neurotopia | June 22, 2006Yeah, and what's with the US soccer announcers on ABC/ESPN? Are they all Landon Donovan nut-huggers? Their annoying solution to EVERY problem the US faces is some splice variant of "Landon Donovan needs to step up". Got news for you idiots: Donovan isn't the whole goddamn team. Hell, he's not even the team captain, so every stupid "Donovan needs to inspire the team" comment doesn't even reflect the real world. We have a lot of good players and Donovan certainly isn't frakkin' Pele. I've started to realize that our commentators don't know shit about the game. Except for the woman, she'…
neurotopia | June 22, 2006The fate of the US in the Cup will be decided very soon, with 2 games I CAN'T WATCH. AAAAAAAHHH! Our only hope, as I see it, is attack, attack, attack. Pound the ball at the goal. Don't give their goalie a chance to recover. Don't give them ANY chance to move the ball to our end of the field. Remember that even if we win, an Italy/Czech tie means we have a big goal differential to make up. And from the look of it, Ghana is a tough, fast team.
neurotopia | June 21, 2006A recent study of 20,000 children confirmed that smoking just isn't good for kids. I don't know why this should come as a surprise to anybody, but I thought I should post it just in case....
The effects of smoking during pregnancy last up to age 12, while exposure to cigarette smoking after birth further worsens lung function, Dr. Manfred A. Neuberger of the Medical University in Vienna, one of the study's authors, told Reuters Health.
It is difficult to tell, Neuberger noted, whether the impairment of lung function resulting from prenatal and early life exposure is permanent, given that…
neurotopia | June 19, 2006My dad just emailed me and told me he'll match the next $100 of contributions, so make sure you click the icon under my profile and donate!!!
neurotopia | June 18, 2006Wow, that was a nail biting miracle. The US held off a penalty card massacre and a tough Italian team to draw 1-1 with only 9 players on the field. The drawback? Read on....
...we haven't scored a single goal yet in this Cup. That's right, our only "goal" actually came off one of the Italian defenders. Our first real goal came late in the second half off a beautiful shot by Beasley, but it was taken back due to an offsides call. Talk about frusturating!!!
I'm extremely upset because the Americans played a tough-as-nails game, especially in the second half, and I have little doubt they…
neurotopia | June 16, 2006Great news!!!! SEED is going to match our Donor challenge up to $10,000 bucks!!! So click the Donor icon below my profile and give some love to a cash-strapped classroom or school! If nothing tickles your fancy, scroll through the other SEED bloggers' challenges and find something that you like!!
neurotopia | June 16, 2006I'm sure somebody else on SB had to blog this, but just in case it got missed.... the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies released the results of a two-year study that examined the state of the Emergency Care System. The results?
Two words: Breaking point.
This article summarizes the problem. From whence does the problem spring?
At the root of the crisis: Demand for emergency care is surging, even as the capacity for hospitals, ambulance services and other emergency workers to provide it is dropping.
There were almost 114 million emergency room visits in 2003, up from 90…
neurotopia | June 15, 2006...and they shall have one!! The question:
How is it that all the PIs (Tara, PZ, Orac et al.), various grad students, post-docs, etc. find time to fulfill their primary objectives (day jobs) and blog so prolifically?...
Well the answer is... we don't!!! I'm definitely not going to be one of SEED's most prolific bloggers, but I would bet that most of us don't find the time, we make the time. Unfortunately this time may come at the expense of spouses, kids, hanging out with friends, exercise, fishing, whatever.
So perhaps the better question is... why do we do it? I can't speak for…
neurotopia | June 15, 2006I put up a temporary banner until my custom one is done. What do you think?
neurotopia | June 15, 2006The ScienceBlogs/DonorsChoose raise-money-to-help-science-classrooms-a-thon!
Those of us who blog here at ScienceBlogs think science is cool, important, and worth understanding. If you're reading the blogs here, chances are you feel the same way.
A lot of us fell in love with science because of early experiences in school -- teachers who made science intriguing, exciting, maybe a little bit dangerous. But tightening budgets are making it harder and harder for public school teachers to provide the books, equipment, and field trips to make science come alive for kids. Efforts are further…
neurotopia | June 15, 2006PZ recently brought up Ann Coulter's new book. A couple other Seed bloggers have mentioned Dembski's association with Coulter, and his pride at having assisted her with writing the evolution chapter of her new pustule book entitled "Godless". Recent events lead me to wonder whether that was a good idea on his part. But I'm not referring to the asinine nature of her rhetoric....
Now to be sure, some of the following examples might be a bit overreaching, but it appears that Ms Mr. Coulter may have engaged in some unseemly literary behavior. Specifically, she very well might have taken…
neurotopia | June 14, 2006I have just learned that Reed Cartwright successfully defended his dissertation and now joins the inner cabal of the Evil Darwinist Conspiracy!!! He is expected to report to his new job for the Department of Manufactured Evidence after a night of heavy drinking and debauchery.
Congratulations Reed! Errr, Dr. Cartwright!
neurotopia | June 14, 2006Pure Pedantry found this paper on leptin's effects in the hippocampus, and then went on to wonder
I have never heard of a link between leptin and memory. They also make this link between ABeta mice and leptin. ABeta is a protein whose accumulation has been linked to Alzheimer's. Mice that create to much ABeta show cognitive deficits. They show that an ABeta overproducing mouse also showed improvement when treated with leptin -- and link that result to the observation that leptin decreases ABeta. I am not sure what to make of that, but there is probably a metabolic story related to ABeta…
neurotopia | June 12, 2006This is painful. We got back from anniversary trip bliss to see the first US game. And we're down 2-0 in the start of the second half. ARGH. Besides the fact that Czech is offsides every 5 minutes, we really should be down 1-0. Our defense kinda collapsed and let the big guy in the middle get a header in the first few minutes of the game. The second goal was just a dynamite 1-in-1000 shot through multiple defenders, 20 yards out with perfect placement. I have no illusions that we can pull this off, but hopefully we can at least get on the board....
neurotopia | June 9, 2006...you might not know what to do
you might have to think of
how you got started
sittin' in your little room
--The White Stripes
Welcome to the second incarnation of Neurotopia! The old incarnation can be found here, although lately it has just been a collection of posts where I complain about how Blogger stinks. But no more! Now I'm here on this slick new platform! The SEED overlords pulled a mean trick on me: they set up the new blog launch mere hours before I'm supposed to hit the road and celebrate my 8th anniversary by accompanying Mrs. Evil Monkey to Fallingwater for the weekend.…