Uncategorized
ddobbs | February 17, 2010
Tox Tunes #7 â Gin Bottle Blues
February 15, 2010, 8:43 am
The music of Sam âLightninâ Hopkins influenced many later artists, including Jimi Hendrix, Townes Van Zandt, and Stevie Ray Vaughn. He recorded prolifically â Amazon lists 191 Hopkins albums. Perhaps his most unusual disc is Freeform Patterns, on which Hopkins is backed by the rhythm section of the psychedelic rock band 13th Floor Elevators.
via thepoisonreview.com
Another nice find from my Research Blogging judge's chair. Poison and blues. Cannot go wrong.
Posted via web from David Dobbs's Somatic Marker
ddobbs | February 17, 2010
No one has ever accused Darwin about making a rush to judgement about any topic. Just as he spent years poring over the minutest detail of barnacle anatomy before he published The Origin he gave the topic of marriage careful consideration before singing on. In fact, preserved in his notebooks we have a record of the deliberations he undertook. Sometime in 1838 Darwin turned to a new page in his notes and drew a line down the middle, he added the headings "Marry" and "Not Marry" to either side of the line an proceeded to list the pros and cons of either decision. You can see the notebook…
ddobbs | February 17, 2010
I guess people like gigantic snakes.
via replicatedtypo.wordpress.com
More fun finds (that is, new to me) amid the entries I'm reviewing for the Research Blogging awards: A replicated typo looks at culture-gene studies, genetics, evolution of language, and, occasionally, really big snakes.
Posted via web from David Dobbs's Somatic Marker
sastyk | February 17, 2010Just a quick reminder that tomorrow Aaron Newton and I will begin our next Farm and Garden Design Class. The class covers everything from the very basics of design - how to get started planning for a garden or small farm, soil, sun and water issues, seed starting, choosing perennials, making the best use of space etc... to small-scale livestock keeping, making money and long term design. We've done the class a number of times, and we've had people with 100s of acres and people with tiny city lots, and people with no land at all gardening in community gardens, on public spaces or sharing…
dgmacarthur | February 16, 2010My wife and I have embarked on our first collaborative genetic experiment:
Subscribe to Genetic Future.
Follow Daniel on Twitter
gregladen | February 16, 2010An endless stream of ceiling tiles flow by punctuated by light fixtures, vents, and sprinkler heads. There is the occasional cracked tile and yes, the occasional duct tape. The morphine makes it interesting, and it occurs to me that until now I've only had this particular view of the world by seeing it on TV or in movies.
The doctor drew a funny drawing and tried to explain what was wrong using plain language. I repeated it back to him using the appropriate anatomical and medical terms and he said "oh, so you know the words, that makes it easier."
When things have worn off or I feel…
ddobbs | February 16, 2010
A salamander with no lungs, which breathes entirely through its skin:
via paracademia.blogspot.com
yet more
Posted via web from David Dobbs's Somatic Marker
ddobbs | February 16, 2010
I made my own homage to Marey and Mili. I will leave it to the reader to judge whether this constitutes any kind of poetry in motion. I fear not.
via network.nature.com
more from the big world of science blogging
Posted via web from David Dobbs's Somatic Marker
ddobbs | February 16, 2010
National Geographic has an interesting report on predator-prey issues in national parks: apparently pregnant moose in Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park tend to shift their activity closer to roads before giving birth, in order to avoid predation by grizzly bears.
via network.nature.com
More blogging goodness encountered in my Research Blogging Awards judging.
Posted via web from David Dobbs's Somatic Marker
ddobbs | February 16, 2010
I have the pleasure of judging some of the entries to the Research Blogging Awards this year. I can't tell you who the winners will be, because I don't know. But for the fun of it, I'm going to throw a few bits and pieces of some of the entries here.
I will say this: The science blogosphere is even richer than I thought. I'm delighted with the variety and surprise I'm finding out here.
via missatomicbomb.blogspot.com
It snowed today, interspersed with a beautiful, pale bone sunlight. Sometimes it was gravitous, sticky flakes, as on my walk home tonight. The wind swirled and the cold, wet…
gregladen | February 16, 2010It is with some reluctance that I recommend this. Lovecraft was important in science fiction and all, but the little I've read of his also stinks of racism, and not just the n-word southerny Mark Twain thing, but a true disdain for all that is not Mighty White. (This would be a case where rewriting would improve and not do damage, in my opinion.)
Anyway, this is a cute search engine. Just be careful how you use it. You would not want to awake .... anything.
sciencepunk | February 15, 2010Neatorama reports the discovery of a real life (albeit tiny) dragon!
While participating in a herpetology study we stumbled across this female laying eggs in a nest. She was found in the Lambusango Forest reserve and was immediately released after this photograph was taken.
Neatorama notes it could be related to Draco volans. No word yet on whether it breathes fire, hoards gold, or kidnaps fair maidens.
gregladen | February 15, 2010Trust and Critical Thinking at Science Online 2010.
There is discussion going on here, and the six videos are here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
gregladen | February 15, 2010Why? I'm not entirely sure. I guess so you can bring it on an airplane and play Super Mario Kart while traveling?
gregladen | February 15, 2010Café Scientifique: Waste = Food
Tuesday, February 16, 2010, 7 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m.
Bryant-Lake Bowl Theater, Minneapolis, MN
Tickets: $5-$12
Call 612-825-8949 for reservations
University of Minnesota College of Design alum Sarah Wolbert promotes an ingenious view of rebalancing urban food systems - one that involves design of detritivore and decomposition systems that eat waste products. This method of using waste as nourishment can actually improve the safety and security of our food supply. Wolbert will share ideas from her graduate design thesis and involve the audience in generating…
gregladen | February 15, 2010Al Franken allies with Tom Coburn to oppose Uganda's death-to-homosexuals bill
Sen. Al Franken has signed on to a Senate resolution condemning a bill before Uganda's Parliament that would outlaw homosexuality and make it a crime punishable by death. (Hat tip: Minnesota Independent.)
What makes the resolution sponsored by Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold so interesting is that it allies Franken, an unabashed liberal, with co-sponsor Tom Coburn, a dyed-in-the-wool right-wing Republican. The common ground: Saving lives.
Details here
gregladen | February 15, 2010In the wake of recent public meetings by the Texas Schoolboard, Russell Shorto has written an extensive piece for the New York Times Magazine. Shorto is the author of Descartes' Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason (Vintage).
The Christian "truth" about America's founding has long been taught in Christian schools, but not beyond. Recently, however -- perhaps out of ire at what they see as an aggressive, secular, liberal agenda in Washington and perhaps also because they sense an opening in the battle, a sudden weakness in the lines of the secularists -- some…
mspringer | February 15, 2010Pretty much every high school student can quote the formula for the area of a circle: it's A = pi r^2, where r is the radius. Most of them can do the same thing for the volume of a sphere: V = 4/3 pi r^3.
You could, if you wanted, generalize the concept and call circles "2-spheres", because they're the set of all points a given distance from the center in a 2d space. A sphere would be a "3-sphere", because it's the set of all points a given distance from the center in 3d space. A "1-sphere" would be the set of all points on a line equidistant from the center on a line. Of course there…
agelman | February 15, 2010There are a few things that the French love, but all Americans--liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats--love to hate. In particular, I'm thinking of
1. Mimes
2. Jerry Lewis
3. Postmodern philosophy
I can't do much for you about items 1 and 2, but here's some French philosophizin' for ya (based on joint work with Cosma Shalizi).
dgmacarthur | February 15, 2010A reader pointed me to this article in the Australian news: it appears that a major Australian insurance company, NIB, is planning to offer half-price genome scans from personal genomics company Navigenics to 5,000 of its customers.
The catch is in the fine print: those who take up the offer "may have to give the information to life insurance or superannuation providers", according to the article. In a letter to customers, the chief executive of the company explicitly says that this information could be used to alter the premiums people pay for their life insurance:
The chief executive of…