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Here comes a border collie

Whew, that's a relief. The Arbiter has finally spoken, and I can stop trying to think for myself. Not that I was trying very hard. No one really likes thinking for themselves anyway - if you can its hard work, and if you can't its not pretty. Yeah, I should probably have had a tl;dr version, which is that sensitivity is still about 3C. Well, that's the only bit people care about really. Mialambre continues: The discerning reader will already have noted that my previous posts on the matter actually point to a value more likely on the low side of this rather than higher, and were I pressed for…

World's biggest geoengineering experiment 'violates' UN rules?

Or Controversial US businessman's iron fertilisation off west coast of Canada contravenes two UN conventions, says the Graun (h/t Timmy). This is the same bloke who was behind the failed Planktos stuff. If you're deceptive you might call him an environmentalist - but "chancer" would seem closer to the mark. But I was interested in: International legal experts say George's project has contravened the UN's convention on biological diversity (CBD) and London convention on the dumping of wastes at sea, which both prohibit for-profit ocean fertilisation activities. "It appears to be a blatant…

So, is it a fake?

Not to spoil the surprise, the answer is: I dunno, but the Arbiter is [was] bored. This is a follow-up to the Heartland Leak stuff, which ended up posted in various places but (apparently most notably) DeSmogBlog. Heartland have (I think; perhaps only implicitly) admitted to all of them, except the Climate Strategy which they declare to be faked. Various people have done various bits of textual analysis, which may or may not have been convincing to them, but I can't see anything that convinces one way or another. Heartland still says its fake, DeSmog says "The DeSmogBlog has no evidence…

Day 3: row over

A somewhat disappointing day today: we rowed well, but only achieved a row-over. Nines 5, as expected, succumbed quickly to Leys behind us, perhaps depriving us of that vital spark of being chased. But while we closed to within a canvas of Cantabs 7 just before Grassy we didn't quite have the oomph to catch them. So here is a picture of us from yesterday, rowing up to the start. Day 1 | Day 2 Pic courtesy of itinerant bow-bobble supplier Andy Nicol (well, when I say courtesy of, I mean I've ripped it off but provided you with a link to him. In fact Andy credits "Ivan Edwards" with the photos…

Cassandras of Climate?

So says Krugman. He means, of course, that the scientists are predicting disaster but no-one is listening. Or rather, that people listen but then find doing anything too inconvenient. Since this happened over fishing I find it not at all odd. But Krugman's basic premise - the sense that we're hurtling toward catastrophe but nobody wants to hear about it or do anything to avert it. And here's the thing: I'm not engaging in hyperbole - is twaddle. This *is* obvious hyperbole. The prognosis for the planet has gotten much, much worse in just the last few years. - no, I don't think so. You could…

Hansen on cap-n-trade vs carbon tax

Hansen has finally realised why cap-n-trade is more "popular" than a carbon tax. Of course I said this ages ago. JH says (I think it's in there somewhere; the text I'm quoting is from an email): In my testimony I noted that a "Cap" raises the price of energy, just as does a simple honest carbon tax on oil, gas and coal at the first sale at the mine or port of entry. "Cap" is a pseudonym, disguising the fact that it is a tax, assuming that the public is a bunch of dummies, who will never catch on. With all its hooks and eyes, Cap&Trade will allow a lot of funny business. At least we…

Paradox of flying to meetings to protect the environment

Nuture has a letter from David Gremillet who says: Scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of their work... reduce our carbon footprint by attending fewer scientific conferences... Regular long-distance flying can easily triple an academic's carbon footprint. During the past year, I have 'spent' about nine tonnes of carbon, two-thirds of this on plane trips. Yet I am a good consumer otherwise (see http://www.carbonfootprint.com), and I don't even own a car. Such figures are particularly hard for field ecologists to stomach, as we hope our long-term work…

Blame the Iraqis

Here's Bill O'Reilly expressing the latest bit of wisdom from the American Right: The problem in Iraq is not American. The problem is the Iraqis themselves. They're not fighting for their freedom in a way that puts the bad keys on the defensive. There is only so much the USA can do. If the Iraqi people are unwilling to challenge the bad guys, the bad guys will win -- period. And here's Charles Krauthammer making the same point: Americans flatter themselves that they are the root of all planetary evil. Nukes in North Korea? Poverty in Bolivia? Sectarian violence in Iraq? Breasts are beaten…

More on .9999...=1

Polymathematics has posted another excellent essay on the subject of whether .9999...repeating equals one. This time he is responding, very effectively, to various counter arguments raised by commenters. One small comment of my own, though: The name of the blog is “EvolutionBlog.” One word. Reading the various comments left to the post reveals two kinds of skeptics. Some are people who are perfectly willing to accept that .9999...=1, but find the logic justifying this conclusion to be hard to follow. No shame in that. The idea of the limit of an infinite series is not a simple one,…

268-275/366: Miscellaneous Photo Dump

This one, we'll do sorta-kinda chronologically: 268/366: Niska-Parade Why is it always bagpipes? One of the big temporal landmarks of the recent stretch without photo-blogging posts was "Niska-Day," the annual community festival here. This kicks off with a parade, the route for which comes right to the end of our street. Here's one of the first marching elements, the local bagpipe group. 269/366: Niska-Ride SteelyKid is on this somewhere. Of course, if you're a kid, the real highlight of Niska-Day is the bit with the carnival rides. SteelyKid is on this, having dragged one of her more…

Favorite Quantum Physics in Fiction?

We'll be accepting applications for The Schrödinger Sessions workshop at JQI through tomorrow. We already have 80-plus applicants for fewer than 20 planned spots, including a couple of authors I really, really like and some folks who have won awards, etc., so we're going to have our work cut out for us picking the attendees... We're also discussing the program for the workshop-- more details when we have something more final-- which has me thinking about good examples to use of storytelling involving quantum physics. I'd like to be able to give a few shout-outs to already-existing fiction…

Minnesota sex ed bill betrayed

Why is the reality-based community ignored? Because the other side, the Jesus-loving wingnut loons, is committed to defending idiocy, while the Democrats have a complete lack of any guiding principle, other than to get elected. Nick Coleman has another perfect example, not that there's any shortage of them, in the defeat of a sensible bill here in Minnesota. In a last-minute piece of strong-arming that went almost unnoticed, Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty forced DFL leaders of the Legislature to drop a comprehensive and moderate sex-education proposal from the $14 billion education bill that…

Squid-fishing for the wily Taningia danae

Since I asked for it, and since so many were promptly forthcoming with a copy, I'd better give you a quick summary. Kubodera et al. have formally published their observations of the eight-armed deep sea squid, Taningia danae, that were in the news last February. There isn't much new information in the papers; it's all based on a handful of video observations of hunting squid in their native habitat, so it's more on the side of anecdote than anything else right now. It's still just plain cool. That photo is of their video gear. It's a platform with lights and cameras that's lowered on a cable…

Climate Science vs. Climate Science Denial in Word Clouds

Are there cultural differences between those who accept and generally understand the current consensus on climate change science and those who don't? One gets the sense that there is, but it is possible to explore this in more detail. I took the public Twitter profile descriptions, written by individual Twitterers, from two different Twitter lists that I maintain, and made word clouds out of them. The first is a list of "Global warming deniers." People get on this list when they actively deny climate change science in Twitter exchanges with me (or that I observe). There are 309 members as…

Elect These Four Californians: Lois Capps, Heidi Hall, Mike Honda, Ted Lieu

This is an endorsement by Climate Hawks Vote, which I support. Climate Hawks Vote is delighted to endorse in four California Congressional elections, joining our prior endorsement of Scott Peters (CA-52, San Diego). In order purely alphabetical, they're Lois Capps, Heidi Hall, Mike Honda, and Ted Lieu. Lois Capps (CA-24, Santa Barbara) has earned our endorsement by being a tireless advocate for action on climate. She has the second-highest score among all Democrats in the House of Representatives on our scorecard measuring leadership. Her climate resilience ideas, in particular, have been…

Paul Clements and Gary Peters for Congress in Michigan

This is an endorsement by Climate Hawks Vote, which I support. Climate Hawks Vote announces endorsements of two Michigan Democrats: Paul Clements for Congress in Michigan’s Sixth District, and Gary Peters for Senate, because the Koch brothers and Big Oil need to stop using Michigan’s shores as a dumping ground for their pollution and Michigan’s politicians for their agenda. Paul Clements is challenging none other than Fred Upton, chair of the House Energy & Commerce Committee - these days, the House Big Oil Lackey Committee. As the face of Big Oil, Upton was named the number one enemy of…

Twitter's New Filtered Feed Policy

Twitter is about to ruin itself. I'm convinced that the people who made and run both Facebook and Twitter don't have a clue as to what Facebook and Twitter are for. And by "for" I mean how the users use them. I know, I know, if you are not paying for the product than you are the product. I get it. But it is also true that for a service to be successful it should meet a need or two, and knowing what those needs are is ultimately linked to success or failure. It seems like on line services like Facebook and Twitter are too big to go away or fail. And that is exactly how we humans tend to…

A Television Series Set At The Renfest!!!

How about a television series made by some very talented people set in the context of a Renaissance Festival? That, lords and ladies, is the plan. Renfest is a serial set in a RenFest, filmed at an actual Renfest, that combines the themes of "office politics," a sort of anachronistic Big-Bang Theory, produced, written, stared in, and developed, by an outstandingly talented team including Shawn Otto (a Renaissance man himself, whom readers of this blog know well), Mary Jo Pehl, Jamal Farah, Dave Allen, and Trace Beaulieu. The trailer demonstrates that this is an excellent project, and the…

Sanders Vs. Clinton Vs. Obama Vs. Clinton: The 2016 primary in context

UPDATED: The graphic above is updated from the original post to show the delegate counts this year through the New York Primary. I've also added the projected delegate counts based on my model, as dashed lines, through the end of the primary. A while back I posted an item comparing the current, 2016, Democratic primary process with the 2008 primary that mainly involved Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. I posted the following graphic comparing the Real Clear Politics polling data summary over the course of the primary cycle. That was at a point in time when Bernie Sanders was gaining on…

Global Warming Did Not Pause

You've heard much about the so-called "pause" or "hiatus" in global warming. One of the implications of a multi-year "pause" in global warming is that the science of global warming must be somehow wrong, because with CO2 rising in atmosphere, due to human activity, how can the surface not warm? However, surface temperatures have been rising, but at a somewhat slower rate than at some other times. The truth is that there is a lot of variation in that upward trending surface temperature value, measured as an anomaly above expected temperatures. Sometimes the variation pushes the rate of…

Weekend Diversion: The World Beard and Mustache Champions!

"There is nothing more contemptible than a bald man who pretends to have hair." -Martial It's been far too long since I introduced you to a great musical artist you may not have heard of, so let's get right to that. Kristin Hersch, famed leader of the punk/alternative band Throwing Muses (which she started at the age of 15 or so), has gone on to do some amazing singing/songwriting work. Here's one of my favorites of hers, Uncle June And Aunt Kiyoti.On a completely unrelated note, other than its amusement for me, the 2011 World Beard and Mustache Championships just took place in Trondheim,…

Advice for Teachers as the Academic Year Ends

"Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you." -William Arthur Ward Here at my college, as well as at all those colleges and Universities on the semester system, the academic year is coming to an end. For those of you in elementary or secondary schools -- or on quarters at college -- you've got less than two months until the years is out. And while "school's out" may be the ultimate goal for many of you, as your finals, last papers, grading, and exams will all be over at last, I'd…

What do you think about the death penalty?

We just had an execution by lethal injection. Everything went fine. If, by "fine," we mean a guy died as a bunch of people watched emotionlessly. The execution was carried out so late in the process that only a few minutes passed between the pronouncement of death and and the expiration of the court order to kill. What if the execution had taken twice as long? With the order expired, would it be stopped during the final minutes? Would someone dial 911, get EMTs in there, try to save the guy's life? I'm against the death penalty. I think it is time we recognized that this is the 21st…

Happy Labor Day. Who's Not Doing Their Job?

Laborers generally do their jobs, because if they don't they get fired. But there are entire professions where people are not doing their jobs and the rest of us suffer. Jacob Wetterling was abducted and murdered two and a half decades ago. The guy who did it was known to the cops then, and he had done things like this before, and those thinks were known about. There are all kinds of reasons they should have busted him even before Jacob was murdered, but they weren't doing their job. Turns out that when you look across the country and across decades, you can find FAR more examples of cops…

Colliding Galaxies For Fun and For Science!

If you've never been to the Galaxy Zoo website, you have been missing out. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is a pretty impressive telescope, but the wide-field camera system on it is what's truly amazing. Have you ever seen a telescope that looks like this before? This telescope surveys a huge area of the sky, taking the highest resolution pictures of tremendous regions of space. We not only get to take a census of a very large region of space, we also get unique views on -- literally -- hundreds of thousands of galaxies. This gives us both the forest and the trees. Sure, I may write more about…

Going to space for $150!

No, not you personally. But if you've ever thought about sending anything up into space, you may want to listen to this story about a couple of MIT students. For less than $150 in parts, with an amazing ease of assembly, they managed to send a device up to the brink of space, take some pictures, and recover the wreckage. At its apex, their entire apparatus reached an altitude of 93,000 feet (more than 28 km), sending it high into the stratosphere, high enough to take this picture: Well, it isn't technically "space", but it is above more than 90% of the atmosphere and is certainly very, very…

An interesting new graphic showing climate change

This graphic, by Boggis Makes Videos and put on YouTube just a few days ago, breaks all the rules of how to make effective, understandable graphs for the general public. However, if you follow all those rules, it is difficult or impossible to get certain message across. Therefore, this graphic is necessary if a bit difficult. I would like you to watch the graphic several times with a prompt before each watching so that you fully appreciate it. This will only take you six or seven minutes, I'm sure you weren't doing anything else important. Pass 1: How to read the graph This graph's basic…

The Horses Of The World: Don't say Neigh to this great book.

Over the years, the field guide and the coffee table book have merged, and we now have coffee table-ish books (but serious books) that include a species description of every critter in a certain clade. In the case of Horses of the World by Élise Rousseau (Author), Yann Le Bris (Illustrator), Teresa Lavender Fagan (Translator), while every living species of horse is in fact covered, the book is a comprehensive guide to breeds of horses. Of which there are 570. A horse is horse, of course, but but is a donkey or an ass? What about zebras? Horse people are very picky about what they call a…

The Last 100 years: 1969 and the Final Frontier

There's no doubt that physics and astronomy was booming in the 1960s. The model that protons and neutrons were made of quarks was proposed and validated, the most powerful nuclear device of all time was detonated, and the Cosmic Microwave Background was discovered, validating the Big Bang. (Not to mention devastating advances in biology, too.) But something far more awesome than that happened in 1969. It not only trumps splitting the proton and confirming the Big Bang, it is -- for me -- the finest accomplishment in all of human history. And its 40th anniversary is exactly three weeks from…

Kagan on Straussianism

Robert Kagan, co-founder of the Project for a New American Century, has a fascinating article in the Weekly Standard called I am Not a Straussian. Jon Rowe cited it at Positive Liberty and I had to read it. It's quite amusing to read, but I think he has a serious point to make about how much of what passes for learned academic criticism of the neo-conservative movement relies upon shallow analysis and guilt by association. I've read a thousand articles, or so it seems, that equate neo-conservatism with Straussianism and Kagan is correct to point out that the two terms are not synonomous. I…

UW Still Doesn't Support Free Exercise

I mentioned a few weeks ago the situation at the University of Wisconsin where the university told dorm RAs that they could no longer host bible studies in their dorm rooms because they were afraid that would make them less "approachable" to other students. This was a ludicrous argument then and it still is, especially since the university had no problem with RAs engaging in all sorts of controversial political and cultural activities that might similarly put off other students. UW temporarily suspended the policy pending review and appointed a committee to make recommendations. That…

Balkin on Miers

Jack Balkin has a long and thorough essay on how Democrats should respond to the Miers nomination and he says much the same thing I've been saying. As he notes, the Democrats are currently in popcorn mode - sitting back, munching their popcorn and enjoying watching the Republicans yell at each other and call each other names. But at some point, if the administration does not withdraw her nomination, they're going to have to decide whether to vote for her or against her. If their only concern is the balance on the court and the outcome of cases, they're better off voting for Miers because she…

Howard Ahmanson and the Battle Over Evolution

Salon.com has an article today on Howard Ahmanson, the reclusive savings and loan heir who has spent millions to promote religious right causes in America. In addition to his enormous support of seemingly any anti-gay organizations he can find, Ahmanson is well known to those of us who are active in the evolution/creationism battle because he is the primary money man behind the Discovery Institute (DI), the Seattle-based think tank at the forefront of advocating Intelligent Design Creationism (IDC). The DI's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture is where you will find such IDC…

Who is the richest person in the world?

This came up the other day, so I figured I’d note the answer(s) down and share it with you so we don’t have to look this up in the internet again until 2013 is over. The, I think they get new richest people. Most of these answers come from Forbes, which appears to be in charge of knowing these things. Or even, perhaps, determining these things! Who is the richest person in the world? The richest person in the world is Carlos Slim Helu and his family, with a net wort of 73 billion dollars. He’s in Mexico, and in the telecom business. But since this includes “his family” we may want to note…

Two idiots get a forum

Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron are two of the very dumbest creationists you will find — and they were upset at the Blasphemy Challenge, so they demanded a chance to debate. And of course, since they are the dumbest, most inane, silliest creationists around, television executives jumped at the chance. ABC loved the idea, and will host a debate in New York City on May 5, 2007. Moderated by Martin Bashir, the debate will be streamed LIVE on their website and will also be filmed for "Nightline." It's not at all clear who they are going to debate—there's nothing about it on Brian Flemming's weblog…

Meteorological Items of Interest (including a hurricane)

Soon To Be Hurricane Isaac Isaac is a tropical storm currently located south of Puerto Rico and heading for Haiti and Cuba. After rolling over those land areas for several hours, and reaching the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, Isaac is expected to become a modest hurricane, likely to menace the west coast of Florida and the Florida Panhandle and nearby Mississippi. Conditions are actually right for Isaac to become a fairly strong storm, even though at the moment it is very poorly organized. Arctic Cyclone The other storm of interest is now historical, but worth a mention. This was the arctic…

Skepchickal Sex Ratio in Context

The question has been asked: What was the sex ratio of attendees of the recent SkepchickCON Track at CONvergence, and of the panelists? To this it would be nice (and appropriate) to add the same questions for CONvergence as a whole. I have some, but not all, of that information. I looked at the panelist sex ratio by examining every Skepchick run panel on the CONvergnece schedule, and adjusted where I know for who actually was on the panel (it is usually the same but now and then things turn out differently). To sample panels at CONvergence, I simply examined the CONvergence panel…

An Excellent Book on Energy: Before the Lights Go Out...

On Sunday, I interviewed Maggie Koerth-Baker, the author of Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us. The interview was live on radio, but you can listen to it here as a podcast. Maggie is the science editor at Boing Boing, a journalist, and has had an interest in energy and the related science and engineering for some time. Her book is an overview, historical account, and detailed description of the energy systems that we use in the United States, outlining the flow of watts, CO2 emissions, methods of making more watts, what we use it all for, and more…

Sean Carroll, Marie-Claire Shanahan, and the Higgs

I'm pretty sure that for a long time people who were supposed to know what they were talking about were explaining the Higgs Boson wrong. This led other people to think of it the wrong way as well. I'm not even speaking here of the whole "god particle" thing. That's a whole nuther, equally annoying, issue. But eventually, the real story started to get around and I think it is possible to get a reasonable idea of what the thing is without being a theoretical physicist or particle expert. Let me try. Here's my current version of the Higgs Boson. There seems to be three things to know about…

Success of Climate Science Denialism

One of the reasons that we have not, as a species, as a group of nations, dealt effectively with Anthropogenic Global Warming is the effectiveness of climate science denialism. There are denialists in Congress, on the Internet, and everywhere. They have not succeeded in making a valid scientific argument regarding Global Warming, but they have kept the rhetoric in the foreground, which has allowed interests protecting Big Oil to keep the hapless Main Stream Media focused on a false balance between scientific consensus and unreasonable doubt. As a result, the last decade or so has been a…

Guys, another reason to be godless: Christian girls let their figures go

90% of teenage girls believe they are overweight, according to a recent survey. That's something to worry about — there's the reality, that a lot of us are overweight, but there's also the perception problem, that many girls are convinced that they must lose weight when they really don't. There's an article that speculates on the cause of this problem, whether it is an obsession with celebrity, peer pressure, or pressure from the diet industry, but it comes up with a strange explanation: It is, in truth, all of the above. But there is another profoundly important yet little noticed dynamic…

What size camera aperture can read a license plate from Earth orbit?

Answer: About 20 meters. Th Hubble Space Telescope's aperture is 2.4 meters. So, you really can't do it at the present time. This is one of a large, seemingly inestimable number of practical need-to-know and esoteric questions addressed in Lawrence Weinstein's book Guesstimation 2.0: Solving Today's Problems on the Back of a Napkin, a followup book on the earlier Guesstimation: Solving the World's Problems on the Back of a Cocktail Napkin. I should say that I personally have an uncanny ability to estimate things. This comes from being an archaeologist with a lot of experience in CRM. For…

New Bird Book: Birds of North America and Greenland

Face it. Half the time ... most of the time, really ... you use your Peterson (or some other favorite "field guide") as a checklist. You see a bird and you pretty much know in your head what it is, but you need to look it up to see what the three or four similar ducks or woodpeckers or whatever are in your area in order to be sure that it is a Common Merganser or a Red Headed Woodpecker or whatever. All you need is a basic picture (drawing preferred for this sort of thing) the names of the birds and basic range maps. That is the role played by the Princeton Illustrated Checklists; These…

Floods: Don't go in them.

As an archaeologist, my expertise in the cognate field of geology includes fluvial processes, so I know something about floods. And I've experienced plenty of floods working in the Hudson and Mohawk river valleys ... now that I think of it, I've got quite a few good flood stories. But the most significant experience I've had with flooding happened in about a foot of water. It was in the Congo, at Senga, a location I've written about before. Our camp was on one side of a wash right where it entered the Semliki River, and the excavation was on the other side of the wash, but since the…

March Pieces Of My Mind #3

I like this illustration. Note the spirals in the woman's hair, repeated in the clouds. Also the hint of post-nookie intimacy suggested by this being *breakfast* tea. Been helping Jrette study French for a test. Love making up absurd sentences for her to translate. "On my right is Charlemagne. He is wearing Father's pink beret. If you take Father's beret he will not be very nice. But Charlemagne gets to borrow it." Finally got it. The name of the crowdfunding site IndieGogo references indigo. Listening to Tubular Bells. Can't get over that Oldfield was 19 when he recorded it. Updated…

Skeptical Sir Richard

Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-90) Yesterday I finished reading the first volume of Sir Richard Burton's 1855 Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah (in the public domain). Here Burton recounts his travels in the summer of 1853, when he disguised himself as a wandering Persian physician and performed the Muslim pilgrimage. At the time, if a non-Muslim was caught doing this, he would be lucky if he only ended up forcefully circumcised. Burton is an amazing writer, with a keen eye for detail and fine cynical sense of humour. He comes across as a man without any…

December Pieces Of My Mind #3

Our kitchen window When we go out for dinner my wife wants to sample everyone's dishes. And I want to make sure no food is wasted. So we both end up sampling everyone's dishes. Danish metal detectorists refer to their finds as "cousins". "Can somebody please ID this cousin?" I'm a typical Swedish atheist. I'm uncomfortable with people having strong feelings about religion. Pro or con. When reading about 17th century Swedish historians in the Rudebeck vein I can understand that they would uncritically repeat whatever a trusted authority had said. But I'm amazed by their willingness to just…

Second Week Of 2015 Excavations At Landsjö

2014 trenches A-E and rough locations of 2015 trenches F-H. I write these lines on the day after we backfilled the last two trenches at Landsjö, packed up our stuff, cleaned the manor house, hugged each other and went our separate ways. It's an odd feeling to take apart the excavation machine while it still runs. It's been four fun and successful weeks! Since my previous entry, written on Monday evening, we've done only three days of further excavation. Our main findings, to the extent that I have any comprehensive overview of them at the moment, relate to the culture layers sitting…

November Pieces Of My Mind #2

This chocolate praline contains something that looks and smells like shampoo. Apparently it's flavoured with elderflower extract. Jrette prints out song lyrics and fixes them to the outside of the shower cubicle as aids to singing in the shower. I'm kind of OK with most subcultural dress codes. But I really gotta say: young men wearing oversize baseball caps or stocking caps indoors look like they're in Kindergarten. I'm confused by the feminism that on one hand condemns the wearing of Hawaii shirts with beach babe cartoons, on the other hand organises proud plus-size burlesque shows. Would…

‘Badder’ isnt ‘Better’: Does evolution favor a deadlier HIV?

Though this paper (the one I began talking about before a holiday break) is the reason for this post, this post is also an opportunity to address a question I have gotten a lot over the years: Is HIV evolving to be more deadly? The short answer would be: No, it doesnt appear to be. Scientists have battled 'new' HIV variants vs 'old' HIV variants, and the younger variants are no more aggressive than the older versions. Replicative fitness of historical and recent HIV-1 isolates suggests HIV-1 attenuation over time The findings of this paper are, unquestionably, limited. They only looked in a…