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Cooling the Planet with Geoengineering

At World Science - listen to the podcast and join the online discussion: Our guest in this Science Forum is economist Scott Barrett of Columbia University's Earth Institute. Chat with Barrett about the science and politics of geoengineering, the emerging field of science aimed at cooling the planet. Barrett is an expert on international environmental agreements. He is currently studying the politics and economics of geoengineering. He says countries are more likely to geoengineer climate than reduce their carbon emissions. Read his paper on The Incredible Economics of Geoengineering. Barrett…

Links for 2010-06-03

Precautions and Paralysis « Easily Distracted "The cautionary example that I think is most pertinent for academics is newspaper and magazine journalism. Fifteen years ago, some of the developments that have cast the future of print journalism as we have known it into doubt were already quite visible. But few people in the industry took those developments seriously as a threat, even if they were otherwise interested in online media and digital culture. Would it have made any difference if print journalists in 1995 had sat down for an industry-wide summit, accurately forecast what online…

Scratch and HyperHomeschool

Two things. First, my wife started blogging. The best thing about this is that she can no longer complain about my blogging. Her blog is over at HyperHomeschool.com. Basically, she is keeping up with her homeschooling stuff online. I see great potential here. I guess this gets to the second thing. I made a little screen cast tutorial on Scratch. I figured this would be good material for her blog. In case you are not familiar with Scratch, it is a graphical programming language developed at MIT. It is very similar to the Lego Mindstorms programming language. You can do tons of stuff…

Reality strikes even the godless at Christmastime

Previously, I enviously mentioned this fabulous godless variety show going on in England this year. It's Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People, organized by Robin Ince, and featuring a host of secular personages of note. They had a similar show last year, with many requests for recordings. The great godless minds cogitated, and realizing that Deep Thoughts alone do not pay the utility bills or generate pints of beer, they have come up with an idea: you can now buy a DVD of the 2008 Nine Lessons show, proceeds of which will go to the Rationalist Association. You should get it. It'll help…

Links 7/6/11

Links for you. Science: Fisheries: How Much Damage Can One Hook Do? Spiders Fleeing Pakistan's Floodwater Take to the Trees Assassin Bugs, the Insect World's Most Cunning Killers Trusting your instincts: Conservatives may actually be natural liberals at heart (the key part has to do with the role of fear) Other: Buy Lohan, Sell High: Why is Lindsay Lohan tweeting about the Federal Reserve's monetary policy? Ron Paul's Surprisingly Lucid Solution to the Debt Ceiling Impasse The Corrupt Corporate Incarceration Complex New York's AG Takes on the Banks Boston.com: Now free of pop-unders (it was…

Denialists' Deck of Cards: The 10 of Spades, "Self-Regulation"

At this point, the denialist must propose "self regulation" to deal with the problem that doesn't exist. Self-regulation is a set of rules that an industry generates to govern itself. The cool thing about self regulation is that it cannot be enforced, and once the non-existent problem blows over, the denialist can simply scrap the rules! For instance, in the runup to passage of bank privacy legislation in the late 1990s, data brokers created an organization called the "Individual Reference Services Group" that proposed rules for selling personal information. After the legislation passed…

Speaking of philosophy…

As you should know, John Wilkins has left the enveloping (and sometimes stifling) womb of Scienceblogs to strike out on his own, and is also laboring as an underpaid postdoc. He has entered that realm familiar to philosophers everywhere: poverty. It's good for the soul, John! Calorie restriction is also good for longevity! Unfortunately, spiritual and intellectual rewards do not pay web hosting bills, so Wilkins would appreciate any donations towards the continued solvency of Evolving Thoughts. Help him out if you can. Oh, and when his book becomes available, buy it. I know I will, even if…

perspective

In 2005, Jon Stewart, who, may I say, is a comic genius and one of the top two or three deliverers of media news to the US populace, was paid $1.5 million for his work. In 2006, Mather and Smoot shared the physics Nobel Prize: 10 million SEK At the current exchange rate that is almost exactly $1.5 million. Mather is NASA's Chief Scientist and Senior Project Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope. He is also a civil servant, in 2005 G-15 paygrade topped out around $120,000 per year. With adjustments Senior Executive Service can reach $168,000 I believe - which also requires more…

American Goldfinch

tags: birds, American Goldfinch, Carduelis tristis, ornithology, Image of the Day A long-time reader, Jerry, sent some images for me to feature as the "image of the day". This is the last image in a series of five. American Goldfinch, Carduelis tristis. Image: Jerry Kram. [larger size]. The photographer, Jerry Kram, writes; I know I've sent you a goldfinch before. But they are one of my favorite birds. My father loved goldfinches. He called them wild canaries. He told me that as a child during the Great Depression he and his friends would try to catch them (uniformly unsuccessfully)…

Tom DeLay's Parody Problem

Now this is really funny. There's a new documentary out, The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress, by Robert Greenwald. It apparently is an expose on DeLay's corruption, and the DeLay folks are busy trying to spin the claims in it. They sent out a mass email about it that included a one-page fact sheet that declared: Hollywood Pulls Michael Moore Antics on Tom DeLay Colbert Cracks the Story on Real Motivations Behind the Movie That's right, they're using a Stephen Colbert interview, where he asked such questions as, "Who hates American more, you or Michael Moore?", as evidence to disprove the…

Rising Oceans vs You and Your Family

Most of you will have heard by now of Mitt Romney's convention chuckle at the expense of the global biosphere, of which you and your family are of a part: "President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. My promise is to help you and your family." (Full text is here) Bill McKibben's tweet in response is pretty perfect: "On some other planet, apparently".  Planet3.0 has a lengthier and very good exposition on what underlies the success of such a mockery. My only thought on what Dan has written is that all us concerned individuals in the greater blogosphere…

It's Organic Pixie Dust, from Fair-Trade Pixies

SteelyKid: Daddy, would you like to go to visit Jake and the Never Land Pirates? Me:: In principle, sure. But it's a cartoon. We can't go there, it's not a real place. SteelyKid: Yes it is. Never Land is real, we can go there. Me: Well, look, if you find some pixies dust that we can use to make us fly, we can try to fly to Never Land. Let me know if you find any. SteelyKid: No, Daddy, we don't need to find pixie dust. We just need to go to the store and buy some pixie dust. Me: I'm pretty sure they don't have pixie dust at the stores around here. Though, there are persistent rumors that they'…

You're Not Some Kind of Squirrel-Lover Are You?

Despite my best efforts to sleep late and miss my flight, I made it to the airport with plenty of time to get on my flight to DC. Which means that I will, i fact, be giving a talk TODAY at 3:30 pm at the University of Maryland, College Park in the Lecture Hall (room 1110) in the Kim Engineering Building. The title of the talk is "Talking to My Dog About Science: Why Public Communication of Science Matters, and How Weblogs Can Help." If you're in the DC area, and not stuck in a long line to buy bread and milk in advance of the coming Snowpocalypse, come to my talk, which will feature at least…

Sex, Science, and Stem Cells: has anyone read it?

I was surfing around the DNC site last night and came upon this nice addendum to yesterday's post: a series of videos about the Denver area narrated by a proud native and six-term Congresswoman Diana Degette (D-CO, 1st). I was reminded while going through 5280 magazine that Rep. Degette had written a book about the war on science by the Republicans called, "Sex, Science, and Stem Cells: Inside the Right-Wing Assault on Reason." (Actually the book was "co-written" with Daniel Paisner, the amazingly prolific and self-effacing "author, ghost-writer, reasonably nice buy."). I'm a little short…

Did classic artists paint the brain into their art?

Some scientists seem to think so. Check out this comparison between a sagittal section of a brain and this piece of art: Pretty striking similarity isn't there? Partly as a joke to entertain sceptical colleagues, he and the team went on a brain trawl, and found many other examples. The team is convinced the artists were fascinated by the scientific discoveries being made by anatomists, but their theories had to be concealed in the imagery of their paintings, particularly when their clients were so often senior clergy who might see their scientific interests as blasphemous or even heretical…

Don't wait for the LHC - get your Higgs boson now

Yesterday the large hadron collider started up successfully, and the world did not end. But it will still be months before we have exciting collision data, so don't hold your breath waiting for that Higgs boson - unless you want to buy a stuffed one at Particle Zoo: Wait - a Higgs boson costs just $9.75?! Someone should have told CERN before they spent all those billions of Euros! If the Higgs boson is too trendy for you, Julie at Particle Zoo also offers a Z boson, which looks kinda like a Pac-Man ghost, or one of the three neutrinos, which resemble the disembodied heads of Ninja turtles…

The Counter-Creationism Handbook comes to the masses!

Here's some happy news for all you warriors against creationism: Mark Isaak's Counter-Creationism Handbook(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), that wonderfully indispensable and entirely portable version of the Index to Creationist Claims, can now be purchased in paperback for less than $15. It was previously only available in a rather pricey but but extremely well bound edition. Next time you attend a talk by Ken Ham or Duane Gish or any of the common-as-dirt wandering creationists (or Kent Hovind, once they let him out of jail*), you'll want a copy of this with you—teach them to fear the power of well-…

MnCSE!

Good news for Minnesota! Minnesota Citizens for Science Education has been officially launched. This is a new advocacy group with the goal of promoting good science education in our state. Specifically— A scientifically literate population is essential to Minnesota's future. To that end, Minnesota Citizens for Science Education (MnCSE) will bring together the combined resources of teachers, scientists, and citizens to assure, defend, and promote the teaching and learning of evolutionary biology and other sciences in K-12 public school science classrooms, consistent with current scientific…

Ready, Set, Submit! Open Lab 2011

Production on Open Lab 2010 is proceeding apace, thanks to the valiant assistance of Blake Stacey. While we put the finishing touches on it, though, it is time to announce the sixth anthology.* The submission form for the 2011 edition of Open Lab is now open. Any blog post written since December 1, 2010 is eligible for submission. You can buy the last four annual collections here. You can read Prefaces and Introductions to older editions here. The instructions for submitting are here. Here are the submission badges, designed again this year by Doctor Zen. You are encouraged to display them…

Donors Choose: I'm in awe

You guys (and my next blogging check) have managed to fully fund several programs already (six by my count), and we're not even at the half-way mark in the drive (well, we're almost there). We've reached over 550 kids. I have a great project for you: there's a classroom in Michigan that wants to buy a netbook. One. That's it. It would allow the students to research questions without leaving the safety of their classroom. They need another $365 to get it. Can you imagine what kind of world could open up to these kids with web access? It won't take very many readers making modest…

Good-bye to the P-I

Updated 3/17 and 3/19 (see below) The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's newsroom heard the announcement this morning: The Heart Corporation, which owns the paper, will cease printing after tomorrow's edition. The official word is that the P-I won't be going away, but transitioning to an online-only format with the goal of being "the leading news and information portal of the region." That's a quote from Hearst CEO Frank Bennack Jr. in an article that must have been wrenching for P-I reporters Dan Richman and Andrea James to write. The portal "will feature breaking news, columns from prominent…

ScienceOnline'09 - introducing the participants 10

The interest in the conference was overwhelming this year. When we opened the registration back in September we did not expect that we would have to close it in less than three weeks, already over our maximal number of 200. As a result, our waitlist got bigger and bigger and, occasionally, as someone would cancel, we could invite someone from the waitlist to register. About a dozen people held off until the end, hoping they would still be able to make it, but had to cancel over the last week or two. In their place, we invited several people from the waitlist (and yes, we are still over…

Student Pugwash's Science Policy Guide for Young Voters

Student Pugwash has launched a very interesting science, environment, and technology guide for young voters. Press release below. Student Pugwash USA Launches Science Policy Election Guide for Young Voters Washington, DC (March 5, 2008): Addressing questions about climate change, energy security, and other concerns expressed by young voters in a recent survey, Student Pugwash USA launched From Electrons to Elections, a science and technology policy guide to the 2008 elections. From Electrons to Elections is a non-partisan resource designed to educate young voters on science, technology, and…

Reality catches up with the Australian

John Quiggin writes about the culture warmongers: Third, and most importantly, the factoid-based, point-scoring, style of argument that goes with the culture wars eventually leads to complete insulation from factual reality. Any proposition, no matter how ridiculous, can be defended in this way, long after the average person has seen through it. This has been most obvious in relation to climate change and Iraq, but there are a whole string of issues where the culture warriors have imprisoned themselves in an orthodoxy every bit as constricting as the largely imaginary monolithic leftism they…

Open Lab Reviews #1: USC and DSN

The first two reviews (that I'm aware of) of this year's edition of Open Lab have surfaced! First, USC ran a fantastic story on Open Lab and on my experiences with science blogging more generally. It was placed prominently (to my surprise) at the front page of the USC website for a week, and included in the weekly email of the USC College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences! Thanks to Ariel Carpenter for such a great article. Do Japanese people have a special sushi-digestion gene? What are 10 things everyone must know about comets? Can giraffes swim? Inquiring minds from the Internet's vibrant…

Can it be real? An FTC sweep goes after cancer quacks

As a cancer surgeon, I maintain a particularly intense contempt for peddlers of cancer quackery. Although I've been fortunate enough not to have had to see the end results of it more than a handful of times in my career, women with bleeding, stinking, fungating tumors with widespread metastases that could have been treated if they hadn't decided upon woo rather than good old-fashioned surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, I've become aware of enough such cases and seen the dishonest marketing of quackery enough to drive me to maintain this blog and undertake other activities to promote…

US sponsored Afghan hospital a hell hole

Rabia Balkhi Hospital (RBH) is an obstetrical hospital in Afghanistan that is one of the jewels in the crown of the US aid effort after the overthrow of the Taliban in 2002. Here's the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) website boast: HHS activities have had an enormous impact on the quality of care at RBH, have saved the lives of hundreds of women and newborns, and have improved significantly the skills and knowledge of the doctors, nurses and midwives at the hospital. We are continually adding new improvements that dramatically expand the hospital's life-saving capacity, such as…

What This Panel Needs Is an Editor: "Book Inflation" at Readercon

This past weekend, Kate and I were at Readercon, a SF convention outside Boston. This particular con is, as the name suggests, very literary in nature, and features a lot of panels of a more academic inclination. Unfortunately, my feelings about the humanities side of academia are in the "Oh, please," phase of their oscillation, so I ended up skipping a lot of it in favor of working on edits for How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog. I did go to a couple of panels, though, one of them on "Book Inflation:" Tom Easton, Leigh Grossman (leader), Walter H. Hunt, Rosemary Kirstein, Howard Waldrop.…

Ummmâ¦

Washington Post, 12/22/2009 â Obama rejects criticism on health-care reform legislation: "Nowhere has there been a bigger gap between the perceptions of compromise and the realities of compromise than in the health-care bill," Obama said in an Oval Office interview with The Washington Post about his legislative record this year. "Every single criteria for reform I put forward is in this bill." ⦠He said the Senate legislation accomplishes "95 percent" of what he called for during his 2008 presidential campaign and in his September speech to a joint session of Congress on the need for health…

The Evolution of Facebook

I've been on Facebook since the beginning, in 2005. I explored it and studied it. I always spent minimal amount of time on it, though. I get e-mail notifications and perhaps once a day go there to click on all the "Ignore" buttons for all the invitations. So, I do not see is as a big time drain. But every now and then I get useful piece of information there, or an invitation to something I want to attend. I also use it to monitor what my kids are doing there. It is also nice to reconnect to some people I have not heard of in 20-30 years and see what they are doing. I am on my third set of…

Scholarly Societies: Why Bother?

An interesting and provocative article in The Scientist by Steven Wiley iof the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, To Join or Not to Join. The thrust of the article is that scholarly societies are having trouble offering true value to their members in the Internet age, that their business models and even their raisons d'etre are being disrupted. In years past, the answer was easy because being a member came with tangible benefits, such as inexpensive journals and the ability to submit abstracts to annual meetings. Nowadays, these perks don't seem very important. Most society…

Public Housing, Public Health and the Public Interest

by Kim Gilhuly The quality of public housing is a key determinant of health among low-income populations. Substandard housing – where mold, pest infestations, fire hazards, or other health risks are present – is associated with a wide range of health problems, including respiratory infections, asthma, lead poisoning and mental health issues. Nor is illness the only concern: Each year millions of Americans are injured, and tens of thousands killed, by accidents in and around their homes that may be linked to housing conditions. Access to safe and affordable housing is not just an economic…

The ethics of snail eradication.

In the comments of one of my snail eradication posts, Emily asks some important questions: I'm curious about how exactly you reason the snail-killing out ethically alongside the vegetarianism. Does the fact that there's simply no other workable way to deal with the pests mean the benefits of killing them outweigh the ethical problems? Does the fact that they're molluscs make a big difference? Would you kill mice if they were pests in your house? If you wanted to eat snails, would you? Or maybe the not-wanting-to-kill-animals thing is a relatively small factor in your vegetarianism? Killing…

Framing and the problem of choice: Infinite information, limited motivation

Why is it so important to provide the wider American public with readily available and scientifically accurate "frames" that re-package complex issues in ways that make them personally meaningful and interesting? A recent Pew study comparing survey findings across decades emphasizes one major reason: Since the late 1980s, the emergence of 24-hour cable news as a dominant news source and the explosive growth of the internet have led to major changes in the American public's news habits. But a new nationwide survey finds that the coaxial and digital revolutions and attendant changes in news…

My picks from ScienceDaily

How Cockroaches Keep Their Predators 'Guessing': When cockroaches flee their predators, they choose, seemingly at random, amongst one of a handful of preferred escape routes, according to a report published on November 13th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. Sleep Helps People Learn Complicated Tasks: Sleep helps the mind learn complicated tasks and helps people recover learning they otherwise thought they had forgotten over the course of a day, research at the University of Chicago shows. What Makes An Axon An Axon?: Inside every axon is a dendrite waiting to get out. Hedstrom et…

Achiever Without A Cause

A gifted friend of mine suffers from a continuous psychological dilemma. He wants to be more productive and become somewhat famous, but he's pretty lazy and there isn't anything in particular he really wants to do. So, despite being hugely talented, he often feels inadequate. His problem is that he wants to have done things, but he doesn't want to do them. We share many characteristics. I'm also driven by an internal imperative to be productive, and I also crave the appreciation of my peers. (I mean, look at me here, blogging.) The main difference is that I am, without having done anything to…

The Stunning Arrogance of Power

Via Sandefur, I found this absolutely incredible display of chutzpah on the part of the city government that won in the Kelo case. Would you believe they are charging those who fought their takover rent for staying in their own homes while they fought in court to prevent the city from taking them? Those who believe in the adage "when it rains, it pours" might take the tale of the plaintiffs in Kelo v. New London as a cue to buy two of every animal and a load of wood from Home Depot. The U.S. Supreme Court recently found that the city's original seizure of private property was constitutional…

Congressman Keith Ellison Arrested

Did he take a bribe? Did he try to buy a senate seat? Did he misuse campaign funds? NO! He was trying to save the lives of thousands, make life better for countless people living under the oppressive regime of the Sudanese government. Minnesota Fifth District Congressman Keith Ellison was arrested along with others at the Sudanese Embassy where they were protesting the current situation in Darfur. Details are available here at MN Progressive Project. Ellison's office has released the following statement regarding Darfur: Today, I join with my Congressional colleagues and advocates from…

Loan Forgiveness for Public Service

As I may have mentioned in the past, we at Chateau Steelypips have benefitted greatly from Yale Law School's loan forgiveness program for graduates taking public service jobs. Since Kate shattered my dreams of a self-funded basement lab by deciding to use her pricey law degree for good rather than racking up billions as Evil Corporate Scum, the funds they provided to help pay off her loans were a crucial element of our finances for the first few years of our marriage. In fact, you could argue that they're the reason there's a physical Chateau Steelypips in the first place-- even in 2002, I…

Why did our government give special preference to Christian pseudo-insurance companies?

This country recently managed to pass a rather lame compromise on health care: there is now a mandate that requires everyone to have health insurance, even if it is from a hodge-podge of insurance companies, with the intent of fairly distributing the expense. Unfortunately, one group got singled out with an exception from this requirement. Can you guess who? Yep, Christians. Did you know that if you are a Christian you are exempt from the taxes, penalties and regulations imposed by the recently enacted health insurance law? All you have to do is to affirm a statement of Christian beliefs…

Written In Stone: Rock Solid

When I first read Brian Switek's blog, I had no idea he was going to write a book. It was long before PepsiGate and before I was even a scibling. Back then, his blog, Laelaps, was still on ScienceBlogs, which is how I happened to stumble across it. I loved it from the first post I read, and instantly added to my Google Reader. His posts were (are!) entertaining, intriguing and well researched. He was among a small handful of science bloggers that I decided I wanted to emulate. So of course, when I found out he was writing a book, I couldn't help but be excited about it. When the package…

Madoff Madness

The New York Times just published the definitive Bernie Madoff piece so far, Madoff Scheme Kept Rippling Outward, Across Borders. Reading about Madoff, I can't help but think about this conversation attributed to J. P. Morgan: Untermyer: "Is not commercial credit based primarily upon money or property?" Morgan: "No sir. The first thing is character." Untermyer: "Before money or property?" Morgan: "Before money or property or anything else. Money cannot buy it...because a man I do not trust could not get money from me on all the bonds in Christendom." That sir, was the problem of course. And…

links for 2009-01-29

Astronomers get a sizzling weather report from a distant planet "The researchers used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to obtain infrared measurements of the heat emanating from the planet as it whipped behind and close to its star. In just six hours, the planet's temperature rose from 800 to 1,500 Kelvin (980 to 2,240 degrees Fahrenheit). " (tags: science astronomy news planets) Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Blog posts / Real world reading for fantasy writers "Yesterday, on the Deerskin thread, Mary Frances passed on Lois Bujoldâs recommendation of Womenâs Work: The First 20,000…

Sundry

Various Updates: First of all, Aaron Newton and I will be offering the Adapting-in-Place class again for the very last time for at least six months, and maybe longer. So if you've ever thought of taking the class, now is the time! Adapting in Place is my favorite class - it covers everything from what's inside the walls of your home to appropriate technologies to family issues to money to security. It is the whole picture of how we are going to go forward into a lower-energy, warmer, less wealthy future. The idea is for you to come out with a plan that is uniquely suited to your realities…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Owls' Dawn And Dusk Concerts Promote Visual Communication: Reporting in the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE April 8, Vincenzo Penteriani and Maria Delgado of the Estacion Biologica de Doñana, Spain, describe the evolution of white throat badges in association with dawn and dusk vocal signals in certain species of nocturnal bird, which maximise the potential for these species to communicate during hours when light is low. Facebook Use Linked To Lower Grades In College: College students who use Facebook spend less time studying and have lower grade point averages than students who have…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Mosquitoes Create Harmonic Love Song Before Mating, Study Finds: That pesky buzz of a nearby mosquito is the sound of love, scientists have known for some time. But a new Cornell study reports that males and females flap their wings and change their tune to create a harmonic duet just before mating. How Did Life Begin? RNA That Replicates Itself Indefinitely Developed For First Time: One of the most enduring questions is how life could have begun on Earth. Molecules that can make copies of themselves are thought to be crucial to understanding this process as they provide the basis for…

Fatal worker injury in my hometown

Margarito Guardado Resinos, 34, and Nelson Pineda were working together to erect a pre-engineered steel building frame at a construction site in San Marcos, TX. The two were employed by Jetka Steel Erectors of Katy, TX, a firm hired by Bailey Elliot Construction of Austin to erect a new building for Thermon Manufacturing at the central Texas location. (I moved to San Marcos, TX last fall and the Thermon facility is on the service road for I-35, only a few miles from my home.) Just before noon on July 27, 2011 the metal structure collapsed, killing Mr. Resinos and injurying Mr. Pineda.…

Let7 miRNAs, Lin-28, Cancer and Stem Cells

Last past week was incredible. A slew of very important papers stemming from basic science and having deep impacts on cancer and stem cells came out in Nature and Science. Both stories came from labs here at Harvard Medical School, and everyone's been talking about both papers. The first story is complicated - but I wanted to use it to give a history of one aspect of cancer research. I have already written a two part intro into the topic (here and here). The other story, which was presented at last week's New England RNA Data Club, is now available online, I'll sum up the incredible discovery…

Registration information for the Arthur Allen-David Kirby debate

In case anyone from Southern California of a skeptical bent is interested in attending the debate about whether thimerosal in vaccines causes autism, here is the event information that I mentioned yesterday: Vaccines and Autism, Is There a Connection? A Thoughtful Debate Saturday, January 13, 2007 Featuring: David Kirby - Author, Evidence of Harm and Arthur Allen - Author, Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver Event Information: Location: UC San Diego Price Center, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093 Time: Lecture & Debate 10:00am to 12:30pm Reception &…

SONYC Presentation: Enhanced eBooks & BookApps: the Promise and Perils

Waaaaay back on September 20, I flew down to New York City to take part in one of the Science Online New York City panel discussions, this one on Enhanced eBooks & BookApps: the Promise and Perils (and here). Ably organized and moderated by David Dobbs, the other panelists were Evan Ratliff, Amanda Moon, Carl Zimmer and Dean Johnson. Here's a description of the panel: Enhanced ebooks and tablet apps clearly offer new ways to present material and engage readers. Yet some of the software restrictions and rights deals that these ebooks, apps and their platforms use can make them unfriendly…