gregladen | August 30, 2009The DSCC just sent me this nice video:
Ted's passing means the passing of an era. He said "the dream live on" but he also made the dream happen by unabashedly embracing liberal ideals while at the same time working tirelessly across political factions to make things happen. Now, I'm afraid the dream will just be a dream unless other Senators begin to take on this role. I hope the DSCC invests primarily in Senatorial candidates that are as like Kennedy as possible in this regard .
This is the DSCC web site.
gregladen | August 29, 2009In August, Goddard added 4,128 new-generation Intel "Nehalem" processors to its Discover high-end computing system. The upgraded Discover will serve as the centerpiece of a new climate simulation capability at Goddard. Discover will host NASA's modeling contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the leading scientific organization for assessing climate change, and other national and international climate initiatives.
And they're adding another 4,128 in a couple of months. This will be the first major. Nehalem based climate simulation project. Details here.
gregladen | August 29, 2009Research from Bristol:
Doctors and lawyers are more likely to come from wealthy backgrounds according to new research from the Department of Economics that indicates that the 'social gap' that prevents poorer people from entering the top professions is becoming more pronounced over time.
Using data on family income and IQ in childhood drawn from the National Child Development Survey (NCDS), which tracks a representative sample of the population born in 1958, and the British Cohort Study (BCS), which follows people born in 1970, the research shows that professions such as law and medicine…
gregladen | August 29, 2009I did not go to the Michele Bachmann "town hall" meeting yesterday because of a schedule conflict (I was out of town) but there is some news. Check out the last few posts on Dump Michele Bachmann blog. There is evidence, apparently, that Bachmann supporters were bussed in to pack the room. I've heard from two other private sources, one from inside and one from outside, that there were mostly supporters inside and mostly anti-Bachmann people outside.
I expect there to be a couple of good blog posts out about this in the next day or so, and I'll point to them if I find out about them. Add…
gregladen | August 28, 2009I posted a photo of a itty bitty molecule that is making the news these days ... the photo, not the molecule ... but I didn't have much to say about it except that it was cool. Ethan Siegel has picked up the thread and explains what it is we are looking at.
I myself have used the little needle thingie in research, but the tip of the one I used was more like an actual needle made of a zillion metal molecules so we could only image things like primate teeth or cut marks on bones. This one is a little different...
gregladen | August 28, 2009Here is a major press release by Elizabeth K. Gardner on the link between climate change and poverty, reproduced below the fold for your edification.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Urban workers could suffer most from climate change as the cost of food drives them into poverty, according to a new study that quantifies the effects of climate on the world's poor populations.
A team led by Purdue University researchers examined the potential economic influence of adverse climate events, such as heat waves, drought and heavy rains, on those in 16 developing countries. Urban workers in…
gregladen | August 28, 2009First, let's get this one thing straight, because a lot of the astroturfers and even reporters and politicians are not getting it. Health care is when you get sick and the medical profession fixes you up, or some version of that. How good our health care system is becomes a matter of how good the medicine is. We in the United States and in Europe, Canada, etc. have pretty good medicine, though there are impediments to quality medicine built into our political and social systems..
Heath care INSURANCE is the system for paying for the medicine. The current discussion in the US is about…
gregladen | August 28, 2009I made the point in an earlier post (Discordant Democrats vs. Republican Dittoheads) that Republicans work in lock step and simply do whatever they are told. I'm not talking (necessarily) about the average Joe the Plumber Republican. I'm talking about elected officials with law degrees. The average United States Senator or Representative who happens to be a Republican needs not think, read, or consider. All he or she needs to do is listen to the orders and follow them. Thining on one's own is simply not done.
Does that sound like a typical Greg Laden over the top bit of hyperbole? It…
gregladen | August 28, 2009DURHAM, N.C. -- Two Duke University education experts have serious concerns about the Obama administration's proposal to link teacher evaluations to student tests scores as a criterion for how much federal stimulus money states will receive for K-12 education.
Friday (Aug. 28) is the deadline to submit public comments on the proposal that will disperse more than $4 billion in grants. The U.S. Department of Education has said it will issue its final rules sometime after the deadline.
Helen F. Ladd, the Edgar Thompson Professor of Public Policy at Duke, says that while student test scores play…
gregladen | August 28, 2009Eudy Simelane was a brilliant soccer star, captain of South Africa's national women's team.
She was also an out lesbian and an activist for LGBT rights.
In April 2008, a group of men attacked her with a sickening brutality. She was gang-raped, beaten, and stabbed more than 25 times. The assault was so vicious that police even found stab wounds on the bottom of her feet.
South African authorities believe that the hate crime was a case of "corrective rape," a crime that is horrifyingly common in South Africa. Even in major cities, lesbians live in fear of being targeted for rape.
Women who have…
gregladen | August 28, 2009Atomic bonds are too small to see, right? Well, what do you suppose THIS is a picture of!?!?!?
That B&W structure is an actual image of a molecule and its atomic bonds. The first of its kind, in fact, and a breakthrough for the crazy IBM scientists in Zurich who spent 20 straight hours staring at the "specimen"--which in this case was a 1.4 nanometer-long pentacene molecule comprised of 22 carbon atoms and 14 hydrogen atoms.
You can actually make out each of those atoms and their bonds, and it's thanks to this: An atomic force microscope.
Details here
hat tip: Ben
gregladen | August 28, 2009Trials are staring on a new cancer vaccine.
The melanoma trial is being conducted at New York University Medical Center, while the ovarian cancer vaccine trial is at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y. The trials are assessing the safety and the anti-tumor immune response of the so-called NY-ESO-1 recombinant protein cancer vaccine alone and in combination with other agents, according to the Cancer Research Institute (CRI), an organization that has recently given $450,000 to Cornell to support vaccine production at the Bioproduction Facility. The facility is a partnership…
gregladen | August 28, 2009This is another falsehood, but a tricky one. Remember the point of falsehoods: They are statements that are typically associated with meanings or implications that are misleading or incorrect, and in some cases downright damaging. "Humans evolved from apes" is an excellent example of a falsehood because it is technically correct, yet the implied meanings that arise from it are potentially wrong. Even more importantly, you can't really analyze the statement "Humans evolved from apes" without getting into an extended analysis and discussion of what an ape is and what a human is.
When…
gregladen | August 27, 2009I could just point you to Bloggingheads for this, but it might not be there. In any event, much more fun than Michael Behe on Bloggingheads or anywhere else is THIS POST by ERV telling us about how she is not pregnant.
Confused? Just go look at the post and stop complaining.
gregladen | August 27, 2009Well, not really, but if on line CBT takes off, how will we know when they make the switch?
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) seems to be effective when delivered online in real time by a therapist, with benefits maintained over 8 months. This method of delivery could broaden access to CBT in primary care. These are the conclusions of an article in this week's Global Mental Health special edition of The Lancet, written by Dr David Kessler, NIHR National School for Primary Care Research, University of Bristol and colleagues.
source
gregladen | August 27, 2009BirdLife International is launching a global bid to try to confirm the continued existence of 47 species of bird that have not been seen for up to 184 years.
The list of potentially lost birds is a tantalising mix of species ranging from some inhabiting the least visited places on earth - such as remote islands and the western Himalayas - to those occurring in parts of Europe and the United States.
"The mention of species such as Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Jamaican Petrel, Hooded Seedeater, Himalayan Quail, and Pink-headed Duck will set scientists' pulses racing. Some of these species haven't…
gregladen | August 27, 2009A rough guide to your Western Heritage.
I like "We've all got a birth certificate from Kenya"
Hat Tip: Pharyngula
gregladen | August 27, 2009
There is a lot of evidence that nature is in balance. An invasive species throws off the balance of nature in a given region by out-competing some similar indigenous form. When something destructive happens there is a return to status quo, eventually. A few cold years are followed by a few warm years, or a few dry years are followed by a few wet years. So, why is "Nature maintains a balance" a falsehood?
Remember what makes a statement a falsehood (refer back to our earlier discussions on this issue). By now you realize that some falsehoods are better than others. "How can a falsehood…
gregladen | August 27, 2009Danny is probably not going to become a hurricane, but it may cause some wet weather along the East Coast. But, I did want to draw your attention to a fun bit of animated video. Watch the baby ghost hurricane pop out of the left side of the storm:
CLICK HERE
If you don't look at this some dime today (Aug 27th) you'll probably miss it.