Misc
tqa | April 20, 2009
This is what I get for not reading my own blog - for some reason, the Quote and Picture of the Day posts for the last few days went missing on me. (Apparently, my software thought that it's entitled to the same time off that I am.) Picture of the Day will resume later today; Quote of the Day will pick up again tomorrow.
hrynyshyn | April 17, 2009Every day it seems there's a new essay or post about social networking fatigue, virtual connectivity's isolating effects, and the threats posed by rapid-fire media. Most of all, though, it's about the problem with Twitter. My "25 random things I hate about Twitter" post attracted an usually large amount of traffic, including several visits from those who were alerted to the piece via Twitter, but that was written at least half in jest. Now allow me to share with you some more carefully considered criticisms.
The problem with Twitter is not that it's useless. As überTwitterfan Coturnix has…
stoat | April 13, 2009Um. So I get a spam which begins: "Tweet this: Rapid-fire media may confuse your moral compass
Media culture should allow time for reflective moments, say USC neuroscientists..." Is there a media less suited to reflective moments than twitter?
amillikan | April 13, 2009
Researchers in Canada are contemplating a recent report that suggests it is more expensive to review and reject applications for small baseline grants than to simply provide the grant without conducting a review. According to this study, if the review process was eliminated, the Canadian government could save money while funding the projects of every qualified applicant of baseline grants. Bora from A Blog Around the Clock speculates that foregoing review could promote "truly innovative science," and discusses the feasibility of implementing such a plan in the U.S.
Related ScienceBlogs Posts…
tqa | April 11, 2009
That's what life is like. You have to keep running on the treadmill of evolution or you fall off.
Bill Nye, The Science Guy
tqa | April 9, 2009
In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oolitic Silurian Period, just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upwards of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing-rod. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi…
tqa | April 7, 2009
"The secular humanist did it in the schoolhouse with misinformation!"
The Simpsons
"Bart Has Two Mommies"
stoat | April 4, 2009Well, I read it, so I may as well blog it. If that sounds unenthusiastic, then yes, I am. It is a book, in case you haven't realised; inevitably it has a wiki page so I won't summarise it here or even tell you the author. It gets less and less plausible as it goes along, though is fun enough in a space-opera sort of way. Alas, it shares a problem all too common in sci-fi: raising a sense of mystery, and producing interesting puzzles, is far easier than providing an interesting and satisfying solution to such a puzzle. Anathem fails in that way, though it is a better book.
In fact the only…
tqa | April 3, 2009
"The trouble with you, Ibid", he said, "is that you think you're the biggest bloody authority on everything."
Terry Pratchett
Pyramids
tqa | April 2, 2009
The article ends with Vanity Fair astrologer Michael Lutin saying that he will consider the newcomers, but remains skeptical of their influence over our daily affairs due to their location at the outer reaches of the solar system: "UB313 is never going to tell you whether Wednesday is good for romance." Actually, neither will anything else in the sky, unless it's an asteroid headed toward Earth, scheduled to hit on Wednesday.
Please tell your children to stay in school.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
"The Pluto Files"
tqa | April 1, 2009
Our ancestor was an animal which breathed water, had a swim-bladder, a great swimming tail, an imperfect skull & undoubtedly was an hermaphrodite! Here is a pleasant genealogy for mankind.
Charles Darwin
Letter to Charles Lyell
10 Jan 1860
tqa | April 1, 2009
We've reached the point where reality has become so completely absurd that sheer absurdity is no longer a reliable indicator that a news item or blog post is actually an April Fools gag. I don't know whether I should laugh, cry, or crawl into a hole and hide.
Think I'm kidding? Here are a few of the stories I've noticed so far today. Try and guess which ones are April Fools jokes, and which are real. I'll put the answers and links to the sources - I think I've got them all right - below the fold.
1. Minor volcanic eruption in Yellowstone Caldera.
2. Following hospitalization of student…
tqa | March 31, 2009
Just a quick programming note:
Starting tomorrow, and running through at least all of April, I'm going to try something new. Every day, I'm going to post one quote and one picture. The pictures will all be my own, the quotes obviously will not be. In some cases (like tomorrow's), the quote and the picture will appear in the same post. On other days, they'll be two separate posts.
I've promised (but not delivered) regular features before, but this time is different. (I might have said that before, too, but I mean it this time.) I've already picked the first month's worth of pictures, and…
ejohnson | March 25, 2009If climatologists saved the world and nobody experienced the alternative, would it make an impact? New research conducted at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center suggests that it should. The Center used cutting-edge computer modeling technologies to address the question: "What if the Montreal Protocol that regulated the emission of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) had not been signed?" The answer, it turns out, is catastrophe. The findings are a welcome change from the usual "doom and gloom" tune that frequently accompanies environmental reports, and gives evidence that intervention…
amillikan | March 21, 2009
Saturday, March 22, ScienceBlogs contributors reached the notable number of 100,000 blog entries on ScienceBlogs.com! Congrats to all of them for their hard work and dedication. Onward to one million!
ejohnson | March 19, 2009Over the two weeks leading up to Pi Day, ScienceBloggers prepared by baking their tastiest pies for the first ever ScienceBlogs Pi Day Pie Bake-Off. Their submissions ranged from traditional—like the Stemwedel family's end-of-winter fruit pie—to patriotic, quirky, and flat-out, albeit mouth-wateringly, bizarre. On Pi Day, we opened up the voting, and readers voted for for their favorite pies from the entries, based on both picture and recipe.
Which pie took the...pie? Despite Aussie John Wilkins allegation that "Americans do not understand what a pie is," (after witnessing the abundance of…
ejohnson | March 18, 2009ScienceBlogs Brazil brings together the most original and influential voices within the Brazilian science community, some of whom have already won accolades for their blogging. Edited from São Paulo by Carlos Hotta and Atila Iamarino, ScienceBlogs Brazil launched Tuesday with 23 Portuguese-language blogs on topics ranging from genetics to the environment. "I think we need people committed to raising scientific awareness in Brazil," said Carlos Hotta, "and I am certain that ScienceBlogs Brazil will turn our local voices into global ones."
From Sb Brazil Community Managers Carlos Hotta and…
amillikan | March 16, 2009
March 14, we here at ScienceBlogs celebrated the universally important ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter—the number that has now been calculated to over a trillion digits—the mythical, the irrational Pi. On this highly-regarded mathematical day, ScienceBloggers turned in their final submissions to the Pi Day Pie Bake-off Contest, in which ScienceBloggers were invited to submit a picture and recipe of their favorite home-baked pies by posting an entry on their blogs.
The contest is open until 10pm (EST) tonight, so if you haven't cast a vote for your favorite ScienceBlogs pie…