Miscellaneous
neurophilosophy | August 7, 2007And it's my identity that's been stolen: there's somebody else masquerading as the neurophilosopher.
neurophilosophy | August 6, 2007 Some readers seem to be having problems posting comments.
I've alerted the ScienceBlogs technical support team, so this should be resolved soon.
mixingmemory | August 4, 2007Taking a break from my mini-hiatus. I watched Barry Bonds hit his 755th tonight, live. It was a historic occasion, but judging by the fans' reaction, the commissioner's reaction (did he mouth "no" as the ball landed in the left field seats?), and his teammate's subdued congratulations, I wasn't alone in feeling sad and disappointed. I'm a Braves fan, a Hank Aaron fan, and most importantly, a baseball fan, and while Bonds should go down in history as a great hitter, the fact that he's a jerk, and that he almost certainly became a power hitter through the use of steroids (I say almost because…
neurophilosophy | July 29, 2007
We had the pleasure of entertaining the delightful Jessica Palmer at our place last night. And earlier today, Jessica and I ate pizza on the King's Road before visiting the Chelsea Physic Garden.
Jessica writes the fantastic Bioephemera blog (where you can read more about her visit to London), and created four of my beautiful custom header images.
jrosenhouse | July 25, 2007There are many reasons, of course. But here's an especially compelling one:
DON'T jump to conclusions now. Just because Wendy Bullard of Raleigh, N.C., isn't allowed to walk her dog through the Streets at Southpoint, an outdoor mall in Durham, doesn't mean that when she visits New York she can't walk little Mick Dundee, an Australian silky terrier, down Fifth Avenue and strut right into Tiffany, Saks and Bergdorf Goodman.
“I can't bring him anywhere in North Carolina,” said Ms. Bullard, who, by the way, didn't go to all those stores. “I love coming up here.”
If bringing a dog to New York…
jrosenhouse | July 24, 2007Have you seen that show Man vs. Wild on the Discovery Channel? I first saw it a few months ago and was hooked after one episode. I quickly placed it in the pantheon of all-time great non-fiction series, right alongside Good Eats and Mythbusters.
In each episode former British Special Forces soldier Bear Grylls gets dumped into the middle of some uninviting wilderness; the Amazon jungle one week, the Australian Outback the next; armed with only a water bottle, a knife and a flint. He begins each episode by telling us about all the tourists who get lost in these areas and need rescue, and by…
jrosenhouse | July 19, 2007In a brief essay describing renewed efforts to raise the profile of science in the national discourse, Time magazine writer Michael Lemonick offers the following (see the original for links):
What I'm talking about is the growing drumbeat of amply justified fear that America is fast losing its edge over the rest of the world in science and technology--something I wrote about in this TIME cover story.
Figuring out why, and what to do about it, has become a cottage industry. So when I was asked to come to a two-day meeting sponsored by the Aspen Science Center, I was kind of dubious. Even…
jrosenhouse | July 19, 2007During my absence it seems that Larry Moran, one of my favorite science bloggers, has declined an invitation to join ScienceBlogs. Outrageous!
Though I find it regrettable, I fear he now has to be crushed. I mean, if one blogger is allowed to turn down such an invitation and get away with it, pretty soon other bloggers will find it acceptable as well. And then where would we be?
But it gets worse. Here he is defending his decision:
When I first started Sandwalk, I was anxious to be part of that group but now, seven months later, there doesn't seem to be a good reason to give up this site…
jrosenhouse | July 19, 2007Okay, I'm back. Did I miss anything?
England ended up being a lot of fun, though it didn't start out that way. For reasons I won't try to explain here, Dominic and I took different flights. His landed early. Mine was two hours late.
We had flown through the night, so it was now early Monday morning. We quickly discovered that virtually every piece of information we had about getting from Heathrow Airport to the conference site (that would be the University of Reading) was incorrect or incomplete in some way.
Step one was to catch a bus from Heathrow to Reading. This was accomplished…
neurophilosophy | July 15, 2007Id really appreciate a faithful English translation of Amroise Pare's description of his mechanical artificial hand.
mixingmemory | July 14, 2007
"Connectionist Sticker Propaganda" by atomicity, some rights reserved. I may actually keep this picture up.
neurophilosophy | July 14, 2007 I was recently tagged by Orli to write 8 miscellaneous facts about myself, and although I had decided that I wouldn't get involved in any more of these meme things, I thought it would be a good way of introducing myself to any new readers I may have.
However, I won't be tagging anyone else, because I don't want to impose, and because I don't know who's already been tagged. So, if you're reading this and want to get involved, then feel free to do so.
I haven't been to a hairdresser's for over 10 years. Instead, I shave my head every 3-4 months.
I have 3,000+ books.
In 1998, I nearly went…
mixingmemory | July 13, 2007Here is an interesting article by Taylor, Micolich, and Jonas (via Integrated Science) on Jackson Pollock and the physics behind his work's appeal:
This question triggers reservations from both scientists and artists. However, for the abstract paintings produced by Jackson Pollock in the late 1940s, scientific objectivity proves to be an essential tool for determining their fundamental content. Pollock dripped paint from a can on to vast canvases rolled out across the floor of his barn. Although recognised as a crucial advancement in the evolution of modern art, the precise quality and…
mixingmemory | July 4, 2007For the 4th of July I give you America circa 1995, in 4 minutes and 50 seconds, as seen through a Super 8, and with a soundtrack:
cmooney | June 27, 2007My recent Harper's piece, on how to fix the mess Bush made of science policy, is now readable for free here.
And the cool website Treehugger.com just interviewed me about Storm World and Speaking Science 2.0. You can read the inteview here.
Coming tomorrow: More great pictures from Sheril's Africa trip. Meanwhile, I am off to Maine early tomorrow morning to speak at this conference in Orono on Friday. After Sheril's pictures go up, blogging may be light til I return, or until Sheril gets back to somewhere with a computer hookup....
mixingmemory | June 24, 2007Jonathan Rowe, over at Positive Liberty, posted a link to Ophelia from The Last Waltz. Because I've been a fan of The Band since I was a little kid, I'm upping the ante, with "Carivan" with Van, the Man, who just tosses the mic and walks off stage at the end:
and "Mannish Boy," with you know who and Paul Butterfield (and by the way, I'm pretty sure 5 minutes ain't a man):
and "Evangeline," with Emmylou Harris:
All this justified as me telling you a bit about myself, but really they're here so I can find them later. Just be glad I didn't give you "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "…
jrosenhouse | June 4, 2007Sorry for the light blogging lately. I'm furiously trying to finish up some writing projects that have been festering for a while. I'm a painfully slow writer, and there's a limit to how many hours a day I can stand pecking away at the computer. Alas, this state of affairs is likely to continue for a while.
But, incredibly, the world has not stopped turning during my brief break. So here are a few items for your consideration.
First, have a look at this article by John Farrell, about Wikipedia:
A car that runs on water, a new form of energy derived from 'hydrinos', a 'cognitive-theoretic…
mixingmemory | June 3, 2007I've always really liked this song, but I've never understood a single word of it. Fortunately, some guy figured them all out for me:
These are apparently the actual lyrics, but how would you know?
mixingmemory | May 28, 2007Originally posted on the old blog on Memorial Day 2005.
On Memorial Day, I'm always reminded of the poems of war because, perhaps more than any other form of literature, they paint of it a picture that is more real than romantic (except maybe in Tennyson). In particular, I am reminded of the poetry of World War I, because that war seems to have been such a shock to the poet's senses that all of the poems that it inspired express a horror at war. Too often on Memorial Day, and other such days when we are called to remember the sacrafices of veterans, as we should, we glorify not only their…