Quick Picks on ScienceBlogs, July 25

Today on ScienceBlogs:

• The Chronicle of Higher Education is running a symposium on the benefits of academic blogging
• When vocalizing, rhesus macaques use regions of the brain that correspond to language centers in the human brain
• A medical anthropologist in Minnesota undertakes a study "to examine the ways in which ideas about everyday life in American society are shaped by and shape ideas about sleep"
• Why Indonesia's bird flu policy should make you nervous
• Is science just 'common sense' writ large?
• The math of zero
• What's the difference between carbon dioxide and the common housefly? (Hint: it's which one we're trying harder to get rid of)
• Viva La Evolucion! The most boring woman on Earth on the science and math roots of The Simpsons