purepedantry | November 27, 2006The Synapse #12 is up at Dr. Deborah Serani's blog. Next Synapse is on December 10, 2006 at the Neurocontrarian. Submission details here.
purepedantry | November 26, 2006This was forwarded to me in an email, and it is just too "dam" funny for me not to post. It is a letter that was sent to a man named Ryan DeVries by the Pennslyvania Department of Environmental Quality and his letter in response. Make sure you read the first letter first.
SUBJECT: DEQ File No.97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec. 20;
Lycoming County
Dear Mr. DeVries:
It has come to the attention of the Department of Environmental Quality that there has been recent unauthorized activity on the above referenced parcel of property. You have been certified as the legal landowner and/or contractor who…
purepedantry | November 26, 2006This poem is not for children. This is an adult poem for adults -- and possibly mature, sophisticated teenagers. (In some ways it makes me wish my parents did not read this site, but I will get over that.) As a consequence of its sordid nature, it is completely below the fold. It is also very, very good and exemplary of Walt Whitman's style.
A Woman Waits for Me
by Walt Whitman
A woman waits for me -- she contains all, nothing is lacking,
Yet all were lacking, if sex were lacking, or if the moisture of the right man were lacking.
Sex contains all,
Bodies, Souls, meanings, proofs,…
purepedantry | November 24, 2006Mind Hacks has an interesting bit on the personal side of BF Skinner, the primary proponent of a psychological school called behaviorism.
The NYTimes has an interesting article on synaesthesia, a syndrome where you percieve some sensations such as taste through other modalities. They also have an article on increasingly inappropriate dress among medical students, which I can tell you from personal experience is often true.
purepedantry | November 24, 2006The Synapse, Issue #12, is being published this weekend at Dr. Deborah Serani's blog. Remember to submit. Details here.
purepedantry | November 24, 2006If you remember back from when I was at the Society for Neuroscience, I saw a talk by Bruce Appel where he showed videos of oligodendrocytes migrating and myelinating in the zebrafish.
Oligodendrocytes are the myelin forming cell in the central nervous system of vertebrates -- the cells that coat axons in a sheet of fat called myelin that helps the axons conduct action potentials more quickly. At a point in oligodendrocyte development the oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) have to migrate out from the ventral part of the spine to cover the axons in the spinal cord. However, this…
purepedantry | November 23, 2006Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
I won't be blogging today, but A Blog Around the Clock and Effect Measure have interesting posts on tryptophan and why turkey makes you sleepy. Enjoy.
purepedantry | November 22, 2006Dinesh D'Souza, writing in the Christian Science Monitor, defends organized religion from criticism that links it with violence and wars:
- In recent months, a spate of atheist books have argued that religion represents, as "End of Faith" author Sam Harris puts it, "the most potent source of human conflict, past and present."
Columnist Robert Kuttner gives the familiar litany. "The Crusades slaughtered millions in the name of Jesus. The Inquisition brought the torture and murder of millions more. After Martin Luther, Christians did bloody battle with other Christians for another three…
purepedantry | November 21, 2006I am getting on a plane today, so here is some interesting reading from throughout the web to tide you over til tomorrow:
The Neurophilosopher has a fascinating article on how parasites affect the behavior of their hosts, sometimes even burrowing into their brains -- just like pod people!!!
The Scientist on a scientific approach to diversity programs.
The Economist on the floundering European climate change abatement program, and an appeal for the legalization of kidney sales.
Science Fiction Book Club has the top 50 best science fiction books of the last 50 years.
purepedantry | November 20, 2006Many people took issue with my post about Milton Friedman's death. Actually I don't think they were taking issue with my post; most of them were taking issue with Milton Friedman's existence. Whatever. Everyone has their own heroes. While I remain puzzled by the vast distaste directed at someone whose fundamental assertion was that you should have the ability to make the important decisions in your life, it is not likely that the debate is resolvable.
However, several people took issue with economics as a science -- and organized system of theories and facts capable of making verifiable…
purepedantry | November 20, 2006Not cool, Egypt:
Police in Cairo have detained a blogger whose posts have been critical of the Egyptian government.
Rami Siyam, who blogs under the name of Ayyoub, was detained along with three friends after leaving the house of a fellow blogger late at night.
No reasons have been given for Mr Siyam's detention. The other friends were released after being questioned.
Human rights groups have accused Egypt of eroding freedom of speech by arresting several bloggers recently.
BBC Arab Affairs analyst Magdi Abdelhadi says blogging in Egypt is closely associated with political activism in a…
purepedantry | November 20, 2006Women are more susceptible to Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) even when the type of the stressful event is controlled for:
Males experience more traumatic events on average than do females, yet females are more likely to meet diagnostic criteria for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), according to a review of 25 years of research reported in the November issue of Psychological Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Association (APA).
The authors reviewed 290 studies conducted between 1980 and 2005 to determine who is more at risk for potentially traumatic events (PTE) and…
purepedantry | November 20, 2006Encephalon #11 is up at The Mouse Trap. Next Encephalon is on December 4th. Submission details here.
The next Synapse is on December 26th at Dr. Deborah Serani's blog. Submission details here.
purepedantry | November 19, 2006Relationships -- they are a messy business. These two go out to someone who knows that better than most.
Safe Sex
by Donald Hall
If he and she do not know each other, and feel confident
they will not meet again; if he avoids affectionate words;
if she has grown insensible skin under skin; if they desire
only the tribute of another's cry; if they employ each other
as revenge on old lovers or families of entitlement and steel--
then there will be no betrayals, no letters returned unread,
no frenzy, no hurled words of permanent humiliation,
no trembling days, no vomit at midnight, no repeated…
purepedantry | November 17, 2006Sounds like the kids I used to babysit:
Panbanisha the bonobo is up to her tricks again.
For the second time in as many months, the ape triggered a fire alarm at the Great Ape Trust of Iowa research center.
The trouble started Wednesday morning, when Panbanisha wanted to go outside but the staff was too busy to let her out, trust officials said. Panbanisha then apparently lost her temper and pulled the alarm, officials said.
It's a trick Panbanisha initially learned in October when she saw a welder start the alarm. It took her less than a day to learn how to duplicate the excitement.
When…
purepedantry | November 17, 2006The most commonly cited causes of the obesity epidemic over the last 30 years are decreases in physical activity and increased consumption of unhealthy foods: the Big Two. For these as causes, we have what can only be described as an overwhelming quantity of evidence.
However, many other causes of increased obesity have been suggested such as environmental endocrine disruptors or chronic sleep deprivation. In an editorial in the International Journal of Obesity, Keith et al. argue that for some of them the evidence is quite solid -- meriting further study and possibly public health…
purepedantry | November 16, 2006Milton Friedman has passed:
Milton Friedman, the grandmaster of conservative economic theory in the postwar era and a prime force in the movement of nations toward lesser government and greater reliance on free markets and individual responsibility, died today. He was 94 years old.
A spokesman for the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation confirmed his death.
Conservative and liberal colleagues alike viewed Mr. Friedman as one of the 20th century's leading economic scholars, on a par with giants like John Maynard Keynes, Joseph A. Schumpeter and Paul Samuelson.
Flying the flag of economic…
purepedantry | November 16, 2006I have tried to show that the gender gap in the sciences is not the result of cognitive differences, but that begs the question about what else to which it can be attributed. It could be that it is the result of conscious or unconscious discriminatory behavior. However, it could also be the result of the personal and economic decisions of the women involved -- particularly with respect to having babies. If some women decide to leave their careers early or for long periods to have children, then this will affect their average representation among tenured faculty.
A recent NBER paper by…
purepedantry | November 15, 2006I have a lot of friends applying to medical school right now (the saddest part is that they are likely to finish before me). In honor of the medical school secondary essay -- a veritable autobiography in most cases, here is a poem by Lisel Mueller. Enjoy.
Curriculum Vitae
by Lisel Mueller
1992
1) I was born in a Free City, near the North Sea.
2) In the year of my birth, money was shredded into
confetti. A loaf of bread cost a million marks. Of
course I do not remember this.
3) Parents and grandparents hovered around me. The
world I lived in had a soft voice and no claws.
4) A cornucopia…