Uncategorized
hrynyshyn | May 8, 2007There's a big problem in the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Not that it's surprising an economics report would be self-contradictory -- it's not for nothing that they call economics the dismal science. But it's a pretty big problem to sort out. Here's the conflict:
On the one hand, the authors say nuclear power, in the form of good old fashioned uranium-fission reactors, could supply 18 per of the cuts necessary to stabilize greenhouse gas levels and consequently global temperature averages. On the other, it suggests that costs of stabilization will amount…
nisbetmc | May 8, 2007In her book Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion, William & Mary anthropology professor Barbara J. King argues that religion is not so much a cognitively-derived belief system but rather rooted in social/emotional connections and actions. She studies chimpanzees and gorillas as a way to observe clues as to how our earliest human ancestors, via rudimentary language and social interaction, set the foundations for what would later become religion. (See this Salon.com interview for more.)
As an expert in language and culture, and as a scientist-turned-popular author,…
cmcclain | May 8, 2007In case you missed the link for the mp3 of A Marine Biologist. Here it is. Make sure you visit Darkest of the Hillside Thickets myspace page as well. You can beat these lyrics. Hopefully they will post the full set of them soon!
cmcclain | May 8, 2007Let's face it Marine Biologists are the rock stars of science not gene jocks , chem nerds, math geeks* but marine biologist. Finally, someone is going to give us our due credit.
*all who I rely on weekly
Marine biologist footage needed for rock video
Are you a marine biologist? Do you want to be in a rock video?
Hello all, this is Toren Atkinson, science lover and lead singer for the Lovecraftian rock band, The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets. You may, at http://www.thickets.net/toren/darkestofthehillsidethickets.mp3 or http://www.myspace.com/darkestofthehillsidethickets listen to/…
cmcclain | May 8, 2007
When I was a kid I had the best set of Return of the Jedi bed linens and curtains. I had a matching waste basket even. I loved those. As an adult I find it hard to get excited about bed linens. However, I really wish this set came in king. Maybe my wife and I get separate single beds so I can have these? Spooning my wife or sheets with Cephalopods and submarines...tough decision.
pharyngula | May 8, 2007I was sent a link to this editorial by the science-fiction writer, Ben Bova. I like part of the sentiment, where he's arguing that it's worth the effort to try and change the world, but a substantial part of it bugs me.
The most prescient — and chilling — of all the science fiction stories ever written, though, is "The Marching Morons," by Cyril M. Kornbluth, first published in 1951. It should be required reading in every school on Earth.
The point that Kornbluth makes is simple, and scary: dumbbells have more children than geniuses. In "The Marching Morons" he carries that idea to its…
cmcclain | May 7, 2007 Rick Macpherson over at the unusually named Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice, and Sunsets has an excellent post on why you should think twice about stepping aboard for fun and sun on a cruise ship. He details the new uber cruise ships, the Genesis Class and thier/your potential to kill off the places you love. In case you are not in the know, Royal Caribbean has announced it will build cruising's biggest ship ever with the development of a 220,000-ton, 5,400-passenger ship (43% bigger the Freedom Class, e.g. Freedom of the Seas , that debutset last June). The price tag ~1.5 billion dollars and…
grrlscientist | May 7, 2007tags: blog carnival, family life
The first anniversary edition of the Carnival of Family Life is now available for your reading enjoyment. They have 61 linked stories covering topics from family stories to finances, from great outdoor ideas to humor.
mixingmemory | May 7, 2007The story of research on linguistic relativity can be summarized thusly: early cognitive scientists, inspired by the work of Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf, were all-too eager to find that thought is influenced, if not determined, by language (either by its grammatical categories, ala Whorf, or by the words we use). Their enthusiasm caused them to get greedy, and instead of starting simple, they went straight to perceptual properties that are sorted out very early in visual perception. If the perception of such properties could be shown to have top-down influences (like linguistic influences…
cmcclain | May 7, 2007
The Challenger expedition of 1872-76 marks the transition form Victorian to modern science: from the world of the gentleman naturalist to the of Big Science, with its requisite institutional, collaborative and multidisciplinary framework and national funding support
-Koslow in The Silent Deep
Out of this 3.5 year, 69,000 mile expedition came 50 volumes of numerous pages covering every known phylum of organisms collected during the trip. Yesterday a reader noted, and I very excited to pass on, a link for the Challenger Reports. This online gift is the full 50…
cmcclain | May 7, 2007At the end of May, I will be out to sea! But alas never fear, because my dedication to the DSN reader is great! I will be blogging from sea about my daily exploits and pictures from the cruise. Stay tuned for the dates and link to the MBARI website.
denialism | May 7, 2007I should just feed every xkcd straight into the scienceblogs.
Luckily they believe in CC.
grrlscientist | May 6, 2007Panta Rei is a new bi-weekly blog carnival that covers different scientific topic areas for each carnival, alternating between physical, chemical, and life sciences, and mathematics. The upcoming Panta Rei edition #5 will specifically cover all topics related to chemical sciences. It will be hosted at Nonoscience on May 14, 2007. Send in your best Chemistry related entries now.
apalazzo | May 6, 2007So apparently I'm a month late on this item.
*** CORRECTION ***
Keepon was developed by Dr. Kozima and Dr. Nakagawa at NICT in Japan (see comments). Marek Michalowski, a robotics student at Carnegie Mellon University, has developed the rhythm recognition, hence his thesis:
the use of rhythm in human-robot social interaction.
Michalowski did not develop the robot per se. Sorry 'bout that.
*** END OF CORRECTION ***
What is Keepon? Here is a taste:
But this robot not only responds to audio stimulation. Watch how it responds to various visual stimuli:
To get a sense of how Keepon works, here…
cmcclain | May 5, 2007From ABCNews...
The 20 countries meeting in Chile agreed to impose the restrictions from October until a full scientific study can be undertaken on the effects of bottom trawling.China, the United States, France, Japan, Chile and South Korea were among the countries signing the agreement. Russia however did not sign and says it will continue fishing in the same way.
Мы мать Россия! Мы будем делать то, что мы чертовски хорошо пожалуйста!
grrlscientist | May 5, 2007tags: date, wow
At three minutes and four seconds after 2 AM on the 6th of May this year, the time and date will be 02:03:04 05/06/07. This will never happen again.
denialism | May 4, 2007I'm turning on moderation since the 9/11 truthers have shown up and desire to show me how they're not cranks by hijacking threads and linking their conspiracy sites.
Sorry about that. But I don't think it's a valuable use of time to argue with cranks. I also won't accept comments that are just drive-by trollings, or thread hijacks.
If my commenters want to take them on, that's fine, but I have a limited tolerance for futile endeavors.
After the weekend (Chris and I don't blog much on Saturday and Sunday) when I can monitor things more closely I'll take moderation off.
cmcclain | May 4, 2007
As part of the Gutenberg Project to make available copyright-free (i.e. old) books available in print online, I came across Within the Deep by R. Cadwallader Smith as part of Cassell's "Eyes and No Eyes" Series Book VIII. I have no idea to the original print date but I am guessing mid to late 1800s by the look of the plates and figures. I really love and admire old texts, especially those many figures as does this one. The art was so descriptive and inspiring then, before the age of computer animation.
The lessons, or chaptes, include such grand subjects as:
Fish For Breakfast
The…
cmcclain | May 4, 2007
Charles Messing graciously shared these pictures with DSN of crawling crinoids. You can see the full movie here.
Cenocrinus asterius, a larger species, in the process of crawling up a roch off of Grand Cayman Island at about 228m
Neocrinus decorus in normal feeding posture at the study site in the Bahamas where the creeping specimen was photgraphed
grrlscientist | May 3, 2007tags: blog carnival, birds
The 48th issue of the blog carnival, I and the Bird is available for your reading pleasure. This, as usual, is a big carnival and should keep you busy reading for at least a week. As an added bonus, there are two pieces from me included in this issue .. not sure how I snuck in two of my many submissions, but I am pleased by this nonetheless!