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gregladen | December 16, 2008Owing to popular demand among the readership of this blog, I've taken a closer look at the original article claiming that spent coffee grounds can be employed as a source of fuel. There are several important details that come though in the paper coming out in the next issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry that have not come through in the press reports.
From the paper: Figure 1. Schematic representation of the biodiesel production process from spent coffee grounds. The other value-added products such as H2, ethanol, and fuel pellets can also be achieved from this waste…
angrytoxicologist | December 16, 2008The evidence BPA (bisphenol A) is having toxic effects on humans is becoming more and more solid. Just recently a paper in JAMA found BPA may be associated heart disease and other probelms in humans. Other research has shown possible association with metabolic disorders (one thing I didn't note in the second post is that the two studies reinforce each other with the metabolic findings like diabetes). Furthermore, the FDA's own panel called FDA's okey-dokie/industry-studies-only assessment of BPA flawed and it was announced yesterday that the FDA has called a do-over.
Therefore, it may…
sb admin | December 16, 2008by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
I'm (more than) pleased to say the public health conversation is starting. I assume it was already going on but not where we could all hear what others were saying. So let me continue by responding to a point raised at The Pump Handle (TPH) that was also the subject of offline discussion from someone who read the post. Liz and Catherine (at TPH) made special reference to this comment from me:
Â
"If I am an ordinary person, I don't want to have to think about public health. I want it to work well but in the background, like the water system."
Each…
drorzel | December 15, 2008
kast_sko
Throw a shoe at George Bush. In Norwegian.
(tags: politics silly games internet)
Kevin Drum - Mother Jones Blog: DC Charters
"Look: even your most novice educational researcher knows that comparing test scores is useless unless you control pretty carefully for things like parental involvement and expenditure levels. And most of the studies I've seen suggest that once you do that, charters perform about the same as traditional schools. At most, they perform only slightly better."
(tags: academia education blogs social-science politics US)
Online Introductory physics text | Dot…
jwilbanks | December 15, 2008Spent the morning at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting. It is a massive affair, right across the street from another big one (American Society of Cell Biology, which I've also spoken at in years past...). The area around Moscone is filled with dazed science geeks wearing nametags; I spent a few minutes dreaming of a jets-v-sharks thing between a bunch of tissue culture technicians and the international polar year team.
I spoke on the usual stuff: legal, normative, and social issues around data sharing. It was a little odd this time though - I was preceded and followed by people…
grrlscientist | December 15, 2008Here's the latest carnivalia for you to enjoy, hot off the presses!
Carnival of Evolution, issue 7. Unfortunately, this is a small edition this time, a bummer, reeally, but it still has some interesting essays there.
Oekologie, the Season's Greetings edition. This blog carnival is filled with a bunch of science-y essays about a wide variety of topics.
Carnival of Cool Homeschoolers, which has apparently been renamed the Homeschool Showcase due to a change in hosts. Anyway, this is an interesting homeschooling blog carnival and I see that a few of my fellow scientist colleagues are also…
cortex | December 15, 2008I find the epic Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff morbidly fascinating. He managed to lose 50 billion dollars, which can't be easy:
A busy stock-trading operation occupied the 19th floor, and the computers and paperwork of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities filled the 18th floor.
But the 17th floor was Bernie Madoff's sanctum, occupied by fewer than two dozen staff members and rarely visited by other employees. It was called the "hedge fund" floor, but federal prosecutors now say the work Mr. Madoff did there was actually a fraud scheme whose losses Mr. Madoff himself estimates at $50…
sb admin | December 15, 2008by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
Yesterday Flu Wiki founding editor and DailyKos frontpager DemFromCT reviewed three recent report cards on public health, one each by the American Public Health Association (APHA), The Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the American College Of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). It was a great a service in two ways. The first is to remind us that "health reform" is hollow without making sure the public health infrastructure is sound. And second, he reviewed these reports so the rest of us don't have to. Believe me, that's a service in my eyes. My patience…
gregladen | December 15, 2008Welcome to the December edition of Oekologie.
The previous edition of Oekologie, Oekologie returns!, is at The Infinite Sphere. The present edition is a veritable potpourri of disjunct and disparate topics. We see habitat loss and bad dogs, fascinating evolutionary stories, sussing out sustainability, a touch of snark and more. I've tried to classify these diverse works into a small number of meaningful categories, but as I'm sure you'll see this is somewhat artificial. But before we even begin, I just want to point you to the most amazing video I've seen all month, in which a Penguin (a…
gregladen | December 14, 2008WASHINGTON--In an unexpected judicial turnaround, the Supreme Court this week reversed its 2000 ruling in the landmark case of Bush v. Gore, stripping George W. Bush of his earlier political victory, and declaring Albert Arnold Gore the 43rd president of the United States of America.
The court, which called its original decision to halt manual recounts in Florida "a ruling made in haste," voted unanimously on Wednesday in favor of the 2000 Democratic nominee.
Gore will serve as commander in chief from Dec. 10 to Jan. 20.
Read the rest here.
gregladen | December 14, 2008Warning: If you click this button, you may never be seen again. Have fun.
CLICK HERE
rallain | December 14, 2008I saw this over at ScienceGeekGirl which links to a video from two high school chemistry teachers in Colorado. The two teachers describe how they modified their chemistry courses. ScienceGeekGirl gives an excellent summary of their changes and motivations, so here is the short and dirty version:
They realized that their traditional lecture based course was not very effective.
They made video podcasts of their lectures and used class time for the students to work on problems and do demos and stuff.
Really, that is it. It seems so simple, but it is very interesting. The part I find…
gregladen | December 14, 2008Math Gains Reported for U.S. Students
American fourth- and eighth-grade students made solid achievement gains in math in recent years and in two states showed spectacular progress, an international survey of student achievement released on Tuesday found. Science performance was flat.
NYT
ZImbabwe: The New Zaire
Zimbabwe: Cholera introduced by West from PhysOrg.com
(AP) -- The Zimbabwean government on Saturday accused the West of deliberately starting the country's cholera epidemic, stepping up a war of words with the regime's critics as the humanitarian crisis deepened.
[...]…
cortex | December 14, 2008Deborah Solomon and the Times Magazine were kind enough to ask me a few questions about my new book, How We Decide. You can read the interview here. And yes, I'm jumping in the photo.
gregladen | December 13, 2008
I and the Bird #90: Christmas Count Tally Rally
Festival of the Trees #30
Just Write Blog Carnival December 12, 2008 Edition
Storyblogging Carnival XCIV
N.B.: The Next Edition of Oekologie, the Ecology and Environmental Science Carnival, will be hosted HERE. So send me your submission. This is a mid month carnival, so I'll probably write it up late tomorrow for posting early AM on Monday.
mspringer | December 13, 2008I dislike the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still, and I haven't even seen it. Not for the usual reasons - for instance, I think Keanu Reeves is a good actor when used in the right roles, and "space alien" is certainly one of those roles. I dislike the premise. Some alien species comes down and declares that it likes the other earth species more than it likes the smart monkeys. Therefore it demands that the smart monkeys stop their tool use or it will kill them all.
I suppose it would be too simple for the aliens just to drop the blueprints for some of their own snazzy tools so that…
gregladen | December 12, 2008
This is the Velvet Worm, phylum Onycophora. These worms actually bear live young.
cwilcox | December 12, 2008Stuck in really cold weather without power for the next few days. Like, monday or later. Shoot me if you happen to be here in hell. I'll try and blog again sometime soon... ish.