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cwilcox | May 4, 2010File under "Why Didn't I Think Of That?":
I guess da Vinci was right. "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
H/T Surfstation
gregladen | May 4, 2010Remember the excitement when ER was first aired? In those days, a prime time hospital show was a fresh, new, wonderful idea and we all loved it. Then, St. Elsewhere, and that was OK. Then a lot more followed, and the market became saturated and annoying.
But now, there's something new. Not more of the same at all. In fact, rather less of the same. Check it out:
Hat tip: Rob.
mspringer | May 4, 2010This semester I took a course on quantum optics. I'm an AMO guy and quantum optics is one of our department's particular strengths, so it was both a very useful class and a pleasure to take. One of the graded requirements of the class is to write a paper from a list of quantum optics with the stipulation that it couldn't be from our own research. Essentially the paper is supposed to be sort of a review article / tutorial on that topic for our own edification, graded for clarity and grasp of the topic. I wrote on which-way detectors and quantum erasers. It's a bizarre and fascinating topic…
pharyngula | May 4, 2010George Alan Rekers is a fairly well-known anti-gay activist. He's one of those scientific types who claims that being gay is curable, is best known for his claim that adopted children of gay couples are more prone to suicide, and is also one of the founders of the Patriarchy Research Council, with James Dobson. Oh, and of course he's a Christian minister.
He just got back from a ten-day European tour — crusaders for heterosexuality deserve a break now and then, too — when it was discovered that he had hired a "rent boy" for the trip. He had picked the young fellow out from a web site that…
cortex | May 4, 2010Over at Slate, Daniel Engber has a fascinating (and thorough) investigation of why we root for the underdog. There are numerous factors at work, from the availability heuristic to our deep desire for equality. But I was most intrigued by this research, which tries to explain why we associate underdogs with virtuous characteristics, like effort and teamwork:
In one study, they [Nadav Goldschmied and Joseph Vandello] found that two-thirds of all voters in the 2004 presidential election described their preferred candidate as the "underdog." A follow-up four years later revealed that presidential…
gregladen | May 4, 2010Convergence is an annual science fiction and fantasy convention that is held over July 4th weekend in Minneapolis. The Skepchicks organize a "track" at Convergence called SkepchiCON, which is a series of discussions about skepticism and stuff. At the risk of getting into all sorts of trouble, I'm going to be on some of the panels in this track, and I'm planning to attend a few events that I'm not empaneled for. And, just so I'll know where to find it later when I need it, I thought I'd blog my tentative schedule.
(Please note: The price to register for the CON goes way up on May 15th, so if…
grrlscientist | May 3, 2010
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
This week's edition of Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People); "Scientia Pro Publica 28" has been published by Kelsey at her blog, Mauka to Makai.
After you've read this carnival, perhaps you also wish to submit your blog essays to the next issue of Scientia? If so, you're in luck because we are trying an experiment: we are trying to publish this blog carnival on a weekly basis this spring, so we need enough submissions make this a "go." So I ask you to…
gregladen | May 3, 2010Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and other TV shows like it helped young Americans learn what and who to be be afraid of, and most importantly, what our enemies looked like....
Read on
gregladen | May 3, 2010Are now available:
1
Wired Science - Wired Blog
2
Watts Up With That?
3
Climate Progress
4
RealClimate
5
Bad Astronomy
6
Next Generation Science
7
Climate Audit
8
Respectful Insolence
9
Pharyngula
10
The Frontal Cortex
11
Dispatches from the Culture Wars
12
Deltoid
13
Science-Based Medicine
14
Cosmic Variance
15
Uncertain Principles
16
Not Exactly Rocket Science
17
FuturePundit
18
Gene Expression
19
BPS Research Digest
20
Neurophilosophy
Ranking made by Wikio
Please add any comments you have on this list below, in the comment section.
cortex | May 3, 2010Gary Wolf has a fascinating and really well written article in the Times Magazine on the rise of the "quantified self," or all those people who rely on microsensors to measure discrete aspects of their lives, from walking speed to emotional mood:
Millions of us track ourselves all the time. We step on a scale and record our weight. We balance a checkbook. We count calories. But when the familiar pen-and-paper methods of self-analysis are enhanced by sensors that monitor our behavior automatically, the process of self-tracking becomes both more alluring and more meaningful. Automated sensors…
cwilcox | May 2, 2010Ahoy mates, and welcome aboard the 36th edition of the Carnival of the Blue!
The Oceans as a whole:
As many of you might know, CITES had its once-every-three-years meeting during which it decides which organisms are to be regulated and how. As Rick MacPherson explains, the overall message was simple: FU, Ocean. He takes a closer look at the CITES listing process and digs a little deeper into the "secret ballots."
Maybe CITES will take note if the world made it clear that oceans matter. There's no better time than now to take Oceana's Ocean Pledge. If you do, $1 will be donated to Oceana to…
tlambert | May 2, 2010Over at the Drum Stephan Lewandowsky notes the similarities between global warming skeptics and other conspiracy theorists:
This attribute of conspiracy theorising also applies in full force to the actions of some climate "sceptics":
When leading climate scientists are repeatedly exonerated after the "climategate" pseudo-scandal, then to climate "sceptics" this simply means that the relevant enquiries were pre-programmed to find nothing wrong. Thus, the U.K. Parliament conspired to produce a whitewash of Professor Jones a few weeks ago, as did Lord Oxburgh when his panel, constituted with the…
pharyngula | May 2, 2010Why are science and religion in conflict? Because changing ideas and new knowledge are sacrilegious.
This display from Ken Ham's Creation "Museum" says it all: the ultimate source of knowledge is "God's Word", the Bible. They have an old book with the whole story laid out, literally, as the creationists like to claim, and by their definition, all observations of the natural world must be accommodated to it. In contrast stands human reason, which dares to contradict the Bible, dares to show great truths not encompassed by the Bible stories, and most horribly, proposes an alternate, better…
sciencepunk | May 2, 2010
On January 15, 1961, the US coastguard raced through the darkness toward a tiny point 84 miles southeast of New York City. There, 28 crew members of Texas Tower 4 were waiting desperately to be evacuated from their station. As huge swells and high winds pounded the hull of the ship, their radios picked up a frantic transmission from the tower: "We're breaking up". And with that, Texas Tower 4 and all of its occupants were pulled beneath the waves.
Built in 1957, the five Texas Towers were intended to become part of the USA's advanced early warning system against Soviet bombers. Named for…
jgoldman | May 2, 2010I've got some pretty talented sciblings. Sure, they're all talented scientists or writers, or both. But, did you know there are some additional talents around here?
One of my lovely sciblings used to be a circus performer. In a traveling circus. He or she can juggle - but not just balls - try knives or flaming torches. And not just while feet are planted firmly on the ground - try while riding a unicycle. This individual also holds several world records for JOGGLING - juggling while running.
Think you know who it is? Jump under the fold to see the video!
That's right: Travis Saunders…
gregladen | May 2, 2010Our president is very, very funny. (Skip the Leno part ... he uses sight gags that the producer of the video chose to not let us see. And, he isn't half as funny as Barack.)
grrlscientist | May 2, 2010
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
The next edition of Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) will publish TOMORROW and as usual, it is seeking submissions and hosts! Can you help by sending URLs for your own or others' well-written science, medicine, and nature blog essays to me or by volunteering to host this carnival on your blog?
Scientia Pro Publica is a traveling blog carnival that celebrates the best science, environment, nature and medical writing that has been published in the…
gregladen | May 2, 2010"So, we can all think that only crazy and stupid people will vote for Michele Bachmann this year. If that's the case, then there are a lot of them in her district. Or we can support the Democratic organizations in the 6th District and the candidate who is running against her in the general election."
CLICK HERE
cwilcox | May 2, 2010Jerry Coyne, the author of Why Evolution is True, recently held a contest. The rules were simple:
Please recommend one nonfiction book that you think everyone should read, and explain in no more than three sentences why we should read it. The book need not be about science, though those entries are welcome too. The only books excluded from this contest are mine and Darwin's Origin, which has been done to death.
Well, the winner has been announced, and the book everyone should read is...
Last Chance to See By Douglas Adams.
I'm not surprised - I've been telling you all this for years. No…
pharyngula | May 1, 2010Any exobiologists out there might be interested to know that, according to certain wacky sources, the military has captured an alien. There are Septeloids:
"The male non-human originated from the star system Delta Pavonis, 20 light-years from Earth where it was the 4th planet from their sun. It is roughly the same size as our Earth."
"We called the captured alien Septeloids. That was the identifying alien species name given to them by the astrobiologists on our team. I have no idea how they picked that name as well as some of the other odd-sounding alien species names ending with the suffix…