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Happy Birthday, Darwin!

In middle school, my friends and I secretly referred to athletic jocks as "creationists." The joke was, of course, that they -- with their neanderthal postures, fixation on brute strength and obsession with the less decorous emissions of the human body -- were "less evolved." Of course, this is before teaching evolution in schools was made illegal (or whatever). It is in this spirit of snickering precociousness that I offer my birthday greeting to Charles Darwin, who would have been 200 years old today. Thanks, old chap! Many accolades are due; in your honor, and at the behest of SEED…

A look inside a water beetle

Just in case you were ever wondering what a beetle looks like on the inside, here is a computed microtomography video of a Dryops water beetle. Other researchers are using this tool to examine the anatomy of various extant and extinct organisms. In fact, there is an online digital library of specimens that you can explore at The University of Texas at Austin (sponsored by the National Science Foundation). Here are a few of my favorites: Panaque cf. nigrolineatus, Royal Pleco Catfish Dr. Nathan Lujan - Texas A&M University Juvenile Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum) (false-color 3D…

It's up to you now...

So I have this bad habit of ending up in twitter conversations with Scicurious. Last time, I ended up looking at the taste of dolphin semen. This time I have somehow agreed to a challenge: if I get to 2000 twitter followers by the end of April, I'll do a remake of Rebecca Black's Friday. For those who don't know what I'm referring to, let me show you: Yeah. I'll have to do a science-related remake of that. Video and everything. I'll leave it to the masses to decide if such a thing should be made, or if it would be too blasphemous to the good name of science. Past remakes of mine have…

Casual Fridays: Color differences

We've been doing a lot of social psychology on Casual Fridays lately, what with gift preferences and email sign-offs. So this week we thought we'd get back to basic perception research. We'll see if we can uncover fundamental perceptual differences with a simple online test. I can't tell you much more about the study with spoiling the results, but this one should be quick and fun, so why not give it a try? Click here to participate in the study. As usual, the study is brief, with just 11 quick questions, so it should only take a minute of your time. You have until 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on…

Eureka!

My contribution to the Sb-wide Zombie Day will soon be posted, but if you need something to sink your teeth into before then, check out today's new issue of the Times of London science magazine Eureka (included inside the Times, for UK readers). Inside you will find two stories by me - one on paleobiology in the 21st century and the other on our changing view of tyrannosaurs - and you can access them online behind a free registration wall. It was a wonderful opportunity to write for Eureka, and I am indebted to editors Mark Henderson and Antonia Senior for their support and the freedom to…

The Science of Communication: What We Know We Didn't Know But Convinced Ourselves Otherwise

At the risk of getting more comments about framing...In January I spoke at the 2008 American Meteorological Society meeting's 7th Communication Workshop, and the audio and powerpoints are now online. Many or most of the panelists--and especially myself and Arthur Lupia of the University of Michigan--are making "framing science"-type arguments, but of course, there is no real controversy over them because we're applying them mainly to global warming, not evolution. Anyways, you'll need the WebExPlayer, but I encourage you to check out the session. The panelists were myself and Arthur Lupia,…

Do you know what today is?

It's Ardipithecus day! No, not that one, but the other one, Ardipithecus ramidus, which paleoanthropologists have been studying for the past 15 years. Over 45% of the skeleton of this hominin was found in the early 1990's, but outside of a brief initial description no further details about Ardipithecus ramidus had been published until today. Later this afternoon Science will launch a webpage containing multiple print articles and online features chock-full of details about this early hominin. (Word has it that an entire University of California Press volume will be devoted to Ardipithecus…

Taking the "Expelled Challenge"

Earlier this year, intelligent design advocates were trumpeting the forthcoming "fall of Darwinism" with the release of the propaganda film Expelled. The film stirred up some controversy, had a modest (at best) showing, and generally preached to the choir, but it didn't seem to have as momentous a reception as the filmmakers were hoping for. I was curious about what the entire film was like, but I wasn't about to support the people behind it by seeing it in theaters or purchasing a DVD. Last week, however, I noticed that Netflix has added Expelled to a list of movies subscribers can watch for…

PZ, Stop Picking on the U of Michigan

PZ Myers, despite being at a large Midwestern state school, has decided to pick on my current academic home, the University of Michigan. Why, you ask? Well, yes, a few students are doing something rather silly. Engineering senior Israel Vicars didn't think it was a coincidence when he walked by a drunken girl who had fallen over in a parking lot and desperately needed help. Vicars attributes his ability to safely return the girl to her residence hall to the power of united prayer. Fostering that united prayer is what the campus program 40 Days of Prayer is all about. Apparently a lot of…

Middlebury students no longer allowed to cite Wikipedia

Lazy Middlebury students have lost a valuable resource: Middlebury College history students are no longer allowed to use Wikipedia in preparing class papers. The school's history department recently adopted a policy that says it's OK to consult the popular online encyclopedia, but that it can't be cited as an authoritative source by students. The policy says, in part, "Wikipedia is not an acceptable citation, even though it may lead one to a citable source." History professor Neil Waters says Wikipedia is an ideal place to start research but an unacceptable way to end it. Here is my thing. I…

The Synapse and Other Links

The second edition of The Synapse is up over at A Block Around the Clock. I especially liked "Are You Conscious of Your Precuneous" and Ethics at the Dawn of the Neurotechnological Age." Elsewhere, John Hawks tackles Aymara, "the future is behind us" thing, with some links to some nice discussion at Language Log as well. Three Quarks Daily links to a Scientific American article about how we cognitive scientis, and other scientists, are stealing humanity. Chris Chatham has a nice post at Developing Intelligence compiling the various points and counterpoints in the discussion of brain imaging…

You Look So Pretty In That Red Dress

href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081104/ap_on_fe_st/odd_vote_in_ambulance">SAN ANTONIO – Betty Owen is 92 and after a stroke four years ago, needs a feeding tube and can't walk. But she was determined not to miss Tuesday's election. She arrived at her polling place on a gurney in an ambulance, where an election judge and support worker climbed aboard with an electronic voting machine and let her cast her ballot. "And you have voted," precinct judge Sam Green said after Owen pushed the red button finalizing her choices. "You know, You Look So Pretty In That Red Dress." Owen…

Imagine being unable to perceive music

Imagine listening to a piece of music, and perceiving a rattle of pots and pans instead of the harmony of the combined component sounds; or developing an insatiable desire to play the piano after being struck by lightning; or to be able to reproduce a complex piece of music after hearing only once, despite being blind, autistic and needing round-the-clock care. People with these conditions are among those encountered by Alan Yentob, in a documentary called Oliver Sacks: Tales of Music and the Brain, which was broadcast on BBC1 last night. As its title suggests, the programme features…

The Strange Case of the Woman with a Breast on her Foot

Stevie C sent along this article on An unusual presentation of supernumerary breast tissue (just what were you googling for, Stevie?), in which a woman reports an annoying growth on her foot, and when examined, is discovered to have a breast growing there, complete with nipple and fatty tissue (but in this case, no glandular tissue). It's in the Dermatology Online Journal, not the Onion. I hadn't heard of this before myself, but it's fascinating. These supernumerary breasts can pop up all over the place, including the face, back, and thigh (and foot, obviously). They can be functionally…

The 50th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle: Carl Sagan (Pseudo) Memorial/Demon-Haunted World (Pseudo) Homage

Yes, it's that time again, time for another Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle. Given that yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the death of Carl Sagan at the too-young age of 62, this edition of the Circle, posted at Humbug! Online, is a tribute to the man and his dedication to science and skepticism. Theo has decided to arrange it in a similar fashion to the chapters in what is arguably Sagan's greatest book: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Next up to host the first Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle of 2007 is See You At Enceladus. If you're a blogger trying to follow…

Visualizing Data

A friend wanted me to see this public service announcement, which is an excellent visual display of quantitative information and a good way to provoke guilt: When he sent me the link, he routed me through this awesome blog called Information Aesthetics that has been around since 2004 (where have I been?!). It's an excellent compilation of some stylized substance that I have just begun to explore. One of the first gems I came across was a link to the Personas exhibit currently on display at the MIT Museum. Personas uses sophisticated natural language processing and the Internet to create a…

Mapping the colours of NYC's skyline in real time

Artist Mike Bodge has unveiled a nifty project to chart the colour of the sky above New York City in real time. A camera installed in his office snaps a picture of the skyline every five minutes, and analyses the image to calculate its average colour. The varying shades of blue, grey, orange and black are posted online in a never-ending mosaic. Mike says: Many of my projects tend to be about New York City, as it's a place i'm constantly inspired by. I have a great view at my office overlooking the East Village neighborhood and I've done time lapses and other things but none really…

ScienceOnline10---preparation phase

I'm giving two sessions at ScienceOnline10. The first, which I will be co-hosting with Dr. Val Jones, is entitled Privacy, ethics, and disasters: how being online as a doctor changes everything. I've given similar talks to physicians, but given that Val and I may be nearly the entire medical team at the conference, we'll probably let the conversation branch out significantly. If you're interested in the session, please go to the conference wiki and let us know what you're thinking. Val is a great public speaker and I have a set of points I'd like to hit on, but this is supposed to me more…

8 Foot Octopus 15 Inch Box

Our friends at the New England Aquarium pointed us to these nifty shots of their giant Pacific octopus squeezing itself into a small acrylic box for some delicious crab. As part of regular enrichment activities for the octopus, aquarist Bill Murphy hides food in plastic boxes with different types of "locks" the octopus must figure out. In this case, the box being used had a hole in it created by the aquarium's previous resident octopus and, rather than open the top, the octopus just sort of poured himself in. When the aquarium really wants to frustrate their octopus, they just give it a…

Olympian Jonathon Edwards Now an Atheist

UK gold medalist in the triple jump, Jonathon Edwards, long known for his wear-it-on-your-sleeve Christianity, has admitted to apostasy. Here is an article in The Times Online. It's a good read. Here's an out take: Once you start asking yourself questions like, 'How do I really know there is a God?' you are already on the path to unbelief," Edwards says. "During my documentary on St Paul, some experts raised the possibility that his spectacular conversion on the road to Damascus might have been caused by an epileptic fit. It made me realise that I had taken things for granted that were taught…

Rachael Maddow Heard It Here First...

JustaTech commented last night: Zuska, I saw this story [about the carwash for the shooting victim] on MSNBC last night (9/1) (The Rachel Maddow Show). So at least the liberal-leaning national media has also noticed. I suppose this falls under tootin' my own horn, but one of Rachael Maddow's producer's contacted me by email in response to my original post on this story. They wanted help in getting in touch with the young woman, which I could not do, but I did provide them with the link to the story done by local news outlet WPXI - which is excerpted in the segment on the 9/1 Maddow show…

Silent but deadly

Via Peezee. , you're now logged in! Below you'll find your test result. After, continue on to your homescreen to discover what we're about. continue to OkCupid homescreen > Rogue Ninja You scored 7 Honor, 2 Justice, 6 Adventure, and 8 Individuality! You are as quiet as the wind, deadly as a viper and you follow no master. You are a Rogue Ninja. Let no one say you are without honor, lest they meet a quiet and questionable end. Dress as you like and keep your knives close. You'll do just fine…

From the Archives: Everything is miscellaneous: The power of the new digital disorder by David Weinberger

I have a whole pile of science-y book reviews on two of my older blogs, here and here. Both of those blogs have now been largely superseded by or merged into this one. So I'm going to be slowly moving the relevant reviews over here. I'll mostly be doing the posts one or two per weekend and I'll occasionally be merging two or more shorter reviews into one post here. This one, of Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder, is from August 14, 2007. (Weinberger left a detailed comment at the original post, for those that are interested.) ======= David Weinberger's…

Thar's gold in them thar "cures"!

As I mentioned on Friday, I'm in Chicago right now attending the American College of Surgeons annual meeting, where I'll be until Wednesday afternoon. If there are any of my readers who happen to be surgeons attending the meeting, drop me a line and maybe we can get together. In the meantime, here's a blast from the past from the past. This post first reared its ugly head almost exactly three years ago; so if you haven't been reading at least three years, it's new to you. Unfortunately, I see nothing that has changed since I originally wrote this. If anything, I underestimated the problem.…

Feeding My Army

It is only on really stressful days when I refer to them as my unholy army of the night.   The rest of the time, at least at meals, it is just "my army" and we really do go through a stunning amount of food.                   For example, in late August, right around the time this photo was taken  (I can't usually post pictures of my kids, but this one, with no faces visible is ok - from left, R., Q., Z., and K., our four little ones who at the time ranged from 13 months to 3 1/2), I counted - we went through four large watermelons, 20lbs of peaches, 10lbs of apples, 6 quarts of plums, 4…

Reflections after Science Online 2010 (#Scio10)

I'm writing this while on the plane, flying back from a fantastic weekend in North Carolina. Before I can even begin reflecting on the past few days, I have to thank NESCent again for their generous travel grant which allowed me to go to Science Online in the first place. Without their funding, I'd have spent the weekend laying out on a beach instead of freezing my butt off with over 200 amazing people who, thought diverse in many ways, all have one thing in common: a passion for science communication. Sure, the beach would have been a lot warmer and more relaxing, but going to Science Online…

Making real changes in the landscape of science.

I want to commend to you a pair of posts that strike me as calls to action. Both relate to the oft-discussed "pipeline problem" in the sciences. And, I take it that both authors are interested in making science (and especially academic science) a less hostile environment not just for women, but for others who love science but, frankly, may not have much patience for current institutional or societal barriers to entry to the tribe of science. Responding to the recent NAS panel's finding that institutional bias is responsible for the lower rates at which women in science departments are hired…

23andMe targeting pregnant women using "mommy bloggers"

Personal genomics company 23andMe has just launched an online community of "mommy bloggers" - a move I can only describe as sheer marketing genius. I'll give you a moment to let the vision sink in. Imagine a group of women hungry for information about the best way to ensure the future health and wellbeing of their unborn children. Now imagine a website packed with sincere, caring mother-types - most of them well-established bloggers with a strong existing fan base - writing about the real day-to-day issues that mothers care about (in the words of one recruit: "momming, aging, and my twenty…

To My Esteemed Critics

Here at The Scientific Activist, we welcome criticism--intelligent criticism, that is (as opposed to unintelligible dribble like this). Besides, when it comes to boosting traffic stats, any link is a good link, so I thought I should give a shout out to some of the nice folks who linked to me over the last couple of days, even though they basically disagreed with everything I wrote. First up is Dr. Jim Hu--a professor of biochemistry at my alma mater, Texas A&M University--who runs a blog called Blogs for Industry. Although we are at odds on pretty much any every political issue, he's…

Modern Workers' Euphemisms

tags: employment, urban dictionary, modern euphemisms As our workforce has become increasingly hostile towards the very workers that it depends upon and our world at large has become hostile to the very idea of individuality, there have been new words developed that hide the true function of those who seek to destroy modern civilization as we know it. Below the fold is a list of a few of these euphemisms that were sent to me by a reader for you to enjoy; Blamestorming : sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible. Seagull…

Modern Euphemisms

I was looking through my unread emails and found a list of modern euphemisms, which was sent to me by a reader of mine. Since many of you reading today are at work, but wishing to be elsewhere, and probably won't get much done today as a result, I thought that today would be the perfect day to post this for you to enjoy. 404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error message "404 Not Found," meaning that the requested document could not be located. "Don't bother asking him ... he's 404, man." Adminisphere: The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and…

Ruthlessness Gene "Discovered"

I wasn't sure whether to put the quotes around "Ruthlessness Gene," or "Discovered."  I suppose I could have just left them out entirely, but I have this urge to spice things up a bit with punctuation marks.  Don't blame me...it's genetic. Now, there is yet another correlation between a snippet of DNA, and a behavioral trait: href="http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080404/full/news.2008.738.html">'Ruthlessness gene' discovered Dictatorial behaviour may be partly genetic, study suggests. Published online 4 April 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.738 Michael Hopkin Selfish…

ScienceBlogs DonorsChoose Drive 2008

Every year at ScienceBlogs, we do a charity drive for DonorsChoose.org. If you haven't heard of them, DonorsChoose is a charity that takes proposals from schoolteachers, and lets people pick specific proposals to donate money to. We run our charity challenge through the month of October. For personal reasons, I couldn't participate last year. The year before that, Good Math/Bad Math readers donated just over two thousand dollars to support math education in impoverished New York area schools. This year, I'm still focusing on the NYC area, because with where I live and work, I get to…

Thinking Big About Clean Energy

I want to put a solar panel on my roof so that I am releasing less greenhouse gas into the environment. But then I hear that manufacturing solar panels causes the release of greenhouse gasses, so I have to subtract that from the good I think I'm doing. But then I realize that the people who are making the solar panels have to change their method so they release less greenhouse gas into the environment. We hear this argument all the time (for example, here). You think you are doing something "green" but it really isn't green because yadayadayada. I am suspicious of these arguments because…

Cheap Books, Random Thoughts

ADDED, ANOTHER CHEAP BOOK YOU MIGHT WANT:Dune The following random thought will eventually become a more carefully written blog post, but I want to get this out there sooner than later. Mention electric cars, or solar panels, or any other kind of thing a person might buy and deploy to reduce their Carbon footprint. Mention that to enough people and some wise ass will eventually come along and tell you how wrong you are. About how electric cars are worse for the environment than gas cars because bla bla bla, or how solar panels are worse for the environment than burning natural gas because of…

November Pieces Of My Mind #3

Irish trad session at Wirström's pub in Stockholm's Old Town One of the most annoying and amateurish things a graphic designer can do, in my experience, is to insert hard hyphens. I make a policy of keeping conservative and libertarian people in my Facebook feed and not muting them even though I don't agree with them. But lately I've had to add a subclause: I'm only keeping the smarter, better-reasoning ones. Because really, it's just unproductive for everyone if I allow my image of my political opponents to get skewed by the stupidest and angriest members of their camp. A lot of people…

First Week Of 2015 Excavations At Landsjö

2014 trenches A-E and rough locations of 2015 trenches F-H. Like Stensö, Landsjö Castle has half of a rare perimeter wall and is known to have been owned by a descendant of Folke Jarl – or rather, by his daughter-in-law, the widow of such a descendant. Last year we found that the high inner bailey has a previously unseen southern wall with a square tower at the east end, and we found five coins of AD 1250-75 in a deep layer that seem likely to date the castle's construction phase. But unlike Stensö, in three strategically placed trenches we found no trace of the missing bits of the…

Serious Mandate for National Health

It was the second-most-blogged article on the NYT when I got up this morning; now, it is the first-most-blogged.  It is the article that reports on a survey that shows 72% support for a government-run health insurance program.  The program would be similar to Medicare, but would be available to persons under 65 and not on Social Security Disability.  href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/health/policy/21poll.html">In Poll, Wide Support for Government-Run Health By KEVIN SACK and MARJORIE CONNELLY Published: June 20, 2009 Americans overwhelmingly support substantial changes to the…

That durned 8 things tag

I just noticed a comment in my Undergraduate Research Changed My Life post from a friend of mine; Camilo at Mercurical tagged me with the "8 Things" meme. Ok ok ok. I should just jump on this bandwagon as well. After all, Wilkins is doing it, and Tara at Aetiology issued a blanket tag for everybody that reads her blog (which I do regularly, so heck with it I better do this). Here are 8 things about me, in no particular order: 1. I was adopted out by Catholic Social Services at the ripe old age of 9 days, in Macomb IL. (Yeah yeah, that one is in order). 2. Cooking is something I like…

Women Are From Venus and Men Are Easy?

According to another groundbreaking study on mate selection, men prefer good looking women. Who knew? Wait didn't I touch on this in May? And we ladies apparently are trading off our attractiveness for 'higher quality men' or whathaveyou. Really? Before I comment (deep breath), I'll start with the research to be fair. Out of this week's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: While humans may pride themselves on being highly evolved, most still behave like the stereotypical Neanderthals when it comes to choosing a mate, according to research by Indiana University…

The Curious Case of Phineas Gage

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I'm trying to raise money for a classroom-in-need to buy some books about neuroscience, using the case of Phineas Gage as a jumping off point. (And if you haven't yet donated, they would be most grateful for even a dollar!) I thought it would be interesting and appropriate to discuss what happened to Mr. Gage and how it impacted neuroscience. It all began when a large piece of metal exploded through his brain. Phineas Gage was the ultimate average joe--a railway foreman who was laying down track outside Cavendish, Vermont in the fall of 1848. It was on the…

Seven Easy Ways to Support Disaster Relief in Japan

I've been thinking a lot about how to support victims and their families in Japan since the earthquake and tsunami struck last Friday. Ben Parr at Mashable gives us some simple, concrete ways we can help in his article, "Japan Earthquake & Tsunami: 7 Simple Ways to Help." Please do what you can. 1. Text to Donate The American Red Cross has once again launched a texting campaign to raise money for relief efforts in the Pacific region. Last year, the Red Cross was able to raise over $20 million for Haiti relief through simple text donations. If you would like to donate to the American Red…

Boilermaker, One Week Later

Last Sunday was the 30th annual Boilermaker 15k road race in lovely Utica, NY. This is perhaps the biggest event in central NY during the summer. This year, the Boilermaker attracted over 12,000 entrants along with an elite field of national and international talent. In other words, it's not your average Sunday morning 5k benefit run won in a blistering 19:36 by a guy wearing Teva sandals. If you're interested in the results, you can find them here or use the database found here to find results from prior years along with news clips and such. One of the things I like about this race is the…

Rape Is a Pre-Existing Medical Condition

This is why private insurance companies should die--or, at the very least, no American should be forced to give these parasites his or her money: Christina Turner feared that she might have been sexually assaulted after two men slipped her a knockout drug. She thought she was taking proper precautions when her doctor prescribed a month's worth of anti-AIDS medicine. Only later did she learn that she had made herself all but uninsurable. Turner had let the men buy her drinks at a bar in Fort Lauderdale. The next thing she knew, she said, she was lying on a roadside with cuts and bruises that…

Finally Wising up on Fuels?

Despite worsening problems with climate disruption and air pollution, politicians and individuals have kept making bad transportation choices for decades. As a result, weâve got an unsustainable transportation system full of single-passenger gas-guzzling vehicles, and the only âsolutionâ that politicians have been able to unite around is ethanol, which worsens global hunger and nutrient runoff without producing net energy savings. Thereâs a little bit of good news, though. Recent stories suggest that the negative consequences of bad gas choices are finally starting to steer consumers and…

Links for 2012-04-25

Taking in a concert doubleheader with Creed and Nickelback, the world's most hated bands - Grantland The moment you tell people you're seeing Creed and Nickelback in concert -- on the same night, at roughly the same time, in two different venues -- it suddenly becomes a stunt. Just describing the premise seems schlocky; it's like Def Leppard playing on three different continents in 24 hours, or maybe something David Blaine would attempt if he worked for the Fuse network. The immediate assumption is that this is some type of sonic endurance test, and that no person could possibly enjoy the…

Book Review: Davidson, Doctor Eszterhazy

Having read what I had to say about Orsinian Tales, Ursula K. LeGuin's 1976 collection of short stories set in an alternative Balkans, Dear Reader Tty suggested that I read Avram Davidson's Doctor Eszterhazy stories. For this I thank him warmly: I have just finished the 1975 collection The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy, and I loved every word of it. As we meet him in the early 1900s, Engelbert Eszterhazy, seven times a doctor (counting two honorific titles), lives in the city of Bella, imperial capital of the Triune Monarchy of Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania. This realm covers parts of our…

Recommend Some Genre Trash

Next weekend will mark the start of Vacation Season here at Chateau Steelypips. Or, rather, out of Chateau Steelypips, as we'll be spending four of the next seven weeks in other places. This, of course, will require books for me to read on the various airplane flights needed to reach our vacation destinations. And while the shelves here are positively groaning under the weight of unread books, I'm a little short on good Airplane Books, mostly because I tend to tear through those as fast as I get them. A quick pass through Borders yesterday didn't produce much, either. So I throw this open to…

Muffins and Grapefruit

After all of our hard work last week, let us begin with something a bit lighter. Via Larry Moran I came across this post, at Cosmic Variance, regarding the great muffin joke debate. I reprint the joke below the fold. I find it very amusing indeed, but, incredibly, there seem to be others who disagree. Let me know what you think: So there are these two muffins baking in an oven. One of them yells, “Wow, it's hot in here!” And the other muffin replies: “Holy cow! A talking muffin!” Actually, this joke reminded me of another one I heard when I was in college. Finding it funny or not is said…

Actions Are Less Fun Than Words

Over the weekend on FriendFeed, Paul Buchheit posed an interesting question: Assume that I'm going to get rid of $20,000 and my only concern is the "common good". Which of these is the best use of the money: give it to the Gates foundation, buy a hybrid car, invest it in a promising startup, invest it in the S&P500, give it to the US government, give it to a school, other? A lot of the discussion consists of tedious (and non-specific) banging on about the wonders of start-ups, but there's some good stuff in there if you have the patience to read through it. Buried in there with…