February 28, 2007

How To Get Your Biology Questions Answered!

Ask a Biologist!

This is a special site aimed at schools and devoted to providing the best scientific information available to school kids around the UK (but don't be put off, we will accept questions from anyone who asks). I'm sorry to say that we are not here to do your homework for you, but if you want more information on any aspect of biology ( the study of life) or palaeontology (the study of the history of life) then we are here to help. .....

Collectively we are a group of over 50 professional scientists, (museum and ecology workers, PhD students, lecturers, researchers, PostDocs and even the odd professor!) who want to help you out. We think that kids don't always get the access to real scientific information (or real scientists!) outside of the classroom so we are here to do just that.... These people are giving up their free time to help you, so please use them to learn and enjoy science, between us we work on dinosaurs, sea scorpions, ecology, biogeography, human evolution, spiders, cell biology, evolution, birds, animal behaviour, physiology, forests, insects, conservation, genetics, fish, development, and plenty more besides.

We believe in being honest: if we (or science) as a whole do not know the answer, then we will say so. If there is a debate on the subject we will give you both sides and the reasons why we may favor one or the other. We want you to enjoy science and to be as excited about life as we are.

Go ask a question or find and answer.

Via Pharyngula.

Posted by Steve on February 28, 2007

February 25, 2007

Sunday Kitty Time

Now that you are done with the Oscars head over to Scribblings for the 153rd Carnival of the Cats.

Posted by Steve on February 25, 2007

February 23, 2007

Friday Ark #127

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Do link to the Ark every week!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Update 19:30 GMT 2/23: On the road...no updates for 2-6 hours.

Cats

Dogs

Other Vertebrates

Birds

Invertebrates

In Memoriam

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

  • x

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 152nd edition, 2/18, is up at Pet's Garden Blog. The 153rd edition will be hosted at Scribblings on 2/25. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging hosted on 2/24-25 by Kate in the Kitchen . Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 43rd edition is up and hosted by Earth, Wind & Water. The 44th edition will be hosted on 3/8 by The Greenbelt.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 17th edition is up at The Voltage Gate. The 18th edition will be hosted at the end of February by Pharyngula.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Posted by Steve on February 23, 2007 | Comments (6)

February 22, 2007

Tegan Talks RSS & Reviews Google Reader

Hesitant to jump on the newsreader bandwagon? Huh, what's a newsreader?

Tegan has some answers!

Here she provides a nice bit of RSS 101:

Ok, an RSS Feed is simply a file that takes all the entries in a blog and puts them into a standard format. When you publish your blog, an RSS feed is published. A group of programs called "readers" note the change in your RSS feed, and update with your new entry. Anyone using a reader to read your blog then sees your new entry. Nifty!
NB: Tegan emphasizes how easy it is to keep up with your blog reading using a newreader. You can, though, get feeds from more than blogs: many newspapers, magazines and other regularly updated sites offer feeds.

Now that you've been through RSS 101 read Tegan's walkthrough of Google Reader:

Ah well, here goes. I poked around the site a bit, constantly being told that there was nothing to see because I wasn't subscribed to any feeds. I finally figure out to click on "Manage subscriptions" in the hopes I can import my feeds from Bloglines. Under this page, there's an "Import/Export" tab. Lovely. *click* Hmmm, must export from Bloglines first. Hey, it says I can "Learn more about exporting your subscriptions from another feed reader." Ok, *click*. Bloglines export instructions. I follow the instructions. Go back to the "Import/Export" tab. Import the file I just exported from Bloglines. WHUMPF! I've got a bunch of feeds. Back to the main page!

I do have both a Bloglines and a Google Reader account but have been using FeedDemon for almost a year now. Yes, it has a couple downsides: 1) there is a one time cost and 2) it is currently Windows only. However, it solved some organization and archiving issues that I had with Bloglines and allows me to do quite a bit of reading offline. I do plan to continue experimenting with Google Reader and may use it more in the future.

Darkside Alert: Tegan noted how easy it is to keep up with the 300 or so blogs she currently tracks. Newsreaders also make it easy to subscribe to too many feeds! E.g., FeedDemon just told me that I currently subscribe to 1680 feeds....I often don't get past my "Regulars" folder.


Posted by Steve on February 22, 2007

Birds of the Academy

No need to wait for the academy awards!

There are 24 screens of feathered actors and actresses playing at I and the Bird #43 hosted by Earth, Wind & Water.

Pick up your refreshments, click through and enjoy.

Posted by Steve on February 22, 2007

February 20, 2007

A Science Experiment

This one is best not done on a live subject. In fact, you should probably not read about it at work: How Many Condoms Can You Wear At Once?

The shorter conclusion: one will do! 625 will lead to injury. Though, 625, heck even the first 100 produced dramatically more significant results than you are likely to get from any of the spam enhancement offerings.

Via Pharyngula. Posted by Steve on February 20, 2007

February 19, 2007

Why Listen to the Music Play?

Well, like Silberman says:

It’s really more about the software — the passion for discovery and exploration that drove the evolution of this music and this sound, and made the Grateful Dead the new best band on Earth nearly every time they went out on tour.

We listened to 5/6/81, Dick's Picks # 13, yesterday as we drove from Seattle to Salem. Mrs Modulator picked it because it had quite a few tunes from the 2/17 Ratdog show which we enjoyed quite a bit.

Posted by Steve on February 19, 2007 | Comments (1)

February 18, 2007

Typical Government Output

Bumf:

useless paperwork or documentation (from "bum fodder" (toilet paper)), often spelled bumph
From the Wikipedia entry for List of British words not widely used in the United States.

Via Cynical-C Blog.

Posted by Steve on February 18, 2007

February 16, 2007

Friday Ark #126

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Do link to the Ark every week!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Cats

Birds

Dogs

Invertebrates

Other Vertebrates

In Memoriam

Didn't Make It

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 151st edition, 2/11, is up at When Cats Attack. The 152nd edition will be hosted at Pet's Garden Blog on 2/18. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging hosted on 2/17-18 by TBD. Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 42nd edition is up and hosted by Neurophilosophy. The 43rd edition will be hosted on 2/22 by Earth, Wind & Water.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 17th edition is up at The Voltage Gate. The 18th edition will be hosted at the end of February by Pharyngula.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Posted by Steve on February 16, 2007 | Comments (7)

February 15, 2007

NYT Speaks on Main Stream Journalism

The New York Times today explains the nature of establishment journalists :

Even as they exploit the newest technologies, the Libby trial bloggers are a throwback to a journalistic style of decades ago, when many reporters made no pretense of political neutrality. Compared with the sober, neutral drudges of the establishment press, the bloggers are class clowns and crusaders, satirists and scolds. (Ed: Emphasis added.)

Are they really neutral or just pretending to be? At least with the left/right bloggers we have a decent idea what filters they are using when they write their material. All too often the MSM pretense of neutrality or being fair and balanced makes us work that much harder to understand what has been left out or added into their stories.

Posted by Steve on February 15, 2007

February 13, 2007

Teleprompter Troubles

More than a few of the rest of us might have problems when the eye of the camera is bearing down but this, welll...:


...as Scott says: ...it's painful.

Update 2/14: In the comments Kip points out this related item at Concurring Opinions which points to Prisoners of YouTube at Radar Magazine article.

Posted by Steve on February 13, 2007 | Comments (1)

Feed People or Feed Their Cars?

Ethanol production is not a free lunch on the way to reducing oil consumption.

In fact, it is just the opposite. A much more costly lunch:

The jump in corn prices is already affecting the cost of food. The most notable example: in Mexico, which gets much of its corn from the United States, the price of corn tortillas has doubled in the past year,...

Poultry feed is about two-thirds corn; as a result, the cost to produce poultry--both meat and eggs--has already risen about 15 percent due to corn prices, says Tyner. Also expect corn syrup--used in soft drinks--to get more expensive,...

Any food that utilizes corn is going to get more expensive.

How many of you remember any of the glory be to ethanol stories mentioning this juicy morsel or including the increased cost of food in the cost of ethanol?

Posted by Steve on February 13, 2007 | Comments (1)

February 12, 2007

Digital Restrictions Management (DRM)

Yea, I stole the restrictions word from Kurt's comment to this Bruce Schneir post.

DRM is another good reason to stay away from Windows Vista:

Unfortunately, we users are caught in the crossfire. We are not only stuck with DRM systems that interfere with our legitimate fair-use rights for the content we buy, we're stuck with DRM systems that interfere with all of our computer use--even the uses that have nothing to do with copyright.

I don't see the market righting this wrong, because Microsoft's monopoly position gives it much more power than we consumers can hope to have. ... Some researchers think that this is the final straw that will drive Windows users to the competition, but I think the courts are necessary.

In the meantime, the only advice I can offer you is to not upgrade to Vista. It will be hard. Microsoft's bundling deals with computer manufacturers mean that it will be increasingly hard not to get the new operating system with new computers. And Microsoft has some pretty deep pockets and can wait us all out if it wants to. Yes, some people will shift to Macintosh and some fewer number to Linux, but most of us are stuck on Windows. Still, if enough customers say no to Vista, the company might actually listen.

Now would be a perfectly good time for Apple to release a version of its operating system that runs on any Intel platform. This is their next step, isn't it?

Via

Update: Coyote Blog agrees and has more.

Posted by Steve on February 12, 2007

Historic Dead

Over at dead.net the folks have started a new weekly feature. Well, new to me, as it kicked off in the last week of November 06:

In this space, every Monday, you will find information on the recorded history of the Grateful Dead's music as it pertains to that week, specifically focusing on the shows for that week, through the band's 30 year performing history, that reside in the Grateful Dead's storied tape vault. Although not everything is in there, with more than 1,600 of the band's 2,400-odd shows represented, there is plenty about which to talk. Check back weekly for new entries and insight into the vault, as well as exclusive audio clips relating to that week in the Grateful Dead's recorded history.
The audio clips are all MP3 which may bother purists but, hey, in addition to stuff from previously released material there is plenty of unreleased vault stuff that many of us have never heard before.

My lunchtime choice today Dark Star>China Cat Sunflower>The Eleven>Caution (MP3 46.05MB) from 2/22/68 at Kings Beach Bowl.

Posted by Steve on February 12, 2007

Flatulence

It would be all to easy to attribute this fine piece of oratory to great leader:

We don’t know what those other cycles were caused by in the past. Could be dinosaur flatulence, you know, or who knows? We do know the CO2 in the past had its time when it was greater as well. And what happened when the CO2 was greater since then and now? There have been many cycles of up and down warming.
But, credit should be given to whom it is due. This was crafted by congress critter dana rohrabacher who apparently attending the same speaking schools as w.

As to "...what happened when the CO2 was greater since then and now?":

Presumably, Rohrabacher was referencing a period known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. Then, as in now, "sharp rises in temperature were initiated and driven by large spikes in greenhouse gases. … It took over 100K years for the ocean, atmosphere, and temperatures to return to their previous state. The result was a mass extinction event that took millions of years to recover from." But scientists believe that massive methane releases from the ocean floors — not dinosaur farts — were the cause.

Via The Galloping Beaver.

Posted by Steve on February 12, 2007

February 11, 2007

What Will Your Cat Get You For Valentines Day?

Find out at the 151st Carnival of the Cats hosted by When Cats Attack.

Posted by Steve on February 11, 2007 | Comments (1)

February 10, 2007

Party On, Dude!

There's a Mouse Party going on over at the University of Utah. Go check out what all that good stuff will do in your brain.

Do take heed, though, from Girl Scientist:

The simplified mechanisms of drug action presented in the game are just a small part of the story. When drugs enter the body they elicit very complex effects in many different regions of the brain.
An exercise for the reader: What happens in your brain when you imbibe two or more of these substances at the same time?

Via Pharyngula.

Posted by Steve on February 10, 2007

February 9, 2007

Friday Ark #125

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Do link to the Ark every week!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Cats

Dogs

Other Vertebrates

Birds

Invertebrates

In Memoriam

Didn't Make It

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 150th edition, 2;4, is up at This Blog Is Full of Crap. The 151st edition will be hosted at When Cats Attackon 2/11. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging hosted on 2/10-11 by Catsynth . Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 42nd edition is up and hosted by Neurophilosophy. The 43rd edition will be hosted on 2/22 by Earth, Wind & Water.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 17th edition is up at The Voltage Gate. The 18th edition will be hosted at the end of February by Pharyngula.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Posted by Steve on February 9, 2007 | Comments (6)

February 7, 2007

Hiroshima: A Reminder

This series of photos of Hiroshima is not for the faint hearted and for many will not be work safe.

hiroshima-damage.jpg

Even the faint hearted should, though, look slowly through these images and contemplate whether there can ever be a justification for using nuclear weapons or, for that matter, tactics that burn out entire cities.

Via MetaFilter.

Posted by Steve on February 7, 2007

February 6, 2007

Careful What You Ask For

There is a new initiative hitting the streets in Washington State. The Defense of Marriage initiative would, if passed:

* add the phrase, “who are capable of having children with one another” to the legal definition of marriage;
* require that couples married in Washington file proof of procreation within three years of the date of marriage or have their marriage automatically annulled;
* require that couples married out of state file proof of procreation within three years of the date of marriage or have their marriage classed as “unrecognized;”
* establish a process for filing proof of procreation; and
* make it a criminal act for people in an unrecognized marriage to receive marriage benefits.
Farcical on its face, right?

The folks that put this together say:

The Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance seeks to defend equal marriage in this state by challenging the Washington Supreme Court’s ruling on Andersen v. King County. This decision, given in July 2006, declared that a “legitimate state interest” allows the Legislature to limit marriage to those couples able to have and raise children together.
They want to generate discussion and hope that if this passes it will eventually be ruled unconstitutional and thus weaken Anderson.

This could work. However, they might just get the first two parts of what they are asking for: discussion and passage...even in blue Washington. But they might not get the 3rd part: any part of this then being ruled unconstitutional by the state supreme court and end up strengthening Anderson.

My take: not a chance of passing. We all know to many couples, both same-sex and opposite sex, who have been married for years and do not have children.

If folks are going to spend precious time on issues like this why not go right to the heart of the matter and work on initiatives and so forth that say something like:

Individuals and voluntary groups of individuals must be treated equally under the the laws of...(insert appropriate federal, state or local entity).
Oh yea, the 14th Amendment already says something a bit like this.

The state, i.e., government, of course, has no legitimate interest in any aspect of marriage other than possibly enforcing judicial rulings on the contractual aspects of living arrangements entered into by 2 or more consenting adults.

Via Whatever It Is, I'm Against It.

Posted by Steve on February 6, 2007

February 4, 2007

Sunday Kitties

Laurence has'm for you.

The 150th edition of the Carnival of the Cats is up for your skritchin' pleasure.

Posted by Steve on February 4, 2007 | Comments (1)

February 2, 2007

Friday Ark #124

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Do link to the Ark every week!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

NB 2/2:: Access to Modulator was down from late afternoon PST 2/1 until sometime in the wee hours 2//2 because of network problems in the Atlanta area that impacted our hosting service. This has also delayed receipt of boarding email sent directly or via BlogCarnival. Boardings will be delayed.

Cats

Dogs

Other Vertebrates

Birds

Invertebrates

In Memoriam

Didn't Make It

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 149th edition, 1/28, is up at Mind of Mog. The 150th edition will be hosted by Laurence, the founder, at This Blog is Full of Crap on 2/4. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging hosted on 2/2-3 by Rosa's Yummy Yums . Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 41st edition is up and hosted by Snail's Eye View. The 42nd edition will be hosted on 2/8 by Neurophilosophy.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 17th edition is up at The Voltage Gate. The 17th edition will be hosted at the end of February by Pharyngula.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Posted by Steve on February 2, 2007 | Comments (4)

February 1, 2007

Congratualtions to Mary and Heather

Mary Cheney and her partner Heather are going to be proud parents! And embroiled in debate.

David at Resurrection Song expresses my sentiments:

While there should never have been any doubt that her pregnancy would become a political issue. With her father being one of the most divisive public figures in the country and issues stemming from her sexuality being some of the more hotly debated topics of the last few years, it was obvious that there would be some questions.

It should be simpler, though. It should be about a choice that Mary Cheney and her partner made and about congratulating them on their good fortune. Unless the couple start beating that kid, fail to provide him with a good home, or are somehow falling down in their parental obligations, there is no public interest here. We can debate abstracts if we really need to, but we can’t--or shouldn’t--debate that child.

Dan Savage agrees that there will be no escaping the politics and makes the point that Mary contributed to these politics, hoist by her own petard:
So welcome to the political debate, Mary, and remember...

Your side started it. It only serves you right that you're going to have to finish it.

And you might want to have it all wrapped up before your kid is old enough to understand what's being said about his family by your dad's political allies. Take it from me, Mary: Explaining to your child, after he heard something hateful on the radio, that his family is very much "real," that it's not an attack on anyone else's family, and that his parents are, in fact, fit to be his parents is as distressing and emotionally exhausting as it is unnecessary. And I blame you.

Mary, congrats again on the future child and welcome to politics.

Posted by Steve on February 1, 2007

Florida governor Favors Stealing From The Poor to Give to the Rich

Yep, governor crist wants to steal more from taxpayers to subsidize wealthy team owners and players:

Gov. Charlie Crist announced he is a fan of using taxpayer money to subsidize sports stadiums.

Crist, a former minor league baseball attorney and one-time college quarterback, said stadiums rev up local economies and benefit communities in other ways.

Hey, if the stadium is a viable business opportunity then it should stand on its own income production. That various tax breaks and subsidies appear to be required argues strongly that the underlying business model is broken. Or that the Marlin's ownership has figured out a great scam. Or, well, both!

Folks, just say no to subsidizing sports stadiums. The money that is taken from you to "rev up local economies" and so forth is money that you could have spent with some other business or invested for you and your families future.

Posted by Steve on February 1, 2007 | Comments (1)