This is what I got on the Internet for my Birthday.
Monthly Archives: June 2009
Remember the Columbia House Record Club?
“So take this and fill it out,” he suddenly said, thrusting a small square of paper in my general direction, a piece of paper that looked like a postcard on one side and a form to be filled in on the other. “As soon as you can. Do it right now.”
So my boss had just forced me to join the Columbia House Record Club so he could get a free album by getting someone else to join. I had to pick five albums from this list of mostly totally stupid stuff….
Forced to Join the Columbia House Record Club at Quiche Moraine
BBC: DNA mutations followed by selection does not lead to new species!?!?
In an BBC article describing a Royal Society paper on the rate of mutation in warm vs. cooler climates, the BBC made this statement:
DNA can mutate and change imperceptibly every time a cell divides and makes a copy of itself.
But when one of these mutations causes a change that is advantageous for the animal – for example, rendering it resistant to a particular disease – it is often “selected for”, or passed down to the next few generations of that same species.
Such changes, which create differences within a population but do not give rise to new species, are known as “microevolution”.
I suppose the BBC is into the Hopeful Monster theory or something.
Read it here, come back, and fight it out.
SC Governor Abducted by Aliens
First he was, I dunno, in the bathroom. Then he was, perhaps, down in the parking lot waxing his car. Then he was home working on his stamp collection or something. Then he was hiking the Apalachian Trail. Now, it turns out, supposedly, that Republican South Carolina Governor Sanford was in South America. What next?
There is a timeline here at the Charlotte Observer
You know, there is only one possible explanation for this. See headline.
Our Research Camp as a Mission Station
A couple of “missionary” posts back, I intimated that we got to stay at the missionary stations while visiting various cities or en route between points in return for our work giving out medicine and such at our research camp. In truth, the arrangement was a bit more complex and subtle than this, and in fact, I think the arrangement and its nature changed over time. The various missionary entities that existed in the Ituri Forest and nearby cites that would be used as jumping off points were actually hospitable to us for three reasons. 1) Almost everybody is almost always hospitable to everybody else in this region. This is how things must be for anything to work. The only non-hospitable units are official governmental agencies of Zaire, or where they exist, embassies or consulates of the United States. 2) We did fill in a blank space on the map where essential medical services were not available to local people because the missions did not operate that far into the bush. Our research station was beyond the Blender Line and even beyond the Beer Line. 3) We paid. For the most part, mission stations had guest rooms and other facilities for use by passers by, but there was a charge (though very inexpensive) to cover costs. Flying on their planes cost as well.
Continue reading Our Research Camp as a Mission Station
I know it’s not Christmas, but …
Finding Coral
Background:
The Finding Coral expedition set sail June 8th in search of deep sea corals on in Hecate Strait and the Queen Charlotte Basin. Two Deep Worker manned submarines will be piloted by our blue ribbon science team, traveling to depths up to 500 metres to document evidence of corals, associated species, and damage from human impacts.
The Finding Coral Expedition is the first of its kind in B.C.: an expedition specifically designed to study deep water corals and document threats to their well being.
Day 10 video:
Day 12 video:
Forget the Maginot Line, What About the Beer Line?
Near the end of the earth there are lines one might not cross for fear of falling off.
OK, you won’t really fall off, but you will become scared and lost.
Continue reading Forget the Maginot Line, What About the Beer Line?
Third-trimester abortions
In light of the recent assassination, by a member of a right wing Christian anti-abortion cabal, of a physician who specialized in late term abortions, it may be worth having a look this medical phenomenon.
Well, my blog colleague Monado contacted me a week ago or so and we discussed this, and I felt that she should write up what she had, since she had done some research. I would then hope that my readers who are interested in this will go and have a look at her post.
The bottom line is that third trimester abortions are done for a diverse set of reasons, and a lot of what is said in the public debate is not accurate.
Have a look at “What causes third-trimester abortions?” at Science Notes.
Stop violence masquerading as political activism
Citing recent killings in Arkansas, Kansas and the nation’s capital, Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday said new hate crimes law were needed to stop what he called “violence masquerading as political activism.”
The attorney general’s call for Congress to act came as a civil rights coalition said there has been a surge in white supremacist activity since the election of the first African-American president and the economic downturn.
“Over the last several weeks, we have witnessed brazen acts of violence committed in places that many would have considered unthinkable,” Holder told the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.
Is this legislating thinking? Or is it legislating stupidity?
Girls Doing Math
This is a struggle I can relate to:
Perez Hilton thinks that hot chicks can’t do math. I have taught math to children of a variety of ages. It is difficult to convince young women in our society that they can do math. Young women often lack self-confidence about mathematics. Many of them think that “only the ugly, unpopular girls” do math. One high school student once told me that she didn’t want to go to a summer math program because if she did “everyone will think I’m uncool.”
See this post for the big picture and the gory details.
I can tell you that there was a lot of stuff going on in my household this year regarding math, and anti-math socialization. Just so you know, Julia got a lot of helpful support in the nitty gritty of algebra from the household math expert, which of course is Amanda.
How Twitter can make history
While news from Iran streams to the world, Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics.
Continue reading How Twitter can make history
Watermelon Dan is at it again
Republican Congressperson Dan Burton calls for a Plexiglas shield to be built over the congressional chamber to protect the congresspeople from attack. This is the same guy who carried out the famous and embarrassing reconstruction of Vince Foster’s suicide:
Burton gained attention for re-enacting the alleged crime in his backyard with his own pistol and a pumpkin standing in for Foster’s head. After hearings into Democratic fundraising (see section below) began, a Democratic National Committee staffer appeared in a pumpkin suit with a button that read, “Don’t shoot.”
Barack Obama, Superhero (new jibjab)
South Carolina Governor AWOL?
UPDATE: There are reports that the missing governor is tweeting. These reports are unconfirmed.
His wife does not know where is his. The lieutenant governor does not know where he is. It is said that “he needed some time away from his children to write something.” It is said he is working on a book. No one has seen him since Thursday.
Makes sense to me.
His chief of staff claims to know where he is. But he would say that even if he didn’t.
Apparently, not having a governor for a few days is not that big a deal. I say, give it a week then maybe go looking for him.
BTW, this Thursday? I’m outta here for a few days. Gotta write some stuff. If you want me get me before then. (Unless you want to go fishing, of course.) My chief of staff will know where I am if anything really important comes up.