retrospectacle
Posts by this author
In case you haven't heard, the north and midwest has been hit by a frigid ice storm which has covered the entire city with thick layers of ice. A bit dangerous, but really beautiful to look at if you have the misfortune to be outside. The below pictures are a few that my friend Jenni took (thanks…
If Kazakhstan wants to clean up its image (remember how much they protested about "Borat"?), they might want to curb the rampant parrot-smuggling-by-Audi practices going on.
Kazakh border guards arrested a man trying to smuggle 500 parrots in his car from neighbouring Uzbekistan, media reported on…
Its a bit overdue, but I wanted to address the second point in regards to "An Inconvenient Truth"---whether or not carbon off-sets do any good and whether Al Gore is hypocritical for using jets (which pollute) to attend meetings, etc. This issue was first raised over at my SciBling's blog Stoat,…
I once had a friend who's dog, Cuddles, *loved* beer. Cuddles would beg and whine if anyone had a cold tasty brew in the room. You can imagine how that scernio usually ended up: "Hey guys, watch what Cuddles can do!" It always seemed like a waste of good (or even bad) beer to me, but apparently a…
Hillary Clinton is a smart, capable politician. Yet, she also is the cause for quite a bit of division. There's not a lot of people who are lukewarm on Mrs. Clinton, most people either love her or hate her. She's got the positive connotations from her husband's presidency on her side, yet that…
Previously I've blogged about transfat (see this for a summary of the fat), trying to consider whether a ban on the fat in New York was a question of liberty. Also I attempted to highlight just how awful this food-additive really is for your health. Another serious health concern tied to transfat…
While reading a cute (but poorly-written) human interest piece on an African Grey named Valentine, something caught my eye. The author touched upon a particular behavior that Valentine was exhibiting: babbling.
Valentine is the color of an overcast day. His tail is scarlet. He recently started…
So, I went to the Detroit Auto Show last night, which was awesome! The Auto Show is perhaps one of the coolest things about living near Detroit (and there's not many), so I usually try to go during the two weeks its open to the public. I'm a big car enthusiast, and while that interest is 99% geared…
What's a kakariki? Other than an incredibly cool-sounding name, its a kind of parrot that lives in New Zealand and thereabouts. Apparently, the red-crowned kakariki is an extremely rare subspecies, one of which has recently been spotted on the island of Maungatautari. It was once believed to be…
I came across a fascinating post over at Econobrowser about the striking correlations between a) and area's wealth and its proximity to oceans and rivers and b) an islands wealth and the time it spent as a European colony. Needless to say, both are positively correlated. Below the fold is a map of…
Earlier this week, a woman who was a contestant (for a Nintendo Wii) in a water-drinking contest died, ostensibly of water intoxication. There has been a lot of debate in the comments as to whether the radio station was culpuable and should be sued.
Well, as reported today on Yahoo, the radio…
Some things, like Hollywood plotlines and political speeches, come in tidy little packages. But what's more tidy than nature's own package--the egg? The same researchers who brought you Dolly the Sheep (TM) bring you genetically-modified chickens whose eggs (specifically, the whites) carry anti-…
There are two discussions which are going on in the ScienceBlog-osphere about Al Gore, brought to the table by my esteemed co-bloggers Framing Science and Stoat. The first is whether or not Gore's opus "An Inconvenient Truth" belongs in a science class (Framing Science argues compellingly that it…
A Blog Around the Clock's Bora (aka Coturnix) has slaved away assembling and editing the best science blog writing of 2006, with an excellent compendium to show for it. I was not able to submit (due to traveling in China and being away from email etc) to the anthology, which I am sorely sorry for…
A recent study published in J.Neuroscience by Stanwood et al. may help explain the long-term neurological effects associated with cocaine use while pregnant, the so-called "crack baby syndrome" which was of great concern in the 1980s. Prenatal exposure to cocaine is known to cause a range of…
Previously on this blog, I've criticized the European Union for continuing to allow the import of wild-caught parrots (including African Greys) which has devastated many species of rare birds. I was never sure why the EU, which his usually a trailblazer in the areas of progressive conservation, was…
A stupid radio stunt, where contestants had to keep drinking water and were not allowed to urinate, has resulted in the water intoxification death of one of the participants.
A woman who competed in a radio station's contest to see how much water she could drink without going to the bathroom died…
If you live in the Detroit area, likely this info will just serve to depress you more than you likely already are. Why might that be? Well the housing market in the big D had been notoriously crappy lately with the downturn of the auto industry and subsequent factory closings. Seems like everyone…
The worst criticism I ever received happened when I was an undergrad. I was under the mentorship of an extremely bright and competent biochemist, who today I could honestly say nothing but wonderful things about. I was being trained by her in basic molecular biology and biochemical techniques that…
Fun! Make a library card for your blog with this card generator.
I tag Razib, Abel, and OmniBrain.
There's a kerfuffle in our midst.
Fellow ScienceBlogger Dr.Charles posted a piece about John Edwards (calling him a "piss-poor presidential candidate"), which a DailyKos diarist took high offense to (now removed by the author). The diarist called Dr. Charles a coward for closing the comments to…
Dozens of assailants assaulted the Yale barber shop quartet at a party in San Francisco.
That must have been some really bad singing. Very strange......
I'm sure you've heard of it by now, as numerous blogs (from Big Fat Blog to Effect Measure to Corpus Callosum) have been buzzing with the news of Pfizer's pet obesity drug Slentrol. As a very brief re-cap, this liquid drug is administered to overweight dogs and cats to induce a sense of 'full-ness…
Watching the movie "The Good Shepherd" got me thinking about something: are truth serums real? And if so, has any been proven to work? There was a scene in TGS where a prisoner who was believed to be lying was administered LSD. Now obviously THAT wasn't a real truth serum (unless you want to hear…
Me and my friends went to see "The Good Shepard" Saturday night, a movie about the inception (and deception) of the CIA surrounding the Bay of Pigs invasion and Cold War. It was directed by/produced by Francis Ford Coppola and Robert De Niro (who also starred), with screenplay by Eric Roth of "…
As research into stem cells broadens, it seems like we're finding them in more and more places. Most recently, stem cells have been isolated from amniotic fluid. Interestingly, they possess qualities which pose as a kind of intermediary between adult and embryonic stem cells. As much as I hate…
Yes, I am a big fat nerd. I've been playing Final Fantasy 12 nearly since I woke up this morning, trying to finish all those blasted side-quests. This is pathetic! On the other hand, has anyone done any studies on endorphin release following reinforcement in gaming? You know, that little happy…
Where would college students be without the low-cost, high-sodium food product that are instant noodles? So many nights, broke as hell yet hungry......but wait! There's Ramen noodles in the pantry, or, if you feel like splurging, a whole Cup O' Noodles! As evidence that MSG, trans-fat, refined…