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Publishers say you already have all of the access you need

Here's a quote from the Professional and Scholarly Publishing division of the Association of American Publishers' response (pdf) to the FRPAA legislation (about): There is no need for federal agencies to replicate content on their own sites when web-linking approaches to publishers' authoritative versions could serve better the same goal of public access. Acting on its own in the free market, the publishing industry already has made more research information available to more people than at any time in history. Articles are widely available in major academic centers and private-sector online…

Extinction is a B*tch! #scio11

Last night was the first night of Science Online 2011. The food and keynote were fantastic, but the real party was back at the hotel afterwards for the Open Mic Night! At the request of many, here are the lyrics to the song I sang: Extinctionʼs A Bitch (to the tune of Ê»Bitchʼ by Meredith Brooks) Biodiversity all kinds of creatures from the mountains to the seas all arising through a process of selection thatʼs been altering their genes for a million centuries Evolutionʼs what I mean Itʼs changing organisms gene by gene by gene so theyʼre stronger or theyʼre faster or theyʼre smarter…

Another reason why performers aren't running the world

Ian McCulloch, lead singer for Echo and the Bunnymen has a "Credo" in the Independent Online, in which he delivers himself of this constipated turd: I believe in anti-Darwinism - otherwise why are there still monkeys? Anyone who thinks Darwinism means that the ancestors of a modern species had to go extinct when it evolved, or who thinks that there is only ever one species per lineage, isn't anti-Darwinism, but anti-Lamarckism, for it was Lamarck, not Darwin, who thought that entire species changed leaving no ancestors alive. Darwin's own insight was that evolution was a tree not a single…

Picks and interviews from ResearchBlogging.org

Here's this week's list of notable posts from Psychology and Neuroscience at ResearchBlogging.org. Is autism really surging? Michelle Dawson wonders whether the recent rise in autism rates can be traced to methodological differences in studies tracking autism rates. We know many men are attracted to younger women, but what does it mean to look younger? Wayne Hooke looks at a recent study and concludes that looking younger may be a matter of looking less masculine. Ever had a song that you just can't get out of your head -- an "earworm"? You'd think that psychologists would be all over…

Look to the babies for (math) wisdom

Babies smarter than average high school student: In a discovery that could shed light on the development of the human brain, University of Oregon researchers determined that infants as young as six months old can recognize simple arithmetic errors. The researchers used puppets to portray simple addition problems. For example, in order to illustrate the incorrect equation 1 + 1 = 1, researchers showed infants one puppet, then added a second. A board was then raised to block the infant's view of both puppets, and one was removed. When the board was lowered, only a single puppet remained. To…

Back from Brazil

Tudo bem? Muito obrigado. Those are about the only things I learned to say while in Sao Paulo (plus a few things that I can't mention here). The wedding ceremony was beautiful, and I'm the type that generally doesn't care much for Catholic rituals. As for Brazilians, after dining at a churrascuria I think it's safe to say that Americans aren't the only ones with a super-sizing problem. (And yes, I also drank plenty of cachasa. Now it's seriously time to get back to work.) The weirdest thing of course is that while I was in Brazil, the news about the foiled British terror plot came out. I…

Dennis Markuze exposed

Many people in the godless community know and detest Dennis Markuze AKA David Mabus, the crazy spammer who repetitively and obsessively sends email and posts on forums and comments on blogs, with lunatic accusations, deranged claims of prophecy, threats, and random Depeche Mode videos. Others know him too; this is the guy who CC's his rants against me to every member of the faculty at my university. He's definitely mentally ill. He also lives in Montreal, where I was this weekend for the AAI convention, and would you believe that he actually showed up! A while after someone pulled a fire…

SEED Editors to Discuss Fair Use Blogging

Picture from Grant Robertson. In an interesting turn of events, it was announced on Page 3.14 (the editorial blog of ScienceBlogs) that there will be an ongoing, online discussion of fair use issues here. How do copyright and fair use laws, framed before the internet was a twinkle in the eye, apply in the world of blogging? The answer, as a case that unfolded on ScienceBlogs this week demonstrates, may be "not so clearly." Ergo, we've asked a few experts and stakeholders to weigh in on the issue of copyright and open access. How ought fair use to be interpreted today--as the blogosphere…

This looks like a job for Ben Domenech

One of the less pleasant parts of my job is talking to students that I have caught plagiarizing assignments. All too often, rather than admit to copying they will tell me clumsy lies and blame somebody else. Which brings us to Ben Domenech. Instead of admitting to his obvious plagiarism he claims that an editor repeatedly inserted plagiarized material into his pieces and that PJ O'Rourke personally gave him permission to copy his material. This isn't the best story he could come up with, since it was possible to check with his editor and O'Rourke who refuted his lies (Hat tip: Atrios).…

Blow Your Mind!

If you're interested in the complexities of our brain, a glimpse into the incredible complexity and beauty of how connections between our neurons can lead to ultimately what makes us human, this video is a must. Take five minutes, and prepare yourself to be awestruck. On a personal note, I am not a neuroscientist but have been following this literature lately, simply because I am drawn to trying to understand how our brains work. I am humbled by the superb job done by Charlotte Stoddart in integrating several key studies to paint a picture of our brains that can be understood, and…

Jonah Lehrer Doesn't Understand Evolution

Sorry, dude, but it has to be said. In a feature from the March issue of Seed Magazine (one that doesn't appear to be available online), Jonah Lehrer profiles six young scientists dubbed "The Truth Seekers". In his description of Pardis Sabeti, Jonah makes the common error of conflating evolution with natural selection. Sabeti has helped develop algorithms that use linkage disequilibrium (LD) in DNA sequence polymorphism data to detect evidence for natural selection acting on those regions. She was also involved in a study that identified signatures of natural selection in the malaria…

Conflagration coming

I'm on record predicting a toll-access journal bloodbath. Anecdotes are not data, one dead swallow doesn't mean the end of summer, and so on… but I just heard yesterday about a second small independent toll-access journal whose sponsors may be discussing winding it down. This isn't the scenario I was quite looking for; I expected a stable-fire or two among small journals at the big publishers. That isn't happening yet. Some big publishers are still posting record profits, so the squeeze isn't on. Others are going on buying sprees hoping to trade on exclusive access. I do think those record…

Contingency in biology

One of the late Stephen Jay Gould's regular observations was that the evolution of life on Earth has been highly contingent. Minor, often random, events in life's history have reverberated throughout the eons. One of the many fatal flaws of the "specified complexity," Billy Dembski's idea for proving design, is that it circularly assumes that the way things are is exactly the way that a "designer" would want them to be. This idea ignores the oddly contingent course life has taken over the last 3.8 billion years. Chemists have illuminated one such contingent path that life took: Chemists at…

Conspiracy to commit

March 13, 2006 – US puts Iraqi documents on the Web: conservative bloggers, eager to bolster the case for going to war against Iraq, have long argued for release of the documents. They gained a powerful ally last month in Michigan Republican Pete Hoekstra, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. In an interview with blogger Andrew Marcus, Hoekstra called for Negroponte to release the documents online. ''Unleash the power of the Net," Hoekstra said. ''Let the blogosphere go." Kansas Republican Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, backed Hoekstra's proposal.…

Dome collapse at Karangetang in Indonesia

Karangetang in Indonesia erupting in June of 2007. This year we haven't had a lot of news about volcanic activity in Indonesia. This is not to say that eruptions haven't been happening, rather they just haven't been in the news. If you check out the current status of the volcanoes of Indonesia, you'll see that no less than six volcanoes are on orange (Level 2) status and another fourteen are on yellow (Level 1 - and there is a Level 0 as well). So, it is a active arc as arcs go (compare that to the Aleutians or Cascades). This means that it should come as little surprise that Karangetang on…

White Island Alert

Authorities in New Zealand have issued an alert for White Island. After a fairly sizable earthquake (M=5.4) near the island, the state agency that oversees volcanoes (GNS Science) is warning people to stay away from White Island for the next 48-72 hours on fears it might erupt. Normally, just because there is an earthquake near a volcano you don't instantly jump to the idea that it will erupt, but the 5.4 and subsequent earthquakes have been both near White Island and shallow (5-km depth), indicating it could very well be related to magma moving under the system.  White Island itself is a…

Playing politics with women's health

In the 18 days between House Republicans’ introduction of the American Health Care Act and its withdrawal, women’s health was in the spotlight. With House Speaker Paul Ryan now stating that he’s going to try again on legislation to “replace” the Affordable Care Act, it’s worth looking at some of the ways the ACA has benefited women – and how actions from Congress and the Trump administration could affect women’s insurance coverage and access to care. Women gained coverage under the ACA The ACA’s biggest achievement was reducing the percentage of the population without health insurance. It did…

Questions & answers around thought leadership

A few weeks ago I answered the daily thought leadership countdown questions that were posed by the TEDxLibrariansTO conference. I enjoyed the process, forcing myself to respond to thoughtful and interesting questions every day, even on busy challenging days where I wouldn't normally make an effort to find the time for blogging. However, since they were all branded with "TEDxLibrarians" name in the title, I don't think people who weren't attending the conference bothered to read them. As such, several of the posts had unusually low readership. So I;m gathering them all here in the hopes…

Disinfecting keyboards

Fomites are inanimate objects that act as modes of transmission for infectious agents. You know. The doorknob or airplane armrest handled by someone who coughs on his hand or blows her nose. We know that some agents, like influenza viral particles, can remain viable (i.e., retain their ability to replicate in a host cell) for days or weeks. This doesn't automatically mean that fomites are an important mode of transmission, however. There is evidence those same viral particles lose their ability to replicate after only a few minutes on your hand. The apparent paradox is probably related to the…

It Comes Back to Food and Energy...Again

Stuart Staniford has a terrific piece that offers a little visual clarity about food, energy, unemployment and the Riots in the Middle East and North Africa: Tunisia is a minnow in the global oil market, Egypt slightly more important. Algeria, however, matters a lot as its oil production is probably close to total demonstrated OPEC spare capacity. Thus serious social instability in Algeria would have major effects on global oil prices. If instability spread to bigger oil producers than that (eg Kuwait or UAE), the effects could be very dramatic. Presumably, the regimes in those countries…

Music Mondays: David Gilmour on Chopping up Albums

Yes, that David Gilmour. Anyways, there was a post on Gilmour's blog a few months ago that provoked quite a little storm: Chopping up albums. Basically, the point Gilmour makes is that many albums are really meant to be listened to as a whole and shouldn't be split into individual tracks at record companies' whims. Read the whole thing to get the full sense of his argument, but I think the excerpt below gives a good sense: I'll go first: Blood on the Tracks' frenetic 'Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts' by Bob Dylan. There, I said it. (Forgive me, Bob.) More often than not, it gives me an…

More DaveScot Stupidity

I know, that's hardly worth noting. But it's just amazing to watch someone be so completely disingenuous in making an argument. He can't be dense enough not to realize how weak the arguments are. In a new comment on the thread over at Larry's blog where he endorsed the bullying and intimidation of the children of the plaintiffs in Dover, he spews this crap too: Blaming the old school board for violating the law is hindsight. They didn't believe they were violating any laws and one lone district court judge's opinion is hardly the definitive word on whether or not they actually did violate the…

Dollars for Deniers: Big Oil Funds Climate Science Denialism

It has become increasingly difficult to understand the motivation behind climate science denialism. The Earth’s climate is changing, mainly in the form of increased temperatures of the oceans and the atmosphere, because of the release of copious amounts of previously trapped Carbon through the burning of fossil fuels. There is no longer a question that this is happening, and every year, the various details that one might like to see worked out, regarding the mechanisms or effects of climate change, are increasingly known. To state, with a straight face, that the jury is still out, or that we…

How wrong does Plimer have to be?

I had an open thread a couple of weeks ago about Ian Plimer's recent novel supposedly exposing the lie that is Anthropogenic Global Warming. I have not read it. A few commenter's defending the book asked how anyone can judge it if they have not read it. Well, no one can read every book that is out there, not even every book about global warming. We all have to choose. This of course introduces the possibility of bias confirmation. If I feel it in my gut that this particular book will be crap, I won't read it and I will assume I am right about it. But here's the thing, it is possible to…

Creationists and Deniers sittin in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

Creationists and HIV Deniers, gawd bless em. So like, remember a while back when Andy Schlafly, Creationist of Conservapedia wrote PNAS demanding raw data, reagents, etc from Richard Lenski? And if Lenski refused to deliver that stuff to Schlafly (and his crack team of home schooled children) for 'peer review', then PNAS should retract the paper and Evilution is a Lie? Well, HIV Deniers thought that was a friggen brilliant idea. Forty well respected HIV-1 researchers have gone and done the same thing, demanding Science retract a 24 year old paper of Robert Gallos because it doesnt suit…

Best Music of 2008

This is a much more idiosyncratic sampling than usual, for the simple reason that I bought very little music this year-- probably the least since I started buying my own records. This was a combination of pre-SteelyKid austerity measures (do you know what day care costs these days?), post-SteelyKid lack of time to listen to music, and, most recently, a nearly full hard drive on my home computer (which will be replaced soon-ish, so I'm trying to eke out a few more weeks with this one). Anyway, here are the five-star songs from 2008: "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You…

The questionable dark side of fructose

Consumption of fructose, usually in the form of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), has been suggested as one of the underestimated causes of the increased incidence of obesity/metabolic syndrome in the U.S. Given the magnitude of the issue, Medscape covered this report, "Fructose but Not Glucose Consumption Linked to Atherogenic Lipid Profile," from a presentation at the recent meeting of the American Diabetes Association by Peter J. Havel, DVM, PhD, and colleagues at the University of California at Davis Department of Nutrition. In this small trial, 23 normal volunteers were first given an…

Food Inc Whets the Appetite of Film Critics...Will It Do the Same for the Public?

Framing food problems as a matter of public accountability and sinister corporate control. As I wrote earlier this week, the new documentary Food Inc. has the potential to significantly boost the public profile of a range of food-related problems, connecting them together under the perceptual umbrella of public accountability and corporate malfeasance. In achieving this goal, it appears that Food Inc. has cleared the first hurdle, garnering strong reviews from the film critics who tend to drive the media narrative about a film including those at the NY Times, New York magazine, the…

Where's Mao Zedong When You Need Him?

"Obesity now a 'lifestyle' choice for Americans, expert says" "Waistline grows along with economy" "Wealth and Waistlines - A new book explains how the obesity epidemic has been shaped by economics, and what we can do to reverse the trend" The Fattening of America, by Eric A. Finkelstein and Laurie Zuckerman, is a fascinating new book proffering an economic explanation as to why more and more Americans are obese - I think. I haven't read it but that didn't stop me from perusing the news stories coming out on Dr. Finkelstein's analysis of obesity and its relationship to our modern economy. If…

"R" statistical company gets new and important board members

Robert Gentleman and Donald Nickelson have joined the board of REvolution Computing. Gentleman is co-creator of this OpenSource statistical package which is widely used by researchers. The news was released moments ago, and here is a press release from the company: REvolution Computing, the leading commercial provider of software and support for the open source "R" statistical computing language, announced the appointment of R co-creator Robert Gentleman and investment-banking veteran Donald Nickelson to its board of directors. Gentleman and Nickelson join directors Norman Nie and Basil…

Labor

On Labor Day, we should remember the heroes of labor, the people who gave us weekends, overtime and safe worksites. Yes, people like Joe Hill People like my grandfather, who came to this country from the Ukraine in 1922, where he had trained as a typographer. He went through Ellis Island, and came ashore in Battery Park. After a life in Czarist Russia, hiding in the Jewish Pale, fleeing from pogroms and Army raiders seeking "recruits," he was astonished at the scene before him in New York. Men stood on soap boxes, ranting publicly against their government. Criticizing the president in…

Did Steve Jobs' flirtation with alternative medicine kill him? (update)

A couple of weeks ago, in the immediate aftermath of Steve Jobs' death, I took issue with the claims of a skeptic that "alternative medicine killed Steve Jobs." At the time, I pointed out that, although it was very clear that Steve Jobs did himself no favors by delaying his initial surgery for nine months after his initial diagnosis, we do not have sufficient information to know what his clinical situation was and therefore how much, if at all, he decreased his odds of survival by not undergoing surgery expeditiously. To recap: Did Steve Jobs harm himself by trying diet and alternative…

ScienceOnline2010 - interview with Hope Leman

Continuing with the tradition from last two years, I will occasionally post interviews with some of the participants of the ScienceOnline2010 conference that was held in the Research Triangle Park, NC back in January. You can check out previous years' interviews as well: 2008 and 2009. Today, I asked Hope Leman to answer a few questions. Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Where are you coming from (both geographically and philosophically)? What is your (scientific) background? Hope: I am 46 and Research Information…

Holy cow, yet another conspiracy theory!

This has been a year of some wonderfully crazy new conspiracies. Birtherism is actually looking pretty banal next to the "Obama is gay-married to a Pakistani" conspiracy, the "Obama is a Jihadist sleeper agent conspiracy, the Aurora conspiracies, job numbers conspiracies, polling conspiracy theories from America’s least-accurate pollster Dick Morris, and, my former favorite, the Obama is buying bullets for the Social Security Administration to kill all Americans conspiracy theory. Now the American Spectator is publishing a new crackpot conspiracy theory that I think rivals my former…

Hash Week! (Part 1)

Last week NIST anounced the winner of its Cryptographic Hash Function Competition. After five years of review and many rounds of discussion and elimination, the winner is a hash function called Keccak, and its developers deserve many congratulations. It's a shame hash functions aren't better known in the general public, because not only are they a vital part of keeping data safe online, they're one of the most interesting bits of applied math. Better still, their basic concept is not complicated at all. Hash functions are so cool, in fact, that I want to spend several posts this week…

Introducing Ida - the great-great-great-great-grandmother (or aunt)

Another super-cool day at PLoS (one of those days when I wish I was not telecommuting, but sharing in the excitement with the colleagues at the Mothership) - the publication of a very exciting article describing a rarely well-preserved fossil of a prehistoric primate in a lineage to which we all belong as well: Complete Primate Skeleton from the Middle Eocene of Messel in Germany: Morphology and Paleobiology by Jens L. Franzen, Philip D. Gingerich, Jörg Habersetzer, Jørn H. Hurum, Wighart von Koenigswald and B. Holly Smith The fossil, named Ida (the scientific name is Darwinius masillae, a…

ScienceOnline2010 - interview with Beth Beck

Continuing with the tradition from last two years, I will occasionally post interviews with some of the participants of the ScienceOnline2010 conference that was held in the Research Triangle Park, NC back in January. See all the interviews in this series here. You can check out previous years' interviews as well: 2008 and 2009. Today, I asked Beth Beck from NASA to answer a few questions. Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Where are you coming from (both geographically and philosophically)? What is your (scientific)…

A really nice write-up about the Conference

In the Inkling Magazine: Science Bloggers Avoid the Spinach Dip Brush-Off, by Eva Amsen. I am really happy to see how real-world conversations that started at the conference are now continuing online. Check the latest updates on the bottom of the posts here or here. Also, the people who have ordered the blooks first, have now started receiving their copies (and commenting about their beauty on their blogs). The updated list of people blogging abot it is at the bottom of this post.

What year is this again?

I am stunned that this t-shirt could be proudly displayed anywhere anymore. Now get this: the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is running an online poll that is asking, "What do you think of the Obama t-shirt?", with two choices: "It's racist" and "it's fine". You might be wondering why the newspaper would even have to ask…but here's the kicker. "It's fine" is winning. Do you think maybe we can shift the balance there? Or should we just let this indictment of Georgia's racism stand?

Silly Science

Why is mainstream media obsessively focused, out of all the cool science out there, on silly titillating EvoPsych garbage, presented in a "shocked! shoked!" tone? Here is today's crop - feel free to savage them on your own blogs: 46% Of Women Prefer Internet To Sex, Says Intel Survey Fertile women more open to corny chat-up lines 20% of teens say they've put nude pics of themselves online Science Dweebs Often Virgins Orgasms During Childbirth? Are daughters-in-law to blame for the menopause?

Triangle Blogger Meetup

Next Triangle blogger meetup is this Wednesday at 6pm at Milltown (307 E. Main St., Carrboro). It is organized by our friends at Orange Politics, for several years the model for local political organizing online. It is likely some of the local politicos and candidates will show up. It is free and open for all and, heck, if you do not want to chat about politics, you don't have to - we'll chat about everything and anything anyway, as we usually do ;-)

Are You an Atheist?

You Are An Atheist God? No thanks. You're not buying into any religion. They're all bunk to you. You rather focus on what you know is true. You may be a passive non-believer or a rabid atheist activist. But one thing is for sure... no one's going to make you go to church! Are You an Atheist, Agnostic or a Believer? What did you think of this quiz? I thought it did a reasonably decent job covering the issues -- for an online quiz, that is.

Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

tags: santa's reindeer, online quiz Okay, this is a seasonally appropriate quiz that you all have to take, and yes, you have to share your results here, too! My results are below the fold; You Are Cupid A total romantic, you're always crushing on a new reindeer. Why You're Naughty: You've caused so much drama, all the reindeers aren't speaking to each other. Why You're Nice: You have a knack for playing matchmaker. You even hooked Rudolph up! Which of Santa's Reindeer Are You?

Anthro Blog Carnival

The eighty-fifth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at A Very Remote Period Indeed. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology! Submissions for the next carnival will be sent to Magnus at Testimony of the Spade. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me for hosting. The next vacant hosting slot is on 10 March. It's a good way to gain readers. No need to be an anthro pro. And check out the new Skeptics' Circle!

Anthro Blog Carnival

The seventy-ninth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Anthropology.net. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology! Submissions for the next carnival will be sent to Colleen at Middle Savagery. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me for hosting. The next vacant hosting slot is in less than four weeks, on 2 December. It's a good way to gain readers. No need to be an anthro pro. And check out the new Skeptics' Circle!

Climate Science in the K-12 Classroom

Calling U.S. K-12 Science Education Professionals! GHF Online science instructor Madeline Goodwin is doing her Master’s thesis research on climate science in the classroom, and she needs your help! She is doing a survey of science education professionals to find the answer to the following question: What are the most important climate science concepts for students to ProfessionalPictureunderstand by the time they graduate high school? If you are a K-12 science education professional in the United States, Madeline invites you to take her survey. CLICK HERE

w00t! Top of the class!

The word "wOOt" - spelt with zeros instead of the letter 'o' - has just been voted as Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary's Word of the Year. Coined by internet users, and defined as an interjection "expressing joy", it's quite apt today, because my axon guidance essay was returned with a mark of 80%.  I posted the essay in 4 parts while I was away in Egypt. Here it is again: Part 1: The growth cone.  Part 2: A novel axon guidance mechanism. Part 3: The turning point. Part 4: New directions. wOOt!

Carnival of the Blue V

The Carnival of the Blue thing has really come together lately thanks to Mark Powell, the power of the blogosphere, and a dedicated online ocean public that includes you. Go see the latest line up of stories at Shifting Baselines-"the cure for ocean amnesia". Where else you gonna upload your migration tracks for bob-tailed godwits into Google Earth (DC Birding Blog), and set yourself "strait" on the meltdown in the Northwest Passage (Island of Doubt)? Lots of good stuff to see and read there.

Important reads you may be missing

Since the Pepsipocalypse, several excellent science writers (some of the best, really) have sought out new homes online. You really shouldn't miss them. SciCurious: special shout out to Sci who is one of the best pseudonymous science writers out there, and if she were under her real name would probably be one of the best non-pseudonymous science writers David Dobbs Brian Switek: Brian is one of the new "greats", and is far too talented for his age. Eric M Johnson Highly Allochthonous Alex WIld

Planet Earth airs 'Deep Ocean' episode

This Sunday (March 25) the Discovery Channel will be broadcasting the series Planet Earth at 8pm ET/PT. Footage of Davidson Seamount will be broadcast in the Deep Ocean episode at 10pm ET/PT. Expect to see some gorgeous gorgonians and some handsome fly-trap anemones. Discovery Channel put together a very slick flash website for the occaission, complete with a Google Earth tour, videos, and online games. Need we ask how this will compare to the incredible Blue Planet series five years ago?