Open Thread

The next Tangled Bank will be at Further Thoughts on 2 April — it's time to send those links in to me or host@tangledbank.net. Meanwhile, get inspired to write some Tangled Bank-worthy posts by reading these fine carnivals. The Carnival of the Cities I and the Bird #71 Carnival of the Liberals #61 Friday Ark #184 I'm off at this conference, so my time is a little tight right now. But I will mention that I had a nice panel discussion yesterday with Aaron Barlow and Barbara Fister, organized by the great minds at Free Exchange.
Well, I'm facing the consequences of my little fall yesterday — all day and night yesterday I could feel every little muscle in my back slowly knotting up in protest at the unkind treatment they have received. On top of that, I really have to finish my Seed column today (And I will! I am determined! It Shall Be Done!), and I have to spend some time working with the humane society this afternoon, which means I am tired, cranky, and under pressure … so go read these carnivals for a while, or talk about something else. I'm either going to stew for a while and explode in an ornery rant about…
You need stuff to read… Scientiae — and it's one year old today! Circus of the Spineless #30 Encephalon Presidential Edition I and the Bird #69 Carnival of the Liberals #59 Berry Go Round #2 (a new carnival for the botanists) Friday Ark #180 Talk about whatever you want right here.
MAJeff started it all. Here I go and set up this blog just so I can lord it over a readership, and the readers starthaving a good time talking to each other, and they seem to have noticed that they are of like minds and find each other to be interesting — perhaps more interesting than the blog owner — and there is a growing awareness that they don't need me. So MAJeff is organizing a Boston Pharyngulite get-together, a group with no masters, not even me, but of similar free-thinking, scientifically-inclined minds. Now I'm getting more requests in email to help people gather local…
Carnivals! Carnival of Education #156 A belated Carnival of the Liberals #57 Carnival of the Liberals #58 Grand Rounds Friday Ark #178 The Boneyard #13 Oekologie #14 A Tangled Bank announcement! The next Tangled Bank will be at Greg Laden's place, so send those links in to me or host@tangledbank.net before Wednesday! A reminder! Don't forget to tune in to Atheist Talk at 9am tomorrow morning. The topic of the day: Lori Lipman Brown, lobbyist for the Secular Coalition of America, will be interviewed. An open thread!
An open thread where you can discuss anything you like. Especially Canadian health care and the Israel Palestine conflict.
Carnivals for this week: Carnival of the Godless #84: OK, I'm a week late with this one, and it's cephalopod themed. I'm so ashamed to have missed it earlier. Carnival of the Blue #9: Oceans are good. I and the Bird #68: It's winter themed. It's cold here, so that's appropriate. Linnaeus' Legacy #4: Taxonomists rejoice! A call has been put out for Darwin Day posts. Get it together and put up something celebrating Darwin Day. I'll try, but my schedule is once again bubbling over chaotically — I'm giving a short talk to an education conference on Monday, and I volunteered to do a talk…
Hey! Carnivals! Accretionary Wedge #5. Rocks? How can they possibly find enough to write about rocks? Carnival of Space #38. Space? Even worse. It's mostly nothing! I and the Bird #67. Birds? They've been at this for 67 weeks and there's still more to be said about beaks, wings, and feathers? Friday Ark #175. It's almost all cats, so obviously this is the B-Ark, and they're being loaded up along with all the hairdressers, insurance salesemen, and telephone sanitizers.
Hey, it's been a while since I did one of these, so let's catch up! The Carnival of the Godless Freethinker Sunday Sermonette I and the Bird #66 Grand Rounds Carnival of the Liberals #56 Carnival of Education #154 Humanist Symposium #13 Karl Mogel will be hosting the next Tangled Bank at The Inoculated Mind — get moving and send those links in to me or host@tangledbank.net by Tuesday! And of course, this is an open thread, so say whatever you please.
This is your thread to discuss anything. Like, say, why the US government spends a greater fraction of its GDP on health care than Australia without providing universal care.
Carnivals! And conversation! Mendel's Garden #21 Carnival of Education Health Wonk Review Carnival of Feminists #49 Friday Ark #169 I and the Bird #64 And don't forget — the next Tangled Bank is at Ourobouros on Wednesday, 19 December. Send those links in to me or host@tangledbank.net!
Cruise the web starting with these most excellent entry points. Carnival of the Godless #80 Friday Ark #168 Carnival of Education #148 Skeptics' Circle #75 Revere's Sunday Sermonette — there hasn't been enough outrage at the unconstitutional vileness of Romney and Huckabee. Now tell me something I don't already know.
I've got to go baste. If you aren't similarly occupied, you could browse these fine carnivals. Carnival of the Liberals #52, celebrating AU's 60th anniversary! Skeptics' Circle #74 Four Stone Hearth #28 (and they need more hosts) You aren't watching football, are you?
More carnivals, including one that is new to me! I and the Bird #62 Friday Ark #165 Accretionary Wedge #3 (a geology carnival!) And we have a new Tangled Bank coming up at From Archaea to Zeaxanthol next Wednesday—send those links to your science articles to me or host@tangledbank.net. By the way, we're going to run out of hosts in January, so if you're interested in hosting, drop me a line to volunteer. Now say something, anything here in the comments.
I'm on an airplane on my way to Washington DC, for an event sponsored by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. It should be good — I've heard that Blue Gal, D-Cup, Phil Plait, and some of the gang from Corrente will be there…and we'll find out who else. I'll report back later! Until then, here are a few carnivals to browse. Skeptics' Circle #73 Carnival of the Liberals #51 Four Stone Hearth #27 Linnaeus' Legacy, a brand new carnival dedicated to classification Friday Ark #164 And of course, feel free to talk among yourselves! Except any lingering denialists. You can…
This collection of carnivals has a theme: savage, wild, weird animals. Friday Ark #163 I and the Bird #61 Circus of the Spineless #26 Humanist Symposium #10 Don't forget the Tangled Bank! Another edition is coming up on Wednesday at Paddy K — send those links in to me or host@tangledbank.net.
Carnivals and conversation, right here. Friday Ark #159 Circus of the Spineless #25 I and the Bird #59 The next Tangled Bank will be at The Other 95%, next Wednesday on 10 October. Send those links in to me or host@tangledbank.net right away!
A few carnival notices, and an opportunity to speak your mind. Go for it! Friday Ark #157 I and the Bird #58 Humanist Symposium #8 A new Tangled Bank will be coming up next Wednesday at Aardvarchaeology — send those links in to me or host@tangledbank.net.
It's late, I'm going to be unconscious in my bed, those of you with insomnia or living in distant time zones need something to chat about — so here, just for you, it's a Pharyngula Late Night open thread, primed with a few fun carnivals. Oekologie #9 Friday Ark #156 Carnival of the Godless Carnival of the Liberals #47 Skeptics' Circle #69 What's that? It's not enough? Late night chats need something really weird to keep them lively? OK, here, how about Creation Ministries International. Be sure to read their "What we believe" page — this is the Christianity everybody assures me…
Hello again, it has not even been a day yet, but I feel that I should quick post something. Some of the comments from my previous blog have pointed out interesting ideas as to the correlation between protein folding and memory storage. Proteins inside neurons would work well in storing and possibly managing information, but they don't work quickly enough and I suppose it would be fairly difficult to research proteins in the hundreds of thousands of specialized neurons. I was also informed that much of the "protein hypothesis" is old news that was torpedoed in the 60's for the "synapse…