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Around the Web: Choosing Real-World Impact Over Impact Factor, Practicing Freedom in the Digital Library and more

Choosing Real-World Impact Over Impact Factor Practicing Freedom in the Digital Library Dandelions, Prestige, and the Measure of Scholars Programmers insist: “Everybody” does not need to learn to code Digital Decay by Bruce Sterling New York Public Library Rethinks Design CIOs Wear Second Hat (ie. head of small colleges libraries too) Can't Buy Us Love: The Declining Importance of Library Books and the Rising Importance of Special Collections A New Polemic: Libraries, MOOCs, and the Pedagogical Landscape Ethical reflections on MOOC-making (Rebecca Kukla) Why Teach English? Learning Styles:…

Annals of peanut butter: another kind of death

Another death to add to the nine already attributed to the peanut cum salmonella affair. This one is the company itself and the jobs of its employees. The Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) is going belly up. I don't mean Chapter 11 (reorganizing under the bankruptcy laws). I mean Chapter 7, as in liquidating. I wonder if this is an effort to wring as much private cash out of the business as possible before it gets its nuts sued off of it. So one company, many jobs, the deaths of 9 people and the illness of more than 600 others, half of them children. In dollar terms there's also the lost…

DonorsChoose: Weighing In

If you'd prefer a more positive approach to fundraising, here's another post to highlight a specific project, one of many that are asking for funding to meet depressingly basic needs. In this case, the proposal is titled "Weighing In", which is pretty accurate: Our 7th & 8th graders from our classes in Buffalo, NY are in need of scales to develop their measurement skills in science. My project needs 3 Triple Beam Balances. This is a high-poverty district (80% qualify for free lunch), and they're looking for $420 to buy scales for a science lab. You wouldn't think they'd need to go…

How to Teach Physics to Your Spanish Dog

I can't resist interrupting the relatively productive day I'm having working on the new book to point you to ConversaciÃ³n de fÃsica con mi perro, the Spanish-language edtion of How to Teach Physics to Your Dog, which sports this spiffy cover: I haven't seen a physical copy of this yet, but the vanity search turned up this blog post, which just reproduces the cover copy, but does offer a sample chapter as a PDF. So, you know, if you want to try it before you buy it, there you go... This also explains the phone call I got yesterday from a journalist in Spain, who wanted to ask me about…

Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Humorous Status Updates

Chad Orzel now knows more than he would like to about the loathsome political views of some old acquaintances. Chad Orzel is pretty sure the people in question don't read the blog, or at least won't know he's talking about them. Chad Orzel is grateful for the feature that allows him to stop receiving those updates. Chad Orzel really wishes he had better killfile options, though. Chad Orzel longs for a Fire Upon the Deep style sentient AI killfile. Chad Orzel also wants better tools for distinguishing spam comments from slightly off-kilter real comments. Chad Orzel has nothing substantive to…

Tactical Bacon

"C" sends me a link of fantastic mmmm-ness. CMMG Tactical Bacon, TB-1, 9oz, 10+ Year Shelf Life: The ultimate tactical accessory, the new Tactical Bacon from CMMG Â® is simply amazing. Kept in an aluminum can for a shelf life of 10+ years, the CMMG Â® Tactical Bacon is more affordable than other pre-cooked bacon producers, who offer no tactical packaging for their product. Including 9 ounces of pre-cooked bacon goodness, comparable to 3 pounds of raw bacon, the CMMG Â® Tactical Bacon is perfect for camping trips, survival situations, a snack at the range, zombie attacks, and many other…

Let them buy yachts

I'm just amazed that Texas citizens will elect congresspeople who will do things like this: In response to the worst state budget crisis since World War II, the Texas House has proposed slashing $27 billion from the budget, including huge cuts to education, nursing homes, and health care for the poor. Yet last Friday, the Texas House Ways and Means Committee approved a tax break for those who want to buy yachts costing $250,000 or more. I think every unemployed worker, everyone struggling by on minimum wage, every waitress working for less than minimum wage, every teacher watching her…

The Cookies Don't Lie

Who needs sophisticated tracking polls when you've got...cookies! A local bakery not far from where I live makes presidential candidate cookies for every presidential election. This year they added vice-presidential cookies. You can buy an Obama, McCain, Biden, or Palin cookie - and help predict the winner of the election in the process! Since the 1984 election, Weinrich's in Willow Grove has been icing its round red, white and blue cookies with the names and, this year, the faces of the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. And in every election but one, the sale of cookies…

Trashcan: hobs and goblins

I've been travelling a little to organise my move to Sydney. Love the building, the department, the people and the project. Not sure about Sydney... so anyway, nothing of substance from me for a while. Here's a lovely little essay about Newton pissing off most of the European intellectual giants of his time, by one of our commentators, Thony Christie, at Etherwave Propaganda. He truly was the most egotistical and curmudgeonly bastard of his time, matched only by his actual achievements. The latest Linnaeus' Legacy is up at Agricultural Biodiversity. They had the good taste to use one of mine…

Technology Rants

Well, maybe more like tidbits than rants. This is all Linux or ani-Windows stuff, so everyone else you get the clam-hand*. First, from Linux in Exile we have a discussion of virtual desktops. Virtual desktops, to me, make a GUI computer usable. GUI computers without them suck. Linux has them. Windows does not. Shut up and go read this. But sometimes you need to run Windows in a virtual machine (or some other thing must be run in a virtual machine). I've been playing around with this and its fun. Have a look at this. This is a cool new Linux-ready netbook that will run all day…

Donors Choose: we're in for some tough competition

Dr. Isis assures me that she will soon unveil a secret weapon to pull ahead in the Donors Choose challenge. I'm all for anything that helps kids, but c'mon---we can stay ahead. Even small donations help tons. For example, if 23 people give $10 each, we can buy a netbook for a classroom in need. There are plenty of other proposals from needy Michigan classrooms, too. Even a couple of bucks will help bring these projects closer to completion. If you can give a buck, or twenty of them, that's great, but if you can't, you can still help by tweeting, facebooking, etc. so that more people…

Galileoscope. 400 years in development, only about 50 bucks.

The #LearningSpace Google Hangout was talking today about the Galileoscope project. Galileo invented (I'm sure the story is more complex) the telescope and all that, and the Galileoscope project is HERE. The Galileoscope is a high-quality, low-cost telescope kit developed by a team of leading astronomers, optical engineers, and science educators. No matter where you live, with this easy-to-assemble, 50-mm (2-inch) diameter, 25- to 50-power achromatic refractor, you can see the celestial wonders that Galileo Galilei first glimpsed 400 years ago and that still delight stargazers today. These…

Christmas Crap!

Tired of the same old crap for Christmas? Why not buy some new crap?

You've got to be kidding me

Do you detect the little scientific and logical problem in this press release about a new prayer study? A ground-breaking online study was recently initiated to discover if Americans believe prayer has a place in medicine. Shannon Pierotti, a graduate student at USciences, is using a social networking basis for recruiting participants in a National survey to assess attitudes regarding the inclusion of spirituality and prayer in medical practice. What's "ground-breaking" about that? She's simply using an online poll, advertised on religious sites, to ask if respondents believe that magical…

Science's online education prize

Science has an award for online education resources (cutely named "SPORE"), and they want nominations by June 30. Here are their criteria: Rules of Eligibility for SPORE-2009: * The project must focus on science education. * The resources described must be freely available on the Internet. * The project can be targeted to students or teachers at the precollege or college level, or it can serve the informal education needs of the general public. * The Internet resources must be in English or include an English translation. * Nominations are welcome from all sources. Both…

ScienceOnline2010 session videos - Privacy, ethics, and disasters: how being online as a doctor changes everything Part 6

Privacy, ethics, and disasters: how being online as a doctor changes everything Saturday, January 16 at 10:15 - 11:20am E. Privacy, ethics, and disasters: how being online as a doctor changes everything - Pal MD and Val Jones. Description: We all know that there are potential pitfalls to having a prominent online presence, but for physicians, the implications affect more than just themselves. How should doctors and similar professionals manage their online life? What are the ethical and legal implications? Some preliminary reading can be found here.

ScienceOnline2010 session videos - Privacy, ethics, and disasters: how being online as a doctor changes everything Part 5

ScienceOnline2010 session videos - Privacy, ethics, and disasters: how being online as a doctor changes everything Part 4

ScienceOnline2010 session videos - Privacy, ethics, and disasters: how being online as a doctor changes everything Part 2

ScienceOnline2010 session videos - Privacy, ethics, and disasters: how being online as a doctor changes everything Part 1

so you know

Astrology is crap You can not buy a star name Yes, there really was a Big Bang

Tetrapod Zoology Book One is here at last

Earlier this year (July) my children's book on Mesozoic reptiles - Dinosaurs Life Size - appeared in the shops. People seem to like it (yikes, even if some of the 'life sized' animals are scaled wrong). July also saw the publication of Dorling Kindersley's Know It All (Baines 2010): I didn't write the whole book, just the section on prehistoric animals. Today I'm pleased to announce that my third book for 2010 - Tetrapod Zoology Book One (Naish 2010) - is finally available. Tetrapod Zoology Book One is a compilation of over 40 articles from Tet Zoo ver 1, and as such only includes articles…

Online social networking isn't for everyone

As we race headlong into a future full of opportunities for online social networking, as we try and build systems to engage students, scientists, librarians or others, we have to remember one thing. When we build these systems, we need to build them for everyone. Not just the coolest and most technophilic. We have to build for who our audience really is, not who we wish they would be. And sometimes we just have to recognize that not everyone will be interested in what we have to offer, even if they seem to fit our profile in other ways. Wayne Bivens-Tatum does a very good job of…

To those who do not like the democratization of knowledge

[Comic strip taken from Unshelved] The anti-technology curmudgeons are back. Not just worrying about technology in classrooms (for which Dave has a great response), but culture in general. Nice to see a couple of good responses to the doom-and-gloom crowd. First we: DIGITAL_NATIVES by Jonathan Imme: There used to be a time when we would be called 'nerds' or 'techies'. Strange people with a near-obsessive compulsion to embrace new technology, and who'd rather communicate with their friends online than offline. People for whom the Internet itself was the ultimate source of information for…

The Great Firewall of Collaboration

A fellow quantum computing researcher of mine recently joined FriendFeed. Along with another researcher we got involved in a discussion about a paper concerning a certain recent claimed "disproof of Bell's theorem." (arXiv:0904.4259. What it means to "disprove a theorem" like Bell's theorem is, however a subject for another comment section on a different blog.) But, and here is the interesting thing, this colleague then made a trip to China. And FriendFeed, apparently, is blocked by the great firewall of China, so he had to email us his comments to continue the conversation. Which got me…

Advancing and Promoting your Research on the Web

I received an email a couple of weeks ago from Daniel Cromer of the Hrenya Research Group located in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His group was interested in expanding their online presence and had stumbled up the presentation I'd given a couple of years ago on Academic Blogging: Promoting your Research on the Web. He asked me if I could explore those same ideas in a short presentation to the group. That was Monday. Sadly, I wasn't able to actually go to Colorado for the presentation -- it was all online using the…

More on the World Poker Tour Lawsuit

There is now a webpage devoted specifically to the lawsuit filed against the World Poker Tour by 7 of the top poker players in the world. You can find the text of the complaint here. I haven't had much of a chance to go over it yet, and I know next to nothing about antitrust law, but perhaps some of the legal eagles here can shed some light on the issue. At issue, essentially, is whether the WPT can require the players to sign away all rights to their own likeness in order to play in a WPT event, even if the WPT uses that likeness to promote something other than the tournament or the TV show…

From the Archives: Einstein: His life and universe by Walter Isaacson

I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll occasionally be merging two or more shorter reviews into one post here. This one, of Einstein: His Life and Universe, is from March 24, 2008. ======= Walter Issacson's 2007 biography of Albert Einstein was one of the best reviewed books of that year, appearing on nearly all the year end lists of…

Online Culture IS The Culture

Online Culture IS The Culture View more documents from tim parsons.

Even more me

Yet another interview with PZ Myers from Pharyngula is online now.

Some Domestic Matters

This evening we have two topics to cover in the area of domestic engineering. The first has to do with shopping (for groceries) and the second has to do with dishwashers. First, and this will be brief, on the shopping for groceries: Grocery Shopping You know how each person goes up to the conveyor belt and puts their purchase items down, and perhaps places a plastic stick (provided by the store) behind your items (or if necessary in front as well) in order to separate the items that you are purchasing from those of other shoppers? Well, you're doin' it wrong!!!! Or at least, some of you…

Does Buying Local Matter?

A reader asked me to comment on this video critiquing Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's challenge to Ontario consumers to spend ten more dollars a week on local, Ontario produced food. My first comment is that people who speak like affectless zombies probably should stick to the written word, rather than making videos, but that's more of an aesthetic critique. Beyond that, however, there is the tiny germ (if you can find it under the same old economist free market babble) of a real question - how much impact does switching our dollars into local foods and products actually have? Most of the…

If Atheists Ruled the World

Taken word for word from online fundamentalist forums(contains some graphic language).

Occupational Health News Roundup

Last week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released a proposed rule that would make public much of the injury and illness data employers are already required to collect. Large employers (those with 250 or more employees) would be required to electronically submit their injury and illness records to OSHA each quarter. In certain industries with high injury and illness rates, establishments with 20 or more employees would have to submit summary data to OSHA on an annual basis. "OSHA plans to eventually post the data online, as encouraged by President Obama's Open…

Making sacrifices for our country

($1.93? Can you get them cheaper if you buy them in bulk at Costco or Walmart?)

Science Poem Manifesto

Earlier this year, I received a charming email from a pair of Helsinki-based artists and designers who work under the name of OK DO. OK DO is a socially-minded design think tank and online publication; they dug Universe and wanted to know if I'd contribute to a new publication and exhibition project they were working on. The project, Science Poems, was perfectly up my alley: a variety of articles and work loosely structured around the "poetry and multi-sensorial aesthetics of natural sciences rather than their functionality and logic." For the occasion, I wrote a short piece about the…

Moving the Therapist's Office Online

CNNâs Elizabeth Landau reported yesterday on new research suggesting that online psychotherapy is an effective way to treat depression. The original study, published August 22 in the Lancet by Dr. David Kessler and colleagues in the UK, examined the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) delivered by a therapist online in real time. When compared to usual care only, a combination of online CBT and usual care led to higher rates of recovery at follow-up eight months later. Despite logistical and policy issues â health insurance coverage of online therapy, legal questions about…

What are teachers for?

Just as I posted this clip about the way kids use blogs and social networks, David Warlick posted this intriguing analysis of the way kids use online technologies. Dave posted an interesting graph that shows that kids assess that they acquire various skills equally in school and in off-school online environments. What? Yes, there used to be a time when you went to school to learn A, B and C: facts, learning skills, social skills with peers, and then went home to learn skills D, E and F: how to deal with adults, perform acts of personal hygiene, and learn to do household chores. But today, the…

Online Mental Health Fair and Conference Call with the Experts Regarding Bipolar Disorder

tags: online mental health fair, bipolar disorder, manic-depressive illness, manic depression, Revolution Health It has come to my attention that Revolution Health is currently running an Online Mental Health Fair, with a special focus on reaching college students and their parents. College is a particularly challenging time for students struggling with depression or bipolar disorder because students' mood disorders are complicated by being away from home and family for the first time. Thus, Revolution Health's goal is both to raise awareness on college campuses and to help raise money for…

Gambling is Evil....Except When It Isn't

Tuesday's vote in the House on HR 4411, the bill that bans internet gambling nationwide, was supported, to no one's surprise, by those denizens of moral rectitude on the religious right. Agape Press reports on the strong support that "family" (read: anti-fun) organizations had for the bill, including Focus on the Family and Concerned Shrews Women for America. No doubt a sizable percentage of those in Congress who supported the legislation take a view similar to this: "Right now, we have enough problem and pathological gamblers to fill more than 214 NFL stadiums to capacity," Hills says. "…

Archaeology Magazine Jan/Feb

Blogging's been low what with many boxes to unpack and no broadband connection. But things are getting into shape at home. Hope I find the electric drill tonight so I can get some of the paintings up off the floor. Archaeology Magazine is a publication of the Archaeological Institute of America and so tends to concentrate on areas of the world where US archaeologists work. I recently got a complimentary subscription and received the Jan/Feb issue, whose cover story is a richly illustrated feature piece about Maya beauty ideals (abstract available on-line). My dentist was fascinated to see the…

eBay used as behavioral laboratory

This study from the University of Michigan used eBay to determine whether a seller's reputation helped them get higher prices: "People with good reputations are rewarded and people with no reputations are not trusted as well as people who have established reputations," said Paul Resnick, professor in the U-M School of Information and the study's principal author. The study is the first known randomized controlled look at the value of eBay reputations in the natural setting of actual eBay auctions. The findings showed that eBay's feedback system--the cornerstone of the online auction site--…

A little bit more shameless self-promotion in the service of an important message about Stanislaw Burzynski

As regular readers know, I was quite happy that Skeptical Inquirer (SI) agreed to publish articles by Bob Blaskiewicz and myself about the highly dubious cancer doctor in Houston known as Stanislaw Burzynski. Indeed, Bob and I have been busily doing our best to promote it, appearing on various podcasts, including Point of Inquiry and, most recently, The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, where once again we've called on skeptics to help us put pressure on our elected officials to prevent Dr. Burzynski from continuing to take advantage of desperate cancer patients, many with incurable disease,…

Around the Web: Librarians & tenure, The gangs of academia, Women & the Internet and more

Do Librarians Need Tenure? Depends on Which Ones You Ask. The Hunt Library, Innovation, and Tenure Academic Freedom! Huh! What is It Good For? My Thoughts on Faculty Status for Academic Librarians How Academia Resembles a Drug Gang An Academic Cartel? Women and the Internet in Four Parts: Online and Offline Violence Towards Women; Context Collapse, Architecture, and Plows; Sexytime, Gender Roles, and Credit Where Due; Feminism's Twist Ending The Gendering of Technology Work Academic scattering We Are Not Hypnotized (rejecting the extremes wrt online ed) Libraries in the Time of MOOCs The…

Tatjana in NYTimes!

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know Tatjana Jovanovic-Grove. Or you can remind yourself by checking this, this, this, this and this. If you came to ScienceOnline09 (or followed virtually) you will remember that she co-moderated two sessions there: Open Access in the networked world: experience of developing and transition countries and How to paint your own blog images . Well, today, Tatjana is in New York Times! I hear from those who get the papers in hardcopy, that the article starts on the front page, but the part with the interview with Tatjana and her husband Doug is on…

Sullum on Internet Gambling Arrests

Our government has arrested yet another executive from an online gaming company, this time Peter Dicks, chairman of the board of Sportingbet, a British company. Jacob Sullum, writing at Reason.com, captured this whole situation perfectly a few weeks ago: If an executive of a U.S. media company were arrested in Beijing for violating a Chinese law against "subversive" online speech, or in Tehran for creating "indecent" Web content viewed by Iranians, Americans would ask what right these countries have to impose their illiberal policies on us. Sadly, our government is giving people in other…

Blogging on the Brain: 3/10

Recent highlights from the best in brain blogging: Online experiments at the Harvard Visual Cognition Lab! Less invasive brain-computer interfacing, for video games. Brain-computer interface implants: videos. A new weapon in the Israeli arsenal: the VIPER robot. The current state of the art in robotics, as reviewed by Cognitive Daily. Guiding pigeons with remote controls. Hunting by single-cell organisms: the slime mold. Relatively complex reasoning revealed in rats (improved! now links to the correct page). Mental representations in non-human animals: signs of animal intelligence? Evolving…

Is Microsoft's Bid for Yahoo A Sign of Failure?

Possibly, according to this piece in the New York Times. Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo, pushed by Mr. Ballmer, was hostile. And during a conference call Friday with analysts and in a subsequent interview, he never once uttered the word "Google," referring to the Internet search giant that has humbled Microsoft only as "the leader" in the online world. Mr. Ballmer, 51, is a famously fierce competitor. To him, failure is never an option. "If we don't get it right at first, we'll just keep coming and coming and coming and coming," he said in an earlier interview. Microsoft's bid for…

Online Reputation Management

You may remember some time ago a brouhaha erupted when an upper Midwestern Blogger was told he had to erase a post that said something bad (yet truthful) about Cheri Yecke, who was at that time competing for the job of head of Florida Education. The company was a "scrubber" which promised to find bad things on the internet about a client, and get rid of them (the bad things, not the client) for a fee. My response to the company's efforts to scrub the Yecke is here: Arrrrg. Avast ye 'defenders' ... Well, not this sort of company has evolved (ha! evolution is real!) from "scrubber" to "…

A Shout Out for The Scientific Activist

The Scientific Activist received a shout out yesterday in the latest issue of the Ventura County Reporter in Sandra Sorenson's article stressing the continued importance of blogs and how they likely contributed to Time Magazine's recent Person of the Year announcement: However you view Time Magazine's decision to name every somewhat cognizant citizen "Person of the Year" a cop-out, flattering the deadline-burdened staff got something right: There is increasingly active dialog between the average citizen and the mainstream media. And it isn't always amicable.... But what of the blog, that…

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