j7uy5 | August 5, 2009This is good. Indeed, it may qualify as the type specimen (
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holotype">holotype) of
snark. From The New Yorker:
href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/hendrikhertzberg/2009/08/clinton-north-korea.html">It's
So Obvious
From Avi Zenilman, online news editor, The New Yorker:
Do you think the right is upset about President
Clinton's mission because he didn't free the hostages by going through
the Japanese to sell arms to the North Koreans and then use the
proceeds to support anti-Chavez guerrillas?
Posted by Hendrik Hertzberg
On the…
j7uy5 | August 3, 2009There is a short
open-access article about whole-body neuronal MRI, in the most recent
NEJM. The authors describe a technique of visualizing peripheral
nerves. Normally, these are not seen very well on MRI. This
limits the usefulness of MR imaging for nerves outside of the central
nervous system.
The two images on the left are from a person with no neurological
disease. The two on the right show a person with
href="http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2008/04/disease_at_the_head_table_seco.php">chronic
inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP). You can see
a bigger version…
j7uy5 | August 2, 2009Botanical names drive me nuts, sometimes. Every plant that is
worth anything has many names. The supposed gold standard, the
(Latin) Linnaean taxonomical name, gets changed every so often.
So there is no constancy. You'd think it would be easier to
research something if it has an unusual name that you can use as a
keyword. But that is not always the case. Especially if the
names are changed.
Last week, I noted that I am familiar with one kind of tree, called a
mimosa tree. This tree has blossoms of an unusual color.
But that color is not mimosa. There are other trees, also called…
j7uy5 | July 29, 2009The Knowsley Safari Park
wants their visitors to know that the babbons are smart. They
have figured out how to open car-top cargo carriers.
This is not actually a candid photo. It was staged, in order to
educate the visitors about his potential problem with their Papio
anubis population.
Source: Cellar
Image of the Day
Video HT:
href="http://presurfer.blogspot.com/2009/07/baboons-steal-underwear-from-rooftop.html">The
Presurfer
j7uy5 | July 27, 2009Natalie Angier has another
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/science/21angier.html?sq=behavior%20what%20animals%20do&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=print">interesting
article in the NYT. In the article, she discusses the meaning
of the word behavior. Apparently, this all came from the
realization that even standard works on the subject did not contain a
"point-by-point definition."
The realization came to
href="http://dlevitis.org/dlevitis/Research.html">Dan Levitis, a
grad student in zoology at Berkeley. Levitis happens to have a
Blogspot blog: Blog of
Science; he's…
j7uy5 | July 26, 2009Alabama has decide to not allow a particular wine to be sold. The
reason is that the label contains "some nudity."
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A wine label showing a nude nymph is too
much for Alabama's liquor control agency, which has told restaurants
and stores not to sell the product.
The label on Cycles Gladiator wine, produced by Hahn Family Wines in
Soledad, Calif., shows a vintage 1895 advertising poster for Cycles
Gladiator bicycles. The French poster features a nude nymph flying
beside a winged bicycle.
The article is from the Seattle PI. The paper was bold enough to
show the image,…
j7uy5 | July 25, 2009We grow catnip in the garden outside the home-office window. Our
cat likes to lay in front of the window, and stare wistfully at the
catnip.
style="display: inline;">
But today, he saw something unexpected. The neighbor's cat was
laying in the catnip.
j7uy5 | July 24, 2009
style="display: inline;">
The
href="http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/pantone.aspx?pg=20634&ca=10">Pantone
color of the year for 2009 happens to be: PANTONE 14-0848
Mimosa. Something about this captured my attention.
I was casually sipping from the Internet firehose when I encountered
this tidbit of information. Why, I wondered, would I even notice
this. Color matters not to me. I'd be just as happy,
perhaps more so, in an Ansel Adams world of black, white, and shades of
gray.
The human mind works by association. (A
href="http://www.acpa.nche.edu/comm/ccaps/midaward04.…
j7uy5 | July 23, 2009This is one of those sickening things that is
href="http://www.pamshouseblend.com/tag/Tasers">all too common:
href="http://www.cnjonline.com/news/tucumcari-34303-year-chief.html?wap=0">
href="http://www.cnjonline.com/news/tucumcari-34303-year-chief.html?wap=0">Tucumcari
police chief Tasers 14-year-old
Girl recovering after dart surgically removed from her head
Friday, Jul 3 2009, 7:08 pm
By Chelle Delaney: Freedom New Mexico
A 14-year-old Tucumcari girl is recovering at an
Albuquerque hospital
after being shot in the head with a Taser dart by Tucumcari Police
Chief Roger…
j7uy5 | July 22, 2009I got a kick out of this illustration. It's from the coloring
book at Neuroscience for Kids, showing what neuroscientists look like:
style="display: inline;">
Neuroscience
for Kids (link to pdf coloring book)
Neuroscience
for Kids (link to website)
j7uy5 | July 21, 2009
href="http://annarbor.com/2009/07/didnt-get-enough-of-the-art-fairs-last-week-check-out-this-time-lapse-video.html">AnnArbor.com
(HT:
href="http://vielmetti.typepad.com/vacuum/2009/07/soft-launch-day-16.html">Edward
Vielmetti) has a youtube time-lapse video at the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Arbor_Art_Fairs">Ann Arbor Art
Fairs. Get the whole thing, compressed into 177 seconds:
This probably is the very best way to experience it.
I still remember going to the first one, at age 6. It seemed
overwhelming then. Strangely, the Art Fairs have grown at exactly
the…
j7uy5 | July 20, 2009I was off-line for several days, because the modem toasted
itself.
I didn't do it, honest! It had been acting up for a couple of
weeks, causing random "web site not found" errors. If it happened
very much, I'd reboot the thing and it would be better for a while.
Finally, it failed. The green power light turned to red. It
would not restart. Unplugging it, waiting the necessary 20
seconds or so, and plugging it back in did not help. Until the
third time, when not even the red light would go on. It was dead.
Called the ISP, who had sold us the thing about a year ago. They
sent a new…
j7uy5 | July 16, 2009A friend sent me a link to an article about the upcoming fifth edition
of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual. The article speaks of flaws in the process, and warning
of dire "unintended consequences."
href="http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/print/article/10168/1425378?printable=true">
href="http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/print/article/10168/1425378?printable=true">A
Warning Sign on the Road to DSM-V: Beware of Its Unintended Consequences
Allen Frances, MD
June 26, 2009
Psychiatric Times
...I believe that the work on DSM-V has displayed the most…
j7uy5 | July 12, 2009Went for a Sunday drive. Saw this:
White Sands National Monument
Drove a little farther, saw this:
Odocoileus hemionus
You might have guessed, I did not take the first picture. It is a
view
from Earth orbit. The second picture, I did take; it is a
view through my windshiled. The two locations are about thirty
miles apart.
j7uy5 | July 10, 2009A chart on Clusterstock (great name) by Kamelia Angelova (another great
name) shows what I've suspected for a while: all the jobs created in
the USA, during the Bush II years, were unsustainable. All have
been lost. Meanwhile, the population has increased by about 23
million.
style="display: inline;">
People can argue about what the latest job numbers mean.
href="http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/07/weekly-unemployment-claims-decline.html">Some
see signs of recovery;
href="http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/">others do
not. I say the data are too noisy, but…
j7uy5 | July 6, 2009Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) has been controversial, as
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/16/AR2009031602913.html">noted
in the Washington Post.
Admittedly, most of the controversy has been contrived.
Fortunately, the process is moving forward; there is no meaningful
opposition at this point.
A good summary of the objections of this was posted by Hilzoy at
href="http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018133.php">Political
Animal. I'll deal with the objections simply by posting the
link, as refuting them is not the…
j7uy5 | June 29, 2009Psychology is turning out to be a rather important field these
days. Nate Hagens has a post on The Oil Drum,
href="http://www.theoildrum.com/node/5519">The Psychological and
Evolutionary Roots of Resource Overconsumption Revisited. He
reviews the evolutionary psychology of poor economic
decision-making. Calculated Risk has a post,
href="http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/06/scientific-american-bubbles-and-busts.html">Scientific
American: Bubbles and Busts. It's based on an article in Scientific
American (
href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-science-of-…
j7uy5 | June 27, 2009OK, folks, explain this to me.
It is a bicycle. Bicycles are cool. But from the
looks of this thing, it seems as though it would be like riding an
anvil around town. Sure, it'd be great if you got hit by a
Hummer. The bike would be fine.
style="display: inline;">
There are
href="http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/6712/michael-ubbesen-jakobsen-baubike.html">more
photos at designbloom, and
href="http://www.yatzer.com/1741_baubike_by_michael_ubbesen_jakobsen">Yatzer.
One person
href="http://www.thisnext.com/item/023FBE0D/09F57E93/The-Bau-Bike-A-Stunning-Two">…
j7uy5 | June 25, 2009PhysioProf commented about this back in 2006 after Alex Palazzo 's
post,
href="http://scienceblogs.com/transcript/2006/12/silent_mutations_inactivates_p.php">A
silent mutation affects pain perception? That post discussed
mutations that affect pain perception. Now, there is a bit
more information available about potential commercial developments
stemming from this line of genetic research.
href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aC2haw8NOHW0">Firewalker's
Faulty Gene May Shake Up Market for Painkillers
By Dermot Doherty
June 25 (Bloomberg)
A Pakistani…
j7uy5 | June 22, 2009It was the second-most-blogged article on the NYT when I got up this
morning; now, it is the first-most-blogged. It is the article
that reports on a survey that shows 72% support for a government-run
health insurance program. The program would be similar to
Medicare, but would be available to persons under 65 and not on Social
Security Disability.
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/health/policy/21poll.html">In
Poll, Wide Support for Government-Run Health
By KEVIN SACK and MARJORIE CONNELLY
Published: June 20, 2009
Americans overwhelmingly support substantial changes to the…