jlynch | October 6, 2007You know what to do ...
Events
1995 - 51 Pegasi was discovered to be the first major star apart from the Sun to have a planet (and extrasolar planet) orbiting around it.
Births
1459 - Martin Behaim, German navigator and geographer (
1510 - John Caius, English physician
1803 - Heinrich Wilhelm Dove, German physicist
1903 - Ernest Walton, Irish physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1931 - Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh, Russian astronomer
1931 - Riccardo Giacconi, Italian-born physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1873 - Sir PaweÅ Edmund Strzelecki, Polish explorer and geologist
1951 - Otto…
jlynch | October 5, 2007Sean Hannity: "Why do we wear pins? Because our country is under attack." Apparently, the word "we" doesn’t include Hannity himself. Nice so see the idiot being hoisted on his own petard. Not that it will prevent him from mouthing off.
jlynch | October 5, 2007Dave over at Cognitive Daily has posted a comparison of traffic (upper graph) with DonorsChoose donations (lower graph) so far in the drive. This blog is the third bar in from the left.
Certainly we’re not doing too bad relative to others, however I fail to see how we can let Chad over at Uncertainty Principles (2nd bar on the left), who gets slightly less traffic, so greatly lead us in donations (approximately 4x!). I mean ... people, he’s a physicist!
You know what to do ...
jlynch | October 5, 2007John Wilkins has an excellent essay on Paul Feyerabend up over at Evolving Thoughts. It begins:
Paul Feyerabend is famous for attempting to make science subject to democratic revision. How shall we assess this in the light of the present attacks on science? Is he naive, or is he merely wrong? Can epistemological dadaism of the kind that he offers resist subversion by the will of the majority?
In this talk I will attempt to show three things. First, the basis for Feyerabend’s claims are based on a liberal epistemic individualism, and ultimately a kind of rationalism. Second, that there are…
jlynch | October 5, 2007Eternal Circle
I sang the song slowlyAs she stood in the shadowsShe stepped to the lightAs my silver strings spunShe called with her eyesTo the tune I’s a-playin’But the song it was longAnd I’d only begun
Through a bullet of lightHer face was reflectin’The fast fading wordsThat rolled from my tongueWith a long-distance lookHer eyes was on fireBut the song it was longAnd there was more to be sung.
My eyes danced a circleAcross her clear outlineWith her head tilted sidewaysShe called me againAs the tune drifted outShe breathed hard through the echoBut the song it was longAnd it was far to the…
jlynch | October 4, 2007Since PZ got it from Wilkins, I might as well chime in. I bold those I’ve read and italicize those I’ve partially read.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose (Multiple times - great book)
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind…
jlynch | October 4, 2007As usual, your DonorsChoose update comes first and Today in Science is below the fold. As I mentioned earlier, yesterday we hit a milestone with our first fully funded project. We’ve currently raised $549 of our $4000 goal so we’ve still got a way to go.
Births
1879 - Francis Peyton Rous, American pathologist and Nobel Prize laureate
1882 - Robert Goddard, American rocket scientist
1892 - Remington Kellogg, American naturalist
1903 - M. King Hubbert, American geophysicist
1932 - Michael John Rogers, English ornithologist
Deaths
1777 - Ján Andrej Segner, Slovak and German mathematician,…
jlynch | October 4, 2007Good news here. We’ve managed to fully fund our first proposal - thirty first graders in a magnet school in Chicago (one with 95% high poverty) will be benefiting from your generosity so far. On behalf of their teacher, I thank you.
Of course, we’re not done yet. As an incentive, consider these extracts from letters I received from teachers last year whose students benefited from our efforts:
I cannot thank you enough for funding this project for my students! I told them that our new aquarium is on its way, and they can scarcely contain their excitement. Your generosity will enhance their…
jlynch | October 3, 2007This is just excellent - the Bible in LOLcatese. Favorite extract - Job 1.
1. In teh land of Uz wuz a man calded Job. Teh man was goodz, afraid of teh Invisible Man and evilz.
2. Teh man hadz seven sunz and tree doters,
3. And lots of sheepz and camlez and rinoceruseses and servnts, srsly.
4. His sunz tok turns mading cookies, and they all eated them.
5. And Job wuz liek "Oh noes! Wut if cookies were sin? Gota prey, just in cased."
6. Teh ayngles wented to seez Invisible Man, and Saitin wented 2.
7. Invisible Man axt Saitin, "Wher u wuz?" Saitin saied "Oh, hai. I’z wuz in ur earth,…
jlynch | October 3, 2007And again, your DonorsChoose update - $430 raised so far. Thanks to all so far, and please donate.
Your TiS follows ...
Events
1957 - Launch of Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
Births
1562 - Christian Sørensen Longomontanus, Danish astronomer
1723 - Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus, German entomologist
1916 - Vitaly Ginzburg, Russian physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
1918 - Kenichi Fukui, Japanese chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
1938 - Kurt Wüthrich, Swiss chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1947 - Max Planck, German physicist and Nobel Prize laureate
2000…
jlynch | October 3, 2007Apparently, fifty years after the ruling that Allen Ginsberg’s "Howl" cannot be held obscene, you cannot say "cock and endless balls" on public radio due to fear of the FCC fining your ass. Madness.
I had the pleasure of seeing Ginsberg perform "Howl" in Dublin in the early Nineties, I thus have two simple words for the FCC - fuck you.
jlynch | October 3, 2007
Miniature wire-haired dachshund finds 13in, 8lb thigh section of a fossilized Southern elephant (Archidiskodon meridionalis) on English beach. Gets to look very happy about it.
[Source]
jlynch | October 2, 2007But first a DonorsChoose update ... We’re currently at $190 and seventh among the Scienceblogs challenges. We can do better!
I’m working on some prizes to give to random donors. Stay tuned.
There appears to be a slight problem in that some donations are not being attributed to this challenge. If that happens to you (or has happened), please let me know and I’ll have the DonorsChoose people fix the problem.
Link to the challenge.
And now, your TIS ...
Births
1716 - Giovanni Battista Beccaria, Italian physicist
1802 - John Gorrie, American scientist
1904 - Charles J. Pedersen, American…
jlynch | October 2, 2007Apparently Bill Doba, Washington State University football coach, is - how shall we say - "challenged." The Cougars just got whupped 48-20 by University of Arizona (unranked, 2-3) and Doba is quoted in the Tacoma News Tribune as saying:
"Arizona, I said, is the second or third best team in the conference. I still hold true to that. They are talented - I think more than the team [ASU] we’re facing this week."
That’s the 5-0, 18th ranked ASU he is talking about. The one that is being given a nine point spread over his team.
ASU’s record aside, and even if the Cougars beat ASU at home on…
jlynch | October 1, 2007One day in and we’re already at 4% of our target. Given that we’ve thirty days to hit it, this is clearly a good start. Many, many thanks to our donors so far. But let’s not rest on our laurels, m’kay?
I get between 600 and 1000 individuals visiting a day, so if everyone gave a $5 we’d be set. And a donation of $1 a week (i.e. $52) would certainly be a great donation.
Some of my Sciblings are offering enticements to readers to donate. Would I stoop so low? Do I even have anything to entice you, gentle reader, with?
Link to the challenge.
jlynch | October 1, 2007Births
1832 - Edward Burnett Tylor, English anthropologist
1852 - William Ramsay, Scottish chemist
1907 - Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd, Scottish chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
1914 - Jack Parsons, American rocket scientist
1917 - Christian de Duve, English-born biologist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1927 - Svante Arrhenius, Swedish chemist and Nobel Prize laureate
1987 - Peter Medawar, Brazilian-born scientist and Nobel Prize laureate
2002 - Heinz von Foerster, Austrian-born physicist and philosopher
jlynch | October 1, 2007Regular readers will remember that last year we here at Scienceblogs undertook a bloggers challenge for DonorsChoose.org, an organization that helps K-12 teachers. In two weeks we raised over $34,000 for deserving teachers and their students. This blog alone raised $1,000. This year, we’re aiming to be bigger and better, and given the extra time (and my increased readership), I’m setting our goal at $4000.
So, go here and donate. Choose a project if you want, or just donate to the general fund ... it’s all good.
Oh, and keep the email that you will receive from DonorsChoose - there will…
jlynch | September 30, 2007
The Ballmer Peak holds for all intellectual endeavors, not just programming.
jlynch | September 30, 2007Births
1835 - Ãdám Politzer, Austrian physician
1904 - Otto Robert Frisch, Austrian-born physicist
1910 - Fritz Köberle, Austrian-born physician
1910 - José Enrique Moyal, Australian mathematical physicist
1947 - Aaron Ciechanover, Israeli biologist and Nobel Prize laureate
Deaths
1838 - Charles Tennant, Scottish chemist and industrialist