Uncategorized
grrlscientist | April 16, 2006A friend sent a link to this 12-minute long video collection of amazing little machines that are part of a collection of Rube Goldberg-like inventions. Rube Goldberg was Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, sculptor, author and inventor. However, while most machines make difficult tasks simple, Goldberg's inventions made simple tasks amazingly complex. So this eventually led to the use of Rube Goldberg's name by the media to denote a tremendously complex program, system or set of rules such as our "Rube Goldberg-like tax system". Goldberg's inventions act as a unique commentary on life's…
apalazzo | April 16, 2006There is a review in this week's NY Times book section: The Jasons: The Secret History of Science's Postwar Elite,' by Ann Finkbeiner.
I had never heard of The Jasons. From the review:
Jason (the term refers both to the group as a whole and to individual members) was conceived in the late 1950's, when the physicist John Wheeler proposed assembling a few dozen top academic scientists to give the government no-holds-barred advice. In 1960 the group began gathering each June and July in various locations. Physics was still riding the wave of prestige generated by the Manhattan Project, and all…
stcynic | April 15, 2006If the ID and traditional creationist responses to Tiktaalik roseae aren't quite ignorant and badly reasoned enough for you, might I suggest you look at the response from Joseph Farah, founder of the Worldnutdaily? It's delightfully wacky and full of nonsense. The ignorance begins to accumulate in massive amounts in the third sentence:
Tiktaalik, they say, lived in shallow swampy waters and had the body of a fish but the jaws, ribs and limb-like fins of so-called "early mammals."
Apparently, Farah doesn't know the difference between an amphibian and a mammal. There are just a few minor…
stcynic | April 15, 2006PZ Myers thinks that Comedy Central and South Park cooked up this fake censorship story to get media attention. Is that possible? Certainly. But he doesn't have any actual evidence for this claim, which doesn't stop him from bluntly declaring, "If you think this episode is significant, you've been played." Of course, a rational person would recognize that just because he thinks this is true and it's possible that it's true doesn't mean it's true. And contrary to his assertion, it's not only "right-wing nutjobs" who are upset about. There are a lot of more liberal-minded people like me who are…
grrlscientist | April 15, 2006
This test is a little more involved than most, and probably takes 10 minutes to complete, unless your neighbor's wireless connection that you are piggybacking crashes on page eight, as happened to me. In that case, it will take a little longer to complete.
So what are your results according to this test? Do you agree with these results? What did you think of the questions?
I found many of the questions very difficult to answer because the situation causes me to react differently to a similar scenario. For example, the question regarding a familiar/new dish at a familiar/new restaurant…
stcynic | April 15, 2006I'm off to Lansing to have lunch with by buddy Dan and do some shopping. Hope everyone has a good day.
grrlscientist | April 15, 2006
You Are Marcia Brady
Confident yet kind. Popular yet down to earth. You're a total dream girl.
You've got the total package - no wonder everyone's a little jealous of you.
What Brady Are You?
Hahaha. Inaccurate, as usual, but I like what it said, anyway.
tags: online quiz
stcynic | April 13, 2006I and several other ScienceBloggers were recently interviewed for an article in the Online Journalism Review, a project associated with the Annenberg Center at USC. That article is now available on their website to read for those who are interested. I didn't ask the author of the article, Steve Bryant, to link to the Panda's Thumb or to Michigan Citizens for Science, but he did and that makes me happy. Tara Smith, Tim Lambert and PZ Myers were also interviewed for the article.
stcynic | April 13, 2006The latest Skeptic's Circle is up at Pooflingers, containing lots of skeptical bloggy goodness.
stcynic | April 13, 2006I'm going to try and remember every day to post a few links to posts by some of the other ScienceBloggers, mostly because if you're just reading my blog and not visiting the other blogs here, you're really missing out on some great writing. From yesterday:
Afarensis has an article about and a link to some new fossil finds, this time specimens of A. anamensis that will likely help us clarify our understanding of the relationships between various pre-Homo hominids. John Lynch, who works at the Institute on Human Origins at Arizona State, also has a post on that subject.
Orac has an examination…
ddobbs | April 12, 2006Before I wrote my Times Magazine story on treating depression with deep-brain stimulation implants, several people (including myself) warned me I'd hear complaints about promoting psychosurgery. Those warnings proved fair, Letters to the Times and myself, as well as blogs, opined that the story was "trumpeting psychiatry's latest 'cure' for depression" (The Alliance for Human Research Protection); that the Times was "hyping yet another reckless and scientifically baseless approach for treating depression"; and that we should be doing more talk therapy (agreed) instead of surgery (not…
stcynic | April 12, 2006Okay, so it's really only one DaveScot speaking out of both sides of his mouth, but I thought it would be fun to compare a couple of his comments, one from before the Dover ruling and one after. Comment #1, from September 31st:
Judge John E. Jones on the other hand is a good old boy brought up through the conservative ranks. He was state attorney for D.A.R.E, an Assistant Scout Master with extensively involved with local and national Boy Scouts of America, political buddy of Governor Tom Ridge (who in turn is deep in George W. Bush's circle of power), and finally was appointed by GW hisself.…
stcynic | April 11, 2006My buddy Jeff just emailed me a link to a wikipedia article about the REM song "It's the end of the world as we know it". It says:
The lyrics chronicle a scenario for the end of the world as well as listing various pop icons and politicians at a rapid pace. The chorus ends with the famous reassuring statement, "and I feel fine." While there are many plausible explanations for what the combination of lyrics mean, it is widely believed that the inspiration for this song came after Michael Stipe attended a Policy Debate competition at a high school in north Texas or from watching a college…
apalazzo | April 11, 2006What a great title for a book. Here's a review of Nick Lane's latest from the March 31st edition of Science (subscription required). From the review:
Lane [a science writer whose previous book Oxygen (1) was well received and whose doctoral research involved free radicals and mitochondrial function in organ transplants] is clearly fascinated with the origin of the eukaryotic cell. He devotes considerable attention to (frequently controversial) theories for that origin as well as to the beginnings of life itself and to the ways in which mitochondria have subsequently evolved within the cell.…
stcynic | April 11, 2006The IDers aren't the only ones sounding foolish trying to dismiss Tiktaalik roseae as a transitional fossil, the old fashioned young earth creationists are too. Lancelet has two posts on the subject, one on Answers in Genesis and one on the Institute for Creation Research. The one on the ICR includes this delightful quote from John Morris on how an evolutionary transition between fish and amphibians could be documented:
If some type of fish evolved into some type of amphibian, there should have been distinct steps along the way of 90% fish/10% amphibian; then 80% fish/20% amphibian; etc.,…
grrlscientist | April 10, 2006A Malaysian man said he nearly fainted when he received a 806,400,000,000,000.01 ringgit ($218 trillion) phone bill and was ordered to pay up within 10 days or face prosecution, a newspaper, the New Straits Times, reported Monday.
Yes, you read that correctly; a $218 trillion phone bill.
Yahaya Wahab said he disconnected his late father's phone line in January after his father died, and he settled the 84 ringgit ($23) bill, the New Straits Times reported. But it wasn't clear whether the outsized bill was a mistake, or if Yahaya's late father used the phone illegally after his death.
Yahaya…
grrlscientist | April 9, 2006A little while ago, several of you, dear readers, mentioned that you wanted me to set up a wish list, so I did that. You can also find the link on the left sidebar, below the site meter.
As you can see, it's rather long but don't forget that this list has been several years in the making, too. Not only that, but I currently have seven books sitting next me right now, courtesy of several publishers, waiting impatiently for me to read and review them, so there's no need to add substantially to the pile for fear I might be crushed when it topples over. However, there is one book that I want…
stcynic | April 9, 2006Even finishing with a losing record at the national tournament can't slow down the publicity train that the Liberty University debate team is riding. The AP now has an article about it, picked up by, of all outlets, the Detroit News. I just sent a letter to the editor of the News taking them to task for reprinting that misleading article about a team that is mediocre at best, while ignoring two teams from Michigan that just finished in the top 4 in the nation. Wayne State made the semifinals while Michigan State won their 2nd national title in the last 3 years, and got not a drop of ink from…
stcynic | April 9, 2006MikeGene has publicly retracted his support for Forrest Mims' hysterical accusation that Eric Pianka is encouraging bioterrorism at Telic Thoughts. That should be applauded. The transcript of his speech, being played up hugely by Mims and Dembski's crew, simply doesn't support that charge. Yes, Pianka is a radical environmentalist. I think his views are far too extreme to be taken seriously. But they're not felonious, for crying out loud, and they certainly don't amount to fomenting terrorism as Mims is so ridiculously claiming (along with almost unanimous support from the ID crowd, for some…
grrlscientist | April 8, 2006It's been two of those weeks in a row, and what works best to fix that? Iscream, that's what!
You Are Chunky Monkey Ice Cream
Truthfully, you're too spazzy to be chunky - you cheeky monkey!
What Flavor Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Are You?
Don't forget that 25 April is Ben and Jerry's annual "Free Cone Day" which is the anniversary of their opening day. These free cones are a special "thank you" to their customers.
So what special iscream did you end up being? I took the liberty of figuring out PZ Myers' special iscream flavor (below the fold) .. it's too perfect, indeed, it's soooo…