personal
jstemwedel | August 18, 2008The Free-Ride family is spending a week communing with Free-Ride forebears on neutral turf in Wisconsin. Internet access is spotty, so while I have access to the tubes, a few quick observations:
It's really green here in August. Back in our part of California, it's never this green unless you're still within the rainy season. And that's in the winter.
The tourist traps are remarkably nice -- not crowded or Disneyfied, lots of fresh air and things growing, and restaurant prices that are actually reasonable.
However, others of the tourists feel compelled to share with us what they know…
clock | August 18, 2008How much is four blog years in dog years? Half a century?
After about a year of posting comments elsewhere, I started my first blog and my first post on August 18th, 2004. Seems like a lifetime ago....
pharyngula | August 17, 2008We have had a fabulous week in the Galápagos, and are slowly working our way back — we're in Quito tonight, getting up for a 4am shuttle to the airport tomorrow morning, with an 8 hour layover in Miami which means we won't get home to Morris until after midnight. We're ready to fall over, but look — we're happy!
The guestbloggers will have to hold down the fort for at least another day, but I'll be back in action soon with a lot of stuff to report. Patience!
By the way, can any of you name the two famous islands behind us in this picture?
edyong | August 15, 2008Hey folks, I've got a feature article in this week's New Scientist, which is my second for the magazine. The article describes the story of FOXP2, the "language gene" that's not really a language gene.
The story started a few years ago, when a group of scientists led by Simon Fisher found that a single genetic mutation was responsible for an inherited language disorder in a British family called KE. The gene in question - FOXP2 - was quickly touted as a "gene for language" by an overenthusiastic and sensationalist media.
Since then, researchers have probed the true nature of FOXP2 using…
pharyngula | August 14, 2008Hiya gang, have you missed me? I've only got a moment before I have to go chase down flightless cormorants, so I thought I'd just pop in and tell you all I wish you were here, it's a fabulous place, and I'll have more to say when I get back after this weekend.
Until then, the guest bloggers are doing a marvelous job and have my full support!
sa smith | August 13, 2008I like irreverent things. Wrong things. Smiley faces with drops of blood on their shiny yellow heads. Murderous, cherub faced dolls. Death rainbows. Bad horses.
'Wrong' things make me genuinely happy.
Thats why, despite its understated design, I LOVE our departmental T-shirts!!!
E. coli is a celebrity. Its always in the news for tainting this and contaminating that. Oh most E. coli are harmless, its just that some of them have been hanging out with naughty viruses:
E. coli is a gram-negative enterobacterium which diverged from the Salmonella lineage about 100 million years ago. Many…
clock | August 13, 2008I got some old, old pictures of me, in the animal room at NCSU, holding one male and one female Japanese Quail (Coturnix japonica):
pzminion | August 12, 2008Guest Blogger Danio:
When I began to seriously question organized religion, years ago, it didn't take long to conclude that the myths I had been taught as a child were no more tractable than any of the other thousands of belief systems that have come and gone throughout human history. While I quickly and cheerfully discarded all god-belief without regret, the concept of the soul, a consciousness of some kind that could persist beyond the physical life, was significantly harder for me to relinquish. The idea that the essential 'me' would cease to exist upon my death was not nearly as…
pzminion | August 12, 2008I'm a little brain-dead this morning, but at least I'm remembering to note that it's MAJeff writing this. I'll be better once I have my coffee, I hope.
I spent all day yesterday immersed in job hunting materials. Prepping files for submission, organizing application materials, creating individual files on disk and hard copy for every school. You know, that nasty ol' administrative side of job hunting, the kind of work you just have to grind through all at once, rather than waiting, but that has to get done in order to avoid complete chaos.
This weekend a friend was over for my dinner. I was…
clock | August 11, 2008After four days - last three of which I had no internet access - and after11 hours of travel door-to-door (or 8 hours from entering an airport and exiting another airport), I am home. Exhausted.
As I knew that several other Sciblings had to deal with the chaos of NYC air-travel this weekend. We were prepared - took it slowly and easily. Read a book. Could not login to JetBlue wireless (I think my PLoS laptop has so many layers of security, it does not allow me to connect to public wifi deemed too dangerous - that's why I need to get myself a Mac AirBook, or a Wee, for travel). People-…
oracknows | August 11, 2008Look what Bora's doing with poor Professor Steve Steve:
And what's poor Charles Darwin got to do with it? No wonder Jason's looking on in bemusement--or perhaps puzzlement.
pharyngula | August 10, 2008Someone asked if I went to church yesterday. Yes. This one:
I was only there for the gargoyles, which are all of Ecuadorian wildlife.
(Now I have to go catch a plane to the islands…)
pharyngula | August 9, 2008Quito is not a shiny city. It's a bit shabby, with peeling paint, narrow twisty streets, buses belching fumes, and cheap gray tenements erupting all over the hillsides, and it is also far too churchy for my tastes. But man, it has character. It's a wonderfully lively place, and what it lacks in chrome it replaces with color and quirkiness and charm. We had a good time today touring the Old City.
I was charmed by this little restaurant with guinea pigs turning on a spit. We didn't have a chance to stop and sample them, though, since we had to scurry up the road to visit the equator.
There's…
pharyngula | August 8, 2008Hey, I've safely arrived here in Quito, Ecuador…and of course, I beat Phil Plait here, getting through customs and to the hotel long before he did. He's got to be getting used to second place by now.
I see the guestbloggers have come through and are doing a bang-up job, so I don't need to say much at all. We'll be touring the city tomorrow and won't have much time to write then, either — so don't expect too much from me in the near future. Not even in reply to Matt Nisbet.
Speaking of slanderous, self-serving frauds, Ray Comfort has been claiming that I "chickened out" of our debate on WDAY…
sheril | August 8, 2008
JetBlue Flight 1104 was scheduled for 10:20 meaning I should have landed in NYC hours ago for the 2008 Sb meetup. Instead, here I am, stranded in a North Carolina terminal. So it goes.
oracknows | August 8, 2008"If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart. And if you're not a conservative at 40, you have no head." - Winston Churchill
Like one of my blog buds, PalMD, I usually don't discuss purely political issues on this blog. After all, I have my niche, and I've become quite good at blogging within that niche, if I do say so myself. Also, let's face it: Political bloggers are a dime a dozen, by and large, while few do what I do, and I like it that way. Still, sometimes something happens that makes it impossible for me to help myself and I can't resist. After all, anyone who blogs fancies…
clock | August 7, 2008I will have to turn in early as tomorrow morning Mrs.Coturnix and I are getting up at the crack of dawn and traveling to NYC to meet the SciBlings (and readers).
I did not have enough time to schedule long posts for the next four days, apart from the ubiquitous ClockQuotes, and I doubt I will have much time and inclination to post from there (though I may post some pictures!), which will give you a breather and an opportunity to catch up with me! Perhaps you can dig through the Archives and read and comment on older posts. Or you can check out lots of other cool blogs and perhaps help me…
jstemwedel | August 7, 2008The state of the seedlings in my raised beds, nearly three weeks after the seeds were sown:
Look at those happy scarlet runner beans! Soon I'm going to have to give them some help climbing up that fence.
The bush beans are also coming right along, as are the soy beans:
Indeed, we're getting to the point where I probably should "thin" the bean plants so they have enough room to grow to maturity. I always feel a little sad for the seedlings that get sacrificed for the good of their brethren.
I'd actually feel OK about it if we already had evidence of earthworm who might nom on the…
jstemwedel | August 7, 2008First, from the Seed Overlords:
You may have noticed some pretty yellow banner ads around the site this week. They're advertising a huge reader survey that we're conducting right now. Anyone (excepting Seed employees) who fills it out can enter to win an iPod and MacBook Air.
The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete. Here's the survey page:
http://www.erdossurvey.com/sb/survey/
Then, following the lead of Ed, Bora, DrugMonkey, and Alice, I'd like to invite the readers of this blog, from regular commenters to committed lurkers, to check in.
Tell us who you are, what brings you here…
sheril | August 7, 2008Dear Rose,
Welcome to the planet! Just about a year ago, I married your parents, who happen to be two of my very favorite people. I've never been an aunt before, but then, you've never been a niece before, so it will be fun learning the ropes together.
When you're a bit older, I'll take you out to wander the tide pools on California's lost coast and teach you about music and books and dinosaurs and space and all the most important stuff. In the mean time, you keep growing and exploring the world, and I'll do my best to make sure the large fish, big cats, and great migrations are still…