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pharyngula | June 26, 2010The beard-or-not donations seem to be fading…we're at 86% of the goal. Clearly you need inspiration, and here it is: the fabulous Captain Nemo.
Notice also yet another reason for the beard: it expresses our yearnings for the glorious appendages of the cephalopod. We can't have tentacles, but at least we can recognized the beauty of dangly bits hanging off of our heads.
By the way, I have to address a base canard that I have been hearing from many poorly informed women: that the beard is scratchy and unpleasant. Not true! This is a confusion spread by those men who shave, and who reduce their…
gregladen | June 26, 2010If you've not seen this graph, or read this blog post, you should:
From here.
gregladen | June 26, 2010I've reposted this once already, but it is so important and cool .... we're going to do it again. (And by "it" I mean the research, not this post!)
The perfect bird family tree ...
... is certainly still in the future. But we have seen a step in that direction in a new paper, coming out this week in Science. This research applies intensive and extensive genomic analysis to the avian phylogenetic tree. The results are interesting.
This paper is summarized in a number of locations, most notably here on Living the Scientific Life. Here, I will summarize it only very briefly. However,…
gregladen | June 25, 2010Michael Jackson died one year ago. The following is a repost of something I wrote at that time:
~~~~~~
I have only one Michael Jackson story.
Michael Jackson was an international pop icon for a very long time, because he started his career so early. He was also African American. Bob Marley predated Jackson, and was Afro-Caribbean. For these and various other reasons, the face of Bob Marley and the face of Michael Jackson adorned the walls and backbars of clubs and taverns throughout Zaire in the 1980s. Moreover, these were the ONLY faces one saw in these contexts.
Now, you have to…
gregladen | June 25, 2010... Where you pay a little every month and get something for it, or even don't pay but become a "member" and get something for that?
At the moment there are no plans for such a thing, but there is a survey for you to offer your opinion. Click here to take the survey.
gregladen | June 25, 2010The next installment of my new falsehoods series, on Skeptically Speaking radio with Desiree Schell, is tonight at 6PM Mountain Standard Time. You can listen on line or wait until emacsDay, I mean Sunday, and download it.
The main guests (my bit is a little add in pre-recorded thing) are George Dvorsky and Greg Fish. Details, and a place to leave comments are here.
I will post this installment's sister blog post some time before the show. The falsehood in question is: "Humans Evolved from Apes" ... A statement that is indubitably true yet clearly wrong.
gregladen | June 25, 2010First, I want to point out this post which describes an interesting example of Michele Bachmann Republicans making stuff up to harm a Democratic contender for a congressional seat.
Then, I want to show you a video from Jim Meffert's campaign which relates to the above linked post AND points out what a crappy representative I have here in Minnesota's 3rd district, where I live. Help!
nisbetmc | June 25, 2010You have to like the U.S. chances in advancing to the semi-finals of the World Cup. That's right, the semi-finals. If the U.S. beats Ghana on Saturday--and they should be a favorite--they play the winner of Uruguay and S. Korea in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, readers will find interesting this video from Reuters featuring CalTech scientists testing the controversial "Jabuluani" ball used at the World Cup.
What do you think? Like the U.S. chances to make the semis? Has the ball had an impact on the games?
gregladen | June 25, 2010Both this year and last year (is this the beginning of a tradition?) Stephanie Zvan gave me a short story for my birthday. Last year, the story impressed me because it was a good story even without the unexpected, mildly disturbing twist. This time, the twist is not mildly disturbing at all.
It is deeply disturbing. Here is the story.
Stephanie will be reading from her work at the Convergence Convention coming up in a few days. Personally, I think this is a candidate for a reading like this, though it would be appropriate to have two readers acting it out. It could be seen as all…
gregladen | June 25, 2010 Although the paper addresses Tanzanian lions, this is a photograph of a Namibian lion Starting some years ago, we began to hear about revisions of the standard models of lion behavioral biology coming out of Craig Packer's research in the Serengeti. One of the most startling findings, first shown (if memory serves) as part of a dynamic optimization model and subsequently backed up with a lot of additional information, is the idea that lions do not benefit by living in a group with respect to hunting. They live in groups despite the fact that this sociality decreases hunting…
gregladen | June 25, 2010I am all in favor of the White House and the military being at odds over policy and politics. I have this notion that the elected civilians need to remind the officers that in our country, at least, the elected civilians are in charge. It's that respect for the concept of democracy deep within my little cowboy heart that gets alarmed whenever I sense that the President and the Joint Chiefs of Staff are too much on the same page.
Continue reading this post by Mike at QM
pharyngula | June 25, 2010The Great Beard debate is still going strong, and this ought to clinch it for the beard side: how can you deny the puissance of a majestic beard when you look on Darwin's nobly hirsute face?
Case closed! Boo-yah!
Now I am a fair-minded and magnanimous person, so I thought I would give the naked-cheeked ones a chance to rebut. I was sent this video:
Hmmm, fascinating…so beardless men compare their lack to sexual inadequacy, and find it amusing? It is not surprising that they're being crushed in the vote.
gregladen | June 24, 2010Along with a few other .... select bloggers. Check out the latest editor's choice at Research Blogging
gregladen | June 24, 2010And in this case by "feminism" I mean specifically active engagement in STEM-recruiting.
The answer is ... going to be at the far end of what I predict will be an interesting and productive discussion starting out at Urban Science Adventures: An Open Letter to...Nerd Girls
gregladen | June 24, 2010Oh, no, I read it wrong. It's "hope." And not THAT Pandora. But it is my birthday!
cortex | June 24, 2010I was a stuttering child. Whenever I got the slightest bit nervous, I had an annoying tendency to run out of air on vowel sounds, so that beginning a phrase with "A" or "eee" or "I" was all but impossible. I would choke and sputter, my eyes blinking in mad frustration. This minor affliction led me to become extremely self-aware of my speech. Before I said anything out loud, I would consider the breathy weight of the words, and mentally rehearse all those linguistic speed bumps and stop signs. If the phonetics seemed too dangerous, the sentence would be rewritten in my head, edited down to the…
gregladen | June 24, 2010... or, this:
Watch Saving Africa's Witch Children in Activism & Non-Profit | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
Hat tip: Traumatized by Truth
gregladen | June 24, 2010Interesting piece:
...Certain topics never fail to generate a flood of impassioned reactions online: immigration, President Obama, federal taxes, "birthers," and race. This story about Obama's Kenyan aunt, who had been exposed as an illegal immigrant living in public housing in Boston and who was now seeking asylum, manages to pull strands from all five of those contentious subjects....
Here at the Boston Globe.
HT Virgil Samms