A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

New Icon!

2009-12-22T06:29:52Z

Oh, yeah, baby! Uploading that icon felt great!

Off to bed with me!

Posted to Krugman's blog and new icon

2009-12-22T06:12:41Z

I was persuaded to vote for Obama by my daughters. I have not regretted listening to them, as I still think he was the best of all the realistic choices available to the voters last year. As a scientist and educator, I’m actually quite satisfied with him, as he’s been very good for science, including billions of dollars from the stimulus, as I’ve written about here. However, my opinion isn’t what matters for his re-election; I’m not really the source of passion for his support. It’s the opinion of my daughters and their peers. If they fall out of love with Obama, then he’s in trouble.

The comment is awaiting moderation. ~~Let's see if the link to my Examiner.com article gets through--MOAR READERS!~~ Probably not. Damn.
In other news, I think I've found a new icon. I think I'll delete the "Unite /b/rothers" icon and store it on my desktop and Flickr account for when I get a paid LJ account.

Your science lesson for the Winter Solstice.

2009-12-21T08:06:38Z

LiveScience via MSNBC: The shortest day: The science of the solstice By Jeanna Bryner

You may think Mr. Frost's blustery entrance already occurred, but not officially. The winter solstice, and thus the official start of the chilly season on the astronomical calendar, begins Monday. More exactly, the winter solstice begins at 12:47 p.m. EST on Dec. 21.

Happy Solstice!

This is a story I tell my geology students.

2009-12-21T05:57:44Z

Wired: Why Geologists Love Beer By Betsy Mason

SAN FRANCISCO — Fact: Geologists love beer. There is abundant proof of this here at the American Geophysical Union meeting, the largest collection of earth scientists in the world. The talks, workshops and poster sessions go from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., but at 3:30 p.m. every day, for five days, kegs of beer are rolled out into the meeting. The beer flows nonstop for an hour and a half at around 10 different stations, and AGU organizers tell me they go through about 175 kegs during the week. “Every other convention assumes that if you have a beer, your brain goes soft,” said Kathy Sullivan, who has been serving beer at the AGU meeting for 26 years. ”But not the geophysicists. They think if you have a beer, you can still learn things. So they do.”

As a geologist, I know this first-hand. The Earth and Space Sciences Department at UCLA, where I earned my B.S., has been running a beer bust on Friday evenings for at least 35 years. Betsy Mason mentioned it--"I hear that at UCLA it’s known as Liquidus"--and got its name right. At Cal State Northridge, where I wrote my M.S. Thesis, all the student organizations that frequent the pub have their names up on the wall. The only academic assoication among them is the Geology Club. Every week of the regular academic year, the grad students and seniors would wash down their dinners there with beer and then go off to evening classes. The professors never seemed to object. Sometimes, they even drank with us.

Sometimes a spoon is not just a spoon

2009-12-20T06:35:20Z

Image ganked from jblaque.

My students spend two weeks on the lesson exemplified by this poster. They have to do a group research project on all the resources and energy required to make any number of common objects, including a plastic spoon. The point is to make them aware of all the resources and especially energy necessary to support their lifestyles. It's a very revealing exercise.

A Merry Watchmen Christmas to you all!

2009-12-19T09:38:39Z

Ganked from takhys on Journal Fen.

Dungeons and Dragons memories.

2009-12-18T06:21:42Z

From a comment I made here.

I played in a campaign from 1982-1989 that actively encouraged the players and GMs to make Monty Python references. During my time there, one of the other players ran a wizard named Tim, whose minature wore the rams's horn hood and red and black cloak of the character from the movie. I encountered at least one vorpal rabbit. Also, one of the players carried around The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch and the Book of Armaments. At least we didn't have a female player who ran a character named Zoot.

To make things worse, Monty Python ranked only fourth among the influences. The main influence was Ralph Bakshi's Wizards with Scorch, Montegar, and the entire post-nuclear-war fantasy ambience. The secondary influence was Lord of the Rings, which should be a given for any campaign that started in the 1970s (this campaign was an offshoot of one that started at Cal Tech in 1975 or 1976 and claimed to be the oldest campaign on the West Coast). Michael Moorcock's Melnibone, complete with Stormbringer and Mournblade ranked third. To top it all off, the planet was inside the Romulan Neutral Zone, which meant that sufficiently advanced aliens occasionally dropped by. Somehow, the players and GMs made it all work. Fun times.

BTW, when my children got old enough to play D&D, they played in an offshot of this campaign. The last game they played in it was in 1999. That means the campaign setting went nearly 25 years.

UPDATE: Charges dropped in "New Moon" birthday party taping incident

2009-12-17T06:34:19Z

Common sense prevails in the case described in my previous post and crossposted to unfunnybusiness on JournalFen. Hollywood Reporter: Charges dropped in 'New Moon' incident

CHICAGO -- Charges have been dropped against a 22-year-old Chicago woman accused of videotaping part of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" at a movie theater. Cook County prosecutors on Friday announced in court that they won't pursue charges against Samantha Tumpach.

It helped that she had the support of the movie's director. Hollywood Reporter's THR, Esq. blog: Chris Weitz defends 'New Moon' pirate; Summit stays mum

Samantha Tumpach, 22, claims she was merely filming scenes at a Chicago-area Muvico Theater for her sister's 29th birthday party. Now, after being arrested and charged with a rarely invoked felony designed to prevent movie bootlegging, Tumpach has attracted an ally in her defense. "New Moon" director Chris Weitz tells the Chicago Sun-Times that "the case seems to me terribly unfair and I would like to do what I can to address this."

More at the Chicago Tribune, which ends with a mention of a possible lawsuit against the theater. Techdirt is not optimistic about the suit's prospects. Thanks to manekikoneko for alerting me to the news that the charges against Samantha Tumpach had been dropped.

Crossposted to ~~unfunnybusiness over on JournalFen. The article is awaiting moderation~~ sparlefield on JournalFen. It never made it through moderation for unfunnybusiness. :-(

Woman tapes New Moon as part of a birthday party and may go to prison for three years

2009-12-16T06:15:38Z

Originally posted to unfunnybusiness on JournalFen. Sixty-four comments and counting. 'New Moon' taping may put woman in prison

(CNN) -- A birthday celebration that culminated in a trip to catch the blockbuster movie "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" could land 22-year-old Samantha Tumpach in prison for three years. The Chicago, Illinois-area woman captured three minutes of the film on her videocamera while taping part of her sister's surprise party at a Muvico theater in Rosemont. Theater managers contacted police, who arrested Tumpach. She spent two days in jail. Now she faces a felony charge of illegally copying a movie. "The motion picture industry has encouraged theater owners to adopt a 'zero-tolerance' policy prohibiting the video or audio recording of any portion of a movie," Muvico Entertainment, which oversees the theater, told HLN's "Prime News." Attempts to reach Tumpach and any representation were unsuccessful.

Not only is CNN's legal analyst appalled, so are the many commenters. Related: US Trade Rep weasels and squirms when cornered on an airplane and questioned about secret copyright treaty Folks, the copyright fail is only going to get worse.

UPDATE: manekikoneko pointed out that the charges have been dropped. Hollywood Reporter: Charges dropped in 'New Moon' incident

CHICAGO -- Charges have been dropped against a 22-year-old Chicago woman accused of videotaping part of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" at a movie theater. Cook County prosecutors on Friday announced in court that they won't pursue charges against Samantha Tumpach.

I'll be posting a new entry in unfunnybusiness about this and reposting it here.

No, it's not "Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem."

2009-12-15T05:24:39Z

It's the Silent Monk Flashcard Chorus!

Stages of Grief over Climate Change.

2009-12-14T16:04:55Z

The levels of both denial and anger seem to be increasing, based on the number of angry denialist comments I've seen on blogs and news stories the past month. I think we're seeing the Kübler-Ross model in action.

First, an observation about denial.

Wired: The Psychology of Climate Change Denial

Studies published since then have only strengthened the IPCC’s predictions, or suggested they underestimate future warming. But as world leaders gather in Copenhagen to discuss how to avoid catastrophic climate change, barely half the U.S. public thinks carbon pollution could warm Earth. That’s 20 percent less than in 2007, and lower than at any point in the last 12 years. In a Pew Research Center poll, Americans ranked climate dead last out of 20 top issues, behind immigration and trade policy.

Next, a hypothesis about anger.

Krugman's NYT Blog: Climate rage

What I think is that we’re looking at two cultural issues.

First, environmentalism is the ultimate “Mommy party” issue. Real men punish evildoers; they don’t adjust their lifestyles to protect the planet. (Here’s some polling to that effect.)

Second, climate change runs up against the anti-intellectual streak in America.

...

An important part of the population just doesn’t want to believe in the kind of world in which we have to limit our appetites on the say-so of fancy experts. And so they angrily deny the whole thing.

So, when is the society going to move on to bargaining, depression, and acceptance?

The EFF on Facebook's new privacy settings.

2009-12-13T08:15:40Z

Hat/Tip to nebris for bringing this to my attention. He'll give credit to Warren Ellis.

Facebook's New Privacy Changes: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Commentary by Kevin Bankston

Five months after it first announced coming privacy changes this past summer, Facebook is finally rolling out a new set of revamped privacy settings for its 350 million users. The social networking site has rightly been criticized for its confusing privacy settings, most notably in a must-read report by the Canadian Privacy Commissioner issued in July and most recently by a Norwegian consumer protection agency. We're glad to see Facebook is attempting to respond to those privacy criticisms with these changes, which are going live this evening. Unfortunately, several of the claimed privacy "improvements" have created new and serious privacy problems for users of the popular social network service.

The new changes are intended to simplify Facebook's notoriously complex privacy settings and, in the words of today's privacy announcement to all Facebook users, "give you more control of your information." But do all of the changes really give Facebook users more control over their information? EFF took a close look at the changes to figure out which ones are for the better — and which ones are for the worse.

Our conclusion? These new "privacy" changes are clearly intended to push Facebook users to publicly share even more information than before. Even worse, the changes will actually reduce the amount of control that users have over some of their personal data.

Not to say that many of the changes aren't good for privacy. But other changes are bad, while a few are just plain ugly.

Click on the link. Anyone on Facebook will find this well worth reading.

Warning Label Meme

2009-12-12T06:49:28Z

Ganked from underlankers.

If I came with a warning label, what would it say?

This should be entertaining--if anyone responds.

A Day on the Internet

2009-12-12T04:16:08Z

You'll be amazed.

Created by Online Education

Welcome to Detroit, where the weak are killed and eaten--even buildings!

2009-12-11T06:01:18Z

From Examiner.com: Former Kmart headquarters attacked by tank
Detroit Business Development Examiner Rick Weaver

The main entrance of the former Kmart International Headquarters building has been attacked by an army tank leaving a gapping hole in the front of the building where billions of dollars of transactions once took place. The attack was necessary as terrorists had taken siege of the building, holding it for ransom.

According to spokesperson, Peter Silverman, the scene was not as criminal as it may have seemed. The building's owners had allowed the siege and bombardment as part of the remake of "Red Dawn", a film being released in November, 2010.

"We were authorized to do whatever is necessary to film the scene," said Silverman, "under the condition we put everything back the way it was before we started."

My comment at the link was I have to admit, you wrote an attention grabbing headline. Even better, it made for an engaging truth is stranger than fiction story. Congratulations.

Now, what do you have planned for next April 1st?

Oh, yeah, since this is about the remake of "Red Dawn," I'm going to add one more comment.

WOLVERINES!

It's a guy thing

2009-12-10T06:46:00Z

Thanks to kaligreeneyes for the title.

Today's weather follies

2009-12-10T06:16:23Z

Follow up to last night's post. Thanks to all of you who expressed your concern; I'll get back to you if I haven't already.

On my Facebook, I posted that I was "not looking forward to the drive today." More than the drive went wrong.

First, I opened my back storm door to go to work this afternoon and the wind caught the door and pulled it out of my hand, opening it all the way and slamming it across my neighbor's door. Two of the three hinge fixtures broke along with the spring that closes the door. The only things holding the door on are the bottom hinge plate/bolt and the chain at the top, which is supposed to prevent the door from being opened this far and fast. This evening, I came in through the front door, which I almost never do. The only good thing about the door is that I don't own it (kaligreeneyes and I rent).

On the way into work, I saw one car off the road. On the way back, the freeway was in better shape most of the way, but I saw eight cars off the road. I also had to get off the freeway and take surface streets because the freeway had turned into a skating rink and traffic slowed to a crawl for two miles about 10 miles from home.

Welcome to winter in Michigan!

It's winter and I'm lucky to make this post

2009-12-09T06:53:12Z

I fucking spun out on the freeway on the way home. I was lucky that I didn't run into a wall, get hit by another car, or slide off the road, and managed to make it home in another hour and a half. I had decided to find a room for the night when the weather finally cleared up enough and I had calmed down enough to drive home.

Note the "music." No one is driving past right now and it's deadly silent.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pour me a drink.

Last week's science news from Daily Kos

2009-12-08T16:55:00Z

Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (Next week, Copenhagen edition)

Top Story

Welcome to Science Saturday, where the Overnight News Digest crew informs and entertains you with this week's news about science, space, and the environment.

This week's featured story comes from Discovery News.

Flashback: Images From the Week's News

Take a look back at the top stories of the past week in the Discovery News Flashback Slide Show.

More on these and other science, space, and environment stories after the jump.

Recent Science Diaries and Stories

bklynarch: Vietnam Puts the Pedal to the Metal - Germany Pumps the Brakes

chparadise: To the climate change deniers and trolls of the world

JimCummings: Bias in Military (or Conservation) Funded Ocean Noise Research

NellaSelim: Free Spirit!

DarkSyde did not post "This Week in Science" today.

Slideshows/Videos

MSNBC: Month in Space: November 2009

Get fresh perspectives on the Crab Nebula, the Milky Way and other wonders in November's roundup of out-of-this-world imagery.

MSNBC: A beer from ‘outer space’

A Japanese beer maker unveils “Space Barley” beer that is brewed with barley grown on the International Space Station. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.

MSNBC: 5,000 computers hijacked to search for UFOs

Discovery News: Top Monkey and Ape News Videos of 2009

Explore our top clips of the year starring monkeys, apes, chimps and some of our other primate pals.

Astronomy/Space

Space.com via MSNBC: Life of family of stars revealed in new photo

The life of a large family of stars has been revealed in stunning detail by a technique that removes the blurring effects of Earth's atmosphere.

The young star cluster Trumpler 14 can be seen clearly in the new image taken by the adaptive optics system on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT).

The snapshot represents the largest patch of sky yet to be imaged with adaptive optics. The technique counteracts interference from Earth's atmosphere by making swift, real-time changes in the shape of a telescope's mirror during observations.

Space.com via MSNBC: Mystery looms over possible brown dwarf star

Astronomers say they have taken the first direct image of a planet-like object orbiting a star much like our own sun.

A similar breakthrough was announced last year, when astronomers unveiled direct images of a single-planet and multiple-planet system. However, the host stars of such systems are stellar giants that are much more massive than the sun.

The images of this newly identified object were taken in May and August during early test runs of a new planet-hunting instrument on the Hawaii-based Subaru Telescope.

Discovery News via MSNBC: SpaceShipTwo rocket plane set for unveiling
By Irene Klotz

While NASA frets over a looming hiatus in its ability to launch people into space, a commercial company is poised to unveil the first spaceship for private passenger travel.

The formal presentation of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is scheduled for Monday afternoon in California's Mojave Desert, the home base of legendary designer Burt Rutan and his team at Scaled Composites.

"Suborbital flights is the area where commercial human spaceflight will start," said Bretton Alexander, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation trade association.

Evolution/Paleontology

National Science Foundation via US News and World Report: What Killed Ice-Age Animals? Lakes and Trees Provide Surprising Clues

Researchers seeking to find out what happened to the ecosystem with the extinction of ancient large plant-eating animals may have raised intriguing new questions about what killed the animals off in the first place.

A series of profound changes to the surrounding landscape likely occurred as a result of the dying of such creatures as mammoths and mastodons, which began their decline in North America about 15,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age, according to a team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The extinction of these herbivores apparently prompted a proliferation of broadleaved trees and, ultimately, the accumulation of woody debris that contributed to a dramatic increase in wildfires.

The researchers also determined that the decline of these animals apparently was gradual, meaning it was not likely they died from some sudden event.

Biodiversity

National Science Foundation via US News and World Report: New Technique Identifies Sharks by Their Chomp

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Hit-and-run attacks by sharks can be solved with a new technique that identifies the culprits by the unique chomp they put on their victims, according to a University of Florida researcher and shark expert.

In a method analogous to analyzing human fingerprints, scientists can make identifications by precisely comparing shark bites to the jaws and teeth of the powerful predators, said George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File, which is housed at UF's Florida Museum of Natural History.

"Every time we investigate a shark attack one of the pieces of information that we want to have is what species was involved and what size it was," he said. "Because I've been looking at shark attack victims for 30 years I can estimate what did the damage, but I have never been able to actually prove it."

Science News via US News and World Report: Poached Hammerhead DNA Traced to Endangered Populations
By Rachel Ehrenberg, Science News

Demand for shark fin soup has pummeled hammerhead shark populations. And some of those sharks are taken from already decimated stocks, finds a new analysis that uses DNA to pinpoint the origins of hammerhead fins sold at market.

A team reported the findings online December 1 in Endangered Species Research. The approach could boost the case for protecting hammerheads and could be applied to other shark species, many of which are also threatened by the fin trade.

Twenty-one percent of hammerhead fins sampled from 11 Hong Kong markets were taken from sharks living in the western Atlantic Ocean, where the species is listed as endangered, the study found. “Finning” typically involves cutting off the fin and then throwing the shark back in the ocean where it sinks and dies.

Biotechnology/Health

BioTech Daily: New Technology for 3D Whole Genome Mapping Research

Scientists in Singapore report a technologic development in the study of gene expression and regulation in the genome’s three-dimensional (3D) folding and looping state through the development of an innovative technology.

The technology is called ChIA-PET (Chromatin Interaction Analysis using Paired End Tag sequencing). Chromatin is a complex combination of DNA and proteins that comprise chromosomes.

The study was published online November 5, 2009, in the journal Nature, by scientists from the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) “Many studies have found that regions of the genome which are not near genes are very important in controlling disease,” said Melissa Fullwood, Ph.D., first author of the research article and member of a team of GIS scientists led by Yijun Ruan, Ph.D., senior group leader and associate director of genomic technologies, and senior research scientist Edwin Cheung, Ph.D.

Hat/Tip to palantir for this story.

Science News via US News and World Report: Amino Acid Recipe Could be Life-Extending
By Tina Hesman Saey, Science News

Long life may stem from a proper imbalance of dietary nutrients.

A new study in fruit flies suggests that the life-extending properties of caloric restriction may be due not only to fewer calories in the diet, but also to just the right mix of protein building blocks, called amino acids. The study, published online December 2 in Nature, may help explain some of the health benefits of restricted-calorie diets.

Coupled with other data, the new study should prompt researchers to reevaluate whether it is calorie count or the nutrient composition of a diet that is most important for regulating lifespan and health, comments Luigi Fontana of Washington University in St. Louis.

Science News via US News and World Report: Gene Stops Tumors, but Only When It's Gone
By Tina Hesman Saey, Science News

There are times when nothing at all is better than a half measure.

One of those times is when a cell becomes cancerous. The loss of one copy of a regulatory gene called DICER1 is enough to turn tumors deadly, while losing both can actually stop cancer, shows a new study led by researchers at MIT. The discovery, published online November 10 in Genes & Development, suggests that many other genes working at half capacity may also accelerate tumor growth.

The finding is a surprise because, normally, cells must lose both copies of tumor suppressor genes before cancer starts. One working copy is usually enough to protect cells.

National Science Foundation via US News and World Report: 'The Pill' for Him

A new research report published in the December 2009 print issue of The FASEB Journal could one day give men similar type of control over their fertility that women have had since the 1960s. That's because scientists have found how and where androgenic hormones work in the testis to control normal sperm production and male fertility. This opens a promising avenue for the development of "the pill" for men. The discovery also offers hope to those who cannot have children because of low sperm counts. Although the research was conducted in mice, a similar effect is likely to obtain in other mammals, such as humans.

National Science Foundation via US News and World Report: Smart Phones Carry Out Quick Medical Diagnoses

CHICAGO – Radiologists can accurately diagnose acute appendicitis from a remote location with the use of a handheld device or mobile phone equipped with special software, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

"The goal is to improve the speed and accuracy of medical diagnoses, as well as to improve communications among different consulting physicians," said the study's lead author, Asim F. Choudhri, M.D., fellow physician in the Division of Neuroradiology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "When we can make these determinations earlier, the appropriate surgical teams and equipment can be assembled before the surgeon even has the chance to examine the patient."

Appendicitis, or inflammation and infection of the appendix, is a medical emergency requiring surgical removal of the organ. Undiagnosed or left untreated, the inflamed appendix will rupture, causing toxins to spill into the abdominal cavity and potentially causing a life-threatening infection. Appendicitis can occur at any age but is most common in people between the ages of 10 and 30, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Climate/Environment

Sydney Morning Herald (Australia): Zealotry enough to spook you

John Carroll wonders whether we are being whipped into obedience by the fervour of pseudo-religious fundamentalism.

Almost everyone who contributes to the deluge of comment on climate change speaks as an amateur. From politicians to journalists, from academics to scientists, many outside their specialisations, they are not trained in a discipline congruent with their argument. Nor am I.

I leave alone those elements of the debate unclear to me. The rest of my contribution here is built on experience of theories and arguments across a broad range of human problems, on some capacity to judge their plausibility and professional work in social, historical and psychological theories, as well as training in mathematics and economics.

Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.

Science News via US News and World Report: Ocean's CO2 Uptake is Not Constant
By Sid Perkins, Science News

Data gathered by cargo ships plying the North Atlantic between 2002 and 2007 show that the ability of surface waters there to sop up CO2 varies considerably but somewhat predictably from year to year. The finding may help scientists better estimate the future rate at which the planet-warming gas will build up in the atmosphere.

Ups and downs in the ocean’s CO2 uptake are important to atmospheric levels because globally, the portion of the gas that isn’t absorbed by oceans or taken up by land plants accumulates in the atmosphere.

The newly released, six-year set of oceanographic data is the largest of its kind, says Arne Körtzinger, a chemical oceanographer at the Leibniz Institute for Marine Sciences in Kiel, Germany. While scientific research vessels are limited to occasional cruises, cargo ships constantly cross the oceans, he notes.

Science News via US News and World Report: Forest Fires Could Spread Pollutants
By Janet Raloff, for Science News' Science & the Public Blog

NEW ORLEANS—Forest fires have the potential to release toxic industrial and agricultural pollutants previously trapped on soil. After glomming onto smoke particles, these chemicals can hitch long-distance rides — sometimes across oceans — before they’re grounded again and contaminate some new region, scientists report.

In the case of pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, these pollutants can land in regions where the compounds are now banned — or even in the Arctic, where they were never used.

And with global warming, the frequency of forest fires is projected to increase, according to the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Geology

The Daily Mail (UK): How a prehistoric 'super river' turned Britain into an island nation
By Claire Bates

A prehistoric 'super-river' is the reason why Britain became an island and was cut off from Europe.

An Anglo-French study has revealed that long before the English Channel there was a giant river which ran south from an area of the North Sea.

Previous research found that 500,000 years ago a range of low hills connected Britain to Europe between the Weald in South-East England and Artois in northern France.

Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.

Psychology/Behavior

National Science Foundation via US News and World Report: Believers’ Inferences About God’s Beliefs are Egocentric

Religious people tend to use their own beliefs as a guide in thinking about what God believes, but are less constrained when reasoning about other people’s beliefs, according to new study published in the Nov. 30 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Nicholas Epley, professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, led the research, which included a series of survey and neuroimaging studies to examine the extent to which people’s own beliefs guide their predictions about God’s beliefs. The findings of Epley and his co-authors at Australia’s Monash University and UChicago extend existing work in psychology showing that people are often egocentric when they infer other people’s beliefs.

The PNAS paper reports the results of seven separate studies. The first four include surveys of Boston rail commuters, UChicago undergraduate students and a nationally representative database of online respondents in the United States. In these surveys, participants reported their own belief about an issue and their estimation of God’s belief, along with their assessment of beliefs held by others, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Major League Baseball’s Barry Bonds, President George W. Bush, and an average American.

Science News via US News and World Report: One is the Loneliest, Most Contagious Number
By Lisa Grossman, Science News

Staying socially connected may be just as important for public health as washing your hands and covering your cough. A new study suggests that feelings of loneliness can spread through social networks like the common cold.

“People on the edge of the network spread their loneliness to others and then cut their ties,” says Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School in Boston, a coauthor of the new study in the December Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. “It’s like the edge of a sweater: You start pulling at it and it unravels the network.”

This study is the latest in a series that Christakis and James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego have conducted to see how habits and feelings move through social networks. Their earlier studies suggested that obesity, smoking and happiness are contagious.

National Science Foundation via US News and World Report: Study Finds Men and Women Respond Differently to Danger

CHICAGO – Researchers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study brain activation have found that men and women respond differently to positive and negative stimuli, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

"Men may direct more attention to sensory aspects of emotional stimuli and tend to process them in terms of implications for required action, whereas women direct more attention to the feelings engendered by emotional stimuli," said Andrzej Urbanik, M.D., Ph.D., chair of Radiology at Jagiellonian University Hospital in Krakow, Poland.

For the study, Dr. Urbanik and colleagues recruited 40 right-handed volunteers, 21 men and 19 women, between the ages of 18 and 36. The volunteers underwent fMRI while viewing pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS), a widely used, standardized testing system comprised of several thousand slides of various objects and images from ordinary life designed to evoke defined emotional states. The images were displayed in two runs. For the first run, only negative pictures were shown. For the second run, only positive pictures were shown.

Archeology/Anthropology

Science News via US News and World Report: Debate Over Evidence of Mass Cannibalism
By Bruce Bower, Science News

At a settlement in what is now southern Germany, the menu turned gruesome 7,000 years ago. Over a period of perhaps a few decades, hundreds of people were butchered and eaten before parts of their bodies were thrown into oval pits, a new study suggests.

Cannibalism at the village, now called Herxheim, may have occurred during ceremonies in which people from near and far brought slaves, war prisoners or other dependents for ritual sacrifice, propose anthropologist Bruno Boulestin of the University of Bordeaux 1 in France and his colleagues. A social and political crisis in central Europe at that time triggered various forms of violence, the researchers suspect.

“Human sacrifice at Herxheim is a hypothesis that’s difficult to prove right now, but we have evidence that several hundred people were eaten over a brief period,” Boulestin says. Skeletal markings indicate that human bodies were butchered in the same way as animals.

Newswise.com: Researchers Uncover Pictured Rocks History
Source: Northern Michigan University

Newswise — Researchers from the Northern Michigan University geography department recently completed a three-year project at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore that uncovered 23 new archaeological sites and reconstructed the Nipissing shoreline as it looked about 4,500 years ago.

John Anderton, head of the department, said the National Park Service supported the effort to locate cultural resources so they remain protected in future plans for road improvements and other developments.

Chester Chronicle (UK): Remains of Roman tower discovered during City Walls repair project in Chester
Dec 2 2009 Chester Chronicle

THE well-preserved remains of a Roman tower used by guards patrolling Chester’s City Walls has been discovered by archaeologists repairing a section which collapsed near the Eastgate Clock.

Interval towers were placed regularly every 65m or so along the rear of the main fortress wall and acted as lookout points and as bases for roman artillery. The tower has been found beneath the foundation of the city wall.

Yorkshire Post (UK): 'Pillaging' Vikings unmasked as eco warriors
By Paul Jeeves

THEIR reputation for raping and pillaging may not have set them out as the ideal role-models for an environmentally-friendly way of life.

But it seems that lessons could perhaps be learnt from the Vikings after the intriguing discovery in Yorkshire of what is believed to be a metal recycling centre dating back to the 11th century.

Historians and metal detector enthusiasts have made the find which is being heralded as evidence of how the Norse invaders recycled their fearsome array of weapons.

Thanh Nien News (Vietnam): Storming a historic bastion

As befits a capital city that celebrates its 1,000th anniversary next year, the soil of Hanoi continues to yield vestiges of its glorious past.

A recently ended two-year excavation covering 2,626 square meters at No.62-64 Tran Phu Street in Ba Dinh District has thrown up 14th and 15th century artifacts like glazed dishes, ceramic pottery and iron ware.

...

However, scientists from Vietnam Archaeology Institute, which initiated the excavation, said the most amazing finding for them was the section of a street with lemon flower-carved tiles, a typical architectural feature of the Tran Dynasty (1226-1397).

The History Blog: Shakespearian shoes on show

The Museum of London is putting some Shakespeare-themed shoes on display in its Docklands branch. Punningly named “Treading the Bards“, the exhibit features centuries of footwear donned by actors and written about by Shakespeare.

One pair of Elizabethan slip-on shoes were found on the site of the Rose Theater. Another was once worn by famous actor and inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula Sir Henry Irving.

Sydney Morning Herald (Australia): Wreck may hold clue to nation's discovery
STEVE MEACHAM

DID American whalers discover the east coast of Australia before Captain Cook?

That is the intriguing question a crack team of maritime archaeologists, divers and marine scientists hope to answer when they sail tomorrow for a remote reef 450 kilometres off the coast of Queensland.

The expedition leader, Kieran Hosty, describes the 200-year-old mystery of Wreck Reef as one of the great untold sagas of our maritime history.

The Australian (duh!): Yungaba's is a history that should not be lost
David Malouf

YUNGABA is one of three public buildings -- Customs House and the Treasury (now the casino) are the others -- that were designed by Queensland's government architect J.J. Clarke.

Like its companions, its "modern renaissance" style was meant to give the largely weatherboard township of Brisbane in the 1880s a hint of grandeur for the city it might become.

The time is coming -- it is not far off -- when the mid-19th century will seem as remote to young Brisbanites as the Elizabethan age or second-century Alexandria. It will be good then to turn to these buildings and see them as both antique and familiar, as having a "romantic" past and feel that is their own.

Houma Today (Louisiana): Ghost hunters claim apparition led them to bones in Gibson
By Raymond Legendre

SCHRIEVER — The mysterious vision of a man with no lower body and a pair of overalls draped atop his broad shoulders that they saw near a white house built on a reported Indian burial ground raised their antennae that something strange was afoot.

And, one week later, when the members of the local paranormal investigations group H.I.T. MEN went inside 234 Fandal St. in Gibson, they were not disappointed.

While touring the house as prospective buyers last Saturday, Jim Boudreaux and brothers Benton and Frank Lavoi say they found about 100 human bones scattered across the basement floor and notified authorities.

Hat/Tip to annetteboardman, who sent in the above articles.

Physics

Science News via US News and World Report: In Search of the Perfect Cloak
By Laura Sanders, Science News

Tiny charged particles could reveal the location of a perfect invisibility cloak. Such a cloak — which exists only in theory at the moment — would render an object invisible by gently deflecting photons around it. But charged particles wouldn’t be fooled: they would interact with the cloak in a telltale way, giving up the cloak’s location, researchers report in a paper to appear in an upcoming Physical Review Letters.

Cloaking research is in its early days (SN: 11/21/09, p. 18). Special materials that trick specific wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation into bending around an object, rather than bouncing off of it, are at the heart of the new field. New devices can partly disguise tiny objects at specific wavelengths, but a cloak that perfectly hides objects at all wavelengths of radiation — including AM radio waves, visible light and X-rays — would be extremely difficult to create.

One of the easiest ways to expose a less-than-perfect cloak would be to bombard it with radiation in a wavelength outside of the cloak’s range. For instance, if a cloak only guards against a specific shade of green, then blue or red light would reveal the object. Only a perfect cloak could keep an object hidden at all wavelengths.

National Science Foundation via US News and World Report: Nanowires Hold the Key to Future Electronics

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.—A new generation of ultrasmall transistors and more powerful computer chips using tiny structures called semiconducting nanowires are closer to reality after a key discovery by researchers at IBM, Purdue University and the University of California at Los Angeles.

The researchers have learned how to create nanowires with layers of different materials that are sharply defined at the atomic level, which is a critical requirement for making efficient transistors out of the structures.

"Having sharply defined layers of materials enables you to improve and control the flow of electrons and to switch this flow on and off," said Eric Stach, an associate professor of materials engineering at Purdue.

Chemistry

National Science Foundation via US News and World Report: First Metallic Nanoparticles Resistant to Extreme Heat

PITTSBURGH—A University of Pittsburgh team overcame a major hurdle plaguing the development of nanomaterials such as those that could lead to more efficient catalysts used to produce hydrogen and render car exhaust less toxic. The researchers reported Nov. 29 in Nature Materials the first demonstration of high-temperature stability in metallic nanoparticles, the vaunted next-generation materials hampered by a vulnerability to extreme heat.

Götz Veser, an associate professor and CNG Faculty Fellow of chemical and petroleum engineering in Pitt's Swanson School of Engineering, and Anmin Cao, the paper's lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in Veser's lab, created metal-alloy particles in the range of 4 nanometers that can withstand temperatures of more than 850 degrees Celsius, at least 250 degrees more than typical metallic nanoparticles. Forged from the catalytic metals platinum and rhodium, the highly reactive particles work by dumping their heat-susceptible components as temperatures rise, a quality Cao likened to a gecko shedding its tail in self-defense.

Energy

Discovery News: Could Christmas Lights Destroy Your Holiday?
By James Williams

Here’s some sour eggnog to go with your holiday cookies…

This week the European Commission came out with a report saying 30% of the Christmas lights they sampled in parts of Europe pose a “serious safety risk.” And by “serious safety risk” they mean “high risk of electric shock” and “overheating and fire.” THIS IS NOT GOOD FOR HOLIDAY CHEER.

The sampling of Christmas lights came from Hungary, Germany, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Netherlands. So what about the U.S.? How safe are our lights?

I asked Nychelle Fleming, Spokesperson for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission what the deal was.

Science, Space, Environment, and Energy Policy

National Science Foundation via US News and World Report: Forty Years of Women Researchers in Antarctica

Colin Bull began fighting in 1959 to get the U.S. Navy to allow women scientists to go to Antarctica, and kept it up until he won, a decade later. He couldn't understand the Navy's reluctance. "Have you ever seen a female scientist with a parka on?" he said. "She is virtually indistinguishable from a male scientist with a parka on."

Eventually the Navy relented, and allowed women scientists onto the continent in 1969. Bull, then director of Ohio State University's Institute of Polar Studies, assembled an all-women scientific research team that arrived in Antarctica in October 1969, for a four-month research expedition. The following month, they also became the first women to step onto the South Pole.

"What the U.S. Navy was worried about was incomprehensible to me," Bull said recently, not long after the 40th anniversary of the mission. "It was utterly stupid."

Examiner.com: Both Michigan State and Michigan faculty involved in upcoming Copenhagen conference
Vince Lamb, Detroit Science News Examiner

In independent announcements, both Michigan State University and University of Michigan revealed Tuesday, December 1st, that one or more of their faculty members would be involved with policy decisions concerning climate change. MSU reported that Associate Professor of Economics Jinhua Zhao has recently been appointed to a three-year term on the Environmental Economics Advisory Committee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board. He has also been reported as advising Swedish officials as they develop proposals for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen later this week. Nearly simultaneously, the University of Michigan announced that a group of three professors and nine students will be attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Science Education

The World Link: Kids dig history
By Jessica Musicar, Staff Writer

NORTH BEND — Remnants of some ancient culture probably don’t exist next to North Bend High School’s east parking lot.

Yet, dozens of history students have unearthed old cell phones, chunks of metal and other artifacts buried by their teacher, during an archaeology lesson meant to show that history doesn’t start with facts in a dusty text.

It’s a living study of culture that can change with new discoveries often made with lots of planning, research, muscle and some gardening tools.

Hat/Tip to annetteboardman for this story.

Science is Cool

National Science Foundation via US News and World Report: Facebook Profiles Capture Your True Personality

Online social networks such as Facebook are being used to express and communicate real personality, instead of an idealized virtual identity, according to new research from psychologist Sam Gosling at The University of Texas at Austin.

"I was surprised by the findings because the widely held assumption is that people are using their profiles to promote an enhanced impression of themselves," says Gosling of the more than 700 million people worldwide who have online profiles. "In fact, our findings suggest that online social networking profiles convey rather accurate images of the profile owners, either because people aren't trying to look good or because they are trying and failing to pull it off.

"These findings suggest that online social networks are not so much about providing positive spin for the profile owners," he adds, "but are instead just another medium for engaging in genuine social interactions, much like the telephone."

National Science Foundation via US News and World Report: Does “Planet 51” Really Exist?
—By Leslie Fink

The new animated film "Planet 51" (TriStar) boldly takes astronaut Capt. Chuck Baker where no one has gone before: to a life-harboring planet outside our solar system. There he finds a quaint 1950s society of little green people who are afraid of anything (or any one) that is different.

"In 1950s America, the drive-in was king and screen heroes fought invaders from outer space," said director Jorge Blanco. "But it was also a time of incredible social paranoia—people actually believed that their neighbor could be an undercover agent trying to take over their minds."

"Shreck" screenwriter Joe Stillman unfolds the plot from there with thinly veiled spoofs of communist sympathizers, McCarthy-esque finger pointing, scientific ignorance and social change that will be lost on younger viewers but amusing to grown ups.

Looks like the employees of Goldman Sachs aren't taking any chances.

2009-12-07T16:28:43Z

Bloomberg: Arming Goldman With Pistols Against Public: Alice Schroeder
Commentary by Alice Schroeder

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- “I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank.

I called Goldman Sachs spokesman Lucas van Praag to ask whether it’s true that Goldman partners feel they need handguns to protect themselves from the angry proletariat. He didn’t call me back. The New York Police Department has told me that “as a preliminary matter” it believes some of the bankers I inquired about do have pistol permits. The NYPD also said it will be a while before it can name names.

While we wait, Goldman has wrapped itself in the flag of Warren Buffett, with whom it will jointly donate $500 million, part of an effort to burnish its image -- and gain new Goldman clients. Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein also reversed himself after having previously called Goldman’s greed “God’s work” and apologized earlier this month for having participated in things that were “clearly wrong.”

Hat/Tip to Matt Taibbi, who snarked about this story in Goldman Sachs Arms Itself.

Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley Vice Chairman Rob Kindler is driving around with this plate on a Porche.

Stay classy, Wall Street, stay classy.

Time to brag

2009-12-06T05:55:56Z

Check out this screenshot. It's of the Daily Kos front page about 12:30 AM; in other words, just a few minutes ago.

It shows my diary on the Recommended Diaries List AKA the Rec List with just one comment--the tip jar, which all diaries have. I've never seen that happen. Of course, I thanked all of the readers of tonight's diary for making this happen.

Bonus Examiner.com article on UM and MSU scientists involved in climate change policy

2009-12-05T09:23:59Z

As I wrote here, my next Examiner.com article is on climate change. I just posted it.

Both Michigan State and Michigan faculty involved in upcoming Copenhagen conference

I have to admit, trolls inspire me.

Now, off to bed with me!

Speak of The Devil, and his horns shall soon appear

2009-12-05T07:05:21Z

Over on jblaque's LJ, I posted the following comment.

Add this ~~idiot~~ fine fellow to the list of deniers. Believe it or not, he's usually among the five most popular Examiner correspondents in Detroit. I'm not going to pester him in comments; that would be counterproductive. Instead, I'm planning on building myself up and finding allies among both the local Examiners and the other science Examiners. It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

On the other hand, should he start trolling my comment section, I'll take the gloves off.

Well, that didn't take long. I posted my second article--Elections have consequences for stem cell research at the University of Michigan--and he showed up about an hour later. Not unexpectedly, he responded crudely and negatively.

Jarrett says: Pay for it yourself.

I decided to play the snarky worthy adversary.

Hi. Are you the Jarrett who is the Midland Public Policy Examiner? If so, I've been waiting for you. I'm working on an article that you'll like even less and I'm looking forward to your reaction.

Oh, and thank you for dropping by and increasing my page views. I shan't be returning the favor.

This is going to be fun--and I haven't even started posting articles on climate change. That's OK; I'm writing one up now.

Second Examiner.com article has been published.

2009-12-05T03:49:07Z

Elections have consequences for stem cell research at the University of Michigan

This is a follow-up to my first article, which was an overview of stimulus funding of science research throughout Michigan.

LJ Twelve Days of Christmas meme

2009-12-05T01:49:34Z

On the twelfth day of Christmas, darksumomo sent to me...

Twelve gesundykes drumming

Eleven ysabels piping

Ten scortias a-leaping

Nine bellatrys dancing

Eight fmanalysts a-milking

Seven bradhicks a-writing

Six redslimes a-birdwatching

Five fa-a-a-anfics

Four historical cycles

Three drum corps

Two economic cycles

...and a bleach in a paleontology.

Seven bradhicks writing? We should be so lucky!