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mspringer | January 14, 2009Astrology has never so far as I know proposed a scientific mechanism by which the planets should affect the lives of us mortals. I suppose this is fair enough, you wouldn't expect magic to work by normal laws. If the position of Jupiter says you should spend the rest of the week face down in the mud, well there's no rule saying that Jupiter's going to wreck its vengeance on you with any of the four known fundamental forces.
Of course there's no indication that Jupiter or any other planet has anything to do with your personality at all by virtue of its position during your birth, or indeed…
sb admin | January 14, 2009by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
One of the triumphs of 19th and 20th century public health was the provision of piped water into cities and towns. With the use of modern methods of disinfection (primarily chlorination) water as a source of mass distributed poisons rapidly receded, and with it the preponderance of infectious diseases that were the scourge of urban life. Urban water supplied were an efficient means to provide a healthy required substance, water, to the whole population and once. But of course it is also an efficient means to distribute unhealthy stuff -- not just…
pharyngula | January 14, 2009Perhaps you'll appreciate this little ditty for Roy Zimmerman and family.
gregladen | January 14, 2009Suddenly we are talking about "what is science" on scienceblogs.com. Well, according to some of our commenters science is a bunch of stuff that many of us science bloggers never talk about! Which to some extent is certainly true. But we are not a textbook! We are blogger-beings!
This discussion is going on in one form or another here and here. I have a small number of bullet points to add.
1) Science is about material truth. As such, science recognizes the fallacy of truth and at the same time tirelessly works towards 'knowing' the truth.
2) If you think about science too much, it…
gregladen | January 13, 2009I just got an email informing us that Scienceblogs.com is going to go erotic after midnight tonight, owing to some anticipated activities.
Oh, sorry, I just reread the email. That's ERRATIC. Not erotic. Erratic.
Things will work, they will just be erratic.
gregladen | January 13, 2009... threats. By yahoos.
A new book defending vaccines, written by a doctor infuriated at the claim that they cause autism, is galvanizing a backlash against the antivaccine movement in the United States.
But there will be no book tour for the doctor, Paul A. Offit, author of "Autism's False Prophets." He has had too many death threats.
Details here at the NYT
gregladen | January 13, 2009The Minnesota DFL Party filed a complaint today with the FEC regarding how Norm Coleman is paying for his recount efforts. Norm doesn't have the personal wealth to fund this himself plus the Republican donors aren't probably all that excited about funding a losing proposition. So this means Norm needed to go where Republicans get the vast majority of their donations ... corporations. But Melendez and Co. think there is something underhanded going on.
Norm Coleman? Underhanded? Is that even possible?
..... details here.
cortex | January 13, 2009Steven Pinker has a very lucid and engaging summary of personal genomics in the latest Times Magazine. Pinker got his exons sequenced and is optimistic that large-scale genetic testing will soon reveal the snippets of DNA underlying our preferences, predilections and peccadillos:
Dopamine is the molecular currency in several brain circuits associated with wanting, getting satisfaction and paying attention. The gene for one kind of dopamine receptor, DRD4, comes in several versions. Some of the variants (like the one I have) have been associated with "approach related" personality traits like…
gregladen | January 13, 2009There is a plan to make a "Web Log Carnival of the Vanities" (aka blog carnival) for all things arid.
Submissions should have something to do with a desert somewhere in the world. (If you're not sure whether your work is desert-related, check out this definition at Wikipedia, and if you're still not sure, send it in anyway.) Submissions can be scientific in nature, or history, or travelog. Images are welcome, photographic or otherwise. Discussions of culture and politics are welcome if they're desert-related. The one restriction, other than geographical, is that -- at least when I'm…
sb admin | January 13, 2009By Leslie Mancuso
Imagine being diagnosed with a preventable disease in a country where access to quality health care services is not available to you. Not because you live in a remote area or because people don't care, but because the training was not available for the skilled healthcare providers treating you.Â
Now imagine being an HIV positive woman in this country. You may be getting sophisticated antiretroviral therapy, but suffer without knowing it from another disease that can kill you if left untreated: cervical cancer.
As a leader in international health, I see these women facing…
gregladen | January 13, 2009RT Rybak is not going to run for Governor, as some of us thought. He's going instead for another term as Mayor. Good for him. Details here.
gregladen | January 13, 2009A new blog called Blogging the Origin launched Monday. It's a Seedmagazine.com-sponsored blog, written by London-based freelance science writer John Whitfield, who has the particular qualification--for this project, at least--of having never read Darwin's The Origin of Species. As he now begins to read it for the first time, he will cover each of the 15 chapters (including the introduction) in detail, sharing his thoughts and soliciting those of readers. By the time Darwin Day rolls around on February 12, John hopes to be an Origins expert. Follow his progress here.
mspringer | January 13, 2009I hope this doesn't count as biting the hand that feeds, but hey, dissent is supposed to be the highest form of patriotism or something. From my university:
COLLEGE STATION -- The chancellor of the Texas A&M University System wants to give bonuses worth up to $10,000 to some instructors, but so far, many aren't interested.
"I've never had so much trouble giving away a million dollars," Chancellor Mike McKinney said, laughing.
The voluntary pilot program being done at Texas A&M University along with the campuses in Prairie View and Kingsville will award bonuses from $2,500 to $10,000…
gregladen | January 13, 2009OMG it is 17 degrees this morning!
(Below zero F, needless to say)
There is a six mph westerly wind. That is not too bad, but it puts our "feels like" (the index formerly known as wind chill) at about negative 32. Even in Minnesota, on a morning like this some cars will not start, some schools will have kids showing up late because the school buses will take an extra hour to warm up. (In some districts they never turned the buses off yesterday, knowing they would not be able to start them today).
It is expected to warm up, though! The high point will be Five! (Below.) As they say (…
drorzel | January 12, 2009
A&M bases bonus on student input | Bryan/College Station, Texas - The Eagle
""I've never had so much trouble giving away a million dollars," Chancellor Mike McKinney said, laughing.
That's because he's never spent it like this. McKinney plans to give up to $10,000 bonuses to instructors based on anonymous student evaluations"
(tags: education stupid academia)
Confessions of a Community College Dean: The Bright Side of Economic Freefall
"With faculty (and administrative) searches being cancelled left and right, Iâm thinking that this dropoff might be the final nail in the coffin of the…
laelaps | January 12, 2009
Tell him you're cutting funding. (Photographed at the Bronx Zoo).
In a given year it is not unusual for me to visit the Bronx Zoo or other WCS-run parks a half dozen times or more. They are some of my favorite places to go, and I have taken thousands of photographs of the well-kept menagerie that the organization supports. Given the number of people I see at these parks during the year I know many other people enjoy them as much as I do.
That's why I was shocked to learn that New York's governor is planning to cut state funding for the zoological parks by 55% this year and eliminate state…
chaoticutopia | January 12, 2009This is a little unexpected, I'm sure. I sat down last week, on my three-year blog-anniversary, to put together my banner and start the updating that I've been talking about for a month, but I couldn't do it. I wanted the creative juices to flow, to get excited about blogging again, but instead I hit the same stagnant block that I've been running into for months. The ideas are here, collected on a sheet of graph paper that I keep by my desk, so it isn't really the content that is lacking. Rather, I'm missing the will to do it. And so, I sit, staring at my ideas without the will to bring them…
sb admin | January 12, 2009You might have heard this advice before, but the National Safety Council has just made it official: They call on motorists to stop using cell phones â even those with hands-free attachments â while driving. Theyâre also urging state governments to pass laws banning phoning and text messaging while behind the wheel. NSC President and CEO Janet Froetscher had this to say:
Driving drunk is also dangerous and against the law. When our friends have been drinking, we take the car keys away. Itâs time to take the cell phone away.
Cell phones might not seem as potentially lethal as alcohol, but…
gregladen | January 12, 2009Popular blogger and author Christian Lander will discuss his book, Stuff White People Like, on Monday, January 26 at 4:00 p.m. at the University of Minnesota Bookstore in Coffman Memorial Union, 300 Washington Ave. S.E. Minneapolis.
Lander decided early on that he did not like white people who did not watch the TV show "The Wire." His thoughts soon focused on what white people were doing instead of watching the show and thus his widely popular and provocative blog stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com was born. Now after nearly 30 million visitors, Lander has compiled some of his best thoughts…
pharyngula | January 12, 2009That guy Ben Goldacre just blew my mind. What is the most popular cosmetic surgery in Asia? Blepharoplasty. Many people want to have the Western "double eyelid", while I didn't even know I had a double eyelid until I saw a few comparison pictures! In addition to plastic surgery, people buy cheap plastic gadgets to create a wrinkle, or use ugly do-it-yourself methods with acid and double eyelid tape (yes, there is such a product).
I am rather weirded out. A wrinkle I never even noticed before, or at least took for granted, is apparently a mark of beauty to some people who lack one. That's…