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Science Online Satellite Seattle Salutes Science Blogging

Tonight, I'm going to be speaking on a panel at the University of Washington with fellow science bloggers: Alan Boyle (@b0yle) from CosmicLog and some company called "NBC" news. (I only watch TV programs on Netflix and iTunes, these days, so I forget TV stations still exist.) Brendan DeMelle (@bdemelle) from DeSmog Blog, and the Huffington Post and Adrienne Roehrich (@fiainros) from Double X Science  More details and event information can be found at our event page at Seattle Science Online.  #ScioSEA Photo courtesy of Mandy Hunter, Madison College. I feel really fortunate to be in…

MSHA takes bold step to end black lung disease, proposes tough new regulation

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and MSHA asst. secretary Joe Main are proposing new rules to protect U.S. coal mine workers from developing illnesses related to exposure to respirable coal mine dust. The most commonly known adverse health effect is black lung disease, but exposure is also associated with excess risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, progressive massive fibrosis, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema. The proposal, scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Oct 19,* takes a comprehensive approach to the problem. I've not had a chance to read carefully the entire…

My picks from ScienceDaily

Life Elsewhere In Solar System Could Be Different From Life As We Know It: The search for life elsewhere in the solar system and beyond should include efforts to detect what scientists sometimes refer to as "weird" life -- that is, life with an alternative biochemistry to that of life on Earth -- says a new report from the National Research Council. The committee that wrote the report found that the fundamental requirements for life as we generally know it -- a liquid water biosolvent, carbon-based metabolism, molecular system capable of evolution, and the ability to exchange energy with the…

UK fuel prices

Whenever people ask me about the possibility of us running out of fossil fuels, I usually reply that I'm no expert on oil reservoirs but that there are markets out there that are, and if we were going to run out the price should have been rising rapidly. That probably still true, despite oil prices staying high - according to the FT they have managed to fall to $63.55 a barrel (Brent crude). More interesting for the UK is the story of our gas prices. Just recently there was a four-fold spike in gas prices (although the spike itself is not much bigger than the brief spike in mid-november); due…

The Friday Fermentable: A Liveblogging Wine Tasting at ScienceOnline'09

Let's face it, after the holidays I'm not terribly interested in drinking any beer or wine for the next two weeks. However, two weeks from today will mark the beginning of ScienceOnline'09, the online science communications unconference being held in our little ol' neck-o-the-woods. Being as how I'll have the chance to meet so many of you then, I'd like to throw out the idea of having a live Friday Fermentable. On the evening of Friday, 16 January, conference attendees will be gathering at the Radisson RTP headquarters hotel bar and Sigma Xi conference center between returning from…

Nuclear Power Can't Curb Global Warming

And, we'd need 10 dumps the size of Yucca Mountain "to store the extra generated waste by the needed nuclear generation boom." (Full story through Reuters here.) This from a new report commissioned by the non-profit Keystone Center (whose website was giving me link trouble before, but the final report itself should be here, as a *.pdf). "Historical and Projected Commercial Spent Nuclear Fuel Discharges as of May 14, 2007" (from Keystone report linked above, with apologies for the poor quality reproduction/blurriness/squinting requirement) That report, called "The Nuclear Power Joint Fact-…

A Cautionary Tale about Copyright Protection

When you get in a conversation about pharmaceuticals, everyone always asks me: "Why can't they just give them away? Drug companies make so much money anyway. Why do we even have patents?" Well, the reason is that piracy stifles innovation. If people can't make any money off what they make, then they can't afford to design anything new. Don't believe me...read this: Kingsoft Corp.'s English-Chinese dictionary program is used on most of China's 60 million PCs. That's the good news. The bad news: Kingsoft doesn't make any money from it, because 90 percent of those copies are pirated. One…

The Morula Solution?

It's obvious from yesterday's vote that embryonic stem cells will continue to split the country (California versus Washington DC, for one thing). But in an ironic bit of timing researchers at the Reproductive Genetics Institute have just published some results at Reproductive BioMedicine Online that could--possibly--short-circuit some of the arguments against using embryonic stem cells. The RGI researchers have figured out how to derive stem cells from a four-day old embryo--a stage known as a morula. Until now, scientists have been using older blastocysts, and have been destroying them in…

Terror Bird couldn't fly but probably could swim

The terror bird or Titanis walleri was a flightless, carnivorous bird present in North America. Researchers at the University of Florida have determined that it was probably present in North America prior to the formation of the land bridge that connected Alaska with Asia North America and South America: A University of Florida-led study has determined that Titanis walleri, a prehistoric 7-foot-tall flightless "terror bird," arrived in North America from South America long before a land bridge connected the two continents. UF paleontologist Bruce MacFadden said his team used an established…

Weiner Twitter 'Prank': Lies of a "Panicked" Politician

This is incredible, from The Wall Street Journal!! "I panicked and said I was hacked," said Mr. Weiner at the late afternoon news conference at a midtown Manhattan hotel. What was he thinking? See my previous post, giving him the benefit of doubt. So much for the dangers of hacking and computer privacy in this case, but it's all too real. Excerpts: New York Rep. Anthony Weiner on Monday admitted sending sexually suggestive photographs to women online but said he doesn't plan to resign from Congress because of the scandal. "I panicked and said I was hacked," said Mr. Weiner at the late…

Josephoartigasia monesi, a true ROUS

A capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) at the Cape May Zoo. Josephoartigasia dwarfs this animal, the largest of the living rodents. One of the most interesting evolutionary patterns is an increase in the disparity of sizes in a group, small representatives persisting and changing even as some lineages get larger (I'll address this issue a bit more in a separate piece of Cope's Rule, if such a thing even truly exists). A new Pleistocene fossil rodent from Uruguay called Josephoartigasia monesi further elucidates this trend, being the largest fossil rodent yet discovered with an estimated…

Addicted to Gambling: The New Twinkie Defense?

From the LA Times: Paul Theodore Del Vacchio, now 41, is a gambler. In Riverside County Superior Court, a psychologist testifies that Del Vacchio fed his impulse-control disorder with online wagering, not caring about the win or loss, just the high of the bet. This is why he stole half a million dollars from his employer, an Indian casino, Del Vacchio tells the judge. It was a compulsion. He needed to cover his losses. Needless to say, the addiction defense didn't work: the Judge handed Paul Del Vacchio a four year sentence. If we aren't going to show mercy for crack addicts, then we…

ScienceOnline2010 - interview with Mary Jane Gore

Continuing with the tradition from last two years, I will occasionally post interviews with some of the participants of the ScienceOnline2010 conference that was held in the Research Triangle Park, NC back in January. See all the interviews in this series here. You can check out previous years' interviews as well: 2008 and 2009. Today, I asked Mary Gore from The Duke Medicine Office of News and Communications to answer a few questions. Welcome to A Blog Around The Clock. Would you, please, tell my readers a little bit more about yourself? Where are you coming from (both geographically and…

Just Not Made that Way

Madeline Holler at Salon has a rather cute essay about her failures at becoming a radical homemaker. On my first quick skim through it (it was sent to me by several readers, so thanks!), I was inclined to give it a total pass, because I found myself rather liking Holler, and sympathizing to an extent. At least she was trying to live on a comparatively lower income. At least she made the yogurt. If she really hated it, well, at least she was sort of trying to live up to her principles - something all of us have a tough time doing. I may make my own bread, but I have my own hypocrisies.…

The US screws with WHO's mission

I've spent some time here (old site, here, here, here, here and here) explaining WHO's place in the international system. It explains certain things I thought important to understand. An important part of the international "system" (Westphalian-style) is there is no official authority over sovereign nation states. That means that power politics operates, sometimes quietly, sometimes nakedly. WHO is not immune. A shocking case in point relates to some highly questionable decisions made by the late WHO Director General, Dr. Lee Jong-wook. It is awkward to bring this up in the wake of his…

Cognitive Surplus

Over at the Barnes and Noble Review, I have a short review of Cognitive Surplus, the new book by Clay Shirky: Cognitive Surplus, the new book by internet guru Clay Shirky, begins with a brilliant analogy. He starts with a description of London in the 1720s, when the city was in the midst of a gin binge. A flood of new arrivals from the countryside meant the metropolis was crowded, filthy, and violent. As a result, people sought out the anesthesia of alcohol as they tried to collectively forget the early days of the Industrial Revolution. For Shirky, the gin craze of 18th-century London is an…

Homeopathists should just hide their polls and lie low

It's pointless for these loons to try and make their case with a goofy online poll, since we'll just smack it down. Here's another one. Do you believe homeopathy is an effective form of treatment? 51%Yes 49%No The evidence is all against it, and reason suggests there is no mechanism. Perhaps they ought to correct those deficiencies before playing poll games.

Friday Links

Here are some links for you. Science: Pork producers resist resisting antibiotic resistance George Will's Crack Fact-Checkers Continue Their Nap Why False Positive Results Are So Common In Medicine Other: Should We Bring Back The 90% Top Tax Rate? Bookblogging: The rise of the efficient markets hypothesis Nightmare on Ware Street Medieval battle records go online Fifty Ways To Kill Recovery

âGuide to Asian Emoticonsâ

tags: Guide to Asian Emoticons, online life, cute, Japan, culture, silly, big boobs, streaming video This is a rather silly guide to Asian emoticons .. except the emoticons I am seeing in this video are Japanese .. is Japan the emoticon capital of the Asian world? Hrm. Anyway, the straight boyz in the audience will especially like this video -- need I say more? =^.^=

Get out your 3D glasses!

Unfortunately, I left my red-green glasses at home, on the arm of my comfy chair, I think, so I had to settle for watching me looking flat. I was interviewed by 3D Science News, and they've just put the video of the first part online. Don't get your hopes up, Vincent Price was much better in the 3D House of Wax movie.

The Buzz: ScienceBlogs on Times Online

Notable ScienceBlogs posts will now be featured daily in the Science Times section of The New York Times Online, directly below the top 10 most popular science items in the Times. Likewise, this link exchange will provide visitors to the ScienceBlogs home page one-click access to recent Science Times articles, further extending the largest conversation about science on the web.

AstrobiologyFuture.org: Forum Apertum Sit

Over the next 10 years, what research done on bodies within our Solar System (measurements and theory) will be most important for informing our search for life beyond the Earth? This is the current topic posed as the Single Question on the Future of Astrobiology at the ongoing NASA Astrobiology Institute Roadmap online exercise. If you want to opine, The Forum is Open

Should Search Engines Warn of Denialism?

Evgeny Morozov argued in Slate last week that search engines could do more to warn readers about kooks online. Among other things, he cites to a recent article in Vaccine that details the tactics of anti-vaccine denialists. Morozov points to Google's special treatment of certain searches, such as "ways to die." Perhaps an alert can appear when one searches, "should I vaccinate..."

Pimpin' ain't easy (or, another SB in the OJR post)

As others have mentioned, Scienceblogs got a mention (okay, an entire story) in the Online Journalism Review. And hey, in addition to quoting me, they mentioned my post on Chikungunya--gotta love that. They did misquote me, though (or I misspoke)--I don't have cable. Can't get it in the sticks here; the compensation pays for my internet. Other than that, an overall thumbs up.

Science 2.0

Do you remember when Mitch Waldrop wrote a draft of an article about Science 2.0 and asked for community feedback? He got 125 comments. Using them, he has now finalized the text and it appears in today's edition of Scientific American: Science 2.0 -- Is Open Access Science the Future? Is posting raw results online, for all to see, a great tool or a great risk?

Free Online Journal Available: Avian Conservation and Ecology

In an effort to make their research freely available to the public and to support a greater global exchange of knowledge, Avian Conservation and Ecology provides open access to all of its content. Such access is associated with increased readership and increased citation of each author's work. This journal is available in both English and French. . tags: online journals, ornithology, birds, avian, conservation

How Skeptical Are You?

tags: skeptic, online quiz You Are Very Skeptical Your personal motto is: "Prove it." While some ideas, like life after death, may seem nice... You aren't going to believe them simply because it feels good. You let science and facts be your guide... Even if it means you don't share the beliefs of those around you. How Skeptical Are You?

Anthro Blog Carnival

The ninety-eighth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at The Prancing Papio. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology! The next vacant hosting slot is on 15 September. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me for hosting. It's a good way to gain readers. No need to be an anthro pro.

Anthro Blog Carnival

The ninety-seventh Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Zenobia. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology! The next vacant hosting slot is on 15 September. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me for hosting. It's a good way to gain readers. No need to be an anthro pro.

Anthro Blog Carnival

The ninety-fifth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Afarensis. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology! The next vacant hosting slot is already on 21 July. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me for hosting. It's a good way to gain readers. No need to be an anthro pro.

Anthro Blog Carnival

The ninety-fourth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Anthropology in Practice. Catch the best recent blogging on archaeology and anthropology! The next vacant hosting slot is already on 23 June. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me for hosting. It's a good way to gain readers. No need to be an anthro pro.

Anthro Blog Carnival

The thirty-fifth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Archaeoporn. Archaeology and anthropology is quite a lovely and ladylike pastime for us ladies! The next open hosting slot is on 9 April. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me. No need to be an anthro pro. But you must be a lady, like me.

Anthro Blog Carnival

The thirty-fourth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Our Cultural World. Archaeology and anthropology be da shit, trudat! The next open hosting slot is on 9 April. All bloggers with an interest in the subject are welcome to volunteer to me. No need to be an anthro pro. Also, don't miss the brand-spanking-new Skeptics' Circle.

New Online Magazine: Inkling

A couple of the women behind Inkycircus have decided to launch a new online science magazine, called Inkling. As they put it, their mission is: [to] cover the science that pervades our life, makes us laugh, and helps us choose our breakfast foods. If you like the stuff you see in Seed, you'll find similar things in Inkling. Check it out.

Acting! On the web!

Are you a voice talent? Want to participate in an online drama? Sign up for a part in a podcast recreation of parts of the Dover trial. It should be fun, if you're into that kind of thing. I'm not volunteering, I'm afraid. I can't act, and I'm also afraid that the closest match to my voice would be Michael Behe, and I'd die of mortification.

An open letter to 0.7%

This got published a while back in the Walrus, but I just noticed that it's also now freely available online. 0.7%, in case, you're not aware is the hallmark figure suggested by Pearson as a target for foreign aid to developing nations. Anyway, hope you enjoy. My favourite line, by the way, is: You're Wilco playing to the High School Musical crowd.

The God Delusion by Dawkins

The God Delusion is the new book by Richard Dawkins. Readers of Dawkins would already know Dawkins position on religion. Beebs has an interview with Dawkins in it's Newsnight programme. You can watch the video online. Quite interesting. Prospect Magazine has a review which is worth a read if you want to see the kind of reactions that Dawkins evokes in some people.

Required Reading

OmniBrain has a funny post on the secret of antigravity. The Neurophilosopher has a interesting post on how neuropathic pain could be treated with menthol, which activates cold receptors. The American Scientist Online publishes an interview with Marc Hauser on his model of an inborn moral system. Sounds suspiciously like repackaged Kant to me, but worth the read. (Hat-tip: Thinking Meat.)

Framing Science in N.C., Redux

I was pleased to learn that our North Carolina session has been by far the most watched online--see here--so I decided to post the video. In addition, the chair of our session, the able Abel Pharmboy, has a long post summarizing what went down, which in turn prompted lots of follow up comments. If you haven't read that yet, definitely check it out.

Top 100 Mental Health & Psychology blogs

This blog is included in a list of Top 100 Mental Health and Psychology Blogs, compiled by a site called Online University Reviews. The list is divided into a number of categories - general, cognitive and forensic psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, addiction, anxiety, autism, bipolar disorder and depression. Many of the sites listed are already on my blogroll, but a few of them are new to me.

Tangled Bank #64

The latest Tangled Bank is online (a little bit late) at Neurophilosophy. My notice is a little bit late, too, but in one of those odd coincidences, it's because I'm in London…as is this week's host, and I met him at the natural history museum yesterday. Better late than never, and just in case you haven't read it already, head on over.

Video Analysis tutorial with Tracker Video

Previously, I showed how to analyze a cat video with Logger Pro. Logger Pro is nice, but so is Tracker Video. I also posted a comparison between Tracker and Logger Pro. Now, here is the same tutorial on the same video using Tracker Video. Record your screencast online I am not going to go through the analysis, since it would be the same as with Logger Pro.

If Physical Books Are Dead in Five Years, How Do the Poor Find Books? Whither (or Wither?) the Library?

As the slow-motion destruction of our nation's infrastructure continues due to deficits über alles hysteria, we find this very depressing article from Camden, NJ about the proposed eradication of its public library system: Camden is preparing to permanently shut its library system by the end of the year, potentially leaving residents of the impoverished city among the few in the United States unable to borrow a library book free. At an emotional but sparsely attended meeting of the library board Thursday, its president, Martin McKernan, said the city's three libraries cannot stay open past…

My picks from ScienceDaily

What Do Squid Hear? Scientists Learn How Sensitive The Translucent Animals Are To Noise: The ocean is a noisy place. Although we don't hear much when we stick our heads underwater, the right instruments can reveal a symphony of sound. The noisemakers range from the low-frequency bass tones of a fish mating ritual to the roar of a motorboat. The study of how underwater animals hear is a growing topic in marine science, especially with regards to naval sonar and whales. Improved Estrogen Reception May Sharpen Fuzzy Memory: Estrogen treatments may sharpen mental performance in women with…

LugerFest 2009: Ed Brayton, Isis, and the legendary 40 oz porterhouse

Each summer, the fair City of New York plays host to a cosmic convergence of bloggers within the ScienceBlogs.com corral. It's a great time to meet all the folks we know very well online, but perhaps not IRL. Moreover, we had a really nice reader meetup last year where - thank you very much - all four of you came to see me, including Dr Val of Better Health and Peter Frishauf, Medscape founder. The planning for this summer's gathering has led to the two following posts. One is a throwing-down-of-the-gaunlet by Isis the Scientist to Ed Brayton, challenging him to a duel over the 40 oz…

How Twitter Made Me Into A Citizen Journalist

I awoke this morning at 5:50 am because of a nightmare, only to hop online and find out another one had occurred in Chile. An 8.8 magnitude earthquake had struck. Ten minutes later, the first tsunami warning siren sounded. It was deafening. I remember when I was a little kid growing up in Hawaii Kai, there was a tsunami warning. In the end the water only raised by a few inches. In the past few months since I'd started my PhD, there have been a couple other tsunami watches, none of which resulted in anything of interest. But there's something about a haunting siren at 6 am that makes you…

University of Georgia Starts Project for Free Wiki Textbooks

I was kind of wondering when they would start something like this. For the uninitiated a Wiki is an online text that anyone can edit. It has links within it to other articles forming a web on constantly changing information -- sort of like an encyclopedia only better. The most famous Wiki is Wikipedia -- which I think is a wonderful resource, but since it is based on the premise that anyone can edit it can sometimes have notable errors. Anyway, some professors from the University of Georgia are trying to applying the idea to textbooks: So, what's this Global Text Project about? It's an…

Your Friday Dose of Woo: Oxy-woo and the energized sound

In retrospect, I feel a little guilty about last week's edition of Your Friday Dose of Woo. As a couple of commenters pointed out, the guy responsible for the woo seems as though he's a bit disturbed, as evidenced by the ransom note-style literature on his website and the news story that mentioned how his family didn't take him seriously and he was divorced. On the other hand, the woo was truly top notch. As I pointed out, it also illustrated how a woo-meister can take a single erroneous idea about human physiology and run with it far beyond what anyone would think possible. Such woo can be…

Your Friday Dose of Woo: Stringing you along

Another week in the can. It's been an eventful one, with prizes won, memories revived, and a couple of pesky Holocaust deniers descending to spew their bile. Hard as it is to believe, the year's almost over and the holidays are upon us. You're probably like me, tired of the Christmas carols, commercials urging you to buy, buy, buy since late October, coupled with the frenzy of preparing for the season. After all that, Christmas is only four days away. Perhaps, like me, you would like to take a little break. And, as always, I know just the thing. It's time once again for a little bit of tasty…

Psst. Wanna buy some Iranian ammo?

Turns out Iran does make its own ammunition, duh. Question is: is that what the Pentagon showed? PS: More at Entropic Memes PPS: apparently someone at kos disputes the authenticity of diomil.ir - looked real enough, but these things can be faked. Don't know why they'd bother, it is not going to be hard to get some Iranian made 81mm rounds in the gulf, easier just to buy or confiscate them if you wanted to embellish evidence In particular the question is whether Iranian ammo would have bright yellow english language markings and Common Era dating, using US convention. Defense Industries…