Social Sciences
retrospectacle | October 15, 2006Perhaps the only person more confused by the SFN keynote lecture than I was, by renowned architech Frank Gehry, was Frank Gehry himself. Following in the footstep of the Dalai Lama (last years' speaker in this series), Gehry was this year's speaker in the "Neuroscience and Society" addresses; specifically, his talk was to explore how architecture and neuroscience mesh and reflect each other.
From the program:
Gehry will discuss the ideas and assumptions about how people perceive and interact with architectural spaces that inform his work....he will also discuss architectural elements such…
razib | October 14, 2006The New York Times has an article titled Across Europe, Worries on Islam Spread to Center. It is a string of anecdotes and examples which show that criticism of Islam is now becoming acceptable in non-extremist circles. I am frankly pleased by this. Consider:
Whatever the motivations, "the reality is that views on both sides are becoming more extreme," said Imam Wahid Pedersen, a prominent Dane who is a convert to Islam. "It has become politically correct to attack Islam, and this is making it hard for moderates on both sides to remain reasonable." Mr. Pedersen fears that onetime moderates…
revere | October 14, 2006The Campaign to free the Tripoli Six is entering a new and dangerous phase. On October 31 their trial resumes, with a death sentence again looming. For those not familiar with the case, The New York Times today summarized the situation in a strongly worded editorial:
Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor are facing the death penalty in Libya based on preposterous charges that they deliberately infected hundreds of children with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. This looming miscarriage of justice demands a strong warning to the Libyan leader, Muammar el-Qaddafi, that his efforts…
stcynic | October 13, 2006Glib has a post at STACLU where he admiringly cites two columns, one by Alan Sears of the ADF and one by Mike Adams. Both of those columns are loaded with ridiculous arguments. The column by Sears is one of the funniest ones you'll read this week, trust me. In attempting to establish the "fury of the Left toward Christians", he cites such influential thinkers as Rosie O'Donnell and Madonna. Because every young leftist I know of gets all their ideas from the material girl. But his conclusions, the ones quoted by good ol' Glib, are just plain silly:
Somehow, the people at the wheel of our…
revere | October 13, 2006A paper to be presented today at the annual meetings of the Infectious Disease Society of America, but following a familiar pattern the results have been presented in a press release. The news is modestly good, but the emphasis should be on modestly.
The paper reports work that took advantage of a group of people who were vaccinated with two doses of an experimental bird flu vaccine in 1998, shortly after the first human cases in Hong Kong. The viral strain of H5N1 used then was of a lineage (or "clade") different than the ones used in the recent spate of vaccine trials from a lineage…
mikethemadbiologist | October 12, 2006I've stayed away from the whole religious organization tax breaks issue, mostly because others have dealt with it. But this NY Times article about the parsonage exemption pisses me off to no end (the parsonage exemption allows workers for religious organizations to deduct the cost of their housing). Here's why: I work for a secular non-profit so I don't get to deduct my rent (with the tax deduction, I would be refunded three months of rent). Quoth the Grey Lady:
He did not address the pastoral poverty argument in his court briefs, but in an interview, he noted that poorly paid inner-city…
stcynic | October 11, 2006Dembski has a completely substanceless post on his blog about Chris Mooney, where all he does is quote from a brief bio of Mooney prior to one of his appearances. He writes, "Yes, this is the same Chris Mooney who attacks ID and has written THE REPUBLICAN WAR ON SCIENCE" and proceeds to quote the following:
Chris Mooney '99 recently spoke at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the Campus Freethought Alliance (CFA). Mooney, who is copresident and a founding member of the Yale College Society for Humanists, Atheists and Agnostics, addressed the issue of discrimination…
clock | October 11, 2006Hearts Or Tails? Genetics Of Multi-chambered Heart Evolution:
A new paper in the October 1 issue of G&D elucidates the genetics of heart formation in the sea squirt, and lends surprising new insight into the genetic changes that may have driven the evolution of the multi-chambered vertebrate heart.
New Bird Discovered On Unexplored Colombian Mountain:
A new bird to science was recently discovered on an unexplored mountain range in northern Columbia by a team supported by the BP Conservation Programme. It was named "Yariguies Brush-Finch," with the scientific name Atlapetes latinuchus…
neurontic | October 10, 2006I find myself strangely obsessed with tracking the constant shuffle of Google Ads on the site lately. I worry a bit when Neurontic is papered with advertisements for suicide prevention hotlines, bargain-basement antidepressants, and therapy directories, as is the case when I spend too much time talking about depression treatments. I laugh when one posting that mentions the word 'spaghetti' results in a flood of links to pasta recipes. But I'm entirely perplexed by today's top ranking ad: 'God Ringtone.'
The ad instructs me to 'send this ringtone to my phone right now!' I can't help wanting…
scientificactivist | October 10, 2006A new study from the Research Defence Society (RDS) indicates that medical doctors in the UK overwhelmingly support the role of animal research in contributing to important medical advances. The RDS questioned four hundred general practitioners from across the UK about their feelings on the importance and necessity of medical research, and the results can be found here.
The study found that 96% of general practitioners agree that "animal experiments have made an important contribution to many advances in medicine" and that 88% agree that "safety tests should be carried out on animals before…
retrospectacle | October 9, 2006The IgNobel Awards are the humorous counterpart to the Nobel Prizes; each year the most bizarre (but real!) research is awarded the dubious honor of an 'IgNobel.'
"The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative -- and spur people's interest in science, medicine and technology," said Marc Abrahams, editor of the science humor magazine "Annals of Improbable Research," which sponsors the awards with the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association and Harvard-Radcliffe Society of Physics Students.
All the research is real and has been published in often-prestigious…
goodmath | October 9, 2006A reader sent me a link to an article by that inimatable genius of the intelligent design community, Granville Sewell. (As much as I hate to admit it, Sewell is a professor of mathematics at Texas A&M. I don't know what his professional specialty is, but if his work in that area is anything like the dreck he produces in defense of ID, then it's shocking that he got a faculty position, much less tenure.) Sewell wrote *yet another* one of those horrible "second law of thermodynamics" papers and submitted it *as an opinion piece* to a math journal ("The Mathematical Intelligencer"). It was,…
stcynic | October 9, 2006One of the Talk to Action diaries has the text of a speech by Gary Lankford, president of the Ohio Restoration Project. Some of the statements in it are astonishingly ignorant. Like this one:
For over 300 years in America, it was widely assumed that to be in public office, you needed to be a Christian--or at least a Unitarian or a Deist. And that distinction, though important, wasn't critical, because even Deists in ages past were much more biblical in their worldview and their understanding of scripture than many of today's Evangelical office-holders.
Wow. Has he never read Thomas Paine? Or…
oracknows | October 9, 2006One of the more onerous duties I have as faculty at our cancer center is to "show the flag" at our various affiliates by attending their tumor boards. I say "onerous" not so much because the tumor boards themselves are onerous but rather because traveling to them cuts into my already limited time for research given that these tumor boards are always scheduled on days on which I don't have to be in clinic or the operating room. One of our affiliates is nearly an hour and a half away, and many of them are close to an hour away. When you add up travel time and the tumor board, that's easily more…
revere | October 9, 2006The hubbub over the Republican congressional leadership's blatant failure to protect the minors under their custodial care in the wake of the Mark Foley scandal should be (but isn't) just the opening shot in a larger story of the hypocrisy of right wing (aka, conservative) politicians about "protecting our children."
At any moment, state inspectors can step uninvited into one of the three child care centers that Ethel White runs in Auburn, Ala., to make sure they meet state requirements intended to ensure that the children are safe. There must be continuing training for the staff. Her…
revere | October 8, 2006It is now a week since the terrible happenings in the Amish community in Pennsylvania. That community's desire for privacy has spared us the usual voyeuristic and intrusive media frenzy. Not even photos of the dead little ones. The depth and privacy of their mourning is theirs alone and I for one am glad. At the same time few of us remained untouched by this, especially those of us with little girls of our own (even though mine isn't little any more, she remains my little girl). I don't romanticize the Amish. They are a closed community that has set themselves apart and can be guilty of…
mixingmemory | October 7, 2006George Lakoff has published two new political books, Whose Freedom?: The Battle Over America's Most Important Idea, and Thinking Points: Communicating Our American Values and Vision, as follow ups to his Moral Politics and Don't Think of an Elephant. I haven't read either of the new books (my New Year's resolution this year was to not read any more bullshit), but Steven Pinker has, and his review of Whose Freedom? in the New Republic (the review is behind a subscription wall, but you can read it in its entirety below the fold in this Gene Expression post) has sparked a reply from Lakoff, and…
razib | October 6, 2006The Evil One recently talked to Paul Bloom, one of my favorite cognitive psychologists. Here is something I found of interest:
...and I brought up the issue that many researchers -- David Sloan Wilson being one that springs to mind -- have argued that religion is evolutionary but that it is also evolutionarily beneficial. David Sloan Wilson has proposed the idea that religion arose from group selection because religion promotes in-group cohesiveness. This would differ from Dr. Bloom's ideas because Bloom is essentially arguing that religion is neutral to selection and secondary to larger…
mementomori | October 6, 2006My, but the folks who think up names for pharmaceuticals have been busy lately! Here is just one example of a new compound from the promising world of translational research and now approved for usage. Just please don't ask me to pronounce it - I said it fast three times last night and conjured up the ghost of Tatanka Iyotanka.
"FDA Approves Vectibix (panitumumab) for Advanced Colorectal Cancer"
Those of us who follow the latest developments in colon cancer research (and don't you dare call us a bunch of nerds) are thrilled with the approval of panitumumab. Is it possible to translate this…
purepedantry | October 6, 2006So I went to the book signing last night for the Best American Science Writing 2006, and it was really interesting so I want to plug this book. In attendance were Jesse Cohen, the series editor, as well as authors Paul Bloom, Dennis Overbye, and Johnathan Weiner.
I haven't had a chance to read the book yet, but Dennis Overbye wrote about a convention for time travelers at MIT. Johnathan Weiner wrote about a weird syndrome of combined neurodegenerative diseases that occurs in a cluster on Guam -- possibly because they like to eat bats.
My favorite, however, was Paul Bloom -- a psychology…