Bits and Pieces
jlynch | November 11, 2006
The National Gallery has reportedly bought Thomas Eakins' painting "The Gross Clinic" for $68 million.
Update: On December 21, 2006, a group of donors agreed to pay the sum in order to keep the painting in Philadelphia. It will be displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
jlynch | November 10, 2006I'm wondering where my regular visitors come from. I know about my regular commenters, but am interested in those regulars who may not comment, but still regularly read the blog either by browser or RSS feed. So, if you are a regular reader (defined by visiting at least weekly), can you wander over here and add yourself. Gracias.
jlynch | October 30, 2006
A red squirrel runs through the Lazienki Park on a crisp autumn morning in Warsaw, Poland.
Source: AP.
Like this little guy, I'm heading out of here. Later on this week, I'm off to the History of Science Society meeting in Vancouver. The meeting is held with the Philosophy of Science Association so I'll get the opportunity to hang with some of my SciBlings: Janet, John, David & Ben. Janet is chairing a session at the PSA and I'm doing likewise at the HSS - the others, to the best of my knowledge, are are there to socialize contribute to the rich academic environment that is a meeting.…
jlynch | October 28, 2006Since everyone is talking about the sequencing of the honeybee genome*, it seems appropriate (isn't it always?) to post some Monty Python. Ladies & gentlemen, I present, "Eric The Half A Bee":
(Speaks)
Half a bee, philosophically,Must, ipso facto, half not be.But half the bee has got to beVis a vis, its entity. D'you see?
But can a bee be said to beOr not to be an entire beeWhen half the bee is not a beeDue to some ancient injury?
(Sings)
La dee dee, one two three,Eric the half a bee.A B C D E F G,Eric the half a bee.
Is this wretched demi-bee,Half-asleep upon my knee,Some freak from a…
jlynch | October 27, 2006I was browsing the search terms that brought people to this site and discovered the following regarding the psyche of my readers:
"I apologize""catfish that swims into penis?""Will someone please kill me"
Somewhat disturbing are the following:
asu glory holes"lobster love"drunk hand spankingneeds spanking
Most disturbing is:
"beheaded girl"
jlynch | October 25, 2006A few days back I mentioned the anatomically correct statues of lions that have created a bit of a stir here in Arizona. Remember? "[T]he lions are depicted raising their bottoms in the air, each with a ram trapped under it in what some perceive as a sexually suggestive pose." Well inquiring minds want to know, so here's the best picture I can find:
Yup, this is what people in Arizona have time to grouse about. Apparently they are being actioned off for charity.
They are not Detroit Lions for a very simple reason ... they'd probably win more games.
jlynch | October 23, 2006
This man, if you didn't already know, is a musical genius, and in just under a month he releases Orphans, a three disk compilation of unreleased material. Already available online is the seven minute ditty "Road to Peace," Waits' take on the Middle East and the current administration.
jlynch | October 21, 2006Over at Fark.com there's an interesting thread asking for answers to the following:
If you could go back in time and tell your 12-year old self one thing, what would it be?
I was twelve in 1980. It seems so long ago ... maybe because it is. I guess I'd go with:
You're not going to be able to control everything, especially other people. So don't try, it will only make you hurt. Badly.
Sometime detachment is the best policy. But not always. Trust me.
jlynch | October 21, 2006AC Grayling over at The Guardian:
It is time to demand of believers that they take their personal choices and preferences in these non-rational and too often dangerous matters into the private sphere, like their sexual proclivities. Everyone is free to believe what they want, providing they do not bother (or coerce, or kill) others; but no-one is entitled to claim privileges merely on the grounds that they are votaries of one or another of the world's many religions.
And as this last point implies, it is time to demand and apply a right for the rest of us to non-interference by religious…
jlynch | October 20, 2006Sometimes I despair:
[E]ight lifelike lion statues across from what soon will be Arizona's largest cineplex apparently are a bit too lifelike for some tastes.
Guarding the entrances of a children's water fountain park at a high-profile West Valley retail project, the concrete beasts are depicted raising their rumps in the air, each with a terror-stricken ram trapped under its body in what some perceive as a sexually suggestive pose. And as work crews point out, the lions' tails are swished to the side, leaving their, er, pride in plain view.
Glendale Councilwoman Joyce Clark hasn't seen…
jlynch | October 20, 2006the Filter? Media to help you, help others, "get" science. David Ng has more details here.
The site features a pic that I used to gross out humanities students (in the mid-90's):
Ah, good times.
jlynch | October 15, 2006From the Telegraph:
The new five-year study of more than 2,200 adults claims to have found a link between obesity and the decline in a person's cognitive function. The research, conducted by French scientists, which is published in this month's Neurology journal, involved men and women aged between 32 and 62 taking four mental ability tests that were then repeated five years later.
The researchers found that people with a Body Mass Index - a measure of body fat - of 20 or less could recall 56 per cent of words in a vocabulary test, while those who were obese, with a BMI of 30 or higher, could…
jlynch | October 15, 2006Jake, Evil Monkey, and Shelly are at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting. Jake has this to say about the state of research:
There are the researchers of breathtaking sophistication who hide tiny details in the fine print of their poster that are more interesting than my entire thesis. But for each one of them there are fifty "We removed left hemisphere of rat. Rat was sad." and at least a hundred "While subject was in fMRI, we showed them a Marx brothers video as opposed to a documentary on the meadow vole. Activity was different. We don't know why."
That made me laugh. I don't know…
jlynch | October 9, 2006
Yariguies brush-finch
Atlapetes latinuchus yariguierum
New species described in the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists Club (Vol. 126: June 2006).
The new bird is named for the Yariguies indigenous people who formerly inhabited the mountain range where the bird was found. The new bird is a large and colorful finch with black, yellow and red plumage. It differs from its closest relatives in having a black back and no white markings in its wings. It is also found in other nearby mountains in Colombia's Eastern Andean range. Genetic, morphological and vocal studies have confirmed its…
jlynch | October 7, 2006
This is just sweet. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has snapped a picture of Victoria Crater and has captured the Mars rover Opportunity.
(HT to Bad Astronomy Blog)
jlynch | October 6, 2006You've got to love this quote: "Today is day 960 of Opportunity's 90-day mission to Mars" (Steve Squyres, Cornell).
jlynch | October 6, 2006so I have no idea of the significance of this. GrrlScientist made me do it.
You Belong in Soho
Although you may not be a professional artist, you do dabble in one form of art or another.And you indie culture of all kinds - from little botiques to art house films.
Where Should Your Inner New Yorker Live?
jlynch | October 3, 2006
Sagan said it best:
That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and…