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Links for 2010-12-21

Tron | Film | Better Late Than Never? | The A.V. Club "What's odd about all this is that the more I see these movies, the more I become convinced they could have been used in happy little object lessons about how God wants only to save us. That includes Tron, a mostly mediocre-to-awful film with some fascinating ideas about the nature of divinity and the relationship between God and humanity rattling around in its empty little skull. At the time, I wasn't allowed to see it, because it placed computers at the same level as humans. Now that I've actually seen the film, it's hard to see how it…

My year of travel

Okay. It's been another month since I blogged. But since I last wrote, my dad wrote the family holiday letter and asked me how many places I've traveled to. Here's the list. January To Detroit to look at the SWE Archives To RTP for ScienceOnline2009 February To Arizona, invited to a workshop on engineering and ethics education To Washington DC for a panel on research in engineering education March To Kentucky, to do some intense PEER mentoring in engineering education April I think nowhere May To Madison for my dad's retirement To a room at Purdue for a week's development of a…

Vote for the nerds!

Help two nerds win a crate and barrel wedding contest! Our love story. We met in a hallway at the Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Chris was on his way to the lab where he researched birds and I was working as a scrub for a famous professor. We realized that we both loved wine, food, music, dogs and all things of a dorky nature. Game on! Three important details about our Ultimate Wedding. 1. Chris' parents are doctors who immigrated from Sri Lanka to New York in the late seventies. I am wearing a sari for the wedding as part of tradition. I hope the wedding is really…

Cellular wallpaper gives "accent wall" a whole new meaning

"Fossil geometry" (detail) Based on Eschschottzia Californica seeds collected by Mr W Reeves, April 1864. From the collection of the Royal Microscopic Society. UK sci-artist Heather Barnett has created a line of wallpapers using micrographs of cells, crystals, seeds, nanofibers, etc. They'd be particularly striking in a loft or other industrially inspired space - including a lab or a clinic waiting room. Come on, PIs, you can squeeze a wallpaper budget in your next grant application, can't you? "Fossil geometry" (repeat) Check out more of Barnett's biological wallpapers below the fold…

Fumento unhinged

Michael Fumento is making even less sense than usual: Lambert is one of the most obnoxious trolls on the Internet. He produces nothing; he exists to tear down other people to make up for some perceived deficiency on his part. Perhaps it's a deficiency that can be measured with a three-inch ruler; I don't know. Some people buy a flashy sports car in his case, but Troll Lambert uses all his spare time to write fraudulent Wikipedia biographies about people who get more attention than he does (approximately 6.3 billion) and to try to poke fun of them on his blog. In his desperation he often makes…

Recycling: Wasteful?

I'm a big fan of recycling. I try to recycle whatever I can -- paper, plastics, glass, aluminum -- whenever I can. I was under the impression that recycling produces less waste than dumping in landfills and is better for the environment in general. Because of this, I was willing to pay the extra costs (indirectly through taxes) to support municipal recycling programs. Penn and Teller beg to differ: If you don't want to watch the entire thing, here's the take home message: recycling paper and plastic is wasteful and costs a lot more than landfilling. Penn and Teller linger a lot on the wasted…

Mine eyes have seen the glory

Tired of the sanctimonious appropriation of all that is good in American history by the Christian right? Roger Ailes delivers a magnificent denunciation of the WSJ's attempt to claim the abolitionist movement as a blessedly Christian endeavor by quoting Frederick Douglass. Revivals in religion, and revivals in the slave trade, go hand in hand together. (Cheers.) The church and the slave prison stand next to each other; the groans and cries of the heartbroken slave are often drowned in the pious devotions of his religious master. (Hear, hear.) The church-going bell and the auctioneer's bell…

Climate Science Roundup

Chris Mooney has a well-written review of Michael Crichton's State of Fear. I picked up a copy at the book store and read a couple of pages from the middle. It was like a Tech Central Station column, except that it was a speech by one of the characters, with occasional lame objections by another character. Oh, and it had footnotes. I don't know if you were supposed to imagine Crichton's character speaking the footnotes or what. I didn't buy the speech or the book. John Quiggin also has a book review. His is of Lomberg's new book. Over at RealClimate Michael…

That danged exasperating caution

I'm feeling a bit peevish about the Democrats right now. I got some email from people promoting Gary Hart, mentioning that he is berating congressional Democrats for failing to stand up against the administration. There is integrity, there is conviction, and there is courage. History's jury will sit in judgment today on those Democrats and will find wanting those without the conviction and courage to say "enough". I'm sensing a pattern here. Democrats run for president as cautious cowards who avoid standing up for progressive policies, they get mauled by the media anyway, they lose, and then…

From the Archives: Two 2005 best science writing books

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 covers two books and is from March 7, 2006: The Best American Science Writing 2005 by Alan Lightman, editor & Jesse Cohen, series editor The Best American Science & Nature Writing 2005 by Jonathan Weiner,…

Around the Web, Apocalypse Edition: The End of the Universtiy as we know it, Librarians as baristas and more

The End of the University as We Know It The future of online vs. residential education by futurist Ray Kurzweil Librarians or Baristas? Prioritizing Academic Programs Khan Academy Founder Proposes a New Type of College Assessing Campus Libraries (space, yes, services...) Where is Library Technology going? MLA President Offers a Sobering Critique of Graduate Education in the Humanities Confessions of a (former) gatekeeper Full Text Of The Grim Meathook Future Thing Massive Open Online Courses -- A Threat Or Opportunity To Universities?

MindPapers

David Chalmers, a professor of philosophy at the Australian National University and director of the Center for Consciousness, has just announced the launch of MindPapers, an online database of papers about the philosophy of mind. The database is very comprehensive indeed - it includes about 18,000 published and online papers, subdivided into sections such as the philosophy of neuroscience, perception, synaesthesia, language and thought and vegetative states, coma and the minimally conscious state (which are disorders of consciousness).

Open Lab Cover!

Just now, attendees of Science Online 2011 are getting their #scio11 Swag Bags as they register and prepare for the Keynote. And in those swag bags are postcards revealing the cover of Open Lab! But even if you're not at Science Online, you, too, can revel in the awesomeness of the brand-spankin'-new cover. Behold! (Click to behold even larger!) Thanks to science illustrator extraordinaire Andrea Kuszewski (blog, twitter) for the art and design.

"Popeye, Don't You Think You Should Try Something New for Lunch?"

Olive oil diet cuts your risk of cancer A new study suggests that consuming 5 teaspoons of olive oil - either virgin, common or refined - reduces one's risk of developing cancer. Here's how they came to this conclusion: People in Mediterranean countries such as Spain and Italy live longer than those in other European countries, while rates of breast, colon, ovarian and prostate cancer are much lower. Very interesting, but we already know this. Would a volunteer please raise his or her hand and ask "Why?" Dr [Henrik] Poulsen and his team at Copenhagen University Hospital studied a large…

An Online Subscription Model for News Organizations...

...which were formerly known as newspapers. A recent column by Frank Rich makes me think that news organizations can be viable using a paid subscription model--in fact, I think they can be very successful. The problem is that they might not be very widely read. Rich, discussing the looming demise of many newspapers, writes (italics mine): But opinions, however insightful or provocative and whether expressed online or in print or in prime time, are cheap. Reporting the news can be expensive. Some of it -- monitoring the local school board, say -- can and is being done by voluntary "citizen…

Doing Science at ScienceOnline2010 - data, search, publishing and putting it all together

Of course, this conference would not be itself if it was not full of Open Access evangelists and a lot of sessions about the world of publishing, the data, repositories, building a semantic web, networking and other things that scientists can now do in the age of WWW. This year, apart from journalists/writers, the largest cohort appear to be librarians and information scientists. So it is not surprising to see a number of sessions (and several demos) on these topics, for example: Repositories for Fun and Profit - Dorothea Salo Description: Why are my librarians bothering me with all this…

Doing Science at ScienceOnline2010 - data, search, publishing and putting it all together

Of course, this conference would not be itself if it was not full of Open Access evangelists and a lot of sessions about the world of publishing, the data, repositories, building a semantic web, networking and other things that scientists can now do in the age of WWW. This year, apart from journalists/writers, the largest cohort appear to be librarians and information scientists. So it is not surprising to see a number of sessions (and several demos) on these topics, for example: Repositories for Fun and Profit - Dorothea Salo Description: Why are my librarians bothering me with all this…

Miscellaneous Science Online Stuff

I was pleasantly surprised at how well the What does Science Online Want to Be? post was received-- I kind of expected that to cause more anger than it did. It did prompt a lot of discussion, most of it during the dinner hour in Chateau Steelypips, so it was really hard for me to keep up. Given the volume of stuff and my inability to respond promptly, I thought I'd try to round up a few things here: 1) Kelly Hills's post on cons vs. conferences is very good. This is something I said myself after Science Online this past year-- it felt very much like a SF convention. In ways both good and bad…

Nature: Researchers should blog more

From an editorial in this week's Nature: Indeed, researchers would do well to blog more than they do. The experience of journals such as Cell and PLoS ONE, which allow people to comment on papers online, suggests that researchers are very reluctant to engage in such forums. But the blogosphere tends to be less inhibited, and technical discussions there seem likely to increase. Moreover, there are societal debates that have much to gain from the uncensored voices of researchers. A good blogging website consumes much of the spare time of the one or several fully committed scientists that write…

Antarctica: Others Think I'd do a Helluva Job, Too

Video created by The Sneer Review. Since I have recently developed quite a history of visiting cold and snowy places, often during the winter (remember Morris, Minnesota in January? Or how about Helsinki, Finland in November, then again in February?), I wish to preserve that tradition. I am competing for the opportunity to go to Antarctica in February 2010 -- a dream adventure that I've always wanted to pursue (and almost did pursue when I was an undergraduate researching Fin Whales and Crabeater Seals at the University of Washington). To enter, all candidates must publish a picture of…

The Buzz: Scientists Push for Brain Doping

A group of psychologists, ethicists and neuroscientists have added their voices to the growing debate over the merits and demerits of brain droping, the use of cognitive enhancement drugs like Adderall or Ritalin to improve mental performance. Their commentary, published online Sunday in Nature, argues that any adult in full mental health should be able to use the drugs at will. "Given the many cognitive-enhancing tools we accept already, from writing to laptop computers," they ask, "why draw the line here and say, thus far but no further?"

Confirmed: Texans can be smart!

The recommendation I noted before has been officially and finally followed by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board: the Institute for Creation Research's application to offer an online master's degree program in creationist bullshit has been rejected. Bravo! The ICR has said they will probably appeal. Don't slack off, Texas, and keep the pressure on. Taurus: Great news! Soft drink executives are planning to market a new energy drink made from your urine, on the basis of vague, unfounded rumors of your vitality. This is not such happy news for the rest of us, however.

Twitter: What's All the Chirping About?

That is the title of the article in the latest issue of BioScience by Elia Ben-Ari (@smallpkg on Twitter) which just came online today (if you'd rather see the PDF, click here). It is a nice article about Twitter and the way scientists use it, the difference between 'lifecasting' and 'mindcasting' (with attribution to Jay Rosen for the concept), a brief mention of FriendFeed, and quotes from Jonathan Eisen, David Bradley and myself. It also mentions the National Phenology Network and North Carolina Sea Grant experiments in using Twitter for collection of scientific data.

Tomorrow is Earth Day

The Nature Conservancy has set up a webpage where you can make a difference on Earth Day 2006 by sharing a message of hope for the planet. When you share your Earth Day message, you'll become part of the Conservancy's free online community, the Great Places Network. Also, your message may be highlighted on The Nature Conservancy's website to inspire others to make a difference! Plus, you can download The Nature Conservancy's new nature image screensaver filled with nature photos. Disclaimers: I do not receive anything for mentioning this here except satisfaction from sharing this…

Darwin OnLine

A friend emailed this link and even though I have only begun to poke around on it, but already I find it fascinating. Darwin OnLine is a searchable webbed database that contains more than 50,000 text pages and 40,000 images of publications and handwritten manuscripts. It also has the most comprehensive Darwin bibliography ever published and the largest manuscript catalogue ever assembled. More than 150 ancillary texts are also included, ranging from secondary reference works to contemporary reviews, obituaries, published descriptions of Darwin's Beagle specimens and important related works…

My Inner European

Considering that the USA was disqualified early from World Cup competition, I decided that I need to find out who my inner European is, just so I know who to root for. I am currently enjoying every team, since each game is so exciting right now (ignoring the ref, who is a moron). So .. after taking this silly quiz, it looks like my new team is .. Your Inner European is French! Smart and sophisticated. You have the best of everything - at least, *you* think so. Who's Your Inner European? tags: Online Quiz

New Creation Science Attraction, and I say, "go for it!"

I am looking forward to the construction of the meatspace version of the currently on-line only "Creation Science Hall of Fame" on vacant land on Interstate 75 between the Creation Museum and the Ark Park. Someday this section of Northern Kentucky will be a veritable Miracle Mile of Creationism Related Facilities. It is about this time this industry got some competition. We know that the Invisible Hand of the Free Market is like god and makes everything better. What could possibly go wrong? Here's the story from the Courier-Journal Hat Tip: Joe

Don't Be a Dick

I'm probably about the last person with an interest in such things to get around to watching Phil Plait's (in)famous "Don't Be a Dick" speech, but I finally got around to it, and it's really excellent: Phil Plait - Don't Be A Dick from JREF on Vimeo. Phil has posted about the speech itself, online reactions to it, and the in-person response after the talk. His thoughts are well worth reading, to put the whole thing it better context. I really don't have anything to add, which is fine, because I should spend less time typing blog stuff anyway.

Harry Potter Museum Exhibit to Open in October

This fall, Harry Potter fans will get the chance to step inside the famous wizard's magical world through Harry Potter: The Exhibition, which opens at the Museum of Science, Boston on October 25, 2009, at 9 a.m. Tickets are now available online at mos.org or by calling 617-723-2500, 617-589-0417 (TTY). Visitors will be able to experience dramatic displays inspired... The Exhibition made its highly successful global premiere at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry last April and will run there through September 27, 2009, details from BMS

New Species: Idioneurula donegani

Idioneurula donegani Huertas & Arias 2007     Huertas, B. and J. J. Arias. 2007. A new butterfly species from the Colombian Andes and a review of the taxonomy of the genera Idioneurula Strand, 1932 and Tamania Pyrcz, 1995 (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae). Zootaxa 1652: 27-40. The online journal Zootaxa has hosted the publication of 6723 new animal species since its inception in 2001, averaging over 2.8 new species per day. And that's just a single journal- there are scores of taxonomy journals out there. Taxonomy is an old science, but it remains on the frontiers of biological…

Slides and Audio Available for Speaking Science 2.0

On June 4, more than 120 people turned out for the Nisbet & Mooney Speaking Science 2.0 talk at the New York Academy of Sciences. The talk is now part of their online content, including an E-briefing summary along with the powerpoint slides synchronized with audio of our presentation. With this tool you can listen to the entire talk or scroll through the labeled sections and slides based on topic. NYAS has allowed free access to this member content by way of the following link from our respective Web sites.

Darwin online update

Well, Stranger Fruit beat me to it (after I told him about it!) but there's a new version of Darwin's works online that has many juicy goodnesses, such as the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th editions of the Origin. Now we can check if these creationists are quoting properly. It has images as well as OCR'd text, and some of these editions were scanned from the Darwin family's own library. Also, there are field notebooks and lots of other stuff. An OBE for John Van Wyhe, I say...

Books, books, books

Books for the summer, as recommended by the editorial staff at Seed Magazine. Reviews of Passions and Tempers: A History of the Humours, by Noga Arikha, and The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering, by Michael J. Sandel, from last weekend's New York Times. A gargantuan textbook of neuropsychopharmacology, made freely available online by the ACNP (via Mind Hacks). My own reviews of Jonathan Moreno's Mind Wars and Eric Kandel's In Search of Memory, both of which are now displayed in the sidebar on the left.

Neuromart: Best Thing Since Sliced Brain

PhDs are useful for all kinds of things. Some people become faculty, others go into industry, and some decide to market ridiculously nerdtastic neurologically-based gifts via the internet. Sure, the latter kind may be rare, but a good idea is still a good idea. Welcome to Neuromart, online purveyors of parapanalia related to my favorite organ (the brain, of course!). From brain models (you always wanted one of your very own, didn't you?) to brain candy (the sweet stuff, not the Kids in the Hall movie), Neuromart is sure to keep the dopamine flowing.

Sailfish Appreciation Day

GrrlScientist is having a sailfish appreciation day over at Living the Scientific Life. She's posting hot links to the online story at National Geographic about their cooperative fish herding techniques. Its really amazing. I trolled a "maori-style" sailfish image that could make a nice tattoo. It's shown here on a t-shirt from Google images. Sailfish are "oceanodromous", which means they occur widely throughout the world's oceans, live and migrate wholly in the sea. As opposed to anadromous fish, like salmon, which migrate to freshwater to spawn; or catadromous eels, like Anguilla sp.,…

Cocaine toothache drops

From this online gallery of modern and vintage psychiatric drug adverts. COCAINE TOOTHACHE DROPS Instantaneous Cure! Price 15 Cents. Prepared by the Lloyd Manufacturing Co. 219 Hudson Ave., Albany, N.Y. For sale by all Druggists. (Registered March 1885.) Cocaine is the new anaesthetic now used so extensively throughout Europe and this country by Physicians, Surgeons and Dentists. This preparation of Toothache Drops contains Cocaine, and its wonderful properties are fully demonstrated by the many recommendations it is daily receiving. Take no other except Cocaine…

This rating sounds about right

This one's been floating around ScienceBlogs and the blogosphere in general; so I thought, what the hell? (Oh, wait, did my use of the word "hell" affect my rating?) In any case, this sounds about right: Mingle2 - Online Dating You'll be happy to know that I don't really plan on trying to "evolve" to rate a PG-13 or R rating. I really see no need, although sometimes the comments probably earn such ratings. On the other hand, I won't shy away from "adult" content if I consider it sufficiently important that I want to blog about it.

Debate with Monckton

SMH Online plan to put up a live feed of the debate. I'll put up a link to the page if this happens. The format is now settled: Monckton opens the batting with a 15 minute presentation. Then I go for 15 minutes. Then we put two questions to each other (alternating). Then its questions from the audience. And finally we each get five minutes each to close things. Friday February 12th, 12:30 - 2:30 Grand Ballroom, Hilton Hotel, 488 George St Sydney $30 at the door, preregister by emailing cool@exemail.com.au

Editor's Selections: Visual Illusions, Oversharing on the Web, and Magical Healing Mice

Here are my ResearchBlogging Editor's Selections for this week. This week, Psychology and Neuroscience blogging brings us some fantastic science, as always. First and second, the fearless leader of ResearchBlogging, Dave Munger, provides us with two awesome visual illusions, and explains them: the Troxler effect, and spinning ellipses. Next, Krystal D'Costa of Anthopology in Practice discusses Bullying and Emotional Intelligence on the Web and the potential consequences of over-sharing online. Finally, another gem from Scicurious of Neurotopia: The Incredible Healing Mouse. Pierced, then not…

Slides and Audio of Nisbet/Mooney Framing Tour

On June 4, more than 120 people turned out for the Nisbet & Mooney Speaking Science 2.0 talk at the New York Academy of Sciences. The talk is now part of their online content, including an E-briefing summary along with the powerpoint slides synchronized with audio of our presentation. With this tool you can listen to the entire talk or scroll through the labeled sections and slides based on topic. NYAS has allowed free access to this member content by way of the following link from our respective Web sites.

Bathysphere Caption Contest!

The American Museum of Natural History in NYC put up old black and white pictures in an online exhibit called Picturing the Museum. Brian at Laelaps picked out some dinosaurliscious ones. Below is one from 1937 titles "Boys examining Bathysphere, Hall of Ocean Life". I can only imagine the awe they must be feeling with only a few years earlier that hunk of metal was down in the deepest trench of our oceans. What do they think they are saying to each other? This calls for a caption contest! Hat tip to the disperser, Michael B.

Reflections on Matter and Interactions

I'm teaching introductory mechanics for the umpteenth time, using the Matter and Interactions curriculum, as we have for a while. This is going to be my last time teaching out of M&I, though, because last year the department decided to switch to a different book. Starting this winter term, we'll be using Halliday, Resnick and Walker. My physics blogging over at Forbes tends toward the contemplative anyway, for a variety of reasons, but knowing that this is the last time through M&I has had me thinking even more along those lines. Thus, recent posts on really simple physics and what it…

How Evil Are You?

There is a nifty new online test that allows you to determine your evilness. A friend of mine earned the score of "twisted" which is quite evil, overall. Hoever, you have to go below the fold to find my score and to learn what yours is, too. How evil are you? Well, no, I don't work for AOL, but I do live in a nuthouse, does that increase my evilness? How the heck did this nuthouse story get started in the first place? . tags: online quiz, evilness

Some Links

A while back I did a public debate with Ron Bailey of Reason and Wesley Smith of the Discovery Institute, sponsored by the Donald and Paula Smith Family Foundation. Well, Reason magazine has just put audio and video of the event online. Check it out here. And another update: I'm doing a WashingtonPost.com "Live Online" discussion about The Republican War on Science this Friday at 11 pm ET. Here's the webpage. I hope many of you will tune in, and, hopefully, pose interesting questions.

Most effective use of new funding?

So there was a somewhat subdued response to the "what science fields are most underfunded", but it got me thinking about a slightly different question, namely: which science fields could rapidly produce more science results if given a sudden increase in funding? This is a somewhat non-trivial question, since generating expertise takes time, so does building equipment and collecting data. There are important fields, which would really have diminshing returns in response to sudden increases in funding - they are already manpower limited, and there is no fungible manpower where people with the…

My Parrot Has A Hobby

tags: Orpheus, hawk-headed parrot, red-fan parrot, Deroptyus accipitrinus accipitrinus, photography, parrots, pets Orpheus, a six-month-old red-fan (hawk-headed) parrot, Deroptyus a. accipitrinus, who lives with me. (flash, ISO, no zoom). Image: GrrlScientist 2008. I managed to capture a few pictures of Orpheus last night which I would have shared with you then, except that my wifi connection disappeared (boo!), so I had to wait until tonight. This picture, like all of the pics I captured last night, are not very good because my parrots have gotten wise to the ways of photography and have…

The Glossies Tell Me I'm Not A Man

I've felt largely like an outsider since I was a kid, but these days I rarely experience the full force of it except when I visit a news agent's and confront the glossy magazines. They carry hundreds of titles. And at a pinch I can maybe find one or two that might interest me mildly. I don't expect to find much of interest in the ladies section. The non-gendered mags are pretty few, and it doesn't really matter to me that I don't give a shit about interior decoration or design or antiques. What gets to me is the message the men's section broadcasts to me. "This is what interests men. If none…

Links for 2011-05-17

Generalist's Work, Day 5 « Easily Distracted "In humanistic writing, I'm struck by the sometimes uncomfortable mixing of a romanticist vision of authorship with the value of scholarship as a collaborative, collective and accumulative enterprise. In peer review, tenure review, grant applications and other venues where we set the benchmark for what counts as excellence, we often expect scholarly work to exhibit the author's "quality of mind", and that in turn is often best established by the degree to which the analysis and interpretation in scholarly writing appear to be original and highly…

DonorsChoose

Last year (just before I joined the fold) the Scienceblogs gang teamed up with a company called DonorsChoose to help out teachers with good ideas about how to make science education better. DonorsChoose is a website that lets teachers post proposals for funding, and lets potential donors search through those projects for ideas that seem to match their own sense of what's needed. This year, we're doing the Blogger Challenge again. If you click through the little thermometer link in the sidebar, or this link right here, you can pick one of the projects I've chosen and help fund any of the…

Should We Tinker With Plant Genes?

Some thoughtful and interesting letters in response to the OpEd that James McWilliams and I wrote recently for the NY Times. Here are some highlights: I think that there are many in the organic food movement who recognize that genetic engineering has a role to play in the future of food. But concerns about what it should be, and who should be making that decision, are valid. I am all for nonprofit groups and university researchers working to alleviate starvation in the third world. I trust their motivations and scientific integrity. I have no such faith in agribusiness. Traditional small…