gregladen | November 19, 2007The "statins" make up a class of cholesterol lowering drugs. Fish oil (oil derived from fish) is rich in certain fatty acids.
Both types of compounds can have powerful positive and protective effects in the brain.
A study just now coming out (to be published in Brain Research Reviews) looks at the biochemical effects of statins and fish oil in the brain in detail. The study makes specific recommendations for further research, and concludes with a proposal that the way we classify certain neural pathologies be reconsidered to take into account the complex biochemical pathways that produce…
gregladen | November 19, 2007As has been reported in various places, the death toll from Sidr has slowly and steadily climbed, topping 3,000 according to a fairly recent report from the BBC.
The Bangladesh Red Crescent is estimating that the death toll may reach 10,000.
A half million homes have been destroyed, and a couple/few million people displaced.
Aid is getting to many areas though there are concerns of lack of coordination among agencies and between the aid agencies and the government, according to some reports. The southwest has many regions where supplies and help have not yet arrived.
The biggest…
gregladen | November 19, 2007Intelligent design. Creationism. Evolution. Fossils. Controversy. Charles Darwin. The Controversy, and Teaching the Controversy. The Dover Trial reconstructed with Oscar Winning Performances.
Thank you VERY much NOVA and PBS for making "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial" available on line.
It is unfortunately that it is not available in formats that everyone can use easily In any event, it is here.
[Hat Tip: Pharyngula]
gregladen | November 18, 2007Wiley has a cool web page with "interactive concepts in biochemistry" animations. Check it out.
gregladen | November 18, 2007The latest target for demonizing by right-wing talk radio is an 18-year-old Yup'ik Eskimo woman who traveled to Washington, D.C., this month to tell what global warming is doing to her remote home village of St. Michael, Alaska.
Charlee Lockwood spoke of how moose have moved north, berry patches produce less fruit and the catch is declining at her family's fish camp. "Our culture will die because everyone will have to move someplace and there will be no one to teach them," she told a House panel.
Over about 600 radio stations last week, however, talk-radio king Rush Limbaugh declared that…
gregladen | November 18, 2007We don't see this particular creationist argument being made too often these days. I think this may be because it is boring and difficult to frame nicely.
As a result, this video is a little boring, but if you are a true foot soldier in the war against irrationality, you'll sit through it as a good training film.
Good luck.
Compare with this: Talk Origins on Polonium Halos
gregladen | November 18, 2007This is the third in a series of reposts from gregladen.com on global warming.
Why It Matters What you Burn and When you Burn It
Carbon Dioxide is a deadly poison. It is about 50% heavier than air, so where it occurs in density, in mines or certain natural vents associated with volcanics, it can accumulate in low spots. There are places in the Western Rift Valley where puddles of Carbon Dioxide form overnight while the air is still. These gas puddles can occur over puddles of water. When animals (such as antelopes) put their head down to the water to drink, they take a few whiffs of the…
gregladen | November 18, 2007An 18-foot minke whale ran aground on a sandbar in the Amazon jungle some 1,000 miles from the ocean, Brazilian media reported Friday. Globo television broadcast images of dozens of people gathered along the Tapajos River splashing water on the animal, whose back and dorsal fin were exposed to the hot Amazon sun. Sea creatures rarely venture so far into fresh water.
[source]
Wow
Oh, and this:
The whale is not the only animal to get lost in Brazil this week.
On Thursday a young reptile - which was 1.5m long - turned up at a popular beach in Rio de Janeiro and had to be rescued by firemen.…
gregladen | November 18, 2007Its got a place to put your rings and everything. Again, an historical visual trope ... the pinkish, plasticy side of the 1960s.
gregladen | November 18, 2007This is an example of a fun, edgy, sexy, cool video that promotes evolution, but unfortunately also promotes some misconceptions. Like using religious metaphor and terminology in otherwise useful kid-friendly contexts, we learn here that it is all about "survival of the fittest" and that apes are monkeys.
gregladen | November 18, 2007Or, to be less crude, did modern humans, having already evolved in Africa, interbreed with the local Europeans who were Neanderthals, and if so, did they produce fertile offspring ... and, did this happen in sufficient degree to have mattered at all to the genetics of later (but not necessarily living) people?
In my opinion, the answer is, of course they interbred. There are many reasons to believe this if almost no way to prove it. Indeed, the evidence of this interbreeding is virtually nil. With every additional test of the interbreeding hypothesis using DNA, the null hypothesis of no…
gregladen | November 18, 2007There is an ongoing effort to change the standards for teaching science in Orlando Florida so that the students are taught actual science (as opposed to creationism, apparently) in an effort to bring the next generation's work force into the 21st century. And the public meetings are apparently getting interesting.
The new standards are widely opposed among both parents and teachers, who feel that creationism has a place in the science classroom.
Dave Finnigan, an educational consultant who lives in Celebration, said the Scopes trial should have settled the issue. Intelligent design, he…
gregladen | November 17, 2007There is a poll on the home page of "The Lariat", Baylor's on line newspaper. It asks if Baylor should encourage, discourage, prohibit, or support Intelligent Design. The Creationists are winning by a landslide.
The poll is here just in case you are interested in voting.
[hat tip Pharyngula]
Oh, and by the way ... I went over to Pharyngula to see what PZ's readers were saying about the poll, and I get the impression that many of them are voting to Encourage the research. Holy crap, I thought they were a smarter lot. I'm sure the readers of my blog will know what to do. Right?
gregladen | November 17, 2007This is the kind of story that makes it difficult to remain culturally relativistic. it also makes it hard to look at women who are in purdah walking around in a "free" country like the US and not, in part blame them for compliance.
A woman was gang raped in Saudi Arabia. Fourteen times. Seven men are now in jail, convicted of rape and serving sentences up to five years. In Saudi Arabia, I think five years is a lot for violently raping a woman.
The woman who was raped, however, was sentenced to be tortured for being in the car of a "strange man."
In this case, the torture would…