What I’ve Noticed

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I loved Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno on the sex lives of bugs.  Now she’s got a marine version!

Artificial intelligence and robots are getting better faster and faster.  This robot has made unique scientific discoveries – from formulating the hypotheses to running experiments. This robot has a biological brain and can learn.

On a related note, computers are doing more and more of the proofs in mathematics.

Misinformation is dangerous.  Jenny McCarthy is at least indirectly responsible for the deaths of 142 people due to the lies she spreads about vaccinations.

Worried about shit grades keeping you out of college?  Worry no more if you can pay in full for college!

Dr. Isis writes about the DREAM Act and responds to people who accuse illegal immigrants of stealing our middle class lifestyle:

I would like to apologize on behalf of immigrants everywhere to the American middle class for stealing their jobs.  Especially the investment bankers, attorneys, physicians, research scientists, and CEOs who have recently lost their jobs to illegal immigrants.

Why Obama should consider legalizing marijuana.

Fantastic advice on being an ally at Little Lambs Eat Ivy.

This guy says he’s got the joy of the lord, but he’s just crazy or scamming people (wait for the sales pitch at the end) or crazy and scamming people.  I wonder if the lord has rewarded this woman with his joy after she killed her son for him?  Wouldn’t it be great if religious people applied the “outsider test” to their own religions?

Iraq is about to execute a lot of people for “gay crimes,” and it looks like they’re implementing the death penalty for anything and everything lately. via 3QD

Things like this make me embarrassed for our country.  No wonder the British Ecological Society is worried about opposition in the US to action on climate change.

Spain is prosecuting Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, Douglas Feith, William Haynes, John Yoo, and Jay Bybee for torture at Guantanamo. I only wish we were doing it ourselves.

Christianity isn’t concerned about women

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Christianity is concerned about losing control of women’s bodies.

The FDA has finally approved Plan B over the counter for teenage girls.  It is very clear that the reason it wasn’t originally approved without a prescription for teenagers had everything to do with the Christian right’s terror of women’s sexuality and nothing to do with any real concern for the health of teenagers.

On a related note, the HPV vaccine is going thru the FDA approval process for use in boys.  When the HPV vaccine was approved for use in girls, the Christian right freaked the fuck out because giving girls a vaccine to protect them from cancer would certainly turn them into whores.  As Feministing points out, they don’t seem to be at all opposed to giving it to boys.  Instead, the debate about the vaccine in boys revolves around safety and efficiency – exactly as it should.  So, moral of the story from the crazy Christians: women should be punished with cancer for having sex, but men can do whatever they want with their bodies.

What We Killed Thursday

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Ascension Island is a teeny tiny island in the middle of nowhere.  However, you’ve almost certainly heard of it (or at least seen it on a nature show) since it’s one of the most important breeding grounds for seabirds in the tropical Atlantic.  It’s a relatively young island and so it is in a very early stage of colonization.

Dryopteris ascensionis was an endemic fern on the island.  It was possibly seen in 1976 but the last confirmed sighting was in the late 1800s.  It is assumed to be extinct.  D. ascensionis isn’t the only species to disappear on Ascension Island and many others are in danger.

We have done incredible damage to this island through the introduction of exotic species.  D. ascensionis habitat is now completely covered in non-native vegetation, feral cats have decimated the seabird population, the introduced Mexican thorn-bush threatens turtles that come to the island, and introduced rats, donkeys, rabbits, and sheep disrupt native plant and animal communities.

And now the remaining native species on this island must face the threat of climate change.  A third of the CO2 emmissions in the US are from transportation.  More reliance on public transportation will dramatically reduce our CO2 emmissions.  Write to the chair of the energy committee, Henry Waxman, in support of CLEAN-TEA, “a proposal that would direct funding from President Obama’s climate initiative to transportation investments like public transportation and passenger rail, business development around transit stops, and neighborhood improvements that increase safety for cyclists and pedestrians.”

Migraine Log – Week 18

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I took Petadolex for several months to try to get some relief from my migraines.  It didn’t appear to be working, but to make sure, I’m keeping track of my migraines for a few more weeks – while not taking the meds.  Since my main trigger is the weather, points below the line are good.  Points on or above the line are bad.

week18

R tip

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I’ve been learning to use R and it’s been making my job a lot easier.  Sometimes, though, I get stuck on the silliest things.  One problem I ran into very early on was adding more than one set of points to a plot.  Even with the many instructions and examples, I still couldn’t figure this simple problem out!  Even more frustrating was that sometimes it seemed to work and other times it didn’t.

Then I figured out the difference between when it worked and when it didn’t –  (for anyone else with this problem) xlim and ylim MUST be specified in the original plot parameters.  As excited as I was to figure this out, I’m also a little embarrassed it was so hard for me!

Falling in love

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From Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle:

Kumiko and I felt something for each other from the beginning.  It was not one of those strong, impulsive feelings that can hit two people like an electric shock when they first meet, but something quieter and gentler, like two tiny lights traveling in tandem through a vast darkness and drawing imperceptibly closer to each other as they go.  As our meetings grew more frequent, I felt not so much that I had met someone new as that I had chanced upon a dear old friend.

Shoes for a bad day

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Franco Sarto "Comedy"

Franco Sarto "Comedy"

Today it is cold and windy and I have an awful headache and I really don’t know how I’m going to get through all the work I have. These sunny shoes made me feel a little bit better, though.