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tqa | August 4, 2007
Denyse O'Leary notes some of the differences between creationists and Intelligent Design proponents:
Then the creationists in turn help the ID theorists by making clear what creationism is and what it is not. Creationism is about the BIBLE, see? It's not about intelligent design theories like Behe's* Edge of Evolution or Dembski's design inference.
It's extremely uncommon for me to find myself in agreement with Denyse on anything (and it's not a comfortable feeling), but in this case I do think she's got a good point. Creationism is certainly explicitly based on the Bible, and…
tqa | August 3, 2007
Only in New York could something like this happen:
A man in a Revolutionary War-era submarine was cited by the U.S. Coast Guard for drifting into a security zone, and for unsafe sailing in New York's East River near the Queen Mary 2 luxury liner, the Coast Guard and New York City Police Department said Friday.
The man in the replica vessel was identified as 35-year-old Philip "Duke" Riley of Brooklyn, N.Y., according to Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer Seth Johnson.
It just doesn't get any better.
tqa | August 3, 2007
Today's dose of accidental humor comes (like most, these days) from our Commander-In-Chief. Today, while meeting with his counterterrorism team, he said:
We take a clear-eyed view of the world. The people on this team, assembled in this building see the world the way it is, not the way we hope it is.
cmcclain | August 3, 2007A day ~575 million years ago seemed like any other. Life was simple, not as in life was easy, but organisms were simple creatures. Then, geologically-speaking, BAMM!, complex life forms. Sure they were not the showy creatures of today, but the Ediacara biota (580Ma) of centimeter- to meter-sized eukaryotes, representing both some extant kingdoms and failed experiments, still are intriguing. So what events started the Ediacara party?
To answer this question we go to the Ediacaran animals in deposit on the Avalonn Peninsula in Newfoundland. The community is from a deep seafloor…
cmcclain | August 3, 2007As atmospheric CO2 increases, the ocean will become more acidic. The oceans are known to absorb about 1/3 of the CO2 we put into the air. Current projections indicate the pH of the ocean will drop by 1.4 over the next 300 years. Now keep in mind this is on a log-scale so the current ph of the ocean is between 8-8.3, which corresponds to 1/10 concentration of hydrogen ions. A drop of 1.4 puts the pH at 6.6-6.9 closer to hydrogen ion concentration of 10. This is between a 10x-100x increase in acidity.
When CO2 dissolves and reacts with water it can from three chemical species: 1) dissolved…
nisbetmc | August 3, 2007
In the 2004 election, the great majority of voters didn't deliberate the specific policy positions of the candidates and then make an informed choice. Instead, in order to make up their minds, the miserly public relied heavily on "low information signals" such as likability and perceived character.
In their analysis of the election, James Carville and Paul Begala conclude that the Bush team correctly realized that a few themes could frame the election in their favor. The central themes went something like this:
If he doesn't live your life, share your values, or is someone you would want to…
grrlscientist | August 3, 2007tags: animals, friday ark,blog carnivals
Those of you who enjoy looking at animal pictures will enjoy the 150th edition of the Friday Ark. This blog carnival is a collection of animal pictures of all sorts, some of which are accompanied by information as well! Go there and enjoy while you sip your coffee today.
grrlscientist | August 3, 2007
Your Power Bird is an Owl
You are beyond wise. You are so smart, you're almost prophetic.
Your inner voice always speaks the truth, and you take the time to listen to it.
You are good at seeing who people are... including the darkness of others.
As a result, you tend to have a rather dark - yet realistic - outlook on life.
What's Your Power Bird?
When I change one answer, I end up with the Northern cardinal as my power bird, or, if I change a different answer, my power bird is the vulture, but when I change yet one other answer, my power bird becomes the dove. How about you?
cmcclain | August 3, 2007 The orange gas hydrate is home to Hesiocaeca methanicola, a newly discovered species of marine worm found in the Gulf of Mexico in 1997. This lobe of hydrate was exposed on the seafloor. The Deep East Expedition will investigate the life above and in a shallow bed on the Blake Ridge where other lobes of exposed gas hydrates are believed to be located. Image courtesy of Ian MacDonald and NOAA Ocean Explorer
nisbetmc | August 3, 2007
As I've documented several times here at Framing Science, despite record amounts of news attention to climate change, the issue has often been eclipsed by coverage of "Paris Nicole Smith" and other celebrity scandals. So who is to blame for the skewed priorities of the press?
In a survey out this week, Pew finds that 87% of the public believes that the media has gone overboard on celebrity coverage and a majority of respondents think that it's news organizations who are to blame rather than public appetite.
grrlscientist | August 2, 2007Career. Family. Relationship.
Are you pretty much where you thought you'd be five years ago? Ten years ago? Would the person you were ten years ago recognize the person you are now?
As for myself, I can say without reservation that I am nowhere close to where I thought I'd be five years ago. Ditto for ten years ago.
Basically, I thought I'd be a respected professional scientist who was pursuing tenure right now, doing research on the evolution and phylogeny of parrots in the South Pacific, and teaching at a respectable university. I thought I'd be a contributing member of my community, as I…
hrynyshyn | August 2, 2007Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers have endorsed the "OUT" campaign that encourages atheists (or agnostics, if that's your semantic druthers) to publicly declare their lack of believe in gods and the supernatural. To help make the point, the campaign comes equipped with a red letter "A" that can be worn as a T-shirt logo or displayed on a blog. While there can be no doubt that society needs more people to declare their unfaith, is this new campaign a universally good idea?
I fear not.
It all depends on the context, or more specifically, the social environment. For Dawkins and Myers, academics who…
grrlscientist | August 1, 2007Thanks to a SciBling, I took this quiz and found out that I do not have Asperger's Syndrome (even though I've had my suspicions), so I guess that's one good thing to know. Whew, what a relief! I was so worried!
If you are interested, my score was 29, whereas scores over 32 are indicative of Asperger's Syndrome. The average woman, and average male or female biologist had scores of 15. So I guess I am er, normal, sorta, although we all know that I am not normal at all!
How did you score? What did you think of the questions they asked?
tqa | August 1, 2007
Retired army General Barry McCaffrey testified before the House Armed Services Committee yesterday:
No one is actually at war except the Armed Forces, their US civilian contractors, and the CIA. There is only rhetoric and posturing from the rest of our government and the national legislature. Where is the shared sacrifice of 300 million Americans in the wealthiest nation in history? Where is the tax supplement to pay for a $12 billion a month war? Where are the political leaders calling publicly for America's parents and teachers to send their sons and daughters to fight "the long war on…
grrlscientist | August 1, 2007tags: cats, blog carnivals
The new Cat Blogging Carnival, 1001 Cats, which is entitled Friday's Deepest Secret And Other Kitty Stories, is now available for your reading enjoyment. Be sure to go there and give them some support!
grrlscientist | August 1, 2007The results of last week's reader poll, along with a few thoughts from me, are available below the fold. Thanks for participating! I will say that I was somewhat surprised by the results, so maybe you can contribute your own thoughts to these poll results.
I have a new poll for you to answer this week on the left sideboard, so be sure to add your data point to the collection.
I am somewhat surprised by this poll, so I am curious to know what your reactions are.
Even though most of my readers enjoy reading science nonfiction (not surprising, since that's mostly why you are here), I was…
tqa | August 1, 2007
There's a paper in today's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association that examines the impact of combat deployments on child abuse and neglect. The authors, lead by Deborah Gibbs of RTI International, found that the overall rate of abuse and neglect increased by more than 40% when a parent was deployed in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. That result might not be very surprising, but it is alarming.
Once you get beyond the general finding, there are a lot of very interesting results in this paper. The increase in the rate of mistreatment is not even…
cmcclain | August 1, 2007It appears that Lockheed Martin will be building the replacement for the Alvin submersible, which I am now officially calling A2. The price for A2? WHOI awarded the contract for a reasonable $2.8 million. Call me crazy, but submersible technology must have went down in price because this seems low. Besides new submersible smell and fancy rims, A2's features will include
A larger sphere for the 3-person crew
Greater visibility for the crew
Increased payload capabilities
A 6500m verses the 4500m of A1 depth maximum
Long-range weapon capabilities
Too bad it will not be ready to help scour…
grrlscientist | July 31, 2007Now, now, now, say you, why would I go off on Google in such an unseemly manner? Well, it's really very simple. Google no longer lists any scienceblog sites in their news feed, but they still list other blogs written by liars such as Stop the ACLU, WorldNet Daily and the Discovery Institute. WTF?? I find this to be incredibly irresponsible and disingenuous for internet users everywhere. On one hand, if Google doesn't want to index ANY blogs, that's their business, but to selectively list LIAR BLOGS that peddle fact-free shit while delisting scienceblogs, which rely on news sources and…