Search Content

Displaying results 101 - 150 of 112148

Petition for Senators to Back Stem Cells

I had wanted to avoid being an activist with this blog, but I think it is important enough when it relates to a directly scientific issue to break that rule. The Society for Neuroscience has issued a petition request via email asking its members to petition their Senators to vote YES for the current Senate resolution reauthorizing stem cell research. Here is the email: Support Stem Cell Research Legislation! On Monday and Tuesday of next week, the Senate will consider bipartisan legislation, called The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (H.R. 810). This bill would expand federally funded…

A job opportunity for a grad student

Position Description: Communications Assistant Chicago-area communications firm seeks communications/journalism/PR undergrad or grad student for part-time position, 10-15 hours per week at $20/hour. This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a team that is building a cutting-edge new-media communications platform for a New York health-care client. The work is varied, but includes helping maintain a website and blog, copy writing and editing, assistance with online video projects and support for special projects. You will have a high level of autonomy and can work flexible hours online - no…

The First Annual Blogger Bioblitz Begins Today

Over 40 bloggers will be stepping outside for National Wildlife Week, April 21 - 29, field guides, binoculars and seines in hand and pack to catalogue all the species they can find in a local area of their choosing. Early tomorrow morning, I'll be heading out to our campus' arboretum, a small, manageable riparian forest. I'll probably be tackling another area in Western Pennsylvania later in the week. The first post from me should be up be tomorrow afternoon. We have spent the past month refining the process at our forum. Use the following links to access any information you may need. Also,…

Getting in on the ground floor of the U.S. Climate Service

Hard as it is for someone who isn't familiar with intricacies of U.S. government-run climate science to believe, there is no climatology analog of the the immigration or revenue services, something responsible for overseeing the big picture. Sure, there's NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, but that does a lot of things other than measure and model the climate. There's NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, but it's mostly a number-crunching lab, and not really set up to engage the public. That's about to change, and the folks tasked with overseeing the creation of the new Climate…

Links

The Washington Post zings Lott for throwing stones at the New York Times from his glass house. Matt Welch also comments, while Greg Beato thinks that the New York Times has hit rock bottom when even John Lott is denigrating its integrity. Andrew Chamberlain invites readers to join in an online debate about Lott and scholarly integrity. Tom Spencer comments on the errors that Lott made on his blog.

Was Johnny Ball really victimized by environmentalists?

Remember how David Bellamy claimed that his TV career was ended (something that happened in 1994) because of an article he wrote in 2004? Now Johnny Ball is making similar dubious claims of persecution: But his bookings have dropped by 90 per cent over the past year and the 72-year-old has blamed this on harassment by extreme environmentalists who object to his dismissal of climate change as "alarmist nonsense". Mr Ball, father of TV and radio presenter Zoe, told The TES a website featuring pornographic images was posted online bearing his name, while another blogger stated he "should not be…

Still more evidence that it's all about the vaccines: Behold the power of the mercury militia

I've written a few posts now pointing out how, its claims that it is not "antivaccine" notwithstanding, for the mercury militia and those who think mercury in vaccines or vaccines themselves cause autism, it really is all about the vaccines, not any single ingredient, even mercury. I first noticed this nearly three years ago, and, if anything, recent events have made my observation even more obviously true. As multiple studies have exonerated the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal that was formerly found in most childhood vaccines and now only remains in trace amounts in flu vaccines…

The Atheist's Revenge!

As you've already heard, the Atheist Foundation of Australia was hit with a denial-of-service attack earlier this week (you can learn more about it in this interview of Jason Ball by Catherine Deveny). I rather like their planned unofficial response. This is a call to all non-believers and advocates for freedom of speech to join us in a global co-ordinated minute of prayer with the aim of inundating God (in this context, the Christian god, God, as distinct from the Greek god, Zeus, the Egyptian god, Ra etc etc) with so many useless prayers that it causes his divineness to go offline as as…

TIME Magazine's Person of the Year 2010: Mark Zuckerberg

Photo: Flickr Scott Beale / Laughing Squid This morning, TIME magazine announced their choice for Person of the Year: Founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg. I am one amongst more than 500 million users worldwide that have used the power of online social networking to not only connect with others but to use this technology as a tool for research and teaching and learning. I am just beginning to see its potential. On a personal level, I have been able to connect with old friends using Facebook; reaching out using the now quaint technology email never seemed to work. I invite you to share…

Silence is the Enemy: Focusing on reducing sexual violence

For the past few years, I have been horrified by Nicholas Kristof's posts about violence against children in various crisis zones around the globe - and I have been captivated by his stories of choosing to engage as a human being with such distress and pain rather than a so-called "impartial" or "objective" journalist. In particular, I think of his reporting in 2004 from Cambodia about children forced into sex slavery and his decision to try to buy two girls to free them from traffickers, and his decision with his family to open a school east of Phnom Penh to educate girls to help prevent…

Coral Week is ON for April

Mark your calendars for the last few days of April because the tentacles are gonna hit the fan here and across the blogosphere from April 27 to May 2 when Deep Sea News asks readers "how deep is your love" for corals. This is 2008, the International Year of the Reef! But we're gonna try to squeeze it all into one big Coral Week between April and May, kinda like an online tropical vacation from work ... or something. You may have noticed we celebrated International Polar Year just last month. Yes, it's true, it's other years, too... the Year of the Rat, the Year of Sanitation, its all…

ScienceOnline'09 on Minnesota Atheist Radio

Science is moving onto the internet. Collection of data, collaboration between researchers, communication and critique of results, teaching and learning--all are increasingly being done online. ScienceOnline, held January 16 - 18 in 2009, is a conference dedicated to discussing the intersection of science and online technologies. Bora Zivkovic, one of the founders and organizers of ScienceOnline will join Atheists Talk Sunday, February 1, to talk about the purpose of the conference, the results of this year's sessions, and why it's important to meet your online colleagues in person. Produced…

The End of 'Retrospectacle', the Beginning of 'Of Two Minds'

Retrospectacle has been a wonderful hobby and outlet for my writing for almost three years. I started writing at Blogspot for a few reasons- to critically report science news, to convert the tomes of science to layperson-speak, to attempt to educate and entertain myself as well as my audience (hopefully). I think that it has been a terrific success. As of this posting, which will be my last here, there are 837 entries and 6912 comments which marks at least *some* kind of contribution to the "conversation about science" we're all trying to have here at ScienceBlogs. I sincerely thank all of…

Isn't Maine one of them there Yankee states?

So what are they doing having their own creationist troubles? It just goes to show that this isn't just a problem for southern yokels in Florida and Texas — it's an epidemic all over the country. The specific problem in this case is a ignorant kook who has been made director of School Administrative District 59 and has decided to flout the state standards and expectations for science classes. Look at this fellow's arguments: Matthew Linkletter of Athens says that both are merely theories that represent "personal beliefs and world views," rather than proven science. Linkletter suggested during…

Sustainable Environments and Livelihoods

Below, Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka answers the second of our three questions. The problems I see as ripe for cross-disciplinary research are those where multidisciplinary approaches have potential to promote sustainable development alongside sustainable environments in developing countries, because even in the developed world, conservation and development are seen as competing forces, yet have even greater potential in the developed world. The fields I would choose to combine are those that independently affect sustainable environments and livelihoods. These include population, health,…

The History Of Cooking in Five Courses

FROM OPEN FLAMES TO SOUS VIDE: The History Of Cooking in Five Courses Tuesday, February 9, 2010 - 7 p.m., doors open at 6 p.m. Cost $50. Reservations required. Call 612-624-9050 Join Chef Chris Olson and local experts on an exploration of the evolution of cooking in five delicious courses. With the Bell Museum's wildlife dioramas as a backdrop, Olson, cook at St. Paul-based Meritage and co-creator of Paired, will take diners on a culinary journey through the ages, from the invention of fire to the scientific approach to food through molecular gastronomy. Biological anthropologist Greg Laden…

Food Preservation and Storage Class Starts Tomorrow!

Here's the syllabus - I still have a couple of regular spots and one scholarship spot available, so please email me at jewishfarmer@gmail.com if you'd like one. The class runs six weeks starting tomorrow and is asynchronous and online. Cost of the class is $100. Hope some of you can join us! Week 1, - Introduction to Food Storage, How much, where to put it, and how? Can I afford this? Overview of food preservation methods, their energy and economic costs. Storing Water, making space. Food safety, thinking about the food future, recommended reading. Week 2, : Water bath canning 101,…

Never fear, The Skeptics' Circle is almost here!

Time flies once again, and, seemingly so soon after the last successful Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle, the next one is fast approaching. This time around, it's going to be hosted at Geek Counterpoint. So get your entries to Lorne by Wednesday, and then join us for yet another entertaining edition of every skeptic's favorite blog carnival. At least I hope it's every skeptic's favorite blog carnival; if it's not, believe me, we're working on it. As is my wont, I'm also pointing out that we're always looking for hosts. If you've hosted before and think you might want ot host again or if you'…

The Accretionary Wedge is back!

The Accretionary Wedge, the monthly carnival of geology, is still alive! Or, well, it's still active, at least. Its originator, Brian, got too busy to keep it up, so he handed off responsibilities to Lockwood (of Outside the Interzone), Chris (of goodSchist and the Podclast), and me. Lockwood will be hosting the next Accretionary Wedge, in mid-June. His theme: Let's Do a Time Warp! So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is this: "Where and when would you most like to visit to witness and analyze an event in Earth's history?" Suppose you have a space-time machine to (safely and…

National Conference on Science and Technology in Out of School Time

Registration now open for the first National Conference on Science and Technology in Out of School Time - Chicago, September 17-19, 2008: Join us at the first National Conference on Science in Out of School Time, September 17-19, 2008. Registration is now open at www.scienceafterschoolconference.org The conference is being organized by Project Exploration and the Coalition for Science After School; it's designed for program leaders, researchers, funders and policy makers. We're putting a particular emphasis on equity and access issues. Conference features include: - A special welcome…

Contact Your Senator about Increasing the NIH Budget

The Genetics Society of America is requesting that its members contact their Senators to ask them to support an amendment to increase the 2007 NIH budget proposed by President Bush. As it current stands, the proposed 2007 budget is equal to the 2006 budget (without even a correction for inflation). If you would like contact your Senator, you can look up his or her address, phone number, email, and fax number here. I have reproduced the letter from the GSA below the fold. From the Genetics Society of America: Read below and contact your Senators using the CapWiz connection (see URL below)…

ScienceOnline2010 - interview with Jeff Ives

Continuing with the tradition from last two years, I will occasionally post interviews with some of the participants of the ScienceOnline2010 conference that was held in the Research Triangle Park, NC back in January. See all the interviews in this series here. You can check out previous years' interviews as well: 2008 and 2009. Today, I asked Jeff Ives from the New England Aquarium to answer a few questions. Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Where are you coming from (both geographically and philosophically)? What is…

Count your bones!

My last Seed column is online. Print media feels a little weird — it's like I wrote that one long ago, the one I finished earlier in July is going to print right now (and will be out in mid-August), and I'm already working on the column after that. It's like looking at old history for me. It's also an old story for you subscribers. It's just those who haven't subscribed yet who are months behind the times. So when are you people going to join the rest of us…in the future?

Nice Try, Science Publishing Group

Science Publishing Group is another scam Open Access journal publisher or academic vanity press. Yesterday they sent me a form-letter invitation to submit papers or become member of an unspecified editorial board or become a peer reviewer. "Join us!" But they don't even publish an archaeology journal. The closest they get to one is a godforsaken excuse for a journal named Social Sciences. It allegedly caters to everything from law to anthropology. The best part is that they sent the letter to my Academy address. The one I use when editing Fornvännen, a rock-solid paper and OA archaeology…

Best. Conspiracy. Theory. Ever.

It looks as though Generation Rescue's bubble-brained spokescelebrities Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey have finally found their niche. Can you guess where it is? Come on, take two guesses! That's right. They've made it into NaturalNews.com, crossposted from a post they had their handlers make to Age of Autism, entitled A Statement from Jenny McCarthy & Jim Carrey: Andrew Wakefield, Scientific Censorship, and Fourteen Monkeys. Truly, it is one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen on AoA or NaturalNews.com. You'll see why in a moment. Suffice it to say that Jenny and Jim have the most…

ScienceOnline09 - Alternative Careers

If you look at the Program carefully, you will see there are three sessions specifically addressing the question of alternative careers at the ScienceOnline09. Here they are: How to become a (paid) science journalist: advice for bloggers - This session is moderated by Rebecca Skloot and Tom Levenson: Bloggers are bloggers because they like to write. But writing a blog is not the same as writing for a newspaper or magazine (or radio or TV). Most science bloggers have a background in science, not journalism. So, how does one become a science journalist? We'll ask some journalists for advice.…

How computers can make humans like them

More and more human conversations are taking place online. While I don't do instant messaging the way my kids like to, I'm much more likely to contact a friend via e-mail than to pick up the phone. Here at Cognitive Daily and at other online discussion forums, I've built relationships with commenters who I've never seen or even e-mailed. While the next leap in online communications—videoconferencing—is in its infancy, an intermediate form is beginning to show promise. Called a Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE), it enables people to have a virtual online conference by creating digital…

Science Blogging Conference - Registration is now open!

Late last night we opened the registration for the 2nd Science Blogging Conference, to be held on January 19th, 2008 on the Sigma Xi campus (publishers of 'American Scientist') in the Research Triangle Park which is officially on the territory of Durham, NC. To register, go to the registration form and fill out the details. To see who is already registered, go here. If you will be here on day before, on Friday, January 18th and want to join us for dinner, add you name to this list. If you are on Facebook, join the Conference Event and invite your friends. Some of the news will be…

Tom Cruise Linked to Valerie Plame?!

You be the judge? Meanwhile, Cruise has been busier pushing Scientology than anyone knew. According to a just-declassified State Department schedule, Cruise visited then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage on June 13, 2003, just an hour after Armitage had met with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward. (It's speculated that Armitage outed Valerie Plame as a CIA spy at that meeting.) Cruise was accompanied by Tom Davis, head of the L.A. Celebrity Center for Scientology, and Kurt Weiland, Scientology's veep of communications. What was discussed? "Only Armitage can answer that question,…

Video Game Addiction Study and Survey

A few months back I wrote a post on the topic of the psychology video game addiction, and today was contacted by a student who trying to study video game addiction in efforts of finding an effective treatment. A survey-based study being conducted by a Southern California university is now seeking anonymous participants to take the 4 minute online survey. This study is sponsored by The Center for Survey Research at an anonymous private university in Southern California. The results will be used to help understand how video game addiction affects the lives and family members of those who are…

Science Online 2010: Scientists and librarians

I had the following exchange several times during the opening day of Science Online 2010: Interlocutor: "So what do you do?" Me: "I'm a librarian." Interlocutor: *lengthy pause* So… what are you doing here exactly? Er, what? A conference about science communication? How on earth can that not be imagined to intrigue a librarian? This, ladies and gentlemen. THIS. Right here. This disconnect is the number-one threat to science librarianship today—perhaps to all academic librarianship. How can science libraries persist when scientists haven't the least notion that libraries or librarians are…

Food Storage and Preservation Class Starting Tomorrow!

I still have two remaining spots in my online food storage and preservation class, starting tomorrow! If you'd like to join us you can read about the class and the syllabus here, and email me at jewishfarmer@gmail.com to reserve a spot or ask more questions! Cheers, Sharon

Who perpetrated the "Holohoax"? Tell us!

Holocaust deniers sometimes refer to the Holocaust as the "Holohoax," as if the whole thing were one huge hoax perpetrated on the world by Jews. Indeed, if you have the stomach to dive into the deepest, darkest, most disgusting parts of the Internet, where Holocaust deniers freely spew their lies, you will even find explicit assertions that the Holocaust is nothing but a hoax that the Jews used to justify the formation of the State of Israel and to collect reparation money. Indeed, do a Google search for the term "Holohoax" and you will find well over 43,000 entries. That the Holocaust was a…

Unbelievable?

As mentioned previously, my interview on British Christian talk radio is now available — you can download the mp3 directly, and you can join in an online discussion, in which I am accused of "scientism"…which is rather pecuilar, given that in the interview I rather specifically said there were phenomena for which science is not the best tool for examination (although I would also say that there are no phenomena which require something beyond natural mechanisms). The interviewer also thinks Plantinga's arguments are good, which we didn't talk about at all, but which would have triggered some…

Links for 2011-04-20

Bill III's Blog » Have you ever printed a boarding pass? "Well this little feat has been a long time coming.  For those of you who have worked with me in Unalakleet you probably have heard about my aspiration of using the poster printer to print my boarding pass.  Well two days ago my dream became a reality.  I logged onto nwa.com and checked in for my flight.  Selected my seats and chose the option to print my boarding pass.  Well as you know Mac computers make it super easy to print things as a PDF file instead of to a printer.  So thats what I did.  I was on two different flights and…

Scholarly Societies: Why Bother?

An interesting and provocative article in The Scientist by Steven Wiley iof the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, To Join or Not to Join. The thrust of the article is that scholarly societies are having trouble offering true value to their members in the Internet age, that their business models and even their raisons d'etre are being disrupted. In years past, the answer was easy because being a member came with tangible benefits, such as inexpensive journals and the ability to submit abstracts to annual meetings. Nowadays, these perks don't seem very important. Most society…

Leaked Climate Change Documents

Around ScienceBlogs, people who don't accept global warming as a real phenomena tend to get called denialists. In the interests of full disclosure, I should admit that I'm not a denialist but rather a global warming defeatist. Doesn't matter how bad or not CO2 is, ain't nothin' gonna stop it. People will not give up electricity and transportation in the developed world (nor should they), and people in the developing world will not be give up the quest for developed-world living conditions (nor should they). As such it's either massive and immediate worldwide switches to nuclear power and…

Thank you! All of you who helped Science Blogging Conference be a success!

The second annual North Carolina Science Blogging Conference, held January 18 and 19, 2008, was an unqualified success. Find a comprehensive listing of links to the many blog entries and video clips posted before, during and after the conference to learn about the conversations and networking at the conference. Like our inaugural event, this second conference was a collective activity — many, many organizations, companies and individuals pitched in, in ways large and small, to keep this conference free, attendees fed and the discussion lively. Please join us in thanking them. (We thanked…

Race and Biomedical Research: Two New Books

I found out about both of these courtesy of the Chronicle Review Note Bene/New Books in Print feature. Both look extremely interesting. First, Revisiting Race in a Genomic World, from Rutgers University Press. With the completion of the sequencing of the human genome in 2001, the debate over the existence of a biological basis for race has been revived. In Revisiting Race in a Genomic Age, interdisciplinary scholars join forces to examine the new social, political, and ethical concerns that are attached to how we think about emerging technologies and their impact on current conceptions…

ScienceBlogs and National Geographic

Announced today: Dear Readers, It is our great pleasure to bring you news of an exciting new partnership, starting today, between ScienceBlogs and National Geographic. ScienceBlogs and National Geographic have at their cores the same ultimate mission: to cultivate widespread interest in science and the natural world. Starting today, we will work together to advance this common mission through new content, applications, and initiatives. We will bring acclaimed voices from National Geographic into our rich discussion on ScienceBlogs, and National Geographic will invite their worldwide audience…

A Really Challenging Geography Challenge

To join the Geography Challenge in support of your country, you simply need to select which country you will be representing and take the quiz. This quiz consists of trying to locate 10 randomly selected countries on a map of the world. It is different every time. You may take this quiz up to 3 times per day, but no cheating. It is a timed quiz. This is a really difficult geography quiz (or do I just think it is difficult because I don't know my geography very well?). Give it a go and tell me how you did. My scores; 3, 5, 7 correct out of ten possible (it takes a little while to figure…

Science Blogging Conference - Teaching Science: using online tools in the science classroom

If you look at the Program page on the wiki for the Science Blogging Conference, you will see, for the Saturday program, there are 12 excellent sessions, a panel and a talk. Each has a discussion page which you should edit to add your own thoughts, ideas and questions. One of the sessions I expect to have a big draw, particularly with so many science teachers at the conference, is the session on Teaching Science: using online tools in the science classroom, led by a real pro on the topic - David Warlick. David already has an ongoing discussion of the session on his own blog where you are…

A Hitchens poll

Time Magazine is running a poll to determine who are the most influential people in the world — like an online poll is the best way to do that — and one of them is Christopher Hitchens, who currently has 11989 votes saying he's influential, and 570 saying he's not. Join the mob, and let's make it even more of a landslide!

Scientists and Engineers for America

Americans "need leaders to protect the integrity of science," according to Neal Lane, Bill Clinton's science advisor from 1998-2001, and before that the director of the NSF. He said that in announcing the kick-off of Scientists and Engineers for America, a new 527 that will be fighting to protect scientific integrity. Lane explained that the group will not be partisan, because people will "lose confidence in science if it is used to advance a political agenda." The goal is to encourage lawmakers to take scientific advice seriously and to respond seriously to issues that arise. The goal is…

Open Education Declaration

On the heels of David Warlick's session on using online tools in the science classroom, this initiative is really exciting: Teachers, Students, Web Gurus, and Foundations Launch Campaign to Transform Education, Call for Free, Adaptable Learning Materials Online Cape Town, January 22nd, 2008--A coalition of educators, foundations, and internet pioneers today urged governments and publishers to make publicly-funded educational materials available freely over the internet. The Cape Town Open Education Declaration, launched today, is part of a dynamic effort to make learning and teaching…

DEBATING THE INTERNET AND COMMUNITY, PART B: American University Students Examine 'Virtual' Society

This semester in the sophomore-level course I teach on "Communication and Society," we spent several weeks examining the many ways that Americans are using the Internet to alter the nature of community, civic engagement, and social relationships. For many college students, having grown up "online," it's easy to take for granted the "virtual" society we live in, seldom pausing to consider how it might be different from more traditional forms of community life. One of the goals of the course was to encourage students to think systematically and rigorously about the many changes introduced by…

WIRED on ScienceDebate2008

There's wonderful reason I've been quieter here than usual... ScienceDebate2008 has hit the ground running to so much enthusiasm and excitement, Chris and I are incredibly busy keeping up with all the hullabaloo! And we're also having a lot of fun working to make this incredible idea into a reality... We've been following the blogosphere and media reports, and here's the latest from WIRED: A Who's Who of America's top scientists are launching a quixotic last-minute effort this week to force presidential candidates to detail the role science would play in their administrations -- a question…

...As Long As They Spell Your Name Right

As previously noted, the UK edition of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is selling very well via the Guardian's online bookshop, among other UK venues. It's doing well enough that I might need to start referring to the original text as the American edition of How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog... There's a nice ironic twist to the Guardian aspect of it, though, in the form of a review by that paper that I hadn't previously noticed until this book business summary brought it to my attention. It's a blisteringly bad review, basically dumping hate all over the talking-dog conceit. Which,…

Jenny needs me again!

I was called upon once before, and now I'm called upon again. Jenny McCarthy needs me: From: "Jenny McCarthy" volunteer@generationrescue.org Reply-to: volunteer@generationrescue.org To: orac@scienceblogs.com Date: Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 11:26 AM Subject: News From Jenny McCarthy Become a Rescue Angel Today! Dear Orac, It's Jenny! Please join my team and help other families! I'm about to go on tour to promote my new book, Mother Warriors, which hits the bookstores everywhere, September 23rd (38 days from now!). I will also be on all the major talk shows showing the world that autism is…

A Phoenix social calendar...see you at SICB!

Attention, Phoenixians (Phoenicians? Phoenotypes? What do they call residents of Phoenix, anyway?). (John Lynch, GrrlScientist, and I are going to be in your area next week for the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology (SICB) meetings, and we are all unanimous in our expectation that this will be an excellent opportunity to cadge free drinks from meet all of our fans out Arizona way. We're all going to be taking advantage of the meetings to learn us some new science, but there will be a few opportunities to socialize, too. Jim Lippard is hosting a get-together at his home on…