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agelman | December 11, 2009From the co-author of the celebrated Scholarpedia article on Bayesian statistics...
gregladen | December 11, 2009Orac has been blogging for five years. That's a long time, and it is impossible to look at that five years and say that his blog has not made an important difference.
What? Huh? It's "insolence"? Not "innocence"? Oh right.... all this time I was thinking it was Innocence! ... suddenly, it all makes sense!
illconsidered | December 11, 2009I have had these tabs open in Firefox for quite a while now hoping to have the time to comment on them in a bit of detail but time is not on my side (sorry Mic).
So I would just like to list them briefly and recommend them for your review.
From Balloon Juice:
Especially early in this story's life cycle, when you could hardly expect an average reporter to make much sense of the science, a sheaf of personality stories (e.g.) complained about the defensive attitude among climate researchers. Again, you have to wonder what people expect. Taken collectively the "science" of warming denial has…
pharyngula | December 11, 2009A while back, I asked you all to vote in the L'Oréal Women of Worth contest, which gives awards to notable women who have provided good service to their communities. I was a bit self-interested, because one of the nominees was an alumnus of my university: Shannon Lambert runs support services for victims of rape at Pandora's Project.
This is an update: she won!
agelman | December 10, 2009Stephen Dubner quotes Gary Becker as saying:
According to the economic approach, therefore, most (if not all!) deaths are to some extent "suicides" in the sense that they could have been postponed if more resources had been invested in prolonging life.
Dubner describes this as making "perfect sense" and as being "so unusual and so valuable." One might wonder why something that makes so much sense and is so beautifully written etc. is "so unusual."
To me it seems less like economics and more like a way of getting oneself off the hook, morally speaking. If, when other people get sick and die…
gregladen | December 10, 2009Every now and then Rachel goes OTT with her ... disco ball. This is one of those times:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
cortex | December 10, 2009The latest McSweeney's production is a marvel. It's in the form of a daily newspaper - The San Francisco Panorama - and is yet another reminder that the newspaper remains an essential literary form, a potent mixture of breaking news and obscure stories. (If your local indie bookstore stocks the Panorama, be sure to buy a copy.) I was fortunate enough to write for the Panorama Magazine on the cognitive benefits of travel, which I've pasted in below.
It's 4:15 in the morning, and my alarm clock has just stolen away a lovely dream. My eyes are open but my pupils are still closed, so all I see…
gregladen | December 10, 2009... with a survey.
This is a survey of The Media and your spending habits, which is being done as informal research pursuant to the writing of what will prove to be a very interesting book on a very interesting topic. Please take the survey and then pass on the link to EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!!11!!
Thanks.
Survey is HERE.
grrlscientist | December 9, 2009I made a mistake. Madhu, the author of Reconciliation Ecology, will be your host for the 21 December 2009 edition of Scientia. Once again, to send your science, nature or medical writing to Scientia Pro Publica, email the link directly to its email address; ScientiaBlogCarnival@gmail.com. Be sure to include (1) the URL or "permalink", (2) the essay title and, to make life easier for the host, (3) please include a 2-3 sentence summary.
For the first issue of 2010, published on 4 January, I will be assisting host Bob O'Hara, author of currently hibernating blog, Deep Thoughts and Silliness.…
mspringer | December 9, 2009You probably haven't been able to avoid seeing the televised bombs AT&T and Verizon have been throwing at each other over the maps of their coverage. Both sets of commercials (to differing degrees) fail to make it especially clear just what their maps mean to the consumer. For instance: Verizon's commercial brags of overwhelming coverage while showing AT&T's comparatively sad little sparse map. AT&T fires back with a different map and a claim that they cover 97% of the US population. Both sets of claims are correct - if you pay close attention. Verizon's map indicates 3G…
gregladen | December 9, 2009This decade is on track to become the warmest since records began in 1850, and 2009 could rank among the top-five warmest years, the U.N. weather agency reported Tuesday on the second day of a pivotal 192-nation climate conference.
For central Africa and southern Asia this will probably be the warmest year, but overall 2009 will "be about the fifth-warmest year on record," said Michel Jarraud, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization.
Only the United States and Canada experienced cooler conditions than average, it said..
Read the rest here.
gregladen | December 9, 2009Google Chrome BETA is now available for Linux. Click here. I get the distinct impression that Google is no taking Linux seriously.
Most interesting Christmas card for under $200.00. ... made out of an iPhone.
Science cookies. (Hat tip PZ)
gregladen | December 9, 2009Traumatized By Truth discussed Kids and Drugs: Time for that chat with the kids about drugs...
Comrade PhysioProf notes the non-skeptical nature of some of the reactions among Skeptics to apparent sex bias in the volume edited by Skeptidemigod Dawkins. I had noticed that as well, and the irony is interesting. See: Defending Dawkins
A poem about atheism from Digitial Cuttlefish.
For today's comic interlude: Kent Hovind's Doctoral Dissertation
And finally, some very cool science: Small bird engineers uneasy alliance between hawk and treeshrew
gregladen | December 9, 2009
This is being covered here, at Dynamics of Cats.
I think it might be the Bat Signal.
Here's a cool video of the event:
jjacquet | December 9, 2009While in the first world, we're working to conserve water with tools like the water drop, the developing world is still figuring out how to access clean water to begin with. SEED magazine has a new piece out about a pair of scientists working on the "water refill" industry, which utilizes low-cost technology to purify water on site in locally run businesses. Like micro credit, maybe micro tech can lead to big changes -- if it can outpace water pollution and shortages. Is there a system in place to measure, for instance, the rate of waterborn illnesses? Time will hopefully tell.
gregladen | December 9, 2009Primate Diaries has an excellent writeup on the very important news that came out overnight regarding the "Danish Text" draft climate agreement, leaked to the UK's Guardian. This climate agreement, if implemented, would significantly change the way climate management happens on this planet over the next several years, putting the bulk of the power in the hands of the World Bank and abrogating Kyoto. Check out this description and analysis of the problem.
awild | December 9, 2009Heterospilus sp., undescribed species, Costa Rica
click to view the original image
I've been playing around a bit more with the freeware program CombineZP, and I thought I'd share this image of one of the wasps I'm working on in my current position. The image is a composite from 14 photos taken through a microscope at different focal depths.
The parasitic wasp genus Heterospilus is common and hyperdiverse in the new world tropics. It is also almost entirely unstudied. Our project is restricted to the taxonomy of the Costa Rican fauna, and we have about 500 new species just from that…
gregladen | December 9, 2009Carnival of the Elitist Bastards is at Almost Diamonds. It is a particularly literary version of the beast.
gregladen | December 9, 2009The other day I was speaking with my future brother in law about the fact that most people remember that there was more snow in the past than there is now. This is totally true for me because I moved from a part of the country with a lot of snow (NY and New England) to a part of the country with less snow (Minnesota). But for people who live in the same place they grew up how can this be possible? Is it really true?
Well, no it is not true. Your brain is fooling you on this one. Don't believe me? Read about it here.