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Creationist email: the asymmetry misconception

I throw away a lot of creationist email; most of it is ranty and weird, or pious and dull, so it isn't worth dealing with. Every once in a while (but sadly, not that often) one is polite and asks a simple question, and then I feel compelled to reply. If it's short and sweet, I'll just fire off a one-liner—for instance, when I was asked why I reject Intelligent Design creationism, I could simply say that I haven't seen any evidence for it. Some are a little more persistent, requiring a little more effort to answer, so they get posted here. I'll answer this one to some degree online, tell the…

I'm a Wikipedia Inclusionist

Wikipedia is not a paper encyclopedia and most of its contents are naked text that hardly takes up any disk space. Thus there is no reason to limit the subjects its contributors can write about. Fans have written hundreds of detailed articles about Pokémon characters. This is fine with me though I have no interest in the subject: the articles are not in my way and they are apparently of interest to a lot of other people. When I started adding my first bits of stuff to the Swedish version of the encyclopedia, I was surprised to find that higher-up users would delete my short contributions…

The return of KK!

KK tweets My latest @ISSUESinST feature just went online. It covers some sensitive issues in ecology & climate spheres. It's kinda standard fodder, headlined "The Science Police" in order to wind you up, like The Fail, bylined On highly charged issues, such as climate change and endangered species, peer review literature and public discourse are aggressively patrolled by self-appointed sheriffs in the scientific community. Provocative or wot? I'll skip the ecology, because I have no expertise there, and come on to the climate. Which is... RP Jr. And if you don't know who he is, KK…

Stop Anti-Gambling Legislation

As everyone who reads this blog knows by now, I am both strongly libertarian on matters of individual freedom and strongly pro-gambling (though I only consider poker to be partially a gamble). Well here's an opportunity to support both of those views. Before the Congress right now there is a bill called the Unlawful Internet Gambling Funding Prohibition Act (H. 21 in the house and S. 627 in the Senate). It's a bill that is so ill-conceived that even without any consideration for individual rights at all, it would still be monumentally stupid. This bill, which would require every U.S.…

Evil Squirrels from Extra Dimensions

It's been a very long day, so I'm lying on the couch watching "Pardon the Interruption" on ESPN. They're having a boring conversation about baseball, and I'm just drifting off into a pleasant doze when: "Fear! Fire! Foes! Awake! Fear! Fire! Foes! Awake!" I jolt awake. "What are you barking at?!?" I yell at the dog, who is standing in the middle of the living room, baying at nothing. She stops. "Scary things!" The room is empty. "There's nothing here," I say, and then hear a car door slam. I look outside, and see the mathematician next door heading into his house. "Were you barking at Bill? He…

Altered brain activity in schizophrenia may cause exaggerated focus on self

I thought we already knew this, but here goes: Schizophrenia may blur the boundary between internal and external realities by over-activating a brain system that is involved in self-reflection, and thus causing an exaggerated focus on self, a new MIT and Harvard brain imaging study has found. The traditional view of schizophrenia is that the disturbed thoughts, perceptions and emotions that characterize the disease are caused by disconnections among the brain regions that control these different functions. But this study, appearing Jan. 19 in the advance online issue of the Proceedings of the…

links for 2009-07-08

LIGO: the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory A comprehensive review article on LIGO, free online for a limited time. (tags: articles science gravity astronomy physics relativity precision-measurement) Never build a relationship on books | Books | guardian.co.uk "I don't know if Borders will actually be making recommendations for dates in the same way as they recommend books, but it would be priceless if members got regular email updates: "Did you enjoy, Mark, 34, of Swindon? Then you should try Gareth, 36, of Slough." Or: "After dating Sally of Birmingham, 86 per cent of…

Check out Chad Orzel's talk on "Weblogs and Science Outreach"

Despite having to employ biophysical methods in my day job, I must admit my woeful understanding of physics as a discipline. I wasn't like my high school grease monkey friends using torque wrenches on their cars with Springsteenonian dedication and my lowest grade in undergrad came in physics. For that reason, I rarely have the opportunity to link to fellow ScienceBlogger, Chad Orzel of Uncertain Principles. Prof Orzel was one of the earliest science bloggers, coming online in June, 2002. Chad posted about being on the programme of a meeting in Waterloo, Ontario, entitled, "Science in the…

Eve Marie Carson 1985-2008

Eve Carson | student body president | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill This photo was taken on Monday, 3 March. Eve was shot less than 36 hours later. The entire campus, community and alumni mourn her death. She had a ethic of public service so strongly symbolized in her response to why she does what she does. [Photo by Tony Deifell] Primary UNC-CH website 10,000 celebrate Carson's life Rose Hoban WUNC-FM report on celebration of life Chancellor's message to students following arrests of suspects (13 March) Remarks of Eve's father, Bob Carson Remembering the student's president…

Presidential Candidate's Science, Technology, and Energy Positions

There's a new initiative to get a presidential debate on issues of science and technology: Science Debate 2008 (list of supporting Important People (capital letters) and bloggers (no capital letters).) I'm all for the idea, since I know little about the candidates positions related to science and technology. Which of course, is a bad excuse, and thus led me to try to dig deep into the intertubes and see if I could find a list of the candidates positions on science and technology. Here is a collection of some of the relevant links I could find. For some candidates it was quite hard to find…

The Skeptical Environmentalist vs. Al Gore: Danish "Muslim Cartoon" Newspaper Springs Media Trap on Former VP

Something's rotten in Denmark. Conservatives once again have sprung a media trap on Al Gore, but this time overseas. At the Wall Street Journal , "skeptical environmentalist" Bjorn Lomborg and Danish journalist Flemming Rose complain that Gore, while touring Denmark, backed out of a scheduled interview. According to the duo, the newspaper Jyllands-Posten set up an "investigative interview" between Gore and culture editor Rose. To maximize conflict, the paper invited Lomborg to participate. Rose and Lomborg claim that Gore agreed to the terms of the interview, but then pulled out at the…

Smart villages on the Net

If you haven't yet visited Hansdehar, a village in the Haryana state, here's where you go for a glimpse. More villages will come online says the Smartvillages.org website. The initiative by Samanvay Welfare Society (I can't find a link. The link at Smartvillages.org is broken) is a smart one. The issues facing villages are manyfold. The more eyeballs we can get to look at them, the more potential there is for smart solutions. I particularly like the local facilities page on the website. I know those people a lot. For the first 15 years of my childhood, I lived in a small town called Jolarpet…

Visualising the molecular

A dozen or so years ago, or maybe more, I was heading up the communications section of The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, when I employed a young biology graduate as a graphics guy to do medical graphics. This he did for a while, until he started playing with three-dimensional graphics software. He did some animations of cell surface signalling molecules, and of malaria parasites, and cancer cells, and took them to the director, and suggested that we set up an animation unit within the department. This we did, and within a short while, Drew Berry had managed…

What does author position say about credit?

There's been a lot of discussion online lately about the relative importance of the position of an author name. Is it more impressive to be a first author on a report? If so, how much? John Lynch made a graph of Guillermo Gonzalez's publication record as a way of illustrating his argument that Gonzalez didn't deserve tenure. But there's a twist to the graph: it not only indicates articles on which Gonzales was an author, but also articles on which he was first author. As the average number of authors in journal articles increases, does that mean that the contribution of individual authors is…

My Tavis Smiley Appearance

A few weeks ago, I appeared for the second time on PBS KCET's "Tavis Smiley Show," this time to discuss Storm World and global warming generally. I would have given an update and told folks to watch the show live, but I didn't know when my segment was going to air. But in any rate, you can now go online to read the transcript of the interview--or to listen to it. Here's a brief excerpt: Tavis: Let me ask you two questions about Republicans. One about the current occupant of the White House, President Bush, and the other about the Republicans running to take his place in the Oval Office in…

The Monty Hall problem and the nature of scientific discourse.

There's a neat article [1] in the September-October 2008 issue of American Scientist (although sadly, this particular article seems not to be online) in which Brian Hayes discusses the Monty Hall problem and people's strong resistance to the official solution to it. Now, folks like Jason have discussed the actual puzzle about probabilities in great detail (on numerous occasions). It's a cool problem, I believe the official solution, and I'm not personally inclined to raise skeptical doubts about it. What I really like about Hayes's article is how he connects it to the larger ongoing…

Memo to the FSU Athletics Department: 'learning' and 'cheating' are not synonyms.

Somehow, the Florida State University Office of Athletic Academic Support Services had in its employ a "Learning Specialist" who seemed to think it was part of his or her job to help a bunch of student athletes cheat. As reported by the Orlando Sentinel: A months long Florida State University investigation into the FSU Office of Athletic Academic Support Services has determined that two faculty members during the 2006-07 school year "perpetrated academic dishonesty" among 23 FSU athletes, 21 of whom are still enrolled at the university. University president T.K. Wetherell today shared with…

ScienceDebate at a glance, Part I

If you're like me, your eyes might have glazed over just a bit at the fields of red and blue text generated by ScienceDebate 2008. Obviously these issues are important, but a quick cut-and-paste job into my word processor reveals that the two candidates have written over 12,000 words in response to the 14 questions! Let's distill that information into slightly more digestible chunks. 1. Innovation Obama: More money for schools, more NSF Fellowships, extend R&D tax credit for business. McCain: White House Science and Tech adviser, Fund research (no specifics on how). The Skinny: Obama has…

Funding Inequity

In the August issue of The Scientist, there is an article entitle "The Inequity of Science" (Not online yet). It describes how the top academic institutions are getting more and more of the total NIH funding. Between 1994 and 2004, in the rankings of universities and colleges according tototal R&D expenditures in biological sciences, the difference between the number one school and the 100th school more than doubled. Echoing Bob Weinberg's commentary, In 2005, the principal investigator on the biggest grant, Eric Lander at MIT, received more than $50 million, nearly seven times the…

Darwin Pamphlets at Philadelphia's Philagrafika 2010: Out of Print

Philagrafika 2010 is happening now, all over Philadelphia. Involving more than 300 artists at more than 80 venues throughout the city, Philagrafika 2010 will be one of the largest art events in the United States and the world's most important print-related exposition. Prominent museums and cultural institutions across Philadelphia are participating in Philagrafika 2010, offering regional, national and international audiences the opportunity to see contemporary art that references printmaking in dynamic, unexpected ways and to experience the rich cultural life of the city in the process. If…

The Cognitive Benefits of Nature

Thoreau would have liked this study: interacting with nature (at least when compared to a hectic urban landscape) dramatically improves improve cognitive function. In particular, being in natural settings restores our ability to exercise directed attention and working memory, which are crucial mental talents. The basic idea is that nature, unlike a city, is filled with inherently interesting stimuli (like a sunset, or an unusual bird) that trigger our involuntary attention, but in a modest fashion. Because you can't help but stop and notice the reddish orange twilight sky - paying attention…

An interesting experiment in online social forums

Blizzard, which makes a couple of extremely popular computer games like Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo, also maintains a gigantic set of forums with an overwhelming volume of posts appearing non-stop. I've never dug into them — way too much stuff, and it's scary how ferocious the debates can get over a change in a magic spell in a game — but they've announced a major, radical change: The first and most significant change is that in the near future, anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their real-life first and last…

And they say I'm in it for the money?

One of the most common criticisms launched at defenders of science-based medicine by believers in pseudoscience and quackery is that we are “pharma shills.” The assumption, or so it would seem, is that no one would defend science, reason, and medicine unless he were paid off by pharmaceutical, chemical, and/or agricultural companies. The further assumption is that, in contrast to our greedy grasping selves, they are not motivated by such base concerns as money. That is their self-image, that of pure-hearted warriors against evil, the evil being big pharma, big agriculture, big chemical,…

Euro-update 7: How to manage your Important Historical Site

Let's suppose you're the proprietor of a European tourist attraction. We're not talking about a Louvre or Uffizi here, or even a Leaning Tower of Pisa. No, you're in charge of a hidden gem: the scenic Church of the Saint No One Has Ever Heard Of, or the lovely little Museum of the Famous Artist Which Possesses None of His Famous Works. Your job is to show why this Saint really is someone important, or why the lesser-known works of the Famous Artist should get broader recognition. You also need to preserve your attraction for future generations, and (most importantly) give yourself a nice…

"Newsworthy-ness"

It appears that the clash of generations in regards to journalism is also happening in journalism schools: Screw AP style! Why I don't want to be a journalist anymore. 5 of my friends began their college careers as eager journalists. 5 of my friends are now either in a different field or no longer eager about being a journalist but eager to graduate. My choice is to go back and get another degree in Graphic Design - something that results in product that highlights as opposed to false light. And this comes from one of the most promising students in that class! My question: is it the industry…

Some thoughts on #Amazonfail.

Those of you on Twitter yesterday probably noticed the explosion of tweets with the hashtag #amazonfail. For those who were otherwise occupied carving up chocolate bunnies or whatnot, the news spread to the blogs, Facebook, and the traditional media outlets. The short version is that on Easter Sunday, a critical mass of people noticed that many, many books that Amazon sells had their Amazon sales rank stripped, and that these books stopped coming up in searches on Amazon that were not searches on the book titles (or, presumably, authors). What fanned the flames of the frenzy were certain…

$1000 Genomes for $2000

Getting an accurate genome sequence requires that you collect the data at least twice argue Robasky, Lewis, and Church in their recent opinion piece in Nat. Rev. Genetics [1]. The DNA sequencing world kicked off 2014 with an audacious start. Andrew Pollack ran an article in the New York Times implying that 100,000 genomes will be the new norm in human genome sequencing projects [2]. The article focused on a collaboration between Regeneron and Geisinger Health in which they plan to sequence the exomes (the ~2% of the genome that encodes proteins and some non-coding RNA) of 100,000 individuals…

Flu in the kitchen store

A trip with Mrs. R. to buy something for the kitchen doesn't seem to have much to do with influenza virology, but let me try to make the connection. We're at Williams Sonoma. I'm wandering around, idly looking at various pieces of kitchen equipment and thinking random food thoughts. I'm not looking for anything particular, myself. But as I'm cruising by a set of shelves I see it has books on it. Quite a few of them. All about food and cooking and associated subjects, but books. I stop. I start to browse. Fifteen minutes later Mrs. R. retrieves me. She is going to shop for something else. I…

Purely Medicinal

We've all been down with colds this weekend, nothing really serious, just uncomfortable. Or rather, nothing really serious in my estimation. My husband, on the other hand, is always pretty sure he might be dying whenever any minor virus hits him. So far, though, he's still alive and seems to be more or less ok. What Eric does inevitably get when he gets sick is the lingering cough. This is no fun, of course - but it does have its compensations. One of them is the homemade cough syrup. Most studies show that over-the-counter cough medicines are fairly ineffective - one found that a…

Try and beat this one, alties!

I'm not going to lie to you. This post contains some actual science. WAIT! Don't click away! I'll make it palatable, I promise! It's just that this is such an interesting story, and I can't help sharing it. It is a shining example of one of the great successes of modern medical science, and stands in such stark contrast to the unfulfilled promises of the cult medicine crowd, with their colon cleanses and magic pills. This is the story of a real magic pill. It starts back in 1960. A couple of researches at the University of Pennsylvania were looking at chromosomes in the blood cells of…

Do "rethinkers" ever have a point?

In the comments to this post on creationists'/HIV deniers' (mis)use of statistics, several people have been trying to argue that because overlapping membership in the two groups is limited, my comparison of the two is false. I explained: It's the *tactics* that are the same in both groups: misleading use of statistics as evidenced in this post, cherry-picking the lit, appeals to authority, grand conspiracies imagined, painting scientists as greedy and hopelessly biased, quote-mining, hell, they even each have their own prizes based on an impossible standard of evidence. Michael replied: Oh…

Why We Need the Individual Mandate

Yesterday a federal judge struck down the new healthcare law's individual mandate, which requires everyone to have health insurance. (Actually, the mandate doesn't apply to everyone: those who'd have to spend more than 8% of their income on coverage are exempt, as are undocumented immigrants - and if you don't have coverage, you pay a fine.) US District Judge Henry E. Hudson ruled that the individual mandate is unconstitutional, but he did not strike down other portions of the law or issue an injunction against its implementation. Two other district court judges have found the mandate…

House Republicans resurrect GOPcare and make it even worse

Back in March, House Republicans pulled the unpopular and highly problematic American Health Care Act from consideration, and House Minority Leader Paul Ryan declared “Obamacare is the law of the land.” Now, however House Republicans are trying again to undo the Affordable Care Act. Last week, Representative Tom MacArthur (R-NJ) introduced an amendment designed to win over the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, who opposed the original AHCA because it didn’t do enough to roll back existing law. As the New York Times’ Margot Sanger-Katz summarizes, the amendment would allow states to receive…

Our Broken Health Care System, Aleph-Nought in a Series

One of the standard conservatarian responses to anyone suggesting government-funded universal health care is to start talking about how universal health care will inevitably lead to faceless, heartless bureaucrats denying or delaying treatment for stupid reasons. My response to these stories is "Who's supplying your health insurance? And how do I get on that plan?" Through my employer, I have a pretty generous health plan, administered by one of the most highly-regarded health insurance companies in the region. And this week, for the second time in two weeks, they refused to cover my…

The Cult of Theory

Over at Cosmic Variance, Julianne (not JoAnne, as I originally typed) has a very nice post about the cult of genius in physics, and its relationship to research on the problems caused by excessive praise. Doug Natelson also has some comments. There's some fascinating stuff in the articles about praise, with some likely relevance to once and future education arguments, but I need to think about it more before I comment. My reason for posting, though, is found in the comments. Specifically, comment #10, by "mclaren", which reads in part: Sure, I've got a degree in physics, but basically I'm…

The simplest way to address the climate crisis

Towards the tail end of Michael Specter's rambling feature on carbon footprint accounting in the latest issue of New Yorker, we are reminded that the single most effective and cheapest way to bring down atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels is preserving and restoring tropical rainforests. We're hearing that a lot these days, and with good reason. Specter's article deals mostly with the challenges of assigning "carbon footprint" numbers to consumer goods, as the U.K's Tesco supermarkets are trying to do. The problem is, as usual, in the myriad details. But as becomes clear later in the article,…

He's back. And Bjorn Lomborg still doesn't get it

PZ Myers suggested I might have something to say in response to Bjorn "The Skeptical Environmentalist" Lomborg's resurfacing. Indeed I do. The Danish boy wonder is back with a new book, Cool It, in which he makes his case, yet again, that climate change isn't all that bad. He was wrong with his first book, which was savaged by everyone who actually knew the subject matter, and he's even more wrong now. Salon has an aggressive interview and an excellent book review, and it is on the former that I will base my analysis of Lomborg's major cognitive failure, in lieu of wasting precious time and…

Zogby and Moore on the Failed NH Primary Poll Predictions

Remember the Democratic New Hampshire primary? According to news organizations and many pollsters, the NH primary was supposed to be the loss that put Hillary Clinton out of contention and sealed an early nomination for Obama. Yet Clinton staged a surprise victory. At the time, Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz pulled no punches in criticizing the horse race coverage that defined the primary races: "The series of blown calls amount to the shakiest campaign performance yet by a profession seemingly addicted to snap judgments and crystal-ball pronouncements. Not since the networks…

Physical Activity Reduces the Risk of Childhood Fat Gain

Over the next few months, Peter and I will be re-posting some of our favourite posts from our Obesity Panacea archives.  The following article was originally posted on December 2, 2009. Image by Mike Baird. There is a surprising amount of controversy about the ability of physical activity to prevent the development of obesity. Sure, obese individuals tend to perform less physical activity than their lean counterparts, but that doesn't prove causation. And almost every week it seems that there is a news story reporting that the obesity epidemic is caused by diet. Period. If you believe…

Simpler is better: How kids identify ambiguous objects

When we first moved to the small suburban town we still live in, we quickly realized we needed to buy a second car. Nora and Jim were just one and two and a half years old, only barely beginning to understand language. After we made our purchase, sometimes we drove in the old car (a Subaru station wagon), and sometimes in the new car (a Plymouth minivan). Since neither child could pronounce words as complicated as "minivan," they had to come up with their own way to refer to the vehicles. They called the Subaru the "red car" and the van the "blue car." But there were many other ways they…

Mommy Monday: A taste of a different life (the back story)

Long-time readers will remember that Minnow has sleep issues. At nine months old, she is still waking up between 4 and 8 times per 11 hour night. But things now are a hell of a lot better than they used to be, because now I can cuddle or nurse her right back to sleep in most cases. It wasn't that way a few months ago. Back then, Minnow would wake up screaming and only begin to calm down when Fish or I got up, held her upright, massaged her tummy, and helped her pass prodigious quantities of gas. If we sat in the rocking chair with her and held her at an angle, she could sleep fairly well, but…

Friday Sprog Blogging: ferrets.

The elder Free-Ride offspring, always a fan of mustelids, has lately taken a particular interest in ferrets. Given that Casa Free-Ride is located in the great state of California, this interest in ferrets has also spurred an interest in state law. In California, it's illegal to keep ferrets as pets. According to the elder Free-Ride offspring, there is much to appreciate about ferrets: Elder Free-Ride offspring: They're slinky! Dr. Free-Ride: OK. Elder Free-Ride offspring: They're cute! Dr. Free-Ride: Sure. Elder Free-Ride offspring:They're stinky. Dr. Free-Ride: Yes, that I can vouch…

Everything I needed to know about science I didn't learn in high school

Reflecting upon my high school science education, there isn't very much I can remember. Physics and chemistry are largely a blur (vague recollections of Avogadro's number and the time when my experiment exploded are all that remain) and the hours I spent in biology were largely a waste. For all the pressure put on us students to excel, taking the college-level AP classes early, I graduated high school with a passion for science but almost no real knowledge of it. I was not served well by the textbook procedures and had I not already resolved to be a scientist I probably would not have…

The Wall Street Journal

I've got a short column in the Wall Street Journal today where I recommend five books on human irrationality. I wanted to work in a novel too, but I soon realized that every novel is about irrational people. 1. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds By Charles Mackay 1841 There is nothing modern about financial bubbles. In this classic work, Charles Mackay compiled an exhaustive list of the "schemes, projects and phantasies" that are a recurring theme of economic history. From the tulip mania of 17th-century Holland, in which 12 acres of valuable land were offered for a…

Amanda and Shakes rock!

[Placed on top for updates...] I think that the whole brouhaha that the extreme wingers are raising about new Edwards bloggers will have a) no effect on Democratic primary voters a year from now, b) no effect on national voters two years from now, and c) negative effect on the wingnutosphere as they are getting more and more obviously unhinged, and thus marginalized. Edwards did a fantastic scoop with these hires and the outcry from the extreme Right was surely expected. He has now positioned himself as more woman-friendly and more netroots-friendly than Hillary and Obama combined. And the…

Stuffed megamammal week, day 5: of elephants and gorillas

How do you stuff an elephant? The - ha ha - obvious answer is 'with great difficulty'. As for the actual answer: funnily enough, the preparation and mounting of elephants for museums is quite well recorded. These African bush elephants Loxodonta africana are on display at the Field Museum in Chicago (thanks to Matt Wedel for the photo). Just look at their size, and wonder... how do these dead animals get to look so alive? All too few people realise that, when you look at a 'stuffed' animal, you're looking at a tanned skin that's been skillfully fitted over a postured mannequin* or replica of…

William elsewhere: planet3.0

In Memoriam, John McCarthy. Eeee, those were the days. [Late update: I've just gone through and re-read that P3 post. To anyone who knows my style and mt's, its pretty obvious who wrote which bits. But anyway, I've found my original email so this was my version: An appreciation of John McCarthy from sci.environment Recently two major figures from computing have died: Dennis Ritchie (C) and John McCarthy (LISP). As far as I know, DR had nothing special to do with the environment, but John McCarthy was a denizen of the usenet group sci.environment in the days when usenet was the premier online…

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men

Every week, the New York Times Magazine features some sort of profile article about a person or group of people who are supposed to represent some sort of trend. Every week, the people they choose to write up come off as vaguely horrible, usually in some sort of entitled-suburbanite fashion. I'm not sure if this is an editorial mandate, but if it is, this week's feature article takes it to the logical conclusion of just profiling people who are irredeemably awful, and unapologetic about it. This week, they take a look at the culture of Internet trolls: Jason Fortuny might be the closest thing…

WISE Mission Assembled and Preparing for Launch

The Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has been all snapped together and stuff and is ready to be launched into outer space from Vandenberg in November. This will be a major eye in the sky for cosmology, since it will be able to see things that heretofore only space insects could see.... Details in the following NASA press release: PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has been assembled and is undergoing final preparations for a planned Nov. 1 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. The mission will survey the entire sky at infrared…

On Exclusivity

Yesterday's frat boy post prompted some interesting discussion, one piece of which is a response from Matt "Dean Dad" Reed (also at Inside Higher Ed), who overlapped with me at Williams for a year, but had a very different reaction to the social scene there. His take mirrors mine from the other side, though, which suggests I'm not wildly off base. The other chunk is a comment exchange on Facebook where some colleagues mentioned the problem of social exclusivity as an issue that I didn't address. And that's true-- as I was at a school without fraternities, where all organizations were formally…