Go read Digger. Thank me later.

Abbas and the 3QuarksDaily team are looking for new columnists:

Here's your chance to say what you want to the international audience of highly educated readers that 3QD has! Several of our regular columnists have had to cut back, or even completely quit, their columns for 3QD because of other personal and professional commitments, and so we are looking for three new voices for our Monday columns. We cannot pay, but it is a good chance to draw attention to subjects you are interested in, and to get feedback from us and from our readers.

I feel terrible that I was not able to keep up as a regular Monday columnist; the least I can do is advertise this opportunity.

And it is quite a remarkable opportunity. The quality of feedback is excellent, and the opportunities contained within the 3QD audience are enormous. As a result of my handful of columns at 3QD I have been interviewed several times, quoted in Scientific American, reprinted by the American Physical Society, cited in the peer-reviewed literature and invited to attend two small conferences and to join an advisory board at a local liberal arts college. None of these things would have been remotely likely without my brief tenure as a Monday columnist on 3QD.

Fair warning: you will be writing for one of the smartest, most original and most enjoyable websites there is; the company you'll be keeping is intimidating. Once a month doesn't sound like much, but it's harder than it looks when you're playing at that level. If, however, you really do have something to say to the world, then you would be hard pressed to find a better platform from which to say it than mondays on 3QD.

(Given the likely readership of this blog (hi Mom!), I will just add that Abbas is an engineer by training and has a soft spot for hard science, so aspiring science writers would do well to try out. I can't think of a better way to launch such a career.)

My latest offering just went up at 3QuarksDaily; the title is Competition in science: too much of a good thing.

As always, I don't want to dilute the conversation I hope to spark, so comments are off here.

Go read this. Seriously, go now, you can thank me later. It's the blog of an MSF doctor in the field and it's everything you might expect, with the added benefit that James can really write.

Glyn Moody is re-tagging all his old posts, so subscribers to his RSS feed are getting a quick run through his blogging history. If you have any interest in Open Source or Open Science, check him out.

To whet your appetite: today he re-tagged a post pointing to a story that was posted to LWN.net in March, on Project Gutenberg founder Michael Hart (wikipedia, Poynder interview, PG about: page, blog of sorts). Hart is quite a character (as seems common among visionaries), and the linked resources make interesting reading (especially Hart's own writing). What really grabbed my attention was this detail from Glyn's article:

Even 20 years after Project Gutenberg had begun, Hart had only created 10 ebooks..

That was my "holy crap" moment for the day. Think about it: it's 1971, what will become the Internet consists of 15 nodes and about 100 people, Sir Tim won't invent the Web for another 20 years, and you are given an account on one of those nodes. What will you do with it? Well, if you're Michael Hart, you will see forward more than a quarter of a century and begin Project Gutenberg, and then for well over twenty years you will be virtually its sole proponent and defender. In 1997, PG had 313 ebooks. In 1998, collaboration with the University of Illinois PC User Group finally set the wheels in motion for the creation of the PG we all know and love today; by the end of that year there were 1600 ebooks in the collection, and today there are 20,000. The clarity of that original vision and the tenacity with which Hart made it a reality are simply breathtaking.

Remember this? The first blog carnival is up.

...this project is selfish. I need help. But later, I thought, while this plea that would otherwise be considered blegging began to take shape, maybe other people could use the advice. And hey, maybe people who would otherwise consider themselves apart from this sort of daily worry could help too. Some of us need some help finding those bootstraps, hell, finding boots.

So here we are. These are ways to pinch a life that is already pinched, to beat the system, to get by when getting by is what you're doing already.

It's a damn good start: children's entertainment, clothing, education, money management, food and more.

Heh. Me too, for the most part. Richard Akerman, talking about Flickr groups and other very, very special interest online groups ("narrowcasting"):

"There are of course huge Flickr groups devoted to topics of typical photographic interest, like Sunrises and Sunsets (12,453 members).  But there is also the "I didn't think anyone else was interested in that" sort of groups.  For example, I like to take photos that are empty of people.  I consider humans to be noise that messes up the framing of my shots.  As luck would have it, I can submit my photos to the Flickr group The Last Person on Earth (1,036 members) (or see just my contributions). This isn't even the only "no people in the photo" group, there's also No people. Beyond that, in Lonely City, you can't even have animals in the photos."

I usually like to keep people out of my photos, for two good reasons: 1. they are really hard to photograph; seriously, people are some of the most difficult subjects there are; and 2. privacy concerns. I never publish photos with identifiable humans in them, unless I have explicit permission to do so (and since I almost never have the gumption to ask, that means I almost never post people shots). I know that one has a diminished expectation of privacy in a public space, but I am not making a living as a photographer or journalist. I can afford to go a bit further in my consideration of other people's privacy than the law strictly requires.

I wanted to use Richard's photos, but he reserves all rights and I'm lazy, so I hunted around the LPOE pool until I found Zioluc, who releases his shots under a Creative Commons licence (attribution/noncommercial/noderivs) that lets me use them. Grazie, signore! Top left: isoletta aspettami; bottom right: welcome.

See, that's why I read Steve, and you should too. If I've learned anything worth knowing in my decade and a half of trying to be a scientist, it's exactly this: I might be wrong.

No matter how sure I am, no matter how careful I've been, no matter how smart I like to think I am, no matter how intellectually and emotionally satisfying I find my position, I might be wrong. And the corollary: if I am in fact wrong, I will be better off knowing about it, and preferably sooner rather than later so that I don't waste effort on mistakes that will later be pulled down around my ears.

That's why, when I read that former House majority leader Dick Armey recently said in an interview:

Dialogues are what Democrats do, not what Republicans do. Only liberals think that if you've had a dialogue about something, you've done something.

it literally makes me want to puke. I feel physically sick at the thought of someone so arrogant, callow and ignorant being in a position of real power.

So my blogroll, that list of links over there on the right, is Pepto-Bismol for the brain. Try it, you'll like it.

Here's the full quote from Steve; go read the whole entry, too.

Those who believe in dialogue do so for the simple reason that they understand that they might be wrong. They don't think they are, but understand that they might be and so seek to test out their ideas against the strongest objections that can be leveled against them. Like a belt holding boxer who refuses to take on legitimate challengers in defense of his title, the only people who run from dialogue are those who are afraid they will lose.

Via Amp, Lauren at Faux Real has had a great idea, and is looking for input and help:

This compilation of how-tos, written by you and me, aims to help people with little in the way of resources and expertise get through unfortunate situations relating to money, finances, and bureaucracy.

It will be an open-source document, likely a Word doc wiki?, that can be edited and added to as the contributors see fit. Not only do I want it to include our stories, but I want it to include details, specifics, the steps in the process, what one can expect, what hurdles one may come against, and suggestions for how to get around them. This should be a pragmatic resource that takes a person in need through all the steps and details of the situation at hand. If you know of websites or other resources that include excellent step-by-step instructions, send them along as well. [...]

This thought came to me while reading through the comments on my posts bitching about my lack of insurance and inability to deal with student loans. People were all too willing to share advice that I have actually put into motion. I'm a person with few monetary resources, but women I barely know approach me to ask about legal custody issues and sexual health issues all the time -- and I love to share. Wouldn't it be great if we could offer this kind of help to one another, and to people outside of the blogosphere?

I think a wiki is the perfect format, and a regular blog carnival is the ideal way to keep the resource growing. Lauren is calling now for posts for the first HUHO blog carnival; trackback to the linked post or email Lauren by Tuesday Nov 27.

(Special note: JD, I think you could contribute a lot of content to this.)

In lieu of real content, a pointer to excellent things you'd already know about if you were sensible and had picked up my blogroll.

As if directorship of the North Country Academy for the Excruciatingly Fine Arts were not enough, Rob Helpy-Chalk has been on fire lately. Here's a backgrounder on the Military Commissions Act (aka the We'll Torture Anyone We Damn Well Please" Act), followed up with lists of the traitorous swine who voted for it (so you can avoid voting for them) and two posts on absentee voting throughout the country (viz, how to vote the way you want to, instead of the way Diebold wants you to). Here's another backgrounder, this time on torture methods interrogation techniques, with a particular focus on waterboarding, the adoption of which technique our honorable, humanitarian Puppeteer-in-Chief Vice President calls a "no brainer".

All of this is part of Rob's activities with Save Our Constitution, an SLU campus organization devoted to pushing back against the Bush Junta's efforts to gut the US Constitution, the model and gold standard for representative democracy everywhere and one of the principal reasons I still intend to become a US citizen. Next week they are sponsoring a "teach-in", a four-hour seminar on The Constitution, Human Rights, and the War on Terrorism:

Schedule of Events

Welcome Remarks
Noon: Natalia Singer (Department of English)

The Military Commissions Act
12:10: Eve Stoddard (Department of Global Studies)

12:25 - 1:10 -- Panel 1 -- Erosion of the Constitution, Moderator: Eve Stoddard

1:15 - 2:15 -- Panel 2 -- Torture and International Law, Moderator: Rob Loftis

2:20 - 3:15 -- Panel 3 -- Language, Rhetoric, Politics of Fear, Moderator: Gus diZerega

3:20 - 4:00 -- Wrap-up -- What You Can Do, Moderators: Natalia Singer and Jon Cardinal

Damn, people, this is what universities are for! This is what "public intellectual" means -- or should mean.

Rob Helpy-Chalk said that (last line of this post, which, like his whole blog, you should read), and I think he's right. Furthermore, I just love rummaging about in other people's attics! In lieu of actual content (I'm writing a fellowship application), here are some of the amazing and wonderful things you can find in other people's virtual attics:

The right-on righteous indignation of Zuska: start anywhere, here is good, and read forward. If you only have time for a taste, read happy jerk-off (especially you, spousal unit) and links therein. Mind she doesn't barf on your shoes.

(Update: you can still read the linked archive entries, but Zuska has moved to ScienceBlogs.)

Zuska's latest entries will bring you into contact with the Tonegawa dustup at MIT; read Zuska, but also read Janet's series of posts: one, two, three. Of course, you should be reading Janet regularly anyway if you are at all interested in philosophy and sociology of science. Here is another good post in the same vein.

What happens when an enquiring young mind finds a dead bug? What if the enquiring young mind in question happens to have access to an atomic force microscope? This is the kind of thing that keeps me excited about science. Speaking of Biocurious, here's a good example of the sort of science blogging that leads me to believe that the web has a much greater role to play in day-to-day research than it is yet filling.

Speaking of blogs and science, check out Pedro's work-in-progress showing that the likelihood that two proteins interact might depend on the proteins' age. (Also, note to self: add my Connotea bookmarks to the front page here, as Pedro has done.)

And for something a bit different, if you like to think you should be reading Philosopher's Playground. To whet your appetite, try a clear, concise background to the conflict surrounding Israel, or an exploration of the moral implications of being friends with an asshole.

Last push! Blogathon is this Saturday; if you haven't signed up to blog it's too late for this year, but you can still sponsor a blogger from now until at least 48 hours after the event.

If you sort by funds pledged and scroll down, you'll find (as I write this) 80-some bloggers who don't yet have sponsors. If you've got a few bucks that ain't working right now, how about helping one of them out?

Tell you what: if you do that, come back here and give me the name of another blogger with no sponsors, and I'll sponsor them. Probably only five bucks, because I'm skint -- but the little donations add up, that's how grassroots works. That's the beauty of the Blogathon, too -- a few hundred bloggers you never heard of raising a dollar here and a dollar there, and pretty soon you have a bona fide international community premised on giving a helping hand wherever it's needed.

Try it, you'll like it.

As my online pal, A-lister and Cabalista TheBrad reminds me, it's time for our scheduled Blogathon reminder: it's on, it's fun, you should take part.

Go here for information, here to blog, and/or here to sponsor a blogger.

Do it, or I'll kill a kitten.

(Where "kill a kitten" actually means, you know, "make myself a sandwich".)

• Your Daily Art: Blue Heaven II
  What is art? Can you invent a colour?
• Alas, a blog » Blog Archive » Can an animal rights activist accept medical treatment invented through animal testing?
  Not, if I understand "animal rights activist" correctly, without hypocrisy.
• Luxuria / Jose
  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! My eyes!! (Explanation here.)
• Philosophers' Playground: A Gender Puzzle
  

  I noticed that in place of the usual international symbols or linguistic indicators to let you know which was the men's and which was the ladies' room, they decided to use photographs. One image was of men in drag and the other was of women with fake moustaches in men's clothing...

  So, where did Steve pee? And where should he have peed?
• Sense About Science | "I don't know what to believe..."
  "Our short guide, written with input from patients, pharmacists and medical practitioners, among others, lets the public in on the arbiter of scientific quality: the peer review process."
• Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals
  Note to Chandos: this is how it's done, you gits. Author Charles W. Bailey, Jr. notes that while "most scholarly publishers would be delighted to sell 500 copies of a specialized bibliography", the OAB has had far wider distribution: "over 44,500 copies of the complete book, over 29,500 chapters (or other book sections), and over 6,100 author or title indexes have been distributed to users worldwide". Via Peter Suber.
• 2006 Lavender Festival in Sequim Washington
  This looks kinda neat.
• one red paperclip
  "The house was built in the 1920s and has been recently renovated. It is locate at 503 Main Street Kipling, SK Canada. It is approximately 1100 square feet on two floors. There are three bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, kitchen, living room and dinning room. It has white vinyl siding, a new roof and eaves troughs that have been put on in the last few years." And Kyle got it in a series of direct swaps, starting with one red paperclip.
• The Origami Page
  Collection of origami galleries, including Satoshi Kamiya and Robert Lang. Truly extraordinary.
• Dufttunnel
  "From April through to September, the Autostadt presents the Dufttunnel (scent tunnel) by Danish-Islandic artist Olafur Eliasson. The tube of the tunnel forms its own room and turns slowly along the longitudinal axis around the visitor. The scent pours from the flower pots attached to the tube." That all makes sense once you see the picture. Way cool.

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The 2006 Blogathon is up and running! Signups for bloggers close July 21, sponsorship stays open through the event itself (July 29). This post is for the Wednesday Publicity Push: if you have a blog, please consider posting about the Blogathon today, next Wednesday, and the Wednesday after, to help inflate our daypop/technorati/etc ratings. And of course, please consider taking part and/or sponsoring a blogger!

For those who don't know what the Blogathon is, here's the press release:

On July 29th, hundreds of bloggers from all around the world will stay up late and make a difference. That's the slogan and the raison d'être of the Blogathon, an online fundraising event that began in 2000 with a case of insomnia and a case of Mountain Dew. Faced with certain sleeplessness, Portland, OR blogger Cat Connor¹ decided, on a whim, to blog every 15 minutes for 24 hours. She made it, and the next year she invited others to join her -- this time, with sponsorships. Hence "blogathon", by analogy with "walkathon", "telethon" and so on. Says Connor: "I've always felt the best thing about the web was its ability to affect the real world. The web can be a major force for good."

The mechanics of the Blogathon are simple: bloggers sign up to blog for their chosen charity, and sponsors pledge either a lump sum or an amount per hour blogged. The goal is 24 hours, with one post every 30 minutes. Sponsors make their donations directly to their bloggers' chosen charities. The Blogathon sends reminder emails but does not collect money, although Connor says that future plans do include registration as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and a system for collecting and disbursing donations.

The 2001 Blogathon saw about a hundred bloggers raise more than $20,000 (more than double their initial modest goal) for 77 different charities. The numbers roughly doubled in 2002, and again in 2003 when well over 500 participants raised more than $100,000 for charities ranging from the World Wildlife Fund to Heifer International, from local outreach centers to Médecins Sans Frontières. Project Blog substituted for the Blogathon in 2004, and in 2005 Connor continued her hiatus and Sheana Director of seeworthy.org ran the Blogathon, raising almost $60,000.

It's not all about the money, though. "What really makes Blogathon work," says Connor, "is the sense of community that's grown up around it." Chat rooms, online forums and Radio Blogathon online broadcasts keep bloggers in touch during the event. This year's front page will itself be a blog, continually updated by Connor and a volunteer team of "monitors" with games, contests and news and fun from around the event. Also new this year is a surfing frame which will allow onlookers to surf from blog to blog, and as always there will be a variety of prizes for most money raised, best writing, best visuals, and so on.

Previous projects are even more diverse than the chosen charities. Participants have written entire novels, translated ancient epic poems, recorded albums of original music, and spent 24 hours cooking all their favourite dishes. Others have written 48 posts about chocolate, shoes, toilets or outsider art, shaved their heads live on webcam, solicited panels for a virtual quilt, ridden a stationary bike for 24 hours or blogged by mobile phone live from a road trip.

This year's Blogathon is now open for signups and pledges at www.blogathon.org; the event itself will take place Saturday July 29 at 06:00 Pacific Time, with an alternative Sabbath-observant schedule beginning at 21:00 the same day. Everyone starts at one of those two times, no matter where they are. As founder Connor puts it: "Creating an international community over the course of 24 hours -- one with a single purpose -- is something that can only happen on the web. It makes the web magical."

¹Aka spousal unit mine. (In case anyone was wondering, that's why I won't be blogging: I'll be fetching and carrying behind the scenes.)

Blogging will continue to be a bit light around here as I'm actually doing some work, but here (in no particular order) are three articles you shouldn't miss:

1. Rejecting Vaccine "Choice"

Focus on the Family's position statement [PDF] - "Focus on the Family supports widespread (universal) availability of HPV vaccines but opposes mandatory HPV vaccinations for entry to public school." - looks, at first glance, like a reasonable compromise.

But "choice" is a red herring. Focus on the Family has religious objections to the HPV vaccine? Religious exemptions to mandatory vaccines are already available in every state but West Virginia and Mississippi. (Anyone think that Focus on the Family would have trouble convincing the Mississippi or West Virginia state legislature to add in a religious exemption for the HPV vaccine? Me neither.) They will have the right to opt their daughters out of this health-, fertility-, and potentially life-saving vaccine, mandatory or not. What they're really angling for is a way to deny it to other people's daughters.

If it's easy to opt out, why the battle over mandatory? Because mandatory = affordable. States cannot make a vaccine mandatory for school entry unless they are willing to provide it to those who cannot pay. And thus, through the CDC's Vaccines For Children program, every state supplies children with required vaccines free of cost. But optional vaccines are a different story.

Dr Rivka is back and in fine form. I've elided her links and there's more to the whole entry, so go read it.


2. The Federal Marriage Amendment and the New One Drop of Blood Rule

The Federal Marriage Amendment, like many of the proposed state laws and amendments, says "marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman." Simple, right? No. Sex, like race, turns out to be a lot more biologically complicated than it first appears.

Here's a view of gay-vs-straight marriage that simply hadn't ever occurred to me. Fascinating stuff from Dr Alice Dreger, a serious expert in the fascinating field of intersex identity. Do yourself a favour and read it. If you like that, you'll also like her blog; check out the essays in the linked entry.

Obaddedvalue: I'll make a small prediction. Just as homosexuality will eventually be normalized, that is, accepted as an ordinary part of the human condition, so too intersex will one day be seen as normal. We -- humans -- tend to react to physiologies and behaviours that stand at a significant distance from the mean by treating them as disorders, but if those conditions are not harmful we do eventually realise that and come to accept them. The "normal" part of the spectrum slowly expands, and it's my hope and my belief that eventually nothing but true pathology will lie outside it.


3. Answering the AAP critique of FRPAA

The latest AAP/PSP critique of the latest US Public Access Bill (FRPAA) makes the same points (already rebutted two years ago) that they made in their prior critique of the NIH Public Access Proposal. [...]

There is zero evidence that mandating self-archiving reduces subscription revenue....But even if self-archiving were ever to reduce subscription revenue, surely what is in the best interests of publishers' current revenue streams should not over-ride what is in the best interests of research and of the public that funds it....

AAP provides no evidence of how making research findings accessible for free to would-be users who cannot afford access would "seriously jeopardize the integrity of the scientific publishing process." AAP merely stipulate that it would....

[M]any researchers cannot afford access to much needed research, and the proof of this is the fact that when subscription access is supplemented by author self-archiving, research usage and impact increase dramatically....Researchers do not now have nearly as much access as they need, because no research institution can afford all or most of the journals in which the research appears. The demonstrated impact advantage of self-archived research is the direct evidence of the substantial access shortfall there is for research that is not self-archived....

[R]esearch is not funded, conducted and published in order to generate revenue for publishers, let alone in order to guarantee their current revenue streams and insulate them from any risk. [...]

Surely it is not the business of American Association of Publishers to concern itself with the cost to tax payers of providing open access to government-funded research. But studies have indeed been done, across disciplines, and they have found that self-archived research has substantially higher research impact (25% - 250+%), and this translates into substantially higher return on the tax payers' investment in research than what they are getting for their research money today....[I]t is a self-serving red herring for publishers (in reality fretting about their own current revenue streams) to portray this as a "tax payer" issue....

If you already know what AAP and FRPAA stand for, this one's for you. Please consider writing your Senators to ask them to co-sponsor. If you have a blog or some other way to publicise the issue, please use it. If you don't recognise the acronyms, I have all kinds of good intentions of writing introductions to open access/open science and why it is the last best hope of the free world, kind to puppies and good with ketchup -- but, um, don't hold your breath. I'm really busy.

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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• 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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• 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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• 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å�Šè§£
  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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• 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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• 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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• Conversations: I've been yapping up a storm over at Dr Free-Ride's place:
  Adventures in Ethics and Science: Authorship, guests, and irony.
  Adventures in Ethics and Science: Poetry (a poem for National Poetry Month)
  Adventures in Ethics and Science: "The Real Science Ethics Issues"


• Hullabaloo: How Would A Patriot Act?
  Digby has had a good idea: let's send a copy of Glenn Greenwald's new book to every single congresscritter. If not the Repubs, then at least all the Dems. They need it.


• The 2006 Photobloggies
  Marked mainly so I don't forget to go check out the nominees. I'll nominate Chromasia, though, and maybe a couple of the others from my blogroll if there are suitable categories.


• Wholesome Goodness.: Elsewhere
  Blogroll by logo. Would be fun to do one of these.


• Unphotographable: a text account of pictures missed
  This is a picture I did not take...


• YouTube - Bambi Meets Godzilla
  The first version I saw was a full-colour professional-quality rip-off, but this is the original. Still funny.


• Most common English words | Ask MetaFilter
  Someone else had the idea of getting a head start on a new language by focusing on common words/simplified vocab. I pointed 'em to Basic English.


• Bitch PhD: For once, I disagree with Prof B.
  Fashion magazines suck. Irredeemably.


• Now this is really disappointing
  From an interview with the Dalai Lama: "Although he is known for his tolerant, humane views, he is a surprisingly harsh critic of homosexuality. If you are a Buddhist, he says, it is wrong. "Full stop. No way round it. "A gay couple came to see me, seeking my support and blessing. I had to explain our teachings. Another lady introduced another woman as her wife - astonishing. It is the same with a husband and wife using certain sexual practices. Using the other two holes is wrong."" Hey, DL? Fuck you.


• Science and Politics: Linky Love
  Bora provides a good roundup of science blogs.


• Uncertain Principles: Thank You for Grief-Pimping
  That fucking 9/11 film.

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• qwer.us
  Free online to-do list management.


• Kite Aerial Photography by Scott Haefner | Panoramas How-to
  Awesome: 360-degree panoramas! "Only two images are needed to create these panoramas. I take one looking straight down from the kite using a simple rig, and a second looking straight up from the ground. Both images are shot with a circular fisheye lens that has a 180 degree view (Nikon FC-E9). You can think of it as if each image contains a “hemisphere� of information" Via.


• Future of Computing: Web focus : Nature
  Nature web focus Special: "In the last two decades advances in computing technology, from processing speed to network capacity and the internet, have revolutionized the way scientists work. From sequencing genomes to monitoring the Earth's climate, many recent scientific advances would not have been possible without a parallel increase in computing power - and with revolutionary technologies such as the quantum computer edging towards reality, what will the relationship between computing and science bring us over the next 15 years?"


• Browse Blogs - postgenomic.com
  Together with Bora's roundup, a compendium of science related blogs. Also, eatonweb. Q: canonical list on a wiki somewhere?


• O'Reilly Radar > Supernova 2005: Attention
  "Continuous partial attention. Dan Gould: "I quit every social network I was on so I could have dinner with people." The next aphrodisiac is committed full-attention focus. In this new area, experiencing this engaged attention is to feel alive. Trusted filters, trusted protectors, trusted concierge, human or technical, removing distractions and managing boundaries, filtering signal from noise, enabling meaningful connections, that make us feel secure, are the opportunity for the next generation." There really is a Next Big Thing in these ideas, I'm convinced. Via Selva.


• Home Page of Dr. Eitan Bachmat
  "I am the world's worst storage systems researcher. This is not surprising given the fact that I don't know anything about operating systems and file systems in particular. Instead of doing experiments I perform thought experiments. I can't program. I like working with models from the 60's even though they are regarded by nearly the entire community as being completely useless. I myself admit that they are completely inaccurate. I am also probably the only researcher who insists on considering serial workloads in which only a single I/O is sent at a given time, preferably with ample time between them. I also like to consider performance related problems which I know in advance to have no application. I have come to be a systems researcher because I was a terrible mathematician. To summarize my relations with mathematics, I love mathematics, it does not love me back. Given this situation I had to leave this relationship at some point. As revenge, I am exploiting mathematics in my new role as a systems researcher. This has not added to my popularity in the systems world." Something tells me Dr Bachmat is actually pretty good at what he does. Via.


• Adventures in Ethics and Science: Hierarchies of misconduct.
  Scientific misconduct = FFP: Fabrication (making shit up), Falsification (not a la Popper, but altering data) and Plagiarism. Is the latter a lesser offence? I say no.


• Rhosgobel: the Iraq Index
  Radagast points to the Iraq Index as a source of data on that beleaguered country. I don't know anything about the Brookings Inst.


• Aetiology: Bikinis make macho men stupid
  Macho men are stupid long before any bikinis enter the equation.


• Terra Sigillata: Formerly proprietary natural products research database released in web version
  This is excellent news: Professor Norman R. Farnsworth of the University of Illinois at Chicago will release his group's NAPRALERT database this week to open access.

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• Independent Lens . CHAVEZ RAVINE . The History of Chavez Ravine | PBS
  Until 1949, a poor, semi-rural community of Mexican/Americans existed just a few miles from downtown LA. Then, of course, it was torn down to make way for a sports stadium. I think I'd like to get the book that kept Chavez Ravine from being forgotten.


• GoVeg.com // Features // North America's Most Vegetarian-Friendly Cities! // Portland, Oregon
  No surprise here. Pity they boost the appalling Veganopolis in the writeup though.


• The Martha Stewart of Japan :: Rebecca Blood
  I think the spousal unit owns Harumi's book.


• Crooked Timber » » Summer Reading for Political Philosophy Students?
  Harry asks CT readers to suggest "papers from the past 30 years that you think everyone who wants to write a dissertation in the area of political philosophy reasonably broadly conceived should have read".


• Interview: David Attenborough - Sunday Times - Times Online
  "The man is a wonder, a treasure. But, to be honest, he had me at Emmylou Harris."


• Roadsworth Triumphant
  Update: Roadsworth got a $250 fine and 40 hours' community service -- artwork of his devising in The Plateau area of Montreal. Kudos to the city officials, and to Roadsworth's supporters (esp. Chris Hand). Here's how the Montreal Mirror covered the verdict, here's a gallery of Roadsworth's art, and here's everything tagged "roadsworth" at Flickr (Yahoo, hiss, spit).


• The Semiotics of Media
  Introduction to semiotics and media studies.


• This Is Not Sex: A Web Essay on the Male Gaze, Fashion Advertising, and the Pose
  This is a superb photoessay on images of women and the male gaze. A must-read. Via. "When an accomplished, successful woman poses in this way, then, she is not at all signaling to others that she is actually subordinate. On the contrary, on the surface she is showing that she, too, can be successful in this arena, the arena where the goal is to attract and control the power of the gaze by striking a subordinate pose. And were this an occasional event, if we regularly saw images of women that were of a different sort, the effect might be innocuous."


• AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: Coke Is Death
  I'm pretty sure Coke doesn't make the two sodas I like (Barg's Root Beer, Squirt).


• Useful Chem Experiments 1
  This is wonderful: an online lab notebook for an entire lab. More like this!


• Useful Chemistry: sample search phrases
  Neat idea, using websearch to find problems in science that people are talking about online.


• WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Worldchanging Pledge/ Campaign Update
  An attempt to get together an impromptu pledge group in the comment thread.


• Fat Doctor
  That is, a doctor who is fat.


• I Hate Cilantro - an anti cilantro community
  "Welcome! You are visiting the web site of a growing community of cilantro haters. We are, however, rational people. In fact, we are the most rational people on earth. No normally functioning human being would ever in a lifetime consider cilantro edible." I am greedier for Mexican food than a hobbit for mushrooms, so I've come to like cilantro. The spousal unit still avoids it though.


• Bora asks: Publishing hypotheses and data on a blog - is it going to happen on science blogs?
  See also.


• Save $200 in 2 minutes and have the worlds best writing pen
  Turn a $3 Pilot G2 into a superior writing instrument with Mont Blanc superspendypen refills. Think I'll try this.

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• University of Evansville: Richard Wilbur Award
  I'd like to have all of these eventually, at least if the standard is even close to Stalling's Archaic Smile.


• Science and Politics: what's that PhD good for?
  Not much, according to many biomed researchers. See also recent threads at YoungFemaleScientist. Why is it that people who solve problems for a living are, apparently, not bringing their tools and expertise to bear on their own life/career problems?


• Warnock's Dilemma - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Reason #1 is, of course, why no one ever comments on my blog.


• Zoho - Affordable software for individuals, small & medium business
  Free online apps: word processor, spreadsheet, personal planner, chat and html editor. Via.


• PLOrk: Princeton Laptop Orchestra
  "The Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk) is a newly established ensemble of computer-based musical meta-instruments. Each instrument consists of a laptop, a multi-channel hemispherical speaker, and a variety of control devices (keyboards, graphics tablets, sensors, etc...). The students who make up the ensemble act as performers, researchers, composers, and software developers. The challenges are many: what kinds of sounds can we create? how can we physically control these sounds? how do we compose with these sounds? There are also social questions with musical and technical ramifications: how do we organize a dozen players in this context? with a conductor? via a wireless network?"


• One Bag (all about packing, luggage, and travelling light)
  I'm pretty good at this already, but it never hurts to have more ideas.


• feh-muh-nist: But, you're not fat!
  "There's a short circuit in the brain that says someone we love cannot be fat which we hate, so we conclude that the person we love must not actually be fat. When someone says that they do not see a fat person as fat, they mean to be kind and complimentary. They mean something like, "I see you as like me" or "I don't see you the way I see other fat people." The problem with this is that aligns fat with something undesirable, offensive, and bad. "Other" fat people are sloppy, lazy, and bent on self-destruction, but not you! You, the fat friend, are different. You, despite your size, keep a tidy house, dress neatly, exercise, eat well, and are, in all other respects, like them."


• Open Access News: What OA will make possible
  The indispensable Peter Suber and the annoying but valuable Stevan Harnad. Note to self: read this.


• Minimum Security: Bill Napoli is a douchebag
  I don't usually approve of privacy invasions, even of the privacy of assholes, but in the case of Bill "raped and sodomized as bad as you can make it, plus she had to be a virgin to start with" Napoli, I'll make an exception.


• AlterNet: WireTap: Tipping in America
  This article seems about right to me -- I'd like to know what people working in service jobs think of it. Also, the average tip is ~19%? Is that among those who tip, or averaged across all diners? I suspect the former, but don't have data.


• Informed Comment: Americana in Arabic
  Juan Cole: "Long-time readers know that as a result of the September 11, 2001, attacks and subsequent events, I decided a couple of years ago that something had to be done about the woeful lack of understanding between the United States and the Muslim world. There will always be differences, but there need not be differences based on ignorance or fantasy. The Arab world alone has a population of 300 million and a combined economy of some 1 trillion dollars a year.
  
  My response has been to found, with some colleagues, the Global Americana Institute, which aims, initially, at getting central works of American thought and history into Arabic. I think we also have to try to endow a chair at an Arabic-speaking university, but more on that later. It has taken a long time to get all the state and Federal permissions, but we are finally done. The Global Americana Institute is a fully recognized 501(c)3 charity, and donations are tax deductible. I am coming to the public with a plea to support us. We will, of course, also be approaching foundations and other funders, but I am hoping that this project is something that can garner grassroots support."


• - - - the essence of rabbit - - -
  Bunny Mandala: 1500 bunnies from 500 artists. Via.


• Pink Tentacle
  Luminous squid! Pretty!


• Early Christian Writings: Introduction
  "The purpose of this web site is to set out all of the Christian writings that are believed to have been written in the first and second centuries, as well as a few selected from the early third. I have also included non-Christian documents that may have special bearing on the study of early Christianity in order to make this web site a comprehensive sourcebook. I have provided links to English translations for all of these documents. When available, the work has also been provided in the original language, usually Greek. I have also provided information and scholarly opinion regarding the background, authorship, dating, and provenance of these documents."


• LiveScience.com - Poll: Everybody Else is Fat
  In a survey of 2,250 adults by the Pew Research Center, 90 percent of respondents say "most other Americans" are overweight. But only 39 percent see themselves as overweight, and only 70 percent said the people they know are overweight.


• Inhabitat
  Sweeeeeet: "a house that engineer, Paul Pedini, built with the design expertise of John Hong from Single Speed Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At a final cost of $150 per square foot, most of the materials for the house were free, minus the expenses to ship the materials (formerly I-93 off-ramps from the heart of the transportation artery through Boston,unofficially known as the "Big Dig") to Lexington, MA"


• Uncertain Principles: Every Day I Write (in) the (Lab) Book
  Chad posts an excerpt from his lab notes. I'm always interested to see how other people keep theirs.


• Guardian Unlimited Books | By genre | Stuart Jeffries talks to leading feminist Catharine MacKinnon
  "This has been MacKinnon's feminist approach to porn for a quarter of a century: the victims of porn need to be empowered by law to seek remedies for harm they suffered, existing male-framed laws being inadequate to the challenge." MacKinnon's ideas, as presented briefly in this review, make a lot of sense to me. Note to self: read the book.


• Easily Distracted » Blog Archive » Societal?
  I also dislike the word, but other commenters make a decent case for a definition that's usefully non-redundant with "social".


• Lichen
  Mostly ambient/minimalist electronica. Like a melodic PanSonic, sorta.


• |_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|_|
  "arrangements of binary data into stimulating audio and visual formats... All pretty minimal, anonymous and anti-authorial by design"Snippets of electronica, braincandy, mmm. Via Rob; see also lichen.
  

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• Nature's strongest glue could be used as a medical adhesive
  A force of about 1 micronewton was required to remove a single Caulobacter crescentus from a glass pipette: 70 N/mm^2! That's roughly equivalent to three or four cars suspended from a quarter-sized dollop of glue. Superglue wimps out at 18 to 28 N/mm^2.
  


• Study Links Punishment to an Ability to Profit - New York Times
  "About two-thirds of the students initially chose to play in a group that did not permit punishment. In the other group, the students had the option in each round of penalizing other players; it cost one token to dock another player three tokens. All participants could see who was contributing what as the game progressed, and could choose to switch groups before each round. By the fifth round, about half of those who began the study in the no-penalty group had switched to the punitive one. A smaller number of students migrated in the other direction, but by Round 20 most had come back and the punishment-free community was a virtual ghost town." I don't know that it's about punishment, as about fairness -- punishment is a means, justice the end.


• Inhabitat: Paulo Mendes da Rocha wins 2006 Pritzker Prize
  This year's Pritzker Prize has been awarded to Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha. Da Rocha's work is significant for his poetic use of an utterly simple material -- concrete. In 60 years of practice, the architect has created high-rises, stadiums, houses, museums, and even a chapel from concrete. Da Rocha's choice to work in concrete was a practical one; Brazil was not a wealthy nation and it lacked the highly trained workers required to tackle other building methods. His creative use of this humble material became a major influence helping define "Brazilian Brutalism" as an architectural style for the growing nation. " The pdf photobook is well worth the download; if you like modernist architecture and/or concrete, his work is lovely.


• Study Skills Library - Academic Skills Center - Cal Poly
  "The simple cure? Do everything opposite. Tell yourself: this isn't so hard, it won't take long, and I am sure that I know how to do it, or that I can learn while I'm doing it. And no one else really cares because they are all so busy with their own problems." Via rebecca blood.


• Michael Bérubé's "Web" "Log": How Horowitz is My Valley
  More whup-ass: Berube rips Horowitz his -- what, fourteenth? -- new asshole. Most entertaining.


• I deeply resent the way this Administration makes me feel like a nutbar conspiracy theorist.
  The quotable TNH.


• DocBug: Webaroo
  Here's an interesting idea: cache the web locally. All of it.


• Research provides clues to obesity's cause and hints of new approach for curbing appetite
  CRP modulates leptin signaling; mechanism/function not clear.


• Americans love competition, but is it pushing our scientists too far?
  "A new study suggests that the competitive nature of research fosters an environment where scientific misbehavior takes place far more often than the misconduct that makes headline news. And because scientific misbehavior involves more mundane decisions and actions, it may be easier for researchers to look the other way."


• Circadiana: Chossat's Effect in humans and other animals
  Bora helps to usher in a new era of scientific publishing. I'm serious.


• : : Speak Up > Ye Olde Graphic Designer : :
  Heraldry for corporations. Clever, thorough and satisfyingly geeky. Via Coudal.
  


• Chuck Currie: Erik Sten, Jack Bog & The Truth About Homelessness In Portland
  Whup. Ass. Chuck Currie gives the egregious Jack Bog a lesson in knowing what the fuck you're talking about.

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• Aero Press Brew Instructions from Sweet Maria's
  Ralf-trap! Scroll down here for purchase info on this coffee maker, which sounds ideal for work as well as travel. I gave up on my Bodum press because I simply couldn't find a grind coarse enough to give a clean cup. (I hate gritty coffee!) After this write-up, I really want to try this thing; I've been adding chocolate to the rotgut free coffee at work just so I can swill it down, but my guts don't like me for it. Via Cool Tools.


• mail2web.com
  "Pick up your email from any computer anywhere in the world. Used by over 15 million users in over 220 countries." Does involve password, of course, but good to remember nonetheless. Might work when web interface down. Via CUJoe.


• The Lost Gospel of Judas--Photos, Time Line, Maps--National Geographic
  Nat Geo was involved in the project to restore and translate a codex containing, inter alia, the only surviving copy of the Gospel of Judas. This is a great web presentation -- photographs of the codex, a translation, how it came to light, a timeline of early Xtian history and non-canonical gospels. Not clear whether Judas is supposed to have written it (cf "Gospels of" MMLJ) or called GoJ because he is its primary subject.


• WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: BikePower! (Pedal-powered Electricity)
  This guy has a really good point: we have no idea how much work our appliances are doing. If you worked out at Olympic levels for five or six hours, you could probably run your refrigerator for a day. I bet I'd learn to get by with a smaller fridge if I had to power it myself. (And after you read this, don't forget to swap out your incandescents for compact fluorescent bulbs!)


Conversations:


• YoungFemaleScientist: Fixing the System
  An anonymous commenter suggests restricting grant spending on student stipends and on-costs as a way of balancing supply and demand in the postdoc market.


• Mike the Mad Biologist: Misreading Judas
  Not sure who Mike's angry at (there's plenty of blame to go around).


• Adventures in Ethics and Science: How important is effective teaching to science professors anyway?
  The eternal tension between teaching and research.

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• The Conscientous Objector
  There are no medals fit to honour what this man did.


• Chemical & Engineering News: Latest News - RNAi Works In Monkeys
  Liver ApoB expression reduced by 90% by single injection of RNAi liposomes; serum LDL and cholesterol reduced for 11 days post-Rx.


• BBC NEWS | Health | Lab-grown bladders 'a milestone'
  Tissue culture on 3-D scaffolds comes of age! Some of the cultured organs have been operating in vivo for years now.


• My Moral Politics « The Republic of T.
  Terrance links to another fun little political test, according to which I am -- go on, guess -- ah-yup, a socialist. As I said in comments, I must take a closer look at DSA; T reckons the Greens might suit, so I'll consider them as well. I sure as shit ain't no Democrat, and voting Republican after 2000 is prima facie evidence of culpable stupidity, contemptible lack of ethics, or both.


• S t r e s s E r a s e r . c o m - Calm Your Mind, Relax Your Body... Anytime, Anywhere
  Seems odd but recommended by 37signals.


• SLEEPTRACKER
  Wonder if this thing works? The review from 37signals said it did.


• www.gwynnejohnson.com
  Cityscapes, NY I think. Focus on shape, texture, negative space; some a bit too casual/snapshot for me but nothing contrived, which is nice. Gonna subscribe to this one, for a while at least.


• Malcolm Gladwell reviews "Here's Why" by Charles Tilly
  "Reason-giving, Tilly says, reflects, establishes, repairs, and negotiates relationships." Four categories of reasons: conventions ("don't snitch"), stories ("because X did Y which made me feel Z"), codes (high level, formalized conventions like laws) and technical accounts (stories + specialized knowledge and authority, like academic histories).


• Bradley Spitzer Photography
  I particularly like the stark, simple subjects and his sense of balance (physical and tonal).

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• AlterNet: Orlando, Full of Grace
  "Officially, Orlando Tobon is an accountant and travel agent. But the requests his visitors bring often stray far from taxes and tickets. In a country often perplexing and hostile to immigrants, Mr. Tobon has developed a reputation as a benign version of the mafia don in "The Godfather": he seems capable of fixing almost any problem."


• Radagast: predatory and parasitic butterflies.
  Lycaenids, I presume. Note to self: read this article.


• Montreal Expo 1967 - a photoset on Flickr
  These photos were found on the street in Cambridge, MA. Way cool.


• Fun Google hack with Sony Digital Cameras - Engadget
  Also Canon, CASIO, Pentax, Kodak, Konica, Fuji and Nikon. Each brand stores files with a specific prefix, like "DSCnnnnn.jpg" for Sony. So you can search on that string, and see random photos from people around the world.


• blog.bioethics.net - the bioethics web log
  "The new omega-3 pig is the perfect example of what is terribly wrong with American animal biotech research..." Interesting piece.


• Chuck Currie: Church of Scientology Keeps Up Attacks On Mental Health Treatment
  See below.


• Language Log: Thanking
  Touching and useful (see also: Seligman's gratitude exercise).


• Edge: EUDAEMONIA, THE GOOD LIFE.
  Central to Seligman's positive psychology is "eudaemonia, the good life, which is what Thomas Jefferson and Aristotle meant by the pursuit of happiness. They did not mean smiling a lot and giggling. Aristotle talks about the pleasures of contemplation and the pleasures of good conversation. Aristotle is not talking about raw feeling, about thrills, about orgasms. Aristotle is talking about what Mike Csikszentmihalyi works on, and that is, when one has a good conversation, when one contemplates well. When one is in eudaemonia, time stops. You feel completely at home. Self-consciousness is blocked. You're one with the music."


• jwz - recent movies
  I agree with jwz on most of the ones I've seen, which makes me want to see the ones I haven't.


• c h r o m a s i a / 3 April, 2006 / coming back
  The "old Kodak print" look makes this image oddly nostalgic and comforting, like a happy piece of one's childhood.


• Adventures in Ethics and Science: Journalism, science, politics, and choosing sides.
  More commentary around Mooney's TRWoS.


• Meryl Truett Photography
  Excellent plastic-lens photography.


• Journal
  Architectural and doco/art photography by Brian Rose.


• Black and white Photography
  Rob Gardiner. Black and white. Good eye.


• Coudal Partners: Verse By Voice
  "Call 703 637 9276 and recite your favorite short poem and we might use it on the site and/or send you a present too." Via the spousal unit.

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Feed Digest signups are open again, so I've digested my Simpy feed into html that displays on my throwaway blogspot site -- now, unless I've screwed something else up, I should only ever need to cut&paste from the blogspot page's source (or the Feed Digest html version) to post these linklogs.

ResourceShelf's DocuTicker: Cesarean Delivery on Maternal Request

Note to self: print out and internal mail to Valerie King. No indication of different outcomes between CDMR and planned vaginal births, but evidence weak.

Microsoft Has Several Search and Ad Patent Applications Published, Also New App from Yahoo

This can't be good. Dear LazyWeb, please find me an IP/web expert to evaluate these patents.

Recommend me some sparse moody instrumental music | Ask MetaFilter

Yum.

Corporate Personhood- Demeaning Our Bill of Rights - Reclaim Democracy.org

[this looks good] "...corporate lawyers (acting as both attorneys and judges) subverted our Bill of Rights in the late 1800's by establishing the doctrine of "corporate personhood" -- the claim that corporations were intended to fully enjoy the legal status and protections created for human beings.We believe that corporations are not persons and possess only the privileges we willfully grant them. Granting corporations the status of legal "persons" effectively rewrites the Constitution to serve corporate interests as though they were human interests. Ultimately, the doctrine of granting constitutional rights to corporations gives a thing illegitimate privilege and power that undermines our freedom and authority as citizens. While corporations are setting the agenda on issues in our Congress and courts, We the People are not; for we can never speak as loudly with our own voices as corporations can with the unlimited amplification of money."

Alicublog: What, Me Weimar?

Bookmarked just for the phrase "Duchamp's urinal is the wellspring of her rage", in which there must, MUST, be a poem somehow. Perhaps a villanelle.

Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | Shiite Ayatollah Ignores Letter From Bush

I could wish it were someone other than Sistani, but at least here's a leader treating Bush with the contempt he deserves. If the rest of the world would take this cue it might make it easier to get the American Taliban out of office.

Guardian Unlimited | Science | 'When we turn the current on, the patients report the emptiness suddenly disappears'

Last year, Helen Mayberg, a neurologist at Emory University's school of medicine in Atlanta, published the results of a decade of research which pinpointed a 2.5cm-wide part of the brain called the subgenual cingulate region (SCR) as playing a major role in dealing with affective information.

My Turn: A Black Doctor's Patient Problems - Newsweek Columnists - MSNBC.com

"It's too predictable. I walk in the room and introduce myself, then wait for the patient -- whether he or she is black, white or Asian -- to steal glances at the ID card that is attached to my scrubs or white coat. (I've thought of having it changed to read something like: It's true. I'm a real doctor. Perhaps you've seen a black one on TV?)" See, when this doesn't happen any more, then we'll be making some progress.

New Scientist Technology - Device warns you if you're boring or irritating

*snort* All it does is vibrate, though. Lame. I think it should deliver a powerful electric shock.

Adventures in Ethics and Science: Evaluating scientific credibility (or, do we have to take the scientists' word for it?)

This is why Janet gets paid to do philosophy of science, whereas I... comment on blogs sometimes.

ICE: Internet Censorship Explorer » Blog Archive » Yahoo

Nart makes a good point: Yahoo is probably doing to you, right now, what it does to the Chinese. The only difference (for now) is what the respective governments do with the data.

-------

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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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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

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

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.

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.

Jeanne of Body and Soul turns, um, 21-ish today. If you don't read her regularly, do yourself a favour and start. She's smart and funny and a committed progressive with a keen eye for the really important issues. If you're at all like me, you want to be politically well-informed but you simply don't have the time to do the requisite reading. The answer is filters/trusted agents/whatever they are being called now, and Jeanne is one of mine. I rely on a small number of bloggers for my world and national political news, and seldom even glance at mainstream media outlets any more; Jeanne is a must-read for this purpose. I'd pick out posts to whet your appetite, but really, they're all good. Go read.

Happy birthday, Jeanne!

He's also so very, very right.

...here's the bad news: We have three more ungodly and humiliating and colon-curdling years of BushCo. We have three more years of some of the most miserable foreign and environmental and human-rights policy you will see in your lifetime.

We have three more years of brutal unforgivable war and misprision and of the religious right trying to cram its splintered stick of wicked self-righteousness straight up the country's yamdinger, and if I'm here to tell you anything at all I am here to tell you this: Your energy is needed. Right now.

Energy of transformation. Energy of possibility. Energy of intellect and clarity and progress and joy and sex and kiss, of change and growth and defiance. Oh I know, it sounds all swoony and big-brushed and impossibly affected. It might sound all froufrou and New Agey and San Francisco. You know what? Who cares.

(And I'd already decided what to call my resolutions post, so there.)

When I named this site, I intended to write a lot more pieces like this, or at least as close to it as I could get.

Brava!

Yahoo's gone and bought del.icio.us, just as I'd really got the hang of using tags. I hate Yahoo, first because they pollute everything with advertising, and second, because they are soulless corporate worldfuckers who would shank their grandmothers if there was a dime in it:

The text of the verdict in the case of journalist Shi Tao - sentenced in April to 10 years in prison for “divulging state secrets abroad” - shows that Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. provided China’s state security authorities with details that helped to identify and convict him, Reporters Without Borders said today.

“We already knew that Yahoo collaborates enthusiastically with the Chinese regime in questions of censorship, and now we know it is a Chinese police informant as well,” the press freedom organisation said.

“Yahoo obviously complied with requests from the Chinese authorities to furnish information regarding an IP address that linked Shi Tao to materials posted online, and the company will yet again simply state that they just conform to the laws of the countries in which they operate,” the organisation said. “But does the fact that this corporation operates under Chinese law free it from all ethical considerations? How far will it go to please Beijing?”

Better technical background with less drama can be found here. So yeah, bastards. And now they own my favourite bookmark organizer, so I've deleted my account and gone looking for a replacement. Right now I'm using furl (my links are here), which is clunkier but has pretty much the same functionality. Off the top of my head:

• the google ads piss me off but they only show up on the public view spoke too soon, they're all over my view as well. That's a dealbreaker as soon as I find an ad-free alternative.
  
• calling tags "topics" is stupid
  
• not allowing me to edit the default tags would be a dealbreaker if there were anywhere else to go
  
• searching by multiple tags doesn't seem to be available, which is just nuts, so maybe I'm missing it -- if I'm supposed to use the search syntax, bite me
  
• tagging posts from a drop-down list is another reason to keep looking
  
• the privacy policy is crap and there's a lousy feedback form instead of a development forum/blog
  
• there are import and export functions but I haven't checked to see whether they work with, say, spurl, which I've been using as a backup for del.icio.us (autoloading of furl links, as spurl does for del.icio.us, would be nice)
  
• There should be a way to hack the one-click button to post to whichever tag/s I want, but I can't figure it out (if html is a dialect of Martian, then fucking javascript is an obscure dialect of Ancient Martian)

I came up with about twenty different sites/applications while I was looking; for future reference and in case they're of use to readers, here they are:

http://protopage.com/v2
https://www.foldershare.com/
http://www.farfetch.com/
http://www.netvouz.com/
http://www.blinklist.com/
http://www.backpackit.com/
http://base.google.com/base/default
http://www.bitfolge.de/snif-en.html
http://www.linkroll.com/index.php
http://unalog.com/about/
http://toolbar.a9.com/
http://www.hyperlinkomatic.com/index.html
http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/booksync
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&category=Bookmarks&numpg=10&id=14
http://php.resourceindex.com/Complete_Scripts/Link_Management/
http://www.sync2it.com/
http://de.lirio.us/rubric
http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/
http://www.mybookmarks.com/
http://www.myhq.com/

That's weird. My comment on this Inhabitat post was deleted. From memory, what I said was

Love the site too, but ads in feeds are a dealbreaker. If the ad-free excerpt feeds go I'll just stop reading.

Am I missing something here? Why would you delete that? It occurs to me that there was no mention of culling the ad-free excerpt feeds, so I over-reached a bit there, but still. As it happens I have unsubscribed, because the "excerpts" turn out to be title-only and the titles aren't all that informative. I read rss feeds for the convenience, because I don't want to have to click through on every post. If the ads are all-important, if you're running the blog as some kind of business, then this rant's for you.

Schade, I really liked their stuff.

Update: I wrote the admin, and Jill F wrote back to say that my comment was collateral damage when she deleted a couple of obnoxious ones. I'm glad not to have given offense. Jill also points out that the site is free so it's a bit rich for me to complain about ads. I confess to a deep hatred of advertising, but I didn't mean to complain so much as add a data point to the thread. I can stand ads on the site, hell, I'll even click through occasionally; it's just ads in rss feeds that cross my personal line. I've left a new comment that I hope is clearer. (And -- now that I look at that first comment again -- less pushy.)

You may never have heard of Jimmy Massey; I hadn't, until today. He's an Iraq War vet with severe PTSD who's been telling anyone who'll listen that civilians are being killed nineteen-to-the-dozen over there. He's published a book you can't buy in the US because, apparently, all of our publishers are chickenshit; it's called Kill Kill Kill and -- that popping sound is wingut heads exploding -- it was published in France. (You can, however, buy a couple of DVDs of Jimmy talking about his experiences and the military here.)

How did I come to hear of Jimmy Massey? A few days ago, the St Louis Post-Dispatch published a hit piece by Ron Harris claiming that Jimmy was lying; Charles points out that you'll be hearing "Jimmy Lied!" a lot in certain circles over the next little while, as though it invalidated the entire case against the war, and Nathan talks sense about why it doesn't.

As it turns out, Jimmy isn't lying: Ron Harris is a sleazy hack who never lets the facts get in the way of sensational copy. In the linked article, Stan Goff makes a detailed case that Harris has propagated a smear, false in all particulars, probably because Massey caught him out in a lie last September.

So consider this post a gift from me to that special rightwing nutjob in your life. When they start crowing about Jimmy's lies, send 'em here (or rather, to Stan).

This is fun: Frappr lets you stick a virtual pin in an online map to show where in the world you are. You can even attach a photo and a comment if you want to.

If no one signs my map, I'm gonna be all hurt. (Those of you with anonymity to protect, pick a location you'd like to be in.) I'll update the screencap if y'all show up.

Update: whee! I like the way that, if two or more virtual pins are stuck too close together to show up separately, the shadow darkens to indicate more than one entry.

Jay Manifold has left the blogroll. He thinks it was excusable for US troops to position two dead Taliban facing Mecca and burn their bodies, then taunt onlookers:

Desecration

Jay Manifold

TIME dutifully reports that:

... as one Kabul cleric Mohammed Omar told newsmen, "The burning of these bodies is an offense against Muslims everywhere. Bodies are burned only in Hell."
I know just what he has in mind. <----------- (WARNING: Twin Towers 9/11 image!)

October 22, 2005 11:31 AM

(Warning added by me.) I don't remember, and can't be bothered looking up, whether Manifold had anything to say when the bodies of US contractors were desecrated in Falluja. If he did, I bet it wasn't self-righteous and approving.

Update: Jeanne has links to a transcript of the original broadcast and an interview with the photographer.

I think your mind is probably twisting in the wind, too, dear reader, and there's cool piss dripping from your boots, too, and that rope is creaking above you too in the coming dark.

Stavros is writing again. Dance dervish, and spill the blood of politicians in tribute and walleyed joy! Or, you know, go read.

Do you read WorldChanging? If you don't, you should. Seriously -- check 'em out. They're a great resource for all things green, sustainable and environmentally responsible.

If you do read WC, please head over to their reader survey. It will take you less than ten minutes to complete unless you have lots of suggestions for them.

It's quick and easy, and he asked nicely. No, get your mind out of the gutter. If you have a blog, please take ten minutes to help Cameron out.

In a feeble attempt to hinder independent local journalism, a certain scumbag has glommed the obvious domain names for the Seldovia Herald, the newspaper run by my friend Savannah. The Seldovia Herald is not some rinkydink mimeographed collection of hick minutiae (not that there's anything wrong with that!). It's a charming and professional local publication with community clout and political savvy. S has been using a tilde account but is tired of having to explain a long, awkward web address to her somewhat non-geeky readership, so she's registered sovnews.com. I've added it to googlebombs for good and urge anyone with a web page (and the minimally developed nervous system required to understand the value of independent journalism) to give the Seldovia Herald some Google juice. (tip o' the titfer: Brad)

Sphincterine. I'm not kidding. There's even a mascot: Pucker the chocolate starfish.

Truly these are the End Times.

(Blame Defective Yeti for this.)

Oh my. Ask MetaFilter goes where few others would dare.

Sometimes, you just gotta do the experiment, even if it means a swimming pool full of snot.

This site has GM MIDI files of algorithmic music determined by mathematics and the musical preferences of a human. Insert obligatory Philip Glass joke. (via BoingBoing, which probably should carry a NSFW label these days)

Growth industry: New Zealand scientist Christopher Anderson is sowing corn and canola and reaping gold, mercury and other toxic contaminants from small-scale mines. Metals recovered from the plants are used to pay for cleanup and local programs to combat poverty. (via jwz)

Of, like, pertaining to, resulting from, resembling. Be sure to check out the rest of the Phrontistery as well. (via kindall)

What with all the Patriot Act insanity going around, amateur photographers might want to carry the Photographer's Bust Card with them. Especially if they're, you know, brown.

For the nerd who has everything: cufflinks with embedded instrumentation. (also via BoingBoing)

Graham's right, this animated gif is hypnotic.

Rivka has a wonderful post up about abortion, disability and prenatal diagnosis. Do yourself a favour and go read it.

The spousal unit's side project, Get In My Belly, a food blog, is featured in today's Willy Week (on page 3 of that article). Apparently the authors like the term "spousal unit" too.

A while back, Max ran a contest to identify the most vicious comment made on a blog by a member of the Instapundit blogroll. Being a fair and balanced couple of bloggers, dsquared and Max decided (scroll down a bit) to run the reverse contest at the same time, that is, for the most vicious post or comment by a member of Max's own blogroll.

To my delight, Max links to me, and to my continued delight one of my posts has been nominated.

The disingenuously named American Family Association is at it again, this time frothing at the mouth over the "homosexual agenda" (about which, see this). If you have a spare moment, go mess up their survey (that is, unless you're a raving bigot, answer the dishonest leading questions as accurately as they can be answered). (via Atrios)

I note with schadenfreudenous glee that they tell you how many people have taken this survey after you submit your answers -- I was the 95894th -- but not what the results are. Presumably they learned something from this little incident.

Oh, and you have to give them a name and email address. I gave them real info, as I'm happy to keep casual tabs on what these malignant morons are up to, but you can always just make stuff up. Vote early, vote often.

I wish I had time to collect my thoughts and words to write them down with, but I don't right now so I'll just point you to Stavros:

It becomes easier when everyone else is Them. We didn't saw off poor Nick's head, it was those scum, those vermin, the evil-doers, those others. We didn't stick blunt objects up prisoners' asses, either, or rape them or set dogs on them, we didn't rip those kids apart with our amusingly-named ordinance. That was other people, a few bad apples, and they're not us! We're consumers of the images, don't you see? We didn't make this world! We didn't maim that boy! It was them. Them! We didn't slit Daniel Pearl's throat, we didn't knock over the gravestones, we didn't fly airplanes into the World Trade Centre! We didn't sell arms to Saddam, we didn't sell arms to Iran, we didn't ask for the double-anal pissporn, we didn't do any of that shit. We are watchers. Watching makes it real, and watching keeps it separate from us. Watching is a noble act, at least until it gives you a hardon.

The basic truth gets obscured. What's the difference between Osama bin Laden and George Bush? There isn't one. What's the difference between that fucker Amrozi who set the bomb that killed my friend Rick and me? There isn't one. What's the difference between the animals that sawed off Nick Berg's head and the animals that beat prisoners to death at Abu Ghraib? There isn't one. Between the Pope and Saddam? Between that old lady in front of the TV in a trailer in Alabama and that old lady digging up roots in a field in Kazakhstan?

We are one. We are all meat and electricity. And if there is more than that, we are all equally a part of that divine More. Or none of us are.

I'm too busy doing it to write about science and too sick over it to write about politics, so just go read dong resin already.

I love how these republicans are all so law and order/ responsibility-for-one's-actions until they get caught out. Then suddenly there's a whole lot of "complexity."
Their problems are complex, not simple, not like homelessness, which is what just happens when you're lazy, or drug addiction, which is what just happens when you're lazy and weak, or AIDS which is what happens when you're Freddy Mercury. My God, he had that shit coming to him, didn't he. I saw him fuck a panda once, he was insatiable. No, they get what they deserve, and how about a little self control/personal responsibility next time, you sad losers.
Oh, but ineptitude on a global level? No, that shit is nuanced.

Buy his book, too, or God will kill a kitten.

Jee-sus H Christ. If you haven't been following Baghdad Burning, start now with this.

She shook her head and waved away my words of sympathy, "It's ok- really- I'm one of the lucky ones... all they did was beat me."

I don't go in for much of the rah-rah-new-media-paradigm hype about weblogs, but something like this reminds me that at least a little of it is justified. Who else would have told you that story?

Update: because it seems to fit here, and because it should be the point of all the war talk: here is something else about Iraq that you won't see on CNfuckingN. Warning: contains graphic images of Omar Abdul Kader's arm after two AK-47 rounds got done with it. Beware. Spousal unit, this means you.

Update the second: if these two items have whet your appetite for insight into what's actually happening in Iraq, Doc points to a roundup of good sources.

Porpidia flavocaerulescens, orange boulder lichen, photographed in Alaska by Steve and Sylvia Sharnoff, whose beautiful lichen sampler and gallery are taken from their book, Lichens of North America. (thanks to Anne Galloway for the link)

I never thought too much about the old adage that you can't fold a piece of paper in half more than 7 times; I tried with a couple of different pieces of paper, couldn't do it, and stopped there, except for a vague idea that I could do better with a much bigger piece of paper. Not Britney Gallivan, whose elbows you see there on a piece of paper folded 11 times (she's since managed 12). She derived expressions to describe the folding limits for one direction (L = (π.t/6)(2ⁿ + 4)(2ⁿ - 1), where L = length and t = thickness of the material and n is the number of folds) and alternating directions (roughly W = π.t.2^3(n-1)/2), then demonstrated the validity of her equations with gold foil and then with paper. Another approach is described here on Math Forum, or you can buy Ms Gallivan's booklet. I wish I'd had her chutzpah, not to mention her smarts, when I was in high school.

I sure like Alton Brown. I don't watch his cooking show Good Eats as often as I might, because the wacky/zany stuff feels forced to me, and gets in the way of the information (which is excellent), but Mr Brown seems like someone whose company I would really enjoy. His website is entertaining, informative and well designed, and gives me the sense of a complex and curious mind. He even has a blog:

Georgia state school Superintendent Kathy Cox has decided that the word “evolution” is “…a buzzword that causes a lot of negative reaction” and should be replaced in all Georgia school curriculum with the phrase “biological changes over time”.

I agree. I hate buzzwords, don’t you? That’s why I think we should go one further and replace the phrase “slack-jawed backwater ignoramus” with the phrase “Kathy Cox”.

He also has lots of fans, and it's my guess that they skew cerebral as a demographic; you can even build your own Good Eats Geek Code. (Picture by Pelosi&Chambers stolen from Channel Guide Magazine.)

8< "Open Reading Frame" would have been another good name for this blog. I didn't think of it until after the spousal unit built me a site and a logo that I like too much to change, so mol biol geeks feel free to steal that idea.

8< (via Jared) A big ol' collection of record labels on the web.

8< Like photoblogs? Photoblogs.org is your one-stop shop (3,273 photoblogs in 54 countries and 25 languages as I write this). If that's too much, just try Eliot Shepard's slower.net, which is consistently wonderful.

8< (via BoingBoing) It had to happen sometime, I guess: geek names son version 2.0.

8< Super Size Me wins Documentary Directing Award at Sundance. I want to see this film, in which madman Morgan Spurlock documents the terrible things that a month-long diet of nothing but McFood does to his body.

Blake at American Footprint reminds everyone about Tibet, the forgotten cause. He links to a story in the Times of Tibet and asks why we aren't seeing articles like that in the New York Times.

Cory Doctorow links to a story on homelessness in Columbus, OH:

When Tom Bingham describes his new apartment, a slow smile creeps across his face.

The place is small - 402 square feet - squeaky clean, and bare. A metal-frame twin bed sits in one corner, a large, worn purple chair in another. But it has one thing that Mr. Bingham, an older man, has never known: privacy.

"It's the first time I've been by myself," he says, relishing the words. "You come from a family of 10 kids, like I did, and you're never by yourself. In the shelter I was with 120 other guys.... Now, I'm getting used to peace and quiet."

The program is based on providing permanent supportive housing for the long-term homeless, and after a five-year trial signs are good that it has been a success, not only for the direct participants but also for shorter-term users of homeless resources.

Amp reports on a modern medical horror story. Amber Marlowe checked out against medical advice from Wilkes-Barre General Hospital because they insisted she have a C-section, which she did not want. About the same time she was giving birth (vaginally, without incident) at Moses Taylor Hospital, attorneys representing WBGH sought and obtained a court order forbidding her to refuse the surgery. If you'd asked me beforehand, I'd have said I didn't think it possible in this day and age.

Prometheus6 gives a nod to Steve Kerr, who referred to Yao Ming by an ethnic slur but then made a sincere apology without making excuses; you can read his letter to Ming here. I'm linking this because Kerr did wrong, but it took cojones to face the facts the way he did, and I think that sort of response should be encouraged.

Also from Prometheus6, the last Tuskegee airman died about a month ago. A quick google finds stories in all the usual places, but it wasn't exactly splashed across their front pages. The University of Virginia has a good background here if you're not familiar with the story.

How rich art is; if one can only remember what one has seen, one is never without food for thought or truly lonely, never alone.    -- Vincent to Theo, 1878

The Vincent van Gogh Gallery is the site for van Gogh online. It's endorsed by the van Gogh Museum (<brag> I've been there! </brag>) and features, well, everything: 2200 images and 874 letters, every surviving thing that Vincent ever painted, sketched or wrote. Chronological and subject matter indices, a canonical works gallery, commentary and analysis, biography, an online forum and more, available in thirteen languages on a clean, well designed site. Bravo, Mr Brooks.

The Art*o*mat is just plain cool. In 1997, Clark Whittington converted a recently-banned cigarette vending machine to sell his black&white photos for $1 each. Today, his company Artists in Cellophane operates 60 art vending machines in 18 states, featuring the work of over 300 artists from 10 different countries. I note that there are no artomats in Oregon yet; I wonder what it costs to sponsor one?

Way cool update: the artist whose pendant is shown here, Sandra Marchewa, showed up in comments. You can see more of her art here. While I'm updating, it appears there's now an Art*o*mat in Oregon, at Lane Community College -- but still none in Portland...

I have pretty much given up on keeping my bookmarks organised on a day-to-day basis; I keep a few handy reference links that I use regularly (like Merriam-Webster online) and just use Google to find anything else I want from time to time (say, a currency or temperature scale converter). Other than that, I keep a toolbar folder into which I dump all the interesting links that come my way, and every now and then I sort those links into an organised set of folders. It's cleanup time again, so here are a couple of web goodies:

Winning greater influence for science. Daniel Yankelovich argues that there is an unspoken agreement between science and society which provides science with a "separation from involvement with goals, values, and institutions other than its own", and that

This "social contract" has allowed science to pursue long-term fundamental questions and to build slowly on the basis of its new knowledge. Science has been able to do this even in the context of a society such as ours, which in most domains is impatient, excessively pragmatic, and thinks only in the short term. But this same social contract is responsible for the widening disparity between the sophistication of our science and the relatively primitive state of our social and political relationships.

Most scientists of my acquaintance (and I am guilty of this too) treat the gulf between the public and our "ivory towers" the same way as everyone treats the weather: we complain, but we do nothing. Yankelovich at least suggests a model for dealing with the problem.

On a related note, Eugene Goodheart's essay Imperial Science takes on the "two cultures" view of CP Snow and his inheritors EO Wilson, Jared Diamond and Richard Dawkins. I'm probably a little more sympathetic to Wilson's side of things than Goodheart is, but the essay is a welcome thorn in the side of "sociobiology", that misbegotten offshoot of evolutionary biology which attempts to reduce human lives to formulae and ape-behaviours.

Happy second birthday (for yesterday) to creatures in my head.

Eliot Gelwan is right on the money again, this time about the anti-SSRI backlash. If you have reason to know what SSRI stands for (and even if you don't), you should be reading Eliot regularly.

Mark Liberman plays interesting sociolinguistic search engine games (see also this earlier post) at Language Log. Personally, I dislike the use of "refute" to mean "deny", and I strongly dislike the ""refute/refutes/refuted that" construct, but (as Mark points out) those are side issues. (Don't take me for one of those barbaric descriptivists though!) What's really interesting is the kind of analyses that a huge body of searchable text makes possible.

Filtering is a life-raft on the sea of information, and taste tribes are emerging as one of the best filtering mechanisms available (link-fu props to Jerry Kindall). I'm a bit surprised that Joshua Ellis didn't mention tribe.net by name (and that he did mention the dismal Blogshares) but it's a good essay. As I've mentioned before, I think that trackback and syndication and metablogging tools are turning blogs into a conversational medium of sorts, out of which it is easy to build your own taste tribes. I note that Ellis' sense of the term seems to be more interactive than mine -- superspecialrock versus Bloglines -- so maybe I need a different term for solitary geeks assembling a virtual panel of cultural taste-testers. Whichever way you look at it, I think it's safe to ignore Xeni's so-hip-it-hurts whining about "that post-Friendster/Tribe/LinkedIn/SixDegrees oh-god-not-again feeling" on the otherwise excellent Boing Boing. Taste tribes, and applications that pander to them, are here to stay.

Skippy at The American Street points out that CBS, which wouldn't take MoveOn.org's "Bush in 30 seconds" ad because they don't run "issue-oriented" ads, is planning to run anti-Mary Jane ads during the Superbowl. He has some addresses if you want to let the rat bastards know that their hypocrisy has not gone unnoticed.

Speaking of rat bastard hypocrites, I am all tingly with Schadenfreude as I note that the American Family Association has had to abandon its "gay marriage" poll because the position they liked lost out by nearly two-to-one. Hat tip to Atrios, whose "go torture X" memelet probably helped. "Pro-family" my arse.

(via Doc Searls) First the Great Old Ones, now pathogenic microorganisms. When they made a plush Cthulhu, I did not speak up because I was not an Elder God of unspeakable evil...

Via Body and Soul, Obsidian Wings has truly outstanding coverage of the Maher Arar travesty. Arar is a Canadian citizen whom the US gummint deported to Syria so that they could have him tortured. I kid you not. Go read about it; this shit could happen to you next.

If you're part of the choir and you like being preached to (I am and I do), go read this from Rep. Bernie Sanders (I, VT) (via Dave):

The middle class is collapsing, and we need a fundamental alternative to trickle down economics and unfettered free trade.
We've got to raise the minimum wage to a living wage.
We've got to renegotiate our disastrous trade policies that have cost us millions of decent paying jobs.
We've got to change labor law so that workers can join unions when they want to.
We've got to protect the overtime pay that workers have earned.
We've got to put people to work building affordable housing, schools, mass transportation, and a sustainable energy system.
Our health care system is disintegrating... we can guarantee health care to all Americans through a single-payer national health care system. [...]
Our national priorities are backwards. Instead of giving huge tax breaks to the rich and large corporations, we should provide for the middle class and working families of this country. [...]
Environmental degradation is threatening the wellbeing of our planet. We must move to sustainable and nonpolluting forms of energy as well as energy conservation. [...]
We must work for world peace, and not U.S. imperial power. [...]

This, via Boing Boing and Atrios, is no surprise to me, but I hope it gets tremendous coverage:

Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Commitee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media...

It's not clear that the thieving bastards in question can be prosecuted, but then the law is an ass.

"You just wrong, and I be tryin' to right you." Via pretty much everyone, Margaret Cho is a class act, yo.

Metafilter's signal:noise ratio renders the comment threads a waste of time, but with the magic of RSS I can scan the front page for old school posts like these:

From magullo, a link to this polished amateur continuation of the Library of Congress' exhibit and project on the pre-WWI work of Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii. Prokudin-Gorskii took three black and white exposures of each scene he shot, using a different filter for each; then, by projecting the plates back through the same filters he could create a single colour image on a wall. The LoC, and now Addison Godel and friends, have used modern image manipulation to reproduce some of these extraordinary images. [pic ; I made the grayscale one in Photoshop.]

       

Godel has it exactly right:

...I'd always felt that the past was somehow obscured by being viewed solely through a greyscale window. To see places, buildings, and especially people in color was to understand, on a very deep level, that they had at one time really, truly existed - that the "Typical Russian Peasant of Figure 32" was not merely some gaunt presence in the side of a textbook, but a genuine person who, if not for temporal chance, could have been my neighbor or my friend.

Shibori is a labour intensive Japanese textile dyeing method, and this is a labour intensive post from user lobakgo. Techniques similar to tie-dyeing are used to create patterns like those on the left,from which extraordinarily detailed images like the one on the right are built with months of painstaking effort. [pic 1, pic2]

      

This also ended up on MeFi, but I got it from jwz: the industrial photography of Edward Burtynsky.

      

Rebecca keeps a useful list of antidotes to the special-interest spin in which everything seems to be drenched these days:

Snopes is an old favourite, hunters of urban legends (now in 41 flavours) since 1995. They include "common fallacies, misinformation, old wives' tales, strange news stories, rumors, celebrity gossip, and similar items" in their expansive definition of "urban legend". The site is maintained as a hobby by Barbara and David Mikkelson; they take some advertising (they say they have no direct contact with the advertisers, and appear to take ads only through Burst!Media) and accept donations. Of particular interest in these days of Democratic Primaries and Looming Federal Elections is their politics page.

Spinsanity is the creation of Ben Fritz, Bryan Keefer and Brendan Nyhan, all of whom disclose activity and affiliations with "Democratic and progressive politics". It's not clear where (other than their own pockets) they get the money for the site; the site is an Amazon affiliate and they accept donations.

FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania and accepts no funding from "business corporations, labor unions, political parties, lobbying organizations or individuals". Their mission is to "monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases."

The Columbia Journalism Review's Campaign Desk offers political reality checks by medium, angle (Fact Check, Hidden Angle, Local Story, Echo Chamber, Money Trail, Spin Reducer, Distortion, Tip of the Hat and Cheap Shot), issue or candidate. Their stated goal is "to straighten and deepen campaign coverage almost as it is being written and produced" and they focus "not on what politicians say and do, but on how the press is presenting (or not presenting) the political story". No mention of funding sources.

I suspect that I might not hate advertising, at least not with a passion so far beyond reason, if more advertising execs were like David Ogilvy, whom Doc Searls says "was to advertising what Shakespeare was to theatre". There are online bios here and here. There are Ogilvy quotes all over the place, and they paint a picture of that rara -- indeed I'd have said extinct -- avis, an honest advertiser:

The consumer is not a moron. She is your wife.

I always use my clients' products. This is not toady-ism, but elementary good manners.

If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out - either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time.

Of course, some of them suggest that he came from a time when television was not so dominant a cultural force:

Advertising reflects the mores of society, but it does not influence them.

Does advertising corrupt editors? Yes it does, but fewer editors than you may suppose... the vast majority of editors are incorruptible.

If this piqued your interest, Ogilvy wrote three books, Confessions of an Advertising Man (1963), Ogilvy on Advertising (1983), and Blood, Brains and Beer (1978, reissued 1997 as An Autobiography). The first two are apparently classics in the field.

Two from jwz:

Soviet exploration of Venus:

The Soviet exploration of Venus, from 1961 to 1984, is the largest effort ever undertaken to study another planet. The fundamentals of interplanetary spacecraft design and remote sensing were first realized in these attempts. Successful missions included 3 atmospheric probes, 10 landings, 4 orbiters, 11 flybys or impacts, and 2 balloon probes of the clouds.

And the best part? Pictures of the planet's surface!

[Update: it occurred to me that "Venus is pretty hot, isn't it?", so I looked it up. Yes, Venus is very hot: almost 500 °C. Not only that, but the surface pressure is 90 atmospheres, and the perpetual clouds are mostly sulphuric acid. The probe Venera-13 survived 127 minutes on the surface in 1982.]

PERV (porcine endogenous retrovirus) can be transmitted to human cells from the pig/human chimeric cells that form in pigs grown from embryos into which human stem cells have been injected. One of the aims of the research is (was) to create tissues that could be used in xenotransplantation. Some researchers would disagree with me:

...the question is how widespread and how many of these hybrid cells were found? If they are very rare - and we haven't found any in our experiments - then I don't think it is that important.

but I think this is the end of porcine xenotransplants.

Typing "poetry" into a search engine will get you nowhere; or rather, it will get you everywhere, which is no use at all. Every angsty teenager should write poetry, of course, but only in a vanishingly small number of cases should anyone else ever read it. Herewith a short list of readable poetry on the web.

Dead white men; or, "classical" poetry:

Steve Spanoudis' Poet's Corner offers 7600 poems by 780 poets indexed by author, title and subject. Biographies of about 30 and photographs of about 120 poets (many of them somewhat obscure) are also available. They accept submissions, if you have a favourite poet you'd like to see included (but beware copyright restrictions!). The daily poetry break features a poem a day from the Poet's Corner collection, with commentary by Bob Blair. I frequently disagree with Bob's opinions, but he's interesting.

Representative Poetry Online includes about 2,900 English poems by over 400 poets. It's based on a 1912 textbook but includes hundreds of additional poems and poets as well as biographical data, commentaries and other features.

The estimable Project Bartleby offers a wonderful selection of verse anthologies and volumes. Special mention here to the best anthology of English poetry ever made, the 1919 Oxford Book of English Verse. Quoth Q:

My wish is that the reader should in his own pleasure quite forget the editor’s labour, which too has been pleasant: that, standing aside, I may believe this book has made the Muses’ access easier when, in the right hour, they come to him to uplift or to console.

The venerable Project Gutenberg currently includes 209 volumes of poetry, from Aristotle's Poetics to the selected poems of Oscar Wilde.

The American Verse Project from the U of Michigan contains entire books of poems from about a hundred authors, mostly 19th century.

The Poetry Archive has about 5000 poems by about 150 poets. Lots of advertising though.

Contemporary:

Poetry Daily will email you a contemporary poem every day, or you can read it online. There's an archive but, sadly, poems are only retained for one year.

Web del Sol is "a collaboration on the part of scores of dedicated, volunteer editors, writers, poets, artists, and staff whose job it is to acquire and frame the finest contemporary literary art and culture available in America and abroad, and to array it in such a manner that it speaks for itself."

Various and Sundry:

Verse Libre offers more than 13000 poems by almost 500 authors, both classical and contemporary, searchable/browsable by author and title. The random poem feature is fun (aaaahhhh! I got one by the horrible McGonagall when I went to fetch that link!), and I was suprised by the top 20 list (I expected it to be pure schmaltz, if not worse; I'm a snob and an asshole). Like Poet's Corner, they accept submissions (but not from angsty teens; published work only).

The Atlantic magazine online has a poetry archive which includes numerous essays and, best of all, audio files of poets reading their own and others' work. Unfortunately, they use the malignant and execrable RealAudio format, but as the spousal unit recently noted, there is at least one alternative way to access those streams.

The Academy of American Poets has photographs, biographies and selected works from over 450 poets. Some are living, some not; not all of them are American. Their listening booth has a nice selection of audio (more RealAudio I'm afraid).

If you like poetry audio, Laurable has more than 2500 links to audio covering nearly 500 poets.

"...if you're going to insist on meaning in life, you're going to have to choose between intellectual dishonesty and unhappiness."

Anapestic is the nom de web of a madman with a golden tongue. He has quite a way with words, too. Think of a waspish (not WASP-ish) American P G Wodehouse, and you're halfway there.

For me, the best thing about Wampum's 2003 Koufax Awards is the number of excellent blogs to which the nominations (which start here) have introduced me. True to form, though, I haven't been paying attention as I added new blogs into my favourite new toy, so no list of new notables from me. Instead, I've gone through the nominations for Best Post, and here present (in no particular order within each group) my own selections from that list, with reasons why you should go vote for them as well.

Best of breed:

Lady Sisyphus' post, actually written by a friend of hers, called so great a cloud of witnesses. I defy anyone to read this and maintain opposition to gay marriage without engaging in serious cognitive dissonance.

Billmon is nominated for a number of posts, but the one that really resonated with me was Dream Time. I also grew up in a racist milieu, bear its lasting marks, and am determined to rid myself of every last trace of it.

The rest of the best:

Prometheus 6 looks at American slavery from a viewpoint you should not miss. Whites, as well as blacks, had to be conditioned to accept an economy built on injustice.

David Niewert at Orcinus is nominated for a widely (and deservedly) praised post on the impact of the political on the personal.

Amp at Alas, A Blog takes a swipe at one of the last socially acceptable prejudices. What I want to know is, what's so terrible about being fat anyway?

Amp has also been nominated for his succinct explanation of how Republicans could get a late-term abortion ban if they really wanted one, and why they don't.

Very Very Happy on why you should at least get your facts straight before you decide to hate the French. Read this before you ever make the "cheese eating surrender monkeys" joke again, 'k?

Honourable Mentions:

Allen Brill at The Right Christians provides annotations for MLK Jr's "I have a dream" speech. If you can stomach my writing and opinions, you don't need me to explain why that speech is important, and Allen has done a nice job of tracking down the sources of its powerful imagery.

The Left Hook is nominated for a post about Jose Padilla. I was embarassed to realise that I did not know what was happening in that critical case, so the post makes my list for administering a much-needed jolt (even if it was written back when I was still paying attention). If, like me, you need to catch up, Google is your friend. (Bottom line: no progress.)

Greg at The Talent Show also makes the list for telling me something I should have known. He starts out teeing off on Transcendental Meditation, then goes on to deliver the coup de grâce to the Hundredth Monkey bullshit (that the latter was so readily debunkable is what I didn't know, but should have).

Nathan Newman gets points for defending the (almost) indefensible Al Sharpton, and doing a good job of it.

Tresy is nominated for an enjoyable and accurate anti-Shrub rant on corrente, The Chickenhawks Come Home to Roost.

I admit it, Atrios' Secret Media Memo made me laugh.

Now this is sweet. Bloglines is an online RSS aggregator with a clean, selbstverständlich interface and a host of useful features that allows you to streamline your weblog reading enormously (it will also work with email newsletters and newsgroups - anything that can be syndicated). Here's the overview, and my account is open for public viewing if you want to see the system in action (it's a bit messy because I'm still putting it together). This thing will save me hours; mad props to founder Mark Fletcher.

Some links that were languishing in a textfile; sorry about the lack of attribution, I'll try not to do that again.

Kurt Wenner's amazing trompe l'oeil street paintings.

Possibly the worst CD of all time.

A collection of creative gene names. Most of the best ones are Drosophila genes, fruit fly genetics being a field with a long history of wry jokes. For example: cleopatra (interaction with asp is lethal), barentsz (doesn't reach pole), amontillado (larvae can't hatch -- For the love of God, Montresor!).

An interesting way to divide the US up into political regions. I'm happy to be in a zone that's "known for both civic responsibility and civil disobedience".

A brilliant cartoon from film maker Mark Osborne (Quicktime).

Direct conversion of the energy in a moving liquid to electricity; no moving parts, no pollution. A link: search on Google confirmed my feeling that this story is not getting much attention (and reminded me that I found it on the excellent Laputan Logic), but also introduced me to FuturePundit via this post, which points out some reasons for less than unbounded optimism.

Microangela has a scanning electron microscope, and she's not afraid to use it. That's a fly's foot -- Musca domestica I assume, although the site doesn't specify. No wonder the little bastards can stick to anything.

In-wheel drive. The Dutch city of Apeldoorn is about to undertake a six-month evaluation of a bus with inside-out electric motors in each wheel and a small diesel motor to keep the necessary batteries charged. If the inventors are to be believed, the new arrangement of old technology offers 60% savings on fuel and massive reductions in both noise and fuel-emission pollution.

Campaign for a moratorium on the death penalty. I think there are two ways to look at the death penalty: one, in the hypothetical case of a perfect justice system which never convicts the innocent; and two, in the real case of our present justice system which all too often convicts the innocent. I'm against it in both cases, but I think the argument in the second case is utterly compelling.