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GMO trees: Saving the American Chestnut tree

Ive mentioned this technology on ERV before: Saving the American Chestnut tree from extinction with GMOs Well the scientists involved think they have finally done it. They have finally made American Chestnut trees resistant to the blight that is literally driving the species to extinction: Breakthrough at SUNY-ESF: Genetic engineering may save the nearly extinct American chestnut After 25 years of research, a pair of professors at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry say they have used a gene from wheat to create an American chestnut that could withstand the blight that wiped…

Book Review: "Little Brother" by Cory Doctorow

I was recently fortunate enough to get a review copy of Cory Doctorow's new book, Little Brother">"Little Brother". I've never read Doctorow before, but the book was edited by Patrick Neilsen Hayden, who I think is the best editor in the business, and Patrick says that this book is one of the best things he's ever worked on. In his words, it's "one of the books that, should I happen to be run down by a beer truck next tuesday, I'd most like to be remembered for having helped into print". So when Patrick posted on his blog that he had review copies available, I jumped at the chance. As…

Are You a Failure if You Can't Grow Carrots?

Erica at Northwest Edible Life has a great post about her imperfections as a garden, and very relevant, because all of us have our Waterloos in the garden, and it is probably a bad idea to take them too seriously. But we do. I've imbued my personal Golden Grass Fed Cow of urban homesteading with magical properties and strapped it to my identity one cheerful blog post at a time. The Punk Gardening Angel of Reasonable Expectations pats me on my shoulder and consoles me: "It's really okay...Carrots are healthy and your kids like to eat them, and you do buy the bulk organic bag, after all, and…

it is always the little ones who suffer

The US financial crisis is causing an implosion in Iceland, which is forcing a cascade into the European financial system. Serious talk of a bank holiday and food hoarding has been heard. Head of largest oil company says oil imports may cease because of lack of US dollars. Last week one of Iceland's commercial banks went bankrupt and was nationalized over the weekend. The root cause of the implosion is that the Icelandic commercial banks overextended aggressive investments and were over leveraged, so when the world economy went bad they got squeezed. The proximate cause of the collapse is…

Kids Keep You Young

A week or so ago, this statistical analysis of listening trends in pop music got a bunch of play on Twitter and Facebook, but I was too busy to do anything with it. The headline result, reported with all the accuracy you should expect of such things is people stop listening to popular music at 33. By coincidence, in another part of the social-media universe, some friends were sneering at Top 40 music by way of highlighting a list of the current Top 40 chart to show how little of it they knew. As I'm currently marking time until I can call my doctor to get some help with what I suspect is a…

My favorite restaurant is closing, but I don't seem to care.

If the restaurant was being forced closed by the city making dumb tax-related decisions and the public works department acting almost vindictively against a certain neighborhood, as was the case when JP's closed, I'd be pissed. If it was a restaurant that was really trying to do well but failed because of the economy or because people did not appreciate it, I'd be unhappy. If it was a restaurant that served as the only anchor in a neighborhood at an uncertain tipping point, I'd be concerned. But none of those things are true. This is the restaurant where a small handful of friendships formed…

Will donations fund dichloroacetate (DCA) clinical trials?

I came across an interesting tidbit about dichloroacetate (DCA), the compound that the media and all too many bloggers are touting as some sort of cheap "cure" for cancer whose development is being ignored or suppressed by big pharma because it wouldn't be profitable enough. I poured a bit of cold water on all of them yesterday, because most of their comments were based on false hope, given how few drugs that show promise in cell culture and animals actually pan out in human trials, and ignorance of how clinical trials for new cancer drugs work. This particular tidbit is posted on the…

A year of books: 2012

I'm including here a list of all the books I've read in 2012, as well as some commentary my year in reading. I always enjoy when people post these sorts of lists online and actually rather enjoy doing so myself. I've been doing this for a few years now: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 and 2007. If you've posted such a list online somewhere, please post a link in the comments. I'd love to see it! The list of books I'm posting below includes all the books I started and finished in 2012, with the exception of books that I'm currently reading. As it happens this past year I only abandoned one or two books…

Third GOP Presidential Debate: Who won, who lost?

The big loser in this debate was CNBC. The network chose to not let anyone who was not a subscriber see the debate live. Then, apparently, the moderators trivialized the debate and annoyed the debaters, who then attacked CNBC and the press in general. Then, today, when we look at the news stories about the debate, there are hardly any. Nobody seems to really care what happened last night. Another loser was Ben Carson. I've come to think of the online unofficial polls as useful to indicate overall opinions, and to show how those opinions change (we can discuss another time why this is a…

Great professional development for K-12 science teachers

For five decades, the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS) has been an national resource for science education and teacher development in the somewhat unlikely setting of Colorado Springs, Colorado. In addition to a variety of print resources, often developed with NSF support. Among their greatest personal resources for teachers is the Keys to Science Institutes that provide an intensive, 5-6-day-long on-site experience for science educators together with a year-long web-based community that reinforces the skills and tools gained during the institute workshops. While not inexpensive…

Links 6/13/10

It's a grey, shitty Sunday. Here are some links that probably won't cheer you up. Science: Primary care antibiotic resistance for common infections The Arc of Evolution Is Long and Rarely Bends Towards Advantageous Alleles: Why Does Popular Science Ignore Neutral Theory? Two modest proposals Are science journalists being overly criticised? Jeremy Laurance: When Science Journalism Goes 'Meh' Other: Union Life: What the Obama White House Fails to Understand about Worker Safety, Security Why Economic Advisors Are Paid to Be Economic Advisors Challenged and gifted: A lesson on dyslexia from…

Around the Web: The coming apocalypse: jobs, higher ed, libraries, MOOCs

After Your Job Is Gone Disruptions: The Echo Chamber of Silicon Valley MOOCs as a Lightning Rod The Stories We Tell about MOOCs Fixing the Digital Economy Exit, Voice, and Loyalty in the Academic Library Stop Scaring Students An Avalanche is Coming: Higher education and the revolution ahead Role of librarians changes in digital age Exploring the future of academic libraries: A definitional approach Why You Should Never Have Taken That Prestigious Internship Notes From an Academic Nobody What's a Library? The End of Ownership If you live in a surveillance state for long enough, you create a…

Around the Web: Why we need blue-sky research, Internet con men ravage publishing, Why I pirate and more

Why we need blue-sky research Internet con men ravage publishing Why I Pirate - An Open Letter To Content Creators Open Access Tenure: Put it in the File Bletchley Park tweet saves Alan Turing computing papers The little guys stand up to Amazon: Book distributor IPG fights for say in e-book pricing Are books and the internet about to merge? Reflective Teaching for Librarians Comments -- The Weakest Part of Blogs, the Weakest Part of Online Journals Censorship is inseparable from surveillance Libraries as Community Publishers: How to Turn the Tables Fighting HEARSE: Higher Ed Apocalpyse…

Around the Web: Students & eTextbooks, PLoS Open Access Collection, A vision for scholarly publishing and more

College students will stick to paper books Open Access Collection (PLoS) A Vision for the Future of Scholarly Publishing How to Become A Social Media Influencer: Ten Small Steps The Declining Value of Subscription-based Abstracting and Indexing Services in the New Knowledge Dissemination Era Scholars Seek Better Ways to Track Impact Online Attempt to replicate "arsenic life" experiment fails A Most Optimistic Unconference: Publishers, Libraries, and Independent Bookstores at Digital Book World 2012 Publishing's Ecosystem on the Brink: The Backstory Saint Zuck Is uncivil behaviour hijacking…

Weizmann Institute Annual Report 2011

Our latest annual report is now online, and we think the results are worth looking at. We started with a favorite theme -- art and science -- and took it a step further. Ten short pieces on scientific research that deals with movement -- of proteins, electrons, black holes or theoretical random walkers -- are paired with works of art on a similar theme. Then we added poetry and fiction written by scientists, for good measure. The Insomniac City Cycles Ran Slavin Still from film, 2004-2009 It might all seem a bit exuberant, in light of continuing economic crises and regional politics. But if…

The Buzz: Information Science on ScienceBlogs

A new channel made its debut last week on ScienceBlogs: Information Science. Through feedback from the approximately 10,000 librarians who regularly visit ScienceBlogs, we came to realize that information and library scientists are positioned to offer a unique perspective on subjects that are pertinent to all working scientists: Open access and open science; digital and print publishing; information property and ownership, and more. Check out the newest bloggers on ScienceBlogs, John Dupuis of Confessions of a Science Librarian and Christina Pikas of Christina's LIS Rant, to get a taste of…

Are you ready for the Festival? Start planning NOW!

With the Festival quickly approaching, we've debuted a new look to our website. It's time to start planning for the pre-Expo activities as well as register for them as well as plan your time at the Expo. View all exhibits and stage shows, print your Expo map, view the pre-Expo event calendar...Teachers, check out our Teacher Resources page, and much more...Check it out! Pre-Expo events are now posted on our Online Calendar - while free of charge, many require pre-registration because seating is limited. Register now! During the expo we will be tweeting @USAScienceFest and will have real time…

Chess

A couple of years ago I could beat my son at chess every time. Not any more. He's been studying from books, playing online and beating his sister relentlessly over the last few weeks. Then he challenged me. He won. Then he won again. Then he won again. In the fourth game I finally realized I had to play really carefully and managed to win, but it was not easy. Then he challenged my wife, who is a much better chess player than I am. And he beat her. A number of times, though they are more evenly matched. Then he joined his school's chess club. Today was their first meeting. He beat…

Off to SF

Leaving RDU at noon, arriving in SF in the afternoon. If Janet remembers to bring her camera to dinner tonight, she'll post them on her blog so check it out later tonight or tomorrow. If she brings her laptop, I'll check my e-mail and comments (and of course my Sitemeter!) briefly - if not, I'll be back online on Friday. I have scheduled just a couple of little things to show up here automatically while I was gone....and you can always read the long post from earlier this morning. I forgot, while there was still enough time, to pick up Professor Steve Steve, so he is not coming with me.…

BP Executives Deeply Affected by OilSpill Parody

tags: BP Executives Deeply Affected by OilSpill Parody, oilspill, petroleum, Gulf of Mexico, television, Ray Suarez, NewsHour, Bob Dudley, parody, streaming video As part of an hour-long live online interview with the NewsHour's Ray Suarez, BP executive Bob Dudley responds to questions from the public, including a video parodying the BP response effort. I do feel sympathetic towards the BP peons -- you know, those people whom the executives depend upon but who are constantly trying not to be screwed out of pay raises, or their health insurance or retirement benefits as the result of the…

New in Science Publishing, etc.

From Pierre, we hear about a new system for calculating individuals' research impact - Publish Or Perish, based on Google Scholar. Deepak, Pedro, Mark and Deepak again take a first look at Clinical Trials Hub and like what they see. Jeff published a paper, but his Mom was more worried (in the comments) about the way he looks, with Congrats relegated to the afterthought. SXSW Podcast on Open Knowledge vs. Controlled Knowledge has now been posted online. Worth a listen. There is an article in Wired on science video sites, including JoVE, LabAction and SciVee and Attila provides deeper…

Tangled Bank Available .. I think!

The latest edition of the Tangled Bank is online at Greythumb, however, I am having trouble accessing that site. Can anyone else see it? If so, what is the magical OS-browser combination that you are using? I linked to the expanded link, and managed to see it just now, but PZ still can't see it and he tried to access it approximately 2 minutes after I did and he is sitting across the table from me! Tangled Bank is looking for volunteers to host future editions once again. If you are interested in hosting, please send email to PZ. I know that I have my most favorite time slot lined up already…

Some AAAS links

Links in this post are those that pertain to me or the session I was in - I will link to some others later (and I already did on Twitter): Columbia Journalism Review: Online and Overseas: Less hand-wringing over state of science journalism Physicsworld.com: Researchers! Join the Twitterati! Or perish! Thoughts From Kansas: AAAS Day 3: Social media in science Scientificblogging.com: Science Journalists Have Met The Enemy, And They Are Bloggers UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering: Interesting session at AAAS john hawks weblog: AAAS A Blog Around The Clock: AAAS 2010 meeting - the Press…

Disapprobation

This word is from the 29 October 2006 New York Times Magazine's feature, entitled "Islam and the Bomb" by Noah Feldman (now online). This week's issue is particularly good because, in addition to the article that I cite (below), it also contains a piece about the Taliban, several articles about bipolar disorder, an interview with a psychiatrist about depression and a piece about Alzheimer's disease. Disapprobation (dis-ap-ruh-BEY-shuhn) n. Moral disapproval; condemnation. an expression of strong disapproval; pronouncing as wrong or morally culpable. Usage: In the immediate aftermath…

KITP: Quantum Reality

"...we really do not understand the quantum theory in an intuitive manner because quantum laws are so radically different from the classical laws of physics. The dichotomy that the modern world is quantum, but the precise meaning of the quantum remains elusive, disturbed the stalwarts of physics such as Einstein, Schrodinger, and Feynman, and continues to baffle physicists even today. This lecture will explore this curious state of affairs..." A few weeks ago, Prof Sankar Das Sarma gave a public lecture at the Kavli Institute on "Quantum Reality" The online lecture is here - video and…

Fornvännen's Spring Issue On-line

Fornvännen 2013:1, last spring's issue, is now on-line in its entirety on Open Access. Joy Boutrup et al. on openwork braids of silk and metal thread that decorated 15th century elite fashion garments. Påvel Nicklasson on zoologist and archaeological trailblazer Sven Nilsson's travels in England and France in 1836. Nils Harnesk on High Medieval log canoes from a farming frontier site in Norrbotten. Soon-to-be-Doctor Ny Björn Gustafsson on Viking Period bronze and silver craft sites on Gotland (in English). Mats G. Larsson on geophys in the Meadow of Mora where Medieval Swedish royal…

Swedish Skeptics 30 Years

Today is the Swedish Skeptics Society's 30th birthday! It was started in 1982 on inspiration from the American organisation CSICOP (est. 1976). I've been a member since 1996 and now I'm the society's sixth chairman. So, what does a skeptical society do? We're a science-friendly resistance movement. We fight quack medicine, newspaper horoscopes, spiritualist mediums, climate change denialism, anti-vaccine propaganda, technophobic scare mongering etc. We make the New Age a Past Age. This we accomplish by publishing a quarterly journal, organising lecture series and pubmeets, handing out prizes…

Is the Karmic Release Ubuntu's Vista?

After six or seven weeks of Windows, I've finally gotten Ubuntu linux to run again. My installation crashed when I tried to upgrade on-line to the most recent version, Karmic. And then I couldn't boot Karmic from a USB stick. I thought the copy on the stick had gone corrupt. Yesterday Tor lent me a CD burner, and I found that Karmic simply won't boot on my netbook. It crashes midway through bootup in the same way regardless if I try a USB stick or a CD. So I downloaded the previous version, Jaunty, and it installed just fine. Is the Karmic release Ubuntu's Vista? Is it a dud release, like the…

Don't get cocky

Hemant thinks he has a shot of winning an online poll to determine the sexiest atheist blogger. No way! I'm going to send you, my minions, over there to … uh … wait. You people are probably still in shock from that time I exposed my chest, aren't you? Dang. I need to wait at least 20 or 30 years before those memories fade if I'm to stand a chance. I voted for Greta Christina, anyway, and my second choice was C.L. Hanson. People, what are you doing voting for me? That's insane. Unless, of course, you're one of those people who likes a bad boy with a hint of danger, even if he does look like…

R.I.P. H.E.Taylor

I have a sad announcement to make, further to my previous posting about a missing edition of A Week of GW News. Harvey E. Taylor, aka het, died Monday, July 14, 2014 at his home in Portage la Prairie, a small town in Manitoba, Canada.  All I know of it is from one brief online obituary and one more detailed one at the website of a funeral home. It says he died peacefully and in his home. I have appreciated the hard work and dedication it must have taken to provide his amazingly comprehensive weekly survey of climate change related news and science over the years, and I am sure many others…

Anthro Blog Carnival

The fortieth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Remote Central. Archaeology and anthropology, and all relating to the Plzen Plaza! The Plzen Plaza is a new large (20,000 square meters) shopping mall and entertainment center in PlzeÅ, Czech Republic. The facility built by Plaza Centers was opened on December 5, 2007, on the former land of Ex PlzeÅ, gastronomical exhibitions located very near the center of the city, more precisely 250 meters from the central Square of the Republic. The next open hosting slot is on 18 June. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to…

CJR Launches New Dept. Covering Science Journalism

The Columbia Journalism Review has formally launched a department dedicated to science and environmental reporting. Curtis Brainard, who has been covering the beat at CJR, will be chief reporter. His first online article details the problems and challenges ScienceDebate 2008 faces in gaining news coverage and public attention. From the announcement about the new CJR dept: The Observatory will monitor science journalism-covering the coverage-with an eye toward improving the journalism and thereby improving the discourse. It will be a guide to the best and worst of science and environmental…

Great White Shark Longevity

Image from www.clker.com. Woodridge, IL, USA --- Great White Shark Opening Mouth --- Image by © Denis Scott/Corbis Scientists have discovered that great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) actually live longer than previously thought (up to 23 years or so). Using radiocarbon age estimates, Dr. Hamady and colleagues at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution determined the animals can live to the ripe-old-age of 70+ years. These findings mean that great white sharks, like humans, may take longer to mature. It also means that overfishing may pose more of a threat to them than previously…

Be sure to cast your vote!!

The panda bear cub recently born at the Smithsonian Zoo is approaching her 100th day of life. Following Chinese tradition, the zoo will be announcing her name on December 1st. In the meantime, the zoo is asking for your help in choosing her name by casting your vote using the online poll that can be found here. The finalists are: Bao Bao (宝宝): Precious, treasure. Ling Hua (玲花): Darling, delicate flower. Long Yun (龙韵): Long is the Chinese symbol of the dragon; Yun means charming. Combined this represents a sign of luck for panda cooperation between China and the United States. Mulan (木兰):…

Watch Autopsies online

Channel 4 in Britain has created a series documenting what goes on in Autopsies, but even more exciting is that they've made them available online for your viewing...pleasure? I'm a pretty squeamish guy, which is one of the (many) reasons I didn't go to medical school. So if you're particularly grossed out by dead, cut open people then you should perhaps not watch these graphic videos. I'm about to force myself to check out the videos though! Wish me luck ;) Here's a short description from the show webpage: These clips contain scenes of a graphic nature demonstrating disections of the…

3 Quarks Daily Semi-Finalists Have Been Announced!

Sorry to be so late to the announcement party - my stupid, f-cking lovely computer has decided that it doesn't feel like connecting to the internets anymore, so I'm a little hard up for online time. Anyhoo, thank you to everyone who voted for Observations of a Nerd! Thanks to you, my post "Evolution: The Curious Case Of Dogs" has made it to the semi-final round. You can see all the other semi-finalists here. There's some stiff competition in there, notably from fellow generalist sci-blogger Ed Yong, my favorite botanist Margaret, and a slew of scibling like Scicurious, Jason Goldman, and…

Oy, the Passover dinner is going to be awkward this year

It's a standing joke that the most homophobic ranters are likely to turn up in the news some day getting their luggage lifted. As it turns out, though, some of them face a fate that's even sadder. Remember Jonathan Katz, the physicist who briefly held an advisory position with the Obama administration until his online essay declaring that he was proud to be a homophobe made the news? He raved about how homosexuality was simply disgusting and people with "unnatural desires" need to learn to repress them, for their own good and to prevent disease from spreading through the population. Surprise…

What shall we talk about?

This coming January I will have the pleasure of speaking at two discussion at Science Online '09; one on the history of science, and the other about using the web to teach science in college. You can have a look at the wiki pages for both talks here (history) and here (college science), but they will certainly change during the coming days and weeks. I want to make sure the things that I will be talking about with my esteemed colleagues will be interesting and relevant, so if you have any ideas about what you would like to be discussed during these sessions, please chime in via the comments.…

Confession: country music is motivating me

Okay, I need to confess. I usually peg myself as an indie/alternative/progressive/folkie music person. But I am really finding myself working well when I start playing the following playlist (care of the new Genius playlist on iTunes): Online - Brad Paisley Landslide - Dixie Chicks I Feel Lucky - Mary Chapin Carpenter If I had a boat - Lyle Lovett Rambler's Anthem - Yonder Mountain String Band There's Your Trouble - Dixie Chicks Baby, Now That I've Found You - Alison Krauss & Union Station Long Time Gone - Dixie Chicks That's Right (You're Not From Texas) - Lyle Lovett The Fox -…

JCB's Latest Online Feature: Biosights

The Journal of Cell Biology is one of my usual reads. Recently they've been adding extra features to their site that I really appreciate. A few months back they started a podcast, Biobytes, and now recently they have launched Biosights, a series of on online videos about research published in JCB. Incidentally the first clip from Biosights is on Allan Hall's latest paper describing how Cdc42, one of the coolest G-proteins in the cell, controls the axis of the mitotic spindle. (Yes Polarity - that same topic that I was telling you about a couple of days back.) Here is the first eddition of…

Harvard & Open Access

Harvard is to spearhead an Open Access Portal? We'll see after today's vote. From the NYTimes: Publish or perish has long been the burden of every aspiring university professor. But the question the Harvard faculty will decide on Tuesday is whether to publish -- on the Web, at least -- free. Faculty members are scheduled to vote on a measure that would permit Harvard to distribute their scholarship online, instead of signing exclusive agreements with scholarly journals that often have tiny readerships and high subscription costs. Although the outcome of Tuesday's vote would apply only to…

Even at a conference, you've got to eat!

Hey, for those of you coming to the 2007 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference, don't forget to sign up for the dinners! There's one big group dinner on Friday, January 19, from 7 to 10 PM, and a bunch of group dinners on Saturday, January 20, right after the official conclusion of the conference. You know you'll have fun sharing a meal with other conference attendees, some of whom you may only know through the screen. Make a date to meet them in the three-dimensional world. For those of you who really like planning your trips, many of the restaurants in question have their menus…

The Benshi

Randy Olson, a scientist turned filmmaker (his film Flock of Dodos premiered at Tribeca and recently made the Smithsonian blog's list of ten great science films from the 2000s), opened up a new online journal this week where he explores the worlds of science and cinema called The Benshi. The title, as Olson explains, "refers to the tradition the Japanese developed with their silent films in which a humble, friendly little man -- 'the benshi' would stand beside the movie screen with a pointer and explain to the audience who the characters in the film were and what they were saying." Olson…

Power Trio, Holy Trinity? Lady Gaga, Twitter and Google

Consider the realm of influence of Twitter itself, as a Twitterer - if there is such a term. Twitter just celebrated its "5th birthday." Who is the CMO? In just over five years, @Twitter has sent 1,056 Tweets, has 4,675,494 followers, and follows 436 (if you measure "Klout," that's a lot of Klout.) This evening's Tweet was all about Lady Gaga: This is no coincidence. Google, that other multi-billion dollar media giant, happened to air an exclusive interview yesterday with this diva of Pop {"Musicians@Google Presents: Google Goes Gaga"}: Such an intersection of popular culture, online…

The Hold Steady at Brooklyn Bowl 12/2/16

There are only a couple of bands I'd drive a significant distance to see live, and now I've made the trip to NYC to see two of them. I went to see the Afghan Whigs in 2014, and this past Friday, I drove to Brooklyn for a Hold Steady show. And this time, I have a cool picture as a bonus... Me with Craig Finn of the Hold Steady. The origin of the picture, obviously, needs a little explaining. The current set of shows is a four-night stand (originally three, but they added one after the first three sold out) at the Brooklyn Bowl, reuniting with keyboardist Franz Nicolay for the 10th…

Stepping into Second Life

Since I'm an adjunct faculty member at a couple of community colleges, I'm able to delete most of my e-mail with barely a glance. But this one made my jaw drop! Dear Educators: Alliance Library System and LearningTimes are pleased to announce an exciting conference featuring science and virtual worlds. On January 30th we are "Stepping Into Science" and taking the day to explore the possibilities of using virtual worlds to learn about and teach science. The conference will be taking place entirely in Second Life and will feature a keynote and panel discussion as well as small breakout…

Internet as a source of scientific information

Pew Internet and American Life Project just issued a new report: The Internet as a Resource for News and Information about Science (pdf). It states that: Fully 87% of online users have at one time used the internet to carry out research on a scientific topic or concept and 40 million adults use the internet as their primary source of news and information about science. The report is chockful of statistics of great importance to us science bloggers. For instance: Each respondent to this survey received questions on one of three specific scientific topics: stem cell research, climate change,…

Quick check-in from NYC

Mrs.Coturnix and I arrived nicely in NYC last night and had a nice dinner at Heartland Brewery. This morning, we had breakfast at the Hungarian Pastry Shop, where I ordered my pastry using a Serbian name for the cake, and the Albanian woman working in the Hungarian shop understood what I wanted! I forgot to bring my camera with me today, and Mrs.Coturnix did not bring her cable, so the pictures of the pastries will have to wait our return home. Then, Mrs.Coturnix went for a long walk (it was nice in the morning, got cold in the afternoon), ending up in the Met. I joined my co-panelists Jean-…

Friday Fun: Calling bullshit on social media

I'm still enjoying my informal, semi-serious, so-funny-it-hurts Friday Fun series on the slings and arrows of online social media/networking practices. The first three have been: 5 Signs You're Talking To A Social Media Douchebag 5 Terms Social Media Douchebags Need To Stop Using 5 Things Serious Tech People Need To Stop Tweeting This entry is probably the most serious and, oddly, the only one that doesn't revolve around the number 5. Anyways... Scott Berkun has a though-provoking list of things we should keep in mind when extolling the insane virtues of all that social networking and…

Get into the motion of the OCEAN!

I believe that most of my readers are very environmentally-conscious people. After all, how could you stand reading the ravings of a clearly tree-and-animal-hugging girl like me unless you had a soft spot for things that are green. So you all might like to know about a brand new, volunteer-based conservation group called OCEAN: the Online Community Environmental Action Network. Here's what OCEAN's creator, David Shiffman, had to say: I am proud to live in a time when more people care about protecting the environment than ever before. However, even with all of the amazing people working in…