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Conservatives and Christians for evolution

Nathanial Blake, editor of the conservative campus publication at Oregon State University, has a good piece addressing the issue of evolution and evangelicals over at the Town Hall website. He points out that even C.S. Lewis, that exemplar of modern Protestant Christian orthodoxy, accepted evolutionary theory. The coupling of anti-evolutionary feeling and a segment of conservative Protestant movement goes to show that culture can tack in bizarre directions not under control from on high, the fact is that evolution was generally a marginal issue in early 20th century Christian circles, and…

Reaching out & being human

Paul comments on blogging, politics and science in response to my interview at Genetics & Health. Some of what Paul says mirrors Chris of Mixing Memory's sentiments in relation to reaching out and engaging in dialogue with those who differ from you. There is a big topic, and I'm not going to weigh in deeply at this point, but, I will say that there is a balance between accepting differences and dismissing the absurd. Where people draw the line differs. Myself, Creationism is absurd. So is someone who questions the selectionist narrative of adult lactase persistence. There are…

What makes a good teacher

What makes a good teacher? That's what SEED is asking this week. Here's my top 10.... 10) Patience 9) Lack of ego (putting the focus on the student) 8) Enthusiasm 7) Social sensitivity (know the audience you are aiming at, whether it be the children of religious fundamentalists, 8 year olds or over-30 GED candidates) 6) Experience teaching 5) Broadness of personal experience 4) Top notch verbal skills 3) Training in the field which they are teaching (this is a serious issue in many high schools) 2) Creative, flexible lesson plans ...and the number #1 variable in making a "good" teacher Smart…

Domestication of humans by the cat

There's a paper to be published on domestic cat phylogenetics in Science tomorrow. National Geographic has a summary, but Forbes has a more thorough treatment. The short of it is that the maternal lineages (mtDNA) of domestic cats seem derived from the Near Eastern varieties . The acculturation of humanity toward domestic cats seems to have taken place gradually between 12,000 and 3,600 years ago, the presence of five distinct maternal lineages suggests that it wasn't one event, but several simultaneous parallel ones. Sedentary populations rooted around agriculture were the likely…

Rotten in Denmark? You decide....

This NPR story about the anti-immigrant backlash in Denmark is pretty interesting. How you feel about it, well, that would depend on your perspective. I see no alternative to Danish "tough love" myself. A brown-skinned immigrant I am you say? Well yes, true that. But, aside from the non-trivial point that my loyalty lay with the traditions of the West (and that includes some irrational ones I suppose), I am of the opinion that assimilationism needs to be kick-started and I reject strongly Western cultural flaccidity that has been spawned by multiculturalism. Yes, racism is bad, I've…

Bangladesh no longer the most corrupt country!

Bangladesh is no longer the most corrupt country in the world!!!. Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Guinea, Iraq, Myanmar and Haiti are tops. Boy, and I am proud to be an American, after all, we helped Iraq attain the status of being the 3rd most corrupt nation in the world! Seeing as how millions have died in the Congo since 1996, methinks we need another intervention, and perhaps we help Congo ascend the ranks a bit? Who knows, can't you imagine a scenario 5 years down the road when Americans troops have to stand down and call off a search for their cannibalized…

Remember, Remember, the Fourth of November

V is for voting Sadly, what I wrote two years ago is still germane. Vote Democratic, so it won't be two years from now: Time to go vote. We need sane people governing the country, and you sure as hell can't find them in the Republican party. As Andrew Sullivan put it, "This isn't an election, it's an intervention." After years of being called traitors, weaklings, and cowards because we correctly opposed Little Lord Pontchartrain's Excellent Iraqi Adventure, and after being called sluts and whores because we don't think that a to-be-discarded blastula is equal to Michael J. Fox, that…

Fox News Confuses Potential Nuclear Meltdown with Disco Inferno

I'm starting to think that Fox News' primary function isn't catapulting conservative propaganda, but Will Rogers-esque comedy: One name seems out of place on the graphic [of Japan's nuclear power plants] -- that of "Shibuyaeggman." It doesn't show up on the International Atomic Energy Agency's list of Japanese nuclear power stations, and this map of Japanese nuclear installations from the Department of Energy's International Nuclear Safety Center doesn't have any listing for "Shibuyaeggman," and doesn't show a nuclear power plant anywhere near the location on the Fox News map. So what is "…

Links 1/17/11

Links for you. Science: Antibiotics do indeed relieve kids' ear infections Farm worker infections with MRSA -- the first numbers Genetic Soldiers? Advisory Group Urges Pentagon To Map Genes Of All Personnel (interesting, although eugenics claim seems overblown) We're not ready for do it yourself genetic analysis (To me, most MDs and people with public health experience are cautious about DTC genomics; this is one reason why) Other: The lessons are clear Monetary Morality What Part Of "Nonviolence" Is Hard To Understand? Outsized Pay on Wall Street Persists The social sciences deal with…

"Grope Patrol Effective"

This is why you should read local weeklies. From the Back Bay Sun: GROPE PATROL EFFECTIVE Sgt. O'Connor of the MBTA Police gave a presentation on transit crime at local subway stops that highlighted the effectiveness of the city's current undercover operation aimed at deterring groping on the subway. "Many more people are reporting incidents because of the patrol," said O'Connor. This past week, the patrol arrested a man on the Green Line when it was noticed that he did not appear to be going anywhere, simply riding back and forth between Kenmore and Park Street. The plainclothes officers…

Priorities: Guns or Biomedical Science?

Defense spending increases faster than inflation, while discretionary spending--including biomedical science--has the pie 'grow smaller.' From the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities, here's what has happened to domestic discretionary spending as a percentage of program costs: It's also been growing slower than any other component of the budget: And, unlike any other sector, domestic spending has shrunk as a percentage of the economy: This is the context in which science policy is made. There is no science fairy that places research funds under your pillow. Research requires…

Worst. Question. Ever.

I've been reluctant to answer the latest question from the Head Office, because it sucks. Nothing personal, but it just doesn't work for me. Assuming that time and money were not obstacles, what area of scientific research, outside of your own discipline, would you most like to explore? Why? I'm sorry, but there is no interesting scientific research outside of my discipline. The evo and the devo are the way to go. If I were starting over, there are things I would do differently and skill sets I'd try to acquire that would give me a better handle on the research, but do something else? What?…

Fox News' Brian Kilmeade Goes Full Metal Godwin

Granted, picking on Fox News is like taunting the slow kid--it's cheap and makes you feel bad about yourself. On the other hand, this, reported by Alex Koppelman, just cries out for comment: Kilmeade and two colleagues were discussing a study that, based on research done in Finland and Sweden, showed people who stay married are less likely to suffer from Alzheimer's. Kilmeade questioned the results, though, saying, "We are -- we keep marrying other species and other ethnics and other ..." At this point, his co-host tried to -- in that jokey morning show way -- tell Kilmeade he needed to shut…

The Deceptive Statistics of Unemployment

Before I dive in, I really do want good news. But misinterpreting bad economic news as good news doesn't help. You might have heard that, last week, jobless claims dropped (i.e., the number of workers filing for unemployment benefits decreased). This is a good thing, right? Not so fast. Barry Ritholtz: Those of you (who can still afford the luxury of) a trusty Bloomberg will note the 'exhaustion rate' for jobless benefits - EXHTRATE - reveals that people are not leaving the pool of continuing unemployment claims because they are getting new jobs; Rather, they are leaving because they have…

Obama's BP Fallout and Why You Don't Deliberately Piss on Your Base

Having spent most of Thursday travelling from San Diego to Boston, I had the distinct displeasure of watching cable news. First point: it still sucks. But the constant theme was that Obama is on the defensive about the BP oil rig blowout. Sure, it's stupid, although I think Obama was too ready to rely on BP's expertise (eveni f you don't believe that parts of the operation could be handled by the government, then bring in other oil companies for advice). But a problem Obama faces is that, on issue after issue, he has fallen far short of what the rank-and-file wanted (and often what he ran…

Tuesday Links

Happy Tuesday. Links for you. Science: Science teaching: real and imagined problems Oil Leak from Damaged Well in Gulf of Mexico Uncertainties Greatly Reduced Wind's latest problem: it ... makes power too cheap Pellets over petroleum Scientific Society Revises Climate Change Statement: science advances Walling off the Nature Conservancy Other: What to Do About the Banks Whooping Cough Outbreak in California Kills Two Leftists to Elie Wiesel: Occupied Jerusalem can't be holy Think Again: Mainstream Media to Conservatives: 'Thank You, Sir, May I Have Another?' Unemployment for Those Who Earn…

Saturday Links

It's a slushy Saturday. That means lots of time to read links. Science: Don't Become a Scientist! They really do hate us: "small dog" haplotype from the Middle East A Look into Obesity and Gut Microbiota Splash Down: Pacific Biosciences Unveils Third-Generation Sequencing Machine Anthrax Case Closing Challenged Pacific Biosciences introduces new third-generation sequencing instrument at AGBT The Scientific Communication Messiah has arrived! Other: Mass Transit is As American as Apple Pie The copyright mafia makes me scream (again) A banker's perspective of the Greece derivatives debt dodge…

Friday Links

I believe that someone once said, "Thank God It's Friday." Links for you. Science: Oh my fucking god. (Really, it's about science) MTS43 - Rob Knight - The Microbes That Inhabit Us New organism discovered in a dirty pond Is There Sh*t in Your Salad? 39% of Bagged Salads Have Too Much Fecal Bacteria My latest scientific paper: Extended Laying Interval of Ultimate Eggs of the Eastern Bluebird Other: Budgets, War and Blind Ambition: The Limited Minds of the American Elite Why bipartisanship can't work: the expert view More from the "why bipartisanship can't work" guy Causation Analysis: What "…

Unemployment and the Callousness of Congress: The Bernanke Edition

A very quick, nearly Twitter-esque point. Reading this post by Mike Stark about the Bernanke confirmation, it is remarkable (and disturbing) how few senators seem to realize where Bernanke stands on unemployment. What's worse is how far off the radar screen the Fed is for so many of the senators interviewed. If I were a senator, making sure as many of my constituents were employed would be my top priority (not only is it good policy, but it's good politics). The Fed plays a large role in that. The divorce between what affects the political prospects of senators and the lives of their…

How Anti-Abortionists Are Screwing Healthcare Reform

Congressman Bart Stupak has helped tank the Medicare +5% reimbursement plan and single payer (italics mine): The problem with an amendment strategy [for Medicare +5% and single-payer] is that the House leadership will likely not allow many, if any, amendments to be offered on the House floor. The reason is because of Bart Stupak, who is trying to defeat the entire bill by rounding up 40 House Democrats to demand that none of the insurance plans receiving subsidies in the exchange are allowed to cover abortions. If such an amendment passes--and the leadership believes that it would if offered…

This Is the Post-Racial America We've Been Waiting For

Not exactly. Remember back when some idiot posted a video in an open contest comparing Bush to Hitler that was held by MoveOn.org? Never mind that the video was removed within thirty minutes, rightwing political operatives and their lapdogs in the traditional media haven't stopped talking about it. I wonder if this picture posted on the Republican National Committee's Facebook site--which has also been removed only after six days--will also be discussed endlessly for weeks (Warning: This is a really offensive picture, which is why it's below the fold. May not be work safe): (from here;…

Louie the Tricycle Guy

One of things about living in Boston is that it's small enough that you start to recognize people. To many of those who don't live in the city, I'm sure the down-and-out, the homeless, and the somewhat deranged appear as a wave of anonymous humanity. But, like I said, you start to recognize people. I'm sure most Bostonians recognize Louie the Tricycle Guy: he might be one of the most recognized people in Boston (more than many Red Sox players). This winter I mentioned him to a couple of friends because I hadn't seen (or heard) Louie for several months--maybe something had happened to…

Time Science Editor Interviews Witch Doctor

Actually, he didn't. He interviewed anti-vaccinationist Jenny McCarthy. Which is worse. Here's one small dose of stupidity: Most people who blame autism on vaccines point to the mercury in the shots, yet mercury has been removed from most vaccines and autism rates continue to climb. We don't believe it's only the mercury. Aluminum and other toxins also play a role. The viruses in the vaccines themselves can be causing it, too. That part in italics is demonstrably false. No virus has ever been shown to cause autism (horrible effects, including brain damage and hearing loss, yes). And it's…

Obama and Self-Inflicted Negotiation: More of the Same?

Democrats won the election handily. Why are we rolling ourselves? I thought Obama would be smarter than the usual Democrat and not negotiate against his own position on behalf of the Republicans. Apparently, I was wrong, since that seems to be the impetus behind making 40% of the 'stimulus' tax cuts: Obama strategists say he wants to get 80 or more votes in the 100-member Senate, and the emphasis on tax cuts is a way to defuse conservative criticism and enlist Republican support. Why 80? He needs 60 votes to get cloture in the Senate. As Krugman noted, this is nothing more than a sign of…

Links 12/24/10

It's my birthday. I'm....eleventy gajillion years old. Sigh. Well, links anyway. Science: The someecard for all post-docs ... Mexican Archaeologists Say Tonina Ballgame Court may Be the One Described in Popol Vuh The Truth About Holiday Weight Gain Other: America's self-loving Jews aren't helping Israel: A Jew who truly loves himself does everything possible in order to save Israel from itself. Getting Ready For 2012: A Couple of DCCC Turkeys (I knew Shuler and Mahoney were slime, but I didn't know they were actual Republicans) Understanding and Forecasting the Credit Cycle--Why the…

Don't pay for Crazy Uncle Ratzi's pointless tour

Look: the Pope is a crank figure, the head of a weird religious cult who promotes weird ideas, such as that condoms promote the spread of AIDS or more lately, opposes legislation to promote equality. He's a nasty old bigot from an insignificant municipality who gets far more attention than he deserves. Now he's going to be visiting the UK. That's fine; anyone, even irrelevant old coots, ought to be able to vacation where they please. However, this is being treated as a state visit and the British government is plunking down £20 million for the dubious privilege of having a weird geezer in a…

"A Reminder That Every Life Matters": A Rare Moment of News Media Decency

Sometimes, as decrepit as our traditional media corporations are, they suffer from an outbreak of human decency. Kudos to the St. Petersburg Times for this obituary about a hit-and-run victim. Here's why they ran it: Shortly after the St. Petersburg Times announced Mr. Smith's death on its website, a reader posted a comment stating the following: A man who is working as a dishwasher at the Crab Shack at the age of 48 is surely better off dead. Web editors removed the comment, deeming it an offensive and insensitive insult to a dead man's friends and family. Though hardly unusual -- check…

Science Online '09 Presentation

tags: annual science communication conference, ScienceOnline'09, SciO09, Sigma Xi, Research Triangle Park, science blogging conference, nature blog writing Okay everyone, you may be aware of the fact that I will be co-hosting a session about writing about nature on a blog at the upcoming ScienceOnline '09 conference in North Carolina. As you can tell from the official schedule, I and my colleague, Kevin Zelnio, will be hosting our session first thing on Sunday morning, 18 January 2008. Of course, my goal is to make this a useful and productive time for all of you, whether you attend in real…

Small inspirations

A couple sent their child to Vacation Bible School (not recommended, not even for the most open-minded atheists — VBS is always an awful waste of time). I like this kid's reaction. One couple who said they were atheists decided to give their son a chance to attend one year. On the first day of VBS, when the teacher was explaining the concept of creation, the boy stood and up announced to the other kids, "That's just a fairy tale." Unfortunately, the teacher then shut him up by saying god did it, but it's a start. A groundskeeper at a golf course recognized that a strange 10 pound lump of…

In Search of Madagascar's Chameleons

tags: reptiles, chameleon species, herpetology, Chris Raxworthy, research, American Museum of Natural History, AMNH, New York City, field research, nature, travel, Madagascar, speciation, streaming video With Madagascar containing nearly two-third's of the world's chameleon species, Christopher Raxworthy, Associate Curator of Herpetology at the American Museum of Natural History, recently embarked on an expedition to the island in search of these special lizards. His hope was to track down the lined-chameleon in order to further study speciation on Madagascar. Having recently returned from…

Mystery Bird: Usambiro Barbet, Trachyphonus usambiro

tags: Maasai Barbet, Masai Barbet, Usambiro Barbet, Trachyphonus usambiro, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Usambiro Barbet, also known as the Maasai (Masai) Barbet, Trachyphonus usambiro, photographed outside the visitor's center for the Serengeti National Park headquarters, Tanzania, Africa. They have a wonderful visitor center with a short trail through a Kopje, interpretive signage, and a small pool for birds and mammals to drink at. This bird was hanging out at the pool, drinking and looking for handouts. It was so tame that it would eat from your hand, and one of our…

Tom Shannon: The Painter and the Pendulum

tags: art, sculpture, paintings, science, nature, Tom Shannon, TEDTalks, streaming video John Hockenberry visits artist Tom Shannon in his Manhattan studio for an intimate look at his science-inspired art. An eye-opening, personal conversation reveals how nature's forces -- and the onset of Parkinson's tremors -- interact in his life and craft. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe…

Mormon Control Over Public and Social Policies

tags: Mormonism, religion, cults, mind control, social phenomenon, moron, offbeat, beliefs, Proposition 8, education, streaming video As a group, mormons are some of the passive-aggressive people I know. They are nice to everyone, but they are vicious and intolerant behind your back. This film trailer is one example of the double-face I've seen and experienced while growing up among mormons. This is a trailer from the documentary film, 8: The Mormon Proposition. This film investigates how the mormon cult was behind the banning of gay marriage in California. In short, mormons dumped millions…

TEDTalks: VS Ramachandran Talks About The Neurons that Shaped Civilization

tags: neurobiology, The Neurons that Shaped Civilization, mirror neurons, Ghandi neurons, social behavior, Lamarkian evolution, Darwinian evolution, VS Ramachandran, TEDTalks, streaming video Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as we know it. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of…

TEDTalks: Loretta Napoleoni Talks about the Intricate Economics of Terrorism

tags: politics, terrorism, economics, social psychology, Red Brigades, Italy, TEDTalks, TED Talks, Loretta Napoleoni, streaming video Loretta Napoleoni details her rare opportunity to talk to the secretive Italian Red Brigades -- an experience that sparked a lifelong interest in terrorism. She gives a behind-the-scenes look at its complex economics, revealing a surprising connection between money laundering and the US Patriot Act. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their…

Twitter Me, My Tweeties!

Okay, I hate "microblogging" since I view it as a form of electronic trivial pursuit, which is anathema to any real learning or knowledge, unlike .. erm, blog writing. Okay, you can all stop laughing out there (yes, I can hear you!) since I set up my very own twitter account, which means you all can communicate with each other and with me using your iPhone, or you can text me (and each other, of course!) using your mobile phone or whatever else you drag around with you from one wifi source to another. (Personally, I use my laptop, a gorgeous new MacBookPro, but it is rather large and heavy…

Mystery Bird: Sora, Porzana carolina

tags: Sora, Porzana carolina, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Sora, Porzana carolina, photographed in San Bernard Refuge, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 2 March 2009 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/640s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400 Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes: A pudgy-bodied, short-tailed, short-billed bird creeping cautiously through the marsh is a crake. Only one species,…

Hamster on a Piano Eating Popcorn

tags: hamster popcorn piano, cute overload, funny, dwarf hamster, streaming video This streaming video is a recreation of the original dwarf-hamster-on-a-piano-eating-popcorn video, which I embedded into my blog waaaay back in the day, but which the filmographer inexplicably removed from YouTube. This video remake is indicative of what pain and pain medications can do to a person -- I've spent something close to an hour watching hamster videos on YouTube .. hamsters riding private elevators, hamster derbies, hamsters driving cars, dancing hamsters, hamsters opening doors to lego houses,…

Breaking News: ScienceBlogs and National Geographic Team Up!

tags: ScienceBlogs, National Geographic, news I have friends at National Geographic, so I was most pleased to read early this morning (last night, USA time), that ScienceBlogs and National Geographic have teamed up to provide outstanding science and nature content to the public! I am sure it has not been a mystery to any of you that ScienceBlogs and National Geographic share the same ultimate mission: to cultivate widespread interest in science and the natural world. Starting today, SB-NG will work together to advance this common mission by providing new content, applications, and…

Still talking

Jebus, they can't shut me up. Just got back from the afternoon discussion, which went on for two hours. It was great fun. Of course… My opening remarks were about being assertive atheists who challenge conventions and do things like desecrating crackers… …and a priest, complete with clerical collar, was right there in a good seat smack in the middle of the auditorium. He looked a bit peevish, but didn't say very much. A few of the other Catholics around him expressed how offended they were, which was fine. They could have taken more time to state their case, if they wanted. Good times. You…

How I Broke My Blog

It is rare when I manage to break my own blog. Like most people, I have managed to break my blog by doing truly stupid things like deleting the main template, for example, but I've never managed to break it by adding a plugin to Firefox, so this is the reason I mention it here: so no one else will do the same thing I did and then find themselves dead in the water for a couple days as a result. The Sage-Too plugin -- an RSS blog and newsreader -- was the culprit. The strange thing is that adding this plugin not only destroyed my ability to publish blog entries using Firefox, but it also…

Thankfulness

I have many things to be thankful for. One is that I'm not the brain-damaged idiot who wrote this appalling editorial in the Newnan Times-Herald. Thanksgiving must be a terrible time for atheists. They have no God to thank. They do not have the privilege of gathering with family and friends to express gratitude by saying: "Praise God from whom all blessings flow." An atheist on his deathbed faces serious uncertainties. Gazing upward, he pleads: "Oh God, if there is a God, please save my soul -- if I have one." I'm also thankful that atheists are not sitting down and taking this nonsense…

Climate change cover-up [Terra Sigillata]

No surprise here: a highly-regarded climatologist declares that the Bush administration is "muzzling government scientists" and covering up the facts about global warming. Warren Washington, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, said that Bush appointees are suppressing information about climate change, restricting journalists' access to federal scientists and rewriting agency news releases to stress global warming uncertainties. "The news media is not getting the full story, especially from government scientists," Washington told about 160 people…

The First Post

Welcome to your new blog. You can post to and manage your weblog by selecting an option from the menu located to the left of this message. If you need assistance, email your local ScienceBlogs representative, who can assist you. Important Blog authors have been given the ability to edit their own templates -- this does not mean that you may edit any and all of the templates available. The template modules you can (and should) edit are: About page content Contact page info Blogroll (a list of links of your choosing) Free Module (a free space for other content such as book promos, linkshares,…

Flow, Beauty and Mystery (and two new haikus)

Today’s new articles involve flow: the flow of positrons through the Universe and the flow of particles around the tiny cilia of corals. They involve beauty and mystery, as well. The particle flow, imaged in brilliant colors, won first place in the photography category of the 2013 Science/National Science Foundation International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge. And positrons – the anti-matter opposites of electrons – have been found in large numbers flowing in near-Earth space. Weizmann Institute research points to an answer to one riddle: Why did a satellite monitoring…

Around the Web: A victory for Fair Use, Defining critical thinking and more

Fair use: a pseudo-post What Exactly Is Critical Thinking? The NPR Model for Higher Ed Why It's Time for a Canadian Digitization Strategy Based on Fair Dealing Is Open Access Destroying Academic Publishers? Survey reveals hidden high stress levels and long-hours culture at universities The Time Has Come to Expand the Scope of Conflict for eBooks Will econ blogging hurt your career? HTML5 vs. Apps: Why The Debate Matters, And Who Will Win How, exactly, did UVa expect the public to react? (about secrecy involved in UVa presidential shenanigans from last summer) Casualty of the Math Wars (prof…

Around the Web: Everyone should program, Programming is hard, Both and more

Everyone should program, or Programming is Hard? Both! Oh No: LinkedIn Just Went Klout On Us Can eTextbooks help save the planet? Preventing the Second Big Deal (not getting locked into big etextbook deals) Generation Y Leads in Book Buying, Says Industry’s Most Comprehensive Report Apress unveils open access book publishing program for the tech community Libraries reinvent themselves as labs of creativity More Technology, Please (students want more edtech) Lessons From Swiss Watch-Makers (traditional nonprofit higher ed needs to focus on high end value, niche branding) The teaching-only…

Around the Web: Decline of the library empire, Libraries' impact on student learning and more

The Decline and Fall of the Library Empire Do Librarians Work Hard Enough? Academia, Libraries, Work, and the Public Good Library-only 2.0 is dead. Long live Library 2.0! What Will Library/Information/Knowledge Graduates Be Doing 25 Years Hence? The Last Enclosures (Washington Post article response) Answering questions about library impact on student learning Libraries as software - dematerialising, platforms and returning to first principles An Elite University ... From Scratch? A New "Elite University" Gets $25 Million in Seed Funding Dear CEOs and senior managers, it's no longer ok…

Around the Web: The great age of librarians, Nobody cares about the library and more

Breaking the barriers of time and space: the dawning of the great age of librarians. The Great Age of Librarians Achieving the "Golden Age of Librarians" -- An Ambitious Project of Deep Redefinition Nobody cares about the library: How digital technology makes the library invisible (and visible) to scholars Snooki, Whale Sperm, and Google: The Unfortunate Extinction Of Librarians When They Are Needed Most Potential Crisis May Be Brewing in Preservation of E-Journals Privacy?? Forgetaboutit!! Notes from the AE's desk (about being an editor at a journal) Computers in classrooms don't…

Zuckerberg and Schmidt warn on over-regulation of web

From the BBC: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Google boss Eric Schmidt have warned governments worldwide not to over-regulate the internet. Mr Zuckerberg said governments cannot cherry pick which aspects of the web to control and which not to. *snip* "People tell me on the one hand 'It's great you played such a big role in the Arab spring [uprisings], but it's also kind of scary because you enable all this sharing and collect information on people'," said Facebook's founder. "But it's hard to have one without the other. You can't isolate some things you like about the internet and…