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Censorship And Deleting Comments

Censorship And Deleting Comments

Jul 29 2011 | comment(s)

I oppose any and all forms of censorship. At least so I thought.

   

(www.web-censorship.org)

   

Now, I’m not so sure anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I still honestly think I do, but I am beginning to question whether my actions corroborate this, or, in fact, disprove my words and thoughts.

Bloggers Vs. Journalists In A Cultural Death Roll

Bloggers Vs. Journalists In A Cultural Death Roll

Jul 29 2011 | comment(s)

But...but...you have to love journalists, according to journalists.  Only we hold government accountable and gotcha videos and bloggers rehashing what we come up with or they see in press releases can't be the same thing, they insist.

Well, it can, actually.  Journalists stopped being trusted guides long ago and the public caught on.   Journalists can complain about how much more vitriolic the discourse has gotten, but that's really only because the Internet has made it possible for both sides to get coverage.    

"The Miroir Des Simples âmes" Marguerite La Porete

Jul 29 2011 | comment(s)

"The miroir des simples âmes" Marguerite la Porete

The first of June 1310, in Paris, the heart of medieval culture, to the mill the Saint-Antoine, after the burning of 54 Templars sentenced for heresy, Margherite la Porète was burnt alive as heretic together with his book "The miroir des simples âmes" (the mirror of simple souls), of which the Church ordered the destruction.

‎"Le miroir des simples ames anienties et qui seulement demeurent en vouloir et desir d'amour" today represents one of the vertices of religious thought speculative, a manifesto of the nobility of the soul.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Fruit Flies

Teenage Mutant Ninja Fruit Flies

Jul 29 2011 | comment(s)


A tipping point in ethnic advertising - hail to the F(ail)

A tipping point in ethnic advertising - hail to the F(ail)

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

We've all heard that that the population of whites in the U.S. will be surpassed by non-white minorities in the not-so-distant future.1 Advertisers have adjusted to the demographic growth and shift by creating multicultural campaigns, and that's great - if you're targeting a particular group. 
But what about when we reach the tipping point, when Hispanics and Asians and African-Americans and Caucasians and all sorts of folks make up the population without one being so dominant - there's a 'general' marketplace? Do you continue to market to each ethnic group separately, or do you just make one big ad that appeals across the board? 
Big Kahuna Donut Burger coming to a state fair near you (if you live in New York state)

Big Kahuna Donut Burger coming to a state fair near you (if you live in New York state)

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

No one cares about progress and society like the New York State Fair. Check out this beast: a quarter-pound of hamburger between slices of a grilled, glazed doughnut. Throw in cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato and onion and you’ve got yourself a 1,500-calorie meal, including the major food groups, for $5.

Big Kahuna Donut Burger - I want one – at ScienceAndSupermodels.com




Talking Plant? How A Flower Communicates With Bats

Talking Plant? How A Flower Communicates With Bats

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

Just as some flowers use bright colors to attract insect pollinators, other plants may use sound to lure in nectar-eating bats.  One rain-forest vine has a dish-shaped leaf located above a cluster of flowers that appears to help bats find them (and the plant's tasty nectar) by reflecting back the calls the flying mammals send out, new research indicates. 

While there is other evidence that plants use bats' sonar systems to attract them, this is the first time scientists have shown that a plant can produce an "echo beacon" that cuts through sonic clutter of reflected echoes, and that this signal can cut a bat's search time for food in half, according to the researchers, led by Ralph Simon, a research fellow at the University of Ulm in Germany.
Your Cancer Treatment Future, Courtesy Of A Black Hole

Your Cancer Treatment Future, Courtesy Of A Black Hole

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

Heavy metals emit low-energy electrons when exposed to X-rays at specific energies, researchers  have found, which raises the possibility that implants made of gold or platinum could allow doctors to destroy tumors with low-energy electrons, while exposing healthy tissue to far less radiation than is possible today.
 
A prototype device shows that specific X-ray frequencies can free low-energy electrons from heavy-metal nanoparticles.  The researchers' computer simulations suggest that hitting a single gold or platinum atom with a small dose of X-rays at a narrow range of frequencies produces a flood of more than 20 low-energy electrons.
Trading Human Cadavers And What It Tells Us About Morality

Trading Human Cadavers And What It Tells Us About Morality

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

Sometimes how humans trade goods are as important as what is traded.    Even when it comes to trading dead humans.

Human cadavers are a legitimate market?  Sure.  Commerce in human cadavers was created centuries ago and is done now by medical schools because of the need to train future doctors in anatomy, requiring the dissection of a cadaver. Finding an adequate supply of cadavers is an ongoing challenge, one which has been answered by both academically-housed programs and by independent, for- and non-profit ventures that are not affiliated with higher education or research institutions.

And we have all seen "Frankenstein" - sometimes small business owners get involved.
Regenerative Medicine - Scientist Converts Human Skin Cells Into Functional Brain Cells

Regenerative Medicine - Scientist Converts Human Skin Cells Into Functional Brain Cells

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

Sheng Ding, PhD, has shown a new method for transforming adult skin cells into neurons that are capable of transmitting brain signals - one of the first documented experiments for transforming an adult human's skin cells into functioning brain cells.

Ding, of the Gladstone Institutes, said his work builds on the cell-reprogramming work of another Gladstone scientist, Senior Investigator Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD.  Yamanaka's 2006 discovery of a way to turn adult skin cells into cells that act like embryonic stem cells has advanced the fields of cell biology and stem-cell research.     
See A Solar Twister - 150,000 Kilometers High

See A Solar Twister - 150,000 Kilometers High

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

A NASA satellite has caught a stunning, yet eerie, video of a huge plasma twister rising up from the surface of the sun.  The video, taken by the Solar Dynamics Observatory, shows a plasma eruption that swirls up like a tornado to a dizzying height of up to 93,206 miles (150,000 kilometers) above the solar surface.

"Its height is roughly between 10 to 12 Earths," solar astrophysicist C. Alex Young of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., told SPACE.com.

Look To Squid In Hard Economic Times

Look To Squid In Hard Economic Times

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

No, I'm not suggesting that when a recession hits, you should go out and invest in squid fisheries. (But I'm not not saying that. I'm--oh, forget it.) Rather, in the words of my PhD advisor William Gilly:
Making good from bad is something that we need to learn more about, and perhaps economics theorists can learn from the strategies of the Humboldt squid.
In his latest blog post at Scientific American, Gilly tells a very curious story about how Humboldt squid in the Gulf of California responded to an "ecological recession," and how they're recovering. 
An Argument Against Basic Research? 9% Of Monkey Studies Have No Benefit

An Argument Against Basic Research? 9% Of Monkey Studies Have No Benefit

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

Most scientists and science journalists argue vehemently for basic research - and even more taxpayer money should be devoted to it, they say.   Politicians usually disagree and feel like taxpayer-funded research should have a goal or at least a defined result in its framework.
Farewell, Archaeopteryx

Farewell, Archaeopteryx

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

It's not often that paleontology makes the news. This week, however, it did - in a big way. And let me tell you, it wasn't the edgy paper on a new assemblage of South American bivalves ("Barremian Bivalves from the Huitrín Formation, West-Central Argentina: Taxonomy and Paleoecology of a Restricted Marine Association") that was all over the rolling news channels.

No; it's the news that Archaeopteryx may be knocked off its pedestal as the earliest bird in the fossil record, based on a new phylogeny by Xu et al. Archaeopteryx is now deemed to be just another deinonychosaur; probably closer to velociraptor than to birds.
O-H-oh-no: Catching My Breath In America’s Most Toxic Air?

O-H-oh-no: Catching My Breath In America’s Most Toxic Air?

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

COLUMBUS, OHIO -- After a full day in and out of airplanes and airports, there’s really nothing like stepping out of the terminal and taking your first breath of unfiltered, unconditioned, unpressurized air.  Sure, the curbside may be cluttered with exhaust fumes, and filled with the noise of honking taxi drivers, but it’s still undeniably fresh.

Too bad that last Sunday, I took that breath in the state with the worst air pollution record in the country.
Climate Data: National Sovereignty Ignored By UK Ruling

Climate Data: National Sovereignty Ignored By UK Ruling

Jul 28 2011 | comment(s)

According to a press release from Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, a UK ruling forces the release of other nations property, in this case climate data. We are talking about some legal left-overs in the so-called Climategate case where scientists were wrongfully accused of refusing to share data (national and international).
Humboldt Squid in the Atlantic? I Don't Think So.

Humboldt Squid in the Atlantic? I Don't Think So.

Jul 27 2011 | comment(s)

The famous Northwest Passage has become infamous in recent years, as Arctic sea ice coverage shrinks and leaves an open waterway between the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans. We tend to think of this in terms of what it means for human transport and drilling, but we're hardly the only fish in the sea. Are there any other species taking advantage of the chance to explore?

A Reuters article by Michael Ricciardi says Yes:
Rosa the genus for Rose has some medicinal plants also

Rosa the genus for Rose has some medicinal plants also

Jul 27 2011 | comment(s)

1. Rosa macrophylla Lindley. Family : Rosaceae Bhutanese medicinal name: Se-rgod. Common name : Taste metog Distribution Area : Temperate Himalaya, Bhutan, Sikkim, alt. 1,200-3,500m. In Bhutan found in Ha, Paro, Thimphu, Bumthang,Gasa and Mongar districts. Description : An upright shrub 3-5m, with dark red or purple stems with few prickles and with large, often solitary bright pink flower, 3-7 cm across. Petals 5, broadly obcordate; sepals long - pointed often with leafy tip, nearly as long as petals or longer, usually with glandular bristles. Leaves 8-20 cm, with 7-11 ovate elliptic, finely toothed leaflets upto 5cm or more, hairy and glandular beneath. Fruit very large upto 5 cm, red, flask shaped, with conspicuous persistent calyx, edible.
Project Nim - What Happens When You Raise A Chimp As A Human?

Project Nim - What Happens When You Raise A Chimp As A Human?

Jul 27 2011 | comment(s)

"Planet of the Apes" for real?

British film-maker James Marsh’s latest work, Project Nim, is about a 1970s experiment started in the heyday of the original "Planet of the Apes" films, a world where simians evolved and took over the planet.   

Nim was a chimp raised as a human child in order to test out the hypothesis that man and his closest relative could learn to talk to each other.    We learned more about human arrogance than simian intelligence, notes the Daily Mail.
Hobos Fill In The Missing Commandments

Hobos Fill In The Missing Commandments

Jul 27 2011 | comment(s)

P.Z. Myers of Pharyngula fame asks why something obvious wasn't in the Ten Commandments - not molesting the vulnerable, like kids.   Pretty obvious, but that is not why I link to it.  I link to it because I learned there is actually not only a 'Hobo' set of rules but an actual hobo convention every year, which seems to defy the point of being a hobo but it's still interesting and I got a little smarter knowing that.