retrospectacle | January 17, 2007Earlier this week, a woman who was a contestant (for a Nintendo Wii) in a water-drinking contest died, ostensibly of water intoxication. There has been a lot of debate in the comments as to whether the radio station was culpuable and should be sued.
Well, as reported today on Yahoo, the radio station fired the three disc jockeys as well as seven other employees who took part in the contest.The radio show was suspended, and the station has announced an investigation into the exact circumstances of Jennifer Strange's death. It was also revealed that the amount of water that she drank was in…
retrospectacle | January 17, 2007Some things, like Hollywood plotlines and political speeches, come in tidy little packages. But what's more tidy than nature's own package--the egg? The same researchers who brought you Dolly the Sheep (TM) bring you genetically-modified chickens whose eggs (specifically, the whites) carry anti-cancer proteins within them.
"One of the characteristics of lots of medical treatments these days is that they're very expensive.
"The idea of producing the proteins involved in treatments in flocks of laying hens means they can produce in bulk, they can produce cheaply and indeed the raw material for…
retrospectacle | January 16, 2007There are two discussions which are going on in the ScienceBlog-osphere about Al Gore, brought to the table by my esteemed co-bloggers Framing Science and Stoat. The first is whether or not Gore's opus "An Inconvenient Truth" belongs in a science class (Framing Science argues compellingly that it doesn't). The second is whether, as Stoat argues, Al Gore is a hypocrite for 'jet-setting' across the world to preach his message of global warming, thereby increasing the pollution through air-travel which, in turn, actually exacerbates the causes of global warming. While both bloggers have made…
retrospectacle | January 16, 2007 A Blog Around the Clock's Bora (aka Coturnix) has slaved away assembling and editing the best science blog writing of 2006, with an excellent compendium to show for it. I was not able to submit (due to traveling in China and being away from email etc) to the anthology, which I am sorely sorry for. I know that this will be an excellent read even if it is in an old outdated medium. :D Buy it from Lulu here.
retrospectacle | January 16, 2007A recent study published in J.Neuroscience by Stanwood et al. may help explain the long-term neurological effects associated with cocaine use while pregnant, the so-called "crack baby syndrome" which was of great concern in the 1980s. Prenatal exposure to cocaine is known to cause a range of cognitive impairments ranging from attention deficits to severe emotional problems to mental retardation. However the precise way that cocaine abuse disrupted proper cognitive development was unclear.
Stanwood et al reported that prenatal cocaine exposure in pregnant rabbits caused a long-lasting…
retrospectacle | January 15, 2007Previously on this blog, I've criticized the European Union for continuing to allow the import of wild-caught parrots (including African Greys) which has devastated many species of rare birds. I was never sure why the EU, which his usually a trailblazer in the areas of progressive conservation, was so slow to act to restrict the wild-caught bird industry. The only time that the EU has restricted wild-bird imports has been when "bird flu" was suspected in Europe, with imported birds thought to have been to blame.
I'm happy to say that a permanent ban on wild-caught birds has been instituted,…
retrospectacle | January 14, 2007A stupid radio stunt, where contestants had to keep drinking water and were not allowed to urinate, has resulted in the water intoxification death of one of the participants.
A woman who competed in a radio station's contest to see how much water she could drink without going to the bathroom died of water intoxication, the coroner's office said Saturday.
Jennifer Strange, 28, was found dead Friday in her suburban Rancho Cordova home hours after taking part in the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest in which KDND 107.9 promised a Nintendo Wii video game system for the winner.
"She said to one…
retrospectacle | January 13, 2007 If you live in the Detroit area, likely this info will just serve to depress you more than you likely already are. Why might that be? Well the housing market in the big D had been notoriously crappy lately with the downturn of the auto industry and subsequent factory closings. Seems like everyone is leaving Michigan these days. But according to the USA Today "infogram" (whatever that means), San Francisco has also taken a big hit lately. Perhaps the recent surge in anti-chorale violence plays a role?
Anyway, a few fun and useful ways to waste time or find a roof over your head:HousingMaps…
retrospectacle | January 12, 2007The worst criticism I ever received happened when I was an undergrad. I was under the mentorship of an extremely bright and competent biochemist, who today I could honestly say nothing but wonderful things about. I was being trained by her in basic molecular biology and biochemical techniques that summer, but unfortunately, right in the middle of my fellowship there, my relationship of 4 years dissolved (in a particularly nasty way). I was devastated, and left only barely functional, but thought it would be unprofessional and tacky to bring this up as an excuse for my despondence and…
retrospectacle | January 11, 2007
Fun! Make a library card for your blog with this card generator.
I tag Razib, Abel, and OmniBrain.
retrospectacle | January 11, 2007There's a kerfuffle in our midst.
Fellow ScienceBlogger Dr.Charles posted a piece about John Edwards (calling him a "piss-poor presidential candidate"), which a DailyKos diarist took high offense to (now removed by the author). The diarist called Dr. Charles a coward for closing the comments to his post, and encouraged all readers of ScienceBlogs to de-link us en masse until Dr. Charles re-opened the comments on the offending post.
Sadly, most of the paper trail is gone, but the comment on Dr. Charles' site are quite telling (he did re-open and the diarist did apologize). Anyway, the point…
retrospectacle | January 10, 2007Dozens of assailants assaulted the Yale barber shop quartet at a party in San Francisco.
That must have been some really bad singing. Very strange......
retrospectacle | January 10, 2007I'm sure you've heard of it by now, as numerous blogs (from Big Fat Blog to Effect Measure to Corpus Callosum) have been buzzing with the news of Pfizer's pet obesity drug Slentrol. As a very brief re-cap, this liquid drug is administered to overweight dogs and cats to induce a sense of 'full-ness,' and reduce their food intake. Why this couldn't be accomplished by feeding them less rather than relying on them to voluntarily eat less ('fat' chance), I'm not sure. But, fact is, the drug is now here and its going to make Pfizer a boat-load of cash (as planned) despite it seeming to fill an non…
retrospectacle | January 9, 2007Watching the movie "The Good Shepherd" got me thinking about something: are truth serums real? And if so, has any been proven to work? There was a scene in TGS where a prisoner who was believed to be lying was administered LSD. Now obviously THAT wasn't a real truth serum (unless you want to hear about the innate truth of teacups or something), but if the CIA was using LSD they were likely using other candidates as well.
Lets just assume for a moment that there existed some potion that extracted the truth from people, rendered them unable to lie when questioned. Wouldn't that negate free…
retrospectacle | January 8, 2007Me and my friends went to see "The Good Shepard" Saturday night, a movie about the inception (and deception) of the CIA surrounding the Bay of Pigs invasion and Cold War. It was directed by/produced by Francis Ford Coppola and Robert De Niro (who also starred), with screenplay by Eric Roth of "Forrest Gump" fame. Cast included (in addition to De Niro) Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Alec Baldwin, Billy Crudup, Tim Hutton, and Joe Pesci among others. Seriously star-studded, and some of those casting decisions were spot-on awesome (Crudup and Baldwin especially). However, the two main characters,…
retrospectacle | January 8, 2007As research into stem cells broadens, it seems like we're finding them in more and more places. Most recently, stem cells have been isolated from amniotic fluid. Interestingly, they possess qualities which pose as a kind of intermediary between adult and embryonic stem cells. As much as I hate evaluating science on abstracts alone, that's all i've got at the moment until UM updates its databases.
The paper, "Isolation of amniotic stem cell lines with potential for therapy" was published in Nature Biotechnology by groups at Wake Forest and Harvard (Anthony Atala seems to be the senior…
retrospectacle | January 7, 2007Yes, I am a big fat nerd. I've been playing Final Fantasy 12 nearly since I woke up this morning, trying to finish all those blasted side-quests. This is pathetic! On the other hand, has anyone done any studies on endorphin release following reinforcement in gaming? You know, that little happy feeling you get when you beat a boss or level up? Think that ever-recognizable chime in Zelda when you found a secret passage!
You have found a secret!
After browsing this guys site, where I got the Zelda sound effect, I suddenly felt a lot better about my life.
retrospectacle | January 7, 2007Where would college students be without the low-cost, high-sodium food product that are instant noodles? So many nights, broke as hell yet hungry......but wait! There's Ramen noodles in the pantry, or, if you feel like splurging, a whole Cup O' Noodles! As evidence that MSG, trans-fat, refined flour, and salt galore can't be all bad (er......), Momofuku Ando kicked the bucket at the ripe old age of 96.
Born in Taiwan, Ando founded his company in 1948 from a humble family operation. Faced with food shortages in post-World War II Japan, Ando thought a quality, convenient noodle product would…
retrospectacle | January 5, 2007Although I thought about making a post about the refusal of the corrupt earmark system to just die already, I think something more in my scope of interest is the current ethics debate regarding a severely mentally handicapped child. Specifically, her parents have opted to surgically stunt their child's physical development to prevent puberty (hormones, menstruation, growth, etc) and to keep her weight at a level that they can manage. She is currently 9 years old, and has the mental capacity of a 3 month baby--she can only lie on her back and kick her legs/arms around. She relies on her…