Social Sciences
cwilcox | September 18, 2008I've often been referred to as a nerd, dork, geek, etc, so I thought I ought to own up to it right away. I wouldn't want to give the impression that this blog is going to be written by someone with immaculate fashion sense and a keen eye for shoes. But which, pray tell, am I really? A nerd, a dork, or a geek? It turns out that the three don't exactly mean what I thought they did, and after extensive Wikipedia research (which we all know is the end-all-be-all of thorough research technique) I've settled on Nerd. Why?
Well, for one, I'm not a Geek. While the definition of Geek is up for…
cwilcox | September 18, 2008I've often been referred to as a nerd, dork, geek, etc, so I thought I ought to own up to it right away. I wouldn't want to give the impression that this blog is going to be written by someone with immaculate fashion sense and a keen eye for shoes. But which, pray tell, am I really? A nerd, a dork, or a geek? It turns out that the three don't exactly mean what I thought they did, and after extensive Wikipedia research I've settled on Nerd. Why?
Well, for one, I'm not a Geek. While the definition of Geek is up for interpretation, the classic meaning of "Geek" is a derogatory term for a person…
illconsidered | September 17, 2008This is just one of dozens of responses to common climate change denial arguments, which can all be found at How to Talk to a Climate Sceptic.
Objection:
The American Physical Society with tens of thousands of member scientists no longer believes that the science of global warming is conclusive. So what about that so called consenus?
Answer:
The APS has not reversed its position on climate change:
Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth's climate. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide as well as methane, nitrous…
clock | September 17, 2008From SES: Science, Education & Society - Science Diversity Meme - Latino/Hispanic Scientists:
September 15 is the beginning of Latino or Hispanic Heritage Month. (It concludes October 15). America celebrates the culture and traditions of U.S. residents who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Sept. 15 was chosen as the starting point for the celebration because it is the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition,…
oracknows | September 17, 2008Forgive me, dear readers.
I realize that I've already subjected you once to the contagious supernova of stupidity that is an Olmsted on Autism blog post. I broke my usual rule about not directly linking to the crank blog Age of Autism unless there is a compelling need. One reason is that I hate to drive traffic there, Even though I do always make sure to use a rel="nofollow" tag whenever I link to AoA or any other blog whose Google ranking I don't want to contribute to, increasing AoA's traffic risks letting its "management" (such as it is) charge higher rates for advertising for the…
j7uy5 | September 17, 2008Within the past few days, I've noticed quite a few bloggers and news
writers make comparisons between the hurricanes and the financial
meltdown. It just occurred to be that there is another facet
to this analogy. This has to do with a very real problem that
has been stirred up, literally.
In addition to the analogy noted above, another analogy that I've been
seeing is to liken innovative financial products to toxic waste, as in
this Bloomberg article:
href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&refer=home&sid=aW5vEJn3LpVw">Banks
Sell 'Toxic Waste' CDOs to Calpers,…
evolvingthoughts | September 16, 2008
In response to the unwarranted flap over the education director of the Royal Society making comments that of course the media and the creationists spun to suit themselves, Richard Dawkins had this to say:
Although I disagree with Michael Reiss, what he actually said at the British Association is not obviously silly like creationism itself, nor is it a self-evidently inappropriate stance for the Royal Society to take. Scientists divide into two camps over this issue: the accommodationists, who 'respect' creationists while disagreeing with them; and the rest of us, who see no reason to…
jrosenhouse | September 15, 2008Update (9/16/08) : I forgot to include the link to the evolution carnival mothership! Please go here for more information.
Its carnival time! Thanks to everyone who sent me submissions for the big party. There were too many, alas, to respond to each one individually, but I appreciate the opportunity to sample so much good writing. How about we go sample the merchandise...
Aydin Orstan, who writes the blog Snail's Tales, gets pride of place. He serves up a fascinating post about, I kid you not, the reproductive organs of snails. Doesn't sound like your cup of tea? Give it a try anyway…
pharyngula | September 15, 2008Get ready for more fallout over Sarah Palin, who seems to be even crazier than I thought. There was an attempt to rehabilitate her from the accusations of pushing creationism recently, but the counterclaims got the facts all wrong. They claim that she only said that schools ought to "debate both sides," but that's the creationist position — pointing out that she was reciting creationist slogans does not somehow get her off the hook. And then there's this litany of eyewitness stories from residents of her home town, who seem to be cheerfully trotting out to stick a knife in her campaign.
At…
pharyngula | September 14, 2008Should creationism be taught in the classroom? It depends on what you mean by "taught".
For instance, I recently lectured our freshman biology majors on the age of the earth. I first made up a list of facts and concepts that I wanted them to take away from the class: there were plain dry facts, like that the earth is 4½ billion years old, the Cambrian was about 500 million years ago, the Permian extinction was about 250 million years ago, etc. — the bony outline of a geological history of the earth that every biologist should know. Then there were the major events in the history of the…
clock | September 14, 2008Photos Reveal Myanmar's Large And Small Predators:
Using remote camera traps to lift the veil on Myanmar's dense northern wild lands, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society have painstakingly gathered a bank of valuable data on the country's populations of tigers and other smaller, lesser known carnivores (see photo attachments). These findings will help in the formulation of conservation strategies for the country's wildlife.
Erectile Dysfunction Related To Sleep Apnea May Persist, But Is Treatable:
For sufferers of sleep apnea, erectile dysfunction (ED) is often part of the…
razib | September 13, 2008I've mentioned MHC before; they're interesting from an evolutionary perspective because they're one of the most polymorphic loci in humans, likely due to their role in disease resistance and the "diversified portfolio" strategy which seems optimal over the long term (kind of like sex). The logic is pretty simple, pathogens are good at adapting because there are so many who replicate so fast so they figure out ways to get around common defensive strategies before a few host generations have come to pass. This increases the fitness of the rare alleles in the hosts, until they become not-so-…
stoat | September 9, 2008[This is my 600th post!]
Oreskes says:
So Reagan commissioned a third report [this appears to be false: see below -W] about global warming from Bill Nierenberg, who had made his name working on the Manhattan Project developing America's atom bomb. He went on to run the Scripps Institution of Oceanography where he had built up the Climate Research Division. And he was a Jason. Nierenberg's report was unusual in that individual chapters were written by different authors. Many of these chapters recorded mainstream scientific thinking similar to the Charney and Jason reports. But the key chapter…
pharyngula | September 8, 2008I like it. This is a perfect analogy to creationist argument.
The theory of childhood, also known as child origin, is a damnable, loathsome and indefensible lie. How can any thinking person suppose all humans used to be babies once?
There is no development path from babies to adults, no transitional forms between these two species. Show me even one baby with the head of a grown man on his body. Can you? No? Not even a bearded toddler? No adults with unfused skullbones, outside unfortunate disorders? Not even a tiny little newborn girl suddenly sprouting a respectable bosom? You can't find…
hrynyshyn | September 4, 2008As of 1700 UT on Sept. 4, 2008, Sam "The End of Faith" Harris had attracted 986 comments to a piece on Sarah Palin he wrote for the LA Times. I guess I need to write a bestseller attacking religion if I want to draw that kind of traffic. And imagine how long ago ScienceBlogs would have celebrated our millionth comment if Sam were writing for us.... But I digress. it was a good little essay, one that has more to say of note about the political zeitgeist in the U.S. than it does Palin, actually. Here's the nub of his argument:
Americans have an unhealthy desire to see average people promoted to…
drorzel | September 3, 2008
The Quantum Pontiff : Wisely Using Your Advantage
"In other words, what is your probability of ruin, given a starting bankroll of D dollars, an advantage of p, and a target of T dollars?"
(tags: science math statistics blogs)
Optics basics: Coherence ë Skulls in the Stars
A very nice explanation of one of the slipperier concepts in optics.
(tags: physics optics science education blogs)
Top Story On John McCain Run Out Of Obligation | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
"John McCain is one of only two men who has a chance to become president of the United States of America, and by…
ejohnson | September 3, 2008In this post: the large versions of the Humanities & Social Sciences and Education & Health channel photos, comments from readers, and the best posts of the week.
Humanities & Social Sciences. From Flickr, by Fevi Yu
Education & Careers. From Flickr, by dboo
Reader comments of the week:
On the Humanities & Social Sciences channel, Razib of Gene Expression insists that Science is rational; scientists are not. It is not the "acuity of any given individual" that enables scientific insight and achievement, he argues, but rather "the intersection of the communal wisdom of…
razib | August 29, 2008War and the evolution of belligerence and bravery:
Tribal war occurs when a coalition of individuals use force to seize reproduction-enhancing resources, and it may have affected human evolution. Here, we develop a population-genetic model for the coevolution of costly male belligerence and bravery when war occurs between groups of individuals in a spatially subdivided population. Belligerence is assumed to increase an actor's group probability of trying to conquer another group. An actor's bravery is assumed to increase his group's ability to conquer an attacked group. We show that the…
razib | August 28, 2008Fortune favours the brave; but the brave are motivated by favours of another kind:
If courage makes it significantly more likely that small bands of tribes-men will win military confrontations with their neighbours, its overall advantages can easily outweigh its risks, a mathematical model has shown.
Some men who carry genetic variants that promote bravery might perish because of them, but the ones who survive may win more battles through their greater daring. The resulting opportunities for rape and pillage can create a net evolutionary benefit.
The study is published in The Proceedings of…
bioephemera | August 25, 2008
The Cure of Folly (The Extraction of the Stone of Madness)
oil on board
attributed to Hieronymous Bosch*, c. 1475-1490
Museo del Prado, Madrid
At one point or another, Hieronymous Bosch must have turned his paintbrush to every bizarre practice known to the fifteenth century Dutch mind, and this early piece is no exception. The composition is relatively simple: a surgeon is performing trepanation (craniotomy) on a restrained subject, while two onlookers watch. But looking closely, one can see that all is not right in Bosch's peculiar countryside: the surgeon is wearing a funnel as a hat, and…