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The ultimate anti-tar sands message

I promise to get back to substantive blogging shortly, but in the meantime, if you've got three minutes to tear yourself away from coverage of Sarah Palin's book: Scientifically sound? Not the words I would use, but not too far off the mark, either. Hyperbolic? Yes. Offensive? To some. Provocative? Absolutely. Greenpeace and the Agit-Pop gang know how to grab your attention. If, that is, you already care about preserving what's left of the planet's ability to host civilization as we know it.

LGBT people in science

Onias raises an interesting question (to which I have no answer) in another thread, namely: I was wondering if any of you folks at science blogs can discuss the issue of LGBT people in science. Apart from Jim Pollack, Alan Turing and a few others, we seem to be underrepresented. Is it due to something essential or innate in queer people? Is it because there is cultural pressure for gay people to work in other disciplines like fashion etc.? Have at it folks. Any thoughts?

Google Sky

A favorite quote of mine from Vincent van Gogh: "For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream." Especially when I can access them through my web browser. Here in Seattle this is greatly needed, since there are vast portions of the winter when the night sky is hidden behind puffy clouds. I mean I need to be reminded every once in a while that I'm a little little speck in a big big universe. First one to spot a Dyson sphere wins.

Hadi Dowlatabadi on the value of Integration (link to a great talk)

Recently, we had an opportunity to host a variety of great talks for science teachers. One of the talks was by Dr. Hadi Dowlatabadi, with an entertaining take on the value of integrating disciplines, or rather simply getting away from being so discipline focused. Anyway, here is the link that will lead you to a 25 minute talk he gave (apologies for the buzzy sound feed). It's a great talk, with some choice quotes, in particular a reference to a certain Nobel Laureate as a grandstanding asshole.

Sixteen Reasons Why Commuting Is Cool

I thought this blog post was pretty refreshing and kind of a nice way to look at things. It starts: When people hear that I spend two hours each way commuting to UBC from Surrey every day, the most common question is: but why? When the train broke down today, and it took over three hours to get to UBC, I was asking myself the same thing. I made a list to remind myself why commuting is good. Anyway, read the list by following this link.

Showtime this evening

Just a reminder… At 8pm GMT (convert to your local time; it's 2pm to those of you in the band from Minnesota to Texas) here at the O'Callaghan Alexander Hotel, Dublin, in a room yet to be determined (check the YouTube info page for location updates), we'll be putting on a little talk show. We'll have an audience; locals can stop by. You can also appear by request via Skype. It should be fun, tune in to the Magic Sandwich Show!

Today in Science (0112)

Events 1808 - The organizational meeting that led to the creation of the Wernerian Natural History Society is held. 2005 - Deep Impact (space mission) launches from Cape Canaveral on a Delta 2 rocket. Births 1792 - Johan August Arfwedson, Swedish chemist 1797 - Gideon Brecher, Austrian physician 1899 - Paul Hermann Müller, Swiss chemist and Nobel Prize laureate 1905 - James Bennett Griffin, American archaeologist Deaths 1732 - John Horsley, British archaeologist 1997 - Charles B. Huggins, Canadian-born cancer researcher and Nobel Prize laureate 2003 - Dean Amadon, American…

Friday Poem

Another poem by Nizar Qabbani. When I Love When I loveI feel that I am the king of timeI possess the earth and everything on itand ride into the sun upon my horse. When I loveI become liquid lightinvisible to the eyeand the poems in my notebooksbecome fields of mimosa and poppy. When I lovethe water gushes from my fingersgrass grows on my tonguewhen I loveI become time outside all time. When I love a womanall the treesrun barefoot toward me...

Today in Science (0914)

Events 1959 - The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it. Births 1769 - Alexander von Humboldt, German naturalist and explorer 1804 - John Gould, British ornithologist who worked on Darwin’s specimens from the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle 1849 - Ivan Pavlov, Russian scientist and Nobel Prize laureate 1909 - Peter Scott, British naturalist 1936 - Ferid Murad, American physician and Nobel Prize laureate Deaths 1712 - Giovanni Domenico Cassini, Italian-born astronomer 1879 - Bernhard von Cotta, German geologist

Today in Science (0717)

Events 1975 - Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock with each other in orbit marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations. 1976 - Viking 1 successfully lands on Mars. 1998 - Biologists report how they sequenced the genome of the bacterium that causes syphilis, Treponema pallidum (above). Births 1920 - Gordon Gould, inventor of the laser 1955 - Paul Stamets, American mycologist and environmentalist Deaths 1894 - Josef Hyrtl, Austrian anatomist 1912 - Henri Poincaré, French mathematician

Today in Science

Events 2002 - The last successful telemetry from NASA space probe Pioneer 10. Births 1755 - Marc-Antoine Parseval, French mathematician 1791 - Samuel F. B. Morse, American inventor 1820 - Herbert Spencer, English philosopher and social evolutionist 1913 - Philip Hauge Abelson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate 1920 - Mark Krasnosel'skii, Russian-Ukrainian mathematician 1927 - Karl Alexander Müller, Swiss physicist, Nobel Prize laureate 1932 - Gian-Carlo Rota, Italian-born mathematician and philosopher Deaths 1936 - Karl Pearson, English statistician and biometrician 1952 - Guido…

A simple question deserving a smackdown (delivered)

PZ lays a smackdown on a neurosurgeon who is one of the Discovery Institute's 700 who are "skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life" and claims: I am asking a simple question: show me the evidence (journal, date, page) that new information, measured in bits or any appropriate units, can emerge from random variation and natural selection, without intelligent agency. Predictably, PZ doesn't even have to break into a sweat taking care of this stupidity.

Ping!

I've managed to finish my grading. Yipee! What this means is that the semester is finally beginning to wind down. Sure, there will be some grading left to do, but it will be relatively less onerous. Three classes left to teach, a handful of graduate student papers, and some short pieces from my undergraduates. Then Fall graduation and convocation ... and then the winter break (a.k.a. time for writing all those book reviews and suchlike that were put off this semester).

Bedazzling Animal Photos

The annual Shell Wildlife Photography contest is winding to a close, and the winners have been chosen. The award-winning shots will go on display at the Natural History Museum of London October 27th and then embark on a world-wide tour. Wild stoats are well known to have a love of whole grains... You can see some of the shots here in this article from the Telegraph. Make sure you click on the link in the article to actually see the pics.

FRAMING AS A PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT TOOL: Slides from AAAS Talk Posted Online, Close to 200 Fill Auditorium for Science Policy Speaker Series

Turn out at this morning's presentation at AAAS approached 200, and it looked like the auditorium was completely full. It's a sign that interest in framing as a public engagement tool is really increasing. The Q&A session was a particular highlight for me, with many great comments and insights from attendees. I also really enjoyed the discussions before and after the talk. I will have a summary of the talk and some of the questions raised soon, but for now, AAAS has posted the lecture slides on their site.

Tomorrow: Talking To Craig Venter

Thanks for all the questions for my talk with Craig Venter for bloggingheads.tv. I didn't end up reading questions verbatim a la Emily Litella ("a Mr. Richard Feder from Fort Lee New Jersey asks...") But the questions definitely shaped the conversation. Some readers have been asking when our talk will be posted. Answer: Saturday morning. I'll post a link when it's live, and you can also check bloggingheads.tv directly. Update: It's up. Comments are welcome over there or over here. Photo: Evan Hurd

A nefarious plan

Another tawdry semi-biblical cesspit has opened, the Creation Museum of the Ozarks. Of course it gets horrible reviews. Then I looked it up. It's located in Strafford, Missouri, which is a town 20 minutes away from Springfield. Springfield. What do we think of when we hear Springfield, Missouri? No, not the Assemblies of God. We think…Skepticon. Hey, you know what that means… ROAD TRIP. Make it so, Skepticon organizers. Set aside some time for a godless invasion of your local creation "museum".

Bush, Frist...McCain

From an article on how John McCain may be positioning himself for a presidential run in The Arizona Star: McCain told the Star that, like Bush, he believes "all points of view" should be available to students studying the origins of mankind. "Available" is a wonderfully vague word. Senator, Senator, a follow-up question please? Just a clarification? Do you mean that teachers just drop some pamphlets by the door that explain how we were designed by aliens? Or should that be on the final exam?

Free probability textbook

Anti-evolutionists seem to have a special ability to foul up arguments using probability theory and pseudo-mathematicians theologians such as Dembski like to cloak their drivel in the trappings of such theory. So it's always good to refresh yourself on the material covered in those probability classes that you may have forgotten from college. Here, Grinstead and Snell make freely available a copy of their introductory textbook Introduction to Probability. Grab a copy and email one to your favorite creationist. [Tags: probability | mathematics ]

"God will save me, if he exists"

From Reuters: A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday. "The man shouted 'God will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions," the official said. "A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery." Well, that takes care of that burning question.

Perfection, of a kind

Another poem for National Poetry Month, this time by W.H. Auden (my second favorite after Yeats). In this case, it's "Epitaph on a Tyrant" from 1939. Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after, And the poetry he invented was easy to understand; He knew human folly like the back of his hand, And was greatly interested in armies and fleets; When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter, And when he cried the little children died in the streets. Draw your own conclusions.

Just in case you missed it

The first half of this year was the hottest on record in the US. Temperatures for January through June were 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average. Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri experienced record warmth for the period, while no state experienced cooler-than-average temperatures, reported scientists from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. Scientists have previously said that 2005 was the warmest year on record for the entire globe. Wish I had something insightful to add.

Carnival of Evolution Is Live

The monthly Carnival of Evolution is now up at Beetles in the Bush. Ted has done a terrific job of putting together some of the best science writing on the web. Make sure to stop on by and thank him for another great edition. This month brings newcomer Chadrick Lane with his blog The Ancestral Mind and many familiar voices from Living the Scientific Life, Evolving Thoughts, Mauka to Makai, Deep Thoughts and Silliness, NeuroDojo, Lab Rat, Pleiotropy and many more.

New species of giant rat discovered in Solomon Islands

A new species of giant tree rats (Uromys vika) has been confirmed in the Solomon Islands! These rats can reach over 2 pounds and an impressive 1.5 feet in length. They can even break through coconuts with their teeth. I would not want to cross paths with one of these critters. Sources: Video: YouTube TH Lavery, H Judge. A new species of giant rat (Muridae, Uromys) from Vangunu, Solomon Islands. Journal of Mammalogy, https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyx116 Published: 27 September 2017

Iraqi guns and dictatorship

A reader reminds me of another problem with Lott's attack on UN gun control efforts that I discussed yesterday. Lott argues that the UN's regulations would prevent people from obtaining small arms to resist totalitarian regimes. This is rather undercut by the Iraqi experience. Tim Noah observes that Iraqis seemed to have been well armed without ever overthrowing a repressive dictatorship. Also of interest are follow-up postings by Tim Noah and Jim Henley and the ensuing blogspace discussion ably covered by Henley here.

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Book Tour Trailer Part 1

People often ask whether the Lacks family has joined me for any of my book tour events, and how they feel about the book.  Here, in the first of what will be several trailers of The Immortal Book Tour, you can see bits of the tour, including the blizzard that nearly prevented me from getting there, many great photos, footage of several Lacks family members talking about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and more (video by Mr. Culture Dish, David Prete):

Royal Society Archives of papers by Newton, Faraday and more

From the Royal Society Press Release. The complete archive of the Royal Society journals, including some of the most significant scientific papers ever published since 1665, is to be made freely available electronically for the first time today (14th September 2006) for a two month period. The archive contains seminal research papers including accounts of Michael Faraday's groundbreaking series of electrical experiments, Isaac Newton's invention of the reflecting telescope, and the first research paper published by Stephen Hawking. archives link

Top Posts This Month

In case you missed some of these, here's the posts I'm particularly fond of from this month. The next week or two may be sporadic as I make the big move to Canada. But not to fear, I'll soon be right back in the swing of things. The Evolution of Potty Training Politics, Communication and Unscientific America Those Cheating Testicles, or Who's Your Baby? Why Chimpanzees Make Bad Suicide Bombers The Population Bomb, Nuclear Winter and the Role of Science in Public Advocacy

And More Baselines...

Andy Revkin also has a great blogpost at the New York Times on Our Exhausted Oceans. With opposition to aquaculture by many scientists as well as support for more marine protected areas, Revkin asks where we think seafood will come from in the future? My own answer: If we're smart, we'll eat like pigs--lower on the marine food web taking fewer of these small tasty fish out of the sea to feed to farmed fish, chicken, and pigs.

Another Worthwhile Break from Galapagos: Trawlers from Space

If there was any doubt that we are farming the seas...these unbelievable photographs are of a throng of Chinese shrimp trawlers near the mouth of the Yangtse River--FROM SPACE. They were published today in Nature and hit the press. Kyle Van Houtan, a conservation biologist with Duke University, discovered the technique to zoom in on the trawlers. He and shifting baselines' own Daniel Pauly are now working with the satellite data to quantify how much sediment is churned up by fishing.

A Must-See: Mirror Neurons in yo' face

I opened my feature on mirror neurons for Scientific American Mind by telling how my son Nicholas imitated me sticking out my tongue in his first hour. I regret I can offer you no film of that. Thanks to PLOS Biology, however, I can now offer you videos of a baby macaque monkey essentially doing the same -- that is, imitating lip-smacking and sticking-out-of-the-tongue -- in these video clips from "Neonatal Imitation in Rhesus Macaques" in PLOS Biology. Monkey see, monkey do. On the left, imitation of mouth-opening; on the right, of "tongue protrusion"…

Stephanie Coburtle--"Eagle of the Sea"--Is Off

The Great Turtle Race, an initiative by ten corporations and institutions to show that science is fun, begins today. Stephanie Coburtle, the turtle named after Stephen Colbert is Shifting Baselines' favored winner in this race from Costa Rica to their feeding grounds in the Galapagos Islands. "Normally, I'm no endangered species hugger..." said Colbert on his show. But his heart softened to these "eagles of the sea" after the Great Turtle Race not only made a name for Colbert but made conservation likeable.

Contraception through a heater for your peter?

You simply must read these. Though, I wouldn't recommend reading them at work. Of if you're underage. These are definitely not PG-13 rated blog posts. From the ever wonderful Scicurious: Friday Weird Science: a tote for your scrote, a recepticle for your testicle and the fantastic Jason Goldman: A Cup for your Pup: Friday Weird Science Companion Post (and, if you're in the mood to laugh hysterically, I recommend you take a look at Sci's Twitter Feed... you'll see what I mean)

Weekly Dose of Cute: World's Biggest Bunny!

Often, the cutest things come in small packages. Not so with Ralph - at 42 lbs, he's a record-breaking rabbit. Ralph comes from a huge family - both his mother and father previously held the world records for largest rabbit in length and weight. And though he's already the biggest bunny in the world, Ralph is still growing! No one knows how immense this ball off fluff will get, but however big he ends up being, he's sure to still be 100% adorable.

Mmmmmm...

I just saw this ad for Science World for the first time, and I think it's brilliant. Science World, for those not from Vancouver, British Columbia, is a science center that seeks to make science education a little more fun, including hundreds of interactive exhibits and its own OMNIMAX theater. You can see some more of their great adverts at Rethink Communications. Kudos for the good science-educating work, and even more for the great ads! (thanks, Joel, for the hat-tip to Rethink's link!)

A Brief Refresher

Maybe it's not a bad time to repost the link to this post, and to requote this snippet from it: When the topic at hand is men not taking an issue seriously, suggesting that the issue might not really be all that serious is not being dispassionate. It is, in fact, taking a side. And the people on the side you're taking, incidentally, include the gropers, the rapists, the sexual-favor-demanding bosses. Thanks to Jane for reminding me of that excellent post.

A Very Darwiny Weekend

The weekend's entertainment slate is All-Darwin, All Weekend. Just in from Netflix is Inherit the Wind, which Mr. Zuska and I will view either this evening or Sunday evening. Saturday afternoon we are planning to visit the Darwin exhibit at the Franklin Institute here in Philadelphia. There are two Galapagos tortoises at the exhibit, and there is a live tortoise webcam at the exhibit website, but I can't manage to bring it up on my browser for some reason. Maybe you'll have better luck.

Flew, into the Cuckoo's Nest

Sorry about that pun - it's been around for a while since Antony Flew, quandam philosopher and "Darwinian", announced he was converting to a kind of deism. Jon Pieret, who often comments on this blog when he should be writing for his own, covers the facts as far as we can ascertain them. I am deeply sympathetic to Flew here. I too suffer from nominal aphasia. I tell my students that I forget my own kids names, and I only have two. Of different sexes. They laugh, but it's true...

An unholy fusion

Old timers may remember Unscrewing The Inscrutable, and the World Wide Rant, two blogs that preceded mine and were long on my blogroll before they both up and died from ennui or something. Now Andy and Brent have done something unnatural and disturbing: they have taken the dead, rotting corpses of their ex-blogs and stitched them together into one lurching undead hybrid nightmare. It's called Happy Puppy Sunshine Blog. Somebody needs to alert the Center for Disease Control, I'm afraid.

Expelled producer admits lying to atheist interviewees

Well, he admits that it was a theist diatribe from the beginning, and not the even handed interaction between science and faith doco he told Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers among others. Always nice to find out that those who assert that only with faith in God can we have morals behave as if morals were an optional extra. Not surprising, but there it is. You can lie for your religion, to nonbelievers who do happen to behave morally and ethically.

On what Quine was...

Willard Van Ormond Quine was, I believe, one of the best of the 20th century philosophers, and is someone who has greatly influenced me. Here is a TV interview by Brian Magee, from the 1970s, if I am right. They discuss the nature of philosophy. This year marks the centenary of Quine's birth. "The Ideas of Quine" on Youtube:Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Hat tip to Calculemus. The heading is a bad pun on one of Quine's most famous essays: "On What There Is".

A Suggestion for New Orleans

Hey, maybe when they're done with the rather inappropriate Mardi Gras celebration this year, they can gather up all the trash left on the street and use *that* to plug holes in the levees. Or better yet, how about asking all the tourists who come down to spend half a day cleaning up the mess left behind by Katrina, since the city obviously isn't capable of doing it? I'm from New Orleans, I'm allowed to be this cynical and nasty.

Bush Still Has 77 Days

From the New York Times: President Bush's aides have been scrambling to change rules and regulations on the environment, civil liberties and abortion rights, among others -- few for the good. Most presidents put on a last-minute policy stamp, but in Mr. Bush's case it is more like a wrecking ball. We fear it could take months, or years, for the next president to identify and then undo all of the damage. In other words, regardless of the results tonight, stay vigilant.

It's A Small World After All

Scientists from the Netherlands have created a genetic map of Europe showing the degree of relatedness between populations in which nearly 2,500 subjects were analyzed by correlating their genetic variations. Such tools help to provide insight into human migrations, survival advantages, and genetic barriers.... but my favorite part is the way they show people are so similar. On a pale blue dot fraught with conflict, it's a reminder we're not all that different in the big picture. More at The New York Times.

Who Doesn't Love A 900-Pound Colossal Squid?!

Paging Kevin, Craig, Peter, PZ, Jennifer, Josh, Mark, Andrew, Benny, Ed, Miriam, Rick, J., and Hugh... COLOSSAL SQUID! 'On Wednesday, a 30 foot long, 900-pound colossal squid hauled up from the Antarctic last January will be studied by a team of scientists... but the catch is, they'll only have FOUR hours!' [Note, the awesomeness of the colassal squid has no bearing on where I stand in the Great Marine Invertebrate Wars. Echinoderms Rule!] Read my full post over at Correlations...

Another look at LIFE: Walking on water

The Brazilian pygmy gecko is mind-bogglingly small. As this clip from the recent BBC documentary Life illustrates, it is so minuscule that it is effectively watertight and can rest effortlessly on the surface of the water. It still amazes me that vertebrates can be that tiny. LIFE will air starting Sunday night on the Discovery Channel (though, as it is narrated by Oprah in the US, I suggest you pick up the David Attenborough-narrated version on DVD instead).

Our government at work

Remember that awful, terrible Templeton-funded prayer study that had no controls, was unblinded, and had nothing but subjective measurements of improvement? Now it's being promoted on healthfinder.gov — with not a word of reservation, just a happy claim that prayer might help sight- and hearing-impaired people. It's a beautiful example of bad science reporting, in which they'll admit that maybe it's just the placebo effect, but they still run out and get quotes from people saying this stuff might help.

Not For The Faint Of Heart...

As readers know, I'd like to see sound policy in place to protect Florida manatees. Check out what Jennifer and the good folks over at Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project just made using footage from her internship at the Florida Marine Research Institute: Not for the sqeamish among us, but the message is spot on. And you can bet when the notorious Randy Olson's involved, it's gotta be good... Email Governor Charlie Crist and tell him not to downlist the Florida manatee.

Military Intelligence Update

The US Army Crops of Engineers accidentally dumped hundreds of unexploded pieces of ordnance on the beach at Surf City. Now, they want the city to help pay for the cleanup.   "If they're talking about getting any money out of Surf City to pay for their mistakes, they can forget about it," Mayor Leonard T. Connors told The Philadelphia Inquirer. Apparently they conducted a 71 million dollar reconstruction of the beaches, unknowingly using sand from a World War I dump site.   ( href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070806/ap_on_fe_st/odd_beach_ordnance_found;_ylt=ApKG5AWHHB5FyhKu.…

Mommy Monday: Baby Steps

There. Now I've contributed to the clogging of the internet with another pointless youtube video. Don't I feel special. But I thought that readers of this blog might enjoy seeing Minnow's newfound ability to walk. She was starting to take tentative steps in mid-December, but the fluid in her ears really set her back for a while. Nonetheless, the urge to walk is strong, and by New Year's day she was able to walk from one side of a room to another.