"I love cake.  Cake is wonderful.  But it is too easy to get caught up in the idea of cake.  When you compare the data, it is clear that pie is a better choice. " And so Hyperbole and…

Any time a 'best science sites' list is created by someone outside the usual self-congratulatory, self-indulgent clique it's worth taking a look, namely because in this instance I found 5 terrific…

I was watching a wildlife documentary several years ago. The commentor said that scorpions glow under black light (UV light) and proceeded to demonstrate it and it was fascinating to see all those…

Alan Turing 1912-1954 Alan Turing an autisitc guy from the glory days of Autism before the Rain Man Era Curse was able to absently overcome autism and like many of us learned a different kind of…

As old autism people like me, that came out kind of ok and missed Rain Man Era Politics met each other online to compare notes on our different kind of human thought process that has never been…

A loose quote or two from and old Autism of America  handout sheets that were pre Rain Man. "Non cuddly babies that will not move to be comfortable in mothers arms" "pain toleance - shows…

Here is an amusing quote from novelist Philip Pullman. At the 2010 Oxford Literature Festival, on the early afternoon of Palm Sunday, March 28th, in Oxford's Sheldonian Theatre, Philip Pullman gave a…

A lot has been going on recently in blogs I sporadically visit (I am not a big reader myself). I thus thought I'd put together a list of valuable links here. First of all, Michael Schmitt deserves…

Out in the woods and wondering what the temperature is? Slip down to the nearest stand of deciduous trees to search for the wee Snowy Tree Cricket, Oecanthus Fultoni, part of the order orthoptera.…

Out in the woods of North America and wondering what the temperature is? Slip down to the nearest stand of deciduous trees and bushes to search for the wee Snowy Tree Cricket, Oecanthus Fultoni.…

About two dozen families of eurypterids “sea scorpions” are known from the fossil record. Although these ancient predators have a superficial similarity, including a defensive needle-like spike or…

Not long ago, I read J.R.R. Tolkien's mythopoeia masterpiece, The Silmarillion (his creation myth for the world of The Lord of the Rings). Upon finishing it, I immediately picked up Sparks of Life, a…

In my article on brain waves and consciousness I looked at some research associating gamma wave activity with consciousness. This is, however, a controversial area in that other researchers have…

You probably think that because I started a hybrid social media/science media darling like Scientific Blogging, adored by many, I must know a lot of people.   Just the opposite is true.  I…

When I was the president of an international private coeducational boarding school for teenagers with dyslexia and other kinds of learning disorders, I was frequently asked by parents to curtail…

When men starting eating meat it might have been necessity because human body cant make proteins from amino acids directly. Plants can utilize inorganic nitrogen and organic nitrogen sources to make…

The botanical garden of Justus Liebig Universitat where I visited with my daughter when she was less than two years old in 1976 for the first time has attracted me again and again. Some of the…

During course of evolution (  if you believe in theory of evolution ) cycads were once called as living fossil . Most of the plants of this group became extinct and fossil. However when Cycas…

Birds in general are impressive creatures, but the Supurb lyrebird takes the cake for its ability to mimic sounds. Here's a video demonstrating its ability to mimic construction sounds. You can…

"I love work, it fascinates me; I can sit and watch it for hours". J. K. Jerome