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mspringer | December 30, 2008Apropos of the calorie/Calorie discussion yesterday, here's something interesting to think about with regard to the energy used in exercise.
The formula for gravitational potential energy is m*g*h, where m is mass, g is the acceleration due to gravity, and h is the height. Of course this is if the changes in h are small enough so that g can be taken as truly constant. So any change in height is going to require energy if you're going up, and will release energy if you're going down. This is why you hit the gas driving up a hill and hit the brake going down a hill. Actually since we're…
jwilbanks | December 30, 2008Added to the Japanese version I blogged about recently, the SC video with Jesse Dylan has been subtitled into Spanish. Found via userbarna.net.
cortex | December 30, 2008I've written before about the the failure of basic neuroscience research to advance neuropharmacology (at least, it's been a failure so far), but it's nice to see Eric Kandel, my old mentor (and one of my scientific heroes), make the same argument. Kandel began his scientific career as a Freudian psychiatrist - he was soon turned off by the blatant the lack of empiricism - so his recent interest in the biological benefits of talk therapy, and ways of rigorously measuring those benefits, provides an interesting snapshot on the state of neuroscience.
On the one hand, it's sobering that talk…
The Scientific, Political, Social, and Pedagogical Context for the claim that "Race does not exist."
gregladen | December 30, 2008Without distinctions and boundaries, the race concept cannot apply to a given species. Species with observable geographical differences in one or more traits may be better described as having clinal variation. Without correlation among traits, the race concept has none of its usual utility, whereby we place individuals into categories and then predict invisible traits (like the likelihood of biting for dog breeds, or the likelihood of having a certain level of intelligence for human races).
HERE
gregladen | December 29, 2008The Bush Anti-Patriot Act and its paper minions across the states is nothing less than the undoing of the fundamentals of American freedom. Ironically, this has been done with the collusion of the poorly educated Libertarian and Rightist supporters of the conservative movement, who really, honestly, are primarily concerned with clinging to their guns and their religion, both protected by this same constitution they unwittingly dismantle. The right wing can be very smart about manipulating the preformed fodder for fascism that makes up the vast legions of Joe Six Packs.
Don't make me mad.
mspringer | December 29, 2008Over this past semester I've discovered something unfortunate. If a person doesn't get much exercise, snacks when bored, and shops when hungry, that person will tend to gain weight. That person is of course me, and so I'm going to try to do something about it. It's by no means a new year's resolution, I've been aware of the problem for several months now. And fortunately we're early in the game yet. My BMI is roughly 25.5, which is just a hair into the "overweight" range. Some of you might be in the same boat, so we might be able to do some thinking about how to best put ourselves where…
gregladen | December 29, 2008...I notice the door man take a quick glance up the street and subtly drop his smoke out of sight next to the stairs. He steps half way onto the sidewalk. Sure enough, Baronelli himself is coming down Hanover, walking his dog ... a tiny frenetic brown thing ... leash in one hand and an unlit cigar in the other. He's actually wearing a white ascot to complement his thousand dollar Italian three-piece and light brown cape....
As we have been saying all along ....
drorzel | December 28, 2008
nanoscale views: More about insulators
"I've been thinking more about explaining what we mean by "insulators", in light of some of the insightful comments [on the last post]."
(tags: science physics blogs materials condensed-matter)
Cocktail Party Physics: CSI lies and suspicious science
"CSI? Unrealistic? Hate to break it to you kids, but, yeah. At the very least, the speed with which our intrepid heroes get their results would make any cop, ADA, or defense attorney double over in laughter, when they're not crying. DNA rape kits, appallingly, have as much as a six year backlog, according…
gregladen | December 28, 2008Why was this post so popular? Scantily clad athletes? Hair raising death denying stunts? Incredible writing and a fascinating story? People googling the Olympics a lot? We'll never know.
gregladen | December 28, 2008I'm not mentioning any names, and don't ask me any details. In fact, don't repeat this story.
Some years ago, when I was a mere graduate student, a fellow student working in an unnamed country in Africa discovered a very very old stone artifact. To this day, this bit of chipped stone debris, representing the activities of an ancient very pre-human hominid, is one of the oldest well dated, in situ objects of its kind known. ....
... and then, of course, the story get very interesting ...
gregladen | December 27, 2008To me, the key moment in CrackerGate was the posting by PZ Myers of the key, essential truth of it all: The same church law that mandated the sacredness of the Eucharist also mandated that Jews would always wear a mark indicating their Jewishness. The latter eventually lead to the holocaust, as you know.
That was important. Also important was my discovery that Jesus Christ can come to us in any one of several forms, and you should never be surprised at what can happen.
gregladen | December 27, 2008Many of my posts related to the Webster Cook Affair received a great deal of attention. In fact, the blogospheric activities related to the PZ Myers CrackerGate showed up as a noticeable bump in the internet and blew out a couple of those Middle Easter cables that are always breaking. This post is selected from this larger set, as is the next one I will post.
mspringer | December 27, 2008Great! So did I!
Now the sky is a big place, and telescopes don't often come with an astronomer to explain how to use them. I'm not an astronomer either, but I've been an amateur stargazer on and off for years and I might be able to give you some good advice.
First, the telescope itself. There's basically two kinds, assuming your budget was under a couple grand. There's the refractor (which has a lens on the front) and the reflector (which has a mirror at the end). If you have a cheap refractor, trade it in and get a reflector. Essentially the only parameter of interest at the amateur…
gregladen | December 26, 2008We went out to cross country ski this morning. Never got to ski because it got to warm and rainy, so we went instead downtown and eventually to the Walker to appreciate some modern art.
People do not go to the Walker museum of modern art in Minneapolis to appreciate the art as much as to affect the appearance of understanding the art. Which they don't. Because you can't, and the sooner you understand that, the quicker you will enjoy it and the less annoying of a person you will be. But I digress.
The point is that the cookies, I suspect under armed guard, arrived and were there on my…
gregladen | December 26, 2008This post arose as a convoluted experiment in internet perception, curious motivations, and blogging ethics. Almost none of the objectives of this post were met, but it does include three photographs of sexy naked ladies, so you probably do not want to go there. Don't. Click. Here.
gregladen | December 26, 2008Children from low-income families in the US and Britian are disadvantaged in school, according to research just now coming out from the University's Centre for Market and Public Organisation. From a press release:
...According to the study, children from low-income backgrounds are raised in environments that fail to promote their cognitive, social and health development adequately and, as a result, they are more likely to begin school with deficits in their learning ability and social behaviour.
The key findings of the research are that:
The poorest fifth of children in the UK are equally…
gregladen | December 26, 2008This is one of those cases where our language gets the logic of biology backwards (or otherwise wrong) and at the same time potentially causes inappropriate human responses. Also, this approach to "morning sickness" is dripping with adaptationism. Which is good. Got a problem with that?
Have a look.
grrlscientist | December 26, 2008Here's the latest blog carnivals that have been published for you to enjoy;
Friday Ark, issue #223. This blog carnival is where ANIMALS are the stars!
gregladen | December 26, 2008One of my most widely read posts became widely read mainly by being linked to by a very popular blog. I'm not normally including such posts in this retrospective Year in Review, for obvious reasons. However, in this case, because I think this post is good for you, I am going to send you there for a few minutes of edumication. Have a look at How to be more keyboardy
gregladen | December 25, 2008This Year in Review item was not written by me, but rather, Guest Blogger Stephanie Zvan of Almost Diamonds.
...Once again, we discover that there are differences between bloggers. What hasn't been borne out is the idea that writing about things other than science requires that there be less science content in a blog. In fact, prolific science bloggers tend to blog prolifically about science as well....