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gregladen | April 12, 2009Rebecca Skloot just facebooked this story:
Scientists Find 'Baffling' Link between Autism and Vinyl Flooring
Children who live in homes with vinyl floors, which can emit chemicals called phthalates, are more likely to have autism, according to research by Swedish and U.S. scientists published Monday.
The study of Swedish children is among the first to find an apparent connection between an environmental chemical and autism.
Obviously its been out for a few days, but I had not noticed it.
gregladen | April 12, 2009The Galapagos National Park says La Cumbre volcano began spewing lava, gas and smoke on uninhabited Fernandina Island on Saturday after four years of inactivity.
The park says in a statement the eruption is not a threat to people living on nearby Isabela Island.
But it says lava flowing to the sea will likely affect marine and terrestrial iguanas, wolves and other fauna.
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pharyngula | April 12, 2009This will put a smile on your face — James Dobson is in despair.
The battles that we fought in the Eighties now, we were victorious in many of those conflicts with the culture, trying to defend righteousness, trying to defend the unborn child, trying to preserve the dignity of the family and the definition of marriage. We fought all those battles and really it was a holding action. [...]
[W]e made a lot of progress through the Eighties but then we turned into the Nineties and the internet came along and a new president came along and all of that went away and now we are absolutely awash in…
gregladen | April 12, 2009I bet you didn't imagine that I would have an Easter story. Well, I've got one and it consists of nothing more than a mercifully short dialog between me and my daughter when she was very little:
"Dad, do you believe in the Easter Bunny?"
"Well, what do you think? Do you believe in the Easter Bunny?"
"Well, I don't know, I'm thinking about it."
"Well, is this important? Why is it important to you to know if the Easter Bunny exists?
"I don't really care about the Easter Bunny. But if the Easter Bunny existed, it would sure make it a lot easier to believe in Santa Claus!"
mspringer | April 12, 2009Today is Easter Sunday, the most sacred and second most widely observed holy day in the Christian calendar, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. Friday was Good Friday, the remembrance of the crucifixion. Thus after spending three days buried, Jesus rose from the dead.
Wait, three days? Let's see... Friday night to Saturday is a couple of hours, Saturday is a full day, and Sunday morning is a few more hours on top of that. So a day and a half, then. But of course all the liturgy and ceremony talks about three days.
This is because the ancients counted time as opposed to measuring it…
grrlscientist | April 12, 2009tags: easter bunny, easter bunny is dead, holidaze, holidays
Image: Orphaned [larger view].
On the way to the subway today, I photographed this tragic accident. This must be the reason I didn't get any Easter candy this year! I am bummed!
gregladen | April 12, 2009By design you must log onto your session in Linux. This is a recently added feature in Windows, nothing more than a kludge. The following can not happen in Linux:
Hat tip: Natalie
(Here's the picture without the caption)
tlambert | April 11, 2009Ben Goldacre has posted the chapter he was forced to leave out of earlier editions of Bad Science because of a lawsuit from charlatan Matthias Rath:
Although the publishers make a slightly melodramatic fuss about this in the promo material, it is a very serious story about the dangers of pseudoscience, as I hope you'll see, and it was also a pretty unpleasant episode, not just for me, but also for the many other people he's tried to sue, including Medecins Sans Frontieres and more. If you're ever looking for a warning sign that you're on the wrong side of an argument, suing Medecins Sans…
mspringer | April 11, 2009Mike the Mad Biologist links to a piece arguing that Social Security is fine thank you very much. Rumor to the contrary is pure political propaganda, and the fact that many young people think they'll never see a dime is a result of simple fearmongering.
I am sorry to say that they're not right. They're not even wrong, having missed the point entirely. Indeed as a factual matter their understanding of the way Social Security and its trust fund operate is fine. It's simply that "there is no crisis" does not follow from the premise that we can always borrow more.
First, consider the Social…
pharyngula | April 10, 2009I'm on the Reasonable Doubts podcast this week, if you'd care to tune in. This was recorded when I was in Michigan, near the end of my visit, and you can tell…my voice gets huskier after a couple of days of non-stop talking. Or maybe those rascals snuck in a ringer to dub over me, in order to get something that sounded intelligent.
grrlscientist | April 10, 2009Here's the latest carnivalia for you to read and enjoy over the holiday weekend;
Carnival of the Green, #174. Yet another blog carnival that focuses on living lightly on the earth!
Carnival of Beginning Writers, #4. This blog carnival is all about writing!
Don't forget that Scientia Pro Publica (Science for the People) is seeking hosts, so be sure to contact me about scheduling your date for hosting this new blog carnival.
gregladen | April 10, 2009In front of Stanford University's Main Quad, biologist Tom McFadden raps for a video camera. The flat bill of his Toronto Blue Jays baseball cap sits on the white rims of his sunglasses as he bounces his head to the beat. The video then cuts to him gesticulating in front of a projection screen that shows the cells of an embryo dividing. ...
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mspringer | April 10, 2009Earlier this week I wrote up a brief outline of an experiment to measure the speed of sound using only your singing talent. I'd like to be able to do the same thing with the speed of light. But it's a lot harder because light is so friggin fast. As with sound, the speed of a traveling wave c is equal to the product of the wavelength and frequency. If you can find both of those you can find c. Or you could do something like directly measure the time it takes light to travel a specific distance. This is what the early experiments done by Galileo and others attempted without success.
Today…
gregladen | April 10, 2009
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
In a vaguely related matter ...
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
gregladen | April 10, 2009 Evil Plan (tm)!
Your objective is simple: Soul Accumulation.
Your motive is a little bit more complex: Revenge
Stage One
To begin your plan, you must first blackmail a senator. This will cause the world to swallow nervously, confused by your arrival. Who is this evil genius? Where did they come from? And why do they look so good as a brain in a jar?
Stage Two
Next, you must destroy that opera house in sydney. This will all be done from a fake mountain, a mysterious place of unrivaled dark glory. Upon seeing this, the world will weep uncontrollably, as countless hordes of evil clowns…
pharyngula | April 10, 2009The CFI World Congress had Michael Ruse speak on science education and religion, which I could have told anyone would be a ghastly mistake. The guy has got some very peculiar notions that, if more widely accepted, would destroy science education in this country. Larry Moran was annoyed to find that scientists aren't being asked to speak on this issue, while Kristine Harley seems appalled at some of his specific answers.
Then, Michael Ruse drew the analogy that a science teacher who taught evolution without mentioning the Bible or God, but nevertheless caused a conflict within a student who…
cortex | April 10, 2009Stress has been a hot topic lately. In the past week, we've looked at how chronic stress can trigger working memory deficits among the poor and lead, eventually, to severe depression. But there's hope, at least if you're a stressed out lab rat. (In theory, these findings should apply to humans, but there's always that nagging gap between theory and reality.) The work is led by Robert Sapolsky, the incredibly engaging and eloquent primatologist and writer.
The experimental strategy strategy is ingenious. The scientists begin by inserting "neuroprotectant" genes, such as estrogen, into a…