Misc
sb admin | September 12, 2008SciBlogs editorial staff looks at the meaning of dominance. Did dinosaurs ever really rule the Earth? Did they ever stop? And what does it mean to be "dominant"?
Two Willet birds in silhouette (Tringa semipalmata; formerly Catoptrophorus semipalmatus) on Morro Strand State Beach. From Flickr, by mikebaird
Yesterday on Not Exactly Rocket Science Ed talked about a new paper in the journal Science that looks at the diversification of large vertebrates after the Triassic/Jurassic extinction event. In simple terms, how did dinosaurs take over the Earth? I think the article and Ed's response…
sb admin | September 12, 2008In this post: the large versions of the Technology channel photo, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week.
Technology. Old robotics engineering equipment in Bristol, England. From Flickr, by crabchick
Reader comments of the week:
At Journalism schools behind the times, Coturnix of A Blog Around the Clock highlights Anna Taylor, a journalism student at NYU. Taylor, blogging at PBS, claims that new media is not being represented in the classroom, with her professors focusing on traditional print media at the expense of blogs. Even worse, she claims that her professors don't…
hrynyshyn | September 11, 2008If you have never posted a comment on ScienceBlogs before, now would be the time. Every commenter who supplies an email these days gets entered to win one of the those all-expenses-paid things to New York City. The trip includes airfare, four nights in a four-star hotel, behind-the-scenes tours of top museums and labs, and dinner with your favorite ScienceBlogger. Which would mean the blogger with whom you choose to dine has to come to New York, too. So if you win, choose carefully. There are carbon footprints of air travel to consider, and whether the blogger can survive the pressures of the…
ejohnson | September 11, 2008In this post: the large versions of the Medicine & Health and Brain & Behavior channel photos, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week.
Brain & Behavior. From Flickr, by Kyknoord
Medicine & Health. From Flickr, by riot jane
Reader comments of the week:
On the Medicine & Health channel, Revere of Effect Measure poses the question, Who uses alternative medicine and for what? The most recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released by the CDC revealed that over 15 percent of adults in the U.S. use some form of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (…
sb admin | September 10, 2008In this post: the large versions of the Education & Careers and Politics channel photos, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week.
Education and Careers. From Flickr, by david_terrar
Politics. Protesters scuffle with police outside the Republican National Convention in St. Paul From Flickr, by Ligadier Truffaut
Reader comments of the week:
In Barack Obama: A pro-vaccine pharma shill who doesn't care about autistic children? Orac takes on the touchy subject of vaccines and autism by looking at Senator Obama's stance on the issue, and the reaction from around the…
tqa | September 10, 2008
Somehow, though, I doubt that there are going to be a lot of scientists who are thrilled with the latest use Henry's found for his iPhone.
ejohnson | September 9, 2008In this post: the large versions of the Environment and Humanities & Social Science channel photos, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week.
Environment. The ocean off of Jamaica. From Flickr, by rappensuncle
Humanities & Social Science. A crowded boardwalk in Venice Beach, California. From Flickr, by Joseph.S
Reader comments of the week:
Over at Deltoid, Tim Lambert brings everyone's attention to a story about the Jasons. The Jasons were a group of physicists who banded together to try and save the world. Think the Justice League, but pastier and skinnier. Turns out…
hrynyshyn | September 8, 2008The Chronicle of Higher Education's Thomas Benton is worried about today's kids and declining levels of respect for academic excellence. In his review of a series of recent books about related subjects, he quotes author Naomi Baron favorably, lamenting the rise of multi-tasking:
Worst of all, the prevalence of multi-tasking -- of always being partly distracted, doing several things at once -- has diminished the quality of our thought, reflection, self-expression, and even, surprisingly, our productivity. Baron's solution is to turn off the distractions and focus on the task and people at hand…
ejohnson | September 8, 2008In this post: the large versions of the Life Science and Physical Science channel photos, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week.
Physical Science. Sparks jump from a flickering campfire. From Flickr, by Kirrus
Life Science. From Flickr, by Snap®
Reader comments of the week:
In Giant Antarctic Marine Worm - Parbolasia Corrugatus, Andrew Bleiman of Zoillogix introduces the cuddly creature below:
This Nemertean, or proboscis worm (proper name Parborlasia corrugatus) is a resident of Antarctic waters, and according to Andrew,
eats almost anything, including sponges,…
ejohnson | September 5, 2008In this post: the large version of the Brain & Behavior and Technology channel photos, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week.
Technology. Radio telescope on the Plains of San Agustin, New Mexico. From Flickr, by Fort Photo
Brain & Behavior. Academician Andrei Sakharov. From Flickr, by dbking
Reader comments of the week:
On the Brain & Behavior channel, Jonah of The Frontal Cortex discusses the importance of Daydreams. In the age of television, he explains in an excerpt from his latest column in the Boston Globe, kids don't have "empty time" to let their…
stoat | September 4, 2008The Castle in fact. With ASA. Misc:
Ran is Japanese King Lear, except the children are male, because it wouldn't be plausible for Japanese females to be in that position. But its not especially plausible for English females either. Why aren't the children in Lear male? Only possible answer we could find (other, perhaps, than a convenient excuse to have a few womem (who would have been men anyway...) in the play) was that if they were male, oldest-inheriting would have been too obvious. Answers invited.
Democracies never fight each other, but Russia and Georgia just have. Not really such a…
ejohnson | September 4, 2008In this post: the large version of the Politics and Medicine & Health channel photos, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week.
Politics. The 2008 Democratic ticket for the White House. From Flickr, by bobster1985
Medicine & Health. From Flickr, by Scoro
Reader comments of the week:
The Politics channel is all over Sarah Palin this week, but Mike the Mad Biologist reminds us she's not the only one running in From Food Stamps to the Presidency? Maybe a Safety Net Isn't TEH EVIL. While the Republican party often criticizes Barack Obama for supposed elitism, Mike points…
ejohnson | September 3, 2008In this post: the large versions of the Humanities & Social Sciences and Education & Health channel photos, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week.
Humanities & Social Sciences. From Flickr, by Fevi Yu
Education & Careers. From Flickr, by dboo
Reader comments of the week:
On the Humanities & Social Sciences channel, Razib of Gene Expression insists that Science is rational; scientists are not. It is not the "acuity of any given individual" that enables scientific insight and achievement, he argues, but rather "the intersection of the communal wisdom of…
vhughes | September 3, 2008As everybody's talking about, the snazzy new version of ResearchBlogging.org launched on Tuesday. Powered by Seed Media Group Technology, ResearchBlogging now has a host of new features, including multi-language capability, subject-specific RSS feeds, and profiles of registered users.
ResearchBlogging was the brain child of Dave Munger, a writer, a science educator, and half of the genius behind our most popular psychology blog, Cognitive Daily. (That's Dave at right, hiking in Pasayten Wilderness in Washington State, the largest wilderness area in the lower 48 states.)
We sat down with…
ejohnson | September 2, 2008In this post: the large versions of the Life Science, Physical Science and Environment channel photos, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week.
Physical Science. Thunderstorm over Toronto, Ontario. From Flickr, by krunkwerke
Life Science. From Flickr, by Noël Zia Lee
Environment. From Flickr, by lexdenn
Reader comments of the week:
In Animal Rights Extremists kill at least a dozen mink, The Evil Monkey of Neurotopia v. 2.0 laments the ignorance of a group of animal rights activists who released 6,000 mink from a fur farm; farm-raised animals, he stresses, are…
hrynyshyn | September 2, 2008If you've ever wanted to know what ScienceBloggers are like in the real world, and you're going to be in the general vicinity of Asheboro, North Carolina (that's halfway between the mountains and the ocean), drop by the NC Zoo on Saturday, Sept. 20, where most of the state's ScienceBlog contigent will be celebrating the millionth comment on our collective blogs. Other parties are scheduled across the country, but the NC gathering should be the biggest. Read more here. We'll post more details as they become available.
stoat | August 30, 2008The long school holidays draw to a close, and with it the disruptions to my online-ness.
We went to Mallorca, we went to Wales, we went to Torpenhow (the latter set is rather boring because the interesting ones are private. Sorry).
So I have to catch up on a whole pile of online stuff, and rant about our stupid politicians. And cut the grass. Tomorrow.
ejohnson | August 29, 2008In this post: the large version of the Technology channel photo, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week.
Control panel of a Soviet B-39 submarine in San Diego, California. From Flickr, by Jeff Kubina
Reader comment of the week:
In Memo to Windows Vista, Chad of Uncertain Principles vents his frustration with Microsoft's newest operating system. After Chad changed a setting, to prevent his computer from automatically restarting every time it required "critical" updates, he found it had mysteriously been reset.
Chad leveled a threat:
If this arbitrary re-setting of settings…
ejohnson | August 28, 2008In this post: the large versions of the Medicine & Health and Brain & Behavior channel photos, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week.
This week's Medicine & Health photo was kindly submitted by one of our own bloggers, the Neurophilospher.
Brain & Behavior. The blurred colors of plastic Easter eggs. From Flickr, by josef.stuefer
Medicine & Health. From Flickr, by Gaetan Lee
Reader comments of the week:
On the Medicine & Health channel, Orac discusses a contentious issue, sure to become more prominent as more parents buy into anti-vaccinationist…
ejohnson | August 27, 2008In this post: the large versions of the Education & Careers and Politics channel photos, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week.
Politics. A Georgian man squats amidst the aftermath of a Russian bombardment. From Flickr, by k.tseradze@yahoo.com
Education & Careers. From Flickr, by zone41
Reader comments of the week:
On the Education & Careers channel, DrugMonkey asks himself Should I hire a postdoc or a technician? While both will end up performing many of the same tedious tasks in a lab, they differ in relationship to the PI, eventual career track, availability…