "selection of antidepressants" series. Mostly that is
because, alphabetically, the next one is supposed to be citalopram.
While
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citalopram">citalopram
(Celexa™)
is a perfectly fine antidepressant, it is kind of boring.
So to spice things up a little bit, I'm going to jump ahead to
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desvenlafaxine" rel="tag">desvenlafaxine.
This is a drug that is in development by
href="http://www.wyeth.com/" rel="tag">Wyeth.
They plan to market it with the brand name,
href="http://www.wyeth…
j7uy5 | December 10, 2007There is an artisan at
href="http://www.pitbullarmory.com/" rel="tag">Pitbull
Armory who makes armor for
people,
primarily for Society
for Creative Anachronism events. But he also makes
armor for dogs. And horses. And he's "made history"
by making armor for a squirrel.
Here's the dog armor, on a dog named Spok:
And here is the squirrel in armor:
So if you are sick and tired of having your squirrel get harassed by
the neighborhood cat, you know what to do.
j7uy5 | December 9, 2007Last year, on the occasion of
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_AIDS_Day">World
AIDS Day, President Bush promised to reform a discriminatory
policy that blocks most persons with HIV from entering the USA.
The current rule does allow for waivers, but the process is cumbersome
and unscientific.
Now, one week after this year's World AIDS Day, we learn that the
proposed new rule is worse than the one it would
replace.
As reported in
href="http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/91059.php">Medical
News Today:
The proposed rule further discriminates
against visitors with HIV…
j7uy5 | December 8, 2007
This case was
href="http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/23/2411">written
up in the NEJM,
and made freely accessible. The image on the top left shows a
brain scan taken three years earlier than the one on the top right.
The other images show the cells in the tumor.
It is a meningothelial meningioma, World Health Organization grade I.
You may ask, how is it that we happen to have available
before-and-after views of the same brain. That is not usually
the case. But this was an unusual case: the patient had
undergone sex-change treatment, and was receiving high-dose…
j7uy5 | December 5, 2007From an
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/20/AR2007112001777.html">article
in the Washington Post:
Afterward, she stayed strong. She wasn't
going to make the classic victim's mistake of blaming herself for
provoking the attack.
Mo, writing at
href="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/11/mdma_for_ptsd.php">Neurophilosophy,
commented at length upon an article about the use of
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mdma">MDMA (
href="http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/mdma/mdma.shtml" rel="tag">Ecstasy)
in the treatment of
href="http…
j7uy5 | December 3, 2007The Washington Post has an interesting article,
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/01/AR2007120101782.html">'A
Soldier's Officer', about an officer in Iraq who attempted
suicide and endangered other personnel. The military is
considering putting her on trial for "assault on a superior
commissioned officer, aggravated assault, kidnapping, reckless
endangerment, wrongful discharge of a firearm, communication of a
threat and two attempts of intentional self-injury without intent to
avoid service."
In this post, I will comment on the article and the case as…