Google Maps + 2000 Census

Within a 1, 3 or 5 mile radius of our home, there are 11,014, 78,029 or 184,607 housing units, respectively; the great majority are owner occupied, most are worth less than we paid for our place and most are at least 20 years older than ours. The inhabitants, all 24,859, 174,440 or 401,704 of them, are on average a few years younger than us and earn about the same income; they are roughly 80% white, 3% black, 7% asian, 5% hispanic and 7% other.

Can I find someone using their IP Address? | Ask MetaFilter

Might come in handy if ever I get a troll infestation.

Inhabitat

I would like to hike the length of the LA River one day.

PCWorld.com - 101 Fabulous Freebies

Free stuff! Web stuff, that is.

Informed Comment

Well done Prof Cole. Well deserved. I hope Cole is right, that this is indicative of increasing influence of independent, online journalism.

Body and Soul: Two generations

Jeanne on why insisting that immigrants speak fluent English is wrong and stupid.

Utopia, dystopia, frytopia.

The great indoor/outdoor cat debate.

MaxSpeak, You Listen!: FBI AS GESTAPO: OPPRESSING THE KURDS OF HARRISONBURG, VIRGINIA

Iraqi Kurds who fled Saddam are getting the BOHICA treatment from the Fed Bureau of Incompetence.

Kamal Sayid Qadir Jailed for Criticism of Barzani.

"The proto-fascist mini-state of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Arbil [Irbil], northern Iraq, has sentenced an Austrian-Kurdish journalist to 18 months in prison for criticizing Massoud Barzani. Barzani last allied with Saddam Hussein against fellow Kurds as late as 1996, only a decade ago."

Adventures in Ethics and Science: Fuller on Mooney on science.

More good discussion at Janet's place.

FURIOUS nads! - You're Profane, I Bet You Think This Post Is About You

People are stupid. Really fucking stupid.

Some are Boojums » Blog Archive » And it is, it is a glorious thing to be a Christian president!

I am the very model of a modern Christian president...

P2P Foundation

P2P could become a big part of open, cooperative science. Via Peter Suber , of course.

Science and Politics

Coturnix wanted some linky-love, so here it is. Also, sleep is fascinating, and I've had a side interest in the body clock for a long time. Think about it: your body keeps time. How??? I even have a crazy idea that my new bete noir , MYC, is somehow involved.

rc3.org: Aggregator vacation

Rafe is dealing with my perennial problem: how much time will I allow my rss feeds/surfing to eat?

Uncertain Principles: Admissions Is a Hard Problem

The bottom line for me is that AA for men is not justifiable.

15 Best Skylines in the World

Shanghai and Dubai are my favourites.

Uncertain Principles: Revenge of the Pre-Meds

"Doctors are not scientists, they're tech support ". I love it.

Finger length predicts physically aggressive personalities, study shows - ExpressNews - University of Alberta

The article is available from Bailey's website as a pdf. Mean R:I ratios were 0.947 (M) and 0.965 (F) -- by eye, mine appears to be very close to 1.0 (higher = less prone to physical aggression/more feminine) Update: I measured, because of course it looks "close to 1.0" (idiot!) -- but it's not clear where to measure from . Taking the crease nearest the palm as a starting point, I get between 0.958 and 0.972, but I used a photocopy not a scan.

Adventures in Ethics and Science: Plagiarism is bad.

The AP -- the fucking AP, people! -- swiped a story entire from a blog, and when confronted with their theft simply said "we don't credit blogs". Taking their cue from the Commander-in-Thief, Newstainment Inc. is now simply ignoring the bits of law it doesn't like. We are so fucked.

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Unclean! Unclean!

Who'da thunkit? I'm a persecuted minority: " Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups in "sharing their vision of American society." Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry."

OBACHAN'S SCRIBBLES: Cherry Blossoms 2006

Note to self: take and post hanami photos, trackback.

Groovy Green » Thin Is In: New Thin Film Solar Production Facility To Be Built

Thin film solar: looks like a window, provides almost complete heat insulation and generates more electricity per unit area than traditional panels. Very very cool.

Wired 14.04: The Late Late Show, Live From Inside Halo

Brilliant: a talk show inside a MMORPG! I'd love to see it taken to Second Life or somewhere else less violent than Halo. via rebecca blood.

YoungFemaleScientist: help writing papers.

Should YFS cut a corner in the usual fashion or not? I say no; I wouldn't blame her if she did, I know the pressure she's under, but I hope she'll draw a line in the sand over this.

Firedoglake weblog » Citizen Action Steps: Phase One

[this is good] Note to self: do this. Also, how much does an eFax account cost?

The Valve - A Literary Organ | Electra Press - Will Work For Whuffie, part II

Holbo: "Let's start by asking the most basic question. Why is an electronic press an appropriate response to academic publishing in disarray? Well, because the academic reputation economy lags behind the technology curve. In some screwy inversion of the history of money, it's hard to get people to believe in something not backed by solid paper. But what exactly is the form of the shift we are working for? Just: get over the paper fetish? Not that I wouldn't be pleased enough with just that. But really it seems to me that the main point should be: get over the paper fetish in the right way. And the right way is: by embracing the potential of academic publishing to be a 'gift culture'. "

The Love Bug

Woman and fiancee share computer; he installs second copy of FF, thinking it would generate a second profile, and uses it to browse dating sites. She finds list of "never saved" passwords in password manager, breaks off engagement and submits bug report. Some of the comments on the report are... disheartening. Via Schneier

3quarksdaily: Shiban Ganju on the H. pylori story

An excellent short essay on a fascinating chunk of the history of science.

Visible Proofs: Forensic Views of the Body

History and practice of forensic science. Via the spousal unit.

MAXED OUT

"Did you know, for example, that while you need to sweat out your credit report, the credit bureaus keep a special "V.I.P." list of prominent citizens whose reports are specially tidied up so they look cleaner than they really are? If the big boys never experience the harassment or increased costs of a credit ding, then they are a lot less likely to insist on more legal oversight. There are many ways to lobby, and this one requires no reporting at all." via ObWi

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Wrong Number

 

Thalia kissed me where I stood,

Passing thousands by to gird me—

I'd undo it, if I could:

I'd rather she had never heard me!

 

It wasn't she I quested after—

I'd hoped Erato might enlist me—

All my verse occasions laughter,

Since Thalia kissed me!

Someone once asked me if this was a dig at Leigh Hunt. It does look like one, but I honestly meant it only as a dig at myself.

Through the Looking Glass

Charles has it about right -- W has declared himself a dictator, above the law. I'm going to focus less on politics on this site than I have in the past, preferring to leave that to those who are much better at it (see my blogroll), but I did want to at least link to this story.

American Prospect Online - The New New Gore

Like digby, I have a soft spot for Al Gore.

Adventures in Ethics and Science: Marketing philosophy to admitted students.

The most obvious benefit of studying philosophy is in learning critical thinking/reasoning skills and tools.

Floridian: The dissident at dusk

Profile of Stetson Kennedy, genuine American hero. (I've forgotten where I found this link; thanks, whoever.)

Trials | Abstract | 1745-6215-7-6 | Lead editorial: Trials - using the opportunities of electronic publishing to improve the reporting of randomised trials

"This editorial introduces the new online, open access, peer-reviewed journal Trials. The journal considers manuscripts on any aspect of the design, performance, and findings of randomised controlled trials in any discipline related to health care, and also encourages the publication of protocols. Trialists will be able to provide the necessary detail for a true and complete scientific record. They will be able to communicate not only all outcome measures, as well as varying analyses and interpretations, but also in-depth descriptions of what they did and honest reflections about what they learnt. Trials also encourages articles covering generic issues related to trials, for example focussing on the design, conduct, analysis, interpretation, or reporting." This level of disclosure should be mandatory. (via Peter Suber, of course)

HubLog: Peer Review with Marginalia

This is in its early stages, but it's way cool -- a way to annotate online documents. Think peer review as wiki; wonder if Biology Direct would be interested?

M.K.R.S. VEERA KUMAR

Wow. Just -- wow. This guy is the Editor-in-Chief of the Antarctica Journal of Mathematics (he doesn't like it if you write "Antarctic").

The Loom: You're a Dim Bulb (And I mean that in the best possible way).

Another "everybody knows" -- we only use 10% of our brains. Turns out, the brain only uses enough energy to power about 1% of its neurons at any one time (about 15W). That doesn't mean "we only use 1% of our brains" though -- do we "only use 20% of the transmission" because the car can only be in one gear at a time? (hat tip for the analogy: Janne.)

Social Bookmarks - Social Bookmarking Services Reviewed

Cool, an attempt to list and review every social bookmarking site on the intarweb. Only 36 so far, and at first glance no Scuttle -- note to self, email the admin with my list.

Innovations report - how to lobby the legislature

Packed with useful information.

Criticker - Home of the TCI

Rank films to build a profile, from which the db will generate recommendations of films and critics.

linklog archive, aka my Simpy account

BookCrossing

Bookcrossing, n.: the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise.

Beautiful

"I am beautiful now." Yes, Ms Cho, you are.

WORDCOUNT / Tracking the Way We Use Language /

Idea: Ogden's Basic English amended according to word frequency (make sure the top 1000 are in the set), followed by LEO translation. Alternatively, WordCount in other languages -- compare top 1000s, use to amend Basic Otherlanguage.

Socialism, Market Socialism

If I'm any kind of -ist I'm some kind of socialist, so it would pay me to think more about what that means and what I might do about it.

Sociology of Science

Cosma again. Damn. If I had six brains I couldn't keep up with this guy.

FURIOUS nads! - You First, Then We'll Talk

bix is making sense again: "There shouldn't even be any discussion of 24/7 audiovisual access to the public for the police until and unless there is 24/7 audiovisual access to the police for the public."

Indianz.Com > News > Giago: Oglala Sioux president on state abortion law

Sweet. Oglala Sioux President Cecilia Fire Thunder: "I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction." Via kathrynt by way of bix.

What's the funniest joke that doesn't involve making fun of anyone? | Ask MetaFilter

Why did Proudhon drink herbal tea? Because proper tea is theft.

EDGE: SPECULATIONS ON THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE By Kevin Kelly

A mixture of utter nonsense and sensible ideas. "Embrace the subjective" my paradigm-shifting ass.

Goya's Last Works at The Frick Collection - New York Magazine Art Review

"I have no eyesight, pulse, pen or ink," wrote the elderly Francisco de Goya y Lucientes... "The only thing I have in excess is willpower."

The New Zealand Weta - Home

Mouse-sized crickets, what could be better? According to this page, the name derives from the Maori name for the Giant Weta, "wetapunga" -- which means roughly "the god of ugly things".

Don't Make Me Shut This Shop Out of Raging Spite for You

Actually, after roughly a decade at university with either no income or a student stipend, I'll never catch up, financially, with a mechanic who started her apprenticeship right out of high school. As a postdoc I earn considerably less than an auto mechanic with equivalent experience, and I'll only get ahead in immediate income in the unlikely case that I make faculty. I'll never catch up in lifetime earnings. ^But hey, that's Doctor Asshole to you, greasemonkey!^

The Design of Software - REST API

WTF is an API and what can I do with it?

This is all the news the Seldovia City Government is going to let you have about what they're really doing

Black page, no text. Things are not looking good in Seldovia.

Press Conference of the President

Jesus suffering Christ on a roadside IED, he's already decided it's someone else's job to clean up his mess. The evil soulless little bastard is bored with Iraq. There is no bottom to worse. (via BlueOregon)

"Q: Will there come a day -- and I'm not asking you when, not asking for a timetable -- will there come a day when there will be no more American forces in Iraq?

THE RESIDENT: That, of course, is an objective, and that will be decided by future Presidents and future governments of Iraq."

Adventures in Ethics and Science: The more you know ...

Discussion of the "tension" between theory and experiment. John Dewey would not like some of the viewpoints expressed!

the Creatures in my Head - illustration and artwork by Andrew Bell

The creatures in Andrew Bell's head. Dude, I'd get that looked at.

linklog archive, aka my Simpy account

Prof B, Rob, Amp and Hugo all point to Pinko Feminist Hellcat's coverage of the OC rape case. For those of you living under a rock or outside the US, here's Rob's brief summary:

Three young men in Orange County videotaped themselves raping an unconscious 16 year old, and then left the video in a rented beach house. Because they were extremely wealthy, they were able to hire a lawyer who after three years of slandering and harassing the victim, got them off with only a conviction on sexual assault. Now the victim is suing the lawyer for harassment, slander, and libel. The lawyer responded by calling her "trash" and said "What I did to Jane Doe in the criminal case was child's play compared to what I can do to her in a civil case."

One of Hugo's readers, Catty, has a connection to Jane Doe's legal team and is collecting emails of support. Catty's address is ihiroeATyahooDOTcom, and letters should be addressed to "Jane Doe"; they will be printed and sent to her attorney's office. Here's mine:

Dear Ms Doe,

I write to thank you for your courage and determination. In standing firm against your assailants (in which category I include their counsel) you are forging a path for all the other survivors of violence who will, as a matter of unhappy certainty, come after you. By refusing to be intimidated into giving up your demand for justice, you are bringing a spotlight to bear on the flaws in our legal system behind which the perpetrators of sexual violence so often shelter. I wish you success in your fight, and in all things. I hope it helps to hear from one of your supporters; you should know that we are many, and you are a hero to us.

Jane Doe is nineteen years old, people. She's already endured three years of horror (to say nothing of the initial assault), and she's just put herself in for another long stay in the emotional meatgrinder. I can't know her mind, but whatever her reasons she is doing the right, the incredibly brave, thing.

If you're at all like me, you try to do your part as a reasonable human being, but it's easy to feel that your donations are drops in an ocean and your letters go straight to /dev/null -- well, not this time. This time there's a human being on the other end; she's been through hell and she's looking down the barrel of worse, she must be tired and frightened, and I bet she'd like to hear from you -- just to be reminded that she's not entirely alone. This is one case in which the much-hyped blogosphere can do some real good; please write, and if you have a blog please spread this story.

Finally, if anyone knows anything about a legal defense fund, please send me details.

Why did Proudhon drink herbal tea?

...

Because proper tea is theft!

(adapted from AskMeFi, via Eliot)

Quite apart from the ungrammatical message, the "contact us" link goes to -- you guessed it -- the same error page. Oy. There's no blog or forum where I can find out what's happening, either. I mean, I don't demand 100% uptime, but I do at least want to know what up.

This only gets to happen one more time (and that's only because I am very lazy), then I'm switching to Simpy.

Update: changed my mind, as per the strikeouts. I just like Simpy better; I trust it, and Otis, more. I'm a tool, I should have done this from the start. Until I work out how to do the linklog posts, if you really need to watch me surf the Simpy feed is http://www.simpy.com/rss/user/sennoma/links.

I mentioned a while back that I chose Ma.gnolia over Simpy in part because the latter's RSS feeds didn't work with Bloglines, so it seems only fair to note that this is no longer the case: Simpy's feeds now work perfectly with Bloglines (at least the full links feed I tested does). Moreover, since Ma.gnolia feeds initially didn't work with Bloglines either, and the Ma.gnolia team replied to my email to say "it works now, we dunno why", I figure it was likely something Bloglines did. I meant to email Otis -- see for yourself how responsive he is -- but forgot; if I hadn't, I'd be using Simpy now. This would mean finding a way to convert XML to HTML to replace the Ma.gnolia linklog widget, but there's an API and an active dev community so even if FeedDigest doesn't open up signups again I'm sure I could cobble something together.

For now I'm satisfied with Ma.gnolia, but I'm keeping my backup with Simpy and keeping an eye on developments. Honestly, Simpy is less flashy and commercial and has that hacker feel to it (these are good things, imo); I feel I can trust Otis, whereas I just don't know what the Ma.gnolia folks have in mind. I should probably switch, but I'm too lazy to do it right away -- so this entry is my way of trying to be fair to Simpy.

No one who has heard her story can forget Linda Loaiza. The latest in a literally unbelievable series of denials of justice is this: the subhuman dirtbag who raped and tortured her for four months has been sentenced to six years' jail for "severe assault and deprivation of liberty". Remember, Loaiza had to mount a public hunger strike just to get this case heard. In the first trial, the morlock was acquitted; this is the result of an appeal. Fuuuuuuuuck.

Breathing new life also into the word "indomitable", Loaiza plans to appeal further. You cannot dream such courage. The International Planned Parenthood Federation Western Hemisphere Region is running a campaign in support; go here to send her a message of solidarity. Words are not up to the task at hand, but one cannot remain silent so I sent this:

Dear Ms Loaiza,

I am astonished and outraged at the latest verdict in your fight for justice. I am pleased to hear that you will appeal, and I find myself unable fully to express my admiration for your unflinching courage.

You are shining a light into the lives of the oppressed, in all places and for all time.

Please also consider including the IPP/WHR in your philanthropic budget this year. In addition, Loaiza is setting up the Fundación Amigos de Linda Loaiza, which will focus on violence against women and judicial obstacles to redress of same. When I find out how to join, I'll post details. (Picture of LL from Mujeres En Acción.)

The Fat Bald Guy Rule

"The Fat Bald Guy Rule posits that, when considering otherwise roughly equivalent candidates for any job whose formal requirements don't include being good-looking, hire the fat bald guy. The reason is simple: Society gives all sorts of unearned preferences to good-looking people, so when a fat bald guy manages to assemble a resume that at first glance resembles that possessed by his good-looking competition, the FBGR assumes that the former record is actually far more impressive than the latter, all things considered." Damn straight.

SUNSHINE Week

More necessary than ever. "Sunshine Week is a national initiative to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include print, broadcast and online news media, civic groups, libraries, non-profits, schools and others interested in the public's right to know. Sunshine Week is led by the American Society of Newspaper Editors and is funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation."

Rhosgobel: Radagast's home

Finally, a Linux distro that might not make me want to chew out my own pancreas.

Deltoid: Dunk Malaria

Tim Lambert is looking for donations to one of his pet causes (and a good one). He'll match pledges to $300. Note to the spousal unit: I gave $10.

c h r o m a s i a / 15 March, 2006 / I wouldn't bet on it

David says the sepia-toned effect is achieved by applying a gentle reverse S curve to the blue channel in PS. Good to know.

BlueOregon: Brokeback High: Expelled West Linn Student Re-instated

Straight senior makes short film for English class, is expelled because said film is a gay love story (no nudity or anything untoward, mind); massive protest; student reinstated. Score one for the good guys, except that the school admin in question probably won't suffer for their assholery. See also brandonflyte.com.

Big Monkey, Helpy Chalk: Meritocracy, knowledge production, and killing your advisor

"...people with tenure generally believe that academe is a meritocracy. People who would otherwise never endorse social Darwinism assume that those who fail in the academy do so because they weren't smart enough to compete. Obviously, people hold this belief largely because it lets them flatter themselves. But I think there is another reason for it. We in the academy, whether we are in the humanities or the sciences, believe with good reason we are producing knowledge. Our central processes, like peer review and experiment replication, are designed to ensure the quality of our product: knowledge. So if we are producing knowledge, it is natural to assume that we are also rewarding the best knowledge producers. This inference is at best unjustified. The systems of knowledge production and career advancement are a few steps removed from each other, and it is quite likely that they do not work in synch."

Morford: I Am Done With Violence

I read Mark Morford for the funny, but he's also good in serious mode. Here he is making a lot of serious sense about the role and pervasive presence of violence in the modern USA.

A. E. Stallings - 2005 National Book Festival (Library of Congress)

My favourite living poet reading her own work. Sadly, it's in the vile RealMedia format.

Seed: Overthrowing Darwin's Number Two Theory

Joan Roughgarden and team model reproductive behaviour in terms of Nash's bargaining theory instead of sexual selection and competition. This is gonna be good; I don't have a dog in the fight so I'm going to enjoy watching the field argue over this. Pointless (and almost baseless) prediction: she's mostly wrong, but the standard view will be revised to accomodate the bits she has right.

Adventures in Ethics and Science: Institutional obligations to animals and to researchers.

Canadian IACUC equivalent shuts down an entire research program. Details are sketchy, but my inclination is to side with the ethics committee. You have to be pretty combative (AND be breaking guidelines) to get them to shut you down, in my experience. Some students may have a legit "meat in the sammich" complaint, but they're *graduate* students -- viz, they're supposed to be grownups so my inclination is to have little sympathy for them either. Where were they while the dispute was progressing?

linklog archive, aka my Ma.gnolia account

Informed Comment: Peace and Love in the Quran

Quranic exegesis from a genuine expert. I guess Cole is cherrypicking to some extent, and could probably make Islam look violent and xenophobic with the same tools -- just as one can with the bible. But the point for me is that, as all readers of such texts do, he's finding what he's looking for. This is a nice counterpoint to the mainstream Western presentation of Islam.

Michael Berube, International Professor of Danger: Sadness

Again, just read this. For those who don't already read MB, his son Jamie has trisomy 21 (Down's Syndrome); Prof Berube's writing about Jamie is truly extraordinary.

One Good Thing: letter to alex and chris

Wow. Just -- wow. Go read this. Holy shit. *shakes head* Holy shit.

zmachine_sandia_big.jpg (JPEG Image, 2400x1586 pixels)

Sandia's Z machine has produced plasmas that exceed temperatures of 2 billion degrees Kelvin -- hotter than the interiors of stars. No one quite knows how. The linked picture shows the machine firing, but I assume that's not how it looks at max power.

Those with thick accents need not apply?

MN to join ND, TX, and PA in outlawing foreign TAs. Right, because Merkins will never have to talk to any damn furriners after they leave school. What country is this again?

linklog archive, aka my Ma.gnolia account

I keep forgetting FPB, but today's Poem of the Week email both reminded me and provided me with material.

Kutti Revathi is a Tamil poet who says of her work, "People always ask me why I do not write poems about societal concerns and issues, as though attempts to bring about inner renewal and inner transformation were not acts of social concern. I use my language only to loosen the fetters that have bound and shrunk a woman's body."

The link goes to a brief introduction and links to four poems; my favourite of the four (trans. N. Kalyan Raman) is below, but do read them all.

BREASTS

Breasts are bubbles, rising
In wet marshlands

I watched in awe -- and guarded --
Their gradual swell and blooming
At the edges of my youth's season

Saying nothing to anyone else,
They sing along
With me alone, always:
Of Love,
Rapture,
Heartbreak

To the nurseries of my turning seasons,
They never once forgot or failed
To bring arousal

During penance, they swell, as if straining
To break free; and in the fierce tug of lust,
They soar, recalling the ecstasy of music

From the crush of embrace, they distill
The essence of love; and in the shock
Of childbirth, milk from coursing blood

Like two teardrops from an unfulfilled love
That cannot ever be wiped away,
They well up, as if in grief, and spill over

Since I had to ditch del.icio.us, I've been looking for a replacement online bookmarks manager. Furl is useable but poorly designed and unresponsive to feedback, Spurl is better but clunky (I don't like their folders+tags system), Simpy is good but the RSS feed didn't work and there were some uptime issues. I'm not sure why I didn't just mail Otis (Simpy's developer), since he seems pretty keen on feedback and improvement. I may go back to Simpy yet, but for now I'm sticking with Ma.gnolia. It's got all the basics down, and I got a good response when I sent mail, and it gives me a way to put up a sidebar like all the cool kids have. Only I've decided not to do it as a sidebar, but rather as regular "linklog" entries -- so that readers can comment on whatever I link, and so that it will all show up in my RSS feed. For now I'll use Magnolia's linklog widget, but when Feed Digest opens signups again I'll also try the RSS-to-html method, because Magnolia's feeds show tags and include thumbnails. I've also added my public Magnolia account to the sidebar, so without further ado:

Link Log (powered by Ma.gnolia)

Displaying RSS Feeds

More than I will ever understand about RSS feeds.

A Golden Age for a Pinup - Los Angeles Times

Sad and sweet article about Bettie Page in her retirement. Never mind Ellison's blather about golden means, the photo-touchup guy has it: she looks like fun.

blackprof.com: Crime Fighting Ticket Cheats?

The St Louis metro is an honor system -- and everyone cheats. Eric Miller has some interesting observations about the Broken Windows theory, and (what seems to me) a smart practical solution to the case at hand.

Nautilus-Fiberarts | Home

Nautilus Fiberarts - Katazome by Karen Miller

One Foot In | Alice Domurat Dreger

Member at Bioethics Forum. Likes penises.

Google Answers: Red States / Blue States

Why are Republicans red and Democrats blue? Turns out there's not much reason or design behind it.

under the fire star: Timepass

This sort of thing is one of the reasons I read Nancy. "Timepass", what a charming coinage.

Astroseti.org : How to discover asteroid impacts

Emilio decided to have a look at the new Kebira impact crater on Google Earth. Then he decided to go hunting for others; pretty soon he'd discovered what appear to be two previously-unknown members of the Aorounga impact line.

ScienceDaily: Manchester Scientists Create New Bio-gel For 3D Cell Culture

3D bio-gel for cell culture; may be an early step on the long road to grow-your-own organs.

Largest-ever galaxy portrait is awesome | Science Blog

The image of spiral galaxy Messier 101 (the Pinwheel Galaxy) is a composite of 51 images, collected for various purposes and mined from the Hubble archive. Messier 101 is about twice as big as the Milky Way and some 25 million light years away; it covers an area about one-fifth the size of the full moon in the constellation Ursa Major. It contains at least a trillion stars, of which maybe 100 billion physically resemble our Sun. If you go outside and look at it tonight, the light striking your eyes will have started its journey at about the same time as Antarctica was breaking away from Gondwanaland.

GeoWhen Database - Geologic Timeline with Stages

Handy chart for when you need to know your Jurassic from your Devonian.

Wetsuit helps Third World women survive complicated childbirth | Science Blog

A neoprene suit can save the lives of women suffering from obstetrical hemorrhaging due to childbirth, which accounts for about 30 percent of the more than 500,000 maternal deaths worldwide each year due to childbirth, nearly all in poor countries. The mechanism is amazingly simple: the suit provides pressure to prevent blood from pooling in the lower abdomen and extremeties, mitigating the most immediately lethal effects of shock.

ScienceDaily: Smallest Triceratops Skull Ever Found Provides Clues To Dinosaur's Growth

Cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!

LiveScience.com - The World's Toughest Coffee Cup

Now *this* is science. The winning design doesn't look to me as though it would be particularly tough.

LiveScience.com - Mom's Genetics Could Produce Gay Sons

The pattern of X chromosome inactivation appears to influence the sexuality of male offspring. The lead scientist (Sven Bocklandt, UCLA) has it exactly right regarding the "it's not a choice" vs "we could cure it" views of the possible genetic underpinnings of (homo)sexuality: "I think if there's ever a time when we can make these changes for sexual orientation, then we will also be able to do it for intelligence or musical skills or certain physical characteristics -- but whether or not these things are allowed to happen is something that society as a whole has to decide. It's not a scientific question."

Baby's helping hands

This is encouraging for those of us who (want/have to) believe in the possibility of human improvement: "Felix Warneken and Mike Tomasello found that children as young as 18 months willingly helped complete strangers. 'The results were astonishing because these children are so young - they still wear diapers and are barely able to use language,' says Warneken. 'But they already show helping behaviour.'"

The APC tumor suppressor counteracts beta-catenin activation and H3K4 methylation at Wnt target genes.

Does APC/Wnt play any role in cell cycle entry repression of MYC? From the abstract: "beta-cat recruits Pygopus, Bcl-9/Legless, and MLL/SET1-type complexes to the c-Myc enhancer together with the negative Wnt regulators, APC, and betaTrCP. Interestingly, APC-mediated repression of c-Myc transcription in HT29-APC colorectal cancer cells is initiated by the transient binding of APC, betaTrCP, and the CtBP corepressor to the c-Myc enhancer, followed by stable binding of the TLE-1 and HDAC1 corepressors"

LiveScience.com - Immortal Styrofoam Meets its Enemy

Pseudomonas putida can convert styrene oil, made by simply heating polystyrene, into polyhydroxyalkanoates -- from which can be made biodegradable cutlery, plastic film, and so on.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | New rodent is 'living fossil'

Laonastes aenigmamus is the only known representative of the otherwise extinct family Diatomyidae.

slacktivist: Filtered Camels

I'd never heard this "interpretation" of the camel/needle parable -- viz., that the "eye of the needle" referred to an actual gate through which a camel could, just barely, pass. It is, of course, bullshit, but that it persists speaks volumes.

I guess everyone has now seen the story of the Turkish siblings who walk on all fours. If not, the media version is here (BBC story here), and this is a followup in which the whole affair begins, predictably, to degenerate into a circus. I say predictably because there was a strong whiff of rat about it from the beginning. The Turkish researcher who "discovered" the family, Uner Tan (see also, pdf), wants to name the syndrome after himself before the ink's dry on the initial descriptions. He's got one article in the mainstream journals, at the Int J Neurosci (subscription only and my library doesn't take it, if anyone reading this could send me a pdf I'd appreciate it); this is the abstract:

The author has discovered a new syndrome with quadrupedal gait, flexed head and body, primitive speech, severe mental retardation, and mild cerebellar signs with a disturbed conscious experience. This syndrome was exhibited by 5 of 19 children from a consanguineous family. The pedigree demonstrated a typical autosomal-recessive inheritance. The genetic nature of this syndrome suggests a backward stage in human evolution, which is most probably caused by a genetic mutation, rendering, in turn, the transition from quadrupedality to bipedality. This would then be consistent with theories of punctuated evolution. On the other hand, the extensor motor system causing a resistance of the body against the gravity may actually be subjected to evolutionary forces. This new syndrome may be used as a live model for human evolution. An accompanying video clip for this article is available as a downloadable file accompanying the official online version of International Journal of Neuroscience. To access it, click on the issue link for 116(3), then select this article. A download option appears at the bottom of this abstract.

I find the idea of a single mutation driving human evolution backwards from bipedality to quadrupedality literally incredible¹. It gets better -- Prof Dr Tan has also published an article (pdf) in Neuroquantology, which bills itself as "An Interdisciplinary Journal of Neuroscience and Quantum Physics". Here's that abstract:

The recently discovered "UNERTAN SYNDROME" consists of quadrupedal gait, severe mental retardation, and primitive language. This syndrome can be considered as devolution of human being, throwing a light into the transition from quadrupedality to bipedality with co-evolution of human mind. The genetic nature of this syndrome supports the punctuated evolution during transition from quadrupedality to bipedality. In light of Tan's psychomotor theory, accentuating the major role of the motor system in human mind, a new theory was suggested for the human evolution. Namely, the unique behavioral trait of man, the emergence of the habitual bipedality with Homo erectus (1.6 million and 250.000 tears ago) may be coupled with a resistive mind, which forced man to stand up against the gravitational forces with consequent success in tool making and hunting, using free hands for survival. The second stage in the evolution of modern human beings may be coupled with the emergence of language (circa 40.000 years ago), playing a major role in the origins of human mind.

Oooo-kay then. Enter Nicholas Humphrey and John Skoyles of the London School of Economics Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science and Roger Keynes from Cambridge, who published an LSE "discussion paper" (pdf) (read: no peer review) on the family. According to that publication, "Tan contacted NH and JS, and together we visited the family in June 2005". Together, it seems, with a BBC documentary team; the film is scheduled for UK release next Friday. The Humphrey et al. dp is actually better than the Tan paper; in particular, it gives the lie to the latter's claim of "primitive language" by pointing out that all the affected siblings in fact speak Kurdish, though with difficulties. Nonetheless, it (the dp) smacks of the late unlamented Empire:

The local villagers laugh at and tease them. Because of this, the females tend to stay close to the house, but the male sometimes wanders for several kilometres. He helps raise money for his family by collecting cans and bottles, which he carries home in a pouch made from his shirt, held by his teeth. He is remarkably agile. We watched him moving easily across rough terrain in search of collectibles. While he searched ahead, his hands anticipated the contours of the rocks, so that he placed them deftly without looking down. He was able to run ahead of us, carrying his mouth bag -- while at the same time, to show off, he kicked one of his legs in the air (Fig. 2d).

Far worse than that, though, informed consent apparently consisted entirely of the following:

The father of the family signed a statement in Turkish which was explained to him by Defne Aruoba. In this statement he consented to his children undergoing medical and other tests related to research on their quadrupedal gait, said he understood that all information of relevance to their welfare would be shared with him, and acknowledged that he had no objections to the research being published. He signed a further statement for the BBC, consenting to film and photographs of his film of his family being broadcast.

The second world-science.net story above explains what's wrong with that:

"I'm suspicious all over the place," said Arthur L. Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics in Philadelphia. He said such a deal should have been pre-reviewed by one of the ethics panels that research institutions appoint for such purposes.

Humphrey wouldn't say whether that occurred. His two co-authors in the research project didn't answer emails.

Payments to research participants are normal, Caplan said, but must be vetted to ensure they're neither unfairly small, nor too large: "You're not supposed to bribe people into being subjects."

He added that participants should have advocates to advise them of their rights and the risks, such as the possibility that they might become subjects of a media circus. Humphrey's paper says a friend advised the family.

Michael Kalichman, director of the Research Ethics Program at the University of California, San Diego, wrote in an email that this sort of transaction generally "wouldn't be right in terms of the protection of research subjects and it certainly wouldn't be right in terms of the sharing of research knowledge."

Caplan is right to be suspicious, it's dodgy as hell. I hope some very pointed questions are going to be asked of the LSE about what sort of ethical oversight they provide their researchers.

There's one more paper available, this one from the Institut für Medizinische Genetik and published in the J Med Genet (abstract here, I could get the full text of this one). Mundlos' group show that the affected siblings' disorder maps to chromosome 17p, and -- on the flimsy basis that other heritable syndromes involving cerebellar hypoplasia do not result in quadrupedal locomotion -- speculate rather loosely about the evolution of bipedality. The authors themselves note that while the brain malformation is fully penetrant, two of seven affected walk upright, and that "we cannot exclude that early and sufficient treatment might have altered the outcome in the affected". It seems much more likely that the observed quadrupedal locomotion is a means of compensating for the cerebellar defect than a reversion to an ancestral state. There may be more clues to this issue available when the defect is more finely mapped -- we could, for instance, compare the affected gene/s between humans and other primates. The atavism hypothesis, however, will probably remain untestable since the affected gene/s are most likely to be involved in brain development and to not vary informatively between humans and other primates. That's a safer and saner prediction than "reverse evolution" (a stupid name that implies the existence of an identifiable "forward" direction), but it doesn't sell as well.

I wasn't going to blog about this, being content with a few comments at 3QD, but then Carl Zimmer removed his post about it. Carl pointed to the world-science.net story I linked above, which contains some back-and-forth between Tan and the LSE researchers about the ethical implications of payments made to the family. In comments, Humphrey objected, calling it "empty gossip". Carl pointed out that in fact it was the accusation of a professional colleague, not gossip, and raised other reasonable points, to which Humphrey apparently declined to respond in public. Here's Carl on his decision to delete the post:

Dr. Humphrey and I have been exchanging some email since then, from which I've gathered that some people--including some reporters--have misread what I wrote. They're under the impression that I reported ethical and financial hanky-panky going on. In fact, I was pointing out some ambiguities that raised my concern. When Dr. Humphrey provided me with information clarifying the situation, I immediately posted it. But that apparently has not prevented some people from carelessly misreading my post. I believe that serious ethical issues must be considered whenever scientists work closely with television productions. But I do not want to be involved in the spread of this sort of damaging misinformation, even passively. Given how things have devolved, it seems like tacking on additional explanations is not going to rectify the situation. So I've decided to delete my discussion of the topic. It's not a perfect solution, but it's the best I can think of.

That, then, is the actual point of my entry -- I wanted to comment on Carl's post, but I didn't think he'd appreciate my tone. I've provided the background above so that I can put it here:

Carl is not responsible for other people's misreading of his commentary, which I found eminently reasonable and which was not in the least unclear or confusing. I wish he hadn't deleted it, as I don't think it did Humphrey disservice, let alone damage. Moreover, few regular media outlets will give Humphrey the right of reply. Though I applaud Carl's concern for journalistic ethics, I think he is being too careful of the reputation -- or rather, the thin skin -- of someone who is discovering that the spotlight into which he eagerly scrambled is not always as much fun as he'd thought it would be.

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¹ It's not impossible, but if it turns out to be true my own amazement will be such good sauce that I will enjoy my helping of crow.

Twins Remee and Kian had, according to the article, about one chance in a million of turning out that way (I mean different colors, not cuter'n kittens). Both parents (and, pace the article's rather stupid headline "Black and white twins", both little girls) are mixed race. Via jwz.