retrospectacle
Posts by this author
August 29, 2006
From the Wall Street Journal:
In the unending quest for a miracle diet pill, Americans are trying an array of prescription drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat a variety of illnesses. None of them have been approved as diet drugs -- but for many, weight loss is a side effect…
August 28, 2006
According to this Yahoo news release, John Mark Karr won't be charged in the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, leaving the 10 year old murder case still unsolved. (Hat tip to somnilista, FCD.)
Colorado prosecutors won't charge schoolteacher John Mark Karr with the murder of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey…
August 28, 2006
Uh-uh girrrrllll, I know you didn't! This just makes me downright ashamed of America:
U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris told a religious journal that separation of church and state is "a lie" and God and the nation's founding fathers did not intend the country be "a nation of secular laws."
The Republican…
August 28, 2006
Link
Save Pluto
Link
Link
How about:
"Pluto is For Lovers"
"Pluto: Voted Off the Solar System"
"I'd Rather Be an Asteroid Anyway. No, Really!"
"Sorry, We Just Had to Make it A Nice Even Number of Planets."
"One Word: Planet"
Off Topic: Everyone go see Beerfest! I saw it this weekend and it was…
August 28, 2006
The 2006 Society for Neuroscience Meeting is approaching (in October), and I just wanted to repost this about the Dalai Lama's speech at SFN last year, from the "archives."
First, this post is a summary of online accounts from people that heard the Dalai Lama's speech at the Society for…
August 26, 2006
According to a recent CNN article, a federal judge recently stuck down the Bush administration's request that the laws surrounding pesticide use be relaxed. Yes, they want MORE pesticides and more liberal use of them. I usually stop myself short when I'm tempted to say that the Bush admin hurts…
August 25, 2006
A few days ago, I issued a challenge to my fellow ScienceBloggers:
"Are you for or against the death penalty, or (if its conditional), in what cases? Furthermore, do you believe that societies that sanction war are hypocritical for opposing the death penalty?"
Quite a few of my esteemed cohort…
August 25, 2006
The concept of "zero" is a tricky one, as it denotes an appreciation of what nothingness is. Although quite a few species have demonstrated a recognition of numbers (monkeys, pigeons, rats, dolphins, crows, lions, among others) and a few have demonstrated rudimentary counting skills (higher apes…
August 24, 2006
Water is good for a lot of things, from quenching your thirst to reducing the BO levels of your scuzzy roommate. But recent work from the University of Michigan, to be published next week in PNAS, shows that water is also an essential part of a type of cell enzyme called a ribozyme. Ribozymes…
August 23, 2006
Ok, this isn't much of a post at all, except to direct you all over to Dr. Bushwell's abode to read this bit of unmitigated hilarity.
Some people should just be denied internet access. Although, how would we bloggers stay entertained?
I also just noticed that I've made two unabashed references to…
August 23, 2006
Orac of Respectful Insolence is on vacation this week, and in the hiatus is posting some "classic" Insolence from the old blog. In his absence, I feel the need to continue the fight against woo (and also, I happened to receive this story via email---Hat tip Darkman).
The 35-year-old high school…
August 22, 2006
Ugh, in a few short hours (8am Wednesday) I'll be under the nitrous gas at the dentist. I really hope I don't get loopier than absolutely necessary, as I *do* need to go to lab today/tomorrow.
As to what I'm getting done, well just a simple teeth cleaning.
Why nitrous for a silly cleaning, you may…
August 22, 2006
As reported in Forbes, many pro-stem cell billionaires are picking up the cause and heavily donating to research projects to develop stem cell therapies. Following the Bush Administration's further constraints of funding, and limited federal stem cell lines (which now contain a woeful number of…
August 21, 2006
So, similar to how the guys over at the World's Fair have posed us ScienceBloggers with a couple questions, I have one of my own that I hope my brethern will undertake to answer:
"Are you for or against the death penalty, or (if its conditional), in what cases? Furthermore, do you believe that…
August 21, 2006
It is truly a challenge to write both scientifically, informatively, and accessibly. However, Christiane Nusslein-Volhard is able to strike a remarkable balance in her new book on developmental biology, Coming to Life. She succinctly summarizes crucial discoveries and experiments in the field,…
August 20, 2006
Welcome to the 5th edition of The Synapse, ScienceBlog's home-grown carnival on all things Neuro! Glad to see this carnival, much like a precocious child or bad hair day, is growing up and gaining a life of its own. Thanks to all that submitted, we've got a smorgasbord of neural delights for your…
August 18, 2006
I have submitted to Tangled Bank (Landis testoterone article) and Grand Rounds (hair cell regeneration), and both have snubbed me. Hmph.
August 18, 2006
At 16 years old, kids can drive a car, but can they make decisions regarding their health? This is a topic which interests me---a month ago I blogged about the topic in reference to a child whose parents had involved him in a circumcision lawsuit. When exactly are children old enough to determine…
August 18, 2006
I wasn't really tagged per se, but I'm going to participate anyway. :P
The rules: "Go here and look through random quotes until you find 5 that you think reflect who you are or what you believe."
Ok, here's my 5:
We are bits of stellar matter that got cold by accident, bits of a star gone wrong.…
August 18, 2006
First off, some exciting news for Grey Matters: Dr. Irene Pepperberg has agreed to do an interview for the series, likely in September.
Today's feature on Grey Matters is regarding the neural architecture underlying the learning and memorization of songs and sounds in birds. Hopefully it will…
August 17, 2006
From Montgomery Gentry's website (Hat tip to jc):
Troy is accused of conspiring with a professional hunting guide to improperly fill out a hunting tag. To back up this charge, the indictment claims that Troy shot a tamed bear in a cage, then made a video to appear that he did not shoot the bear…
August 17, 2006
Scientists find "brain evolution gene" !!!
Looking at 49 areas that have changed the most between the human and chimpanzee genomes, Haussler zeroed in on an area with "a very dramatic change in a relatively short period of time."
That one gene didn't exist until 300 million years ago and is present…
August 17, 2006
Humans can really piss me off sometimes. For example, Jake over at Pure Pedantry blogged about how some really short-sighted, selfish people are stripping slippery elms of their bark, which inevitably kills them, to sell as "medicine."
Well perhaps I can even top that:
A "country star" Troy Lee…
August 16, 2006
I've always had a passing interest in the JonBenet Ramsey case. Mostly because I thought her parents were demonized by the media, driving then from their home in Colorado, and her mother to an early grave.
Now, it seems they have perhaps found the true killer years later, in Thailand.
A law…
August 16, 2006
We SciBloggers were posed with this question:
To what extent do you worry about AIDS, either with respect to yourself, your children, or the world at large?
Here's what really worries me about AIDS (from the old Retrospectacle):
The Federal Chief of AIDS research recently said that he believed that…
August 16, 2006
Steinn over at The Dynamics of Cats brought my attention to an interesting topic intially broached over at Bitch PhD. That issue is a little pet peeve of mine: the representation of women in media, advertising, and entertainment. Specifically, guest blogger No_Nym asks:
Am I the only one who thinks…
August 15, 2006
I don't really understand why I'm in love with this geriatric blogger on YouTube, but I so am. For one, his handle is Geriatric1927 (makes him 79!), he's got the cutest English accent, and he confirms that "Yes, I am as old as I look."
I don't really know what Tuesday with Morrie was about, but I…
August 15, 2006
In a recent article on CNN, it was mentioned that while GPS navigation is becoming quite "the" thing to have, London cabbies want none of it. GPS systems were just allowed into cabs earlier this year, but very few drivers have opted for them; they prefer to rely on their own memory rather than any…
August 15, 2006
As I have mentioned before, I'm going to Europe next month----flying into France and out of Amsterdam.
I want your input specifically on what places to hit in Amsterdam, if ya got 'em.
Stories? Tell me!!
Great restaurants? Lemme know!
Things to see/places to avoid?
And, what I'm really looking for…