Stephen Colbert gets a Haircut

Stephen Colbert is in Iraq entertaining the troops this week, and he is sporting a new haircut. CNN reports that we can see the tonsorial update for ourselves tonight.

More video will no doubt be available at Colbert Nation.

Failure is Fun!

Failure is fun, if you do it right, and the Science Fail blog does it right. "Dirty Harry" takes the simple approach of posting anti-science quotes -without comment - and letting them speak for themselves. So are laugh out loud funny. I grabbed a few examples to post here; some real gems like ...

Josh Greenberger: "One fossil is NOT evidence."

Renuo Fides: "The general hypothesis of ID CAN be tested by the scientific method - although not as it pertains to "naturally" occurring life forms."

Jorge: " - by your own use of the term - you confirm it is a theory. Science has very few facts as such - other than data. Biology has many theories but almost no laws or "facts". "

There is more, and there is worse ... FAR worse ... at Science Fail.

Disclaimer: Excessive reading of posts at Science Fail or sites linked to from Science Fail may cause ocular bleeding. The management of this blog is not responsible for injuries that may occur as a result of excessive laughter. Do not taunt Science Fail. Study has shown that 50% of all Science Fail readers are below the median intelligence of all Science Fail readers.

Save us from 12/21/2012

I guess I have not been paying attention, because I just learned that the World will end on December 21, 2012. Fortunately, Xtine is here to save us:

“I’ve known about 12/21/2012 for a good three years,” explains Minnesota native Xtine. “And I’ve been pissed off about it for a good three years. It sucks to have my birthday right before Christmas, but this end of the world prediction is the last straw.”

Xtine says she “plans to put an end to the end of the world baloney." She encourages everyone to google debunking, disproving, criticism of 2012. As much evidence as there is for the end of the world, or the ushering in of a New Golden Age, there is evidence that “a whole lotta nada” is going to happen on her birthday… again.

After reading her post, I am prepared to believe she can save us by the power of rant alone.

Oh Crap, part 2.

The second in an a series of posts that I might regret starting.

When emperor penguins are in your vicinity, their signature tuxedos and waddling gaits make them hard to miss. But when scientists from the British Antarctic Survey tried to track Antarctic emperor penguin populations using satellites, the birds proved too small to be seen. That’s when they got the idea to focus on something much larger and darker than the penguins themselves: the stains left by their feces.

Using the patches of poop as a guide, the scientists examined the Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica and spotted 38 penguin colonies, including 10 that had never before been recorded.

More at Discoblog.


... and then there is THIS unfortunate confection ...





... and another ...



... and video of a penguin pooping ...

... and this ...

... and the science of penguin poop explained ...




OK, I think that's enough crap for one day. Oh wait, there's this!

Role reversal undermines speed-dating theories

There's a theory of speed dating? Who knew??
Nature News has this article: Role reversal undermines speed-dating theories.

Speed dating is not just popular among those looking for romance. Psychologists have worked out that they can get swarms of student participants in mate-choice studies by offering speed-dating opportunities on university campuses in return for the right to analyse the dating behaviour during the events.

A study in Psychological Science points out that chivalric behaviour created by the speed-dating experience may be skewing the data.

Normally in speed dating, men walk around a room and visit a succession of seated women for mini dates just a few minutes long. Later, the participants note down whom they would like to meet again. If there is a match, the organizers help the people to get in touch. Psychologists have found that although men choose, on average, half of the women present, women choose to see only a third of the men again.

This isn't really a surprise. Among animals, females are usually the picky ones, because they make the larger reproductive investment. However, the new research, by Eli Finkel and Paul Eastwick, social psychologists at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, demonstrates that tinkering with the speed-dating format alters human behaviour, dramatically changing the outcome.

"We asked executives from a commercial speed-dating company why they always had men rotate. They told us it was because women tend to have purses and other things to carry and because 'it seems more chivalrous'," says Eastwick. So the researchers decided to explore whether having males literally walking up to seated females was having a psychological effect.

The researchers established 15 speed-dating events for 350 young adults. During eight events, men rotated around the seated women, and during seven events, women moved between seated men. When men rotated, men said yes 50% of the time and women said yes 43% of the time. However, when women rotated, the trend for higher female selectivity vanished, with men saying yes 43% of the time while women said yes 45% of the time. [More at Nature.]

So now I know something I didn't know before; Not only does half* of what we know from psychology experiments come from studies of college students, but most of those student are hormone impaired.

* the other half comes from rats.

Scientia Causidicus: Steven Dutch

This is the first of what I hope will be a regular series of posts bringing attention to, and hopefully honoring, people who are strong advocates for science. In my own pidgin internet-translation-latin version of the taxonomy of Linnaeus, I am titling this group the Scientia Causidicus (Science Advocates).
To qualify, these people have to say, do, or write something which directly or indirectly advocates good science. If they happen to have a bit of fun with it at the same time, that is even better. There are many people this might apply to, but I will attempt to apply this to people who deserve more attention that they get for their efforts. Note that actual science qualifications are not required (but probably help).
I might have to come up with a separate category for people who promote bad science, and in doing bring attention to what good science really is. I'll need a name for that too, perhaps Scientia Cado (Science Fallacy)?

Back on-topic though ... with no further ado I present my first Scientia Causidicus honoree, Dr. Steven Dutch, Geologist and Professor of Natural and Applied Sciences at University of Wisconsin - Green Bay. Professor Dutch hosts a most interesting collection of writings on
Science, Pseudoscience, and Irrationalism. [image DaytonACS]

This page links to a large group of articles on topics from Science and Pseudoscience to Vaporizing the World Trade Center.

A few selected quotations:

What evidence would it take to prove your beliefs wrong?

I simply will not reply to challenges that do not address this question. Refutability is one of the classic determinants of whether a theory can be called scientific. Moreover, I have found it to be a great general-purpose cut-through-the-crap question to determine whether somebody is interested in serious intellectual inquiry or just playing mind games. Note, by the way, that I am assuming the burden of proof here - all you have to do is commit to a criterion for testing. It's easy to criticize science for being "closed-minded". Are you open-minded enough to consider whether your ideas might be wrong?

AND

"Respect"

Every so often I get e-mails from people complaining I don't treat these topics or their believers with respect.

There is nothing in crank movements worthy of respect.

First of all, cranks don't treat the orthodox with respect. They can accuse science of willfully neglecting or falsifying evidence. They can accuse their own nation of bringing down skyscrapers and causing thousands of deaths, or deliberately breaching levees to flood New Orleans, but aim a little critical language at them, and they howl about being "disrespected." Aww, poo' baby.

Also, from Dr. Dutch's University Survival Guide (scroll down about half-way), the Top Ten No Sympathy Lines, which includes:

How Am I Doing In Class?

You're failing.

If you don't know the class material well enough to assess your own progress, and you don't know enough math to estimate your grade given your progress to date, you're failing.

You may luck out and get something higher than an F, but as theologians say, don't confuse mercy with merit.

There is much more, go see for yourself.

Call for Sharing (Google Reader)

There is a box in the right sidebars titled "Vine Ripe Tomatos" (My Shared Items) where you can see some of the article and sites I have found that interest me (I have moved this up temporarily so it is more obvious). I use this as a resource to help keep track of sources for topics I plan to write about.
Google Reader has a nice feature that allows sharing items and commenting on them. This allows sharing of things I find interesting with like-minded friends, and vice-versa. Potential, this allows me to see more of the thing I most like on the web, because people I know have already filtered and shared things they most like. It's really pretty cool, except for one serious drawback:

I need people to share with.

It turns out a lot of people I communicate with regularly don't use Reader, and I haven't made many converts yet. Therefore, this post is an open call for any people reading this to set up sharing between us.
I currently label (tag) items I intend to use on the blog with "DTA", which helps me but probably not anyone else. I will make an effort to use more, and more descriptive labels, in all of my shared items. Topics which I am most interested in reading are typically "Math, Science, Statistics". Items which combine science and humor are of particular interest.

If you use Reader, are willing to share, and have some common interests, contact me by the email in the right sidebar (or through my profile) so I can send you an invitation to my shared items.