Random Thoughts

An Afternoon of Dressage

I just spent the afternoon watching an equine competition called dressage, which I believe is from the French meaning "having one's teeth drilled" (I could be wrong).   In higher levels of competition, the rider moves through the various pat ...

Blog Post - Gerhard Adam - Feb 7 2010 - 8:32pm

A Super Bowl Ad (And A Car Company) Environmental Mullahs Will Love

Let's be honest, both poles of the American political spectrum fear the same thing about each other; that if the other gets control a lot of oppressive weird stuff will happen. If right-wing people get control, the presidency will carry a 'sponso ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Feb 8 2010 - 8:05pm

Are Your Kids Overweight? Just Blame It On Junk Food Commercials

If you have overweight children, don't take responsibility for what they eat--just blame their expanding waistlines on McDonald's and Hershey's for advertising their products on TV. Not only is it easier to scapegoat restaurants and food man ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 9 2010 - 4:45pm

Chinese New Year

It's now almost Midnight in Moscow, so it's already tomorrow in China.  Therefore may I take this opportunity to wish all readers of Scientific Blogging... ...

Blog Post - Robert H Olley - Feb 13 2010 - 3:55pm

Eco-friendly gifts- but definitely not wallet-friendly

Have a look at these from the Times (link below): http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6931417.ece?slideshowPopup=true&articleId=6931417&nSlide=1&sectionName=NewsEnvironment As for the H20 clock, would Victor Meldrew have be ...

Blog Post - Robert H Olley - Feb 15 2010 - 1:34pm

Are Your Kids Overweight? Blame It On Product Placement

It seems that everything except the causes of childhood obesity receive blame for childhood obesity. While common sense and plenty of research indicate that parents and social setting are the primary influences on children's eating habits, the effort ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 17 2010 - 10:48pm

Knowledge Should Inform Belief

Knowledge Should Inform Belief Unfortunately, belief is all too often used as an excuse for selectively ignoring knowledge.... real-world knowledge does not exist simply to be cherry-picked according to one’s own beliefs, but to be made sense of, and to f ...

Blog Post - Patrick Lockerby - Feb 15 2010 - 7:03pm

Business Owners Say TV Entrepreneurs Don't Reflect Real Life

The way celebrity entrepreneurs are depicted by the media doesn't illustrate what it's really like to start up and run businesses, according to a survey of small business owners and business advisers from Nottingham University Business School. Fo ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 16 2010 - 11:49am

Party Competition, Modest Lawmaker Salaries Best Cures For Corrupt Politics

Vigorous two-party competition and modest salaries for lawmkaers are key to preventing pork barrel legislation and other bills that benefit only one lawmaker's constituents, finds a new study of state lawmaking published in the American Political Scie ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 17 2010 - 11:52am

Morning Science Quote

'If you begin by treating the scientific ideas of earlier centuries as myths, you will end by treating your own scientific ideas as dogmas': we have tried, throughout this book, to display the developing character of the scientific endeavor, and ...

Blog Post - Michael White - Feb 18 2010 - 6:01am