Debate! Open Access for the Public

Go to Mimi’s place and state your position:

For a long time, if you wanted to read up on science news or get background information for research, you had to hope that the media got it right, have a subscription to a few journals ( there are thousands though, so you are missing out), or be lucky enough to work at an institute/organization that gives you access to journals online and has a few (hundred) bound copies. Before legislation was passed to make NIH funded research available to the public after a year, no one really knew what was going on in the world of research and development.
This sounds great for some, but for scientists and certain publishing houses, this is a topic of much contention. In fact, OA was in recent legislation again! So I guess the question up for discussion this week is…do you think research should be made available to the public for free or is this going to destroy tiny publishing houses and let the big ones float? How will this affect genetics testing and privacy of subjects? How do you feel about open access?

My picks from ScienceDaily

Formula Discovered For Longer Plant Life:

Molecular biologists from Tuebingen, Germany, have discovered how the growth of leaves and the aging process of plants are coordinated.

Human Or Animal Faces Associated With At Least 90 Percent Of Cars By One-third Of Population:

Do people attribute certain personality traits or emotions to car fronts? If so, could this have implications for driving and pedestrian behavior? Truls Thorstensen (EFS Consulting Vienna), Karl Grammer (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Urban Ethology) and other researchers at the University of Vienna joined economic interest with evolutionary psychology to answer these questions.

Republican And Democratic Values Compared:

From Barack Obama’s controversial pastor to Sarah Palin’s “secret religion”, religious values have continued to play a dominant role in the presidential election since John F. Kennedy became the first Catholic elected to president in 1960. Hoping to answer the question of which political party has a monopoly on the “best” values and how religion affects these values, Kennon Sheldon, a University of Missouri professor, compared the “extrinsic” values (financial success, status, appearance) with “intrinsic” values (growth, intimacy, helping) of self-declared Democrats and Republicans in four different samples.

Facebook Profiles Can Be Used To Detect Narcissism:

A new University of Georgia study suggests that online social networking sites such as Facebook might be useful tools for detecting whether someone is a narcissist.

Letterman tonight

Regressives

RegressivesAn oldie (March 28, 2005) but goodie, bound to stir up the comment section……….

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Today’s carnivals

Four Stone Hearth #50 is up on Yann Klimentidis’ Weblog
Carnival of Feminists #65 is up on Green Gabbro
Grand Rounds 5.1 – 5th Year Anniversary Edition – are up on Revolution Health
74th Edition of Carnival of the Liberals is up on XXBN Radio
Carnival of Education #190 is up on Steve Spangler’s blog
The 143rd Carnival of Homeschooling is up on A Pondering Heart

ConvergeSouth program change

Since BlogHer cancelled several parts of their Fall Tour, including the one in Greensboro, this does not mean that you go home on Friday night after ConvergeSouth as there WILL be a Saturday program, says Sue.

Science beyond individual understanding?

Michael Nielsen wrote another long thought-provoking essay (for his book, I guess):

…………Two clarifications are in order. First, when I say that these are examples of scientific facts beyond individual understanding, I’m not saying a single person can’t understand the meaning of the facts. Understanding what the Higgs particle is requires several years hard work, but there are many people in the world who’ve done this work and who have a solid grasp of what the Higgs is. I’m talking about a deeper type of understanding, the understanding that comes from understanding the justification of the facts.
Second, I don’t mean that to understand something you need to have mastered all the rote details. If we require that kind of mastery, then there’s no one person who understands the human genome, for certainly no-one has memorized the entire DNA sequence. But there are people who understand deeply all the techniques used to determine the human genome; all that is missing from their understanding is the rote work identifying all the DNA base pairs. The examples of the LHC and the classification of the finite simple groups go beyond this, for in both cases there are many distinct deep ideas involved, too many to be mastered by any single person. …………..
……………..Such scientific discoveries raise challenging issues. How do we know whether they’re right or wrong? The traditional process of peer review and the criterion of reproducibility work well when experiments are cheap, and one scientist can explain to another what was done. But they don’t work so well as experiments get more expensive, when no one person fully understands how an experiment was done, and when experiments and their analyses involve reams of data or ideas.
Might we one day find ourselves in a situation like in a free market where systematic misunderstandings can infect our collective conclusions? How can we be sure the results of large-scale collaborations or computing projects are reliable? Are there results from this kind of science that are already widely believed, maybe even influencing public policy, but are, in fact, wrong?

Discuss…..

Creating an Open Forum to Advance Global Health and Social Justice

At Harvard, a week ago:
Recap: Wednesday’s Health and Human Rights Discussion

Yesterday afternoon at the Loeb Theater, Harvard hosted a forum celebrating the tenth edition of their journal Health and Human Rights. This edition is the journal’s first to be presented in open-access format, meaning that anyone can read it without paying the exorbitant fees associated with most journal articles. Bostonist was in the front row as Agnes Binagwaho, Gavin Yamey, Philip Alston, and Paul Farmer (profiled as “a man who would cure the world” by Tracy Kidder) discussed the past, present, and future of global health policy.
The most compelling aspect of the discussion dealt with the dilemmas faced by doctors worldwide, and particularly in areas like sub-Saharan Africa, in instituting the best practices for treating AIDS and other serious outbreaks. Most hospitals have extremely tight budgets, forcing them to rely on free (and sometimes factually incorrect) abstracts of published research, rather than the expensive full papers. This can cause trouble: Yamey noted that one South African hospital worsened its AIDS treatment program because of erroneous information contained in the abstract of a journal article. Yamey went on to say, “removing access barriers will… share the learning of the rich with the poor and the poor with the rich.” This sentiment was echoed by Binagwaho, who heads up the effort to combat AIDS in Rwanda, and noted that increased Internet availability combined with open-access publication will enable rapid implementation of new treatment techniques at the community level.

Making the case for the right to health

Dr. Binagwaho reflected on the irony of research done in developing countries that is never available to the study subjects, and she applauded efforts like PLoS and HHR Journal for working to promote access to a wider audience. In addition, she stressed the need for intellectual exchange. She saw these discussions as “necessary to make the best decisions.” Citing the example of GHDonline.org, she told of the value for herself and others in executive positions to bounce ideas off of each other (for example, should children of HIV-positive parents undergo mandatory testing?) and also the value gained by including field workers in the conversation. “People at the community level may not have the theories, but they have the knowledge,” she said. Finally, she outlined that the sum of these efforts, of fighting for access to health, information, and education, is to eliminate poverty.
Dr. Yamey focused on the need to change the way we look at medical publications. He points out that information is so expensive to access that patients, and many doctors and researchers, can simply not afford to survey the literature and make fully informed decisions. “Only a tiny fraction of the intended audience can read a work. This paradigm is wrong — medical research should be a global public good.” The consequences of the current model are hazardous: often, doctors and patients are forced to rely on abstracts, which convey “dangerous half-truths.” Also, because researchers in the global south often have less access to literature than their counterparts in the north, a dynamic of inequality is introduced in their interactions. The world would benefit from a “knowledge commons,” which would better allow research and practice efforts to “build on the shoulders of giants.” Dr. Yamey was instrumental in getting the journal online in an open access format, and he applauded the journal’s new format.

North Carolina?

Last week, Charlotte NC got to see Joe Biden, Michelle Obama and Barack Obama on three separate occasions. The TV (so they tell me) is full of campaign ads by both Obama and McCain. Now, Obama and Biden are appearing together in Greensboro on Saturday. The campaign has been really busy locally, organizing the feet on the ground.
Does this mean that NC is a surprising swing state of 2008? If NC is indicative of any kind of trend and it goes blue, a dozen other red states will go blue as well.
Or perhaps this is the way for Obama to utilize his money advantage and force McCain to spend money defending a red state instead of advertising where it really counts? The whole McCain stunt about “suspension” of the campaign and delay of the debate effort has, among other factors, a goal to provide advantage for McCain to save up some money by forcing Obama to stop out-advertising him for a few days. Especially now that the polls have gone really downhill for McCain.
Thoughts?

Will this break my blog?

Here:

Apparently not – it won’t embed so check it out at the link above…

ScienceOnline09 – how can you help?

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As the conference has grown from one to almost three days, and already more then 90 people have registered, we need your help – so offer to volunteer. What can you do?
* Spread the word: use online and offline tools to tell your friends about the conference
* Ask your company/organization to become a sponsor
* Donate a small amount of money
* Help us develop the Program and offer to lead a session
* Volunteer to collect and pack swag
* Volunteer to drive the out-of-town guests during the conference
* Volunteer to spend some time at the desk at the entrance, distributing name-tags, helping people get oriented….
* Some other way — tell us by editing this wiki page.

My picks from ScienceDaily

Under the fold….

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The Perils of Ideological Continua and Coordinate Systems

The Perils of Ideological Continua and Coordinate SystemsThis post (from January 14, 2005) is how I see the political/ideological landscape in the USA.

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Clock Quotes

Since time is the one immaterial object which we cannot influence – neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish – it is an imponderably valuable gift.
– Maya Angelou

What ‘Bout Them Libertarians?

What 'Bout Them Libertahrians?This is an old anti-Libertarian screed (from December 2004) that is bound to attract trolls (and traffic)….

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New and Exciting in PLoS ONE

There are 9 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. Here are my own picks for the week – you go and look for your own favourites:

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ScienceOnline09 – how do you keep up with us?

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During the months of preparation, as well as during the event itself, your starting point, for sure, is the ScienceOnline’09 wiki – you can always check the “Recent Changes” button, or watch as the Blog and Media Coverage page grows.
You can also check the news on the ScienceOnline09 blog.
You can come here and check the posts in my SO’09 category.
You can join the Facebook Event and watch the wall there (and invite your friends there as well).
Or you can join the FriendFeed room and discuss the event there.

Congratulations to danah boyd!

danah boyd was hired by Microsoft, where she will have freedom to continue her research on online social networks at Microsoft Research New England in Boston. Congrats, danah!

Today is OneWebDay

OneWebDay is….

….an Earth Day for the internet. The idea behind OneWebDay is to focus attention on a key internet value (this year, online participation in democracy), focus attention on local internet concerns (connectivity, censorship, individual skills), and create a global constituency that cares about protecting and defending the internet. So, think of OneWebDay as an environmental movement for the Internet ecosystem. It’s a platform for people to educate and activate others about issues that are important for the Internet’s future.

There will be events organized around the world, including in Belgrade, Serbia and Greensboro, NC.

Femiphobia and Race

Femiphobia and RaceThis provocative stream-of-consciousness post was first posted on April 17, 2005.

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Clock Quotes

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the self-same well from which your laughter rises was often-times filled with your tears.
– Rene Descartes

Two old posts about Hillary Clinton

Lefty Blogosphere and the Love/Hate of HillaryI wrote this on January 28, 2006. Was I wrong then? Is that wrong now? Have things changed in the meantime?
Lefty Blogosphere and the Love/Hate of Hillary

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New and Exciting in PLoS today

So, let’s see what’s new in PLoS Medicine, PLoS Biology and PLoS ONE today.
First, my SciBlings Shelley, Nick and Tara just published a PLoS Biology article about science blogs:
Advancing Science through Conversations: Bridging the Gap between Blogs and the Academy:

Scientific discovery occurs in the lab one experiment at a time, but science itself moves forward based on a series of ongoing conversations, from a Nobel Prize winner’s acceptance speech to collegial chats at a pub. When these conversations flow into the mainstream, they nurture the development of an informed public who understand the value of funding basic research and making evidence-based voting decisions. It is in the interests of scientists and academic institutions alike to bring these conversations into the public sphere.

DrugMonkey, John Wilkins, Razib, Nick, Tara, Chad, Mo, Sheril, Dave, Blake, John Dennehy, Larry, Carlo Artieri, Thomas and Brian have more. I expect a lot of other science bloggers to write about this article, of course.
Another blogger, Pamela Ronald, also published today in PLoS Biology:
Rice XB15, a Protein Phosphatase 2C, Negatively Regulates Cell Death and XA21-Mediated Innate Immunity:

Resistance to pathogens is critical to plant and animal survival. Plants, unlike animals, lack an adaptive immune system and instead rely on the innate immune response to protect against infection. To elucidate the molecular mechanism of plant innate immunity, we are studying the signaling cascade mediated by the rice pathogen recognition receptor kinase XA21, which confers resistance to the bacterial pathogen Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae. We demonstrate that XA21 binding protein 15 (a protein phosphatase 2C) negatively regulates XA21-mediated signaling resistance. This finding provides significant insight into regulation of receptor kinase-mediated immunity.

Then, there is other interesting stuff:

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My picks from ScienceDaily

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Blogrolling – Letter F

Continuing with asking for your help in fixing my Blogroll:

Every couple of days or so, I will post here a list of blogs that start with a particular letter, and you add in the comments if you know of something that is missing from that list.

See so far:
Numbers and Symbols
A
B
C
D
E
Today brought to you by letter C. This is what is on the Blogroll right now. Check also the Housekeeeping posts for other C blogs I have discovered in the meantime. Check links. Tell me what to delete, what to add:

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Today’s carnivals

Carnival of Space #71 is up on dot astronomy
Carnival of the Green # 146 is up on The Green Guy

ScienceOnline’09 – be a sponsor

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Are you or your company/organization in a position to sponsor the conference? It is organized and run by volunteers, registration is free, but putting this together still takes some money and effort. For this, we rely on our sponsors and volunteers.
There are several ways that you can sponsor the event:
Provide a grant
Cash grants provide us funds to pay for discussion leaders’ travel and lodging, travel grants for students, tote bags and t-shirts (see below), wifi tech support, meals and refreshments, meeting supplies and more.
Publicity
Display ads placed in your magazine or newsletter, on your blog or through your network help us to spread the word about the conference.
Swag for the grab bag
Your donation of magazines, books, DVDs and other scientific reference materials will fill the tote bags that we will give to all attendees. Why give away dead-tree materials at a conference about science online? Because we want our attendees to take these materials back to the classrooms, libraries and living rooms in their communities.
Participate
Your attendance at the conference adds to the wonderful gathering of smart, talented, interesting people. We know we have a lot to learn from you, so please plan to attend the conference. And help us build the Conference Program.
All our sponsors get the satisfaction of supporting an event that promotes the public understanding of science. You also get our link-love — we’ll plaster your logo on the conference wiki and materials and link to you from our many blogs.
If you want to help, sign up here.

Open Laboratory 2008 – submissions so far

The Open Laboratory 2008 is in the works. The submissions have been trickling in all year, but it is time now to dig through your Archives for your best posts since December 20th 2007 and submit them. Submit one, or two, or several – no problem. Or ask your readers to submit for you.
Then take a look at your favourite bloggers and pick some of their best posts – don’t worry, we can deal with duplicate entries. Do not forget new and up-coming blogs – they may not know about the anthology – and submit their stuff as well.
As we did last year, we encourage you to also send in original poems and cartoons.
Keep in mind that the posts will be printed in a book! A post that relies heavily on links, long quotes, copyrighted pictures, movies, etc., will not translate well into print.
The deadline is December 1st, 2008.
Below are submissions so far. Check them out and get inspired. If you see that one of your posts is at an old URL and you have since moved, re-submit with the new URL (perhaps re-post it if necessary):

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I Want Bigger Government!

I Want Bigger Government!An oldie but goodie for the connoisseurs of my long political rants (May 11, 2005):

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Clock Quotes

Remember how long thou hast been putting off these things, and how often thou hast received an opportunity from the gods, and yet dost not use it. Thou must now at last perceive of what universe thou art a part, and of what administrator of the universe thy existence is an efflux, and that a limit of time is fixed for thee, which if thou dost not use for clearing away the clouds from thy mind, it will go and thou wilt go, and it will never return.
– Marcus Aurelius

BlogOpen-South East, regional friendly and professional meeting of bloggers

Danica announced:

The third BlogOpen: meeting of all the participants in blogosphere (from authors, readers, IT workers to mainstream media) will happen on October 4-5 in in Bor, Brestovacka banja, Serbia. Main goals of this public meeting are:
1. Discussion about the topics and problems characteristic of this manner of public communication;
2. Realization of virtual communication in real, public space;
3. Calling wider public’s attention to this mode of authors’ presence and to the importance of an information society;
4. Promotion of an information society, electronic communication and the role of Internet as a source of information, educative tool, interpersonal networking and fostering of democracy;
5. Making notice of the most significant and most successful blogging authors and their impact as creators of public opinion and as sources of information.
More about BlogOpen in English and some valuable information – on this page, the list of speakers is here, and the program. I’m inviting all of you who are interested in these topics to join us as this will be great opportunity to participate and discuss different range of current burning issues, as well as to brainstorm and contribute in some solutions not only in local/world wide blogosphere but in social media and alternative education processes. You can register here. If you are not able to come, I’ll twitter from the conference some interesting points and thoughts.

Help Biology teachers use blogs in the classroom

Miss Hoffman is using her blog for the second year in a row – she would like to see some guest-posts.
Miss Baker can use some of your help:

I would be excited to see scientists contribute to student-run science blogs! They could comment to student posts or submit their own post and converse with students. A conversation could continue with a video conference or an actual visit to the school. My students work so hard on their blog and would benefit greatly from input from scientists.

Perhaps we can get some of the science teachers with experience in using blogs in classrooms to bring their students to talk to us at the ScienceOnline’09 in January.

Two Americas: Past, Present and Future

Two Americas: Past, Present and FutureThis post from November 26, 2004 was my fourth (out of five), and longest, analysis of the 2004 election. With Balkans and Creationism sprinkled in. How did it stand the test of time over the past 3.5 years?

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My picks from ScienceDaily

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Dr. Mom, a book review in The Scientist

A new book explores the challenges of balancing motherhood and a career in science:

Editor Emily Monosson has collected the voices and personal stories of 34 mother-scientists working in various fields. In eloquent and often witty essays, these women directly address the challenges of being mothers in the scientific workforce.
——————
Essays in the book are arranged chronologically, according to the date by which the writer’s PhD was conferred. The book opens with scientists who received their PhDs in the 1970s, and marches onward through the 80s and 90s, ending with the voices of women who are in graduate school today. In this way, the book tracks the sweeping social changes of the past thirty years. Despite the great influx of women into science careers over the last decade, it is sobering to read that conflicts between work and family have not changed. Indeed, some of the essays in the last section read as though they could have been written decades ago.
——————
It is often said that motherhood is not for the faint of heart. The same could be said for a career in science. The debate over what causes the leaky pipeline, and remedies to address it, rages on. The pace of institutional and cultural change can seem glacial. In the mean-time, scientists who are also mothers can find support by sharing their stories with one another. Monosson’s book provides a valuable medium for doing so. As one woman writes in the opening pages of Motherhood: “In the final analysis, every woman finds her own way. It’s just good to know that none of us is alone.”

Read the whole thing (you have to log in, but the registration is free).

Amy Harmon answers reader questions

Amy Harmon, a national correspondent covering the impact of science and technology on American life, answered questions from readers Sept. 15-19.:
Talk to the Newsroom: Amy Harmon:

Ms. Harmon, who won a Pulitzer Prize this year for her series, “The DNA Age,” is part of a team of national reporters that focus thematically on contemporary social issues. She is interested in all the ways science and technology shape how we live. Her DNA series examines how ordinary people (including herself) are dealing with new genetic technologies that reveal perhaps more than we were ever prepared to learn about who we are, what diseases may be headed our way and what kind of children we are likely to have.
Recently, Ms. Harmon has begun to explore the tension between science and religion in America. She wrote last month about a high school teacher in Florida trying to teach evolution to students raised to believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible.
And if you are not a physicist but actually care about the Large Hadron Collider (the Higgs boson part, not the black holes!) she’s interested in hearing why.

Now read the whole thing – some very interesting questions and answers!
[Hat-tip]

Science, Art, Education, Communication

The September 2007 issue of JCOM – Journal of Science Communication – (issue 3, volume 7) is online.: Next issue will be online on the 18th December 2008. There are several articles in this issue that I find interesting and bloggable.
Contents:

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A non-biological biological clock

cricket%20clock.jpgA clock is supposed to tell time. Furthermore, it is supposed to do it accurately and precisely. These days, it is not too difficult to build a mechanical, quartz, digital or atomic clock that is marvelously accurate and precise. But if a clock is not so good, it will have a systematic error, i.e., it will go slightly too fast OR slightly too slow and will, over time, get seriously inaccurate.
On the other hand, a biological clock is messy – it relies on ineractions between molecules. Thus, it will display occasional fluctuations – getting a little bit ahead at one point, a little bit behind at another. But, in the long run, a biological clock is self-correcting and will remain accurate for the entire duration of life of the organism.
This kind of clock – imprecise at short timescales but accurate at long time-scales – is much more difficult for human engineers to design. But someone has just done that!
Now, it appears that the motivation for building such a clock was not to emulate biology, but more of an artistic quirk, a way to do something that grabs the media attention, but it worked. You can see the mechanism of the Escapement here and watch a movie here (for some strange reason, they are hogging the movie for themselves and not providing an embed code).
The designer explains his motivation:

Most clocks just tell time, simply and reliably. Not the $1.8 million “time eater” formally unveiled Friday at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge.
The masterpiece, introduced by famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking, challenges all preconceptions about telling time. It has no hands or digital numbers and it is specially designed to run in erratic fashion, slowing down and speeding up from time to time.
—————————–
Rather than having it toll the hour by a bell or a cuckoo, the clock relies on the clanking of a chain that falls into a coffin, which then loudly bangs closed.
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The clock, four feet in diameter, displays time using light-emitting diodes. The light races around the outer ring once every second, pausing briefly at the actual second; the next ring inside indicates the minute, and the inner ring shows the hour.
The lights are constantly on, the apparent motion regulated mechanically through slots in moving discs.
Weirdly, the clock’s pendulum slows down or speeds up. Sometimes it stops, the chronophage shakes a foot and the pendulum moves again.
Because of that, the time display may be as much as a minute off, although it swings back to the correct time every five minutes, said Taylor.

ScienceOnline’09 – Wow! Again.

Just six days after we opened registration for ScienceOnline’09 there are already 52 registrants!
And some more people are blogging about it:
49 percent: Random
Biochemicalsoul: Science Blogging Conference in Research Triangle Park, NC!
Catalogue of Organisms: Open Lab 2008
Deep Sea News: Science Online ’09
PODelation: Science Blogs
Lecturer Notes: ScienceOnline’09
Flying Trilobite: ScienceOnline’09

Pictures from the Zoo, part IV

Under the fold….

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Pictures from the Zoo, part III

Under the fold….

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Pictures from the Zoo, part II

Under the fold….

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Pictures from the Zoo, part I

Under the fold….

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Clock Quotes

I have always felt that laughter in the face of reality is probably the finest sound there is and will last until the day when the game is called on account of darkness. In this world, a good time to laugh is any time you can.
– Linda Ellerbee

Bloggers at the Zoo!

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The North Carolina scienceblogging contingent celebrated the millionth comment at the NC Zoo in Asheboro yesterday.
We met at 1pm and were first greeted by the Executive Director of the NC Zoological Society, Russ Williams, who also runs a delightful blog Russlings.
Then, we were taken on a delightful tour of the zoo by Jayne Owen Parker, Ph.D., the Director of Conservation Education of the Society. Dr. Parker’s personal interest is in animal behavior, especially social behavior. As much as this is my own area of expertise, I have to admit that I learned a lot of stuff I did not know before. Perhaps we can use some of those pieces of information for future blog posts – how giraffes take care of their young, how different species of zebras have different social organizations, what the lions’ manes are for, why are Patas monkeys matriarchal, etc.
So, who else was there?
We were joined by Heather Soja, the AHS Zoo School Lead Teacher and Biology Teacher and her two beautiful children. Old friends, Anne and Christian Casper came on the tour with us. As did Kim Gainer and her daughter Patti. Greg (the founder of the Giant’s Shoulders carnival) came with his fiance – it was so nice to finally match the name and face! Of the SciBlings, former, old and new, there were Kevin Zelnio with his wife and kids, James with his wonderful wife and son, Sciencewoman with husband and super-charming Minnow, Dave and Greta Munger, SciCurious (the most recent addition to The Borg, previously at Neurotic Physiology) with boyfriend, and Sheril with her boyfriend David.
We talked a lot about – Shakespeare! You never know with science bloggers what will happen!
After the 4-hour tour, we got hungry, so we went to the local Chili’s for dinner and had a lot of fun together. Videos and pictures – tomorrow.

Update:

Here are the pictures:
Pictures from the Zoo, part I
Pictures from the Zoo, part II
Pictures from the Zoo, part III
Pictures from the Zoo, part IV
And movies:
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #1
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #2
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #3
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #4
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #5
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #6
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #7
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #8
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #9
Bloggers at the Zoo – movies #10
And others also report:
Russ
Sheril
Sciencewoman
Greg
Linda Zelnio
Kevin Zelnio
Dave and Greta
Scicurious
And if you live elsewhere, perhaps you can still join a party closer to you.

Books: “The Good Father: On Men, Masculinity, and Life in the Family” by Mark O’Connel

The Good FatherIt is great when you write a blog post about somebody, then that somebody shows up in the comments and clarifies his position thus starting an interesting conversation (both in the comments and via e-mail), then you realize that his book-signing tour is bringing that somebody to your town, so you go there and meet that somebody in person and have a great conversation, which inspires you to write yet another blog post – the one under the fold….

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Clock Quotes

He who refuses praise the first time that it is offered does so because he would hear it a second time. –
Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld

Stephanie Coontz On Marriage

Stephanie Coontz On Marriage You probably know that I am quite interested in the history, current state, evolution and future of the institution of marriage, mainly because it is an important indicator of societal attitudes towards sex and towards gender-relations, which is the key to understanding political ideology. Between May 29, 2005 and February 23, 2006 I frequently mentioned Stephanie Coontz and particularly her latest book – Marriage, A History, e.g., in New History Of Marriage, Stephanie Coontz On Marriage, Op-Ed on the ‘End of Marriage’, Don’t Know Much About History…. and What ‘traditional’ marriage?. Amanda of Pandagon also wrote two good posts about it: Nothing to it and How to save your marriage (or at least give it a fighting chance). While I never really reviewed the book, here is a post with some thoughts and several good links to other people’s reviews as well as her own articles:

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My picks from ScienceDaily

Political Views Affect Firms’ Corporate Social Responsibility, Study Finds:

A new study in The Financial Review establishes a relationship between political beliefs of corporate stakeholders and the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of their firms. Companies with a high CSR rating tend to be located in Democratic states, while companies with a low CSR rating tend to be located in Republican states.

Finger Lengths Linked To Voluntary Exercise:

If you find yourself lacking in motivation to go for a run or hit the gym, you may want to check your fingers. According to a joint University of Alberta/ University of California- Riverside research study, there is a direct correlation between digit length and voluntary exercise.

Accuracy, Efficacy And Ethics Of Abstinence-only Programs Questioned By Public Health Experts:

Studies published in a special issue of the online journal Sexuality Research and Social Policy by the University of California Press reveal that abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education programs fail to change sexual behavior in teenagers, provide inaccurate information about condoms, and violate human rights principles.

Ship-induced Waves Affect Snails, Crabs And Insect Larvae In Sandy Lakes And Rivers:

Snails, crabs, insect larvae – the shores of rivers and lakes are populated by thousands of small animals that play an important role in the food chain of the freshwater ecosystem. They eat the leaves, among other things, which fall into the water, and so keep the waters clean.

Biologists Identify Genes Controlling Rhythmic Plant Growth:

A team of biologists from UC San Diego, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Oregon State University has identified the genes that enable plants to undergo bursts of rhythmic growth at night and allow them to compete when their leaves are shaded by other plants.

Genetically Modified Crops Protect Neighbors From Pests, Study Finds:

A study in northern China indicates that genetically modified cotton, altered to express the insecticide, Bt, not only reduces pest populations among those crops, but also reduces pests among other nearby crops that have not been modified with Bt. These findings could offer promising new ideas for controlling pests and maximizing crop yields in the future.

Explorers Find Hundreds Of Undescribed Corals, Other Species On Familiar Australian Reefs:

Hundreds of new kinds of animal species surprised international researchers systematically exploring waters off two islands on the Great Barrier Reef and a reef off northwestern Australia — waters long familiar to divers.

Emergence Of Agriculture In Prehistory Took Much Longer, Genetic Evidence Suggests:

Researchers led by Dr Robin Allaby of the University of Warwick’s plant research arm Warwick HRI have found evidence that genetics supports the idea that the emergence of agriculture in prehistory took much longer than originally thought.

Are Fires More Important Than Rain For The Savannah Ecosystem?:

Natural grass fires are evidently more important for the ecology of savannahs than has previously been assumed. This is the finding of a study carried out in Etosha National Park in the north of Namibia.

Road Crossing Structures Important In Reduction Of Animal Mortality On Roads:

Spanish highways are increasingly incorporating walkways specially designed for wild animals, or mixed use structures designed for other purposes, which connect wildlife from one side of the road to the other. Researchers at the Autonomous University of Madrid have analysed 43 walkways used by vertebrates to quantify the importance of these structures, which facilitate animals’ natural movements and reduce mortality caused by vehicles and, consequently, traffic accidents.

Today’s carnivals

Corpus callosum: 1st edition of open science round-up is up on I was lost but now I live here
Change of Shift Vol. 3 No. 6 is up on crzegrl, flight nurse
Friday Ark #209 is up on Modulator