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Experimental Biology 2011 - Locomotion

Cats are no doubt one of the most graceful and athletic animals. Researchers from Drexel University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada have developed a computational model of hindlimb locomotion for a cat. Locomotion is controlled by central pattern generators, which are groups of motor neurons within the spinal cord that control coordinated movements like walking. A website showing this model in action can be viewed here. Studying how cats walk may provide tools to improve the understanding of locomotion in other species. It may also help in…

Stephanie Thompson Says...

First that comes to mind is, I think NASA needs to get its ass in gear, it needs to get its priorities (and consequently, funding,) straightened out. Science, being as universal as, well, the UNIVERSE, should also be a universal opportunity in society. I say start bridging that socioeconomic gap, with some of those programs to improve basic primary/secondary education in STEM fields. And definitely stop banning research, period. Work to make environmental efforts an apolitical issue (assuming ANY issue can be apolitical..) Use science to help improve all that "Third World" shit—if Western…

Shawn Carlson Says...

I want to add one caveat to the stem cell debate. There is so much potential for the stem cell research that could potentially change people lives forever. I however throw caution to the wind by citing the sayings of those who build and/or advanced the technology for the nuclear bomb. these people justified their actions as advancement of science and that they were not responsible for how their findings were used. The people that developed this technology now know that that was a cop-out and they regret advancing the science that killed hundres of thousands of people. here is how i draw the…

Welcome to The Art of Science Learning!

The Art of Science Learning is an NSF-funded exploration of how the arts can strengthen STEM skills and spark creativity in the 21st-Century American workforce. The project will be launched this spring with conferences in Washington, DC (at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, April 6-7), Chicago (Illinois Institute of Technology, May 16-17) and San Diego (CALIT2 at UCSD, June 14-15). These conferences will bring together scientists, artists, educators, museum professionals, business leaders, researchers and policymakers, to explore the role of the arts in science education…

Reproducible Research

Our friend Victoria Stodden is the lead author on a paper published today in Computing in Science and Engineering summarizing the recommendations of a roundtable we participated in at Yale on data (and code) sharing in (computational) science. Seed's Joy Moore is an additional author on the paper. To adhere to the scientific method in the face of the transformations arising from changes in technology and the Internet, we must be able to reproduce computational results. Reproducibility will let each generation of scientists build on the previous generations' achievements.... Reproducible…

Columnist Calls for "Honest Disagreement," Holds Straight Face

In her Aug. 12 column, "Paralyzing fog of certainty on climate" Debra Saunders asserts many things, including that money flows to climate scientists as well as climate skeptics. No argument there. However, she neglects to distinguish between the quality of research this money funds, asking, "Why not posit that there is such a thing as honest disagreement on the science?" The problem is, much of the disagreement is dishonest, hiding under a veil of science. Multinational fossil fuel corporations have billions of dollars riding on U.S. inaction on climate change. These corporations are behind…

Politicization and "Fundamentalist Environmentalism"

We're catching up on the stories we missed while away from our computer. Here are a couple of standouts: Tim Ball and Tom Harris of Canada's Natural Resources Stewardship Project are holding Canada's "Female Athlete of the Century" up as inadvertent spokesperson for the policy of let's-wait-and-see-what-happens on climate change. The article, titled declaratively "Climate change debate muddied," includes more straw men than a Wizard of Oz convention. We particularly liked the use of the term "fundamentalist environmentalism," an irksome term that, it turns out, they did not coin. Our Google…

AGU Epilogue 1: More Al Gore coverage

This week's American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting is quickly coming to a close. We've attended our last panel, an interesting couple hours on educating the public including folks from RealClimate.org, the Knight Science Journalism Tracker, BBC, and more. This will be the first of two posts that will serve as a bit of an epilogue to the week. It was exciting to be able to cover Al Gore's talk yesterday, and it has been more exciting to see the breadth of coverage the talk received -- shining quite a light on the issue of political tampering of science. Here's a sampling of stories we've seen…

Blogging at the AGU

The annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union is taking place this week, and your friendly neighborhood Integrity of Science Blog will be in attendance. The Pacific Institute and the Union of Concerned Scientists will be presiding over the Tuesday morning session "Defining and Protecting the Integrity of Science: New Challenges for the 21st Century." The panel promises to be interesting, and includes AGU President Timothy Killeen, Science Editor-in-Chief Don Kennedy, and atmospheric scientist and political attackee Judith Curry. For more details on the session (Tuesday, 8 a.m., MCS 308…

Adventures with ill-fitting dentures

Arora A, Arora M, Roffe C. Mystery of the missing denture: an unusual cause of respiratory arrest in a nonagenarian. Age Ageing. 2005 Sep;34(5):519-20. A nonagenarian is someone between 90 and 100 years old. That's really old. Behold the power of swallowing a loose denture: It got stuck in her hypopharynx, the part of the throat that connects to the esophagus. --- Samarasam I, Chandran S, Shukla V, Mathew G. A missing denture's misadventure! Dis Esophagus. 2006;19(1):53-5. Ah, the tracheoesophageal fistula. Say goodbye to a sizable chunk of your esophagus! --- de Ruiter MH, van Damme PA,…

Love is 'On the Air'

Just a quick note to let all you fellow Brooklynites know about a "singles mixer" (those are ironic quotes) being put on by the brilliant minds behind Radio Lab "the science show for people who think they don't like science." The formula behind the festivities? "Chemistry + Biology + Radio = Love...or something like it." Sounds good, no? The evening will be emceed by Radio Lab host Jad Abumrad who promises to: [combine] the latest lab results from the leading edge of neurological research with breathtaking tales of surprising romance . . . And to help your biological drives out a little [by…

Links

Paul Cella writes about Lott: My amateur and incomplete (and, if you insist, predisposed) sense is that Mr. Lott has roundly disarmed his often-strident critics with the scrupulousness of his research. Fortunately, Wes Little sorts him out in comments and Cella ends up conceding: Alright, Wes: you win. I had altogether forgotten about Lott's shadiness when I posted the link. If I had remembered the scandal, I surely would have looked for someone else to adduce on guns. It is also unfortunate that the reviewer I link to failed to mention it.…

Dumb and Dumber

In the latest installment in the U of Newcastle plagiarism scandal, Ronald MacDonald tries to outdo Robert Rugimbana (emphasis mine): The deputy vice-chancellor of research and internationalisation, Ronald MacDonald, said yesterday that he had originally believed the plagiarism claims by Ian Firns. Mr Firns had written to him in late February 2003 protesting at the handling of the matter. In an email, Mr Firns wrote that "it is particularly galling to know that the top mark for this assignment was awarded to an identified cheat". However, Professor MacDonald said that he had…

DC, same-sex marriage, and racial stereotypes

I was listening to Tell Me More yesterday and was drawn into the story. The host interviewed Michael Crawford, a DC-based activist. He attempted to debunk the idea that black communities are strongly anti-gay marriage. They played a clip of former DC mayor Marion Barry explaining how he personally might approve of gay marriage but he felt he had to represent his constituents by voting against it. Crawford called him out on a couple of scores. First, Crawford pointed out that Barry gave no polling data. Then he pointed out that he has the support of a large coalition of clergy,…

BMI TMI update

So the weight loss continues at a slow but steady pace. The exercise has been not so good; I was doing fine until I re-injured my back. Now it's just an excuse. I've started getting up early to get PalKid to kindergarten. I suppose I could get up just a bit earlier and ride the bike. I'm not looking at exercise as a weight loss tool, but as a way to regain good health. My morning meal is generally a high fiber cereal, oatmeal, or a bagel. Earlier I was doing eggs, but I got tired of the extra time and effort. The key to the cereal is a small serving size. I do OK until lunch and…

One last link I forgot yesterday: A pediatrician's perspective on thimerosal-autism

I don't know how I missed this one yesterday, but a new blogger, Dr. Flea, sarcastically thanks RFK, Jr. for making his practice more difficult The Thimerosal-Autism story will not die. When I say that a patient asks me about thimerosal every day, I am not exaggerating. Here is today's installment, in the form of an email from a mom: Part of Dr. Flea's response: I want to be as clear about this as I can. There is no controversy surrounding Thimerosal. There is scientific evidence and there is hysteria. The scientific evidence suggests that there is no link between thimerosal in vaccines and…

Let's make this Skeptics' Circle...huge!

Time really flies, doesn't it? In fact, the next meeting of the Skeptics' Circle will soon be upon us this Thursday. I'm anticipating that it will be...huge, as it's being hosted by none other than The Huge Entity. The Huge One has placed his contact information and submission guidelines here. More general submission guidelines, plus a handy list of past and present Circles, can be found here. Finally, once again, I'd like to post a request for more hosts of the Skeptics' Circle. I've had to do some minor rejiggering of the schedule recently due to the withdrawal of one of our planned hosts…

The Somali measles outbreak in Minnesota: Thanks again, Andy (and American antivaxers), for the measles

Normally, I like to mix up my topics, but it's been one of those weeks where basically discussing the antivaccine movement has taken over. Sometimes when that happens, I just go with the flow. Besides, there really is one more story involving that antivaccine movement that I want to comment on. Remember last week, when the story of how the antivaccine movement had targeted Somali immigrants in Minnesota, with a resultant plunge in MMR uptake among that population over the last decade. Completely unsurprisingly, given that MMR uptake among the Somalis fell from 92% to 42% in over a decade,…

Tips for Yeast

No this is not an entry on shmooing, but on practical tips on working with Saccharomyces cerevisiae. (OK confession, I have worked on yeast briefly as a rotating student in Liza Pon's Lab at Columbia.) Much of modern cell biology is based on Yeast genetic screens, the most famous are those performed by Leland H. Hartwell and Paul Nurse to determine genes necessary for cells to divide properly (the CDC, or cell division cycle, mutants). The only tip I can give you is to pay attention to what is done in yeast, the rule of thumb is that the yeast field is 1-2 years ahead of the rest. That…

Pygmy Tarsier Rediscovered in Indonesia

High in the mountaintop forests of Indonesia, this little Furby-gremlin hybrid hid undiscovered (and unmolested) for the last ninety years. Last seen alive in the 1920s, the pygmy tarsier was thought extinct until researchers from Texas A&M University rediscovered the little guy last month. Pygmy tarsier is not amused. Over a 2.5 month period, the scientists trapped two males and one female in Lore-Lindu National Park. After taking measurements and affixing radio collars, the researchers were unable to resist the urge to love them, and hug them, and squeeze them and call them George.…

Scientist "Spy" on Whales Using Tiny Helicopters

The tiny, 3.5 ft. long helicopters in the video below hover over sperm whales as they spew air, mucus and other gases out of their blowholes. The helicopters are covered in petri dishes which collect samples of the slimy, gooey, gaseous emissions which can then be used to test the health of individual whales and overall whale populations. The technique was designed by Dr. Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse, a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Zoological Society of London. In an article in the Telegraph , she explains, "Scientists have always found it difficult to study diseases in whales because…

Experiments in ocean acidification

Increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to more dissolved CO2 in the world's oceans. In turn this will increase the hydrogen ion concentration in seawater, and lower pH from pre-industrial levels (8.179) to present day levels (8.104) in a process known as "ocean acidification". Note that even projected pH levels of 7.824 in 2050 are still above neutral. Regardless, many scientists are concerned that calcifying marine organisms like corals, mollusks, echinoderms and coccolithophores will be vulnerable to dissolution under the projected 'less alkaline' regime. A new study…

DSN rolls off the press in Daytona

The ongoing story of our letter to the Pope made ink Friday at the Daytona Beach News Journal. This was my first Op-Ed letter. It was pretty easy to do through email. Try it sometime when you have a message for the masses. Unfortunately, the key link to contact the Vatican at ProPeninsula is broken at the bottom of the editorial. To send your letter to the Pope go here: http://www.propeninsula.org/advocacy/1/5.html The playbook and the assist for the Op-Ed goes to, J. Nichols at the Ocean Conservancy. He's been working as a scientist and advocate on the issue of sea turtle consumption for…

Cool free stuff

I've mentioned the Earthviewer app from HHMI before: think of it as a bit like Google Earth, only you can dial it back to any period in the planet's history. There have been a couple of developments: it's also available for Android, and it's added some new features, including tracking for major fossils. So now you can see the long strange journey of Tiktaalik's bones on the screen. They're also making available a lovely big poster of earth's history. This year, we here at UMM are putting together a teacher training program to be implemented in the summer of 2015, and it's going to be a lot of…

Coral Week Deep Sea Ditty - Reef City

Reef City is sung to Sin City by Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, a favorite song (and artists) of mine. Deep and shallow reefs alike under a multifaceted threat, but we'll not let them go down without fists wailing! Reef City This old reef has seen some days Many changes through the haze And smoke like mists of gametes in the water Polyps stretched out reaching For a particle, just a piece and Who knows what it just might grab (Chorus) Takes more than an earthquake to shake this ole coral Seems like this whole ocean's insane Over fishing, nutrient loading, harvesting and trawling From…

Are There None Among You Brave Enough?

To take our knitting challenge? Or are you waiting for us to raise the stakes a little? To refresh your memory, I challenged knitting readers to create a Bone-Devouring Zombie Worm with Dwarf Male in a previous post. Since the males are internal it would be cool to have a flap where you can open it to see the dwarf male giving up the spermie. Below is a figure from the article with the female ('D') with eggs traveling up the oviduct (white blotches). In 'E' the arrows point to 2 dwarf males, the 'fronds' (aka palps, labeled p) are topmost part of the organism. To add to the pot, Craig said…

Whoopee!

Here's a nice bit of breaking news from the conservation biology front: The birth of two Whooping Crane chicks in Wisconsin. (Scroll down this page at Operation Migration's site to the June 23rd entry for pictures of the birds.) This is absolutely tremendous news. These birds are part of the reintroduced Eastern Migratory Population, and these births mark the first time in over a century that Whooping Crane chicks have hatched in the wild in the Eastern US. There's still a long way to go, though. The chicks have a couple of months to go before they're ready to leave the nest, and even if they…

Sex and the Olympic Village

A very entertaining article in The Times today regarding Olympians and sex. The author, former Olympian Matthew Syed, discusses just what goes on behind closed doors (and sometimes on rooftops) at the Olympic village. He offers the usual bag of "reasons why" (testosterone, being away from home, etc.) but it's presented in a light and humorous manner, a good read. Consider the opener: I am often asked if the Olympic village - the vast restaurant and housing conglomeration that hosts the world's top athletes for the duration of the Games - is the sex-fest it is cracked up to be. My answer is…

Humorous Signatures

I visit certain message boards from time to time, including one called vdrums.com, a site dedicated to electronic drumming. While there's a lot of useful info there and a bunch of friendly and helpful folks, there are also some entertaining end-of-message signatures that folks use. Here are a few examples: Some people are like slinkies, They don't really have a purpose, But they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs. I have a mind like a steel trap: rusty and illegal in most countries.... "Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire,…

A little shout-out of appreciation

So AfterElton: News, Reviews and Commentary on Gay and Bisexual Men in Entertainment and the Media just released their choices for the Hot 100 Men List. Granted, this may smack of exploitation a la Maxim's list of "hot women," but it prompts me to offer a short list of Guys Who Hang Out (Figuratively) at the Refuge Whom I Appreciate: The Right Reverend Big Dumb Chimp. Sheer animal magnetism. The incomparable Warren of The Indigestible. More than a delicious mouthful! Saint Gasoline. Hot. Inflammatory. Don't pull his finger. The luscious SDC a.k.a. mistaSteve of Words of Advice for Young…

The Chimp Refuge Comes OUT.

A new addition can be found in the sidebar. Yes, the Chimp Refuge has joined the OUT Campaign bandwagon. Click on the Scarlet Letter of Atheism, and you will be taken to the site for the campaign which includes a link to Richard Dawkins' introduction to the initiative. Since it's a Saturday, and I'm in a frivolous frame of mind, I'll post some atheist-friendly graphics below the fold. They may be already known to many but there's nothing as comforting as friendly familiar faces. Pull up a chair, have a cup of coffee (the Official Beverage of the Devil and Atheists) and have a look. (Hat…

Friday Flower Porn: New and Improved with Interspecies Sex!

Not to be outdone by the good Doc, I have included a few quick flower porn snaps from the hot, lurid, sexually charged grounds surrounding my house. Well, to be honest, it's just plain hot, as in approaching 90F with more humidity than a swimming pool. First on our parade of porn is the common tiger lily, resplendent in its plumage, showing off for all to see. It begs "Pollinate me! Pollinate me! Oh, god yes, pollinate me!!" Such a naughty one. No Spring tulip this trollop be. And now we move on to the less common but still exhibitionist balloon flower. Note the distended veins of desire!…

The War on Christmas, xenophobic edition

You know who really hates Christmas? MUSLIMS! I bet you didn't know that if you converted to Islam you'd get immunity to STDs, your debt would disappear, rapes, teen pregnancy, and abortions would never occur, the rave would be canceled, you'd stop making that silly claim that god had a son, there'd be no exploitation or promiscuity or crime, the night clubs would shut down, nobody would have sex with 9 year old girls (oh, wait a minute…), you wouldn't be a pagan anymore (duh), you'd get a house, but you wouldn't drink alcohol or do drugs in it. Amazing stuff. The Muslim world must be a…

What's the difference between the Vatican and the Mafia?

At least the Mafia doesn't tolerate baby-rapers in its ranks. Otherwise, though, they're both shady organizations with very tightly closed ranks and a sense of privilege. It seems the Vatican is also suspected of criminal enterprises — it has its very own private, secretive bank that is accused of money laundering, and recently had about $30 million in assets seized. I don't think the Vatican has any ties to grisly gangland murders, though…oh, wait. Calvi headed the Banco Ambrosiano, which collapsed in 1982 after the disappearance of $1.3 billion in loans made to dummy companies in Latin…

Please go laugh at UncommonDescent

DaveScot is one of those genuinely deranged ID supporters, and I don't like giving him any attention…but Richard Hughes just sent me a note mentioning this long defensive thread he has started at UncommonDescent, and he's just done something so darned funny and stupid I can't resist. He's arguing about gravity. At one point, he claims that "By the way, gravity is the strongest force in nature." As you might guess, he's jumped on for that, and so he rushes off to find some supporting evidence…and gets it, he says, from John G. Cramer, professor of physics. Here's the part he quotes: Curiously…

Boyda still tied in internal polling

Boyda poll shows dead heat with Ryun: During a news conference, Boyda, of Topeka, said her underdog campaign remains a dead heat. She released her campaign poll, which she said shows Ryun at 42.6 percent and Boyda at 40 percent with the rest undecided. Last month, she released polling that had her with a slight edge. … [A Ryun spokesman] said he doubted her poll results and said their release was a ploy to keep people contributing to her campaign. Black said the Ryun campaign would not release its poll results. If Ryun were polling outside the margin of error, he'd release his internal…

Ain't no party like an Sb party 'cause an Sb party don't stop

The past few six months have seen a lot of changes here at scienceblogs.com. A new wave of bloggers came in, super readers were recruited, channel photos posted, and lots of other cool stuff, but one of the biggest changes is the amount of traffic. According to a release that popped in my e-mail yesterday, traffic to ScienceBlogs shot up to about 14 million visits during the first six months of 2008, an all-time high and 60% increase over the same time period in 2007. I really am proud to be a part of ScienceBlogs. I truly consider blogging to be one of the most valuable things that I do and…

Tuesday links

Jennifer Ouellette is disappointed with the conspicuous lack of science books at Book Expo America. Is science being "put in the corner"? The brothers Bleiman have an old NSF ad that brings back some memories. Now I'm going to have that tune stuck in my head all day. Many of us science bloggers (myself included) spend a lot of time complaining that mass media is the suxxors when it comes to science communication. Bora has a few snippets from a study that might suggest that accurate reporting of science stories in mainstream outlets might not be as much of a problem as we say they…

The Christian Persecution Complex

As I've said elsewhere, I think that the idea that creationists are master communicators is a myth; they are successful because they are tapping into a religious majority that is feeling antagonized and marginalized by secular culture. Even though most of the population of this country would identify themselves as Christians, some members of the faithful feel like they are continuously under attack by scientists, liberals, homosexuals, etc., their desire to "reclaim the country for Christ" being hindered by a minority of secular elitists. Indeed, the film Expelled is little more than an…

Photo of the Day #108: Lemur Skull

By now regular readers of this blog know that I have a definite affinity for saber-toothed critters, a rather motley assemblage of unrelated animals which include a large number of extinct and extant animals. Many primate species, somewhat surprisingly, fall into this category. Some representatives like baboons have extremely impressive canines (complete with a specialized molar to sharpen their teeth on), but lemurs also have some formidable dentition. In many primate species enlargement of the canines is a sexually dimorphic trait, males having larger canines than females. Gibbons are an…

Photo of the Day #71: Turkey Vulture

The Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) is a creature that I am at least somewhat familiar with; I see them every day on my drive to work. Whether they're just circling overhead or picking on a deer carcass, turkey vultures don't seem to have any problem inhabiting the landscape with people and are probably among the creatures (like the white-tailed deer, coyote, and grey squirrel) that will survive the increasing suburban sprawl of this state, if not benefit from it. The individual pictured above, however, was photographed while I was hiking this past fall at Bear Mountain State Park in New…

I guess I'll just have to wait for the next issue...

Just in case you haven't had enough of enigmatic dinosaurs over the past 24 hours, National Geographic is apparently planning a new article all about "Bizarre Dinosaurs" in their December 2007 issue. How do I know this? If you go to the National Geographic Society website featuring some reconstructions of a certain sauropod celebrity and click the "Dinosaur Wallpaper" button on the left, a chorus line of odd dinosaurs shows up with the caption "From 'Bizarre Dinosaurs,' National Geographic, December 2007." There's Amargasaurus, Carnotaurus, Dracorex, Epidendrosaurus, and (one of my personal…

Science for non-science majors. Big-course version

I have already talked about science and why everyone should take some science courses. The short answer (in case you don't want to read the previous post) is that everyone should take science because science (along with art and other stuff) is what humans do. So, tomorrow I will be off to attend a workshop on a new physical science curriculum. The goal is to bring more active-learning styles courses to large enrollment classes. This is essentially a similar idea to the Physics for Elementary Teachers course that I teach with one major difference - size. I would love to teach the course…

Not ready to run a corporation

Yesterday I mentioned that Carly Fiorina, a top McCain advisor and former CEO of Hewlett Packard, had declared Sarah Palin unqualified to run a major corporation. That's not all she thinks of the Republican ticket: Asked about that remark on MSNBC, she made the same unprompted assessment of the GOP presidential nominee. "I don't think John McCain could run a major corporation." ... A top McCain official contacted by CNN ... said Fiorina would be discouraged from additional media interviews. Another top campaign adviser was far less diplomatic. "Carly will now disappear," this source…

More guns, please!

Gun Goes Off Midflight: A US Airways pilot accidentally discharged his gun in the cockpit during a flight from Denver to Charlotte, N.C., according to the Transportation Safety Administration. The round was discharged by the pilot in the left seat and did not result in depressurization, according to government aviation sources. The Airbus A319 landed safely after the incident Saturday and without any injuries to the 124 passengers on board, a spokesperson for the TSA told ABCNEWS.com today. The pilot was a member of TSA's Federal Flight Deck Officer program, which trains and licenses…

Iraq

Kevin Drum notes that Moqtada al-Sadr has extended his cease-fire for another six months. This is abundantly good news, and as the Washington Post points out, this cease-fire is at least as significant a factor in the drop in violence as the "surge". I've updated the figure above from what I posted at the State of the Union. It remains the case that a model of fatalities since the ceasefire is a much stronger fit than a model of fatalities since the surge" began. Coalition fatalities have been flat since last October, and fell substantially in September. The long-term trend was upward…

Obamomentum

Obama won the Maine caucuses in a fairly dramatic way. The Hillary campaign had expected to take the state, thus upsetting the momentum from Obama's sweep of the Virgin Islands, Washington, Nebraska and Louisiana yesterday. Obama leads in the polls in the next block of states: Maryland, D.C. and Virginia, which polling may or may not mean anything. Hillary's firewalls at this point were supposed to be Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania, but a convincing win in Maine changes the dynamic of the race. Party leaders (including the vaunted superdelegates whose endorsements are currently buoying the…

Happy belated blogiversary!

August 1, 2004 was an auspicious day. From the hot, humid hills of eastern Kansas, a voice cried out and invited his nonexistent readership to "Check out my ActBlue list." The next day, this bloggish neophyte expressed his disgust at the rape, sodomy, and general abuse which went (goes?) on at Abu Ghraib. Later that day he expressed his concern that global warming was killing sea birds, and speculated about how natural selection might factor into their ultimate response. Two days later, on August 4, 2004, that young blogger's "Oy" signaled the beginning of a fight over evolution which…

Smaller Engines

The new Honda Accord comes out next month and, like virtually every new car, it boasts a bigger frame and bigger engine than last year's model. So I thought it might be worth revisiting some of the earlier generation Accords. It turns out that they were signifcantly more fuel efficient. For example, the 1982-1985 model got an extremely respectable 29/40 mpg. (In contrast, the four-cylinder engine in the new Accord comes in at 21 city, 31 hwy. The 6 cylinder gets 19/29.) The bad news is that the 1982 Accord only had 86 horsepower. Here's my question: do consumers really want/need such big…

Regulation vs. Trading Schemes vs. Carbon Tax

Here's a great L.A. Times editorial on the various policy options that we can use to combat climate change. The editorial comes out firmly against regulation (simply ordering polluters to clean up), and mounts a reasoned criticism of cap-and-trade schemes (the EU trading scheme has been a bust). So what should we do instead? The Times' recommendation is simple: impose a carbon tax. It's the simplest, easiest and most effective way to reduce carbon emissions. A well-designed, well-monitored carbon-trading scheme could deeply reduce greenhouse gases with less economic damage than pure…