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Why so few posts?

In the beginning, blogs were mainly collections of links. With the development of blogging platforms, many bloggers moved on to long-form writing. But blogs were still places for a lot of linkfests, or link-plus-one-liner posts as well. My blog has always been a mix of both styles. Thus, my average of 8.2 posts per day. But recently, you may have noticed the most definite reduction in the number of posts per day. Why? First, because I heard some complaints about my blog being a firehose of stuff that is "boring, just links" (although others said that my role as a trusted filter was…

Crowdsourcing Honesty and Trust

Three thought-provoking reads (even more thought-provoking taken together than each in isolation): Crowdsourcing Honesty?: In short, we are far more likely to be honest when reminded of morality, especially when temptation strikes. Ariely thus concludes that the act of taking an oath can make all the difference. Craig Newmark on the Web's Next Big Problem: And what is that? The question of who to trust online, according to Newmark. To solve it, he believes that what the web needs is a "distributed trust network" that allows us to manage our online relationships and reputations. I just…

ScienceOnline2010: Talks Between Generations (video) - Part 6

Sunday, January 17 at 9-10:05am E. Science online talks between generations - Beatrice Lugger and Christian Rapp: Description: In huge meetings around the world several organizations try to initiate a dialogue between top scientists and young researchers -the Lindau Meetings of Nobel Laureates are one of them providing numerous opportunities for an exchange of ideas and thoughts between young researchers and Nobel Laureates. The idea is to support this dialogue with a special platform in the web, where current science topics can be discussed and the talks and thoughts can be followed by a…

ScienceOnline2010: Talks Between Generations (video) - Part 5

Sunday, January 17 at 9-10:05am E. Science online talks between generations - Beatrice Lugger and Christian Rapp: Description: In huge meetings around the world several organizations try to initiate a dialogue between top scientists and young researchers -the Lindau Meetings of Nobel Laureates are one of them providing numerous opportunities for an exchange of ideas and thoughts between young researchers and Nobel Laureates. The idea is to support this dialogue with a special platform in the web, where current science topics can be discussed and the talks and thoughts can be followed by a…

ScienceOnline2010: Talks Between Generations (video) - Part 4

Sunday, January 17 at 9-10:05am E. Science online talks between generations - Beatrice Lugger and Christian Rapp: Description: In huge meetings around the world several organizations try to initiate a dialogue between top scientists and young researchers -the Lindau Meetings of Nobel Laureates are one of them providing numerous opportunities for an exchange of ideas and thoughts between young researchers and Nobel Laureates. The idea is to support this dialogue with a special platform in the web, where current science topics can be discussed and the talks and thoughts can be followed by a…

ScienceOnline2010: Talks Between Generations (video) - Part 3

Sunday, January 17 at 9-10:05am E. Science online talks between generations - Beatrice Lugger and Christian Rapp: Description: In huge meetings around the world several organizations try to initiate a dialogue between top scientists and young researchers -the Lindau Meetings of Nobel Laureates are one of them providing numerous opportunities for an exchange of ideas and thoughts between young researchers and Nobel Laureates. The idea is to support this dialogue with a special platform in the web, where current science topics can be discussed and the talks and thoughts can be followed by a…

ScienceOnline2010: Talks Between Generations (video) - Part 2

Sunday, January 17 at 9-10:05am E. Science online talks between generations - Beatrice Lugger and Christian Rapp: Description: In huge meetings around the world several organizations try to initiate a dialogue between top scientists and young researchers -the Lindau Meetings of Nobel Laureates are one of them providing numerous opportunities for an exchange of ideas and thoughts between young researchers and Nobel Laureates. The idea is to support this dialogue with a special platform in the web, where current science topics can be discussed and the talks and thoughts can be followed by a…

ScienceOnline2010: Talks Between Generations (video) - Part 1

Sunday, January 17 at 9-10:05am E. Science online talks between generations - Beatrice Lugger and Christian Rapp: Description: In huge meetings around the world several organizations try to initiate a dialogue between top scientists and young researchers -the Lindau Meetings of Nobel Laureates are one of them providing numerous opportunities for an exchange of ideas and thoughts between young researchers and Nobel Laureates. The idea is to support this dialogue with a special platform in the web, where current science topics can be discussed and the talks and thoughts can be followed by a…

planning

bloomin' heck, it is snowing! Actually it is not the snow, it is the 40 mph gusts of wind on top of the steady 20-25 mph brisk breeze that drove me into a spot with hot cocoa and free WiFi (this entry brought to you by PANERA - large cups of hot chocolate and unlimited WiFi, at a college town near you)! So, when I left of this trip, I very carefully took out all the gloves, scarves, hats and other woolly wam things. 'Cause its spring, y'know. Silly me. At least I though to take proper boots. Actually, I've been pondering how reliant on always being "on" I've become. In Ye Olde Days, making…

KITP: habitable worlds

Finding and characterizing habitable exoplanets. Enric Palle on Earth as an exoplanet. Drake Deming on using JWST to find exoplanets Then Lisa Kaltenegger on biosignatures Jim Kasting on habitability and 3D GCMs. Missed Palle's talk. It is online... Talked about transmission spectra, reflectance, variability, polarization, red edge. Caught the discussion, some interesting banter. On the "red edge" - there will be something like it on any efficient biosphere because plants must absorb efficiently near the peak transmission spectrum of the star, and there must be some heat rejection at some…

links for 2009-01-27

We Need a Civilian GI Bill :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs "Unlike the original bill, which rewarded service, this new bill would be a rescue measure. As in the past, a primary goal would be to decrease pressure on what today is a shrinking job market and limit growing unemployment rates. But another equally important goal would be to prepare the more educated labor force the nation needs for economic development and global competitiveness at a time when a dwindling number of jobs are available to individuals without a college education and its…

Lecture on Emerging Media & Science at Mt. Sinai

If you are in the NY area, you might want to consider coming to this talk that is being organized by Kate. The title is "DISCUSSION ON THE ROLES OF EMERGING MEDIA OUTLETS IN COMMUNICATING SCIENCE." It is taking place tomorrow (Thursday) at 7 pm in the Mt. Sinai East Building Seminar Room. (The East Building is located at 1425 Madison Ave. @ 98th St.) The discussion features among other fellow ScienceBlogger Carl Zimmer, of the NYTimes. Kate and I will also be there, and SEED is sponsoring. So come on by. More information below the fold. UPDATE by Kate: Yes, folks, Jake Young will…

Catherine Moody, Second Life Pianist

Second Life isn't a game, exactly. Some call it that, and indeed it is sometimes compared to various massive multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs). Really, though, Second Life is a virtual online world— it's not really a game, and there aren't a lot of default "gameplay" elements. Some call it "Web 3.0," but I think that sort of misses the point; it's not really the next version of the web. Of course, what with it not being a game, one thing that people ask is, what do you do there? There are a lot of things to do. I enjoy building stuff. You can talk to friends, just like…

Got a study? Want to be in a study? This is the place.

More and more studies are online these days, which means that researchers can find a whole new array of participants for their studies, and anyone who's interested can become a real part of cutting-edge research. But how can researchers find interested research subjects -- and how can people who want to participate find the studies that are interesting to them? We think we might be able to help. If you're conducting an online psychology study, or really any study that can be conducted remotely, just put all the vital details in a comment below. Your study will appear in the "recent comments"…

Virtual Epidemiology

In 2005, there was a plague. It started inadvertently, as most do, but spread rapidly, resulting in many deaths. Officials scrambled to find a solution. Eventually it was contained. The plague was caused by a miscoded spell ( href="http://wiredblogs.tripod.com/gadgets/index.blog?entry_id=1230071">Corrupted Blood), in the massively-multiplayer online role-playing game ( href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMORPG" rel="tag">MMORPG), href="http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/index.xml">World of Warcraft. The people who died were not real people. Nonetheless, it may be that the…

On-line abuse

Last year Graham Young, accused me of being blatantly dishonest for writing that Peiser had admitted to making multiple errors, even though Peiser had confirmed this in an email to Young. He ended up writing 20 comments denying Peiser's admission. Now Young has lashed out at me in a post at On Line Opinion. He calls me a "bully" and a "tick" and claims I use "brown-shirt tactics". (If you don't know what brown-shirt tactics are, see Sturmabteilung.) My crime? Lambert, through his blog Deltoid promulgates whatever the current orthodoxy happens to be, but he does not restrict himself to his…

Decisions

I need to lift the iron curtain between this blog and my workplace. I beg your indulgence for one post. As those who read Bora's interview with me know, I discontinued my previous blog Caveat Lector because I was informed that it was causing significant distress to individuals in my workplace. In my best judgment, I could not continue to blog there in any capacity without it appearing that I had simply brushed off the problems I caused. I took those problems very seriously indeed, as the closure of CavLec bears witness. When I came to ScienceBlogs, I intentionally structured Book of Trogool…

Book Progress #31

It was slow going, but I was able to write the first three pages of the new iteration of the dinosaur/birds chapter. (It is called, for good reason, "Footprints (and Feathers) in the Sands of Time." At least for now, anyway.) Although it contains some of the same points as my previous attempt, I have added a lot of new material. The mythological introduction is a little circuitous, but I think it works. I had planned on working on a number of other, smaller projects over the next few months, but I think I am going to primarily concentrate on getting my proposal for this book together. I'll…

Some Thoughts About the WWF Energy Study, Nuclear Power, and Urbanization

By way of Digby, we come across this proposal of how to reach 95% percent renewable energy by 2050. Before I get to some of the issue I have with the study (which is actually pretty good), I want to lay out my general views on energy use. First, I'm not a 'fan' of nuclear power. While thorium-powered reactors would be a vast improvement over traditional reactors (and newer designs regardless of energy source would fail much more safely compared to older ones), even thorium isn't perfect. But what's really stupid are all of the calls for immediately stopping the use of nuclear power. (…

Fish drowning in stupid: GMOs and retroviruses collide!

Can anyone name one anti-GMOer thats not a self-indulgent, arrogant moron? Google News alerted me to this breathless expose by an Anne Hart: "Why farmed fish are genetically altered for faster growth with a carrier retrovirus" Now, for some reason I can only get this article via Google cache. Hopefully this means some editor pulled this article because its so mind numbingly stupid/arrogant/shrill. But somehow I doubt that. Frequent readers of ERV could probably fix Harts 'errors' themselves, at this point, but Imagonna do it anyway :) First, lets get this basic fact out of the way. Raving…

Not-so-self-correcting science: the hard way, the easy way, and the easiest way

Two recent events put in stark relief the differences between the old way of doing things and the new way of doing things. What am I talking about? The changing world of science publishing, of course. Let me introduce the two examples first, and make some of my comments at the end. Example 1. Publishing a Comment about a journal article My SciBling Steinn brought to our collective attention a horrific case of a scientist who spent a year fighting against the editors of a journal, trying to have a Comment published about a paper that was, in his view, erroneous (for the sake of the argument it…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Lots of cool stuff today: Nature Could Have Used Different Protein Building Blocks, Chemists Show: Chemists at Yale have done what Mother Nature chose not to -- make a protein-like molecule out of non-natural building blocks, according to a report featured early online in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Nature uses alpha-amino acid building blocks to assemble the proteins that make life as we know it possible. Chemists at Yale now report evidence that nature could have used a different building block -- beta-amino acids -- and show that peptides assembled from beta-amino acids…

Maricopa, AZ, and the Definition of Big Sh-tpile

If you want to know what a housing bubble is, you only need look at Maricopa, AZ: In 2005, her husband, Zachary Campbell, accepted a transfer from San Diego to Phoenix to manage a recreational-vehicle store. For the first time, the Campbells figured, they could afford their own home, though that meant moving to Maricopa, about 20 miles from Mr. Campbell's store. They scraped together a $50,000 down payment to buy a new four-bedroom home in Maricopa, for $250,000. It came with black granite countertops, cherry kitchen cabinets and a pool in back. Today, Ms. Campbell figures, the home is worth…

Beer and Science 2

One Thursday evening near the end of July, people sitting outside a local ice cream parlor watched a neurobiology Ph.D. student wave his hand in front of his face in imitation of a robot learning to sense itself as separate from its surroundings. Despite the trains arriving at the station in the background and the microphone feedback from a rival talk at an outdoor coffee shop across the plaza, the audience was engrossed in hearing how this simple robot, mostly built of Lego and a camera, is able to explore its environment in the same way a baby does. All across the city of Rehovot,…

Another New Blog

There is a new blog on the block that may prove interesting, Letters from Babylon. It's a group blog and it will likely offer a relatively conservative Christian view of things. One of the contributors is Joshua Davey, who was the litigant in the Locke v Davey Supreme Court decision from the current term. This was the case that upheld a Washington law that gave academic scholarships to qualified students, but forbid them from using them to study theology. Joshua was originally going to study theology, but ended up changing his mind and he is now attending Harvard Law School. Though I am…

Quantum Measurement Lotto

Thoreau at Unqualified Offerings gets credit for inspiring two posts today with his proposed Murphy's Law experiment and this one, about an unrelated issue in quantum measurement. This is an analogy suggested by a colleague a couple of years ago, comparing the projection of a quantum wavefunction in the measurement process to the lottery. The classic example of this problem is something like the double slit experiment with single particles. You have some position-sensitive detector that we can imagine as being made up of a large number of pixels, each having some probability of detecting a…

Highlights from ScienceOnline2010 - From Blog to Book

This past weekend I was in Durham, North Carolina (my old stomping grounds) attending the annual ScienceOnline Conference that focuses on science communication in the digital age. I am pleased to report that Anton and Bora have built on their previous successes to accomplish something rare for a conference: it was both relevant and refreshingly innovative. In the next few posts I will highlight some of the workshops I attended and what the important message I got from the panelists involved: 1. From Blog to Book: Using Blogs and Social Networks to Develop Your Professional Writing (…

John Edwards: Environmental champion or dupe?

You've got to hand it to John Edwards. He's always trying to do the right thing, or at least appear to be doing the right thing. Last week he announced that his campaign for the White House will be a sustainable one, through the use of the latest fad in environmental circles: carbon offsets. It's a nice idea in theory -- facing the reality that one can't tour the country without producing significant amounts of greehouse gases, he's going to pay someone else to compensate for his emissions. But I've never been too enamored of the idea, and last week one of my favorite science journalists,…

Kurzweil still doesn't understand the brain

Ray Kurzweil has responded to my criticisim of futurist fortune-telling. It really just compounds the problems, though, and gullible people who love Ray will think he's answered me, while skeptical people who see through his hocus-pocus will be unimpressed. It's kind of pointless to reply again, but here goes. His first point is silly. For starters, I said that we would be able to reverse-engineer the brain sufficiently to understand its basic principles of operation within two decades, not one decade, as Myers reports. I don't care. I didn't make an issue of his timescale in the first place…

How Do You Prepare For The Unimaginable?

I've been reading a lot of Casaubon's Book lately. I usually come away from it feeling like I ought to convince Mr. Z to move back to southwestern PA with me so the two of us can become gentleman farmers and live sustainably after peak oil - maybe we can live out our days in mom's house and garden in the backyard, as my grandfather used to, or buy some nice cheap land out in the countryside in Greene County, and I'll raise chickens, and maybe we'll even have goats, or... I think FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!!!!!!!!! we are all so fucking SCREWED!!!!!!!!! Even those crazy ass folks who are moving out…

A great gesture on the part of pharmaceutical companies indeedâ¦

By Lindsey Realmuto As of January 1, 2009 we can all rest assured that pharmaceutical companies may voluntarily stop barraging our physicians and nurses with free mugs, pens, and trinkets carrying drug logos. PhRMA, the pharmaceutical industry trade group, has updated their industry marketing guidelines, and the companies that choose to comply with them will stop giving free logoed items to prescribers. Thank goodness! Now I feel safe that my doctor is free from the shackles of industry influence. Returning to reality, what we as patients and consumers should be more concerned about is how…

In the Forest Kitchen Garden

Permaculture books telling you how to grow things abound. They are many, varied and wonderful. For some reason, however, permaculture books telling you how to EAT what you grow in interesting, creative and delicious ways are not, in fact, very abundant. This is a pretty serious gap, given that in many cases, it is actually easier for people to take up gardening than it is to fully figure out what to do with the abundance of things they produce. While most of us know what to do with an occasional handful of kale or greenbeans, the culinary education (poor and limited) of most of us just…

Can We Repair or Transform the Science-Ecology-Agriculture Nexus? (Part 2 with Chris Henke)

Pt. I | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | Pt. 4 --- Part 2 with Christopher Henke, discussing his book Cultivating Science, Harvesting Power, follows below. All entries in the author-meets-blogger series can be found here. WF: Now I can get back to the interpretive framework and your own concepts when understanding your empirical evidence. "Repair" is a guiding framework for you here, a way of approaching, understanding, and explaining your research findings. So what do you mean, repair? CH: We use the term repair in everyday life to describe the process of fixing things---sociologists use repair as a…

Job Posting: Science Librarian, York University Libraries

Come work instead of me! Below is a posting for a 3-year contractually limited appointment in my unit. I'm chair of the search committee, so feel free to ask away with any questions about the position. I'll answer them to the best of my ability given the limitations of being on the committee. As it happens, I'll no longer be the department head of Steacie Science & Engineering Library during the three year period of the appointment. For the first year, the successful candidate will be replacing me while I do a one-year acting Associate University Librarian appointment. The second year, I'…

Job Posting: Science Librarian, York University Libraries

Come work instead of me! Below is a posting for a 3-year contractually limited appointment in my unit. I'm chair of the search committee, so feel free to ask away with any questions about the position. I'll answer them to the best of my ability given the limitations of being on the committee. As it happens, I'll no longer be the department head of Steacie Science & Engineering Library during the three year period of the appointment. For the first year, the successful candidate will be replacing me while I do a one-year acting Associate University Librarian appointment. The second year…

Science In School

The fourth issue of Science In School online magazine is out. It is full of cool articles. Let me just point out a couple: Eva Amsen wrote about Science Fairs. There is a nice review of Kreitzman & Foster's book Rhythms of Life: The Biological Clocks That Control the Daily Lives of Every Living Thing. Finally, how to use the movie 'Erin Brokovich' to teach about chemistry and environment.

Darwin 200

A few of us wild and crazy evo people, including Richard Dawkins, wrote up pieces for an issue of the BBC Focus magazine. You'll find me arguing with Steve Jones about whether evolution has stopped, Richard Lenski is highlighted, and Carl Zimmer makes an appearance. If you've got a flash player, you can read it online right now. It's pretty good stuff, if I do say so myself.

Patrick McGoohan, Creator of The Prisoner, Dead at 80

"All that remains is . . . recognition of a man." Patrick McGoohan, the creator of one of my favorite television series, The Prisoner, has died at 80. The Prisoner was a challenging and entertaining series that explored civil liberties, privacy, individuality, and democracy. My favorite episodes were Free for All and A Change of Mind. The good news is that these and all the other episodes are available online free at AMC.

Help Save Serbia's #1 Science Blog

Remember the threat of closing the KOBSON blog? Well, Danica was a brave warrior for Open Science and published an article about this at a much more prominent place: on Global Voices Online. While this may not be an immediate positive move for Danica's own career, it is a good move towards persuading the powers-that-be in Serbia that the way forward is towards more openness, not the opposite.

There is nothing I like doing more than herding cats!

Business customers and children can be tough to manage online, but can you imagine managing scientists! They are already hard enough to satisfy in their native environment offline (e.g., to look beyond the usual metrics when awarding tenure). I know, I am making links in this post so cryptic, you'll just have to click to see what on Earth I am talking about and make your own connections...

How Logical Are You?

tags: logical, online quiz You Are Incredibly Logical Move over Spock - you're the new master of logic You think rationally, clearly, and quickly. A seasoned problem solver, your mind is like a computer! How Logical Are You? The one thing that bothered me about this quiz is that it didn't say how many I got correct. I assume I got all of the answers correct, though. How about you?

What European City Do You Belong in?

You Belong in Dublin Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions. You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town. What European City Do You Belong In? What's your city? My other city (depending upon how I answered question 5) was Amsterdam. tags: online quiz

Are You an Idiot?

I am 13% Idiot. I am not annoying at all. In fact most people come to me for advice. Of course they annoy the hell out of me. But what can I do? I am smarter than most people. Take theIdiot Test@ FualiDotCom What was your score? And I want to know how I managed to score 13%? Was it because I answered "yes" to those Kurt Vonnegut questions? tags: online quiz

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

You Passed the US Citizenship Test Congratulations - you got 10 out of 10 correct! Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test? How did you do? I almost missed one of the questions (more below the fold) Question 5; the year that the Constitution was written was .. 1787, but I went back and forth between that date and 1786. I finally just guessed that it was 1787. tags: online quiz

Let us know how was ScienceOnline2010 for you

If you have participated in ScienceOnline2010 (including virtually), please let us know the good and the bad about it and help us make the next year's event even better. Just go to this online form and fill it. Give us details. Every year we carefully study your responses and incorporate much of your ideas and critiques in the planning for the next event. Thanks

Sarah Palin: Dumber than a rock

tags: Sarah Palin, politics, satire, humor, streaming video Sarah Palin has such a good idea to put the federal checkbook online -- it's such a good idea that Coburn (R), Obama (D) and McCain (R) already beat her to it .. in 2006. Like, duh! But I shouldn't criticize Sarah because she gives hope to all brain dead poodles that they too, may one day become vice president. [0:53]

Anthro Blog Carnival

The ninety-sixth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Testimony of the Spade. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology! The next vacant hosting slot is already on 4 August 21 July. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me for hosting. It's a good way to gain readers. No need to be an anthro pro.

Swedish Heritage Blog

The Swedish State Board of National Antiquities, Riksantikvarieämbetet, has been putting more and more useful things on-line in the past few years. The most recent addition is a blog in Swedish, K-bloggen, where a number of Aard readers and buddies of mine are writing some interesting stuff. Go, see, comment, learn the Swedish word for cultural resource management! Say after me please: "cull-TOUR-mil-yur-VOARD".

Kaga Foil-Figure Pre-Print On-Line

I'm proof-reading pdf files of Fornvännen's summer issue, including a note I've written about the Kaga foil-figure die. It's full of ugly hyphenations, but contentwise it's OK. So I've put the file on-line here for all you guldgubbar fans. Update 21 April '08: And here's the final printed version. [More blog entries about archaeology, Sweden, darkages, vendelperiod; arkeologi, vendeltiden, Östergötland, Linköping.]

You Are Likely to Be Eaten by a Grue

Of special interest to Nathan, evidence that the process of dissertation writing is the same across disciplines: > work on dissertation You spend three hours reading five articles which have nothing to do with the dissertation. > work on dissertation You spend twenty minutes online reading about baseball. > tear out hair Taken. You find the Elvish sword. (Today's a Lab Day, so you're mostly getting silly posts...)