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cortex | December 1, 2006It's one of those tired cliches: Bush makes decisions with his irrational "gut instincts," instead of relying on "careful analysis". Paul Krugman, in today's Times, end his columns by repeating this cliche:
Luckily, we've got good leadership for the coming storm: the White House is occupied by a man who's ideologically flexible, listens to a wide variety of views, and understands that policy has to be based on careful analysis, not gut instincts. Oh, wait.
That's what an economist would say. Classic economics assumes that everybody - even George Bush - is capable of rationally analyzing a…
grrlscientist | November 30, 2006Do you need a little laughter in your life, especially after the recent election and because the holidaze are bearing down upon us like a runaway locomotive? Well, look no further because the carnival of satire is available for your reading pleasure.
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tags: blog carvinal, satire
grrlscientist | November 30, 2006
Mary Ann at Five Wells is hosting the current issue of I and the Bird, issue #37. This is a blog carnival that celebrates the best writing about birds in the blogosphere.
Do you write about birds or birding? Don't keep your passion to yourself. The next I and the Bird will be hosted by none other than Duncan of Ben Cruachan Blog. If you wish to be a part of this historic event (and how could you not?) send your link and summary to Duncan ( djfraser AT bencruachan-dot-org) by December 12 for publication on the 14th.
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tags: blog carvinal, birds
sb admin | November 30, 2006Â by PotomacFeverish
 What is on the agenda for science during the last 2 years of this Administration? Many believe that with the change in Congress, now we can relax regarding the abuse of science that we have seen in recent years. The scientific community needs to be aware that much of the actions taken by the Executive Branch cannot be blocked by Congress, at least not in the short term. Every administration has made promises, and they often endeavor to come through on these promises during the last few years (or even the last few months) of their term of office. Thatâs not…
grrlscientist | November 30, 2006
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Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
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tags: finland, donald+duck. weird facts
grrlscientist | November 30, 2006I remember this fine word from the GRE exam from a dozen years ago, but I haven't seen it since, until now, thanks to The Republican War on Science, by my friend and fellow SciBling, Chris Mooney. This book was recently released in the more affordable trade paperback. If you haven't read this book yet, now is the time (I've read it once already in hard-cover, but never reviewed it, so I am going to rectify that oversight in the near future by reviewing this updated paperback).
Contretemps (KON-truh-tahn; Fr. kawntruh-tahn) [Origin: 1675-85; French, equivalent to contre- counter- + temps time…
apalazzo | November 30, 2006I forgot to bring this up yesterday. Science conducted a review of it's publishing practices (due to the whole cloning affair). Honestly it would have been hard for them to have prevented this. In the end the best check on a scientist's work is reproducibility. But the review board did recommend something I like very much. From a NY Times article in yesterday's paper:
... authors should specify their individual contributions to a paper, a reform aimed at Dr. Hwang's stratagem of allowing another researcher, Gerald Schatten of the University of Pittsburgh, to be lead author of one of the…
grrlscientist | November 29, 2006I found the most amazing story about an astronomical calculator that is the earliest discovered device known to contain an intricate set of gear wheels.This amazing calculator could add, multiply, divide and subtract. It could also align the number of lunar months with years and display where the sun and the moon were in the zodiac.
"The actual astronomy is perfect for the period," said Professor Mike Edmunds, a professor of astrophysics at Cardiff University in Wales. "Our recent work has applied very modern techniques that we believe have now revealed what its actual functions were."
This…
grrlscientist | November 29, 2006For those of you following my little drama where I am fighting my involuntary lodging in a state-run psychiatric institute, more commonly known as a nuthouse, the latest news is that my lawyer asked for another continuance so I can have witnesses appear in court on my behalf.
So instead of having a court hearing tomorrow, it has been postponed until Thursday, next week.
On one hand, I am happy about this because I am terrified of the building itself where the hearing is held and would prefer to never see it again as long as I live (it makes me feel like I am on trial for murder), but on the…
grrlscientist | November 29, 2006
A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
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tags: raisin, champagne. weird facts
grrlscientist | November 29, 2006A friend and fellow inmate here at the nuthouse learned that I am in search of special words, so she donated this special word for me from her readings. To say the least, I absolutely love this word; it's beauty, its nuance! I love this word so much that I am going to start reading Proust! After you see this wonderful but much too rare word, you will agree that it is a very very worthy word for the day.
This word came from Swann's Way: In Search of Lost Time, Volume I by Marcel Proust (Moncrieff & Kilmartin translation).
Anfractuosity (an-frak-choo-OS-i-tee) [Origin: Latin anfrÄctuÅs(…
razib | November 29, 2006Foreign Policy has a interesting selection of charts. They show that "radicals" and "moderates" in the Muslim world are not that different. Below the fold is a chart which offers two facts
1) Radical Muslims are, on average, more educated than non-radical Muslims
2) Radical Muslims are, on average, more affluent than non-radical Muslims
Should this surprise? I don't think so. Look to the history of the United Kingdom, Protestant radicalism took root in the highly literate environs of East Anglia. Health and wealth are often conducive to religious utopianism and reformation.
grrlscientist | November 28, 2006.
The dot over the letter i is called a "tittle".
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tags: tittle, weird facts
grrlscientist | November 28, 2006Here's a cute little quiz that predicts what you will see in your Christmas stocking this year. Considering that I am unemployed and broke, I am most eager for this prediction to come true for me! We will be meeting here on 26 December to discuss the quiz results further, so be ready to share your results now, and your opinions regarding this quiz later.
You Christmas Stocking Will Be Filled with Money
You've either been really really good this year...
Or Santa is trying to pay you off!
What Will Be In Your Christmas Stocking?
purepedantry | November 28, 2006Take a fun test to see if you have an accent.
My friends periodically give me hell because I speak like a newscaster -- or that I have a "professor" voice. Anyway, now there is validation: I actually have no accent. Not shocking...I grew up in Denver. However, I was born in the South, and my Mom is from the Midwest. When I get really tired (or slightly intoxicated) it can slip back in there.
What American accent do you have?
Your Result: The Midland
"You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania…
grrlscientist | November 28, 2006A friend and fellow inmate here at the nuthouse learned that I am in search of special words, so she donated this special word for me from her readings. Even though she could not find the precise sentence it came from, the word was so spectacular that I have to share it with you despite the fact that it did not come from my own reading. Afteryou see this under-used but underused word, you will agree that it is a very very worthy word for the day, desite the fact that it is breaking my rules.
This word came from Swann's Way: In Search of Lost Time, Volume I by Marcel Proust (Moncrieff &…
cortex | November 28, 2006There's a thorough article in the Times Magazine on the persistence of the "achievment gap" in public education. The conclusion of the article is rather simple: the "achievment gap" persists due to a series of entrenched inequalities, but very good schools (and I mean very good) can actually compensate for a lot of these disadvantages. The problem, of course, is creating very good schools.
So read the whole article, if you're interested in why only 13 percent of black eighth-grade students are "proficient" in reading. I was most interested in the parts of the article that dealt with the…
tqa | November 27, 2006Today's quote comes from Alfred Russell Wallace's first paper on evolution - his 1855 paper On the Law Which Has Regulated the Introduction of Species. In addition to paving the way toward his later work on natural selection, this paper laid the foundation for an entire subdiscipline of biology: island biogeography.
Such phænomena as are exhibited by the Galapagos Islands, which contain little groups of plants and animals peculiar to themselves, but most nearly allied to those of South America, have not hitherto received any, even a conjectural explanation. The Galapagos are a volcanic…