Search Content

Displaying results 55251 - 55300 of 87947

I will not be a foregone conclusion.

Note: This post was originally published on 1 July 2007 at my old site. I am reposting it here and nominating it for inclusion in the Open Laboratory anthology. There is still time to submit your favorite posts from this blog, your own, or other blogs you read. Here's how. Sometimes I get depressed when I read the blogs of other women scientists - particularly when the topic of children vs. an academic career is the topic du jour. The short version is that many of us seem to think we have two choices: (1) Have a career and no children, or children we never see; or (2) Give up our plans for t-…

DC Guild of Natural Science Illustrators Event

David Clarke, president of the DC chapter of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators (a great group that I considered joining once, long ago and several careers away), just passed along an invitation to an event next week. The artists who created the work in the Smithsonian's NMNH Hall of Human Origins will be talking about their process, the science behind it, the equipment they use and the working of their studios. While this is the DC GNSI meeting, they are graciously opening it to the public, so if you are in the DC area, consider attending. More info about the event below the fold.…

Deafness, Liquid Crystals, and Flaccid Stereocilia

Yeah, I know what you must be thinking: What a weird and ridiculous title. However, trust me, it actually does make sense. In yesterday's basic concepts post on Hearing, I explained that sound is transduced in the inner ear by hair cells in the cochlea. Specifically, that the deflection of hair cells' "hairs" (the stereocillia) cause ions to enter the cell and subsequently stimulate nerves which project to auditory processing centers. All this depends on the stereocillia being properly formed and rigid----but what happens if the stereocillia are too floppy? A recent discovery by a team at…

The Early Years

Note: this post involves a very small amount of self-disclosure.  That is a bit unusual. My father is also a psychiatrist.  He told me once about his education in psychopharmacology.  A guy got up to lecture, identified himself as the "drug doctor," and gave a lecture on psychopharmacology.  In fact, he gave a series of lectures...about five, total.   That was in the early to mid 1950's.  What did we have back then?  Basically two things: uppers and downers.   By the mid 1980's things had changed.  We knew about neurotransmitters and receptors.  I distinctly recall a lecture in which the…

The Canadian Election, my 2 cents.

You may not have noticed, but yesterday, the US's largest trading partner had an election. Watching the returns with my wife, I was struck yet again how different Canada is from US. Just like Americans, Canadians get upset at the government, but unlike Americans, Canadians want the government to work and are ready to punish their leaders if they feel like they are getting screwed. About three elections ago, the Liberals were punished for a financial scandal (incredibly small for US standards, but too big for the patience of most Canadians). What was the result? In 2004 Canadians couldn't…

The cognitive neuroscience of magic

In The Conjurer, by Hieronymus Bosch (above), a medieval European magician performs in front of a small crowd. As the spectators marvel at the conjurer's tricks, their attention is diverted away from the pickpockets who steal their belongings. The painting illustrates well that magicians throughout the ages have had an understanding of attention and awareness, and that their art is in large part based on their ability to subtlely manipulate these processes in their audience. Recently, there has been a great deal of interest in what magic can teach us about the brain. A year ago, scientists…

First-hand accounts of extreme body distortion syndromes

In an article from last Saturday's Guardian, Rick Hemsley describes his experience of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, the neurological condition in which the perception of one's body is distorted: Floors either curved or dipped, and when I tried walking on them, it felt as though I was staggering on sponges. When I lay in bed and looked at my hands, my fingers stretched off half a mile into the distance. ...my symptoms just got worse. Everything was now distorted, all the time. Walking down the road, parked cars appeared the size of Corgi models, while I'd feel disproportionately tall. At…

Tid Bits

Chris Phoenix asked me to comment on his entry: Studying Molecular Biology. As someone who is constantly playing around with cells I'll add this advice to how biological systems differ from watches and the Antikythera Mechanism, biological systems are composed of adaptable platforms such as the cytoskeleton and the network of cell signalling molecules. When you think about cells, don't think cars ... think computer operating systems (yes insert pitch for systems biology here ...). What we are doing in the lab is figuring out what makes cells malleable. And to a certain extent the answer is…

Another Shocking Statistic

OK this is officially quantitation week on The Daily Transcript. Today's number is provided by Gilbert Burnham's group at The John Hopkins: 655,000 deaths due to the Iraqi war. From the Globe and Mail: Mr. Bush has previously put the number of Iraqi deaths at 30,000. He reaffirmed that number yesterday. "I stand by the figure," he said. "Six hundred thousand or whatever they guessed at . . . it's not credible." Even some less self-interested and partisan bodies are skeptical of the numbers, partly because they are many times higher than other apparently independent estimates. For example,…

God of the Sea (and Horses)

The buccinid gastropod Neptunea amianta (Dall, 1890) is a deep-water species found off the North American west coast. Typically boreal, the range extends as far south as Punta San José, Baja California with depths usually between 300 and 1500m. In approximately 15 years of video sampling by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute with remote operated vehicles in Monterey Canyon, N. amianta has been documented from 100-3500m, yet dense aggregations, uncommon in deep-sea snails, seem to occur only between 200-2000m. This range extends the species into the oxygen minimum zone, where…

Of Alvin, Space Shuttles, and the Human Need to Explore

I am currently reading Descent, the story of the Bathysphere, Beebe, and Barton. Conversing with Christina Kellogg during a recent trip and the book forced my thoughts to the technological, and often psychological feats, already accomplished and those that will continue to challenge us in order to explore the deep seafloor. Because of safety, finances, logistics, and a variety of other practical reasons many institutes have justifiably turned to ROV's (remote operated vehicles) instead of manned exploration. Perhaps this makes sense as much as turning the space programmed to unmanned…

The Light Brown Controversy Moth

No one quite knows when the Light Brown Apple Moth arrived on the shores of California, but after DNA identification in 2007, it wasted no time pitting the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the populace of San Francisco against one another. Today the CDFA announced a new strategy for the eradication campaign: releasing bioengineered sterile moths to lure-in amorous males. Ever tried to neuter a moth? Not easy... Indigenous to Australia, the non-descript moth breeds prolifically with an average of three broods generations per year. However, much like Paul Hogan before it, the…

Friday Sprog Blogging: explaining eggs.

Elder offspring: Do you know why eggs are egg-shaped? Younger offspring: Because they're eggs? Dr. Free-Ride: Indeed, it would probably be surprising if eggs, of all things, weren't egg-shaped. Elder offspring: (sighing) What I meant was, do you know why eggs have the particular oval shape that they do, narrower at the top and wider at the bottom? Younger offspring: Hmm. I think it has to do with the shape of the chicks. Chicks are wider at the bottom than at the top, and they need to fit in eggs to be laid by the chickens, so that's why eggs need to be that shape. Dr. Free-Ride: That's a…

From the annals of academic dishonesty: a bad way to fish for extra points.

As the new calendar year approaches, I can't help but anticipate the coming spring semester -- and to hold out the hope that this one will be the semester in which none of my students commits plagiarism. Otherwise, I'm facing a perfect 12-semester streak. Near the end of last semester, one of my colleagues related a tale of dishonesty so brazen that it struck us as one for the books. (Or the blogs, anyway.) The crowning offense was that it was committed in the course of an extra credit assignment. A number of professors offer their students the opportunity to earn extra credit points by…

Friday Sprog Blogging: thoughts while hiking.

Last Friday, instead of composing a sprog blog, the sprogs and I were offline and in nature (specifically, Yosemite, pictured above). This is not to say we weren't talking about matters scientific, but we didn't have an internet connection with which to check any assertions or hunches. Some highlights: Elder offspring: I read somewhere that sloths only climb down from their trees to go to the bathroom -- Younger offspring: But they don't actually use bathrooms to go to the bathroom. Elder offspring: I bet it takes them a really long time to actually climb down to the forest floor. Younger…

Quick notes on the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

As Bora noted, this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Roger D. Kornberg for a piece of research (the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription) that strikes lots of folks as being within the bounds of biology rather than chemistry. I can't do an elaborate discourse on this (as I have sprog-related errands I must do this afternoon), but I want to get some initial responses to this on the table: There is no Nobel Prize in Biology, although there is one in Medicine or Physiology. Do the biologists think Kornberg's research would be a better fit for the Medicine or Physiology…

My Immoral Research Proposal

I got a very thoughtful email from a former colleague of mine (he's still a neuroscientist), who wondered why I would invest in scientific research for drug addicts over those with mental illness. After all, schizophrenics didn't commit a crime; they just inherited a flawed cortex. Why not first invest in cures for patients who 1) have an illness through no fault of their own and 2) can't already be cured by a combination of willpower, therapy and methadone. This is an excellent point, and my priorities were certainly morally skewed. But I still won't change my answer. The reason I find…

My thoughts on an event probably not aimed at me.

From my friend Vance, on Facebook, a link that announces an option for your Hallowe'en entertainment: Halloween Book Burning⨠Burning Perversions of God's Word â¨October 31, 2009 7:00 PM - Till Great Preaching and Singing Come to our Halloween book burning. We are burning Satan's bibles like the NIV, RSV, NKJV, TLB, NASB, NEV, NRSV, ASV, NWT, Good News for Modern Man, The Evidence Bible, The Message Bible, The Green Bible, ect. These are perversions of God's Word the King James Bible. We will also be burning Satan's music such as country , rap , rock , pop, heavy metal, western, soft and…

How many papers can (or should) I grade in a sitting?

Oh joy, it's time to grade more papers! At the moment, in fact, I have two batches of papers (approximately 400 words each, approximately 100 papers per batch) to grade, since I hadn't finished marking the earlier ones before the next ones came due. And of course, owing to the piles of smoking rubble that constitute our budget at the state universities right now, there are no funds at present for graders. I've blogged before about my strategies for grading fairly and consistently without taking a million years to finish the job. I'm still more or less using these strategies. But today, I'm…

H1N1 flu on campus.

In my university mailbox yesterday I received a memo detailing measures to help prevent the spread of flu (whether seasonal or novel H1N1). The memo had the usual good advice: recognize flu symptoms, stay home if you have them so as not to spread it to everyone else, cover your coughs and sneezes, wash your hands, don't touch your eyes, nose, and mouth. It also had some information that may not seem so obvious. For example, you ought to stay home at least 24 hours after you no longer have a fever (of 100 oF/38 oC), and that using a medication that reduces fever masks whether you still have…

When an image makes an argument.

Ethan Siegel at Starts with a Bang shares some thoughts about productive argumentation and a graphic to illustrate various approaches: I find myself fascinated with the graphic itself. In particular, I'm pondering what rhetorical work the pyramid does here. If the point is that the lower strata on the pyramid are less effective ways to engage with someone else's arguments, then I'd think that you could use a ladder here just as easily as a pyramid. Maybe you can. Maybe the person who made the graphic just likes pyramids, or doesn't care for ladders. But, if the pyramid is meant to…

Americans for Medical Progress names three Hayre Fellows in Public Outreach.

Today Americans for Medical Progress has announced three recipients for academic year 2009-2010 of the Michael D. Hayre Fellowship in Public Outreach, designed to inspire and motivate the next generation of research advocates. From the AMP press release: The importance of animal research to medical progress will be highlighted in projects by three graduate students selected as Michael D. Hayre Fellows in Public Outreach, Americans for Medical Progress announced today. Gillian Branden-Weiss and Breanna Caltagarone, students the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, and…

Friday Sprog Blogging: spectroscope.

At day camp yesterday, the sprogs (and their fellow campers) had a visitor: Elder Free-Ride offspring; She was an astrophysicist. You know what that is, right? She talked to us about studying light that comes from space, and all the different kinds of light there are traveling across space. There's infrared, and ultraviolet, and even X-rays. And, of course, there's white light that we can see with our eyes. While there are many different kinds of lights, there are only some colors of light that our eyes can detect. A bunch of those are actually mixed together in white light. You can…

Garden update: fruit tree status.

One of the fabulous things about living in our Northern California climate (zone 16) it the ability to transform our yard into a mini orchard. The biggest challenge so far has been patience, given that it takes fruit trees at least a few years to hit a level of maturity at which they produce fruit. Even if we want fruit right now! Currently, we have a lime tree, a pomegranate tree, and an avocado that are only making "practice fruit". You can tell they're trying, but they're just not yet at the point where they can produce anything full-sized or edible. We also have a fig tree which last…

Friday Sprog Blogging: One less fish.

One less fish by Kim Michelle Toft and Allan Sheather Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge Publishing 1998 Within the past week, each of the two Free-Ride offspring picked up this book, read it all the way through, and said to me, "You should write about this for the Friday Sprog Blog." Instead of replying, "No, you should write about it," I said, "OK, I'll try." Not just because I'm the mature one here, but because this is a really good book. On the surface, this is one of those picture books with rhyming text counting down from twelve to zero: Twelve gracious angelfish thinking they're in…

The Refusers prove Orac's corollary of Poe's law once again

Remember The Refusers? They're the antivaccine band with the recycled classic rock sound lacking a shred of originality or chops that flooded the blogosphere with their crazy in the form of Clash wanna be songs like Vaccine Gestapo, which inspired Surly Amy to make me a Vaccine Gestapo pendant to wear at TAM a couple of years ago. (I still wear it to various skeptical events from time to time.) Particularly amusing and pathetic was the antivaccine sing-along The Refusers ran a couple of years ago at the demonstration at Age of Autism in Chicago, complete with Andrew Wakefield gamely playing…

Out with the old year, in with the new...with Insolence

As 2015 draws to a close today, all I can think is: Another year in the can. Since my family is here, and it's a holiday, I'm going to keep this one brief and wish everyone a Happy New Year. In addition, I can't help but wonder what's going to happen in 2016. Who could have predicted that last year would begin with a measles outbreak centered at Disneyland that would end up inspiring a law in California that I never would have thought possible, namely SB 277, which eliminates nonmedical exemptions to school vaccine mandates. Who could have predicted that the antivaccine movement, in…

I am a child of the library

I really am. When I was a kid, we had few books at home, and the library was two blocks away. Before kindergarten, so when I was less than five or six, I had worked out a route by which I would take my wagon to the library, crossing our urban streets away from the dangerous corners, to the library, pick up a pile of books and return the last pile. Then I would read them and bring them back. After a summer of doing this they ran out of books in the children's section, which was not very large (this was the small branch library on Delaware by the Post Office, for those of you who know mid…

Happy Birthday Linux!

I remember one day when Richard Stallman, a nobody, was featured on a local news story. Since I was living in Cambridge, some local news stories were about work being done by Harvard or MIT researchers, and in this case, Stallman was an MIT Hacker who had just started to talk about this strange idea: Writing computer programs for free. Here's the thing: At the time, I was looking at the idea of working as a computer programmer to make money in order to fund a career of studying evolution and teaching and stuff. Then this Stallman guy gets on the TV and says, essentially, that writing…

Dangerous Teenage Texting

Moms and Dads: Are your children idiots? There is a distinct possibility. Better check your paperwork from school, see if there's any warning notes in there. Here's the thing. For some reason, over the last week, I've been the unwitting recipient of mis-dialed text messages from giddy tweens. In each case there was a series of indecipherable messages that I ignored for a while. Eventually, in each case, I finally sent back a text saying "U have the wrong number." In each case the child did not understand the meaning of that phrase and proceeded to explain how they have the correct…

Albert Einstein: March 14, 1879 - April 18, 1955

When I was a fairly precocious young man I became thoroughly impressed with the futility of the hopes and strivings that chase most men restlessly through life. Moreover, I soon discovered the cruelty of that chase, which in those years was much more carefully covered up by hypocrisy and glittering words than is the case today. By the mere existence of his stomach everyone was condemned to participate in that chase. The stomach might well be satisfied by such participation, but not man insofar as he is a thinking and feeling being. As the first way out there was religion, which is implanted…

This is not funny

Mike, Mike, Mike... What did I ever do to deserve this? Specifically, your remarks about our creationist neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Egnor: In his "response," "Egnor" manages to completely distort pretty much everything about my article, in a way that is so ham-fistedly inept that it is simply impossible for me to continue to believe that the "Michael Egnor" articles are being written by a real person who really believes what he (or she) writes...It's been fun while it lasted, but the game's over now. Would whoever is really writing this stuff please take this opportunity to own up to it? Please…

Eugenie Scott Tackles Modified Origin Book

NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott was invited to debate Ray Comfort, a creationist in the news recently for his plans to distribute copies of the Origin of Species with his own introduction, on the God & Country blog of U.S. News & World Report. Comfort began the debate on October 29, 2009; Scott replied on October 30, 2009; Comfort responded on November 2, 2009; and Scott replied on November 3, 2009. The debate, according to Dan Gilgoff, who maintains the blog, elicited "more feedback than any other issue on this blog has received over any similar stretch in its not-quite-…

Albert Einstein: March 14, 1879 - April 18, 1955

When I was a fairly precocious young man I became thoroughly impressed with the futility of the hopes and strivings that chase most men restlessly through life. Moreover, I soon discovered the cruelty of that chase, which in those years was much more carefully covered up by hypocrisy and glittering words than is the case today. By the mere existence of his stomach everyone was condemned to participate in that chase. The stomach might well be satisfied by such participation, but not man insofar as he is a thinking and feeling being. As the first way out there was religion, which is implanted…

Expelled Fizzles

From FOX: After seeing a new non-fiction film starring Comedy Central's Ben Stein, you may not only be able to win his money, but also his career. Stein is that whiny little guy with the monotone voice that makes him seem funny and an unlikely "character" for TV appearances. But that career may be over come April 18, when a movie he co-wrote, narrates and appears in, called "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed," is released. Directed by one Nathan Frankowski, "Expelled" is a sloppy, all-over-the-place, poorly made (and not just a little boring) "expose" of the scientific community. It's not…

Oprah and Jenny need your--yes, your!--help!

A reader informs me of a plaintive, heartfelt request from Oprah for help in developing the television show of her new protege Jenny McCarthy: You've seen it all over the news...Jenny McCarthy, one of America's funniest and coolest moms and Harpo is giving her, her own show. Here is where YOU come in. What would you like to see featured on Jenny's show? What would you like for her to talk about? What are you and your friends buzzing about? Any topics you'd like for her to tackle? Are there any questions that you have -- that you would love for her to answer? If so -- we definitely want to…

This must not come to pass: Quacks winning the Shorty Award for health

Although I have a Twitter account, I really don't use it all that often, other than having set up an automatic feed to Tweet all my new posts for the blog. True, I do from time to time have flurries of activity (usually when I'm trapped in a particularly boring conference) or am inspired to tweak J.B. Handley or other anti-vaccine kooks when they start Tweeting nonsense, but for the most part I remain a blogging kind of a guy. One could argue whether it's my tendency towards logorrhea on the blog rendering me incapable of hewing to the 140 character limit for Twitter, but whatever the reason…

The ScienceBlogs collective teams up with National Geographic

My benevolent overlords at Seed Media Group yesterday announced (to me at least) a surprise new initiative. But, then, I'm always one of the last to find out about these things. In any case, it would appear that we're teaming up with National Geographic to share blog content and various other initiatives. The press release describes what's going on: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DIGITAL MEDIA AND SCIENCEBLOGS.COM FORM STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP WASHINGTON / NEW YORK (Dec. 3, 2009)--National Geographic Digital Media (NGDM) and ScienceBlogs.com today announced that they have formed a strategic partnership…

Why does Miranda Devine hate Science?

In her latest rant, Miranda Devine warns about the imminent threat of a take over by scientists: It used to be men in purple robes who controlled us. Soon it will be men in white lab coats. The geeks shall inherit the earth. I suppose you are wondering how they are going to take over. Could it be giant robots? Or tiny tiny robots? Or genetically engineered cephalopods? Nope. Devine reckons they're going to use Kyoto to take over the world: Environmentalism is the powerful new secular religion and politically correct scientists are its high priests, rescuing the planet from the…

Darwin Day approaches

It's almost Darwin Day! I just learned that Cornell is going all out: 5 days of events celebrating Darwin's birthday, on February 9-13. That's darned good. The University of Minnesota Twin Cities is doing something slightly smaller in scale on Friday, 10 February, in an afternoon event sponsored by the Campus Atheists and Secular Humanists. I don't have all the details yet, other than the rather important fact (to me, at least) that I'm one of the speakers. I'm planning to talk on "What Darwin Didn't Know," giving a brief overview of some examples of the kind of evidence uncovered in the last…

HIPAA law and celebrity

One of the most important responsibilities of health care workers and hospitals is to protect the privacy of the patients for whom they care. Unfortunately, in the case of George Clooney's recent hospitalization for injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash, a consequence of electronic medical records was revealed when dozens of employees, some of whom apparently leaked the information to the press, accessed Clooney's medical records. Of course, these employees didn't seem to realize that EMRs allow the tracking and identification of anyone who logs on to the system. Anyone who logs on leaves…

The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

No IgNobels here, the 2007 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Mario R. Capecchi, Martin J. Evans, and Oliver Smithies for a technique that is so incredibly important to modern biomedical research that it's a wonder they didn't get the prize before: This year's Nobel Laureates have made a series of ground-breaking discoveries concerning embryonic stem cells and DNA recombination in mammals. Their discoveries led to the creation of an immensely powerful technology referred to as gene targeting in mice. It is now being applied to virtually all areas of biomedicine - from…

Some antivaccination stupidity about autism on Daily Kos

I don't know how I missed this one, but it jut goes to show that antivaccination ignorance with respect to autism is truly a bipartisan affair. You have folks like Representative Dan Burton on the right, and on the left you have this particular Daily Kos diarist, who falls like a ton of bricks for the recent Generation Rescue "study" of autism rates in vaccinated versus unvaccinated children: The first ever study comparing vaccinated to unvaccinated children was completed with startling results. Vaccines Caused Autism Vaccines Caused Asthma Vaccines Caused ADHD The study was privated funded…

Where does Georgetown get the money?

Last week, upon arriving back at my office after a day in clinic, I noticed an odd box sitting in my "in" box. I didn't recall having ordered anything recently, and my first thought was that an order for the laboratory had somehow been delivered to my office instead of my lab by mistake. It's uncommon, but it occasionally happens. Curiosity piqued, I picked up the box. It was small, only a few inches high, and lighter than I had expected. I couldn't hear any swishing that might indicated a powdered reagent in a bottle in the box. Moreover, upon closer inspection, I noticed that the box had no…

James Glassman is incorrigible

In 2004 Chris Mooney wrote on Op-Ed Seductions: Two of the most striking recent incidents involve the same author: James Glassman of Tech Central Station and the American Enterprise Institute. Some essential background on Glassman's operation comes from this article by Nicholas Confessore in The Washington Monthly, which depicts Tech Central Station as a strange hybrid: It quacks like a pro-free market journalistic Web site, but it runs articles that closely favor the interests of the site's corporate sponsors. In fact, Tech Central Station is published by a lobbying shop, the DCI Group.…

Pat Michaels in the news

Notorious fraud Pat Michaels is in the news some more. First, Coby Beck reports that California as part of discovery in lawsuit involving automobile companies and global warming wants: All DOCUMENTS relating to both GLOBAL WARMING and to any of the following individuals: S. Fred Singer, James Glassman, David Legates, Richard Lindzen, Patrick J. Michaels, Thomas Gale Moore, Robert C. Balling, Jr., Sherwood B. Idso, Craig D. Idso, Keith E. Idso, Sallie Baliunas, Paul Reiter, Chris Homer [sic], Ross McKitrick, Julian Morris, Frederick Seitz, Willie Soon, and Steven Milloy, including but not…

More on Inhofe's alleged list of 650 scientists

Greenfyre has a nice roundup of corrections to Inhofe's list of 650 604 scientists that he claims dispute the consensus on global warming. Eli Rabett notes some resume inflation in the list, while Bob has a blog doing an entry on each name on the list Reporters seem to have wised up to Inhofe's game and the list has been mostly ignored in the media. Here in Australia, that means that all the AGW denialist columnists will write about it, and sure enough, here's Miranda Devine in today's paper They include Japanese scientist Dr Kiminori Itoh, who was an expert reviewer for last year's United…

Julie Bishop misrepresents Joanne Simpson

In a recent speech Julia Gillard asked: I ask who I'd rather have on my side: Alan Jones, Piers Akerman and Andrew Bolt. Or the CSIRO, the Australian Academy of Science, the Bureau of Meteorology, NASA, the US National Atmospheric Administration, and every reputable climate scientist in the world. Julie Bishop, deputy leader of the Opposition, comes back with the name of Joanne Simpson: And comments from legendary atmospheric scientist the late Dr Joanne Simpson, the first woman in the world to receive a PhD in meteorology and formerly of NASA, who authored more than 190 studies and…

The Australian's War on Science 43

After embracing Monckton's theory that Copenhagen was going to introduce a COMMUNIST WORLD GOVERMENT, Jane Albrechtsen seems to backing away from Monckton's conspiracy theories: Unfortunately, while Monckton has mastered the best arts of persuasion, he also succumbs to the worst of them when he engages in his made-for-the-stage histrionics. In Copenhagen, when a group of young activists interrupted a meeting, he berated them as Nazis and Hitler Youth. Elsewhere he has called on people to rise up and fight off a "bureaucratic communistic world government monster". This extremist language…

The 35th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle: An imposter breaks in

It's been an interesting week for this week's host of the Skeptics' Circle, Skeptico. He had a creationist appropriate his name, create a Blogspot blog, and actually post comments on other people's blogs under the name "Skeptico." Not good. Fortunately, no one was fooled, and it was the False Skeptico's posting creationist tripe on other blogs that brought him to the attention of Skeptico himself, then to me, and then to PZ. Fortunately, for the 35th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle, Skeptico has decided to have a little fun with his doppleganger, and the result is yet another fine edition of…