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Foul-mouthed old ladies...

Or, why public transport will never be popular. Although in fact the only reason I'm writing this is because the train was crowded so I had no choice about where to sit, so it *is* popular. The story: I'm travelling back from Norwich to Cambridge, and sit in the only available seat, opposite two sweet looking little old ladies. Who talk *constantly* on the 1:20 h journey back. And I do mean it... its as if they were afraid of silence, or of the possibility of thought... and (just like the yoof of today are supposed to) most sentences had "bloody" in them. They talked about... the bankruptcy (…

Most-played Boardgames of 2014

Here are the ten boardgames I played the most during 2014. Sechs nimmt / Category 5 (1994, gets swift intense buy-in even from non-gamers) * Innovation (2010) Magic: the Gathering (1993) * Plato 3000 (2012) * Keltis (2008, travel version, very handy) Glass Road (2013) * Archaeology: the Card Game (2007) * For Sale (1997) Qwirkle (2006) * Samurai (1998) * These are mostly short games that you can play repeatedly in one evening. Only Glass Road, Qwirkle and Samurai are a bit longer. Another long game that I played a lot was Elfenland. All are highly recommended! Except Archaeology, a game of…

links for 2007-12-29

Jobs, News and Views for All of Higher Education - Inside Higher Ed :: The Identity Studies for Everyone The latest literary-studies fad: Age Studies. (tags: academia literature) village voice > art > Meet the East Village "It" Couple of Young-Adult Lit by Carol Cooper A profile of Scott Westerfeld and Justine Larbalestier, whose books you should go buy. (tags: books SF literature culture society writing) The 50 Most Loathsome People in America "35. Tim Russert Charges: [...] Impossible to watch him interview any woman on "Meet the Press" without fearing he'll suddenly waggle his…

Linux to get faster

The next version of the Linux Kernel will be very noticeably faster on computers with limited memory. Most "improvements" of certain unnamed operating systems (such as Microsoft Windows) involve more demand on hardware, so upgrades slow your computer down and eventually you have to throw it out and buy a new one. It is not the primary objective for Linux to make each major improvement include improved rather than degraded performance, but it is a side effect of excellent OpenSource engineering. The latest? Currently desktop software slows down when its path jumps to a part of the code…

Faith trumps science. Again

The idea of holding a presidential candidates debate on the role of science in running the country was always a long shot. But those behind Science Debate 2008 must be crying in their coffees this morning with the news that Clinton and Obama have agreed to a CNN-televised forum a week from Sunday on -- wait for it -- "faith, values and other current issues." I suppose if we're really lucky the moderators will buy Al Gore's argument that climate change is a moral issue, as is stell cell research, energy independence, the teaching of evolution.... But we all know that's not where this thing is…

Wouldn't it be great if Richard Scarry was still around to do a new Busytown book on science or sustainability? (I'd buy it anyway)

Yesterday, I was playing with my kids and having fun with the Find Lowly Worm game that seems to be a rite of passage when looking through a Richard Scarry picture book. Anyway, in our edition of "What Do People Do All Day?" I was amused by a substantial 4 page spread about coal as a source of energy (titled Digging coal to make electricity work for us). I guess it got me thinking that wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a similar children's book produced that can have the same degree of cultural prevalence, but also includes graphics looking at energy alternatives like wind, solar, wave,…

This never happens to me, either

Tara Smith is off at a science conference, and she tried to buy some souvenirs from a Retail Sales Guy. [RSG]: But you can't be a scientist! [Me]: I can't? [RSG]: No, you don't look like a microbiologist. [Me]: Um, what exactly does a microbiologist look like, then? [RSG]: Uh... [Me]: Because I'm pretty sure that I am one. (Rummaging through bag, digging out ASM nametag). Yep, that's my name, and that's the microbiology conference logo right there. [RSG]: But you're too pretty! You should be in Hollywood. Wait, you mean it's not just an atheist problem? Women, I don't know how you cope: you'…

Relayed Without Comment

From the blog of Steven Johnson, author of The Ghost Map and Mind Wide Open Go Buy Microcosm Right Now Carl Zimmer may be my favorite science writer around today (others seem to agree), so I'm excited to report that his new book Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life hit the shelves yesterday. I had the opportunity to read it in manuscript form, and it's really an exceptional book -- what Carl calls an "(un)natural history of E. coli" -- the world's most famous microbe. Having just published a book that partially starred a bacterium myself, I know how hard it is to make a book about…

Responses to my post on Lottâs cherry picking

Hunt Stilwell asks: since the gun lobby's statistical claims have been debunked so thoroughly and so often, why do they continue to use them, and why do people continue to buy them? Brian Linse thinks there has been some progress, since not many progun bloggers linked to Lott's piece, whereas I remember the days when Instantman would have linked it within seconds of it being posted. John Ray boasts that he quoted Lott in an attempt to bait me. He also offers an explanation for his earlier conduct in refusing to link to my post that he was responding to. Apparently it was "too…

Evolution: The Story of Life on Earth

Have you got kids? Are you tangentially related to any young people? Are you young yourself? Do you know anyone who just likes a good story and interesting science? Well, then, I'm sorry, but reading this article will cost you $12.89. Jay Hosler has a new book out (illustrated by Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon), Evolution: The Story of Life on Earth(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), and I'm afraid it's going to be required reading for everyone, and you're also all probably going to end up buying multiple copies for gifts. Really, it's that good. It's a comic book about aliens from Glargalia explaining…

Never Overpay for Bear Bile Again!

So what's worse than buying powdered black rhino horn from a back alley Shenzen apothecary to cure your impotence? Paying too much for black rhino horn at aforementioned back alley apothecary! Luckily, I came upon an interesting table at Havocscope, which provides indexes of black market industries, including animal trafficking. While these metrics are certainly depressing, this sort of information helps conservationists understand the economic challenges they are up against, and plan their strategies accordingly. The sources for these numbers are listed at Havocscope. As any longterm…

Why do women shop?

Yet another study on why women shop, from an evolutionary perspective: In an unconscious attempt to outdo female rivals, ovulating women buy sexier clothing, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "Not unlike the chimps featured on the Discovery Channel, women become more competitive with other females during the handful of days each month when they are ovulating. The desire for women at peak fertility to unconsciously choose products that enhance appearance is driven by a desire to outdo attractive rival women," write authors Kristina M. Durante, Vladas Griskevicius (…

Allofmp3.com and Piracy

I'm probably breaking some obscure copyright law by simply mentioning this website. For those who don't know, allofmp3.com features ridiculously cheap mp3 files: a song usually costs a dime, not a dollar. The catch? They are a shady Russian company that uses a loophole in Russian law to not pay royalties. Whether or not to buy music from them is a continual test of my conscience, a daily moral dilemma. (Needless to say, my selfish impulses usually win. Sorry, iTunes.) But now the U.S. government is making Russia's admittance to the WTO dependent on allofmp3.com going out of business. If I was…

The Amygdaloids

Joseph LeDoux helped make the amygdala famous - his seminal studies of fear conditioning illuminated, among other things, the importance of unconscious processing - so it's only fitting that he would be part of a rock band called The Amygdaloids. Imagine Jefferson Airplane, with perhaps a dash of the Eagles and a lot of a neuroscientific puns, and you've got a pretty good idea of what The Amygdaloids sound like. "All in a Nut," for example, begins with a slightly psychedelic guitar solo and a plaintive question: "Why do we feel so afraid?/Don't have to look very far/Don't get stuck in a rut…

Repower America

My fellow climate bloggers over at Desmog Blog have notified me and asked me to pass it on to AFTIC readers that there is a very cool new online push by former Vice-President Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection called the "Repower America Wall." The idea is to have videos from thousands of everyday people - friends, neighbors and colleagues -as well as high-profile leaders from business, faith groups, politicians etc adding their voices to a collective call to action on climate change. These videos will be used as the basis of campaign ads on TV, print, billboards and online.…

RETHINKING DEMOCRATIC STRATEGY: New Online Journal Targets Ideas for Long Term Political Success

I've been meaning to start blogging about this site launched last week, and as it turns out, I just received this press release via email. I am sure I will be coming back to the site with posts this week and in coming months. Definitely a new relevant resource on framing to check out. Below is the press release. NEW ONLINE STRATEGY PUBLICATION SEEKS TO HELP DEMOCRATS ACHIEVE SUSTAINABLE MAJORITY Strategists Stan Greenberg, Ruy Teixeira, and Bill Galston launch TheDemocraticStrategist.org Washington, DC. On June 19, 2006 Democratic strategists Stan Greenberg, Ruy Teixeira, and Bill Galston…

TQC 2009 Registration Open

Dear Colleagues, Online registration is now open for the 4th Workshop on Theory of Quantum Computation, Communication and Cryptography (Waterloo, May 11-13, 2009) at the following website: http://www.iqc.ca/tqc2009 The deadline for early registration with a reduced registration fee is March 29, 2009, which coincides with the deadline for booking accommodation with guaranteed rate. Online registration will be closed after May 3, 2009. The program consists of invited talks, contributed talks, and poster presentations. (1) Invited speakers include: Masato Koashi (Osaka University) John…

Another nice thing about the beginning of the school year

Now that the school has started, we (meaning 'ScienceBloggers') are getting feedback messages from science teachers who were able to buy supplies for their classes because you, our readers, pitched in back in June and donated mountains of money through the DonorsChoose program. I want to thank you all again for doing such a good deed. And, as far as I can see, none of us has removed the DonorsChoose button from our sidebars, so you can always add some more to the science teaching projects of your choice. P.S. The first note I got very early and do not have it any more in my mailbox The last…

Hungry = Verboten at the USDA

In an outrageous and arrogant move, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has banished the use of the word "hunger" from its documents that describe, umm, you know, hungry people. Instead, the USDA prefers to camoflage reality with a new government double-speak phrase, "very low food security". Just a week before most of America sits down for that excessive meal we call the Thanksgiving feast (second- and third-day snacking while watching football is optional) came a new definition for the millions among us who are more likely to turn up at a food pantry than at a well-set dining table.…

Where do you buy your food

If it is in a supermarket in the UK, here's all the rotten details from an undercover scoop by BBC. This isn't new. Those in the US have grown up with the likes of Walmart and McDonald's for years. Compared to the US giants, the UK supermarkets are toddlers, still they pack the same sick punch that's the hallmark of obscenely large businesses. Mass production and consumption is, as everyone knows, not geared towards quality; in the case of food, quality is treated strictly as a legal issue, and is met in word, not in the spirit of the word. From the origin to it's eventual sale, there's…

Neurosurgical Tools of the Early 19th Century

What looks like a bevy of medieval torture tools is actually a early 19th century set of German neurosurgical tools. I think I would be terrified if a doctor walked into my room and opened that innocuous-looking velvet-lined case to reveal all those gleaming edges and tongs and probes, all meant for the purpose of carving the human brain. It contain 17 compartments which accommodate a full set of instruments made from unplated polished steel, brass and horn. They are signed by Zitier, Heine and Sandill and it is likely that the boxed set was made specifically to accommodate these…

Seed, Conflicts of Interest, and Sleaze

As my friend Pal wrote about, Seed Media Group, the corporate overlords of the ScienceBlogs network that this blog belongs to, have apparently decided that blog space in these parts is now up for sale to advertisers. We've been advertiser supported since I joined up with SB. I've never minded that before. Providing a platform and bandwidth takes money, which has to come from somewhere. The way that ads have been handled before has been no problem: the ads are clearly distinguished from the content. There's no way that you're going to mix up one of my posts with a paid advertisement. Until…

The best science blogging from 2006

Bora Zivcovic has just accomplished the impossible. He has not only sorted through hundreds of pearls to find those that dazzled most brilliantly, he's also tamed legions of wild rats, herded a flock of irascible cats and squirrels, and done it in just three weeks, all without mixing a single metaphor. That's right, Bora has created an anthology of the 50 best science blog posts from 2006. It's called The Open Laboratory: The Best Writing on Science Blogs from 2006, and Greta and I are exceedingly proud that one of our posts (actually written in 2005) has been selected for inclusion. The book…

Gender Smog - Dell Version

Hat tip to reader James Ramsey... What do women really need in computer? Because, what with our vaginas and all, our computing needs are so, so different from those of men. Thank the goddess Dell is looking out for us, with its helpful marketing strategy that emphasizes "color schemes, cases and dieting tips". Oh my god, I can accessorize my laptop? I must have died and gone to heaven! Here's a "Tech Tip" from the Della site (isn't that so cute??? get it? Dell, the real site, is gendered "guy", while Della is for us girls. I mean, who would want to buy a laptop from a guy site, right…

Brain & Behavior and Technology Weekly Channel Highlights

In this post: the large version of the Brain & Behavior and Technology channel photos, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week. Technology. Refueling a Tesla Validation Prototype 9 with electricity. From Flickr, by jurvetson Brain & Behavior. From Flickr, by Barb Henry Reader comments of the week: In David Brooks on Genetics and Human Intelligence, Mike the Mad Biologist posts an excerpt from a New York Times opinion piece by columnist David Brooks; Brooks ponders over the growing intersection between science and the humanities as both strive to understand human…

Volvo and the Black Swan

More on the continuing saga that surrounds the Black Swan reported at the New Straits Times. This is going to get pretty confusing so I will provide it as sequential list time series. Volvo launches a media spectacle that has the public looking for a sunken treasure as tie in to the festering heap of movie titled Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Volvo hires Odyssey Marine Exploration to scout sites around Mediterranean to drop the Volvo's treasure chest. During the scouting expeditions, Odyssey stumbles upon a ship codename the Black Swan in international waters. Separately,…

If a paper is not available online, do you go to the trouble of finding a print copy?

Dorothea found an intriguing survey - If it's not online... - in which physicists and astronomers say, pretty much, that 'if an article is not online then it is not worth the effort to obtain it'. An interesting discussion (with a couple of more links added by others) ensued here. What do you assume if a paper is not online? Do you track it down anyway? What are your criteria for choosing to do so?

Happy New Year! Now who are you again?

I've been spending a lot of time with family and friends lately, something I don't often get the chance to do. And while I'm not happy about the reason for it, I'm still thankful for all the friends I sometimes forget I have. One thing I found out from many of my friends is that if I post a piece on my facebook page, they'll read it. But they won't necessarily come here to read my other stuff. Why not? The ongoing discussion here in the blogosphere sometimes needs an interruption, a break to remember what it is we do here, if anything. I'm not big on "Top 10" or other similar New Years…

Teaching in the digital world, part 1a. Excel, Open Office, or Google Docs?

In part I, I wrote about my first semester of teaching on-line and talked about our challenges with technology. Blackboard had a database corruption event during finals week and I had all kinds of struggles with the Windows version of Microsoft Excel. Mike wrote and asked if I thought students should be working more with non-Microsoft software and what I thought the challenges would be in doing so. I can answer with a totally unqualified "it depends." First, I think knowing how to use a spread-sheet program is an advantage in many different kinds of fields and even in real-life, outside of…

Friday Find: Robert Frost and Fred Melcher

Our regular Friday Find feature was delayed by a day due to technical issues. On receiving the Emerson-Thoreau Award, Robert Frost told the crowd: You may be interested to know that I have right here in my pocket a little first edition of Emerson's poetry. His very first was published in England, just as was mine. His book was given me on account of that connection by Fred Melcher, who takes so much pleasure in bringing books and things together like that. Among the most precious gifts I ever got is a first edition of North of Boston by Robert Frost. It is precious to me because a good…

Darwin Quotes

Without speculation there is no good and original observation. - Charles R. Darwin Support The Beagle Project Read the Beagle Project Blog Buy the Beagle Project swag Prepare ahead for the Darwin Bicentennial Read Darwin for yourself.

Darwin Quotes

...it is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance. - Charles R. Darwin Support The Beagle Project Read the Beagle Project Blog Buy the Beagle Project swag Prepare ahead for the Darwin Bicentennial Read Darwin for yourself.

"Don't judge me, man!"

A lot has been said lately about judgementalism and blame. Well.... I just think everybody has to watch this video before they buy their next goat: Anybody know what the point of all this is? Hat Tip Rob.

I am not here

Hurtling1 down the road in my black Chevy2, I laugh maniacally3. "Time to kick creationist butt4," I say, "and test the mettle of the Cheeseheads.5" I'm heading off to the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point to minister to the heathen today, so my online presence may be limited. I've got a lecture to give in their Evolution Sunday series. Here's a copy of the PowerPoint file6, just so I have an online backup. I'm racing right back early Monday morning, though. I've got a hellish week or two of grading and exams and classes and more travel, and I've got to get an early start on it all.…

Explaining Science to the Public

Chris Brodie is teaching the 'Explaining Science to the Public' class at NC State University. His students come from English, science and engineering departments and he is teaching them how to write well and how to utilize all of the modern technologies for science communication. The students are now all on Twitter - yup, that's a class assignment - and you can follow their discussions if you search for the #esttp hashtag. I visited their class last month and discussed various new forms of online science communication with them. Almost all of them also came to hear a wonderful presentation…

Subway lines as cello strings; an atlas of loneliness

I get mail with wonderful links in it, but I'm hard pressed to find the time to post them, so my apologizes to those who've sent me things and not heard back. I'm beyond swamped. In the meantime, perhaps you'll enjoy these two nontraditional takes on "mapping." First up, map as music (or is it vice versa?): "Conductor" by Alexander Chen Conductor turns the New York subway system into an interactive string instrument. Using the MTA's actual subway schedule, the piece begins in realtime by spawning trains which departed in the last minute, then continues accelerating through a 24 hour loop.…

Some modest proposals for animal rights supporters looking to make their case without resorting to harassment, intimidation, or violence.

I take it that a good number of animal rights supporters feel that their position is philosophically well-grounded, intuitively appealing, and compatible with the flourishing of humans as well as of non-human animals. As such, I would argue that animal rights supporters can, and should, advance their position without resorting to tactics that depend on harassment, intimidation, or violence. (At least some animal rights supporters agree.) Especially since the hope is to win the hearts and minds of the larger public to the cause of animal rights, supporters of this position might want to hold…

Dark Energy in the 17th Century

I was shown this today, and it totally rocks. ADS archives have gone back, just a wee bit... The Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System, ADS, is one of the most amazingly useful and comprehensive scientific data bases on the planet. It covers all the major astronomical journals, including electronic or scanned images of essentially all the articles, as well as links to all the major online astronomical databases - including searchable and browsable images and links to published data by object. Now, if you go to ADS and enter just a data in the "Publication Date between" field - in the…

Darwin Quotes

I love fools experiments. I am always making them. - Charles R. Darwin Support The Beagle Project Read the Beagle Project Blog Buy the Beagle Project swag Prepare ahead for the Darwin Bicentennial Read Darwin for yourself. Happy Valentine's Day!

they all want what we got

but they don't know it yet feeling a bit bolshie today: freedom is just another word for nothing left to sell! how dare they buy our products and still they don't respect us! mood music for the afternoon

American politics explained

At last, you too can understand how our government works. Be sure to listen through to the end and catch the request for donations. Giving Weiner the money to buy explosives sounds like a total win to me.

Classes

From time to time my co-author on _A Nation of Farmers_ and I teach classes on practical topics about adapting to lower energy life, food storage and preservation, garden and farm design, etc... The classes are offered online and are asynchronous (ie, you don't have to be online at any particular time - we post stuff, then people respond as they are able, and then we respond as we are able...). We're offering two such classes in the next couple of months. First, Aaron and I are offering "Making Your Place" which helps people who are considering relocation, concerned they may have to…

The Schrödinger Sessions II: More Science for More Science Fiction

As you probably already know, last year we ran a workshop at the Joint Quantum Institute for science-fiction writers who would like to learn more about quantum physics. The workshop was a lot of fun from the speaker/oragnizer side, and very well received by last year's writers, so we're doing it again: The Schrödinger Sessions is a three-day workshop for science fiction writers offering a “crash course” in modern physics, to be held at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), one of the world’s leading research centers for the study of quantum mechanics. We will introduce participants to…

Nature Goes Wiki

From the WSJ: Nature, one of the world's most prestigious scientific research journals, has embarked on an experiment of its own. In addition to having articles submitted for publication subjected to peer reviews by a handful of experts in the field, the 136-year-old journal is trying out a new system for authors who agree to participate: posting the paper online and inviting scientists in the field to submit comments praising -- or poking holes -- in it. Lay readers can see the submitted articles as well, but the site says postings are only for scientists in the discipline, who must list…

World's Largest One Stop Shopping for Free Online Courses!

OpenYale courses. Looking for free, open source learning materials about any subject, from top experts in the world? I used to think that MIT's OpenCourseWare and Yale's OpenYale courses were a "one stop shopping" source for this, until I came across this stunning, worldwide, multi-lingual collection of course materials. I invite you to explore this collection of free learning materials, including course syllabi, exams and study guides in a wide array of subjects, from the US, the UK, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, China...you get the idea. Many thanks to Junqiang Zhou…

Robert O'Brien Trophy Winner: Jill Stanek

I haven't given out a Robert O'Brien Trophy in a while, but here's someone who really deserves one: Jill Stanek. The award is given for this breathtakingly idiotic column at the Worldnutdaily where she actually claims that legalizing the purchase of Plan B emergency contraception over the counter will lead to more pedophilia. Seriously. She said that. I swear. The title to the column is: Babes in Thailand rapists needn't leave U.S. Exclusive: Jill Stanek predicts Plan B customers will be men bedding underage girls I'll give you a moment to pick your jaw up off the desk. Ready to continue?…

New watch, old watch, still the same

About a year ago I enthused about my new watch, a Garmin Forerunner 110. Since then it has become ever-more-vital, sustaining me through any number of runs. However about a month ago it started to mist up inside. I took the back off and it dried out, but then I had two wet outings, it misted up, I didn't get round to drying it out, and it has never been the same again. In fact it no longer works. Score -1 for Garmin. During the year I'd got rather annoyed by a couple of other flaws with it: it really won't act as a GPS-on-the-move, in particular it won't tell you its height; and the whole…

Where There's Smoke, There's Ribs

Chalk up another prediction for Lynn. I told her the other day that I saw a smoker that I really wanted and came *this* close to buying it, but didn't. The first thing she said was, "You'll buy it before long." Hey, I waited three days! This morning I got to thinking that since I won so much playing poker this week, it's almost like I'm not really buying it, the other players in my game are buying it for me as a gift, right? Okay, just humor me and say yes. So I went over and bought it this morning. Actually, I didn't buy the same smoker that I looked at the other day, I bought a different…

Links for 2010-10-26

Should Students buy an iPad or a Year's Supply of Pot Noodles? | blog@CACM | Communications of the ACM "Suppose you gave up washing clothes for a year, or relied on your mum to do it for you. According to the budgeting guide this would save £222, just about half of the iPad. You could go with dirty clothes for your first two years and buy an iPad for third year, I guess. How about food? The budget reckons £1295 for a year. Sheer extravagance! Two Pot Noodles a day would cost under half that at £547.50. Throw in some vitamin supplements at £1.69 and what more could you need? That saving…

Just In Case You Can...

...the deadline for the end of the Donors Choose fund drive is rapidly approaching. I'm bummed that it looks like TSZ will not reach 100% of its funding goal. That means some potential matching funds will go unclaimed. I realize many of you may have other favorite charities you support, so I thank you for considering Donors Choose. Wouldn't you like to donate to Experiments in Calculus? Help a teacher buy two calculator-based data collectors to let students learn calculus through experiments with distance, velocity, and acceleration. There's a teacher in Trenton who needs funds to buy…