Uncategorized
grrlscientist | July 6, 2007tags: skeptic, online quiz
You Are Very Skeptical
Your personal motto is: "Prove it."
While some ideas, like life after death, may seem nice...
You aren't going to believe them simply because it feels good.
You let science and facts be your guide... Even if it means you don't share the beliefs of those around you.
How Skeptical Are You?
cmcclain | July 5, 2007
Near my ol' neck of the woods, a boat captain photographed this albino bottleneck in Calcasieu Lake, an estuary off the Gulf in southwestern Louisiana
tqa | July 5, 2007
(This is the second part of a continuing saga. Part one can be found here.)
As it turns out, I actually did get a call back from someone at Comcast today - a gentleman from the Houston office called, told me that the corporate offices had asked him to get in touch with me, and proceeded to do a fantastic job of demonstrating that it's possible to be courteous, polite, well-spoken, and totally and completely unhelpful. It seems that Comcast has firmly and irrevocably decided to put a two week moratorium into effect on new internet service in the Houston area so that they can switch former…
cmcclain | July 5, 2007You ask and we deliver. A reader requested video of the Lamalera Sperm Whale Hunt. I immediately dispersed DSN whipping boy and now blogger extraordinare to the remote island. He quickly filmed the fisherman just 30 minutes ago and uploaded this video to at Google.
chaoticutopia | July 5, 2007You’ve probably heard that the Bald Eagle was removed from the endangered species list this week. The announcement was rather timely, allowing the media to paste patriotic eagle pictures all over the place around the Fourth of July. It also came not too long after Rachel Carson’s 100th birthday. Carson, author of Silent Spring, was the driving force in saving the eagles, when she showed how pesticides were responsible for thinning raptor eggshells. She passed away several years after Silent Spring was published, so she couldn’t see the eagle’s victorious recovery. Should we be celebrating in…
cmcclain | July 5, 2007Lamalera fisherman do things the old fashion way. They track down a 75ft-long sperm whale in two small hand-made boats and battle the beast with duri flensing knives and spears. Yeah that's tough.
The whale, called Koteklema by the locals, provides numerous resources for the village.
The villagers blame lack of harmony between different clans for their lack of [recent] success. "If there is no peace among us, there will be no good whaling," said villager Anna Bataona...The people believe in the harmony between life in the sea and the island. Peace on the land makes for good hunting from…
tqa | July 5, 2007
Up to this morning, I really thought I'd be able to get some real work done on this blog over the next couple of weeks. We're moving out of the hotel and into the apartment tomorrow (finally), and I had planned to catch up on a lot of the housekeeping around here once I have regular access to things like a desk, a desk chair, my books, and the ability to throw everyone else out of the room I'm working in. Then I called Comcast to set up service.
Tried to call Comcast, I should say.
I called their 1-800-Comcast number on the 3rd, followed the automated prompts, and was routed to a call…
sb admin | July 5, 2007Four Nigerian states are suing British American Tobacco and Philip Morris to recover costs of treating smoking-related diseases. The plaintiffs charge that the companies aimed to recruit more smokers by targeting minors, using sponsorship of concerts and sporting events and free cigarette giveaways. Tosin Sulaiman in The Times (UK) reports:
The biggest increase in smoking in Nigeria has been among young people. The number of young women smokers grew tenfold between 1990 and 2001, according to the World Health Organisation.
Â
A large part of the plaintiffsâ evidence will come from the…
petnoyer | July 5, 2007
A team of marine biologists, geologists, and oceanographers studying chemosynthetic communities around hydrocarbon seeps aboard the Deep Slope Expedition 2007 research vessel RV Ron Brown successfully recovered a time-lapse camera from waters more than 2000m deep in the Gulf of Mexico.
"Life goes on in chemosynthethic communities when we're not there," says Dr. Ian MacDonald of Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. "We have to wonder what happens outside of the brief snapshot in time when we were there exploring."
Dr. MacDonald will use the information "to understand how the physical…
cmcclain | July 5, 2007
From the Honolulu Star Bulletin...
What appears to be a half-squid, half-octopus specimen found off Keahole Point on the Big Island remains unidentified today and could possibly be a new species, said local biologists. The specimen was found caught in a filter in one of Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority's deep-sea water pipelines last week. The pipeline, which runs 3,000 feet deep, sucks up cold, deep-sea water for the tenants of the natural energy lab.
Actually, Richard Young, one of the world's leading cephalopod experts, at the University of Hawaii at Manoa states the…
apalazzo | July 4, 2007I finally read the huge Nature paper that everyone has been talking about, the ENCODE project, or the encyclopedia of DNA Elements. ENCODE is a large scale concerted effort whose goal is to understand how the genome is used, maintained and conserved. In other words, what parts of the genome get translated transcribed into RNA, what do all these transcripts codes for, where are all the transcriptional start sites, what parts control gene expression (RNA production), how are histone modifications distributed across the genome, how are various DNA binding proteins distributed across the genome,…
pharyngula | July 3, 2007TR Gregory is wondering whether a blog post can do anything worthwhile … and so he's trying to encourage donations and contributions to his parents' new charitable project, The Livingstone Performing Arts Foundation. This is an effort to set up a self-sustaining institution that will benefit the people of Zambia economically, and also preserve the tradition of the arts in that country. Visit the site, and support the cause!
tqa | July 3, 2007
In the comments section of another thread over at Pandas' Thumb, I asked leading ID proponent Paul Nelson to explain why he thinks the differences between humans and chimps represent macroevolution and not microevolution. Dr. Nelson responded to my question. The terms microevolution and macroevolution are so frequently used in the context of creationism, Intelligent Design, and evolution, so I thought it might be a good idea to move the topic to a new thread.
In addition to linking to Paul's comment, I'll also reproduce it in full at the end of this post. That should make it easier for…
grrlscientist | July 3, 2007tags: writing, monomyth
As you know, I have been doing a tremendous amount of reading these past six months, which is one reason I have not published as many book reviews as usual on my blog. But throughout this intensive crash course in reading, I have noticed that there is truly nothing new under the sun in the world of writing. What I mean is this; in all of your own literary journies, have you ever noticed how all writing, whether it is non-fiction, fiction, poetry, articles and essays, or even blog writing, basically tells the same story, although usually from a different angle?
Okay, I…
grrlscientist | July 3, 2007Wow, the entire library system in Manhattan (where I hang out) was blown off the air for two long, agonizing hours. Our internet service was just restored moments ago, thank goodness, because I was ready to have a nervous breakdown.
Okay, just kidding about that. Sorta.
Anyway, I just had to gloat for a minute, especially since things seem to be looking up for me (well, things were improving yesterday, when I received not one, not two, but three positive emails about my writing, of which this was one -- but who knows what today will bring!).
I guess you're the "girlscientist." If not, pass…
grrlscientist | July 3, 2007tags: blog carnival, health
The 13th edition of the Healthy and Fit Family blog carnival is now available for you to enjoy. Be sure to go there to give them some support!
tqa | July 3, 2007
I've got CNN on right now, and I'm watching Tony Snow trying to explain to the media exactly why the President's decision to commute the sentence of Scooter Libby wasn't a political decision. It's pretty damn funny, really. The transcript should be up on the White House website shortly. If you want a quick laugh, be sure to check it out.
nisbetmc | July 3, 2007
Across the Atlantic, it's a parallel universe when it comes to a focus on framing and its political uses. While here in the States, liberals have decried the use of framing tactics by conservatives to shift the political landscape, it was Tony Blair's New Labour government that is credited with pioneering the use of framing in order to better engage the public. Over the weekend, NPR's On the Media looked back at Blair's communication strategy with his longtime strategist Alastair Campbell. (Note: On the Media now includes a blog like discussion area for each of its segments.)
cmcclain | July 3, 2007The Mining Journal reports on statements by Nautilus representatives at the Numis Mining Conference with respect to criticism levied in Science.
Norgate argued that the high percentage of copper in the seabed surrounding Papua New Guinea would mean that less 'land' would need to be disturbed to generate the same amount of copper as open cut mining. She also said that water that was brought in during the dredging process would be purified before the water was returned to the ocean, preventing toxic pollution from entering the ecosystem.
sb admin | July 3, 2007Michael Mooreâs Sicko brought in $4.5 million in its opening weekend, and it seems like anyone whoâs seen it has an opinion about the film and its subject. The WSJ health blog has compiled reviews from major newspapers; if youâre interested in blogger reactions, too, we have a few suggestions:
Merrill Goozner at GoozNews sets aside his complaints about what went into making the film to praise its emotional appeal and discuss its potential to affect the political healthcare debate:
The national discussion provoked by the film will inevitably focus on the gross failures and inequities of the U…