April 30, 2007
Nail gun injuries on the rise with growth of DIY trend:
Doctors in the nation’s emergency rooms are used to seeing so-called bagel cuts — the injury that results from slicing a finger or palm instead of a bagel and is most common on weekends.
Now North Carolina researchers report that ER physicians…
April 30, 2007
Many moons ago, I presented my theory on Intelligent Falling to the scientific community in the only way recognized as valid: I posted it on the internet without any supporting evidence. Important journals like The Onion picked it up later, but it has taken longer to fulling infiltrate the ID…
April 30, 2007
Afarensis points out that Malaysia and the Philippines are making it harder to make accurate maps. The goal there is to block indigenous groups from using GPS and GIS to map their historic lands and defend their lands from developers.
A few years back there was a student here at KU who grew up in…
April 29, 2007
The inimitable John B. of Blog Meridian answered five questions posed to him on his blog, and I volunteered to do the same. His questions are above the fold, click through to see the answers:
1) Recall your first politically-sentient moment.
2) Tell a little about your research at KU in language…
April 29, 2007
While many things about the promos for "Starter Wife" bother me (the plot and the cast, for starters), I find myself simply confused by a scene in which Debra Messing's husband opens his robe and she reacts with disgust. All we can see is his hairy chest, though it's possible she's reacting to…
April 27, 2007
Via Joel Mathis, a Japanese gentleman named "Cobra" explains his dangerous hobby:
"When you get down to air sex, you've got to immerse yourself in the air sex world.
"Air sex can't be performed in half-measures," he continued. "If it is, you're only asking for trouble."
Yes, the idea is roughly the…
April 27, 2007
When Kurt Vonnegut passed away, I pointed out that the Bokononist mantra "Busy, busy, busy" is one that I find useful in my own life, especially this week. So it goes. The Kansas Guild of Bloggers, normally put online on Monday, is thus appearing on Friday, and incorporates only submissions to…
April 26, 2007
See Flock of Dodos and talk with the director on May 7 at 7:30:
Randy Olson, the filmmaker behind 'Flock of Dodos,' is the featured Watkins visiting professor, May 7-8 at Wichita State University. A question and answer panel discussion will follow the movie. Panelists will include Olson; Les…
April 26, 2007
My Scibling Shelley has gotten into and out of a bit of fuss while I've been incommunicado. She posted about a paper discussing the role of alcohol in protecting antioxidants in fruit. As so many of us have done, she posted a graph and table from the original paper to illustrate her description…
April 23, 2007
Via ThinkProgress, some thoughts on the flag at half-staff by Sergeant Jim Wilt, a piece titled "Why don’t we honor our fallen servicemembers?":
Following the deaths of 32 Virginia Tech students, the President of the United States ordered that all American flags be flown at half-staff for one week…
April 23, 2007
As we try to move towards paperless offices, one of the big challenges is finding the right way to file and organize PDFs of interesting papers, books, reports, proposals and what have you. ScienceSampler suggests using iTunes, and that's certainly not a bad idea. iTunes acquired the ability to…
April 22, 2007
Don't forget to submit to the KGB.
April 22, 2007
One of the peripheral strands in the ropy debate about framing is the question of how and whether religion ought to be part of the debate. PZ Myers advances an analogy by Larry Moran between atheists now and feminists back at some point in history. He quotes Larry saying:
Do you realize that…
April 22, 2007
Laurie David ponders Karl Rove:
How hardened and removed from reality must a person be to refuse to be touched by Sheryl Crow?
This after Sheryl Crow tried to touch his arm in a conversation about global warming during the White House Correspondents Dinner.
Crow has been traveling the nation…
April 22, 2007
In 1969, after Michael Collins brought Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin back from the moon, all three were asked to address Congress. Collins said:
During the flight of Apollo 11, in the constant sunlight between the earth and the moon, it was necessary for us to control the temperature of our…
April 21, 2007
When Michael Moore tried to ask Roger Moore what responsibility he felt to Flint, Michigan, he got a simple answer. I'll get the same answer if I suggest that media companies like NBC ought to invest more heavily in public service programming (for instance by dropping Imus and his imitators), that…
April 21, 2007
Brad Delong compels me, as if he had glued my eyes open, to consider Mickey Kaus. What mere words could have this effect on me? Simple:
on Monday Mickey Kaus saddled up and rode to the defense of the Bushie practice of having flacks censor scientists--specifically, of George Deutsch's…
April 20, 2007
Justice Kennedy conceded that "we find no reliable data" on whether plastic surgery in general, or facelifts and hairplugs in particular, causes men emotional harm. But he said it was nonetheless "self-evident" and "unexceptional to conclude" that "some men" who choose cosmetic surgery suffer "…
April 20, 2007
It's an axiom of military life that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. It appears that our latest plans in Iraq couldn't survive contact with our allies:
Military planners have abandoned the idea that standing up Iraqi troops will enable American soldiers to start coming home soon and…
April 19, 2007
Jason objects to the claim that science is badly framed. He offers several examples in which he feels that:
it is the pleasantness of the message, not the slickness of the marketing, that is relevant.
That's the fatal flaw in the argument [by Nisbet, Mooney, etc.]. The problem isn't ineffective…
April 18, 2007
What is this photograph about?
In one setting, this is a story about water. It even says so in the top left corner. In a post about water policy or aquifers in Kansas, you'd have no trouble appreciating this as an illustration.
That isn't what I was thinking when I took the picture though.…
April 18, 2007
Ask a ScienceBlogger took a vacation a little while back, but it's back now in a new form. The last installment was hosted at Cognitive Daily, and now Thoughts from Kansas gets to answer this pressing query: "How did kissing evolve? Are humans the only primates who kiss? Why do we?"
Setting aside…
April 18, 2007
It was very cool getting to see the KC blogosphere in full effect last night. I got to meet the minds behind blogs like The Flogging of America, Dangerblog, Cubicle Gangsta, mtoast, General Blather, Sader family blog, ...JustCara, Spyder, Well Hell Michelle, and of course Death's Door.
I think I…
April 18, 2007
It appears that Overwhelming Evidence has run out.
April 17, 2007
Zachary Moore attended the DI's Darwin vs. Design traveling show. He got an interesting insight while chatting with Todd Norquist, of the DI's Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture:
I asked him how many of these conferences were planned by the Discovery Institute, and he seemed hesitant,…
April 17, 2007
Stay Red Kansas couldn't write about guns yesterday because, well, there was a massive shooting:
Today, Stay Red had planned to discuss Governor Sebelius' unnecessary veto of the House's firearm legislation. Due to the previously referenced events, we felt it appropriate to move today's coverage to…
April 17, 2007
Ohio IDNet's Roddy Bullock has written a novel:
If you ever wished for a fun way to learn about intelligent design, here it is . . . Written for readers of all ages, the updated second edition of The Cave Painting is particularly suitable for high school and college students desiring to understand…
April 17, 2007
The LA Times won the explanatory reporting prize for a 5 part series on ocean pollution:
The five-part "Altered Oceans" project, headed by environmental reporter Kenneth R. Weiss, revealed how mankind has choked the oceans with trash, nitrogen, carbon and other pollutants — killing sea life, making…
April 17, 2007
Matt Stoller is feeling good about Tax Day:
I am proud to pay taxes because I take pride in America, and paying some tiny burden to keep our society running is an extremely small price to pay for being able to call myself an American citizen. The old expression 'you get what you pay for' is apt…
April 16, 2007
Juliet Eilperin reports :
Interior Department officials -- who have maintained for months that they did not analyze how human activities were affecting Arctic warming and endangering polar bears' survival -- completed a review examining studies of this very subject less than a week before proposing…
