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sb admin | September 3, 2009A lot of the media coverage of the healthcare debate lately has focused on the politics, probably because journalists feel like they've already spent several months explaining the various aspects of proposed reform. But there are a few things that bear repeating, because not everyone seems to remember them.
The Washington Post's Ezra Klein has one key reminder: In the US, we already ration healthcare:
We ration. We ration without discussion, remorse or concern. We ration health care the way we ration other goods: We make it too expensive for everyone to afford.
I've used these numbers before…
grrlscientist | September 2, 2009
Image: Sneer Review.
The current Antarctic Trip Vote count is as follows; 5715 - 1830 - 1628 - 1208 - 1117 out of 546 candidates registered. I am in third place and sloooowly creeping up on second place. With less than 4 weeks remaining, things are heating up and voting is changing rapidly as previous voters reassign their votes and new voters cast theirs for the first time. Many tens of thousands of votes have already been cast in this competition, so if the people who have cast their votes already decide to change them, they can significantly affect the outcome of this competition. The…
rallain | September 2, 2009Students are starting to get the flu around here - and that means that it is time to debate. Clearly there are going to be some absences in the coming month. The question is: what to do about it? There are two camps of thought here:
Camp 1: Excuses are bad
This camp of faculty is worried. They are worried that the administration is going to issue a statement something like this:
"These are difficult times. Every is somehow affected by the flu. To encourage...blah..blah...blah... please allow students to make up any missed work without any doctor's note."
So the faculty in camp 1 say "…
gregladen | September 2, 2009What is this strange blog that seems to like me, happy about my voice and putting me on my very own blog roll and stuff?????
Don't forget to check out the "about" page.
grrlscientist | September 2, 2009Everyone loves free books, right? Well, I know I do, and since I've got a huge stack of books in my apartment that are seeking a loving home, I want to share them with you. These books are duplicates of review copies, advance reading copies and uncorrected proofs as well as some books that I purchased or somehow obtained. All books are in excellent (like new) shape, unless otherwise noted. I am offering them to you several times per week for the next few months, free of charge, although I will ask you to pay the cost of the shipping envelope and postage for mailing each book to you. Below the…
gregladen | September 2, 2009A new study using both genetic and cultural data shows that ethnic groups in Central Asia are primarily a sociocultural phenomenon.
From the Abstract:
...we used genetic data that ... in addition to data from the literature, to understand better the origins of Central Asian groups at a fine-grained scale, and to assess how ethnicity influences the shaping of genetic differences in the human species. We assess the levels of genetic differentiation between ethnic groups on one hand and between populations of the same ethnic group on the other hand ...
Our results show that there are more…
gregladen | September 2, 2009I just received a very cool graphic from my friend and former student who is currently living under the ice at the South Pole. She is very excited about the implications of this graphic.
To read this, imagine yourself on a certain date (x axis). Now, follow a line down from top to bottom and see when the sun is up vs. down. This shows the change in "day length" across the year.
But if you are on the south pole, it is essentially binary. Sunup, or sundown.
Now, go find today's date on the graph for the south pole and see why my friend is getting exited!
jwilbanks | September 2, 2009This post was prompted by the combination of three events: a visit with the founder of PubGet, an invitation to keynote at a conference on publishing, and an interview with Bora about the Science Online 2009 conference last January in RTP.
The past year has seen an explosion of talk about the future of the scientific article. It's wonderful to see, even if the results are either depressingly complicated to achieve or depressingly incremental innovation. Both of those results are better than when I got into this - I remember at a conference in Sweden in 2006 hearing a grand high priest of the…
cwilcox | September 2, 2009As every year we humans pump out more and more carbon dioxide, our climate is changing. While select few in their fields disagree that any alterations are human-induced, the majority of the scientific community accepts the data which shows global warming and other changes - ocean acidification, for example - are occurring, and it's our fault. Even still, we hotly debate exactly what needs to be done, and meanwhile, the ecosystems are shifting.
While we argue who should cut what emissions or who's to blame, species are going extinct, and others are moving. Exactly how much is changing is…
mspringer | September 2, 2009Anybody still read newspaper comics these days? I do, but sadly for the newspaper business I read them online. Worse, usually in the context of people making fun of them. On the other hand, there are a few gems out there. Is Spider-Man one of those gems? Uh...
Well, Shakespeare it ain't. But is Spider-Man justified in his optimism about being able to catch Mary Jane? If Doc Ock just drops her instead of throwing her (as he seems to suggest), she'll start with zero velocity and immediately begin to accelerate at 9.8 meters per second squared vertically downward. As soon as Spider-Man…
gregladen | September 1, 2009Have a look at this:
This year Kolibri Expeditions started working with the communities of the Amarakaeri Communal Reserve lying just next door to Manu. Going down the Alto Madre de Dios river Manu is to the left and Amarakaeri reserve to the right.
The birding has been just fantastic with birds like Black-faced Cotinga, Rufous-headed Woodpecker and Peruvian Recurvebill as regulars. They have four quite good lodges along the regular Manu route donated by the world bank and USAID and in spite of mostly having shared bath, they are very well built and have all the potential in world to become…
grrlscientist | September 1, 2009
Image: Sneer Review.
The current Antarctic Trip Vote count is as follows; 5644 - 1825 - 1606 - 1208 - 1117 out of 539 candidates registered. I am in third place and sloooowly creeping up on second place. With less than 4 weeks remaining, things are heating up and voting is changing rapidly as previous voters reassign their votes and new voters cast theirs for the first time. Many tens of thousands of votes have already been cast in this competition, so if the people who have cast their votes already decide to change them, they can significantly affect the outcome of this competition. The…
gregladen | September 1, 2009You know, I think we've done a lot of good stuff at Quiche Moraine, but this post by Mike Huabrich is a step beyond and above what we've managed so far. Mike visited the recent town hall meeting held by Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and provides us with reporting and commentary. Have a look.
grrlscientist | September 1, 2009Everyone loves free books, right? Well, I know I do, and since I've got a huge stack of books in my apartment that are seeking a loving home, I want to share them with you. These books are duplicates of review copies, advance reading copies and uncorrected proofs as well as some books that I purchased or somehow obtained. All books are in excellent (like new) shape, unless otherwise noted. I am offering them to you several times per week for the next few months, free of charge, although I will ask you to pay the cost of the shipping envelope and postage for mailing each book to you. Below the…
jwilbanks | September 1, 2009Seriously. Just getting around to technorati claiming. Move along, nothing to see here. Watch for a lengthy post on scientific publishing later tonight or tomorrow.
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gregladen | September 1, 2009This one of what women find attractive in men.
"We have found that women evaluate facial attractiveness on two levels -- a sexual level, based on specific facial features like the jawbone, cheekbone and lips, and a nonsexual level based on overall aesthetics," said Robert G. Franklin, graduate student in psychology working with Reginald Adams, assistant professor of psychology and neurology, Penn State. "At the most basic sexual level, attractiveness represents a quality that should increase reproductive potential, like fertility or health."
On the nonsexual side, attractiveness can be…
gregladen | September 1, 2009All my thoughts are fault related is looking for some new geological metaphors. Please go help here out.
My contributions are below the fold.
Half-Life. verb. Never quite getting to the point because with each thing you say you are only half way there.
"He tried to tell me about his date last night but all he did was half-life me."?
Flood Plain. adjective. So uninteresting that it leaves one dripping with excitement, NOT.
"Her new outfit was, like, totally flood-plain. Like, really."
Gneiss. adjective. Muscular and buff. Hard bodied.
"After that work out, I'm feeling really…
ejohnson | September 1, 2009The first question we posted to our Revolutionary Minds turned up a bevy of thoughtful—and varied—responses. Nick Matzke's proposal to ban nuclear weapons and Moshe Pritzker's call to lengthen human life elicited the most feedback, but when we asked you to vote for your favorite answer, you also liked Fernando Esposa's idea of examining social dynamics and the loss of the family, and Margaret Turnbull's plan to localize our sources of energy.
For the next two months of this blog's run, we're adding another element: Greg J. Smith, a designer with an active interest in the crossovers between…