Science & Society

How The Media Hurt The Japanese People

How The Media Has Hurt The Japanese People First and foremost I have a personal message for the 180 or so heroes who have been working in shifts around the clock to save their nation from a worse disaster than the one that Japan has already suffered. To t ...

Article - Patrick Lockerby - Mar 24 2011 - 3:02pm

Bracket blowup for Etsy/NASA contest

Back in October I made my picks for the hotly contested Etsy/NASA contest.  And now the winners are announced.  Neither of my picks (stenciled glass bottles and wooden toy blocks for alien children) made it.  And, well, I'll say I'm not leaping u ...

Blog Post - Project Calliope - Mar 22 2011 - 9:35am

Are You Reassured?

There has clearly been enough controversy around the risks and hazards created by the Fukushima reactor problems over the past days.  Part of the controversy seems to originate with the idea that if a risk to public health is being suggested, then this is ...

Blog Post - Gerhard Adam - Mar 22 2011 - 2:53pm

A Pattern-oriented Approach to Complexity (PAC), an Introduction

Methodological Stuff: 1. Introduction 2: Patterns 3: Patterns, Objectivity and Truth 4: Patterns and Processes The Pattern Library: ...

Blog Post - Kees Pieters - Jun 17 2011 - 3:54am

Equal-Pay Day

Today, 12 April 2011, is “Equal-Pay Day” in the U.S. If you took the median-salary American man and the median-salary woman, and started paying them both on the first of 2010, today is the day when the woman will have finally earned what the man took in t ...

Blog Post - Barry Leiba - Apr 12 2011 - 6:00am

Which Science Kills More People?

Which science kills the most people each year?  Prompted by a quote-- "guns don't kill people-- physics kills people." ('3rd Rock from the Sun')-- it's time we look at which science really is the deadliest. So let's set u ...

Article - Alex "Sandy" Antunes - Mar 25 2011 - 4:42pm

The Web And The Creativity Bust

Imagine, if you will, a Borg cube from Star Trek humming along through space, part of a fleet of such cubes, each with millions of drones participating in a spatially non-localized brain of billions. Now imagine that this collective Borg brain has a heada ...

Article - Mark Changizi - Mar 27 2011 - 6:17pm

Autism, Community, Personality Traits, And The Chasm That Threatens

Spend anytime in the online autism community, and you'll find a rich cast of characters offering a diverse perspective on what it means to be autistic. From clinically diagnosed autistics in early adulthood to late middle age to individuals who have s ...

Article - Kim Wombles - Mar 26 2011 - 11:01pm

"Jaws" For Giant Squid

I just stumbled across a list of favorite ocean flicks, posted at The Film Pilgrim. The Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo make a necessary appearance, as do epic disaster shows like Titanic and The Perfect Storm. Then there's Jaws, which (arguably) prej ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Mar 27 2011 - 3:23pm

The War On Fat People Goes Global

Across the world, fewer people are buying the "I have a glandular disorder" excuse for obesity. As the average waistline increases but the numbers of obese people skew that result, society is getting less tolerant of heavier folk- even in culture ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 28 2011 - 5:07pm