purepedantry
Posts by this author
November 7, 2006
I know this is kind of old news, but some people have taken issue with the Stern Report -- a report about the economic consequences of global warming.
Some of the people taking issue are those who are still skeptical that global warming is real. But some who are taking issue question the validity…
November 7, 2006
Wow. That is not something you hear everyday:
Australian scientists unveiled three test-tube koala joeys on Monday as part of an artificial insemination program to preserve the vulnerable mammal.
The scientists said the program would lead to the creation of the world's first koala sperm bank,…
November 7, 2006
Bad teaching is one of my pet peeves, but I go back and forth on PowerPoint. I think its egregious abuse most of its users shouldn't necessarily bring a cloud on the whole program -- sometimes it is used effectively. Still most people are not using it correctly, in a way that facilitates good…
November 6, 2006
Eugene Volokh has written an article in the Harvard Law Review arguing that abortion is constitutional. This is not shocking. The Supreme Court has made clear that abortion is constitutional. However, he is arguing -- rather than from the point of view of right to privacy -- abortion to save a…
November 5, 2006
DNA Artistry will make a special piece of art from your DNA:
DNA-Artistry: The Art of Science -- creating one-of-a-kind genetic portraits.
DNA-Artistry gives new meaning to the term "original art." It's a self-portrait that's as individual - and unique - as you are. DNA-Artistry uses the science of…
November 5, 2006
In the upcoming election, immigration is likely to be a big issue.
The wisdom and expanse of legal immigration notwithstanding -- I tend to favor the widest possible on both humanitarian and economic grounds -- it is good to remember that the distinction between the natives (unless of course you…
November 5, 2006
George Will summarizes the races of interest in the upcoming election:
Four years ago all eight Mountain West states -- Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming -- had Republican governors. If Democrat Bill Ritter wins Colorado's governorship, Democrats will hold five…
November 5, 2006
Shelley Batts, fellow ScienceBlogger and proprietor of Retrospectacle, is applying for a blogging scholarship -- which I didn't even know existed until now. Unfortunately it is kind of a popularity contest using web voting to determine the outcome. Right now the PoliSci people (gasp) are winning…
November 2, 2006
In my previous post arguing for the relatively large psychological similarity between men and women -- in great contrast to the public conception -- I drew heavily on the work of Janet Hyde, a professor of Psychology at Berkeley.
Now Janet Hyde and Marcia Linn have published an editorial and review…
November 2, 2006
I'm excited about Borat. Are you excited? I'm excited.
Anyway for those of you who haven't seen them, here are the two trailers for it on YouTube:
And here is a link to the Borat MySpace page which also totally cracks me up:
Age - for 23 harvests I have had hair on pubis.
Zodiac Sign - the…
November 1, 2006
Whatever you think about Michael Barone's personal views, he knows more about the history of American politics than any man alive. Here is an article he wrote in the WSJ about the history of party changes in Congress during second-term off-year elections. Interesting stuff. Money quote:
All of…
November 1, 2006
Here is just a brief appeal to go out and vote. Particularly if you are young person, there is a lot out there about which we should care. Politicians will never listen to us unless we can convince them that we are willing to go out and vote in large numbers -- and the statistics show that we…
November 1, 2006
I am taking off my scientist hat and putting on my citizen hat. (For explanations of these two hats, read my previous post.)
The defining issue for me and most people in the coming election is the war on Iraq.
I can tell you that at the beginning I was a supporter of US intervention in Iraq at…
November 1, 2006
There is an election coming up. Hopefully this is not a shocking revelation for most people. Frankly, it seems like everyone not in a medically-induced coma for the past three months has spent every waking moment bloviating about it.
The scientists too have come out in force. If you don't…
October 31, 2006
In August, there was a big press tizzy about so-called ethical stem cells. In the paper, a group headed by Robert Lanza working at a company called Advanced Cell Technology claimed that they could take a single cell from a human morula and create a embryonic stem cell line from that cell.…
October 30, 2006
Synapse #10 is Halloween-themed and posted at the Neurocritic. Spooky. I love it.
The next Synapse is on November 12 to be hosted on Developing Intelligence. Submission info here.
October 30, 2006
Check out this YouTube of bullets explodying things (is that even a word?) in slow motion!!!
October 30, 2006
The famous skeleton of an Australopithecus afarensis nicknamed Lucy is going on a field trip:
After 4 years of an on-again, off-again courtship, Ethiopian officials have promised the hand--and partial skeleton--of the famous fossil Lucy to museum officials in Houston, Texas. The 3.1 million-year-…
October 28, 2006
Keeping in my continuing theme of interspersing a little humanities with my sciences -- I never was a kid who needed their food separated -- here is your poem of the week, Langston Hughes' Theme for English B.
A little note on why: you can't live in New York and not feel entangled with others --…
October 28, 2006
I'm a space cadet, but remember to submit to the Synapse today for tomorrow's issue. It is being hosted at the Neurocritic (All glory to the Hypnotoad!!!...Check the link...you will understand). Submission details here.
October 27, 2006
I have argued repeatedly that I don't think biological differences between men and women are sufficient to explain their different in representation in math and science (here, here, and here). Mixing Memory has a very thorough post arguing for the other side of the coin -- how stereotypes can…
October 27, 2006
I don't really have time to post stuff today, but this post by Chad at Uncertain Principles is really good. It relates the failure to fully disprove Einstein's idea of Local Hidden Variables (read it and he will explain) to Richard Dawkins failure to fully address ontological arguments for the…
October 26, 2006
I hadn't actually known this, but the creator of the Dilbert cartoons, Scott Adams, was diagnosed about two years ago with a rare disease called spasmodic dysphonia. Apparently he just recovered -- in spite of overwhelming odds against that happening.
First a bit about spasmodic dysphonia.…
October 25, 2006
Virtual colonoscopy is more comfortable. Just thought you should know:
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center researchers have found that "virtual" colonoscopy using a computer tomography (CT) scanner is considerably more expensive than the traditional procedure due to the detection of…
October 25, 2006
Hot. This is article is too funny:
From bonobo chimpanzees to fruit flies, many female animals mate with multiple partners that often queue up for the event. Studies have shown that the the last male to mate with a female is the most successful at impregnating her. Nobody has understood why.
The…
October 24, 2006
New Scientist is reporting on a movement among some scientists to replace the word "cloning" with "somatic cell nuclear transfer":
Don't say cloning, say somatic cell nuclear transfer. That at least is the view of biologists who want the term to be used instead of "therapeutic cloning" to describe…
October 24, 2006
Edmund Phelps -- recent winner of the Nobel Prize in economics -- defends the moral rightness and the economic wisdom of the capitalist system in this essay in the WSJ:
There are two economic systems in the West. Several nations--including the U.S., Canada and the U.K.--have a private-ownership…
October 23, 2006
News@Nature has another fabulous North Korea science update:
What more have we learned about last week's North Korean test?
Scientists have been able to confirm that it was indeed a nuclear weapon. US intelligence is reporting that the explosive force of the bomb was less than a kiloton of TNT, and…
October 23, 2006
Ask a ScienceBlogger inquires:
What's the best science TV show of all time?...
I think that is pretty obvious. The answer is obviously my favorite science show from when I was a kid: 3-2-1 Contact
Not only did it have the best do-it-yourself science for young people, but it had a great 80s science…