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gregladen | February 3, 2011The Superbowl of Birding is out, and by that I mean I and the Bird Web Carnival number CXLIII. Pronounced like Cthulhu but with an "i" sound at the end. You will find it here at the Slugyard blog.
The next edition of I and the Bird is set for February 17th, and I will be hosting it here, so please send me your bird blogging. It would be helpful if you put IATB in the subject line of your email to me.
The Bobo Carnival of Politics is out as well. Bobo is a clown, so be careful. Click here.
sciencepunk | February 3, 2011This is aimed as a companion piece to my article published in the Times Eureka magazine on the mathematics of matchmaking. There isn't room in a serious newspaper for flights of sci-fi fantasy, but the technology I saw while researching that article left my head reeling with the possibilities that lay ahead.
To recap: most matchmaking engines online work on a system of collaborative filtering. By studying how you behave, they create a personality profile and compare this to other users on the site. When they find someone who acts in a similar way to you, they use this person's activity to…
jtoney | February 3, 2011This article was co-authored with Carrie Manfrino, PhD, Kean University, Department of Geology and Meteorology and Director of Research and Conservation, Central Caribbean Marine Institute, Little Cayman, Cayman Islands.
Maintenance of Mid-Tower -- The Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS) installed at the Central Caribbean Marine Institute's Field Station on Little Cayman provides near-real time data for measuring thermal stress in the ocean. Dr. Carrie Manfrino, Kean University Associate Professor, is shown here making adjustments to the instruments that have provided the data for the…
cwilcox | February 2, 2011Peta recently stirred up quite a lot of controversy with their banned superbowl ad claiming that "studies have shown that vegetarians are better lovers." Of course, no such research exists, but somehow in trying find where that came from (no pun intended) I ended up in a twitter conversation about diet and sex. Anyhow, to make a long story short, after several converstaional tangents I found myself sifting through the scientific literature for anything containing "taste" and "semen."*
Sorry, folks: there's no scientific study of the effects of diet on human semen flavor. But what I did find…
krandall | February 2, 2011By Franck Marchis
There will be a before and after Kepler Era in astronomy. Today, with the release of 1,202 exoplanet candidates from data collected with the Kepler spacecraft over 140 days of observation, we have just entered in a new age of astronomy.
The Kepler spacecraft is the 10th NASA Discovery mission launched in March 2009 which was designed to search for exoplanets by measuring almost continuously the brightness of 156,453 stars in a small 12 degree diameter patch of the sky. The 0.95m-telescope is able to detect attenuation of the host star located in the Cygnus, Lyra, Draco…
gregladen | February 1, 2011Carnival of Evolution No. 32 is now at Denim and Tweed. Here.
At Ed Brayton's blog: American Teachers Often Ignore Evolution
I'll be doing another edition of Everything You Know is Sort Of Wrong on Skeptically Speaking on Friday. Details here.
gregladen | February 1, 2011How Homeopathy Works. And, is pronounced.
Michele Bachmann Hates Our Veterans.
Michele Bachmann has a plan to cut the budget and it starts with freezing funding to the VA for health care for veterans and cutting spending on disability payments to those injured during war.
The Anything Goes Carnival of Politics is HERE. All kinds of great stuff there.
cwilcox | January 31, 2011As you might have noticed, I've added a new badge to the left sidebar. That's right - you can start submitting posts for next year's Open Laboratory already! So find your favorite science blog posts from around the interwebs that were published in the past couple months and get submitting!
On a similar note, submissions are also open for the The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Communication Awards. These awards are "designed to recognize, promote, and encourage effective communication of science, engineering, medicine, and interdisciplinary work within and beyond the scientific…
gregladen | January 30, 2011New Apple Friend Bar Gives Customers Someone To Talk At About Mac Products
gregladen | January 29, 2011Do not visit web sites if your computer is running Windows. Recent reports indicate that your computer could be taken over by malicious forces.
Egypt vs. the Netizins.
Model predicts 'religiosity gene' will dominate society. OMG. Ooops, did I say that?
And finally, the Antikythera Mechanism was a computer built in Greece at around 100 BCE. It is an astronomical device for ascertaining the positions of celestial bodies and it is quite accurate. Some crazy scientists bult a fully-functional Lego replica of the device:
mikethemadbiologist | January 29, 2011More snow. Maybe. Links, however, are certain. Science:
"Pink Meanie" Pictures: New Jellyfish Attacks Other Jellies
The Antimicrobial Index
Iran's endangered cheetahs are a unique subspecies
Are Dangly Things an Evolutionary Development to Limit Rape?
Hidden Women, Hidden Writers
Other:
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, Head of 50 State Investigation, Retreats From "Tough With Banks" Stance
Why Affordable Housing Matters
Back to Full Employment
Policies for Today's World
We Ignore 'The Economist' (funny article about Ph.D.s)
Evan Bayh walks through the revolving door (and there's also…
gregladen | January 29, 2011Climate Science in a Nutshell #9: How Bad Could it Get? from Planet Nutshell on Vimeo.
Hat Tip Class M Planet
gregladen | January 29, 2011Creationism may seem like a joke to most atheists. After all, how could the univerese and everything in it be only 6000 years old, when the light from galaxies 10 billian light years away takes (you guessed it) 10 billion years to get here?That was the question I had initially asked when I heard that there are serious people who insist that the Biblical story of creation should be taken literally in all ways. I was using Man's Reason on which to base my beliefs that the universe is old. I wasn't going to the "true source" of all knowledge to get the straight dope on Creation.
Details
gregladen | January 29, 2011These two things are only indirectly connected:
What this all means:
On Friday the 4th, Skeptically Speaking will have a pre-recorded interview with Sheril. On that same show, I'll do a pre-recored installment of "Everything...". You can go to the link and click on "ask a question", but do it before Noon EST on Tuesday. If there are too many questions, I'll address some of them in a blog post.
I believe Sheril's spot has already been recorded. But if you have a question for her just ask me and I'll answer it in falsetto. No, not really.
gregladen | January 28, 2011Fife Wikileaks Hactivists Arrested in UK
Police have arrested five people over their alleged roles in an online campaign to support WikiLeaks.
Five males - aged 15, 16, 19, 20 and 26 - were arrested under the Computer Misuse Act in raids across the country at 7am this morning, with the suspects held in local police stations for further questioning.
source
Sony determines that having autism is "cheating"
Jennifer Zdenek, the mother of an 11-year-old boy who lives with autism, is outraged at Microsoft Xbox Live for labeling her son a "cheater" and taking away everything he's earned online.…