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grrlscientist | December 6, 2006It's finally here; First Anniversary Edition of Carnival of the Liberals (CotL). Once again the editor was overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of quality writing from a liberal perspective. Even though they limit CotL to only ten essays, they received more than 40 submissions to choose from for CotL #27, so making a decision on which 10 to link to was not easy . In the end, the editor decided to go with essays that touched on big picture issues in one way or another.
grrlscientist | December 6, 2006On a more serious note, I have been receiving donations from some of you to my paypal account. I am very grateful all of you and will be using these monies to purchase my meds, which are quite expensive, after I get out of the nuthouse.
I am not sure if I will ever be in a position to pay you back, or if you ever want to be paid back for your generosity but I can pay you back for your kindness by showing my appreciation to you; I would love to write an essay for you about a topic or question of your choice. I will dedicate that essay, or an issue of Birds in the News if you prefer, to you…
grrlscientist | December 6, 2006Failed. My hair is as blonde as ever. Maybe blonder, as if that is possible.
So the saner people among you are probably wondering; Why am I trying to turn my blonde hair red? Well, in my book, which I may write, the main character will be bipolar and will change her hair color with wash-in hair colors to match her mood, so I thought I'd give it a try in real life, just to see how/if it works.
I also have bad news: I have a hole in my jeans on my ass -- right on an inner buttcheek! This is really embarassing, and I am not allowed to fix it, either. I think the staff remains convinced that I…
mementomori | December 5, 2006The following was sent to us anonynmously. The message was first checked for viruses, worms, parasites and offers to help recover millions of dollars tied up in African red tape, then scrutinized and translated, tying up much valuable time needed in the maintenance of this web log. After much discussion we have decided to publish it in its entirety, if for no other reason than to serve as a warning to MBA students who are considering a career in consulting. All annotations are in italics.
NOTES FROM 12/2 MTG. WITH THE QUAESTUARY GROUP RE: PHYSICIAN NETWORK
Drs - Whipple, Galen, Willis,…
grrlscientist | December 5, 2006
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The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp (marijuana) paper.
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tags: Declaration of Independence, hemp, weird facts
grrlscientist | December 5, 2006I have been thinking about court a lot obviously, and finally decided that I would rescind my 72 hour letter so instead of fighting things out in court this Thursday, I will take my chances that I will be getting out of here on friendly terms in a reasonable length of time, as in 10-14 days.
Since discharge will happen sooner or later anyway, at this point, I have mixed feelings about leaving this place because I like having someone here to talk to when I awaken from a nightmare (often), and someone who checks on me to make sure I am alright, and the food is much better than what I eat on…
grrlscientist | December 5, 2006Thanks to The Republican War on Science, by my friend and fellow SciBling, Chris Mooney, I have found a word that takes on more forms in a sentence than any other I've shown to you so far. Chris's book was recently released in the more affordable and updated trade paperback. I am nearly finished with this book and will be reviewing it in the future, after I am sprung from the nuthouse. (I lack consistsent computer access right now necessary to do serious writing).
prima facie (PRAY-muh FEY-shee-ee, FEY-shee, FEY-shuh, PREE-) [Origin: Middle English, manifestly, from Latin prÄ«mÄ faciÄ : prÄ«…
purepedantry | December 5, 2006Encephalon #12 is up at AlphaPsy.
The Neurophilosopher has a cool article on Phineas Gage -- a patient that is often used as an example in neuroscience classes because he had a railroad spike tamping iron go through his head and cause personality changes.
The Mungers at Cognitive Daily are starting a podcast. Nice.
grrlscientist | December 5, 2006The state of Maine is barring the sale of a particular beer because its label (pictured) depicts Santa Claus's butt. Considering that "Santa's Butt Beer" is the name of the product, it is difficult to believe that the label is in anyway inappropriate.
Fortunately, the Shelton Brothers, who brew and sell the beer, filed a complaint with the Maine Bureau of Liquor Enforcement of censorship for denying their applications for labels for Santa's Butt Winter Porter and two other beers it wants to sell in Maine. The fight is similar another squabble filed last year, when Connecticut told Shelton…
grrlscientist | December 5, 2006I just thought I'd let you all know -- while I still can -- that my captors are restricting my computer usage to 90 minutes per day. To say the least, I am depressed as all hell about this because I won't be able to provide as much new content for you as I have been recently and also because I won't have as much time to respond to your comments and emails.
In short, to use their terminology, I think this move on their part is NOT THERAPEUTIC. They have cruelly removed my voice, denied my ability to express myself. This action is also offensive because I've never caused a problem for anyone…
tqa | December 4, 2006Go read this story in the New York Times and cry for what our country has become, and for what we have lost. The story is about Jose "Dirty Bomb" Padilla, and his treatment while incarcerated as an "enemy combatant" in a military brig.
He was locked up there, with no access to lawyers, for 21 months. He was, his lawyers claim, the solitary prisoner in a 10-cell wing. He was kept in a cell with blacked out windows, no clock, and no calendar. When he was removed from his cell for things like dental work, as you can see in the photograph on the Times website, he was moved around wearing blacked…
purepedantry | December 4, 2006So I have a spectacular announcement. Very soon this blog will be taking on a co-blogger, the lovely and wonderful Kara Contreary. Kara Contreary is currently a Economics PhD student at the London School of Economics. I am excited that she is willing to join me, and I think that an economist-in-training will bring a valuable new perspective to ScienceBlogs.com.
(We debated whether economics can be considered a science. Whether you believe that it can, a lot of stuff we talk about here has economic implications that frankly I am utterly unqualified to talk about.)
In any case, as I…
sb admin | December 4, 2006by PotomacFeverishÂ
The Washington Post announced what we already knew. That the lame duck sessions of Congress (one already past, one this week) will not accomplish much. So what, you say? They hadnât accomplished much for the last year, why should we care now?
Jonathan Weisman reports:
Congress will convene on Tuesday for what some fear will be the lamest of lame-duck sessions, and GOP leaders have decided to take a minimalist approach before turning over the reins of power to the Democrats. Rather than a final surge of legislative activity, Congress will probably wrap up things…
pharyngula | December 4, 2006The denizens of the local chimpanzee refuge have begun to document their strategies in the War on Christmas. I have my own grand scheme, and all I'll say now is that it is subtle and eeeeevil.
grrlscientist | December 4, 2006Here is another fine word from The Republican War on Science, by my friend and fellow SciBling, Chris Mooney. This book was recently released in the more affordable trade paperback. If you haven't read this book yet, now is the time (I've read it once already in hard-cover, but never reviewed it, so I am going to rectify that oversight in the near future by reviewing this updated paperback).
Anathema (uh-NATH-uh-muh) [Origin: Lation, from Greek: a thing accursed, devoted to evil, originally . devoted, equivalent to ana(ti)thé(nai) to set up + -ma n. suffix)]
noun
a person or thing…
purepedantry | December 2, 2006Funny:
2) If you have children, you will save yourself and everyone else a lot of time if you laminate some picture(s) of your offspring and staple them to your forehead.
3) That person you had a crush on in tenth grade? They're still going to look good.
4) Someone will be out of the closet -- with a 50% chance that that person was in your homecoming court (note to Generation Y: this will be reversed for all y'all -- someone who came out in high school will be in a heterosexual marriage, with two kids and a house in Schenectady).
Read the whole thing.
grrlscientist | December 2, 2006
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black night, lightning bugs
singing cicadas, warm air
i see, inhale, stars
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mikethemadbiologist | December 2, 2006The UK really doesn't deserve this: first, they're dragged into Iraq, and now, they're being invaded by creationists. Even though the Department for Education and Skills has called creationism "not appropriate to support the science curriculum", many science teachers may be using Discovery Institute designed 'science' curricula. From the Guardian:
Dozens of schools are using creationist teaching materials condemned by the government as "not appropriate to support the science curriculum", the Guardian has learned.
The packs promote the creationist alternative to Darwinian evolution called…
grrlscientist | December 2, 2006I do want to say something important to all of you as well, amigos bonitos.
I am overwhelmed by what so many people are doing to help me. I truly thought I was friendless and alone in this mess, but you all have demonstrated otherwise and have done so in such a beautiful way -- and there are so many of you who cared, too. The nurses often commented that I received more mail from you than everyone else on the entire unit combined. Yet I thought I didn't make a difference at all, but all of you have shown otherwise.
I am going to just make a list here of some of the things that you all have…
grrlscientist | December 2, 2006Things are looking better and better. First, I have the ultimate power to rescind my "72 hour letter" that led to the court date, so the psychiatrists here are willing to negotiate an agreement with me for outpatient care such that I can be discharged when those goals have been met. As you might have guessed, this is a good thing because, despite my many uncharacteristically pitched battles with the staff here, I am not eager to fight this institution for my release if I can avoid it.
In short, emotionally, I need to leave here on good terms with these people who saved my life.
However, my…