Misc
vhughes | January 19, 2008"You could nuke Sweden off the planet, and Japanese archeology would not suffer." -Martin Rundkvist
I'm eating lunch now at the NC Science Blogging Conference after a great discussion, led by Martin, about blogging about the humanities and social sciences. Many topics were covered (including the difference between the definitions of "humanities" in America and Europe), but one that I thought might be especially interesting to 3.14 readers is Martin's definition of a blog carnival. (More below the fold.)
Like a traveling carnival (in, you know, real life), blog carnivals are subject-specific…
vhughes | January 19, 2008You thought PZ Myers wasn't going to the NC Science Blogging Conference? WRONG. I just spotted our favorite squid freak downing a muffin and a ginger ale!
Some onlookers commented that PZ's long, blond locks looked a lot like Shelley Batts, but I don't know...
(BTW, standing next to PZ is Tom Levenson, of Inverse Square.)
vhughes | January 19, 2008
Last night at the NC Science Blogging Conference, right before a lovely dinner of vino, mahi mahi and banana pudding, I asked a few sciblings if they'd show me their tattoos. I got one sucker, above. Guess who? Find out below the fold!
It's Evil Monkey!
I'm off now to breakfast and then a day-long line up of blogging discussions. Stay tuned for more revealing photos...
vhughes | January 17, 2008
Just one day to go before the second annual North Carolina Science Blogging Conference at Research Triangle Park! More than 200 bloggers, scientists, journalists, blogger-scientists and blogger-journalists are registered for a craaaazy line-up of discussions, lab tours, dinners, cocktails, and fun. (More details below the fold.)
My plane lands in Durham tomorrow morning, and I'll be live-blogging for Page 3.14 all weekend to let you know exactly what's buzzing at the conference.
I'm also planning to do some 3.14 *exclusive* interviews with the ScienceBloggers. Got any TUFF questions you'd…
jrice | January 14, 2008Here they are! As always, the large-scale versions of this week's channel photos.
(Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.)
First photo here, the rest below the fold.
Life Science. From Flickr, by ellhoisa
Physical Science: "Burning Mountain" in Namib desert. From NASA, via pingnews.com
Environment. From Flickr, by Felix Francis
Humanities & Social Science.…
jrice | January 10, 2008Feast your eyes upon the large-scale versions of this week's channel photos.
(Have a photo you'd like to send in? Email it to photos@scienceblogs.com, or assign the tag "sbhomepage" to one of your photos on Flickr. Note: be sure to assign your photo an "attribution only" or "share and share alike" Creative Commons license so that we can use it.)
First photo here, the rest below the fold.
Life Science: Snake skin. From Flickr, by Tambako the Jaguar
Physical Science. From Flickr, by Tambako the Jaguar
Environment. From Flickr, by Tambako the Jaguar
Humanities & Social Science. From…
apalazzo | January 10, 2008This looks great!
My only question is how much energy does it take to compress the air need for their 200km trip. That energy must come from somewhere (like a coal burning electricity plant). On the flip side, the cost can't be too high if 1.5 euros fills your tank. As a bonus I'm sure that some contraption could be designed that allows the driver to manually compress air through human power (in case you run out of air). Very cool stuff.
(HT: Cliff Schecter)
apalazzo | January 9, 2008No I'm not going to write about the NH primary. I'll just say that I'm surprised that Hillary won, and I'm glad that the NH and Iowa votes canceled eachother out. In the end the Democratic nomination will be decided by the more populous states (as it should be).
Let's get on to more important issues.
Yesterday afternoon a very serious topic came up in our bay. You see baymate challenged me to a game of Scrabble (or it's facebook equivalent). I then made a big mistake and mentioned the infamous "reshaven incident".
You might be wondering what exactly is the "reshaven incident"? Click on the…
apalazzo | January 6, 2008Wow! All my friends from the Dean campaign went up to NH today to work in the Obama camp. I on the other hand have stayed behind (I'll be leaving for the lab soon to inject some cells). And I'm vacillating between Obama and Edwards (but leaning towards Obama).
So forget about the Sunday morning political talk shows, read these two items instead and you'll see the source of my inner dispute.
First up, Lambert on problems with Obama (HT: Coturnix). This essay reflects my problems with Obama's strategy. Over the last 27 years, the fiscal conservatives who head the GOP have been tearing down all…
apalazzo | January 4, 2008(yes another polical entry - don't worry, I'll soon be back to posting about science)
Some notes on last night's caucus results:
- Obama was the only major candidate not tarnished by a vote for the war. People are rewarding candidates for their past stances and punishing others who took politically expedient stances. Punishment is the voter's greatest tool to control political matters. Future senators take note.
- The number of caucus goers for the Democratic delegate elections almost doubled (from 125K in 2004 to 230K in 2008). Republican turnout was only 108K.
- Obama won in a very white…
apalazzo | January 3, 2008Since I started blogging (over 3 years ago) I have been posting less and less on political matters, but I have a story to share with you on the Iowa caucuses. My wife and I, for reasons that I won't go into here, were big supporters of Dean in 2004. The night of the 2004 Iowa caucuses, Dean supporters were planning a big reception rally in Portsmouth New Hampshire to welcome the Governor to the Granite State. We all met in the basement of a pub in Harvard Square and watched the caucus coverage on CNN. It was tough. Dean did not do as well as we expected. That's when we saw this:
We were a…
apalazzo | January 2, 2008In this coming year I plan to
1) Publish another paper.
2) Spend less time on the blog (great start, eh?)
3) Go to more meetings (I'm already registered for the January Keystone meeting on "Translational Regulatory Mechanisms", and I will try hard to go to the 2008 RNA meeting in Berlin)
4) Apply for a K99 grant (deadline is mid February)
5) Get over to Europe and visit my good pal in Paris
6) Read more scientific papers.
7) Read more books (Atonement is next - I need finish it by the next bookclub meeting on January 15th)
8) Exercise more (Charles River here I come!)
9) Xxx Xxxxx xxxxxxxx (…
jrice | January 2, 2008
For this week's ScienceBlogger interview, we present the star of Greg Laden's Blog: none other than the great Greg Laden. (The girl on his shoulders is his daughter, Julia.)
What's your name?
Greg Laden
What do you do when you're not blogging?
Not blogging? Oh, that. I am a part time biological anthropologist (I work in South Africa) and a part time advisor in the University of Minnesota's Program for Individualized Learning (A BA/BS program).
More below the fold...
What is your blog called?
It is called Greg Laden's Blog.
What's up with that name?
I used to have a blog called "Evolution…
stoat | December 30, 2007Reads a bit oddly, doesn't it? Yet Donno insists on this reading in her Penguin edition of the Marvell poems, instead of the more obvious "Now therefore, while the youthful hue / Sits on thy skin like morning dew". Certainly to the modern ear the idea of morning glue conjures up no very pleasant image. I think its just an editor being perverse (the support cited is the very thin "life is nothing else but as it were a glue, which in man fasteneth the soul and body together", apparently by William Baldwin in 1547 and cited in the OED, but I haven't checked). She also prefers "iron grates" to "…
stoat | December 28, 2007You know you're getting old when you start liking Kipling. Still, at least I'm not quoting MacDonough's Song at you. The solstice is past and the bleak days are getting longer. Unless you're south, of course.
As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But…
jrice | December 28, 2007
This week, ScienceBlogs gets entangled with Dave Bacon of The Quantum Pontiff as part of our ongoing ScienceBlogger interview series.
What's your name?
Dave M. Bacon. Yep, those initial spell a sound like "dumb."
What do you do when you're not blogging?
I'm a research assistant professor at the University of Washington where I study quantum computing. My main appointment is in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering and I have an adjunct appointment in the Department of Physics. Also while I'm not blogging, I like to ski, hike, make wine, carve stones, and daydream.
More…
jrice | December 24, 2007
Today, as part of our ongoing ScienceBlogger interview series, we bring you a conversation with Brian Switek (aka Future Transitional Fossil) of Laelaps.
What's your name?
Brian Switek
What do you do when you're not blogging?
I work for a university-run agriculture project and I'm currently a student at Rutgers University. When I'm not running between class and work, I'm usually can be found reading or visiting local zoos and museums.
More below the fold...
What is your blog called?
Laelaps
What's up with that name?
In 1866, the vertebrate paleontologist E.D. Cope found the remains of a…
jrice | December 21, 2007Now you can put a handy ScienceBlogs Latest Posts feed on your own website or blog, thanks to a newly minted web widget! This free, constantly-updating widget will let you display up-to-the-minute scientific musings from the ScienceBlogs clan. It was designed by Tim Murtaugh, Seed's Technology Director, and it looks like this:
Visit Widgetbox to get it for yourself!
apalazzo | December 20, 2007The scientific life is an interesting one. You work like a dog and have little to show for it. Nothing works and you don't have a clue why that is. Then one day you get that first result. You are happy, but a voice in the back of your head is telling you that this might be another dead end, another artifact. You cautiously proceed. Slowly the data accumulates. One day you put the pieces of the puzzle together. You test your idea, and it works! You're in a grove. Everything (or nearly everything) works. You ride that wave. You don't want to be distracted. Then your backup project starts to…