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grrlscientist | March 19, 2009Here's the latest carnivalia for you to enjoy!
My favorite blog carnival of all, the grand dame that inspired all other blog carnivals, Carnival of the Vanities. This weekly blog carnival celebrates the best writing in the blogosphere, regardless of topic.
SurgeXperiences, #219. This weekly blog carnival is dedicated to surgery and surgical experiences. I'll bet you know which essay of mine is included in this blog carnival, don't you?
Health Wonk Review, the Spring has just about sprung edition, is now available. This blog carnival is filled with interesting stories, including one that I…
grrlscientist | March 19, 2009I've been having a rough time since my return from Finland, so I have not done as much writing as I should -- please accept my apologies for this! I have half a dozen essays and book reviews that I am working on, but I lack all confidence right now, so I have not published any of them. However, I expect I'll do so within the next week or so. I hope.
So what caused all this upset, especially at a time when I should be really happy? Shortly after I returned from Finland, I found two notices in my apartment mailbox (which is mostly a trash receptacle) from collection agencies who are preparing…
gregladen | March 19, 2009Paul Schemlzer has a writeup in Minnesota Independent covering the fallout from the exposure of the exposure of Norm Coleman's donor database. Paul addresses the mean spirited Republican reactions to professional IT consultant Adria Richards, who...
...has been the target of anger from Coleman supporters, including some who had their personal information revealed in the Web site breach. She received a phone call on Friday from one such man. The caller was irate, offering the vague threat, "I live less than a mile away from you!" She later calmed him down.
This report makes it very clear…
grrlscientist | March 19, 2009Do you remember how I've been campaigning to save several science-y blog carnivals from oblivion? Well, since one blog carnival is currently being revived, partially due to my noisemaking, I am taking my support one step further: I am hosting the upcoming issue of the Circus of the Spineless on 6 April. So this means that I need your help. If you have written a "translation" of a scientific paper, or an essay, a photoessay or if you have a stunning image of a squishy (or crusty) animal that lacks a backbone -- not including American politicians -- to share with the world, please send the…
denialism | March 19, 2009We're closing in on the final moments. All the med students have gathered in the old med school auditorium at UVA. Per tradition, we all carry a dollar bill for a pool, with the last person to receive their envelope getting the pot (we get called randomly).
Results around 12, I'll keep updating this post.
11:35 NBC 29 is here for their yearly match coverage. And the room is full of babies! A family event except for the covert drinking.
11:40 The dean is here with a sack of letters. Progress.... He says we're the best class ever! Take that all you alumni!
11:45 One of our…
mspringer | March 19, 2009Thursday and Friday of this week are the staff and faculty equivalent of spring break here at Texas A&M. I'm going to be spending them on the road, visiting family and friends. As such Built on Facts is going to be on break for a few days. We'll be back Monday - possibly sooner.
Until then, here's a video of a Tesla coil tuned to play the Imperial March while zapping somebody (safely clad in electricity-diverting chain mail). Enjoy, and I'll see you back here soon!
Oh, let me point something else out. The guy is standing on a box. The sparks flow down his body and over the box…
cortex | March 18, 2009Just a quick programming note: I'll be speaking at the National Academy of Sciences tomorrow evening, in Washington D.C. The event is free.
I also wanted to apologize to all those whose comments have been eaten by the spam filter in the last two days. Due to an attack of Viagra bots, I had to temporarily tighten the restrictions.
moleculeoftheday | March 18, 2009Sulfur usually stinks. Previously, I've covered ammonium thioglycolate, mercaptoethanol, and dithiothreitol, all of which are used to break up S-S bonds in biomolecules. The S-H group is what does the job here, and where this functional group is found, stink is usually nearby. The above thiols all have some degree of stink.
Not all thiols stink. Previously, I've covered a grapefruit thiol, a fruity thiol, and a coffee thiol.
Methanethiol is not one of the nice-smelling thiols. With a smell most often described as rotten cabbage or rotten eggs, you'd think it was useless. You'd be wrong.…
gregladen | March 18, 2009False starts and cold snaps. A sign of warm weather followed by an icy slap in the face. That's a Minnesota spring. Native Minnesotans pretend this does not bother them, but it does. I can see it in their eyes, and every now and then someone will let out a plaintive wail or even just grunt to themselves when they hit the cold outdoors. That's how I know it bothers even the wizened old timers who grew up before indoor heating and learned to love the winter by walking to school across the frozen lake every day...uphill in both directions....
Read the rest at QM.com
sciencepunk | March 18, 2009
Alternative museums are all the rage these days, from the million-dollar animatronics of the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum to the quaint if ramshackle Genesis Expo in Portsmouth, UK. Lying somewhere between the two is The Museum of the Aquatic Ape, a virtual repository of all your alternative evolution needs. The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis is a fringe evolutionary theory that claims many of our distinct human traits (subcutaneous fat, lack of hair, etc) are best explained by a period of semi-aquatic living. So far it has gained little, if any, traction on the minds of evolutionary…
mspringer | March 18, 2009It's not all that often I agree with Mike Dunford politically, but in writing about the AIG bonuses he's right. The bonuses ought to stay with the executives who were paid them. Neither congress nor the president ought to try to tax these bonuses back.
Now obviously no executive at a failing bank deserves a bonus, even with the bank's money. Even more obviously it's repugnant to fund bonuses to failed executives with our tax dollars. But what's done is done, and there are three facts to be faced.
1. The executives' contracts require the bonuses, and the bailout bill specifically and…
cortex | March 18, 2009I know, I know: everybody is sick of hearing about those AIG bonuses. But bear with me for one more blog post, because I think the swell of populist anger can actually illuminate something interesting about the human response to inequality.
Consider the ultimatum game, that simple economic task where one person (the proposer) is given ten dollars and told to share it with another person (the responder). The proposer can divide the money however they like, but if the responder rejects the offer then both players end up with nothing.
Classical economic theory makes two predictions about the…
pontiff | March 18, 2009Things I learned at the APS March meeting. Updated as I learn them. That's right: real time updates of connectivity of my neurons translated into html translated into text and pictures on your browser.
A Yale experiment led by Robert Schoelkopf has demonstrated the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm and Grover's algorithm (two qubit algorithms) using transmon qubits (superconducting qubits.) Fidelities for their implementation are in the 80 to 90 percent range. Paper: arXiv:0903.2030.
Also, congrats to Robert Schoelkopft for winning the "2009 Joseph F. Keithley Award For Advances in Measurement…
mspringer | March 18, 2009Here is a question. It's a sort of subtle question, but one that can be answered with freshman-level physics. But it's an excellent test of understanding. I'm not promising that the question itself is not in some sense a "trick" question, but the trick is in how you might think about the physics, not the question itself. Which is to say, I'm not promising that what the question assumes happens can actually happen. But it might - it's up to you to tell me!
Ok. You have a perfectly efficient car, which transmits all of the energy in its fuel into kinetic energy of forward motion. Kinetic…
gregladen | March 17, 2009An important and fascinating post by guest bloggers Shawn Lawrence and Rebecca Otto, at Quiche Moraine.
Click here to be educated and entertained.
goodmath | March 17, 2009As I mentioned, I'll be posting drafts of various sections of my book here on the blog. This is a rough draft of the introduction to a chapter on logic. I would be extremely greatful for comments, critiques, and corrections.
I'm a big science fiction fan. In fact, my whole family is pretty
much a gaggle of sci-fi geeks. When I was growing up, every
Saturday at 6pm was Star Trek time, when a local channel show
re-runs of the original series. When Saturday came around, we
always made sure we were home by 6, and we'd all gather in front of
the TV to watch Trek. But there's one one thing about…
gregladen | March 17, 2009OK, so there you are having a drink. A drink with an unbrella. Minding your own business. And checking out your Facebook page.
And suddenly....
A High Court judge today approved the serving of court papers via Facebook, the popular social network website, in what is thought to be a New Zealand first.
The High Court in Wellington was told that Axe Market Garden is trying to sue Craig Axe who is alleged to have taken $241,000 from the firm account.
Counsel for the company Daniel Vincent said the plaintiff was effectively Axe's father John and there were difficulties in serving papers on…