society
clock | January 4, 2007Top Ten Workplace Safety Stories of 2006 on Confined Space is worth a careful read.
Hat-tip: Lindsay
clock | December 22, 2006So, why do Creationists and other quacks try so hard to sound all 'scienc-y'? (June 15, 2005)
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Check this guy out - Jim Pinkoski - in the posts AND in the comments here, here and here.
OK, he's a creationist, but he is not even trying to be consistently within ONE version of creationism. He freely switches between YEC and OEC and IDC and when asked ONLY for internal logical consistency, not even evidence, he starts using all caps and bold and calls everyone stupid and liars and exhibits all symptoms of a persecution complex. What gives? He appears…
clock | December 20, 2006The 29th Carnival of Feminists is up on The imponderabilia of actual life containing posts by several of my favourite bloggers, including Zuska who has her own pick of favourites there.
Speaking of Zuska, she also has a cool article in the inaugural issue of the new science-culture Inkling Magazine, the brainchild of the magnificent blogging Trio Fantasticus of Inkycircus.
And while we are on the topic, Razib exhibits a complete lack of sense of irony, i.e., the inability to see sarcasm and seeing seriousness instead.
clock | December 20, 2006Here is the second guest-post by Heinrich (from March 20, 2005):
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Here is the #2 guest contribution by Heinrich (not Heindrocket) of She Flies With Her Own Wings (http://coeruleus.blogspot.com/):
Most of this post was inspired by a grand rounds / journal club given by David Dinges about two weeks ago based on years of his own research and large surveys. One line of argument in the presentation that I thought was particularly interesting - one that we as sleep researchers might want to remember when we write grants and perform our…
clock | December 15, 2006More than a year ago (September 26, 2005), and what has changed?
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The other day I saw (on a blog, from an e-mail? Don't remember now...) this article about a porn website on which our soldiers in Iraq exchange gory photos of mutilated Iraqi bodies for a free subscription to porn. War Pornography was published on a news website I was not familiar with, so I posted the link in the comments to a couple of good liberal blogs, asking for the verification of the story.
The next day, Nation published a shorter story on the same topic: The Porn of War, which…
clock | December 13, 2006Let me state up front that this is not a topic I know anything about, but I have always had a curiosity for it, so let me just throw some thoughts out into the Internets and see if commenters or other bloggers can enlighten me or point me to the most informative sources on the topic. This is really a smorgarsbord of seemingly disparate topics that I always felt had more in common with each other than just the fact that they have something or other to do with traffic. I am trying to put those things together and I hope you can help me (under the fold).
1. Models of Traffic Flow
There are two…
clock | December 12, 2006When the Rockridge Insitute was first founded, there were forums on the site for a few months, which were then shut down. Today, the Institute starts a new blog/forum Rockridge Nation, "a community of progressives working to frame the issues and restore our values to the heart of public life. This blog will draw attention to some of the interesting questions, stories, and analysis that members of Rockridge Nation contribute."
clock | December 9, 2006Mark points out to this amazing example of innumeracy:
Yup, it is 25 minutes long and it is frustrating as hell. And there is no resolution in the end.
To make a long story short, the guy went to Canada and before the trip he asked Verizon what his charge would be while there. He was quoted 0.002 cents per kilobyte. When he came back, he found out he was charged at the rate of 0.002 dollars instead. A nice, clean 100-fold difference.
He got on the phone (and recorded these 25 minutes of the conversation) and went through one rep to another, tryng, in vein, to get them to understand…
clock | December 7, 2006Once you get your new Nintendo console, make sure you are calm while playing. Otherwise, you are bound to break something.
clock | December 7, 2006Amanda just reviewed Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma and also recently wrote a post on the same topic while under the influence of the book. I agree with her 100%, so go and read both posts.
I have read the book a couple of months ago and never found time to write a review of my own. I also remember that I finished the book on a Thursday afternoon - an important piece of information as it is on Thursday afternoons that there is a Farmers' Market here in Southern Village, barely a block from me. The first thing I did when I closed the book was to walk up to the Farmers' Market…
clock | December 3, 2006Neil's attitude towards vaginas is very positive.
Lindsay asserts that swearing is a fascinating philosophical topic.
Amanda debunks the old tired counter-arguments.
And many, many comments on all three threads will keep you busy for a while. Mind you, considering the topic, the language in those posts is NOT safe for work (or your work may not be safe for it, in which case you should quit).
clock | November 29, 2006While all this was going on I was wondering where Jason Rosenhouse would stand on all of this. He is back from a break and has two posts on the issue here and here.
Update: Chris Rowan wrote an intriguing analysis and a huge thread on the topic is still ongoing on Panda's Thumb
clock | November 26, 2006 I am sure glad that others have started parsing the numbers of the new report on 'The Internet as a Resource for News and Information about Science'.
Duane Smith takes a close look at a couple of tables in the report and concludes that, while relatively few people say they get their information on evolution directly from the Bible and Church, many do so indirectly, by beeing steeped in their comunities' beliefs transmitted by family, friends and neighbors (as well as local and church-run media). Interesting take (and I agree with him on this). What have you found so far?
clock | November 25, 2006Love for animals, even the dead ones, can sometimes go too far, dontcha think?
clock | November 24, 2006On poverty, personal, national and global, and why it makes sense not to have a bank account when you are poor (October 04, 2005). Espcially in light of recent news about the way big banks rip off people by depositing big checks first - placing accounts into the red - then depositing multiple small checks which otherwise would have cleared but now incur fees which, added over many customers, add up to billions in profit for the banks. This practice kills me every month. I pay the biggest things (rent) by MoneyOrder so I am not afraid of that bouncing, but I'd like to minimize the number of…
clock | November 23, 2006I am still sleepy from all that tryptophan in turkey meat and the Evolution wine, so I don't think I have the energy to write a big post now - I'll leave much of my thoughts on the matter for a post-weekend post reviewing Dawkins' The God Delusion.
But I have to chime in briefly by sending you to the relevant links and copying some of the comments I wrote on those comment threads. Brace yourself for a lot of reading as there are several posts and many comments on each of the posts. Sorry, the links are not neccessarly in order, but you'll get the gist of the argument anyway.
Ed Brayton…
clock | November 21, 2006If I understood this correctly. Can someone explain what the procedure may be in Israel?
clock | November 19, 2006Imagine an ecosystem in which all the players are groups defined by their religion: fundies, liberal believers, apathetics, atheists, etc. Then, use the ecological and evolutionary priniciples, e.g., competitive exclusion, niche-construction, arms-races, parasitism, camouflage, symbiosis, etc. to model the interactions between these entities ("populations").
Amanda made a first stab at it. Can you do more?
How do Unitarians fit in that environment? Or Humanist Jews? How does the US ecosystem differ from that of other countries (island biogegraphy?)? What are the lessons for atheists…
clock | November 3, 2006Earlier today I was listening to The Story with Dick Gordon on WUNC91.5FM and it was about the persuasive power of the human voice. This is something I was always interested in.
The guest was Anne Karpf, author of Human Voice. It was one of those extra-long driveway moments because the topic was so interesting, she is so insightful (and has a great sense of humor), and had several clips of people like FDR, Churchill, Reagan, Bush and Blair with added analysis of their voices, as well as some cultural comparisons, the development of language, etc.
I am about to put the book on my wish…