Uncategorized
cortex | April 11, 2008A recent scene at the Bronx Zoo gorilla exhibit:
On the left side of the enclosure, standing five feet away from the glass wall separating man and animal, is a big male gorilla. He crosses his arms as he gazes out at his adoring audience. The humans are thrilled - "He has such sensitive eyes!' is a common refrain - but the gorilla looks a little bored, as if he's tired of the crowds. Nevertheless, it's a poignant moment of primate solidarity.
Another gorilla is crouching off to the right side of the grass. Her back is turned and, at first, it's not quite clear what she's doing. Her hand is…
gregladen | April 11, 2008Carnival of the Blue Eleven is at Zooillogix
Carnival of Space # 49 is at WillGater.com
Carnival of Homeschooling # 119 is at Pondering Heart
Friday Ark #186 is at Modulator
The 166th Carnival of Education is at The Elementary Educator
Grand Rounds Volume 4 No. 29 is at Dr. Wes
57th Carnival of the Feminists is at pandemian
grrlscientist | April 11, 2008tags: Listen 014, Miller Williams, poetry, National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month, and I plan to post one poem per day, every day this month (If you have a favorite poem that you'd like me to share, feel free to email it to me). Today's poem was suggested by a reader and friend who writes "Here's one I've always loved -- well, as long as I've known it."
Listen 014
I threw a snowball across the backyard.
My dog ran after it to bring it back.
It broke as it fell, scattering snow over snow.
She stood confused, seeing and smelling nothing.
She searched in widening circles until I…
cmcclain | April 11, 2008
A Blob Sculpin (Psychrolutes phrictus) from Davidson Seamount. Image from MBARI.
cmcclain | April 10, 2008Jeff Vrabel discusses our octopod brethren
When possible, I like to keep close tabs on the world of octopuses, for two reasons: 1. Everybody has their hobbies, mine just involves cephalopod mollusks and don't you judge me, and 2. I often get the feeling that they're plotting something.
He moves on to discuss Christine Huffard's, a post doc at MBARI and 3 cubicles away from me, recent research
...the Ginormous Squid Revelation was the biggest thing to happen to me in the past few years. That was until I came across a recent study about octopuses that said, basically, that they are kinky,…
gregladen | April 10, 2008
Methamphetamine use in pregnancy changes learning ability of the offspring from PhysOrg.com
Studies have suggested that infants exposed to methamphetamines while in the womb can suffer irreversible brain damage, although the exact effects of these drugs during pregnancy have been hard to pinpoint due to many other negative behaviors that often occur in meth users.
[...]
How fast you'll age is written in the bones, research finds from PhysOrg.com
Perhaps the aging process can't be stopped. But it can be predicted, and new research from Tel Aviv University indicates that people may live…
sb admin | April 10, 2008Proposals for reforming our countryâs dysfunctional healthcare system often emphasize that prevention can save us money, but the Washington Postâs David Brown cautions that it doesnât always work out that way. He notes that some interventions, like uniform childhood immunization and colonoscopies for men ages 60-64, are clear financial winners, either because they donât cost a whole lot or because they prevent diseases that are expensive to treat. But when it comes to reducing smoking and obesity, two of the big risk factors for the U.S. population, the answers arenât as clear-cut.
Smoking…
cmcclain | April 10, 2008So obviously this challenge is easier for some. But don't hesitate to be creative! CK and MikeG have it easy. As CK notes this is a "photo on the walk back from lunch today. Don't hate us because we work here... (note this is one of our crappy beaches, so as not to make people up north or inland feel too bad)." Sounds like a challenge to me! But don't let this get you down! I happen to know MikeG's office is a broom closet with no windows. CK also dragged some friends to the beach for a picnic.
BarnOwl fulfilled this week's challenge in a creative way.
I managed to enjoy the ocean this…
kevin z | April 10, 2008Thomas Morton traveled with the R/V Alguita as they sailed the North Pacific Gyre to document the so called Garbage Island:
"Part and parcel with this was my attitude toward the Pacific Garbage Patch, or as we willfully misidentified it for the duration of our journey, the elusive Garbage Island. All the journalism I'd read about the patch had carefully danced around physical descriptions of the trash, leading myself and the rest of the shooting crew to fanciful visions of a solid, Texas-size barge of discarded Coke bottles and sporting goods. The idea that people had managed to fuck up a…
grrlscientist | April 10, 2008tags: Down the Stream the Swans All Glide, Spike Milligan, poetry, National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month, and I plan to post one poem per day, every day this month (If you have a favorite poem that you'd like me to share, feel free to email it to me). Today's poem was suggested by a reader and friend who writes that "I've attached a poem by Spike Milligan. It should break up the more serious ones (honestly, who decided that the cruelest month should be dedicated to poetry?). It's scanned from Silly Verses for Kids -- his drawings are half the fun."
[larger view]
Down the…
thescian | April 9, 2008We read blogs to read why we read blogs.
Checkout an Ars post on a HCI (Human Computer Interface) study on blog reading.
gregladen | April 9, 2008This is an argument from Steve Shives:
There are many, many things I find dubious about the practice of parents homeschooling their children. I wonder how a mother or father who has not been educated as a teacher, who in many cases has not even been to college her/himself, can possibly provide their child with as good an education as students receive in our much-maligned public schools. And I can´t help but think that these homeschool students, of whom there are several million in the United States, are being robbed of a crucial formative experience by not attending school with other people…
gregladen | April 9, 2008The Blog Carnival Four Stone Hearth, Vol. 38: The Early Bird Special Edition is now up at A Very Remote Period.
grrlscientist | April 9, 2008tags: The Hen and the Oriole, Don Marquis, poetry, National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month, and I plan to post one poem per day, every day this month (If you have a favorite poem that you'd like me to share, feel free to email it to me). Today's poem was suggested by a reader and friend who writes that "I am not much for poetry, generally. But I have always had a soft spot for Don Marquis. This is one of my favorites."
The Hen and the Oriole
well boss did it
ever strike you that a
hen regrets it just as
much when they wring her
neck as an oriole but
nobody has any
sympathy for a…
cortex | April 9, 2008A great comment by Joel Kahn, who argues that we need a new science of human interaction, able to study what Durkheim referred to as "the conscience collective":
Durkheim was obviously not the first to advance a notion of mind which transcended the individual. But while it may have been common for many nineteenth century figures to write about group minds with distinctive emergent or transcendent properties (think for example of all that interest in the spirit of history, or more concretely in crowds, or 'primitive' minds), which required minds to be viewed collectively rather than as…
petnoyer | April 8, 2008A special guest post by Bryan Wallace of Conservation International, featuring original research
In April of last year, I posted a story about how leatherback turtles are deep-sea explorers due to their incredible abilities to cope with the challenging conditions of the deep. The story was related to the hugely successful media conservation campaign, The Great Turtle Race, which allowed people around the world to follow the race of leatherback turtles on their migrations from nesting beaches in Costa Rica to the Galapagos Islands and beyond.
While the Race was a big hit, it only lasted two…