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Back Up and Running

Well, cable and internet is installed and working fine, so I'm back online. Got a 5 mbps connection now instead of 3 mbps, so that's cool as well. No phones yet, but they'll be here at some point today. As soon as they get here and get finished, I'll be heading out to vote.

Was There A Darwinian Revolution?

My recent talk at the Sam Nobel Oklahoma Museum of Natural History is now available online on iTunes as a podcast. Here is the link to SNOMNH's podcast feed. So settle down with a fine beverage and watch me for an hour or so. Feel free to comment below. Oh, and here are the slides:

links for 2009-02-10

http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/ (tags: omg) MMR doctor Andrew Wakefield fixed data on autism - Times Online THE doctor who sparked the scare over the safety of the MMR vaccine for children changed and misreported results in his research, creating the appearance of a possible link with autism, a Sunday Times investigation has found. (tags: autism vaccines)

Discussion on "Framing" and Storm World on Point of Inquiry

Last week I did an interview with D.J. Grothe of the Point of Inquiry podcast about the new book and other issues. It just went online, and you can listen here. This is a great podcast that all defenders of science and reason should be subscribing to, so if you don't already, now's your opportunity...

Encephalon 28

Encephalon #28 is now online at the Bohemian Scientist's blog. The next edition will be hosted at Memoirs of a Postgrad on August 13th. If you'd like to contribute, send permalinks to your neuroscience or psychology blog posts to encephalonb.hoat{at}gmail{dot{com}, or use this submission form. 

Tufte's Data Analysis for Politics and Policy

A quick follow-up to my mention of Edward Tufte last week: you should be aware that Edward Tufte's brief classic, Data Analysis for Politics and Policy, is available online as a PDF here. It's worth a skim in your spare time - and worth sharing with people who don't necessarily appreciate the limitations of statistics.

The case for anonymity online

The founder of 4chan, a controversial, uncensored online imageboard, describes its subculture, some of the Internet "memes" it has launched, and the incident in which its users managed a very public, precision hack of a mainstream media website. The talk raises questions about the power -- and price -- of anonymity. Christopher 'moot' Poole:

More on Reference Managers

There's been a flurry of interest on reference managers, and especially Mendeley, so I thought I'd throw up a few links that you will find useful. Reference managers were discussed at ScienceOnline 2010. A blog post about that session:Gearing up for scio10: Online Reference Managers A handy Wikipedia page An interview with Mendeley's Victor Henning

Support YearlyKos

YearlyKos is one of those great and cool ideas, a gathering of the Kossack hordes. They are gearing up for the neoconvention, and to fund it, they are selling "unConventional," an anthology of photographs and essays about progressivism, activism, and online communities. I'm setting aside some cash for a copy, and I hope you will too.

Is Organic Food the Answer?

The journalist Marc Gunther recently posted a thoughtful article discussing public perceptions of the role of organic agriculture in a future sustainable food system. He found that many consumers believe that there are only two ways to produce food: "The first can be described, depending upon who's talking, as big, fast, modern, conventional, industrial, intensive, chemical, genetically-modified, processed and global. It's the system that delivers most of the food that most Americans eat." "The second is described as organic, sustainable, local, small-scale, family-owned, natural, agro-…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Social Behavior In Ants Influenced By Small Number Of Genes: Understanding how interactions between genes and the environment influence social behavior is a fundamental research goal. In a new study, researchers at the University of Lausanne and the University of Georgia have shed light on the numbers and types of genes that may control social organization in fire ant colonies. Regular Walking Protects The Masai -- Who Eat High Fat Diet -- From Cardiovascular Disease: Scientists have long been puzzled by how the Masai can avoid cardiovascular disease despite having a diet rich in animal fats…

April Pieces Of My Mind #2

The Christian Democrats dropping under the 4% cutoff for Parliament is a thing devoutly to be wished for in itself. But also, I just realised, if they do, then their votes will evaporate, losing the Right coalition a considerable part of their current majority. I feel really bad for people who don't know what CTRL-Z and ALT-Backspace does. Elsevier's manuscript submission site is old, creaky and slooow. TV chef reminds me that I like forehead, not fringe. Solsbury Hill that Peter Gabriel sang about has a big hillfort on top. This is pretty badass: a local amateur archaeology association has…

Casual Fridays: Are Americans geo-ignorant?

Last week's Casual Fridays study was inspired partially by reports we see in the mainstream media so often, proclaiming that Americans are ignorant about the rest of the world. If the rest of the world really is better than Americans at geography, then maybe they can beat us even on our home turf. Our quiz compared non-Americans' knowledge of U.S. states to Americans' knowledge about the rest of the world (you can see the maps and answers here). I randomly chose ten countries and U.S. states, then created a multiple-choice quiz where a map was displayed and five plausible choices were given…

Ideas for development: curated blog posts as ebooks

So, as I've said before, my mind is often occupied with how I might develop writing in new ways. For a while I've been working on an anti-blog that specifically contravenes all supposed user-interface rules (no comments, no archives, no title), which should hopefully launch soon. I've also started a new subject-specific blog that lives hidden within another website, one that isn't supposed to be for blogging. Sort of like an Easter egg. More about that soon too. Here's another idea that's been burning on my mind ever since I bought a Kindle. E-readers are marvellous things, much more than…

Those with money to lose will fight against freedom of information

While the world is moving towards an Open Science model of exchange of scientific information, there are, as expected, forces that are trying to oppose it. Whenever there is a movement to change any kind of system, those most likely to lose will make a last-ditch and nasty effort to temporarily derail the progress. So, in this case, the Big Science Publishers have decided, instead of joining the new world of Open Science and using their brand names, their know-how and their infrastructure to become the leaders in the new system, and instead opted to go all mean and nasty. Once they finally…

One in eight global deaths due to air pollution, WHO reports

The World Health Organization has released a new estimate of the number of premature deaths linked to air pollution: In 2012, approximately seven million deaths -- one in eight of those occurring worldwide -- resulted from exposure to air pollution. The vast majority of these deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries, with much of the burden falling in South East Asia and the Western Pacific. This report deals separately with deaths from indoor and outdoor air pollution, although of course many people are exposed to both forms. Indoor, or household, air pollution comes mainly from…

My son, interviewed by Bora!

My son Sam is a budding scientist and blogger. He came to the ScienceOnline09 conference in North Carolina with me this past January and had a great time. Needless to say, Bora has tracked him down and interviewed him here. How does (if it does) blogging figure in your work? How about social networks, e.g., Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook? How much will they in the future? In Grade 9, I had a science project to do that was supposed to be about anything that had to do with the curriculum. They were pretty loose on this definition: if it in any way had to do with space, biology, physics, or…

Occupational Health News Roundup

Another oil platform caught fire in the Gulf of Mexico, but this time the crew - 13 workers - was able to escape, and no injuries were reported. No oil spill was detected, either. The Mariner Energy platform was involved in both oil and natural gas production. A Washington Post article on the fire notes that last year there were 133 fires or explosions on oil rigs in the Gulf. We're just paying attention to them this year because of the BP/Deepwater Horizon disaster. In other news: Washington Post: Luis Uriza was the shift foreman in the San Jose mine in Copiapó, Chile when a mine collapse…

Occupational Health News Roundup

This week (May 13-19, 2012) is National Police Week, which honors law enforcement officers who have been killed in the line of duty. According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, "On average, one law enforcement officer is killed in the line of duty somewhere in the United States every 53 hours." Events are taking place all week in DC; a schedule is here. The National Police Week website has the preliminary 2011 "Roll Call of Heroes: Line of Duty Deaths" online. In addition to officers from city, county, and tribal police and sheriffs' departments, it includes officials…

Junior Live-Streams His Video Gaming Sessions

I used to play a lot of computer games, and 12-y-o Junior loves them. His gaming experience is of course different from mine back in the day, not only because the games look much better now, but also because of on-line interactivity. There are a couple of developments that surprise me a great deal. One is the Let's Play film clip. These are clips on video sharing sites where someone plays a computer game while commenting on it, and they're really popular with kids. You don't have to be extremely good at the game or record clips of hidden or hard-to-reach areas. You don't have to say anything…

Links for 2011-05-04

Blog U.: 4 Reasons Why Local Meetings Should Be Conducted with Web Meeting Tools - Technology and Learning - Inside Higher Ed "Adobe Connect, WebEX, GoToMeeting, LiveMeeting, Skype, Elluminate (what am I missing?), these web conferencing tools are not just for meeting at a distance. Here are 4 reasons why you should hold more of your meetings online, even if everyone meeting works together on the same campus:" (tags: academia meetings business inside-higher-ed culture) Princess Masako - "She's Useless" | The Royal Universe "Crown Princess Masako of Japan turns 47 on 9 December. It'd be…

A Volunteer Messenger's Responsibility

Who is responsible for a package? The sender or the volunteer messenger who carries it? Do they perhaps have a joint responsibility? This issue has led to quite a number of arguments between me and my wife over the years, and we still haven't resolved it. Here's the deal. Let's say that Jenny's in bed with a cold and asks her partner Anne to take out a book for her from the library. This Anne does, but on the way home she loses the book. Maybe she absentmindedly puts it on a shelf in the grocery store and it gets stolen, or she forgets to close her backpack and the book falls into an open…

Links for 2010-04-08

Wave interference: where does the energy go? « Skulls in the Stars The two waves cancel each other out, leaving a completely unmoving string due to destructive interference. My student asked me: what happens to the energy? As posed, it seems that we started with two waves carrying energy, but they canceled each other out, leaving no energy! This interpretation cannot possibly be correct, so where is the flaw in our description? There are actually two aspects to the answer that I want to address, each of which is rather important in the understanding of wave phenomena. The first of…

Indian experts find bacteria to beat global heat

Thanks to Crakar14, I came across this article from the India Times online: In a major breakthrough that could help in the fight against global warming, a team of five Indian scientists from four institutes of the country have discovered a naturally occurring bacteria which converts carbon dioxide (CO2) into a compound found in limestone and chalk. Based on this, Crakar thinks we should just continue business as usual and forget this whole global warming scare thing. (Oh, btw, that's what he thought that before too) Now, I don't know anything more than what it says in the article, but it…

Quest for Physics

We had a colloquium talk yesterday from the very energetic Jessica Clark of the American Physical Society's outreach office who talked about the many things that the APS does to bring positive physics experiences to a wide audience. It was a terrific talk, and brought to my attention a couple of programs I hadn't heard about before, aimed at introducing physics to a younger audience. One of these, aimed at middle-school students and teachers is the "Physics Quest" puzzle activities: PhysicsQuest is a middle school competition that consists of four physical science experiments centered on a…

Arachnophilia!: ECU biologist gives nod to Stephen Colbert

Arachnologist and diplopodologist Dr Jason E Bond at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, is most recently well-known for naming a spider (Myrmekiaphila neilyoungi) after Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Neil Young. Kristin Day of The Daily Reflector is now reporting that Professor Bond has agreed to name a spider after Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central's host of "The Colbert Report." When news emerged in May that Bond had named a species of trapdoor spider after Neil Young, the biologist could not escape Colbert's web: "Where's my spider? I have lots of animals named after me: turtles,…

My brain hurts

. . . but in a good way. I'm working frantically on a project due 31 Jan and then spent much of the weekend at various blogger gatherings associated with the NC Science Blogging Conference, the second annual unconference for those interested in writing about science topics for all audiences. The conference was bracketed by a well-attended Friday evening dinner and a Sunday brunch, the former with Jim Neal, a Democratic candidate for US Senate, and the latter with Representative Brad Miller (D-NC) from Carolina's 13th District. I could go on and on about all of the great people I met but…

Fish, syphilis, and love

Before I left for Rome earlier this month, I finished up a bunch of projects. They started trickling into public view while I was away. I was going to post them all in my article archive, but I just realized I need to update the format of my site to include stories from 2008. So, in the meantime, I'll have to point you to other sites, some of which require subscriptions... [Update: I've posted the articles on my site. You can find them all here.] 1. Your Inner Fish. Last year I wrote about the discovery of the fish with proto-hands, Tiktaalik. One of its discoverers, Neil Shubin, has written…

Could cows be the secret weapon against the spread of HIV?

Image by Keith Weller, USDA via Wikimedia Commons Researchers at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative at Scripps Research Institute have discovered that cows can produce antibodies that effectively neutralize HIV. Thus far, developing an effective vaccine for HIV has been hampered by the ability of the virus to mutate. Some people who have been infected with the virus for a period of years develop antibodies that are able to attack parts of the virus that do not mutate. Cows exposed to HIV, on the other hand, begin developing these antibodies within weeks of exposure to the virus. In…

iBioSeminars

I just discovered this great resource - iBioSeminars. It's a web based resource where you can watch some of the most important Cell Biologists give talks on basic research. The website was the brainchild of Ron Vale. From the latest HHMI bulletin: Vale, of the University of California, San Francisco, also wants to illuminate the colorful side of science, though not quite as literally. His approach: online seminars that reveal scientific fact as well as the not-necessarily smooth process of discovery, the links between fields, and the more personal side of science. One of the inspirations…

Friday Sprog Blogging: more on pseudonymity.

Although I swear that the Free-Ride offspring have not read the relevant prior posts! While walking home from school: Younger offspring: From now on, in the sprog blogs, can you call me "the small, silent one"? Dr. Free-Ride: Why? You're neither small nor silent. Elder offspring: Definitely not silent. I live with you, I know. Younger offspring: Just call me "the small, silent one," OK? Dr. Free-Ride: But that would be lying to my readers. Younger offspring: But you already lie to them. Dr. Free-Ride: What? When do I do that? Younger offspring: You call me the younger sprog-- Dr. Free-…

NWF Annouces National Wildlife Week

The National Wildlife Federation is starting to sound like my mother. "Stop staring at that screen and go get some fresh air. And when are you going to clean up your apartment?" They want everyone outside during the week of April 21, challenging participants to a neighborhood bioblitz-off during that week. You can download a checklist of animals from their website, find what you can, and then share your discoveries on their website. More info from NWF below the fold. Get outdoors, enjoy the sights and smells of spring and celebrate National Wildlife Week, April 21-29! Whatever your age or…

Not Everybody Finds Science Interesting: Science Reporting and Niches

Colin Schultz has an interesting post on science reporting, in which he bemoans how science journalism has become a small niche and is not consumed by a wider audience: The issue of recognizing and confronting the fact that not everyone is interested in science is where niche journalism programs like the one at NYU can falter. Jabr remembers the awkward, glazed-over eyes he used to find staring back at him when he tried to share his enthusiasm about science. But when you are surrounded by a tight-knit group of like minded people, it is easy to forget how wildly interests can vary.... The big…

ScienceOnline'09 - Saturday 11:30am

You know that I have been very intrigued by the way the Web is changing the way we use language, especially in science communication, and have inserted my thoughts on that into many a post over the past couple of years. I have also been in a more-or-less continuous communication with Christian Casper over the past several months, for various reasons (including one really fun one - the Millionth Comment party at the Zoo). So, over those months, we came up with the idea for him to do a session, a little more academic in tone than what most other sessions were going to be, on Rhetoric of…

MA Academy of Sciences Has a Big Shinding This Weekend at Boston's Museum of Science

It's supposed to be rainy, so why not attend? Carl Zimmer will be there. MAS does really cool outreachy things like teacher training so they're worth supporting, even if you can't attend. Anyway, this found its way into my email machine: Join the Massachusetts Academy of Sciences as we spend a day at the Museum of Science, Boston celebrating science and our efforts to improve the state of STEM education in Massachusetts! We've got a packed day planned for our members and registrants, and we'd love nothing more than to spend the day with new and not-so-new friends! Interested? You may…

Science and the New Media Ecosystem, a talk by Bora Zivkovic at York University, May 6, 2013

A note for my Toronto area friends, Blogfather Bora Zivkovic will be giving a talk at York University in Toronto on May 6, 2013 from 2:00 to 3:30 pm. Here's the info: Science and the New Media Ecosystem Bora Zivkovic, Blog Editor at Scientific American Monday, May 6, 2013, 2:00 – 3:30 pm Paul Delaney Gallery, Room 320, Bethune College York University, Toronto Map Abstract: The whole media landscape is shifting and changing – newspapers on the decline with blogs, Twitter and YouTube on the rise. Science is no different. Come listen to one of the pioneers of online science communication talk…

The Joy of Science

Just in time for the Spring semester, ScienceBlogger Zuska has rolled out an online course of sorts. She's conducting a college-level corse entitled Feminist Theory and the Joy of Science--as professor and student. The course explores science, women, and pleasure. From Zuska's syllabus: This course explores the existence of pleasure, intellectual excitement, and desire as an important component of theorizing and doing science and engineering. We will examine the presence and/or absence of accounts of pleasure/desire in feminist theories of science, and in mainstream science and engineering…

Uses Of Blogs

Tim Lambert alerts us that a new book about blogging, Uses Of Blogs, edited by Axel Bruns and Joanne Jacobs, is now out. Joanne Jacobs, John Quiggin, Mark Bahnisch, Jean Burgess and Melissa Gregg are some of the contributors to the book, looking at various uses of blogs, from personal to political, with quite a heavy emphasis on what I am interested in - the uses in academia and teaching. Unfortunately, there is no chapter about uses of blogs by scientists and/or in science, be it reasearch or teaching or popularization of science. You can get the more complete information, including the…

ScienceOnline2010 - introducing the participants

As you know you can see everyone who's registered for the conference, but I highlight 4-6 participants every day as this may be an easier way for you to digest the list. You can also look at the Program so see who is doing what. Michael Specter is a science journalist and writer for The New Yorker. His latest book is "Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives". He will be the Keynote Speaker on Friday evening and will participate at the conference on Saturday as well. Michael is on Twitter, too. Dr.Isis will apparate from…

New public health advocate won't leave a dry eye in the House

We in public health need all the advocates we can get, so it's heartening to know that a major pharmaceutical company, Allergan, Inc., has hired a big name lobbying firm to "lobby on public health issues": Allergan Inc., which makes eye care products and Botox anti-wrinkle injections, hired McKenna, Long & Aldridge to lobby the federal government. The firm is expected to lobby on public health issues, according to a form posted online Aug. 8 by the Senate's public records office. Under a federal law enacted in 1995, lobbyists are required to disclose activities that could influence…

Can blogging raise your SAT scores?

Don't know, but we can test this hypothesis. Go to Cognitive Daily and/or Uncertain Principles and take the test (and read what they have to say about it, each from his own perspective). It is just the essay part of the test. You get the prompt. You write. After 20 minutes (you are typing - kids who write with pencils get 25 minutes), it is over. You can choose to submit your essay or not once you are done. Dave and Chad will score the results and have the essays graded by professionals (English teachers, hopefully some real-life SAT scorers), as well as blog-readers. Then, they…

Twitter & blogs as ways of knowing

A silly title to reflect some overhyped posturing found, guess where, on the Internet. First up, Joe Murphy on librarians and their proper relationship to Twitter: "it's reprehensible for information professionals not to be on Twitter." A loaded and diva-dramatic statement like that is a sure sign that Twitter has jumped the shark. Time to pull a Miley Cyrus, if you ask me. (Friendfeed discussion here, here and here) On the other end of the spectrum, from Steven Bell over at ACRLog, on the use of social networks by librarians: A passionate academic librarian would be so immersed in their…

The Privacy Competition Myth

In his non-book-review of Garret Keizer's new book, Privacy, "Reason" Magazine correspondent includes this ill-informed quip on privacy: With regard to modern commerce, Mr. Keizer grumps: "We would do well to ask if the capitalist economy and its obsessions with smart marketing and technological innovation cannot become as intrusive as any authoritarian state." Actually, no. If consumers become sufficiently annoyed with mercantile snooping and excessive marketing, they can take their business to competitors who are more respectful of privacy. Not so with the citizens of an intrusive state.…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Optimal Running Speed Associated With Evolution Of Early Human Hunting Strategies: Runners, listen up: If your body is telling you that your pace feels a little too fast or a little too slow, it may be right. A new study, published online March 18 in the Journal of Human Evolution, shows that the efficiency of human running varies with speed and that each individual has an optimal pace at which he or she can cover the greatest distance with the least effort. Early Agriculture Left Traces In Animal Bones: Unraveling the origins of agriculture in different regions around the globe has been a…

Check out the brand new homepage of Seed Magazine!

Check out the SEEDMAGAZINE.COM. W00t! Looks nifty! What they say: Our online magazine team has been hard at work creating a new look for SEEDMAGAZINE.COM, the magazine's homepage. As you'll see, it has a ton of new features and pretty new colors. The content of the site is now divided into four departments with subcategories in each, which makes for a total of 11 areas of coverage. The departments are: World (politics, development and environment), Ideas (findings and theory), Innovation (technology, design and business) and Culture (books, art and events). You can go straight to one…

My picks from ScienceDaily

The Power Of Peter Piper: How Alliteration Enhances Poetry, Prose, And Memory: From nursery rhymes to Shakespearian sonnets, alliterations have always been an important aspect of poetry whether as an interesting aesthetic touch or just as something fun to read. But a recent study suggests that this literary technique is useful not only for poetry but also for memory. Evolution Of Skull And Mandible Shape In Cats: In a new study published in the online-open access journal PLoS ONE, Per Christiansen at the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, reports the finding that the evolution of skull…

The most exciting job in science publishing can be yours!

PLoS ONE is the first and (so far) the most successful scientific journal specifically geared to meet the brave new world of the future. After starting it and bringing it up from birth to where it is now one year later, Chris Surridge has decided to move on. Do you think you have the skill and experience to pick up where he leaves off? Do you want to be at the cutting edge of scientific publishing? If so, take a look at the new job ad for the Managing Editor of PLoS ONE: The overall responsibility of this position, which will be located in the San Francisco office, is to lead the…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Evolution Is Deterministic, Not Random, Biologists Conclude From Multi-species Study: A multi-national team of biologists has concluded that developmental evolution is deterministic and orderly, rather than random, based on a study of different species of roundworms. Greg Laden explains. Telecommuting Has Mostly Positive Consequences For Employees And Employers: Telecommuting is a win-win for employees and employers, resulting in higher morale and job satisfaction and lower employee stress and turnover. These were among the conclusions of psychologists who examined 20 years of research on…

Revolutionary councils don't form around the existing leadership

Peter Brantley has a provocative post up on his blog Shimenawa: Get in the goddamn wagon. It's basically a call to arms -- specifically for younger librarians to seize a greater role in discussing and shaping the future of libraries. The problem is that a lot of the public, official discussion about the future is restricted to senior administrators -- a huge problem in the insanely hierarchical world of libraries: I was intrigued when I saw an announcement for an ARL-CNI meeting, "Achieving Strategic Change in Research Libraries", to be held in mid October, because Lord knows this is a good…

Welcome to Starts With A Bang!

Welcome to our new home on the web! For those of you who are longtime readers of Starts With A Bang!, I welcome you to our new location! And to those of you who see me as a new face, it's my pleasure to meet you! I'm looking forward to a long and healthy partnership with scienceblogs and their outstanding team of bloggers, including (some of my favorites): Pharyngula -- full of irate opinions and outstanding biology, Dynamics of Cats -- where theoretical physics and random events meet, Framing Science -- Matthew Nisbet brings some reason to science communication, and Eruptions -- Volcanoes,…