north carolina
clock | November 2, 2006Shelley has already explained the recent study about the life-span increasing properties of Resveratrol, a compound found in wine.
Article in NYT tries to make a quick calculation (apparently erroneous) as of how much wine a person would have to drink in order to receive the same dose as the lab mice got in this study - "from 1,500 to 3,000 bottles of red wine a day"!
Perhaps the dose would be smaller if you could stand drinking the super-sweet Scuppernong (from muscadine grape - Vitis Rotundifolia) wine from Duplin Winery here in Rose Hill, North Carolina. As horribly sweet as it is, I…
clock | November 1, 2006The next Chapel Hill Bloggers Meetup will be tonight, on Thursday, November 2nd at 6pm EST at Open Eye Cafe. I will try not to oversleep this time around and get to see you there.
clock | October 31, 2006The worst Tevye ever (January 26, 2005)
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I have seen "Fiddler on the Roof" on stage more than 20 times in my life, starting at about the age of seven. Since I was about 24, I saw the movie a few times. I have had, over the years, LPs, tapes and CDs of several different renditions. I can play a few of the tunes on the piano. I love it. That is my favourite show of all times.
I have heard the music so many times, my brain is so wired to it that I cannot stop myself from crying every time I hear it (that is why I don't listen to it in the car…
clock | October 29, 2006Just a quick note. I finally got to meet Chris Mooney, my fellow Seed Scienceblogger and the author of The Republican War on Science.
On Saturday, we met early enough to have coffee and a little chat before his book-reading and signing event at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh. The long weekend in local schools (Friday off in Orange Co. and Monday off in Wake Co.) and a break in bad weather we had recently propably prompted a lot of locals to make that last trip out of town for the year this week, so the size of the crowd was not as impressive as it could have been, but those present were good…
clock | October 29, 2006The Tar Heel Tavern has a new host this week - Dr.R of Evolving Education has just posted the 88th edition. Go there, say Hi, and check out the best North Carolina blogging of the week.
clock | October 26, 2006A short but good article by my schools' President (April 25, 2006, also here).
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James Oblinger, the new President of North Carolina State University (promoted from within after many years as the Dean of the School Of Agriculture And Life Sciences), has a good editorial in today's News and Observer:
Nurturing success in the sciences:
We've all heard the line from President Bush: We need more students to join the "nerd patrol." It's an overly simple solution for a complex problem that imperils the traditions of invention and innovation that…
clock | October 23, 2006I had a delightful lunch today with my blog-sparring-partner Mike Munger of Mungovitz End (see how my blog is labeled on his blogroll: "Coturnix's nonsense"). We had great time discussing politics, academia, Horowitz, blogging and the life in the Triangle. Oh, Mike is also running for North Carolina governor in 2008 as a Libertarian candidate. Check his positions - how liberal!!!
clock | October 22, 2006Anton Zuiker got a nice article (about blogging and the local blogging community) published in Raleigh News & Observer. The article is here and Anton's personal version can be found here. Smartly, the article contains the URL of Blogtogether, so perhaps people will see it and register for the Science Blogging Conference or show up at the next meetup.
Oh, while there, you can also see two additional pictures of me from ConvergeSouth that Anton took - one with Elizabeth Edwards and the other with Maryam Scoble.
Addendum: Since I did not get my hardcopy of N&O (yet, I will soon), I did…
clock | October 21, 2006This week's Tar Heel Tavern is right next door - over on my SciBling's pad Terra Sigillata.
clock | October 16, 2006If you happen to be in the Triangle tonight and have some free time, come to the blogger meetup at 7pm at the Chapel Hill Public Library.
clock | October 16, 2006Yesterday, I spent a wonderful day in Greensboro, most of it on the NC A&T campus attending ConvergeSouth. I am still trying to recover from the event, so this post is just a big Hello to everyone I met there and another post about buidling online communities inspired by the meeting will follow soon.
First, a big Thank You to the organizers of the event, Sue Polinsky, Ed Cone, Ben Hwang and JW. Great to see you all again! Great job!
Last year, I came in knowing only a few people. Two days later, I knew many more. This year, it was only one day long so it was hard to catch up with…
clock | October 14, 2006A beautifully written edition of Tar Heel Tavern is up on Poetic Acceptance.
clock | October 13, 2006No posting tomorrow. I will (or should be) at ConvergeSouth all day tomorrow. That is, if I make it there. My ride suddenly quit. I e-mailed a few local bloggers but have not received any responses yet. Perhaps I'll make it, perhaps I won't. If I do, I'll post my thoughts on the conference on Sunday.
Upodate: Got a ride. See ya on Sunday. I have scheduled several posts for automatic posting before bed tonight, a picture of a cat, some science news, etc, just to prevent the blog from rotting away and falling apart...
clock | October 12, 2006I went to Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh on Monday to hear Elizabeth Edwards read from her new book, Saving Graces (I could not make it to the earlier event in Chapel Hill as I was picking up the kids from school at the time). Quail Ridge Books and the surrounding area can get quite busy when a famous person is coming in to sign books (e.g., when Al Gore and Jimmy Carter came there) so I made sure to come really early. By 6:45pm I have already dropped the kids off at grandma's yet I still had to make a couple of circles to find a parking space and the bookstore was already full. I'd say…
clock | October 10, 2006As Nick says:
Interestingly, as opponents of science (.....) continue to take on increasingly scientific-sounding arguments (....) this study demonstrates that these are only quasi-scientific, manufactured to support a particular viewpoint and not intended to actually communicate new information.
I am kinda tired of animal rightists trolls in my comments, so feel free to dissect this site on your own blogs....
On the other hand, I'd like someone with some expertise in reading legalese to explain what SB1032 really means.
clock | October 10, 2006Durham Literacy Center is in trouble and needs your help.
Mold in DLC Office:
For several years, the presence of mold in the DLC building has been a nagging but manageable concern. In the past 4 years, DLC has spent more than $15,000 to contain and destroy the mold that grows in the building's damp basement and the attic. Unfortunately, conditions worsened significantly early this fall. The occurrence of allergic symptoms associated with mold increased. When it became clear that staff were having allergic reactions to the mold, we asked two environmental engineers to assess the building. The…
clock | October 10, 2006I went to Quail Ridge Books last night. I will post my report (hopefully with pictures and movie-clips) tomorrow at noon.
clock | October 8, 2006Tarheel Tavern #85 is up on Another Blue Puzzle Piece. I am such an idiot - I forgot to send anything this week!
clock | October 5, 2006'Hip Happy Prof' teaches over MySpace, bosses protest:
N.C. State Professor Tom Hoban is offering Sociology 395-M, "Social Movements for Social Change," on the popular social networking site that claims to have 100 million active users worldwide. But administrators say it's the wrong space for teaching a university course.
Hoban says he received approval over the summer from his department head to teach via MySpace. But last week, Katie Perry, senior vice provost for academic affairs, told Hoban to move the course to university servers.
Hoban has refused.
"N.C. State's distance education is…