Archive for September, 2009
September 30, 2009 at 11:37 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
In the United States, a substantial portion of biomedical research is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH currently provides more than $30.5 billion to researchers at universities and medical schools. Today President Obama announced an dditional aallocation of $5 billion in stimulus money. According to President Obama:
We know that this kind of investment will also lead to new jobs: tens of thousands of jobs conducting research, manufacturing and supplying medical equipment, and building and modernizing laboratories and research facilities. I’ve long said, the goal of the Recovery Act was not to create make-work jobs, but jobs making a difference for our future. There is no better example than the jobs we will produce or preserve through the grants we are announcing this morning.
While the NIH certainly receives a fair amount of press and I hope that this additional funding will help stimulate the economy, [...]
Original post by Isis the Scientist none@example.com
September 30, 2009 at 11:10 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
This week, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting released a report on best practices in digital journalism that I co-authored with several colleagues here at American University and the Center for Social Media. Titled Scan and Analysis of Best Practices in Digital Journalism In and Outside U.S. Public Broadcasting, the report was commissioned by CPB as part of the organization’s planning for future directions in online reporting and media. In keeping with CPB’s mission, the report has a strong emphasis on strategies for using digital journalism to promote civic engagement, public participation, and diverse community connections.
Though the report is focused on journalism generally, each of the recommendations also applies to media projects in the areas of science, environmental, and health journalism. In fact, several of the examples that represent emerging best practices are drawn from these areas including a focus on Yale Environment 360 and Seed Media Group’s Scienceblogs portal.
The [...]
Original post by Matthew C. Nisbet none@example.com
September 30, 2009 at 9:32 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
120 little people live in a village near Kunming, China. The village was set up to protect the dwarves from discrimination. You can’t live there if you are over 4 feet 3 inches tall.
Now the group has turned itself into a tourist attraction by building mushroom houses and living and dressing like fairy tale characters.
“As small people we are used to being pushed around and exploited by big people. But here there aren’t any big people and everything we do is for us,” said spokesman Fu Tien.
You have to wonder if there are exceptions to the community rules for normal sized children of the current residents when they pass the height limit. Link
Original post by Miss Cellania
September 30, 2009 at 9:31 pm · Filed under 25086
(Video Link)
Zach Gage says that he created the free video game Lose/Lose to make people question their ethical assumptions. The game is similar to Space Invaders, but every time you kill an alien, the game deletes a randomly-selected file from your hard drive:
Lose/Lose is a video-game with real life consequences. Each alien in the game is created based on a random file on the players computer. If the player kills the alien, the file it is based on is deleted. If the players ship is destroyed, the application itself is deleted. Although touching aliens will cause the player to lose the game, and killing aliens awards points, the aliens will never actually fire at the player. This calls into question the player’s mission, which is never explicitly stated, only hinted at through classic game mechanics. Is the player supposed to be an aggressor? Or merely an observer, traversing through [...]
Original post by John Farrier
September 30, 2009 at 9:14 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Alan was buried by his family in the most dignified manner possible: inside a 1990s-era SPARCstation CPU case inscribed with his name, the years of his life, and the phrase “Beam me up Scotty, I’m done here.” Those who attended the funeral said goodbye to Alan in a way fitting for the cubicle lifestyle:
His friends and family were able to leave their final good-byes on post-notes. Anyone who wanted to keep their words private could just slip their note into the case through the floppy slot. All notes will be sealed in plastic and placed within the case. There has been one complication. His daughters like the look of it so much they aren’t now sure if they want to bury him.
Link via Gizmodo | Image: flickr user sam 3.14
Original post by John Farrier
September 30, 2009 at 9:07 pm · Filed under 25074
A skunk named Mr. Bumble was turned over to the RSPCA when his owners could no longer handle him. The skunk, who loves bacon sandwiches, weighed in at 14 pounds! Mr. Bumble is now at Tropiquaria Animal Park in Watchet, England and is on a weight-loss regimen.
Park owner Chris Noisier told the BBC: “We’re now working on dieting him down to what he should be and clearly bacon butties are not a normal part of a skunk’s diet in the wild.
“We’re putting him on the vegetarian option at the moment. It’s very much like a human weight watching issue.
“He is getting to meet lots of new people so there’s lots going on in his life and I suspect it’s making up for the lack of his old favourite food.”
Link -via Buzzfeed
Original post by Miss Cellania
September 30, 2009 at 9:02 pm · Filed under 25068
Many of you saw the pictures I posted Monday of colliding galaxy clusters. These pictures were spectacular, because they not only show galaxy clusters less than 200 million years after a collision (which is short, cosmically), they also show where the mass lies (traced in blue) and where the X-ray emitting areas are (pink). You get pictures like this one from the Bullet Cluster:
This one from MACS J0025:
And this one from Abell 520:
This is what happens when clusters collide, the normal matter gets separated from the dark matter! Let’s tell you how.
Some normal matter is packed together in tight, dense little clumps. Good examples of this are stars and galaxies. When you run two large clusters (spanning millions of light years) into each other, these little clumps hardly ever hit each other, and move with a lot of momentum. What does this mean? [...]
Original post by Ethan Siegel none@example.com
September 30, 2009 at 9:00 pm · Filed under 25076
Photo: Design Boom
The Breakfast Machine is an art installation by Yuri Suzuki and Masa Kimura that makes a full breakfast for users through an elaborate series of Rube Goldberg-like devices. Pictured above is the section that prepares orange juice from scratch. It was featured at the Dutch Design Double design fair in Amsterdam. Video (in Dutch) at the link.
Link via GearFuse | Yuri Suzuki’s Website
Original post by John Farrier
September 30, 2009 at 8:23 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
“Parting Seas” by Adam Lau
If you’re going to be in the San Diego area between now and November 1st, be sure to stop by the Lyceum Theater Gallery and see the winners of this year’s global contest. From My Modern Met’s Alice:
The competition was judged by Charlotte Cotton, the Curator and Head of the Photography Department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Now in its fifth year, Ms. Cotton narrowed down the exhibition to 111 stunning images from over 16,000 photographs she received (from 57 countries).
Link to site with slideshow. Credits of slideshow
See also 10 Stunning Photos From The Art Of Photography Show on MyModernMet
Original post by Johnny Cat
September 30, 2009 at 8:22 pm · Filed under 25070
In theory I like solar power a lot. There’s a lot to be said for energy that falls from the sky for free for as long as we care to use it. But actually getting that energy to do useful work in an economical way. Solar panels are expensive and not terribly environmentally friendly to produce, and sunlight is only available during the day and only to the extent that the sky is clear. Getting energy to use during less sunny periods requires either lots of excess capacity during the day along with storage facilities, or alternate generation methods. The first is wildly uneconomical, the second at least partially defeats the purpose.
Still, it’s not a bad technology and with time it’s likely to become more and more practical at least for areas with high insolation. (Insolation being the snazzy word for the solar power [...]
Original post by Matt Springer none@example.com
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