Search Content

Displaying results 49001 - 49050 of 87947

This Cougar is Heading Towards My House

This is police dash cam video of a cougar just across the Mississippi from my place, in the town of Champlin. The Cougar was spotted heading towards the river. Strangely, a few hours after this cat was spotted by Champlin cops, there was a report of another cougar a few miles east on the other side of the river. This is either a very active cat or a publicity seeking copy cat (or confused person). We are expecting snow tomorrow. Cougar tracking season begins!!!! source

Help with writers block.

I'm writing an academic article and I have writers block. Lets see ... what shall I do.... Need a sentence for your latest article? Write one here! Just select a word or phrase from each drop-down list and click "Write It." So I did that and came up with: The eroticization of the gaze recapitulates the engendering of power/knowledge. Perfect! Never mind that the paper is about mole rats. This is perfect.. Try it yourself. Hat tip Digital Rabbit

Have a Windows 7 Launch Party! Yipeeeee!!!

This is not a parody. I think. Hey, wait, is that the Apple guy on the left? OK, let's do an activity. Let's list all the things that could GO WRONG at this party! OK? I'll start: OH, and I love the fact that at the end the Apple Guy (the one on the left) gives us the South American guy-to-guy symbol for "I just slept with your wife, loser!" Hat tip: Somebody from a different OS company.

The Wikio Science Blog Rankings for March

... are out. And here they are: 1 Wired Science - Wired Blog 2 Watts Up With That? 3 Climate Progress 4 RealClimate 5 Bad Astronomy 6 Climate Audit 7 Next Generation Science 8 Respectful Insolence 9 Deltoid 10 Dispatches from the Culture Wars 11 The Frontal Cortex 12 FuturePundit 13 BPS Research Digest 14 Uncertain Principles 15 Greg Laden's Blog 16 TierneyLab - New York Times blog 17 Gene Expression 18 A Blog Around The Clock 19 Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) 20 Stoat Wikio: directory of blogs

Teabaggers: "Tell congress to end Snobama! "

Michel Bachmann has organized a teabagging protest in Washington to bring right wing voters from across the nation directly into armed and ready, whites of the eye contact with members of Congress to demand that they pass legislation to end the current Snobama that is paralyzing politics and traffic in Washington D.C. Unfortunately, all 123 Snobama protesting teabaggers got stuck in the snow crossing the mountains in Virginia on their way to Washington so the protest was canceled.

Fear of Squalene

The new strain of virus is likely to replace the older one; and if there's a third wave later in the year it could be more virulent. We had the equivalent of a flu season's worth of illness and deaths from August to November, when there are normally very few. In Canada, most of the people who died have been younger women (which is most unusual). So getting your flu shot is important, perhaps vital. Read about it here

Presidential Forum on Energy Tonight! (Live webcast from Stanford)

SEA is holding a Presidential forum with representatives from the Obama and McCain campaigns duking it out on energy issues. Kurt Yeager, cochair of the McCain California Energy Security Coalition will square off with Dan Kammen, Senior Advisor on Energy & Environmental Policy for Barack Obama. If you are in the Stanford area, you can see it live at 6:30PT, Kresge Auditorium at Stanford University. If not, you can still see it live via webcast HERE.

DonorsChoose challenge---steal from DrPal!!!!

OK, folks, we've almost fully funded another project, thanks to your generosity. There's only $280 left to fully fund this worthy project. I'm extending my deadline. If you can do it before the 7th inning stretch of the Tiger's game, I'll donate my blog check from this month. Let's do it! (Since I'm only getting one blogging check, I have no idea how I'm getting you to keep giving for the rest of the month...)

Lancet update

Sadly, it looks as if Michael Fumento has retired from the field. All I can offer any folks suffering withdrawal symptoms is this thread. James M describes it like this: I noticed a truly spectacular example of what I suppose is the unarmed kamikaze approach to debate carrying on in the comments boxes. Not so much being savaged by a dead sheep, as seeing someone punch themselves repeatedly in the face. It is painful to watch. But yet, like a car wreck, you must look.

The campaign against the HPV vaccine

You knew it was inevitable. I'm just surprised it took this long. Then, via Stuff and Nonsense, I find this video: Extra points for using a different scene from Downfall than the usual Downfall parodies use. It also reminds me. There's a paper on just this topic that might require a bit of not-so-Respectful Insolence early next week. For now, though, Orac is going to chill with his family. (Ensor will be so ticked off if I don't visit this year.)

Off to the Great White North

I'm off for two days to the Great White North, Grand Rapids, where I'll give a talk tomorrow night for the area Library Association on the topic of Race and Racism. If you are in the vicinity, please stop by and visit! I'll be "at the lake" for the day prior, taking a few more winterizing steps for the cabin (mainly rescuing the latex from the oncoming winter) and writing highly controversial yet amusing and informative blog stuff.

Huge List of Molecular Biology Web Applications

Need to analyze your DNA, protein or Gene (or do a one of a gadzillion other bioinformatic operations?) Well fortunately you live in the internet age. But where to start? From the Nucleic Acids Research Journal: A compilation of molecular biology web servers: 2006 update on the Bioinformatics Links Directory. And the main database: http://bioinformatics.ubc.ca/resources/links_directory/narweb2006/ (If I were you I would bookmark this excellent site, it lists almost every web based application out there ...)

Attack of the Giant Sea Foam

Poor Aussies in Sydney got nailed by a giant mixture of salts, chemicals, dead plants, decomposed fish and excretions from seaweed that whipped up into a froth by storms off Queensland. The giant sea foam buried beaches and buildings, and stretches for 30 meters out into the Pacific. The kids are apparently playing in it, trying to surf it, and dancing about having a good old time. Read about it and see more pictures of Cappucino Beach here at the Daily Mail .

One question squid quiz

Can you name the genus of this deep-sea squid? This is one of those WTF videos that came flying across my desktop today. I had never heard of the genus or seen the video 'til this morning, but even if you don't study squid, there's no forgetting this one. The video is attributed to Shell, from the Perdido section of Alaminos Canyon at 7800 feet depth in the Gulf of Mexico. MBARI has more footage here.

TGIF Video: Pelagic Magic

Rick MacPherson hosts this week's TGIF video at Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice, and Sunsets. He is advertising the Pelagic Magic Black Water Dive, a special night dive from Jack's Diving Locker in Kona, Hawaii where you can hang on a string in 60ft. of water with a little flashlight. The dive boat's called Sharkbait. Just kidding. Rick has a poll asking whether he should raise the courage, but the video shows at least two dozen stunning reasons to try it.

Crazy for crinoids

Chris Mah's Echinoblog is off and running with a wealth of weirdness. Today he features the crinoidea, or crinoids, with some terrific images of open and close-fisted crinoid forms I've never seen before, and frankly, scare the daylights out of me (see the image from Charles Messing at Chris' website). It's scary enough being in a research submarine, as if you need to worry about scaled urchins and the like. I never realized echinoderms were so... creepy. Now I'm worried.

Fight the Radioactive Octopus!

The latest from Archie McPhee: Frogmen vs. Radioactive Octopus. Makes a great present to that little deep sea diver for the summer beach holiday! "During a routine underwater expedition, these unfortunate frogmen were attacked by a giant radioactive octopus! Will their harpoon guns, daggers and pruning shears be enough to defeat this terror of the deep or will they all be eaten alive? Each set includes twelve, 2-1/2" hard vinyl frogmen and one, 9" soft vinyl octopus that glows in the dark!"

FAQ: Class D Audio Amplifiers

New from Audio Designline is this three page FAQ on class D audio amplifiers. Not extremely technical, but it answers many questions for the technically minded. I remember studying class D amplifiers many years ago in college. In those days the quality was decidedly not hi-fi and the reliability was somewhere in the vicinity of a well-worn Yugo. How times change. Now they seem more common than fly dung and class D controller ICs and ASICs are offered by numerous manufacturers.

But there some nice people there, too

Study finds regional differences in US serial killings: Did you know that people living in the Western region of the United States are more likely to become victims of a serial killer than people living in the Northeast? Ah, science. The study by University of Connecticut Emeritus Sociology Professor James DeFronzo examined male serial killers in the United States from 1970 to 1992. It is published in Homicide Studies. Yet another reason to fear those odd Westerners.

Raise the minimum wage

Voters across the nation sent a clear signal about change by passing minimum wage hikes on state ballots. It's been far too long since the federal minimum wage was increased, and voters are getting anxious. Nancy Pelosi has made it clear she intends to pass such a raise, and it's impossible now for anyone to deny a mandate for that change. There are a lot of lessons to be drawn from yesterday's election, but that one is pretty much impossible to ignore.

It really is rocket science

Will of The Dragon's Tales is heading a group called Team Phoenicia, their aim being the construction of a lunar lander as part of the Lunar Lander Challenge and the Google Lunar X Prize. You can find out more about the project here, and the team certainly could use some donations to keep the project moving along. Keep checking their blog for updates, too, as I expect that we will hear great things from Will and his team as the challenge progresses.

The Boneyard #19 is up!

The latest edition of the Boneyard is up over at Familiarity Breeds Content. The next edition will be back here in two weeks, but it isn't going to be your usual collection of links. The next edition will bring with it the potential to win a copy of Ralph O'Connor's The Earth on Show, Edwin Colbert's Men and Dinosaurs, and a few other books from my own library. I'll divulge all the details this coming Monday.

Photo of the Day #169: Sedge Island

The view off the back of "Sedge Island" in Barnegat Bay. If you hurried, you could run from one side of the tiny island to the other in less than a minute, but it's where I spent a few days several years ago for an ecology field camp course. Interestingly, nearby power plants warmed the water in the bay enough that some species of fish that normally prefer more tropical waters were caught when our class went out with a seine net.

Photo of the Day #70: Black Rat Snake

Here's a shot of a Black Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta) my wife and I (almost quite literally) stumbled across during a hike in New York this past fall. It wasn't too happy with me taking pictures, but I was able to get some decent ones. As you can see from the photo, though, it's a rather plain black snake and it has a number of common names. Some taxonomic arguments surround it, however, some favoring splitting the species up into several based on location and DNA.

For all the "Photo of the Day" fans

For all of you who enjoy the various photographs I post here every day, I've now opened a CafePress store featuring some prints, mugs, and calendars emblazoned with some of the best photographs I've taken in 2007. There are shots of various creatures, big and small, from the Bronx, Philadelphia, and National Zoos, although I hope to soon have a "Best of 2006" calendar with some earlier (but no less impressive) shots. If you'd like to take a look, click here.

Eye evolution

This is the third of four videos NCSE commissioned to help explain how evolution works, and to help people understand the threats posed to accurate science education. It's remarkable what you can fit into a brief video. It's also worth noting that a lot won't fit into a video. If the issue of eye evolution is of interest, check out this recent article from LifeScientist. The Nature Reviews Neuroscience paper they discuss is more technical, but is a really good review.

Poe's Law

PZ watches a clip from a creationist video game and wonders: Now here's the question: is this the work of a sincere creationist, or is this the product of the evil atheist conspiracy, made with the intent of making creationists look like talentless, tasteless hacks? I can't tell. This is an example of Poe's Law: "Without the use of a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to make a parody of Fundamentalism that someone won't mistake for the real thing."

Cue the theme song.

Via GrrlScientist, the precisely calibrated quiz for determining theme songs yields the following for me: Your Theme Song is Back in Black by AC/DC "Back in black, I hit the sack, I've been too long, I'm glad to be back" Things sometimes get really crazy for you, and sometimes you have to get away from all the chaos. But each time you stage your comeback, it's even better than the last! What's Your Theme Song? I am amused.

Split-Brain Video

I've always thought someone could make a great television show by featuring some of the more bizarre and enlightening neurological syndromes that afflict the human brain. What is it like, for example, to not have an amygdala, or OFC, or insula? Or to be suffering from Capgras syndrome? Or to have a severed corpus callosum? Since the Discovery Channel has yet to implement my idea, we'll have to make do with You Tube: Via Mind Hacks.

I should add these to my CV

Some of you may know that I have a Wikipedia page. Others may know that I also have a page on Conservapædia, which helpfully links to this site with a warning, "Non-family-friendly content warning" (it must be effective, I get almost no traffic from it). Now, though, I have discovered a page that tells the real-live genuine bonafide truth about me: I'm on Uncyclopedia. You shall be horrified at what I have done, as was I. I am reminded that I should not forget Rational Wiki!

The continuing eruption at Llaima

Llaima (Chile) is experiencing an increased tempo in its current eruption. The National Emergency Office in Chile is reporting that the eruption has begun to take a more explosive character, with pyroclastic material being shot hundreds of meters from the main vent. Although the officials have not changed the current status of the evacuation, which has been limited to 50 people closest to the volcano, they are pondering their next step if the week-old eruption continues to escalate.

Supporting Science, Benefitting Society

That's the full video from my panel at Netroots Nation this summer. Mark Sumner (DailyKos's DevilsTower, and the author most recently of The Evolution of Everything), Greg Dworkin (DailyKos's DemfromCT), and Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway (co-authors of the excellent and important Merchants of Doubt.), joined me to talk about threats to science in today's society, and what scientists have done to fight back. Don't miss my discussion of Leviathan melvillei and the Fail Whale.

Anti-vaccine propaganda lands in New York City this weekend

I've heard it said (actually, I've said it myself) that if you don't have the science and evidence to back up your point of view, in order to persuade someone, make a movie. At least, this seems to be the philosophy of a number of cranks who have produced movies promoting pseudoscience over the last five years or so. The first one of these movies that really caught my attention was an anti-evolution, pro-"intelligent design" creationism documentary narrated by Ben Stein and released in 2008, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. The movie was pure creationist propaganda, complete with Ben Stein…

The Julia Set Fractals

Aside from the Mandelbrot set, the most famous fractals are the Julia sets. You've almost definitely seen images of the Julias (like the ones scattered through this post), but what you might not have realized is just how closely related the Julia sets are to the Mandelbrot set. Remember what the mandelbrot set is? I'll run through a very brief refresher, but if you want more details, you can look at my earlier post about it. Take a simple quadratic function in the complex plane: f(x)=x2+c, where c is a complex constant. If you iterate f, starting with f(0) - f(0), f2(0) = f(f(0)), f3(0)=…

U.S. Workers Are the World's Most Productive...

...but they don't need no stinkin' healthcare. From the Boston Globe: American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory, or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and they produce more per person over the year. They also get more done per hour than everyone but the Norwegians, according to a UN report that said the United States "leads the world in labor productivity." The report was released in Geneva today, which is Labor Day in the United States. The average US worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all…

The Hypocrisy of the Sen. Craig Scandal

No, not Senator Craig's hypocrisy. The conservative commentariat's. Glenn Greenwald beats me to the punch (italics mine): What accounts for this complete shift in right-wing commentary about the Craig story? How can it possibly be that Craig's bathroom adultery compels his resignation today, but -- weeks before the last election -- the same conduct was so irrelevant that the mere mention of it rendered Rogers the lowest "scumbag" in the nation? Other than the fact that the Craig report threatened GOP political interests in October but does not do so now, what conceivable difference exists…

Life on Mars?

It probably doesn't look like Marvin. (from here) The data haven't been released yet, but that's what CNN is reporting: The soil on Mars may contain microbial life, according to a new interpretation of data first collected more than 30 years ago. The search for life on Mars appeared to hit a dead end in 1976 when Viking landers touched down on the red planet and failed to detect biological activity. But Joop Houtkooper of the University of Giessen, Germany, said on Friday the spacecraft may in fact have found signs of a weird life form based on hydrogen peroxide on the subfreezing, arid…

When "Fiscal Constraint" Means the War on the Middle Class

The NY Times asks about Peter Peterson, "Can the co-founder of the Blackstone Group who has scored riches from a controversial tax break emerge as a credible voice in favor of fiscal constraint in Washington?" Of course, he can. He just has to be clever about what he means by "fiscal constraint" (italics mine): On Friday, Mr. Peterson will unveil the Peter G. Peterson Foundation and announce his plan to allocate his newfound billions to projects that will increase public awareness of fiscal imbalances, Social Security deficits and nuclear proliferation. To assuage his guilt--let's call him…

E. coli, Vegetarians, and Resistance, Oh My!

How antibiotic resistant your E. coli are has to do with where you've been, not what you eat. A recent study isolated E. coli from 567 newly hospitalized patients and 100 vegetarians (one E. coli isolate per person), and screened them for resistance to X antibiotics, including ciprofloxacin, nalidixic acid, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (the primary treatment for E. coli-related urinary tract infections), ceftriaxone, and ceftazidime (the last two indicate the presence of an extended-spectrum beta-lactamase, and can only be reliably treated with carbapenems). The only significant risk factors…

Bush: Methodist Preacher or Horse Thief?

By way of Martini Revolution, I came across this Scott Horton post about Bush's favorite painting, "A Charge to Keep." We definitely need better art history education in the U.S., if for no other reason than to prevent people from embarrassing themselves. Horton: Bush was so taken by it ["A Charge to Keep"], that he took the painting's name for his own official autobiography. And here's what he says about it: I thought I would share with you a recent bit of Texas history which epitomizes our mission. When you come into my office, please take a look at the beautiful painting of a horseman…

About That Mutations-Are-Always-Bad Creationist Idiocy...

...the Chikungunya virus might have something to say about that (if it could speak). From PLoS Pathogens: Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is an emerging arbovirus associated with several recent large-scale epidemics of arthritic disease, including one on Reunion island, where there were approximately 266,000 cases (34% of the total island population). CHIKV is transmitted by Aedes species mosquitoes, primarily Ae. aegypti. However, the 2005-2006 CHIKV epidemic on Reunion island was unusual because the vector responsible for transmission between humans was apparently the Asian tiger mosquito, Ae.…

It's Not Called Management, It's Called Lying

Welcome to the world of Potemkin press conferences. FEMA held a press conference...with itself (italics mine): Reporters were given only 15 minutes' notice of the briefing, making it unlikely many could show up at FEMA's Southwest D.C. offices. They were given an 800 number to call in, though it was a "listen only" line, the notice said -- no questions. Parts of the briefing were carried live on Fox News (see the Fox News video of the news conference carried on the Think Progress Web site), MSNBC and other outlets. Johnson stood behind a lectern and began with an overview before saying he…

The Responsible Use of Antibiotics

I write often about irresponsible antibiotic use. But I want to make one thing clear: antibiotics are critical, life-saving and health-improving drugs. In the U.S., every year roughly two million people contract hospital-acquired infections (this ignores infections contracted outside the hospital). Roughly 96% don't die. Antibiotics are a major reason, if not the major reason, for why the mortality rate is so low. I'm pointing out the obvious because of an email I received (I've 'de-identified' all of the personal information): hi, mike. i've been reading your blog on triclosan and…

In Defense of Revere

Revere, over at Effect Measure, has a solid critique of Michael Fumento's opinion piece about avian flu. What the piece shows is just how ignorant of public health Fumento really is: 1) Many of the necessary steps involved in preparing for a flu pandemic, such as surge production capacity, can be used to produce 'ordinary' flu vaccines. 2) Once a surveillance system is developed, it can be 'repurposed' for other threats as needed. This has happened several times, in different countries. 3) As Revere notes, Fumento's real target is government spending. When will we see Fumento's column…

Do we get a bright yellow border now?

This is pretty cool: Scienceblogs and National Geographic have joined forces to create a mighty partnership to conquer the interwebs. I think. I'm not sure on what exactly we'll gain just yet, but the people with vision at the top have hinted at some juicy things. Here's the press release: National Geographic Digital Media (NGDM) and ScienceBlogs.com today announced that they have formed a strategic partnership spanning technology, advertising, business and content development. Through this partnership, Nationalgeographic.com and ScienceBlogs.com will create and exchange content through…

Even More NIH Funding Woes

Alex at the Daily Transcript has a great post discussing an editorial by Robert A. Weinberg about the consequences of funding priorities. Here's the short version by Weinberg: The funding policies of the NIH have made it increasingly difficult for young researchers to procure research funds. This threatens to drive a whole generation of young people away from careers in basic biomedical research. Read Alex's entire post for a very good discussion of the Weinberg editorial. Unfortunately, all I can add is that things are in fact as bad as Alex claims--or worse. Here's some observations that…

While I'm Away in D.C...

...I plan on visiting the Smithsonian. Sadly, it hasn't been run very well the last seven years. Maybe the resignation of Lawrence Small will turn things around. Who is Small? Here's what the Nitpicker has to say about l'affair Small: But, in the past 20 years, Republicans--and some DLC Democrats--have come to believe in Corporate Pixie Dust. They believe, without any evidence to demonstrate the validity of their belief, that corporations are magical entities which always run smoothly and are led by the smartest goshdarned people in the whole wide world. Lawrence Small is just another…

Olivia Judson on sticklebacks

Give the lady her due, Olivia Judson can lay down some serious exposition when she's on: There are a couple of interesting things about this discovery. The first is that the molecular basis of the change from pelvis to no pelvis does not involve a mutation to the protein-coding region of the Pitx1 gene itself. In other words, the protein made from the gene hasn't changed. What has changed is the way the gene is expressed. This is in contrast to the sorts of mutations one often reads about as being involved in evolution, which typically involve changes to the protein itself. A second…

Fairies under the rock....

This article about the halting of land development in Scotland because of "fairies" under a rock is illustrative. When comparing nations in regards to belief in the paranormal we often assume that "modernity" and education have banished magical thinking. I don't believe it is so, rather, magic is still there, ready to surface when given an opportunity. Many would commend Europeans on their acceptance of evolutionary theory, but it is important to note that surveys of public opinion on the other side of the Atlantic suggest a folk far more demon-haunted imagination than one might suppose (…

There Are Probably A Lot of Angry Spanish Farmers Right About Now...

...and I can't blame them. The recent and ongoing E. coli outbreak which began in Germany was originally claimed to have been traced to Spanish cucumbers. Erm, not so much: German agricultural authorities on Sunday identified locally grown bean sprouts as the likely cause of an E. coli outbreak that has killed 22 people and sickened hundreds in Europe. The Lower Saxony agriculture ministry was sending an alert Sunday warning people to stop eating the sprouts, which are often used in mixed salads, ministry spokesman Gert Hahne told The Associated Press. "Bean sprouts have been identified as…