I don't sit around all day websurfing, honest.

• Cool Tool: Peopleware
  Might be useful if I make it up the foodchain a bit.
• eBay Guides - . How To Win Something In A Claw Machine .
  The internets really do contain Everything.
• Portico: An Electronic Archiving Service
  "The mission of Portico is to preserve scholarly literature published in electronic form and to ensure that these materials remain accessible to future scholars, researchers, and students." A non-profit ally in the quest for OA/OS?
• HST's obituary for Nixon: "He was a crook."
  "... hubris-crazed monster from the bowels of the American dream with a heart full of hate and an overweening lust to be President", snork. More where that came from as the High Priest of Gonzo beats the Worst President Ever (until W) like a red-headed step-mule.
• Small stinky whitish balls coming out of my throat. | Ask MetaFilter
  Spouse, do not read this. Other readers, beware: if you click through, you may never eat again. I created a new tag, "foulandhorrible", just for this. The biologist's lament: why O why must I love things that squick me out? Gaaaa, erg, I can't look, I gotta look.
• MaxSpeak, You Listen!: CARBON OFFSETS - OFFSIDES by Gar W. Lipow
  "Mommy, where do carbon offsets come from?" "Well, you see honey, when a major polluter and a consultant love money very much they express that love together in a very special way. And nine months later the consultant produces an extremely long piece of paper." *snort* Followed up here with links to several resources. Note to self: read and think, also ask carbonfund.org to respond.
• Alicublog: movie review, Walk The Line
  Why is no one paying Roy to write movie reviews? (Or, if they are, someone please point me there.) This is what reviewing should be: sharp and clear, informed and reinforced by a wide background of experience and critical thought. Also, funny and spoiler-free.
• arc90 lab : tools : Unobtrusive Sidenotes
  It's all about tangents. No, not those kinds of tangents. We're talking about the kind where you'll be sharing a thought and you sort of, umm, go off elsewhere. Some people call them asides, digressions, departures...you get the idea. We are of the belief that footnotes -- at least the ones worth reading -- suck. They suck because they are elsewhere, usually far away from the line-of-sight we're focused on when we read. It would be nice to be able to optionally just glance over and take that brief little detour if we so choose. It's footnotes on steroids: sidenotes. Via jd.

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• Crooked Timber » » Introduction: The Wealth of Networks seminar
  CT seminar on Benkler's book.
• Matthew_Wheeler
  "Matthew Wheeler took his first picture through an ice lens in response to a challenge by Scientific American and CBC calling on listeners to light a fire with a lens made entirely of ice. Too easy by far - Matthew took it one step farther and started photographing the natural beauty of his surroundings through the ice lenses he made."
• Rhosgobel: Deducing adjunct salaries
  Very useful examination of adjunct teaching salaries. "Radagast Responds" could be a mine of useful info! (Bottom line, though: avoid adjunct appointments, for they are teh suck.)

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• Open_Access_Journals : Open Access Journals
  I wish they wouldn't use Yahoo for this. Is there no open source alternative?
• 3QD: Why We Do Not Eat Our Dead
  Why shouldn't we eat people?
• bootstrap analysis: what to do if you find a baby bird
  ""I found a baby bird and it couldn't fly. What should I do?" The short answer is -- Nothing. Leave it alone! The long answer is here in the Bootstrap Public Service Announcement #2: What to do if you Find a Baby Bird."



• Testosterone Nation - The Most Hated Man in Bodybuilding
  "...who is it that the professional bodybuilders call a freak? Who is the freak's freak? Answer: Greg Valentino." This is the freakiest physique I have ever seen, bar none. 3500mg/wk of steroids at his peak; 5'6", 235 pounds and 27" guns on-cycle. Kids, do not try this yourselves, at home or anywhere else. Update: note the disparity between forearms and upper arms; consensus seems to be that much of the apparent bulk is due to injecting an inert oil directly into the tissue. Kids, don't do that either.
• METRONOME ONLINE - free!
  Just what it says: an online metronome.
• One thousand paintings ( 1000 numbers = 1000 paintings )
  "One number, one painting - the number is the art is the limit is the price. Each of the one thousand paintings is unique, showing a number between 1 and 1000." Sorta goofy, but I might have bought a cool number if any were left.
• michael regnier photography | gallery archive
  Processed photos, not sure whether I like the trick or not. Via Chromasia.
• Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | The mythmaker
  I haven't read enough Heaney to have an opinion, but this interview is a good read and I liked this: "My favourite poem in this area is a two-line dedicatory verse at the front of it: 'The riverbed, dried-up, half-full of leaves. / Us, listening to a river in the trees.' That settles it. You know? Obligation, earnest attention, documentary responsibility - fine. But what about the river in the trees, boy? Poetry has to be that, and it's very hard to get there."
• Media Matters - "Media Matters"; by Jamison Foser
  Right:

  The dominant political force of our time is not Karl Rove or the Christian Right or Bill Clinton. It is not the ruthlessness or the tactical and strategic superiority of the Republicans, and it is not your favorite theory about what is wrong with the Democrats. The dominant political force of our time is the media.

  Wrong:

  ... it can't go on.

• Eschaton
  Quoth Atrios: "My short reading list, in rough chronological order (of relevance not publication), to have a good sense of what's going on in the media (and its intersection with politics) in this country would be: On Bended Knee Backlash Sound and Fury Queer in America Fools for Scandal Hunting of the President Blinded by the Right A Vast Conspiracy One Scandalous Story What Liberal Media Republican Noise Machine Attack Poodles Lapdogs"
• Judith Shklar: putting cruelty first.
  "...although intuitively, most of us might agree about right and wrong, we also, and of far more significance, differ enormously in a way we rank the virtues and vices. Those who put cruelty first, as he guessed, do not condemn it as a sin. They have all but forgotten the Seven Deadly Sins, especially those that do not involve cruelty. Sins are transgressions of a divine rule and offenses against God; pride, as the rejection of God, must always be the worst one, which gives rise to all the others. Cruelty, as the willful inflicting of physical pain on a weaker being in order to cause anguish and fear, however, is a wrong done entirely to another creature. When it is marked as a supreme evil, it is judged so in and of itself, and not because it signifies a rejection of God or any other higher norm. It is a judgement made from within a world where cruelty occurs as part both of our normal private life and our daily public practice. By putting it irrevocably first--with nothing above it, and with nothing to excuse or forgive acts of cruelty--one closes off any appeal to any order other than that of actuality."
• Merchant's Encyclopedia of HTML
  Nice summary; includes a scribble page.
• Iris Tour - a photoset on Flickr
  Don't just look at the thumbnails, click through. There are some really good photos in this set. Makes me wonder about the Digital Rebel vs the G6.

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If you read this blog, you're probably something of a nerd, so if you haven't seen Joss Whedon's movie Serenity, or the TV series Firefly that spawned it, do yourself a favour: turn off the internets right now and go find a copy of both. Really, do it, you can thank me later.

Now that we're all up to speed on background, June 23 is the one-year anniversary of the third and final advance (US) screening of Serenity, and also happens to be Joss Whedon's birthday. Serenity Now/Equality Now is a worldwide effort to organise charity screenings of Serenity on June 23, proceeds to benefit Whedon's favourite charity, Equality Now.

Regular readers are no doubt aware that the mere suggestion of paid advertising on this site would cause me apoplexy, but b!X never paid me a cent. I applaud the effort and the sentiment behind it, and wish him and his fellow Browncoats well in this. If you live in Portland, I hope to see you at Cinema 21; if you live elsewhere, click the "Screenings outside PDX" link to find the showing nearest you. (And if this idea really floats your boat, it may not be too late to organise a screening yourself.)

One final word: this is NOT the same thing as "Serenity Day", a seperate and entirely selfish endeavour aimed at convincing Universal Studios to revive the Firefly series or make a Serenity sequel or something, by having fans everywhere buy a copy of the DVD. Serenity Now/Equality now is about taking the energy of fandom and doing something positive with it -- something in tune with some of the ideas Whedon's heroes stand for, perhaps. So go ahead and buy an extra copy of Serenity if you like, but on June 23 or thereabouts, spend the money on a charity screening.

• TrueMajority Oreos
  One-eighth of the Pentagon budget could more than pay for health insurance for every US child who needs it, fully fund the Head Start program, restructure US K-12 education, make a serious dent in world hunger and begin to cure the US addiction to fossil fuels. This would reduce US defense spending to a level just under four times its nearest world rival, Russia -- which happens to be an ally.
• Index of Science Tracer Bullets Online. Listed by title (Science Tracer Bullet - Science Reference Services, Library of Congress)
  The Library of Congress SCIENCE TRACER BULLET SERIES contains research guides that help you locate information on science and technology subjects. With brief introductions to the topics, lists of resources and strategies for finding more, they help you to stay "on target."
• Life's harsh lessons 'make you more gullible'-study
  Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich -- schwächer: "A six-month study in the University's School of Psychology found that rather than 'toughening up' individuals, adverse experiences in childhood and adolescence meant that these people were vulnerable to being mislead. [...] The study found that while some people may indeed become more 'hard-nosed' through adversity, the majority become less trusting of their own judgement."
• Cool Tool: X-treme Tape
  Electrical tape simply does not work in a marine environment. Even duct tape won't stick to something wet. Try getting any tape to stick to a rope or line on a boat. Or try to get a waterproof seal on a hose leak. X-treme tape can do all these chores with flying colors because it is a non-adhesive, self-bonding wrap. It's not really tape since it's not sticky. This stuff is sort of magical. You stretch it on and it self-fuses tight under tension. It works in cold and wet, and won't melt on hot surfaces, so you can use it on engines. It is easy to apply even when it is below freezing. The tape doesn't stick on itself until you want it to. Once tightened this silicone based wrap forms a reliable bond even in water. I use it as an insulator around wires, like electrical tape. I wrap the end of ropes with it. X-treme tape bears up for many seasons under constant UV and sunlight and the extreme cold, heat, and wet of harsh weather.
• eBay: Art Director--INTERNATIONAL RIGHTS to my work (item 6626642598 end time May-09-06 08:45:49 PDT)
  Am I missing something? Is this not fraud -- or rather, enabling and encouraging fraud? How are the ads in question going to benefit anyone unless they pass the work off as their own?
• Ave Maria Grotto, Cullman, Alabama
  The spousal unit just *loves* this stuff. OK, OK, %so do I%.

  The Ave Maria Grotto, known throughout the world as "Jerusalem in Miniature", is a beautifully landscaped, four-acre park designed to provide a natural setting for the 125 miniature reproductions of some of the most famous historic buildings and shrines of the world. The masterpieces of stone and concrete are the lifetime work of Brother Joseph Zoettl, a Benedictine monk of St. Bernard Abbey.

• Bulletin of the World Health Organization - A clearing house for diagnostic testing: the solution to ensure access to and use of patented genetic inventions?
  In genetic diagnostics, the emergence of a so-called "patent thicket" is imminent. Such an overlapping set of patent rights may have restrictive effects on further research and development of diagnostic tests, and the provision of clinical diagnostic services. Currently, two models that may facilitate access to and use of patented genetic inventions are attracting much debate in various national and international fora: patent pools and clearing houses. In this article, we explore the concept of clearing houses.
• Waxy.org: Daily Log: Star Wars Kid, Redux
  Matt actually looks pretty badass in this. That look on his face says "don't fuck with me". Of course, it also says "I'm a giant dork and I know it".
• Hullabaloo
  Digby's right, it almost feels like a threat: "If Democrats gain power we'll have to do actual reporting again, and we're not going to stand for that." Push back. Demand that the grownups be put back in charge.
• Are you a defensive Pessimist? Take this quiz to find out!
  As it happens, according to this quiz I am a dp. Maybe I should read the book. Via Dr Shellie.
• SEATURTLE.ORG - Satellite Tracking
  "Welcome to Satellite Tracking at SEATURTLE.ORG. The goal of this program is to provide marine animal researchers with an easy-to-use tool for collecting, managing and sharing their satellite tracking data in near real-time." Cool. Wonder how much actual data you can get your hands on?
• Larry Beinhart: With All This Horseshit | The Huffington Post
  Fuckin' A: "Get on the stand and regale with tales of success. Of plots thwarted. Of desperate measures intercepted. Of terrorists captured or killed. Tell us how you've located Osama bin Laden. It's been over four and a half years. Unlimited budget. Unlimited military might. No visible moral constraints. Tell us how you've tracked him down, hung him high and busted up his ring!"

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Dr Shellie went to a workshop on Impostor Syndrome, which is "a behavior pattern in which high-achieving individuals (particularly women and academics!) have a hard time believing in their own success and intelligence". As you'd expect, female academics are particularly prone to IS, and Dr Shellie tacitly admits to having some impostor issues herself.

I thought it might be interesting to have a kind of impostor -- a male scientist -- take the impostor syndrome diagnostic quiz, so here goes:

Do you secretly worry that others will find out that you're not as bright and capable as they think you are?

Nope -- I'm pretty secure about being bright and capable. (Modest, too, no?) I bet that's a man thing -- I've always been praised for anything I've done that indicated intellectual firepower, whereas women largely don't get that kind of encouragement. Or, to the extent that they do get such encouragement within academic circles, it's offset by pressure from the wider culture which tends in the opposite direction, focusing on female appearance and disparaging women's intellectual achievements -- see also this post from Dr Free-Ride on women and nerdliness.

Do you sometimes shy away from challenges because of nagging self-doubt?

No. I do wonder if I'm up to some parts of the larger job -- getting funding, planning a long term research endeavour, managing a team -- but those are long term challenges and so sorta hard to "shy away" from. Shorter-term things like giving a presentation or picking up a new technique I'm pretty confident with.

Do you tend to chalk your accomplishments up to being a "fluke," "no big deal" or the fact that people just "like" you?

I think I do sometimes overdo the self-deprecation thing. That might be cultural though, as I grew up in Australia where it's much more common (to the point of pathology, see also Tall Poppy Syndrome). On the other hand, I think it's important to realise that luck does play a healthy part in many scientific accomplishments.

Do you hate making a mistake, being less than fully prepared or not doing things perfectly?

Sure. Doesn't everyone though?

Do you tend to feel crushed by even constructive criticism, seeing it as evidence of your "ineptness?"

Not crushed -- it annoys me, I can't seem to help that reaction, but I realise it's asinine and I always manage to step back and do my best to learn from whatever criticism I'm offered. If someone does catch me in an error I could have been expected to avoid, I do feel "inept", foolish -- but I think that's normal, not Impostor Syndrome.

When you do succeed, do you think, "Phew, I fooled 'em this time but I may not be so lucky next time."

Um, not really. Maybe a little. It depends on whether I felt secure going in -- sometimes I'm not well prepared (for a seminar, say), and if it goes well I do feel I got lucky.

Do you believe that other people (students, colleagues, competitors) are smarter and more capable than you are?

I flat-out know that some of them are -- but I think the question is aimed at a general feeling of not being up to standard, from which I do not suffer.

Do you live in fear of being found out, discovered, unmasked?

No.

In fact, I think a resounding "yes" to any of the last three questions might indicate serious anxiety and/or self esteem issues, possibly related to depression, and I think I would suggest professional mental health support in addition to Dr Young's ten steps to overcome Impostor Syndrome. (If that sounds like a put-down, note that I have major depressive disorder and see a psychiatrist regularly. I know whereof I speak, when it comes to living with mental health issues.) I don't mean to suggest that Impostor Syndrome should be subsumed into other "real" diagnoses -- I think IS is a real problem, and like many (if not most) such problems it overlaps with several other parts of the mental health spectrum.

• Welcome to the Blog Carnival Index
  Blog Carnival Index: 3838 editions of 313 carnivals as I link this. It feels like too many already, but with literally millions of blogs I guess there's plenty of room for more carnivals. One more facet of the Intarweb Big Question: what to do with all this information?
• Bitch PhD: custom bras
  This link is for the spouse. The spouse!!! (Marked this blog post not the Julianna Rae site because several other options are mentioned in comments.)
• Caveat Lector » Random thought
  "Unlike many open-access advocates, I admit openly to being anti-for-profit-journal-publisher. I worked for a service bureau. I saw those folks at their stupidest and worst. I want no part of 'em. Don't trust 'em. I'm glad when they do the right thing, because I'm glad when anybody does the right thing, but if what I do hurts 'em, there will be no crocodile tears from me on their account."
• Hunter S. Thompson and the Myth of Objectivity - frassle
  Damn, jd doesn't write much, but when he does it's worth reading.
• Great-Grandmother gets "do not resuscitate" tattoo.
  This is great:

  Eighty-year-old Mary Wohlford has informed family members of her wishes should she ever become incapacitated. She also has signed a living will that hangs on the side of her refrigerator. But the retired nurse and great-grandmother now believes she has removed all potential for confusion. She had the words "DO NOT RESUSCITATE" tattooed on her chest. [...] Said Wohlford: "I don't believe in lawyers too much."

  Now that's a tough old lady -- and she may not have solved the problem but she has certainly focused some attention on it. Kudos. (via)

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Lifted directly from Bitch PhD: Nazanin Mahabad Fatehi is an 18-year old Iranian who has been sentenced to death for stabbing a man to death because he and two other men were trying to rape her and her niece. Her case is being reviewed by the Iranian Supreme Court this week. Things you can do:

• Help spread the story about Nazanin! Tell everyone you know, family, friends and others who might be interested. Direct them to this web page and ask them to take action for Nazanin.
• Contact newspapers, TV-channels, blogs and other media and ask them to report this story. US residents can contact local or national media via NOW.
• Write about Nazanin in your own blog, homepage, or in internet forums or chat rooms you frequent.
• Put a link to this page in your email signature or at your homepage.
• Put one of these banners on your website.
• Write the Iranian government or the Iranian embassy of your country , and demand that Nazanin's death sentence is commuted immediately. Read more.
• Contact politicians/representatives and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in your country and ask them to pressure Iran to commute the death sentence and free Nazanin. US representatives can be contacted via NOW.
• Contact the United Nations Office of Human Rights and ask them to protest.
• Sign and spread this petition, started by the Canadian model Nazanin Afshin-Jam.
• Buy a T-shirt in support of Nazanin, designed by Lily Mazahery.

• HousingZone.com - A Zero Energy Home - 5/1/2006 - CA6332828
  Good news: "Ideal Homes built the first zero energy home in the country priced under $200,000. The modest one-story, three-bedroom, two bathroom home produces as much energy as it consumes in a year, achieving net zero energy consumption." It's 1650 sq ft, plus (?) a 2-car garage. I wonder what they could do with 1200 sq ft, no garage? (via rebecca blood)
• The Observer | Magazine | Give me a shelter
  Profile/interview: WorldChanging/AfH's Cameron Sinclair.
• Creek Running North: Fuck your civility
  Fuckin' amen. Chris Clarke: "I have decided I no longer trust anyone who insists on others being civil. The bumper sticker from ten years ago said "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." That needs updating. If you're not outraged, then you've decided that the suffering that exists in the world is just fine with you, as long as you don't feel it. And if you've decided that, you don't deserve civility."
• Model purge on anorexics makes weight vital statistic - World - Times Online
  Some sense at last. "LEADING figures in Israel's fashion industry, alarmed by the number of young women suffering from bulimia or anorexia, are supporting a move to ensure models have "normal", healthy figures."
• BBC - Radio 3 - Discovering Music Archive
  Shame about the rm format.
• stardust holiday :: the NASA bedrest project (v5 stripey goodness)
  What else would you do during 3 months' enforced bed rest, except blog? Via Matt.
• we*heart*prints
  "a compilation of beautiful, affordable art prints"
• Majikthise : Polanski, the Academy, and rape
  Great thread on art and ethics, taking off from the example of acknowledged great director and convicted child rapist Roman Polanski, and the question of whether we ought morally to refuse to watch his movies.
• Prozac's target revealed
  Prozac treatment specifically stimulates the generation of "amplifying neural progenitors" -- the second step in the neurogenesis pathway from stem cells to mature neurons.
• Alas, a blog: the Chris Bliss Diss
  Amp liked Garfield's routine; I think it's kinda boring. Mad props for skill, but boring to watch -- and Garfield is kind of an ass.
• Robert J Lang: Origami
  Amazing origami. I particularly like the bronzes as a way of rendering the paper art permanent.
• photo-eye | Explore Art Photography
  More galleries from photo-eye.
• Don Hong-Oai: 2 portfolios at photo-eye
  These are extraordinary: toned silver gelatin prints made with multiple negatives in the style of classical Chinese painting.
• White Hat
  "dude, sorry to put this here but i felt the need to warn you that sharing the root of your C drive is a bit silly."

A bunch of links about open access/open science/collaboration:
• Peter Suber: 6 things every scholar should know about OA
  
• Peter Suber: What you can do to promote open access
  
• Effect of open access on citation impact: a bibliography of studies
  From the Open Citation Project. Via Stevan Harnad.
• Caveat Lector » Open Access
  Self-described "repository-rat" Dorothea Salo's "open access" blog category. An eye-opener for someone like me, coming to OA from a researcher's point of view.
• Caveat Lector » How are we doing?
  "...I'm probably the wrong person to ask whether open access will fly. Still--I think the world will change in our direction. Utopia, certainly not. An entirely open-access landscape, certainly not. A world where many more people have unfettered access to much more research and scholarship--yes. I think we'll get there. Here's why I think that." Via Suber.
• E-LIS - Taking Stock of Open Access: Progress and Issues
  Abstract: Purpose -- Aims to provide a broad overview of some of the issues emerging from the growth in Open Access publishing, with specific reference to the use of repositories and Open Access journals. Design/methodology/approach -- A viewpoint paper largely based on specific experience with institutional repositories and the internationally run E-LIS archive. Findings -- The Open Access Initiative is dramatically transforming the process of scholarly communication bringing great benefits to the academic world with an, as yet, uncertain outcome for commercial publishers. Practical implications -- Outlines the benefits of the Open Access movement with reference to repositories and Open Access journals, to authors and readers alike, and gives some food for thought on potential barriers to the complete permeation of the Open Access model, such as copyright restrictions and version control issues. Some illustrative examples of country-specific initiatives and the international E-LIS venture are given. Originality/value -- An attempt to introduce general theories and practical implications of the Open Access movement to those largely unfamiliar with the movement. Via Suber, of course.
• Mark Elliott on Stigmergic Collaboration -- CooperationCommons
  "As stigmergy is a method of communication in which individuals communicate with one another by modifying their local environment, it is a logical extension to apply the term to many types (if not all) of Web-based communication, especially media such as the wiki. The concept of stigmergy therefore provides an intuitive and easy-to-grasp theory for helping understand how disparate, distributed, ad hoc contributions could lead to the emergence of the largest collaborative enterprises the world has seen."
• Public Knowledge Project
  "The Public Knowledge Project is a federally funded research initiative located at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University on the west coast of Canada. It seeks to improve the scholarly and public quality of academic research through innovative online environments."

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• Did DNA Come From Viruses?
  Do viruses predate cells, and was the first DNA viral?
• Adventures in Ethics and Science: Plagiarism and Podcasts.
  Call me a Luddite, but I hate podcasts. If I wanted my computer to make noise, I'd lick my finger and rub the monitor.
• Roddick Targets Nestlé after Corporate 'Sell-Out'
  To put it in the idiom Roddick so consciously adopts: lying slag.
• 3QD: brains and computers.
  A very readable introduction to computer hardware architecture, its relationship to actual computing, and some ideas about brain function that arise from computer methodologies. This is the third of three parts, Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here.
• Cool Tool: Forearm Forklift
  I want a set of these for next time we have to move that bloody cabinet.
• How to Get Up Right Away When Your Alarm Goes Off
  I really should give this a try.
• Hanzi Smatter 一知半解
  Dedicated to the misuse of Chinese characters in Western culture.
• The Conservative Nanny State
  "In his new book, economist Dean Baker debunks the myth that conservatives favor the market over government intervention. In fact, conservatives rely on a range of "nanny state" policies that ensure the rich get richer while leaving most Americans worse off. It's time for the rules to change. Sound economic policy should harness the market in ways that produce desirable social outcomes -- decent wages, good jobs and affordable health care." Baker also runs the blog Beat The Press, and came up with interesting ideas about how best to divide govt spending between Big Pharma subsidies and NIH research support. The book is available as a free download; see chapter 5 for the reasoning.
• one red paperclip
  "My name is Kyle MacDonald and I am trying to trade one red paperclip for a house. I started with one red paperclip on July 12th, 2005 and I am making a series of trades for bigger or better things. My current item up for trade is one afternoon with Alice Cooper." On Kyle's site, you can trace the trade history from one red paperclip to an afternoon with the King of Shock Rock. Brilliant. (Via rebecca blood.)
• The Open Knowledge Foundation - The Open Knowledge Foundation - Home Page
  "A technological revolution has created immense opportunities for increased and more equitable access to knowledge, as well as for its collaborative development. But we are yet to realize much of this potential, and in order to do so two main challengges must be met. First, we must to develop the tools and the institutions to take advantage of these new possibilities for the creation and distribution of knowledge. Second, we must ensure that these opportunities are not eliminated by the ever increasing proprietization of knowledge as individuals and corporations seek to fence off knowledge for the sake of short term profit. The Open Knowledge Foundation exists to address these challenges by promoting the openness of knowledge in all its forms, in the belief that greater access to information will have far-reaching social and commercial benefits."
• Open Knowledge Foundation Weblog » Blog Archive » The Four Principles of (Open) Knowledge Development
  "Open knowledge means porting much more of the open source stack than just the idea of open licensing. It is about porting many of the processes and tools that attach to the open development process -- the process enabled by the use of an open approach to knowledge production and distribution."
• The Argument For Computational Open Access | Science Commons
  "As the scholarly literature moves to digital form, what is actually needed to move beyond a system that just replicates all of our assumptions that this literature is only read, and read only by human beings, one article at a time? What is needed to permit the creation of digital libraries hosting these materials that moves beyond the "incunabular" view of the literature, to use Greg Crane's very provocative recent characterization. What is needed to allow the application of computational technologies to extract new knowledge, correlations and hypotheses from collections of scholarly literature?"
• Paper Sculpture - a photoset on Flickr
  No scissors. No kidding.
• TheStar.com - The plight of the orphan space
  Orphan space rejuvenation, what a great idea. I've seen some neighborhoods in Portland do this sort of thing.

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Bora recently asked whether anyone was using Connotea. I am, and I like it fine. It's open source and has a web API, there's a lively dev forum, and it's continually improving. You could use any bookmarking service, like Simpy, to collect your science/work-related links, of course, but Connotea offers the compelling advantages of auto-discovery of relevant fields (DOI, author list and so on), an improving ability to play nice with reference manager software, and a more focused community with whom to share tags, bookmarks and ideas.

Now, much to my glee, Connotea has started actively supporting citations to blog entries:

A lot of you are increasingly bookmarking articles from personal blogs alongside traditional journal-published articles. In response to this, Connotea now has experimental support for treating bookmarked blog posts as citations, and it will automatically import publication data for those articles wherever possible.

Hot damn, says I! Of course I had to try it out, on the obvious test post. Here's a screenshot, with a regular PubMed entry for comparison: As you can see, Connotea correctly identified the blog, although it didn't grab the entry title (and I'm not the only one reading Science & Politics!).

This is the sort of thing that makes me feel that there really is an open science revolution underway. The internet is making possible real-time collaboration between large numbers of people with minimal regard to geography; as proprietary barriers to information flow are dismantled, this collaborative process can only accelerate and will, I believe, supplant traditional competitive models of research.

The headline says "DNA Tests Confirm Bear Was a Hybrid" (see also here). "Was", as in, this is an ex-bear. It was a naturally occurring interspecies hybrid; now it's a corpse, since some dickless macho yuppie fuckbag stood off a safe distance with a high powered rifle and a telescopic sight and killed it, presumably because wasteful slaughter is a soothing salve for the inflammation of the ego that comes with being a sniveling coward who wants so very badly to be a tough guy.

I hope "hunter" Jim Martell (left, in the chic white parka) dies of explosive rectal prolapse. I hope it happens on his very next "hunting" trip, and I hope he is still conscious when whatever he was "hunting" wanders over and starts gnawing on his guts.

From hilzoy, a snapshot of just how desperate the armed forces have become for fresh meat to feed into their pointless fucking grinder:

Jared Guinther is 18. Tall and lanky, he will graduate from high school in June. Girls think he's cute, until they try to talk to him and he stammers or just stands there -- silent.

Diagnosed with autism at age 3, Jared is polite but won't talk to people unless they address him first. It's hard for him to make friends. He lives in his own private world.

Jared didn't know there was a war raging in Iraq until his parents told him last fall -- shortly after a military recruiter stopped him outside a Portland strip mall and complimented his black Converse All-Stars.

"When Jared first started talking about joining the Army, I thought, `Well, that isn't going to happen,"' said Paul Guinther, Jared's father. "I told my wife not to worry about it. They're not going to take anybody in the service who's autistic."

But they did. Last month, Jared came home with papers showing that he had not only enlisted, but signed up for the Army's most dangerous job: cavalry scout. He is scheduled to leave for basic training Aug. 16.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. Turns out the parents got the media involved and there's an investigation underway; see the linked stories for details. I guess Jared won't die in Iraq after all, but not for lack of trying on the part of the recruitment vultures.

(I'm somewhat angry at myself, too, for a missed opportunity. I was recently a judge at the Northwest Science Expo, a local science fair for middle and high school students and part of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. ( It was a blast, and I encourage anyone who's interested to get involved; that's not my point here though.) There were a handful of broomstick-up-my-ass types wandering around in medal-bespangled uniforms, because in addition to the usual awards there are various military scholarships and prizes available at these fairs. Next time, I'm going to turn up in a t-shirt reading "hired killers off our campuses" or something like that.)

Dr Free-Ride linked to Zuska (Goddess of Science, Empress of Engineering, and Avenging Angel of Angry Women) talking about sexual harassment in science, in light of a recent study linking a sense of injustice among researchers to the probability that they will compromise their integrity. Zuska's Seven Scientific Commandments, paraphrased, are:

1. Do not rape your students and colleagues. No means no. Coercion is rape.
2. Don't engage in sexual harassment, either. If you don't know what that is, your university will have policies in place and people willing to explain them.
3. Er, that all goes for grad students too.
4. The points above all apply "even if you think she's willing or she wants it or she's asking for it or she needs it or whatever other excuse you come up with to put the agency on her and absolve yourself of guilt. They also apply even if she is actually willing."
5. Racial harassment? Also a no-no.
6. Don't steal ideas.
7. Don't steal ideas that have been published (that's plagiarism).

There's more to each point, including links, so do read the whole thing. Me, I continue to be astonished by my own naivete. I was aware that sexual harassment is a problem in science -- I've seen a few instances, and I'm even aware that I only saw most of those instances because the women involved stood up for themselves. But rape? Yes, rape. Zuska is serious. I am -- horrified.

Zuska, in turn, led me to Dr Shellie, who describes her blog as

...a year-long project to develop and articulate my opinions on the following themes, as they apply to my life and research:

• women in science
• how to improve the culture of science, particularly in academia
• societal benefits of science and technology

There's plenty to read in the couple of months Dr Shellie's been blogging, but just to continue the theme of this post for a moment, here's (part of) her take on women in science:

Making science departments more welcoming to women and minorities will result in a better working environment for everyone. Fortunately, a number of great initiatives are in place to do just this. Some of the main issues are to:

• Insure equal recognition for equal work.
• Encourage all students to actively participate in classroom activities in research, particularly talented students with low initial confidence.
• Value scientific contributions and content, not aggressiveness and self-confidence. Teach scientific communication skills and conflict resolution techniques.
• Promote role models for women and minorities in science and engineering.
• Work to accommodate dual-career issues and hiring concerns, which disproportionately affect women scientists.
• Develop university policies to accommodate childbirth and parental child-care responsibilities.

Again, there's more to each point than I'm copying here, including a good many links to resources and references, so go read the original post. I just want to focus for a moment on the first three points. There's nothing in those that is necessarily specific to women; that they apply more to women than men is a reflection of the general social disadvantage that affects women. Momentarily taking sex out of the language makes it clear that we are talking about a rising tide that will lift all boats: male and female scientists alike will benefit from changes in the culture of science that focus on rewarding merit and promoting cooperation. This is much the same as my usual "bottom line" argument in support of feminism: placing half of the population at a systematic disadvantage is a waste of human resources and a net loss for the population as a whole. Conversely, equality of opportunity across all demographics allows for the most efficient possible use of those human resources. It's clear that my interest in open science —

Anything to do with open access to source code, published information, raw data, &c. Blogs, wikis, databases, journals, anything that views information and information sharing as common goods or could be used to further that view. Also anything to put collaboration ahead of competition.

— has much in common with the interests and goals of feminist scientists.

• Uncommon Places
  From Dana Doyle's review:

  In the late 1960's William Eggleston subverted photographic tradition by embracing color film and irregular compositions reminiscent of snapshots. The prints I have seen by Eggleston (which include many of his iconic images now traveling in an exhibit titled "Los Alamos"), lose their resolution when you get within a few feet.2 The fuzziness of the print echoes the implication of amateur work already knowingly signified, at the time, by color film and the snapshot aesthetic. Shore's prints, less than half the size of Eggleston's, are meticulously crisp in comparison. In his Uncommon Places, Shore tweaks Eggleston's subversion: he similarly embraces color film and vernacular subject matter, however he brings the full arsenal of traditional photographic craft to bear on what was popularly considered unworthy subject matter for the art photographer.

  There's more than nostalgia to Shore's photos; it's not just that he's taking photos that you (feel you) could have taken. Look at "Merced River", for instance: is that not every afternoon anyone ever spent by any river? The very ordinariness of the scenes combines with the high-quality images and sneaky formal underpinnings of the compositions to create both immediacy and timelessness. Or something. This shit is hard to write about.
• | SPARC | SPARC Resources |
  Yet another "I have no excuse" link: SPARC has collected everything I need to start writing about open access.
• Airline Pilot Central - FedEx arrivals during Thunderstorms
  I like the way the little dots -- they're planes, but I was thinking of ants with a parasol in one hand and a package under the other arm -- make their way around the storm, then scatter to all points when it finally hits the airport. It's actually a very impressive demonstration of what air traffic controllers do. (Hi, John!)
• american atheist or agnostic | Ask MetaFilter
  This is something AskMeFi is really good at -- lots of little windows into other people's lives. In this case, do atheists/agnostics in the US feel discriminated against?
• Bitch Ph.D.: The Hooker Resurgence
  My ancestors were fishermen. Fishermen, damn you. But I do like "prostiboots" and especially "Fornigate".
• Surname Profiler
  It appears that my surname arose in London sometime before 1880. Or, you know, maybe not. But this thing is kinda fun.
• Cole/Weisberg Correspondence on Hitchens
  Jacob Weisberg: "In my judgment, there is no ethical issue here." Note to self: never trust anything published in Slate.
• How Opal Got Openly Despised / Take perverse joy in the downfall of that plagiarist teen author? Can you flip that upside down?
  Once again, Mark Morford is right; his is the best take I've seen on the Viswanathan incident, bar none: "Deserved or not, Viswanathan's success and even her stunning failure are excellent motivators by which to pinch and flip around and strip naked your relationship to accomplishment. Is it all about envy and bitter Schadenfreude, or exultation and lessons learned? From where do you draw your sustenance?"
• Open Access News
  Nature has released the API for Connotea. Sooner or later, I'm gonna have to learn to program for the web.
• Being a mom could be a 6-figure job
  I usually think salary.com overinflates everything, but these don't look much inflated to me. "Salary.com determined that a stay-at-home mother might be paid as much as $134,121 for her contributions as a housekeeper, cook, day care center teacher, janitor and CEO, among other functions. (See full list at right.) The stay-at-home mothers surveyed said they logged a total of 92 hours a week performing those jobs. The market valuation for working mothers — who make up close to 70 percent of all mothers with kids under 18 — comes to $85,876, assuming a 50-hour week in the Mom role. That would be on top of whatever salary a working mother draws from her job outside the home, working 44 hours."
• Isaac Laquedem: Endorsements I: Ted Wheeler and Lonnie Roberts
  Lonnie Roberts is a homophobic scumbag, and I wouldn't write him in as a candidate to shovel shit.
• ARCHITECTURE AND THE MAIL
  Neat idea: "We will produce a series of 1000 unique postcards, each depicting a single unpublished image from a relatively unknown designer, and we will send them to a selected group of 1000 influential architects, urbanists, academics, curators, journalists, and critics, who will have the opportunity to respond. Our hope is that we will receive images from all over the world and our plan is to randomly disseminate these images back out into a global context, making unlikely connections, and creating unforeseen acquaintanceships. While this is admittedly a utopian proposal, our aim is to connect fresh ideas with those individuals who contribute to the development of independent careers in architecture. "

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I talk a lot about community -- the blog community, the local community, the community of science. I think of "community" as a way to help create, and to be part of, something larger than oneself, something capable of more than one could achieve alone. I suppose, though, it's equally valid to see it as a kind of insurance: by contributing to the maintenance of a network of trust and mutual assistance, we assure our own access to assistance when we need it. Either way, a community is, among other important things, a means of spreading risks and costs so that no single incident should be catastrophic to any given individual.

Which is why it is exceeding remiss of me not yet to have mentioned that Bora could use a hand. He's a grad student with a thesis in the balance and a family to help support, and the bills have piled up enough to be a hassle right now. As Abel Pharmboy says in comments there,

This is nuts [...] but sadly all too common among the academic world these days. [Bora] should have a tenure-track position at a major scientific or liberal arts university but [is] stuck in the cycle of teaching-on-demand for far less than [he deserves].

More to my point, Bora's a member of my community: inter alia, a researcher and a science blogger. And if you happen to be a blogger, teacher and/or researcher, consider this: Bora is the sort of person we want in our community. It will not take much reading of his main site, or his associated teaching and research blogs (Magic School Bus and Circadiana, respectively), to convince you that he has talent for science and for science teaching; nor will it take more than a glance at the support he has given various blogging carnivals to demonstrate that he understands and values community; nor is it necessary to look beyond his writing about science blogging itself to see that he has a forward-looking, can-do way of thinking about science and community and what the two can do for each other.

So: Abel and I have sent a little beer money Bora's way, and now I'm asking my readers to do the same if they possibly can (PayPal and Amazon links are on the right hand side on Bora's site). Please also consider passing on the request if you have a blog of your own.

Orac points out that today is National Nurses' Day in the USA. In fact, National Nurses' Week runs from May 6-12, and International Nurses' Day is May 12 -- Florence Nightingale's birthday. The romantic myth largely obscures the real story when it comes to Florence Nightingale, and it's all too easy to fall into that view of nurses and nursing: the ministering angels, all heavenly compassion and hot towels. The problem with this view is that it plays up the comforting hand on the brow at the expense of the highly trained hand clearing the intestinal blockage. Orac exhorts patients to "show how much you appreciate their caring work". Because "caring", see, the fluffy bunny stuff, that's what nurses do -- they hold hands and wipe arses. The real work is done by doctors, of course.

To be fair, I'm pretty sure that's not what Orac meant. But given that this patronising view of nursing is all too common, it's what he said. (Or, because this is something of a hot-button issue for me, it's what I heard.)

So anyway, happy Day to any nurses reading, and my personal thanks to you and your profession for all the misery you've saved me from over the years.

I have the dreaded lurgy. It's not the Martian Death Flu, but it's not much fun either and my brain feels like it's packed in cotton wool, so in lieu of real content here is some flower porn:

• The Priory Of Sion - CBS News
  ""I am not a naive innocent who was hoaxed by Monsieur Plantard and Cherisey. No, I am a very, very careful researcher," says Lincoln. " Bwahahahaha!
• Informed Comment
  Hoo boy, Juan Cole is pissed. I sent Slate this:

  Dear Slate, if you want to retain a shred of credibility, you must provide Prof Juan Cole with a forum in which he can reply directly to Christopher Hitchens' ill-considered and underhanded attack on him (see here).
  I understand (from Prof Cole, among others) that Hitchens was once a fine journalist. However true that may be, and however laudable may be your loyalty to him, with this latest attack Hitchens has crossed a line that no reputable publication dare cross with him.

• Great Plant Picks
  "Great Plant Picks is an educational awards program committed to building a comprehensive palette of outstanding plants for Pacific Northwest gardens. Awards are based on the combined expertise of over forty horticulturists from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. Great Plant Picks originates at the Elisabeth Carey Miller Botanical Garden in Seattle, Washington, and provides a forum for sharing horticultural information with the wider gardening community."
• The Common Cold - The Scientific Indian
  Selba has a code doo.
• Flags and Lollipops - Bioinformatics Blog: Commenting on papers
  BioMedCentral has a comments page for each paper, Nature has a blog, and now Cell has comments for selected papers as well. Eee!
• Digby's right, we should just flat-out buy them. Cheaper by the dozen I bet.
  "Since I see little hope that the system is going to be reformed, it occurs to me that we liberals should just hire ourselves some lobbyists. Really. We spend many, many millions on political campaigns that get us zilch. Nada. We should just raise funds to buy congressmen yachts or send them to Australia on vacation or hire their wives at 5 grand a month to survey what congressmen like for dinner. These guys go cheap when you really think about it. They'll do pretty much anything you want for a golfing trip. We'd actually save money just by buying them all French commodes. In exchange we get them to vote for national health care and legal gay marriage and a $15.00 minimum wage. "
• sudanreeves.org :: Sudan Research, Analysis, and Advocacy
  Darfur. Horrible.
• So what can I do?: Make trade fair.
  From Karama Neal's excellent blog, a list of fair trade clearinghouses that enable the consumer to make informed ethical choices.
• SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Society Guardian | Hard to swallow
  Researchers at the University of Chicago have calculated the relative carbon intensity of a standard vegan diet in comparison to a US-style carnivorous diet, all the way through from production to processing to distribution to cooking and consumption. An average burger man (that is, not the outsize variety) emits the equivalent of 1.5 tonnes more CO2 every year than the standard vegan. By comparison, were you to trade in your conventional gas-guzzler for a state of the art Prius hybrid, your CO2 savings would amount to little more than one tonne per year.
• Women's Bioethics Blog
  I figure we should include science/bioethics blogs in any list of "science blogs".
• ResourceShelf
  Society and Religion--Resource Round-Up
• Plushy Bugs!
  We make stuffed animals that look like tiny microbes—only a million times actual size! Now available: The Common Cold, The Flu, Sore Throat, Stomach Ache, Cough, Ear Ache, Bad Breath, Kissing Disease, Athlete's Foot, Ulcer, Martian Life, Beer & Bread, Black Death, Ebola, Flesh Eating, Sleeping Sickness, Dust Mite, Bed Bug, and Bookworm (and in our Professional line: H.I.V. and Hepatitis).

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• jwz - pwn3d
  jwz: "It's a fuckin' gag. It's not a bad one. But couching it in terms like "this work" just makes me want to punch him in the junk."


• Rubber Cat!
  Mutation in sphynx line creates true hairless cat breed. These things are seriously freaky looking, and would make great aliens on a TV show or movie.


• Salon.com Technology | The corporate toll on the Internet
  On net neutrality; recommended by rafe.


• Majikthise : Got plans for May Day?
  Lindsay asks the question I've been wondering about: why so little coverage in the sinister blogosphere of the May Day protests? Some really good discussion in the comments; bottom line seems to be "immigration law is hard".


• Lawyers, Guns and Money: Why Not Then?
  In which I ask LFM to stop using "pussy" for "coward".


• Hugo Schwyzer: Words, words, words.
  This is the post to link when asking someone to stop using "pussy" for "coward".


• Follow Me Here... : The Granny Peace Brigade
  "Eighteen 'grannies' who were swept up by the New York City police, handcuffed, loaded into police vans and jailed for four and a half hours were acquitted yesterday of charges that they blocked the entrance to the military recruitment center in Times Square when they tried to enlist. [...] The women call their group the Granny Peace Brigade and said they wanted to join the armed forces and thus offer their lives for those of younger soldiers in Iraq." Eliot is right, acts of nonviolent civil disobedience should be widely celebrated. Such acts require great courage and selflessness, and are the only way to give to the word "patriotism" meaning that does not stink of prejudice.


• GENERIC RATIONALE AND MODEL FOR UNIVERSITY OPEN ACCESS SELF-ARCHIVING MANDATE - Open Access Archivangelism
  Now I have no further excuse: I must start agitating for mandated IR deposits where I work. Prof Harnad has done all the heavy lifting for me: evidence, argument, methodology, all of it.


• Open Access News: how to get faculty to use institutional repositories
  "One of the biggest challenges for academic librarians is getting faculty to deposit their articles into the university's institutional repository (IR), assuming there is one, of course." I hate the "appeal to their ego" idea, there's too much damn ego in science already, but I really should be trying to get Shriner's research to set up an IR.


• blog.bioethics.net -- clinical trials in India
  "[it is nonsense to] focus so much attention on the tiny trial of Parexel in Britain, which injured six people, while two million Indian patients, almost all of whom are poor, almost none of whom have any real health care at all, and none of whom will be empowered to sue anybody, are enrolled (by 2010, according to estimates quoted in the BBC story) in clinical trials"


• TICU
  "The Tactical Ice Cream Unit (TICU) rolls through the city in an act of intervention that replaces cold stares with frosty treats and nourishing knowledge. Combining a number of successful activist strategies (Food-Not-Bombs, Copwatch, Indymedia, infoshops, etc) into one mega-mobile, the TICU is the Voltron-like alter-ego of the cops' mobile command center. Although the TICU appears to be a mild-mannered vending vehicle, it harbors a host of high-tech surveillance devices including a 12-camera video surveillance system, acoustic amplifiers, GPS, satellite internet, a media transmission studio capable of disseminating live audio/video, and of course, ice cream. With every free ice cream handed out, the sweet-toothed citizenry also receives printed information developed by local progressive groups." Via WorldChanging.


• Two Open Access Books on Open Access - Open Access Archivangelism
  


• treppenwitz: Fred Basci
  Stories are how we tell ourselves who we are. Go read this one. Thanks to Naze for linking it.


• Peoples Archive
  Peoples Archive is dedicated to collecting for posterity the stories of the great thinkers, creators, and achievers of our time. The people whose stories you see on this site are leaders of their field, whose work has influenced and changed our world.


• Hey look, I got a translation credit.
  Someone mistyped, or didn't read my copyanything notice. There's a line missing.


• dataisnature.com
  Art + science = pretty!


• Sunlight Foundation
  As in, the best disinfectant. Looks good.



Conversations: I talk too much:

• OBACHAN'S SCRIBBLES: I'M TIRED...
  


• Terra Sigillata: Medical wikipedia - Peter Frishauf responds
  


• rc3.org: Giving presentations
  Ah, presentations. How I hate them. Mostly because I do not prepare adequately, so wind up doing a half-assed job. Yes, I am a moron. There are some good suggestions in comments.


• Adventures in Ethics and Science: Uninvited nest update.
  In which the fate of the baby birds is revealed. I'm the commenter JS mentions.


• Science and Politics: Connotea, anyone?
  


• Dr. Ian's Gibson's Paradoxical Historic Role in the Transition to Open Access - Open Access Archivangelism
  


• Adventures in Ethics and Science: A call for advice: nest relocation?
  In which I prevail upon JS to give the baby birds a Free Ride.


• The Daily Transcript: What's your h-index?
  An interesting, but I think not very good, alternative to raw citation data as a means of comparing the impact of a researcher's body of work on the field.


• Adventures in Ethics and Science: A poetry-writing chemist for National Poetry Month
  Wish I'd thought of this theme ahead of time. Maybe next year.


• Uncertain Principles: Uncertain Pop Quiz
  
  It's... disheartening to see how (heh!) uncertain everyone (including me) is about measurement precision and accuracy. Here, test yourself:

  Imagine that you are doing a physics lab to measure the velocity of a small projectile. After making a bunch of measurements to four significant figures, and doing a bunch of arithmetic, you get a value of 4.371928645 m/s. After yet more gruelling math, you find the uncertainty associated with this number to be 0.0316479825 m/s. How do you report this result?

  
  

  A) 4.371928645 +/- 0.0316479825 m/s

  
  

  B) 4.372 +/- 0.03165 m/s

  
  

  C) 4.372 +/- 0.032 m/s

  
  

  D) 4.37 +/- 0.03 m/s

  
  

  E) Some other answer that I will explain in comments.



• Uncertain Pop Quiz Results
  In which all is revealed. I'm sticking with my answer; the Departmental rule is fine, but I like my (imo) less-arbitrary rule better.

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