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Since we're on the subject of music - let's just say that Neil Finn is awesome (yet another album recommendation).

7 Worlds Collide (Neil Finn and Friends, 2001) It's like this - you have the former front man for a moderately successful 80's pop band who is apparently so good at writing melodies, he commands enough respect to form a momentary band with the likes of Eddie Vedder (Mr. Vox), Johnny Marr (Mr. Guitar), and other eclectics from artists like Radiohead, Soul Coughing, and John Mellencamp. Even scarier is that this live CD isn't even close to the beauty he concocts with his studio stuff. (Link to CD | DVD)

An inside view of the Journal of Cosmology

I've been saying for a long time that that 'journal' that published the meteorite microbes story was a joke: now someone who has also published in the JoC gives us a look at the review process there. It's not very rigorous, as you might expect. She also gives a good mineralogical explanation of the structures they were seeing (see also Ian Musgrave's summary). This paper's dead, Jim. But don't be surprised if you see it cited in other papers from the fringe astrobiology crowd in the future.

The Queen of Clean Energy

Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth, has just bought the world's largest wind turbine. This from the Daily Mail. The 100-metre high turbine will supply 7.5 megawatts of power to the national grid when it is installed off the North East coast of England. It is hoped the Queen's involvement will speed up the development of specialist deep water turbines and encourage energy firms to invest in renewable energy. Jolly good. If it's good enough for Her Majesty, it's good enough for us all!

Appeasement

No sooner had I read this today: There is by now an entire book to be written about the way that "Munich," "appeasement," and "Churchill" have been ritually invoked, from Suez to Vietnam to Iraq, so often in false analogy, and so often with calamitous results. than I saw this: U.S. President George W. Bush stirred up the campaign to replace him on Thursday, suggesting Democratic front-runner Barack Obama’s pledge to meet Iran’s leader was akin to U.S. appeasement of Nazi Germany before World War Two. Imagine that.

This Angle is Obtuse

Sharron Angle has said some pretty obtuse things before, but for the most part, I've resisted the temptation to comment.  But href="http://bigthink.com/ideas/20647">this one is a gem: The 16-page flier, available href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/sharron-angles-independent-american-party-anti-gay-flier.php">at TPMM, accuses gay people (aka "sodomites", "perverts") of everything from child molestation, to serial murder, to debasing rodeos, to contaminating the water supply by exuding HIV. Blood libel, or urine libel, as the case may be. I don't care about the water…

Mister Adaptation

Do you know who George Williams is? If you don't, let me introduce you to one of the most influential evolutionary biologists ever to ponder natural selection. If you do know who he is, you may still be interested in my article in this week's Science about a symposium that was recently held in Williams's honor. Scientists studying everything from pregnancy to economic decision making explained how Williams's remarkably clear thinking about the nature of adaptation helped them in their research. A pdf of the article is also available.

New McCain Ad Portrays Obama as the Anti-Christ

Obamaone1by dollarsandsense123 You knew this was coming. For most Americans, this latest advertisement from McCain attacking Obama will be seen as deep irony, morphing Obama's political celebrity into a matter of audacious vanity and narcissism. But for many Evangelicals, there is probably a second meaning to this ad. Indeed, the signal is not just one of vanity, but one playing on the theme of Obama as anti-Christ. Not only is he not one of us, but his coming should invoke Biblical fear. See for yourself above.

Pat Robertson = Fred Phelps now

Pat Robertson is just losing it. His mind was always rather decrepit, but it looks like the rest of him is catching up now. He's also repeating his familiar claim that no society can 'embrace' homosexuality and survive, and now he's saying that god is going to destroy America for allowing gay marriage. The lesson I take from his senile ramble: we're OK as long as we don't do any angel-raping. Consensual gay sex: god is cool with that. Raping angels: god will nuke you.

Feathered Dinosaurs and the Origin of Flight

Yesterday I took John Wilkins to the Feathered Dinosaurs and the Origin of Flight exhibit at the Arizona Natural History Museum. It was a wonderful opportunity to see 30+ fossils from China along with assorted models and recreations, particularly of Deinonychus (above, particularly cool), Therizinosaurus, Microraptor, Cryptovolans, Confuciusornis, Caudipteryx, and Shenzhouraptor. Some of the exhibit can be seen here [pdf] in a brochure by the Utah Dinosaur Museum. While John and I were a little puzzled at some of the statements on the accompanying descriptions, the exhibit overall comes…

Meet William Torres.

Meet William Torres and his slippers. William was arrested while driving in Allentown (Pa) on two counts of homicide and was known to be dealing coke and heroin from his home. More interestingly, William was pulled over while wearing "a hooded sweartshirt [sic] with a skull-head pattern on it, pajama bottoms and fuzzy lion-faced slippers". Prison is going to be rough on this guy, me thinks. Either that or he's getting a head start on the insanity defense. (HT to Fark for making my evening).

Today in Science (1026)

Events 1977 - The last natural case of smallpox was discovered in Merca district, Somalia. The WHO and the CDC consider this date the anniversary of the eradication of smallpox. 1984 - "Baby Fae" receives a heart transplant from a baboon. 1994 - Announcement that Andrew Wiles correctly proved Fermat’s last theorem. Births 1874 - Martin Lowry, British chemist Deaths 1817 - Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, Austrian scientist 1943 - Marc Aurel Stein, Hungarian-born archaeologist 1957 - Gerty Cori, Nobel Prize laureate 1989 - Charles J. Pedersen, American chemist and Nobel Prize laureate

Once more passing the hat around.

Dave over at Cognitive Daily has posted a comparison of traffic (upper graph) with DonorsChoose donations (lower graph) so far in the drive. This blog is the third bar in from the left. Certainly we’re not doing too bad relative to others, however I fail to see how we can let Chad over at Uncertainty Principles (2nd bar on the left), who gets slightly less traffic, so greatly lead us in donations (approximately 4x!). I mean ... people, he’s a physicist! You know what to do ...

Psst! Your agenda is showing.

From here: I'm confident that in the not-to-distant future the information-revolution will sound the death knell for Darwinism. The hard evidence of technology will shake the pillars of evolutionary theory and toss them into the dustbin of history. When America restores true Bible science and accountability to our Creator God into our political and educational institutions, we'll have taken a giant step toward healthier national character and the prevention of crime, life without purpose and the consequences of our condom culture.

Friday Poem

On a Wedding AnniversaryDylan Thomas The sky is torn acrossThis ragged anniversary of twoWho moved for three years in tuneDown the long walks of their vows. Now their love lies a lossAnd Love and his patients roar on a chain;From every tune or craterCarrying cloud, Death strikes their house. Too late in the wrong rainThey come together whom their love parted:The windows pour into their heartAnd the doors burn in their brain. --- Thomas was born today in 1914. 

Friday Poem

Talking In Bed Talking in bed ought to be easiest,Lying together there goes back so far,An emblem of two people being honest.Yet more and more time passes silently.Outside, the wind's incomplete unrestBuilds and disperses clouds in the sky,And dark towns heap up on the horizon.None of this cares for us. Nothing shows whyAt this unique distance from isolationIt becomes still more difficult to findWords at once true and kind,Or not untrue and not unkind. Philip Larkin

Indiana Jones Sequel to Focus on Aliens, Roswell, & Area 51

Vanity Fair has the clues and the reader is left to connect the dots: Film is set in 1957 (ten years after crash at Roswell), was shot in New Mexico, and in contrast to previous Indy Films that pay tribute to 1930s serials, this one takes inspiration from 1950s B movie science fiction. The villains are the Cold War Russians and the race is to recover a "Crystal Skull," most likely an alien artifact with vast technological power. Confirmation comes May 22nd with world wide release.

Oh, why not ...

Despite being a reserved leader, I have my sheep-like qualities. One of which is, like most sheep, I am talentless when it comes to Photoshop, Gimp and the like. As my Sb sibs have all done this to some degree, I though I might give this a shot ... the Stranger Fruit banner competition. All very simple: design a 576 x 70 masthead that doesn't feature hot pink and gain my eternal gratitude, the knowledge that you prevented me looking like a complete amateur compared to my sibs, and mad props from me.

Santorum further distances himself from ID

Some quotes from Ricky Santorum: "Therefore, intelligent design is a legitimate scientific theory that should be taught in science classes." - 2002 Washington Times op-ed article "I'm not comfortable with intelligent design being taught in the science classroom." - Interview in August 2005 on National Public Radio "I do not believe it should be required teaching." "I thought the Thomas More Law Center made a huge mistake in taking this case and in pushing this case to the extent they did." - Interview yesterday with The Philadelphia Inquirer Inquirer interview is…

Is There Nothing E. coli Cannot Do? Part One of a Continuing Series...

This is the sort of thing that made me decide to write a whole book about these bugs... LS9 Inc., a company in San Carlos, Calif., is already using E. coli bacteria that have been reprogrammed with synthetic DNA to produce a fuel alternative from a diet of corn syrup and sugar cane. So efficient are the bugs' synthetic metabolisms that LS9 predicts it will be able to sell the fuel for just $1.25 a gallon. Synthetic DNA on the Brink of Yielding New Life Forms - washingtonpost.com

Game Time

The fate of the US in the Cup will be decided very soon, with 2 games I CAN'T WATCH. AAAAAAAHHH! Our only hope, as I see it, is attack, attack, attack. Pound the ball at the goal. Don't give their goalie a chance to recover. Don't give them ANY chance to move the ball to our end of the field. Remember that even if we win, an Italy/Czech tie means we have a big goal differential to make up. And from the look of it, Ghana is a tough, fast team.

Need pest control, get a spider

A new study shows that globally, spiders consume 400-800 million tons of prey each year. That's roughly more than double the amount of fish and meat that humans consume. Impressive...yet creepy at the same time. I suppose we should thank them for their pest control efforts. Sources: M Nyffeler, K Birkhofer. An estimated 400–800 million tons of prey are annually killed by the global spider community. The Science of Nature. 104: 30, 2017. doi:10.1007/s00114-017-1440-1   News Beat video from YouTube

Will bees save us from baldness?

Image from APiS UK   Propolis is a resin-like compound honeybees collect to coat their hives. New research suggests that this compound may increase hair growth as observed in studies of mice. Although the researchers did not test propolis on balding mice, they did find faster hair growth in mice that had been shaved or waxed, which is somewhat promising. Source: Miyata S, Oda Y, Matsuo C, et al. Stimulatory Effect of Brazilian Propolis on Hair Growth through Proliferation of Keratinocytes in Mice.J. Agric. Food Chem. 2014.

Holiday FAIL

My illustrious coblogger already put up a New Year's wish from both of us, but I simply had to add this one. There's a big fake-o tree made of lights on the highway by my digs. It's supposed to spell out "Joy Hope Peace Love Faith" or something to that effect. Some of the lights burnt out, leaving us with this gem: Someone. Please. Alert Failblog. Now. (Ignore the fact that it looks a bit like a dilapidated FAIU). Happy New Year everyone! I hope your holiday season was a standout!

Poison King, Golden Pen -- Mayor's bio of Mithradates wins National Book Award nomination

via press.princeton.edu I am extremely pleased to report that my friend Adrienne Mayor's riveting (if queasy-making) biography of Mitradates, "Poison King," is a finalist for the National Book Award. It's wonderful to see a skillfully executed and absorbing account of an obscure bit of history get this sort of well-deserved attention. Congratulations, Adrienne. And to the rest of you, click above and read it now -- so when she wins, you can say you've already read it. Posted via web from David Dobbs's Somatic Marker

This is why I'm taking a nap right now

I have lots of work to do, including my preliminary dissertation defense tomorrow, but I'm justifying a nap because of this: If you see a student dozing in the library or a co-worker catching 40 winks in her cubicle, don't roll your eyes. New research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that an hour's nap can dramatically boost and restore your brain power. Indeed, the findings suggest that a biphasic sleep schedule not only refreshes the mind, but can make you smarter. Now if I fail I can blame science!

Multimedia Friday - Dogs with Narcolepsy

Via The Center for Narcolepsy at Stanford School of Medicine], this video explains: Various narcoleptic episodes in dogs. Sporadic cases of narcolepsy in dogs is due to hypocretin peptide deficiency while the familial form is due to mutations in one of the two hypocretin receptor genes (hcrtr2). Various dogs are shown here in a clip narrated by Dr. Emmanuel Mignot. Or for the tabloid take, watch Skeeter the Narcoleptic Poodle from Inside Edition. "Skeeter's troubles staying awake are heartbreaking..." Visit the Sleep Foundation to learn more.

Clay Homunculi

I always loved these homunculi drawings in intro psych and neuro books. These sculptures from the London Natural History Museum are even better! click picture for much much larger image. And finally if you have no idea what the heck is going on here. Wikipedia has a good description of the homunculus. [edit by Sandra - in keeping with our new R-rating, see the NSFW image of a proposed revision involving the penis. Read more here. Oh, and I find it curious/sexist that I can't find an image representing a female homunculus...]

More Stylish Seafood: the Fishkini

It takes about 15 bodies of tilapia dried and dyed to make this bikini (the size for a supermodel). The flesh of the fish is eaten and the skin is turned into leather, adding significant value to the farmed fish and in the end, setting a fishkini consumer back about $75. The appetite is now joined by the fashion industry as another source of demand for fish. And p.s., you'll have to suffer some advertising from this clip before getting to see the blue and red fishkini.

Like seafood? Like Alaska? Like Alaskan seafood?

Then this book might sit well on your coffee table. Ocean Treasure: Commercial Fishing in Alaska is a nice overview of Alaska's fisheries. My favorite parts of the book are the drawings of different fishing gears (ever wondered how a gillnetter worked?) and the chapter on subsistence fishing, particularly the bit on spears and hooks. There are great photos of old carved halibut hooks and how they were rigged with floats to catch the big groundfish. I substitute a photo of a Haida halibut hook from UBC's Museum of Anthropology (below).

A gate to stop stroke damage

I've been remiss in not posting several articles I wrote reporting on findings presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference last week. So, last first: This story, posted today at sciam.com, is about a nice piece of research done by the University of Milan's Maria Abbracchio, who found that blocking the receptor that opened a particular cellular gate (a fairly simple task, actually) could prevent almost all damage from strokes in lab rats. Check it out at: Scientific American: Controlling Cellular Gates Curbs Damage after Strokes

The Twitterverse has spoken.

Who would have thought I'd return home from my Tuesday night exercise class to see this: That's right. I now have 2000 twitter followers - a full four days ahead of the deadline, too! That means the Twitterverse has spoken, and it has commanded a science remake of Friday. I must now consult with my Chief Artistic Consultant, Scicurious. Since this will be a full YouTube production remake, it will take me a little time. But I vow that before I turn 26 - that is, July 1st of this year - you shall have your Sci-Friday.

Today's required reading

If you're going to read anything today, you should read Amy Harmon's article on teaching evolution in Florida. I haven't taught high school, but I've had similar experiences teaching evolution in an introductory level college course. Evolution shouldn't be this hard a subject to teach, but it is. It could be worse, of course. Keeping it from getting worse is the reason we spend so much time trying to deal with the narrow-minded bigots who fight so hard to keep our children in the dark.

A Reminder to Send Me a Copy of Your Donors Choose Receipt

I just want to remind those of you who have donated and those of you who might be thinking of donating to Donors Choose, that if you want to receive your nifty Women in Math and Science magnet AND have a chance to win the "Don't Make Me Puke On Your Shoes" t-shirt, you need to send me a copy of your email receipt from Donors Choose. Send it to me at bobtownsuz AT yahoo DOT com. Also, include your mailing address. And thank you for donating!

Dr. Shellie NOT Snubbed by Zuska

Zuska wishes to announce to the entire blogiverse that Dr. Shellie was NOT being snubbed on the blogroll after I moved over here to Scienceblogs.com. Her temporary disappearance from my blogroll was due to my own ineptitude with HTML code and learning the ins and outs of Movable Type's publishing platform. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa, Dr. Shellie. Everyone, please go read Dr. Shellie's blog because she is totally a member of Zuska's pantheon of goddesses. Even goddesses screw up now and then.

More examples of that sophisticated theology

I know you've been wondering about the answer to these questions: Does Poop Smell in Heaven? How about before the Fall? Now you can get answers. The answers are: Nobody poops in heaven. If you're a young earth creationist, nobody may have pooped during creation week, but if they did, it didn't stink. If you are a theistic evolutionist, then poop did smell. All I can infer from that is that the more godly and fundamentalist you are, the more likely you are to be constipated.

Those dirty, filthy Catholic practices

Standing in line to swap fluids and disease by swilling from the same cup was going to get someone in trouble, eventually — and now it's happened. Catholics in New York have been exposed to hepatitis A through sharing Jesus' blood. All the practitioners have been asked to get tested and vaccinated right away. There is no word on who broke the ugly news to Jesus, but you just know that guy is like a major vector for all kinds of nastiness, so he's probably used to it by now.

Ecogeeks on Biodiversity

Ignore the incredibly lame credits song. This is a cool video, filmed in Panama by actual ecology students, foot fungus and all... Click To Play Biodiversity is all around us! In this video we introduce you to the concept of biodiversity. It is more than just the total number of species, however. It describes diversity at all levels from genetic diversity to ecosystem diversity. Yet we are losing biodiversity. We pose the question, "What can each of us do to help save what is left?"

In Forn Parts

I am spatiotemporally challenged (it goes with my inability to remember names, even those of my kids. Birthdays are often a disappointment for them). However, I am fairly sure I will be overseas for the next three weeks. Overseas being defined as where Australia is not. I will blog when I can (and take notes and write stuff for when I get back), but don't expect much from me for a bit. Hey! That's not a straightline! Don't make any rude comments, OK? I'm back on 1 August, and I will straighten out any naughty commenters.

I'm the Captain, of course

Your results:You are Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 80% Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 70% Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 65% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 60% Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 55% Derrial Book (Shepherd) 55% River (Stowaway) 50% Wash (Ship Pilot) 40% Inara Serra (Companion) 30% Alliance 20% A Reaver (Cannibal) 10% Honest and a defender of the innocent. You sometimes make mistakes in judgment but you are generally good and would protect your crew from harm. Click here to take the Serenity Firefly Personality Test

SOTU: Bush Will Not Announce Carbon Caps

As if there was any doubt....the State of the Union energy/climate policies are already up on the website of the White House. There is some potentially good stuff about renewable fuels and auto efficiency, but there are no mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions in there. There is no "cap and trade" policy. Once again--unless the White House put all of this stuff on the web as an elaborate deception--the breathless "scoops" from the British press about global warming are wrong.

A Political 'Scalp' for Science?

From CNN: Republican Sen. Jim Talent of Missouri early Wednesday conceded defeat to Democrat Claire McCaskill after a hard-fought race, telling supporters that "the headwind was just very, very strong this year." McCaskill was backed by actor and stem-cell-research advocate Michael J. Fox. I leave it to more knowledgeable political analysts to determine just how much of a role stem cells played in the race--but it was undoubtedly a prominent issue. So in some sense, reaction against the "war on science" might have cost Jim Talent dearly.

Casual Fridays: Moving dots!

Dave hasn't finished analyzing the data from last week's survey, but since this week's survey is ready to go, we thought we'd go ahead and post it now. Click here to participate. As always, you'll have until 11:59 p.m. U.S. Eastern time on Wednesday, March 1 to complete the survey, which should only take a minute of your time. But don't wait too long, because the survey will close when we receive 250 responses. Dave should have last week's results up within a few hours.

Tangled Bank is coming to Cognitive Daily

This Wednesday, we'll be hosting Tangled Bank, a nifty collection of the best science blog postings for the last two weeks. If you've got a science blog—or any kind of a blog, actually, consider yourself invited to submit! Just pick your best science-related post from the past two weeks (and we're defining science very loosely), give a couple-sentence description and a link, and e-mail it to host (at) tangledbank (dot) net or dave (at) wordmunger (dot) com, and we'll consider it for inclusion!

The Rise Of The Deniers

Just when you thought it was safe to acknowledge the unequivocal reality of global warming..... Just when you thought the U.S. government was ready to admit that it has a serious emissions problem, and do something about it.... Just when you thought the skeptic party was over... No way: There has been a strong run of nonsense from global warming "skeptics" and deniers lately. They are not ashamed, and they are not changing their tune. In fact, it sounds like they are gearing up for the next battle...

Tropical Storm Bertha Sets Record

Meet Tropical Storm Bertha: Chris may be driving across the desert, but he's always got an eye to developing storms and has asked me to post the latest while he's offline. Bertha has formed in the far eastern Atlantic and according to Jeff Masters, this is the first time we're observing a tropical depression east of 34° longitude in the first half of July. Coincidentally, sea surface temperatures in the area are 2-3°C above average... More at WunderBlog and from the National Hurricane Center.

I Don't Understand

Devastating news from my neighborhood in North Carolina... Eve Carson, the fourth female student body president of UNC-CH, 22 yr old pre-med senior double majoring in political science and biology, recipient of the university's prestigious Morehead Scholarship and member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, was shot and killed in a suburban neighborhood near campus. Our community lost a bright, engaged, and promising young woman in an act of senseless violence. I am deeply saddened by this loss and my heart goes out to her family.

Some of my greatest hits, via Rational Rant

Welcome, new readers. Thanks for sticking around after all the excitement over "Ida" last week. You can expect plenty more posts on strange mammals, odd evolutionary hypotheses, and new peer-reviewed research in the near future, but if you just can't wait, check out a list of some of my "greatest hits" posted by sbh of Rational Rant. I was definitely flattered to receive such praise, and I don't think I could have made a better list myself (although I would include my essays on "Giant Killer Lungfish From Hell").

Wow.

About a month ago I posted a photograph of one of my favorite subjects, one of the snow leopards (Panthera uncia) from the Bronx Zoo. Shortly after I put it up Judy, who blogs at crazybasenji.com, asked if I could send along a higher-res copy so that she could paint it! I was delighted by the idea, and I am happy to say that the painting is really starting to come together. Check it out; Update #1 Update #2 Update #3 Update #4 I can hardly wait to see the finished work of art!

Extreme close-up: Maiacetus

Maiacetus. I am having a lot of fun visiting the various museums and landmarks in Washington, D.C. this weekend, and while I don't have much time for blogging I wanted to share a photo from my brief stop at the National Museum of Natural History. Even though I spent most of the day talking to paleobiologists behind the scenes (watch Dinosaur Tracking for details) I did have the chance to briefly check out the new ocean gallery. Pictured above is the skull of the suspended mount of Maiacetus on display in that exhibit.

Caturday Snapshots

Here are a few snapshots of the foster kittens that have been running around the place lately: Psghetti. She was adopted the day I took this photo. Meatball. She is Psghetti's sister, and still needs a good home. Leela. She loves to "help" when I'm working at the computer. Teddy. He and his brother Stitch have grown quite a bit since I last posted a photo of them. And, as a bonus, part of a really beautiful sunset as seen from my office. To see the heavy rain in this lighting was spectacular.