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cortex | March 2, 2010I've received a few emails along this line:
"How does this new theory about depression enhancing problem-solving relate to all the studies that have shown cognitive deficits in people with depression?"
That's a really good question. I tried to address this issue quickly in the article - I referenced the fact that the "cognitive deficits disappear when test subjects are first distracted from their depression and thus better able to focus on the exercise" - but I think it's worth spending a little more time on the scientific literature. The key point here is that the deficits are "unstable,"…
grrlscientist | March 2, 2010tags: twitter, blog carnivals, science writing, nature writing, environment writing, medical writing, publicity
The Carnival Concoction.
Acrylic and Pastel on Pastelbord.
Albert Almondia (2008).
While discussing a twitter account for publicizing Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) blog carnival, my spousal unit proposed a really interesting idea: setting up a general science blog carnival twitter feed that sends out links for a variety of science, environment, nature and medicine-based blog carnivals. So we've done this: the twitter feed is known as SciNatBlogs and it has its…
gregladen | March 1, 2010Please join our discussion of this issue on Collective Imagination.
Oh, and if you comment over there, you are automatically entered into a contest to win a great prize!
gregladen | March 1, 2010A Twitter discussion this weekend between Ed Yong, Christie, and Sci Curious pointed out that Wikipedia's list of science blogs is seriously lacking. If I've learned anything in my year in the blog-o-sphere, it's that there are a lot of excellent blogs and bloggers out there. From reading the Wikipedia entry, you would think that there are only eleven.
Please go to Why Sharks Matter and add your comments!!!!!
gregladen | March 1, 2010Click here to learn the signs and symptoms, and to find a cure for this ruinzaneous dizeez.
cortex | March 1, 2010First of all, thank you to everyone who took the time to write and comment on my recent article on depression. I really appreciated all the insightful emails and I'm trying to respond to every one. In the meantime, I wanted to address some important criticisms of the analytic-rumination hypothesis and of my article, which were raised by an academic psychiatrist. I've reproduced his criticisms, and my replies, below:
First, you write "depression is everywhere, as inescapable as the common cold". No, this is flatly wrong. Major depression is estimated by an absurdly broad range of…
grrlscientist | March 1, 2010
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) blog carnival was just published! The 22nd edition of Scientia Pro Publica is hosted by Stephen at Reciprocal Space. Stephen writes about this edition;
Like a barnacle's penis, this edition of Scientia Pro Publica is long and strange and packed with seeds--for thought. There was a veritable plethora of submissions, ranging from flit-stops that sought only to highlight single point of interest to deeply rewarding essays…
sastyk | March 1, 2010
Note: Most of the Independence Days material will run at ye olde blogge , but I wanted to post the year three start up over here too, since my readership isn't entirely overlapping. If you want to post status updates, the weekly thread for that will be at my other blog, but you can sign up here too! I hope you'll join us!
Many of us need nothing in the world so much as more time. Adding new projects is exhausting - and stressful. And yet, we know that there are things we want to change - for example, most of us would like to grow a garden with our kids, or make sure that we know where…
cortex | February 28, 2010I'm a terrible sleeper, which is perhaps why I got invited to contribute to a NY Times group blog on "insomnia, sleep and the nocturnal life". Here is my first contribution, which focuses on the work of Dan Wegner:
My insomnia always begins with me falling asleep. I've been reading the same paragraph for the last five minutes -- the text is suddenly impossibly dense -- and I can feel the book getting heavier and heavier in my hands. Gravity is tugging on my eyelids.
And then, just as my mind turns itself off, I twitch awake. I'm filled with disappointment. I was so close to a night of sweet…
gregladen | February 28, 2010Somebody is RIGHT on the Internet!!!!11!!
...I would like to start by apologising for our handling of this situation. We have not communicated well with our forum volunteers and users (for example in my insensitive 'Outrage' post, which was written in the heat of the moment). In the process we have caused unintended hurt and offence, and I am very sorry about that. In a classic case of a vicious circle, some of the responses to our announcement also caused considerable hurt and distress to us, and in the atmosphere of heightened emotion that followed, some of our subsequent actions went too…
grrlscientist | February 28, 2010
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is almost here once more and it is still seeking submissions for tomorrow's edition of this blog carnival! Can you help by sending URLs for well-written blog essays to the host?
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is a traveling blog carnival that celebrates the best science, environment and medical writing targeted specifically to the public that has been published in the blogosphere within the past 60 days…
cwilcox | February 27, 2010I awoke this morning at 5:50 am because of a nightmare, only to hop online and find out another one had occurred in Chile. An 8.8 magnitude earthquake had struck. Ten minutes later, the first tsunami warning siren sounded.
It was deafening.
I remember when I was a little kid growing up in Hawaii Kai, there was a tsunami warning. In the end the water only raised by a few inches. In the past few months since I'd started my PhD, there have been a couple other tsunami watches, none of which resulted in anything of interest. But there's something about a haunting siren at 6 am that makes you…
sb admin | February 27, 2010It's tough to tread that line between contempt and admiration: Jerry Coyne writes about the Templeton journalism awards. It really is a smart move on the part of the Templetonites to coopt journalists to sell their bankrupt line by tossing a good-sized chunk of money at them.
One interesting revelation is that the journalism awards aren't simply handed out by cunning Templetonistas who spot a promising compromiser in the ranks of reporters — you have to apply for the fellowship. Hey, should I? They're closed for now, but I imagine there will be a bunch of 2011 fellowships awarded, and I…
grrlscientist | February 27, 2010
Image: wemidji (Jacques Marcoux).
Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est (And thus knowledge itself is power)
-- Sir Francis Bacon.
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is almost here once more and it is still seeking submissions for Monday's edition of this blog carnival! Can you help by sending URLs for well-written blog essays to the host?
Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is a traveling blog carnival that celebrates the best science, environment and medical writing targeted specifically to the public that has been published in the blogosphere within the past 60 days…
gregladen | February 27, 2010I admit up front that I'm going all paternalistic on the Dawkins Forum people, and Imma gonna let you finish your imminent self destruction and all, but first I wanted to use this moment in time as an object lesson in communication.
A letter was recently posted somewhere by the RDF forum staff to Richard, and most of this letter was reposted in a comment on this thread by Peter.
When I read it, I laughed and cried and hacked up my coffee all over the keyboard, which is a problem because we are almost totally out of espresso here and that coffee was needed. So, I sent my family on a…
gregladen | February 26, 2010One of the reasons I blog is to put out stuff to see how others react to it. This is to ultimately modify and improve .... the stuff. I was rather amused a while back when we were discussing racist science, and I was accused of intentionally putting stuff out there to see what reactions it would get, with the long term idea of modifying and improving my stuff.
Apparently, this is called "Trolling one's own blog."
Well, I'm in good company.
It turns out that René Descartes trolled his own community of letters, which is what they did back in the 17th century instead of blogging. One of his…
gregladen | February 26, 2010According to The Internet, the Canadian females, many under drinking age by several days, partied on the ice after beating the American Team in Vancouver yesterday. They had champaign, beers, smoked cigars, and they got silly, attempting at one point to drive the Zamboni machine around on the ice!!!!
Outrage!!!!