Misc
apalazzo | April 17, 2007This is for all you libertarians who think that laws and government are shackles. Just remember that society is a contract.
Now that those who practise justice do so involuntarily and because they have not the power to be unjust will best appear if we imagine something of this kind: having given both to the just and the unjust power to do what they will, let us watch and see whither desire will lead them; then we shall discover in the very act the just and unjust man to be proceeding along the same road, following their interest, which all natures deem to be their good, and are only diverted…
apalazzo | April 17, 2007I left this comment on Rob Knop's site:
I read this post, and then the comments, and I thought to my self, it would be nice if both sides engage in a discourse.
The "anti-gun" side asks for a balance in our society. They compare countries that have lax laws with those that have strict laws ... proper science - you take a situation and change a variable. Sure it's not perfect but it's the best data we have.
Then you the "pro-gun" arguments. Full of platitudes and mantra chanting and false comparisons (cars vs guns??? that is not what you call changing a single isolated variable). Second…
apalazzo | April 17, 2007Sad, very sad. 32 dead.
Reading about it ... how the killings came in several waves, hours apart ... I wonder why didn't they stop the guy. I guess that unlike Dawson, which is located in downtown Montreal, V Tech is in a small college town (from my understanding).
Another question: why do these large scale massacres take place in schools (Columbine, U. of Montreal, Concordia, Dawson, U Iowa, V Tech)? Sad.
vhughes | April 13, 2007
(Dr. Porter discovers there's a physical world, too!)
Today meet Sandra Porter of Discovering Biology in a Digital World, a bioinformaticist, bioinformatics teacher, and expert detector of bull excrement.
What do you do when you're not blogging?
Lots of things!
Work-wise, I do a lot of things that revolve around teaching people how to use bioinformatics. This involves researching different kinds of problems, helping to design "bioinformatics" assays, overseeing and editing our user manual, testing software, and doing scientific consulting. I also have my own research grants (from the NSF…
stoat | April 13, 2007I'm back from hols. Sorry for the interruption in service.
Can I remind people that if you want to post attacks on other bloggers, the place to do it is their blog or yours not here? I've been a bit lax about this but in future such stuff will be deleted
vhughes | April 11, 2007
We'd like to thank the Academy...the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, that is, for their designation of ScienceBlogs.com, Seedmagazine.com, and the
Seedmagazine.com video spot "The Synthesizer: A Video Portrait of E.O. Wilson," as "official honorees" in the 11th Annual Webby Awards.
According to the Webbies, based on creative and functional criteria, honoree websites "truly represent the best of the Web."
We'll take a bow to that.
vhughes | March 30, 2007
(Photo by Geoff Smith.)
Today's ScienceBlogger interview is with "science enthusiast and interpreter," Brooklynite, and freelance journalist Orli Van Mourik of Neurontic.
What's your name?
Orli Holmes Van Mourik, which only sounds like a mouthful until you hear my father's name: Johannes Maria Willibrordus Van Mourik. (See what I'm saying?)
What do you do when you're not blogging?
I write for publications ranging from Psychology Today magazine to The New York Observer and dream about book deals.
What is your blog called?
Neurontic
What's up with that name?
It's a fusion of the words '…
vhughes | March 28, 2007
Meet Alex Palazzo, cellular biologist and "postdoctoral fellow-at-large" of The Daily Transcript.
What do you do when you're not blogging?
I'm a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard medical school. There I spend my time poking cells and in the process I hope to learn a bit about how cells handle mRNA, how the endoplasmic reticulum works and what are all those other intracellular animacules are doing.
Why's your blog called The Daily Transcript?
OK let's start at the beginning. Each cell is loaded with DNA that is stored in this specialized compartment, the nucleus. This DNA contains all…
apalazzo | March 25, 2007Quebec's provincial elections are being held tomorrow. I won't be voting in this one - my green card application is still under review, and I can't cross the border until all my paperwork is settled. Since the thee main parties are tied in the pre-election poles, it's likely that like the Quebec will have a minority Government, the first in over 100 years. As two of those parties are separatist parties, it's likely that poor Quebec will be dragged through another referendum within the next 5 years. That's the last thing that Quebec needs ...
Here's some info from the CBC.
Update:
G&M…
apalazzo | March 25, 2007Next week I'll be hosting the latest edition of Mendel's Garden, a blog carnival for genetics blogging. Despite the fact that I've been blogging for over two years and participating in many carnivals, this will be my first time as a host (not that your entries are parasites ...)
So send in your genetics related posts via email - I'll accept them until 11:59PM April 1st and the full carnival will appear here sometime April 2nd.
stoat | March 21, 2007Today Broon delivered the 2007 budget. Listening to the news, it seems like mostly a nullity: just about everyone has had some taxes raised and others lowered (though we may gain a few hundred from tax changes). Fiddling because you need to be seen to be doing something; and aimed more at looking good and making the opposition look bad. Oh dear, its not promising.
This has nowt to do with climate (and so does the budget, just about).
vhughes | March 19, 2007ScienceBlogs gives a warm welcome to its newest addition, The Voltage Gate, maintained by Jeremy Bruno of Frederick, Maryland.
Jeremy is a biology student, freelance writer, and editor of The Bottom Line, Frostburg State University's independent newspaper. The Voltage Gate—whose name alludes to the voltage-gated ion channels through which nerve impulses travel—will cover topics on ecology, evolution, and conservation.
apalazzo | March 19, 2007From the Metropolitan Diaries section of today's NYTimes:
I boarded the 57th Street crosstown bus at York Avenue and, as usual, inserted my senior citizen transit card incorrectly. The driver very kindly took it out of the fare box slot and reversed it before handing it back to me to reinsert. I sat down wondering why I could not master this simple procedure. True, I didn't use city buses regularly, but still ...
My seat overlooked the bus entrance, where I could observe boarders doing it right the first time without assistance. The large black bar went on the right, the cutoff corner on the…
apalazzo | March 17, 2007I adjusted my blog roll for the first time in ~6months, I'll do some more tomorrow. If you want me to list you, let me know. Also I added some new entries to the Taxonomy of Sciences. Two new outside entries + a bunch of genetics entries that I ripped off of evolgen.
ksharpe | March 5, 2007This YouTube video presents a rejoinder to creationists who believe that, regarding the question of whether human beings evolved or were created, personal opinion matters. The first few seconds seem to presage a talk-show style arguement-fest, but the presentation soon turns into a soothing pastiche of science-related imagery, culminating in amazing shots (or CGI?) of the Mars rover. The larger point is that "well, I believe..." statements pale in comparison to the tangible achievements of applied reason. But argument aside it bears enjoying as an aesthetic meditation on science and tech.
"…
apalazzo | March 3, 2007Through our newest blog Highly Allochthonus I've learned that there is a Postdoc Carnival. Check out what blogging postdocs have to complain about say at Post Doc Ergo Propter Doc.
And I've discovered that The Daily Transcript has been reviewed (about a month ago) at BlogCritics.
Here's what they have to say:
The Daily Transcript is a blog by Alex Palazzo, a "postdoctoral fellow working in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School." The material is highly focused on what it's like to be a functional research scientist. Posts rarely stray from the central theme of lab life…
ksharpe | March 2, 2007Chris Rowan, a geologist, maintains a blog with a tongue-twister of a name. Highly Allochthonous is the spot where he blogs about geology, a subject he has found to boast "more field trips and more beer" than his first love, physics. Chris is based in the UK and currently beginning a postdoc at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. He also writes a column about the life of a postdoc for Naturejobs. And the blog name—?
An allochthon is a sequence of rocks which has been superimposed by faulting on top of another sequence which it was originally a large distance away from; for example…
hrynyshyn | February 27, 2007My least favorite story-that's-occupying-too-much-media-attention this week is the Al Sharpton-Strom Thurmond family-ties affair. As a former newspaper editor, I know all too well why the story of the uncovering of the connection between a prominent African-American civil-rights leader and famous white racist senator is irresistible. But should it really be more than a mildly amusing footnote, rather than a front-page feature? And now we hear that Sharpton wants a DNA test? Give it a rest.
First of all, we're not talking about blood relations. The story goes that Sharpton's great-grandfather…
ksharpe | February 25, 2007Love ScienceBlogs, but find the combined RSS feed overwhelming? Been wanting a way to siphon the cream of ScienceBlogs off the top? Want no more.
This week, we introduce ScienceBlogs Select, a new, filtered RSS feed made up of ScienceBloggers' own favorite posts. The Select feed contains fewer posts than the full feed, and they've all been hand-picked for quality, from funniest to pithiest to most insightful. We like it, and we hope you will too.
Give ScienceBlogs Select a try by visiting the ScienceBlogs RSS page and clicking on 'ScienceBlogs Select' to subscribe.