Archive for August, 2008
August 31, 2008 at 11:20 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
The folks at ScienceDebate2008 pushed hard during the primaries to have the candidates address science policy. Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum from Scienceblogs The Intersection were among the leaders in this movement. They didn’t succeed in getting a debate then, but now with the field down to the finalists, they have received a response from Barack Obama to 14 questions culled from over 3400 submitted by the 38,000 signers of the ScienceDebate initiative (we were proud to be among them; they include nearly every major American science organization, the presidents of nearly every major American university, and dozens of Nobel laureates and top American CEOs). The questions are the product of a broad base of America’s scientists across the entire political spectrum, among them Scientists and Engineers for America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the National Academies and the Council on Competitiveness, among others.
McCain has yet [...]
Original post by revere none@example.com
August 31, 2008 at 8:17 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Photographer and Bluerailroad magazine editor Paul Zollo was riding his bicycle when he saw Kevin in the crowd and noticed him instantly. Here’s the story of how Kevin (literaly) lost his face:
I asked him what happened."Shot," he said. "Shot in theface." He motioned a gunat close range being shotdirectly into his face.
So tell me, how did it feel,after you shot yourself in theface - and you came to -and realized you were notdead?
"Agony. The worst agonyever."
Man."Yeah."
What kind of gun?"30-aught-six."
Link [Flickr] - via The Love Blog
Original post by Alex
August 31, 2008 at 8:16 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Tired of all the sugary Hallmark cards? Well, here’s something for you: Unmentionables from Luis Medina and Kathleen Orazio of Shinebox Print,
a pre-printed mini booklet of cards with cute monsters that say things you’re thinking of, but are too polite to say out loud.
Link - via The Urban Recluse
Original post by Alex
August 31, 2008 at 8:16 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Can’t wrap your mind around the Pythagorean Theorem? Perhaps it just hasn’t been explained properly to you. Well, don’t underestimate the dark side of the triangle.
Here’s Darth "Solo is a scruffy looking nerf herder" Vader explaining the Pythagorean Theorem: Link [embedded YouTube] - Thanks Erin!
Original post by Alex
August 31, 2008 at 8:15 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Dan Dan the giant panda gave birth to a teeny tiny hairless cub at the Oji Zoo in Kobe, Japan. The birth was captured on camera. The BBC has the clip: Link - Thanks Amanda!
Sadly, the cub died 3 days afterwards either from "excessively strong hugging from its mother or enfeeblement from not drinking milk."
Original post by Alex
August 31, 2008 at 8:15 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Photo: coroflot
Artist and furniture maker Sara Huston created this table with an indented space for magazines for those who to display reading materials on their coffee table but keep it neat at the same time. I suppose she takes the "everything has its place" mantra seriously! Link - via Rodrigo Barba
Original post by Alex
August 31, 2008 at 6:41 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
For my sins, I was once a public relations guy, for an educational institution, and I held positions roughly in that domain (e.g., as public communications manager for a medical research institute, although I managed the means not the message) for the bulk of my professional life until I finally took up a position as an academic philosopher four years ago. It was not my vocation, I hasten to add, but the way I supported my book habit and fondness for eating and feeding my family.
I have been asked to address a science communication class on the failure of science to communicate to the public, and that led me to reflect upon my former life in the dark side. I have come to this conclusion: the greatest tragedy of public polity, in science and without, in the democratic nations, one that looks very likely to me to be the major [...]
Original post by John S. Wilkins none@example.com
August 31, 2008 at 5:15 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
An hour and a half in the woods around little nearby lakelet Knipträsk garnered us a fine harvest of mushrooms. The last time I blogged about a shroom-picking expedition we had ten kinds. Today we had eleven, most of them hedgehogs and boletes:
Terracotta hedgehog, Rödgul taggsvamp, Hydnum rufescens
Birch bolete, Björksopp, Leccinum scabrum
King bolete, Stensopp/Karl Johan, Boletus edulis
Velvet bolete, Sandsopp, Suillus variegatus
Slippery Jack, Smörsopp, Suillus luteus
Gypsy mushroom, Rynkad tofsskivling, Rozites caperata
Common puffball, Vårtig röksvamp, Lycoperdon perlatum
Black trumpet, Svart trumpetsvamp, Craterellus cornucopioides
Shrimp russula, Sillkremla, Russula xerampelina
Red russula, Tegelkremla, Russula decolorans
Slimy spike, Citronslemskivling, Gomphidius glutinosus
A funny thing about mushrooms is that they didn’t really have names in Swedish before the dawn of mycology in the 19th century. The serious-minded and practical farmers of the past didn’t eat mushrooms and so had no reason to name individual species. With their almost negligible nutritional value, mushrooms are for pleasure only.
Author and comedian Jonas Gardell once [...]
Original post by Martin R none@example.com
August 31, 2008 at 4:18 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
A curious heifer in Cornwall got more than she bargained for when she stuck her head inside an abandoned washing machine. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals responded to a call and found the cow with the machine’s drum completely encasing her head. RSPCA inspector David Hobbs freed the animal.
Mr Hobbs said: ‘Most people hate to see fly-tipping as it is an ugly blight on the landscape, but incidents like these highlight that as well as the visual impact the rubbish can also endanger animals.
‘The heifer was probably curious to see a new item dumped in the field and curiosity would have turned to panic once she got her head stuck in the drum and was unable to get it out.
‘If people disposed of their rubbish properly many animals would be saved from injury and death.’
He added that a large proportion of the injuries the Society’s [...]
Original post by Miss Cellania
August 31, 2008 at 4:16 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
(YouTube link)
The Wrong Door is a new sketch show set in a parallel universe where the special effects you see in the movies and on TV are part of everyday life. Coming soon to BBC Three.
I’m glad they are making some of the sketches available on YouTube for those of us who cannot get BBC. -via Everlasting Blort
Original post by Miss Cellania
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