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Science Blogging at Duke

Duke University, after years of being behind the curve, is now striving mightily to establish itself as a leader in online science communication. As a recent news article shows, the school is activelly encouraging its students to keep blogs and make podcasts. I have already mentioned Sarah Wallace and her blog about genomics research in Chernobyl. Nicholas Experience is a blogging/podcasting group working on environmental science (OK, Sheril is their most famous blogger, but she did it herself, without being prompted by the Nicholas Institute). At the Howard Hughes Precollege Program…

Open Access this week

First, I'd like to thank Darksyde for placing the discussion of Open Access science publishing on the front page of DailyKos. If you are a registered user there, go ahead and add your 2 cents to the conversation. Matt at Behavioral Ecology Blog explains RSS, what it is, how it works and how to use it to get science news. Recommended. Greg Laden is a Linux advocate. While I am not, I understand that, though Open Source and Open Access are not the same thing, they do go hand in hand in a way. Something to think about... Bjorn Brembs provides me with some useful advice and ideas. My…

What's Your Sarah Palin Name?

If I had been unlucky enought to be born to Sarah Palin (who besides being McCain's VP candidate, is clearly < sarcasm alert > a towering intellectual giant with a talent for naming babies < /sarcasm alert >), I would have been named .. McCain Fortress Palin That's when I give this online name generator my pseudonym, GrrlScientist. Here's what I got when I left the "enter your name" space empty; Knife Pile Palin But I like to fake out these name generators, just to see how they work. Most of them will give you a name, regardless of what name you give them, and the generated name…

Iscream, and You?

It's been two of those weeks in a row, and what works best to fix that? Iscream, that's what! You Are Chunky Monkey Ice Cream Truthfully, you're too spazzy to be chunky - you cheeky monkey! What Flavor Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Are You? Don't forget that 25 April is Ben and Jerry's annual "Free Cone Day" which is the anniversary of their opening day. These free cones are a special "thank you" to their customers. So what special iscream did you end up being? I took the liberty of figuring out PZ Myers' special iscream flavor (below the fold) .. it's too perfect, indeed, it's soooo…

What Kind of Pirate Arrr You?

[Note: the previous quiz screwed up the formatting for my entire blog, so I substituted this quiz in its place. Please accept my apologies for messing up this entry. Also keep in mind that my readers are not crazy; they were responding with their results to the original quiz] Arr, as a parrot-lovin' scientist, I thought I should learn more about me own secret pirate identity, and blimey, there I am! How about you, matey? You scored as Captain Jack Sparrow. You are definitely quirky and often mistaken for mad but if anyone is truly paying attention they can see there is method to your…

More Anti-Fun Busybodies at Work

This time it's Chuck Humphrey. He's filed a Federal suit, attempting to act as a "private attorney general" (his words, not mine), against a range of companies who run fantasy football leagues. The companies include CBS, Disney (which owns ESPN), and others. See the actual complaint here. He is trying to end this "online gambling". Now, most people probably don't know who Chuck Humphrey is, but I do. He used to be a regular in the poker newsgroup. He was one of the investors in a poker tournament called the Tournament of Champions, which went belly up before the poker boom hit. He's an…

Who ya gonna read?

Thank to Hank, who spotted this. If you go to Nature's upcoming climate publication, there's an online quiz they're using to decide who gets a freebie: https://www.sunbeltfs.com/forms/nq/subscribe.asp. At one point it asks what climate-related blogs you read. Naturally, only the finsest quality blogs are listed. There are three blogs: _Bright Green Blog _Real Climate _Stoat _Other (please specify) As Hank notes, "Bright Green Blog" -- the Christian Science Monitor's effort -- ended on "February 16, 2010 [a]fter 22 months and some 500 posts". So, despite their ability to drink prodigous…

Weekend Diversion: Things That Look Like Other Things

"Appearances are often deceiving." -Aesop While the Louvin Brothers might tell you that something else is more deceiving than appearances, as they sing Satan Lied To Me,there's an internet site out there I've just discovered that celebrates creativity in deceptive appearances. For your enjoyment, I present Things That Look Like Other Things! Some of my favorites are: floor pillows that look like pancakes, complete with pats of butter, a light fixture that looks like an ice-cream cone, perfect for your fluorescent bulbs, kitchen utensils that look like household and garden tools, a…

Your Nearest Archaeological Site

Here's an idea for bloggers with an archaeological bent. I'm thinking of putting together a one-off carnival about people's nearest archaeological sites. You go to the nearest site you're aware of, snap a picture of it and explain (in as many or few words you like) the site's significance and life-history in a blog entry. Then you send me the link, and when I've got a fair number, I put them together in a link-fest, plug it on Reddit & Co, everybody votes for it and we all get a traffic spike. You don't need any formal qualifications to contribute. Sound like fun? Please leave a comment…

Anthro Blog Carnival

The fiftieth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Yann Klimentidis' Weblog. Archaeology and anthropology, and all about Belqas, a town in the north-western corner of the Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt. Belqas comprises in its jurisdictions the well known resort of Gamasa. Belqas is also known for its natural gas fields in the region of Abu Mady. Belqas remains a mainly agricultural region, although it supports some industrial activities such as sugar, rice and plastic factories. Belqas has a very old secondary school which is known to graduate good highly qualified students. This school…

Anthro Blog Carnival

The forty-seventh Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Almost Diamonds. Archaeology and anthropology, and all dedicated to a future merger of the Vaishnava Center for Enlightenment with the Backyard Bard! The Vaishnava Center for Enlightenment (founded 1994) is an organization based in East Lansing, Michigan. It is a signatory to a wide range of public resolutions and petitions and works towards creating awareness on certain issues, such as promoting harmony and dialogue between Hindus and Muslims. The Backyard Bard is a Christian theatre company based in Melbourne, Australia. It…

Late Night Radio Appearance

I'm going to be on the Harry Browne show tomorrow night between 10 and 11 discussing the Kelo case with guest host Jim Babka. This time, Herb Titus really will be on along with me and I'm told he has an interesting take on this issue so it should be a fascinating discussion. I'm actually going to be in a hotel room out of town tomorrow night when I'm on the show, but I didn't want to pass up the opportunity. Harry Browne, for those who don't know, was the Libertarian Party Presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000. So even though he won't be hosting tomorrow night, it means a lot to be on his…

Semi-Formal Friday: Driving Habits

Dave Munger does Friday polls calling them "Casual Fridays," but then, the usual run of posts at Cognitive Daily is a lot more serious than my usual standard. So I'll call this a "semi-formal Friday" poll, sort of the khaki pants and blue blazer of the online research world. I'm also too lazy to set up poll software for this, so I'd like to ask you to leave your answers to the following questions in comments: 1) When driving between two places you regularly visit, do you: a) Always take main roads (highways or major surface streets), even if there is traffic. b) Usually take main roads, but…

links for 2007-12-30

Crooked Timber » » Science, and anti-science, in action The saga of the peppered moth as an example of evolution in action. (tags: biology experiment politics science) Some Road Songs The official government list of songs that mention highways. (tags: music travel US silly society culture) Matthew Yglesias (December 28, 2007) - Predicting CW (Culture) Why political betting markets aren't interesting or useful. (tags: US politics economics) Reason Magazine - The Amateurs' Hour "Whatever Keen (or I) may believe the future holds, it's not society's job to ensure that journalism…

Who's the Oldest Science Blogger?

Derek Lowe's doing a lunch thing at the ACS meeting, and in passing mentions the age of his blog: As the longest-standing chemistry blogger (perhaps the longest standing science blogger, for all I know), I'm glad to have a chance to speak. I was just telling a reader by e-mail that when I started this site in 2002, that I wasn't sure how much I'd find to write about. But (for better or worse) the material just keeps on coming. . . Derek's blog pre-dates this one by a few months-- I specifically cite him in the very first Uncertain Principles post, so he's got me beat. I wonder, though, if…

Uncertain Dots, Episode 9

In which Rhett and I chat about the hot new discovery of primordial gravitational waves (maybe) very briefly before segueing into talking about LIGO, and Cosmos, and why "theory" is a terrible word, and the memorization of constants, and standardized tests, and time-lapse videos. You know, as one does. Miscellaneous items: -- I'm a little pixellated, as if I'm concealing my identity. I forgot to shut Kate's computer down, so it may have been doing online backups that chewed up bandwidth. -- The von Neumann quote I butcher at one point is "The sciences do not try to explain, they hardly even…

links for 2008-04-08

Administrating « Confused at a higher level "Why did I say yes to the Dean when he asked whether I would take on this position? He made the request/offer to me a week after calling me to let me know I had tenure -- he claimed that this gave me a fair shot at saying no." (tags: academia society culture science physics math education) College Isn't Worth a Million Dollars :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, and Views and Jobs Squabbling over how much more a college graduate earns than a high-school graduate. This completely ignores quality-of-life issues. (tags:…

Social wasps reap the benefits of individualism

A sampling of face patterns in Polistes fuscatus paper wasps Polistes fuscatus paper wasps sport a bewildering array of facial markings.  Why is this? A new paper by Michael Sheehan and Elizabeth Tibbetts in the journal Evolution suggests natural selection may favor rare patterns, leading to a proliferation of diversity.  Sheehan & Tibbetts performed an elegant experiment on 18 groups of 4 foundress queens, painting three wasps with one pattern and the remaining one with a different pattern.  Regardless of the details of the actual face markings, the rare pattern consistently…

Iridium!

I have a project for you, since I know practical physics is pretty popular around here. This one involves orbital dynamics, optics, and astronomy. The required experimental apparatus is just your eyes, a clock, and an internet connection. There are these satellites orbiting overhead by the name of the Iridium constellation, working diligently to provide various communications services to its customers. We're not so interested in that. What we are interested in is the fact that these satellites have highly reflective mirror-like antennas which reflect sunlight down to the earth. With a…

Happenings in the Quantum World: December 22, 2007

Superexchange in optical lattices, factoring 15 in a linear optics quantum computer, quantum plagarism peaceful resolution, silicon and gallium arsinide quantum computers, and quantum mumbo jumbo in support of the ideas popularly known as God. Superexchange demonstrated in an optical lattice by Immanuel Bloch's group in Germany. Quantum leaps: Brisbane Times and UQ News Online report on Andrew White factoring 15 with a linear optics quantum computer. The preprint for this paper is arXiv:0705.1398. I didn't check, but I bet they got 15 equals 3 times 5. A resolution to the quantum…

Freakish Horseshoe Bat Photographed for the First Time

A Maclaud's horseshoe bat (being held in a glove) poses for the ladies... For the first time, scientists photographed a Maclaud's horseshoe bat in the forests of Guinea in West Africa. These bats had not been seen in the wild in over 40 years. The featured photo was snapped by German biologist Natalie Webber, who found 16 horseshoe bats living in a remote cave complex. "Our rediscovery is good news insofar as the species is still there and as we have shown that the distribution range appears to be somewhat larger than previously known," said Jakob Fahr, a German ecologist who headed up the…

Your Guide to Alien Life

I'll admit, I was a bit surprised when Popular Mechanics got in touch with me a while back about writing a story about aliens. I had always associated the magazine with people who knew how to take their car apart down to the last bolt and put it back together again. (Me, I gush with pride if I can change a wiper blade.) But they've actually been making a big push into science reporting, and they wanted me to look into what scientists are learning about life on other planets. I ended up focusing specifically on how life on Earth (and in labs) can guide the search for aliens. That's an angle I'…

Slouching Towards Total Video Immersion

NOTE: I'VE SET UP A FLASH VERSION OF THIS TALK HERE. DON'T BOTHER TRYING TO DOWNLOAD THE QUICKTIME VERSION I DESCRIBED IN THIS POST. Recently I gave the Discovery Lecture at Carleton University in Ottawa, in which I talked about new developments in evolutionary biology. They sent me a DVD of the talk, and I got a lunatic notion in my head that I would figure out how to get all Web Two-Point-O-Ee and post the lecture online. They told me to go ahead as long as I put a watermark on. Ever eager to waste time, I slowly figured out how to do that on QuickTime. Then I uploaded it to blip.tv,…

Gearing up for scio10: Online Reference Managers

We're just about set for a fabulous session on citation/bibliographic/reference managers at the upcoming Science Online conference. The session wiki page is here, so you can hop over there an add questions or suggestions if you'd like. John Dupuis and I are moderating and we'll have the following folks there talk about some of the most popular options: Kevin Emamy (CiteULike) Jason Hoyt (Mendeley) Trevor Owens (Zotero) Michael Habib (2Collab) John has a lot of experience with EndNote and we both have a lot of experience with RefWorks. The main point, though, is to have a great conversation…

Agoraphobia Service Monkey Lawsuit Rejected; Seizure Alert Ferret Kicked Out of Mall

Today was a big day for non-canine service animal news, which I keep tabs on here as part of ongoing follow up to my New York Times Magazine article, Creature Comforts, about the use of non-canine service animals (which include ducks, monkeys, horses, goats, and at least one kangaroo).  The biggest news is that a court in Missouri has rejected the discrimination case filed by Debby Rose, who I featured in my story. She was forbidden to bring her Macaque monkey Richard into local businesses, despite the fact that she says he's a service monkey trained to help with her agoraphobia (Richard…

Road to Nirvana

Driving in India is a unique and beguiling experience. There are many lessons to learn, and in the end of it all, you will attain Nirvana, the quintessential Indian state of non-being. Roads in and around Bangalore are like earth's oceans during the Cambrian period; an explosion of unpredictable shapes and forms slither around; cars of various sizes and personalities, bullock carts, plastic eating cows, buffaloes that shamelessly shit in the middle of the road, cyclists carrying shipping containers, mopeds on a death run, and colorful pedestrians dodging predatorial vehicles. Bangalore…

Arkansans…are you aware of the shame brought on your state?

These are the words of Clint McCance, a school board member in the Midland school district of Arkansas. He was a little bit annoyed that people in his school were wearing purple in remembrance of students who had been bullied into suicide. Being a fag doesn't give you the right to ruin the rest of our lives. If you get easily offended by being called a fag then don't tell anyone you are a fag. Keep that shit to yourself. It pisses me off though that we make a special purple fag day for them. I like that fags cant procreate. I also enjoy the fact that they often give each other aids and die.…

Are you being watched?

Since I am divesting myself of the occasional political whine, here's another. The US-based Electronic Privacy Information Center and the UK-based Privacy International have assessed over 70 countries for their protection of privacy, both online and generally. The worst nations are Russia, China, the United Kingdom and the United States. Yes, that's right, the least private nations include the two supposedly most democratic nations. They have a map: While I was less surprised to find France as a poor performer, I was unpleasantly surprised to find my own country as rating poorly and…

Developmental Psychology blogs?

A reader asks: I've been reading Cog Daily for about 4 months now and have always found that I am particularly fascinated with entries dealing with developmental psychology, such as the latest one regarding the logarithmic-like representation of numbers in young children. I was curious as to whether you knew of any [credible] blogs or highly active websites that are dedicated to the field of Dev Psych (don't worry, I will still read Cog Daily!). I'm currently finishing up my BA in Psychology at UC Santa Barbara and plan to go the route of developmental clinical psychology, come grad-school. I…

They Don't Call Em The 'Ivory Towers' For Nothing

Well, it seems Facebook just wasn't cool enough for the aspiring Ph.D... Heard of Epernicus? According to the tagline, it's 'Where Science Meets.' Only you have to be invited. In fact, you must 'use the name under which you publish, if applicable', so the webhosts can review your request and determine whether you're worthy of an invitation. The idea is simple. A social networking site to connect with others in your field and share information on research, honors, pedigree, and publications. There's even a blog. I can see this being useful. Of course, profile photos, chat, and email…

Casual Fridays: Are Mac owners like Prius owners?

A few days ago I noticed a comment on an online forum: "Prius owners are just like Mac owners." As a Mac owner and Prius owner, I felt that this comment needlessly stereotyped me. Were they implying that there was something wrong with me? That I was superficial? That I thought I was better than other people? On the other hand, as a Mac owner and a Prius owner, wasn't I confirming the stereotype? Perhaps there is something to this stereotype, and Casual Friday may be just the time to find out. I've created a brief survey that asks you a few questions about your car, your computer, and your…

links for 2008-01-08

Matt Thurling on the concept of science.TV « Pimm - Partial immortalization "Science" seems to mean very things to scientists and non-scientists, which complicates the project of communicating about science. (tags: science-communication) Recognition and Alleviation of Distress in Laboratory Animals Available to pre-order, or to read for free online. Looks like good empirical research to guide humane use of animals in research. (tags: research-with-animals) Periodic Tabloid » The Great Debate? Chemical Heritage Foundation president Tom Tritton posts his science policy questions to the…

Following the crowd one last time...

Yesterday, it was a personality quiz. Today, other ScienceBloggers have been assimilated into the LOL Cat craze. Given that I've had a tangential brush with the craze myself in the past when I posted a bunch of LOL Doctor Whos, and because last week was sufficiently serious, with all the posts about secondhand smoke and DCA, I figure, why not? I'll see which LOL Cat I am too. My only resistance to assimilation is that I'm doing the test on Sunday, rather than "Caturday": Your Score : Serious Cat 30% Affectionate, 30% Excitable, 53% Hungry Hungry for knowledge in any internet…

International Digital Curation Conference

By way of amplifying the signal: the 5th International Digital Curation Conference is coming up in London in December. I will be there in spirit only, I fear, but I hope there will be a Twitter hashtag I can follow? Chris Rusbridge has blogged the program. (If I seem more scatterbrained than usual, it's because most of my spare time and brainspace is currently devoted to building a course I will be teaching online in the spring for Illinois's GSLIS. It's a "Topics in Collection Development" course, which means I have to view things through a lens I'm almost completely unfamiliar with—I don't…

From The Desk of Zelnio: R. Cadwallader Smith's Within the Deep

As part of the Gutenberg Project to make available copyright-free (i.e. old) books available in print online, I came across Within the Deep by R. Cadwallader Smith as part of Cassell's "Eyes and No Eyes" Series Book VIII. I have no idea to the original print date but I am guessing mid to late 1800s by the look of the plates and figures. I really love and admire old texts, especially those many figures as does this one. The art was so descriptive and inspiring then, before the age of computer animation. The lessons, or chaptes, include such grand subjects as: Fish For Breakfast The…

From the Annals of Arachnophobia Vol. 5, Issue 2

I have been known to display my love-hate relationship with spiders here on the Refuge. Knowing my ambivalent feelings toward arachnids, on-line droogs have shared photos of a couple of cool orb weavers, the type of spider I like, versus the lycosids which freak me out. Spider porn below the fold... First, Spacebee of Texas shares these pictures of a fine Gasteracantha cancriformis (Crab-like orb weaver) specimen. This spider resides in her backyard, having strung up the web between a starfruit and guava tree. Now why am I reminded of a Dalkon shield? And the rear-view: ST of the UK…

Women & Science/Technology Policy Seminar - For Students

Announced on the WMST-L listserv: Women & Science/Technology Policy Seminar in Washington, DC The Public Leadership Education Network (PLEN) will be holding its Women & Science/Technology Policy Seminar January 4-8, 2010 for women science majors who want to explore what life is like as a science advisor. This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for women students to discover a different way to professionally apply their scientific and technological knowledge - in a career developing public policy. The seminar teachers are women scientists in diverse areas of government and the private…

Don't forget, Nisbet and Mooney at Stowers tomorrow

Chris Mooney and Matt Nisbet will kick off their Speaking Science tour tomorrow in Kansas City, in the Stowers Institute auditorium at 4 pm. It should be a fun event and a good chance for science advocates to start a discussion about how to communicate science to nonscientists. Nisbet and Mooney kicked the discussion off with their article in framing in Science and the associated op-ed in the Washington Post. There was a vigorous debate online about those articles, what it means to "frame" science, and what framings might be useful. Missouri recently fought back a state law forbidding…

Kansas Guild of Bloggers: Busy, busy, busy edition

When Kurt Vonnegut passed away, I pointed out that the Bokononist mantra "Busy, busy, busy" is one that I find useful in my own life, especially this week. So it goes. The Kansas Guild of Bloggers, normally put online on Monday, is thus appearing on Friday, and incorporates only submissions to the blogcarnival.com system. Heck, I'm even using their boring "instacarnival." I'm sure there's been a bunch of good stuff out there that I've missed, and I apologize. Next Monday it's at Paul Decelles' place. Submit! John B. presents A stretch of river XXXV: "Here comes a frame-house down on the…

Eruptions Mailbag

So, I get a steady diet of email messages here at the Eruptions HQ, so I thought I could try a little roundup of the great information/links that you readers are sending (and I apologize for taking so long for some of these). Enjoy! - Tim Stone tells us about GeoEye pictures of volcanoes. GeoEye is the new satellite launched to add to the Google Earth images of the planet. There are some quite striking images of volcanoes included in the collection. - Richard Roscoe sends us to some updated images of the on-going volcanic activity on Montserrat. As usual, there is an abundance of excellent…

Science Roundup: We're Back

Long, long ago on a website far, far away (OK, 2006 on Blogcritics.org) before I joined ScienceBlogs, I used to do weekly or biweekly roundups of science, health and tech in the news. In these I would make no attempt whatsoever to interpret or even accurately represent the articles involved. Sometimes they were even funny. Funny or not, I had forgotten how much I enjoyed writing them, so I think I am going to bring them back. So here is your Science Roundup for February 9th, 2009. Soon WiFi will be available on airlines, but not everyone is pleased with the convenience: But the…

Books I'd Like to Read

For your reading and collection development pleasure: 137: Jung, Pauli, and the Pursuit of a Scientific Obsession by Arthur I. Miller "The history is fascinating, as are the insights into the personalities of these great thinkers."--New Scientist Is there a number at the root of the universe? A primal number that everything in the world hinges on? This question exercised many great minds of the twentieth century, among them the groundbreaking physicist Wolfgang Pauli and the famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Their obsession with the power of certain numbers--including 137, which describes the…

Elvis has left the Building! (Guest Post by Scott Church)

By now everyone knows that last June the UAH (University of Alabama Huntsville) team led by Roy Spencer and John Christy released updates to their satellite derived lower troposphere temperature trends. These trends, which come from their "TLT" dataset use data from the Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) packages that have been flying aboard NOAA's Polar Orbiting Environmental (POES) satellites since late 1978. This dataset uses combinations of nadir (straight-down) and off-nadir views of MSU Channel 2 to create a "synthetic" channel that isolates a lower and thinner portion of the atmosphere…

Deficit Models, Bureaucratic Empathy, and Work-Life Juggling

Every now and then, I run across a couple of items that tie together a whole bunch of different issues that weigh heavily on my mind. That happened yesterday courtesy of Timothy Burke, whose blog post about an NPR story is so good that there aren't enough +1 buttons on the entire Internet for it. The NPR piece is about eating and exercise habits, and the way families struggle to do what they know they ought to: More than half of children ate or drank something during the "crunch time" window that can lead to unhealthy weight gain, as perceived by their parents. And more than a quarter of…

Periodic Table of the ScienceBlogs, Part 4: Blogs D-E

Discovering Biology in a Digital World Categories: Biology, Academia Sandra Porter earned a BS in Microbiology from the University of Minnesota, and an MSc and PhD in microbiology from the University of Washington. She did a postdoc at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and spent a decade leading the biotechnology program at Seattle Central Community College. Now she engages in "semi-random acts of teaching" while also working for a bioinformatics company called Geospiza. She writes about how bioinformatics can be used as an educational tool, and what and how we can learn from it.…

Obama's Support of Corn Ethanol Unlikely to Change

I've been pretty open here about my support of Barack Obama's bid for the presidency, but one issue I certainly disagree with him on is his support of corn ethanol subsidies. Unfortunately, it looks like that this is one issue he's unlikely to improve on, as The New York Times reports today that ties to the corn ethanol industry permeate the highest levels of the Obama campaign: Mr. Obama is running as a reformer who is seeking to reduce the influence of special interests. But like any other politician, he has powerful constituencies that help shape his views. And when it comes to domestic…

Andrew Wakefield: Destined for even more disrepute

I must admit that I never saw it coming. At least, I never saw it coming this fast and this dramatically. After all, this is a saga that has been going on for twelve solid years now, and it's an investigation that has been going on at least since 2004. I'm referring, of course, to that (possibly former) hero of the anti-vaccine movement, the man who is arguably the most responsible for suffering and death due to the resurgence of measles in the U.K. because of his role in frightening parents about the MMR vaccine. I'm referring to the fall of Andrew Wakefield Wakefield has shown an incredible…

NSF AST: the bell tolls...

Heads up, peeps. NSF Portfolio Review is out Mayall, WIYN, 2.1m KPNO, GBT and VLBA are out in recommended scenarios. Shit. Portfolio Review - full text 170 pp (pdf) To summarise: Kitt Peak telescopes cut; Green Bank Radio Telescope and Very Large Baseline Array cut; McM-P Solar Telescope cut before Advanced Solar Telescope starts. Committee recommends pre-emptive cuts based on pessimistic budget scenario. LSST, CCAT and GSMT in. Two scenarios: A presumes 10% effective cut over decade B presumes 30% effective cut over decade From Exec Summary: "We recommend that AST avoid the risk of…

China, Pig Intestines, and the FDA

I wrote last week about how the FDAâs mixup with Chinese factory names kept it from inspecting the Chinese facility producing the main ingredient for Baxterâs heparin; this problem came to light after the drug was implicated in four deaths. (To date, more than 400 adverse reactions have been reported.) Today, articles in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal explain what drug companies and the FDA are dealing with when they rely on Chinese production. The NYTâs David Barboza and Walt Bogdanich get different answers about the supply chain of the factory that generated much of Baxterâs…

Links for 2010-07-31

slacktivist: If you can make it there "Newcomers are often insecure, and a debt of gratitude can make anyone feel a bit awkward, so I try my best to be patient with some of the sillier things often said by those from the American "heartland" about supposed "East Coast elites" in general and New York in particular. But that patience has its limits and I may have reached those limits listening to various non-New Yorkers bloviating about where and how New Yorkers ought to be allowed to worship. (I'm from the heartland of New Jersey, myself, where I was taught that real Americans don't imagine…