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Words As Weapons

Lance Mannion notes that Rush "Big Pharma" Limbaugh uses words in the same way creationists do: as weapons. From Mannion (italics mine): Fox's offense was making campaign commercials for candidates who will vote to expand and fund stem cell research, but Limbaugh doesn't care about that. What he cares about is that those candidates are Democrats who will also vote to make it harder for rich white guys like Rush to get away with whatever they want to get away with. Rush's anger and outrage are real; the words he used to express them weren't. This is why if the Republicans find a disabled…

You're Not Actually Supposed to Tell Them That!

You know the wheels are coming off the Republican Wurlitzer when Republicans, as opposed to Democrats, are engaging in public 'soul-searching.' From MSNBC, by way of Atrios: CARLSON: It goes deeper than that though. The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power. Everybody in... MATTHEWS: How do you know that? How do you know that? CARLSON: Because I know them. Because I grew up with them. Because I live with them. They live on my street. Because I live in Washington, and I know that everybody in our world has…

Will an October Surprise Backfire?

I came across this interesting poll of the NJ Senate race. It appears that just mentioning the Iraq War hurts Republicans, even popular ones: In the study, half of the respondents were asked questions about President Bush and the war in Iraq before answering questions about the Senate race, and half were asked about the Senate race first. Among those respondents who were asked about Bush and Iraq first, Menendez [Dem] held a two point advantage, 41 to 39 percent. But among the respondents who were not primed to think about the war in Iraq, Kean[Rep] held an 11 point advantage, 47 to 36…

Sunday Sermon: ScienceBloging Chris Edition

ScienceBlogling Chris, responding to comments on a post he wrote about what he views as misplaced blogging priorities, writes: ....we can talk about what I do outside of the blogosphere to promote the non-scientific causes that are important to me. And cutting off your response before it ushers from your snarky fingers, a person who writes 9-10 rants a day on their blog, often responding to long articles elsewhere in cyberspace, and who has a day job (especially one in academia) is not, I guarantee you, doing a damn thing offline to promote any of the causes I mentioned or any like them.…

Is the Problem With Global Warming Framing?

Our Benevolent Seed Overlords have published an article by ScienceBlogling Chris Mooney about the need to reframe the global warming debate in language that non-scientists are more likely to respond to positively. While I don't disagree (who would argue that scientists should intentionally alienate people?), I wonder if that's the real problem. I would argue the problem is that the solution to the problem hasn't been clearly defined. I've learned from my work on antibiotic resistance that if you simply state a problem and don't provide an answer to the problem, people get frustrated. After…

We're Going to Party Like It's 1979...

...in Stasi-controlled East Germany. An anonymous internet service provider writes in the Washington Post about the 'national security letter' he or she received: Three years ago, I received a national security letter (NSL) in my capacity as the president of a small Internet access and consulting business. The letter ordered me to provide sensitive information about one of my clients. There was no indication that a judge had reviewed or approved the letter, and it turned out that none had. The letter came with a gag provision that prohibited me from telling anyone, including my client, that…

Budgetary Assumptions Are Always Pessimistic: The Medicare Edition

The projections used by the Social Security Administration to determine when it will become 'insolvent' are notoriously pessimistic, in that they have been estimating that Social Security will be DOOOMED! in 28-38 years going on nearly twenty years. Like Zeno's spear, we never seem to hit that wall. Well, it's spread to Medicare (like E. coli O104:H4! ZOMG!!). Jared Bernstein lays out the past twenty one years of Medicare* estimates for us: Just to make this clearer--because I like helping!--I've made a couple of changes: If we take this year's prediction seriously--or at least…

Links 5/15/11

I'm old enough to remember when there was sun in the sky. Anyway, links for you. Science: Can we overfish the lionfish? Simpler Genome Sequencing (I'll believe it when I see it--nanopore technology is like Zeno's paradox, the spear never hits the wall) Hospital-Acquired Infections: Beating Back the Bugs Other: All Hail the PUBLIC Library: The public library is a uniquely American creation. Now we have to fight to keep it public... (must-read) Death to high school English. My college students don't understand commas, far less how to write an essay. Is it time to rethink how we teach? Why…

War and the evolution of belligerence and bravery

War and the evolution of belligerence and bravery: Tribal war occurs when a coalition of individuals use force to seize reproduction-enhancing resources, and it may have affected human evolution. Here, we develop a population-genetic model for the coevolution of costly male belligerence and bravery when war occurs between groups of individuals in a spatially subdivided population. Belligerence is assumed to increase an actor's group probability of trying to conquer another group. An actor's bravery is assumed to increase his group's ability to conquer an attacked group. We show that the…

Democrat and Republican, by the numbers

Pew has a nice survey up right now, A Closer Look at the Parties in 2008. Here are three questions, and the Republican - Democrat difference on the responses: Do you think the US made the right or wrong decision in using military force against Iraq?, a 50 point difference on both "yes" and "no." I'll let you guess the signs! Do you think abortion should be... Legal in all cases -13 difference Legal in most cases -10 difference Illegal in most cases +19 difference Illegal in all cases +6 difference Books that contain dangerous ideas should be banned from public school libraries Agree +4…

Are liberals against nuclear power more than conservatives? Yes

Because of the increased prices in gasoline and the perception of scarcity in terms of power, there has been a lot of talk about nuclear. There have been many comments of late from the Right that the Left is opposed to the utilization of nuclear power, and often gleeful the observation that many European countries such as France and Sweden are highly reliant on this technology. But is it true that liberals are more averse to nuclear than conservatives? I checked the GSS for the following questions: - Nuclear power dangerous to the environment? - Likelihood of nuclear meltdown in 5 years…

Would you kill a child?

Ed Brayton says there is a double standard in how people judge Islam and Christianity. That is, criticism of Christianity is tolerated, while criticism of Islam frowned upon (or at least generalization). I put in two reasons why this is so on this comment boards, first, Islam is treated as a quasi-ethnic group, an identity you are born with (and Islamophobia occupies much the same mental slot as racism for many people). Second, Muslims are perceived by many on the Left to be part of the non-elite which may become part of their broad coalition against right-wing interests. But there is…

First among "equals"?

I have two blogs from The Atlantic's small flotilla, Ross Douthat & M. Yglesias, in my RSS reader. Now, one thing I notice is that there is a faux-tab1 at the top that allows you to toggle between these two blogs, as well as James Fallow's & Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish. But here's the thing: Sullivan's site doesn't have a tab to toggle back to the other sites within The Atlantic's blog confederacy! I suppose it is fair since he has the highest profile and brings the most readers, but I suspect that Jakob Nielsen might have a word to say about this sort of design architecture in…

Religion makes a sharp mind!

Most of you know that I am generally skeptical of first order functional explanations of religion (I am more open to second order explanations which posit religion as one of the manifold social glues which bind together communities and facilitate sociality). That being said, I did find this interesting, from PLOS Biology, Mental Training Affects Distribution of Limited Brain Resources: ...We found that three months of intensive meditation reduced brain-resource allocation to the first target, enabling practitioners to more often detect the second target with no compromise in their ability…

Copy number variation & being human

Gene Duplications Give Clues to Humanness: All told, the researchers found more than 4000 genes that showed lineage-specific changes in copy number, with the numbers steadily increasing over evolutionary time. Humans, for example, only had 84 genes with increased copy numbers over those of our closet relatives. In contrast, lemurs, which have evolved for 60 million years, have 1180 genes with extra copies. "This is further evidence that genomic differences between humans and other primates is far, far more complex than we originally imagined they might be," says Ajit Varki, who studies human/…

The decline of "fundamentalism"

The "Boy Genius" Karl Rove recently told The New Yorker that the rise of conservative Christianity bodes well for the Republican party. There's a problem with the hype though: there is a mild, but persistent, trend away from Biblical literalism, in the United States.1 Fundamentalist Christian pollster George Barna documents some small recent shifts. This isn't new, those who favor the Secularization Hypothesis for the United States have pointed to data which suggests a gentle ebbing away of Biblical fundamentalism. That being said, the process of rescaling "conservatism" every generation…

Viva proportional representation!

Interesting article which surveys the confusion in Europe right now as countries whose electoral systems are based on proportional representation are seeing a tendency by the populace to vote for parties of the far Right and far Left. This has resulted in unwieldly and unstable coalitions drawn from the ever shrinking center. Many Americans (and some Brits) have long complained of "winner take all" districts which results in ideologically impure parties who offer milquetoast alternatives. The flip side though of course is that small popular vote majorities tend to yield very sizable…

Why Lakoff matters

I have a post on my other blog about why Lakoff matters. Here is the conclusion: In short, I think the problem with Lakoff's ideas are two fold: 1) the science is probably wrong, so it has little utilitarian value aside from enriching Lakoff 2) the false perception that the science is correct and can be used to persuade people basically leaves liberals totally vulnerable to being laughed at (a lot of the stuff that Lakoff acolytes say about the Right is giggle-inducing! Pinker is describing a real phenomenon, as I've chuckled myself). If I was a particularly partisan non-liberal I would…

"Community Organizers" Is a Dog Whistle

First, Roland Martin attacks Palin for her comments about community organizers: And ScienceBlogling Matt Nisbet has the quote of the day: Weren't Jesus and Mother Teresa community organizers? Didn't they, in the words of Palin, have "actual responsibilities?" Aren't Evangelicals such as this group "Christians for Community Organizing" or this group "Evangelicals for Social Action" dedicated to community organizing? Aren't faith based initiatives built on community organizing? Matt is absolutely right on the merits, but, make no mistake about it, "community organizers" is code for 'uppity…

Links 2/1/11

Links for you. Science: So I have this data, now what? Jeremy Berg Demystifies the Funding Decision Process at NIGMS Amoebas in drinking water: a double threat Invasive Bees Ravage Native Bees in Vicious Death Match (and here) Other: Rachel Maddow: In America Today, Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower Would Be Bernie Sanders in the U.S. Senate NSTAR Green Undergoes Major Rate Increase From quality to quantity - and maybe back again Another Day in the Blue Collar Life A call to protest ignites a call to arms: The reaction to Frances Fox Piven's essay urging the unemployed to protest for…

Fun Night at Boston Skeptics

What you missed if you weren't at the Boston Skeptics meeting Thank you to all the people who turned out last night for the Boston Skeptics meeting. One person described as the first talk "that included LOLcats, slut DNA, a laundry list of nasty infections, and a solid anti-creationist message." I presume this is a good thing. It's always hard to figure out how to pitch a talk, given an audience that ranges from biologists to people who don't know any biology, but I got the impression that everybody got something out of the talk (hopefully). It was a nice bunch of people too. I'll have…

What National Romney/Obamacare Will Mean

Middle class families with thousands of dollars of expenses will end up paying more: In Massachusetts one in six people who have mandated insurance still say they cannot afford care, and 30,000 people were evicted from the state program this month because of budget cuts. Expect the same debacle nationwide. "For someone my age who is making $40,000 a year you are required to lay out $5,000 for an insurance premium for coverage that covers nothing until you have spent $2,000 out of pocket," Himmelstein said. "You are $7,000 out of pocket before you have any coverage at all. For most people that…

What Procedure Is More Common Than Heart Surgery and Hip Replacement Combined?

You'll never guess. From Amanda Marcotte: It's the most common outpatient procedure in the country, and yet we write it off as fringe. There's only 694,000 open heart surgeries a year on average, 600,000 hysterectomies, and 193,000 hip replacements a year---but there's 1.2 million abortions performed every year. But I'll bet you could find more people who claim they don't know anyone personally who's had an abortion than make the same claim about hysterectomies, heart surgery, or hip replacement. Of course, they do know someone who's had an abortion, most likely, but she's mum about it,…

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Carried By Wild Song Birds

Tweet? (and not the internet kind). At the recent ASM meeting, I saw a poster presented by Mark Schroeder of Ohio Wesleyan University about the prevalence of methicillin-resistant staphylococci in wild song birds (the staphylococci include several potential pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus and S. epidermis). Based on my notes (Note to wee lil' scientists: If you're presenting a poster, always bring lots of page sized copies. Always.), roughly ten percent of birds had staphylococci (I think they were isolated from the plumage, but I can't be certain). Among the mannitol-positive…

Great Photography Exhibit at the Boston Public Library

There's an ongoing exhibit of photographer Jules Aarons' work at the Boston Public Library, "Man in the Street: Boston Photographs by Jules Aarons" that is worth seeing. From the BPL blurb: In 1997, the Boston Public Library began collecting the work of Boston photographer Jules Aarons (1921-2008),and the library now holds the largest public collection of the photographer's work in the world. When Jules Aarons began photographing seriously in 1947, he chose the streets and neighborhoods of Boston as his subject. He was drawn to the way people in the neighborhoods lived their public lives and…

Do Blue Dog Dems Even Realize What They Do?

These Twitter feeds, captured by Atrios and written by 'moderate' Democrat Claire McCaskill, make it so perfectly clear that many elected officials have no idea how things are funded: "Proud we cut over 100 billion out of recov bill.Many Ds don't like it, but needed to be done.The silly stuff Rs keep talking about is OUT." And then: "Going to Museum of Am History today.Haven't been since it re-opened.Want to check it out.Also grocery store and later a movie date with Joe." As Atrios notes: Hopefully she enjoys the museum. Amusingly, she also voted for the Coburn amendment which forbids the…

What's Going on with the Explosion of Hotel Bed Pillows?

Let no one say that the Mad Biologist doesn't address the pressing issues of the day. While at the Human Microbiome Meeting, I'm staying in a hotel. Like other hotels I've stayed in for various meetings, my bed is covered with pillows. Not only were there four humongous pillows that I could use, but there were also two large 'decorative pillows' that I wouldn't ever sleep on (if nothing else, their fabric would be uncomfortable and probably leave impressions in my face). To top this off, there is a humongous cylindrical pillow that is as long as the bed is wide (it's a king size bed).…

Shame on Missouri

Dennis Engelhard was a trooper in the highway patrol who was killed in an accident, when a car lost control in the snow and hit him. That's tragedy enough, but what makes it worse is that the person he loved faces this sudden loss without any acknowledgment or support, not even a mention in the obituary. You can guess why: it's because Trooper Engelhard was gay. If Engelhard had been married, his spouse would be entitled to lifetime survivor's benefits from the state pension system -- more than $28,000 a year. But neither the state Highway Patrol pension system nor Missouri law recognizes…

Mystery Bird: Wilson's Snipe, Gallinago delicata

tags: Wilson's Snipe, Gallinago delicata, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Wilson's Snipe, Gallinago delicata, remains were found under a spruce stand adjacent to an open spring-fed pond in the mountains near Canmore, Alberta, Canada (about an hour west of Calgary). [short of microscopic examination of these feathers or DNA analysis, this bird will probably never be definitively identified, sorry] Image: Marcel Gahbauer, 20 December 2008 [larger view]. Scanned, not photographed. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. The story behind […

Web Phylogeny of This Blog, December 2008

The "Web Phylogeny" of Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted), 22 December 2008. Image: created by Websites as Graphics. KEY: What do these colored dots mean? blue: for links (the A tag) red: for tables (TABLE, TR and TD tags) green: for the DIV tag violet: for images (the IMG tag) yellow: for forms (FORM, INPUT, TEXTAREA, SELECT and OPTION tags) orange: for linebreaks and blockquotes (BR, P, and BLOCKQUOTE tags) black: the HTML tag, the root node gray: all other tags Back in theice ages, two years and seven months ago, I had a "web phylogeny" constructed for my blog. As you…

Carnivalia

Here's more blog carnivals that are hot off the presses for you to read! Carnival of Economics, 9 December 2008 edition. This is a huge blog carnival, featuring a variety of essays about the economy, alhtough most of them discuss various aspects of the current economic disaster that Bush and his buddies have proudly overseen. Carnival of Homeschooling, issue 154: anniversary gifts. I know that some of you are offended by this blog carnival, but if you are, I encourage you to go to the specific entries that offend you and argue with the authors about the errors in their logic (certainly,…

Update: What I've Been Busy Doing

I apologize for not writing more for you recently, but after my wifi was restored (after 14 days of agony!), thanks to Ralph (my new boyfriend), I then became ill and was quite miserable for an additional three days. In fact, I didn't even crawl out of bed one of those days. After a slow recovery, I am feeling fine now, but I have been preoccupied with reading a book for review (Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals), for Nature. This will be the third book review that I've written for Nature. The editors needed a quick turn-around on this particular book review, so I said I could do…

TEDTalks: Pawan Sinha Talks about How Brains Learn to See

tags: neuroscience, health, medicine, health care, blindness, poverty, India, Pawan Sinha, TEDTalks, streaming video Pawan Sinha details his groundbreaking research into how the brain's visual system develops. Dr Sinha and his team provide free vision-restoring treatment to children born blind, and then study how their brains learn to interpret visual data. The work offers insights into neuroscience, engineering and even autism. 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…

Daniel Pink: The Surprising Science of Motivation

tags: employment, creative thinking, motivation, career, rewards, inspiration, science, psychology, Daniel Pink, TEDTalks, streaming video Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. If you think about it, the rewards described in this video are the very things that motivate blog writer to provide their content for free. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading…

TEDTalks: Kartick Satyanarayan Talks About How the "Dancing" Bears of India Were Rescued

tags: environment, education, conservation,animal welfare, dancing bears, India, sloth bear, Kartick Satyanarayan, TEDTalks, streaming video Traditionally, the Kalandar community of India has survived by capturing sloth bear cubs and training them to "dance" through extreme cruelty. Kartick Satyanarayan has been able to put an end to this centuries-old practice, and in so doing discovered a lesson of wider significance: make the practitioners part of the solution. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers…

TEDTalks: George Whitesides' Lab That is the Size of a Postage Stamp

tags: health, medicine, health care, diagnostics, poverty, technology, George Whitesides, TEDTalks, streaming video Traditional lab tests for disease diagnosis can be too expensive and cumbersome for regions that are most in need. George Whitesides' ingenious answer, at TEDxBoston, is a foolproof tool that can be manufactured at virtually zero cost. In his legendary career in chemistry, George Whitesides has been a pioneer in microfabrication and nanoscale self-assembly. Now, he's fabbing a diagnostic lab on a chip. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from…

TEDTalks: Jamie Heywood and The Big Idea His Brother Inspired

tags: health, medicine, TEDMED,health care, ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, technology, internet, Jamie Heywood, TEDTalks, streaming video When Jamie Heywood's brother was diagnosed with ALS, he devoted his life to fighting the disease as well. The Heywood brothers built an ingenious website where people share and track data on their illnesses -- and they discovered that the collective data had enormous power to comfort, explain and predict. 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…

TEDTalks: Romulus Whitaker Talks about The Real Danger Lurking in the Water

tags: conservation, reptiles, King Cobra, Ophiophagus hannah, Gharial, Gavialis gangeticus, water pollution, Romulus+Whitaker, TEDTalks, streaming video The gharial, Gavialis gangeticus, and king cobra, Ophiophagus hannah, are two of India's most iconic reptiles, and they're endangered because of polluted waterways. Conservationist Romulus Whitaker shows rare footage of these magnificent animals and urges us to save the rivers that sustain their lives and our own. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers…

TEDTalks: Charles Anderson Discovers Dragonflies that Cross Oceans

tags: biology, zoology, insects, Dragonfly, Wandering Glider, Globe Skimmer, Pantala flavescens, migration, Maldives, India, TEDTalks, TED Talks, Charles Anderson, streaming video While living and working as a marine biologist in Maldives, Charles Anderson noticed sudden explosions of dragonflies at certain times of year. He explains how he carefully tracked the path of a plain, little dragonfly called the Globe Skimmer, Pantala flavescens, only to discover that it had the longest migratory journey of any insect in the world. TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and…

Mystery Bird: Scarlet Honeyeater, Myzomela sanguinolenta

tags: Scarlet Honeyeater, Myzomela sanguinolenta, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Scarlet Honeyeater, Myzomela sanguinolenta, photographed at Yungaburra, Queensland, Australia. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Steve Duncan, 26 August 2009 [larger view]. Nikon D200 w/ Nikkor 300mm f/4 1/1250 sec, f/4 iso 400. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. The photographer writes: One of the fun things about photographing wild birds and nature are the unexpected encounters. I've learned that the best shots happen only because…

Corn: The Dynamic Genome

tags: Corn: The Dynamic Genome, corn, agriculture, genomics, food science, technology, streaming video This is a beautifully written and produced science video about corn: where it came from, what it originally looked like, the technology we are using to learn the functions of individual corn genes, and future directions for research into corn genetics. Plant genome research is already revolutionizing the field of biology. Currently, scientists are unlocking the secrets of some of the most important plants in our lives, including corn, cotton and potatoes. Secrets of Plant Genomes: Revealed…

Mystery Bird: Christmas Duck, Anas noellus

tags: birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Christmas Duck, Anas noellus, photographed in a kitchen on the 13th floor of an apartment building in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Unlike most mystery birds, this individual came with a label indicating that it originated in France. [I might identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: GrrlScientist, 25 December 2009 [larger view]. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Yes, I did roast this duck a little longer, after so rudely slicing into the leg like that. Image: GrrlScientist, 25 December 2009…

Frankfurt am Main U-Bahn-Kunst (Frankfurt Subway Art), 1

tags: Frankfurt am Main U-Bahn-Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Expat+Life, Frankfurt Subway Art, photography Frankfurt am Main U-Bahn-Kunst. NordWestZentrum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Image: GrrlScientist, 24 November 2009 [larger view]. Overall, I have been disappointed with the subway art in Frankfurt -- something that makes me appreciate NYC subway art even more than I had before. That said, this one man is the exception to my disappointment. Here he is, making chalk art on the floor of one of the subway stations. I was told that he does this every weekday and then the artwork is…

Atheist Life

tags: atheist life, godlessness, streaming video Being an atheist, you believe that this is the only life, and live it to the fullest. Atheists and skeptics lack proof and evidence of certain deities and spiritual beliefs. So there is no intent for us to harshly bash other religions and forms, for we humbly have our own perspectives in life. If you however think that atheists are a threat to the general community, first take a look at the mirror. Millions of people have died just because of religion, "religious" wars, and rejection due to contradictory beliefs. "Skeptic does not mean him who…

What Does A Mega-Industrial Dairy Farm Look Like?

tags: agribusiness, agriculture, dairy farm, cows, industrial dairy farm, milk, dairy products, streaming video This is an interesting video of a modern mega-dairy farm, with "all" aspects visible to the public (well, I'll bet not all aspects are visible, since they don't show how sperm is collected, packaged and stored, nor do they show the process of artificial insemination). Visitors get a close up and personal view of the entire process, from the milking barns where they observe cows being milked and fed, and they even can witness live births. This mega-farm also recycles manure into…

View of Manhattan from Lincoln Center

tags: NYC, Upper West Side, Manhattan, Lincoln Center, Julliard School A view of Manhattan from the Julliard School, located in Lincoln Center on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, NYC. Image: GrrlScientist, 12 May 2009 [larger view]. I posted this picture of Manhattan, which I snapped yesterday, to let you know that I am thinking of you, but I am working hard on a writing project right now. My deadline is Friday, and I am hopeful that I will deliver a good product. As you know, Friday evening, I will be visiting AMNH's sneak preview of their new mammals exhibit, so I won't be doing much…

Report of infected cats in Indon

Today The Jakarta Post is saying a study by the Indonesian Environment Information Center (PILI) in Yogyakarta has shown feral cats have become infected with H5N1 through "contact" with infected poultry at markets. There is no additional information on the nature of the contact, although eating the bird would seem likely but not the only possibility. PILI is also concluding the literature shows migratory birds are not vectors, blaming the poultry trade for movement of the virus. PILI is currently studying the migratory bird problem in Indonesia. The statement about cats was made during a…

Uh-oh. Will mysterious helicopters start following me around?

I'm normally a fan of the United Nations — I think more international cooperation is important — but they've just made a bad decision, voting in favor of a measure to condemn "defamation of religions". It's another example of the way religion tries to preserve its inanities by restricting criticism since, after all, it cannot survive any kind of critical thinking. And then there's this comment: And don't forget that no less an authority than Canada's own Louise Arbour, former UN high comissioner of human rights, wrote in response to a complaint about the publication of those famous Danish…

Tesla Coil, Center Stage

Below, Edward Einhorn answers our final question. Writing theater about science, in general, has become somewhat more popular, thanks partly (but by no means wholly) on the fact that technology has slowly become a more integral part of theater. This is especially true in small, independent theaters where the technology is not just there to support the work but, in a way, take center stage.  This fascination ranges from modern technology, such as in the work of the group 3LD, which uses advance projection technology in every show, to technology of a definitely less modern sort—the…

Massive Calculation & Real-Time Feedback

Below, Skylar Tibbits answers the second of our three questions. Cross-disciplinary opportunities lie at the intersection of opposing scales, and applications. On the micro scale, computational designers provide means for massive calculation, insightful and imaginative possibilities with massively parallel speeds and an urge for visualizing large datasets with multivariable problems. On the macro scale, foreign policy and political design making may provide a means to massive datasets, multivariable problems with global applications for real-time feedback and insightful decision making.…