Department of the Drama
bioephemera | May 11, 2009This week, Nieman Journalism Lab is running a fascinating series of video interviews with the New York Times' R&D group on the possible future face of news media. I know - you're wondering why the supposedly financially moribund NYT is wasting money on nerds who play with Kindles. Who do they think they are, Google? But it might be a good strategy after all.
As Fortune and the Columbia Journalism Review recently pointed out, with outlets all around them slashing premium content (like science), the NYT's best strategy may be to instead become increasingly "elite:"
Meanwhile, the company is…
bioephemera | April 11, 2009Last night, I dreamed that I had a closet full of seriously amazing shoes, from strappy stilettos to lace-up boots. When I awoke and remembered that my closet is actually full of uncomfortable work pumps and trail runners, I was disappointed. But I knew who to blame for my dream: Isis!
Ever since Isis arrived at Scienceblogs, I've been meaning to post something about shoes. When our resident domestic and laboratory goddess saved me a couple hours of driving to and from the office on Saturday by emailing me a journal article I'd forgotten, I promised to write her a thank-you post all about…
bioephemera | March 11, 2009
As of today, SEED has a new look and a new occasional writer. . . me! ;)
See my little essay on Christopher Reiger's Synesthesia #1 here, on the culture page. Then go explore the rest of the site. . . the new design is pretty sweet. They even have a SCIART tag for pieces like mine.
bioephemera | February 25, 2009As a native of Washington State, where we could literally scoop white ash off the ground in handfuls after Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980, I have one thing to say about Bobby Jindal's totally disingenuous dig at "volcano monitoring": if geoscience is such a big waste of money, sure, let's stop monitoring volcanoes - and hurricanes, too. That okay with y'all?
I wonder what Jindal's fellow Republican governor Sarah Palin thinks of his advice, given that Alaska's Mt. Redoubt may erupt any day. . .
bioephemera | February 3, 2009In case you missed it, my Sciblings are abuzz about journalists' dismissal of Jill Biden's education.
From the LA Times:
Amy Sullivan, a religion writer for Time magazine, said she smiled when she heard the vice president's wife announced as Dr. Jill Biden during the national prayer service the day after President Obama's inauguration. "Ordinarily when someone goes by doctor and they are a PhD, not an MD, I find it a little bit obnoxious," Sullivan said.
and
"My feeling is if you can't heal the sick, we don't call you doctor," said Bill Walsh, copy desk chief for the Washington Post's A…
bioephemera | January 29, 2009
For Christmas, my friend Vanessa got me this wonderful Equal Measure measuring cup by Fred. One side gives measures in cups and ounces, along with the equivalent quantity of various granular substances (five thousand drops of water, as many grains of flour as people on the planet). The other side gives metric volumes, alongside biological volumes (half a human brain; enough corn oil to fuel a biodiesel car for three miles, amount of table salt in a large human).
If I were still teaching physiology, I'd totally be using this in lab! As it is, I may have to convert a recipe or two into T. rex…
bioephemera | January 29, 2009Sadly, Hershey has announced the immediate closing of the small Berkeley factory that, since 2001, has been the flagship of Scharffen Berger chocolate. Scharffen Berger's dark chocolates were a favorite among Bay Area residents years before it was sold to Hershey in 2005; the cozy Berkeley factory used to be open for tours and chocolate tastings (followed by obligatory hot cocoa at the cafe next door). I have many fond memories of Scharffen Berger chocolate, so this news is depressing.
To add insult to injury, Hershey is also closing the factory of Joseph Schmidt in San Francisco - a company…
bioephemera | January 21, 2009
Satellite Image by GeoEye: [1] detail showing the Capitol; [2] detail of area around the Washington Monument
I'm compensating for the shock of having to return to actual work today by looking at the GeoEye satellite images of President Obama's Inauguration. This high-res image is just fascinating!
Note that most of the people (the brown dots) are clumped around the Jumbotrons (compare with the official Jumbotron map here), but there are some interesting anomalies. I'm looking at the giant mass of people near the National Indian Museum (SE quadrant) and wondering if that is some sort of…
bioephemera | January 20, 2009
This morning we and thousands of others watched the Inauguration on a Jumbotron from the lawn in front of the Lincoln Memorial. We didn't have tickets to get into the area in front of the Capitol, but that worked out fairly well, as we didn't have to wait in long security lines in the freezing wind! The Lincoln Memorial is just over two miles from my home, there were no lines there, and it seemed like the appropriate place to watch, listen, and celebrate on this historic morning.
More photos of our journey through NW DC after the fold...
The crowds walking at 9:30 am at Pennsylvania and H,…
bioephemera | January 6, 2009
To all those who were expecting to see me at SfN, the DC bloggers meetup, or the upcoming ScienceOnline09, I apologize: I am really sick. And it all started, as catastrophes always do, with a cat.
Shortly after Election Day, my feisty tortoiseshell cat (above, looking angry as usual) was suffering from a bacterial infection. Unfortunately, the local vet's staff were unable to handle her, and in the process of the examination, she bit me through the arm. The bite swelled up and changed color. Nasty. But I've had cat bites before, so I was unconcerned.
The next morning, however, I woke up…
bioephemera | December 31, 2008In honor of yet another pi x 10^7 seconds of my life evaporating, here's a sign from our hotel in Idaho:
"Temporally out of order" just seemed like an extremely fortuitous typo. . . happy new year.
bioephemera | December 31, 2008My annual list of words I learned in 2008:
alexithymia
exabyte
heteroskedasticity
semordnilap
petrichor
tsuris
picayune
fissiparous
fescennine
ceteris paribus
mutatis mutandis
Mamihlapinatapai
bioephemera | December 25, 2008Something Rich and Strange
Jessica Palmer, 2008
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah from Bioephemera!
A big thank you to everyone who reads and comments on my blog - you are why I do this. Enjoy your holiday and have a wonderful New Year!
Jess
bioephemera | November 25, 2008Andre at Biocurious responds to something PZ Myers said at a talk, with this legit criticism of the "science is beautiful" theme:
How far down the road of "science shares more with art than engineering" do you want to go? Our society supports the arts because they provide beauty and insight and enrich our lives. We support science because it is inspiring and let's us reach beyond ourselves to see and understand things that didn't seem possible and because it provides tangible advances that improve the quality of our lives. Those benefits are worth a lot to people. The National Endowment for…
bioephemera | November 19, 2008
Apparently there is a Mexican eatery down this vaguely threatening corridor. But I think it resembles the kind of trap that an alien with an imperfect grasp of American culture might construct to entrap, tag, and radio-collar unsuspecting policy wonks.
bioephemera | November 6, 2008
Onlookers filed past the Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue Wednesday night, viewing approximately 80 front pages from U.S. and world newspapers - all of which paid tribute to President-elect Barack Obama.
Related:
Useful Post-Election Links
Wow.
bioephemera | November 5, 2008
"While the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, 'We are not enemies, but friends. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.' And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn -- I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too."
bioephemera | October 22, 2008
"Migration"
Doug Aitken
Last year, on a brisk, cool day much like today, I was jogging near the National Zoo when I noticed a good-sized young deer ambling out of the Zoo, toward a busy road only a few carlengths away. Two passersby were frozen on the path; they could clearly foresee the pending disaster, but had no idea what to do about it.
I jogged right up to the buck, yelled at him, and made as if to slap him on the rump. He looked at me dumbfounded, as did the walkers. Then he ambled back into the bushes. Easy enough. But I think the concerned walkers expected the buck to gore me, or…
bioephemera | October 21, 2008This receipt from CVS was over three feet long!
I purchased exactly one item. How is this monstrous scroll of paper remotely necessary to document it? It's no wonder the world has conservation problems. . .
bioephemera | October 1, 2008Just a reminder that tonight I'll be appearing with some of my Sciblings on a science blogging panel at the Apple Store SoHo. Come join us!