Owner: The Contrarian Scientist URL:http://contrarianscientist.blogspot.com Join Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 21:45:10 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: Most of the science you read isn't science at all, it's just evidence some scientists like. Go here to get alternate takes to balance out the 80% of science that is actually politics. Site statistics:Click here
Invisibility For Dummies 2006-10-21 17:08:00 The proof of concept demonstration of a 'cloaking' device has a lot of people interested in how this technology works and what it means for the military, industry and, most likely, peeping Toms. I am here to help.First, there are a few concepts. These are always the most difficult things to get people to agree on but if I don't make this simple enough that at least some wiseacre tells me I Read more:Dummies
, Invisibility
Science Gives New Credibility To Vaginas 2006-10-14 22:13:00 There was a time when the vagina was not in vogue. It was all 'clitoris' this and 'clitoris' that for female orgasms. Scientists have a healthy distrust of politicians and activists so we were afraid to stand up against the clitoral orthodoxy but in a secret enclave ( known as "New Jersey" ) a group of neuroscientists have been reverse engineering the female orgasm for the last two and a half years.In science, you need repeatable results so the first essential task was to create a Calibrated Vaginal Stimulator, basically something you could attach to a transducer to measure the force that women apply to the vaginal wall."A Transducer?" I ask. "Are we at Bose?""Women self-stimulate," explains Rutgers neuropsychologist Barry Komisaruk, "and we use functional magnetic resonance imaging to look at which parts of their brains respond." Ummmm ..."Basically," Komisaruk concludes, "it's a magnetic dildo."Finally he is speaking a language non-neuropsychologist scientists understand. " Read more:Science
, Credibility
, Vaginas
Why My Article Was Banned From Newsvine - And Yours Will Be Too 2006-10-11 21:25:00 For those of you who don't know it, Newsvine is like a combination of Blogger and Digg. People can either write content or seed articles. The layout is quite attractive and it's easy for the novice to begin writing. For more advanced people, the formatting and graphics positioning are a little too basic and, unlike Blogger, you can't format the graphics by hand. But if you don't want to host your own site it's a good alternative ( disclaimer: this article is being posted to a Blogger site.)Newsvine is all very Web 2.0 except the guys who run it let their personal politics and their favoritism make it a little exclusionary. Or a lot exclusionary. You decide. Now, the article that offended the CEO of Newsvine is not reachable on my main Newsvine page because he removed it* - I don't bother to include the link because sending them educated traffic seems counter-productive at this point. Apparently you can still direct link to it but no one who goes to my page is going to see Read more:Article
, Banned
, Yours
How You Know America Rules The Science World 2006-10-04 19:32:00 A few years ago Nobel Peace Prize Committee Chairman Gunnar Berge awarded a prize to America
's fourth most useless President of the 20th century, Jimmy Carter, and declared the prize "must also be seen as criticism of the line the U.S. administration has taken on Iraq ... a kick in the leg to all that follow the same line as the United States."
In other words, we will give a prize to ineffectual Americans because we're more about politics than peace. Communist darling of the left Joseph Stalin being a nominee while Ghandi never got one at all tells you all you need to know about the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.
Now it seems the curse is inflicting the hard sciences also. Roger D. Kornberg of Stanford was awarded the prize in chemistry for his studies of how cells take information from genes to produce proteins. Important stuff, you say? Well, sure, but so are lots of things in chemistry. Kornberg stands out because understanding the process is key to using stem cells to treat di Read more:World
, Science
, Rules
Want To Save The Environment In 30 Years? Ignore Environmentalists Now 2006-09-25 17:13:00 There are basically three kinds of environmentalists:
Type 1. The most avid environmentalists I have ever met are not Sierra Club employees or people in the middle of protests, they are sportsmen and sportswomen who appreciate the environment because cultivating a clean environment means they can continue to enjoy it. They basically pick up after themselves and leave things the way they found them. This is the great majority of people who spend time in the outdoors but you don't find them in magazine articles or on TV.
Type 2 are the political activists. They seem to care about the environment as a platform for lots of other political issues. The environment is part of a much larger agenda they have. They camp out in trees and prevent responsible logging from occurring which leads to out-of-control wildfires, or they file lawsuits about levee improvements in Louisiana until a hurricane comes through and they get to pretend the fault lies with some politicians in Washington, Read more:Years
, Environment
, Ignore
, Environmentalists
Environmentalists Applaud Richard Branson's Hypocrisy 2006-09-21 19:45:00 Environmentalists applauded RichardBranson
's generous contribution to the global warming issue. Speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative, an annual conference of business, political and nonprofit leaders hosted by the former President, Branson said he would invest about $3 billion to combat global warming over the next decade.Clinton praised Branson, calling him one of the most "creative" and "committed" people he had ever known.Ummmm ... okay, it's no secret I think most environmentalists are sub-literate sock-monkeys who will believe almost anything if it sounds like it's for the environment. I usually let them go because they are basically harmless and the people who make those rubbery clogs have to feed their families too. But I have to take a stand here.Branson's Virgin Group does $8 billion in revenues per year, the bulk of that from fuel-guzzling transportation divisions. Devoting a $300 million per year tax write-off and getting all that free publicity for supporting Read more:Environmentalists
, Hypocrisy
, Richard Branson
Health Mullahs Ecstatic Over Shaky Thread Between Smoking And AIDS 2006-09-21 16:21:00 Statistics are funny things. In the 19th century, when tuberculosis was more common, doctors recommended that patients move to Colorado for the drier air. Critics of Colorado could rightfully cite that the state had the highest tuberculosis rates in the country, and the most deaths from the disease. Cause and effect meant that Colorado caused TB.Now a British study is claiming that the data they have analyzed states that smoking increases the chance of catching HIV.Seriously, people, is there anyone out there who doesn't know that smoking is bad for you? Next they'll be saying some criminals smoke so smoking causes crime.Dr Andrew Furber, of the South East Sheffield Primary Care Trust, and his colleagues, who reported the findings in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections, said tobacco smoke may increase susceptibility to HIV infection by modifying a variety of immune system responses. This is not cause and effect at all, this is creating a hypothesis and then interpreting Read more:Health
, Ecstatic
, Shaky
, Thread
, Smoking
, AIDS
Afarensis 2006 2006-09-21 03:38:00 Evolution advocates are all atwitter about a skeleton uncovered in Africa that has finally become ready to begin examining. First, let me qualify; I say 'evolution advocates' and that sounds contentious but that's not to say I disbelieve evolution. However, I wouldn't be a contrarian scientist if I believed every popular piece of pop science that came along. Instead, I would be an anti-religion, anti-Republican, anti-non-scientists scientist. In effect, I would be every single Associate Professor who writes for scienceblogs.com, the science communities' answer to Slate Magazine.Biologists in the evolution camp have become so entrenched in wanting to believe anything that might be more evidence for evolution, they tend to miss the big picture. And when they aren't missing the big picture, they are redefining it so that their evidence only leads to the conclusion they like.This is arcane stuff, people, and if you try to argue the point, they will give you a list of books citi
These Aren't The Scientific Results You Want To Publish 2006-10-24 22:30:00 In today's environmental news of the bizarre, Al Gore rushed to a rally in Berkeley, California.
``I'm here to change peoples' minds on the climate crisis and to support Prop 87,'' Gore called to a group of reporters after he emerged from the ``100 miles per gallon'' Toyota Prius that brought him to a noontime rally in a sun-drenched park behind Berkeley's City Hall.
What did he leave out of Read more:Scientific
, Publish
Guns, Guitars And Greenpeace 2006-11-02 05:42:00 As a younger man, I was a big fan of Greenpeace
.
As time went on, I thought they lost their focus by branching out from protesting nuclear weapons to whaling and trees and basically hanging out a shingle that said, "If you send us money, we will protest for you."
I watched them change from instilling their people with scientific literacy to educating their people on political activism. Then Read more:Guitars
How Math Can Save Your Marriage - An Interview With The Author Of Geek Logik 2006-11-03 05:46:00 Ever have someone tell you a certain pesky question can't be answered scientifically? Garth Sundem is here to help. He's the author of Geek
Logik and it's his business to help you mathematically solve life's most pressing problems.
Garth has created plug-in numerical solutions that help you make decisions while completely abdicating accountability for your actions - because you can always Read more:Author
Face Recognition, Emotions And Why I Will Be The Next Jackie Chan 2006-11-07 17:43:00 Dynamic face recognition may be one of the last frontiers for quantifying why some of our simplest brain functions have difficulty being matched by computers.
As a kid, when computers were more basic, it was easy to see the differences between my brain and the power of a computer. When I played baseball I knew the instant the ball was hit whether I had to run back or forward. This was a Read more:Recognition
, Jackie
, Jackie Chan
The Mens Guide To Dating A Geek Girl V 1.0 2006-11-08 07:32:00 Let's face it, sometimes we get tired of dating models. Sure, they clean up well but it gets annoying having to tell her she's beautiful a hundred times a day and the cocaine bill gets expensive.
You might think you have no hope of getting an attractive low-maintenance geek girl and I am inclined to agree ( that you can't anyway ) but I would rather light a candle than curse your darkness, so Read more:Guide
, Geek
, Dating
Surest Sign Of The Apocalypse - No More Blondes 2006-11-15 07:02:00 According to this article, researchers at the World Health Organization have claimed that the last natural blonde will be born in Finland in 2202. And the BBC version tells us German scientists have claimed this is due to decreasing frequency of the recessive gene for blonde hair.
The SkyNet article states that when the last Ice Age ended 11,000 years ago blonde hair and blue eyes were Read more:Apocalypse
, Blondes
Need A Christmas Gift For That Special Lefty Chick? Try Pine Tree Underwear 2006-12-05 05:15:00 You can absolutely bet when a marketing department used the word "ethical" - about its lingerie - someone is out to make a buck. And they think you will believe anything, my environmental friends.
But French designer Sophie Young's g=9.8 company is doing it with a straight face. In yet another blatant product placement on treehugger.com they say with a straight face, the kinds of things only Read more:Christmas
, Special
, Lefty
, Underwear
, Christmas Gift
Need A Christmas Gift For That Special Lefty Chick? Try Pine Tree Underwear 2006-12-05 05:15:00 You can absolutely bet when a marketing department uses the word "ethical" - about its lingerie - someone is out to make a buck at your expense. And they think you will believe anything, my environmental friends.
But French designer Sophie Young's g=9.8 company is doing it with a straight face. In yet another blatant product placement on treehugger.com they say with a straight face, the kinds Read more:Christmas
, Special
, Lefty
, Underwear
, Christmas Gift
A Plea For Eating Disorder Tolerance 2006-12-07 17:26:00 Just this once, we need to talk about something serious. I know it's easy for people to have a knee-jerk reaction to the problems of others and just start laughing but we're all adults here. So I am going to bring this up and then we can discuss the underlying issues and what we, as a society, can do to help.
You see, I just discovered that Dennis Quaid has "manorexia." Sometimes he looks Read more:Tolerance
The REAL Science Of Christmas 2006-12-17 21:53:00 Sometime people think that, because I write this column, I am somehow available for free science consulting services. Obviously this is not the case but I don't mind the occasional question, especially if it concerns real puzzles like how Al Gore can prove a car in China doesn't cause global warming but a car in America does.
Lately I have been pestered with questions about this whole Christmas Read more:Science
Retailers Complain About Global Warming Christmas 2006-12-23 04:01:00 Retailers are calling it the Coat Crisis of 2006, a fashion fiasco measured in racks of unsold fur-lined shearlings at Saks Fifth Avenue and down puffer jackets at Bloomingdale's.
Balmy temperatures on the East Coast, with average highs this holiday season 15 degrees warmer than last year, have been disastrous for sales of all kinds of cold-weather clothing, from cashmere caps to wool Read more:Christmas
, Global
Global Warming Solutions: Markets, taxes, or nothing at all? 2006-12-22 04:01:00 Assume man-made global warming is a big, bad problem. Let's try some thought experiments concerning what, if anything, should be done about it.
One "solution" might be recognizing, at least, that there is nothing to be done about it. One might argue that for the sake of lifting billions of poor people out of abject poverty humanity must continue to burn cheap oil and coal to fuel economic growth Read more:Global
, Markets
, Global Warming
, Global Warming Solutions
Open peer review a bust for NATURE 2006-12-21 04:02:00 Back in the summer, we reported that Nature, perhaps the most prestigious scientific journal on the planet, was experimenting with open peer review
(OPR). Instead of simply assigning manuscripts to a set of anonymous reviewers, Nature offered the authors the opportunity to also have their work posted on a publicly accessible site that provided a mechanism for making comments on the text. The
Climate Change vs Mother Nature: Scientists reveal that bears have stopped hibernating 2006-12-20 23:02:00 Bears have stopped hibernating in the mountains of northern Spain, scientists revealed yesterday, in what may be one of the strongest signals yet of how much climate change is affecting the natural world.
In a December in which bumblebees, butterflies and even swallows have been on the wing in Britain, European brown bears have been lumbering through the forests of Spain's Cantabrian mountains, Read more:Climate
, Change
I Haved Moved 2007-01-29 23:31:00 I have signed up at Scientific Blogging and will be writing my column there.
If you like to read science, please come over and say hello. If you like to write about science, sign up for an account and create your own science column.
Should You Take Science Advice From This Woman? 1970-01-01 00:59:59 I liked SEINFELD. I thought it was a funny show. And I guess I therefore like Larry David, even though he would annoy the bejeesus out of me in real life.
This does not mean, however, that just because some sub-literate harpy is sleeping with Larry David that her opinion should be foisted off on an unsuspecting public.
Now, I am not one of those elitist scientists who insist only people Read more:Science
Reaping What You Sow In Science And Business 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Pundits, engineers and economists are wringing their hands over the Freescale Semiconductor leveraged buyout - at $17.6 Billion it is the largest privatization of a high-technology company in history.
Why is this a bad thing? I don't think it is, but I am not doing the hand-wringing. However, if you are one of the people who thinks less corporate accountability and more outsourcing is bad, Read more:Science
, Reaping
, Business
Consume Less 1970-01-01 00:59:59 Some monkey at Scienceblogs.com actually wrote that as a response to what individuals can do about global warming.
Yes, consume less. Not 'think about a way to solve global warming' or 'create ways to turn potentially bad things into good things.' With that kind of thinking we would never have;
*Penicillin, because it came from mold. A bad thing.
And
*Domesticated livestock, because the
How to succeed on Reddit - write for scienceblogs.com 2007-05-25 18:04:00 There are lots and lots of science sites out there doing similar things - LiveScience.com, Scienceblog.com, Scienceblogs.com, Sciam.com,physorg.com,ScientificBlogging.com, ScienceDaily.com. Except for ScienceDaily ( though I love those guys), they all do some original content and which one you prefer to read really comes down to where you fall on the political spectrum as much as the tone of the
Good News For Science Education 2006-09-13 09:57:00 Science education is in the tank. If you ask teachers, they will insist they need more money. If you ask sociologists they will say science needs to be more fun/creative/interesting/appealling/whatever. I don't know the answer in the classroom but I know the answer - fewer classrooms.
I was on one forum and some crazy woman insisted George Bush's "No Child Left Behind" program was at fault. Read more:Science
, Education
, Good News
How To Tank Your Economy 2006-09-11 17:53:00 Seed Magazine, internet science's version of The Sierra Club, NARAL and whatever groups hate religion the most, is all atwitter that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will sign yet another aggressive, anti-business piece of legislation.
Now, of course, it won't harm California industry if someone finds an expert that says it won't. No, more legislation will help industry in California.
Recommend Site To A Friend
