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Gore's Law

Terence offers a definition of Gore's Law: Gore's Law: As an online climate change debate grows longer, the probability that denier arguments will descend into attacks on Al Gore approaches one.

ScienceOnline NYC: Enhanced eBooks & BookApps: the Promise and Perils

I'll be speaking at the upcoming Science Online NYC event on September 20th. Enhanced eBooks & BookApps: the Promise and Perils Tuesday, September 20, 2011 from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM (ET) New York, NY Weiss 305 Rockefeller University E66th and York Ave. New York, NY 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 to librarians, archivists, and future users. How can authors, designers, and publishers best exploit these…

Bioinformatics Summit proceedings and Next Generation DNA sequencing

Last spring, I gave my first hands-on workshop in working with Next Generation Sequencing data at the Eighth Annual UT-ORNL-KBRIN Bioinformatics Summit at Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee. The proceedings from that conference are now on-line at BMC Bioinformatics and it's fun to look back and reflect on all that I learned at the conference and all that's happened since. Figure 1. Fall Creek Falls State Park, TN When the conference took place, Geospiza had only just released new versions of GeneSifter Analysis Edition that could do gene expression analysis with Next Gen data. Who…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Salamanders Suffer Delayed Effects Of Common Herbicide: Pollution from a common herbicide might be causing die-offs in stream salamanders, according to biologists who say findings from their long-term study raise concerns over the role of atrazine in global amphibian declines. Experience Affects New Neuron Survival In Adult Brain; Study Sheds Light On Learning, Memory: Experience in the early development of new neurons in specific brain regions affects their survival and activity in the adult brain, new research shows. How these new neurons store information about these experiences may…

Food Preservation and Storage Class

I've had a lot of people ask when I was going to run food preservation and storage again, and ta da! I am. I'm doing it as a six week course, run asynchronously online on from April 15 to the end of May. I'll put material up on Thursdays, but you can participate at your leisure. The class will cover everything from the very basics of setting up a food reserve to more advanced food storage, the reasons for storing food and water, how to handle medications and special diets, deal with kids and elders, and how to save money doing it. We'll also cover all the major food preservation…

Creationists vs. Texas

A while back, the Institute for Creation Research tried to get approval to issue degrees in the state of Texas — they would have used this authority to churn out science teachers whose knowledge would have been derived entirely from the Bible and young earth creationist tracts. Fortunately, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board flatly turned them down, one of the smart moves in which Texas can take some pride. Now, however, the ICR is now suing the THECB. Seriously. Even better, the lawsuit is a dense compendium of concentrated hilarity. The sixty-seven-page complaint teems with…

Star Trek: Discovery Is Smart-Sounding Scientific Nonsense, Season 1, Episode 4 Recap

"You were always a good officer. Until you weren't." -Saru, from Star Trek: Discovery Science is full of great ideas and brilliant discoveries, and some of those more recent ones have made their way into the popular consciousness. TED talks, popular blogs and online magazines, and Facebook pages and internet memes have helped disseminate bits of knowledge to millions. But how much of what's come through is actually worth knowing, versus how much is simply science-sounding buzzwords that's content-free? Outside the event horizon of a black hole, General Relativity and quantum field theory are…

Aard's Second Blogiversary

Today marks Aard's second anniversary. I'm still having fun and hope you are too! Looking at October and November, the blog had about 950 unique readers daily and was ranked #24 out of 74 blogs on Sb. I recently updated the Best of Aard page for those of you who want to check out some past goodies. For much of these two years I have bragged in the left-hand side-bar that Aard had the highest Technorati rank among the net's archaeology blogs. This is no longer so, and the main reason is that I have stopped hosting blog carnivals. Technorati ranks a blog according to the number and quality of…

This Christmas, make it "Moby Duck"

My favorite thing about Christmas is the stories. To me, the holiday comes wrapped in pictures, histories, tales, and yarns just like the gifts setting under the tree. The feast begins after Thanksgiving Day as networks broadcast animated snowmen, elves, and reindeer. Classic stories like Miracle on 34th Street and Christmas Carol make the season great. Even now, when my family gets together, someone brings a Christmas story to read aloud. We tried everything from classics to limericks. It would be nice to tell a Christmas story here at Deep Sea News. Its a challenge if nothing else. I…

Links for 2012-03-02

UPDATED X 6: YOU'RE RUINING NATHAN FILLION FOR ME, NATHAN FILLION. Alternate title: But I forgive you. -- TheBloggess.com Conversation with my friend, Maile... me: Sooo...Nathan Fillion is making me doubt my own existence. Maile: Um...what? me: I've been asking him for a picture of himself holding twine for almost a year now, and he refuses to acknowledge me or the thousands of other people asking for twine pictures. Maile: Why exactly are thousands of people asking him for twine pictures? me: It's sort of a long story. Patriarchy, modesty and training up children: Who are the babies? Â…

Links for 2011-05-01

Acculturating students to science § Unqualified Offerings "A student with a very enthusiastic yet serious demeanor, and very responsible habits, recently asked if he could work in my research group.  He has few relevant skills at this point, and my crew is pretty full, but I want to help him, so we're applying for some programs that support undergrads in research.  He isn't a physics major, but he has broad interests, and I think we need more people like him. In the process of reading drafts of his application essays, he sounded incredibly naive, and his writing skills could stand…

Luskin and the Peer-Reviewed Research Icon - the Saga Continues.

Yesterday, I wrote a post about Casey Luskin's misuse of the ResearchBlogging.org "Blogging about Peer-Reviewed Research" icon. Today, Casey removed the icon from his post, and provided an explanation for his actions. I'm glad that he decided to cease his misuse of the icon, but his explanation leaves a heck of a lot to be desired. He admits no wrongdoing, makes no apology, and presents a series of excuses for his actions that - even if accepted at face value - are weak at best. The first excuse he presents is essentially a claim that he didn't know what he was doing: A co-worker had…

The Chinese "Elephant Man"

This story is a couple of weeks old, but I've only just come across it. It reminds me that there may be some things worse than death, and this is one of them: To see the face of 32-year-old Huang Chuancai is to witness a rare genetic condition in its most terrible form. Chinese doctors say Huang, of China's southern Hunan province, suffers from a disease known as neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder of the nervous system that primarily affects the development and growth of neural cell tissues. For many of its sufferers, the disease means abnormal growth of these tissues and, as a result,…

The Latest Desperate Attack on Gore

Andrew Bolt is still trying to revive the bogus "Gore is a fat hypocrite" story. His main points are: Gore is fat. And: Here he was, receiving film's highest honour for his smash documentary, in which he warns that within a century the seas will rise up to 6m while monster hurricanes tear through what's left of our cities. Gore didn't say that would be 6m of sea level rise within a century. Nobody knows how long it will take, so Gore didn't give a figure. And the scientific consensus is that global warming will likely increase hurricane intensity. And that is Gore buys his offsets…

Catholicism & evolution = something to do with Islam?

Here is a long article titled Catholicism and Evolution which covers a lot of ground and seems pretty accurate. The interesting thing though is that this is published at Islam Online. Weird huh?

Bloggers on CNN

Pam is one of the CNN bloggers tonight. I already saw her on TV a couple of times. Let's see how much time they give them on TV and how much space online.

Science blogs in the news

The Online Journalism Review has an article based on interviews with several of us loudmouths here at scienceblogs.com, if you want yet another look at our perspective on this venture.

A lovely article about ScienceOnline'09

Written by Allen Dodson in ASBMB Today: Communicating Science in an Online World. The PDF does not allow me to copy and paste a quote, so just click and read for yourself.

Online publishing and networking tools for kids and their teachers

Classroom 2.0: ...the social networking site for those interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in education. NoodleTools: Basic Language Literacy: Online Opportunities for Young Writers - Publications Which Accept Student Submissions

Anthro Blog Carnival

The fifteenth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Greg Laden's blog. Check it out! Archaeology and anthropology to move you and soothe you and treat you right, baby.

Wikipedia Eight Years Old

Today's the eighth birthday of that excellent open on-line encyclopedia, Wikipedia. Let's all celebrate by going there and contributing some information! Even if it's your first time -- it's easy.

Beyond Belief 3 - Candles in the Dark

You can watch Beyond Belief: Candles in the Dark online (Chris & Sheril have two segments). Unfortunately the neat Flash interface means you can't just load an audio file into your ipod....

Around the Web: Resources on academic blogging and social media use

I'm doing a short presentation tomorrow on blogging for researchers as part of a day-long communications workshop for faculty here at York. And since a few months back I created a reading list for a social media presentation for grad students, I thought I'd expand that list in this post and add some more specifically blogging-related resources. Enjoy! Our Blogs, Ourselves (Paul Krugman) The Power of Blogs in Forming New Fields of International Study Should you enter the academic blogosphere? A discussion on whether scholars should take the time to write a blog about their work Social media…

Using Vegetable Power to File Your Taxes Online

tags: taxes, online tax filing, humor, satire, streaming video This amusing video tells us how to rely on a "green" solution to powering our laptops while figuring and filing our taxes [1:29]

Help Laelaps

Dinochick says that one of our own is up for a blogging scholarship: Brian Switek of Laelaps. All you need to do to pick a winner is … vote in an online poll. Ironic, I know.

Have you been missing it?

The talkorigins domain has been inaccessible for some time now…but no more. All the problems have been resolved and you can now find all the content back online at talkorigins.org.

Now, those are some molecules I can relate to!

Made With Molecules online store is expanding its offerings. Sure serotonin earrings are cool, but nothing beats the familiar and soothing effects of theobromine and caffeine. Check them out! (Hat-tip: Vaughan

They Eyes Have it. Actually, You have The Eyes

as in ... The most recent issue of Evolution: Education and Outreach is now available free online. This is a special issue devoted to the evolution of eyes. Enjoy. CLICK HERE for details.

What 'Bout Them Libertarians?

This is an old anti-Libertarian screed (from December 2004) that is bound to attract trolls (and traffic).... Much of the stuff on this blog is based on the bimodal (bipolar?) view of the world: there are Conservatives and there are Liberals, and that's it. Lakoff, Ducat, Frank and the like spend much time explaining the two, or just trying to explain the strange Conservative animals to the Liberals. But, as I stated before, only about a third of Americans are core Conservatives and another third are core Liberals. What about the remaining third? Also, as only about a half of Americans vote,…

Blogger to Lead OSHA

We got some very exciting news today! The Pump Handle has obtained an email sent to OSHA staff announcing that Jordan Barab will be Deputy Assistant Secretary for OSHA and Acting Assistant Secretary.  Blog readers may be familiar with Jordan because his Confined Space blog was for several years the number-one online source of news and opinion about worker health and safety. Of course, Jordan also lots of work experience not directly related to his blogging: He spent 16 years running AFSCME's health and safety program; served as a Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for OSHA; was a…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Birds Can Detect Predators Using Smell: Many animal species detect and avoid predators by smell, but this ability has largely been ignored in the study of birds, since it was traditionally thought that they did not make use of this sense. However, it has now been discovered that birds are not only capable of discerning their enemies through chemical signals, but that they also alter their behaviour depending on the perceived level of risk of predation. Help For Insomnia Patients? Different Processes Govern Sight, Light Detection: A Johns Hopkins University biologist, in research with…

Trouser snakebitten

Rosen T. Penile ulcer from traumatic orogenital contact. Dermatol Online J. 2005 Aug 1;11(2):18. I love how even something like 'dude gets his dick bitten by someone and the bite turns into an gross infected sore' can be transmuted into an almost pleasant and innocuous jargonistic title such as this. I ought to do a whole post on this kind of thing. --- Behar DM, Edelshtein S, Ben-Ami H, Mansano R, Edoute Y. Human bite on penile shaft from oral sex as a portal of entry for streptococcal toxic shock syndrome. Isr Med Assoc J. 2000 Dec;2(12):945-7. No abstract available. Jesus fucking Christ…

D'oh!

I linked to that interview with Adnan Oktar in Spiegel Online the other day, but I linked to the original German text — I should have known that Spiegel has its own English edition with a complete translation.

Duke Bloggerhood

A nice article about Durham bloggers today (it will be on paper later, online for now). Bloggers featured or linked include, among others, my friends Anton Zuiker, Pam Spaulding, Sheril Kirshenbaum and Lenore Ramm.

Shakesville is back

Yes, Shakesville is online again, but the new dedicated server (that will repel the future Denials of Service) costs money. You can help it survive with a couple of bucks every now and then.

Give That Man A GrrlScientist

The advertizing slogan generator is responsible for the title for this entry -- not me! What is your slogan? Thanks for this latest bit of weirdness to my SiBling, Coturnix. tags: Online Quiz

Does This Mean That I am Fat???

tags: How many hungry cannibals could your body feed, online quiz, fun and games I am sure that many of you wonder this very thing during those early mornings just before the sun rises.

Skeptic Article

The article that Burt Humburg and I wrote will be in the next issue of Skeptic, but in light of today's ruling, they decided to post it online today. You can see it here.

Anthro Blog Carnival

The thirty-first Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Walking the Berkshires. Archaeology and anthropology, oh my! Also, don't miss the 77th Skeptics' Circle over at White Coat Underground.

Numerology Cures Skepticism

The 55th Skeptics' Circle is on-line at The Second Sight. Lots of skeptical writing to "rebalance, realign, detoxify and maintain your skeptical worldview". Also, it will convince you of numerology's validity.

Another poll for the battle-hardened veterans of Pharyngula to storm!

Aha! Another non-scientific online poll that we can mob. This one asks: Are Dawkins and Hitchens good for humanism? Let's make the wheels on their poll-o-meter spin for a little while. Wheee!

Soul Made Flesh: A Preview

My book Soul Made Flesh will be coming out in January, but in the meantime, I've posted an excerpt on my web site. You can read it online or print out a pdf.

Scifi Contest Stories published

Winning entries are up. More selected stories will go online in the coming weeks. Enjoy. Update: Comments (moderated) are now open for the winning stories. Share your thoughts with authors and other readers.

Tidbits, 20 January 2010

I'm a bit late with these! Sorry about that. Bit busy around me just now. Data-sharing resolutions/requirements announced recently include: the American Naturalist and allied journals (possibly behind paywall, sorry), and the Linguistics Society of America. The calls for open data and data archiving redouble: from mainstream media such as New Scientist, from science bloggers like those at Bench Press, from service providers like Data Dryad. I try to stay out of the futurism game (sometimes unsuccessfully), but here are some eScience predictions for you from others. Conference reports…

Lazy Day Tuesday Morning Links

I've got lab meeting in 5 mins. Here's some stuff I've read in the blog-o-sphere recently. From Coturnix, DarkSide interviews Sean Carrol on DailyKos about the Big Bang, Dark Matter, Dark Energy and String Theory. Next up ... Ode to the ... pocket protector? From M. William Lensch's blog: The pocket protector was once an icon indicating a technical education, perhaps THE icon. They were tiny vinyl billboards not only proclaiming to the world that you knew important things but also which brand of reagents you preferred (my own vintage specimen says "STP", my dad was a mechanic). The pocket…

Centripetal vs. Centrifugal (word origins)

A student in my office temporarily confused the words centripetal and centrifugal. This started me thinking about these two words. They mean different things, but do sound and look similar. I have previously talked about the difference between fake and non-fake forces, but let me quickly define these two: Centripetal: This is the force needed to make something move in a circle. The force could actually be a number of things such as: friction, gravity, tension in a rope or any combination. Centripetal force is a name for a real force that has the role of making something move in a circle…

Adaptationism not right-wing!?!?

An Empirical Examination of Adaptationists' Attitudes Toward Politics and Science. You can find a full preprint at Geoffrey Miller's site. The abstract: Critics of evolutionary psychology and sociobiology have advanced an adaptationists-as-right-wing-conspirators (ARC) hypothesis, suggesting that adaptationists use their research to support a right-wing political agenda. We report the first quantitative test of the ARC hypothesis based on an online survey of political and scientific attitudes among 168 US psychology Ph.D. students, 31 of whom self-identified as adaptationists and 137 others…

(More) Agent-Based Modeling

I have to admit that I've been dwelling on Fernando Esponda's comments on agent-based modelling and the video of Josh Epstein that I subsequently posted. First and foremost, this type of economic simulation is technically referred to as Agent-based Computational Economics (ACE). I've spent a bit of time researching ACE over the past few days and I've collected the following links for those interested in finding out more about this field. The Scholarpedia entry on ACE identifies the four objectives of the discipline as empirical understanding, normative understanding, qualitative insight…

Prostitution. It's what's for lunch.

Ex-Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer made a critical mistake in his relations with a prostitute: he had sex with her. Sex is bad, at least in America. You'd think a politician would know better than almost anyone. You don't have sex with prostitutes. You take campaign money from them: The Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents food, beverage and consumer products companies, spent nearly $1.6 million in 2007 to lobby on food safety and other issues. The trade group spent a little more than $1 million in the second half of 2007 to lobby the federal government, according to a…

Nature: It's good to blog

In today's Nature you can read an editorial that says, right there in the title, It's good to blog: Is blogging a part of science, journalism or public discourse? In fact it may be all of these -- an ambiguity that can sometimes leave scientists feeling uncertain about the rules of the game. ---------------------- The blogosphere differs from mass media and specialized media in many respects, but the same considerations apply in disseminating new scientific results there. Authors of papers in press have the right to correct misrepresentations and to point to results that will appear in a…