pzminion

Guest Blogger Danio, one last time: Part I Part II Part III The current standard of pediatric care mandating that all newborns undergo hearing screenings has been applied successfully throughout much of the industrialized world. Early identification of hearing impairments gives valuable lead-time…

Guest Blogger Danio, sneaking a few more posts in: Remember that execrable HHS policy document that proposes an extension of the current protections for health care workers who refuse to provide or assist in treatments that they personally find morally objectionable? I did a little back-tracking…

CNN has a poll in need of Pharyngulisation: "Do you believe God's intervention could save a family member even if doctors say treatment would be futile?" Naturally, 'God' is an assumed reality in this scenario. Go crash that bastard. ~Danio

Guest Blogger Danio: The time has come to delve into the retinal component of Usher syndrome. In Part II, I briefly described the results of protein localization studies, in which most members of the Usher cohort were found at the connecting cilium of the photoreceptor and at the photoreceptor…

Canoe's recent poll asks: Do you believe physicians should have the right to refuse medical treatment if it is against their beliefs? Scroll down to the bottom of the right hand side of the page to find the poll. To clarify, as it's been brought up that this is a poorly worded poll: based on the…

LisaJ here again. Wow. Now here's a story that just disturbed me to no end. Little Javon Thompson's mother, 21 year old Ria Ramkissoon, became a Christian at a young age, but when her local pastor disappointed her by pleading guilty to molesting young boys, she left her church and was taken in…

MAJeff here. LisaJ's Danio's (hangover error) posts about Usher Disease (I and II), as well as my own syllabus preparation for the upcoming semester, have gotten me thinking about issues of intersexuality. In particular, her noting of the geographic issues related to the prevalence of various…

OK, I'm sure you're all dying to crash a poll that really needs it. I've seen a bunch of you begging for this one in the comments of the last few posts. So here it is... msnbc asks: Should the phrase 'In God we Trust' be removed from US currency? Right now the poll is at 49% yes, and 51% no.…

Some more pure science from guest blogger LisaJ: Everyone seems to love a little Sonic Hedgehog around here. Whenever PZ discusses another function that this fascinating gene is capable of, much excitement ensues in the comment posts. So I thought I would take this opportunity to talk a bit about…

Johann Hari had a great piece in the Independent this week (with follow-up blog posts here and here) about increasing scrutiny of religion in general, and of Islam in particular. An author named Sherry Jones has written a book, called The Jewel of Medina, that will never see the light of day…

Imagine you're a paleontologist, digging through the Sahara desert looking for dinosaur bones and you stumble, instead, upon this wondrous find: That's exactly what happened to Paleontologist Paul Sereno and his team back in 2000, and they have announced their findings from their excavations of…

Guest Blogger Danio: I know, I know. Friday night isn't exactly the best time to smack you with a big messy fistful of science, but PZ will be kicking us Minions out of the house early next week, so I have to stay on schedule with these Usher posts if I'm going to get through Part IV by the time…

Sastra here, with a quick reminder to those who are going to Long Beach, California to hear PZ Myers speak at the upcoming Atheist Alliance International Convention that's coming up for the weekend of September 25th - 28th : the discounted convention rate for the Queen Mary expires August 26th, and…

MAJeff here, getting all gay and stuff. It's been a pretty big year for LGBT folks in the U.S. A couple weeks ago, the state in which I live repealed a law enacted during the height of anti-miscegination activity, and is now allowing same-sex couples from anywhere to marry here. Prior to that,…

A ne pas manquer: Cephalopods strike back! My favorite part is when they 'ink' the antagonist. ____________________________________________ Zut alors! I forgot to identify myself as Danieau

Here's an awesome video of the most recent solar eclipse that took place a couple of weeks ago. This group was lucky enough to witness the eclipse from their airplane seats! You can see the eclipse pretty much from start to finish. Wait it out until the end, because it's an amazing view when the…

Guestblogger Sastra checking in: A few years back the little Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in my area asked me to give a brief talk (!) on the topic of my choice. Seems they were looking for speakers, any speaker, and had noticed that I tend to talk a lot. So I considered the sorts of things…

MAJeff with your morning weather. My dad took this picture and sent it to me last weekend. It's a cold water air funnel. I thought it was cool, so I'm sharing it When I first saw the picture, my reaction was, "OH, NO!" A couple summers ago, my dad's business was hit by a tornado. As he tells it,…

Guest Blogger Danio: In my introductory post I mentioned that my research focuses on the genetics of hereditary deaf-blindness, specifically Usher syndrome. As it's likely that many of you have never heard of it, I thought I'd kick it up a notch with some sciency posts on what we know about Usher…

My first of several posts about sensory cell neurobiology will be appearing shortly. To get you warmed up, here's a movie showing a mechanosensory hair cell responding to a low frequency sound played through the glass pipette you can see in the image. *Caution*: low frequency sound may not be…

Brought to you by guest blogger LisaJ: Canada lost two soldiers serving in Afghanistan this week. This marks the 89th and 90th Canadian soldier to be killed since starting our peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan in 2002. Master Corporal Josh Roberts leaves behind his fiancé in Manitoba, and…

Guest blogger Sastra: When I log into Pharyngula, as a matter of habit I usually glance at the little Recent Comment bar on the side, to see who has just responded to what. It helps to show which threads are particularly lively at the moment. Every now and then there's someone responding to an "old…

MAJeff here with his espresso. A few years ago, when I was teaching back in Minnesota, there was a group of us first-year faculty who got together every Wednesday night for beer, pool, and chat. We had to switch bars a couple times--once because some folks weren't feeling very comfortable with the…

Guest Blogger Danio: When I began to seriously question organized religion, years ago, it didn't take long to conclude that the myths I had been taught as a child were no more tractable than any of the other thousands of belief systems that have come and gone throughout human history. While I…

Here's the open thread for comments about the Evolve episode on the History Channel-or anything else you'd like to chat about. And here's a classic post by PZ on the subject of vertebrate jaw evolution, just to get you warmed up. Enjoy! ~Danio

Guest Blogger Danio: Orac has posted a directive from the Seed Overlords regarding a survey they'd like us to conduct. As my distinctiveness has been temporarily added to the collective (I'll be implanting the "sleep" command into their subroutines next week though, oh yes...) I am dutifully…

Guest Blogger Danio: Stand up and cheer for the academic standards at UC, and the LA Federal Judge whose ruling on accrediting courses taught in Christian schools upholds these standards. A federal judge in Los Angeles has thrown out the remaining claims of Calvary Chapel Christian School, which…

Posted by LisaJ I find it astounding in this day and age, with the many grand scientific discoveries and advances we've seen and in our increasingly technologically dependent world, that a large proportion of our population (at least in Canada and the US, with which I have more personal experience…

I'm a little brain-dead this morning, but at least I'm remembering to note that it's MAJeff writing this. I'll be better once I have my coffee, I hope. I spent all day yesterday immersed in job hunting materials. Prepping files for submission, organizing application materials, creating individual…

PZ has been live-blogging the new "Evolve" series on the History Channel since it began a few weeks ago. This week's episode is on the evolution of jaws, and should be a good one. Alas, none of the Minions will be able to live-blog the program, but I will post an 'Evolve' open thread in time for…