Daily Archives: August 24, 2009

Swine Flu Information from PLoS and Google

PLoS Currents … is a Google/PLoS collaborative effort using Knol to consolidate and organize info about H1N1 novel influenza flu.

The key goal of PLoS Currents is to accelerate scientific discovery by allowing researchers to share their latest findings and ideas immediately with the world’s scientific and medical communities. Google Knol’s features for community interaction, comment and discussion will enable commentary and conversations to develop around these findings. Given that the contributions to PLoS Currents are not peer-reviewed in detail, however, the results and conclusions must be regarded as preliminary. In time, it is therefore likely that PLoS Currents contributors will submit their work for publication in a formal journal, and the PLoS Journals will welcome these submissions.

All the details are here.

The West Wing Parody

The only TV series I ever watched (sine being a kid) was The West Wing. I didn’t watch the West Wing either. But then I met Amanda, and she was into watching the show, so the two of us took in the last year as it happened, then rented the whole thing and eventually saw it all.

The following, courtesy of a friend of mine, is a parody of the show. If you’ve not seen the West Wing, don’t bother, this won’t be even remotely funny. If you have seen it, you will find this to be an excellent parody because it is on one hand ridiculous and on the other and an accurate representation right down to the dialog.
Continue reading The West Wing Parody

Mech On Wolves

Mech originally characterized the “Alpha” pattern of behavior, and has subsequently (over the last forty years) modified this considerably. Science does indeed progress.

However, I hasten to point out that this is a case of inverted skepticism. The change in how we view animal behavioral biology since the 1960s to now has changed in all areas. Rumors that Mech is doing something odd here are clearly overstated. This is run of the mill progress of science.

Hat top: UO

I can’t believe what a total chump you are. Yes, you.

Corporate America removed Bush from office for the pragmatic reason that civilization would have collapsed had they not. Now, with Democrats resting on their laurels and drunk with power, Corporate America seeks to restructure the economy, the regulatory system, and society as benefits them most. Are you going to just let that happen?

Stephanie Zvan at Quiche Moraine explains.

ToDo List Item: Kill child because she converted to another religion.

Traditional Islam is so cool because it really sticks with the old ways, and that’s quaint. But it should be allowed to do this only in a museum where it might be safely kept away from actual people.

Fathima Rifqa Bary is the 17-year-old girl who converted from Islam to Christianity. She packed up her things and ran away to Florida because she feared an honor killing — her own family members killing her because of what she had done.

Her parents say they just want her back safely, but reports say that her mother said Fathima was “dead to her”. The girl also said her father threatened to kill her after learning she had been baptized

Technically, I think she’d be OK if she just “converted” to atheism, but I’m not sure.

The Friendly Atheist has this story covered.

Happy Birthday Carr2D2

A few months ago I was contacted by a person I didn’t know (but vaguely knew of) about being on a panel to discuss evolutionary biology and blogging and so on. Her name was Carrie Iwan. In fact, I think that still is her name.

We had a number of professional and pleasant interactions via email, as she organized a fairly large scale affair. Sometimes when you plan an event, all the work is in the planning, and little needs to be done when things are underway … it runs itself. This event, however, required continued and constant attention and Carrie managed a plethora of volunteers and participants and made sure everything came off like it was supposed to and better.

Continue reading Happy Birthday Carr2D2