Featured Articles

Archetype Analysis - How World Of Warcraft Will Be The Greatest Sociology Tool Ever

Archetype Analysis - How World Of Warcraft Will Be The Greatest Sociology Tool Ever

Nov 03 2010 | comment(s)

1,400,000 70-dimension histogram vectors about gamer behavior.  What can you do with that?

Me?  Nothing, the math is too much but, if you can make sense of it, a lot of data is there in the ongoing online gaming phenomenon known as World of Warcraft(WoW).   Keeping track of all that data would seem to be solely the purview of computer programmers but sociologists are starting to take notice.   Some people are just goofing off and writing a book about their experiences but others see gold in 'game mining' - the insights of anthropology we can get by seeing what 10 million people do in a virtual, controlled setting over a period of years.
Not just science fiction - 3-D moving holograms get closer

Not just science fiction - 3-D moving holograms get closer

Nov 03 2010 | comment(s)

Remember the "Star Wars" scene where robotic scamp R2-D2 projects a three-dimensional image of Princess Leia trying to ask for help from Obi-Wan Kenobi?   

New 3D holographic imaging technology developed at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences is bringing it a little closer.   
Climate Effects Of Nuclear Weapons (Draft)

Climate Effects Of Nuclear Weapons (Draft)

Nov 03 2010 | comment(s)

International Environmental law and Nuclear Winter

Nearly thirty years after its introduction in the 1980s, the Nuclear Winter hypothesis has gained additional quantitative confirmation, providing a robust argument for the illegality of nuclear weapons under the Law of Armed Conflict.
Tired of arguing with climate change skeptics? A programmer wrote a chat bot to do it for him

Tired of arguing with climate change skeptics? A programmer wrote a chat bot to do it for him

Nov 03 2010 | comment(s)

Tired of hearing the same old arguments and having to try and be interesting in drafting a response?   The Twitter chatbot @AI_AGW is here to help, at least on Twitter.

Every five minutes, it searches twitter for those phrases that correspond to the usual arguments about how global warming isn't happening and then replies to the twitterer with a canned response from a database.

Nigel Leck is the programmer who created it.    Read Chris Mims at Technology Review for the details.  
Early Galaxies Reionized The Universe After The Big Bang

Early Galaxies Reionized The Universe After The Big Bang

Nov 03 2010 | comment(s)

Like our own world history, the Universe had its own cycle of events.    After the initial Big Bang (though 'Bang' is a confusing word, it may have been rather dull), there were no light sources in the Universe.
Touchscreen panic due to indium tin oxide shortage?

Touchscreen panic due to indium tin oxide shortage?

Nov 03 2010 | comment(s)

Want to get an iPad?  You don't need to go buy one today but don't wait until 2020 - with all of the hysteria about Peak Oil no one is thinking about an issue a lot more pressing, namely the shortage of indium tin oxide, which may have only have a 10 year supply remaining.

Indium is found in zinc deposits and is used to create indium tin oxide which is used to create touchscreens because it is transparent yet conducts electricity.
Who be your daddy? Boa constrictor has a 'virgin birth'

Who be your daddy? Boa constrictor has a 'virgin birth'

Nov 03 2010 | comment(s)

Asexual reproduction is common among invertebrates but rare in vertebrates, though parthenogenesis, in which an unfertilized egg develops to maturity, can occur.

Now scientists have discovered a boa constrictor that reproduces by virgin birth - read it at Livescience for the details.
Romanian communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu remains identified by DNA

Romanian communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu remains identified by DNA

Nov 03 2010 | comment(s)

DNA tests confirmed Romanian communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who ruled Romania from 1965 until he and his wife Elena were captured and shot by firing squad on Christmas Day in 1989 after fleeing mass protests in Bucharest,, was buried in a grave in Bucharest, forensic experts said on Wednesday, lifting doubt over the ruler's burial place.

Ceausescu's family had threatened to sue the Romanian state if the remains, exhumed on July 21, some 20 years after their deaths, had not belonged to the Ceausescus - ironically something Ceausescu would never have allowed when he was in power.
Genetic Irony - Sickle Cell Gene Provides Protection Against Malaria?

Genetic Irony - Sickle Cell Gene Provides Protection Against Malaria?

Nov 03 2010 | comment(s)

Haemoglobin S (HbS) is known to cause sickle cell disease and it is usually fatal if untreated so shouldn't natural selection have eliminated it?    

Instead, the sickle cell gene is common in people of African, Mediterranean and Indian origin, areas with historically high levels of malaria.    A new study says such geographical adds to the hypothesis that the gene, though deadly, avoids disappearing through natural selection by providing protection against malaria.
Will Black Raspberries Help Prevent Colon Cancer?

Will Black Raspberries Help Prevent Colon Cancer?

Nov 03 2010 | comment(s)

Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in both men and women in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute.   But since cancer is a mutation, risk factors for it can never be eliminated.   However, risk factors can be made less risky so a group of researchers built on previous research that found black raspberries have antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-neurodegenerative and anti-inflammatory properties to see if they might also help to prevent colon cancer.

Their study found that black raspberries were highly effective in preventing colorectal tumors in two mouse models of the disease.
Successful Aging - What Makes The Amish Different

Successful Aging - What Makes The Amish Different

Nov 03 2010 | comment(s)

There are three key factors associated with what gerontologists call "successful aging" - avoiding disease, maintaining physical and cognitive function, and continuing social engagement in late life.  But why do some groups clearly have those factors more than others?
Asia Has Taken Over Scientific Leadership Role From US

Asia Has Taken Over Scientific Leadership Role From US

Nov 03 2010 | comment(s)

The US is supposedly the leader in terms of scientific output. However, there is supposedly also "a threat" of losing this position. To counter this, there are suggestions such as giving out more visas to foreign scientists and engineers. Even “don’t make Americans scientists, make scientists American” passes as valid argumentation.
Eating meat is good for you - and the environment

Eating meat is good for you - and the environment

Nov 02 2010 | comment(s)

Advocates, regardless of ideology, tend to overlook junk science they like and focus their skepticisms on data that reinforces their beliefs.   Nothing typifies that better than claims that eating meat is implicated in global warming to any great extent.   No surprise, in 2006 the UN Food and Agriculture Organization repeated spurious claims that eating meat was responsible for more CO2 emissions than the entire worldwide transportation sector.
Black Market Satellite Electronics?

Black Market Satellite Electronics?

Nov 02 2010 | comment(s)

Just an anecdote for today.  With luck, my French connection will have 'the goods' for me shortly.  I will slip him payment, and 20 beauties will be mine.

Back when I fabricated my PCBs, I thought the next step was to buy the electronics.  What could go wrong?  Most components such as resistors and capacitors are ubiquitous and nearly fungible.  You can swap out manufacturers and minor specs as long as the main desired value (resistance, capacitance, etc) is fulfilled-- and as long as the part is the same form factor.  The latter means "it needs to fit onto your PCB in the holes provided."
Egyptian Book of the Dead exhibition at the British Museum

Egyptian Book of the Dead exhibition at the British Museum

Nov 02 2010 | comment(s)

What happens after death?   If you visit the British Museum this weekend, you'll see a dark, terrifying underworld populated by vigilant baboons, an Ibis god called Thoth and crocodile-headed devourers who threaten to eat the damned.
The Heavy Side

The Heavy Side

Nov 02 2010 | comment(s)


“England is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, anomalies.”
So wrote George Santayana http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Santayana in 1922.
Do mummies have a right to privacy?

Do mummies have a right to privacy?

Nov 02 2010 | comment(s)

Do mummies have a right to privacy?   David Dobbs tackles the issue of ancient remains - it's certainly topical in California, where the culturally untouchable native American demographic insists even remains 10,000 years old belong to their tribe, a progressive fissure that puts an icy chill on science, but also relevant in other cultures.
Blue Football Fields: Upping The Ante

Blue Football Fields: Upping The Ante

Nov 02 2010 | comment(s)

Boise State University's football team is smoking, and some have wondered whether their blue football field may help explain their success...so much so that, a couple months back, Oregon State painted their practice field blue to help them prepare for playing on it.

Could practicing and playing on blue really give the Broncos a leg up? It seems unlikely.
Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert lose Internet friends after Rally To Restore Sanity

Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert lose Internet friends after Rally To Restore Sanity

Nov 02 2010 | comment(s)

There was a rally last weekend and if you were on the Internet, you knew about it.   It was held by Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, who felt that the various Tea Party rallies warranted a progressive response (oddly, the many 'spontaneous' MoveOn.org rallies of 2004 and 2006 were simply democracy in action, they felt) and so it happened.  Over 200,000 people showed up, they claim.
Can The Cancer Vaccine Sipuleucel-T Sip The Hell Out Of Cancers ?

Can The Cancer Vaccine Sipuleucel-T Sip The Hell Out Of Cancers ?

Nov 02 2010 | comment(s)

Sipuleucel-T (Provenge) was the first therapeutic cancer vaccine to be approved by the FDA for Prostate cancers. Sipuleucel-T consists of Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) including Antigen presenting cells (APCs) was developed by Dendreon. The APCs that have been activated for a definite period in cell culture with recombinant protein containing Prostatic acid phosphatase (PAP) and Granuocyle macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF).