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ScienceBlogs Channel Photos, Week of March 11-17

For your weekly viewing pleasure, here are the larger versions of this week's channel photos. Several of the photos—those featured on the Life Science, Physical Science, Environment, Humanities & Social Science, and Technology channels—come from Felice Frankel and George M. Whitesides' new book, On the Surface of Things; you can read more about the inspiration behind these spectacular images in Page 3.14's interview with Felice Frankel here. (Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be…

Be afraid

The Kansas Republican party is bringing out the big guns: Friday, June 20 The Johnson County Young Republicans are hosting Karaoke Night at Famous Sam's in Shawnee. Famous Sam’s is located in the strip mall on the southeast corner of Shawnee Mission Parkway and Pflumm. For more information email jcyoungrepublicans@yahoo.com. Speaking of music, here's your Friday Random Ten: "Bicycle" by The Jellydots from the album Hey You Kids! (2006, 3:30). "The Two Bums" by Utah Phillips (R.I.P.) from the album We Have Fed You All a Thousand Years (1993, 0:54). "Chain around My Leg" by Woody Guthrie from…

ScienceBlogs Channel Photos, Week of March 4-10

For your weekly viewing pleasure, here are the larger versions of this week's channel photos. Because size does matter. (Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.) First photo here, the rest below the fold. Life Science. Wings of a Morpho butterfly. From Felice Frankel and George M. Whitesides' "On The Surface Of Things" Physical Science. Prismatic soap bubble.…

two dead in LA, possibly from swine flu

lanow blog reporting two deaths over the weekend from pneumonia or 'flu like illness. possibly from swine flu or not. 33 yr male from Long Beach died monday - pneumonia over pre-existing lymphoma 45 yr male from La Mirada - died monda from pneumonia - County refused death certificate Coroner's office is investigating lifted from comment on Effect Measure

Noted without comment

Martin Cothran, scourge of all deviation, whether from his ideal of "classical education," from his creationist beliefs, from his homophobia, from his misogyny, from his aversion to women who assert their own sexuality, or from his conservative ideals, wants us all to know: My mother still keeps peacocks on her form in Kansas. Thanks for sharing.

More random traveling music

Because you need some music to go with your posts from the archives: "(Was I) In Your Dreams" by Wilco from the album Being There (1996, 3:30). "Fingertips [21 - Darkened Corridors]" by They Might Be Giants from the album Apollo 18 (1990, 1:01). "Red Right Ankle" by The Decemberists from the album Her Majesty (2003, 3:29). Probably my favorite Decemberists song. "And how it whispered 'Oh, adhere to me/ for we are bound by symmetry.'" "The E Street Shuffle" by Bruce Springsteen from the album The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Band (1973, 4:26). "Not A Second Time" by The Beatles from…

Japan Nuclear Disaster Update # 42: A River Runs Through It

In the beginning of the Fukushima Nuclear Crisis, in the hours and days after the earthquake and tsunami struck, nuclear power experts assured us that no matter how bad it seemed, nuclear material would stay in the reactors. It was unlikely that the reactors would melt down, and if they did melt down a little, that would be OK because the melted down stuff would stay within the reactor vessels. No problem. What actually happened, however, is that the nuclear material in three of the reactors totally melted down, and then melted through in perhaps two or three of the reactors, but at least…

This Week's Channel Photos

Once again, feast your eyes on the larger versions of this week's channel photos. (Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.) First photo here, the rest below the fold. Threads of a leaf, from Flickr, by NickStenning A Christmas ornament shows fractals, from Flickr, by oskay Wetland in Gouldsboro State Park, in Pennsylvania, from WikiMedia Commons Relief brooch from…

"Singing a sweet song, a melody pure and true"

Ten random tunes from the "happy" playlist in iTunes: "Melodie d'Amour" by Pete Seeger from the album Waist Deep in the Big Muddy and Other Love Songs (1967, 1:52). "Reflecting Light" by Sam Phillips from the album A Boot And A Shoe (2004, 3:17). "I Must Be High" by Wilco from the album A.M. (1995, 2:59). "Gardening at Night" by R.E.M. from the album Dead Letter Office (1993, 3:29). "Paradise" by Ana Laan from some SXSW collection (2007, 2:47). "Tape It (Mastered)" by WinterKids (3:37). "Outdoor Games" by magic arm from the EP Outdoor Games (4:29). "Goin' Down This Road" by Big Bill…

ScienceBlogs Channel Photos, Week of Dec. 17-23

We bring you, as always, the large-scale versions of this week's channel photos. (Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.) First photo here, the rest below the fold. Life Science. From Flickr, by suneko Physical Science: Jupiter and its moon Io. From NASA, via pingnews.com Environment: Oil-covered ruddy duck in Oakland, CA, 11/11/07. From Flickr, via wolfpix…

Science PhotoBlogging of the Week(end)

We're proud of our new channel homepages, and delighted that they give us a chance to feature cool science photos—so delighted that we thought the cropped versions on the channel pages might not be enough. Here are the glorious full versions of this week's channel photos. Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. (Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.) First photo here, the rest below the fold. An aquarium…

Birds missing anti-inflammatory protein common to other classes of animals

Image from www.123rf.com A new study published in the American Journal of Physiology presents data suggesting that birds do not carry a specific anti-inflammatory protein critical for keeping inflammation under control in mammals, reptiles and amphibians. The specific protein is tristetraprolin (TTP). It functions mainly by inhibiting key mediators of inflammation in the body, such as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFa). In fact, mice that are missing this protein have chronic systemic inflammation from unchecked TNFa. Moreover, mice missing the protein specifically in myeloid cells develop…

Random Ten

I realize that my ratio of Random Tens to non-music posts is getting dangerously high, but work has been keeping me busy, and I'm still trying to figure out where blogging fits in my schedule. Blame the Discovery Institute. "Chimes of Freedom" by The Byrds from the album Mr Tambourine Man (1965, 3:53). "The Whistling Song" by Meat Puppets from the album Meat Puppets II (1983, 2:57). "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits from the album Brothers In Arms (1985, 8:33). "She Caught The Katy And Left Me A Mule To Ride" by Taj Mahal from the album The Natch'l Blues (1968, 3:29). "Sweet Side" by…

Etruscans in the Iron Age and the Age of Irony

Opposition to Turkey entering the EU is building and the Turks themselves are apparently ambivalent, but they once were one of the most successful immigrant groups Europe had ever seen. At least that's the conclusion of Professor Alberto Piazza, from the University of Turin, Italy, who is set to announce that there is overwhelming evidence the Etruscans, whose origin has been subject of vigorous dispute, were from Anatolia (southern Turkey). Etruscan culture was very advanced and quite different from other known Italian cultures that flourished at the same time, and highly influential in the…

Tomorrow belongs to the "Darwinists"?

The use of the word "Darwinist" is to catch the attention of Creationists, normally I'm not too warm to its usage in a scientific (as opposed to philosophical or historical) context. In any case, Jerry Coyne has a post up where he states: The "new atheists" have been on the scene for exactly five years, beginning with Sam Harris's The End of Faith, published in 2004. But American's attitudes to evolution have been relatively unchanged (with 40+% denying it) for twenty-five years. This means two things. This is true to a first approximation, and rather depressing. So I thought I would…

ScienceBlogs Channel Photos, Week of May 20-26

The large versions of this week's channel photos are bigger and better than ever. (Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.) First photo here, the rest below the fold. Life Science. From Flickr, by frozenchipmunk Physical Science. From Flickr, by tanakawho Environment. From Flickr, by rappensuncle Humanities & Social Science. From Flickr, by Ctd 2005…

BP Oil Well Will Be Capped By Monday

... Or not . And if not, and if this keeps going for, say, a total of one year, this is what we can expect: That animation is from the University of HawaiÊ»i at MÄnoa. The possible spread of the oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon rig over the course of one year was studied in a series of computer simulations by a team of researchers from the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Eight million buoyant particles were released continuously from April 20 to September 17, 2010, at the location of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. The…

Nonrandom Ten

I'm out of town, here are some hints to the state, city, and organization I'm visiting, and my means of getting there: The means of travel and the organization: "Science Vs. Romance" by Rilo Kiley from the album Take Offs and Landings (2001, 5:43). The state: "California" by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers from the album She's the One (1996, 2:39). The city: "California Uber Alles" by Dead Kennedys from the album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables (1980, 3:00). The organization: "Small Change" by Tom Waits from the album Small Change (1976, 5:05). "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" by Radiohead…

ScienceBlogs Channel Photos, Week of May 6-12

It's that time of the week again! Here are the large versions of this week's channel photos. (Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.) First photo here, the rest below the fold. Life Science. From Flickr, by dro!d Physical Science. From Flickr, by jurvetson Environment. The glacial waters of Patagonia. From Flickr, by angela7dreams Humanities & Social…

Stone soup; or, extracting protein fragments from T. rex bones

Science magazine has an article today on extracting and sequencing proteins from T. rex bones, and I'm already getting email from people wondering whether this is believable, whether it challenges the stated age of dinosaurs, whether this means we can soon reconstruct dinosaurs from preserved genetic information, and even a few creationists claiming this is proof of a young earth. Short answers: it looks like meticulous and entirely credible work to me, these fossil bones are really 68 million years old, and it represents a special case with limits to how far it can be expanded, so scratch "…

Another week of GW News, May 22, 2011

Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup skip to bottom Another week of Climate Disruption News Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck YearsMay 22, 2011 Chuckles, IDB, Fukushima News, Nuclear Policy, Fukushima Talk, Socolow, Flooding Slave Lake, UK Carbon Plan, Stockholm Memorandum, Bottom Line, Prelude, Cook Melting Arctic, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food Crisis, Agro-Corps, Food Prices, Food vs. Biofuel, GMOs, Food Production Hurricanes,…

ScienceBlogs Channel Photos, Week of April 29-May 5

To make your Friday that much better, here are the large versions of this week's channel photos. (Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.) First photo here, the rest below the fold. Life Science. A whale surfaces off the Brazilian coastline. From Flickr, by Amnemona Physical Science. Upper Antelope Canyon in Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona. From Flickr, by Farol's…

It's NEVER Night on the Moon!

"Ignignokt: Well well, I know that. I said that, but it's his nap time now. Err: 'Cause he like, sleeps during the day. Ignignokt: But at night he feeds. Err: And it's always night on the Moon! Ignignokt: Don't f*** with me, Err." -Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Moon Master Ahh, the Moon. The brightest object in our night sky is familiar to all inhabitants of Earth, and during its full phase, easily outshines everything else in the night sky, combined. Image credit: Furious Photos -- Amazing pictures by a delusional hack. Capable of casting strong shadows, and easily giving off a light that's…

It appears we perceive more than we perceive

'Wow Factor': Humans Perceive More Than They Think They Do: From the "Interesting If True" Department: Faces tell the stories in UC Riverside Professor Larry Rosenblum's ecological listening lab, as volunteer test subjects show that they can 'read' unheard speech -- not just from lips, but from the simple movements of dots placed on lips, teeth and tongue. They can also recognize people's voices just from seeing their faces, and vice versa, and seem to be able to distinguish among a variety of rooms on campus just from their echoes. from ScienceDaily Headlines: Mind & Brain.

ScienceBlogs Channel Photos, Week of May 13-19

Because we know you've been waiting for them, here are the large versions of this week's channel photos. (Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.) First photo here, the rest below the fold. Life Science. From Flickr, by badjonni Physical Science. Quartz crystals trapped in a glittering geode. From Flickr, by seeks2dream Environment. From Flickr, by Claudia…

Messier Monday: An All-Season Cluster, M35 (Synopsis)

“Derive happiness in oneself from a good day’s work, from illuminating the fog that surrounds us.” -Henri Matisse But the surrounding fog might not come from our minds nor from our world, but rather from the plane of the galaxy itself. Nevertheless, the brightest clusters -- the ones placed serendipitously -- are clearly visible (and quite spectacular) from our vantage point here on Earth. Image credit: Messier 35 by Jorge Garcia, via http://www.pbase.com/image/91887467. One of my favorites, and one of the greatest views of a star cluster offered to skywatchers everywhere during…

Earth's darkest night skies aren't truly black at all (Synopsis)

“All I want is blackness. Blackness and silence.” -Sylvia Plath Even on the darkest night skies from the most pristine locations on Earth, the night sky is never truly dark. Not even if you look away from the plane of the galaxy, on a moonless night, between the stars and away from any human-made or nature-made sources of illumination. Unlike the views that a telescope like Hubble can get from space, nothing on Earth is ever devoid of photons that have their origin in starlight. The full UV-visible-IR composite of the XDF; the greatest image ever released of the distant Universe. Every…

Saba Road

Rick laments below that I ruined his Friday with the anchor scar story, so I'll try to spice up his weekend with a lighter note. The road from Saba's airport to Fort Bay Harbor is a thing of wonder. It climbs and descends the sleeping volcano through villages like Hell's Gate, Windwardside, and The Bottom. People once believed "The Road" could not be built on Saba Island until civil engineer Josephus Lambert Hassell took a correspondence course in engineering and organized a crew of locals to start construction in 1938. Nine years later, the road was complete. The first car would arrive in…

Update on NYC bloggers/readers meet-up.

I have a little bit more (tentative) information on the upcoming meet-up in Manhattan on Saturday, August 9 (which is only two weeks away): The time looks like it will fall in the 2:00-4:00 PM time slot. The location is looking like it will be in or near Central Park. I know that a meet-up in Central Park undercuts the initial promise of air conditioning. Nonetheless, I am convinced it will still be a fun time, and that no one will melt into a puddle of dissatisfaction. I say this as a former denizen of the East Coast who lost her ability to hold up under humidity within 8 months of…

"Personal responsibility"

I haven't really been writing about the Moore-Ahner race in the 3rd District. Moore will win with his largest margin ever, and Ahner is tragically underqualified to be in Congress. He seems to think a photograph of him shaking hands with Bob Dole and the fact his name sounds a little bit like a positive personal quality are enough to justify a run for Congress (which is why all his ads and campaign signs spell his name "aHner"). Given the way that Republicans have run up a massive national deficit, mired themselves in bribery scandals, underaged sex scandals, and have set the Congress on a…

Blinded symphony auditions reduce gender bias

Just a quick post today following from an interesting comment by lindata on my post about gender in science and the Scientiae blog carnival. lindata points out that blinding evaluators from the identity of musicians during auditions has resulted in increased representation of women in symphonies - I had not been aware that this work has been going on for more than 30 years. Here is a quote from the 17 March 1997 issue of Business Week: Starting in the 1970s, report Claudia Goldin of Harvard University and Cecilia Rouse of Princeton University, symphonies began to implement major revisions in…

The Meme Of Memes!

Matt and Mrs.Whatsit tagged me with the 7-meme and 8-meme and I have been struggling with the ideas as to how to respond. I am usually a sucker for memes. I always do them. But there is nothing - weird or not - about myself that I have not already mentioned on this blog at one point or another (except things that I will never say, as I do not want to endanger my job, my marriage, or my good relationships with the family, in-laws, neighbors, friends and colleagues). So, instead, I will challenge you: have you done more memes than I did in your blogging career? List them all. Here are…

Sequencing a Genome, part VI: Chimeras are not just funny-looking animals

To the ancient Greeks, a chimera was a kind of monster, with the body of a goat, the tail of a dragon, and a lion's head. To geneticists, a chimera can be an animal that's derived from two embryos, such as a transgenic mouse. Or if the organism is a plant, it can be a plant with a graft. We have a chimeric cherry tree in our back yard with branches from Rainier cherries, Bing cherries, and Van cherries. And you should see the chimeras that hang out at evolgen. Naturally, the DNA cloning and sequencing world has it's chimeras, too. There are two main kinds that I know. Sometimes chimeras…

Friday Fun: The Librarian: A Twitter Story

From McSweeny's, this is both very funny and very poignant. A working day's worth of tweets from a public librarian. Boy wants book on how to make paper airplanes. I challenge him to a paper airplane contest. about 3 hours ago from web *snip* Ask patron not to talk on their cell phone. They explain that the cell phone designated area is too loud. about 8 hours ago from web These are an actual day's worth or tweets from public librarian Scott Douglas, author of Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian. I've just subscribed to the Twitter feed. (Via Rachel Walden.)

ScienceBlogs Channel Photos, Week of Jan. 28 - Feb. 3

For your weekly viewing pleasure, here are the large-scale versions of this week's channel photos. (Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.) First photo here, the rest below the fold. Life Science. From Flickr, by David Prior Physical Science. From Flickr, by darkpatator Environment. From NSF, via pingnews.com Humanities & Social Science. From Flickr, by…

Channel photos, week of Nov. 26 - Dec. 2

Check out the large-scale versions of this week's channel photos. (Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.) First photo here, the rest below the fold. From Flickr, by TailspinT "Velvet Beauty," from Flickr, by cobalt123 Augustine Volcano, from Flickr, by TailspinT Petroglyphs in the Valley of Fire, from Flickr, by betelgeuse2 School child in Central African…

Pretoria

I am listening Pretoria! Since there have been so many wonderful discussions led by students from the University of Pretoria over the last couple of years (refer to the comments), I thought I would recognize this wonderful place.  First of all, thank you for being so actively involved in the blog for your classes. I am sure your professors are proud. Since the university has over 230 different degrees, diplomas or certificates, I cannot determine which program you are from, but I appreciate your support. Nature reserves and walks in Pretoria, South Africa are home to an abundant array of…

Announcing the posts that will be published in The Open Laboratory 2009!

The time has come....the moment many of you have been waiting for, for months! The most amazing 2009 guest editor Scicurious and I are ready to announce the 50 posts that have made it through a grueling judging process to emerge as winners to be included in the Open Laboratory 2009, the anthology of the best writing on science blogs of the past year. Out of 760 posts, all of amazing quality (we could have collected something like ten anthologies, all good), the survivors of all the rounds, the posts that will actually get printed on physical, dead-tree paper, are: Breastatistics, by Dr.…

Another Week of GW News, September 20, 2009

Sipping from the internet firehose... This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup skip to bottom Another week of Climate Disruption News September 20, 2009 Equinox, Copenhagen, Climate Week, US-EU Tiff, Border Tax, Subsidies, UNCCD, FAO Meetings Melting Arctic, Methane, Geopolitics, Antarctica, Bottom Line, World Bank, Solar Cycle, Health Impacts, Grumbine Food Crisis, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Aerosols, Paleoclimate, ENSO, Glaciers, Sea Levels, THC, Satellites…

Japanese scientists clone dead mice

What kind of dead animals are in your freezer? I used to be skeptical about the whole notion of cloning wooly mammoths. But this recent article in PNAS (1), makes the whole idea seem less far fetched. Wakayamaa et. al. describe an amazing technical advance where scientists in Japan were able to derive clones from mice that had been frozen for 16 years at -20°C. I'm guessing that this wasn't one of the freezers with an automatic defrost cycle. Sure, this demonstration is still a long way from cloning an elephant or related species. Even cat and dog cloning are fairly recent advances…

Weekend Diversion: Something Amazing from Something Simple

"The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web." -Pablo Picasso People find artistic inspiration from a plethora of different sources, ranging from the very complex to the extremely simple. This weekend, I'd like to share with you one of the most stunning, simple artistic constructions I've ever seen. For some reason, the song I'd like to share with you to take you through it is 1990s rapper Skee-Lo's take on a School House Rock classic, The Tale of Mr. Morton. Using…

Viking Crucifix

Metal detectorist Dennis Fabricius Holm made a pretty sweet find yesterday: the third known Birka crucifix. These little wonders of 10th century goldsmith work are named for the first find, made in 1879 when Hjalmar Stolpe excavated in the cemeteries of Birka near Stockholm. In addition to the crucifix grave 660 contained, among other things, two other fine silver filigree pendants and a bronze-capped iron wand that may have served pagan religious purposes. Crucifix from grave 660 at Birka, Uppland, Sweden. In 2012 Silke Eisenschmidt identified fragments of a second Birka crucifix among…

CONGRATULATIONS! We Qualify for Matching Funds from Hewlett-Packard!

tags: DonorsChoose, science education, teaching, fund-raising, poverty I am so excited and so proud of YOU, my beautiful readers, for donating your precious and limited dollars to help kids in impoverished classrooms continue their journey towards claiming a brighter future through education. As of a few minutes ago, we raised the minimum of $2500 in DonorsChoose funds, which qualifies us for at least $2000 in matching funds from Hewlett-Packard! However, I have a confession to make: I am a selfish bastard because I want MORE MORE MORE of those precious HP funds to share with impoverished…

Chimpanzees and congestive heart failure

As a follow up to the blog on heart disease in chimpanzees, a reader asked if chimpanzees ever develop congestive heart failure. The answer is yes, this is a common cause of death in these animals. However, the pathology differs from humans. For humans, heart disease usually results from coronary artery atherosclerosis, which blocks the blood supply to the heart muscle resulting in reduced or diminished oxygen and nutrient delivery. In contrast, heart disease in chimpanzees is more commonly attributed to interstitial myocardial fibrosis whose origins are unknown. Moreover, the typical…

ScienceBlogs Channel Photos, Week of May 27-June 2

The large versions of this week's channel photos are bigger and better than ever. (Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.) First photo here, the rest below the fold. Life Science. A male Mandarin duck enjoys a swim. From Flickr, by law_keven Physical Science. The polished surface of Brazilian eudialyte. From Flickr, by kevinzim Environment. From Flickr, by…

Dawkins on Behe book; one word: dogs

The New York Times Book Review section had a review today of Chris Mooney's new book, Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming. (Review here; Chris' commentary here). The book was just released today and I look forward to reading it. But continuing on, I couldn't help noting that Richard Dawkins reviewed Michael Behe's new book, The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism. Dawkins notes the unusual disclaimer from the Department of Biological Sciences at Lehigh University distancing themselves from Behe then spends a lot of time on dogs. From…

Biodiversity in your latte drink.

I don't drink lattes myself, but these are pretty cool and fitting for the IYB. (From Flickr member, tonx) - - - (From Flickr member, dasedesign) - - - (From Flickr member, springleap.cpm) - - - (From Flickr member, bun buku) - - - (From Flickr member, springleap.com) I'm actually surprised no-one has done a decent squid one yet (although if you know of one, do pass it along).

Fall protection, fall protection, fall protection!

I recently started helping track worker fatalities over at The Weekly Toll, and it has been quite a harrowing couple of weeks.  There's something about waiting to get news of another fatality-- a fatality that more than likely could have been prevented-- that leaves me feeling a little edgy, maybe even a little sick. Which is why for the last couple of weeks I have been wringing my hands at the number of deaths resulting from falls.  Falls from roofs, falls from water towers, falls down elevator shafts.... you get the idea.  And maybe I've been a little naive, because apparently, fatal…

How dirty are the tar sands?

It's a surprisingly complicated question. There are few reliable sources of data on just how much energy and resources are involved in extracting petroleum from the bitumen-laden sands of northern Alberta. But the inertia that comes with the tens of billions of dollars that have been invested in the tar sands so far means that it's an important question that needs to be answered as we plan our future energy portfolios. Keeping the planet's temperature to a habitable range depends on which fuels we use. All of which means it's critical to carefully evaluate claims about the greenhouse-gas…

Post-Thankgsgiving Friday Random Ten

I haven't done this in a while, but it's a long holiday weekend during which time I'm ensconced within my Sanctum Sanctorum studying for my once a decade recertification examination in Surgery. I need tunes! So iTunes, lay them on me: The Yardbirds, Happenings Ten Years Ago (from the album Ultimate!). Not their best work, but a solid blues psychedelic piece. Personally, my all-time favorite Yardbirds tunes are Heart Full of Soul and Still I'm Sad. The Pogues, Fiesta (from the album If I Should Fall From Grace With God). I love the Pogues. True, Shane McGowan had a serious drinking problem…