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Indian Court Says Astrology Is Science

Indian Court Says Astrology Is Science

Feb 06 2011 | comment(s)

While Americans may be concerned that China or India could take over the high end of science due to sheer numbers of graduates, culturally they are a lot less scientific.

Don't think taro cards, astrology, feng shui and reiki are science?  Too bad, the High Court in Bombay says they are - and so they are.  In India, anyway.
International Year of Chemistry 2011

International Year of Chemistry 2011

Feb 06 2011 | comment(s)

2011 is Chemistry's year, sharing its limelight with another international celebration - forests. The International Year of Chemistry (popularly abbreviated as IYC 2011) is an excellent window of opportunity for chemists, chemical educators, chemical scientists all over the globe. As the celebration involves sharing of ideas and later brainstorm them into understanding to a wider audience is already ongoing at various societies like the ACS, RSC and other related organisations. 
Who Is Today's Einstein? An Exercise In Ranking Scientists

Who Is Today's Einstein? An Exercise In Ranking Scientists

Feb 06 2011 | comment(s)

Who cites who? Science funding, tenure track appointments, all that is important to young scientists gets more and more dominated by citation analysis. This is certainly true in physics. Physics is very much a cumulative endeavor. Each physicist builds on earlier work, and therefore each new physics publication will cite the papers it builds upon. It is therefore not unreasonable to link the impact of a paper to the number of citations it attracts. 
The Headline We've All Been Waiting For

The Headline We've All Been Waiting For

Feb 06 2011 | comment(s)

Giant Squid Kill Fishermen, courtesy of Weekly World News, "The World's Only Reliable News."
Marine biologists rushed to the scene hoping to catch at least one of the squid. Dr. Luis Santiago of the Universidad Autónoma Baja California Sur explained, “We captured one of the attackers. She is female and we believe most of the pack to be female because of their size. We also believe they coordinated the attack by using pigment cells to communicate, which is very typical in a situation like this. I’m afraid we may be seeing more of these attacks in the coming years, and possibly forever."
The Great Galilean Race

The Great Galilean Race

Feb 05 2011 | comment(s)

The competitors in this racing are introduced in the previous entry about Galileos inclined plane experiments Galileo And Relativity - But More About Inclined Planes And Fun Simulations, which perhaps have not been really performed, but which we can find in museums.

Joachim Boldt faces up to 90 retractions over ethics concerns

Joachim Boldt faces up to 90 retractions over ethics concerns

Feb 05 2011 | comment(s)

German anaesthesiologist Joachim Boldt was fired last autumn from his job as head of anesthesia at the Klinikum Ludwigshafen after concerns about a 2009 paper surfaced - namely that the study was completely made up.   Boldt has published numerous articles about the safety of a type of surgical fluid replacement called hydroxyethyl starch and now concerns about his research may may mean up to 90 retractions.

See Retraction Watch.
The Amazing Adventures of Little Batman

The Amazing Adventures of Little Batman

Feb 05 2011 | comment(s)

Based on the 1966 Batman TV series, a very young Bruce Wayne takes on the famous, pint-sized villains of Gotham City.

Part 1 of 3 below.  Parts 2 and 3 at the links.   Hat tip to Internet Fount Of All Cool Stuff, Andrea Kuszewski.

How Expectations Speed Up Perception

How Expectations Speed Up Perception

Feb 05 2011 | comment(s)

The human brain works incredibly fast but visual impressions are so complex that their processing takes up to several hundred milliseconds before they enter our consciousness. 

Researchers say they know why this delay may vary in length; if you already know what you are about to see, you recognize it faster.

When the brain possesses some prior information, such as when it already knows what it is about to see, conscious recognition occurs faster.    There has been some debate about whether or not the processes leading up to conscious perception were more rigid and if their timing varied.
Hunters Versus Farmers In The Neolithic Period

Hunters Versus Farmers In The Neolithic Period

Feb 05 2011 | comment(s)

Between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago, the first farmers from Asia were already cultivating land in what is now Greece, according to archaeological remains, but in places like the United Kingdom, Denmark and Northern Germany farming did not happen until around 3,000 years later.

One of the most significant socioeconomic changes in the history of humanity started taking place around 10,000 years ago, when the Near East went from an economy based on hunting and gathering (Mesolithic) to another kind on agriculture (Neolithic) and farming rapidly entered the Balkan Peninsula and then advanced gradually throughout the rest of Europe.
The Ultimate Valentine's Day Toolkit

The Ultimate Valentine's Day Toolkit

Feb 05 2011 | comment(s)

Believe it or not, I’m rarely accused of being a romantic. I know, I know — baffling! And this even after I brought home Thai food for our anniversary.

Okay, I forgot the anniversary. But a couple days later when I brought home Thai food, boy was my wife surprised! Okay, okay, I didn’t actually *bring home* Thai food, because, you know, I was walking home from the park with the kids in the double stroller and by the time I got home it would’ve been cold…yadda, yadda, yadda.
45

45

Feb 05 2011 | comment(s)

Today I turn 45 years of age.

Overall, physically I do not feel much different from, say, 15 years ago. I consider myself lucky, since I am generally in good health. Never have I had to sleep in a hospital bed, not a single night. I will spare you a list of all the minor health problems I had in my life, but the list would be very short anyway.

Yet I know this is bound to change. 45 years of age is roughly the time when some of our physical faculties start to decline at a faster rate than in the previous 20 years. One of the sharpest changes which occurs at this age in most individuals is the loss of focusing ability at short distance: presbyopia, a loss of elasticity of the crystalline. I am just now starting to detect the first signs of that condition.
Cirrus Clouds On...Titan?

Cirrus Clouds On...Titan?

Feb 05 2011 | comment(s)

Sure, Los Angeles has a terrible smog issue but it could be worse; movie stars could live on Titan.  Titan, Saturn's largest moon, looks like a dirty orange ball but the actual composition is more like crude oil without the sulfur.  Titan's haze is made of tiny droplets of hydrocarbons with other, more noxious chemicals mixed in. 

But as nasty as that sounds, Titan is the only moon in our solar system with an atmosphere worthy of a planet at all.  At least it has lightning, drizzle and occasionally a big, summer-downpour style of cloud made of methane or ethane, hydrocarbons best known for their role in natural gas.
RIPs Alive And Well - Jumping Genes Captured In The Human Genome

RIPs Alive And Well - Jumping Genes Captured In The Human Genome

Feb 05 2011 | comment(s)

The search for actively 'jumping' genes in humans has found new evidence that the genome contains numerous pesky mobile elements that may help to explain why people have such a variety of physical traits and disease risks. 

Using bioinformatics, the study in Genome Research set out to compare the standard assembly of genetic elements as outlined in the reference human genome to raw whole-genome data from 310 individuals recently made available by the 1000 Genomes Project, the team found 1,016 new insertions of retrotransposon insertion polymorphisms (RIPs), expanding the catalog of insertions that are present in some individuals and absent in others. 
How The Brain Knows What The Nose Knows

How The Brain Knows What The Nose Knows

Feb 05 2011 | comment(s)

Mice have a healthy concept of fear and so they fear the scent of a predator.   While it seems obvious that brains quickly figure out with a sniff that a predator, like a cat, is nearby, the mechanism is not well understood.

In a Nature study, researchers describe a new technique that makes it possible to map long-distance nerve connections in the brain. The scientists used the technique to map for the first time the path that the scent signals take from the olfactory bulb, the part of the brain that first receives signals from odor receptors in the nose, to higher centers of the mouse brain where the processing is done. 
Who Is Stalking You On Facebook? Who Is Your Biggest Fan?

Who Is Stalking You On Facebook? Who Is Your Biggest Fan?

Feb 05 2011 | comment(s)

Facebook has always been plagued with privacy issues, such as revealing to third parties personal information which may be used to sell you goods and services.  While to some, this may seem like an invasion, I like it when people try to sell me things, and I have no problem saying no.  However, there is a far more insidious algorithm embedded in facebook.  By a few refreshes and a few clicks, you can easily see who has most recently been looking at your facebook profile, down to a timeframe of 36 hours, as well as who your overall top stalkers are.  Of course, they may not be exactly stalking you, but they are watching you. 
A Proposal For The District Community Jury Style Bank

A Proposal For The District Community Jury Style Bank

Feb 05 2011 | comment(s)


A Proposal for the District Community Jury Style Bank:

 

Executive Summary:

A Jury Style Bank would be a wholly innovative form of banking and community development which can expand the formal banking system while also increasing the community’s financial literacy and human capital.  Furthermore, economic development funds are recycled, and actual funds injected into the community would far exceed the seed money.  Establishing such an institution in Chinatown would result in a vast inflow of capital from China if the institution is also structured in a way to help facilitate EB-5 visas for High Net Worth foreign investors.

The Stopwatch Test & Productivity

The Stopwatch Test & Productivity

Feb 04 2011 | comment(s)

How much actual on-task work do you do on a typically work day? The myth is everyone produces 8 hours of useful, targetted work in an 8.5 hour work day (with unpaid lunch). Staying in the office extra hours, likewise, produces more useful work. I suggest you should measure this for yourself. Here's how to find out-- but you may want to hold off telling your boss quite yet.

As a freelancer, I have no salary or set work hours. I bill only for time spent on task. I use an electronic timer-- a stopwatch, really-- to track my time. Starting on a task? Timer on. Pause to check personal email or Facebook? Timer off. Back to task? Timer on.

Galileo And Relativity - But More About Inclined Planes And Fun Simulations.

Galileo And Relativity - But More About Inclined Planes And Fun Simulations.

Feb 04 2011 | comment(s)

Talking about relativity one should not forget Galileo's great contributions to - or perhaps in fact foundations of - physics. But more fun are Galileos researches on falling bodies and motion of projectiles, all mainly carried out by either real or Gedanken-experiments, the historians are not quite sure there.

But these Galileo experiments have been realized later and are both on YouTube and in Italian museums. 

Here is a schematic picture, the rolling ball will produce regular bell sounds.

Fast-Tint Protective Eyewear - Much Cooler Than It Sounds

Fast-Tint Protective Eyewear - Much Cooler Than It Sounds

Feb 04 2011 | comment(s)

In case you don't know it, the Navy is not the 1970s "Village People" branch of the military.  These guys do some cool stuff and are making even cooler toys to do it with.

Want to find future tech for megawatt-class laser beams in next-generation weapon systems?  The Navy.   Want to go completely science fiction and find work on a railgun with a projectile that rides an electromagnetic current to its target?  The Navy.
Making Capital out of Ignorance

Making Capital out of Ignorance

Feb 04 2011 | comment(s)

A section of the people .... made capital out of their own ignorance.

When I read this I immediately thought of a certain British commentator who denies the anthropogenic contribution to climate change and has attracted a large following.