This 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 surface,…
There 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…
Botanical 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…
The 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
Natalie 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…
Alabama 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, but…
We 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.
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.htm…
This 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-oldGirl 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 Hatcher…
I 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)
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 same…
I 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…
A 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, 2009Psychiatric Times ...I believe that the work on DSM-V has displayed the most…
Went 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 aview from Earth orbit.  The second picture, I did take; it is a view through my windshiled.  The two locations are about thirty miles apart.
A 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 my…
Comparative 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…
Psychology 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-…
OK, 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">…
PhysioProf 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…
It 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…