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Blogroll Picks

Here are some interesting posts from bloggers in my Blogroll: 1. Counter Minds tackles the question "why do people have different blood types?" 2. Bio Job Blog writes about being involved in the creation of a new science-oriented social networking site called "The BioCrowd". 3. The Gist writes about scientists' efforts to study the melting of Greenland's massive ice cap. 4. Bio-Typing discusses about the portrayal of leprosy in the film "The Motorcycle Diaries" (Image: Sarah Das/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Comment policy

I'm getting quite a few more comments here than when I started, which is lovely! To keep the conversation lively and civil, I've put together a comment policy, which you can find on the blog's About page. (I'll link to it from the sidebar momentarily.) It's mostly common sense. Moreover, I haven't had to edit or delete a non-spam comment here yet. Still, I'd rather have a policy and not need it than need it and not have it. So now it's there.

Oldest Tiger Skull Unearthed

I was just reading the National Geographic's Daily News and came across this article about the unearthing of a 2.5-million-year-old skull from a new species (Panthera zdanskyi) of tiger. What was interesting is that the skull of modern tigers is really not that different showing that the anatomy of tiger skulls have been ideal for the hunting needs of these animals for millions of years. That brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "if it isn't broken, don't fix it."

Where hummingbirds get their hum

...or rather their squeak in some cases. Male hummingbirds, like the Anna's hummingbird shown above, perform impressive dive bombs to attract females. During the dive, the birds spread their tail feathers to produce a loud squeaking or trilling noise. In this neat video from Dr. Christopher Clark, you can watch dive bombs and listen to the noises the birds make during these acrobatic flights. He presents his latest research on how the tail feathers affect the sounds produced during flight in a wind tunnel.

Sunday's Silly Science Roundup

This just in from the great minds at the University of Central Florida: Laws of physics, math debunk Hollywood portrayals of ghosts, vampires. Using Isaac Newton's Laws of Motion, [UCF researchers] demonstrated that ghosts would not be able to walk and pass through walls [and] basic math disproves the legend of humans turning into vampires after they are bitten . . . because the entire human population in 1600 would have been wiped out in less than three years. Time well spent guys--really.

Doctor Who on the SciFi Channel

Woo-hoo! The new Doctor Who is appearing on the SciFi Channel tonight, with a two-hour, two episode premiere. I've already seen all the episodes, thanks to my mother's proximity to the Canadian border and her willingness to send me videotapes from Canadian TV, but those of you who are (or were) Doctor Who fans and haven't seen the new Doctor yet, are in for a real treat. It'll also give me a chance to check the best episodes out again.

Map That Campus IV

Well you guys have been pretty good at guessing the mystery campus. But in addition I'd like you to tell me the answer to the riddle/hint. (Last week no one really explained what the first part of the riddle meant - even after Bil posted an additional hint in the comment section.) So here is this week's campus: Click here for a larger image. And the hint: Should you obey your leaders? I'll refrain from confirming a correct answer until the weekend.

Origin of Life Review

I was notified of this review in PLoS-Biology by Richard Robinson. It gives a nice outline of the current thought in the field and delineates the genes first vs. metabolism first views (although in my not-to-much-of-an-expert opinion, I don't think that the "metabolism first" theory is likely ... but what do I know.) Ref: Richard Robinson. Jump-Starting a Cellular World: Investigating the Origin of Life, from Soup to Networks. PLoS Biology (2005) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0030396

Training Your Fish

I cannot train my dog Mathman not to poop in the house, but an aquarist named Lindsay at the New England Aquarium has a Lumpfish named Blondie to do tricks (no flaming hoops yet). Note that this is not an April Fool's joke. If it were, Blondie would also be performing Under the Sea in its entirety. Learn the secrets of fish training from the master herself and impress stoned friends with your goldfish wrangling! Thanks to Jeff Ives of the NEAQ for sharing.

Friday Deep-Sea Picture (8/24/07)

From NG: Despite its delicate, decorated appearance, this jewel squid was found 1,650 lung-crushing feet (500 meters) beneath the surface of the North Atlantic. Scientists on a recent deep-sea expedition found the squid, called Histioteuthis, along with an abundance of other species thought to be very rare, if not unknown, elsewhere. Jewel squid are known for their mismatched eyes, one of which is larger than the other to scope for prey in the deep's darkness. More pictures here...

Deep Volcanic Explosion: The Video

The previous post reminded of this video we posted awhile back. From Youtube: This is the largest explosive burst that was observed at the Brimstone Pit during the Submarine Ring of Fire 2006 Exploration Jason dive J2-192. There were probably even larger bursts that could not be seen, at times when the eruption plume was so extensive and thick that we could not get near the vent. Video courtesy of Submarine Ring of Fire 2006 Exploration, NOAA Vents Program, NOAA-OE.

A minor public service announcement from Doc Bushwell

To the approximately half-dozen or so of my regular readers: The Refuge has been very active recently thanks to the capers of the young males of the troop. As a consequence, those few entries I offer are likley to be buried quickly. Should you have a burning desire to read my blathering specifically, I have added a "Doc Bushwell" category so that my meager number of entries can be sorted from the piles of overripe banana peels. And now back to your regularly scheduled brachiation...

Enhance!

Oh, man, my least favorite pseudoscientific cliche from movies and TV is the hackneyed "zoom in on that reflection in the eye of the guy we caught on the el cheapo RS-170 B&W surveillance cam and recorded on VHS…if we blow it up enough, we'll be able to identify the killer!" It's painfully common, too, as you'll see in this montage of enhancing moments: "Do you have an enhancer that can bitmap?" Somebody slap those writers. (via Kevin Zelnio)

Death's Door

The always excellent Greg Beck explains what happened in his dreams.........every night: I might as well fess up and come clean with it. Some of you have probably already guessed it and the rest of you might as well hear the news from me instead of reading it in the stinkin tabloids. Warning. Foul, foul language may be present in any and all of Greg Beck's posts. If you have a delicate sensibility DO NOT CLICK THAT LINK! You have been warned.

Another place not to joke

We already knew that joking in line at an airport was a bad idea. Now we know that the line at the county clerk's office is a bad place to joke also: A wedding was postponed after a woman said "no" as a joke when asked if she took her fiancé as her husband. Despite protests from a now blushing bride, Tina Albrecht, 27, the officiating registrar in Steyr, Austria, cancelled the wedding for 10 weeks in line with local law. Thanks to Improbable Research for the tip.

Conservative pundit: Thank God for all those crippled veterans

A Topeka call center for veterans is expanding "due to the number of veterans returning from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan … overloading resources at Veteran's Hospitals across the country." Conservative radio host Steve Forman has one thought about that news: It is always good to hear of new jobs coming to Topeka. We need all of this we can get. Personally, I'd give up 90 jobs in Topeka if there were 50,000 fewer soldiers killed or wounded in Iraq. But that's just me.

What next?

Pober asks Where Will They Go Now?: Phill Kline and Jim Ryun are unemployed (sometime soon). Where will they go now? What do people like this do once they get booted from office? My theory: Phill Kline moves to the second district and lays the groundwork to run against Nancy Boyda in 2008. Jim Ryun will stay on the corporate gravy train, probably taking a lobbying position and continuing to work out of Ed Buckham and Jack Abramoff's old digs. We'll see.

Moore accepts Ahner's concession

Dennis Moore took a brief victory lap before heading to Topeka for the state Democratic Party's celebration. Ahner has conceded. Nancy Boyda retains a 6 point lead with half of the precincts reporting. Ryun may have to take a lobbying job soon now. Board of Ed races are still too close to call, except for Cauble. Update: Am now in Topeka. Boyda announced victory, but some votes were misreported from one county, which narrowed her lead. This one will go down to the wire.

Jurassic Fight Club Full Episodes

Say what you like about the new History Channel series Jurassic Fight Club, but I have to give the network credit for putting up the full episodes for free viewing. Sure, you have to wait a few weeks, but at least you don't have to worry about missing it. From what I heard this week's installment featuring Deinonychus was par for the course (which isn't a good thing), but at least now those of us without cable can watch at our leisure and be paleontological pedants.

I guess I must be consistent, at least

So I played this Battleground God game, which is supposed to ferret out philosophical contradictions in your views about religion. I didn't implode into a mass of inconsistent pudding at the end, which is good, right? Where are my fabulous prizes? Apparently, you can also get a perfect score by playing from the theistic perspective, since the goal is just to avoid self-contradiction. I'd try, but I can't. All I did was give the answers that weren't stupid. It's not as if I were thinking to play.

Yeah, I'm "the guy with all those cats."

As for the the little furballs around here, Little Foot has gone back to the adoption center. Beatrice is now with us, although she seems to be suffering from spring allergies. We'll probably have some kittens in the rotation soon, though, as the summer-long wave of kittens starts not too long after the weather warms up. Chase and Charlotte went to the vet last Friday, but despite Chase evacuating his bowels in his crate along the way everything was fine.

Buried treasure uncovered in Oregon

Well, if you consider shipwrecks, buried forests, and some previously covered geologic formations to be treasure, that is. Due to the action of some powerful storms around the northern tip of the Oregon coast, parts of the shore underwent massive erosion, revealing the previously entombed oddities. Indeed, you never know what large storms might turn up along the shore; mastodon teeth have been found along one New Jersey beach as storms sometimes cast remains from a near-shore deposit onto the sand.

Photo of the Day #99: Leo the Snow Leopard

This is Leo, a snow leopard (Panthera uncia) at the Bronx zoo that was taken in by the zoo recently. Leo was orphaned at a very young age, too young to fend for himself in the wild, and with cooperation from officials in Pakistan was transferred to the Bronx zoo for care. The zoo has so much success with snow leopards that a new snow leopard habitat is being constructed at the Central Park zoo, set to open in the spring of 2009.

Happy Earth Day

I'm still digging out of the post-Expelled craziness. Our video about Chris Comer has gotten more views than the Expelled trailer on Youtube or the rapping Dawkins video, and traffic keeps streaming in to ExpelledExposed.com. If you haven't done so already, there's still time to locate a stupid statement by Ben Stein (from anywhere, not the movie) and refute it as part of NCSE's "Set Ben Straight" contest. Fabulous prizes! Now get out there and enjoy this amazing planet of ours.

Nice gift!

Thanks to Pamela Turner for sending me a box of TCHO chocolates — they're fabulous. My one concern is that I'm about to leave town for a day, and this box of temptations is sitting out on the dining room table where the Trophy Wife™ and the Trophy Daughter™ and even one of the Trophy Sons™ (who is visiting us for a few weeks) can find it. I'm going to come home from Syracuse on Friday to find them all gone, aren't I?

Great Beards: Ned Kelly!

We have achieved victory in the great beard debate, reaching the goal of £1500, and also the votes for beards have a dominating lead over no beard. The Trophy Wife™ is relieved. We aren't quite finished, though — the poll will remain open for another week, and those sneaky bare-faced people might still pull together a bunch of votes and snatch victory from our grasp. Just in case, I'm mobilizing the Australian hordes with this awesome beard on the face of Ned Kelly. Ferocious!

One other thing ...

This hiatus for Eruptions lead me to do one thing I said I would never do ... but strange times call for strange measures. Eruptions has opened up a Twitter account (and I feel a little dirty about it), so if you want to follow the sporadic posts that might show up there, you can follow the blog - eruptionsblog. Now, I can't guarantee a lot of tweets, but for now, if something comes up, you can look there ... and we'll see where it goes from there.

SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Activity Report for 4/8-14/2009

Here's the latest Global Volcanism Program activity report for worldwide volcanism. Some of the highlights (beyond Fernandina and Llaima) include: Vulcanian-style eruptions at Sakurajima, Japan. And guess what? There is a Sukarajima webcam! {Hat tip to Eruptions reader Jodie Morris for this link}. Strombolian-style explosions and avalanches associated with lava flows at Arenal, Costa Rica. A 10,000 foot / 3,000 meter ash plume from Dukono in Indonesia. Satellite imagery exposed a thermal anomaly in the dome at Shiveluch on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

New evacuations near Huila

Nevado del Huila continues to cause problems in Colombia. Over 4,000 people had to be evacuated today from the Belalcazar area after the volcano showed new signs of eruption. No description is given to exactly what those signs were/are, however after the lahars in November (2008), it sounds like the Colombian government is not taking chances. Huila has been rumbling for almost two years now after almost 450 years on silence (that we know of) at the volcano.

Okmok back to Orange Alert

After raising the alert level at Okmok Caldera in Alaska to Red over the weekend, AVO has reduced it to Orange. Reports have the volcano producing ash columns of less than 20,000 feet versus the 35,000+ foot columns earlier in the weekend. At the same time, Cleveland Volcano is continuing to issue ash from the vent and signs are still there for a lava flow. Both of these volcanoes look like they should continuing erupting into the near future.

Economists wrestle with philosophy of science

Mike the Mad Biologist weighs in on a debate Brad Delong has been curating, about the status of economics as a science. Noting that examples from biology are being introduced as comparisons for economics, Mike writes: It really does matter: if economists are going to use biology as a model for their discipline, we need them to understand ours, to help improve theirs. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Upon which, he administers a firm but gentle smackdown to Russ Roberts. Read it, enjoy it.

Reason 5,293,508,690 why you shouldn't let your friends vote Republican

Kevin Drum meditates on the conservative movement hating on vegetables: A first lady campaigning against obesity and in favor of breast feeding is now the target of all-out war from the right. I imagine that if she were taking on illiteracy, teenage drug use, or planting flowers, the Republican Party would suddenly find itself opposed to reading, defending Mexican drug cartels, and in favor of vacant lots. And yet we're supposed to take these people seriously. No. We're not, and we shouldn't.

Wikio

New rankings of Wikio Top Blogs for Science are up.... 1 Wired Science - Wired Blog 11 Next Generation Science 2 Watts Up With That? 12 RealClimate 3 Climate Progress 13 FuturePundit 4 Environmental Capital 14 A Blog Around The Clock 5 Dispatches from the Culture Wars 15 Greg Laden's Blog 6 TierneyLab - New York Times blog 16 Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted 7 Gristmill 17 Gene Expression 8 Respectful Insolence 18 Cognitive Daily 9 Effect Measure 19 Uncertain Principles 10 The Frontal Cortex 20 BPS Research Digest         Ranking by Wikio.        

Another week of GW News, November 1, 2009

Sipping from the internet firehose... This weekly posting is brought to you courtesy of H. E. Taylor. Happy reading, I hope you enjoy this week's Global Warming news roundup skip to bottom Another week of Climate Disruption News November 1, 2009 Chuckle, Copenhagen, Brussels, Barcelona, Borenstein, Cosmic Rays, WFC, SuperFree Bottom Line, Carbon Tariffs, 4 Degrees, IDoCA Melting Arctic, Polar Bears, Geopolitics, Antarctica Food Crisis, Food Production Hurricanes, GHGs, Temperatures, Aerosols, Paleoclimate ENSO, Glaciers, Sea Levels, Ocean Currents, Satellites Impacts…

Scientific medicine is "truly nonsense"? Orac says no!

Orac note: Congratulations on California and everyone who reads this blog who helped pass SB 277 to protect California's children. Here's hoping Governor Jerry Brown signs the bill! I had a big talk to give this morning that required a massive rewrite of my slide set last night; so there wasn't time for the usual Insolence. Some of you might have seen a different version of this post elsewhere. Some of you might not. Either way, I hope you can enjoy! Two weeks ago, I attended the Center For Inquiry Reason for Change Conference, where I participated in a panel on—what else?—alternative…

Going, Going, GONE! Free Books, CDs, DVDs -- If You Act Within 24 Hours

I am leaving on Thursday (19 November), and still have a mountain of books to give away. I could give them to NYPL or I could give them to you (if you pay postage). I prefer to give them to you, but you have to act quickly because I have tons of things I need to take care of before I leave. I'll give you 24 hours to (1) claim the book in comments below (so everyone knows the book is claimed), and then (2) you MUST send me your mailing address via email. If you don't do both things, I will take all the unclaimed books to NYPL to add to their fund-raising book auction. I am really stressed out…

Books: "Evolution's Rainbow" by Joan Roughgarden

I wrote this book review back on February 18, 2006. Under the fold... I see that Joan Roughgarden has a new paper in Science this week: Reproductive Social Behavior: Cooperative Games to Replace Sexual Selection Theories about sexual selection can be traced back to Darwin in 1871. He proposed that males fertilize as many females as possible with inexpensive sperm, whereas females, with a limited supply of large eggs, select the genetically highest quality males to endow their offspring with superior capabilities. Since its proposal, problems with this narrative have continued to accumulate,…

Do flu vaccines really work in the elderly?

A new article in the British scientific journal, The Lancet, suggests that seasonal influenza vaccines may not be effective in preventing community acquired pneumonia in people 65 years old and older. This is the group specially targeted by CDC for vaccination each year and, not coincidentally, an age group that includes me. So I have both a scientific and personal interest in the subject. This isn't new news. We've previously discussed the evidence that shows seasonal vaccines are less effective in the elderly a number of times (see here and here) over the last few years, but the proposition…

More on sleep in adolescents

This is the third part of the series on the topic, from April 01, 2006... This being the National Sleep Awareness Week and in the heels of the recent study on sleep of adolescents, it is not surprising that this issue is all over the media, including blogs, these days. I have covered this issue a couple of times last week, e.g., here, here and here. Recently, Lance Mannion wrote an interesting post on the topic, which reminded me also of an older post by Ezra Klein in which the commenters voiced all the usual arguments heard in this debate. There are a couple of more details that I have not…

Books: "The Good Father: On Men, Masculinity, and Life in the Family" by Mark O'Connel

It is great when you write a blog post about somebody, then that somebody shows up in the comments and clarifies his position thus starting an interesting conversation (both in the comments and via e-mail), then you realize that his book-signing tour is bringing that somebody to your town, so you go there and meet that somebody in person and have a great conversation, which inspires you to write yet another blog post - the one under the fold.... It's too late and I am too tired to write a long post on this, but I know I won't have time tomorrow. All dirty, scrungly and unshaven after a day…

If only people read the Bible the way they read their contracts...

So, why do Creationists and other quacks try so hard to sound all 'scienc-y'? (June 15, 2005) --------------------------------- Check this guy out - Jim Pinkoski - in the posts AND in the comments here, here and here. OK, he's a creationist, but he is not even trying to be consistently within ONE version of creationism. He freely switches between YEC and OEC and IDC and when asked ONLY for internal logical consistency, not even evidence, he starts using all caps and bold and calls everyone stupid and liars and exhibits all symptoms of a persecution complex. What gives? He appears…

“The incident could have been prevented” – Community frustrations on display at Chemical Safety Board meeting on 2010 Tesoro Anacortes refinery explosion

The city of Anacortes – population about 16,000 – sits on shores of Fidalgo Island, the eastern-most island in the San Juan archipelago, the string of islands clustered off the northwest coast of Washington State. Located at the western end of Skagit County, known regionally for its agriculture, Anacortes’ petrochemical plants – Tesoro and Shell refineries and a chemical plant recently acquired by the Canadian company ChemTrade -- together make up the city’s largest single-industry employer. On a rainy January evening, smoke plumes from these plants that sit near the water’s edge merge with…

Taming the Zoning Monster

For the last several years I've been working on the invention of "Urban and Suburban Right-to-Farm Laws" and have had some notable successes including a legal conference on the idea and a few municipalities that have implemented them. This is one of the reasons I think this is so incredibly important - zoning presumptions simply can't be allowed to prevent people from using less and meeting their own needs. Over the last 50 years, food and zoning laws have worked to minimize subsistence activities in populated areas. Not only have we lost the culture of subsistence, but we've instituted…

The Weird Season

On January 1, it was 48 degrees on my farm. My sons were at the playground, dressed in sweatshirts and jeans, rather than winter coats and mittens. Their ice skates had yet to be used this year. Their sleds haven't even come out of the garage. Walking out in the warm weather among the goats, I noticed my cowslips and primroses are up and there are buds on the pussy willows. On the farm, we measure the severity of the winter by the final full barn cleaning before spring - the last one before heavy snow and ice make it impossible to get a wheelbarrow in and out of the barn. In a cold…

What's next for OSHA's crane rule?

Friday (6/19) was the final day for participants from OSHA's public hearing on its proposed cranes and derricks rule to submit comments to the agency; by my count, seven organizations responded.  The Edison Electric Institute  offered the lengthiest document (94 pages), and it was peppered with provocative language, such as "...these and many other vexing questions arise from OSHAâs convulated proposed regulatory scheme." the rule "...would de-stabilize settled principles [and] would be highly ill-advised....could stimulate more litigation...and [create] an avalanche of state and…

Free: The Dismal Deal

Chris Anderson's provocative new book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, argues that in the digital world, "free" pricing is a realistic and normatively good approach to pricing information products. Unlike the physical world of "free" products, which is plagued with fraud and tricks, the properties of the digital world make free actually possible when bits are sold. The physical world is limited, but the digital world is abundant. Businesses can leverage this abundance, and give it away while making money by charging for whatever is still scarce. For instance, software can be given…

Psychiatry

What to say about psychiatry that isn't already completely covered by television and movies? It's unique among the specialties for its coverage in the media. Maybe because we're such social animals, or maybe because such shows about psychiatry or therapy appeal to a voyeuristic impulse in us to peer into people's most private thoughts and feelings. Our exposure to psychiatry in medical school, however, is primarily with inpatient psychiatry - people who for whatever reason require hospitalization to deal with their mental illnesses. Reasons may range from soul-crushing anxiety attacks, to…

Walter Rothschild and the rise and fall of Sclater's cassowary

I have a great liking for cassowaries, and I've had good reason to write about them several times. I've also had fun playing with preserved specimens and skeletons - something I must elaborate on at some time. Back in 2006 - the days of Tet Zoo ver 1 - I blogged some of my cassowary-related musings, and in the interests of both recycling and of getting credit for stuff I've already gotten credit for before, I repost them here. Partly due to laziness, I never did include the article you're about to read - some say one of my all-time greatest articles ever - in the book Tetrapod Zoology Book…

The anteater that wasn't

As some of you might know, all of my 'free' time last month was eaten up by a major project (a book chapter) that had a very tight deadline. This meant no time whatsoever for such stuff as blog-writing, hence the (mostly) recycled babirusa stuff. That project is now (mostly!) complete, but I'm still struggling for time due to other projects and jobs. Meanwhile, I thought I'd recycle this... The illustration was previously used here, back on ver 1 in 2006, and again here in a ver 2 article on ameghinornithids. Eurotamandua joresi, shown at top as a skeleton and in the middle as a life…

Terrifying sex organs of male turtles

Popular culture would have it that turtles are weak, flaccid, crappy organisms with dull social lives, stunted and barely functional internal organs and - it goes without saying - undersized sex organs. Right? WRONG... Warning: the following blog post may be considered unsuitable for viewing by minors. Believe it or don't, turtles are horrifically well-endowed, and if the thought of learning more about the genitals of these oh-so-surprising reptiles doesn't appeal to you, look away now. Last warning. Ok, here we go. To begin with, I have to confess that I actually know very little about the…