Prisoners, nuns, do the wave for Jacko:
I concur with BGF’s opinion on this.
Except I’ve got to add: When the nuns came out I kind of freaked. Also, as I’ve mentioned before, I totally missed the “we ae the world we are the Coke Commercial” event because I was in the jungle with the … starving and dying children that year. Everybody was humming this song when I got back but no one could remember why.
The best of last June
… is certainly still in the future. But we have seen a step in that direction in a new paper, coming out this week in Science. This research applies intensive and extensive genomic analysis to the avian phylogenetic tree. The results are interesting.
This paper is summarized in a number of locations, most notably here on Living the Scientific Life. Here, I will summarize it only very briefly. However, there are two observations I would like to make about this paper and its apparent meaning. One has to do with the nature of science, and the other has to do with the nature of evolution in particular. I’ll argue that we can quantify (almost non-trivially) the number of times science is wrong. I’ll also argue that Stephen Jay Gould was wrong (not totally, but not trivially) about one of his most important assertions (other than his musings about the myth of vaginal orgasms … we’ll talk about that another time).
Let us not let the death of Ed McMahon and some other stars overshadow the anniversary of the death of one of the greats. In memoriam, let’s talk bullshit:
The long running Minnesota Atheist Talk Radio air’s its very last show tomorrow morning at 9:00 Central Time. Details of how to listen to the show, which will also be a podcast, are here.
This week’s show will feature yours truly, and I’ll be interviewed by Stephanie Zvan. The subject will be Missionaries in Africa. This interview should be considered an extension of this series of blog posts on the same topic.
My understanding is that the people who have produced this radio show up until now are planning to produce a podcast in the future. I will let you know as soon as I hear anything about that.
cats:
Dogs:
Bonus cat:
previously reviewed
It utterly shocks me every time I make a reference to plastic alligators, Macy’s bags with poisonous snakes in them, a guy named Skink or my favorite Bass Lure …. the Double Whammy …. and people look back at me with blank stares. Like, don’t you get it? “To be or not to be” jokes or allusions to Sherlock Holmes are always understood. Or at least, people pretend to get them. But does no one read contemporary literature?
We left it around here somewhere. Maybe here?
There are two ways to go to Antarctica. One is like my friend Elle, who is at this very moment in an underground bunker at the south pole with a broken limb and inadequate medial attention, where she is working on a NASA scientific expedition where they thing somehow it is a good idea to spend the WINTER there.
The other is to wait until summer then go when the weather is nice.
Well, Grrrl Scientists, from Living the Scientific Life, is currently in the running for Plan B, the summer trip to Antarctica. Go here and find out how you can help her get there! Seriously, go!
The coroner’s preliminary report has come out, and it is vague.
Rather than reporting, for instance, a simple heart attack/stroke, the coroner indicates that there is no obvious cause (some physical, visible thing) of such a thing, and that actual ’cause of death’ will be specified only after toxicology screens and other tests.
The word on the street (well, actually, on my TV) is that the multi-week delay the coroner indicates will mainly be caused by being really really careful so they don’t screw this up.
In other words, SOP plus.
Various sources are also indicating that Jackson has been, essentially, “clean” over the last few months or more, with respect to alcohol and drugs. On the other hand, one of the main sources of that information may be a physician who disappeared from the scene when things got hot, and who’s car has been impounded by the LAPD.
I have my own theory, but for now have a look at this discussion at Quiche Moraine.
Biologist Robert Full studies the amazing gecko, with its supersticky feet and tenacious climbing skill. But high-speed footage reveals that the gecko’s tail harbors perhaps the most surprising talents of all.
The new study identifies 27 loci that have rare copy number variations, where there are more or fewer repeated DNA segments than expected, common to the genomes of several children with autism spectrum disorder. These variations are not present in controls without autism spectrum disorder.
The peer reviewed paper is available in the Open Access journal PLoS Genetics.
The sample included 2,832 individuals distributed among 912 families that had multiple autistic children. The control group consisted of 1,070 samples of disease-free children who presumably are not clustered from a smaller number of family groups.
Note the apparent imbalance in sample size. Actually, it is not as big of a difference as one might think, as the 2,832 individuals samples do not represent 2,832 cases because they come from a set of under 1,000 families. In effect, the sample size of autism-related individuals in 912.
Continue reading Evidence for gene-autism link just published
LA Times:
[Updated at 3:15 p.m.: Pop star Michael Jackson was pronounced dead by doctors this afternoon after arriving at a hospital in a deep coma, city and law enforcement sources told The Times.]
Not many details available, but it sounds like he was found ‘not breathing’ and rushed to hospital. UPDATE: The word is that Jackson may have been not breathing and unresponsive at the time the paramedics arrived.
He was taken to UCLA medical center. This happened 2.5 hours ago, and there are no other details available.
The best information for now is probably the LA times.