Chatter
tfk | December 26, 2006Superbad no more, James Brown, has passed away.
Benn Loxo has some tracks from the Godfather of Soul in Africa.
Fluxblog writes that "James Brown's greatest gift to the world was his ability to express an undiluted yet highly stylized sexuality via a funk so intense and visceral that it served as the foundation for entire genres of music," and links to several sources of Brownian music.
Evolgen jumps in with some videos, and BoingBoing is a linkfest.
All I can say is that James Brown deserves all the credit he has ever gotten for making great music, and for inspiring others to make better…
tfk | December 24, 2006Go send him good wishes.
And don't forget that the day after tomorrow begins Kwanzaa.
j7uy5 | December 23, 2006You'd think we'd be done with this. Actually, maybe we are,
because now the controversy has moved to the UK:
href="http://politics.guardian.co.uk/publicservices/story/0,,1978595,00.html">Row
over cancer jab plan for all schoolgirls
Mass vaccination 'will save lives'
Parents fear rise in underage sex
Gaby Hinsliff, political editor
Sunday December 24, 2006
The Observer
Schoolgirls as young as 12 are to be vaccinated against a sexually
transmitted disease linked to cervical cancer, under controversial
plans being drawn up by the Department of Health.
Millions of girls would be…
tfk | December 20, 2006Salto sobrius brings us Tangled Bank 69: War on Christmas, the last couple week's best scienceish blogging.
omnibrain | December 18, 2006Got an hour or two? Check out the 2 part documentary, The God Delusion with Richard Dawkins
Part 2 is below the fold, as are the results of the Omni Brain user survey on religion (well it's really a single question).
Would you call yourself religious?
yes 13.6%
no 86.4%
omnibrain | December 18, 2006This is quite an old piece of news...but still pretty ridiculous.
Mangalore University Applied Botany Professor Annaiah Ramesh is all set to enter the Guinness Book of World Records as he successfully completed a marathon lecture, running to 96 hours and 40 minutes, here on Sunday.
Dr Ramesh who started his lecture on the subject, "Molecular Logic of Life," on March 22, completed it at 03:45 hrs on Sunday, surpassing the record set by South African Moosawazi (88 hours and 4 seconds).
Dr Ramesh, who delivered the non-stop lecture at the jampacked Old Senate Hall in the varsity without any…
tfk | December 18, 2006The Kansas Guild of Bloggers returns this week with the finest of the Sunflower State's blogging.
Paul Decelles rightly notes that "One Dobson is one too many." In responding to Dobson's erroneous claims about the parenting ability of gays and lesbians (like our Vice-President's now pregnant daughter), Decelles describes Dobson's strategy as "tell a lie often enough and maybe the people will believe it."
Diane Silver discusses another religious authoritarian we've all seen too much of outgoing Attorney General Phill Kline, and writes that "Republicans 'stuck a finger in the eye of Johnson…
goodmath | December 18, 2006This week's "Ask a ScienceBlogger" is an interesting one, but *very* tricky to answer.
The question was proposed by fellow SBer [Dave Munger:][munger] **"What's a time in your
career when you were criticized extremely harshly by someone you respect? Did it help you or
set your career back?"**
[munger]: http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/
I have to tread carefully while answering this one. It's a good question, but it involves people who *could* be reading the blog.
Overall, I've been remarkably lucky in my career. For the most part, I've had excellent
mentors who've been kind and helpful…
omnibrain | December 18, 2006
In no particular order...
1) Being a south paw promotes survival from attacks (well at least in crabs). It seems that
The left-handed advantage is realized when snails interact with predators of opposite handedness. Some predatory crabs are "righties" -- and have a specialized tooth on their right claw that acts like a can opener to crack and peel the snail shells. "The 'sinistral advantage,' or advantage to being left-handed, is that it would be like using a can opener backwards for the crab to crack and peel the snail shell,"
Does something like this apply to humans? We're still…
tfk | December 16, 2006The Kansas Guild of Bloggers will be hosted here next Monday. If you have a post that's even vaguely about, from or of interest in Kansas, send it to me via the web form, or just leave a comment here.
omnibrain | December 15, 2006Are you kidding me?
A study of 100,000 drivers finds that the month you were born is far more significant than your age in predicting car crashes.
The study, based on North American driving statistics as gathered by an online insurance quoting service, ranks the likelihood of getting involved in an accident or receiving a traffic ticket -- and both -- based on an individual's astrological sign.
Are you worried about your risks of getting in an accident? You should be if you are a Libra since they seem to crash the most!
Can you think of any reason for these results?
Here's the full list of…
omnibrain | December 15, 2006It seems warning labels might be popping up in a few more places - one of which is on the inside of clothing for larger people? I wonder if they're going to put pictures on the label? I can't see a warning label doing much good there.
Check out their other recommendations:
Clothes made in larger sizes should carry a tag with an obesity helpline number, health specialists have suggested. Sweets and snacks should not be permitted near checkouts, new roads should not be built unless they include cycle lanes and food likely to make people fat should be taxed, they say in a checklist of what we…
goodmath | December 14, 2006Following in the footsteps of [orac](http://scienceblogs.com/insolence) and [PZ](http://www.scienceblogs.com/pharyngula) among others of my fellow SBers, I've taken the survey to find out which historical lunatic I am. And I must say, I'm pleased with the results!
Which Historical Lunatic Are You?From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.
I've actually had a fondness for Emperor Norton since I first learned of him by way of Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic. He was a silly, nutty old guy, but remarkable for his good nature, humor, and general goofy eccentricity. Something about his particular kind…
tfk | December 13, 2006Which Historical Lunatic Are You?From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.
This followed a brief stint as one of the Kings of France.
Fans of Neil Gaiman's excellent Sandman will remember Emperor Norton's story anthologized in The Sandman Vol. 6: Fables and Reflections.
tfk | December 13, 2006The author of this fascinatingly asinine comic:
Was arrested twice in the last month, once for driving under the influence and once for public intoxication.
Now, drunk driving itself is Not Funny™, but it is funny that the DUI arrest happened on the same day his comic strip about the horrors of alcohol-free egg-nog ran in almost 400 newspapers across the nation.
Nitpicker has a contest under way to provide an actual punchline for a Mallard Fillmore comic. I've already submitted my Mel Gibson-inspired concept, but if you think you can do better, leave a comment there.
omnibrain | December 5, 2006I'm excited to re-start my blog over here at ScienceBlogs and join all the other awesome science bloggers.
Please pardon the mess as Sandra and I get settled in. We should have some new artwork to replace the banner in the next couple months as my wonderful graphic artist cousin, Erin, designs a new banner and some other stuff.
If you haven't seen the blog before you'll notice that it's a mix of silly and outrageous snippets from around the internet about the brain (well...really whatever we think is funny - but it usually has to do with the brain in some way). If you think we would like…
omnibrain | December 5, 2006
One of the most important articles ever written appears in the The 1985 Old Farmer's Almanac entitled "Three Ways to Hypnotize a Chicken." Thanks for the links Eamon!
Dr. White shows her audiences two methods of hypnotizing chickens. The Oscillating Finger Method is probably the easier of the two. Place the bird on its side with a wing under its body and hold it down gently. Make sure its head is flat on the table. To hypnotize the bird, use one finger of the free hand, moving the finger back and forth in front of the bird's beak from its tip (without touching it) to a point that is about…
omnibrain | December 4, 2006As an undergrad I was working in a behavioral neuroscience lab with mice (pretty much injecting them with nicotine and shocking them). One day I was putting some fancy mouse in a chamber (ya know one of those that shocks it, feeds it, etc.), I turned my head for some reason and when I turned my head back the mouse had crawled up my lab coat sleeve. It then proceeded to quickly climb further up the sleeve and around to my back - as I'm sure you can imagine I was jumping around like a monkey trying to figure out how to get the mouse out without hurting it or losing it.
Long story short (ok..…
tfk | November 28, 2006Every week, the KGB gathers to promote the finest of the Kansas blogosphere. The original KGB is back in the news this week with the recent assassination of a former spy in Britain. Non-Kansan Effect Measure reviews the effects of polonium-210, while Kansan j.d. discusses the story some more.
It isn't quite polonium-210, but Emaw's lesson learned about nut allergies is still pretty scary.
Paul Decelles strikes a decidedly non-lethal tone in an appreciation of sunset in the wetlands, while also reviewing a tiff among allies.
I weighed in on with my thoughts on that tiff, once with a link to…