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clock | June 4, 2009Here are some titles, from all seven PLoS journals, that caught my attention this week. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Mendeley, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Defining Global Neuroendocrine Gene Expression Patterns Associated with Reproductive Seasonality in Fish:
Many vertebrates, including the goldfish, exhibit seasonal…
gregladen | June 4, 2009.....I am really a humorist at heart, and I like feminism and humor together, but some things just aren't funny. Like misogyny. Like murdering doctors and trying to deprive women of their right to health care. Racism, sexism, discrimination, and idiocy in the name of religion are not funny to me either. Although I may at times have something funny to say about them....
Here!
gregladen | June 4, 2009This is for all you nascent researchers about to head off to remote places to engage in your very first fieldwork and for all you eco-tourists or educational travelers about to embark on a trip through strange lands afar....
Here at Quiche Moraine
gregladen | June 4, 2009PZ's Minions are almost there. Go here to get the specs, then click through. The target site is under a lot of stress, so be gentle.
pharyngula | June 4, 2009What a strange experience…I'm actually leaving Morris, Minnesota for a weekend and I'm bringing the Trophy Wife with me. She's usually left behind (no doubt sighing with relief), but this time she's coming along with me to Tempe, Arizona. It's probably only because our daughter is there this summer, but I'll take it.
Anyway, behave yourselves while I'm away. I should be able to check in and clean up after the trolls, but my net access may be a bit infrequent for a while.
Oh, and I'll see some of you at Rúla Búla tonight!
gregladen | June 4, 2009Kill Bill and Kung Fu star David Carradine has been found dead in a Bangkok hotel room on Thursday.
Thai police told the BBC the 72-year-old was found by a hotel maid sitting in a wardrobe with a cord around his neck and other parts of his body.
There is no official determination, but the word is that he committed suicide.
Details as BBC
pharyngula | June 4, 2009When it's got a squid in a top hat on it. I could wear this one to the ritziest of places.
gregladen | June 4, 2009 In this short talk from TED U, Joachim de Posada shares a landmark experiment on delayed gratification -- and how it can predict future success. With priceless video of kids trying their hardest not to eat the marshmallow.
Joachim de Posada's infectious energy and humor have turned him into a popular motivational coach. Working in Spanish and English, he helps companies and teams find deep and lasting reasons to succeed. His books include How to Survive Among the Piranhas and his latest, No te comas el marshmallow ... todavia, or Don't Eat the Marshmallow ... Yet. (He's recently updated the…
mspringer | June 4, 2009Reader Abby Normal(!) writes in with an excellent question:
Something in your post about Physics in Star Trek, May 18, 2009, has been bouncing around my brain. You stated that a black hole has the same mass, and therefore gravitational pull, as it's parent body. That makes perfect sense. But as I understand it a typical black hole is formed by a collapsing star. (Ignoring supermassive black holes, which I know form differently.) So why then does a star emit light prior to it's collapse but afterward, assuming it becomes a black hole, can light no longer escape? Does it have to do with the…
cortex | June 4, 2009Americans love alternatives. One of the benefits of modern capitalism, after all, is that we're free to consume products that perfectly match our preferences - if you want to wear skinny jeans with a Black Sabbath t-shirt, flip flops and a fedora (I saw such a person yesterday - he looked very satisfied with himself) then go right ahead. Gail Collins, while bemoaning the difficulty of reforming the college loan system, summarizes the American obsession with choice:
This is why my corner drugstore offers, by my last count, 103 different kinds of body moisturizers. These are not, of course, to…
gregladen | June 3, 2009 Speaking at a London girls' school, Michelle Obama makes a passionate, personal case for each student to take education seriously. It is this new, brilliant generation, she says, that will close the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be.
Michelle Obama's life as First Lady of the United States is informed by her early life, growing up as the daughter of a pump operator for the Chicago water department. Though money was tight, her parents emphasized education and possibility for their two brilliant children. Both kids went to Princeton (her older brother, Craig Robinson…
grrlscientist | June 3, 2009
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 a blog carnival that celebrates the best science, nature and medical writing targeted specifically to the public that has been published in the blogosphere within the past 60 days. To send your submissions to Scientia Pro Publica, either use this automated submission form or use the cute little widget on the right (sometimes that widget doesn't upload when the mother site is sick). Be sure to include the URL or "…
pharyngula | June 3, 2009Simon Singh, the science writer who had the temerity to say that chiropractic treatment for ear infection was "bogus", and who was found guilty by a British court of libel, has decided to appeal the decision. That takes real guts — libel law over there really stacks the deck in favor of frivolous complaints of libel — but if he wins it could help enable future open criticisms of quackery.
gregladen | June 3, 2009A custom here in Minnesota is to dangle a light bulb near the water meter or any other water-carrying pipes that are in your unheated basement. You don't need a switch. You just have a light socket on a wire, and at the beginning of winter you screw in a 100 watt light bulb, and at the end of winter, you loosen the light bulb so it stays off for the summer. This prevents the pipes from freezing and provides light in the basement at the same time.
This sort of practice has led me to wonder if compact fluorescents should be pulled out of some of the light sockets during the winter, and…
mspringer | June 3, 2009There's many, many sports out in the world that involve sharply hitting a ball with something. Baseball, tennis, golf, cricket, polo, you name it. After being hit, a ball describes a trajectory determined by the gravity of the earth and the interaction of the ball with the atmosphere. This can be exploited in many sports, since different trajectories can be useful in different situations. Golf and baseball especially are built on tweaking air flow around the ball in order to make it do precisely what the athlete wants. Tennis too, which has been drawing a lot of interest with the…
pharyngula | June 3, 2009Oh, how I despise PETA. Now they're putting up new billboards in Kansas —can you guess why?
Lindsay Rajt, campaign manager for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said the billboards were prompted by the recent shooting death of abortion doctor George Tiller, who was killed Sunday at his church.
"The discussion of the value of life is front and center right now in the public conversation," Rajt said today.
"We think we would be irresponsible if we don't talk about how we're all guilty of extreme cruelty to animals every time we sit down to a meal that includes meat."
They have two…
gregladen | June 3, 2009 Kaki King, the first female on Rolling Stone's "guitar god" list, rocks out to a full live set at TED2008, including her breakout single, "Playing with Pink Noise." Jaw-dropping virtuosity meets a guitar technique that truly stands out.
Kaki King combines jaw-dropping guitar work with dreamy, searching songwriting. Her percussive technique (guitar geeks compare it to Preston Reed's; everyone else compares it to Eddie Van Halen's) drives her songs forward, while layers of overdubs and her own soft vocals create a shimmering cloud of sound.
King's work on the soundtrack for 2007's Into the…