Cool Links

Idle computers are the astronomers' playground: Three citizen scientists--an American couple and a German--have discovered a new radio pulsar hidden in data gathered by the Arecibo Observatory. This is the first deep-space discovery by Einstein@Home, which uses donated time from the home and office computers of 250,000 volunteers from 192 different countries. 

Link: Science Codex
What do you get when you mash up neuroscience-fiction smash-hit "Inception" with the charming, all ages "Up"?  

"Upception", of course.  See the trailer below:

What happens on "Futurama" when Professor Farnsworth learns that evolution is under attack in schools?  

The science-mobile, that's what.

Chad Orzel tackles a reader question on how to do cold atoms experiments so he engages in some 'lab porn' (hey, his words, not mine) with pics and all, at least of the vacuum apparatus.  You'll have to check back for more details.


Doomsday machine?  He assures us it is not.
Publisher for the people

Mike Eisen, HHMI investigator (science cred!), Mad Men devotee(cultural cred!) and (oh yeah) co-founder of PLoS (Science 2.0 cred!) gets some love from this paper, so they get some love from us.
Biologist Michael Eisen hopes to accomplish for science publishing what Linux set out to do for computing.
Not bad.

“BY ALL accounts, I’m a medical miracle,” says Ozzy Osbourne, an ageing rock star who once bit the head off a live bat. For four decades Mr Osbourne (pictured above in his prime) drank too much and took prodigious quantities of drugs. Yet he survived. Now a reformed man, he is getting his entire genome sequenced by Knome, an American genetic-testing firm, for clues to how his body coped with such prolonged abuse. 

He is not alone in wondering what mysteries genetic testing might unlock. - Economist 

If you want serious coverage of the Pakistan floods, read Patrick Lockerby. If you want it to be obvious that during Ramadan people fast anyway, read Boston.com

I guess it isn't that bad, but only a Northeast preudo-progressive big media paper would write a headline implying that religious rituals aren't saving anyone from real world peril.
From ZME Science - Not Exactly Rocket Science:
The idea for this article hit me while I was writing this post about awesome landscapes. I was doing some research, and when I found the amazing things hot water springs can create, it was obvious that this article had to come.
Grand Prismatic Spring, Mammoth Springs, Pamukkale Springs ... all the cool ones are here.



H/T/ Andrea Kuszewski
Of all the aviation tech emerging from the Farnborough International Airshow, Airbus’ futurist visions are among the coolest.   Their 2030 Concept Plane may have a self-cleaning cabin and be more efficient, whatever, sure, but ...



... also ... see-through walls for  a scary 360-degree view and holographic projections of virtual decors, allowing travelers to transform their private cabin into an office or a ... bedroom.   

Read it all at Popular Science.
Check out ArcAttack's musical Tesla-coil performance at Maker Faire 2010.  'Pitch of spark'?  Outstanding!   Why don't they die?   For the same reason Tesla didn't and you don't if lightning hits your car - Faraday.



H/T Andrea Kuszewsky
A Massachusetts man who was rushed to hospital with a collapsed lung came home with an unusual diagnosis: a pea plant was growing in his lung.
"Open Access - Open Data" is an expert conference being held December 13th-14th in Cologne that will take a closer look how the Open Access movement has developed within the last five years and what is going to happen within the next five to ten years. Additionally, it will investigate the "Open Data Movement" that is gaining acceptance (see Jean-Claude Bradley).
Four verses about recombinant protein expression, NMR spectroscopy, X-ray Crystallography and Cryo-Electron Microscopy.   

Really, what more do you need to know?



H/T Paul Shin
Having surveyed Russian language media sources, JOTMAN.COM contributor Sanjuro reports on the fires sweeping across Russia:
Yes, a song you would probably never hear otherwise, "Bad Romance", by an artist you will never listen to, Lady Gaga (think Katy Perry, except with no talent) ... except made awesome because it is played on beakers in the lab.

So supposedly this girl quits her job using a dry erase board instead of keeping it simple with an email to the boss and emails her entire office 33 Photos explaining it all ...  here's one:

HPOA girl quits

Funny stuff, but given the credibility of the site, this hit 8.5 on my B.S. Richter scale.
Among the great disappointments of modern life is the fact that something as fun as a giant inflatable slide springing from the side of a massive flying machine exists—but may only be used in near-death situations, when one is least inclined to enjoy it.
Microfinancing is a term most commonly used to describe the financial services provided to help people out of poverty. Now the term is being applied to research projects funded by numerous small contributions of money. Over the last 3 years, a number of microfinancing initiatives for science research have emerged in the US.  

One example is the Open Source Science Project.

Pop science?  Sure, people will donate to cool stuff or pet beliefs, but it also will increase science literacy, says the article in Chemistry World.
I can't speak for any of you but the only thing worse than going to a coffee shop and not being able to find a seat because the mid-1990s fad of 'free Wi-Fi' in there made slackers hang out all day has been, in 2010, having them talk on their cell phones while we order the coffee to go.

Have you been to Spain?   You will get shot doing using a laptop and talking on a cell phone in a coffeeshop there.   Sitting in a Spanish cafe for two hours and drinking a tiny espresso while girl watching is a time-honored ritual and one of the only things we should emulate about Spain.  
What do you do when you get stuck with no pay by a crappy publisher?  Not much, except never work without a contract again.   

Freelancer DeLene Beeland dispels the notion that it's always balloons and ponies out there - though the 4 years I have done this have been a total blast.