Cyclist killed in Atlanta

Source: WGCL

I have pretty much quit riding my bike here in Atlanta. A substantial proportion of the drivers here (much higher than Tucson or Vancouver or Missoula) seem to have the attitude that the roads belong to them and cyclists can fuck right off. I’ve had people drive right up behind me and lay on the horn (on Piedmont, where there are four other lanes going the same direction), yell at me, and give me the finger, and others in my lab have had similar experiences.

I don’t know if that’s the kind of driver that killed a cyclist less than two miles from here, but I give it better than even odds.

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Tell me more about the “very, very unified” Republican Party

My list of Republican criticisms of President (in a few cases candidate) Trump just got a bit longer. David Weigel at the Washington Post has some zingers from members of the “Meeting of the Concerned”:

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Volvox meeting posters

I thought I had already done this, but if so I can’t find it. Here are the full-resolution versions of all four Volvox meeting posters:

  • First International Volvox Meeting (Volvox 2011, Tucson, Arizona) pdf jpg
  • Second International Volvox Meeting (Volvox 2013, Fredericton, New Brunswick) pdf jpg
  • Third International Volvox Meeting (Volvox 2015, Cambridge, U.K.) pdf jpg
  • Fourth International Volvox Meeting (Volvox 2017, St. Louis, Missouri) pdf jpg (there wasn’t really a poster for this one; this is the cover of the abstract booklet)

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The Two Jakes

The organizers of the Volvox 2017 meeting put together a Volvox trivia quiz, and one of the questions had to do with a 1990 movie in which Volvox had had a cameo appearance. I was stumped. I knew Europa Report was much more recent. I probably didn’t know what Volvox was in 1990, and I don’t think I had seen the movie in question, which turned out to be The Two Jakes, a sequel to 1974’s Chinatown. 

The Two Jakes

Because that’s how dedicated I am, I rented and watched both videos and screen captured the clip in question. Sorry there’s no sound. [somewhat important spoiler below the fold]

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Exxon still loves Volvox

I hope Exxon’s scientists know more more algal taxonomy than their ad team. We’ve seen before that they don’t know the difference between Chlorophyte green algae and cyanobacteria (Exxon loves Volvox). Some of the things they’ve lumped together in that video are more distantly related than humans are to mushrooms.

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Criticism ≠ bullying

I’ve never been the victim of bullying, either in science or social media. I have, in fact, been called a bully (and worse) for some of the things I’ve written on this blog (Responses from both Davids (I’m Goliath)). But I know I’m among the privileged (white, cisgender, middle-aged heterosexual male) few who are least likely to experience bullying. So when Ed Yong tweeted his approval of a Slate article by Simine Vazire, “Criticizing a Scientist’s Work Isn’t Bullying. It’s Science,” I checked it out.

The backlash Yong received on Twitter would lead one to believe that the actual article was much more extreme than it really was:

The story of Amy Cuddy, as told in a recent New York Times Magazine story, illustrates why self-correction is so rare in science. In painting a moving portrait of Cuddy’s life over the past few years, it conflates Cuddy’s experience as the target of scientific criticism with her experience as the target of something much more vicious and universal: actual bullying.

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More Cuban science fiction

Sound cannon

Image from wired.com.

It’s not even good science fiction. Good science fiction may require suspension of disbelief, but it should at least be internally self-consistent. Here’s part of the story from CNN:

Investigators continue to examine the circumstances surrounding as many as 50 attacks that may have involved the use of an acoustic device, a US official has told CNN.

The device was so sophisticated, it was outside the range of audible sound, the official said. And it was so damaging, the source said, that one US diplomat now needs to use a hearing aid.

Now multiple news sources report a cell phone recording of a mysterious high-pitched sound, for example The Independent:

The high-pitched frequencies are believed to have injured at least 22 diplomatic staff, who suffered problems with hearing, cognitive function, vision, balance and sleep.

Wait, I thought it was “so sophisticated, it was outside the range of audible sound.” Get your story straight, will you?

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Placozoan diversity and taxonomy

If I didn’t study Volvox, I would probably study placozoa. Placozoa are animals, but you wouldn’t know it to look at them. They look and behave very much like giant amoebae, big enough to be visible to the naked eye.

Trichoplax adhaerens

Trichoplax adhaerens. By Bernd Schierwater – Eitel M, Osigus H-J, DeSalle R, Schierwater B (2013) Global Diversity of the Placozoa. PLoS ONE 8(4): e57131. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0057131, CC BY 4.0, Link

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Very, very unified

Last week, I asked, “What do all these quotes have in common?“, including things like “Fucking moron,” “Just pathetic,” and “completely unhinged.” Well, no one guessed, so here’s a hint:

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