jlynch | May 31, 2006This
is a marmot - essentially a giant squirrel - which eats grass, leaves, flowers, fruit, grasshoppers, and bird eggs. Apparently, they are overrunning Prosser (Wa), and people are worried about their pets: "Can you imagine what they'd do to cats?" asked resident Dick Bain.
Yes, Dick, I can. They'd do absolutely nothing to cats, they're rodents. Even a capybara at 70 to 170 pounds wouldn't take out a cat. Scheesh! Then again. there is one imaginary rodent that can take out any cat.
jlynch | May 31, 2006Here I answered out overlord's question of the week, namely:
Since they're funded by taxpayer dollars (through the NIH, NSF, and so on), should scientists have to justify their research agendas to the public, rather than just grant-making bodies?
This press release is therefore particularly apt:
Americans support free access to research
Poll results show overwhelming majority believes federally funded research should be publicly available
Washington, DC – May 31, 2006 – In an online survey of public attitudes conducted recently and released today by Harris Interactive®, 8 out of 10 (82%)…
jlynch | May 30, 2006Don't really know what to make of this. National Review Online has unleashed its "top 50 conservative rock songs of all time" featuring such noted conservative thinkers as The Who, The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, and Blink 182. By the time I read “Rock the Casbah” by The Clash (#20), the sound of Joe Strummer rotating in a grave was clear; when I read “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Iron Maiden (#29), I couldn't get my jaw to remain closed. Taking "proof texting" and quote mining to a whole new level, this is a freekin hilarious list of songs that "really are conservative". Check it out.
jlynch | May 29, 2006The mothership asks:
Since they're funded by taxpayer dollars (through the NIH, NSF, and so on), should scientists have to justify their research agendas to the public, rather than just grant-making bodies?
I reply:
No. Every two years the NSF publishes its Sciencen & Engineering Indicators (2004 results are here), and every two years results reinforce the sad fact that public understanding of basic scientific principles & modes of thought falls very far short of what would be necessary for the public to be able to make informed decisions regarding research.
That being said, I think…
jlynch | May 28, 2006
What horrible Edward Gorey Death will you die?
You will sink in a mire. You like to think you're normal, but deep down you really just want to strip off your clothes and roll around in chicken fat.Take this quiz!
Sinking in a mire is what I do every grading time, I fear.
Via the Grrrl who got it from Orac.
jlynch | May 28, 2006Apparently Bill Frist has decided that constitutional ammendments against flag-burning and gay marriage are vital to national well-being. Speaking on Faux News, Frist was asked:
HOST: Are gay marriage and flag burning the most important issues the Senate can be addressing in June of 2006?
Below the fold, I give Frist's reply and some comments.
Frist replied:
FRIST: Let me tell you what the agenda is real quick. Secure America's safety here at home. I mentioned supporting our troops overseas, making sure we pass that supplemental bill, making sure we tighten down our borders. securing America…
jlynch | May 28, 2006Last night I watched Richard Linklater's movie Waking Life (2001). Overall, I wasn't terribly impressed, especially when it featured a chemist (Eamonn F. Healy of St Edwards University) spouting on about evolution. This piece, by Robert Solomon (Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin), on the other hand, struck me as offering a good statement for the relevence of existentialism.
The reason why I refuse to take existentialism as just another French fashion or historical curiosity is that I think it has something very important to offer us for the new century. I'm afraid we're losing the…
jlynch | May 27, 2006PZ and Grrrlscientist are doing it, so why not. If you compare our graphs, you can detect the elements we all share due to Sb's site design.
[Websites as Graphics]
jlynch | May 26, 2006About twenty-five years ago, I read Gerald Durrell's book My Family and Other Animals (1957), an account of his early life in Corfu. One part made a distinct impression on me - his account of watching geckos on the walls of his house. To me, as a teenager in Ireland, this was the height of the exotic, after all Ireland has only one type of native reptile, the Common Lizard, Lacerta vivipara, and I had only seen one on a single occasion (slow worms, Anguis fragilis, are a recent localized introduction). To the twelve-year old me (in wet, cloudy, overcast Ireland), Durrell's experience of sun…
jlynch | May 25, 2006The Department of Education has issued its National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2005 science assessment noting that "[t]he national results show an increase in the average science score since 1996 at grade 4, no significant change at grade 8, and a decline at grade 12." The report is available here (as a pdf) and here (in summary). Assessment was based on students' average science score on a 0-300 scale and in terms of the percentage of students attaining each of three achievement levels: Basic (score over 138), Proficient (> 170), and Advanced (> 205). The cut-off scores…
jlynch | May 23, 2006In twelve days, I turn 38 - something I'm happy about considering I had a heart attack at the age of thirty two. As of today, my age is apparently equivalent of a dog that is ~5.428 years old and I am thus still chasing cats. Such is life.
jlynch | May 23, 2006Lloyd Bentsen died today at the age of 85. You will remember that Bentsen, while running as Democratic VP candidate, countered Dan "Potatoe" Quayle's self-comparison to John F. Kennedy with, "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy" (link).
jlynch | May 22, 2006 What does Sonic Hedgehog on the left have to do with whale evolution? Nothing. However a soon-to-be-published study will argue that the gene Sonic Hedgehog (Shh) played a part. The abstract reads:
Among mammals, modern cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) are unusual in the absence of hind limbs. However, cetacean embryos do initiate hind-limb bud development. In dolphins, the bud arrests and degenerates around the fifth gestational week. Initial limb outgrowth in amniotes is maintained by two signaling centers, the apical ectodermal ridge (AER) and the zone of polarizing activity (…
jlynch | May 22, 2006OK, I'm going to get grouchy here, but ...
I don't understand the fuss about Barbaro, the horse that broke a leg at the Preakness on Saturday. His survival chances after surgery are the third story on Yahoo News, and ESPN this afternoon were acting like they wer reporting surgery on a President or somesuch.
(As an aside, I also heard a dumb thing being said by an ESPN reporter. Apparently, because the lower limbs of horses have no muscles, the limbs are unable to pump blood back to the heart. Someone needs to take intro biology again, methinks)
People are turning up holding vigils. Vets are…
jlynch | May 21, 2006Henry Rollins on ID:
The breathtaking stupidity of irreducible complexity is only outweighed by the complete lack of science involved. it is just intellectually lazy and cannot be tested or challenged. You can't get God to come down to the lab and prove a fucking thing. You just have to believe, and science does not operate on faith.
MP3 [2.7M, 2:42] here. Props to PvM.
jlynch | May 20, 2006Growing up in Europe, one couldn't avoid the annual ritual that is the Eurovision Song Contest. Embarassingly, Ireland has won the contest more times (7) than any other county. Responsible for unleashing ABBA on an unsuspecting world in 1974, the contest also has to be blamed for "Riverdance". The music is largely worthless, clean-cut, "EuroPop", which makes it interesting that this year's winner was Finnish metal band Lordi for their work "Hard Rock Hallelujah!"
ABBA, these guys ain't! There's a Google Video of their performance here.
Interestingly, the very participation of the group was…
jlynch | May 18, 2006The mothership asks
If you could shake the public and make them understand one scientific idea, what would it be?
I answer ...
"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved" (Charles Darwin, 1859)
A simple testable idea, but a powerful one, and one that can fruitfully both explain and predict phenomena. Irrespective of…