10. januar 2003

Hook, line, sinker? Kriselda at different strings just posted a link to this story by William Saletan in Slate about press credulity. You should read it. 8:47:20 PM    comment []

And now for something completely different... It was bound to happen sooner or later. I guess it's not even news. But being who I am, I found these anatomically correct stuffed dolls quite amusing. Who wouldn't fall for the bondage kitty on the right? Well, except the obvious I mean... 8:15:41 PM    comment []

Teaching vs Research The cutting edge in science has never been sharper. Every year brings new, exciting knowledge about the world around us. And at the same time, interest in science among young students continue to decline. Science teaching at the undergraduate level, or earlier, is suffering as it did 20 years ago, no doubt turning away many brilliant people who go to pursue other careers. As is often the case, it is a question of incentives. The big acclaim and the big money go to those who publish breakthrough research and get patents. Those who contribute exciting teaching, managing to convey the enthusiasm for good research that inspires more of the same, get a mere nod by comparison. Thomas Cech at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute writes in a recent Science magazine editorial about a propramme that tries to improve on the situation. Twenty outstanding science teachers are chosen to conduct a number of experiments to improve education, using new techniques and new technology, and given a budget to work with. At the same time, they want to teach postdocs and grad students not only how to do reasearch, but also how to teach. 7:19:21 PM    comment []

Dems 2004: the candidates David Corn of the Nation gives a good rundown of the Democratic presidential wannabes. This piece was written before Wesley Clark's name came up, and also before Daschle decided to not run, but it still offers a decent overview of the pros and cons of each presidential hopeful. It leans a bit less left and is a bit more pragmatic than what you may expect from the Nation. 4:15:53 PM    comment []

Alcohol is good for you The research has been known from the early 1970s: a couple of drinks every day is good for your heart, at least if you are male. Long-term studies at the Harvard School of Public Health shows that previous claims that a drink or two a day is good for your heart is not only correct, up to four 'units' a day actually shows remarkable results in reducing the chance of a heart attack  It was previously known that two units a day reduced the chance of a heart attack by 32 to 37 %. Those who add one more drink start to experience negative side effects, but still the heart is better off by 22 %. These results are not popular among some health experts, of course, and some news reports are more cautious than others. First, it does only take into account the effects on the heart. Alcoholism is known to have a lot of very destructive side effects, healthwise and socially. Yet, it remains a fact that those who manage to keep up a moderate consumption regularly – three to four times a week – are 35 % less likely to get a heart attack than a non-drinker. What to say? I'll drink to that. 2:56:49 PM    comment []

Wesley Clark: Four star presidential nominee? Former NATO commander Wesley Clark are considering to join the line of democratic hopefuls. Some democrats hope that as Clinton boosted the party's credibility on economy, the four star general with a remarkable carreer will improve the party's credibility on security. The search for the next Bill Clinton continues. 2:35:46 PM    comment []

Gore Vidal's 9/11 conspiracy theory debunked It is always a sad read when a master of the written essay demonstrates he is not the master of critical thinking, and manages to publish the most outragous claims, where brilliant prose covers a multitude of non sequiturs. Ron Rosenbaum's rebuttal of Vidal's massive conspiracy theories is, luckily, no less brilliant, and has the added benefit of making sense. It is one thing being skeptical to the liberties taken by the US government after 9/11, another thing entirely to implicate that a so-called "Bush junta" of old oil cartel guys was really behind the terror attacks in the first place. Like similar conspiracy theories about the JFK assasination, such theories continue to thrive even though the arguments are flawed and weak. That such conspiracy theories have pentrating power on the so-called intellectual left should lead to a serious rethinking of values and priorities. 1:16:59 PM    comment []

What are bloggers talking about? Daypop is keeping track of what articles bloggers are talking about, by examining where we link. Daypop Top 40 lists the links most talked about, while Daypop top news stories check which news articles are most popular among bloggers. 12:12:55 PM    comment []

A nuke-safe library Scientists have succeeded in storing a message, song lyrics to be exact, encoded into artificial DNA that is then stored within the genomes of living bacteria. The idea behind the project is to preserve some very crucial information for the future in case a disaster, like a nuclear holocaust, wipes out our more conventional storage media. The bacteria will multiply and survive and preserve the message within its DNA for a very long time. Let's hope that the knowledge about how to read DNA is not the first that is lost, then. 1:01:16 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.02.03; 00:36:41.