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A week in the life

There’s a common misconception about academics. It sees us as spending perhaps six to nine hours a week actually working and then sitting on our asses for the rest of the working week absorbing money from the public. Wish it were so. This week, I had nine hours of in-class time, five hours of meetings with students regarding papers that are due next week, three hours of other meetings, and eight hours of class preparation (including three hours this afternoon). And then there is the service ... Service is one of those things that academics have to deal with, and when you are part of a self-…

Agnosticism or Atheism?

Over at Evolving Thoughts, John Wilkins has unearthed a piece by Bertrand Russell on agnosticism. Russell starts out by differentiating atheism and agnosticism: An agnostic thinks it impossible to know the truth in matters such as God and the future life with which Christianity and other religions are concerned. Or, if not impossible, at least impossible at the present time. ... An atheist, like a Christian, holds that we can know whether or not there is a God. The Christian holds that we can know there is a God; the atheist, that we can know there is not. The Agnostic suspends judgment,…

Women! It's your job to prepare for your rape!

Kansas representative Pete DeGraaf is fighting for a bill that would exclude abortion coverage in cases of rape. He thinks the state should stay out of that problem, and it should just be something that women "plan ahead for": Bollier asked him, "And so women need to plan ahead for issues that they have no control over with pregnancy?" DeGraaf drew groans of protest from some House members when he responded, "I have a spare tire on my car." "I also have life insurance," he added. "I have a lot of things that I plan ahead for." You heard the man, ladies. You should all just get organized…

Who is the parasite?

Ed has written a little about Dembski's claim that Barbara Forrest (of Creationism's Trojan Horse fame) owes her career to him. I am reminded of last year when Dembski accused Jeff Shallit and Wes Elsberry of "making a name for themselves by parasitizing my work." At that time, June 2005, I wrote the following: Dembski has made a very strange statement regarding the mathematician Jeffrey Shallit. In a letter he claims that he doesn’t take Shallitt seriously as a critic as he sees Shallitt’s behavior as un-ethical and his criticisms as being trivial. I shall leave others to answer those…

What Are "Tubes in the Ear"?

Mark Chu-Caroll related a story in the comments to this post, about how his son benefited greatly from having tubes put in his ears after recurring ear infections became a serious issue. For children who get frequent ear infections, tympanostomy tubes can be a very effective, and low-impact treatment. (An explanation of ear infections, and how they occur, is here.) A small tube is inserted into the eardrum, which allows the built-up fluid that has accumulated behind the eardrum to drain out. It also allows air to once again permeate the middle ear, and helps prevent further infections.…

June Mix Tape

1. And it Rained All Night- Tom Yorke (Radiohead's frontman's solo album "The Eraser" has been leaked. Its Kid A-Ok.) 2. The Only Difference Between Marytrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage- Panic at the Disco (Fallout Boy's progeny become their betters.) 3. Jenny Was a Friend of Mine- The Killers (80s New Wave waxes poetic about a murdered lover.) 4. Homme- Brazillian Girls (Cooler-than-thou sultry salsa with a retro-future sound.) 5. Incinerate- Sonic Youth (The Youth of yesteryear make contact with the kids of today through a new, catchy album.) 6. Steady As She Goes- The Raconteurs (Jack…

In Other News, Old Things Die

As my esteemed Sciencebloggers Jake, Evolving Thoughts, Bora, and PZ have reported, "Darwin's Turtle" died. Named Harriet (actually Harry, but was found to be female 100 years later so it was changed), the tortoise was picked up in the Galapagos islands by Charles Darwin. It found its way to the Brisbane Zoo, under the dubious yet entertaining auspices of Steve Irwin. It was 176 years old! My opinion is this: This is no mournful or sorrowful passing. I think its a joyous celebration of life that an ambulatory (albeit slowly) animal lived as long as it did, providing a link to a person who…

Children ruin everything

A study discussed over at Live Science confirms what I have always suspected: An eight-year study of 218 couples found 90 percent experienced a decrease in marital satisfaction once the first child was born. "Couples who do not have children also show diminished marital quality over time," says Scott Stanley, research professor of psychology at University of Denver. "However, having a baby accelerates the deterioration, especially seen during periods of adjustment right after the birth of a child." An unrelated study in 2006 of 13,000 people found parents are more depressed than non-parents.…

Quiet Bison get more play

Ha! I knew it. The quiet animals get more play than the loud obnoxious ones: During bison mating season, the quietest bulls score the most mates and sire the most offspring while studs with the loudest bellows see the least action, according to a surprising new study by researchers at University of California, Davis, and Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. The researchers also found that the volume of a bull's bellow was not related to its weight or age. "We were expecting to find that the bigger, stronger guys -- the high-quality males -- would have the loudest bellows, because…

God and Tenure Joke

This is pretty funny: Why God Never Received Tenure at the University 1. He had only one major publication. 2. And it was in Hebrew. 3. And it had no cited references. 4. And it wasn't published in a refereed journal or even submitted for peer review. 5. And some even doubt he wrote it himself. 6. It may be true that he created the world but what has he done since? 7. His cooperative efforts have been quite limited. 8. The scientific community has had a very rough time trying to replicate his results. 9. He never applied to the Ethics Board for permission to use human subjects. 10. When one…

Rodent Activated Detection and Riddance

A UK-based company recently unveiled a new mousetrap that utilizes technology rather than Monterey jack to capture and then slaughter adorable mice. The company, Rentokil (nope, not kidding), has developed a contraption that looks like the opening to a tunnel, preying on mice's natural curiosity that any dark hole may have delicious food waiting inside. Upon entering the hole, however, the mice trigger an infrared beam, which closes the door behind them. Once the doors are shut, the trap releases carbon dioxide until the mice pass out and then die of asphyxiation. The time of capture to the…

Categorize this Delicious!

Here are my rationalizations for posting this on Zooillogix: #1 I can't find anything else at the moment that is anywhere near as interesting #2 There's an abundance of animal life on these pizzas #3 It's friggin awesome Without further explanaton, may I introduce two remarkable inventions from South Korea. More specifically, Pizza Hut South Korea. As seen on Slice, first we have the Korean Shrimp Roll Pizza which seems to have no fewer than 28 tasty crustaceans lining the edge. Apparently, it even comes with a shrimp cocktail dipping sauce. It is actually pretty remarkable if you think about…

Some Birds Don’t Dig the Oldies

Scientists have long known that birds develop local dialects, but they didn't know that birds' languages can go out of style with the times. According to an article in England's Daily Mail, behavioral ecologist Elizabeth Derryberry tested songs of male whitecrowned sparrows from the 1970's against songs recorded this year. When Derryberry played the modern songs to a group of 10 female and 20 male sparrows, the female birds started courting behavior and the males became territorial. When she played the old-school recordings (which were of the same sound quality), however, the group of birds…

Electric Fish Perform "Electric Duets"

Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Barbara-Anne...... According to a new study from Cornell University, African electric fish engage in a dueling performance of electric pulses when in courtship. Scientists had known that the fish emitted electric signals to explore their surroundings and communicate sex and social standing. This, however, was the first research comparing the electric emissions of breeding and non-breeding fish and sorting the fish's emissions based on their sex. The fish use a battery-like organ in their tails to generate the weak charge. The researchers used custom software to separate and…

With Huckabee, It's the Guitar, Stupid!

In the 1984 presidential election pitting the charismatic Ronald Reagan against the plodding Walter Mondale, polls showed that a majority of Americans when asked specifically about their policy preferences favored Mondale's positions over Reagan's. Yet Reagan ended up winning in a landslide. The reason was that Reagan's radical stands on taxes, the economy, and social issues were eclipsed by the penumbra of the former actor's personality and charisma. Likeability and perceived character became the deciding selection criteria for Americans over the issues. This tendency by voters to overlook…

Why the Biological Fiction of Race Persists

James Watson outrageously suggested that Africans were genetically inferior. If race is a biological fiction, what are the reasons for persistent belief in this social myth? My colleague Tim Caulfield, Director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta, points to research that shows genetic differences can more accurately be called "genographic variations," and only roughly correspond to the visible characteristics we have come to identify with categories of "races" such as black, white, or asian. In a must-read op-ed appearing at the Edmonton Journal and other papers across…

Fall speaking lineup takes me to Boston, Palo Alto, Seattle, Minneapolis and many places in between

It's going to be a busy fall semester. Classes start here at American University next week but in my down time I will be traveling to many different cities and major institutions to talk to a diversity of groups about new directions in science communication. Below is a lineup as it stands right now. A few other possible stops are still in the works. These trips will be an opportunity to talk about how research can and should inform public engagement efforts, but it will also be a great opportunity to gain insights from some of the smartest people in the country. 11.27.07. National…

Public Backs "Progressives" Over "Liberals"

Has the effort by liberals to re-brand themselves as progressives been successful? What about Republicans who no longer describe themselves as a conservative but rather as a "Reagan Republican"? Rasmussen released a survey last week that reveals some interesting findings: Just 20% said they consider it a positive description to call a candidate politically liberal while 39% would view that description negatively. However, 35% would consider it a positive description to call a candidate politically progressive. Just 18% react negatively to that term. Those figures reflect a huge swing, from a…

Podcast: More on Framing (and Dawkins)

The Point of Inquiry podcast is produced by the Center for Inquiry-Transnational and averages 60,000 listeners a week. In this week's show, host DJ Grothe and I engage in a lively forty-five minute discussion. You can listen here. I offer more details on: --> the nature of framing and media influence. --> does framing mean false spin? --> the likely negative impact of Dawkins. --> communication strategy specific to the teaching of evolution in schools. --> what the Discovery Institute understood about framing (also see this post.) --> the role of framing in the debates…

LOCAL TV DOMINATES AS NEWS SOURCE FOR AMERICANS: Gallup Measures Decline in Network and Cable TV News Viewing Since 2002; Local Newspaper Reading Stable; Internet News Use Levels Off

Gallup just released the latest in their trends on news consumption patterns. There's a lot to debate about these poll measures, but they do provide one indicator among many about what might be going on with audiences. In fact, these numbers are best compared for reliability against the annual Pew Center for the People and the Press news consumption surveys and other sources. According to Gallup, local TV news continues to dominate as an information source for Americans, with 55% reporting that they tune into the medium every day. This pattern has held steady for the past ten years.…

CHEVY SILVERADO AD PRIMES 9/11 AND PATRIOTISM: Truck Commercial with John 'Cougar' Mellencamp Makes Terrorist Attacks Salient For Viewers Just Before Election; Boosts GOP Strategy to Define the Criteria Voters Use

You know you have reached a new ethical low in advertising when 9/11 is now fair game for selling commercial products, much less pickup trucks. But for those who haven't caught the ad, Chevy is running a commercial throughout primetime that fronts John "Cougar" Mellencamp singing "This is Our Country," and a montage featuring flag waving, images of the heartland, first responders, and a picture of the "trade towers of light." The full minute version of the ad starts with scenes from the civil rights era and Vietnam war (archived here at You Tube), but the 30 second version of the commercial…

Penguins, Chimpanzees, and Other Old Friends

Among the many obligations keeping me away from the blog is the nearly-completed overhaul of my web site, carlzimmer.com. Along with information on my books and talks, the site also has an archive of the past few years of my articles. I've made my way back to 2001, and I am continuing to push back further. It's a strange experience to look back over many dozens of stories that all seemed rather cutting-edge at the time. In some cases, they've been outstripped so starkly by later research that they seem almost like time capsules now. In other cases, further research hasn't really pushed the…

Let Me Draw Your Attention...

...to this gem I just received about my post on the Dover creationism case: Carl, It doesn't bother you that the judge went beyond any human capacity to attack the board members, not for their actions, not for their efforts to remove science fiction from the science classroom (that would be a realistic description of Darwinian evolution as it is fictional and not factual), but rather because he stated they were trying to introduce religion into the classroom. The fact is that he could not possibly challenge the facts of the case, the facts of Intelligent Design - yes the SCIENTIFIC FACTS are…

Mutant gene responsible for FOP

From the Associated Press: Scientists have discovered a mutant gene that triggers the body to form a second, renegade skeleton, solving the mystery of a rare disease called FOP that imprisons children in bone for life. The finding, reported Sunday, may one day lead to development of a drug, not only to treat the rare bone disorder, but more common bone buildup related to head and spine trauma, and even sports injuries, the researchers said. "We've reached the summit," said Dr. Frederick Kaplan, an orthopedist whose team at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine pinpointed the cause…

Synthese scandal makes the New York Times

You may recall the furious debate among philosophers about a philosophy journal, Synthese, that made a tacit rebuke of critics of Intelligent Design creationism in an editorial added after acceptance of a number of papers on ID; it's not just that they caved to creationist pressure, but that the editors-in-chief went over the heads of the working editors who assembled that issue of the journal to criticize excellent work by rational philosophers like Barbara Forrest. There has been a boycott of the journal; links to various commentaries on the issue can be found on a status page. Well now the…

Einstein ... "it is a theory"

Next semester I will be teaching Einstein's own account of relativity (amaz) in my HON 172 class. It will be interesting to see how that goes as it's not the easiest text in the world. Given that, the following caught my eye: In a fitting cap to the World Year of Physics 2005, MIT physicists and colleagues from the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) report the most precise direct test yet of Einstein's most famous equation, E=mc2. And, yes, Einstein still rules. The team found that the formula predicting that energy and mass are equivalent is correct to an incredible…

Effect of Kennesaw law on burglaries

John De Armond said: Kennesaw is the city. Even though the law is symbolic, it served its purpose. Burglaries dropped to zero the following year. That's ZERO. Nadda. Gee, this story gets better every time it is told. Next time it is repeated I suppose we will hear about how the the Kennesaw gun law caused the rate to become negative. Here are the actual numbers (from Sociology & Social Research v74:1 p51) Kennesaw Burglaries 1976-1986 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 48 85 86 41 21 22 35 35 54 35 35 29 32 70 The Kennesaw law was passed on March 15, 1982 and pretty clearly had no effect on the…

Real-Time ERP Index of Attention via SSVEP

In this poster, Bastos, Mullen and colleagues show that they can analyze electrical oscillations on the scalp of human subjects and predict how quickly they will respond in a simple target detection task. They do this by an interesting method known as the Steady State Visual Evoked Potential (SSVEP), otherwise known as "frequency tagging": the basic idea is that visual stimuli can be flickered onscreen at various frequencies, and that those frequencies are detectable on the scalp - particularly if they are being actively attended. When the frequency of the flickering stimulus is most strong…

Please Welcome Casaubon's Book to ScienceBlogs

Sharon Astyk is a writer, teacher and small farmer living in rural upstate New York and now writes at Casaubon's Book, after the character in the George Eliot novel Middlemarch who attempts to put everything in history within a single narrative. She writes and speaks frequently about peak oil, climate change and depletion issues. Here is a sample from one of her latest posts. In bemoaning the so-called "Danish text" that would allow rich nations to produce twice the carbon pollution as poor ones she writes: This should not surprise us - at every level our energy and environmental process…

US Chamber of Commerce Gets Punked on Climate Change

In a shocking reversal after denying climate science for decades, a spokesperson for the US Chamber of Commerce (the world's largest business advocacy group) announced yesterday that they have reversed their historical stance on the issue of global climate change. According to the press release carried by The New York Times, Reuters, CNBC, the Washington Post and FOXNews: WASHINGTON, D.C.-The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is throwing its weight behind strong climate legislation, a spokesman for Chamber President Tom J. Donahue announced today at the National Press Club. "We believe that strong…

Happy Birthday, Mr. Clarke!

HAPPY 90th BIRTHDAY,ARTHUR C. CLARKE! I'm personally indebted to Mr. Clarke for so many reasons: his profound optimism, particularly about our race as a unified system and our inevitable future contact with extraterrestrial life, has bolstered my ability to think globally; his unshakable commitment to the popularization of science and the dry elegance of his books have always left me echoing with dewy wonder. I pretty much consider the moment in 2001: A Space Odyssey when David Bowman proclaims, ""The thing's hollow -- it goes on forever -- and -- oh my God! -- it's full of stars!" to be a…

The Man Whom The Trees Loved

People might as well be trees. The only difference, sometimes, between the swathe of humans plodding across this earth and the equal amount of botanical life foliaging its way across it is a question of time. It seems to me that we often forget -- or never knew -- that plants, like ourselves, live linear lives. Trees are born, become saplings, experience puberty and growth, mature, and then die standing. They just do it in a much longer and much less mobile time frame than we do -- so much so that I recently found myself legitimately wondering if trees die, at all. Before you scoff, consider…

#5: Competition horses calmed by lavender

In looking back over the history of the blog, I thought it would be fun to take another glimpse at the top 5 most popular posts in 2017 thus far... Image of lavender from GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=322384 While lavender aromatherapy has been documented to reduce stress in humans, little is known about its potential for reducing stress in veterinary medicine. Horses can develop elevated heart rates and stress hormone levels when they are confined to horse trailers and transported to new competition venues. Therapies to reduce stress in competition…

Placental peptide reverses symptoms of preeclampsia

  Wikimedia, Whatiguana Preeclampsia is a serious complication that develops in about 5-8% of pregnant women. It is characterized by elevated blood pressure and is typically accompanied by excess protein in the urine (a sign of kidney problems). Symptoms often (but not always) return to normal after delivery of the baby. Elabela is a recently discovered micropeptide secreted by the placenta in mammals. It is also found in fish where it plays a role in development of the heart. A recent study published in Science showed that mice that do not have this peptide develop preeclampsia. When…

Heat stress in livestock

Photo by: Myrabella / Wikimedia Commons, via Wikimedia Commons With the approach of summer, a timely study was published in the American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology on whether inflammation plays a role in heat stress-related complications in muscles. Heat stress is a major problem in the livestock industry. In the United States alone it is reportedly associated with a loss of approximately $158 billion annually in the swine industry. To cool off, swine seek shade and often mud baths (which mimic sweating by helping the animals cool off through…

Decompression sickness

Image of Steller sea lion by Daniel Hershman from Federal Way, US (A crashing wave) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons Animals exposed to military sonar are thought to develop symptoms similar to decompression sickness. Since microparticles in the blood are known to increase with decompression sickness in diving land animals, researchers explored whether levels were also increased in Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus), that similarly hold their breath while diving. Microparticles are fragments of cell membranes. The research team compared…

Polar bears vs Grizzly bears

I read an interesting article in the Alaska Dispatch News which examined interactions between arctic grizzly bears and polar bears. They found that although polar bears are larger, they tend to leave food sources when grizzly bears are around. This may be because polar bears typically spend a lot of time on sea ice without the need to be aggressive towards competitors. Of concern is that the relatively passive nature of polar bears may be detrimental considering these animals are increasingly spending more time foraging on land during the summer and fall months. North Slope bone pile in…

Cardiovascular disease: Chicken or the egg?

Image of chicken egg from Wikimedia Commons. Turns out the egg is an important phase. A new study published this month in American Journal of Physiology - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology looked at what happens in the egg when a chicken fetus was exposed to low oxygen (hypoxia) conditions. In mammals, this can occur as a result of maternal hypoxia, preeclampsia as well as anemia in the fetus resulting in less red blood cells that can carry oxygen. Understanding this is important as restricted fetal growth is associated with an increased risk for developing cardiovascular…

A protein that improves exercise capacity

Cartoon image from www.teenwritersblog.com Physiologist Laurie Goodyear (Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School, MA) and her colleagues recently published a study in the American Journal of Physiology that shows how overexpressing a protein can increase exercise capacity. The protein of interest was tribbles homolog 3 (TRB3), which is a mammalian form of the tribbles protein found in fruit flies (aka: Drosophila). Prior to this study, data suggested that TRB3 plays a role in metabolism so Dr. Goodyear's team decided to examine this more closely in skeletal muscle, which is a major…

Starvation is the fountain of youth, for worms at least

Image of C. elegans from http://www.easternct.edu/~adams/C.eleganslanding.html New research published in PLOS Genetics shows that starving C. elegans (Caenorhabditis elegans) during the late larval stage of development when the worms are undergoing tissue growth and formation halts cellular activity at previously unknown checkpoints in their development. These findings show that nutrition is an important cue to signal whether or not the worms should continue on to the next stage of development. Interestingly, the two-week starvation period actually doubled the lifespan of the worms as they…

The evolutionary capacitor

Image from LiveScience. Credit: Richard Borowsky Heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) helps keep proteins in the body folded properly and is thought to compensate for variations that occur in proteins over time. In a study published in Science magazine, Dr. Nicolas Rohner and colleagues showed that stress can affect the ability for HSP90 to do its job thereby unmasking these alternative versions of proteins which may lead to adaptation in some cases. The theory was tested in fish called Mexican tetra (above), some of which adapted to life in caves leading to eventual loss of, or diminished,…

Bovine colostrum in the prevention of enterocolitis in premies

Image from www.KidsHealth.org Babies born prematurely are predisposed to necrotizing enterocolitis, in which portions of the intestinal lining dies. Infant formulas are thought to contribute to the development of this disorder in premature babies. This is a serious condition that can lead to death in about 25% of premies. Dr. Sangild (University of Copenhagen) and colleagues have discovered that premature piglets that were fed either human donor breast milk or bovine (cow) colostrum had better outcomes compared to those fed infant formula. Food passage time through the intestines was…

City birds are early to rise

Blackbird image from: Ernie Janes/naturepl.com A recent study has provided some evidence supporting the hypothesis that light and noise pollution alters the biological clocks of birds living in cities (compared to birds living in rural areas).   Dr. Dominoni (Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Germany) and colleagues used radio-pulse transmitters attached to European blackbirds (Turdus merula) living in Munich, Germany (city) and those living in a forest nearby to track the animal's activity levels. They found that blackbirds living in the city showed significantly increased activity an…

What is driving obesity in cats and dogs?

  Dr. Kelly Swanson, a professor of animal and nutritional sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign just published an article on the topic of pet obesity in the Journal of Animal Science. His research is designed to explore how foods alter gene expression in our pets, a field called nutrigenomics. He thinks that domestication (reducing the need for animals to hunt or compete for food) may contribute to the rise in pet obesity. Since domesticated animals also spend less time and energy trying to reproduce, thanks to spaying and neutering, they do not require as much energy…

Jell-O Brains

3D image of a brain made transparent using the CLARITY technique. Image from: Deisseroth Lab as posted in The NY Times I have to admit I love the science section of The New York Times. The topic today: Dr. Karl Deisseroth and colleagues at Stanford University have developed a technique called CLARITY that uses hydrogel to make the brain look like it is made of Jell-O. They have successfully applied this technique to a whole mouse brain as well as part of a human brain. Using CLARITY, they are able to observe neuronal networks three dimensionally while still maintaining the biochemistry of…

Understanding Peer Review

Image from: Collectors Weekly  Ever wonder how to tell if "scientific" information that you find on the internet is believable or just plain bogus? I came across a website called Sense About Science that explains how research is published and how to determine if it is credible. They also give advice and answer questions about claimed scientific evidence. Here is a synopsis of the scientific peer review process: After a study is conducted and data has been gathered and analyzed, scientists summarize their findings in a paper that they submit for publication to a journal. The editor of the…

One step closer to restoring hearing

Damage to the auditory nerve connecting the inner ear and brain causes hearing loss in some individuals. Researchers Dr. Marcelo Rivolta from the University of Sheffield and colleagues have shown that human embryonic stem cells that were differentiated into auditory nerve cells can improve overall by ~45% hearing in gerbils that were treated with ouabain to damage the nerves. Ten weeks after transplantation, some of the differentiated cells were shown to grow projections that connected with the brain stem and the animals could perceive more faint sounds. Of course the purpose of the studies…

Brain scans show how crows perceive human faces

You may recall a prior post in which I talked about how intelligent crows are. In fact, there was a special on PBS demonstrating their ability to solve problems and even recognize human faces (HIGHLY recommended if you haven't yet had a chance to see it): Watch A Murder of Crows on PBS. See more from Nature. In a more recent study, Dr. Marzluff and colleagues used brain scans to demonstrate that crows not only remember faces, but they can also remember how they were treated by various people. In the study, his team captured 12 wild American crows while wearing latex "captor" face masks. In…

Lottâs selective quoting of Michael OâHanlon

Earlier I commented on Lott's op-ed where claimed that Albuquerque and O'Hanlon got the Baghdad murder rate wrong. In an update on his blog, Lott writes: Update: Michael O'Hanlon, a co-author of one of the articles that I commented on in my Investors' Business Daily piece, was helpful in getting to the bottom of these claims. First, he responded quickly and was not defensive when I asked him for his sources on the Baghdad murder rate. Second, in an e-mail he told me that he had himself tried to contact the Defense Department to obtain their estimates…

If not now, when?

I said awhile ago that we don't know who's going to do data curation yet. I absolutely believe that. I probably should have added, though, that we can have a pretty good idea who's not going to do it: anybody who isn't right this very minute planning to do it. Make no mistake, there's money (from funders and institutions) and hard-won relevance to be had in this line of work. Quite a few people and organizations are eyeing it: IT, libraries, scholarly societies, journals, entrepreneurs. If you want to get into the scrum, if you want a piece of the pie, better get your plan on now. This is no…