Archive for December, 2008
Sylvester and Tweety, are you watching?
Posted by docbushwell in Hootworthy on December 31, 2008
It’s always a hoot to watch adults from one species instictively care for the young of another. At least I think that is what is going on in this video.
Cat and parrot
The most hootworthy blogs of 2008
Posted by docbushwell in Hootworthy, Self-Indulgent Wankery, Sheer Procrastination on December 31, 2008
I’ve been posting about everyone else’s top ten such-and-such of the year, so now it’s our turn.
Below are links to blogs that at we like. This is the chief and sole criterion for inclusion in this off-the-cuff collection. Some of these blogs are, at least in part, science- or technology-driven, but given that the Refuge features contributors whose primary writing interests lie outside the realm of hard science and thus has no clear or consistent theme, our choices are an eclectic lot.
Like too many blogs run by capable wordsmiths and erudite critics, a lot of our picks fly undeservedly far below the radar, victims of the sheer glut of personal online yapspaces swamping every genre. Being a part of Science Blogs has boosted the Refuge’s traffic by perhaps a factor of one hundred or more, so we like to think calling attention to stuff we enjoy can help our blogging friends attract more scholarly (or at least entertaining) readers themselves. Christ, that was maudlin. Anyway, here they are, in no special order:
Edited to add Doc Bushwell’s Blogs of Hootworthiness 2008
Yes, protein in your sports drink is a good idea. But…
Posted by docbushwell in Primate Physiology, The Running Ape on December 31, 2008
One of the medical feeds I subscribe to included an article yesterday about the increased benefits endurance athletes enjoy when using a replacement drink containing a mixture of protein and carbohydates instead of one containing carbs alone (e.g., Gatorade, All-Sport, countless others).
I found this blurb (and the study itself) noteworthy for two reasons.
Bizarro blog: The Raving [fill-in-the-blank]
Posted by docbushwell in We're Doomed on December 31, 2008
As PZ Myers pointed out recently, the anonymous blogger known as The Raving Atheist, whose impugning of belief was sufficiently well known to land him (or his voice, at least) an appearance in Brian Flemming’s film The God Who Wasn’t There a couple of years ago, has evidently pulled an about-face and accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
The Internet being what it is, I have corresponded with both TRA and Flemming (whose film I enjoyed, as much for its soundtrack as for its content) over the years, and at one point was a regular reader of their respective blogs. In fact, TRA was the first blog I ever read dedicated exclusively to challenging religion in an in-your-face way; a woman I started dating in 2003 was a regular visitor and commenter as well as a “naturalist” blogger in her own right, and she was the one who introduced me to the whole atheist-versus-believer online scene. Up to that point, although I had solid convictions about not only my own detachment from faith but its unwieldy anti-intellectualism, I was largely unaware of them. Now, of course, it’s hard to imagine a time when I wasn’t ranting about such things with aplomb.
But the Internet again being what it is, the proliferation of similar sites saw me stop following TRA some time ago (Flemming no longer updates his blog except, in his own words, to announce that he’s not updating his blog anymore), and owing to my constitution I was increasingly drawn to bloggers whose atheism was informed by general skepticism and a grounding in science; I eventually viewed pure ranting as too parochial to groove on. As a result, I was largely unaware that TRA’s chief focus in recent years has been railing against abortion. Although in retrospect this might be viewed as a harbinger of what was to come, I don’t really see it that way; atheism and a pro-choice stance are typically found in conjunction with one another, but not always.
Anyway, I’m not certain that TRA’s conversion is not a conscious contrivance. I say this not because such things cannot or do not happen–it’s easy to imagine someone extremely conflicted about the true nature of his beliefs being an especially vocal atheist (or theist), much in the same way that many rabid and publicly outspoken homophobes ultimately prove to be gay. (I don’t have any data concerning the latter situation and am not sure any exist, but most are aware of the anecdotes that have piled up over the years, with Ted Haggard being only a prominent example.) What is more striking to me is the manner in which TRA has managed–or not managed–his Web site since embracing the LORD.
Sad to say, dimwits seem drawn to the U.S. military
Posted by docbushwell in We're Doomed on December 31, 2008
Not that I was unaware of this as a result my own experience as a 2LT in the U.S. Army Reserves, but the American military seems to attract to its rank and file a particular breed of moron who brings to the party not just workaday ignorance, but an unusual quickness to anger and a mindset that races toward marginalizing or excluding peers who are outliers for any reason–hardly a prescription for lasting esprit de corps.
This article describes a lawsuit brought two days ago by Spc. Dustin Chalker and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation:
Evolution and animal intelligence: Humans are not the “pinnacle”
Posted by docbushwell in Brains and Behavior, The Evolving World on December 30, 2008
SciAm has a great article about the evolution of intelligence throughout the animal kingdom. The details are interesting–for example, certain birds have demonstrated a kind of recall not seen in nonhuman mammals–but perhaps the greatest value in the article lies in the fundamental points it underscores: that evolution is not teleological, and does not “aim” to “achieve” some “higher” “goal” (and yeah, I’m pretty “sure” I “need” every “one” of “those” “quotes,” given the general public’s “understanding” of the “process”), and that the same evolutionary events have arisen independently multiple times in biological history and in many different locations.
It’s a lengthy but worthwhile read offering a nice overview of not only intelligence vis-a-vis evolution, but how the field of neuroscience and its cousins have changed in response to new information gleaned in just the past quarter-century or so.
Don’t try this at home
Posted by kemibe in Hootworthy, The Medical Tent on December 30, 2008
Wow.
Alone in her one-room cabin high in the mountains of southern Mexico, Ines Ramirez Perez felt the pounding pains of a child insistent on entering the world.
Three years earlier, she had given birth to a dead baby girl. As her labour intensified, so did her concern for this unborn child.
The sun had set hours ago. The nearest clinic was 80km away over rough roads, and her husband, her only assistant during a half-dozen previous births, was drinking at a cantina. She had no phone and neither did the cantina.
So at midnight, after 12 hours of constant pain, the petite, 40-year-old mother of six sat down on a low wooden bench. She took several gulps from a bottle of rubbing alcohol, grabbed a 15-cm knife and began to cut…
Don’t try this at home
Posted by docbushwell in Hootworthy, The Medical Tent on December 30, 2008
Wow.
Alone in her one-room cabin high in the mountains of southern Mexico, Ines Ramirez Perez felt the pounding pains of a child insistent on entering the world.
Three years earlier, she had given birth to a dead baby girl. As her labour intensified, so did her concern for this unborn child.
The sun had set hours ago. The nearest clinic was 80km away over rough roads, and her husband, her only assistant during a half-dozen previous births, was drinking at a cantina. She had no phone and neither did the cantina.
So at midnight, after 12 hours of constant pain, the petite, 40-year-old mother of six sat down on a low wooden bench. She took several gulps from a bottle of rubbing alcohol, grabbed a 15-cm knife and began to cut…
Rick Warren is not just a one-trick menace
Posted by docbushwell in We're Doomed on December 30, 2008
Yes, Rick Warren, lying and lurching his way toward babbling a few meaningless words at the swearing in of the next U.S. president in three weeks, holds some disgusting views on homosexuality. But as Chris Hitchens pointed out in Slate yesterday, don’t let this obscure the fact that Warren, in accordance with what his favorite book of faery tales instructs him to do and think, is not only a creationist dupe who thinks man and dinosaurs frolicked together, but an anti-Semite in the strict sense that every Bible-believing Christian is.
(OK, granted: An adult claiming that an entire class of people are barred from going to an imaginary utopia because they refuse to acknowledge that an imaginary fellow is “the Messiah” is no more fraught with real-world implications than a child administering his playground buddy a “cootie shot”–i.e., a knuckle to the deltoid–in order to protect him from the various diseases carried and spread by little girls. But it’s the intent that counts.)
As Hitchens puts it:
Could it be pretty obvious there’s no God?
Posted by docbushwell in Sheer Procrastination on December 29, 2008
Stephen Law, the editor of the Royal Institute of Philosophy journal THINK and a senior lecturer in philosophy at the University of London’s Heythrop College, is contributing to an upcoming book called 50 Voices of Disbelief, edited by Russell Blackford and due for release in 2009. On his blog, he has an entry (I’ve stolen the title) that includes an excerpt that includes a flurry of familiar arguments against gods–the problem of evil and the failures of various theodicy-based apologetics, the similarly failed “evil god” hypothesis, and so on.
Although containing no new information (and why would it? Christians haven’t changed their story–much–in 2,000 years, so logic-based arguments against their deity haven’t either, though scientific ones obviously have) it might be a useful bookmark for those who engage “sophisticated” theists (and folks this is not an example).
The concept of a personal deity–at least one possessing some combination of compassion, competence, and intelligence–must be he only widespread idea that fails on its face, yet still requires, or at east inspires, philosophers to generate formal and often convoluted refutations. Yet no number of compelling and sound expositions are sufficient to disabuse the overwhelming majority of believers, who are even less interested in what a philosopher has to say than they are what biologists claim, probably because there are all sorts of silly counterclaims to evolution (“No transitional fossils! Complex eye! Micro not Macro! Haeckel liar! Why are there still monkeys!?) that are without parallel in the philosophical milieu (I was going to say “realm,” but I already reamed myself good with that one today).
How Well Can You Count?
Posted by jim in Audio Island, More Art, Then Science, Pattern Juggling, Self-Indulgent Wankery on December 29, 2008
And now for something almost completely different on The Refuge: How well can you count? No, not like in grade school. I wrote and recorded a tune the other day. It’s called Timmy Umbwebwe Lights A Candle (yes, I have a thing for odd titles). The initial beat was composed on the drum kit. Not that I planned it this way, but it turns out that the main theme is comprised of three measures of 9/8 followed by a measure of 13/8. This counting is somewhat “plastic” though, and if you prefer you can think of it as alternating measures of 5/8 and 4/8 with an extra measure of 4/8 thrown in at the end. Any way you slice it, it comes out “odd”. Give it a try and see which way of counting it is more natural to you.
Popular Western music for some reason doesn’t really “go” for this kind of thing. Pretty much it’s all 4/4 with the occasional 3/4 ballad. Is it because people have a hard enough time dancing to 4/4 let alone 7/4 or 11/8? Is it because they were never introduced to it? I don’t know. But I do know of a few relatively popular tunes that were not written entirely in 4/4 or 3/4 (or an obvious derivative like 6/8). I’m thinking Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, and Sting.
Anybody care to guess the tunes?
(And to hear something that is a little closer to “normal”, try this, which is based on a melody I wrote for my wife while we were kayaking one afternoon)
As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God
Posted by docbushwell in Habitats and Humanity on December 29, 2008
That’s the headline of an editorial written by Matthew Parris of the U.K. Times, who argues that on a continent plagued by violence, infectious disease, famine, war, and every other form of pestilence know to humankind short of a deep freeze.
Parris is an atheist who insists that while his own nonbelief is secure, it can bring all sorts of joy to the hearts of people who have nothing to look forward to but misery. Yes, by all means, let’s infect the primitives with the white man’s god!
Has 2008 been a long year for you? Join the club
Posted by docbushwell in Hootworthy on December 29, 2008
The club of everyone, that is. Technically 2008 is an especially long year; not only is it a leap year, but 366 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 60 seconds into it, a “leap second” will be added to account for slight fluctuations in the rate at which the speed of earth’s rotation about its axis slowly decreases.
The announcement was made by The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, which unfortunately lacks the authority to adjust my road-race and track times in a way that would benefit my athletic resume.
So, assuming the organizers of the huge gathering at New York’s Times Square don’t catch on, you, drunk at home watching the 89th edition of Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve, might want to count down from eleven instead of ten as the apple drops.
Leap seconds–which can be inserted at the end of June, the end of December, or even both, as was done in 1972, the year they were first introduced–are not uncommon; in fact, they were used in 21 of the first 27 years of their existence. However, only once (2005) in the nine-year period from 1999 to 2007 did the rotation Nazis see the need to call for an adjustment.
Since 1972 not only included two leap seconds but was a leap year as well, it stands as the longest year in years. Maybe this explains why Richard Nixon won the presidential election in a rout amid a spectacularly low voter turnout.
The infamous Nike chainsaw-killer spot (and a minor tribute)
Posted by docbushwell in The Running Ape on December 29, 2008
Anyone remember this one? During the 2000 Olympics, Nike unfurled a 30-second television ad titled “Horror” and featuring three-time Olympian Suzy Favor-Hamilton, the eminently photogenic (she’s done scads of professional modeling) 1500-meter specialist whose 3:57.40–the equivalent of a 4:16 mile–in Oslo month before the Sydney Games remains the second-fastest time ever by an American woman (and the fastest by anyone not testing positive for a banned substance during her career).
In the ad, Favor-Hamilton is showing freshening up in the bathroom of a remote cabin when she is beset by a chainsaw-wielding character who is obviously a spin-off of either Michael Myers (the Hallowe’en series) or Jason (the interminable Friday the 13th franchise). Amid dutiful screaming and chainsaw-revving, Favor-Hamilton, clad in swooshed-up apparel, dashes outside and soon distances herself from her obviously undertrained pursuer. The spot ended with the words “Why sport? You’ll live longer” on the screen.
Japanese kids who skip breakfast lose their virginity sooner
Posted by kemibe in Health and Society on December 29, 2008
According to the results of a survey of 1,500 men and women aged 16 to 49 conducted by the Japan Family Planning Association, middle-schoolers who skip breakfast first become sexually active at an average age of 17.5, while those who eat breakfast daily don’t get their feet (or whatnot) wet until age 19.4.
The researchers suggest that the link between breakfast habits and the onset of sexual activity is rooted in domestic factors influencing eating and sexual behaviors separately, i.e., kids from homes where breakfast is not served for whatever reason are likely to grow up in environments where discipline, at least in the ream realm of nooky, is not likely to be as strong as in homes where family meals are afforded more importance. This may be borne out by the researchers’ finding that kids who found their mothers annoying started having sex earlier in their lives.
As the article notes as something of an afterthought, almost 40% of married couples surveyed had not had sex in over a month, citing as reasons fatigue and regarding sex as a chore. 40%? That’s nuts (or, well, not). I’d like to see an age-group breakdown of that statistic, which is nothing short of alarming, although can’t say for sure how it compares to the situation in the U.S.
Japanese kids who skip breakfast lose their virginity sooner
Posted by docbushwell in Health and Society on December 29, 2008
According to the results of a survey of 1,500 men and women aged 16 to 49 conducted by the Japan Family Planning Association, middle-schoolers who skip breakfast first become sexually active at an average age of 17.5, while those who eat breakfast daily don’t get their feet (or whatnot) wet until age 19.4.
The researchers suggest that the link between breakfast habits and the onset of sexual activity is rooted in domestic factors influencing eating and sexual behaviors separately, i.e., kids from homes where breakfast is not served for whatever reason are likely to grow up in environments where discipline, at least in the ream realm of nooky, is not likely to be as strong as in homes where family meals are afforded more importance. This may be borne out by the researchers’ finding that kids who found their mothers annoying started having sex earlier in their lives.
As the article notes as something of an afterthought, almost 40% of married couples surveyed had not had sex in over a month, citing as reasons fatigue and regarding sex as a chore. 40%? That’s nuts (or, well, not). I’d like to see an age-group breakdown of that statistic, which is nothing short of alarming, although can’t say for sure how it compares to the situation in the U.S.
Jim Kunstler’s economic forecast for 2009
Posted by docbushwell in Habitats and Humanity, Hootworthy on December 29, 2008
Passages like the following are why I enjoy pundits who entered the fray after long careers as novelists. Whether you agree with his florid doomsday scenarios or not, Kunstler, in addition to have an interesting-sounding surname reminiscent of a Larry Flynt-bred portmanteau, is simply enjoyable to read.
Without reviewing all the vertiginous particulars of the year now ending, suffice it to say that the US economy fell on its ass and that the “global economy” did a face-plant as well. The American banking sector imploded spectacularly to the degree that investment banking actually went extinct — as if a meteor landed on the corner of Madison Avenue and 51st Street. The response by our government was to shovel “loans” onto the loading dock of every organization that pretended to be something like a bank, while “bailing out” an ever-longer line of corporate claimants with a pitiable song-and-dance. The oil markets went on a roller coaster ride. The housing bubble collapse grew to avalanche velocity (taking out whole colonies of realtors, mortgage brokers, and construction contractors in its path), the commercial real estate sector developed hemorrhagic fever, retail drove off a cliff on Christmas Eve, the stock market fell in the toilet, jobs and incomes went up in a vapor, and tens of millions of ordinary citizens addicted to revolving credit found themselves in a life-and-death struggle for the means of existence. None of this is over yet.
The whole “Forecast for 2009″ entry is here.
Top 10 New Scientist evolution articles of 2008
Posted by kemibe in The Evolving World on December 29, 2008
Not my picks, but their own:
How trees changed the world
It’s only when you try to imagine a world without trees that you realise how much we take them for granted. Yet 450 million years ago there was no such thing as a tree: few plants grew more than a centimetre tall. Between then and now, things happened to give another dimension to plant growth and to create the diversity we see today.
Reclaiming the peppered moth for science
The peppered moth used to be the textbook example of evolution in action. Then, about a decade ago, creationists began an orchestrated a campaign to discredit it – and with it the entire edifice of evolution. Now biologists are fighting to take it back…
Uncovering the evolution of the bacterial flagellum
The whip-like tail of some bacteria has become the cause célèbre of the “intelligent design” movement and a focal point in science’s ongoing struggle against unreason. It doesn’t seem possible to come up with one via Darwin’s “numerous, successive, slight modifications”, they say. Now science is coming up with an answer…
What missing link?
The fossil record used to be thought of as a patchy and unreliable record of evolutionary change. Today, that record is much more dependable. When it comes to “transitional fossils” – those that bridge the gap between major groups of organisms – we now have some excellent examples.
Evolution: 24 myths and misconceptions
Evolution is perhaps the best known yet least understood of all scientific theories. Here, NewScientist.com, seeks out the facts behind common misunderstandings that have grown up around “the blind watchmaker”.
Rewriting Darwin: The new non-genetic inheritance
We resemble our parents and can fall prey to the same diseases mainly because we inherit their genes. Yet there is another form of inheritance that does not rely on genes, one that allows characteristics to be passed on that are acquired during a person’s lifetime…
The Ordivician: Life’s second big bang
The Cambrian period, starting about 540 million years ago, is famous for the appearance of all but one of the types of creatures we see around us today. Yet in terms of new species this period cannot hold a candle to a little-known explosion of life called the Great Ordivician Biodiversification Event.
Vestigial organs: Remnants of evolution
From goosebumps to wisdom teeth, vestigial organs have long perplexed biologists. What was their original purpose and what happened to make them redundant? NewScientist.com presents its top five vestigial organs and explains how they differ from male nipples.
Viruses: The unsung heroes of evolution
Viruses are often seen solely as carriers of death and disease. In the light of genomics, however, they are being seen as critical evolutionary players. Far from being a biological afterthought, they may be the most creative genetic entities we know of.
Freedom from selection lets genes get creative
Natural selection is seen as a tough master, constantly applying pressure to improve the fit between an organism and its niche. Yet some researchers believe that when the pressure of natural selection lifts, genomes go wandering and unexpected effects can arise. To see the impact, he argues, we have to look no further than ourselves…
Top 10 New Scientist evolution articles of 2008
Posted by docbushwell in The Evolving World on December 29, 2008
Not my picks, but their own:
How trees changed the world
It’s only when you try to imagine a world without trees that you realise how much we take them for granted. Yet 450 million years ago there was no such thing as a tree: few plants grew more than a centimetre tall. Between then and now, things happened to give another dimension to plant growth and to create the diversity we see today.
Reclaiming the peppered moth for science
The peppered moth used to be the textbook example of evolution in action. Then, about a decade ago, creationists began an orchestrated a campaign to discredit it – and with it the entire edifice of evolution. Now biologists are fighting to take it back…
Uncovering the evolution of the bacterial flagellum
The whip-like tail of some bacteria has become the cause célèbre of the “intelligent design” movement and a focal point in science’s ongoing struggle against unreason. It doesn’t seem possible to come up with one via Darwin’s “numerous, successive, slight modifications”, they say. Now science is coming up with an answer…
What missing link?
The fossil record used to be thought of as a patchy and unreliable record of evolutionary change. Today, that record is much more dependable. When it comes to “transitional fossils” – those that bridge the gap between major groups of organisms – we now have some excellent examples.
Evolution: 24 myths and misconceptions
Evolution is perhaps the best known yet least understood of all scientific theories. Here, NewScientist.com, seeks out the facts behind common misunderstandings that have grown up around “the blind watchmaker”.
Rewriting Darwin: The new non-genetic inheritance
We resemble our parents and can fall prey to the same diseases mainly because we inherit their genes. Yet there is another form of inheritance that does not rely on genes, one that allows characteristics to be passed on that are acquired during a person’s lifetime…
The Ordivician: Life’s second big bang
The Cambrian period, starting about 540 million years ago, is famous for the appearance of all but one of the types of creatures we see around us today. Yet in terms of new species this period cannot hold a candle to a little-known explosion of life called the Great Ordivician Biodiversification Event.
Vestigial organs: Remnants of evolution
From goosebumps to wisdom teeth, vestigial organs have long perplexed biologists. What was their original purpose and what happened to make them redundant? NewScientist.com presents its top five vestigial organs and explains how they differ from male nipples.
Viruses: The unsung heroes of evolution
Viruses are often seen solely as carriers of death and disease. In the light of genomics, however, they are being seen as critical evolutionary players. Far from being a biological afterthought, they may be the most creative genetic entities we know of.
Freedom from selection lets genes get creative
Natural selection is seen as a tough master, constantly applying pressure to improve the fit between an organism and its niche. Yet some researchers believe that when the pressure of natural selection lifts, genomes go wandering and unexpected effects can arise. To see the impact, he argues, we have to look no further than ourselves…
Atheist “attacks” don’t hold a candle to divine infighting
Posted by docbushwell in We're Doomed on December 28, 2008
This couldn’t be any richer, or any more demonstrative of what a phenomenal range of crippled and crazy ideas theology manages to pull into its tired old tent in an age where people pop newly-released, ultra-refined antibiotics as they type away on brand-new laptops containing state-of-the-art microprocessors, squinting at their screens with recently LASIK-improved eyesight as they tap out angry sentences about how scientists are not to be trusted as experts in their fields and a book thousands of years old holds the answers to everything.
I did not know that Glenn Beck was a Mormon, as this introduces an extra “m” to his description I was unaware was necessary. I also do not care. But James Dobson and his charmingly name-challenged troupe of donkeys, Focus on the Family, certainly do. After publishing an interview with Beck concerning his new book on its CitizenLink.com subsidiary, the head donkeys elected to pull the interview after others began braying about Mormonism being nothing more than a cult.
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- Doc Bushwell is a biochemist and a medical writer who serves as a slavering minion of the dark lords of Big and Little Pharma; Jim is an engineering professor with a fondness for running shoes and drumsticks; and Kevin Beck is a self-exiled member of the clan who refuses to stay gone.
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