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gregladen | October 27, 2008The longest-serving Republican in the US Senate has been found guilty of lying about gifts worth $250,000 he received from an oil company.
Ted Stevens, 84, was charged with seven counts in connection with the gifts.
Mr Stevens faces up to five years in prison on each count but, under federal guidelines, is unlikely to spend much time in prison. ... more
sb admin | October 27, 2008by revere, cross-posted at Effect Measure
Earaches, respiratory infections and diarrhea are the bane of existence for young parents. All are potentially the result of contagious agents. The most common agent for diarrhea in infants and children is rotavirus, a double-stranded DNA virus, that CDC estimates causes 400,000 doctor visits, 200,000 emergency room visits and 55.000 to 70,000 hospitalizations each year in the under 5 year old age group. Infection produces significant immunity, and while there are seven different serotypes (A through G), 90% of infections are serotype A. In addition…
cortex | October 27, 2008There's something poignant about the possibility that one of the reasons obese people eat too much is because they are unable to take pleasure in the taste of their food. But according to a new study published in Science, that's exactly what happens:
The dorsal striatum plays a role in consummatory food reward, and striatal dopamine receptors are reduced in obese individuals, relative to lean individuals, which suggests that the striatum and dopaminergic signaling in the striatum may contribute to the development of obesity. Thus, we tested whether striatal activation in response to food…
mspringer | October 27, 2008Hey, sorry for having no Sunday Function yesterday. Life and travel conspired in such a way as to prevent it. Well, there's always next week! But hey, at we have a post for today.
In physics, as in all mathematical disciplines, we have a lot of need for equations. Those equations contain letters which represent various numbers or quantities. We have plenty to choose from, with the letters both Latin-derived and Greek-derived. Even so that's only a couple dozen letters, and there's a lot of things to represent. E might be energy, or electric field. C might be the speed of light, or…
cortex | October 27, 2008Last week, I reviewed Buyology, a new book on neuromarketing, in the Washington Post. Although the book is based on a large, privately funded neuromarketing experiment, I wasn't so wowed by the science:
If "Buy-ology" itself is any indication, these companies got ripped off. It's not that the book doesn't have interesting moments: I enjoyed learning about how slices of lime got indelibly associated with Corona beer and why the logos plastered on race cars are so effective at getting consumers to buy particular brands. However, what makes these stories interesting is that, unlike the rest of…
gregladen | October 26, 2008You've got to admit, Obama hasn't really done anything. Except a few things:
gregladen | October 26, 2008Alas, the Blog Carnival Web Site seems to be dead. There is a note that it is "temporarily unavailable" which has been up all day. So, I can't point you to that resource for submission of the next Replace Michele Bachmann Web Carnival. But you can submit your posts directly to me and I'll forward them.
The web carnival will be hosted at Almost Diamonds, tomorrow!
grrlscientist | October 26, 2008Here's the latest carnivalia for you to enjoy;
The inaugural issue of the Carnival of Political Humor and Commentary for you to enjoy.
gregladen | October 25, 2008
"This is a white Christian nation, and only white Christians should be in power. "
The man's name is Mike Lunsford, in case you missed it.
gregladen | October 25, 2008
But wait, there's more!
Oh. Never mind.
What I think is really funny is that she carved the B on her face backwards. Note to self: if I'm ever going to carve a letter in my face and use a mirror, REMEMBER THAT EVERYTHING IN THE MIRROR IS BACKWARDS ... (though, strangely, not upside down).
cortex | October 25, 2008Click here to hear the only known recording of Virginia Woolf's voice. A few thoughts: 1) What an Oxbridge accent! So posh and crisp. This is the voice I always imagined for Mrs. Dalloway, but then I guess Woolf had a few servants as well. 2) Isn't it amazing that we only have a single audio recording of Woolf? There's no video of her, of course, and only a precious few photographs. Although Woolf is one of the most important novelists of the twentieth century, she exists now as a short stack of novels and a thick stack of letters and diaries. In other words, we can only know her through her…
mspringer | October 25, 2008This weekend finds me on the road again, and driving a few hundred miles across rural Texas and Louisiana puts one in the mind to contemplate the expanse above. You're only about an hour's drive from space right now, if you can find a car that will go straight up. But for now we have to settle for looking.
The sky of the fall has much to offer. Pegasus is right above you, and just to its edge in Andromeda is the Andromeda galaxy. With a suitably dark sky and knowledge of where to look you can see it with the naked eye. As far as I know, it's the most distant thing in the universe which…
gregladen | October 24, 2008For starters, we are currently looking for hosts for the next Replace Michele Bachmann web carnival. We've been slugging along providing this great service for a month now, and suddenly she is all famous and stuff. Now is your chance to join in at the last second and take advantage of our hard work and get some link love. Tell me if you want to do this.
Second item: There is a new carnival thing being discussed/proposed/organized over at Sharp Brains. This is a Metacarnival: A Carnival of Blog Carnivals. This is where select carnivals (or actually, the organizers of said carnivals)…
gregladen | October 24, 2008Oh, this is just unbelievable. Thanks Mmme P for digging this up for our enjoyment. You must be assimilated. Into the suburban borg. Anything else is animalistic tribalism.
I literally became somewhat nauseated watching this. But then, I thought ... "Hey, we're putting this bitch, I mean, witch[hunter] away. This is not a problem any more."
grrlscientist | October 24, 2008Here's the latest carnivalia for you to enjoy;
Carnival of the Vanities, 23 October 2008 edition. This blog carnival focuses on excellent blog writing, regardless of topic. Did you know this blog carnival has been ongoing for six years now?
Carnival of Satire, for those of you who need to read a little snarkiness to start your weekend.
Carnival of Rants, for those of you who take snarkiness a little too far.