Fellow Blogger Pat on Fairer Science has a tribute.
And, for some reason, so does MIT, the school.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Carnival of the Vanities
… The original blog carnival … is out, and it is here.
Fat Body = Not Fat Head?
A new study finds obese people have 8 percent less brain tissue than normal-weight individuals. Their brains look 16 years older than the brains of lean individuals, researchers said today.
Those classified as overweight have 4 percent less brain tissue and their brains appear to have aged prematurely by 8 years
I don’t know what to think about this yet. It would be nice to know more about the proximate mechanisms. I’m guessing this is a cardio-vascular thing.
hat tip: Natalie.
Ted Kennedy 1932 – 2009
It has been said that everyone who grew up or lived in Kennedy country has at least one Kennedy story. This is true, of course, though mine are not especially impressive. But since this is a wake, you have to hear them anyway. Grab yourself a beer and a plate of steamed clams while I regale you….
Continue reading Ted Kennedy 1932 – 2009
Wikipedia will limit changes to bio pieces
…within weeks, the English-language Wikipedia will begin imposing a layer of editorial review on articles about living people.
The new feature, called “flagged revisions,” will require that an experienced volunteer editor for Wikipedia sign off on any change made by the public before it can go live. Until the change is approved — or in Wikispeak, flagged — it will sit invisibly on Wikipedia’s servers, and visitors will be directed to the earlier version.
Sounds like a good idea to me. Actually, it is rather astonishing that it does not already work this way.
This is from the NYT.
Ted Kennedy has died
I just saw the news. I will have some remarks later.
Discordant Democrats vs. Republican Dittoheads
The Democratic Party represents true diversity and has elements in it that are as conservative as any Republican on some issues, as well as libertarians and even quasi-anarchists who are willing to bite the bullet and “show up” to have some kind of influence. The Republican Party, in contrast, strictly polices itself and drives anyone with differing opinions into the swamp. A “differing opinion” is one not endorsed by Rush Limbaugh.
Read more at qm.
How To Enable Adobe’s Flash Player In Google Chrome
In Ubuntu. Here.
Google Chrome 64 Bit for Linux
A 64-bit version of the Google Chrome browser is now ready, but Windows users will still have some time to wait for their version.
In a mailing list posting this week, Chrome developer Dean McNamee wrote that the Google v8 JavaScript team have working on a 64-bit port. There are now full instructions on the Google Code wiki for Chromium on how to build Chrome for 64-bit Linux.
Bachmann makes stuff up
Listen to the long list of Town Hall meetings Bachmann claims to have had or to have planned.
So far, she’s only had meetings more restrictive than those Bush has had. The one time she had a public meeting with actual public that I know of was the famous bathroom incident, but that’s another story…
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.
Krugman on Public Option: Republicans = nonsense
The middle twenty senators are all Democrats.
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
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.