Instead of getting a couch, that guy who draws xkcd got a ball pit. This sounds like a good idea, since you can control who gets to use it.
Surely I’m not the only parent who has had the delightful experience of discovering a disposable diaper in the public ball pit? Personally, it kind of turned me off on the whole idea.
My fellow Minnesotans know what I mean when I groan over our local conservative columnist at the Star Tribune, Katherine Kersten. Her latest column is a tirade against the horrible culture of victimhood in our universities, citing a recent incident in which a student newspaper editor decided to decorate the office with a handmade noose to motivate his black co-workers. Kersten thinks this is just awful. Not the insensitivity of the editor, of course — being ignorant of history is par for the course for Republicans, as is race-baiting. No, she’s appalled that he was fired.
The column is a hoot. She even obliviously quotes the guy making a “but my best friend is black!” excuse.
It sure seems that way. Yet another tawdry series of escapades by Christianists:
The 80-year-old leader of a suburban Atlanta megachurch is at the center of a sex scandal of biblical dimensions: He slept with his brother’s wife and fathered a child by her.
The story has some cheering news, though.
At its peak in the early 1990s, it claimed about 10,000 members and 24 pastors and was a media powerhouse. By soliciting tithes of 10 percent from each member’s income, the church was able to build a Bible college, two schools, a worldwide TV ministry and a $12 million sanctuary the size of a fortress.
Today, though, membership is down to about 1,500, the church has 18 pastors, most of them volunteers, and the Bible college and TV ministry have shuttered — a downturn blamed largely on complaints about the alleged sexual transgressions of the elder Paulks.
Ah, I love to see a church imploding.
Scooped! I’ve long adored vulvas, having written a few things on how to develop a vulva and how to evolve a vulva, so I’m a little peeved that this upstart at scienceblogs, Greg Laden, has written up a recent story on nematode vulva evolution before me. Aaargh, all vulvas must be mine! I’ve just got too much other work stacked in front of me.
I may have to revisit this story later, though. I made a quick skim of the paper and don’t see quite how they arrived at their conclusion, that vulva evolution is dominated by selective events rather than chance. I can’t say they’re wrong, but I’m going to have to read it more carefully before I can agree with it.
Today is the anniversary of the delivery of the Gettysburg Address, which, even if the content weren’t gloriously beautiful, would deserve eternal recognition as an exemplary reminder to speech makers of the virtues of brevity.
You should at least read it today.
He’s a little late, but Afarensis finally saw Judgement Day. Verdict: he likes it! I knew he would. He also points out the key factor that demolished the creationist case:
This, in a nutshell, is why ID lost at Dover. The contrast between the experiments embodied in that stack of papers and books vs the lack of any interest in performing experimental checks on their own ideas on the part of ID advocates spelled their doom.
I think there were several factors that played a role: the obvious dishonesty of Bonsell and Buckingham, and the analysis that showed Of Pandas and People to be a descendant text of creationist literature were pretty darned important. But yes, the Discovery Institute’s clear avoidance of actually doing any science was damning.
This failing will be repaired in time for the next trial by the recent hiring of eminent scientist Michael Medved.
My library doesn’t subscribe to this journal, but maybe yours does. Can anyone send me a pdf of this paper?
Mather JA, Anderson RC 2007) Ethics and invertebrates: a cephalopod perspective. Dis Aquat Organ. 75(2):119-29.
This paper first explores 3 philosophical bases for attitudes to invertebrates, Contractarian/Kantian, Utilitarian, and Rights-based, and what they lead us to conclude about how we use and care for these animals. We next discuss the problems of evaluating pain and suffering in invertebrates, pointing out that physiological responses to stress are widely similar across the animal kingdom and that most animals show behavioral responses to potentially painful stimuli. Since cephalopods are often used as a test group for consideration of pain, distress and proper conditions for captivity and handling, we evaluate their behavioral and cognitive capacities. Given these capacities, we then discuss practical issues: minimization of their pain and suffering during harvesting for food; ensuring that captive cephalopods are properly cared for, stimulated and allowed to live as full a life as possible; and, lastly, working for their conservation.
I suspect the reasons for my interest would be obvious.
Thanks, all, it is now in my hands.
For this week’s in-class “NeuroSlam” I spoke about a paper on mirror-touch synesthesia– a condition in which an individual reports feeling an actual tactile sensation in response to seeing someone else touched. For example, this synesthete would feel as if someone touched their arm if they saw someone touching another’s arm. Inspired by an fMRI of a mirror-touch synesthete that showed hyperactivity of mirror-touch network neurons (mirror neurons we all have in the somatosensory cortex, premotor cortex, and parts of the temporal lobe that fire in response to touch and viewing touch), researchers Micheal J Banissy and Jamie Ward wanted to study empathy in mirror-touch synesthetes as empathy is believed to be related to mirror neurons.
In addition to providing evidence for mirror-touch synesthetes experiencing a synesthesia very similar to actual touch, Banissy and Ward measured empathy in these individuals using a psychological test. They reported that synesthetes scored much higher in the “emotional reactivity” subset of the empathy quotient but not in “cognitive empathy” or “social skills.” This supports the theory that mirror neurons do play a role in empathy as well as the idea that empathy is a complex neurological process that can’t be be wholly described in one neural network.
Banissy, M.J., Ward, J. Mirror-touch synesthesia is linked with empathy. Nature Neuroscience 10, 815 – 816 (2007)
Published online: 17 June 2007 | doi:10.1038/nn1926
It is my honor to induct into the Grand Order of the Molly, with all rights, privileges, powers, and obligations thereof, the distinguished commenter known as Sastra. Everyone stand up, applaud frantically, and remember to bow when you meet her in the street henceforth.
