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2009 L'Aquila Quake - Italian Seismologists To Go On Trial

2009 L'Aquila Quake - Italian Seismologists To Go On Trial

May 26 2011 | comment(s)

Beware of making bold claims about what your research might be able to accomplish when you need funding - a group of Italians have discovered society can look down on you even for claims you don't make. 

Judge Giuseppe Romano says Enzo Boschi, the president of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), and six others can face trial on charges of manslaughter because of the  earthquake that struck the central Italian town of L'Aquila April 6th, 2009 and killed 308 people.
Slaying Orcs For Cash? Chinese Prisons Don't Sound So Bad

Slaying Orcs For Cash? Chinese Prisons Don't Sound So Bad

May 26 2011 | comment(s)

Maybe prisons in totalitarian, communist regimes get a bad rap.   In America, citizens have to pay to play World of Warcraft and similar games but, at least in China, they have prisoners doing it and not paying anything at all.

Oh wait, maybe it isn't that great.  Leave it to the Chi-Com to take the fun out of video-gaming.   The Guardian lists the story of "Liu Dali", a pseudonym for a prisoner from 2004 to 2007, who was forced to play video games in 12 hour shifts to generate game 'currency' the guards would then sell for cash.
No SEAL Team 6 Christmas Stockings Any Time Soon

No SEAL Team 6 Christmas Stockings Any Time Soon

May 26 2011 | comment(s)

You may have been baffled when The Walt Disney Co. filed a trademark application on "SEAL Team 6" shortly after the Navy special operations unit killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan and took his stash of porn.

How does a company trademark an American military unit, you may have asked?    If they can do that, imagine what they could do to Science 2.0.  Well, it turns out that they realized they can't and being ridiculed across all media for their shameless cultural profiteering did not help matters much.   They have withdrawn their application since the Navy moved to block it.
Conjoined Twins Tatiana and Krista Hogan Share A Brain - Do They Share A Mind?

Conjoined Twins Tatiana and Krista Hogan Share A Brain - Do They Share A Mind?

May 26 2011 | comment(s)

Tatiana and Krista Hogan, age 4, are joined at the head — medical term craniopagus — a 1 in 2,500,000 event only a few survive.    But they have something that makes them even more distinct, even in the annals of medical literature; brain images show an attenuated line stretching between their two brains, what Dr. Douglas Cochrane of British Columbia Children’s Hospital called a thalamic bridge, because he believes it links the thalamus of one girl to the thalamus of her sister.

The thalamus is a kind of switchboard, a two-lobed organ that filters most sensory input and has long been thought to be essential in the neural loops that create consciousness.
Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan Say Obama Is Killing Space Program

Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell and Gene Cernan Say Obama Is Killing Space Program

May 26 2011 | comment(s)

50 years ago, Alan Shepard became the first American in space and President Kennedy challenged science, engineering and US citizenry to do what most thought to be impossible - put a man on the Moon.   They succeeded and that and successive space achievements spurred their interest in science and engineering among young people education.
HuffPo Idea Stolen? Lawsuit Goes Forward

HuffPo Idea Stolen? Lawsuit Goes Forward

May 25 2011 | comment(s)

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Ramos has denied a motion by lawyers for the Huffington Post to dismiss the lawsuit by Democratic political consultants Peter Daou and James Boyce that they brought the idea of the Huffington Post to subsequent co-founders Arianna Huffington and Kenneth Lerer in 2004 and were cut out of the deal after money was raised to launch and develop the site.

Huffington and Lerer said said the claims were "pure fantasy" but the judge did not agree.

NYC judge allows lawsuit against Huffington Post
Babies Are Not Eco-Friendly

Babies Are Not Eco-Friendly

May 23 2011 | comment(s)

Toni Vernelli thinks babies are not very eco-friendly.  She doesn't want to kill the planet but killing a baby seems to be okay.   Still, she's going to get some cultural flak for having an abortion because she thinks children are bad for the environment, and appearing in a news article despite that takes some courage.
10 Psychological Effects of Nonsexual Touch

10 Psychological Effects of Nonsexual Touch

May 23 2011 | comment(s)

10 papers outlining psychological research on how a simple (nonsexual) touch can increase compliance, helping behavior, attraction, and signal power.
 
To get around in the world, we mainly rely on our eyes and ears. Touch is a sense that's often forgotten.

But touch is also vital in the way we understand and experience the world. Even the lightest touch on the upper arm can influence the way we think. To prove it, here are 10 psychological effects which show just how powerful nonsexual touch can be.

Sociosexuality - Secret Sex Lives And Conservatives Versus Progressives

Sociosexuality - Secret Sex Lives And Conservatives Versus Progressives

May 23 2011 | comment(s)

In 1,993 responses to a Sex Survey questionnaire, responses consisted of 1,351 males and 642 females.   Progressives were over-represented (N=973), while Conservatives were under-represented (N=395).
Somali Pirates Who Actually Look Like They Could Be In 'Pirates Of The Caribbean'

Somali Pirates Who Actually Look Like They Could Be In 'Pirates Of The Caribbean'

May 22 2011 | comment(s)

These days, there are only two types of pirates that are important: Somali pirates and the "Pirates Of The Caribbean." As many teachers warn their students, Somali pirates are nowhere near as lovable as Captain Jack Sparrow and the seafaring renegades he bandies with. But if you look past their machine guns and grenade launchers (though you probably shouldn't), Somali pirates are often dressed just as interestingly as those pirates with a Hollywood costume designer. 
Natalie Portman In

Natalie Portman In "Thor" A Female Empowerment Issue?

May 22 2011 | comment(s)

If you haven't seen "Thor", I am not spoiling the movie for you if I tell you Natale Portman's character is an astronomer.   So what, you ask?   Indeed, Jodie Foster was an astronomer in "Contact", I wasn't aware there was any particular dearth of female astronomers in cinema, or in astronomy, but if you are a culture blogger who masquerades in science, and there are less than 50% of women in a field, then it's cause for concern.
Who was the most influential man in history?

Who was the most influential man in history?

May 22 2011 | comment(s)

What does writing amount to?   To writers, the question is irritating because the implication is 'doing' something is better than writing about it.    If we write about the physics of climate change on Science 2.0, or idiotic non-solutions to climate change like hybrid cars, ethanol and cap-and-trade schemes, we are not doing as much as someone who plants a tree or buys a Prius or whatever.

Shakespeare is an exception, argues Stephen Marche of National Post.  In fact, he is the most influential man who ever lived, he says.
My Time In A Syrian Prison

My Time In A Syrian Prison

May 22 2011 | comment(s)

Don't like Guantanamo?   In the mid-East, detention centers are the norm rather than an exception.   Dorothy Parvaz got a look inside Syria's secret prisons because her luggage had the misinfortune of containing a satellite phone and an internet hub.   And that was with an American passport and an Al Jazeera-sponsored visa.   You can imagine how Syrians get treated.  

Most of the our days were spent listening to the sounds of young men being brutally interrogated – sometimes tied up in stress positions until it sounded like their bones were cracking, as we saw from our bathroom window (a bathroom with no running water, except for one tap in a sink filled with roughly 10 cm of sewage).
Can OKCupid Mathematically Determine Online Dating Secrets?

Can OKCupid Mathematically Determine Online Dating Secrets?

May 22 2011 | comment(s)

Data mining is nothing new but a group of former math majors who started an online dating site think the maths can tell them something about people.

The founders of OkCupid say it can - they claim 7 million visitors per month and every six weeks,the writers create a blog posting there they sort members' online interactions and then make dating suggestions based on the results.

"It's our version of an advice column," says Sam Yagan, OkCupid's chief executive. "We love the fact that our own data tell us what works on a date."
 
WikiLeaks Shows Torture Works

WikiLeaks Shows Torture Works

May 21 2011 | comment(s)

As Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, devolved into a one-trick crusade against America in general, and George W. Bush in particular, he ironically began to do the one thing he did not want to do; he validated the Bush approach of using 'enhanced interrogation' on terrorists by documenting the instances so historians can see how much it helped.

The detainment approach, and Guantanamo Bay, have been shown by 765 illegally-obtained Wikileaks documents to actually be a crucial part of one of the most successful intelligence operations in history.  Oops.
Randy 'Macho Man' Savage Dies in Car Accident

Randy 'Macho Man' Savage Dies in Car Accident

May 20 2011 | comment(s)

Randy Savage, the "Oh Yeaaaah!" Macho Man with the unnatural tan and the gravelly voice, died in a car accident in Seminole, FL.   Savage, 58, apparently had a heart attack while driving and hit a tree.   If you ever heard him during a television broadcast, you likely thought he was having a heart attack at the time.    His neck was always bulging and virtually nothing he said was without hyper-exaggerated emotion.
Roswell UFO - Stalin Did It, Says Book

Roswell UFO - Stalin Did It, Says Book

May 19 2011 | comment(s)

Unless you have culturally been living under a rock, you have heard of Area 51 - Roswell, New Mexico.   Supposedly an alien spacecraft came down there in 1947 and a vast government conspiracy sprung up to build the thing and keep it secret for nearly 70 years.

Annie Jacobsen, journalist and contributing editor at the LA Times (they are thrilled about that plug) says the UFO was just a Soviet spy plane that came down due to weather.    But that isn't the end of it.    The Soviets, no strangers to eugenics, had staffed it with genetically engineered pilots, 'alien-like' children aged 12 or 13 and Stalin hoped to cause some panic in the U.S., a la the Orson Welles radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds" in 1939.
Evan Longoria Makes An Insane Bare-Handed Grab - But There's A Catch

Evan Longoria Makes An Insane Bare-Handed Grab - But There's A Catch

May 19 2011 | comment(s)

Evan Longoria is giving an interview to a reporter when a foul ball flies his way.  Because his Spider Sense tingles when a ball is in play, Longoria snatches it out of the air bare-handed.  

In my title, I used 'grab' and then 'catch' but catch, in the second instance of course, means a gimmick or trick, so I was being clever.  

As The Federal Ban On Incandescents Arrives, Get Ready For $50 LED Light Bulbs

As The Federal Ban On Incandescents Arrives, Get Ready For $50 LED Light Bulbs

May 18 2011 | comment(s)

LED bulbs will finally be bright enough to replace 100-watt incandescent light bulbs but there is a problem - they will cost $50 each.  And won't be available until after the ban.  And they produce almost as much heat as incandescent bulbs, making them ridiculously inefficient.

Advocates always believe in legislating perfectly healthy businesses out of existence because they contend 'the miracle of capitalism' will make the replacement they just subsidized and mandated through government fiat cheaper.   Well, why should they get cheaper when the government created a monopoly market?    If capitalism works, and $50 is a good price to pay for a light bulb, it doesn't need government bans on regular light bulbs.
Some Skepticism On TSA Full-Body X-Ray Scanners

Some Skepticism On TSA Full-Body X-Ray Scanners

May 18 2011 | comment(s)

Is going through one of the TSA porno-scanners (now at selected airports near you!) really safer than eating a banana?  

Let's hope so.   If you object, you are going to get groped, even if your child is a pre-school girl.   But White House science adviser John Holdren recently received a letter signed by five physics and medical professors professors noting that the scanners actually don't work all that well and the ion chamber used to test the scanners can get overwhelmed by the levels of radiation the backscatter deposits and might not have provided accurate readings in testing.