jlynch | June 10, 2006Janet started it. My answers below the fold.
3 reasons you blog about science:
Science is misunderstood by the general public.
Everyday brings something new.
Politicians and creationists are distorting the methods, goals and abilities of science for their own purpose. Scientists need to stand up and be heard.
Point at which you would stop blogging:
When it becomes a chore.
1 thing you frequently blog besides science:
Right wing hacks that annoy me
4 words that describe your blogging style:
Opinionated
Loose
Eclectic
Opinionated (I know I said it before)
1 aspect of blogging you find…
jlynch | June 9, 2006This week's question is:
Assuming that time and money were not obstacles, what area of scientific research, outside of your own discipline, would you most like to explore? Why?
I'm going to force myself to choose something totally outside the biological sciences and go with some area of physics. In high school and college in the '80s, I was good at physics, particularly stuff like thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, and traditional mechanics. There was a beauty to it - an appreciation that I think I got from my father (who was an engineer) from an early age. Unfortunately my mathematical…
jlynch | June 9, 2006The first World Cup 2006 game is over, with Germany beating Costa Rica 4-2. Good game with some nice goals, including a wonderful forty yarder. I was surprised that Costa Rica stayed as close as they did.
Looking forward to rest of the competition - Poland v Ecuador is on in an hour.
jlynch | June 9, 2006Just a quick shout out to Bora, John, Nick and all the new Scienceblog pledges. Let the hazing begin, but first wander over and say hello.
And we've got a new front page, thanks to the hard work of Tim, Katherine and all our overlords at Seed.
Now, I can go back to the World Cup!
jlynch | June 8, 2006After seven years of using PalmOS devices, I switched last week to a HP iPAQ hx2495 (which runs Windows Mobile 5). So I'm wondering, gentle readers, what software do you have on your Pocket PC (if you have one) that you highly recommend. I'm especially interested in high quality freeware.
jlynch | June 8, 2006I need help identifying this large fly that was on my patio last night (the orange color is due to the porch light, click for bigger version). It was maybe an inch in body length. Any ideas?
Update: Below the fold, I give what may be an identification.
Kevin Christie, a PhD student at the University of Illinois in the Neuroscience program, sent me the following via e-mail:
I'm currently doing fieldwork in central Missouri, with colleagues at the University of Missouri - Columbia, and out in the woods, have seen several insects that resemble your picture. After speaking to an entomologist (…
jlynch | June 7, 2006Following Coulter's screed yesterday, Keith Olberman drop kicks her sorry ass [WMV, 10M]. She accuses the widows of "politicizing" and making money from the September 11 attacks, something she (and the administration) have also done. How come Conservatives aren't speaking out against this harpy?
jlynch | June 7, 2006Bush performs the U2 song "Sunday Bloody Sunday". Someone has waaaaay too much time on their hands. Impressive though.
jlynch | June 7, 2006Yesterday, the Vatican named gay marriage as one of the factors threatening the traditional family as never before.
Today, supporters of a marriage amendment could not even get together enough votes to actually get to vote on the amendment, falling eleven votes short. Seven Republicans voted to kill the amendment: Lincoln Chafee (RI), Susan Collins (ME), Judd Gregg (NH), John McCain (AZ), Olympia Snowe (ME), Arlen Specter (PA) and John Sununu (NH).
John Stewart - in tackling Bill Bennett - says it best:
Stewart: So why not encourage gay people to join in in that family arrangement if that is…
jlynch | June 6, 2006Your Sesame Street Persona:
Bert
You scored 68% Organization, 43% abstract, and 59% extroverted!
This test measured 3 variables.
First, this test measured how organized you are. Some muppets like Cookie Monster make big messes, while others like Bert are quite anal about things being clean.
Second, this test measured if you prefer a concrete or an abstract viewpoint. For the purposes of this test, concrete people are considered to gravitate more to mathematical and logical approaches, whereas abstract people are more the dreamers and artistic type.
Third, this test measured if you are more…
jlynch | June 6, 2006I guess the "Beat on Conservatives Who Make Fools of Themselves" trifecta is in play, so I might as well run with this. Keith Olbermann unleashes a massive smackdown on Bill O'Reilly. Transcript and video are at onegoodmove.
Abraham Lincoln did not shoot John Wilkes Booth. Titanic did not sink a north Atlantic iceberg. And FOX News is neither fair nor balanced. These are facts intelligible to all adults, most children, and some of your more discerning domesticated animals. But not, as the third story on the COUNTDOWN prove yet again, not to Bill-O. ...
The guilty pleasure offered by the…
jlynch | June 6, 2006Over at The American Prospect, Charles Pierce does a hilarious riff on the "Top 50 Conservative Rock Songs" piece that I blogged a while back. A sample:
I liked it so much better when conservatives weren't trying to be cool. I liked their, stern, iron-jawed parental disapproval of everything that happened since Calvin Coolidge blew town. I liked it when they thought it was all devil music sent by Khrushchev to take advantage of a young populace already weakened by fluoride in the water and Elvis on the electric television set. Becoming a young conservative meant you made a conscious choice…
jlynch | June 6, 2006Ann Coulter on evolution:
Q. Most people consider evolution to be a branch of science, or at least a scientific theory, yet in "Godless," you refer to it as a "cult" and a "fetish." What is your basis for calling it that?
A: There is no evidence that it is true. The fossil record contradicts it, and it is a theory that cannot be disproved. Whatever happens is said to "prove" evolution. This is the very definition of a pseudoscience, like astrology.
Let's remember that Dembski was "in constant correspondence with Ann regarding her chapters on Darwinism".
According to her interview with Matt…
jlynch | June 6, 2006If you really think about it, fetuses are parasites: A host is invaded, blood flow is altered, hormones are introduced to prevent miscarriage, and the host's (a.k.a. mother's) immune system needs to be depressed to prevent rejection. The parasite wants to remain in utero as long as possible, the host wants birth to occur as early as possible. A sunny, romantic way to look at motherhood, eh?
A forthcoming paper in The American Naturalist argues that that mammalian species with invasive placentas (as we primates have, along with, for example, most rodents and lagomorphs), can successfully…
jlynch | June 5, 2006From Reuters:
A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.
"The man shouted 'God will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions," the official said.
"A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery."
Well, that takes care of that burning question.
jlynch | June 5, 2006Steven Colbert's commencement speech given at Knox College is here and there's partial video here.
And when you enter the workforce, you will find competition from those crossing our all-too-porous borders. Now I know you're all going to say, "Stephen, Stephen, immigrants built America." Yes, but here's the thing--it's built now. I think it was finished in the mid-70s sometime. At this point it's a touch-up and repair job. But thankfully Congress is acting and soon English will be the official language of America. Because if we surrender the national anthem to Spanish, the next thing you know…
jlynch | June 5, 2006Here in Arizoma there's a bill running through the senate (HB 2583) to make it mandatory for all classrooms (including tertiary level) to display a 2 ft by 3 ft Stars and Stripes - I guess we've solved all the other important problems. You can read about it here. While I have no real problem with this (as long as the universities don't have to pay for this - a fear shared by ASU's student government - and we're not forced to start every class with some sort of ritual), I do see the reasoning behind this as being, frankly, idiotic. Witness:
"The flag represents everything that is good about…
jlynch | June 3, 2006I've been a bit quiet over the past few days - primarily due to a writing deadline that I need to hit. (Who says academics have the summer off!) While today would look like an ideal day to get some blogging done, instead I'm just going to kick back and celebrate my birthday with family.
And as in inverse birthday gift, I give you this poem by the Irish poet and Nobel Prize winner, Seamus Heaney. It's called "Strange Fruit" and is one of a series of poems that Heaney has written about bog bodies, corpses mummified in peaty soil.
Here is the girl's head like an exhumed gourd.
Oval-faced, prune…
jlynch | June 1, 2006As I expected, Ed comments on the Washington online poker law that I posted on yesterday, and raises an interesting point:
[H]ow are they going to know who's gambling without tracking all of their activity online? Money transfers to the gambling sites are all handled by offshore operations like Firepay and Neteller and those transactions are not traceable by the government (they can track your money going to the pay service, but not where it goes from there, and those services can also be used for lots of perfectly legal money transfers). The only way they can know is to violate our privacy…
jlynch | May 31, 2006Slashdot reports, that the Seattle PI reports, that:
Beginning next month [June 7th], Washington residents who play poker or make other types of wagers on the Internet will be committing a Class C felony, equivalent under the law to possessing child pornography, threatening the governor or torturing an animal. Although the head of the state Gambling Commission says it is unlikely that individual online gamblers will be targeted for arrest, the new law carries stiff penalties: as much as five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.'
So, poker is equivalent to "child pornography, threatening the…